Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-03


which uses the old structure, will bear
$4,000 of the cost of the new work
while the city will pay the remainder
The acquisition by the city of sew
after deducting the income or con-
tingent fund of $29,S53.94, we have left
$435, S96.06.
Reform School Cost
"The cost to the state of the Whit.
tier reform school for the fifty-seVenth
and fifty-eighth fiscal years was $3.50.
45S50, while the appropriations for the
Preston school of industry amounted
to $751; 270.47, making for both schools
a total of 1882, ,72S.97. Deducting the
income fund of $7139.22, we have left
$375, ,5S9.75 The Preston school has an
average of 20S inmates and the Whit
tier state school 304
However, the various counties had
to pay a certain amount of this cost
into the states general fund, and for
those two years the amount collected
was $130, ,727.67, but this all came out
of the peoples pockets, anyway, so 1t
makes but little difference whether 1t
is state or county money.
Adding the amounts appropriated
for the state prisons and the two state
reform schools, after deducting the in
come or contingent fund of all -FOUR,
we have left $1,61S,7S
Appalling as these figures are. they
represent only part of the story. Tor
the cost of the criminal courts and
probably one-half the cost of the su-
perior judges also should be charged
to crime. We must not forget that
each of the fifty-eight counties of Cali
fornia has the additional expense of
foiY Chn
as a county Jail. while the cities eX-
pend thousands of dollars every year
in maintaining police force as we'll as
a Jail. In order to get all these fig
ures, reports from all the counties and
cities would have to be secured and
these l could not obtain.
LAS have told you, the figures given
were for the two years ending June
80, 1906, and were published last year.
The report next year is bound to be
greater, for our population is con-
stantly increasing. Probably by next
year we shall have 5000 inmates of our
state prisons, and I do not suppose
that all the criminals of the state will
be where they ought to be then, any
more than they are now.
Million and Half
"The secretary of the state board of
charities and corrections, w. A. Gates,
who is probably better able to estimate
the cost of crime to this state than
anyone else, in a recent letter to me,
places the cost of crime to this state
in round numbers at 100000 per an
num-
eff money were the only considera-
tion, it would not be a serious matter,
after all; but when we think of the
moral cost, of the broken hearts, the
ruined homes, the degraded lives, and
realize that much of this crime and
sorrow might have been prevented;
that under better conditions and bet
ter environment, and better opportu-
mites for education, many of these
now in the state prisons would have
been good and useful citizens. then we
ask, Who can count the cost?'"
Mrs. Willoughby Rodman, among
other interesting matters, told of the
how and why of the Los Angeles play
grounds and how they were procured.
Their establishment, she said. Is not
a charity nor a philanthropy, but
part of the debt that the city fathers
owe the next generation-a part of the
city's debt to the city's children.
What They Are Doing
During the roll call of the clubs of
the Ventura County association it de-
that among other lines of work
the women of that section are interest
ed in are good roads, the planting and
of trees, preservation OF
old landmarks, establishing of kinder
gartens, sewing and sloyd classes in
the schools, the building of unincum-
bered club houses, study clubs for
themselves, and the throwing of the
of home around homeless
waits.
Evening Session
Judge Curtis d. Wilbur, who was the
speaker of the evening, said in part:
Judge Wilbur said:
This state originally organized in
the first instance for the purpose of
defense in warfare has gradually
reached out and taken hold of many of
the problems of life, so that it has
come to pass that one of the great
functions of the state as exhibited in
this country is the collection of money
for school purpose and the using of
the money so collected in the educa-
ton of the young. This money covers
the whole field from the time the child
Is four years of age until the time II
has received a university education.
The insane people now instead OF
as of old in the cemeteries
and picking up a living as they can
are being cared for in magnificent
asylums established by the state.
In this state there are more than
5000 people in the asylum. In addition
to this, we are also caring for the
blind, deaf and dumb, and they are
no longer required to beg upon the
for their living, The time is at
hand when the state also must take
care of the nebriates, and still, in
stead of waiting until the inebriates
have become positively insane. The
state is also taking care of feeble
minded persons, whether adults or not.
Recently | sent a 21-year-old boy who
had spent ten years of his life in the
reform school to the Home for Feeble
minded instead of to the state pen1-
tentiary. He had been charged with
and had confessed to burglary and the
sentence given was as indicated IN
stead of sending the man to the penl-
tentiary.
Child Problem
"The child problem is, of course, the
greatest problem of the state. Here
we have the plastic clay ready to be
formed into the image OF God or to be
distorted into the image of Satan. The
first great step looking to the proper
care of children has been in the enact
ment OF large number of laws for
the protection Of children. These laws
have frequently been considered by