The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
Charity

mistakable symptoms of imhecility and
is then a fit candidate for on institu-
tion for the feebleminded instead of a
private home. The harm done becomes
constitutional, as 1t were Another
marked effect of this innoculation is
the moral degeneracy which seems to
keep time with the whole dapnable
affair."
I The child, thrown among rangers,
with no love, consideration osmything
in the nature Of sentiment, an essential
element in Juvenile life, becomes very
much hardened; To avoid seedlings.
punishments of various kinds, often
even hard blows, it resorts to lies,
trickery and every sort of unnatural
means of self-defense, which tend to
develop into permanent antisocial traits
of character, so much SO, that one in
variably distinguishes the institutional
child from that of the normal home.
We will now turn to the private in
stitution. Practically the same policy is
pursued by both public and private
agencies. There is, however, one essen
tial difference between them: The
children taken care of by private
agency are, as rule, placed in inst-
tutions instead of country homes. Thus.
there are homes for Destitute Catholic
Children, Homes for Protestant Child.
ren; in fact, there are Homes for nearly
every nationality. The Catholic Home,
for example, is under the direction and
superintendent of the Catholic Church.
Sisters Superior are in charge of the
victims condemned to it and priests
minister to their religious training. If
State wards fare miserably, they are
fortunate indeed, compared with the
Home charges There the little ones
are almost exclusively on a heavenly
dist. Instead of rising at four-five A.
M. to do chores, which at least has the
advantage of the open air, as in the
case of the State wards, the inmates Of
the Home are awakened at the same
early hour for the purpose of prayer.
Actual, tangible nourishment is TIE
poorest obtainable, the work required.
however, is not at all commensurate
with it, Girls, nineteen years old are
made to scrub floors, clean windows.
help in the kitchen, perform numerous
other tasks of the Home which is
practically kept up on the labor of these
poor, little creatures. What with prayer
and hard, constant work, these victims
of capitalist brutality have no chance
for play or recreation. In some cases
only half on hour day is allowed for
open air exercise, weather permitting
For every kind of disobedience or in
fraction of the Home regulations in
(which IL vsounas fsvidgntfy TO COM
Iensate fol Che lack Of food, play and
all other child requisites), various
punishments are provided, such as:
going without meal, elimination of
the half-hour open-air luxury, even cor
poreal punishment is permissible.
The boys' lot is even harder than
that of the girls. They are treated more
harshly in every respect; their punish.
ment, especially is of a severer nature;
in compliance with the theological doc.
trine of human depravity and sin,
which supposedly, are even more deeply
roted in the male than in the female.
That such treatment must be frought
with disaster is but the law of cause
and effect.
| Epidemics, for instance, are frequent
visitors of the Home. Weakened by
lack Of proper nourishment, fresh air,
undue physical strain, propingity to
i others similarly constituted, make the
Home inmates an easy prey to con.
tagion and the consequence is high.
rate Of mortality in general and that
lof epidemics in particular.
i We referred to the Home for Catholic
Children merely because, with some
slight variations, it is typical of all in.
/. stitutions. In all fairness let us EN-.
phasize the fact that it is no more cruel
than others Of its kind.
All of them, without exception, are
, legitimate excreseences of the bourgeois
order which causes, organizes and main.
tains them for its own sweet existance.
. The hundreds of thousands Of dollars
. expended on this piece Of abomination,
{ how obtained and spent, will be the
: subject Of our next chapter.