Evening star., 1936-03-29
LIBERAL SUPPORT
f. TO MEET NEED IS
!. FORECASTBY KING
III Thought We Were Living
in Twentieth Century,"
CopeIand's Comment.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
LACKING AT INSTITUTION
New Superintendent Declares
Work Is Failure-Disease
Rate So Out of II.

Liberal treatment by Congress Of
the needs of the National Training
School for Girls was forecast yester-
day by Chairman King of the Sem
ate District Committee, after survey
ing conditions at the institution, which
caused Senator Copeland, another
committee member, to exclaim indig-
nantly, And thought We were living
in the twentieth century"
There is no doubt this place needs
certain reforms and improvements"
declared Senator King. We will deal
literally with it."
He told Supt Carrie Weaver Smith
to submit Immediately her plans for
reconstruction of the school to the
Board of Public Welfare SO as to per-
NIT recommendations to reach the Dis.
trict Subcommittee of the Senate Ap-
preparations Committee at its meeting
Thursday.
Institution Held Failure"
Informed by DR.. Smith, who has
been in charge of the school only q
month, that it has no vocational
training and that a large percentage
OF girls who leave it end up in the
District Workhouse at Occoquan, Sen.
ator King inquired:
Then, by and large, the institution
is faiiure?"
YES" replied DR.. Smith.
She took the two Senators through
the entire plant, which houses II
girls, IL of them white and so colored.
She said clinical reports show 50 of
the II are suffering from q social
disease. Of the 361 who have been
committed since January, 1927, 20
have died, l3 of tuberculosis.
The Juvenile Court has ceased to
send girls to the school because of its
inadequate facilities and training pro-
gram, and the number of inmates has
declined steadily since 1880, DR.. Smith
declared
Six Cells Unlighted.
She showed the Senators six heavily
barred cells, unventilated and un.
lighted but for windows in the ad-
joining corridor.
When I came here" she said.
there were three girls in one of them.
If I have my way the cells never will
/ be used again.
/ 1t was the cells and sanitary condi-
tionS which most strongly aroused
Senator Copeland.
The thing we do worst in this
country" he said, lis the handling Of
our juvenile population. These chill
dren should not be treated like
| criminals"
The visit by Senators King and
Copeland was the result of a recent
report by the Children's Bureau of the
Labor Department to the Board of
Public Welfare, strongly condemning
the situation at the school. Mrs.
Louis Gutenberg of the District League
OF Women Voters, which has urged
that something be done to remedy
conditions. assisted DR.. Smith in es-
corting the visitors through the
buildings.
Little Schooling Offered.
The superintendent emphasized that
no vocational training and little
schooling of any sort is provided.
This place ought either to be
closed as a nuisance or made to serve
the purpose for which it was intend
ed" she declared heatedly.
She led the senatorial party into
the dormitory where the white girls
are housed. There was one bath room
Each corridor had a single four-coil
radiator The cell-like rooms were
unheated.
water freezes in the glasses In
those rooms in the Winter" DR.. Smith
said.
The corridors of the main building
which has a capacity of SO. have nc
ventilation or light, other than arti-
fetal, except through the bed rooms.
In another building-the one with
the cells-there were six colored un.
married mothers and their babies. Nc
nursery facilities we're provided. The
kitchen, laundry and bath room were
all in a single room. DR.. Smith said
the same room formerly also was used
for dining.
One Parole Officer on Job.
The one parole officer on the Staf1
is responsible for 72 girls. about twict
the number regarded as the maximum
case load for effective work. F.
Only one of the white girls has moi
been on parole, DR.. Smith said.
A difference of opinion concerning
the size of the staff needed developed
between DR.. Smith and Senator King
when the superintendent revealed tht
school has 26 employees.
do you need 26 for only 10 girls9'
he inquired. why at the Lortor
Reformatory they have only one fol
about 10 or r." 2
DR.. Smith insisted she needed tht
entire staff. explaining the difficulties
of the work and that five of the EN-
ployes are men who work the farm.