Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 10, 1913

Juvenile Strikes

WE have heard in the past of juvenile delinquency of various sorts, from the truancy of the average schoolboy and schoolgirl to the more serious outbursts of human nature in the juvenile heart, but it remains for the last few months to furnish a series of strikes carried forward by boys and girls of school age in various parts of the country.

In New York recently, one hundred schoolboys, annoyed by rules to which they were subjected, went on a strike, breaking windows in the school building, smashing furniture, and singing “Where’s the Chicken Ax?” as a protest against some of the staid and sober songs forming part of the school exercises. In Pittsburgh, a few days previous, some ten thousand schoolchildren paraded the streets, and that, too, with the encouragement of their parents, as a protest against a certain school official. On the same day of the New York affair two hundred or more schoolchildren, ranging in age from eight to twelve years, broke up a grammar-school in Cambridge, Mass., by going on a strike for less study and more play. Not only did they refuse to attend school themselves, but a procession of more than one hundred marched, in riotous disturbance, to another schoolhouse where children were peaceably going on with their lessons.

In reference to these incidents the Los Angeles Tribune remarks:—

These incidents are among the most serious of many that have marked an age of social unrest. They denote a breaking down of discipline, especially of home training, that leads to wonder what the future holds in store for a troubled country. Considered in connection with the immodest dressing of young girls that is seen in every American city, it denotes a serious loss in the old ideals of America. If the boy will not submit to discipline, the man will rule neither his own bad passions nor others’. The girl who cares nothing of what is thought or said of her demeanor will make neither a good wife nor a good mother. These conditions are now wide-spread and general. They are cause for the most serious attention of the country.