Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-07
ADMITS GIRLS ARE
BEATEN IN HOME
Trustee of State Institution
Testifies of Whippings in
Dark Cells.

TRENTON, Feb. The revelations
made at last evenings session of the
Fielder commission named to probe
the state Home for Girls Is likely 70
nave their effect at this afternoons
meeting Of the board Of trustees. The
absolute abolition of whipping girls
by fixed rule will probably be insisted
upon and there may be clashes along
other lines.
state Comptroller Edwards's ofi5ce
has been asked to help throw light on
the mix-up over the appropriations
and the claim that the appropriations
have been exceeded.
JERSEY CITY. Feb tbs.
Mrs Elizabeth Mansell. the matren
Of the State Home for Girls
at Trenton ought to resign; that tlle
appropriations account Of the insfi
tuition is being exceeded: that girls
have been whipped with a strap
though the State policy is against
corporal punishment; that girls are
sometimes turned out of the home
without funds, and that girls who ars
paroled and sent into private faufi-
lies as servants are often not paid hx
the families the SO a month compen-
sation which the girls are supposed 70
get from the private families. were
few Of the allegations made at last
evenings sensational hearing in the
Commercial Trust building, this city.
before State Charities COMMISSIONS
Byers, former Senator Robert Will
Jams, OF Paterson. and Lawyer Al
bert |. Drayton. of Englewood, who
were appointed by Governor Fielder
to assist Commissioner Byers in prob
ing the State Home for Girls
Some of the other statements made
were to the effect that the girls are
not even taught to read and write
during the years they are In the
home, and that in some instances
girls at the age of twenty-one haze
been let out of the home without
knowing their A, B, Cs. It was FIR
Their stated that -ae per capita eesf
at the State Home for Girls is higher
tran it is in nearly all the other
girls reformatory institutions Ia this
section Of the COUNTY,. Hudson
county has its quota Of maynard
girls in the home.
The probe of the institution waz.
asked for by four of the trustees Of
the home, who frankly state that
tney nave Iound 1t ircpoEstble to get
along with the five members con-
shutting the majority of the board.
The trustees who asked for the III
vestigation are Miss Harriet Spin
ming, of Orange; Miss Sarah p Con.
over. of Princeton; Herbert M. Bailey.
of Hackensaek. and Theodore Gotf-
lieb. of Newark. These are all APP
pointees of Governor Wilson. They
serve without pay.
The other trustees are James Baker.
of Jersey City; Robert NJ Anderson
of Princeton; David Kenney. OF
Plainheld; Mrs. Howard Warren
Crosby, of Princeton, and Mrs
Howell Stul. of Trenton.
Commissioner Byers brought out
the fact that there has been no whip
ping of girls since last fall, and that
the method of Furnishing refractory
girls at the. home now is to wash out
the mouth with soap and water
State Charities Commissioner Byerf
thought that the new scheme OF
washing the naughty girls mouth
with soap and water could hardly be
criticised. because some method Of
punishment was required in emer-
gencies and the mouth-washsng pun
ishment seemed much less offensive
than the use of a strap.