New-York tribune., 1882-04-09

tonian Interpreter of Presidential preferences is
| not Just a leetle prejudiced, we earnestly In
vte him to a careful study of President Ar
| thurs herculean endeavOrs not to be the e1-
elusive patron of either wing of the Republi-
can party of this State. The Boston officer
will find in James Low, American Consul at
Clifton, Canada, salary $1,000, a piece OF
evidence that cannot be cOntTadicted, demon
strating that the President is not, so far as
New-York is concerned an Exclusive pa
tron" of the Conkling wing of the party. But
he ought to explain how the same man who
thought it monstrous that the New-York Col
lector should be appointed without the APP
proval of the New-York Senators, now HIM
self appoints the Boston Collector in direct
opposition to and defiance of the Massachu-
sets Senators.
CHILDREN'S WORK IN REFORNATORIES.
A bill is now pending in the Legislature re-
lating to the employment of children by con-
tract III houses of refuge and related insttu-
tons of this State, which we trust will become
a law. The bill provides that it shall be un-
lawful for the trustees or managers of any such
Institutions to contract, hire or let by the day,
"week, month or any longer period the services
"years of age now or hereafter committed to OF
climates of such institutions" Any violation of
the act by any trustee, manager OF other officer
is declared to be misdemeanOr.
1t must be evident to everyone upon re-
Election that this is a humane measure.
Under the system now i'll force IN our
reformatory institutions the children who
are the inmates are compelled to work for the
benefit of the contractors, who are, naturally
enough, pecuniarily interested in getting the
largest amount of work out of them. The men
who have charge of the work are the paid en-
plOyes of the contractors. In some of the lnstI-
tutons-tO show how the system wOrks-a
patent machine is used for tue manufacture of
stockings, and no one can use 1t except the cen
tractors or those whom they license. The con-
sequence is that the boys whose work has been
to run one of these machines when they are
discharged find themselves without an employ
ment for which they are fitted, unless they
happen to find shop where the patent is in
use. On the other hand, as Mr.. Elbridge L.
Gerry, president of the New-YOrk Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, lately
remarked i'll the course of his argument in
favor of the passage Of the bill, where work is
performed by the piece, which is the case in
many institutions, under the sole direction of
the trustees or other officers who are not inter-
ested i'll driving the boys beyond their strength
the institutions themselves get the benefit of
the sale of the work. Mr. Gerry adds the COM
mon sense suggestion that " if all these reform
"schools for boys and girls should introduce
labor that would be of some practical benefit
"to the children after leaving them, it would
q L. 4, tbo HOY oI, o1 in,
I" the printing trade or in agricultural pursuits,
/" if they were educated as carpenters, masOns or
L" in any other legitimate trade, when they grow
"up and leave the institution they have then
AN industrial business and trade by which they
@can earn their livelihood without resortng to
"crime as a means of support" Another
ardent supporter of the bill is William II.
Letchwor president of the State Board of
Charities, and widely known as a practical phi
anthropist. In his recent plea for the bill, made
before the Senate committee to which il was
referred he called attention to the distinction,
too often lost sight of, between a prison and a
reformatory. In prison the dominant idea is
punishment; in a reformatory it is reforma-
ton. IT is because he desires to see this dstinc-
tion recognized and respected that Mr.. Letch-
worth favOrs the bill, arguing that under the con-
tract system the reformation and improvement
of the children are subordinated to the interest
of the contractor. He further points out that
were the contract system abolished the children
could be placed entirely under the training Of
those carefully selected 10y the managers as
specially fitted for the work, and an elevatng
moral influence thereby exerted. Mr.. Letch-
worth strengthened his position by reading
letters approving the intent of the bill from the
secretaries of the State Boards of Charities and
Correction of Ohio and Wisconsin from Car
diner Tufts, for twelve years chief of the
Massachusetts State Agency for Juvenile
Offenders; and from E. G. Howe superintend-
ent of the Reform School at Meriden, Conn,
who was for twenty years superintendent of the
celebrated Ohio Farm Reform School for Boys.
1t is not so many years ago since Mrs. Brown
ing, with her most pathetic and eloquent Cry
of the Children" awoke all England to an ex-
animation and consequent repr0bation of a
labor system which was crushing the life out of
toing boys and girls 1t is high time that the
people of this great Commonwealth made
similar examination. The children in our
houses of refuge have rights which We are
bound TO respect, not only for their own sake
but for the sake of the common veal which
they can do so much when they grow up TO pro-
mote or retard. The contract system as it now
exists in our prisons is doubtless a question
upon which much can be said on both sides.
That, however, is not this question, but a very
different one. And certainly If the chief end of
a reformatOry is TO reform, then It's chief end
cannot be to farm Out the labor of the children