The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1914-03-31
Governor Ralston Is Worried.

Governor KdlStOn is WOIIlCu'
In his speech at New Castle last Sunday Gov
ernor Ralston EXPRESSED himself as being worried
over the increase of crime insanity and juvenile
DELINQUENCY in Indiana. The problem OF how TO
deal with these questions he described as one Oh
the greatest"
The Governor undoubtedly has grounds tor
calling attention of the state to these condltlons.
If the population of Indianas jails, penltentlar-
les, reformatories, warehouses;, insane hospltais
and similar institutions were gathered togetner'
they would make a city as large as Rlchmono.
This is appalling enough but it's real significance
is discovered when we learn that this populaUlon
of sub-normal people is increasing three times
faster than the states population as whole mi
ten years, the latter has made gain of little
more than seven per cent While the former mas
gone ahead over tWenty-one per cent.
What is the cause of this? The Governor, &C
cording to his speech, finds it largely in heredty
You and must be more rigid in the licensing OF
men and women to bring children into the world.
All must agree with the Governor that much
crime and insanity is caused through people be-
ing badly born. The seeds of wrong doing are
often in the very germ pasm out of which they
are evolved A noted English authority has es-
timated twenty per cent of crime to be due to IN
born defects This doesn't mean that crime it.
self is born with the child but rather those handl-
caps which foredoom him to failure. bad eyes,
bad teeth, flat foot, bad throats, nose troubles
and mal-nutrition predispose to crime" writes
another expert Authorities also pretty general
y agree that about this same proportion Of in
sanity is due to hereditary abnormality.
But granting that one-fifth of our crime and
insanity is due to inherited defects what has the
Governor to say about the remaining four-fifths? =?
What about the cases traceable to wrong social
and industrial conditions? What about the crime
due to unemployment? What about the insanity
due to drugs, to prostitution and poverty? What
about the juvenile delinquency due to children's
lack of recreation facilities, of good food OF edu-
cation and due to child labor?
The most innocent babe that lies in Indi-
ana cradle may be made into criminal by bad
conditions if chances dictates. If it is girl set
her to work by and by for some respectable mer-
chant or manufacturer at three dollars a week
and she will probably find some place in the serv-
ices of the devil If it is a boy, take him out of
school at twelve put him into an unventilated
factory, sweat the life out of him, make an old
man of him before twenty and he will then be
ready to break the laws of the state which his
life has given him so little to love.
Woman labor, child labor, adulterated food
and drugs, over-work, unemployment ignorance,
disease, prostitution and alcoholism, these are
the causes, as investigators everywhere are find
ing. of insanity and crime.
What is Governor Ralston's Democratic party
promising it will do to handle these condi-
tions? It's platform is as silent the Governor
himself. The sole evidence that the Democratic
party of Indiana even knows there is social
problem lies in three platform planks which re-
fer in vague way to labor arbitration, work.
mems compensation and liquor law. Woman
labor. child labor and the minimum wage and
such things conspicuous by their absence.
Governor Ralston, who is the spokesman of
Indiana democracy lis very much worried about
our increase Of crime and insanity. He has need
to be worried. The conditions are as black as
he has painted them. But the state at large will
not take his worriment very seriously and it will
not believe that his party is very sincere in real
ly desiring to get to the root of these evils" as
he expressed it, until it proves it's sincerity by
pedging itself through its platform to dig up the
roots out Of which crime and insanity spring
Mana Community
According to recent reports from Baltimore a
specialist has succeeded in transferring the cor