Evening star., 1940-02-10

In addition to that there were
two checker boards and I saw no
checkers and no one playing check
ers. The boards were so badly
scratched that you thought they
would have to recover the squares,
remark them. However, I did not
see any checkers so I do not know
whether they were in any of the
drawers but I do know that no one
was playing checkers when I was
there There were a few packs Of
very old and dirty cards and some
of the boys were playing with those
and that was all l saw in room
which contained colored and white
boys and the ages of those boys
ranged from to l8 years.
Some Boys In and Out
As Much as 81 Times.
Some of those Older boys had for
one reason or another been in and
out of that home, one told me, as
many as 81 times. Now it may be
that they are there only very short
time Some of them are only there
4 few hours but if they cannot be
paroled back to their families, the
court does allow child, as I under
stood from the superintendent, to
stay there for several weeks, and
there is no occasion to keep young
people for that length of time.
The only outdoor place for play
is little yard, very small, where
there are some boxes, but, as the
yard is covered with snow in winter
and they do not have adequate
clothing to go out in the snow, it
means that they do not 60 out and
I should not think that more than
six children could play in that yard
and get any exercise, so that to
me it is entirely inadequate for
healthy exercises even if they are
there few days.
They provide for physical exam
ination twice a week Now boy
may come in the day after the
doctor has been in and he will
get no physical examination until
after he has been there for several
days, and the dormitories have beds
that are close together. They use
the same lavatory and I do not
think it is physically safe, aside
from anything else.
Feels They Do Their Best
With What They Have,
Now 1 think that they do their
best with what they have. They
have a w. P. A. worker that comes
there. They have an assembly room
which they use occasionally when
the w. P. A. worker comes They
have pictures of w. P. A. workers
on the wall which, I think, make
it cheerful.
I do not think that food is ade-
quate They had some 50-odd chill
dren when I was there and they
took 80 quarts of milk, and that is
not enough for children of that
age They have a dietician there,
but it did not seem to me that I
would call it a good job of trying
10 TeIldDlllldte lIle CIlllOIcH dllu
start them out with a better con-
ception of what the Government
meant to them, and, after all,
every institution for the care of
children should not only try to
give them higher standards in every
way to take away with them. but
it should also give them sense that
if this is what the Government is
doing they have something to be
grateful for and that is the begin
ming of faith in democracy. So I
felt very, very seriously troubled
over the Receiving Home.
More Modern Program
At Industrial Home.
Now the Industrial Home. of
course, takes older children, border
line children. They are all white
children.
The buildings are old 1t is not
modern plant, and it should be on
the cottage plan. The children have
better room and there is a more