The Connecticut labor news., 1921-02-25

setts "rotten with dead beat socialism in the schools"
 "Teh statt today is spending between two and a half and three times less for the support of schools than 10 years ago." Commissiontr Meredith declared. "The state should conserve that on which 1t started at that time"
 "AsN i'll the municipalities" asserted Commissioner Meredith, Expenditures for educational purposes are becoming bigger in the state than expenditures for other purposes. The public now de- mands more of the schools and this adds to the expense. There is a demand for larger salaries and a wider use of the school plant"
 Miss Carolyn .Marchant, president of the Connecticut Teachers Federation, representing 5000 teachers, showed that all of the teachers were strongly be- hind Mir. Meredith and the state board of education, and said: If the state of Connecticut don't spend money for schools 1t will spent it for prisons, courts, and other institutions for the wrong kind of Americanism." T. E.. Duffy of West Hartford said that the State Grange was in favor of the bills.
 The judiciary committee also had a lively session Wednesday afternoon when the child welfare bills were up for hearing. Auxiliary Bishop Murray of the Catholic diocese attacked the meas ure providing for custodia1 care of chill dren given out to foster homes, saying 1t was vicious and tended to ensnare the child and bother the foster family which i'll nine out of ten cases was doing its utmost for the unfortunate little one He also attacked the clause establishing juvenile courts and giving probate courts jurisdiction i'll criminal cases in- volving minors.
 Under the provisions of the bill, as explained by Col. J. Moss Ives, the pro- posed juvenile courts would be given state supervision and would handle all juveniles accused of misdemeanors and crimes, irrespective of the degree of the crime It was pointed out that the principle of the bill held all mental de fectives to be unfortunate and thus liable to the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts only, regardless of the criminal elements in the case"
 "Children should be saved from the odium of being classed as criminals, declared Bishop Murray. Attacking the feature of the bill which provides for "custodial care" of adults convicted of lIllllOl NlIiIdl NI' AIlotNoo OA lllc'fN ing them subject to the criminal laws, Bishop Murray declared he was not ready to admit the assertion that all men guilty of crimes against chastity were unfortunates and mental defec- tives.
 "The psychology underlying this piece of legislation Is not correct" declared Bishop Murray. "I am speaking for the 22,OOO of the 35,000 children who were born in the state last year, and I am not opposed to the child welfare" As to the assertion that the state is the charge of the child, he said that the parent has direct charge of the child and that the state only assists The state should not intervene" Bishop Mur- ray declared, unless a menace to so- ciety threatens"
 Other bills concerning child welfare were also argued. House bill No. 795 plans to make children born of un- married parents legitimate by giving them the fathers name, and recognizing their right to a share of inheritance. The bill was strongly supported.
 Representative Ssisky of Enfield ap- peared as sponsor for House bill No. 137, concerning the support of all ch1l- dren, which plans to make 1t a criminal instead of a civil matter for any man to leave his own state and take his resi- dence in another in order to evade the support of his child. This law as planned would be similar to the law for