Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-09-30
HIT WHERE IT HURTS
A Remedy for Crime

A Remedy for Crime
BY Dawley Palmer, in the Christian
Advocate, a Methodist Publication
Printed in New York City
"Strike 'em where they feel it, and
they'll remember" remarked the jury
man.
And that vulnerable point is what?'
l inquired.
THE pocketbook."
who is to get this blow?'
"Ah, that is our new plan. Parents
of the youthful criminal should pay all
costs of the states prosecution"
Rather an innovation, is it not?
Don't parents of bad boys and girls
suffer enough?"
Not nearly enough to prevent crime
being committed. Punished once this
way, they will see it does not happen
twice."
This, in a simple way, tells the logic
followed by the Chicago grand jury,
whose efforts to do some genuine con-
structive work to reduce the cause of
crime are being commended by editors,
Judges, and a widely increasing num-
Der of thoughtful citizens. Prevention
of crime is their objective.
as the youthful criminal to go I'M
punished because his father is to pay
court costs?" l pursued.
mo, he shall pay for his folly in the
usual way" replied the juryman, but
in our opinion negligent parents are
really the guilty ones and should be
held responsible for their children's
acts. Had they trained them properly,
had they sufficiently concerned them
selves in the development of character,
had they taken the trouble to make
home life attractive, had they helped
choose companions for their sons and
daughters and made them adhere to
proper hours for being on the streets
and arriving at home, the crimes of
the present would be far less, many
impossible"
There flashed through my mind the
story of a young girl who was struck
by a passing auto at two O'Clock in
the morning and lay unconscious in a
hospital, while fifty telephone calls
came in the endeavor to identify her.
F%orty-nine other girls had not yet re-
turned at two-thirty A. M.
When it is borne in mind that the
larger number of criminals are from
sixteen to twenty-five years of age and
that the greater amount of crime is
committed between midnight and three
in the morning, it can be seen that
youths and girls who keep good hours
and are surrounded by good compan-
ions are not likely to appear before
the jury. Hours, companions, clean
amusements! What is better than an
attractive home? We don't mean the
furniture; we mean the fun.
There was another thing we noticed
about witnesses" continued the DC
tober juryman. "They didn't take the
oath seriously. They didn't respect
a promise to tell the truth"
The sign hanging c~onspicuously in
that court room since October 81 is
about four feet square and reads:
THE OATH
The man who takes an oath
enters into a covenant with
God that he will act faith
fully or testify truly in the
case in which he is sworn.
A respect for the law of the state is
preceded by a respect for parental
authority.
It must be said for this earnest BODY
of men that all thought of self-ag-
grandizement is what they wish to
avoid. They do not pose as reformers
ar theorists. Crime investigation is
not their profession. They are sue
cessful business men, therefore prac-
tical. and wish to lessen trouble n
expense and tighten the taxpayers
burden. They are conscientious, ana
desire to make their corner OF the
world a better place to live in. They
are, most of them, fathers, and hope
to see youngsters get a square deal.
1t all hanks back to fathers n
mothers. If the lax and neglectful
must pay the entire expense incurred
in the prosecution of crime by the
state, that is, if they're struck hard
on their financial nerve-center, ltH
"shiver their timbers," and they'll re-
member.