The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-04-30
ABANDONED AND NO QUESTIONS ARE ASKED.
Good Market for Infants That Bright Healthy Wants
the Physically Mentally Unfortunate ?IS Not
sbe From responsibility First the Profit From the
Business or the Best Interests Ofthe Helpless Infant?

There are no new developments to add
to the exact story told by The News Of
that lying-in hospital and the associated
baby farm. No new developments are
necessary to arouse the people.of the state
and awaken the General Assembly TO a
sense of its duty in the promises.
The story of misfortune that the expos
ure of the business carried on at Mrs.
Westcott's private lying in hospital and
Mrs DeRosa's baby farm is none the less
appalling because tho business carried on
so thrivingly is beyond the pale of the
statutes of Rhode Island. Indeed, that
fact makes the unparalleled outrage
only the more glaring.
Rhode Island laws are shamefully loose
in many familiar and notorious particu
lars Especially is this so in their deal
ings with the marriage relation. Divorce
Is easy and so Is the avoidance of the
marital tic. 1t is only in recent years
that the age of consent has been estab-
lished at Mt all decent limit while little
protection is offered in the law for the
young woman whose confidence is mis-
placed in evil disposed or self sufficient
man. The wicked neglect in statutory
law in such cases. Man may be almost
absolutely free in his relations with
women, here in Rhode Island, without
compromising or binding himself even
when misfortune To the woman shall en-
sue when rs under the law the unfortu-
nate may be abandoned; the means of
escape SO far as possible are sanctioned
by default in law and flourish and find
encouragement To be sure, abortion is
"a crime and its assistance and aid, or en-
couragement even, are punishable by sem
tence to state prison. The law i'm this re-
speot is stringent and difficulties are not
placed III the way of proving the crime.
But that aside, the law only compels the
man To support the bastard child and puts
him under no obligation whatever 20 the
wronged or too confiding woman. And
the fact that according to the informa-
ton secured by The News, as to this
meretriciOus institution of Mrs. WcstcOtt
and the DeRosas, it appears that outside
the state the infamy of Rhode Island is
understood and taken full advantage of.
Tho laws protect the unfortunate as
little as possible and then, by default,
shelter the offences against moral law as
| the only recourse lett To the unfortunate
| to escape the shame. Stricter law to con-
| troll the whim of the licentiato would
! make such institutions Improbable. But
| In the absence Of such tho law permits
| the existence Of the institution as a means
TO an end and perforce the unfortnnates
/ support it, since no better protection is
| possible.
A lying-in hospital or even private
| kind need not necessarily be AN evil. A
| baby farm need not be either, although 10
! probably always il. The abandonment OF
children Is surely n crime under even
| Rhode Island lax statutes whilo the pos
| sibilities, readily imagined, Of the secret
| .fin nf "A
| farm are of course criminal enough TO
satisfy the most lax of moralists. lt Is
| plain that the business Of baby farming is
conducted for money. IL Is conceivable
that the manager of baby farm would
not take kindly 90 bringing up children
who from physical or mental misfortune
| are not available TO market Under such
circumstances the imagination stands
| appalled, at the possible temptations tC
| crime of a most hideous nature. Only re
Gently the news from England has con
tanned an account Of a woman who not
only took charge Of children whom theii
parents wanted 90 leave upon the world,
but took them with the deliberate pur
pose Of destroying their little lives
though doubtless even this unspoakablC
woman preferred, whore possible, To dis
pose of them otherwise than by drowning
them I'm the silent river, that was proved
90 have held so many awful secrets.
The baby born at the Wcstcott hospital
was, If It lived long enough, sent TO The
DE Rosa baby farm. The latter institution
kept an advertisement standing IN The
newspapers Offering "a child for adop
tion." There is no evidence of anything
further thnn that The children may have
been amply protected and their little
lives nursed along and every care taker
that they should live and not die. Their
Is nothing To show that the abandoned
babies were not properly cared for. l3u
ut the best such "a system, practicet
without any supervision, Is an irrcspon
sible system ana wrongful. On the iac'
of il, the child that mother abandons .,