New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 7, 1926, Page 20

Boy3 in a German orphan asyltm—a good example of the method of caring for the parentless which is giving way to a kinder, more sensible plan. Dressed in uniforms that mark them as different from other boys and girls and subjected to soldier- like «discipline, they get little or none of the home life every child should have deal with our OW shall we In regard to them, there is a new mowement on foot, quite revolu- tionary, It is backed by the United States ‘Children’s Bureau Who-of us<has not been saddened by the spectacke, only too familiar, of a long string of little children, walking two by two like the elephant and the kangaroo of the classic poem, under guard? The inmates of an “orphan asylum,” of course, out for a walk, or going to.church. or Sunday school. The: sight arouses pity. All those little girls and boys parentless and cared for by charity! How glad you feel that you yourself ~weremot an orphan and obliged to pass your childhood under similar conditions! But it.is all'wrong. These are normal children, like any others. They ought not to be herded in an “asylum,” they needed to be segregated. carefully watched and in effect imprisoned That sort of treatment makes them feel that they are a class apart, not like ordinary youngsters. They know that their condition is re garded as pitiable It is unwholesome for them. They are morally handicapped for the struggle i life which every one of as if at the start them must later undertake. The orphan asylum is medieval; it has no proper place in our advanced civili zation. It should cease to exist. The only suitable which to child is a Not a home place in rear a home. of institutional char. acter, but a real one. Why that kind of a home not provide for the orphans of every community? In any sizable community there are bound to be many orphans. Parents die, and children 1 £ be cared for means of subsistence, must omehow 3ut not all of the inmates of an are children whose par f them are the athers or worth orphan asylum ent are de Many offspring of deserting mother: In any case they are help with ¢ Make the ally to mother the children confided te They prisoners, or ‘g her care are not in any sense arded,” in a disagree word; they are merely tle folks normally expect There is the new s much else to be told about The big enough to em with home for orphans area assigned to it i brace a small farm a real dirt farmer to raise vegetables for the little people and those in charge of their com fort and welfare There is, of course, a house for the n patches occupation and amusement for the children, farmer and a barn. Gar provide and growing “truck,” such atoes and lettuce A good-s for the youngster: 1 building and ves the purpose of an auditorium, in which movies may be shown and plays pre ented by dren. Other buildings plant, provide for a power laundry nd a garag 50 an admini receiving cottage ittle ones are tem intil it is made x no infectious dis ge, com are all onc 1 each one the children have dining room and living room home atmosphere of a big Each cottage is surrounded by — Pt e e &"v;‘ - One of the cottages used to house the children at the Carson Orphanage at Flourtown, Pa. at the New York Orphanage that houses fifteen boys a shady and in t larg lawn area here described is a spa ground Of course, the children n the nearb blic sche town I the erc thrown in with wd of other boy and girls have no feeling that, orphans, they are in 2 ‘“‘different.” Ny reason to re or looked upon a Nobody has compa are Cepyright, 1926, a group they are way segregated Remarkable Success of the Humane Movementl 1o Give Pareniless Boys and Girls Homes Such as Other Children Have Instead of Herding Them Like Convicls in Greal Institutions A “family” of orphan girls at the New York Orphanage, at Hastings-on-Hudson, where the new plan of dividing the chil- dren into groups and giving each group a cottage for a home is followed ht still further into contact with outsiders. The whole idea is to give the orphans life. W They are normal children. To shut them up in an jum” and take them out to walk in doleful line iwo by two, painstakingly shepherded and disciplined, would be an How could they be expected , if thus dealt with? d to be all wrong. a normal not? outrage to grow up norma The idea is beli For mental or physical defectives, those crippled in mind or body, there must always be institutional care, but surely not for healthy, everyday young folks. To illustrate the new and better idea, the Children's Bureau has built an interesting model, which represents, in miniature, a “foster home” of the new pat- tern for orphan children, pleas- antly located in the midst of a rolling brook, open meadows and woods—ideal surroundings for growing girls and boys. A paved road and electric trolley connect the area with a nearby town, the outskirts of which appear in the model, with houses, a church, a school, stores and even a movie theater. It is intended that each child who wants a garden, n which to grew flowers or vegetables, shall have just a small patch, dual and exclusive proprie- COrhin. re should be a baseball rond and a swimming pool. It is to place the erphans in but in not proposed xurious circumstances, but merely to give them the advantages of home and family life, with surroundings as health- ful as possible aid, a great many of the “asylums’ are not dependent chil- dren, in not a few instances reduced to that condition by the father’s desertion of his family. The mother may be un- ahle to support her offspring, and so they s already led orph parentless. They are s in by Johneon Featares, e § . ¢ A class in horticulture at the New York Orphanage become phans.” constructively speaking, “or This is altogether wrong, in the view of the Children’s Bureau. No child ought to be separated from its mother because of poverty alone. To prevent that misfortune, there should be provi- sion made out of public funds, to enable needy mothers to retain possession of their young and give them home care Indeed, this plan is already being car- ried into effect on an extensive scale In forty-two states public aid is given to children in their own homes. Grants of money to mothers have tended markedly to lessen the number of children in orphanages and in the care of charitable societies. At the present time in this country, 27,000 children are thus aided in their own homes; 70,000 are ‘“placed” an- nually in other people’s homes, and 125,000 are cared for in institutions. Much injustice would be done if it cognized that many orphan asylums nowadays are excellently man- aged. It was altogether otherwise in former times. Up to the beginning of the last century the prevailing method of dealing with orphans and other needy children was to consign them to poor- houses, poor farms and similar places of incarceration. Those institutions were conducted by officials appointed for po- litical reasons, and their principal claim for continuance in office was based upon a record of economical management. The children were half-starved treated. and mis Evils resulting from this system grew so scandalous as to bring about the establishment of private orphanages, en- dowed by philanthropic persons, in order that children in unfortunate circum stances might be provided for in a more humane way. Within recent years there has been a great awakening of the public mind in regard to the obligation due to children, and many organizations are even now developing gigantic projects for aiding those in need. One-third of the destitute children in the United States, under the care of public and private agencies, have found foster parents who have them into their own homes. There are always many people who, for a money consideration to help out their incomes, will accept the care of a child. Of course, in such cases it is necessary to ascertain that the family taken into which the child s to be introducec is in al! respects fit, else much unhappi ness might result. This plan has beer extensively carried and, on the whole, the idea of the “substitute home” has proved ve pceessful. In any large community numerous and constant applications for the removal of children from their homes and their placement elsewhere, to be cared for. out, there are These include cases in which parents have died, are in prison or are sick, incompetent, mentally irrespon sible, immoral, unmarried or in poverty. Frequently there is the problem of unmarried parents to be considered. It is often puzzling. Many child—<aring or- ganizations advocate the separation of the child from the unmarried mother a: soon as possible after the infant's birth It is an idea that shows lack of real humane and sympathetic feeling. Why pile one misfortune upon another, if avoidable? In not a few cases, no choice; the of course, there ie mother may even be anxious to get rid of her offspring. But it is the view of the Children’s Burean that, if it can be helped, the child ought not to be taken a from its mother, even though she wears no wedding ring. To reparate a child from its mother because of poverty alone is, as already said, utterly wrong. Yet there are a number of organizations in this country which make a common practice of that very thing. In other words, the mother is forced to give up her child to a public agency or society, to receive foster care at an expense far greater than would be the cost of providing for it in its own home, if a suitable allowance were given to the mother. Some organizations spend in this way, for the support of individual children, the equivalent of the average income of the average American family. It is charity gone mad. To secure the welfare of dependent children a great deal has already been accomplished. The change in the last half century has been really wonderful. What the Children’s Bureau is trying to do is to advance a step further, and to place the helpless little boys and girls in all respects on the same footing as other normal children. No more “asylums.” Give them real homes and a normal family life, so that they may be happy and grow up to use. ful citizenship.