The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-12-04
FOUhDLINGSAR
SAFE FROM HAVE
Supreme Court Will Not Inter-
fere in Case of Forty Orphan
Children Sent to Arizona.
ACT OF CITIZENS UPHELD
OPINION HANDED DOWN BY JUS
TICE DAY.
ACT OF CITIZENS UPHELD

Washington, Dec. 3.-The supreme
court of the United States dismissed to-
day, for want of Jurisdiction, the case
Of the New York Founding hospital VS..
John c. Gatti. This decision revived
The story of about forty orphan children
sent from New York to Arizona in 1904,
which at the time received much atten-
ton at the hands of the public. The
effect of the decision, which was deter
mined by Justice Day, is to leave in
effect the decision of the Arizona su-
preme court, which was favorable to
Gatti.
The case brought out the fact that in
October, 1904, a special car containing
forty foundIings from the hospital, in
tended for the neighbOring towns of
Clifton and Morenci, AriZ., arrived at
the former place.
Promise Was Broken.
The children we're in the charge of
three sisters of charity, but were turned
over to the local priest in pursuance of
a request he had made to have the
children sent out. In that request he
had said that respectable, educated
Spanish families desired them for adop-
ton. They were Immediately distrib-
uted throughout the two towns, but
instead of being given to reputable peo-
pie as the priest had promised, the
American residents of the place charged
that the recipients were of the lowest
class of half greed Mexicans and wholly
unfit to care for the children of whom
they were to become the foster parents.
Citizens Acted Promptly.
They accordingly organized a mass
meeting and appointed committees to
devise ways and means. with the re-
suit that the children were one and all
taken bodily from their guardians, after
remaining with them for only one night,
and adopted by the Americans. The
Arizona courts found much difficulty in
dealing with the case, but they SuS-
tanned the course of the citizens and in
dorsed their retention of the children.
The sisters of charity. who control the
hospital. sought to have the little ones
restored to their custody In order that
they might take them back to New
York. The case acted on today involved
the custody of only one child. but it
has been agreed that the decision in
this case should control in all the
others, consequently all the children will
be left in Arizona.
Justice Days Opinion
The decision of the case turned en-
tirely on the question as 10 Whether
the personal freedom of the children
had been violated and the court held
that such was not the case. Speaking
on that point. in the case of William
Norton, one of the children, Justice Day
said:
There was no attempt Illegally to
wrest the custody of the child from its
lawful guardian while in Arizona. The
society voluntarily took the child there
with the intention that it should re-
main. Through imposition the child
was placed in custody of those unfit to
maintain control over it. 1t was with
in the Jurisdiction of the court under
the circumstances that rival claimants
of the right of custody might involve
the jurisdiction of a court of compe-
tent jurisdiction of the territory to de-
termine, not the right of freedom, but
TO which custody child of tender
years should be committed"