Are children really to blame?

We read in the paper, we hear on the air,
Of killing and stealing and crime everywhere;
We sigh and we say, as we notice the trend:
“This young generation . . . where will it end?”
But can we be sure it’s their fault, alone?

Too much money to spend; too much idle time;
Too many movies of passion and crime;
Too many books not fit to be read;
Too much evil in what they hear said;
Too many kids encouraged to roam;
Too many parents who don’t stay at home.

Youth don’t make the movies;
They don’t write the books that paint
The pictures of gangsters and crooks.
They don’t make the liquor, they don’t run the bars,
And they don’t make the cars;
They don’t make the drugs that addle the brain:
It’s all done by older folks, greedy for gain.
In how many cases we find that it’s true . . .
The label, “Delinquency,” fits older folks, too.