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Show MORALS 0F0UR CITY YOUNG. When Mr. Xephi Morris in the tabernacle a few Sundays back ended the reading of the charge brought against the Y. M. C. A. by The Intermoun-tain Intermoun-tain Catholic, there was a noticeable stirring of the feathers among many of the Gentiles present. To some among the non-Mormons the revelations uncovering the impurity and blackguardism of many of the young boys and girls of our city were rue and wormwood, but to others it was an old story with only the novelty of telling aloud. The "hoodlum" element in Salt Lake City is a menace to the safety of the community. It has been allowed to grow until it is a prolific T"ce of crime, and it is not now easy to control it. Various remedies have been made and suggestions volunteered, volun-teered, and thej are all good in their way. One man says: "There is too much tenderness, false charity and mercy in the present moral administration administra-tion of justice and government of society." If he means, as he doubtless does, that parents and all others who have the care of children, too often exhibit ex-hibit the spirit of easy good nature, rather than a wholesome firmness, he is, beyond contradiction, right. Children should be compelled to learn what is their duty, and that that duty must be done with mi flpppnt. nn ihp "must." Another declares that our public schools ought to teach fewer branches, and pay more heed to inculcating in-culcating good morals and manners, and many will agree heartily with him. "The school curriculum of today," writes this observer, "takes no serious interest either in a code of morals, or in its inevitable inevi-table accompaniment, a code of courtesy and good manners; indeed, education in any proper sense of the term has been eliminated from every department depart-ment of school and university life; and we have instead a system of secular instruction, devoid alike of religion and reverence, but fruitful in rowdyism and vulgarity." Another writer urges that the prevalent evil is due largely to the fact that children and slips of Ja5& SrSi 4Sis!s SbSS yormlttodl tha f rooAom of the Streets and suggest! ve places at all times, and are allowed to ramble freely after dark. He is certainly right in saying, "Keep them at home." And so we have a sheaf of suggestions for the parents, the police, the legislature and the city council, all of which seems to us like throwing feathers against the wind. The thrower is good, the feathers are good, but the wind is too strong. Back of ail and more important than all these specific remedies must be public opinion. Public opinion will not make a bad child good, nor suppress sup-press the inclinations to evil, but it can compell the parents of the bad child to keep it at home o' nights and make it behave itself abroad. At present many of the very people, whose children chil-dren belong to the ungovernable class, do not themselves them-selves think the matter one of serious importance. Perhaps they used to have thfe fun of the streets when they were young and escaped harm, or do not understand the harm they received. Perhaps they would prefer that their children behaved better, but know that their own neglect long ago caused them to lose all control over their boys and girls. The number of parents is sadly large who have " learned what it is to be openly and impudently defied de-fied by their own offspring. In any case we all need to wake up to the fact that as the uncared for children chil-dren are, so will the boys and girls be, and as are the boys and girls, so will be the men and women of the future. It is a rather dark outlook at the best. These youths have no religion or they will not have when they grow up, and the worst kind of religion is no religion at all. ' |
