East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1921-08-30
FINDS THAT
SUICIDES OF CHILDREN
ARE ON THE INCREASE
Noted Persons Were Rrey to
Mania for Self Destruction;
Why Some End Lives.
BY MARGERY REX

(written FOR the international News
Service.)
NEW YORK, Aug. S0.-suicides are
on the increase.
/ Especially among children,
Reports covering suicides for the
first six months of this year show
! thet PA BOYS and 2sS girls have KILL
ed themselves.
During the same period of 1920. 2s5
children ended their lives
The figures come from the Save-a-
Life League. of which DR.. Harry
March Warren is president.
The object of the league is the pre-
I vention of suicides, and its head re-
ports that the increase in the number
of self-inflicted deaths is the after
math of war among adults and the
fear of parental anger due 10 failure
in school examinations in the case of
children.
OF the many children who killed
themeelves in the first six months of
this year DIR. Warren said:
Many Of these children leave notes
in which they declare fear of examina-
tion impelled them to die,
II is not the examinations, really,
but the barbarous threats OF parents
to inflict terrible treatment in case
children don't pass. Many fathers and
mothers are rough and mean to their
unfortunate offspring. Some teachers
are severe. Many children are in poor
health and therefore weak in their
studies and in resistance.
Many parents actually prosecute
their children. l cannot understand
how this can be. They select one par
ticular child as the victim of their
temper"
The difficulties of childhood and of
that period of adolescence during
which the child becomes an adult were
understood very well by George Eliot.
the writer. who reflected upon her
own youth. the hardships of which
made her contemplate suicide:
THE impenetrable puzzlements of
youth, I was happier when older
If there is any terror of despair
equal to that of adolescence it has yet
10 be discovered
Napoleon Weak at IL
At the age of thirteen Lord Byron,
in school at Harrow, spoke of the at
/ fractions of death. Later, in Cam
bridge. he kept pistols about with
which to answer some of these ques-
tons
Napoleon said:
What madness impels me to desire
my own destruction? Since death
must come, why not kill myself? Why
should I endure these days when
nothing an. concerned in prospers ~
This at seventeen-later he felt
more sure of success
But what OF the adults suicide? Mr.
Warren says:
The increased number of suicides
is due to the aftermath Of war People
wrought up during that period are re-
| laxed now and in this let-down condi-
tion often think of death
During the war there were few
suicides. Misery likes company, and
when many persons had the same bur-
dens they seemed lighter to bear.
In May and June, when the world
is bright and gay. and when people
are outdoors and looking happy. there
| are many suicides Miserable people
cannot endure to contrast their lives
with those Of contented persons.
November. that black, horrid
month, finds few wishing to die. A
| general air Of gloom has settled upon
the world, and troubles are easier to
bear.
IT'S Common Tragedy
THE tragedy of suicide is a COM
mon one. There is no thought that
comes quicker when adverse condi-
tions pile upon us. People think
What's the use2'
"Would-be suicides need n friend,
and to quote the words Of Paul-'this
is the thing I do
we must keep people from de-
stroying their God given lives, We
get them when they have reached the
most desperate stage of existence.
Hope is what they need.
Two things cause the desire TO end |
ltfe, a multiplicity of sorrows and loss |
es and a great loneliness We instil
new hope, give people a second wind |
Ne show them another way out We
point out the awful risk of taking such /
step.
Try 70 Keep Plans Secret
when we are sick we go to doc
tor; if in need Of legal help to law /.
yer. Why. then, when we mean TO