Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-30

Some interesting facts regarding
the investigation of children's insti-
tutions by the State Board of Public
Welfare were given in an address de-
livered Friday by Miss Rhoda Kauf-
man, assistant secretary of the board
before the meeting Of the League of
Georgia Women Voters.
Although the Investigators of the
board report that they have found
many instances where conditions far
from ideal evisted in various insti-
tuttons, Miss Kaufman stated, yet
they had found in most cases that
the institutions were willing to give
their cooperation and welcomed adj
vice from the board.
The board was created by the last
legislature for the purpose Of in
vestigating the conditions existing at
all public and private institutions
caring for dependents, detectives and
delinquents and for the purpose of
encouraging all legitimate agencies
by advising them and by furnishing
them information gained from the
study of other institutions.
"Our agents have been in the field
only a month" said Miss Kaufman u
and yet the information and facts
gathered already are startling in the
extreme. We sit here and think that
we are living in a civilized state,
and while we sit here, tiny babies
three and four days old are being
sold and passed to any cruel, diseased
or careless hand that is held out
to take them. We found one tiny
newborn infant that had been given
by an institution to a woman of the
streets; another four-day-old little
mite that had been placed in a dirty
howell Of diseased, tubercuIar, in
mates, and was luckily found by a
nurse and taken to a hospital; and
still other wee bits Of humanity were
found who, If they live, will grow
up blind for life because of infection
howell of diseased, tubercular in
stitution that is housing them. An
other so-called home takes the pub
lies funds and is housing dozens of
tiny tots all under six in a dirty
house with only two people to caro-
for all their thousand baby wants
Can you picture the criminal neglect?
New children are brought in without
examination and an unsupported in
fictitious disease admitted. means q
sweeping devastation. On the day our
inspector was there, nearly all the
children showed a skin disease, and
the matron, taking it as a matter of
course, has not even called a doctor
Children Begging
I'm an institution housing older
children we found future little citi.
zens going through the streets with
the heads of the institution begging
from door to door for the funds with
which to maintain themselves; those
children who had been placed there
to be made into self-respecting flu.
ture citizens. In another part Of the
state we found a Jail where one child
under twelve and two under sixteen
were being held together with hard.
ened men and women offenders, and
still another institution that was
sheltering under one roof small chill
dren and prostitutes from the
streets. We found men and women
together locked in jails with stairs
of wood and no fire extinguishhers
(veritable fire traps), with vermin
most of the inmates of these jails
being not yet convicted of crime, but
only awaiting trial.
Next to the children, we would
certainly place the old and helpless
as the ones for whom we would
! make things most pleasant, and yet
many Of the almshouses we have Wis
tied have been miserable little wood
en-, vermin-ridden buildings, where
ventilation and bathing are practi-
ca1Iy nonresident.
But would not have you think
that this gloomy side is all of the
picture, far from it. Contrasted to
the children's institutions just de-
scribed, we found many that were