The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-07-31
AMERICAS GREAT PROBLEM


gravest before the peace officers of
this or any other state or commun-
ity today. If the juvenile is prop
erly handeled; if he can be reform
ed in his infancy in crime; if his
feet can be set in the right path
before his life and character be-
come perverted, and the he himself
a confirmed criminal, then much
can be done in curbing crime.
The boy of today becomes the man
of tomorrow; if he is properly
taught and educated he becomes
the lawyer, doctor or merchant; if
he grows up neglected and I'M
taught, like the field untouched by
the hand of the husbandman, his
life can yield no harvest. but only
thorns and thistles- he may become
the hardened criminal.
This question revolves itself
around that sage and well-known
adage that an ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure" This
saving to the state comes both from
the momentary as we'll as the hui
manitarian point of view. 1t costs
less to care for, educate and equip
a boy for a useful life than it does
to arrest, try ard convict and main
tain criminal. The cost of crime
to the state in dollars and cents is
enormous, and believe that there
is little argument against the prop
osition that from an economic stand
point it costs less to prevent than it
does to suppress crime.
Now let us look at the matter
from the humanitarian standpoint.
When we stop to contemplate what
it means to the boy or girl slipping
into life of crime, and what it
means to the family and loved
ones of such offender to see them
going down, down, down the road
that can only lead to the dungeon
and the den, the outlook is appal-
ling. Everywhere people are arous-
ed over conditions in prisons and
jails. There is widespread, stern
and determined effort being made
to better these conditions, but gen
tlemen, you who listen to me know
from your own experience rs Off
GERS of the law, the terrible life
that is led by those, who by chance
or from environment, engage in
crime as a business. Look at the
bright-eyeG, manly little fellow
playing in the street. There are
two paths that lay before him; one
leads to a useful, honest life; the
other 10 crime and degradation.
In most cases his family will set
his feet Alright, but in some few
cases, and those few cases demand
the attention of the public, his
family will give him no help. He
has no home life, perhaps no home.
The orphanage were better a thous-
and fold than the howell that gives
him shelter perhaps, and the father
or mother that neglect and abuse
him.
This brings me to the cause of
delinquency. If were asked the
question, What causes delinquen-
cy in children. That is, what
cause them to take up a life of
crime" would answer first as the
great primal cause, lack of home,
lack of love, lack of home influence,
lack of home training. lack of home
restraint, lack of discipline, lack of
all those elements that 90 to make
the greatest institution for good
that has been handed down by God
for the happiness of man-the fire.
side home.
This lack comes from the alb
sence of any of those elements in
the life of child. Maybe the
mother, with her love, her devo-
ton, her ever vigilant eye, her sac
rifice, is absent from the home.
Maybe the father, with his strength
of character to inspire ambition in
the child, with his stern discipline
to curb the rowdy youngster, is alb
sent from home. Maybe the father
and mother are both absent and
more or less disinterested relatives
try to make the home. Maybe both
father and mother are in the home,
but love is not there. The drunken
father and the dissolute mother
both are responsible for the delin-
quency in children.
10 aooom nliah donir rod raa,,l4a II,