Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-06-20
THINKS MOTHERS
PENSIONS WILL HELP
Judge Lindsay Believes There Is Some
Connection Between Poverty
and Bad Boys.
WILL HAVE MORE TIME TO
DEVOTE TO THEIR CHILDREN
Great Map Spotted With Black.headed
Pins Indicate Few Bad Boys
Among Rich Folk.
UNITED PRESS LEASED wIRE.l


Denver, Colo, June 20.-0n the wall
of the Denver juvenile court hangs a
great map of the city of Denver. 1t is
thickly spotted with blaek-headed pins.
Each pin represents a bad boy-one
who has been placed on probation by
the juvenile court. The pin represent
ing the bad boy is placed in the ap-
proximate vicinity of the boys home.
In that part of the map which rep
resents the poorer and more thickly
settled districts, the dots are densely
packed together. A crowd of them,
like a dusky sort of Milky Way, fol
lows the Platte river in an immense
sweep through the city.
Out on Capitol Hill, where the finer
homes are located, there are only a
few black headed pins stuck into the
map. Rich boys are not any betg,r
than the poor boys, according to Mrs.
Ida Gregory, clerk of the juvenile court
and known among the newspaper folks
as "assistant juvenile Judge" The
sons Of the well-to-do, and wealthy, she
says, do not get into trouble because
of their home surroundings, while
many Of the children of the poverty
stricken are eternally before the au.
thorities because they do not have the
right chances-their parents, who
should teach them to respect law and
order, are too busy earning their pitt
full salaries to give them proper atten-
tion.
In many places on the map the pins
are packed by twos or threes and some.
times in groups of tens and twenties.
Such groups represent ode gang"
composed of "bad boys" who have
never had chance-a real chance, ac-
cOrding to. Mrs. Gregory, to be better.
The juvenile court officials are bend
ing the main efforts toward "reclaim-
ing" these groups. Every time boy
has passed the probationary term, a
black pin is removed from the map.
In the office of the state board of
charities and corrections is another
map. It, too, is thickly spotted with
black-headed pins, Each pin in this
map represents a family that has re.
Gently received aid from a charitable
organization during the past year. The
same districts of the city which are
dotted with the majority of pins in the
Juvenile court map, likewise have the
majority of the pins on the charity
bord's map. In scores Of cases the
dots coincide.
The officials have taken the moral
from these two maps and declare that
where there is need and want and pov.
erty and little of the good things of
life, there also will be found the ma,
jority of the "bad boys" They de.
clare that the two maps point clearly
the things to be done to stop the
growth of juvenile crime.
Juvenile court officials today began
work on another map. Pins viii be
placed in the map for every mother
who has been aided by the mothers
pension fund provided for at the gen.
eral election last fall. They expect the
pins to be few and far between at tho
start, for Denver city and county au.
thorities have only the scant $4,000
Appropriated for pensions this year.
Those behind the mothers pension
plan, however, believe that next year
sufficient funds will be appropriated
to do untold good.
In the opinion Of Judge Lindsey, of
the Denver juvenile court, and others
who are working with him, the dots
on the "bad boy" map will begin to
disappear as the dots on the mothers
pension map begin to appear. II is
confidently expected that when moth.
ers who now are compelled to work
long hours for meagre wages, will be
able to shorten their hours of labor
when they receive pensions, and that
they can dvote those spare hours to.
ward proper bringing up of their chill.
dren.