if : Lb MAGAZINE SECTION 7 ol. I. No. 47. 5 Cents ey Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, November 27, 1943 Vancouver’s SAT @ Planned recreation, being demonsirated here by members of the Pro-Rec, is one of the solutions to juvenile de- linquency. Organized la- bor, increasingly con-. conscious of the urgency of the problem, is coop- erating with many Van- couver groups in press-_ ing for city-sponsored youth activities that will keep the young people out of the police courts. TTT (Dead End Kids’ By CYNTHIA CARTER : | UV ENTS delinquency can breed almost anywhere, and almost any time. But there are ’ certain sure-fire formulas which can usually be counted upon to produce young criminals, yuthful gang warfare, high school-age prostitution, juvenile car stealing rings, and simple neorrigibility.” ® A formula? Well, take a generation born the year the stock market crashed, and rear it ) rough | the depression. Adda touch of parental unemployment and season with malnutri- (ES Mixx well, mold into cramped living quarters and turn it out ona country torn apart by orld war. The result will serve as a fine examp jid_all war boom towns across Canada are facing. le of the kind of situation that Vancouver Of course, the picture is not as black as it appears. The current scare about a juvenile ‘ime wave—created by local dailies as subscriber-bait—is a gross exaggeration. Taking into ® nsideration the conditions under © uich they live, “the youth of our y have maintained their equil- iclum remarkably weil,” to quote social worker who ought to = ow. @ = * iS difficult to determine the ) exact extent of the problem, *» cause the only figures available 2 those provided by the courts, .d statistics have a habit of lying times. For example: In 1939 in is eity 756 children were charg- ‘with delinquency. Yet by 1942 = number had dropped to 559. other words, delinquency de- aased as the population in- 2ased. But this is no reason for com- acency, as there are indications at this year’s figures will show increase. More important, the pe of offence has also shown anges. Fewer children are eaking into stores to procure B necessities of life such as food d clothing, but there is a steady mie in incorrigibility, automobile efts, intoxication and sexual fenses. This in itself is a danger jnal. Because of this Vancouver citi- ms are correct in assuming that fey have a problem before them id that something must be done (iout it by interested labor and Iher organizations and by the ‘Ww civic administration they will i to the polls to elect this De- mber 8. NE day this week I set out to find out for myself the truth jout this generation of 12 to 16 ‘ar olds. First I visited one of the town’s dst popular “juke joints.” I had eked a good time. The place as full, and (in the vernacular) las “strictly jumping.’ High ool age boys and girls sat inking cokes or dancing to the lesplitting music of the “juke” fainst which so many complaints iye recently been launched by ‘fate reformers. I talked to the toprietor working behind his wh soda bar. “Took,” he said, “to be delin- ent Kids have to drink, neck, and sit in dark corners. Well, no- body necks here, because they’d rather dance. This place has lots of electricity, and nobody can get a kiek out of my sodas—particu- larly since chlorination. - “Now there are places that go for that stuff, and I say shut “em down, and open community places where the kids can have a good time. They got energy to work off, and theyll dance somewhere. It’s the place that’s provided that counts. “No, don’t blame the juke? He searched for a word and found it. “The juke,’ he said triumphantly, “is intrinsically pure!” Next, I found my way to what a seasoned social worker I spoke to earlier breezily describes as “a real, low-down, joint.” The room was low and smoky. A bunch of soldiers, most of them mo more than youths themselves, were shooting dice, bent low over a table. I sat down and ordered tea, and slowly the place began to fill. A young man went over to the juke box and put in a coin. At the sound of the music two girls in their very early teens wandered in. One of them wore socks and a pink bow in her hair, and both were smoking. They dropped into chairs beside the lad who had started the music. He grinned suggestively, said something about Vancouver be- ing an unhappy place to live. “Well .. 22 said the girl with the hair ribbon, and whispered something. They went out to- gether. - - - A few sentences I had heard that afternoon, spoken in confi- dence by a woman who daily battled delinquency, came back to me. “We have asked time and again that certain houses be shut down, put the police do very little. Of course, they have a problem of reduced staff due to the war, but sometimes we expect there is graft behind it . . ae I came out and walked along a main street. 1 saw men in uni- form, obviously lonely, leaning against store fronts. | saw young girls, some of whom had been drinking, wander speculatively past. | saw the whole panorama of WVancouver’s young people— the servicemen, looking for fun on a leave, the teen-age war workers, with more money in their pockets than most of their fathers had ever séen. And they wand- ered Vancouver’s streets with no- where to go but the nightclubs, the crowded dance halls, and the Gives. e@ HE next afternoon I went down to see Marjorie Bradford, ex- ecutive director of the Vancouver Council of Social Agencies, well known to trade union leaders for her cooperation with them on social issues. “Our youth,” she declared, “have made a magnificent contribution to the war and have for the most part kept their balance in a world that has toppled over their ears and deprived them of some of their ablest youth leaders. We owe our young people an obliga- tion, and that is to look out for the danger signals. “What are the signals? An in- erease in child neglect, ‘often caused by bad housing. The juvenile transients who come to war centers for work. The new freedom of an independent in- come. “To prevent greater disaster than now exists is a job the social agencies cannot do alone. We need the help of every alert or- ganization and citizen in the city. ‘What are we doing? Well, the Welfare Federation maintains two community centers, two boys’ clubs, several summer camps. We are working on emergency plans for both facilities and leadership. The housing situation has made extraordinary measures necessary in recreation planning. Labor unions and other groups realize our difficulties and are eager to help. “Shortage of trained personnel has become our most serious problem. In Britain recreational leadership is recognized as an essential profession, and similar steps must be taken here. There is an urgent need for day nurser- put ies and a comprehensive after- school program. And we should bring home to every citizen a sense of responsibility to preserve the life of our city and protect the’ young from undue hazard.” INCE one of the most effective Ways in which a citizen can guarantee adequate protection for the future lives of our children is by electing to civic bodies re- sponsible men and women with an earnest desire to do a good job, I decided to ask the opinions ot several candidates whose nom- inations for city council and school board have been endorsed by the Trade Union Representa- tion Committee. - “The authorities are too often inclined to tackle the problem of juvenile delingqueney from the vice-squad angle. The problem ean only be solved by getting down to fundamentals, as was done in the Soviet Union, where education begins when the child is born and follows through with kindergartens, day nurseries, and a fine school curriculum,” said labor attorney John Stanton, can- didate for school board. Effie Jones, chairman of the Provincial LPP Women’s Council and school board candidate, felt that the housing situation was one of the main causes of _delin- quency. “A nine o’clock curfew law which would force a child back into a one-reom home where per- aps a night-shift war worker is trying to catch up on sleep, solves nothing,” said Mrs. Jones. “People ‘from the prairies answered the call for war workers; young girls #rom farms came to work at Boe- ings and other plants, and found only crowded rooming houses. ‘Phe children have no place to go the streets. Recreational eenters for older boys and girls, nurseries for children of work- ing mothers—these things are vitally necessary now.” IWA President Harold J. Prit chett, candidate for city council, pointed out that “trade union membersnip has a steadying effect on young people, and trade unions such as the Boilermakers are busy planning recreational and educational programs for their members. Much progress can be made when trade unionists, teach- ers, parents and social agency workers tackle the job together.” As a former school teacher, a union member from Aeronautical Lodge 756 and candidate for school board, Maurice Baker be- lieves that the emphasis should be laid on education. “Qur present system is out of date,” he told me. “Here in Van- couver we need more technical schools: Many of our young peo- ple are not suited to the present type of education and they lose interest, become part of the cheap labor pool and are forced out on the streets. Our textbooks de- velop the idea that our present way of life is the ultimate. When a pupil leaves school he faces disillusionment. We-must teach our children to think for them- selves, must educate their par- ents, and make sure that ade- quate recreational facilities are made available.” : @ O THERE it is. We need kin- dergartens to teach the child to live with his fellows; day nurs- eries to prevent hundreds from becoming “‘doorkey children”; in- ereased recreational facilities for teen-agers to provide the kind of fun they want in decent, whole- some surroundings; improved housing conditions to provide against disease as well as delin- quency; more canteens for the young sailors, soldiers and airmen who would not in normal times be suddenly sent to distant parts of the country; a better educa- tional system. And above all, we need a civic administration which will face the problem realistically, and with determination to take immediate steps to solve it!