The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-11
the subject. one which should occasion
them any very grave concern.
CARING FOR THE CHILDREN.

CARING FOR THE CHILDREN.
OF all the cases Of human want or
suffering which appeal to the sympa-
thies of good people, those Of little chill
dren who have been deprived Of the care
of their parents are the most touching.
Thousands of such children are every
year in our large cities reduced to this
pitiful condition, sometimes through the
death of one or both parents. sometimes
through the want or neglect of their nat
ural guardians. Society up to very re-
cent times knew no means OF helping
those children save putting them in pub
lie institutions. So extensively Is this
being done that at the present moment
in the city of New York alone the main
tenance of such institutions represents a
tax on every man, woman and child In
the state of 81 annually and amounts In
the aggregate yearly to s25.OOO,oOo.
In the splendid advances which are be-
ing made every day in humanitarian
work, both public and private, the old
conditions and methods are changing. 1t
is being acknowledged that the effect
of institutional training on the young
possesses the tendency to foster sense
of dependence on the community, and to
encourage pauperism, besides destroying
all sense of individuality on the part OF
the inmates On these considerations
mainly the new plan is being made to
rest investigations made by the Charity
Organization society in that city were
begun recently by securing the right TO
inquire into all cases in which children
were sought to be sent to public institu.
er help given to the parents, where
one or both parents were still living,
would not avoid commitment and to give
the needed help where the situation was
encouraging. Since this movement be-
gan it has been found quite successful,
and LOIS children, who otherwise would
have been sent to various asylums and
homes have been saved from institution
al life, and are now living with their
parents Of this number S53 had been
actually committed, and 662 had reached
the preliminary stage of commitment. OF
course, many of the children whose
cases had been investigated were COM
mitted, there being no other present
available course, but the encouragement
given to the new movement was found
so great that the department of chart
ties is now giving the society all the aid
possible in carrying out their plan.
One of the most gratifying and en-
couraging effects of the course pursued
by the organized charities in this behalf
is that there has resulted a great saving
of the public funds. The total saving
for the year, even while the movement
has been in its infancy, is $1o5.55o All
or nearly all the organized Individual
charities in New York have adopted 1t.
among them the st. Vincent de Paul So
ciety, which looks after Catholic poor
exclusively, and the organized Hebrew
charities which conf1ne themselves to
bringing relief to needy Jews; and many
children have been thus saved by these
organizations from being shut up in asy-
lums.
Another valuable feature and effect Of
the plan Is that through it many father
who had, out of hopelessness and want,
sunk to the level where he had ceased TO
struggle against adversely for the main
tenance Of his children, has through the
intervention of the society been able to
take up his life anew and Is living the
life Of self-respecting member Of So
ciety, while the aid derived through rel
atives who, through family disagreement
or otherwise having formerly ignored
the unhappy children, were induced to
cooperate in the work of salvation
has rendered material aid. All who
have observed the operation of the plan
are agreed that the children who have
thus been saved from pubic institutions
are living happily at home, often with
their brothers and sisters, are going to
school regularly and enjoying all the
rights and privileges Of their neighbors,
and are far more likely to develop into
self-sustaining and reputable members
of society than they would be had they
not been rescued from the more democrat
izing form of public charity exercised
through institutions.
When society has thoroughly awakened
to its duty OF self-protection, aside from
the purely humanitarian consideration, in
connection with its treatment of its
criminal and incompetent classes. tho
idea which finds embodiment in the
course now being pursued in dealing with
children will in principle find universal
enforcement and only the utterly In
cerrigible and permanently disabled will
be found in it's public institutions.