Evening star., 1937-04-27
The Boys
On Street
Corners S
Try to Redirect Their
Thoughts and Make
Them Feel Wanted.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

WHERE are you going, SOM"
%, just down to the corner"
Il wish you wouldn't. 1t seems to
me that all the boys who have nothing
worth while to think about. or do,
stand on that corner. They don't
look like much OF anything to me
but what you could well do without
Can't you find some other friends?"
Where can I go? Who'll I 60
with? I can't stick around the house
all the time"
I am afraid the boys attitude Is
justified to the extent that he has not
much choice. Where is he to go? Is
there clean. pleasant free place for
him to spend his spare time? Churches
offer very limited time and space
Schools have no use for the boys who
have been graduated and turned
loose Communities have made no
provision for them. They have to
provide for themselves, and the cor
ner is about all that is left them. They
stand there until the police chase
them to the next corner.
Being chased by police, frowned
at by the decent. God-fearing, law
abiding citizens, these helpless boys
gang to protect themselves. 1t is
then that they fall back on primitive
ways of enjoying themselves, of tax
ing their share Of fun, of food and
shelter and spending money from
wherever they can get it. What are
they to do? Society frowns on their
primitive ways and calls them GRIM
inal But what does society offer
the boys in place OF the corner?
What entertainment they do get
at the movies is not the kind to help
them any. 1t Is very often stimulating
to the very acts that destroy the boys.
Too much emphasis on gun play,
heroic disregard of human life and
human law, no regard for ordinary
right as taught by our codes and sup
ported by our laws. The smart peo-
pie are shown as doing all the unlaw-
ful things, the daring, the wrong
things, and these boys, knowing Moth
ing else, 90 the way Of the helpless.
I dislike making laws to govern
human behavior if it is possible to
avoid doing 50. would not advocate
a law to take boys of the corner,
but I would advocate, as strongly
as possible, that each community
study its corners and find ways to
take the boys away from them and
put them in cleaner, healthier, safer
places. advocate the formation OF
lamp-post societies throughout the
country.
Preaching, talking goodness, is not
setting these boys to work At some
thing that will take up their interest,
develop their minds, redirect their
thoughts, make them feel wanted and
important In the scheme Of living.
Each community should undertake its
own salvage work for the youth
within its bounds. Schools can Be
subjects, for irregular schedules
Camps can be opened. Farms can
be used as camps and schools.
Cities have facilities for helping
their youth II they were awake to
the necessity. A survey of the boys
that are loose, without schools, with
out work, without means Of getting
either, would awaken the community
to their needs. Provide for them As
they need to be provided for, indi-
vidually. Use the school machinery
for this and employ more teachers
BY using the machinery We have.
much could be done. The time Is
passing. These boys are growing up
to Be citizens with the right to vote.
We ought to have sense enough to
protect one quality Of o,r citisenry.