The Miami times. [volume] (Miami, Fla.) 1923-current, 1953-10-03
'WHIRL WIND ADJOINING

IN the Virginia State Penitentary
on a visit happily-and had a
long talk with the superintendent.
He observed that he was sick and
tired of the hackneyed word Ire
Mobilization" which is so ghbly
passed along by the unSuspecting.
He spoke truly when he said that
a man must be "habilitated" in
the first place, before he can be
rehabilitated.
Said he:
Most of the unfortunates who
wind up in the penitentiary have
not been habilitated in the first
place. For years our literature on
social welfare was cluttered with
the word "illegitimate", referr-
ing of course to children born out
of wedlock. More recently stu
dents of social philosophy have
rightly concluded that there is no
such thing as an i1legitimate
child. 1t is the parents who are
nlegitimate instead. Whatever
penalty is melted out for illegiti-
macy it should be melted out to
the illegitimate parents and not
to the innocent and unfortunate
child or children.
Today we are driven almost to
desperation by the trite and
hackneyed expressions on juven-
lie delinquency. The writer has
long since decided that there Is
no such thing as Juvenile de-
linquency" but there is an abun-
dance of adult or parental delin-
quency. We are not going to get
to the seat of the current trouble
with flaming youth, until we place
the responsibility where 1t rightly
belongs, and that Is with the pa
rents Of today.
It cannot be denied that spine
less parents are the source of the
current trouble. Just as men are
to be blamed for the current man
niSh woman, so weakened and
irresponsible parents are to be
blamed for the youth debacle in
which the nation finds itself to-
day.
To illustrate: Some weeks ago
the writer was passing through a
certain city and spent the time
with friends. When everything
and everybody seemed set for the
evening of television and pleas
ant exchanges, up came a little
boogey-woogey at 10 pm. to take
the little daughter of sweet Is to
the movies. The mother seemed q
lite embarrassed for my pres
ence but she feigned a reluctance
but granted permission for the
youngsters to depart - at 10 pm.
The thing so stirred me that !
lay in waiting to hear their re-
turn of the youngsters. At IL mid
night they had not returned. The
next morning the mother said
they came in at little past IL;
while the young sweet thing said
they returned at am.
The mother patiently was trying
to cover for the kids as she re-
marked later, "You know this is
a new day and we cannot bring
up children as we were brought
up"
That there has recently been
shotgun weddings in the neigh
borhood made no difference. Here
was a mother resigned to the fall
lacious assumption that the safe
guards to her daughters virtue
could be lessened in the name Of
the vagaries of a "new day"
Yesterday a former student Of
mine and a man of great affairs
and influence brought his son from
New York to be matriculated at
Virginia Union. We were exceed
ingly glad to have father and SON
to lunch. In the course OF our
pleasant conversation the father
took time out to extol the viz
tues of his son. Said he:
"Junior Is a fine kid and has
never given me a minute OF anx-
iety or trouble. He is 10 now and
I have never imposed upon him
any rule on how early to leave
home or how late to return. He