Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-17
New Angle of Crime
Tendency Discussed
To the Editor of The Star:

1t appears that In 1929 the crime
fad has become SO glazing that our
good President has found it necessary
to set In motion a cause-flnding COM
mission.
In reading the editorials of a vast
number Of news editions throughout the
country I note that the mind of the
eighteenth amendment as the great
cause and feel that the commission will
spend much time on this angle.
May suggest that beneath the dis
regard for this law and many other
laws Of our land and many laws of
conventional nature as well there is
an underlying trouble that has per-
haps been overlooked.
1t has always been strange TO the
writer that truths taught in our school
books as axioms for right action should
so easily be forgotten by statesmen.
One of these axioms was that IF you
wished to clean a stream, begin at the
head rather than the mouth" Most
OF our so-called cleaning-up operations
on the part of governmental bodies
seem to be mere mouth baths.
1t Is safe to say that most grand
fathers should be whipped for the sins
Of the grandchildren. In the case of
the present crime condition, believe
this to be true.
Too much good creates evil. This
may sound like a paradox, but If you
will note the days that followed any
great reformation or the years that fol-
lowed any overzealous age, you will
discover the truth in this statement.
We have been building two powerful
systems OF crime-fostering ideas during
the past SO years, and today We are
reaping from our sowing.
FirSt-Our public school system has
been advanced to the position where 1t
is greater than the American home.
The luxury Of the modern school
building and the atmosphere surround
ing the modern child during the school
age is so far in excess of that of the
home from which he comes that the
child very naturally Is living a double
life during the time OF his or her en-
rollment.
This has a tendency to weaken the
respect for the less luxurious home and
teach desire for greater comforts and
ease than the home, can afford.
The intervening years between the
leaving of the schoolroom and the OBJ
tanning of conditions equal to that OF
the school life seem to be the years
from which our State prisons recruit
their vast registration.
The zeal of educational enthusiasm
has standardized education to the de-
teriorating Of the needs of the Nation.
They appear to have forgotten that,
while all men may be born equal in
governmental and political phraseology,
yet 1t is not so in matters of mental
capacity or natural and inbred talent.
The result is that while our profess
sions are overcrowded. our artisan oc-
equations fail of recruits.
While our Government sets the age
of citizenship at what it calls the ma
ture age for man-21 years. our public
school system Is turning out product
wiser in education than some Of our
aged statesmen. And at Is and 18
years.
When we wake up as a Nation to
vocational training and less to training
for cabinet positions, there will be less
crime and less office seekers.
Second-Another serious cause for
crime is the forcing of the child to
a matured condition before the play
spell has had its full quota Of years.
For some years past there has been
a steady movement to curb the outlets
of the child's playful and playloving
nature. AS an Illustration let me sug-
gest the present day name for the
greatest day in American history-a
sane Fourth of July.
Perhaps there is no day on the cal
endar, with the possible exception OF
Christmas, that is looked forward to
with as great anticipation as the
Fourth of July. 1t used to be a day
for noise and bombast, but some of
our reformers were out of work. So
they thought out the idea of making
it a day of puffs and saints.
True, there were many folks hurt on
that day, but where one was injured by
fireworks, thousands are injured by au-
tomobiles. If you take the time to
run over your boyhood days you will
wonder how you could have grown to
manhood without the chance to open
your throttle and let your engine have
Its widest speed once In a while.
Today our young people are expected
to be matured before they have got
over their babyhood. 1t is the wrong
method to tie down the safety valve
and let the steam have no vent.
Between our present day educational
ideas and our overworked gloom agents
the boy and girl of the future will be-
come a highly educated robot-that is,
IL he succeeds in keeping out Of jail.
C. w. ARTHUR.