The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-04-27
FLOGGlNG BARRED
Humane Treatment Of Bad Boys
ia Empire State
no WHIPPING ALLOWED
Superintendent of School for laCor-
rieibles Says Harsh Methods
are Unnecessary

Apropos of the Legislative
investigation of methods employed
at tl.e Boys Industrial School at Red
Wing, letter from F. H. Briggs,
superintendent of the State Agricul-
tural School and Industrial School of
New York. is interesting at this time.
Supt Briggs wrote as follows to a
well known and prominent citizen of
St Paul:
Repressiye measures can never de-
velop right character or &Ponse and
stimulate self-respect and desire
for better things.
The boys for whom schools for jul.
yenile delinquents care are more sin
ned against than SHINING. The vast
majority of them have never known
what proper home training means
nor have the principles of right liv-
ing ever been instilled into their
minds. 1t would be just as logical
for a missionary to attempt to con-
vert the heather with a club as for
the people in charge of these schools
to endeavor to teach the beauty CT
truthfulness, honesty, decency and
self-control by means of straps and
blows
We have us boys here in Industry.
living in thirty-one different groups
which are widely scattered over a
tract of 1,4O0 acres Of land. We
have nc bars, no cells and absolutely
no place where a boy may be locked
groups of twenty-five in cottage in
charge of a man and wife, - ,ss.s,
The boys are very carefully clas-
sified sc that the vicious and i'm
moral may not be brought in contact
with those who are of better charac-
ter. The better boys live in nine
teen farm-colony groups, each colony
having its separate farm, cattle,
horses, swine, poultry, sheep and
pets. No attempt is made to main
tain surveillance over these farm
BOYS either by day or night, and the
sentiment among them is such that
they would resent it as stain upon
their honor if it was suggested to
them that it was necessary to watch
them
The boys who are vicious or i'm
neral and who because of these hab-
it's, have to be watched, live in cot
tages of. the industrial group and
work at some particular trade, the
supervisor Of the cottage being also
the instructor in the trade followed
by the boys at that cottage. These
boys are under constant supervision,
both day and night Waterman being
employed When boy proves UNI
comfortable in any cottage he is
sent to the disciplinary cottage,
which is constructed exactly like any
of the others, but while he is at this
cottage he is called upon to do the
difficult. unpleasant and laboriOus
tasks of TIE school.
He earns his meals by doing a
reasonable amount of work. If he is
disposed to violence or if it is known
that he will attempt to run away at
any moment his hands are hand
cuffed together The fact that we
have but four pair of handouts shows
to what extent this is resorted 70.
Corpora! punishment is absolutely
forbidden and a person who strikes
boy is severely disciplined. Hand
cuffs are not allowed at any cottage.
except the disciplinary. n
We rely upon incentives rather
than punishments. The psychology
of punishment is wrong. Emphasis
should always be placed upon the
thing that we desire to have copied.
No great painter or sculptor puts a
caricature before his pupils and in
structs them ITO avoid it. but rather
he PAGES before them the highest
models CT art procurable and asks
them tc pattern after them. Every
thing possible is done to develop a
boys respect, to, arouse lis love Of
appreciation and to make him feel
that the officers and teachers of the
school are his friends.
The great majority of boys respond
to this treatment and cooperate viii
lingly in their own regeneration The
expression of their faces changes
after they come to us so markedly
as to cause favorable comment of
those who were acquainted with
them before their coming to the
school.