The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-07-08
FRIENDLESS AID
IN NORTH DAKOTA
STATE SUPERINTENDENT or so.
GETTY FOR THE FRIENpLEss
TELLS OF WORK IN NoRTH pA-
KoTA IN OFFICIAL JOURNAL or
THE SOCIETY.

The following report was printed in
a publication called The First Friend,
which paper is the official journal of
the Society OF Friendless, Of which
Organization Rev. George Newcomb is
state agent. The report is rather an
interesting document and is produced
in full as Follows:
1t is with pleasure we write of our
new experience In that particular field
Of labor known as the Society for the
Friendless. Each weeks itinerary
| takes US into a new community and
| thus 1t comes to pass that everywhere
and all the time the upturned faces
which greet the writer wherever he
makes addresses are curious at first,
then expectant, then sympathetic, so
that the society in North Dakota is
making friends and 1t is now safe to
say the work may be. considered well
on toward establishment.
AS time has been found, or rather
snatched. from the field work, it has
been devoted to creating a literature
adapted to our needs. This we found
early in the year quite necessary
asset. 1t is usually considered that
the average print shop makes it rule
not to make cash donations to elee-
mosynary institutions on the grounds
of being proverbially short" In re-
sourceful collateral. However, a num-
Der of publishers have proffered as
sistance by Offering to donate to the
society any printed matter we might
need. This has materially aided us.
Since the last week in March seven
trips have been made to the state
penitentiary, interviewing some TWEEN
ty-four men, who either desired to see
me or whom some one met in travel
ing desired to see me. Since January
fifty-five letters and fifteen postals
have been written on behalf of these
inmates.
The different requests coming from
these visits have cost much time in
fulfilling, but 1t has been labor
worth while.
Work has been found for the men
leaving, or having left the institution,
and numberless other items have come
to us to look after or into and more
viii continue to come as the society's
work comes to be better understood.
This state has no reformatory nor
is there any provision made for seq
regation OF the inmates in the penal
institution and hence, as was said by
a public man to an audience composed
in part Of public officials some time
ago: North Dakota is making more
criminals than she cures" We hope to
overcome this wrong by the time an
other session Of the legislature meets
two years hence, and so are publicly
agitating the same
Since Jan. 1, 100 addresses have been
delivered, nineteen being in the public
schools, and the people reached were
E7522.. Total number of letters writ
ten, 223; postals, IS, calls
and interviews, 4,405; miles travelled,
4,4S4; about 800 were received and ex-
pended during this period, Five coun-
ty seats were reached and as many
jails visited. Our jail system is bad,
but the hope is that ere long some
thing may be done to make these de-
tention places suitable-I may say,
habitable.
We have especially good news to re-
port from the reform school at Man
dan. In the early spring a revival
meeting was held in one Of the
churches in Mandan, and the family
manager Of the school took special
pains to bring the boys under its in
fuence, and with the blessed result
that most OF them made public pro-
fession Of the Savior. The writer Sc
cured grant Of song books (Bibles
have also been asked for from Bible
house) from a Chicago house for the
school.
The writer has been appointed by
Governor Burke as a delegate TO rep
resent the state at the American
Prison association, to be held in Oma-
ha this fall.