The herald., 1897-06-28

society, from the Instruction they have re-
| eived.'-Locke.
There IL nothing very exceptional in
the fact Of an incorrigible girl being sent
to the Whittier Reform school. AS mat
ter Of fact It Is a part Of the ordinary
routine in the superior court for
some boy or girl to be commit
ted by one or the other Of the
department judges every few days. Not
withstanding the truth Of this the COM
mitment on Saturday last, by Judge
Allen, Of Kittie Ransom, 15-year-old
girl from Pasadena, and the suspension
Of the commitment at the solicitation OF
lady who desired to give a home to the
girl, and try what love and affection
would do toward reforming her as COM
pared with the routine methods of the
reform school, caused wide comment
among the court officials. There was
nothing unusually striking about the
case; it was simply that in the case Of
Kittie Ransom circumstances so COM
bined themselves as to strikingly illus
trate some of the wickednesses of the
ordinary method of commitment.
Judge Allen stated emphatically that
he sis opposed to sending any boy or girl
to Whittier unless he or she is wholly
bad" Scarcely day passes that some
parent does not visit the district attor-
ney for the purpose of taking steps
toward sending child to Whittier. Most
Of these receive no assistance from the
hands of the district attorney for the
reason that they are attempts merely to
shirk a parents responsibility in regu-
lating an unruly boy or girl who has
been permitted to develop unpleasant
traits Of character by the parents. Others
there are, however, and particularly
though not exclusively girls, who have
through all absence Of control developed
habits ruinous to themselves and detri-
mental to society, and yet upon wha.
may be termed precociously natural
rather than criminal lines. In these, as
a rule. there Is no predisposition towards
crime, but as they fall markedly within
the lines reserved for those of "incor-
rigible and morally depraved" inclina-
tions they are packed off to Whittier
where the merely precocious boy or girl
herds with the innately depraved and
those criminally tainted. Before any
youth or girl is relased it is only to be
expected that dead level Of evil mind
of the future presents to the average
graduate little Of hope.
There is at lone the Preston Industrial
school, which Is reserved especially Off
the youth Of both sexes who are in any
way criminally tainted, and the methods
there obtaining form an intermediate
grade between the Whittier school and the
state penitentiary But there are num-
bers Of inmates at Whittier who fall with
in the category that should entitle them
to entrance at lone. Why, then. are they
not sent there? The only reason that
appears on the surface is that the ex-
pense Of transportation to the county
would be much heavier than in sending
them to Whittier, and by swelling the
muster roll at the latter institution a
home industry Is being fostered
Not only does the state appropriation
depend, in large measure, upon the num-
her Of children cared for, but upon the
county pro rata payments, which forms
an extra surceof emolument to the Whit
tier school, and both are expended
in the way Of salaries to resi-
dents of Southern California and in
the various channels of expendi-
ture incident to the administra-
tion Of such large institution Some
idea of the amounts expended may be
formed by glancing over the appropria-
tions made by the last legislature:
Whittier Reform School-For support
of school, $4,000; salaries and employees,
$91, 200; band instruments, $500; books for
library, $500; replacing furniture, $1,000.
Total, $202, 200.
Preston School Of Industry-For sup
port Of schools, $70,000 salaries, $55, 900;
printing, blacksmith's and carpenters
shops, TOOLS books, cows and horses,
$2500; an ice plant, putting up fiueing,
enlarging barn, etc., $4,000. Total, $780,
100.
For these immense sums it would seem
as If, so far as money is concerned, there
should exist no reason why the two re-
form schools should not transform these
boys and girls into good citizens. If there
is any failure in this direction what does
it mean to the state, and quite apart
from the suffering and heartbreak which
each commitment is supposed to mean
to some family? In 1880 there were 229
child delinquents to each million of
population Of the United States, and in
1890 this number had increased to 237-'
an increase Of in each million. In
the extreme east decrease Of "A in 1,000,-
900 was shown, while in the extreme
west (the Pacific slope) there was an
increase Of "a per million. From the
mere mention Of these two localities 1t
will not do to say that the. influx of
illiterate foreigners had resulted in
| swelling the list of delinquent children,
for on June /, 1890, there were children
of this character in the reformatories
throughout the country, 14,S46, of which
1885 were boys and 1911 girls, and of
theee 14O5 only were foreign born-a
fraction over per 1000
In discussing this question Of child
delinquency there appears to be very
general opinion, among the legal fra