The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-02-18

about juvenile delinquency which ig-
nores it's relation to unemployment.
The real victims of the economic de-
preston are children.
$50
Every welfare worker, every teach
er, every juvenile court judge, can
bear witness to the human havoc
wrought by unemployment. 1t has
created a new, and perhaps the most
complex problem of social control
that has ever confronted us. Only in
so far as that problem is solved will
the task of coping with juvenile de-
linquency become effective and our
anxieties decreased.
Society's greatest liability is the
delinquent child. Countless such chill
dren yearly enter our juvenile courts.
AS many more never reach these
courts, but as adults are brought be-
fore the criminal bench.
How often this is the outcome of
unchecked delinquent trends is too
tragically illustrated each time rob-
berry or some more violent crime is
committed. The real origin of that
crime is to be found deep rooted in
the delinquent's childhood.
Twice within less than one year
two boys, both Is years old, appeared
in the courts of New York on charges
of murder committed during robber-
les. These perhaps are unusual eX-
amples, but they strikingly portray
the extreme in which juvenile delin-
uuency can eliminate. More strikingly
do they emphasize the need for inten-
sification of our preventive programs,
if such tragedies are to be averted.
Central position in these programs
must be given to mental hygiene. On
the social side, provision must be
made to insure employment for every
wage Garner in the family. AS well
attack delinquency with paper quilts
as to ignore either provision.
The scientific attack on delinquency
must center on these three phases OF
the child's life-the physical, the
mental and the social. 1t is in its re-
action upon each phase that unem-
ployment must also be analysed
Most children, it is true, are not OF
occupational age. Many, however, are
on the threshold of industrial life
The fact that all are dependent upon
their parents, and that today the
heads of so many families are idle
constitutes the crux of the unem-
ployment problem. The home demon
allied by idleness and want is the
home against which so many pathetic
dramas of delinquency are enacted.
Consider in the first place how the
physical life of the child is affected
by deprivation. 1t is denied adequate
food, thereby impairing its health and
weakening its resistance to pernicious
influences. Any behavior clinic has
abundant case histories to illustrate
the susceptibility of the physically
handicapped child to delinquency
Hunger, restitution, neglect-all di-
rect effect of unemployment, have
increased the physical hazards to the
child.
Read the records of a juvenile
court and you will readily perceive
how often hunger and neglect impells
a child to steal. Better still, view the
procession of children which passes
through the court, noting the number
of undernourished, the physically de-
fective, and the children in ill health
They are the human wreckage of the
present economic situation.
Between the child and such vast
age a sound mind in sound body is
the first line of de Anse. Fortunately
we are today socially conscious
enough and too we'll provided with the
proper agencies to permit starvation
to stalk unchecked among our chill
dren. Are we we'll prepared to protect
them against the psychological eff
fects of unemployment Considered
Judgment demands negative answer.
Greater than the physical is the psy-
Geological toll which unemployment
is levying upon the family group
Greater because the Psychological eff
fects are more enduring and because
there is no organized effort to rem
= edy them, as there are agencies to
relieve physical distress. In count
less homes today the economic situa-
ton has created a mental attitude
which is of incaluculable harm to the
parent, to the child, and ultimately to
society.
Against the impact of that attitude
upon the child, we must at all costs
erect the staunchest barrier. Failing,
we will be confronted by the most
potent agency in delinquency-im-
proper mental and emotional atti-
tudes. Who but the most ineXpeTienc-