Mechanics and Crime

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 9, 5 July 1890, Page 4

Mechanics and Crime

It is a significant fact that out of ?1, 060 prisoners in the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, only 19 are mechanics. This is a strong argument in favour of mechanics as an elevator •of public morals. The percentage of men engaged In mechanical pursuits to the entire male population is large, -yet these are less than 5 per cent of the persons in this institution, and -the proportion is siad to be about the flame in others, who are mechanics by Instead of trying to impress upon them the repeated saying of Horace Greeley, "Go West young man," it might be well to advise more .of them to learn trades as a prevention of crime and immorality. For the ,-above reason, and from the further fact of the organised offorts to limit Tthe employment of apprentices, the -*' Scientific American" suggests the establishment of private and public industrial shools where boys may be taught trades— such as carpentering, stone masonry, moulding, and all branches of ironwork, &c. There can be no question but that not only mechanical employment but all kinds of labour, both manual and mental, lesgftu both, crime and sickness. Let ais^&en, gives the boys a chance to earn an honest living, even though it he largely at public expense.