Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-03
LAW ABUSE LAID
IN PART TO SCHOOL
False Philosophy Charged by
DR.. Kelly at Public
Institute.
BY THOMAS r.. HENRY,
STAFF Correspondent of The Star

American ScnOOLS OF CQe IaSC genera
ton, because they created a false
philosophy of life in the minds of chill
drsn, are in large part responsible for
the present disrespect for law, DR.. F.
j. Kelly of the White House Confer
ence on Child Health and Protection
tod the Institute of Public Affairs here.
DR.. Kelly especially criticized the
report card system. This, he said, re-
suited in the pupil working for marks
rather than for real mastery of the sub
ject. Both teachers and parents meas
ured his progress in terms of marks.
This, he believed, resulted in an atti-
tude of insincerity in childhood, from
which it has been an easy transition
to an attitude toward law characterized
by fear of being caught. The police
man and judge now issue the marks, !"
taking the place of the teacher.
A report of the White House Con-
ference soon to come from the press,
1t was announced, goes deeply into an
analysis of the present-day American
home and the environment in which
children form their attitudes. Among
the findings reported by DR.. Kelly are
that only one rural home in 80 sub
scribes to a children's magazine, that
organizations like the Boy Scouts reach
cut of every eight children is under
nourished.
Huge Movie Attendance.
A striking revelation was that only
one person in II ever makes use of a
public library. while 100000 adrnis-
sions to movies are sold each week. DR..
Kelly also stressed a decline of 20 per
cent in the American birth rate in the
last Is years.
Declining birth rates among the
social classes from which our leaders
come" said DR.. Kelly, the increase in
divorce rates, which leave children with
a great handicap; the persistence OF
"Reminiscences, the large amount of
physical defects among children, the
crowding of cities and other things af-
fecting the lives of children are genu-
inely the concerns of statesmen. What
the next generation thinks, how it feels
and what it aspires to will play larger
part in solving the problems Of capital
and labor, crime, laWlesSneSS and in
ternational relations than all the de-
bates held and statutes enacted on
those subjects by the present genera
ton"
There is no conclusive evidence that
moderate amounts of alcohol are injuri-
GUS to the human system, DR.. A. j.
Carlson, professor of physiology at the
University of Chicago, told the in
stitute. He protested against reported
plans of the Prohibition Bureau to
spread propaganda to that effect.
There is no doubt that excessive
drinking is bad, Prof. Carlson said,
just as is excessive use of salt, pro-
teins in meat, or water. Available sta
tisticS on the effects of moderate drink
ing are of little value, he insisted, be-
cause they fail to take other variables,
such as age and heredity, into con-
sIderation.
More Investigation Need.
"As a Psychologist of 80 years ex-
perience," he said, "all I can say Is
that this is an open question. I pro-
test against our Government starting
any such propaganda. What we need
Is more investigation"
John c. Gebhart, director of re-
search of the Association Against the
Prohibition Amendment, said that while
statistics of some insurance companies
indicate that the lives of moderate
drinkers are shortened, the figures of
DR.. Raymond Pearl of Johns Hopkins
University indicate that they live longer
than total abstainers There may be
hundred or more factors, aside from
the use Of alcohol, which the tables do
not take into account, he said. The
result Is, he said, that vets quote one
set of statistics as the final authority
and drys the other.
But" broke in DR.. Carlson, "the
scientist pays no attention to either Of
them. The only way to find out is in
the laboratory"
Mr.. Gelhart disagreed with the Pro-
hibition Bureau estimates of the amount
of hard liquors" produced in the
United States. I'VE have" he said,
"carefully checked the Bureaus esti-
mates with our own. We estimate the
annual consumption of wine at ITO ,000,-
600 gallons The bureaus estimate is
i118,000,000 gallons. Our estimate of
beer consumption is 100000 900 gallons,
while they estimate 684,476,000 gallons.
but the estimates of the amount of
spirits produced annually are far apart.
Our figure is 280, 900 900 gallons, against
their estimate of 73,386,718.
Estimates in Agreement.
The bureaus estimate of the amount
Of hard liquor made from corn sugar
substantially agrees with ours. The two
estimates CT the amount of industrial
alcohol illegally diverted also substan-
TALLY agree. But the bureaus estimates
of alcoholic liquors made from cane
and beet sugar, molaSSeS and directly
from grains are mere gueSSeS. Accord
ing to the bureaus report from January
to July, 1880, the amount CT corn sugar
recovered from seizures were equivalent
to 1,700,355 gallons while the can and
beet sugar seizures were equivalent
to 1,8l6,622. The amount produced
from cane and beet sugar should equal
the amount produced from corn sugar.
The annual per capita consumption
bf spirits now is 165 gallons. In 1924
1t was LA gallons, an increase OF nearly
Is per cent. Wine consumption has
Increased 70 per cent and ~beer con-
sumption has decreased is per cent"
The law has no rule to guide it in
determining the justification OF a po-
iceman or other law enforcement
officer in shooting in making an arrest,
said Prof. John V. Waite OF the Uni
versity of Michigan, member of COM
mittee OF eight prominent lawyers ap-
pointed by the American Law Institute
to study this question. 1t is generally
agreed, he SAID, that use OF a weapon
is not justified if there is any other
possible means of making the arrest
and only when the officer is certain that
the culprit knows who he is.
Difference OF Opinion.
From this point on, Prof. Waite said,
the eight members Of the committee
have each a different opinion, one hold
ing that such procedure is never justi-
fed. This view, he said, rests on the
point that the policeman never can be
certain, however suspicious the circum-
stances, that the man he is seeking to
arrest actually is guilty.
An attack on Government interior
ence in business was made by Samuel
S. Wyer, consulting engineer of Column
bus, Ohio.
The average cost Of domestic cleo
trio service IN the United States" he
said, lis cents per day per family.
Cows. PincEot and Roosevelt, with long
ing eyes toward the White House, are
making dramatic appeals to get the