The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-16
COMMISSIONERS WILL INSIST ON GUARDIAN RIGHTS Proposition to Place County Wards Under Others Care
 Rouses Opposition. BOSTON INSTITUTION
 WANTS BRANCH HERE Fairfield Fresh Air Home Used By Board of Chari- ties Considered.

With a view to establishing in Bridgeport or it's immediate vicinity, branch of the New England Home for Little Wanderers. representatives of Dr. Frederic Harrison Knight have visited Bridgeport recently and have interested Bridgeport city officials in the proposition.
 Dr. Knight is superintendent and general manager of a corporation which maintains a home in Boston and four branches throughout New England The branches are in Pittsfeld, Greenfield, Mass, Manches- ters N. H.. and Portland, Me. So far although there have been plans for several years to establish in Con- necticut 8 branch of the institution, none has been placed in this state.
 One of the plans which promoters of the project have in mind is the acquiring of the Fairfield Fresh Air Home, now being used by the bridge port Charities department as a home for children under four years of age. The home until recently was main tained by private charities, derived chiefly from sources in Fairfield. This year, owing to the unsanitary condi- tions at LakevieW Home, the Board of Charities availed itself of the Fair field peoples offer of the home as a place for the children.
 pr. Knights is we'll known in Bos- ton and it's environs for his work among orphan children. For many years, up to seven years ago, the home in Boston was congregate in stitution with a capacity of about 200 children
 pr. Knight took charge of the home seven years ago. Since that time private charities organizations have been interested in the movement. and the Congregational churches through New England have contributed gen erously to it's success
 Opposition to the tentative plans of the promoters of the Bridgeport branch is said to have been manifest this being based chiefly upon the methods of the home in locating the children.
 Several years ago, there was con siderable criticism of the Home for It's shipment of children in carload lots. out into western countryA It was pointed out that all home ties were broken, and the possibility of ever renewing them were likely to be lost through the placing of children in sec tions far remote from the homes that once sheltered them.
 The opposition to this method of disposing of the homeless children
 
 ago, that there were radical changes fnx the methods of the institution These changes were due principally to the interest taken in the home by the organized charities o1 Boston. and es- peciaI1y of the Boston Society for Pre- vention of Cruelty to Children.
 Neglected or dependent children of Rridgeport. under the workings of the state law, are regarded as wards of the county commissioners. Cases need ing attention are brought to the notice of the probate court through the h1u- mane society, the board of se1ectmen, or the board of charities. The cus- tom is to commit the children to the county home, in Norwa1ks or, in case the child is of Catholic family, in the st. Francis Orphan asylum in New Haven. Children under four years Of age are not taken to such 1nsttu- lions, no provision for infants having been made in them. Instead, they are sent to the poorhouses of the various towns. ar. now that the new founding asylum has been completed in Hart ford, to St. Agnes, home, /in tle t city.
 The Bridgeport board of charities recently took over the Fresh Air home in Fairfield for the purpose of caring for children under four years of age The county commissioners maintain a staff of visitors whp investigate ap- pIications from homes where orphan children are sought, and in event of the home conditions being suitable, the children are, placed out in the homes of the applicants.
 These homes are visited at regular intervals, and the commissioners are kept in touch with the conditions Of their wards through this system.
 The struggle in the legislature that was made several years ago by the Connecticut Children's Aid society for the supervision of dependent children, to the exclusion of the county cOmmts~ sioners, may be renewed as a result of the tentative plans of the promoters. One of the conditions upon which the advocates of the home lay stress, as being in favor of, the enfrusting of children to the Boston institution, is that they operate over such extended territory that they can place orphans far from homes.
 It is pointed out, also, that when the welfare of the child demands it, full legal surrender of the child is re- quired.
 Spencer R. Gordon, superintendent of the Bridgeport charities department, is actively interested in the Knight pro ject He will speak in St. Johns church, next week, at an afternoon meeting of the vestry, when the matter of the care of children will be dis cusse1.