The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-07-22
BOYS TAUGHT TRARE
Institution Kept Up BY
The Commonwealth
How Discipline Is Maintained
BY Officials; Badges For
Nice Lads !

and family, William Stradtmann.
Special Judge and Charles Smith
motored to kedwing Friday with Harry
Smith. who was ordered committed
to the State Training School Tor
Boys at Redwing by Juvenile Judge
Harry Johnson, on Wednesday OF
last week.
Judge Golf, in an interview with
The Free Press, sid that he re-
quested the privilege Of taking Harry
Smith to Redwing SO as to give him
Training School and determine from
his own observations the kind and
character OF training accorded the
boys committed to the institution.
Judge Stradtmann went along for
similar reasons. The trip of two
hundred ten miles both ways was
made without mishap.
Rain Across the State
The rain which fell here Wednes-
day evening continued clear across
the state. Mankato seems to have
been in the very western edge of
the rain and had the least precipi-
of any place on the trip. Starting
in a little east of Madison Lake
nearly to Faribault the rain was ac-
complained by heavy winds and all
corn fields were nearly fat to the
ground. From there on there was
evidence Of heavy rain the whole
way to Redwing, Out the corn was
standing up nicely. Crops have SUI
Tered from dry weather to some eX-
tent all the way. but more parti-
cularly in the lighter soils around
Randolph. Cannon Falls, and that
vicinity, where some OF the grain
In
were told that they had not had any
rainfall since the very first Of June
through that section. We looked
over the State Training School with
considerable interest. There are ten
or eleven large buildings on the farm,
the size OF which l did not learn.
The boys are cared for in companies
according to their sizes and ages.
These companies are housed in one OF
the cottages or SO called cottages.
1t is a building with sleeping and
eating accommodations for about
that number. The boys are i'm
mediately placed on a credit and
debit system.
Records Are Kept
A perfect record tor any day en-
titles boy to receive five credits.
These are for obeying the rules and
regulations, work zone in school,
cleanliness OF dress, work done in
trade school, etc. Whenever bad
report is turned in on any boy one
of his credits is taken away, or more
depending on the degree OF Offense.
Whenever he has received one hun
dred fifty credits he receives badge
from the institution. He also re-
ceives an extra badge, the equivalent
or one hundred fifty credits, for five
months without a bad report against
him. Twelve of these badges which
may be earned in ten months with
ont any debts or bad reports en-
title boy to be put on the honor
roll and also entitle him to be parol-
ed from the school. The length of
time which boy stays at the Train
ing School is entirely dependent up
on himself. There are boys who
probably never get out Of the insti-
tuition before they are twenty-one
years old. On the other hand there
are boys who are paroled out at the
end OF ten months. After they are
paroled out they are kept close watch
of by the state agents who visit them,
and if they are unable to give good
account of themselves. or bad re-
upon investigation are found true,
they may be, and often are, returned
to the institution for a further term.
How Rules Are Enforced
Ordinarily fractions of rules are
punishable by taking off one or more
credits or the badges which boy
has earned by good conduct. Ser
ious violations may be punished by
striking off all the boys credits and
compelling him to start all over on the
same basis as when he entered the
institution.
Every boy who enters the in
The boys do all the work on the farm
or practically all of it, all of the
kitchen work, scrubbing and clean
ing up the grounds, etc. Every one
old enough is assigned to- some trade
department.
The trade consists of carpenter of
fairly well equipped carpenter shop
where the boys are taught the rudi-
ments OF carpenter work; black
smith shop where the farm horses
are shod and blacksmith work around
the institution is done; a shoe repair
ing shop where all Of the shoes are
ment with linotype machine where
the boys are taught the rudiments of
the printing trade; tailor shop
where the clothes are made and
mended; fully equipped and modern
laundry. The institution also has a
boys band, a fully equipped gymnas-
ium and swimming pool, private
light plant, bakery, etc. Practically
all of the work in all these different
departments is done by the boys in
the institution, and the part that ap-
pealed to the visitors the strongest
was the trade school where the
foundation is laid for equipping boy
to become useful citizen and in
creasing his earning ability above
that of a common laborer.
Judge Golf does not pretend to
have learned all of the secrets of the
institution but came away from there
feeling that delinquent boys were
given some opportunity by the state
of Minnesota while they were in
a school of correction"