New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-11-09
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR NOVEMBER o 1911
WORTH WHILE FOLK
BOSS OF A CITIZEN FACTORY

money. In the Nou'A II inc tId,uCdIIDll vi
the hookworm and the boil wccVl. In New
ENGLAND it is a bcnciiCcnt tariff. In the
Central States it altcrnatcs between a SUI
pcrior brand Of hogs 10 eat the surplus corn
and a superior brand Of rainfall 10 make
corn enough % feed the surplus hogs. On
the Pacific Coast but, California having
settled It's Japanese trouble % its own salts
faction. they are too busy getting ready for
the fair % bother with much else.
It'sall % matter Of geographical viewpoint,
then. this CRYING uccl OF the Republic.
Suppose we try for q less insular viewpoint
from q man who has made HE study OF
'hcproblcm. lfyouask Judge Willis Brown
formerly Judge Of the Chlliren's Court OF
salt Lake City. later Judge OF the Parental
Court Of Gary. Indiana, and now head OF
Bows CITY, near CharlcvoiX, Michigan, you
will get your answer with the suddcnness ana
enthusiasm Of zcalot.
The CRYING need Of this Republic IS better
citizenship. So says Judge Brown. And
then he drives home the argument with
forccful illustration. Whether he IS lcctur-
ing on the Chautauqua platform, matching
wits with the lawmakers at Washington,
where he has a bill intended 20 change the
whole attitude of the law toward the boy, or
panning out the heart Of one hayward boy
for the nugget OF virgin gold that must lie
there, Judge Brown is always ready with
forcciul, homcly illustration.
why" he will explode, with flash OF
his eyes, "why, when the State OF New York
faces the most interesting political situation
in the history Of the nation, the impcach-
mcnt Of a Governor, | saw in New York
City the other day six men languidly con-
~. fIaffn
hundreds were rioting 10 see the score 90 up
for the next inning! IS that citizenship"
And again. I'VE are spending millions to
improve the breed Of hogs. How much are
We spending 10 make citizens Of Our boys
That is his lifcwork, making citizens out
Of bows. He is the boss Of the citizen fac
tory; his plant, Utah, for which he wrote
the model childrcn's law; Gary Indiana,
where he applied the parental court idea to
the public school system: on the Chautau-
qua platform, where he is constantly plead
ing the case of the boy; or in Boys City,
where he is working out his highly advanced
theories under ideal conditions. The raw
material comes out Of the city sums, the
riifrafi, the abandoned the boys that are
generally classified under the head of jul
vcnilc dcnqucntS." The more delinquent
he is, the more anxious IS Judge Brown TO
feed him into the cogs Of the citizen factory.
THE citizen factory, like most great in
dustrics, began in small way. Its first
home was a country schoolhousc i'll Oregon.
! hat was only scant fifteen years after the
"BoSs" was born in 1871 in Grundy County,
Illinois. His father was an itlncrant Bap-
fist preacher and the Jump from Illinois TO
Oregon contained so many intermediate
stops that Judge Brown does not even re-
member them all. Young Brown started
the factory with only one form of capital;
but that was the one asset he needed He
understood boys. Even at fifteen he could
get right down TO the bedrock of boy psy-
chology. And there he always found the
gold.
One experience from the Oregon school
will suffice to illustrate the fundamental
theory upon which his lifcwork has been
built. 1t wasn't even theory then. 1t
was just downright boy knowledge.
Most of the boys in the school were older,
stronger, and tougher than he was. y con-
test meant defeat. He determined at the
risk of throwing the school board into apo
plexy, TO avoid this conflict by upsetting all
approved traditions Of school discipline.
Come to school when you please. Go
when YOU please" he told the aStoniShed
DuDilS "If Won had rather 90 fishing today