The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-07-16
future careers. In the end Society
suffered from the repeated damage

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they had done. their parents grieved
in disappointment and sorrow, and
the erring boys finally become social
outcasts and parasites, of no use to
themselves nor to any one else.
Surely, thought 1, there must be
something radically wrong or stupid
with world that permits so much
damage and misery to GO on un-
checked.
The population of our prisons is
simply the misguided flood of Socie-
TVS stream. destroying everything
that obstructs it, and polluting itself
as it courses along it's aimless path.
The officials of penal institutions are
doing their best to guide the way
ward and polluted stream into
cleaner channels of usefulness; but
penal institutions are, at best, bur
weak dams, unable to cope with the
situation unless something be done
to check the cause, or source. of the
flood. That crime is increasing,
criminals becoming bolder. the pris-
on population becoming larger each
year, and new larger prisons are be-
ing built, is ample proof of this con-
tention.
| Save the Youth
Experience has shown how the
regulations of many good men and
women have been blasted in mo-
ments of temporary weakness when
temptation beset them. They may
have gone through life up to that
time with little or no temptation,
knowledge of the wickedness of the
world being withheld from them by
watchful parents. Many have gone
on offending for long time before
they are exposed; while others
tempted on all sides from youth up
wards to commit crime. resist the
temptations repeatedly by sheer
force of character and will power.
The tendency of youths in general,
however, is in the direction of mis-
chief when curiosity and temptation
beckon; and from the knowledge
that our faculties grow strong in
proportion to our exercise of them,
we may conclude that it is far wiser
that children be taught to cultivate
the power of resistance. to evil than
that that knowledge of evil be with
held from them. We know not how
or when temptation may overcome
us or those dear to us; but we do
know that in the lives of even the
worst of those that have fallen from
grace, there was first fall! And the
crucial time. therefore, to begin
crime prevention is before that first
fall, during the time of youth.
From what has been said it might
be urged that crime prevention
should begin in. and be confined to
the home. No one will deny that
the home is the most potent factor
in preserving the peace and purity
of any community. We know if our
youths will but follow the teachings
of the religions of their parents.
they will not fall into the error and
follow lives of crime. But religion
is not practiced in every home; and
all parents do not know how to infiu-
ence or control the minds of their
children any more than did the poor
Slav woman, when in desperation.
she dragged her boy to school on a
rope. Again, many youths turn out
badly in spite of religious parents
and good homes, because of vicious
associations abroad. For these rea-
sons, then, belive that the problem
of crime prevention must be solved
in our schools and colleges, leaving
to parents the matter of selecting
neighborhood companions, an d
of selecting respectable neigh
borhoods in the which to bring
them up.
Parties of children could be form
ed to visit local jails and prisons,
where the teachers could hold mir
rors to them of young men, husbands
and fathers being torn from their
loved ones and thrown into prison;
of the long hours of bitter anguish
spent in solitary cells year after
year. Make this penal sacrifice of
suffering mortals count for some
thing more than mere restraint and
punishment of crime. Make it the
price paid in advance for the saving
of youths in the future. The pupils
should be made to write essays on
the subject of temptations met and
resisted, to discuss the traits of one
another frankly, to commend the
good and discourage the vicious
among their number; thus imbibing
the whole class with a feeling in