Evening star., 1925-08-23
LAID
TO BROKEN HOMES
Parents Blamed Largely for
Law Violations Through
Lack of Care.

out of the mass of data obtained by
The Star in it's investigation of
juvenile delinquency and the relation
it bears to Fairgrounds has come
variety of recommendations looking
toward Improvement of child welfare
conditions in the National Capital
The recommendations are correlated
closely to deductions based on the
facts and opinions obtained during the
survey.
Some of the outstanding suggestions
follow:
l. Attack child delinquency at its
source-the home.
This is the advice of Chief Proba-
ton Offcer Joseph w Sanford of the
Juvenile Court and is predicted on his
observation that 80 per cent of the
Capitals delinquency results from
broken homes In other words, ac-
cording to Mr.. Sanford, stop the di-
vorces, the separations and the other
domestic disturbances and you will
very nearly stop delinquency among
our children"
Would Ban Gangs.
,. Eliminate the corner gang;
HOI only from the street corner, Dul
from the playground corner.
"Ganging" the proba ion officer
points out, invariably leads to mis-
chief or even crime. and "ganging" on
Fairgrounds is no exception. He has
found that occasionally delinquency
actually matches right on the play
ground.
3. One OF the best remedies for
sErro,, ,c~iy, iS- hoS ha no
pastime," so provide plenty of base
ball diamonds for large boys in every
section of the city.
Much Of the tendency of boys to
form gangs in Washington is due to
the lack of recreational facilities for
larger boys on municipal Fairgrounds,
Mr.. Sanford declares. On grounds
where there is but one diamond. the
small boys are given preference, and
the older lads must find other ways of
occupying their time. Mischief breeds
easily in this way.
Parents Should Cooperate.
4. Teach parents to keep stricter
tab" on the whereabouts of their
children.
Juvenile Court authorities have
found that an amazing number OF
mothers and fathers pay no attention
are occupying%their leisure time. The
parents of one child. for instance,
were unaware their son was driving
a bootleg car, and those of another
boy were surprised to learn their
son was making a regular practice ff
slipping nickels, dimes and quarters
from the coin holders of street car
conductors on crowded cars
5. Increase not only the number OF
existing Fairgrounds, but the size OF
those already in existence.
Mrs. Susie Root Rhodes, supervisor
of District Fairgrounds. declares that
13 additional Fairgrounds of large size
for white children and additional
large ones for colored children are
badly needed in Washington Some
means should be found for greatly In
creasing the area occupied by those
already established, so that at least
two regulation base pail diamonds
may be marked out.
6. Use great care in the selection of
competent play directors and in train
ing them for the important work they
are required to perform.
High-C Class Directors Vital.
Probation officer Sanford declares
that the services of playground di-
rector are just as important to the
community as InOSe VI the SclOOl
teacher. He holds that right molding
of child morals is just as essential as
education. For that reason. he as
serts, playground directors should be
paid salaries comparable to those paid
school teachers, and they should be
EMPLOYED on a year-round basis.
Considering The Stars survey as
whole, many of the findings OF the
Children's Bureau and of other juve
nile authorities with regard to causes
and remedies for delinquency were
not borne out here. The Juvenile
Court statistics fail to corroborate,
for instance, the Children's Bureau
report to the effect that "in general,
those (children) having the poorest
play facilities also had the greatest
amount of delinquency" for it was
found that about half of Washington's
delinquent children live within a five
block radius of Fairgrounds, while a
map on which delinquent" addresses
were charted showed a clustering of
children around the principal play
grounds.
The investigation, while uncovering
some doubt as to the efficiency Of the
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