Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-30
DESMOND TALKS
OF STATE SCHOOL
CLOSES DISCUSSION OVER THE
RECENT INVESTIGATION
INQUIRY WILL BENEFIT BOYS
AND GIRLS
Trustee Says He Did His Duty as He
Saw 1t and Leaves Results
to the People of
California

Trustee G.. G.. Desmond YESTERDAY
made formal reply to the findings OF
the special committee of the state
hoard of charities and corrections,
which continued the inquiry into the
state school at Whittier, which was
previously conducted in secret at the
school by the board of three trustees
Though Superintendents j. 2. Gree
lev and W. V. Coffin were Wnlte-
washed in the report the investigator
has called public attention 10 tne
abuses that exist in the institution
resulted in four employees being dis
missed. and WILL if the boards recon-
nendafions are carried out, result In
new era for the unfortunate DoyS anu
girls at Whittier.
Mr.. Desmond in conservative IAN
guage recites the disadvantages anu
hindrances which were put III ms w.. M@S
by the state administration in gettlhs
al the real facts and the real blame
for conditions there in these Woros' =
"I have been one of the trustees oI
the school for two years ana eish.
months and have always taken a great
interest in the management OF he e
school itself and the welfare OF the
inmates. ..,o a.
"I have devoted a lot of time IN
looking after the interests OF the
school and made regular ana 1requenSs
visits to the school during the perloo
| have been connected with IL.
zone of my efforts was to work out out
q clearly defined system on Whicn al
the different departments could WORK
CO. ordinately.
Acted on Complaints
MANY complaints were mace TO me me
from time to time of speclnc acts
which ought never to have occurred III
such an institution. AS rSsuI
made some inquiry and laio Ine ~ ~
formation cleaned by me be1ore the
board of trustees. -. .ho
commission was appointed by the gov
ernor was practically a contlnuatloi1,
Of the hearing before the trustees anu
really formed part of one entire m
yestigation, instituted by me: AS d
result of the investigation ana WlthlI I
the last month four of the heads OF
some Of the principal departments
were summarily discharged by the
trustees.
"At the hearing before the commis-
sioners I regret to say that some MEM
bers of the board appeared to think
that l was charging the superintendent
with immoral conduct with certain
ladies.
Means Mo Personal Reflection
"That. though, was erroneous. !
was not charging the superintendent
or any of the ladies whose names were
mentioned, with immortality, and take
pleasure in stating now, in fairness 10
the ladies whose names were mem
toned, that nothing was further from
my thought and intention than TO
charge them with immoral conduct.
'I may refer particularly to one IN
stance where one of the girl inmates
testified that she had been requested
to go into the matron's room and do
certain things, among others to wash
some glasses which the girl said nad
had wine in Them
"At this point of the investigation
the commissioners called a halt and
seemed to think that l was suggesting
immortality on the part of the super
intendent and ladies. I was making no
such suggestion. The only thing had
in my mind was that if the superin-
tendent chose to take a glass of wine
with the matron and her lady friends
it was decidedly subversive of disc1p-
line to send any girl inmate to clean
the glasses, and so become cognizant
of the fact that wine was used on the
premises by the superintendent and
one of the lady officials. Furthermore.
the use of intoxicants on the premises
is rigidly prohibited. Evidence of the
use should certainly have been ad-
mitted.
- notice that the commissioners
report says that Trustee Desmond has
shown inability to distinguish fact
from fancy and idle rumor from es-
tablished truth.
"As far as fancy is concerned / did
not make a single statement before
the commission which had not pre-
viously been declared to be the truth
by parties whom I had every reason
to believe knew of what they were
speaking.
"That some of those statements
made were not proved as facts to the
satisfaction of the commission may be
accounted for possibly by my mex
perience as an advocate. 1t would
have taken very shrewd lawyer to
have gotten the witnesses together and
to have asked them the proper ques-
tions to elicit what they knew. And
this the more particularly when there
were two lawyers on the commission
insisting on following closely legal
rules of procedure and evidence, of
which I do not know the first thing.
Several parties whom I had intend