An armed policeman is a judge, jury and executioner, Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago, told delegates attending the national conference of social workers here today in issuing a plea that policemen be disarmed as the first step toward the salvation of youth.
The internationally famous social worker cited England and the Irish Free States as examples of government which do not permit the arming of police officers.
"We are educating our youths to too much violence," Miss Addams said. "Even though they 'go wrong' it doesn't necessarily mean that they must have a gun pointed at their heads by some officer of the law. When he points a gun at a youth, no matter whether or not that youth be a criminal, he has made an enemy who will most likely have a gun on the occasion of the next meeting."
Miss Addams said that the crime problem in Chicago would never be solved until police and gangsters alike have [been] forced to scrap their guns.
Tact and not guns, kind words and a wrist watch are all the armament needed by police if they would solve the crime problem, in her opinion.
Miss Addams is unworried over the youth of today. They are not to be fretted about and if young girls smoke [its] their business and no one else's, she said. She commended prohibition as a good thing for small towns where "it is really enforced." Although prohibition is taken lightly in the cities, it nevertheless has its "influences for good," she said.
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