Evening star., 1934-05-20
JUVENILE COURTS
MERIT DEBATED
Professor Says Delinquency
Is Not Cured, as Judge
Defends Agency.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
KANSAS CITY, May ia Juve-
nile Court Judge and Harvard pro-
fessor disagreed today at the National
Probation Association Conference on
accomplishments of the Juvenile
Court, but both agreed 1t was an
agency of merit to combat crime.
DR.. Sheldon Glueck, professor OF
criminology at the Harvard Law
School, in an address cited figures of
a survey made OF cases passing
through a Boston court which showed
a majority of boys continuing their
delinquency several years after dis
posal of their cases by the court.
Harry L. Eastman, judge Of the
Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court at
Cleveland, termed Glueck's research
a partial survey" and asserted recid-
tvism (the return of a criminal to his
previous criminal habits after punish
menD was not proper standard by
which to study the work of the Juve-
nile Court.
In Group Meetings.
Discussion of the points raised by
the two speakers was carried on in
group meetings along with allied sub
jects.
Elected as new members of the
Board of Trustees of the association
for three-year terms were Judge East
man, Alfred E. Smith, former Governor
of New York, and Sam A. Lewisohn,
New York philanthropist.
Previously named trustees an
nounced at today's meeting were
Chester r. Barnard. Newark, N. j.;
Frank c. Van Cleft, New York; Judge
Joseph j. Proskauer, New York, and
DR.. Thorston Selin. Philadelphia.
In a letter to the association Mr.
Smith said: THE surest way to check
crime is to stop it at its source, at its
earliest manifestation. Every be-
ginning delinquent child or adult
who can be saved through probation
means one potential criminal who be-
comes a good citizen instead of a pub
lie enemy. One of our great national
needs is the establishment everywhere
of better children's courts and ade-
quate probation departments in all
adult criminal courts, with competent
trained probation workers. am glad
to accept membership on the Board of
Trustees of the National Probation
Association. 1t is an organization de-
voting its energies to promoting sane,
not sentimental, preventive measures
against crime through the guidance of
those individuals who are capable of
REFORM
Punishment Assailed.
Among the speakers tonight at the
annual dinner of the association was
DR.. Karl A. Menninger, Topeka,
Kans.. psychiatrist, whose prepared
address advocated psychiatry as a
means of dealing with the crime
problem. He asserted present modes
of punishment actually accomplish
none of the things they are sup
posed to-"
The sixty-first annual meeting of
the National Conference of Social
Work opens Sunday. in conjunction
with which the Probation Association
met here.
Speakers at the first general ses-
sion tomorrow night are the confer
ence president, William Hobson, COM
missioner, City Department of Public
Welfare, New York City, and c. M.
Rookman, executive secretary of the
Community Chest, Cincinnati. Rex
ford Tugweh. Assistant Secretary of
Agriculture, will address a public ses-
sion in Convention Hall Monday
night. >.
Community Chest leaders from all
sections Of the Nation met today in
nearby Excelsior Springs, Mo-, to re-
shape programs to meet present needs.