The day book. [volume], July 24, 1914, LAST EDITION, Image 10

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
crime germ let- it be operated upon.
If an operation will not tcure the dis-
ease let the boy be kifiedVfor the sake
of society.
But a. statement like T?rof. Hick
son's is absurd. Imagine) how the
man must have "secured f his data.
Take a kid who has done something
wrong. He has been caught by the
police and is brought befoxe a judge.
' He finds himself among strangers;
the whole "atmosphere of tBe place is
strange and therefore unfriendly. He
is being cross-questioned about a
happening which, if he1 answers
truthfully, will bring him toJ grievous
punishment. He becomes afraid, dis
traught. In this moment the boy is taken
aside by Dr. Hickson, whoi cross-examines
him his mental condition.
Few men under these conditions
would answer in what a psychologist
would call a lucid manner. No boy
would. Jt is on such tests that Prof.
Hickson bases his statistics. Is it
fair?
When we consider, for instance, the
recent nation-famous "Last Chance"
Bovb' Club. This club was personally
effected by myself and a few others
who are interested in chanceless
boys. We took one boy from each of
twelve states (the most so-called
criminally hopeless from each state).
Some states were passed by, not hav
ing characters bad enough, and with
the permission of the penal authori
ties, gave them another chance on a
farm in Nevada.
Eleven of the twelve boys are now
perfectly normal today, and it is not
even a full year ago that they were
considered irretrievable criminals,
hopeless cases, etc.
Is there any difference, except one
degree, between the flve-year-old kid
die in the good home who sneaks to
the pantry shelf and becomes involv
ed with the forbidden jam, and the
twelve-year-old slum boy who raids
the corner fruit stand? How can a
sane man allow himself to be so per
verted by words and figures on al
sheet of paper? I assert that if Dr.
Hickson would submit to a cross-examination,
the questions for which
to be prepared by some other psy
chologist, his batting average when
the replies are psychologically weigh
ed would declare him more or less
criminally insane, depending on the
relevancy of the questions to his tem
perament. I would make the same assertion in
regard to any other clever word
handler with a smattering of psycho
logical knowledge. He could evolve
questions which would bring out an
swers not in keeping with a book
made definition of a sane boy or man.
Jack Robbins.
PENNY PHONES
Editor Day Book: The Penny
Phone League has enlisted 20 first
class eminent speakers who are thor
oughly familiar with this subject and
equipped with credentials and printed
literature pertaining to the telephone
situation. Our league also has 700,-
000 copies of Congressman David J.
Lewis' speech, "The Postalization of
the Telephone and Telegraph," de
livered by the father of parcel post in
the House of Representatives on Jan
uary 16, 1914, which will be mailed
out to every registered voter in Chi
cago by this league.
When the readers of The Day Book
and citizens of Chicago come into
possession of one of these copies they
should read it over carefully, for it
states very clear and at one glance
one can see and understand what a
great benefit a municipally operated
automatic telephone will be to the
citizens of Chicago. A table on the
back page shows very plainly the pos
sibility of a telephone in every home
at a penny a call.
Our 20 representatives will be arm
ed with credentials and they will visit
every organized body in Cook county,
giving from five to thirty-minute ad
dresses before these bodies and ac
quainting them with the -telephone
situation at the present time,
... . JL.