The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-12-07
CHILD SAVING.
Annual Report Of Board Of
Guardians Sent to Gov.
Voorhees,.
ALHSHoUsE CLEARED OF CHILDREN
Excellent Work Done During
the Year Past By Mr.. Fox
and His Associates.
CLEARED OF CHILDREN

The annual report of the Board of Chill
dren's Guardians was sent to Governor
VOORHEES, today by President Hugh Fox.
1t is very lengthy and deals very fully
with the work of the Board during the
year closed. 1t shows that the aims
houses in the State have been cleared of
found for them.
That part dealing with the Hudson
County Almshouse is as follows:-
.'As we anticipated in our last report,
the new Board of Freeholders in Hud-
son County has conformed to the law
which made dependent children the wards
of the State Board of Guardians. and on
May the children in the almshouse at
Snake Hill were formally placed in our
care.
1T was provided in the act by which
the State Board was created, that the
State Board of Children's Guardians may,
in their discretion, for the purpose OF
effective organization, require the con-
tinuance of children in almshouses or
other places where such children may be
kept for a period not longer than six
months after the passage of this act 1t
was, however, deemed unwise to raise
the question as to whether this provision
might still apply to the removal of the
Hudson county children, and as it was
manifestly in the interest of the children
themselves that they should be taken
from the almshouse as soon as possible
besides being matter of concern to the
taxpaye-we concentrated all our efforts
on the work of removing them, and by
employing an additional force of as
sistants, we succeeded-under the
skillful and energetic direction of
Mrs E. E. Wiliamson-in disposing
of about 200 children within 80 days.
All of these children had to be reclothed
and placed in good family homes of the
same faith as their parents. Each home
was visited by our agent before the child
was placed in it and the reference of the
applicant thoroughly investigated. All Of
the children We're given a physical exami-
ration by a doctor and a number Of them
were found to need hospital treatment
Not one of these children has been re-
turred to the almshouse, though many of
them had to be transferred from one fam
lily to another several times before the
right homes were found for thcni
..The elasticity of our method of plac-
ing children by simple form of agree
ment. which is terminable at our discre-
ton, greatly facilitates the work OF trans
ferring children from one home 70 an
other. This is really a matter OF much
Importance, since the transplanting of a
child into a new environment is neces-
'sarily something of an experiment. The
particular home may be good home,
and yet the arrangement may prove
rr n
ing a child successfully is very much
greater when the child has been reared
in an almshouse, without any individual
training. or care. under the constant in
f7uence of the miserable men and women
who form its adult population. So far as
| can learn, the successful removal OF
the Hudson County children TO famlles,
new record in the history of child-saving
work.
secretary, says
Freeholders notified US that on May / the
children in the alInshouse at Snake Hlii
would be placed under our care. At TINS
time they numbered l6S. Previous to the
notification by the Freeholders, an inves-
tigation had been made by our Board
into every case, the record OF winch was
in our office This had peen Done !, necause
we wished to remove all the children in
thirty days after notification. When 1t
was known throughout the county that
the children would be placed under the
care of the New Jersey State Board o.
Children's s Guardians number of parents
came forward and voluntarily took their
children Others We're forced to do SO by
this Roard. Forty-three In all We're re-
moved in this way.
s.C,n the first day Of May sixteen were
removed on the second twenty-one. and
on the bird day seven The following
week about the same number were taken
from the Almshouse, and SO % until the
first Of June, when all the children had
been removed, excepting the detectives