TO THE CENTRAL JUVENILE REFORMATORY COMMITTEE, AT THE WHITE HOUSE, DECEMBER 15, 1905
Gentlemen:
About all I can say to you is to express my very hearty sympathy with and belief in your purpose. The time of my life when I was brought into closest touch with conditions similar to those which you are trying to remedy was while I was Police Commissioner in New York City. At that time my closest friend and associate in all of my work was Mr. Jacob Riis, with whose books and writings you are all more or less familiar. I was even more impressed than I have been all along, ever since I have grown up, with the fact that if you are going to do anything permanent for the average man you have got to begin before he is a man. The older man is almost impossible to reform. Of course there are exceptional individuals, men who have been completely changed, not only after they have reached years of manhood, but after very advanced periods of life. But speaking generally, the chance of success lies in working with the boy and not with the man. That applies peculiarly to those boys who tend to drift off into courses which mean that unless they are checked they will be formidable additions to the criminal population when they grow older. It is eminently worth while to try to prevent those boys becoming criminals, to try to prevent their being menaces to and expenses and sores in society, while there is a chance of reforming them.
A year ago I was approached by the people interested in Colorado in their juvenile court, and they set an example which I wish could be followed all over the country, and particularly here in the District of Columbia. To the people of Colorado I expressed, as I express to you, my very earnest belief in their work, and told them that “of course so far as my very limited powers here go those powers will be at your disposal.”
I think people rather often completely misapprehend what are really the important questions. The question of the tariff, the currency, or even the regulation of railroad rates, are all subordinate to the great basic moral movements which mean the preservation of the individual in his or her relations to the home; because if the homes are all straight the State will take care of itself.