The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-01-19

II the work for dependent children,
!hNluhS them to a conference in Wash
lnston, January 24-25, and suggesting
the establishment of a Bureau of In
Aorlnaton as to Dependent Children
ana some other subjects.
The President says in his letter:
! am confident that YOU will be i'm
pressed with the very great import
ance OF the subject touched on in this
letter, and the ~desirability that there
should be the fullest discussion of the
propositions, a memorandum of which
| enclose. Surely nothing ought TO
interest our people more than the car
OF the children who are destitute n
neglected, but not delinquent. Per
sonally, | Very earnestly believe that
the best way in which TO care for de-
pendent children is in the family
home.
IN Massachusetts, many orphan
asylum lave been discontinued
and thousands of the children
who formerly have gone to the
orphan asylum are now Kept in
pflVate homes, either on board with
payment from public or private treas
uries, or in adopted homes provided
by the generosity Of foster parents.
Many religious bodies have within
the past ten years organized effective
>A'ANt J1tNIIA L Ill tS0oAN
ingly inviting a number Of men and
women, a list of whom / will an
nounce, to q conference to be held in
Washington, January % and 26. The
conference Will open by my receiving
the members at the White House,
January 5, 2:30 D. m. Can you at
tend? VIII you please communicate
with Mr.. James E. West. 1343 Clifton
St, n w, Washington, d, c."
Brethren, the Masonic Fraternity in
North Carolina, though not processing
to be a religious organization, has
taken the leadership of the churches in
exemplifying true religion and unde-
fled as defined by the Apostle to be
IN the first. or Entered Apprentice De-
gree, so to speak, ito visit the father
less in their affliction.' We have
undertaken the work; but We have not
followed the designs on the Divine
Trestle Board. We set the solitary
in an institution, whereas the divine
method is ito set the solitary in
families" Leaving those things
which are behind, let us press for
ward. The institutionally trained
child enters the life Of the world OF
men, handicapped, very rluch as a
bird reared in a cage enters the life
Of the outside bird world handicapped.
The institutional method does not take
~ ~ 'bI ~ liz hist lSIIl VI III
years OF its life, during which years
it is more susceptible to good or bad
influences tnan at any other period OF
It's life. The Catholics say, Give us
the first even years of a child's life.
and the child will be ours for life.
These are the years during which the
child in the family home receives the
greatest and the tenderest care. The
institution discharges the child al
about 16, with as little preparation
for the outside world as the birG
raised to maturity in a cage, witt
everything provided for it, and with
no knowledge or experience of the
outside worlds dangers, duties, re
sponSiblities and ways of getting 9
living. Is 1t surprising then that &C
cording to carefully prepared stats
ties deduced from the collated results
Of Institutional training all over the
country as many as 40 per cent of the
boys and more thai 80 per cent OF
the girls fall away? Does not institu-
tional training tend too much to pre-
pare its boys for the criminal courts
ana to p its eve lambs FOR the
wolf? Is not one Of most clearly
marked and luminous designs on the
DIVINE trestle board Lead me not
into temptation and then deliver me
from evil?"
When a boy falls into vice. or ever
INTO crime, he may reform and be
restored to useful citizenship: but
when a girl falls, especially a de-
fenseless, orphan girl, her fall. except
IN very rare cases. is fatal and final
We MAJ and do deplore this cruel dis
~crimination against the girl: but as
we cannot change it, should we not
provide for a training which makes
such a fall much less Iike4v2 This
Very notable difference in favor of the
family method and against the insti-
tutional method begins in infancy
whereas the institutional method in
many cases declines to take the cbild
under eight years of age, and during
these eight years the child's future is
often fatally marred by evil associates
and evil environments. But in strono
contrast with these statistics. from 90
to 81 per cent Of the children trained
jan the family, after the designs on
the A~lmighty's Trestle Board, devotion
into useful and upright men and wo-
men: IS mas been already said, the
chllGrehFs Aid Societies take children
from any g from infancy. IN Soon
alter TINS Work. Was. Organized in Ken
ltAckky.aaAna1rs176fTf civ anaann,a..a
be the cry of a child, and he found
one old SOW trying to pull a gunny
sack oil a female infant only a day or
TWO OLD IN order to devour it. The
child was rescued and taken to the
Ala SOciety's receiving home, whence
I was adopted by a prominent hild
less couple, and a friend of mine re-
Gently wrote the adopted fathers will
leaving the child $4,000. Our in
stltutlonA method could n o provide
Tor such a case Of most urgent need.
Nor is there any difficulty in finding
MONIES for dependent children. have
accurate statistics from a Children's
Ald Society in Kentucky. which has
paced about 1000 children and has
had applications for 20, 900, Is, 900
more than could be supplied. A new
"ofh foundling girl was recently com
united to the Rev. DR.. SwoDe, rector
u the Church of All Souls, in Bilt-
more, only two miles from AsheVille,
ana he had fifteen applications for the
IlIant in a few days from points as
Instant as New York and Ohio. the
mia needing a home and homes need
ny a child having been brought into
Nonhectlon through the public prints.
certainly no body of men should
eel q greater interest in this work
nan the members of the Grand
i<9u2p Of th1 C+o+a of North 90 rn1iro