Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1915-10-08
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL BOARD
MAKE SENSIBLE MOVE.

S-iNSio-S "SNG.
1T WAS a very wise and sensible
move the Industrial school board made
yesterday in allowing the s~uperintend-
ent to use his discretion in giving
Out tobacco to the students at the
school.
This world is divided into two class
es. On one side are the plain and
practical people. On the other are the
theorists and dreamers. The latter are
idealists and seek the impossible.
These dreamers are honest enough
n 1t Is well TO keep their ideals be.
lore the youth of the land. But it is
the practical man who wins the every
day struggle for existence.
The Industrial school board com.
posed of Governor Boyle, Sydney D..
Foster OF Reno. Judge Taber, George
Russell. Sr., and Senator Fernald. are
practical business men.
All medical authorities agree that
man would be better off if he did not
use tobacco. But 1t is not a crime as
yet to mok a pipe or chew the weed
no does a man lose caste by doing SO.
On every side men and boys are
seen smoking tobacco Tobacco is
furnished the soldiers in the army and
to the convicts in the p~enitentiary.
The Industrial school is a modern
development iii the care of young boys
who have made their first step to.
ward a criminal career. The idea is
to reclaim these youth and give them
an opportunity TO lead a straight and
honest life.
Ihls does not necessarily mean that
they should eschew the use of tobac-
GO. VI course they should be taught
the folly of smoking tobacco and NOR
al suasion. should be used to keep
them from the practice.
Your ideaiist, however, would make
these boys angels. He would overturr
their entire lives in a day and give
them a pair OF wings. He would take
a boy that has been smoking cigaret.
ties practically all his life and cut off
his supply in a single day.
This makes the boy disconnected
n he runs away from the school.
Thus sour idealist would reform the
youth at once or kill him, or in other
words make him run away from t
school.
And this is just what has happened
The boys couldn't get tobacco and SO
they ran away from the school.
Notwithstanding all this your ideal
list will never yield the point that it
is better to keep these boys at the in.
dustrlal school and let them have to.
bacco than it is to deny them its use
and cause them to run away.
Fortunately, however, as has beer
remarked We have practical men on
this board WHO know that a strong
healthy boy cGn not be turned into an
etheralized angel all at once.
This Industrial school marks a new
era In the treatment of young erin.
inals. Formerly we Sent young
thieves to the penitentiary. The re.
suit was that they associated with
hardened criminals and were gradu-
ated into n life Of crime.
The idea now is not to brand these
boys for their first offense with the
mark of a convict, but to give them an
opportunity TO reform. The school Is
designed to do away with all e
ton of a prison. The boys are treat.
ed as human beings.
The Is 10 cat~-o-nine-tails at the
Elk Industrial school. There Is no
dark cell and no bread and water diet.
The boys are given the same food
that Is set before the family of the
superintendent himeslf.
1t has been estimated al oiher