Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-19

though relieving him of every duty to-
Five years after the passage Of this law,
Kings county, seeing whittier 1t would lead,
had itself relieved to some extent by Sc
curing the enactment of a special law re-
lating to that county, which provided that
no children should be admitted to institu-
lions to be supported at public expense ex-
cept upon commitment by the commission
ers of charities and corrections and giving
to those commissioners power to bind out or
apprentice any child upon his arrival at a
certain age. This had the effect indicated
by universal experience, and the ratio of de-
pendent children in Kings county and the
city of Brooklyn fell from one in every 405
of the population in 1880 to one In every 745
in 1885, while in New York county, under
conditions otherwise exactly similar, the
ratio reached one dependent child to every
191 of the population in 1883. and the tax
levied upon the people Of the city of New
York for the support of children in asylums
had reached a dollar a head for every man,
woman and child in the city.
California's Experience.
The experience of California with public
subsidies to private institutions has been
almost equally dreary, and all attempts
to change the matter come to naught
When an attempt was made to get some
state control of the institutions supported
by the state through the creation of a
board of charities and corrections. two
half day convinced the committee in charge
of the bill that 1t ought to pass. and 1t
was reported favorably. but the report
melted away under the opposition of those
interested in the effect of such a law on
sectarian institutions, and the bill was
never heard of again. So II is still the case
that for the present biennial period that
magnificent ST e. with all the advantages
of perpetual s.Jring and unparalleled nat
urai resources will hand over to private
individuals and close corporations more
than half a million dollars for the support
of more than four thousand children sup
posed to be dependent. The gathering to-
gether of children into sectarian asylums
presupposes the purpose of influencing them
in the direction of that sect, and il is
worthy Of note that had the plan been de-
number of the faithful of any particular
denomination when supported by public
subsidies II would have been found perfectly
adapted to that end The people of a
in that sort of church extension. but there
comes a time when they can offer no eff
fectua1 objection.
In the District.
In the District of Columbia there were
in 1880 three institutions for children which
received public subsidies, the amount ap-
propriated being $l65O0. In 1898 there
were thirteen, and they received an aggre-
gate appropriation of s54, $50 for the sup
port of over 800 children. only 115 of whom
had been received at the request of some
public official and nearly 500 at the re-
quest of parents and relatives or other in
terested parties. The ratio of children to
whose support public contributions were
being made was to about $50 of the popu-
lation. and the drain sustained by the Dis
trict revenues was more than twice as
great as that made by the state of Mime
sofa, where the population was five times
as large as in the District of Columbia. In
other words, it cost a quarter of a million
people in the District of Columbia twice
as much to support their dependent chill
dren in private asylums as II cost mil
lion and a quarter people in Minnesota to
care for theirs under state control. The
expense per hundred of the population in
Minnesota was less than 81 and in the
District 1t was oyer go. exclusive OF the
care of the feeble minded.
These are some of the financial peculiari-
ties of the two systems of care of depend
ent children in operation In the United
States They might be reinforced and &C
centuated by accounts of similar expert
ence abroad, but they should be sufficient
to teach an important lesson as they are.
While they are important, and while all
laws should tend to foster economy and
not extravaganza, it Is upon its socio-
logical side that this matter presents its
most glaring inconsistencies. These II is
not the present purpose to point out. but
merely to say that, in the light Of reason
and common sense. II will ever be safe
tc take the side of the free American home
child against the old world monastic senti-
menc, which herds children together in the
unnatural seclusion of institutions.
In view of these facts, 1t becomes very
| evident that a change in the policy of the
District Of Columbia toward this question
was not necessarily a change for the worse
and that the effort of Prof. Warner. the
former superintendent of charities to Sc
cure for this District the adoption of the
principle that public support carries with II
necessarily the right of public guardian
snip was entirely eommendable. 1t was an
effort to do for the District what was done
for Kings county, New York, in 1885, by
the enactment of the law which reduced
child dependence so promptly and effect
ually in the city of Brooklyn as pointed out
above. He did not see that there would
be any injustice or hardship in Withholding
from all persons and corpora tions all pay
ments OF public money, except such as
could be given in the form of specific pay
ment for specific service rendered, and he
believed that having lost or never had the
right sort of family relations was the
cause OF the troubles of most of the help
less, friendless little children of our city.
and that that would be the best work
which soor est restored to them what they
had lost
He thought II would be better to remove
the tremendous temptations to parents to
unload their children upon the public and
TO relieve pure private charity from every
touch Of officialism, which could not be
done as long as 1t sought to secure public
money for the prosecution of its enter
prfses. He saw no reason why the people
of the District of Columbia should be taxed
for the support of paupers, whether adult
or juvenile shipped to Washington solely
for the purpose of sharing in such pro-
vision as we made for our own, and he
sought to embody the needed reconstruc-
ton In the bill creating the board of chill
dren's guardians
There is an Increasing number of thought
fui people who fully agreed with him in
these matters. V
Views of n Recognized Authority.