Evening star., 1939-05-24
Smith Hearinq
Witnesses Tell
of Rioting
Ex-Superintendent
To Present Defense
Testimony Tomorrow

Public hearings on the dismissal
Of DR.. Carrie Weaver Smith as
superintendent of the National
Training School for Girls, a year
and a half ago, were to be resumed
at 2 pm. today with additional
testimony by police as to their serv-
ices in quelling riots at the institu-
ton.
DR.. Smith is expected to have an
opportunity to call her defense
witnesses beginning tomorrow and
the hearing may run into Friday.
Just what action may be taken
thereafter is conjectural, since DR..
Smith has said she did not want to
be restored to her position.
witnesses so far called TO the
stand by Oliver Gasch, an assistant
corporation counsel, who was as
signed to present the ease" against
DR.. Smith, have agreed that she
failed to take steps to stop i'm
morality and disobedience among
the inmates of the institution and
that discipline has been improved
since her dismissal.
Testifies Girls Drunk.
One witness heard late yesterday,
was Pvt. Joseph A Wheeler of No.
7 precinct, who described how he
was hit on the head with a croouet
mallet following a riot at the place
June "a, 1887, when he was at
| tempting to place one of the girls
in a police car. Several of the girls
had come back from a trip to town
in a drunken condition. he said.
When he answered another call
September IT, 1887, he said. he
found some of the girls had butcher
knives, glass candlesticks and clubs
| and that one of the inmates told
him she would not do any better"
unless she was taken on an auto
mobile ride" every night.
Describing difficulties in settling
| this riot, when one official of the
institution questioned whether a
certain girl should be locked in
her room, Pvt. Wheeler said, 1T
| was hot in there and I had nv
overcoat on, and 1 told them: I am
not here to play with the girls
! If you want them locked up. all
right; but if you don't, Ill leave"
Thereafter, he added, he was told
that a member of the staff had been
assigned to say prayers with the
girls and that it was thought things
would quiet down,
Reported Dinner Invitation.
Later, he said, he received a let
ter from DR.. Smith inviting him
to go to the institution for dinner
and then to play baseball game
with the girls at the institution. The
officer said he declined the invita-
ton.
Mrs. Lorene Nelson Olson, for
mer assistant superintendent at the
! institution, said she tried to carry
out DR.. Smiths idea of what she
called passive therapy," in using
persuasion rather than force, to
obey rules, and that this policy
might have succeeded had there
been an iron glove" in the back
ground, She added that when she
urged DR.. Smith to clamp down"
on the girls for the sake of discipline.
DR.. Smith told her You still have
the old idea of retribution"
On croSS-examination, DR.. Smith
brought from this witness a state
ment that Dr. Smith had not inter-
fered with her measures of dis
clpllne. She also said that while
DR.. Smith was away from the in
stitution for a time there was no
destruction of property, no fights
among inmates and mot as much"
refusal to work. She said during
this period there had been a de-
parture from DR.. Smiths policy of
passive therapy."
Attendant Testifies.
From Mrs. Jessie Hale Foreman,
an attendant. came statements that
bad girls at the institution were
given the same privileges as the
good girls, as to permission for
visits away from the institution; and
that since DR. Smiths dismissal
there has not been the former diff
Guilty of getting the girls up in the
morning
Referring to testimony by more
than one witness that the girls at
times carried butcher knives, ice
picks and razor blades. DR.. Smith
asked: "If they had all these things,
why didn't they kill us alp"
Miss Agnes G. Scanlon, now as
sistant superintendent, told the
Commissioners the inmates of the
institution now take their venereal
disease treatments regularly, that
there is better order and less waste
than there was during DR.. Smiths
regime. She denied a suggestion
from DR.. Smith that she had been
happy" under the Smith admins
tration until she was transferred
from supervisory matron to duty in
the kitchen of the institution.
Miss Scanlon said she had been
with the institution % years and
there never had been as much
laxity In discipline as there was
during DR.. Smiths regime"