The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1915-03-25

baser pleasur, have a social value far
surprising their more health-giving
function, though that of itself is not to
be despised.
Adolescence is the time of life when
it is most important that feebleminded-
ness, if it exists. shall be definitely
ascertained and appropriately treated.
( l have reserved to the end the most
important subject in connection with
adolescence, and that is delinquency.
I A certain amount of it, given a prop
er setting, safeguards. and antecedents,
is altogether normal. What middle
aged citizen does not look back to ad-
descent escapades which would have
come within the law if the law had hap
pened to be busy at that particular spot
and moment? If there is d good citizen
who has no such memory, fear that in
his youth he was not looked upon as
normal by his contemporaries.
A large number of offenses are of
course purely conventional, subject en-
vironmentallY to necessary condemna-
ton, but in themselves harmless or
even wholly commendable when age
and need of physical expression are con-
sidered. Playing ball is normal func-
ton of youth in a proper place. Dry
ing bicycle or motorcycle or an auto
mobile beyond the speed recognized as
desirable on the city streets is quite
compatible with law-abiding spirit if
done in an appropriate environment. We
need not multiply illustrations. The
surprising thing is that young people on
the whole so naturally cease to be
natural, so normally fit themselves
into abnormal conventions we i'm
pose upon them, so readily demonstrat-
ed that they are fitted tor social life,
better fitted by the complex nature
which is their social heritage than for a
savage life.
And so when it comes to the delin-
quent boy in narrower sense, it is as
well to recognize that his early offenses
may differ mainly in degree and by acct
dent from the offenses of other boys
who are not called delinquent.
On the whole, it is better for the
petty theft, the juvenile lawbreaker to
be caught. 1t is better for the boy and
girl who go wrong to be caught, but it
Is well that society, having made the
capture, does not itself go wrong.
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY, AND HOW 1T is
DEALT WITH.
The modern social paraphernala for
dealing with juvenile delinquency in
cludes parental schools for truants;
kindly but vigilant truant officers who
are not policemen. but teachers on
scout duty; juvenile courts and courts
Of domestic relations. disciplining main
ly parents and translating the corrigi-
bility of the child into the corrigible
ability of the parent and teacher, of
which the boy unwittingly give evil
dence; probation officers men and wo-
men, who are sometimes to the Judge
what the trained nurse is to the phYsici-
an, and sometimes more like the con-
sulting specialist to whose professional
skill and insight the regular practitioner
gladly defers; refOrmatorias and in
iu~lraai scnyuis aud colonies for feeble
minded-a series of educational and
remedial agencies which among them
make prisons and jails for young offend
ers obsolete and discredited, useless and
impossible.
Public intoxication and disorderly
show on the police court calendars as
offenses of middle life and even of old
age, but the problem of inebrlety is
mainly one of youth and early maturity.
Larceny, burglary, fraud. assaults,
rape, arson and homicide are committed
at all ages, but the determination of
character which will show itself from
time to time according to its nature
takes place in youth.
Whether man is to be temperate or
Incorporate, shiftless or energetic, a
deserter or steady family man, a
drone or a worker, criminal or law
abiding member of society, a parasite
or self-dependent, surplus-producing
creditor of society, an exploiter or a
socialized captain of industry-if his
abilities give him this alternative-all
this depends on the educational in
fiuences, conscious and unconscious.
brought to bear upon him in the
acter-forming period of life. AS
the twig is bent the trees inclined. 1t
is an irritatinGly trite and profoundly
true saying.
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