Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/864

 844 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

climax to the work of the year. She had set her heart on a steamer-ride down our beautiful bay, and far out into Lake Michigan, but had been a little dismayed to find that the steamer, with accompaniments of music and supper, would cost far more than she had expected. "I don't grudge them the money," said the young lady; "but is it wise to spend so much in an after- noon pleasure trip? We need so many things for the club next winter." The question being left to me for decision, I proposed that we submit it to the boys themselves ; adding that, if we did so, we must be prepared to abide by their decision. This was done at once. I put the matter fairly before them, with all the arguments for and against, and we awaited their decision. It was not long in coming; some of the smaller boys clamored for the boat-ride, but the older ones were almost unanimous in voting against it. " Don't you spend all that money that way," they said; "we'd rather have it in the club next winter."

This sentiment of joint ownership in the club, of responsi- bility for its policy, is also the most effective check upon the thievish propensities of its members that can possibly be devised. To seek to circumvent their long-practiced cunning by a strict use of guards, locks, and constant espionage is a futile, as well as an ignoble, policy. It is a descending to the moral level of those whom you seek to uplift. Here, as elsewhere, it will be found that evil cannot be conquered by evil, but that good will conquer by disarming the evil desire.

When a boy has so far conquered the covetousness his hard lot of deprivation has bred into him that he can, night after night, use tools and games which all boys desire to possess, and at the closing hour put them in their places and leave them behind him, he has taken his first lesson, probably, in that social conduct which makes of the individual a good citizen of his community. I speak from personal experience when I assert that this lesson can be successfully taught by instilling the com- munal instinct into the life of the boys' club.

Again, one must consider the power of suggestion upon the imitative, inquisitive mind of the child. To parade an elaborate system of precautions against stealing before the eyes of boys