The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-02-11
FATHER BEST
PAL FOR LADS
Expert Says Prisons Are Filled
Because of Neglect of Boys

country are there because parents have
failed in their training.
III Is better To train the lad to citi-
qenship in the home than in reform
school. Citizens are not born, but
made.
when you find \ lad In reforma
tory. YOU can figure that the father
has not lived with his boy.
THAT is the biggest call OF the day;
that fathers live with their boys. It's
q lot more fun, a heap more satisfying
for a man To get on even terms with
the wife in training these youngsters.
For the boy or girl, there is the
danger period during adolescence.
That Is the time for the father To
teach the boy the one thing he needs,
self restraint.
For the man and father, there Is
also a danger period. 1t hits him be-
tween the ages of 40 and So He needs
self restraint.
Why is IT that there is no study
Of ethics and morals i'm the schools.
Why is ii left to the reformatories?
These are the thoughts James \.
Leonard. superintendent of the Ohio
state reformatory, drove home with
carnestness in his talk to the large
audience in the Calvary Presbyterian
church. Mr.. Leonard is a tall broad
shoudered man of sparse white
hair For many years he has been
the autocrat of the Ohio reformatory,
forcing reforms he said. against the
politicians of the spells system. He
talks with "A young mans enthusiasm.
tempered with experience.
His message today was to fathers
Of boys. Them he held responsible
nnc times out of ten for the boy who
goes wrong. He insisted that the man
who was busy with his boys. teaching
them manlincss, providing them the
proper amusements, the proper train
ing thOrugh the right association, vino
sacrificed some of the worldly things
which looked gay to the simple life If
home was the man who went into his
autumn of life honored by his boys and
respected by his fellows.
II have been in the prisons of the
country said Mr. Leonard, and II
has come home to me that there is
Cso a danger period for men, The
prisons are full of men. once re-
Ceived in society, They are the men
who between 40 ana 80, threw off
the rens of restraint; they are the
men who desert wives for aifinitic5
give all their spare time To their
clubs instead of getting acquainted 1T
home; they are the men who couldn't
take the time to live with their boys.
They FORGET that the best pal in tho
world for any father is his growing
boy
Now the one big thing boy
needs is the touch of a man. He
responds TO some dominating unfit
ence and needs domination. If the
father cannot dominate his boy, he
should make use Of that person ia
the family or outside of it whom the
boy most admires. The boy must
be laugh, restraint. The place 20
teach it is i'm the home. The boy
hasn't much chance to get it in
school; he might in the church. But
If it isn't taught him in the home, he
has but two other chances-in the
street or by law.
The schools are failing us. Our boys
are getting knowledge without VIII
power, information without training 30
use it. The only place | know OF
where ethics-not necessarily from
Bible, but from Hypothetical questions
is taught is in a reform school"
After his talk questions were asked |
Mr. Leonard from the audience. That |
gave him an opportunity to explain IN
detail how the Ohio state rcformatory |
mas been freed from politics and the |
Various boards which had been spoilS |
Tor politicians had been eliminated |
with supervisory direction now vested |
IN one board, nonpartisan and nonpo- !
litical by enactment.
In response to a question whether |
tho state could better spend money To !
keep boys out of reformatories, Mr.. |
Leonard said that too many boys are
now committed for first offenses. He |
tclt that these first Offenders should |
Straint and direction. That was a bet
ter way to redeem them. He favored |
changing IA boys environment while |
under probation.
Would there be as many boys in re-
iprmatories" one woman asked, If |
the judges were more intelligent and |
We're selected without reference 20
their npliticuI ,nppactinpep
What the judges lack" Mr. Leon
ara answered, lis information. If a |
state has spells system, and the vot- |
'rs stand for IT, IL doesn't deserve any |
hctter than il gets. Ohio was a spoils |
state, laughing stock among her sis
Ter states. But we've cleaned out the |
corners all around the state now. And |
the broom for the work has cnllghten-
ed public opinion"