The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-03-16

| his desire to do what might be within
| his power to uplft his race Prof. Hart
! had appeared before the committee, had
asked for certain help, and the commit
! tee mad extended what il could
/ Mr. Ray asked: DO you know that the
| Hart farm is not a reformatOry 'nstitu-
ton, that it is just a farm run by an
individual to make money out Of: DO you
! know what a reformatory is 2
PhiIanthrcpic work.
! Mr.. Grout defined what the word re-
formatory meant to him. He said: Mr..
Hart Is philanthropist who has put
every dollar he has into this farm that
he might reform as many boys of his race
! as possible. At this place the boy must
! learn to use his hands and not depend
| upon his wits. At the Reform Scho0! for
! Girls operated by the District, il costs
/ about $500 a year per girl, and at the
Reform School for Boys it costs S2l0 a
year per boy. just the sum that it is pro-
! posed to have the Board of Children s
| Guardians pay to the Hart farm for the
/ maintenance of the boys committed to it.
! | demand of you that you point out, if
/ you can. in what particular this provision
/ is a steal?''
! Mr. Ray said again that he had said,
1 or that, if he had not said, that he in
operate as a steal.
Mr.. Richardson-He said il was steal.
| Mr. Grout--I demand that you point out
then where this provision would operate
/ as a steal?
Mr.. Ray asked unanimous consent that
! he be allowed ten minutes within which
| time TO prove his assertion, and, con-
! tinuing. said: "A member of the Board of
| Charities, and a gentleman who is above
! reproach came 10 me and laid certain
| facts before me"
Mr.. Grout-Then, in common fairness.
! why did you not present those facts 10 the
committee instead of waiting until the
| bill got into the House if you believed
that it contained a steal?
Il did not know that the gentleman from
| Vermont was running the Committee on
| Appropriations. I spoke to the chairman
| of the committee about the matter.
MIR. Cannon Takes n Hand.
At this moment Mr.. Cannon entered the
House, drawn probably by the noise Of
the contention. He took Mr.. Ray to task
and said: You told me a little while ago
that you intended to make point of order
against the paragraph in question"
While Mr. Cannon and Mr.. Ray were
| engaged in a somewhat spirited colloquy,
I Mr.. Grout, shaking his finger at Mr.. Ray,
! said
Did you tell the chairman Of the COM
| mittee that it was a steai?''
Mr.. Ray did not say il was steal.
/ Mr. Richardson-But you did.
Mr. Ray continued. and was explaining
| to the Committee Of the Whole just what
| sort of place the Hart farm is. He said
This farm is an individuals property run
by one man as an investment. II is on
the south side of the Potomac River be-
low Mount Vernon"
Mr.. Grout-That shows how much the
gentleman knows about the subject Of
| which he is talking. That shows how
much you about it. II is on the Maryland
side of the river not on the south side;
it is on the east side; there is no south
side to the river down that way.
This caused many persons to laugh, and
appeared to cause some confusion to Mr..
RAY. who said: 'Oh, well, it is on the
Potomac River below Mount Vernon
Mr.. Grout-No. II is not below Mount
Vernon. II is just below Fort Washington.
Mr. Ray-Well, ii is on the Potomac
River.
Mr.. Grout-Yes. that is the only thing
that is accurate in your statement.
Attributed TO Mr.. Hart.
Mr. Ray-My informant, who is mem
Der of the Board of Children's Guardians,
tells me that Mr.. Hart said that if he did
not get some more boys at good prices he
could not pay off the mortgage on the
place.
Mr. Grout-Do you mean to say that Mr..
Hart made use of the remark THAI unless
he could get more boys at good prices he
could not pay his mortgage?
Mr. Ray did not reply directly.
Mr.. Allen of Mississippi interrupted the
New Yorker with this question: If the
Hart farm is such bad place for boys,
and il it is run just as a personal invest
nent. why is it that the Board OF chill
dren's Guardians has voluntarily entered
into contracts with Prof. Hart TO take
charge of so many boys. which IT has
turned over TO his care for 5000 year.
Mr.. Chairman, the milk in the cocoanut
is this. People up here are always reach
ing out for a little more authority. This
provision limits the authority of the Board
of Childrens Guardians by making it man
datory that they shall do something TO-
ward encouraging certain institution,
and some member of that board has just
hung up the gentleman from New York
and induced him TO make this grand stand
for economy. am glad to see that my
friend from New York is coming around to
stand up against great crimes and drains
or the peoples money and insists Oh saw
ing so year on the board OF fifty cclorcd
bOyS-S0UU year III ali.
Mr.. Cannon had moved around the House
since his entrance. Walking toward where
Mr.. Ray was standing, he said he had no
objection to being talked about in the
House either when he was present or
when he was absent. He had given no per-
sonal attention to this matter OF the Hart
Farm School, but the subcommittee. Of
which Mr. Grout was chairman, had, and
he had full confidence in that committee
He thought that the provision in the bill
was a good one, and in the interest Of the
public good
Mr.. Ray said: IF anyone has said 10
the gentleman from Illinois that l have re-
ferred to him in other than courteous
manner that person is a deliberate mis-
chief maker"
During all this boisterous wrangle the
chairman had sustained Mr.. Ray 5 point Of
order
Mr. Barney said to Mr.. Ray that in COM
mon fairness he should remove the impress
sion which he had given the House that he
had told MIR. Cannon that the bill con-
tanned a steal. whereas Mr.. Cannon had
I said that all Mr.. Ray had said to him about
| IL was that he tRay) intended to make a
| point of order against one paragraph in it,
/ He censured Mr.. Ray for not having COM
| municated the fact to the chairman OF the
| subcommittee In charge of the bill Of any
/ suspicion he might have had concerning
/ iobbery.
member from Minnesota defended the
Hart farm. and lmplorcd Mr.. Ray TO either
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