Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-02-06
Michiean leads

and noble Commonwealth. Michigan leads
,ne way IN making provisions for her defence
less, hopeless. more than motherless children
OF both sexes. She has at Coliw alter a school
organized in 1871, which did NOT get fairly
underway until May 1874 when extensive
buildings, built expressly for the purpose.
were ready for the children. The Institution
gives them primary education, and finds for
them satisfactory homes as snon as practic-
aoie, under contracts securing good treat
ment. Otherwise these children would be in
the county poor houses, amidst the associa-
tion OF adults, many of them vicious and
quite sure to exercise an unwholesome and
dangerous influence over the Young. By her
policy and measures Michigan saws il is NOT
for her interests to have these defenceless
ones spoiled by improper association and sur
roundings. The State has provided a farm
and group of building. and their fiji out az
the cost OF nearly $3.50. 900. with aceommo-
dations for $50 pupils. There are tee1re cot
tdges, or homes, built of brick, warmed with
steam and lighted with gas. Eleren of these
homes have accommodations for thirty each,
ana one for sixty, and to these are added a
large brick ediice for central uses. To main
tam this school the State appropriates ab ut
$4,000 per annum There are a plenty of
families who wish for these children a. soon
as they are fitted TO leave the Institution.
In addition to this school at Coldwa-
ter, Michigan, has an Industrial Sc DOL
Tor Girls 1t Adrian, commenced early
IN 1880. but was not opened until Au-
gust. 1881 1t began with a single Cottage
or Home, similar to the one in use at Hsllo-
well, built and furnished at the expense of
the State. at the cost of Sl6, 1000, including
heating and plumbing. The State has con-
NJ Fn IL. l..
until 1t now has IRE, with accommodations
for 1872 girls, four of these buildings having
rooms for SO each. and the other for 60.
These Homes. with a valuable farm of 90
acres, with chapel and school-house and other
conveniences, make the total of real estate TO
TO the amount of sl26000 to which is added
personal property to the value of about
$4,000. making the total property of the
institution Sl45, 900. So far the school has
proved remarkable success. and there
Is found no difficulty in obtaining
good homes for the girls as soon as they are
fitted to leave the School. The average
number now in the Institution is more than
100 The annual cost to the State for the
running expenses of this Institution is about
Sl4 600.
Thus Michigan has permanent property in
these two Institutions, at Coldwater and Adj
riar, to the amount of nearly 100000, ana
pays annually tor their support about S52,-
600. The population of the State in 1880, was
|, $50 900. Thus this noble Commons alth
decides, that 1t is better to prerent the rear
ing of paupers and criminals, than to support
and punish them in poorhouses. jails, and
prisons.
The only additional State, whose experience
on the question before US, ! will take up your
time in mentioning, is Connecticut. Her
course of action, in kind, has been some
what like that of Maine, though it begun at
IN earlier date and has gone much farther
than ours Her Industrial School for Girls
went into operation in 1870, commencing
with single Home and twenty pupils. 1t
has now fire Homes built in superior man
ner of brick and stone, capable of accommo-
dating ttco hundred or more girls. There is
also another building for chapel and school
purposes. These homes are nearly filled to
their capacity. having about one hundred and
ninetu-fpe inmates. The success of the In
stitntipn has been highly satisfactory. There
is more demand for those fitted to leave the
School than can be filled for service in pri-
vate families and for adoption. The Super
intendent in the last published report receiv-
ed, printed in 1884, says: "There is contin-
ual demand for girls to assist in housekeep-
more than half the applications"
The President of the Board of Trustees for
the same year in the report approved by the
Board says: THE School, just closing the
fourteenth year of its operation, has reached
a point in its history where those who have
watched the progress of the work, can look
back on the result with a renewed and graft
fving assurance of its usefulness"
The Institution is located in Middletown,
which donated farm of fifty acres for the
location. For the construction and furnish
ing these buildings the State has given SG3,-
500, and for the same purpose private contri-
buttons have been liberal. For the annual
support of the Institution Connecticut grants
a legislative appropriation of $50 900. The
School is organized and conducted by pri-
waite corporation. the Governor and two other
State officers beng ex-otficio members of the
Board Of Managers, being in these regards
much like the Maine School at Hallowell.
Though not technically a State Institution, it
is incorporated and employed by the State
for the custody, guardianship, discipline and
instruction of a class of persons whom the
State wisely considers minors and wards. 1t
is thus that the most successful institutions
of this kind are managed in this country and
Europe.