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Show CHEAPER THAN JAILS In times of stress, such as this country is going through, many reforms and changes of policies are suggested suggest-ed as a means to saving money. Some of these are worthy of trying, but others, such as cutting down on our budget for education, should be given much thought before we jump to conclusions. In the November issue of the Rotarian magazine there was an editorial calling attention to this subject whici seems to us to hit the spot in a number of ways. It had in part the following to say: "That schools and business and municipal life are in partnership." "The truth of the assertion has the widest conceivable ramifications, but it has a direct bearing on the effort in all lands to reduce juvenile criminality. One need not resort to sentiment to make a case for schools when the fact is cited that it costs, in the United States, only $90 of the taxpayers' money to keep a boy in school but $300 to keep a man in jail for a year. "Not all boys and girls who attend school turn out to be good citizens, but it can be said that few turn to a delinquency de-linquency because they went to school. And a practical problem every community faces, if it fails to support its schools or to encourage its children to attend, is what to do with the idle boys and girls. It is unsocial, if not illegal to throw them into competition with adults for jobs and, on the other hand, sheer idleness promises no good for anyone." , ?., . 1 |