The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-12-19
WHY Boys and Girls Go Wrong
Bv Hon. Ben B. Lindsay

t1V Hon. Zen D. IIlidoeay
What starts girls on downward ca
reers and boys on criminal careers?
There are so many causes which
make for crime that to answer this
question is not free from difficulty
There is no doubt in my mind that
drink is responsible, more than any
one c9use. for the criminals of boys
and girls. I use the term as applied
to men and women who become adj
dicted to intoxication and bad habits.
The father through drink becomes
q useless vagabond and deserts his
family. leaving the poor mother to
shoulder the double burden of home
maker and bread winner.
7 saw that one of the most alarming
things we face in this country is the
increasing indifference to the marri-
age and home tie on the part of the
man. which Indifference is caused in
most cases by the bad habits of men
who weaken their manhood and unfit
themselves for the serious duties of
home making, childrearing and good
citizenship.
Of course, in the children's court
we have a great many boys who are
brought up for offenses that are not
of themselves serious, but they may
be the beginning of more serious Of
lenses; and therefore the greater i'm
portance Of taking them in time and
furnishing the ounce of prevention
which is better than the pound of
cases of this character against boys,
but I should say that the great major
it of serious causes of crime in child
hood, are the result of bad parents
and bad homes, or no parents and no
homes, and some parents are even
worse than no parents.
How frequent it is to see the en-
barrassment of the boy or girl when
asked about the home relations-and
the pity of it is that some of them
are not even embarrassing hear
the statement glibly made that s'the
old man was drunkard and skipped
out and left ma to take care of u.s.
Every boy and girl has right to
be born right and reared right.
This is the God-intended legacy
that is infinitely dearer than the leg
acy of millions; but it is denied to
thousands and thousands of children
all over this country.
While I am not an alarmist. and
grant you that rash statement is
dangerous to any cause, I tell you
that unless something is done
through moral training, through the
schools. courts and power of the state
and, above all, through the greater
power of human brotherhood and in
terest for our fellowman-to stop
the alarming spread of disregard for
nome ties and for wife and child by
men OF this nation, shudder to con-
template the amount of suffering we
must all endure in the end for our
neglect.
We are prating entirely too much
ABOUT the unreal and the unsubstan-
tlal. The real questions after all, are
the ones that affect the home and the
children in the home; and because
we have neglected these questions. or
sneered at those who are trying to do
something to change the conditions
mat are making for evil, we are suf-
1erlng from an increase of crime in
this country.
IL Is better to agitate and try to do
something, even if that something
should be questionable, and even if it
should not bear the full measure of
success expected, than to sit idle and
90 nothing or waste all our time in
discussing political questions that, af-
ter all, as President Roosevelt has
indicated, as compared to this cues
ton of the home and child, are ephe-
AASA al dAO uuSuDSCduC1dl,
The sixty-f1ve boys arrested for
stealing brass and other property
from the railroads in one town Wis
tied are of infinitely more Importance
TO me than the question of regulating
freight rates of that railroad.
These boys became thieves largely
because Of lack Of opportunity for
good and much opportunity for evil.
and because of no effort on the mart
OF the state to relieve the conditions
that are making for crime in their
lives.
Again, social and economic condi-
lions have much to do with the mis-
fortunes of boys and girls by the
thousands crowded together in the
great cities, and / nave been filed
with pity and sorrow, but amaze
ment, to hear of the amount of So
called crime among these children
ana TO hear the stories OF immortality
and dishonesty in their lives.
You know IL has o1wor~ - !,