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Show Pessimistic. Much ado is being made of late about the waywardness way-wardness of the young in this city. Their prone-ness prone-ness to evil ways and tho temptations that beset their paths are made occasion for lamentations that would make Jeremiah hide his head in humiliation. hu-miliation. The inefficiency of the police force, and the existence of dives ubiquitous and opportune are inveighed against; while one lachrymose soul, who wields his pen from a "clubhouse window," wails that the curfew ordinance is not enforced. What a lot of self-righteous Pharisees we are! Daily are the ranks of those augmented who im- ' agine that because curfew laws are enacted, reform re-form schools provided, jails erected, policemen appointed, ap-pointed, and schools constructed (the maintenance of which yearly taxes some two thousand families out of their homes in this State), we have done all for our children that humanity and civilization demand. de-mand. So with individual parents, who hug to themselves the pleasing delusion that because there is a curfew ordinance and a policeman to batter the heads of his children with a club, no more can be demanded. I say that nine-tenths of the juvenile offenders, the wayward girls and the evil-going boys are the result of the indifference or overindulgence or excessive confidence of their parents. Not on the children, unknowing, yet tending to wrong, should the penalty be visited, but upon their parents. These should be made responsible before the law for what their offspring does until the time when individual conduct becomes be-comes the right of the child. Nine out of ten times the sympathy 'that goes out to parents over wayward children is maudling; and if punishment should be inflicted let it be upon those parents who, because possessed of the notion that "my child would not do that," or because of lazy indifference in-difference to the child's course, permit it to drift into those ways which result in ruin and death to the victim and tearful shame and regret to parents, par-ents, who might have prevented all. Not all wayward way-ward girls and boys are chargeable to parents. God knows, too often the utmost vigilance and prayerful watching fail of raising the child as all could wish for; but no father and no mother has a right to complain who does not know what the children are doing at night and in the day. Eternal Eter-nal watchfulness is the price all must pay for the temporal salvation of their offspring. Where they neglect, they reap an inevitable I will not say a deserved reward in the waywardness and disgrace dis-grace and ruin and death of their children. Moreover, the loss is not their own. It costs the State to own criminals; and every taxpayer has an interest in seeing that all ends which conserve con-serve to a reduction of the number of this class shall bo sought out and made effective. The property prop-erty possessions of many fathers receive vastly more thought than, their children. If, therefore, a financial loss were imposed upon the parents of wayward children, consideration for the welfare of these children would become an all-important duty with them. The public has a right to this Continued on page 5. I Pessimistic Contlnncd. B protection from lazy, overconfldent and indifferent B parents. No parent whose moral obligation to his B offsPrm secures the attention it should will ever B be harmed by the practice suggested. But the sug- B gestion will not be crystallized "into law, nor will B it result in a thoughtful attempt on the part of B parents to protect their young by constant watch- B fulness. Mankind ever seeks to evade doing the B one thing that will cure the evil by some makeshift B or su'itute; and so the policeman's club, the cur- H few, the reform school and the jail will still be remedies urged for an evil which could, in the main, be cured by a little care and fear and heart love for children by those responsible before God for their early training and care. What a patent ass is that editorial writer on the Tribune. The other morning he had an obtuse ob-tuse I had almost said "abstruse" article on the "Perils of Socialism" the burden of which was that a reduction in the tariff meant the degradation degrada-tion of the workingmen of this country. Not for this deduction do I blame him, because the Nation is filled with asses greater than he who live and still accept and swallow this verbal swill and look upon it as good and wholesome food, too. But when he has shown that no reduction in the tariff is possible without reducing the labor of this country coun-try to the lovel of the paupers in other countries, he writes himself in another vein, and in an adjoining ad-joining column the thing that Carlyle declared there were 35,000,000 of in England fool. In this next column he joyously quotes the wail of an English writer who declares that American labor, though better paid on the total, still produces articles ar-ticles at a lower cost than the Englishrr i, who is paid less. Thus we have in one column the horror of a pauper labor in this country held before us if we reduce the tariff, and. in the next column we have a paean of joy that Americans can produce articles cheaper than all the world beside. If this latter statement be true, then what have American laborers to fear from the competition of laborers elsewhere, who are powerless to compete with them? If, on the other hand, a reduction in the tariff would lower the American producer to the condition of the pauper labor of Europe, what becomes be-comes of the canticle of rapture expressed in the next breath, the effect of which is that the American Amer-ican laborer need not fear, because he can produce cheaper than the workers of any nation, iio matter mat-ter how poorly paid? Mr. Heath had better bring both lobes of his editorial head into harmony. I am discouraged at the Democrats. They are not displaying a proper spirit. The pre-natal chal- Ilenge of ex-Chairman Roylance for a debate between be-tween the unborn Republican and Democratic candidates is not being made as much of as the sagacious defi deserves. Fear of Republicans to have their champion meet the leader of the Democratic Demo-cratic hosts should be proclaimed in "Spencerlan" tones as Tom says from every housetop. Not that it matters a continental, but such is the man-ner man-ner of politics. On the other hand, the master Kind of Chairman Anderson of the Republican Pty has grasped the situation with a clearness that is almost startling. He says the challenge is not a challenge It Is an Inquiry. And there you afe. Isn't it a dandy! At once so cumbersome, so kr-reaching and yet so cunning is the foxy James. "w his answer smells of Penrose! I shall not vte for Joseph Howell, but for good, square common com-mon sense; for a mind reasonably well stored with useful and practical Information as distinguished from the platitudes and unassimilated vaporing of William King, commend me to this same Howell. 1 do not think Howell Is honest with his own Indigence. In-digence. I think King lives up to what he has of honesty but Howell Is the honester man, for he 1 does not fool himself. But of what doth It avail to discuss! Has not the choice been determined? Fairly well did the Democrats in their nominations nomina-tions for the Legislative ticket. But to what doth it all come ? Smoot is declared to have said he would get enough Democratic legislative votes to make good the Republican deficit, and he would be Senator to the United States, willy nilly Republicans Repub-licans enough In the Legislature or not. The conclusion con-clusion to be drawn is that "unreasonable" Republican Repub-lican legislative candidates will be beaten by "approachable" "ap-proachable" Democratic candidates. Delightful, isn't it? And there are those who become "real earnest" over politics in Utah; who imagine they are doing a deal toward shaping results. Ah, well! why not let them worry. We are wiser. We know it has all been arranged by the "brethren" "brethren" including T. Kearns and P. Heath. So we rest our heads in undisturbed slumber, sighing only and singing: "Poor race of men" said the pitying spirit "Dearly ye pay for your primal fall; Some flowerets of Eden ye still inherit, But the trail of the serpent is over them all." These verses constitute a Tribune puzzle picture. pic-ture. Find the serpent. THE PESSIMIST. |