The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-12-11
An OPEN LETTER
TO LEGISLATURE
By the Federation of Women's
Clubs of Alabama
FOR AN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL
The Noble Women of the State Ask As
sistance in the Great Work of Rescu-
ing the Young White Boys from
Crime and Degradation.

The Women's Federated Literary Clubs,
of Alabama, at its last meeting, abandon
ing the narrow limits of purely literary
work. determined to enter the broader field
of philanthropy. Casting about for the
direst need that pressed upon the hearts of
the womanhood and motherhood of Ala
bama, none so touched all hearts as the
great army of boys and girls growing up
amid scenes of ignorance, vice and sin, only
to fill the prisons ane swell the great GRIM
inal class.
With a view to a practical execution of
their. desires, they appointed committee
to prepare and present to the general as
sembly of the state charter for reforma-
tory for such children.
The committee after visiting the peniten-
tiary and convict camps, felt that 1t was
entirely within the spirit of their authority
to substitute an industrial home In the
place of reformatory. They were moved
to this because the reformatory doesn't
seem to reach the real source of the
trouble. The ''ounce of prevention" not
1.-THE pound of cure" is the real need of the
home. This point is emphasized by a
learned jurist who says:
L am satisfied that sentence to and con-
finement in the reformatory- can never be
otherwise than blight upon the whole life
Oh boy or girl. To confine a young boy,
whose greatest guilt Is his ignorance. with
confirmed, though youthful criminals,
ought to call forth a protest from every
generous heart.
The Tennessee School
VII 10 70
the practical operation of such an institu-
tion as we desired to form, the Tennessee
industrial School was visited. In the man
agement of this wonderful school, Justly
the pride of our sister state, the solution of
our problem was manifest. We can not ex-
press in apt terms the admiration which
the wise, humane and Christian love and
foresight exercised in directing the opera
lions of this institution has excited in u.s.
1t provides for that large and diversified
class of neglected, dependent and unfortun-
ate children whom the lack of home life Is
swiftly and surely poisoning and corrupt
ing, adding them to the ranks of crime
Eleven years ago, father, heartbroken
at the loss of his only child. gave a house
and few acres of land to found home
for the outcast youth of Tennessee. Look
ing back through the vista of years we see
a resolute man, devoted heart and soul to
this noble work, a band of seven boys and
an old gray mule. This was the sowing;
what is the harvest?
Today eight hundred children, housed in
beautiful buildings are growing into noble
men and women, while the old gray mule
In peace Is spending his last days in green
pastures and beside the still waters"
Does 1t pay?
During this decade thousand and fifty
of its boys and girls have taken their places
as honest workmen, and think of it. only
thirteen black sheep In all this flock! Go
ask Tennessee If it pays Like the noble Ro-
thousand of her sons and daughters and
say: These are my jewels"
A Pressing Need
With this illustration before our faces.
surely the state of Alabama in the exercise
of that philanthropy which naturally de-
wolves upon her, will open her heart and
door to the friendless. neglected quasi
criminal children, who have probably never
known the sweet influence of home and
mothers love, and save them from the de-
PRAYING and vicious tendencies of their en-
The women of Alabama, the mothers of
this state. with a united voice plead with
its sons now in the general assembly to
make provision for the neglected ones.
They are In need of place as near like
home as possible. and. therefore, with
mothers the ruling spirit. They need de-
velopment of hand, head and heart, that
they may make the best of themselves.
They should be taught trades, and best of
all, the industries of the farm. 1t is quite
as important that a boy should be so
trained that he will not "sow his wild oats"
or SOW to the wind and reap the whirl-
wind
The Hon. c. d. Kerr. one Of the judges of
the courts of Missouri. with n large exper-
nj on
-"All recognize now that criminals are
not accidents or freaks: that they
the legitimate outgrowth and product
of causes that may be reached and rem
edied that they have approached
life of crime by progressive steps. and
that the chains of habit are insidious
and generally. as another has expressed
1t. too small to he felt till they are too
strong to he broken
"Knowing this. there Is practical
unanimity in the belief that vicious ten
denotes and growth can hest. and in
most cases can only be eradicated or ar
rested in the plable period of early
youth. when the latent possibilities for
good may be developed. 1t is safe to say
that four-fifths of all who have been ar
raigned for trial in my court for crime
have been under twenty-five years of
age and the majority certainly have
been under twenty-one"
And pleading for a home like the one now
proposed by the women of Alabama, he
says:
This brings me to a matter of 1egis-
1ation with respect to this school, to my
mind of paramount importance. name
ly: The appropriation of a SUFFICIENT
sum to enable the management to give
each boy thorough rudimentary fnstruc-
tion In one of the divers trades and oc-
equations of the common people. am
firm believer in the gospel of work
for all boys not fragmentary desultory
labor. but steady. systematic work at
some specific trade or.calling. During
my six years experience on the bench