The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1921-11-11

By DOLLY
DALRiNfFLE

Bib Graves of Montgomery. They
have all been untiring in their eff
forts as We'll as the X-offieio mem
bers of the board, Governor Kilby.
the attorney general of the state, Ia
state superintendent of agriculture.
and the state superintendent of edu-
cation.
"A great many people said Mr.
Weakley. have the mistaken idea
that because a boy has been way
ward in his early life that he must
always be unreliablez@not to be
trusted; but that is only intolerance,
of course. Some of the finest men
in business today in this city and
state are boys from the Alabama
Boys Industrial school. in newspaper
work, jewelry shops, professors in in
situations of learning everywhere
in every walk of life-doing valiant
service. One of our boys is mem
Der of the orchestra of one of the
grand opera companies of the world; .
another is the manager OF one of the
great commercial agencies of the
world, Bradstreets or Dunn's, don't
recall which.
so many people have asked ma
why boys go wrong, why they choose
the wrong path" Mr. Weakley said
thoughtfully. Il cannot tell, Human
discrepancies cannot be explained.
There Is no fixed rule by which we
can judge such things; but it usually
goes back to unstable, unchristian,
WHOLESOME homes, and We try to
train our boys to be makers of
Christian homes-homes that send
out to the world the finest men and
women of the land.
THAT is one of the subjects we are
studying Mr.. Weakley continued.
''and mean to pursue to its fullest ex-
tent; namely. the cause of delin,
auency. II we can get at the root of
this. then we can correct conditions.
II we can learn the definite and con-
crete causes of delinquency, then we
have reached an effective founda-
ton to work on. We can then carry
out our plan of classification Of
types, and in this way make our
work more adequate and effective.
"a boy comes into the Alabama
Boys Industrial school for an indefi-
mite period" Mr.. Weakley said. but
16 months is the usual time that he
stays. This is often not long enough
but because of so many new boys
! pushing the old ones out-eoming to
us in great need of our influence
We can't keep them longer than II
months sometimes During that time.
though. they improve. and so. per
cent of the boys who have been with
us turn out to be good citizens.
"All this will be rectifled when we
have our new commodious buildings"
he said, 'and my ambition is very
big for the future OF the Alabama
Boys Industrial school,"
I'VE can't bring our story to an
end without a word about the boys
band" I suggested, whereupon Mr.
Weakleys face beamed with delight
and he declared that he felt like ev-
erybody else In Birmingham feels
about the band--that 1t is one of the
greatest assets of the Alabama Boys
Industrial school.
1--WE have now 40 boys in the band"
Mr. Weakley said, happily. land am
pleased to tell you that we are about
to close a contract with the Chicago
chautauqua for next summer for the
boys band to appear for three months
under this organization. Lieutenant
Sharman who was here as a speaker
during the war and who made such
delightful impression. is in the
Chicago chautauqua, and the plan is to
have the boys band appear with him,
furnishing music for his lecture. His
subject will be Better Men Than
Their Fathers 1t seems very ap-
propriate and we are all delighted
over the prospects of the boys band
and their summer engagement"