The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-15
BOYS DRIFT TO CRIME
Is BLAMED ON LAWS
Investigator, After Three Years
in "Hell's Kitchen" Hits
Ordinances.
HE FINDS WAR on PLAY
Thinks Children. Forced to
Dodge Police. Get First
Gang Life Training.
HE FINDS WAR on PLAY

Edward NJ Barrows an Investigator
for the Peoples Institute spent the las,
three years In the middle West side in
the district sometimes referred to by the
police as "helrs Kitchen" studying the
origin of gangs In order to get facts
he changed his name and disguised him
self. living in tenements and playing the
part OF loafer and idler while he observed
the problems Of Juvenile crime. His re-
port. made TO the institute through its
social centre committee, was made public
YESTERDAY
Mr. Barrows says that stupid laws are
responsible for the organizations of thieves
and gunner in the middle West Side and
other parts OF the city. Laws penalize
the innocent play OF children and force
their natural activities into criminal out
let's Denied the right to play whole
somely and naturally. the children of the
tenements come TO regard the law and its
agents as their enemies and form secret
leagues in which they play at assault
larceny and burglary
These leagues are the nurseries Of gang
life Children graduated from such boy
gangs become tho gunner and criminals
who make the most trouble for the police
IL "Defensive secret League"
NO investigator who is known i,s SUCH
says Mr.. Barrow., can learn the facts Of
child life IN the streets OF New YORK
Child life OF the New York tenements Is
a world apart In the middle West side II
is organized into defensive secret league
ton s.fs hItiS MI nf ,,na, h..r ~
small gang units which make W this
league are sometimes federated for brief
periods. They war on each other. but
they are united against the common
enemy. the law and its agents
This condition is brought about, Mr. Bar
rows finds, because children are treated
as outlaws In their quest for play. Chill
dren are punished for playing baseball.
playing marbles and for shouting and
singing In the streets
Since the law rursucs moral games
even more vigorously than IL pureues i'm
moral ones since baseball playing is
prosecuted more vigorously than gam
bling. the children's gangs soon lose all
sense of moral propriety and become an
anti social force The boy is drafted
into "A gang as means Of evading the
law, which prohibits his baseball. marbles
or chalk games. and in the gang he soon
becomes an adept, first at innocent law
breaking. then IN criminal law breaking
Crime Played as Game.
An exhaustive study Of the arrests
for disorderly play Mr.. Barrows re-
ports. brought out the fact that assault
larceny and burglary are pract,sed as a
form Of game by the children Most
cases OF stealing and burglary were gang
acts. group OF boys will go to the
housewives on a Saturday morning and
will take orders Just az II they were
grocery boys. Then the gang will GO out
In an organized way 10 Al the orders
and they will steal either from fruit
stand or from a department store
They get regular scale OF prices FOR
the stolen orders They retire 10 n.
hangout Of the gang. divide the money
equally and gamble until one o, the boys
has II all. This boy must then spend half
his earnings In treating the gang This
IS regularly organized form OF amuse-
ment and has existed TO my personal
knowledge for decade or more in III.
middle West Side.
AS far as the boys themselves are con-
cerned II is game and nothing more
Punishment for any one ~ the overt acts
leaves the rest for adventure and the
taste for sweets and cigarettes as strong
as ever and II is very rare that more
than one or two OF the boys of n large
gang is caught, so the gang continues as
an active ant!-social institution
Mr. Barrow's report gives the results Of
a fiashlight survey OF street play. in which
10000 children were counted AZ o'clock
on Saturday afternoon. The survey
showed that the street play is naturally
wholesome and educational. although
Illegal
Children at Play break Law.
All OF the children, who were actively
at play were violating the law and were
subject to pursuit. arrest and conseauer.
humiliation. Mr.. Barrowss conclusions
and recommendations are AS follows
THE prolonged study and the hashlight
survey brought out the fact that the
street environment operates silently and
relentlessly to break down the more
highly organized forms OF child play. to
disintegrate them into the elementary
forms OF play and 10 prevent the elemen-
tary forms from being organized.
individual games. Of small educational
value. or craps playing in alleyways. are
pursued with less vigor by the police than
are the educational. organized games. The
problem ahead, not only for New York,
but for other cities, is the Harvesting Of
natural play and Of the gang to the cause
OF civic and social education. Unless this
Is done. the crime rate will grow and the
most fundamental right OF childhood the
right to play wholesomely, viii be tented.
AS result OF the Barrows investiga-
ton neighborhood experiment will he
tried in the middle West Side School build
ings. Fairgrounds, recreation centres and
cross streets will be put at the dispose!
play. The Peoples Institute and neigh.
bOrlOOu organizations ara inter, Stel