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Show Kathleen Norris Says: The Crime School for Children Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. "A New Mexico boy of 15 got bis mother to lean over the bathtub to look j down the drain for something, then cracked her over the head." By KATHLEEN NORRIS "TT SEEMS to me that it is I about time," writes A Mary Pierce from Minneapolis, Min-neapolis, "for the mothers of America to do something about the crime wave on the radio. The late afternoon hours and early evening hours are the times when our children chil-dren are free to listen to air programs, and those are the times when crimes of every description are exploited and featured, rough and vulgar voices sound through my house, and my children are prepared to chatter eagerly of fashions in which poisons can be administered, murders mur-ders concealed, lies and theft used to further this purpose or that. "The other night," her letter continues, con-tinues, "my husband, who is a professor pro-fessor of English, and I settled ourselves our-selves to listen to the program our two sons so much enjoy. The boys are 8 and 11. We heard not one, but seven crime stories in a single afternoon and evening. The whining voices of underworld women, the violent threats of professional gangsters, gang-sters, the argot of criminals, all these were poured forth in a flood. Several of the sleuths who solved such puerile and childish mysteries as were concocted for these programs pro-grams were accompanied by their delicate, refined sweethearts or wives, who casually joked over the murderers who fell dead or wounded wound-ed over their feet, and commented wittily to such victims as were destined des-tined for the electric chair. Pirates, robbers, prostitutes, thugs, gunmen, gun-men, vile schemers of all sorts personalized per-sonalized these dramas; the language lan-guage was almost all vulgar abbreviations, abbre-viations, or those phrases now so dismally familiar to us all; 'stick 'em up come clean sing get yourself a mouthpiece.' A Movement Has Begun. "Surely," Mrs. Pierce goes on, "all this must be having an effect upon our children. Why accustom them to gentle voices all day long, correct their grammar, even try to instill into them some of the rudiments rudi-ments of moral and self-controlled living, and then fill their minds and souls, just before bedtime, with the groans of the tortured, the suspense of danger, the cruelties of crime and the rattle of gunfire? Can we do anything about it, and what can we do?". Yes, we can do something about it, I say in answer. A movement is already on foot to curb this dangerous danger-ous excess of sensationalism, and with your help and the help of your club and church, it may well gain a valuable importance within the next few months. Something was done to clean up the movies some years ago; it wasn't done completely, but no human effort ever is 100 per cent successful. To control the radio situation will be simpler, because we can decline to buy the products that are at present actually contributing contrib-uting to the delinquency of our children. "Forbid the rhildren to use the radio," sounds reasonable advice. But it isn't. For many of these programs pro-grams are especially designed for children, the products they advertise adver-tise are to be used by children, and in children's hours of leisure it is only fair that they should be able to look to the radio for entertainment. They might well look to it for much more; they might well be helped and inspired by it. But if that is looking too far ahead, and too hopefully, hope-fully, at least we may insist that the crime school doesn't open up as soon as the regular school closes and the small receptive minds and souls don't plunge Into the underworld under-world for an hour or two every night of their lives. Evidence of Damage. "I'll tell you how he poisoned her," said a seven-year-old boy to me enthusiastically, a few months ago. "She useter take aspirin tablets, see? So he just " "And just that one man killed four of them, and the police couldn't get a clue," a demure little girl remarked. re-marked. "They tied her, and they told her they were going to kill her, and my little sister Joan got crying in the night about it." Two Portland girls of 12 went into a drugstore last December and tried to buy strychnine. They didn't get it and they didn't want it, but they thought it would be fun to try, and perhaps to have to sign in the druggist's book. A boy of 15 in New Mexico got his mother to lean over the bathtub and look down the drain for something, cracking her over the head when he got her into that position because he had heard .of this particular method. If giving them helpful and constructive con-structive and moral thoughts really is good for the rising generation, then supplanting these with a famil- : iarity with the lowest and most i dangerous characters and situa-tions situa-tions imaginable just as truly is bad. It is as if you gave that deli- cious five-year-old girl her supper : of spinach, milk, ginger cookies, and followed it with lobster new- burg, cocktails and a dash of cya- nide of potassium. If you're interested write to Mrs. I Charles Hartigan, 1063 Thomas Jef- ferson street, Washington 7, D. C, I and ask for information as to what is being done about this danger. 1 1 "Thai delicious five-year-old girl . , ." |