The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-02-17
DISEASE HAS BEEN ALLOWED
TO SPREAD ITSELF.

Lack of Home Training One of the
Reasons Why Young Boys &C
Wrong; the Use of intoxicants
and the Exploitation of Crime In
the Newspapers; Urges the
Remedy.
From Saturdays Daily.
Those who attended the lecture at
the opera house last evening by
Judge Frank p Sadler of Chicago
felt well repaid. 1t was one of the
best discourses on the causes lead
ing to crime ever heard in the city
and came from one who has been
SO situated as to have unusual OPP
portunities for knowing whereof he
was speaking. The advice that he
gave to fathers and mothers was
splendid, and ought TO sink deeI
into their hearts.
The meeting was opened by Pro
fessor j. M. Mcconnell of the nor
NAL school faculty, who announced
that the next number on the course
would be the Minneapolis Symphony
orchestra February 20, and that a
matinee would be given at 2:3O
o'clock by the orchestra. He intro
duced Judge Sadler, whose subject
was THE Criminal in the Making. u
Criminality Allowed to Spread.
Judge Sadler said that we as
Americans are proud of our progress
in various lines, but disease-crim-
inality-has been allowed to spread.
The population of jails and prisons
is growing faster than the popula-
ton of the country, and especially is
the crime of murder becoming com
mOn. The things that make the
criminal are mainly the lack of
home training, but also lack of moral
training, environment, the use of
intoxicants, and the exploitation of
crime in the newspapers. The Jute
family alone in this country is said
to have produced over 1900 Grim
inals and TO have cost the coun-
try over $1.OO0,00O. which is held
up to show what heredity does.
Many doctors insist that crime is a
disease and that the victim of it
can be made over, whether it be
hereditary or pathological. 1t is GER
tain that many people have no power
of resistance when placed where
there is temptation to crime.
Most Criminals Are Young.
The saddest thing is that most of
our criminals are boys and girls,
young men and young women.
Eighty per cent of the first Offend
ers in this country are under age,
and the climax of the criminal age
of boys and men is between twenty
and twenty-fOur years of age. This
makes it most important matter
for the mothers and fathers. In Chi
cagO One-half of the robberies are
committed by boys under twenty
years of age. One-sixth to one
tenth of the criminal population in
the jails and penitentiaries are
women, and the fact that it is so
small a proportion may be due to
viz SiCNClHCoo VI tnC oCh vi tHcll
goodness However, they predomi-
nate in one crime, that of shop
lifting. In Chicago there are $500
cases of shoplifting in a year, and
600. cases are brought into court.
There are some of the strangest
cases of lapses into crime of this
kind. The speaker gave several il
Illustrations, as, in fact, he did
throughout his lecture, thus adding
to the interest.
Environment a Potential Word.
Environment is the most potential
word in the dictionary of crime. The
best heritage that a child can re-
ceive is character. 1t is better to
leave to the children than houses
and bonds, for it will enable them
to successfully fight the temptation
to crime
One of the most pronounced tend.
encies of the present time is the
movement of the rural population
to the cities, and more young men
are now in the urban than in the
rural population. When boy goes
to the city to live, the most impor-
tant question is where will he stop!
1t may be in the down town district
TO save car fares. Parents should
be sure that he is housed in the
residence districts, where there are
something like home influences
Often times the boarding house and
the hotels that abound in the down
town districts are training schools
for the levee districts. We first
make our habits and then they make
us. The boy soon comes to take
on the habits Of those around him