erst of BY Ton gS ie ROO, VaR ot A os all the problems which confront Canada today, reconversion, full employment, housing, vet- erans’ rehabilitation, ade- quate housing, etc., juvenile delinquency stands out as one which has received a -great deal of vocal atten- tion, but almost no action. Some quarters, in fact, try to minimize the importance of the Sinister rise of delinquency during the past several years. _. For instance, Judge Wood, of the Vancouver Juvenile Court, “Stated recently that the whole question of delinquency has been greatly exaggerated, and that he ‘sees no reason for alarm. It appears, however, that Judge Wood has every year made the same statement, and that in 1943, when Attor- -mey-General Maitland asked him to make a survey of the situation, he repudiated the federal government’s statistics and reported no increase. And this in the face of the fact that an increase has been reported every year since 1939, and the Increase in 1945 alone was 30 * percent over 1944! Illegitimate births in Vancouver alone to- talled 780, as compared with 653 for 1944. For 1936, the _ facts show 2.5 delinquent girls per 1,000, which by 1943 had risen to 6.4 per 1,000. Yet Judge ‘Wood claims that de- _linquency has actually declined Since 1985, and once again sees no reason for alarm! Figures are at best dull things. But reconsider the figures above, not as simply a few numbers on a piece of paper, but as a record of the tears and heartache of moth- ers, of the warped lives of youngsters who might as easily have been yourself or your children, of the crim- inal earelessness of the authorities who saved money on reformative institutions at the expense of the young people in their care. It is one of the principal laws of science that nothing can be studied by itself, with- Ti out taking into account all the other factors which contribute to it. This law applies to so- ciety as well as to chemistry or nature. And one of the first things we must recognize in the study of delinquency is that every person is the pro- duct of his environment. And what is the environment of these young people? First of all, the. overwhelm- ing majority come from slum areas. The proportion of crime in bad housing areas as com- pared to good housing areas is: Bad Housing Area Gen. Criminal Offences .. 1,765 Juvenile Delinquency ...... 156 Good Housing Area Gen. Criminal Offences _..... 9 Juvenile Delinquency .......... 0 Children brought up in a slum have two strikes against them from the start. Play- grounds are few and far be- tween, so after school they have no alternative but to go out and play baseball in the street, or go down to a cheap poolroom, or to one of the cheap cafes where the worst elements abound. What other choice have they? Another aspect of the bear- ing which bad housing has upon delinquency is that, ac- cording to the superintendent of the Boys’ Industrial School at Coquitlam, B.C., 50 percent of the inmates are from bro- ken homes. And from the di- voree court records, -28 percent of broken homes are caused by poor housing or inadequate in- comes. This proves conclusiv- ely that poor housing is re- sponsible for not only the en- vironment conditioning for de- linquency, but also conditions in the home which let children run wild. A mother who is worried about the lack of enough money to keep the fam- SELECTED WORKS. V. I. LENIN $27. 00 (TWELVE VOLUMES) Terms On Basis of Three Monthly Payments May Be Arranged # NATIONAL AFFAIRS MONTHLY __15¢ Place Your Orders For February Issue NOW 2 EORTICAL AFFAIRS NOW AVAILABLE 209 Shelly Building 337 West Pender Street Order From ° Labor - Progressive Party ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE . ee PEOPLE'S CO-OPERATIVE BOOKSTORE | Vancouver B.C. totes ENE B.C: -_ in the world, nor distress is to be found among them; . streets of beggars; The aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive... When these things can be said, then may that country boast of» Its -constitution and its government.” ily- together, and who has to spend three of four times as long as she should to keep the home clean, will almost inevit- , ably tell the children to run along and play instead of de- voting the time she should to them. Who can blame her? Thousands of boys and girls left school at the height of the war to work in war industries or to wait on tables in some cafes, usually in the poorer dis- tricts. Now, with mass layoffs and unemployment. confronting us on every side, when ‘even experienced men find it diffi- cult to get work, what is the lot of these teen-agers? The principles of morality are a mockery to a person who has not enough money to live de- cently. Is there any person reading this article who, if he had no job and no money, if his unemployment insurance was delayed or simply non- existent, would not be tempted to rob rather than starve? And what of the schools themselves? Do they ade- quately equip students to cope with the problems of life? For anyone who looks deeper than the surface, the answer must be no. Many teachers themselves realize the inadequate nature of today’s educational facili- ties. In one field particularly, sex education, fall down. No realistic ap- proach is taken to the teaching of sex, with the inevitable re_ ‘sult that sex knowledge is picked up in the poolrooms and on the street corners In this connection, it is interesting to note just one incident in Soviet Russia and compare it with Canada. At a school for 10 to 12- -year olds, a boy .was discovered bringing lewd pictures to the school and showing them to 63 West Cordova Street do the schools . HIGH QUALITY TOGCERS.: AND WORK BOOTS HANDMADE JOHNSON’S BOOTS Delinquency - What Is ie Cure? ‘When it shall be said in any country My poor are happy; neither ignorance My jails are empty of prisoners, my by Alan Anderson —TOM FAINE. his classmates, who were nat- urally interested in them. The principal arranged a series of- lectures.-and films, explaining in an elementary way the sex functions. No further interest was shown in the nudist pic- tures, even by the boy who had been circulating them. In Canada, under the present way of teaching, the boy, to- gether with any others who showed a natural curiosity, would probably have been pun- ished. In some cases, the teach- er might try to explain to the individual, but certainly no organized attempt would be made to: correct the class as a whole. For a healthy, natural attitude towards sex, it is es- sential that sex education be made a part of the curriculum in our _schools. In the reform schools and de- tention homes, no effort is made to adequately rehabili- tate delinquents. No provision is made for the segregation of younger inmates from the hardened offenders. I have heard tales’ of beatings and solitary confinement for the slightest offense while serving a term, and while not all are fully substantiated it seems certain that such things have occurred. When a person is released no attempt is made to find him or her a job, with the inevit- able result that they drift right back into their former circles. It is a well-known . fact in B.C. that a term at the Boys’ Industrial School is only a stepping-stone to a longer term at Oakalla or the Provin- cial Penitentiary. RECENTLY in the Vancouver newspapers an article ap- peared claiming, of all things, that the hardened criminals at Phone MAr. 7612 Suit Or Overcoat come to the OLD ESTABLISHED RELIABLE FIRM REGENT TAILORS 324 West Hastings Street EVERY GARMENT STRICTLY UNION MADE Oakalila are ai with the delingu the younger ‘may be a grain 5 but it is one of truths which are lies: This is simply to gloss. over the £, veniles are placed “soned criminals. An true, that in itself worst indictment of schools ... . that + reform, but make quents more bitter than ever. What, then, are which must be don remedy these sham ditions ? : First of all, t undertaken at one scale, nation-wide ing and housing ‘must - be genuine low-rent & gram must be put This will provi thousands of peop. old, and will help lieve. low pay cheg the, causes of I home. In the field of ed overhauling of the pz cational system. vocational guidance ing, better sports tional ‘facilities: rt Fleming, supervisor Girls Industrial. quoted in the Y: as saying, “The . gym ...itivs a number of delinquent have never seen a they got locked up dustrial School.” | then, should be open evenings to provide young people to go hours. This should b competent adult and pervision. Make sters think they is the best way of 3 enthusiasm. ation will fester ik grenous wound. The of today is the harde: inal of tomorrow, and be incurable. Delinquents are ~ quents because they By it in the papers a would be fun to try are forced into it by vironment. It is not | dismiss this dang ation by saying quency is one of the of war, and everyi straighten itself ot All these things money, yes. But ho try .. .. by the money that is lying: sury unused? Or b piness and people? © STYLES.