The San Francisco call., 1908-10-11
ORPHAN HOMFSARf
GREATLY CONGFST[D
Alarming Conditions Exist in
Charitable Institutions in VIZ
cinity of This City

Alarming conditions of congestion in
the homes for orphans and depend
ent children in this state exist, accord
ing to NJ ]. White. secretary of the
California Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children, and e. S. Astrado,
probation officer of San Francisco.
Astrado has been recently investigating
the charitable institutions within a
radius Of 100 miles OF San Francisco.
He declares that the places are over
crowded and that actual conditions
exist which make it imperative that
steps be taken Immediately to relieve
the congestion. He also states that his
investigation has not been completed
and that he intends to make an ex-
haustive report soon upon the situa-
tion.
According to NJ J. White. who has
been connected with humane work in
California for years, the conditions
have been brought about by unwise
laws dealing with child adoption and
with the control of parents over de-
pendent children taken into the insti-
tutions throughout the state.
White declared yesterday that the
state board of charities and corrections
has been delinquent in the matter of
remedying the evil, asserting also that
the board has taken no active part in
rectifying the statutory mistakes, but
has been playing an unimportant part
in charitable work by recommending
subordinate changes in general child
protection laws.
LAWS ARE DIsoBEYED
White also asserted that the laws
relating to abandoned children have
not been obeyed by managers of insti-
tutions and for that reason the places
have been rapidly filing up with de-
pendent children until a dangerous
point has been approached.
IF section 224 of the civil code reIat-
ing to child adoption and the consent
of parents who abandon children was
obeyed," said White yesterday, "a great
many OF the homes enjoying state aid
would be relieved of the congestion.
If the managers of orphan asylums,
after a child has been abandoned to
the institution, obeyed the law great
many children would be placed in
proper homes and taken from the
crowded places. Instead the managers
retain the children in the asylum,
| drawing from the state 500 for full
orphan children and SIS for half-or-
phan children. and many of these chill
dren are kept in the homes until they
have reached the age of Il, when state
aid is Withdrawn. They are then old
enough to sell papers. pit apricots and
do other work. When they have
reached the age of IA the parents who
abandoned them and who never paid a
cent toward their support suddenly
claim them. So long as the state will
support them parents are willing that
they remain in the institutions, but
when they are old enough to work they
| become valuable assets in the families
where they We're previously neglected.
BETTER HOMES FOR CHILDREN
There is a continual cry for chill
dren from the decent homes of the
state and, strange to say, the demand
is greater than the supply. Too much
attention is paid by judges to the re-
construction of bad homes, and hun
dreds of children. are turned back into
homes unfit for them.
The present deplorable condition
will prevail until two necessary
an amendment to our adoption laws
which will permit superior judges to
place permanently in good families a
| large percentage of children whose
support is now being furnished by the
cities, counties and the state. Second
ly, a change which will cause our
! Judges to pay greater heed to the pro-
lection and rights of children, for the
courts are now giving too much at
tention to reconstruct bad homes for
which there is little or no hope
THE state board of charities and cor
rections pays little heed to the much
needed reforms, for 1T has in the
past made Lothing but recommends
| tions where action was necessary"