The Daily Alaska empire., 1936-02-17
SOCIETY vS. 7 YOUTH TRIED
 BEFORE: COURT
Young High School Orators State Case, Faulk-
 nef Refutes


 s That organized society, either in- stentionally or otherwise, has ex- posed youth of today to unwar- rantable moral hazards, that it has lain on the shoulders of youth an intolerable burden of q e b ; and that it has thrown upon its already perilous path the almost certain shadow of annihilation by cannon fire: these charges, and other more specific ones falling under these same general classifications, were given fiery utterance last night by Dean Williams and George Folta, Thigh school orators, representing their generation in Q mock trial' sponsored by the Northern Lignt Presbyterian Church before an ab- sorbed and interested audience.
 In refutation, Attorney H. L. Faulkner, for the defense, declared the indictment was applicable only to particular individuals, and these in the minority, and that it had no application, in any word, manner or form, to organized society as a whole
 Rugged IndiUidualisD,
 In conclusion, he called upon youth to cease looking to society in general for that moral integrity which can only be developed by personal experience; to meet life with the rugged individualism that was their heritage as citizens oI these United States; and to accept the challenges of these times and their problems in the same spirit in which William Wordsworth, as a boy of 19, embraced the social and economic perils inherent in the French Revolution: Bliss was 1t in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven.
 Witnesses for the prosecution were Lewis Taylor, Tom Stuart, and R. E. Robertson Testifying for the defense were A B. Phillips, the Rev. John A. Glasse, H. L. Red lingshafer, Mrs. N. Lester Troast, Frank Garnick, Art Henning.
 Attorney General James s. Truitt presided over the hearing.
 IndictS Liquor
 "A fine example you are!" cried George Folta, prosecuting the charge that society had exposed youth to unwarranted moral haz- ards. to his audience. Here we have a town of 5000 people, and in that town 56 places that sell or traffic in liquors, and in that same town a court in which almost nine- tv percent of the cases tried have liouor as their basic cause. Is . there one of you,g he challenged, "can step up here on the platform : and give me one word of evidence in favor of liquor?'-And again: You have criticized us because we spened our time in pool halls. What other places of amusement have YOU given us? Do you realize that prominent citizens of this city, which spends god share of its ; money for liquor and another share 7 to prosecute and convict persons siunder the influence of liquor, re- i fused to consider plans for the < building of a recreational center be- cause it would cost too much money 2 to hire a supervisor to direct it?" Lack Of Library
 And still again: You ask of us that we read, and yet you do not gprovide us with an adequate library , You tell us to read the newspapers, to know what is going on in the world. and we pick up the news napers and find such headlines as ssthis: "Gangster Kills Policeman, "Dillinger Eludes Police Again" Baby Face Nelson Kills G-Man." You send us to the, only other place < of potential education left to us, ' the movies, and we see pictures in (which gangsters are glorified and < sentimentalized over and wrong is made right Do you realize that police information, gathered over period of years, has proved that in short period after certain gang 1. ster films are shown in cities, crimes emulating those in the pie si tlre occur among grammar and high school students?"
 F Burden of Debt
 N Dean Williams, ably backing up his partner in the prosecution, quoted figures as to the stupendous number of unemployed in the Unit ed States, and accused society of { burdening those same unemployed young persons with debs that 1, eeven when we do get jobs VII take lt our incomes for years to pay off. Society, he declared. got itself into financial difficulties and took the easiest way out-by long-terni-