Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10
RY MILLIS j. RALLINGER.

~ o parents want TO save their
boys from the electric chair?
If so, then watch your boy s
| H. spare time. If you don't do
| this, the State is going to do
| it for you The home has practically
| ceased to function in America. II the
home can no longer supply youth with
| character training. then that vital duty
| must be assumed by Government.
| That is the way William Lewis
| Butcher. noted authority on boys,
| views the juvenile crime situation in
| America.
do you realize" he said, that so
| per cent of all crime i'm America is
| committed by mere boys? DO you
/ know that former Police Commissioner
| Enright has said that the majority of
| our dreaded motor-car bandits are
| youths between the ages of II and 25
| years, and that in the last 10 years
| this army of criminal youth has taken
| over 5000 lives and gotten away with
| over SO, 900 900. 900 worth of property +?
! The home has broken down in Amer
lea. We must face that situation and
| try to devise other social agencies that
will do for the boy and girl what the
old-fashioned home used to do for
them-train their character.
X X X y
was talking with a man who has
worked with boys problems for the
last 20 years. Perhaps no man in
America has written or talked more
widely about boys He is at present
one of the crime commissioners of the
State of New York, but his work with
boys organizations goes on just the
same. / found him about to leave for
home after a busy days work at one
of his boys clubs. As | passed through
this club I saw little gamins obviously
from the worst sections of New York
from Hells Kitchen and the dreaded
Red Hook district. But they seemed
to have caught a different spirit in
this clubhouse. Their clothes were
poor--pitifully poor-but their faces
were clean. I saw group crowded
about a Boy Scout book, others COM
ing from the gymnasium, their ath-
letic suits under their arms, their
skins glowing from exercise,
Mr.. Butcher and I sat down in his
private office. He waived aside nv
suggestion that l call again and let
him go home to his dinner on time.
mo, / would rather talk about boys"
he smiled. The interest on his face
was apparent.
MY questions VIII be very elemen-
tary." | began. I'm fact, l can only
think of two or three But hope to
get from you some answers to ques-
tions that | have wanted to be an.
swered for a long while. To begin
with, what causes boys to go astray?
Is there any unit cause of juvenile
crime?" I asked
v < X x
There is very dominant cause. i"
renlied Mr.. Butcher. The desire to
get money-to get money to please
ffapper sweethearts. Boy bandits are
killing and robbing today SO that they
can lead the high life that their girl
friends want them to. That seems to
knock the girls quite lot But it is
only too true. The trouble with the
girl of the present generation is that
she feels that she must have her fling
in life. She feels that she ought to
begin in life where her father and
mother left off. We have in America
very high price of marriage among
the girls of today. They are not will
ing to make anywhere near the sac
rifices that their mothers made. They
want their prosperity while they are
young. Thev are unwilling to work
for it and get it in time. Almost every
boy who begins a life of crime that
may end in the chair or on the gibbet