Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-19
Tp- PUBLIC WARDS
Two Plans Of Providing for Depend
ent Children.
WORK THAT OFFERS LARGEST RETURNS
Caring for Them Before They
Reach the Criminal Stage.
PUBLIC GU ARDIANS HIP
WORK THAT OFFERS LARGEST RETURNS
UBLIC UARDIANS HIP

city Of st. Louis, and throughout its ses-
sions much importance was attached to the
value of work among children before they
had reached the criminal stage. 1t was
generally conceded by all who discussed
the question before the congress that pre-
ventive work offered the largest returns
for the outlay and must supplant, If eff
fectual work is to be done, reformatory
agencies.
The published proceedings of that con-
gress contain brief notice Of the establish
ment of the Michigan State Public School,
from which we quote the words of the sec
| rotary, Hon. E. c. Wines, whose life was
ever associated with the best efforts to
| build up truer systems of reform. and iri-
still nobler humanity in dealing with all
| conditions of misfortune and depravity, and
whose name must ever awaken sentiments
Of profound regard in the mind Of every
American philanthropist.
| After quoting a section of the law which
declared that the object of the institution
was to provide temporary home only for
| children until homes can be secured for
them in private families. he said: The
| school Is established on the family plan,
with cottages for thirty inmates each. 1t
| Is charity of novel kind, from which the
! very best results may be looked for. Michi-
gan seems to be taking the lead of her
| sister states in social reforms, and il would
not be strange as things look, IL she should
! take precedence of all others in establish
ing model systems of prison discipline, and
| of preventive and reformatory work. May
she have many imitators in her good
ways. These words were spoken three
days before the first child was received at
this novel institution. Whatever may have
been the hopes of founders, experience alone
can determine results.
The Michigan Experiment..
At the meeting of the American Social
Science Association in the city of Detroit.
/ in May. 1875. Gov John ]. Bagley of Michi-
gan said, speaking of the state work for
dependent children, as authorized by the
| act of the legislature establishing the
state public school. with it's active placing
out system and careful official supervi-
| sion of children after their settlement in
| private homes: What a noble work for
state to engage in; reaching out a hand
not heavy and restraining, clothed in iron
mail, but gentle and tender, clasping inno-
cent children and holding them out to its
citizens as their brothers and sisters"
| A statement of the conditions because of
which this public agency for the rescue of
children was needed seems to be here de-
maEded. There We're at that time in the
aims houses of the state of Michigan about
6Oo children under sixteen years of age,
exposed to the moral contagion emanating
from adult paupers, and costing the people
OF the commonwealth, in round numbers
Soo.OoO per year. The numbers of such de-
per dent were increasing more rapidly than
the gel eral population. The experience of
older and more populous states with differ
ent methods of meeting this need was any
thing but encouraging. The population of
the state was 100000 and the ratio of de-
pendent children to population was one to
900 The annual cost of their support in
the aims houses was 1888 per 100 of the
population.
In 1890, after sixteen years of work on
the lines laid down in 1874. there were in
the state public school 20 children, and In
| the poor houses. diseased and idiotic chill
dren and those inadmissible from other
causes, about 100, making in all not more
this showing there was in 1890 one de-
pendent child Qncluding feeble-mindedD In
each 1000 of the population, the aggregate
expense had fallen from $4,000 to $42. SOC
(S3o,OOO for maintenance of the state public
school and $500 for diseased. idotic and
linadmissib1e chi1dren) and the cost per 100
OF the population had fallen from 1888 to
S2.O7 including all classes. During this
period the population of the state had in
creased over so per cent. Considering only
those usually classed as dependent children
this showing would be one child supported
/ at public expense to each 10000 of the pop
ulation.
The Example Followed.
This record being made in Michigan could
not lohg go unnoticed, and in 1885 Minnie
sofa and Wisconsin organized their work
for dependent children on precisely the
same lines, and II has in each of those
states been fully approved by governors
and legislators up to the present time.
At the end of five years there were in the
state of Minnesota 500 children under pub
lie guardianship, 457 of whom were self
supporting and 1876 supported at public ex-
pense. The report for the last fiscal year
showed average of 524 wards of the
state during that year, and the total cost
of the maintenance of those In the state
institution and the supervision of those in
yNrix- hr,,a
child, or at the rate of s1.92 per 100 of the
population of the state.
| Wisconsin had 500 in free, private homes
and 30 in the state institution, and made
correspondingly favorable financial show
ing.
Rhode Island enrolled herself in the same
line of preventive work in 1885, and at the
close of 1891 had 21S children under public
guardianship, one-half of whom We're self
supporting in free, private homes.
| Massachusetts has peculiar system all
her own. but the DEMONSTRATING of children
In the homes of her people has found no
less earnest approval there than in the
northwest. In 1882 the number of children
placed in private homes under public au-
thority from the State Primary School at
Monson was 40 per cent of the number
kept in the institution. In 1887 it had
arisen to GO per cent and in 1892 1t was 140
per cent. The Bostonians recognize an ad-
vantage when one is placed before them.
Beginning this work tentatively they in
creased it 20 per cent during the first five
years of the decade under considera ton
and four times as fast during the second
five years.
Striking Contrast.
In striking contrast with such work as
has been here described has been the prac-
tice in other states. notably New York, Cali
fornia and the District of Columbia, where
the dependent children have been cared for
in private and sectarian asylums supported
more or less fully by Appropriations from
the public treasury.
| In 1875, about two years after the enact
ment of the Michigan law establishing a
state temporary home, a law went into ef-
| feet in New York which provided that chill
dren should be committed to institutions
controlled by persons of the same religious
denomination their parents and that the
county should pay their board Under this
law the number of children supported by
| New York county alone was swcIled from
1892 in 1875 to 1888 in $780, this statement
including only the twenty-nine institutions
which can demand and do receive public
money toward their support. Some of them
which have come into existence since il was
| passed were directly created by that law
| 1t provided exactly the care which parents
desired for their children, that of persons
| of the same religious faith as themselves
and supplied ample means for the chill
| drens support. Although the funds were
| derived from public sources, yet the institu-
lions were managed by private persons,
and the stigma which unfortunately attaches
to public relief was wholly removed Thus