THE CHILD IN GRIME

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 134, 8 June 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE CHILD IN GRIME

NEW YORK'S GRAVE MENACE. POOR HOUSING CONDITIONS—EVILS OF LEISURE HOURSPLEA FOR WHOLESOME RECREATION.

Results of a study of juvenile' delinquency conducted by the Baumes subcommission on causes and effects of crime ■ jj eW York have just been made public through the Children's Aid Society. The report presents a graphic picture of the life that children lead in a typical congested district, and suggests the basis for a programme designed to reduce crime among minor 3.

In making the survey the subcommission examined the court statistics dealing with the section in which the majority o f juvenile delinquents in Manhattan lived. On this basis a part of District 1, below Third Street and east of the Bowery, was selected for the investigation. 4. particular reason for the selection of that part of the First District of the Manhattan Children's Court was that its boundaries coincided with those laid down jn reports by other committees and research organisations interested in the area, so that valuable facts were available for comparison. There, among a congested population estimated at 220,000, the investtigators began their work.

In one year—l 92 boys and 107 girls had come to the attention of public arid private agencies, according to the report, which goes on to state that the ratio of juvenile delinquency to child population, ages 7-16 years, averaged 3.5 per cent among boys. Juvenile delinquency, it is pointed out, is primarily a boy problem, and serious thefts are the occasion for arraignment of nearly onethird of the Children's Court group, while misdirected energies and lack of wholegome play interests seem to underlie a large part of the remaining cases.

Curiously enough, no direct relation between the congestion of population and degree of delinquency was found by the investigators, but bed housing conditions had a distinct bearing on the rate. It is stated that "in four small blocks of wretched housing, under an elevated structure, fifty-eight boys and girls, or nearly four times the average for the area, were reported as conduct problems during 1926." The report furthermore asserts that juvenile delinquency among boys was greatest in the parts of the area most devoted to commercial activities, and fifty-eight groups of boys-^gangs — who committed juvenile delinquencies were discovered.

The report deals fundamentally with the crucial phase of child life —that of apare time activities. And it is here that the comprehensive study was made of why the lower east side child goes wrong in so many instances, and how he goes about it. A great deal of after-school employment in street trades —much of it illegal under the child welfare laws that forbid children selling after 8 p.m.—was encountered. Boys were selling not only newspapers, but candy, gum, shopping bags, and other articles, being thoroughly exploited by older persons. But it was in the poolrooms, motion picture theatres, and dance halls that some of the worst conditions were found. The average poolroom, according to the report, was found to have from five to ten tables. The smaller poolrooms were...not only poorest in equipment, but readiest to admit children in violation of the law. Here the ratio of cause and effect was clearly established. Poolrooms most numerous in those parts of the district where court records showed the greatest number of juvenile delinquents. The Poolroom Evil. Here are some of the notes made by the committee's field worker, who investigated the poolrooms in the district: — "When the s investigator first entered the room the "crowd consisted 'of younger fellows. There were two apparently only 14 years of age who were playing. Six older boys, perhaps between 16 and 18 years, were also playing, while two about the same age were looking on. . . The behaviour of the crowd was rowdy, there, was a good deal of rough talk and obscene language, and at one time an argument threatened to develop into a fight with billiard cues, but subsided quickly enough. The worker had the feeling that the crowd tvas on its good behaviour." The notes describe conditions minutely, and lead up to unusual recommendations for improving -the conditions. "The term poolroom should not become a rubber stamp," the report states, "and blind us to the real nature of the. process that makes the poolroom what it is. In itself, pool is neither a source for good nor evil, any more than are groceries; but because of its social structure the poolroom becomes, the segregrated district, where maladjusted individuals may find companionship on a simpler level. It is here that the individual who fails to fit in the school and in normal recreation'centres fine acceptance." The committee believes that the only cure for the vicious poolroom lies in doing in the field of recreation what is being attempted in the field of education — adapting the institution to the individual, rather than trying to force the individual to fit the institution. "It is manifestly impossible," the report remarks, "to raise the poolroom 'fan' to the level of enjoying a debate on the literary merits of Theodore Dreiser; but it is possible to give him pool and kindred games under surroundings that will not frighten him off. Another aid in solving the problem consists in ridding the community of _ the email, ill-regulated poolrooms by raising the license fee on small establishments."

The committee found twenty-three moving-picture houses in the area. "Particularly from the point of view of the adolescent girl," the report states, "many of these houses are decidedly undesirable. No daylight screen is used and, in conssequence, the interior is kept in pitch darkness during the performance, the only light being the feeble red glimmer of the fire-exit lanterns. Under these circumstances improprieties and unwelcome advantages are easily possible, without fear of detection. Anyone who visits some of these houses will, however unwilling he may be to take second-hand testimony, perforce have to agree that the tales that are current as to happenings in these movies might easily be true." New laws have been suggested. Some of the theatre owners are said to have agitated for laws permitting the admission of children under more stringent guardianship and seating rules. But the commission's view is that "the law should not be Eo amended, but, instead, the movie industry itself should discover means of driving the sub-standard movie houses out of existence by establishing minimum standards, to include daylight screens, separation of hoys and girls, and adequate chaperonage inside the theatres, and by having the film exchanges refuse to ' distribute films to theatres failing to come up to these standards. This would hit at the heart of the problem, as the sub-standard house, ■with its five-cent admission fee, caters to and subsists on the children of the neighbourhood." . .

In the area studied by the commission dancing is, in general, only incidental to occasions of family festivity, such as weddings and receptions, when halls are hired for the occasion. Private clubs also give dances, which are open to the public, according to the report. These were found to offer inferior and unwholesome enter-

I tamment—and it is added that "it is probable that boys and girls seeking the excitement of modern dancing go out of the area to uptown halls" and "it is clear "that the boys and girls who seek excitement do not visit most of the local dancing places, because at only two halls were any boys and girls of the 'sheik and flapper' type at all in evidence."

The dance academy—where the hostesses are hired to make the men buy as many' dance tickets as possible—was the largest of the halls visited, and it presents, according to the report, "a rather pitiable spectacle, representing, as it does, the craving of young men for women's company, giving satisfaction under quite unsatisfactory circumstances."

In its recommendation the committee states that "it would seem that, since there are so many young men in the city desiring dancing and that they will dance, wherever opportunities are provided for them, here is a fertile field for community recreation centres. Recreation piers, for example, are being utilised by other cities to provide more or less well-regulated dancing."