LIMITING APPRENTICES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1686, 22 June 1904, Page 57

LIMITING APPRENTICES

“ONE CAUSE OF CRIME.”

The subject of the limitation of apprentices in trades by trades unions is causing concern m some parts of the United States, and some strong vieAvs as to the result are expressed by one of the Californian papers (the "Los Angeles Times”) in a recent issue. That journal says:— "It has been shown by statistics of crime in the United States that not less than 80 per cent, of the population of our prisons comprises persons who have learned no trade or handicraft. These statistics are interesting. They are significant. They show, or seem to show conclusively, what perhaps is not in need of exhaustive demonstration that idleness is one of the most prolific of all sources of crime. "One of the prolific causes of crime in the United States and other civilised countries is undoubtedly to be found in the practice Avhich obtains generally among trades unions of limiting the number of apprentices who are permits ted to learn trades. These limitations do not apply merely to a single trade or, occupation, but practically to all occupations dominated by trades unionism—and this means, in varying degree, all occupations. The practical effect of thi§ limitation of apprenticeship is to outlaAV our native youths; to forbid them tCX acquire an honest occupation; to deny to them the natural right which_is bom' with every individual to make himself a self-sustaining factor of the community • to drive them, in short, either into th© overcrowded professions, or into th© equally overcrowded ranks of age, from which it is but a step into tliQi ranks of crime.

"For some years past the average age of convicted criminals has been steadily loAvering, until now it is but little iff excess of tiventy years. This fact iff itself is an indication that the denial tff young men of the right and opportunity to leam a trade tends directly to drive them into idleness and crime. Comparatively few boys leam a trade at all *j| they do not learn it, or at least entesj upon an. apprenticeship, before the age of twenty years. The critical period of youth is betAveen the ages of fifteen and twenty years, if, during that period, the mind be directed into Avrong channels, the seeds of vice then implanted are ’apt to remain, and bear evil fruit in later years.”