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Tuesday April 11, 1905
Chicago, Illinois - Josephine Conger Spends a Day in Chicago's Juvenile Court
In the pages of this week's Appeal to Reason, Josephine Conger offers us heartbreaking vignettes from a day spent in the juvenile court of Chicago. We hear of children given up to orphanages by mothers and fathers who can no longer care for them. One mother makes $7 a week for the support of herself and three children. Another mother "in delicate condition" is forced to part with her six children after being deserted by their father. And so it goes, as one desperate family after another passes through the court of Judge Mack.
That was the morning court, where families are parted. In the afternoon, we find the youngest criminals of society dealt with by the same judge. Young girls who have been used by older men for immoral purposes are sent off to reform school. Young boys are warned that they are headed for the gallows should they fail to change their ways.
Josephine Conger seems doubtful that, under the capitalist system, it is possible to enact reforms which are adequate to address the present crisis:
Among the Dregs
BY JOSEPHINE CONGER
The Juvenile Court.
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Chicago's Juvenile Court in Session
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"I pray you, what other thing do you, than make thieves and then punish them?"
-Sir Thomas More.
"The city child becomes a criminal because it is the only thing
a boy with spirit can do in a city slum."
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Judge Lindsey in Juvenile Court
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Since the inauguration of juvenile courts in our larger cities as good deal of curiosity has been manifested regarding their purpose, and their methods of dealing with the child delinquent. The reader of the average city daily is probably acquainted with the fact that Judge Lindsey, of the juvenile court of Denver, "the kid's judge," as he has been called, has become a figure of national interest because he has "tackled the problem of the small boy." The significance of this is that the child is one of the great problems of the state. Perhaps THE GREAT problem.
And society in its usual feeble way is trying to get at this problem. It has organized a special court where the young criminal may be brought before a judge whose personality is more or less imposing, here to be lectured gently, or harshly, or as a last resort to be sent to a house of correction. Co-operating with the juvenile court in the hope of producing better citizens are the child-labor law, the compulsory educational law, and the fining and imprisonment of parents who criminally neglect the education of their children. These measures are said to have produced a marked increase in the attendance at school where the laws are enforced.
The juvenile court in Chicago is one of the largest in the world. And when one sits all day and hears the cases that are brought before it, there comes a question as to the efficacy of the compulsory educational law, or even the child-labor law, under the present system. Can they, to any appreciable degree, stem the tide of physical, moral and mental insanity that is the inevitable product of capitalism? Thousands of children of Chicago go to school without a mouthful to eat in the morning. Can forced attendance at school make good citizens of them, under such conditions? Still others go hungry and ragged because they are not allowed to earn the nickels and dimes with which to feed and clothe themselves. Thus, under capitalism, almost any reform is, at the last analysis a farce. Even with their laws and their court, thousand of children under lawful age are working, and vast numbers never attend school.
The juvenile court of Chicago is divided into two departments: the first, to which the morning session is given, is for finding homes for children whose parents are unfit, through poverty or otherwise, to care for them. The second is for delinquent children. After observing the proceedings of the first department, it is not difficult to understand why the second should exist-for the first gives an insight into the every-day environment of the unfortunate child, shows to what straits he is reduced, and what small chance he has for developing into a normal, law abiding citizen.
Following are illustrations of cases I witnessed upon various visits to the court room. Judge Mack usually "settles" fifty or sixty of these in a day.
Finding Homes for Unfortunate Children
Judge Julian Mack
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Mother appeals to judge for home for three children. Is working at $7 per week, and cannot support them. Father skipped bond bail and deserted family. Children sent to Jewish Home for Friendless.
Mother accused of inability to care for child three years old. Husband declares she is an inebriate and otherwise unfit. Child finally given to mother because of damaging testimony against husband.
Girl 11 years old, working in family. Violation of child-labor law. Child commanded to give time to school and play.
Mother in delicate condition desired home for six children. Family deserted by husband and evicted from their home. Children sent to orphanage.
Home wanted for infant on plea that mother was not proper person to raise it. Testimony developed fact that woman claiming to be the mother had been in penitentiary and in jail, and that she was not mother of the child. One Anna Johnson, working girl, was the mother. Father was husband of defendant. Case held over.
Young widower, workingman, wanted home for two children. Able bodied, respectable, willing to pay for board. Children sent to orphans' home.
Father desired daughter 10 years old to be placed in orphans' home, alleging that mother was unfit guardian for her, since she was living with another man. Proceedings proved that father and mother had lived together under common law marriage, because father had insisted upon it. Separation had followed without ceremony, and was succeeded by "common law" marriage with man in question. Child put in girl's school.
Delinquent Children.
Boy ten years old, stealing coal from school house. Mother thought he was picking it up form railroads. Reproved by judge.
Three boys playing truant, remaining away from school for weeks at a time. Old offenders. Sent to Glenwood reform school.
Two leaders of gang of bad boys. Old offenders, sent to Glenwood.
Boy stealing a pair of skates and other things from school house. Reproved and put on good behavior.
Girl sixteen years old, ran away from home and sang in low concert hall. Sent to Geneva, school for incorrigible girls.
Boy eleven years old, gambling for money, sent to Glenwood.
Five children, disturbing the peace and molesting Polish woman. Reproved and put on good behavior.
Girl twelve years old, immoral conduct. Confessions led to arrest of guilty partner, who proved to be a man of mature years. Man charged with violating age-of-consent laws. Girl put in house of correction.
Boy charged with stealing horse and buggy. Out on probation.
Five girls, thirteen, twelve and eleven years respectively, held on charge of immoral conduct. Proceedings proved that girls were beguiled into a den on West Lake street, forced to drink beer, smoke cigarettes and engaged in criminal excesses. "In fourteen years' experience on Chicago's West Side," said an officer, "I have seen much of the abuse of children, but nothing to equal this den. It is the worst in America." Girls sent to reform schools. Keeper of house arrested.
Fourteen-year-old girl had led sporting life for one year. Sent to House of Good Shepherd.
Boy charged with smoking cigarettes and other misdemeanors. Let go on parole.
Working girl, fifteen years old, immorality. Sent to Geneva.
The details of the majority of these cases were secured by slipping behind the judge's box, where a policeman gently informed me, late in the afternoon, that I was violating the rules of the court. I apologized-and went back another day, when something was before the court that I wished particularly to get. It was necessary to do this, for, while the proceedings are open to the public, and the court room is always well filled with spectators, the questioning is often carried on in so low a tone that it is impossible to know what it is about unless one is near the judge and the prisoner.
Frequently Judge Mack would say to a delinquent boy: "Do you want to be another Neidemeyer? Well, you are beginning just as Neidemeyer did. And if you don't stop, you will end just as he did, on the gallows." The judge has a broad, kindly face, and usually the boys cry and promised to do better.
But Judge Mack knows, and we know, that the chances are against every boy and girl that he sends out of his court room. And the chances are against the millions who are struggling in poverty all over our country. Innocent children, victims of corporate greed.
And they fling him, hour by hour,
Limbs of men to give him power...
And for dainties to devour,
Children's souls...
Hearts of women cheaply bought:
And he takes them, and he breaks them,
But he gives them scanty thought.
[Paragraph break and photographs added.]
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