Evening star., 1898-11-05
ing this quarterly statement printed at the
expense of the District
Summary of ReDorts

Referring to the summary prepared of
the quarterly reports the superintendent
says:
1T brings out in a striking manner the
wide difference in the care given at differ
ent institutions receiving government aid;
the cost per inmate. per day, based on
total expenditures and total days board
furnished to inmates ranging from Is
cents to S1.4S.
The statement of prices paid for sup
plies is not full for the reason that only
that part of the accounts which is paid
from public funds passes through my hands
in detail, the account of private funds be-
ing reported in gross amounts.
AT the close of the second quarter the
attention of the auditor for the District,
and of several presidents of boards of
trustees of institutions. was called to the
striking difference in the prices paid for
staple articles of supplies by the purchas-
ing agents of different institutions. amount
ing, in some instances, to a difference OF
30 TO 40 per cent in prices paid for supplies
presumably similar in quality and value.
Various reasons were assigned in replies
for such inequalities, some of which were
good and others were not. Some of those
who had been paying high prices for sup
plies at once made efforts to secure salts
factory goods at prices approXimatlng
those paid by the District for supplies fur
nished to institutions wholly under District
control Others made no such effort.
The Teaching of Religion.
"One of the objects of the appointment
of the joint select committee to investi-
gate the charities and reformatory insu-
tutions of the District of Columbia,
the superintendent says, was to deter
mine the extent to which appropria-
tions for charities in the District of Column
bia are used for the propagation or teaching
of the special doctrines and forms of wor-
ship of particular churches. The report of
the committee gives list of institutions,
which it declares are under sectarian or
ecclesiastical control, some of which receive
public grants and subject to examina-
ton and report by the superintendent of
charities.
1T has been contended that certain insti-
tutionS are not sectarian because persons
of different denominati tions are members of
their boards of trustees and participate IN
their management; and because no distinc-
ticns are made as to the religious beliefs or
preferences of the parents of children re-
ceived, of the inmates themselves. This
is a sophism which deserves to be set at
rest al once and for all time.
Question of Institution.
I'm an effort to understand whether an
institution is a religious establishment, and
whether contributions to it's support are
devoted to the more firm and general es-
tabishment of any particular system of
religion, it is not necessary to inquire VINO
manages its secular affairs nor who 1t
brings within the scope of its influence, put
what that influence is. Not VINO employs
the teachers, but what is taught
description is given by the superlntend-
ent of the educational and religious work
done in the child-caring institutions re
ceiving assistance from Congress. Inc
list includes the Newsboys' and Chill
dren's Home, Industrial Home School, Ger
man Orphan Asylum, National Colored
Home, House Of Mercy and House OF the
Good Shepherd. st. Rose Industrial School,
St. Joseph's Male Orphan Asylum.
Children Restored to Parents.
The private child-caring institutions re-
ceiving public grants do a work which Is
exceptional, even noteworthy, in respect 70
the proportion of children returned to pa
rents and relatives. That there are cases
in which the temporary maintenance OF
children in an institution. and their return
to the homes from which they We're taken,
is the wisest and best thing that can be
done fC- them need not he doubted No one
knows what is the present condition of the
hundreds of children who have been under
the care of the institutions of this city md
returned to the custody of their parents
Occasionally the history of a family comes
to notice in which children found destitute,
suffering for food and clothing or exposed
to shocking moral dangers, are known to
have been taken from some institution by
an irresponsible father or mother. Inquiry
usually brings to light the fact that the
judgment of the superintendent of the IN
stitution. who, in most cases, has np
portunity for making the acquaintance of
parents: but because there !s in use no gen.
eral system of legal and binding commit
ment, the demand of the parent for The re-
lease of the child could not he resisted.
1T appears to me that If the District of
Columbia is under any obligation toward
the children who are necessarily dependent
upon its people for support and protection
that obligation must involve not only the
temporary housing. clothing and feeding
of these children. but it will never be dis
charged until they have been wisely and
safely guided through the vicissituIes of
both childhood and youth into sc!f-~espect-
ing ana seif-supporting citizenship.
Notes of Estimates.
THE greater part of the increase in this
estimate over the appropriation for the cur
rent year" says Mr.. Lewis lis made up of
items for buildings at the Washington Asy-
lum. Nothing which l can say here can
serve to make more plain to those in a po-
sition to know the needs of the District the
absolute necessity of new and enlarged
buildings a this institution
Another need of long standing is the en-
largement of the Reform School for Girls
Tor which an appropriation of so 600 is
now available a contract for building
to be completed at an expense of not more
than $4,000, being authorized. The addi-
uonal $4,000 required to complete this
tulldlnS, OF course had to be included in
the estimate for 1900
The cost of the care of the insane and
feeble minded is increasing from year to
year. and there is no prospect that it will
be possible to avoid increasing appropria-
TONS for these purposes
The increased capacity of the Industrial 4
Home School, the expenses necessarily at
tending the enlargement of its usefulness
bringing all its departments into harmony
and the settlement and Improvement of its
grounds after building have called for in
credses in the estimate for that institution
The growing work of the board of chill
drens guardians, the increasing number of
children held on expense under the guardi-
anship of that organization call for a mod
crate increase in available funds 1t is be-
lieved, however, that the present estimate
for this work will not have to be greatly
enlarged hereafter. The number of wards
of the board will probably not increase
greatly during the next few years unless
their number should be augmented from
sources outside of normal court commit
mentS
An Offset.
The maximum age at which children may
be committed to the care of the board being
sixteen years. a few of those committed
four and five years ago will now pass from
ite,