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Parents or Police

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 11, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 41.

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Parents or Police

THE duty of parents to train their children aright, so that they may become useful members of society, is undoubted. The nature of the case in many respects implies this; and the command of the Scripture in many places, and in varied forms, enjoins this duty upon parents. Such training is necessary for the welfare of the children, and is requisite for the well-being of the domestic and national life of the community.
The neglect of this training and proper discipline is the reason, in part at least, why so many young people, especially boys, are growing up to be lawless and criminal. In a city one often wonders where the noisy hoodlums come from, as we see them on the streets. If we were to trace the history of these rowdy lads and young men, we would find that in very many cases, there was no family training in their homes. They grow up not knowing what obedience is at home, and they go out to be lawless on the streets.
The result is that they fall into the hands of the police, and are put in prison, often to come out more hardened than when they went in. If there were better home training, we should need fewer men on the police force, and we should not require such large prisons, reformatories, and penitentiaries. Parents are better than police.
The great majority of criminals, as statistics show, become so during their teens, when they are still under legal age, and should be subject to parental control. We visited a large State prison recently; and, in going through the fine shops connected with this institution, we were surprised to see how many of the inmates were little more than boys; in some cases they did not seem to be full grown, and in not a few instances they had good faces, not yet really hardened. Lack of parental training may have been largely responsible for their becoming inmates of the prison. Boys out at night learn no good.
Give us good parents, and we shall have less need for police, and the former can do what the latter can not. The parents can build up good character, by the grace of God, and make good citizens. The police can do little more than restrain crime, and secure the punishment of criminals. The hoodlum and the youthful criminal class are things that menace our American life. Give us faithful and competent parents, and we shall have less need of the police force. — Christian Observer.