can
failing very strongly home to him.

"The one thing the American people lack to-day," he said, "is
a proper method for bringing up their children. I see the
results of this every day. The hardened criminals turn out to
be youths of 19 and 20 years who first thrust themselves
against law and order at 16 and 17 years, and who at 14 told
their fathers that they were leaving school--and left.

"Behind this hardened criminal stands the sullen drab figure
of a girl who tries to show how loyal she is to the vagabond
in the hands of the law. It all began with a misguided idea of
liberty. The youth is the one who told his father he had had
all the education he needed and promptly became a street
corner type, and the girl, she who silenced her mother when
bound for a dance by tossing aside criticism of the indecent
dress she wore.

"In our schools to-day the child stands defiant and the
teacher is unable to use the only kind of discipline that
would do any good. The parent at home fails to understand
disciplinary methods, and so we have the picture of the father
obeying the son instead of the son the father; and the mother
obeys the daughter."

To support his contention, Judge Talley said that statistics
supplied a few weeks ago by the New York State Prison
Commission showed the average age of penitentiary inmates to
be 19 years. "This means that they began their criminal
careers at 16 and 17, an age at which no Judge sends them to
State prison. What is to be done to stem this tide of youthful
depravity? There is only one way--we must encourage morality
in public and in private, which means that we must bring back
to our American life high standards and high ideals."

II

THE UP-TO-DATE PRINCIPLE

In the eyes of some good folks, the behavior of the girls and boys and
young married people to-day appears totally unprincipled; and the good
folks throw up their hands and declare "they can't understand it." As a
matter of fact, they haven't tried to understand it and most of them are
very far from understanding it.

There are nearly always two sides to a question--to any question--and no
matter how strongly your personal views may incline you to take one
side, before passing judgment, it is no more than common fairness to
give the other side a chance to explain and justify its attitude. There