Evening star., 1922-04-02
BY THOMAS n. MARSHALL,
Former Vice President Of tAS
UAited States.

w 7 HEN was Governor Of
Nh Indiana there was not
v v week, rarely day, in
which some father and
mother bowed down with grief did
not find their way into my pres
ence. They were the parents Of
some boy or some girl who had
transgressed the law ana been In
carcerated In some one OF the cor
rectional Institutions Of the state.
Their stories invariably ended with
the heartbroken exclamation.
"What have we done that God
should punish US so?"
I am thankful. as I look back,
that never made to any Of them
the response that all too often
was on the tip of my tongue.
Their burden was heavy enough
without criticism or rsbuke by
governor. Yet each timo I was
tempted to say. "You are not being
punished for what you have done:
Your punishment is the penalty OF
your neglect"
x " x X
All innovation is not deteriora-
ton. but changes in American
home life of recent years have not
been for the good Of children, of
parents or Of the republic. I re-
call the answer Of an old man
when asked if he liked chicken
liver. He said he did not know,
and explained that when he was
young chicken livers went to the
old people as dellcacies, and now,
when he was old, that the children
ate them.
Fifty years ago the father and
mother were the head of the aver
age American household. and tho
children were under authority.
However badly children were
trained, they we're trained at home.
Whether or not they thought any.
thing of religion. they had to take
regular doses of it just as they
took sulphur and cream Of tartar
in the spring. Parental authority
there were not many sleepless
hours spent by fathers and moth
ers wondering whether they had
convinced their children that what
they told them they must do was
the right thing to do and whether
it met with their approval. Chill
dren may have been fed up on re-
ligion, but in adult years they
never succeeded in getting away
from a conscience which reminded
them constantly that right would
be rewarded and wrong would be
punished. They may look back to
a rather gray childhood. but some
how they came to manhood ana
womanhood with well settled prin-
ciples of life.
1t may be that the age was too
strict and that 1t had too much
of hell and not enough of heaven
in it. But some of us are wonder
ing whether this modern age of all
heaven and no hell has not ad-
vanced too far. Today there is
quite a general current Of authori-
ty to the effect that you must not
make child do anything until
you convince it's immature juds
ment that it Is right. In the
home the child ia the controlling
factor; what 1t says goes: what 1t
desires is accepted as conducive
to happiness.
Reverting to my governorship. +
remember an instance in which the
parents sought to have their
daughter released from the Girls
School at Indianapolis. l drew
from them all facts In the case.
They had been the owners of a
good farm, which they left. They
came to the city. rented rooms in
a tenement house, and the father
became q street cleaner. all be-
cause the daughter, fourteen years
old, wanted to live where there
were moving pictures and public
dance halls. She had wanted
bright lights, and they had as
sumed it to be their mission in
life to furnish them to her. The
girl had been rescued just in time.
4 r y 4
The other day a juvenile court
Judge told a girl of fourteen that
she must be home each night by
10 o'clock. She laughed in his
face and retorted that the fun was
just starting at that hour. In a
store recently overheard a col
loquy between a lady clerk and
young miss Of less than high
school age. The clerk asked the
child il she wanted to buy an arti-
Gle she was asking to look at.
That's none of your business.
You are here to show goods" was
the Surprising rejoinder.
Scientists tell us that there are