The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-26
TO STRIKE AT ROOT
Prevention of Delinquency Is
Aim of Code Commission.
Business Mans Viewpoint, Mrs.
MayfieId Tells Rotary.

Prevention of delinquency and de-
tendency of children and adults in the
state of Kansas thru the taking of
measures to improve conditions for
the children before it becomes neces-
sary for the state to assume their
care. was advocated by Mrs. Harriet
Mayfield, secretary of the state chill
dren's code commission, in an address
to the Topeka Rotary club at the reg
ular meeting today.
Mrs. Mayfield described the con-
ditions which exist in the state today,
the ~ which the state pays for the
care of the delinquent and the de-
pendent, and discussed briefly the laws
which are being advocated by the
commission.
kansas pays from 100000 to
S4.O0O,OO0 a year for the appre-
hension, support, and relief of the
criminal and delinquents of the state"
Mrs Mayfield declared. 1.-The various
state institutions cost in the neighbor-
hood of s1.250,000 a year. The state
courts cost some $350,00O year, and
the county and local courts and insti-
tutions bring the total up to three or
four million dollars.
43 Members In Commission.
There are forty-three members Of
the commission, and they are divided
into seven different committees. They
have been assigned to the task of ex-
aiming and co-ordinating the well
fare laws of the state into a code
which will operate as prevention or
the conditions of delinquency and de-
tendency, as well as the treatmenk of
these conditions when they do arise.
Mrs. Mayfield attacked the problem
from the business mans standpoint
the eventual saving of expense thru
the use of preventive measures.
She called attention to the fact that
the penal institutions of the state are
. badly overcrowded and in the very
near future will require appropria-
tions to increase their capacity,
Among the measures which are be-
ing advocated by the commission and
which Mrs. Mayfield gave specific at
tention in her talk today were: the
appointment in each county, of a
skilled, trained welfare worker, to
combine in one person the offices of
probation officer of the probate court.
the truancy officer of the public
. schools, and the commissioner of the
poor.
. The revision of the law prescribing
the duties of the county health officer
which is more than thirty years old,
and authorizing the counties to enter
the public health nursing service.
The provision in the law of funds
for making ? physical examination of
all children in the public schools, an
nually
Ihe authorization OF special train
ing in the public schools for defective
children, to whom instruction in read
ing. writing and arithmetic is worth
? less, but who might be given voca-
tional training to advantage.
''No Training ut Winfield.s
A larger appropriation and better
training for the higher grade children
in the state home for the feeble
minded at Winfield. THAT school
made me sick. There is no training
there. There is no work for the young
women who are able to work. They
are doomed to spend their lives sitting
2 IN a chair with nothing to do, there
is not a person connected with the in
stitution who has had any special
training in the care of the feeble
minded. This without criticism of the
superintendent, who is the best man
for the position the state is able to get,
but who does not pretend to be trained
for the work." Mrs. Mayfield said.
The commission would provide fer
the state supervision of the adoption
of orphan children into private homes.
There are 5000 such children known
10 have been adopted of which there
is no record kept by the state, Mrs
Mayfield declared.
The commission favors the raising