Radio: The Cure for Juvenile Delinquency

Monitor brand wooden radio from the 1920s

Justice James Church Cropsey, one of the leading jurists of the state of New York, recently sentenced several young men, some of them scarcely more than boys, to long terms in Sing Sing Prison. Justice Cropsey, in making an address from the bench, offered the following to the boys:

We can lessen the crimes in our midst by giving our attention to the youths. They need a man's guiding hand and helpful personality. They need the example of a true man's life in the forming of their character. Brooklyn can be made better. Whether it will depends on us, its men. Shall we turn our backs and ignore existing conditions, or shall we accept the challenge and lend ourselves to the task?

It's a man's job and it needs red-blooded men who will put something of themselves in the undertaking.

Men, this is a call to us. Are we awake? Do we hear? Will our conscience let us ignore it? Shall we not help to make better the boys of today? Should we not begin at once?

Radio World now asks a few questions supplementing Justice Cropsey's queries from the bench:

Isn't keeping boys at home o'nights the best plan in the world for keeping them honest? Does every youth who owns a radio set stay at home and tune in? If you know a boy who is going wrong, wouldn't you endeavor to save him?

And wouldn't the saving process be started if you were to give him a radio set so he would have an added incentive for keeping off the streets and avoiding bad company?

Will you help?

And isn't the answer a quick and generous YES to all the questions?

From Radio World, March 22, 1924

Old Time Radio · Crime · Justice · James Church Cropsey · New York · Sing Sing · 1920s ·

2022/11/26 · Link