Evening star., 1923-06-25
CHILD WELFARE
HERE ANALYzED
Sage Foundation Publishes
Findings on Juvenile Sit
uation in District.

To help coordinate efforts here
in behalf Of neglected children. DR..
Hastings H. Hart. director, depart
ment of child helping, Russell Sage
Foundation, made public today in
New York the first Of series Of
reports on child welfare work in
Washington.
Stating that the public institutions
here have suffered because they are
dependent on congressional legisla-
tion, DIR. Hart said this condition
has been aggravated by the fact that
the legislation has consisted largely
of riders upon the appropriations
bills.
Lack of Harmony.
Private institutions here, DR.. Hart
continued, have suffered from lack of
harmony. Small and imperfectly
equipped institutions have been mul-
tiplied and the result has been an
excess of institutions, a large num-
ber of empty beds, and at the same
time for many of them an entirely
inadequate equipment. he added.
The foundation has been studying
conditions here for the past two or
three years, and has recently revisit
ed most OF the institutions. The re-
port made public to-day is on the
Juvenile Court. Tomorrow the
foundation will release its findings
on the operation of the board of
children's guardians.
Praises Juvenile Court.
Aside from the fact that ''it Is a
is no serious fault to be found with
the institution. Its prestige and in
1uence, however, he continued, have
grown steadily. and it has been ac-
cepted by the community as an eff
teCtive factor in the social system.
1t appears desirable, the report
Continues. that the Juvenile Court
law OF the District be so amended
that the court will have authority to
make preliminary Investigations
through probation officers before
trial. and to order mental and physi-
cal examinations without waiting for
the consent of parents, who may
themselves be vicious or feeble mind
ed, and who may object to such eX-
aminationS from ignorance or super
stltlon, or because they fear the find
ingS.'
Judge Kathryn Sellers, to whom
the report gives mrfch praise for her
conduct OF the court, sought estab-
ishment of mental clinic in con-
nection with the court, but the meas
ure failed in the House on the ground
OF economy, the report said.
br. Hart said there should be pro-
visions to prevent the child being
branded criminal. AT present it is
necessary to find the child guilty of
criminal offense before the court
ran make an Investigation to dis
nver whether the child should or
should not be treated as a criminal
Need to Change Law.
DR.. Hart stated the court has limit
Ell jurisdiction over family relation
snip, TO when can be traced many
causes OF juvenile delinquency and
suggests family court as d solu-
tion. BY this plan, he said, "a wider
consideration OF the family unit
would be made possible and reach all
those causes that result in antf-Social
conduct and distress of children"
DIR. Hart SAID his plan has been ad-
vanced and indorSed for several years
by the National Probation Associa-
ton, and has been worked out in
Cincinnati and other cities. The fam
lily court should be given Jurisdiction
in the following kinds of cases, ac-
cordng to DR.. Hart: Desertion and
non-support, paternity cases, all mat
ters pertaining to the adoption and
guardianship Of children, all divorce
and alimony cases. 1t may be at
tached to the Juvenile Court as con-
templated in a bill which was consid-
cred by the House judiciary commit
tee last year, or it may be attached
to the Supreme Court, Dr.. Hart said.
DR.. Hart says salaries paid to the
judge and most of the officers of the
Juvenile Court "are Inadequate" and
are "humiliating, from the stand
point of the self-respecting tax
payer" The salary paid the Wash
ington judge is $3.60o, while Pitts
burgh and Philadelphia pay 5000;
Louisville and Buffalo, $4,000, and
Norfolk, S4500.