Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-16

struction than to have nothing but whole
day classes and exclude a certain per-
centage of children altogether.
Superintendent Stuart said that the
authorities had never been able to agree on
the number of children in Washington out
of school. He called attention to the re-
port of the superintendent of the mctropoli-
tan police, which placed the number of
children not receiving instruction at only
I'll, but Mr.. Stuart did not consider that
this estimate was based upon d reliable
census. The best estimate he had been
able to make placed the figure at abo1t
{ coo, and even this did not take into ac-.
count the various private institutions of in
struction in the city. The computae ton
made by the Civic Center placed the num-
Der of children now not receiving tnstruc-
ton at between six and seven thousand.
Eut. said Mr.. Stuart, 1t did not make
great deal of difference whether there were
Ill or 1900 children in the city who were
not now enjoying the benefits of the public
school system. They should be all taken
care Of
Mr. Stuart said that he could not vouch
for the fact that every child recia MED I'M
der the operation of the compulsory edu-
cation law could be accommodated in the
public schools without a number or changes.
But whether the number. as he had preyi-
ousy stated, was 100 or 1905, they should
all be in school. and II 1t meant a multi
plicity of classes and shorter hours, he
thought that vastly better thaa no school
at all for some Mr.. Stuart favored I'M
ter calculated to deal with the class OF
children brought into the public school sys-
TEN under the operations of the proposed
legislation.
Chas. F. Weller's Contention.
Mr. Charles F. Weller. secretary of the
Associated Charities. who followed Mr..
Stuart contended that there was no more
important thing from the viewpoint of pub
lie service than the immediate enactment
of a compulsory law. He said he would
rather see any one of the various PROPOSE
tons for the betterment and health of the
children of Washington fail than to see the
compulsory education law remain unen-
acted. His conclusions were based he
said. upon the reports made to him by
fourteen paid workers and 400 volunteers
of the Associated Charities. who last year
made sixty thousand visits to the homes or
the poor and neglected nefghDors OF WASH
ington. These people knew the conditions
from actual observation, Mr.. Weller said.
In the families with which the organization
had to deal the principal defects found
were: First, that the boys and girls and
men and women could not get secure, good
positions because they could not read or
write In many cases boys of fourteen ana
fifteen years of age could not read names
and addresses or decipher the numbers on
houses. There were men and women who
could not even write their names. and
others who could not tell the time OF day
from the clock.
These conditions were found not only
among the colored population but among
the white as well, and the lack Of knowl-
edge concerning the three RS" put an al
most insurmountable difficulty In the way
of making these people self-supporting. Sec
ond, boys and girls grew up in these envi-
ronments without discipline. and II was
found that owing to this fact they seldom
made good workers. This bill would rem
edy this condition to a great extent. And.
third Mr.. Weller said. very low standards
of life were found In the alleys, shacks and
tenements OF this city. and that the public