The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-10-06

NEW YORK.-"Back to Godl"
Commissioner Enright, the head of
New Works $4,000 policemen, offered
that idea to The World as one of his
first suggestions for checking crime.
In the midst of discussion of tech
meal problems connected with crime
he said:
Its the breakdown in the home
that is causing crime. It's the forget
ting Of religion, the lack of morale at
the Preside and the hayward parent
rather than the hayward child that is
the real cause. The hayward parent
causes waywardness in the child, and
the fault as we'll as the responsibility
Of remedying the evil he or she has
brought about lies with the parents"
Crime Cure Slogan.
1t was while discussing guns that
the commissioner interrupted himself
to PROFOUND his crime-cure slogan of
Back to Godp'
"All OF the things that can be adj
vocated to reduce crime are, after all,
only remedies" he said. They are
medicines which we would give after
the ulScdSt HdS tdhSli S1S1t' HS tHlilS
to do is to wipe out the disease itself,
and in the crime disease the home IS
the place to start
when | first came here some thirty
years ago 20 per cent of crime in New
York city was committed by persons
more than thirty years old. Today ~
per cent is by persons under thirty
and a big part of that 20 per cent by
persons around twenty frequent
ly we'll under twenty-one. Why? Be-
cause the morale of the home has been
destroyed.
I'm days past the boy or girl was
raised in a home atmosphere. They
knew and loved their parents. They
went to school on weeks days, to
church and Sunday school on Sundays
and they stayed home at nights. Now
there is no longer religious training,
no longer any home training, and the
child, instead of being raised with
proper ideas and ideals, sees an exam
pie of laxity in life and habits of the
parents that soon leads him to a life
OF crime.
Blames the Automobile.
zone Of the things that has broken
down home life is the automobile. On
Sunday, instead of going to church,
the parents go for tour of the coun-
try to a roadhouse for dinner, and
there's a day of moral laxity instead.
of a day of thought of religion and
God AT night they are out again. The
boy, when too young TO go on these
trips, sees them, nevertheless. He may
be left at home with orders to go to
church, but soon he figures, Oh,
what's the use? Dad and mother are
OUT guess I'll go out myself. And
he does.
1.-THE automobile enters again when
the boy begins to grow up. He slips
off in it in the evenings, gets into bad
habits and soon becomes. a criminal.
Perhaps at first he merely drives down
to buy a magazine. There on the news
stand he finds a group of lascivious
magazines-vulgar stories, vulgar p1ct-
ures, erotic books.
perhaps he goes to picture show.
The same thing is found there. Pict-
ures either erotic in nature or else
just as harmful to the boy, even if
morally pure He sees a fake notion OF
! life in the pictures. He sees the boy
and girl struggling in the slums sud-
denly transferred, through no effort
Of their own to grandeur and splen-
dor. The girl doffs her rags and dons
her costly jewels and beautiful clothes
and assumes wealth The boy of the
slums, again through no personal mer-
| it. but rather through the exigencies
of fate, becomes a millionaire club,
man with limousines and mansions.
Envy Brings Evil Train.
"At his own home the viewer of
this picture has no luxuries, no fine
clothes, no jewels, no Rolls-Royce--
not even a Ford. A longing for such
la life is created. Over in some cheap
err moving picture house the adven-
lures of hold-up man are pictured
Perhaps the picture is shown in one
of the finest theatres instead OF
cheap one. The criminal of middle
| lagos becomes a hero as he is pictured
holding up the stage coach, robbing
| the mail train and such
Put the two types of pictures to-
gether in the mind of the youth, the
bow with undeveloped or unframed in
tellect and he soon follows the idea
Of one picture by robbing to obtain
what was placed before him in the
other When the boy who has become
a criminal through these influences
steps out to commit his crime he is
at once a dangerous criminal if only
through the inexperience which caus-
es him to shoot in desperation.
Money Madness Grows.
"He has gone out for money-mon-
ey for ease, luxury, plumage for his
girl, comfort himself and to carry out
the false notion of life that has been
created in his mind through lack of
home training and laxity in outside
environment. When / was a boy if
got my hand on a dime | was happy.
A dollar was a fond dream and hope.
Today give a kid a dollar and he'll
figuratively throw it N the sewer and
laugh at you. He sees money-mad
parents chasing after false splendor
and he wants money-big money for
the same chase.
"He finds that his public school
teacher and his Sunday school teach
Continued on Page S, Col. p