Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-26
PRELIMINARY CONFERENCES
BEGUN ON D. C.. IMPROVEMENTS

nate Implications of effort and es.
tablish a definite program OF co.opera.
tion. With this end in view a con.
ference was held last week at which
all of those agencies were repre-.
scented: the Juvenile Court by Judge
Kathryn Sellers and Joseph w. San.
ford, clerk: the Board Of Public Wei.
fare by George s. Wilson, director
and the Misses Moss and Donoghue,
supervisors in the Child Welfare Di-
vision; the Police Department by Maj.
Hesse, superintendent, and Inspector
Evans; the Corporation Counseis OF.
flee by Corporation Counsel Francis
n. stephens and Assistant Corporation
Counsel Richmond B. Keech; school
attendance officer, Miss Fay Bentley,
and the Bureau Of Efficiency by Her.
bert d. Brown, chief of the bureau,
and Howard B. Gill.
Committee Organized.
committee on child welfare was
organized to work with the Bureau
of Efficiency during the investigation
and to work out a program for CO.
ordination between the five agencies.
The second phase Of the public well
fare survey is that there has just
been completed a detailed report on
the methods of investigation, commit
ment and supervision of these agencies
as they relate to dependent, neglected
and delinquent children.
The third phase is the institutional
problem. This includes a considera.
ton of the Industrial Home School on
Wisconsin avenue for white children,
with legislation passed authorizing
sale of the property; the detention
~
Women's Bureau, which must be de-
molished to make way for the new
Department of Commerce building;
provision for an adequate industrial
home school for District children; and
the National Training School for girls,
which houses only II or Is white
girls, and the one on Conduit road for
colored girls; and the industrial home
school for eolored boys at Blue Plains.
There is no Industrial Home School
for Colored Girls and the District has
no National Training School for Boys.
but uses the Federal school on
Bladensburg road, where now about
10 District boys are placed on a per
capita basis.
A score of vexing questions are
raised by the threatened closing up of
several of these institutions, which
forces early action-what to do with
the girls, what to do with the boys,
what to do with dependent boys and
girls awaiting placement in private
families, ETC.?
There is now no receiving home.
Tentative Decision Reached.
So, after a careful study of the in
stitutional problem, 1t has been de.
cided tentatively by the Bureau of
Efficiency that what the District
should have is:
1. A farm home school for boys.
where the white and colored could be
segregated.
2. A similar industrial farm school
for girls.
8. A receiving home for depend.
entS, with proper medical. mental and
psychiatric and other clinical facili-
ties for studying children before they
are sent to institutions or to private
families.
That finished with the child welfare
division of the Public Welfare Survey.
but two other institutions are con.
sidered essential for a co-ordinated
system:
4. A detention home for women, in
Guiding minor girls over II years of
age.
5. A model municipal lodging house
for both men and women.
In this connection, 1t is pointed out
that the present House Of Detention,
which was the old Emergency Hos.
pital Building and which must be torn
down for the Federal building pro.
gram. now houses four groups that
ought not to be mixed-children, both
delinquent and dependent; adult WON.
an criminals. female delinqnents over
II years Of age: woman and children
lodgers--with the problem doubled be.
cause there are both white and colored
In each Of these groups.
The receiving home contemplated
would take juveniles up to II and
would be available to all of the Ave
agencies. 1t is In the mind OF those
working on the problem to place the
management of that home with the
Public Welfare Board.
Two Suggestions Made.
Two suggestions have been made
regarding the location of such
home-one as part Of the model Pub.
lie Welfare Building. which a per.
sistent effort is being made to locate
in one of the hotels near the Capitol,
which the Bureau of Efficiency does
not believe is likely to happen for
some time at least, and the other to
use temporarily one Of the buildings
in the so-called Government Hotel"
group on the plaza between the Capt..
toll and Union Station. 1t 10 admit
ted that this is a sheer temporary
makeshift, since the present House Of
Detention must be torn down.
An adequate municipal lodging
house is being advocated as a neces.
sity to replace the existing and thor.
oughly unsatisfactory municipal lodg-
ing house on Twelfth street between
c and D streets, which also must be
| torn down to make way for the Fed
| eral huildinpS In the fria nPle hafWeen