The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-10

In answer to the question. '1s the
| juvenile court worth while?" Judge
| Schoch says:
My answer to this question is Yes-if.
And this paper has principally to do
| with the IF"
At the end of my first years service
as Juvenile judge, / made the state
| ment to this association that I was
| satisfied so per cent of the cases of de-
| linquency and dependency in children
| should be charged directly or indirectly
/ to the parents. Three additional years
! in the service now coming to a close, in
which 1 have had before me for inves-
tigation and disposal over six hundred
cases, has confirmed my former opin-
ion, and if 1 were to change the per-
centage estimate at all, 1 would raise
it rather than lower it.
ShiftIess and ThoughtIess Parents.
Why should the public be burdened
to maintain a juvenile court to relieve
shiftIess and unthoughtful parents OF
their duty to society and to their own
offspring? In theory the juvenile
court is a distinct mile post in TWEEN
tieth century progress. The man who
looked out one day and saw a boy
being led to a prison for childish
offense, to be locked UP with and re-
tanned with hardened criminals, asked
himself the question and then asked
the world, why it would not be cheaper
IN the lOng run, ana more humane from
every standpoint to take that boy to
a detention home, give him good ad-
vice and endeavOr to bring him up a
useful citizen, than to make him the
companion of criminals. permit society
to ostra cize him and In later wears keen
him in confinement. And in the answer
to that question, We have in the Union
today more than % states in which
juvenile courts are established. reach
ing out in every direction for the moral
uplift of the American boy and girl.
And yet, it is the deliberate Judgment
of every judge who for any length of
time has stood face to face with each
particular case and studied the causes
which lead to the delinquent and de-
pendent condition of children the ju-
venile court is but a step in the right
direction compared with the great field
where we ought and can in the end
secure better and more lasting re-
suits. If IT is true that 60 per cent
of dependency and delinquency is to be
attributed to the parents, then why not
strike at the root of the evil?
The time has gone by when a juve-
nile judge can take the Chautauqua
platform, or the stump in a political
campaign and tell of the wonders aos
ular cases for his neighbors know that
while in many cases he succeeds. they
know too there are many in which he
fails. The juvenile court of the fu-
ture will stand in the estimation of
the public in proportion to results OBJ
tanned in the entire field and not by
isolated cases.
The Root of the EVIL.
It is a serious reflection upon
American parentage that 50 many
cases of dependency and delinquency
are to be charged to fathers end moth
ers. I can pass over with considerable
degree of charity. the case Of the pooP
widow, who strives all day to earn
bread for toddling infants. and realize
fully that proper parental care ana
guardianship cannot at all times in
her case be expected. But what ex-
cuse can there be for dependency
and delinquency in the home of a big.
stout able bodied American man? If
you were to ask me TO locate the first
symptom of infection in the delin-
quency of children. my answer would
be the spoiled child. IF you ask me
then to locate the second symptom, my
answer would be the Indifferent IA
ther. I have a great degree Of SYM
pathy for the mothers of this land.
The farmer boy has always been held
up to us as the ideal, and back to
the grass roots is urged as the prop
er place to raise children. On the
farm. father is always home and the
boys are under his continual surveil-
lance. Mother can manage the girls,