The morning call., 1890-06-06
KEMP'S DENIAL.
The Boys and Girls Aid Society Is Not
an Institution.

The Boys and Girls Aid Society Is Not
an Institution.
The officers of the Boys and Girls Aid
Society feel very indignant at that portion
of the report of the Grand Jury, which was
published yesterday, which says in sub
stance The school of this Institution is
located in this city. and youthful offenders
are brought to the society from other coun-
ties to be finally maintained at the expense
of the city taxpayers" In conversation
with q CALL reporter yesterday James I.
Kemp, visiting agent of the society, said,
referring to the report:
The boys aud Girls Aid Society is not strictly
an Institution. Neither is II 4 school, nor does lt
maintain a school except m an elementary sense
The fundamental idea OF tile AID Society Is that
what homeless child nerds Is family home,
where II will be brought up naturally aud not
mechanically as IS largely the case Ia al nstltu-
tIou. In strict conSonance Win tnls prlnciDle,
the large aggregate Of children under lis control
AT this moment scattered throughout the
various counties Of California Many Of these
are attending Ibe district schools aud at the
same lime learning TO become practical farmers
and fruit raiseI>, or, in the case OF girls, being
taught lie necessary art OF housekeeping
IL IS now, and has been for years. my duty TO
visit these Children and see that The contracts
are being honestly fulfilled, and | know tba', in
stead OF helping 10 increase the burden oil tax
payers, tile Boys and Girls Aid Society I'M
measurably relieves It. COmparati Yely lew chill
dren are received from the country. and OF these
q
dustrlal School, whereas scores and scores OF
city boys and girls are being sent into The eoun'
Try.
Surely the Grand Jury Is not far-siEhted in
raising this question. for Ihey have left II open
for the county 10 reto!t thai the boot IS on the
Otner leg.
To fully realize what The Boys and Girls Aid
Society is doing should 20, as do, into every
county, leaving the railway stations and striking
out from tlve 10 as high as 100 miles, where boys
or girls Will be found who six or seven years ago
were San Francisco street arabs and hoodluniS.
but who, through its eiOIts, have been saved to
society and themselves, and Tie cost OF doing
this has been chiefly borne by Charitable contrl-
l nder Section 1888 OF the Penal Code, the city
sends some seven or eight boys and glrls 10 the
AID Society every month, and In very many
eases these city boys are sent TO homes
upon ranches In the interior.
as any county III Tie State can do the same, II
may happen that once IN awhile a country boy
iuns away from the society and getting arrested
might be sent 10 the Industrial School, but the
Grand Jury Is decidedly wrong In asserting that
II is a common thing, for 1 am positive that for
every such case at least fiiy city boys are saved
from going to the Industrial School.
On the other hand II sometimes happens that
city boys, on being sent to country homes, COM
NIT serious depredatIons, and on this account
most bitterly have l, as The agent, often been
assalIed, In TACT there Is scarcely month that
such Is not the case. The supei intendent Is
every day visited by parents who have boys they
cannot control begging him to send them Into
the country TO some good ianeb; and so TO sum
the whole matter up Ibis society has. since its
organization, been engaged principally in send
ing 10 the people OF The interior he homeless
abandoned, delinquent, orphan, and worse than
orphan, boys and girls Of San Francisco, instead
of keeping them here II certalnly would DO
were IL an institution IN the ordinary sense OF the
word.
In this connection may say that just because
the aid society sticks to It's priucLe of Family
Lie" ii Is debarred from receiving to any appre-
ciable extent the State aid granted for the su D.
port Of orphan, hall orphan and abandoned chill
dren, who under IA years OF age, while the
in Institutions are getting this grant right along
year after year for the same children