Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1914 — BOY SUICIDES ARE NUMEROUS [ARTICLE]

BOY SUICIDES ARE NUMEROUS

School Lad Tragedies Average Three a Week—Fear of Barracks Is Blamed. Berlin, —The suicide of schoolboys in Germany and Austria has become a problem of national importance latterly, the average working out at three tragedies a week. A volume from the pen of Hanß Ostwald attempts a solution in the appointment of resident school doctors, though the author traces the mischief more to mental than physical affection. German home life is indicted ae representing the “all work and no play” standard of upbringing. Teachers and parents alike are placed in the Dillary. Statistics phow that the suicides in variably come at the end or beginning of a term, the victim in most cases having failed to achieve promotion. How serious a matter this is for the German few foreigners understand. It means ultimately that he may fail In his “going away” examination, which in turn entails two years’ service as a common soldier, whereas should he pass all that the state asks of him Is one year as a “gentleman cadet,” living out of barracks. -- Without a doubt the fear of these two terrible years in barracks —life in a German .barracks has been exposed frequently—drives hundreds of boys to suicide. It is further suggested that some degree of comfort should .be introduced Into school life; prisons, they say, are more agreeable at present Taken en masse, German boys look upon life too seriously. “A race of morbid, nervous boys Is springing up,” and the kaiser is called upon to mend matters. ‘