Evening journal., 1915-03-05
Friends Defendfhe Juvenile Court Law

am convinced that the action taken
by the Senate is absolutely wrong.
and that il would have acted differ
entity If they had been able TO give
more consideration 10 the question,
and / am quite sure that the House
will not follow the lead of the Senate
on this bill, if you aud others who
have been so largely interested in the
success OF our Juvenile Court are
given an opportunity TO be heard by
the members of the House / am
quite sure, however, that a hearing is
necessary to prevent the House from
passing the Senate bill On the face
of it the Senate bill will doubtless ap-
pear to be quite proper and satisfac-
tory in every way to the members OF
the House, unless its inherent fault
be plainly shown and brought to their
attention. Most of the members OF
our Legislature are from the country
and are accustomed to country boys
and country surroundings. and are
not familiar with city boys and city
boys surroundings.
The country members recognize that
there is no need for Juvenile Court for
country boy. | was raised a country
boy, and remember we'll that my Juve-
nile Court was held in woodshed and
my punishment was such as TO make
standing more pleasant than sitting, and
every member OF the House has attend
ed just such court. and has passed
through such punishment. If he had
not Ire probably would not be sitting in
our halls of legislation today. They do
not realize that there are parents in
Wilmington who do not approach their
parental duty with the same sense of
duty which is held by them toward
their own children, and which was held
by their parents towards them. They
can be made to see, however. very real
lily that the delinquent child in Will
mington is largely caused by a delin-
quent parent, and that this State
should, as far as possible, supply the
delinquency Of the parent and should
approach the subject from the viewpoint
Of a proper parent, and not only correct
its waywardness, but show to il the
character of the wrong and touch the
child's conscience in such way as to
create a desire not to trangress again
1t is for this reason that Juvenile
Courts have been created throughout
the country, and for the very same rea-
son il is most important that the Juve-
nile Court should in no way touch a
criminal court, nor a criminal court
Judge
The people of Wilmington are al
most unanimous i'm their regard for
Judge Churchman as a judge of the
Municipal Court, and give him un-
stinted praise for the standing which
he has given his court in the eommu-
nifty. but Judge Churchman cannot be
good Municipal Court judge and a
good Juvenile Court judge at the same
time. and | have never known u man
that would
This is no peculiar weakness on the
part of Judge Churchman. IL is a
weakness peculiar to human nature A
Juvenile Court judge should never APP
proach delinquent child viewing him
as a criminal. It should be absolutely
foreign to his thought. He must ap-
proach the child from the viewpoint OF
parent Every member of the House
at some time during his boyhood days
was thief in the technical sense oi
the word, but which of their parents
approached them. viewing them as {
criminal because they took and carried
/ away dOughnut or a water melOr
that belong to some other person? IN
such cases the parent approached tht
I child with an entirely different poini
of view. and it is the same point o
view that must be used by Juvenile
Court judge If the administration o.
I his duties are to be successful, and his
mind cannot be properly prepared fol
/ these duties. if during other hours o
/ the day he is acting as a crimina
court Judge, or a criminal court prose
outor.
The maintenance of a separat,
court and an Independent judge fo
our juvenile delinQuents may add
few hundred dollars of expense to ii
administration. but what is few hun
dred dollars compared to the value Il
the State in detecting the character
of a large number of boys and girl
from criminal tendencies to a cOrrec
view of life.
hope that you will secure you
hearing, and I hope that you will b
able to convince the members of tn
House that the action taken by tn
State Senate is absolutely wrong, an
that the maintenance of a separat
court with separate offices is abso
lutely necessary for the proper per
formance of the duties of the Stat
toward those delinquent children @
delinquent parents of which We hav
so many in this town.
Very truly yours,
JOSIAH MARVEL.