Samuel Leonard Explains Why Wilson County Has a Boy on the Roads, Jan. 17, 1920

From The Daily Times, Wilson, N.C., January 17, 1920

To The Public

By Samuel E. Leonard

There is now on the county roads of Wilson County a boy of 17 years of age. There has been some comment about this and in order to make the case clear I am writing this to explain the case in detail. This explanation is certainly due the mayor as well as the welfare department.

This boy who gave his name as Harold O’Brien, who is in fact Harold Boylan, is a West Virginian by birth, but has spent most of his life in Cleveland, Ohio. He seems to have had good supervision as a boy, having attended school regularly through the sixth grade, but having separated himself from his parents, he has been roving ever since. He started his career about two or three years ago, when spending the night at his uncle’s he discovered a purse of money in a drawer. He yielded to the temptation and has since been adrift. He has been in the show business, has done little work, has beat around through many states, has stolen one thing after another until he was apprehended in Wilson for stealing a suitcase from a hotel. He was arraigned before Mayor Hill and in the face of advice from all the officers that he be sent to the roads, the mayor continued the case for a few days. Mayor Hill then called upon the welfare department as the boy was over 16, but Mayor Hill took the attitude that this was a mere boy who had gone wrong and certainly sending him to the roads would not make a better man of him.

It was after three days of questioning on my part and professed innocence on his that Harold began to “open up” and admitted stealing the suit case, also the handbag which he had, and many other things. He was seemingly telling the truth. In the meantime I had written to the State Department for advice and Dr. Klein of the Southeastern Department American Red Cross was sent here to assist in the case. Dr. Klein is a New York City man is well versed in probation as carried out in the northern cities. We went over the case carefully and after consultation with the mayor decided to recommend that the boy be placed under probation with a suspended road sentence, in case he did not stand probation.

It was after spending a full week behind the bars that the boy was let out and told what he was expected to do. Mayor Hill talked to him quite a while as he had done every day. He was then placed in my charge. I bought him clothes, took him to my home where he bathed, pressed his clothes, shined his shoes, and had something to eat. A boarding place was found, a room secured, and work gotten. After that he was given his freedom, and all of us felt that the problem had been solved.

Our disappointment was very keen when we found that every night Harold was going around stores taking things. He would take things that were of no use to him. He had planned to leave town the third night but for some reason he changed his mind and remained until the next day when I asked the major to have him taken into custody. His sentence automatically went into effect and he is on the roads. Since that time he has told the guard that he has been on the roads before.

There was no one so disappointed as Mayor Hill. He tried to think of some plan even after the second arrest to save the boy but North Carolina has no way of taking care of such cases. (Page torn) …system but when that falls down we have no other recourse but the crude system of road punishment. 

This boy should have been sent to a training school. True, we have a small one, but that is overfilled all the time. What are we to do with such cases? We cannot allow boys to walk off with putting them on probation. There is nothing else to do under our present system.

I would like to state here that statistics show that over 75 per cent of all probationers make good. Our Wilson county records have a better percentage than that. The trouble is that we have no provision for the few who do not stand probation.

I have written this case in detail to give the public an idea of our difficulties. It is not the fault of Mayor Hill that this boy is on the roads. The State is simply not prepared for such cases. Can the county do something? Any suggestions as to the handling of such cases will be appreciated and considered.