The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-06

New York School of Philanthropy. states some of the chief causes of delinquency to be as follows
 1 Physical defects that make it hard for the child to succeed in school play. work child can easily do. Such defects lead tc i'll health, truancy, illness, bad cc'f- pany. temptation and delinquency. g. Mental defects which also handicap the child in his efforts to do what nor maj children are expected to do and leave him prey to evil influences.
 3. Mental perplexities, the precise mean ing of which even the child himself Is not conscious.
 4 Mental perplexties and sense Of wrong or injustice of which the child Is fully conscious.
 g. Lack of opportunity to do what nor nal children need to do, on account of poverty. congested neighborhoods lack of play. etc.
 6 Instruction in crime by others. | After sighting many cases of different sorts of delinquencies, he Illustrated his remarks with a fitting little parable, in which he shows how grape vine for many years lay stunted on the ground of a vacant lot amidst coarse grass and weeds: one day friendly hands made fence for the vine. and after few | years tlc fpOiS Idu tAttAtAVo uttR AiA' the soil and with the cooperation Of its own nature, the fence and surrounding trees, as an external support, the grape vine grew and realized the true grape nature.
 This Mr. Thurston states Is also true ot the lives of many boys and girls. Are they not reaching out In every direction and needing only the help of the friendly handout. which they may seize with the tendrils of the human spirit to lift them
 selves to the full statue of manhood and womanhood they were intended. 1 If the delinquent child Is a problem to the probation officer and the court ! the dependent child deserves still larg CT share of consideration Here in many cases the child Is not always the vic l tim of his or her own defective brair or deprivity. but the product of improper environment. disease and poverty | In many cases where it Is possible tho court tries to patch up the family nft believing "a home of almost any sort is
 better than an institution" Children arc cared for in a temporary care place called the Childrens Aid society, while the parent or guardians are put on proba
 ton; thus the court has jurisdiction over the child and the family and the state is exercising its ultimate parenthood. 1 The prime object of such an institution
 as the juvenile court is te save the race | through the child. We no longer teacr
 or believe that men are born depraved
 we teach and believe that men are borf with possibilities and potentlalities which under the stimulating influence of environ ment may be developed into what they are l-good or bad.
 1 Somebody said: You have to handle adults as long as you live, but save the child and you save the race"
 Statistics From Our Juvenile Court The juvenile court of this city Is main
 tained by the county, who also pays for a probation officer and clerk of the court supervision for approximately two years
 were Neglected, 557; dependent, 33S; de- linquent, 1404; incorrisable, PA; truants | 61: children placed on probation, 27 per cent: released with parents or relatives, per cent; committed to new homes, either country or city. per cent; committed to institutions, 20 per cent; dismissed, per cent.
 l Seven per cent brought before the court
 are from comfortable homes. | Ten per cent in the court from com munity neglect, such as lack of proper
 compulsory education law, no home for
 detectives, etc.
 | Poverty and underequipped that '
 working at too early an age, IS per cent | orphanage, 42 per cent confused family | condition or degraded homes, 9 per cent; | immigrant, per cent
 | Poverty enters, to large extent, into about 75 per cent of the cases.