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VOLUME TOUR
NUMB E R TORTY-O NE
LAUNCHING A "NEW STATE”: TJiT^r
Millard A. Jenkins.
day, none commend themselves to the confidence and
support of the people more than this movement for
the prevention of criminals; a movement which has
for its aim a better society by giving the unfortunate
boy a chance. The offending youth sent to jail, the
chain gang, or the penitentiary nine times out of ten
becomes a hardened criminal. When sent to an in-
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stitution like the Juvenile State of Georgia, or the
George Junior Republic of New York, becomes a
citizen.
What is this Ideal State anyway? What is its
principle? What does it aim to do? For the State,
it aims to lessen the record of crime, by pre
venting, instead of correcting criminals. For
society, it aims to produce a higher type of citi
zenship by producing good citizens, rather than
by confining them in prison pens after they have
MISSISSIPPIANS CALL FOP.[CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION— Page Five
An ideal government of
the boys, for the boys and
by the boys. Such is the
Juvenile State Farm, at
Center, Ga,, six miles from
the Classic City of Athens,
on the Lula and Athens
branch of the Southern
Railroad, formally opened
November 25, by addresses
by representative men of
the State, and a big barbe
cue.
Among the many philan
thropic movements of the
ATLANTA, GA., D*_ ° T BLR 2, 1909.
Vy MILLARD A. JENKINS.
forfeited their rights to citizenship. For the indi
vidual for whose good the state is founded, it aims
to give him a chance to become a man.
Society’s Best Asset.
In other words, the opening of the Juvenile State
Farm was the launching of an industry in Georgia
for the sole purpose of giving men, strong men, valua
ble men, out of material that has, until recently,
been considered fit only for the dump heap.
Some time ago, we heard Judge Willis Brown, of
Eutah, the boy’s friend and benefactor, give an ac
count of his institution similar to this. He said when
he selected a location for the farm, he chose a site
which had on it a mountain. Some of his friends
said, “Brown, you are a fool; we can’t trust you to
spend our money like this. Why didn’t you buy a
piece of land that would produce something —hay,
corn, oats, and where you could raise cattle and
hogs?” Brown replied, “I’m not in the business of
raising corn and oats, and cattle and hogs; I’m in the
business of raising boys.” One day he took the boys
out for an afternoon picnic. They climbed to the
top of that mountain. It was a new experience for
those boys, most of whom had known only the
haunts of vice in the big city. The sunset drew on,
and, said Judge Brown, “Such a sunset I had never
seen. I stood pointing out its beauties and describ
ing its changing glories. One of my boys slipped up
close by me. I looked down into his face, and it
was shining. Just then the sunset had reached the
floodtide of its glory, and my boy, transfixed by its
wondrous beauty, transplanted into a world he had
not known before, and transformed by its appeal to
the soul within him, hitherto undiscovered to himself,
burst into tears.” Continuing the Judge said, “Where
is that boy now? Those of you who read the Ladies’
Home Journal saw on its cover two months ago, a
beautiful design. My boy did that.” In a few months
he was to graduate from a university in the North
west, and now he is in Europe pursuing his studies
in art.
Willis Brown was not growing hay and hogs. He
was growing boys, God bless him. He was producing
society’s best asset. Such is the hope, aspiration,
object, aim of the Juvenile State of Georgia.
The State is self-governing. It has a governor, sec
retary of state, attorney-general, comptroller, courts,
judges, constitution, laws, legislature, elections, etc.
The youthful lawbreaker is to be taught the value
of law, by giving him his liberty, rather than by
taking it from him. He is to be taught that civil gov
ernment is his friend by making him a part of it.
Righteous ambition is to be encouraged in this Ideal
Republic, where the boy is made to feel that he is a
citizen, instead of crucifying him behind prison bars
which ever more mark him as a criminal.
A Propitious Opening.
It was a feast of good things. There was a large
crowd present. From county and town they came.
The old and the young were there. Fair women
graced the occasion with their charms, and sturdy
men encouraged the enterprise with an enthusiasm
that speaks volumes for the future. Oratory flowed,
and humor charmed and prophecy painted glowing
pictures of a golden future, and —barbecue —you
never saw carcasses walk off a table faster, and in
more hilarious procession.
The first speaker was Dr. L. H. Hardman, of Com
merce, who made the State possible by a most mag
naninimous gift of 426 acres of land. This great
hearted physician is loved by his community for his
faithful ministrations in the sick room; this incor
ruptible statesman is loved throughout Georgia by
every friend of righteousness, for his fearless leader
ship in the legislature for state-wide prohibition;
but now, by his unselfish philanthrophy, his unsul
lied humanitarianism, he has made possible a move
ment that will embalm his name —not only in the
history of the state that gave him birth, and whose
interests he has faithfully served, but in the history
of the entire Southland, where noble deeds of unself
ishness are not allowed to die.
Dr. Hardman was followed by W. S. (Uncle Billie)
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+ REV. CRAWFORD JACKSON. \
£ The Original Friend of Erring Boys. ♦
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Witham, of Atlanta, who spoke on “Give the Youthful
Offender a Chance”; Eugene C. Calloway, of Atlanta,
on “Methods of the Juvenile State”; Judge W. F.
Hammond, of Atlanta, on “Modern Thought and the
Youthful Criminal”; Millard A. Jenkins, of Athens,
on “The Future of the Juvenile State”; and Judge R.
B. Russell, of the Court of Appeals, who called at
tention in ringing terms to the citizen’s duty to the
boy left friendless and hopeless, doomed by his sur
roundings to a criminal’s life, unless given, by some
(Continued on Page 16.)
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