The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-01-22
" Ards or TIE State
Special Reports
to the Governor on the
Condition Of Depend
emf Children.
NEW POLICY NJ
Boarding Gut System Proposed
a strieter Supervision to
Be Made.
POLICY

De Mddes
The Trenton correspondent of the New
ark Evening News" says that the spec
ial commission appointed by Governor
Griggs to consider means of relief for de-
~feetive, delinquent and dependent children
of the several communities has agreed to
recommend what is known as the board
ing out system for the care of pauper
children. That system is followed in
Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Emily E. Williamson and Hugh
Fox. two of the three of the Governors
special tcommission-Maior Quirk, the
third member, having died lately-have
just placed their report in the Governors
hands. 1t explains the details of the
plan. There is to be a State Board of
Guardians, to be appointed by the Cover
nor, and they are to have general super
vision over the boards of ehildren's
guardians in the several counties of the
State.
These county boards are to be appointed
by the Supreme Court Justice presiding in
the county. They are to consist of five
persons, of whom two shall be women,
and are to serve without compensation.
''They are to have wide discretion as to
the disposition of the children the report
says, subject to such general rules as
may be laid down by the State Board. By
preference they will place children in
families at board or for adoption. but
when necessary they may send them to
Institutions for a limited time. The homes,
etc, TO whom they are sent must be Sc
lected according to the faith of the chill
dren's parents. No children over the age
of twelve months may be kept in an aims
house for more than thirty days. The cost
Of caring for the children, together with
the expense of the board and of the agent
whom they. employ, is to be borne by the
county,
The parent who permits his or her child
to become q public charge may be made
to part with all title of lit if the Board of
Guardians see fit to exact it.
Wherever q law has been passed pro-
viding that the guardianship of dependent
children shall be vested in the State or in
boards of children's guardians. there has
been a large diminution in the number of
dependent children the report reads.
w have reasons to believe that New
Jersey will prove no exception to thisr rule.
and that a rigid investigation would re-
lieve the alrnshouses of a great many or
the children who are now public charges.
THE Children's Aid Societies of Boston
and Philadelphia have the most elaborate
system that has yet been devised for in
v~estigating the homes where children are
to be placed and for supervising the chill
dren thereafter. They keep in touch with
the child constantly by frequent personal
visitations and correspondence, supple,
mented by regular reports from school
teachers, clergy4nen and neighbors. They
not only look after the child's moral and
material welfare, but see to it that 1t
gets the kind of training which will suit
it for the occupation for which it is best
adapted.
The plan which is offered by the com-
mission amply provides for supervision of
this character by experts, who are ia
miliar with all the problems which sucn
work involves"
An appendix to the report shows that
there are in the several almshouses this
number of dependent children
Blackwood, Camden county............ IS
Branchviile, Sussex county ........... 10
Glarksboro Gloueester eounty,.
Elizabeth City. Union county.......... 20
Snake Hill. Hudson county. 252
Newark, Essex county.-............. 8
Paterson City, Passaic county....... 40
Pemberton, Burlington county.....-... 81
scattered attal in the other thirteen aims :
houses of the AZ
Grand total AS
Essex County, one of the most popu-
lous counties in the State, has only had
ten children during the year in the aims
houses" the commission says. Your
commission finds, after careful investiga-
ton, that Newark has in operation an adj
mirable Children's Aid Society, which is
recognized as a factor for good by the au-
thorities and by citizens of every sect.
No children are retained in 1.-THE almshouse
for any length of time; in fact. very few
@v-@, <@ lxA~ n -1 W ~ s9 q 4 dy1n n tho.
watchful care of this society. In Orange
the Charity Organization Society sees that
no children are placed in the almshouse,
providing for them in some other way.
that in the sehildren's department at
Snake Hill (Hudson County, Almshouse
will be found a number of children who
have relatives able to suppor them, but
who are unwilling to do SO. The taxpay-
ers' money is nowhere spent as freely as
it is in this county, and yet its citizens
have gone on through many years with
out even an effort to arrange for the care
of these dependent children. 1t is a blot
upon the escutcheon of the State.
"At Snake Hill the Freeholders have
provided two teachers. Whether they nave
been able to cope with the class of chill
dren that they are trying to train is un-
known, but one thing is known, and that
is that these reformatories, lails and pris-
ons, an almshouse education uniting
them for any other life. There is nothing
more pathetic or more horrible than a
poorhouSe school"
A large amount of correspondence with
humanitarians and managers of charita-
BILE institutions throughout the State is
attached to the report, together with the
resolutions passed at the last convention
of the Episcopal Church of the diocese Of
Newark favoring the prohibition of send
ing children to almshouses for more than
thirty days. and favoring the principles
of the plan proposed by the commission.
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