St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-17

Tnn~e will h title disagreement as to what
Constitutes proper bodily support and proper
mental culture; and, so far as the state is
concerned, there is no need or propriety in
discussing what constitutes proper religious
training, for it is fundamental with US that
the state should neither teach any particular
| creed or religion nor make discrimination be-
tween particular creeds or religions There can
be no religious training without positive in
structfon on religious principles and subject.
A commission appointed in 1870 by the legis-
lature of Pennsylvania, known as the board
of public charities, reported in favor of a
statute impartial in its provisions to all ele-
ments of the people Of the state to furnish
aid to private benevolerce organized for the
support and education of destitute and neg
lected children, and the report of this COM
mission shows that it explored the subject to
its sources. The English system of certified
industrial schools is an admirable method Of
combining state aid and private philanthropy
| in this great work. Schools which combine
industrial features with the elements of COM
mon school education, and which clothe lodge
| and feed the pupils, may apply to the public
examiner or inspector to be admitted to the
benefits of the acts of parliament. If the in
spector is satisfied that the institution SUD-
plies the requirements of an industrial
school, and that the management is wor-
thy, the school is enrolled and certified
and thereafter is entitled TO public aid.
In the popular mind tinge and stain of GRIM
inality and inferiority and effectiveness adj
here to all children who at any time were in
mates of state institutions. This popular
feeling does not exist in respect to these chill
dren cared for in private institutions-at
least by no means to the same extent as to
the others. However unfounded this express
sion may be. it remains, it cannot be argued
away, and it is with this populor mind these
children will have to deal when the time
comes to face the outside world.
State institutions are usually constructed
and carried on on large and systematic
scale. Prevalent notions of economy de-
mand this. The institution is generally
vast and complicated machine. The supplies,
clothing, food, etc., are procured in large
quantities. The washing, cooking and bak-
| ing are done by machinery, and each child
finds himself unit in army of depend
ents-pauper dependents; and when he goes
forth he goes without self-reliance, having
become mere machine, aud very poor
machine at that. Such child can scarcely
withstand the assaults of temptation and the
urglngs OF passion. In state institutions the
administration is carried on by persons who
engage III that work for the sake of living.
YOUTH is QUICK TO ASCERTAIN.
and very soon comes to know that the per-
SOILS who have them in charge are engaged
in that work not for the good of the children
but for the good of themselves and their own
families. This is so as d general thing, not
withstanding the fact that many of the
and conscientious men and women. On the
other hand, in private institutions child
soon comes to know that the persons in
whose control it is are ems aged in the work
because of their sympathy with human mis-
fortune, and because of their love of the God
of mercy. In this respect it is apparent to
anyone who looks at the question at all that
private institutions conducted by private
benevolence and charity are immeasurably
superior for purposes of real reformation and
education than state institutions. And to
look at the roster of officials in state institu-
lions and examine as to their party affiliations,
one soon discovers that there exists in the
minds of the appointing powers the idea that
persons fit to conduct the charitable work of
the state are to be found only in that particu-
lar party which achieved the latest success at
the polls. 1t is proposition easily under
stood that the education and training in state
institutions are UNNECESSARILY different from
and inferior to the private institutions at the
hands of persons whose hearts and souls are
in the work, to the detriment of their pock-
cts. Such persons are not affected in their
tenure of place by political fluctuations, and
the work is for them a life work, and becomes
second nature. The establishment of state
institutions removes the responsibility of car
ing for the unfortunate children from the
people as people, where it belongs, to the
political servants of the people, where it does
not properly belong, and where, in the nature
of things, it cannot be and will not be prop
erly discharged. When the question is how
to do the work of charity, which is the more
laudabe determination, ''let US do it our
selves" or, ''let the state do it?''