The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-02
CARE OF The KIDS
Judge w. T. SchOch Tells of the
New Juvenile Court.
ConfrOnts Many Strange and
New Situations.
GIRLS CAUSE WORRY
MatrOn Should Guide the Way
ward Girls.
Records Show Decrease in Youth
full Criminals.
GIRLS CAUSE WORRY

Judge W. F. Schoch. of the Shawnee
county probate court, believes the
Juvenile court is solving a serious
problem for the state in caring for
the hayward boys and girls; and that
this work will result in a higher cit-
zenship than ever before attained in
Kansas. In a speech before the Chart
ties Conference at Ottawa this week,
Judge Schoch told of the work in this
county and predicted great returns
from the new court.
What to do with the girl, is one of
the difficulties which Judge Schoch
says the court must solve. He believes
a matron should be provided in the
larger counties and that such woman
could guide the girls better than a
man. In this county many of these
cases are turned over to the police
matron. but he believes such an officer
should become a regular attache OF. the
Juvenile court
As an evidence of what the new
court has done in Kansas, Schoch
points to the record in this county and
that the cases of youthful criminals
have decreased 40 pr cent in less than
five years. Still there is much to do
and Schoch would have certain state
laws revised to cover the needs of the
new court. In his Ottawa speech
Schoch had the following to say con-
corning the work of the Juvenile court
in Kansas:
Court STANDS High.
1.-The Juvenile Judges of Kansas in
six years have brought the Juvenile
court to the highest point of public
estimation. This court is now an es-
tablished part of our Jurisprudence
This has all been done by hard and
patient work and by educating the par
ents of dependent and delinquent
children that the power of the court
is used for the welfare of the child in
the exercise of parental duties which
the parent for some reason is unable
to perform. Six years ago the work
was open TO hostility and criticism. It
was an experiment and the conser-
vative and patient judges of the state
felt their way it'll care and caution
In the beginning, it was the disposition
of parents to fight, and of an overcriti-
cal public to paint the delinquent child
as young criminal. In time, the par
ent began to learn that the Juvenile
court was a court of correction and
not court of punishment. The public
began to see results and the delinquent
boy became an object of public inter
est, instead of an object of criticism.
MANY times have the mothers of
orphan children begged of me to send
their children to the Industrial schools
where they could hope for their return
at 3 future time, rather than send
them to the State Orphans Home and
away from the mother forever In
other words, the state under its present
policy returns to the mother her de-
Iinquent boy, but takes away from her
forever her innocent babe.
Need More Room.
Nor has the state kept abreast of
the times in other respects. With all
the vast expenditure of money in the
last six years, reaching a degree almost
of opulency in the sums showered upon
our state institutions of learning, and
with all our increasing population, and
the work of the Juvenile court, the
State Industrial School has received
additional capacity only For thirty-six
boys. That Institution is now crowded