Evening star., 1939-08-13

uHE latest entry on police blotter l
examined the other day was for passing
i counterfeit ten-dollar bills The figure in
the age-column was twenty-four. walked
back to the cell blocks with detective. The
young criminal shufled out to meet me- His
story, as such stories CO. was not remarkable
= Jobs had been scarce back home and ne had
come to the city to get one. But jobs were
scarce in the city too, and when one of his
poolroom friends offered him chance in the
counterfeit racket it looked easy. He figured
that, with luck, he might clean up enough to
get back to his home and his girl. But l
wasn't that lucky" he said and shuffled back
to his cell "a detected illustration of the
fact that there is a seamier side to this account
of the young men of today's America.
For some time, prior to 1885, the peak age
for arrests in the United States was 19
years More young men were jailed at that
age than at any other. Today the age level
has been raised somewhat. But it is still in the
Young mems bracket. The largest number of
arrests at present, is among youths of Il and
%. Young men likewise make up more than
their share of the country's prison population.
In our prisons today you will find three times
as many youths between the ages of l8 and "a
as their share of the total population warrants.
Fewer than ever of these youthful prisoners
are of the illiterate variety familiar to the
police courts of generation ago. In recent
survey in Chicago's Cook County Jail it was
found that only thirteen out of | ,24O prisoners
had no education. Only eight had gone no
farther than the third grade. Sixty-three had
gone no farther than the sixth grade. Three
hundred and thirty-two had finished the
. eighth grade, and 745 had had partial or COM
plete high-school or college education.
The crimes these young men turn their
hands to are generally not the minor ones.
In fact police records of some of our larger
\ cities show that young men contribute less
than their proportionate share of minor in
fractions of the law But in the major offenses.
youthful criminality is at its worst. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation is authority
for the statement that in 1898 one-half of all
the persons arrested for burglary, larceny,
embezzlement, fraud. forgery and arson were
under twenty-five. A third of these young
men were probably less than twenty one. 1t
is probable that more than sixty per cent of
all law enforcement officers murdered in the
United States during the last five years were
killed by young men under thirty.
That, in brief, is the record as it is being
written almost every day on almost every
police blotter of the country. But the police
blotter - bad as its record is - is only a
symptomatic incident. 1t is neither the be-
ginning of the story nor the end of it. Our
job" police chief told me, lis to deal with
crime But the real problem isn't the crime.
It's what precedes it,
There are many elements in the background
from which young Americans 60 forth, these
days, to trouble 1t is estimated that more
than third of the unemployed men in the
nation are between the ages of l8 and 30.
The American Youth Commission recently
sent its investigators into Maryland to find
out how idle young men spend their time.
Il think" said one of them.
II ride on a beer truck or Loaf said
another.
Since all of my time is spare time, said
third, Il walk around and 60 home and 60
to bed"
"Our gang" another testified, sees what