The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-05
CARE OF CHILDREN
Poormaster Hewitt Crit
icizes the County Guard
ian Measure.
AMATEUR PHILANTHR0PIsTs
Only Unbaund Orphans in Our
Poor HOnses--The True
Remedy.
AMATEUR PHILANTHROPISTS

.
who has spent considerable time and
thought upon the study of the condition
of the poor, is opposed to the bill now
pending before the Legislature, providing
for State Board of Guardians and Coun-
ty Boards of Guardians composed of
what he calls amateur philanthropists,
under whose control all the defective,
delinquent and dependent poor children
in the State shall be placed. He is op-
posed to any scheme which proposes to
take from the care of the county officials
the care of these persons who are charg-
able to the county for support.
He believes that the passage of such
bill as is now under consideration would
not only work an injustice to the taxpay-
ers, but to the children as WELL and would
result in endless litigation and in the end
would prove complete failure Mr..
Hewitt has been dealing with the poor of
Jersey City for over twenty years and
so successfully that the percentage of
paupers has been reduced from one out
of every nineteen of the population to
one out of one hundred.
What he has to say on the subject
which is now agitating philanthropists in
all parts of the State will therefore be OF
peculiar interest at the present time. He
discussed the matter freely last night
with a reporter for 1.-THE News"
''The caring for dependent children" he
said, sis exciting philanthropists a great
deal this winter. While their intentions,
we believe, are good, they do not seem
to understand the matter as it is. Their
interest appears to be entirely in the mat
nor of limo alafI
dren who are in the almshouses through
out the State. The Hudson County Aims
house appears to be a special mark, prob
ably from the fact that in the Hudson
County Almshouse there are half as many
children as there are in all the other
almshouses in the State. There are, be-
lieve, 900 pauper children in the aims
houses throughout the entire State. and
of these 225 are in the Hudson county in
stitution. At least 200 of the 225 children
who are under the care of Warden Ryan
at Snake Hill have parent or parents.
No one has any constitutional right to
take those children from their parents,
without the consent of those parents, or
when they can prove that the parent or
parents are not proper custodians or rneir
own children.
'It is a fact not generally known that
it is usually only the children of the poor
who are not in good health and are there
fore of no use to their parents at home
who are sent to the Almshouse. 1t is an
appalling fact, but nevertheless true. that
there are not twenty-five children in the
Hudson County Almshouse who are sound
mentally and physically. Two hundred
of the children are each deficient in some
respect. The fact may appear strange
that there is not today in the Almshouse
one orphan child of sound mind and body.
The Warden of the .Almshouse has no
trouble in finding a good home for a sound
orphan child whether boy or girl He
does find homes for all such who come
to his care. have now several applica-
tions for children. but have none to fill
the places.
'It is not the dependent children in the
almshouses that the State should take
proper care of. The State has no right
to place its wards in the care of private
parties. The duty of the State to the
children who are dependent upon it is like
the duty of the parent. 1t should care
for them itself or see that they are prop
erly cared for and educated and become
good and useful citizens Under the pres
ent system. in any institution, statistics
show that Institution life propagaIes de-
pendency. When the State does its duty
to the dependent children it will see that
its wards have proper homes. The de-
pendent children in the Almshouse are not
a drop in the bucket.
THE real dependent children and those
who need the care of the State are to
be found III our crowded tenement dis
tricts. where there is bad sanitation, bad
air and all that would tend to dwarf a.
child morally, mentally and physically.
The real problem of dependency lies in
compelling the parents of such children
to properly provide for them. can take
you tc tw enty tenements in~Jersey City
in which are 200 children over ten years
old who don't know one letter from an
dency by compelling parents to educate
their children and by compelling land
lords and parents to keep their homes in
"a sanitary condition. This would result
in less mental and physical wrecks among
the children of the poor