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German Beth Davis the Mayor Fenty things would get maybe then. After all running of the mother I think and thinking that out. Actually the loveliest sired by many and then by many. But I think that with a product of very. Very great fashion the need to be able to feed here at this. Point that every three everything for you is going up and becoming very far off. And I'm very gratified to know that it is the. Realization of an old dream of mine that goes back to the days when I was different. In those days I was increasingly grieved at where the members of my fair because most of us. Were new to the business of the magic breast fed runs through the routine of a fitting proffers up. Some of the things in federal prosecutors. Some of us had been in the racket investigation few of us had come face to face with the grief of the daily mass arrests for minor offenses and effective. Of the youngsters ground through the courts and then sent to the correctional institute. Most of them were children you missed something in the life that they needed most were entitled to the love of the parent or at the home or sound religious guidance they'd usually been defrauded of the natural rights that you and I think belonged our children. By chance or by evolution by neglect or sickness or some other. Circumstance entirely beyond their control. To start some kind of a machinery because we didn't know anything better to do we set up in the office of District Attorney of New York County a youth council bureau. Which I am very happy to say has been carried on and greatly improved and increased in the full scope and services by my most distinguished except their Mr Frank open. We started originally with just the money we can scrounge up from private individuals and banks from the charitable organizations of the free faith and then we got it established and it did a lot of good work and after I became governor and frank open was district attorney he got mayor and I've already had a freeze out the money of the city budget and it's still being carried on by Marin County area and I understand from the district attorney that it is better than ever. The difficulty is that no single committee and one county or even all the county that site without the facilitate the region or the broad social conditions of the community could do much more than ameliorate the tragedy to individuals who are already in trouble. As has already been pointed out the challenge is to try to reach children before they get into trouble. So far as I know this has never been tried before. Or spar as I know really yet. Elsewhere in any state in the union on an organized basis or even by any community. Of course in theory it shouldn't be necessary after all in theory the normal influences of good homes and good schools and good religious surroundings. Should make it entirely unnecessary. But seemingly in this industrial society of ours we have followed our very special gifts to create a spectacularly high living standard without a corresponding increase in a sense of individual responsibility. We know how to make more automobiles and more refrigerators more food per capita more of everything than any other three nations on earth. We haven't yet discovered how to increase a cent of our rental. Community our neighbor responsibility among ourselves and for our children elicits we can agree. Is altogether too many youngsters with idle hands partly because of this great prosperity they don't have to work. Partly because of irresponsible parents or vote and they have been the victims of the very perfection and creative achievement of the society that I rather you know had built so when I went to Albany nearly ten years ago and nine hundred forty three. I was in the top shocked to find the juvenile delinquency in the state and increased thirty five percent between one hundred thirty eight and one hundred forty three. I also found plenty of evidence that is available to all of us that the Constitution of the state expresses great interest in the welfare of children and places its responsibility on every unit of government. And I found very little evidence that that concern is ever been expressed in United and effective action and the state budget revealed that millions of dollars have been appropriated every year to maintain our correctional institutions but never a penny for the Prevention of juvenile delinquency and crime that led to their overpopulation to make that growing problem we could have created one of those six letter agencies after the Federal pattern with a large appropriation and a new army of employees on the public payroll. A matter of fact I think it would have been a worthless F. worthless effort Moreover it seemed to me to be complete folly. Instead first because we didn't know what to do. I wanted a committee of the people in the state government who know knew most about the subject we didn't create a fancy commission we just went to the commissioners those departments were most closely affected and brought them into a group with my assistant counsel to sit down and work that three year study they reported what seem to me to be the only sound approach they said that the state could best encourage the prevention of juvenile delinquency by stimulating a new effort and a new approach right in the locality in other words that we should not try to transfer the responsibility to Albany or to Washington or to some other central headquarters or regional headquarters but that it should be done at home where the children live which seem to made me to make remarkable the sense. They said also and this ID most important of all that our job was to meet the problems before they became acute rather than adopt the usual governmental approach of handling them after they become personal disasters we wanted to reach the children who were headed for trouble and save them first rather than the patch up the wreckage after the idea was that the state should give leadership guidance and financial help to the locality that set up such programs we were determined that the state would not take over local responsibilities and deprive communities of home rule just parents ethically My own feeling is that to every extent that a community gives up total responsibility it gives up that portion of the freedom of its own people and wherever home rule is we can so too is the essence of free government we can. As a result we added one other concept we decided that we should not attempt to tempt to dictate to the localities what they ought to do nor did we allow any acceptance of the communist concept that children are the property of the state the basic approach was to be through the homes churches schools police veterans labor for turn organization service clubs in public and private social agencies that are setting up a new agency of government then to do this job we created a temporary Youth Commission made up of the heads of seven state agencies who were closest to the problem the very same people who had been on the committee. The interdependent departmental committee was that new device has been rarely used but I recommend it as an instrument of government generally it doesn't cost a lot of money it uses the existing brain it doesn't create more duplications and it keeps the solutions to problems close to the people and close to those who know most about them in this function that we are celebrating tonight. The the work has been directed by these seven men in the stay in the state government all these seven years since its creation those of the commission is a correction Education Health Labor Mental Hygiene social welfare and the chairman of the board of parole and I believe all of them are either here personally are represented tonight it was a sort of a trial and error thing we gave it great flexibility with the state providing some supervision and financial aid after all we didn't want it the communities to go haywire just because somebody in Oswego R R. R said decided he wanted to create a project that nobody else but then he got but the on that we left all the responsibility to the locality to create a program vested in to its people and had the most extraordinary result more than eight hundred sixty come in advance which never had such a program in history have now responded with the most varied types of programs including recreation youth counseling Child Guidance psychiatric care visiting teachers social workers baseball team speaking of Bill Stern our number one community upstate they wanted no part of any of these things all they wanted was a baseball league and I saw the other day that one of the counselors on the state payroll made a violent speech against baseball for youngsters I haven't caught up with that one yet and I'm going to. But this device actually when I heard about it I thought they were a little bit not still. But there is a commission went along they wanted a baseball league it's a community of about ten thousand and they had a lot of juvenile delinquency and a lot of youngsters in trouble and they set it up and they got all the religious groups in on a voluntary basis they didn't hire anybody that'll be anathema to some people. And. They got it all done free and they got a baseball league for the summer and a basketball league for the winter and they wouldn't have anything to do with all the rest of these things that you and I don't know very very good most places but from the day they formed the baseball league to this moment there has not been one boy arrested for juvenile delinquency in that community in that six years. The only point of that is and the other thing it proves is that often there are smarter people in the communities who are not experts than those of us who think we are experts anyway at work. As a matter of fact today nearly five thousand citizens of this state have been enlisted and are actively working in advisory and operating capacities the private agencies have responded handsomely and this has not become a new government Colossus It's a cooperative effort in the name of the children of the state to provide help where help is most needed it seems to me that this is in the best American tradition I believe actually deal with the people of the state because these eight hundred sixty municipalities that have taken on the program include that ninety percent of the population of the state of New York and that is practically all of the people of the state of New York who live in any community of more than three hundred people result is that it apparently has been a great success. And it hasn't been a handout program because everybody had to match it fifty percent it was one of those things you spend again it was spent do. It seems to me that the commission has had practical and not theoretical many measures and it is borne in mind that the ultimate solution as always in the is in the whole the school the church and the community atmosphere the mission is given guidance and leadership and financial assistance it's developed all the things that you and I know ought to be developed like supervised leisure time activities analysis and on the record trends of juvenile delinquency positive efforts towards strengthening family life unifying of local efforts and the coordination of all the various possible agencies that can be of help and it's been amazed how in some communities the smaller places in the state where everybody had a sort of routine job before when they get drawn into that everybody gets interested in and everybody makes a contribution and I Sumit that's what's happened here in many directions aside from all these studies it seems to me that the most important thing is the conclusion that was reached by an editorial printed the other day in the Albany Times Union they said juvenile delinquency in any state has a direct relationship to world affairs especially to economic depressions and wars and preparations for war you will hear all about the World Affairs shortly from my distinguished friend on my right who will do it with great eloquence going to murder and skill and he will be the frosting on the cake of the evening. Editorial continued in New York is demonstrating that there is a practical economy in spending funds to keep youngsters out of trouble part of the reason we've seen a drop of nearly three thousand juvenile delinquency cases in the past year as compared with a high peak of nine hundred forty five. Commission and spent four and a third million dollars for youth recreation projects two million six hundred twenty thousand in social and psychological you think this is and six hundred seventy nine thousand dollars in setting up administrative youth bureaus at various points at the state. That is a brief summary in one paragraph of the work we're celebrating on a statewide basis I'm happy that other states are now beginning to follow New York and I noticed that the Children's Bureau of the federal security agency is calling a conference on the subject I just hope they leave us alone. I have great lately I want you to know the progress in New York City. It got started considerably light of anybody in the room want to make. Program was authorized by the legislature in the spring of one nine hundred forty five nothing happened in New York for a year so I called a conference in Albany we had much conversation and I thought stimulation and still nothing happened until July nineteenth forty seven. And I believe it was under the influence of the present mayor of New York City was going to two years in the thinking action and I compliment him here from the clay for his leadership and. I really think that in New York. They have been created. It certainly is one of the finest prevention programs in the country I suppose none of us would prevent would pretend that there's enough money for it there isn't enough money in all the world for what we want to do and I'm sure that there are many more areas we'd like to work in intensively but the extraordinary thing about it is the great progress that's been made in the L. Evans selected most difficult areas of high at the link wincing under a benevolent and well rounded attack which included both the private and the public agencies. As I had hoped the youth board membership includes the heads of all of that a department dealing with children the preventive schools commissioners of Health and Welfare police in fact as well as the presiding justice of the domestic relations court that has tied together and utilized the services of the department and it can initiate effective action in preventing Delinquency Prevention the board and clothes in addition and this I also like six citizen members every one of them with a long and first hand experience in the field that assures that the board's program will utilize the private agency resources as well as those available through public departments I go through this whole philosophy because it seems to me that it is exceedingly significant as a new development in the field of social service in which we do not create a new government colossus in which we do not risk a burden of taxation so great that citizens will rebel and condemn all postal services by reason of it in which we have that intangible glorious contribution of the voluntary effort and I have a very strong feeling. That the affairs of our children in this city are in good hands. It gives those of us who are working with us every reason to believe that in the difficult years ahead the people of New York will intensify their efforts which will be beneficial both of the city the state and the nation these two or three fundamentals involved in the program. I think should be mentioned if the entry of the sitting in into that field and in any sense is diminished local responsibility or Home Rule I mean by that if the entry of the state into this field had diminished city or local responsibility I should have regarded the whole program as a danger and the payer if it had advanced as by so much as an inch the totalitarian approach to children I should be against it moreover if it had diminished the need for voluntary agencies I should be against I hold to the very firm belief that. Citizen efforts and private agency and public agencies should complement each other and never that one should supplement or supplant should supplant the other should any public program hinder this in the final exchange which occurs when people voluntarily share their time and their money and their efforts to help children it's time for the public agency to get out of the business because then it has killed that spark of human charity without which people are dead or are slaves it is the personal concern the personal service that counts and community affairs and nothing is comparable. Either in charity or in government or in hospitals or in any other field I may say that I wish other local agencies particularly those dealing with public welfare were as well administered as this program. I wish they had as much citizen participation. I wish they had it's clear an appreciation of local responsibility for doing the good job. You know the worst thing in the world that can happen delicious is to say let somebody else do it let George do it that's when that time comes then. We are no longer with that is of less free country where passengers on somebody else's ship. In the whole field of welfare we've made unprecedented advances in the last ten years an acceptance of social responsibility city county state and nation and better standards and ever before in the state we're paying out a great deal more money than ever before although we have the highest prosperity in history I don't know whether actually apologize for that or boast of it this. Very close question. But in nineteen forty five the state of New York contributed twenty three million dollars to our local welfare costs in this city this year the state will contribute eighty five million dollars nearly four times as much as in one thousand nine hundred eighty five some people have lost sight of that in recent public release. The entries in New York City's share of the cost of its local welfare program has been only forty four percent during that time in other words the state's increase to the city's welfare programs is two hundred seventy percent of the city's increase forty four Have I made myself very clear. I think I can say with up fear of contradiction that in these ten years we have assumed a larger share of local responsibility than in any previous forty years in the history of the United States. I don't know whether that's good or not I am not boasting I am simply reporting in other words we lifted very large financial burdens from the city and as I say some people think we left it too much last year for example the state paid out one hundred forty two million dollars for all local welfare programs in the state of New York and in New York City got one hundred million of that though York City got seventy percent of all the local welfare money in the state you know hundred million dollars is still a lot of money in this country whether you know it or not that is one tenth of the entire budget of the state of New York just for that one service in one community. I think that the youth program ought to be studied as a model of affective administration of local needs I think the way it has works is perhaps the. Best demonstrated by this magnificent gathering here tonight everybody who is here tonight is here because they're interested in the youth program there are very few other governmental programs where you can get so many pre people to come voluntarily. To a dinner unless you're black jack them or shake them down to come in honor of a politician. But I rather suspect and I'm quite sure that the people who are here tonight came because they wanted to come and the reason they wanted to come is that every one of them has a piece of this program you've got a share of the responsibility and therefore you're making it better than it could ever be in any other form I think the success of the program might well be a guide for better administration of other services not only in the city but in the state government. Possibly even in Washington I wouldn't know. The use of widespread responsible citizen participation is one of the insignia of the good job. The job up all of us is to try to learn to work better with the existing structures of government to and do em program government ladies and gentlemen as you know is the most difficult science in the world. The politician. Is engaged in the most complex science in the world because quite obviously the perfect government has not yet been achieved. I think surgeons have performed the perfect appendectomies and something which might well be called an almost perfect automobile or airplane or a washing machine has been created but nobody has ever accused any government yet even of being within a mile of perfection so we've got to realize that while government impinges closely upon the lives of all the people in one way or another we have a whale of a job ahead of us our task is to study to improve its quality while a endeavor to make it serve the people better and rule the people lets the Youth Services loose anniversary we celebrate tonight are a new and pioneering effort there are only five years old but I think they're a very sturdy maybe they've achieved a degree of local responsibility of citizen participation and effectiveness and of genuine democracy in its finest sense. That is quite novel in the field of human and social relations. I'm proud of the progress that's been made under the state's youth program. And I should like personally to salute every one of the old ways taken part of it here in our great city from the mayor of lead the way for its creation to all of the magnificent army of people who have made it a success the statistics prove success but much more importantly it's probably ging in significance. Because. It is really. An outline. It's gone out on the air made it and gentleman and friends. I'm somewhat less than a night come here white tie. And everybody you know they blacked out. Which reminds me. I think about a year ago in the same place. I had read the National I stayed kind of manufacturing. And the same thing. And it is because I happen to be then the father. I think you year old boy. And I have made that secret. But that's my view haven't been having it from. When I arrived in my home my factory to watch dog. Night however. I have it but. I am an island man. And my wife my friend to go for the opening of the Metropolitan Opera and I have had her up the perform. I congratulate you actually say that I want to do it for the great job that we as outsiders. Have seen. Its being done. For you juvenile. In. My life to the speech that the governor delivered tonight. Is far reaching in significance. Because. If you should really. And outline. Of what a free market she can do. To save the people and yet rule it like. When we speak of she will. I have come from the United Nations can tell you that that is also I want to make your post that. The United Nations gave. All of the you. We of vision generation. Have a life. To War. Within our generation have taken place. In the United Nations we are trying to one way and their world. And we can only do that by preparing I love you properly. I wish to take you back to the days after the signing of that please the OP That's not. One of the victorious nations then so the martyrs. In their. Endeavor vindictive. Forgot. That you would. Not be beaten. And the result was that say for example if Germany the German youth wanted leadership and there was no need be given to them. So they found. A way maybe. And that mania. For them to do just that. And who just have been. There went back. Into that country its destruction and the first. And the second. World War. So it is important for us to take care. Of our two. Especially these days. When we have a link with nature. Dangerous Nation. Those ideologies and be getting help with that of democracy. And these children. Who. Has been very well sent here. Are growing up in an age. Where. An ideology. Is fighting. Everything that is decent. In that dignity of the human. You will of the world must be properly prepared to face. And I was really inspired tonight you know. That and you only use Boy are represented. Don't we say. Three faith. And that religion is playing an important. In beachwear for you. We must not forget. That the passion for struggle. Is really a struggle between those who do not believe in faith because they have no say and those of us. Who believe in faith because we have faith. And that religion should play an important part. In the molding of the human. Here. And in vision great work. So beautifully outlined by Governor doing and mayor in Philadelphia and Mr Whalen here tonight you selection for all the world to see. Because there is no greater tragedy than the blindness of those whose eyes are open but are in the now while I'm going to be blind. Blindness men who are in the dark if the greatest tragedy in of worms. And most who have no faith. Have their eyes open but they are. In the. Ditch for us. For all of us but life of faith. In the remotest corners of the world that is dark. Enough those who cannot see nations. Through. Life like a turnip and that is what you are doing for your views here when you have religion playing an important part in this great. Nation Gentlemen I thank you for the prevalence of having been here tonight to listen to this great crisis and to see great work that is being done for you by your government in cooperation with the citizenry of New York City thank. Me. Now but. We have a treat for you.