South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-01-03
WOMAN RECEIVES
IMPORTANT OFFICE
Dr.. Katherine Davis, Appointed
to Municipal Cabinet by John
PurrOy Mitchell, breaches
Gospel of Hope.
BY NIxoLA GREEIIsY-sMrTH.
Copyrighted, 1918. by the Newspaper
E.nfarnriGn

d. NIAOlEt Gf1f@E4l1L1 SMITH.
Copyrighted. 1918. by the Newspaper
Enterprise Association.)
"Radium-that's what she ISL
So Ida Tarbell has described DR..
Katherine Bement Davis, who, BY APP
pOintment of the new mayor of New
York, John Purroy Mitchell, will take
her place as commissioner of charities
and correction in the municipal cabi-
net of New York. =.
She Is the first woman to hold so
important an office in New York, or,
in fact, in any of the eastern states,
and her appointment is regarded
properly as a great victory for fam
inism.
What is this first woman commits
sioner like?
She is 80 years old. of middle size
with softly silvered hair and wise,
sweet, blue eyes. For IA years she
has been superintendent of the state
refOrmatOry for women at Bedford,
n. Y. an institution less than so miles
from this city, to which incorrigible
girls are committed by the courts. In
those years Miss Davis has brought
about what 81 practically q revolution
in methods of dealing with women
delinquents, and she has done this by
preached from the beginning of the
world and charity has been practiced
internationally during all the ages, the
gospel of hope has been left chiefly to
the patent medicine advertisements.
New York's new commissioner of
correction breaches and practices
hope. There is a motto on the walls
of the Bedford reformatOry which
bids everyone within its walls forget
the errors of the past and look for
ward to the triumphs of the future.
The larger number of women COM
mitted To Miss Davis care during the
last IA years have been committed for
immortality. They are the dregs of
city life, yet she has known how to
reach and hold their better natures.
Visitors at Bedford have often been
astOnished to find the gently-bred SUI
perintendent having tea with half
dozen inmates, offering them her best
china and explaining that the silver
spoon on the edge of one girls saucer
was a souvenir of Miss Davis student
days at Vassar. or that the sugar bowl
was bought when she was studying
at Chicago university, or that the
cream pitcher belongs to the years
when she was taking a special course
at Berlin.
One of Miss Davis innovations at
Bedford is teamwork for women.
Under her administration SO acres
were added tc the domain of the re-
formatory and in summer time girls
drag-netted from New York streets
may be seen hoeing corn, planting
potatoes or cultivating pansies and
sweet peas!
Horticulture offers a field of labor
for women not yetover crowded"
said DR.. Davis in discussing this in
novation. I'm dealing with delin-
quents we must recognize industrial
demands upon women toda~ and pro-
vide training to meet variety and dis
position. Not every woman commit
ted to a reformatory is adapted by ma
ture or taste to domestic service, sew
ing or laundry work. The majority OF
girls in Bedford learn TO prefer out
door work on the farm to the great
surprise of those who thing 1t UNI
suitable 10 women. A certain per
centage Of girls committed to Bedford
are incurable alcoholics or moral i'm
beetles and / favor the establishment
Of a state custodial farm for that
class.
Fresh air, nourishing food and
plenty of sleep are necessary to re-
store the girl delinquent to social
usefulness. Idleness means time Tor
brooding and girls of abundant vital
ity, exuberant spirits, need hard man
ual labor to let of steam. Farm work
meets this need. 1t induces good ap-
petite, sound sleep, Improvement in
general health and consequently self
control-the first step toward moral
regeneration"
the regenerative power of clean
amusement.
THE desire common to all young
people to have a good time, coupled
with the impossibility, through ignor-
ance or environment, To crafty 1t In
any simple, legitimate way, has
brought many girls" she said, Ito the
Teformatory. believe that girls
must be taught how TO amuse them
selves in a. harmless way, to have
some resources within themselves. We
must create a new state of mind, turn
their thoughts from their own mis-
conduct and give them something
new and hopeful to think about
For this reason Miss Davis has had
little plays. lectures, moving pictures
and even an address by Sylvia Pank-
hurst on the suffrage movement 70
entertain the involuntary guests OF the
state reformatory.
Every New Years day she has held
a reception, keeping open house all
day long for the girls Their be
havior would do credit TO any rank IN
society" she saws when she describes
this novel function.
Miss Davis IS an advocate or the IN
Discriminate sentence.
THE indeterminate sentence stlmu-
lates weak wills. she remarked. IN
deed the desire for freedom is the most
effective stimulus towards good con-
duct"
"As a class, delinquent girls are
anti-social, individualistic in the eX-
IRENE. It is very rare for them 10
see their own lives in relation 70 those
around them. We have TO teach them
the necessity for government, make
them see reasons for obedience 20
higher laws than their own impulses
With Miss Davis the use or nope
reward and ENCOURAGEMENT; as cur
tivas instead OF the old notions OF Sc
ouestration and punishment. have had
extraordinary success in her special
field. IT is my opinion they VIII De
even more effective in the larger WORK
TO which the mayor OF New YORK mas
called her.