Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-05-16
Who Is Killing tbs Children?

nc OPENS up topic OF widespread IN
terest to the public. He gives statis-
ties to show that in the calendar year
streets of the metropolis and 1000 9TH
ers either manned or crippled for life.
Right here we would call attention
to the most deplorable side of this
awful slaughter-it is the part played
by the drunken drivers of trucks and
wagons in this wide-op rum-selling
city. Col. Cornell reports it a COM
mon incident to see drivers too stupe-
fed to know where they are going,
and oftentimes as the result of their
condition children are ground to death
under their wheels or are manned and
crippled for life.
We regret to say. however, that Col.
Cornell would go about his reformation
ward His shout of warning is loud
est when touching possible condition
of anarchy if this manning and killing
is allowed to go on. He says stonins
and clubbing of drivers and chauffeurs
who run down children. are becoming
more frequent. and sometimes they are
beaten until they die from their in
iuries. He points out that the police
are having less and less control over
the crowds which are present at the
time of these accidents He thinks the
people are becoming frcnZied over the
cases, and that condition of absolute
anarchy is bound to result if something
is not done to cause "A decrease in the
number of cases.
Col Cornell pins his faith in the or
ganization of Junior League" for the
protection of children who frequent
the streets in crowded sections of the
city. He goes into detail concerning
conditions. the temper of the people,
the lack of control. and brings severe
arraignment against the mothers of
the children. In fact, he has more to
say concerning the carelessness of
mothers, who stand and gossip" while
their children are at play in the streets
and are perhaps being run down, than
he has against the reckless chauffeurs
(who may or may not be intoxicated)
"A nd thp 6rjVprS nj frI1pkC
who are more likely than otherwise to
be under the influence of liquor In
deed. we fear that the worthy Colonel
is more bitter in his critical scrutiny
of the mother than he is of the men
who deliberately put themselves in a
condition of responsibility; who befog
their brain and then claim immunity
from the law because it was under the
influence of liquor that they committed
crimes which they would not have
committed had they been in full pos
session of the faculties with which God
blessed them.
We have strong sympathy with the
mother who lives in a tenement in
great city like New York. a woman
who is fighting bravely to keep soul
and body together in such d place and
under such conditions as are to be
found in the tenement districts of
great city-lack of Gods pure air and
lack of flowers and foliage
and wholesome companionship lack of
everything with which God blessed the
of the earth and in which
He prepared them to live, were it not
for some of the appetites which they
have created and the passions which
they have fostered.
1t seems to us that the worn out
mother twho has no other place than
the street into which to turn her chill
tenement. in the midst of others equal
ly dark with equally bad ventilation
and with all sorts of fiIth) Is excusable
in some degree for forgetting. for
moment now and then, that she is
guarding the life of her children, and
that it is only through her undivided
and sleepless attention that they can be
raised to manhood and womanhood. 1t
seems to us that the government of
great city like New York should be
held responsible in some degree for the
care of these children which the moth
ers are vainly endeavorng to bring to
maturity. If government, even in a
city the size of New York, allows 800
children to be killed in its public
streets, and 1000 others to be hope
lessly crippled or manned, there is
wrong in that government.
We hear of waves of crime" be-
cause of lax enforcement of the law,
and the mayor and his police depart
ment are the objects Of civic investiga-
ton. We hear that the mayor has
been vindicated and the investigating