Evening star., 1953-12-17
Delinquency Probers.
Describe Lives Of
Children in SIums
Continued From First Page.)

recorder of deeds records to re-
port that Capt. Sullivan bought
some of the houses from Maurice
Schleinn on March 81, 1947, and
a larger group from william L.
Evans in June. 1947. 4
Capt. Sullivan, who served in
most Of the precincts during his
Il years on the force, retired,
according to police records, in
September, 1945. Through an
apparent misunderstanding, Mr..
Tansey told the subcommittee
he retired in 1947.
Dixon's Court, according to
Mr., Tansey, lies between Third
and Fourth and H and streets
S.W., and forms a ct" with
Dryers Court. The latter court
is known in the neighborhood as
part of Dixon'S Court.
Worked in Area.
Details of life in the court
were furnished the committee by
Lawson Veney, staff consultant,
who worked in the Southwest
area as Juvenile Court proba-
ton officer from 1887 to 1914
and Is now superintendent of a
Maryland training school for
boys.
Mr.. Veney, during six visits to
the court for the subcommittee.
said he interviewed 80 residents
living in $50 rooms. He reported
finding a family of ii in one OF
the four-room dwellings and an
average of three adults and three
children in each house.
Gives Figures on Children.
Over half of the children. he
reported, are. 6 years old or
younger. OF the SO children.
only 8 were living with both their
father and their mother. He
said 1t was conservative to esti-
mate a so per cent rate of il
legitimacy.
He found only three children
all boys. over Is. Two of these
are attending high school and
doing well, he said. The other
has not worked or gone to school
for a year.
Mr.. Veney reported that % of
the So children were attending
school, but most~were a year or
more behind their age groups.
He told of: cases where chill
dren drift into the alley and are
taken to live permanently. He
cited one case where 5-year-old
twins were simply left by their
young mother with a middle
aged couple. ] s
Father in Prison.
In another. case, a woman with
10 children of her own, Mr..
Veney said, took. a 15-year-old
girl who Subsequently had a
child by the woman's oldest son,
now in prison.
In one cold, dark house, Mr..
Veneys went On, he found a 49,
year-old girl huddled in a cor
ner. He said she was five or six
months pregnant and told him
she lived with her grandparents.
She had been dropped from
schoolCbeeause ofipregnancy. He
emphasized that both her grand
parents worked and left her
alone in the house. two doors
from which a bunch of drunks
were raising Cain"
May Call Owners.
Subcommittee Counsel Herbert
j. Hammock said some of the
owners of slum properties might
be called for questioning.
After the slum inquiry, the
subcommittee planned to turn
to a study of 100 cases of boys
committed to the National Train
ing School for Boys. Richard
Heaney, supervisor of the ju-
venile branch of the Federal Bu-
reau of Prisons, was expected to
use the cases to point up COM
munity needs in coping with
juveniles.
The subcommittee hoped to
start its investigation of Juvenile
Court later today by scheduling
testimony from Edward j. Flynn,
executive director of the Wash
ington Criminal Justice Associa-
ton, who made study of court
cases for the subcommittee. Ju-
venile Court Judge. Edith H,
CockFill is scheduled to appear
tomorrow.
Drinking Phase Closed.
The subcommittee closed its
inquiry into juvenile drinking by
hearing denialS from two pro-
prietors of teen-age drinking in
their establishments and by tes-
timony from Deputy Chief How
ard V. CovelI that he had no
information on widespread pub
lie drinking by juveniles.
Chairman Hendrickson Of the