Evening star., 1914-04-26
Continued from page s

been neWSDoy. Leaving SchOOl at 1Our-
teen, he had worked for eight months in a
factory, had been idle for two weeks, had
then secured a place as errand boy which he
held for two months, had left this to take
a place in machine shop, which he lost
after three months, and on the second day
of ideness broke into a neighbor's house,
was brought into court, and sent to the
reformatory, where the investigator found
him.
Or take the lad whose employer, tailor,
discharged him, but who for some days
went about among the employers custom
ers, collecting clothing to be cleaned and
pressed, sold the garments, and pocketed
the proceeds; or the other youthful delin-
quent who worked in a laundry until an
older boy taught him how to make easy
money by stealing and selling lead pipe.
Thereupon he gave up his work, and devoted
buildings, at which pursuit he had been
prospering for several weeks when detected.
These, and many others, were not working
when they committed the offense that
brought them to grief; but clearly they
were working boys in the ordinary use Of
the term.
THE total number of delinquents included
in this study is 4,S39, of whom 2,767
had at some time been employed and 2,072
had never been employed. The entire num-
Der of offenses recorded for all delinquents
was S,797, of which the working children
were responsible for 5,471 offenses, while the
nonworking were responsible for 1926,
whose character included arson, assault and
battery, begging, gambling, drunkenness,
forgery, immoral conduct, incorrigibility,
larceny, out nights, receiving stolen goods,
truancy, vagrancy, runaway, disorderly, or
several interrelated offenses. Assault and
battery when applied to girls means simply
fight; but when applied to boy it is likely
to mean an unprovoked attack on an inno-
cent party. He has stoned Chinaman, or
assailed peddler Immoral conduct with
boys means definite act, with girls con-
dition. The judicial attitude favors the
girl; but it renders impossible any COM
parison between the morality of the sexes.
Larceny is a leading offense for boys and
comes second in the list for girls. 1t includes
offenses ranging all the way from petty pill
fering to organized theft. There are office
domestic servants who purloin their mis-
tresses' clothes or trinkets. One boy saw a
piece of canvas fall from loaded wagon
1t was springtime, and in his inner eye tent
was the utterly desirable good; so the boy
instead of notifying the driver, who was un-
aware of his loss, seized his treasure trove
and fled. A girl of seven, of native-born
white parentage, was found to have been
trained into very skilful shoplifter by her
mother.
The most Immediately striking feature is
the large proportion of offenses committed
by children. The proportion varies some
what between the sex groups; but roughly
speaking the nonworkers are responsible for
a little over one-third, the workers for some
thing under two-thirds, of the offenses.
The ages at which these were committed
ranged from six to sixteen years. When it
is remembered that a majority-and pre-
sumably large majority-of the children
between these ages are not working, this
preponderance of offenses among the work
ers assumes impressive proportions.
THE work is still in its infancy, however,
and investigating the subject in all its
ramifcations will be a matter of time and
expenditure. Meanwhile, under the able
leadership of Julia c. Lathrop, chief of the
Children's Bureau, notwithstanding the
small force of employees and the inadequate
appropriations available for its use, enough
work has been done to make it permanent
tribute to its usefulness Increased ap-
preparations would enable the bureau to
complete within reasonable time its i'm