The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1917-09-09
by Miss McDonaId.)

/ tiOii OIi4Cel anu welfare WOfheT, ina
several have advised that it be ex
/ planned so that all may understand
some of the things that make it nee
essary, and that they may see the
Importance Of such work.
1t has been evidenced that these
are conditions that will ruin the soc
ial, moral, and civic life of any in
every town and county, if allowed to
remain.
To work an improvement in any
condition it is necessary to begin at
the foundation, and remove the
cause. If a building is reared on a
faulty foundation it is a menace to
the life in the community, and it is
condemned IF a life is reared on
bad principles, it endangers every one
who comes in contact with it and
the influence is so far reaching, that
it is impossible to destroy it.
A man is known by the company he
keeps and long before he selects his
associates, his surroundings have
made the choice for him. The poor
woman never voted to put saloons
and houses of illfame in any com
munity but being poor she has to- go
Were rents are low and where these
OWL ipHunnnac n hound o1,d bar ob;1
dren are reared where modesty, pur-
ity, and honesty are Knocked, despis-
ed and forbidden, hence crime is the
natural product of the community.
The cause that produced these abnor-
nal conditions, were set up without
the volition of the victim, and often
before he was born.
But environment is not all, we must
take account of inherited defect,
weakness, arrested development of
the brain, and alcoholic tendencies.
Many people live in the same envir-
onment that criminals have, yet live
above sin and crime.
1t can be made morally certain that
an unfavorable situation increases
crime or mOdifies it's expression as is
shown by the study of history, sta
tistics and local surroundings. I'm
favorable bodily conditions are
among the causes of crime, alcohol
and drugs incite to crime, and habi-
tual inebriety will change a man into
a thief, a liar, or even murderer
and crime by repeating itself be-
comes second nature. The mind and
nervous systems are soft and plas-
tic and in the child impressions are
made easily and retained. The child
of honest parents will seek to obtain
the desired object by honest work.
The child Of dishonest parents will
steal.
The repeated action forms a chan
mel along which the mind moves cas-
lily, thus forming and fixing the char
aete- The old order of laws and
courts, while restraining, possibly.
and Furnishing the offender did not
remove the cause nor reform the
criminal.
This began to be realized by great
many thinking people, especially
some judges, who set themselves tC
improve the conditions in all lines
Old institutions were improved, new
laws were made and the Juvenile
court came into existence, and today
there is hardly a state or territory
chat has not a Juvenile court in at
least one county. Large cities have
organized charities and social set
Elements and smaller towns have
community centers for aiding in the
fight against the conditions that are
destroying the manhood and woman
hood of our land The unemployed
are given employment, the diseased
in mind and body are treated, and
the uneducated, are taught. etc.
In some counties that have not SC
large a population the Juvenile court
work (probation) and Welfare Work
are combined and carried on by the
Probation Officer, because there is
not sufficient TO support both institu
tons and since the cause of the
condition that demand the work or
create the need for it lies as shown,
at the very foundation of things the
place to begin is with the yonug.
Where the parents cannot send a
child to school. no matter what the
reason aid is given, the hungry fed
the bed environment is changed. the
neglected is looked after, the orphan
and deserted child is given a home
the youthful offender or delinquent is
given a chance, and so on through
the whole category of human needs,
and this is the work Probation Officer
is trained to do. and frequently he or
she would fail if the authority of the
court was not back of it. because in
the case of children, there are some