The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-13
A Question of Relative Merit.

Maryland has five reform schools: New
 York four; Illinois, three; fifteen other
 one each and the remaining fourteen
 States have none; among these last are
 seven Southern States
 The industries taught in these juvenile
 reformatories include the seating of reed
 and rattan chairs. brooms, brushes and
 dusters, paste board and light wooden
 boxes baskets tubs and barrels Knit Knit
 tresses. mail sacks, twine and nets, and
 small articles in iron and steel, wood
 carving, Horticulture, printing, laundering The last tables of statistics show four
 States the annual population of whose
 penal institutions is little less than two
 tn usand; these States are Kentucky:
 Ohio. Pennsylvania and Alabama. Of
 the four, Alabama is the only one which
 makes a proht out of too conV on ct labor her profit in 1902 being $98,SS5.61. The other three maintain their penal institutions, including reform schools for the young
 at cost over and above receipts from labor, of from $50. GOO to $150 0e9 annually
 The reform schools have amply repaid their cost in the number of good work men turned out and are generally ac- knoWledged to be the best investment ever
 made by any State in efforts 10 mni mize crime and rescue juvenile waifS and straYs.
 Alabama has at last made a beginning in caring for her wayward white boys, and can point with pride to al. Industrial school which considering its size and linn tied means, cannot be surpassed by any State institution, but it is too small an enterprise to be commensurate with the needs and means of the State. Of course the income of the State is not large enough to meet all the demands-it is safe to say it never will be large enough-but 1t is growing all the time and the ques- ton as to the use of such amounts as re- main. after the ordinary legitimate re- quirements have been provided for, should be one of relative merit There Is no claim that is stronger, no cause for which the State can more Justifab bly, spend money than that of caring for the neg | lected and delinquent boys destined to be- 1 come a cons derable part of her future citizenship, and no expenditure from which there will be so certain and sv
 The State and the Schol.
 In the winter of 1899 by act of the Legis- lature, perpetua, charter for a reform I atory, under the care of the State and
 an appropriation of 5000 was obtained
 an an3 non m l'0o an additional appropriation of
 Last February, when 1t was shown that the women to whom this money was in- | trusted had so supplemented it as to be | s5o ooo 'u report p:Gperty worth at least Sop;s" ana d school record of two and T | ndIi . rs. with a regu-Ir roll of from l fifty to seventy boys, now in a sair way | 10 pc reclaimed, much interest in the | work was aroused and the bill intrnducad nY Judge Walker of Madison in behalf of | the enlargement of the plant ana n1a,U
 tenance of the school for four vears siiSin Sia. | supported by a large number of rsnra
 sentatives and Senator's not a faH ot | whom made able and enthusiast | speeches in it's favor. The Governnr | prais ed the administration of the institT | tlon warmly and expressed hlmself as ha- | ing delighted with the results of the wool l the reasonableness and clearness of h.. lprovisions of the bill were much eompL-