Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-11-29
The State Penal Institutions.

Under this caption the st. Adams Mes
senger, with its accustomed agility, strad-
dies the issue and leaves the reader in the
usual fog Of uncertainty as to whether 1t
has or has not any opinions Of its own re-
specting the management of the state penal
institutions. The Messenger quotes this
papers contrasting pictures Of the states
policy as shown in its parsimonious treat
ment of the district schools and its lavish
outlay on the reform school. 1t seems to
recognize the faithfulness of the portrsiture
and the correctness of our position, that If
reasonable care, disinterested judgment
and an unsefish spirit, with more liberal
expenditure, prevailed in the educational
policy of the state there would be less &C.
casion for expensive appropriations for re-
form schools, when it suddenly balances
over to the other side and I" falls 10 see
wherein the states parsimonious treatment
of the common schools would justify any
neglect of the reform school," Who has
maintained that it would 2 Who wants the
reform school neglected, and who has shown
any readiness to Justify any neglect of the
reform school ?" All the facts seem to
show that the district schools are the ones
which have been outrageously neglected,
and that the reform school is the pampered
child of extravagsnt state patronage. We
do not begrudge that institution liberal
expenditure directed by sound discriminat-
ing Judgment but we do not believe, among
other things, that it is necessary for the re-
form of these offending youth that they
that surpasses in elegance anything of the
kind in the state, that they should worship
in chapel which puts to the blush the av-
erage " Westinghouse of country villages.
We doubt If his excellency, the governor,
attends divine services amid surroundings
so suggestive of heavenly journey "on
howery beds of ease" Few gentlemen in
the state have more attractive grounds OF
rear their children amid more delightful
surroundings. We submit that this institu-
ton is extravagant, that the state is overdo-
ing this business of reform. The transition
from the luxurious surroundings of the re-
form school, when a child leaves this asylum,
| TO bed in the attic of a farmhouse,
to life stripped of all elegsncies and
boned down to the requirements imposed
| by thrift and economy, can hardly fail to
create in the institutionized lad feel
ing of discomfort. There is very
marked dividing line between reason and
sound saving common sense on the one
hand, and an extravaganza, a kind of re-
formatory dilletanteism, on the other, and
the state, we believe, long ago crossed that
line in its management of the reform school.
We are not entirely sure that its more re-
cent outlays on its other penal institutions
are defensible on the ground of strict regard
for the public veal or sound public policy.
1t is noticeable that large and simultaneous
appropriations were made for the prison,
the work house and the reform school. II
the true history Of the action of the senate
two years ago, in blocking the vote of the
house to restrict the reform school appro-
priation Of 1873 to $4,000, were fully dis
closed, it might show combinations by
which the local friends of each measure
were threatened with defeat in the event OF
failure of mutual support of each individ-
ual scheme. There seems to have been
sort of triple alliance and it was successful
Few legislative investigating committees
have the nerve to resist the Establishments
of official courtesies and Inequalities. Their
visits are short, and, forewarned, the insttu.
tions appear on dress parade. Unfamiliar
by study or experience with the subject
" investigated" it is easier for them to give
taffy than to venture into the deep waters
of criticism. The average investigation
by committee is a perfunctory affair, not
entirely unlike the visit to the district school
of the prudential committee and of about
the same practical value. Governor Proc
tor was an investigator of another sort, and
the Messenger may find in his valedictory
message some food tor reflection which it
says it does not find in the parting words of
his amiable successor.