not only by the brass-bound rule of the carpenter, but also by the God-given, golden rule of humanity. THE NEED FOR A SEPARATE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. Mrs. Towne, who was to have spoken to you this morning, is absent for good and sufficient cause; she is fully informed on this subject, and would have presented it very ably, but she has left the subject with us. held Minnesota, progressive as she is known to be, does very little for its erring women and girls. The beautiful and well-equipped institutions are not for them. Half a dozen women in the men's prison at Stillwater, for safety and not for reform, no women's reformatory, and then, this little group of girls in one building in the boy's training school at Red Wing. As I understand it a boy and girl may be arrested for disorderly conduct in any town or city in this state, and after due process of law taken to Red Wing and placed in the training school in plain view of each other, and forbidden to communicate. Being human, of course they immediately proceed by every possible means to outwit those in charge of them, and to break the rules and to continue the old acquaintance or to form new ones. Thus the state, by the combined system, stimulates intrigue and deception among its wards, and offers inducements in this direction out of proportion to those which it offers for progress in legitimate studies. Under our present careful administration it is probable that communication there is reduced to a minimum, and yet I am told by those who know, if a boy is sent to the training school on Monday and the girl returns on Tuesday, she has all the latest news, and if a girl goes down on Wednesday and a boy returns on Thursday, he knows all that has been going on in their circle at home during his absence. It is done by some subtle, mysterious Indian-like communication. If there are letters or notes written between the buildings it is not probable that many of them ever reach their destination, but they have done their work upon the writer, at the expense of other things, destroying that receptivity to the higher influences for which the boy and girl are supposed to have been sent to the institution. The teachers cannot control conditions; they cannot control the excitement which the situation constantly suggests. And how about the teachers themselves, those in charge? Have we any right to expect the same degree of enthusiasm, of actual daily application to work in its best manner, from those whose attention is constantly diverted by doing detective work? The purely feminine mind cannot exactly comprehend the good business policy of placing the sexes side by side and then employing people to keep them apart. (Laughter.) We must remember these are not normal children. Even the best of them have been the victims of irregular and unwholesome habits. These girls need, more than others, the balm and healing of sunshine and fresh air. Now, honest effort has been made at this school to secure out of door exercise for the girls, to have them do something like gardening; but with all the effort the outside exercise is limited and irregular, and often perfunctory. It is not always easy to detail officers to watch the girls, and the boys are in plain view; as a consequence on some of the pleasantest days of the year the girls are not out of doors. Now, it is equally bad for both, this proquinity; it is equally disturbing to both girls and boys. So far as the gardening is concerned, the boys need every bit of ground there, but the girls should have an equal opportunity. There is not a proper segregation for them. Both classes suffer from this proximity, but the girls also suffer from overcrowding and lack of classification. There are from seventy-five to eighty girls under one roof; while some of them, in fortunate homes would be considered merely difficult children, there are others who, physically and mentally, are a menace to the household. The building itself is a travesty upon all convenience for such work. The beautiful appointments of the ladies' parlor, are in striking contrast to the crowded dormitories of the girls. Every department is hampered for want of space. These buildings afford very little which would be considered necessary in the so-called model school; there is no matron, there is no woman physician for the girls, either resident or visiting, and there are not proper facilities for industrial training. The simple work of the household, fairly well done, is not sufficient training for such girls; it does not create proper enthusiasm for work, it is not sufficient to insure success in earning their own living after they leave the school. During the last few months a committee of which I am a member has investigated twenty-one schools. We have had a fairly good exposition by letter, and we have visited some of the model schools of the country. We find from these investigations these two kinds of care for delinquent girls: one of them we call scientific-both, according to Dr. Tomlinson would be scientific, because practical-one is scientific because of a certain line of thought which involves a good deal of trouble. It means that those directly in charge of the girls shall visit conferences, shall keep themselves in touch with those doing the same line of work and in the same line of thought. It means studying these girls pyschologically and physiologically, avoiding irritation under certain conditions and balancing nicely cause and effect. The other cure, which, as I say must also be scientific, since it is also practical, abounds in a great motherliness, which is born of large experience and observation. It means sympathy so keen that it becomes an intuitive knowledge of girls and of conditions. We should demand for the girls of Minnesota both of these kinds. In order to do this there must be breathing space. The girls must be taken out of this crowded house away from the boys and placed on a large tract of land, located in cottages so they may be properly cared for; there must be an administrative building, and there must be a hospital for the treatment of chronic diseases. How are these girls to know the advantage of a sound mind and a sound body under the present conditions? There are many things these girls might have which they now do not have. Our neighbor, Wisconsin, does far better. There are not a sufficient number acres there because the school is in the suburbs of Milwaukee, otherwise is what might be called a model school. This, like the best schools in th country, is entirely under the care of women. Even with reformatories where women are supposed to be extremely difficult to manage, wome have succeeded beyond expectation. Wisconsin goes further; it has a board of women selected from throughout the state, who have entir charge of this school, and they are made up into committees, this one to d the purchasing, that to counsel with the agent and so on. What man is suitable to do the purchasing for a girls' school, with all due deference to the men? Perhaps their minds are too large for this sort of a thing; think that is the trouble.. (Laughter.) As to the buildings, the State erects the buildings in Wisconsin and keeps them in repair, but the women plan them. I hope when we have a girls' school in Minnesota we may have some practical person employed in the planning of the buildings, if it be only a woman. Now, as the work of this Conference deepens, we find not only among its members but also throughout the country, that the far-sighted philanthropists look more and more to the principle that all reform must commence at the home, and that that is the root and center of all good progress. Let us not forget that the few girls who are now in our school, all who have been there, all who will be there, all who should be there, are going forth to establish homes, and to become the dominant influence in those homes. Thus a large number of the homes of the state will be such as the state has created by its training and influence. We women of the State Federation of Clubs, will endeavor this winter to convince our legislators that the care of the future mothers of its future citizens, is just as important as good roads, as building a bridge or ditch here and there, or even approaches for the new capital. We earnestly beg your assistance, your sympathy and your co-operation, each man and woman in this room. We have a little literature, and although not necessary for you who already know, may be useful to you in placing in the hands of others who have not thought about this. Judge Jaggard of St. Paul made an address before the Northern Minnesota Educational Convention and at the request of the Committee of the Federation, that was printed for distribution. We have also some excellent editorials from the papers, which briefly state this case and the needs of a new Training School for Girls. We also have petitions which I hope each one of you will sign. DISCUSSION. MR. FAULKNER: In the discussion of the reasons which support the effort of the good women of Minnesota to secure a separate Training School for Girls, we should have in mind two fundamental truths which are universally recognized by all competent students of correctional custodial care, to-wit: That the aim and the end of such care is, first, the protection of society; and second, the reformation of the individual dealt with. ༢ * With these principles as a foundation for our effort, it ought not to be difficult to convince our legislators of the truth of two other essential requirements of a public guardianship which will protect society, and also conserve the best welfare of its offending citizens, to-wit: The value of the indeterminate sentence; and the importance of a correct classification of those who are held in enforced association with others, under any form of legal detention. We must agree that workhouses, jails and state prisons, are not proper places for the detention and training of female delinquents of any class, and if the statesmanship of Minnesota shall prove to be as far-sighted as that of other progressive states, we shall soon have not only a separate training school for girls, but also an industrial reformatory for women and that class of girls who may not appropriately be committed to a training school. One of the greatest responsibilities of public guardianship is to know that those detained in custodial care are not being harmed by the associations and conditions imposed by their detention, and we have long since learned that the practice of holding boys and girls of this class under the same management was fundamentally bad, because even an exposure to the possibility of acquaintance is a certain insurance of harm which cannot be prevented or mitigated. Let us sign the petition of these ladies, and work with them to safeguard the welfare of delinquent and incorrigible girls, to the end that an immediate beginning in the rational treatment of those who distress the comfort of society may be made. REV. E. P. SAVAGE, Superintendent Children's Home Society, St. Paul: Our excellent lady speaker has presented to us a most admirable address on this subject, and Mr. Faulkner has said Amen to it in a practical way, but it seems to me there is another practical view of it. The fact is that the State of Minnesota cannot afford not to have a separation of these girls and boys. It costs too much, and will in the future cost too much in the enforcement of law, not to have them separated. I have had some acquaintance with some of those cases, and know something about some of the girls who have been sent to Red Wing. They were sexual perverts, they were morally degenerate, of a character that had to be shut up there. It was absolutely necessary for the safe-guarding of society that they be placed there. Now, when the time comes for them to leave, when they will have to be put out of there, to be sent away because they are too old to stay there, is it going to pay the State of Minnesota to have a lot of boys who are no better morally, are of the same kind, is it going to pay to have those persons of that class know each other, so that when they go out society may have to take care of the results? It was my privilege to be at our most admirable training school at Red Wing a few weeks ago. I am proud of it; but the girls and boys have actually to meet more or less, perhaps one or the other party may be marching, still they meet. And with both boys and girls adepts in every expression of suggestion, who is there who wishes to argue on the question very much. I will only say that it seems to me that it will be very easy to convince the taxing powers of our state that they cannot afford to let that thing go on in that way, because of the certainty of costs in the enforcement of the law in the future as the result of it. MR. F. L. RANDALL, Superintendent State Reformatory, St. Cloud: This matter appears to me to be an important one. It seems to me manifestly wrong to have the girls and boys at Red Wing as they are. I have had no experience with children outside of our own little reformatory located near the large one, but I have had experience with young men, and some with boys, and our experience has taught us that when young men go out of the reformatory on parole, it is best for them that they should not associate with other young men from the reformatory on parole, or discharged men who have been there; and therefore it is one of the conditions of their parole that they shall not associate, without our consent, with other men from the reformatory. There is no question whatever, if experience teaches the truth, and I think it does, that these men should form new acquaintances and new relations, and that new people are better for them than those with whom they associated while with us. Now, if the acquaintances between young men formed at the reformatory are stumbling blocks to them in after life, the results would be vastly more destructive, I am sure, if young had come to know young women while in our institution, or even if the young knew the young women were in it. After both were set at liberty the young would seek them, and the results would not be good. To some extent, althe doubtless not to nearly the same degree, this must be true of the boys and g who leave the training school at Red Wing. MR. J. F. JACOBSON, Chairman of the Board of Control of State Institutio The position of the Board of Control upon this question I think is well know Four years ago I introduced a bill and had it passed by the Legislature to ma the separation, and supposed we had accomplished it, but through the opposit of the locality, a power that always exerts itself whenever there is anything that touches commercial interests, the matter was taken to a very friendly cor and a decision was rendered against the separation, so we were, for the time bein balked. I think everyone who has taken an interest in the matter feels that it be to the best interests of both the boys and girls to have a separation; in fact it impossible to get satisfactory results under the present conditions. How m better it would be if the two schools were separated I am not able to say: it is discouraging now, and the more one knows about it the more one feels th absolute necessity of a change. I am not going to go as far as Mrs. Higbee has in some of her statements. think perhaps she has not thought of all the consequences of such an institution These state homes and state institutions are very grand to she would like to see. look upon from the outside, but a home in a state institution is the poorest kind a home I know of. I do not believe we should seek to build up a large institution Mrs. Hihbee says that besides the girls now at Red Wing there are hundreds of others who belong there. I believe that is true, but let us try first to keep as many away from this institution as possible. Do not build up a big institution for giris in this or any other state. Keep them at home. are sent there as the State does for them while there and we will have but a small percentage there at all. Do as much for them before they Another thing, if the ladies who have taken charge of this work, will spent one-half as much time as is now needed to secure the girls' school, to helping the girls after they are discharged, they will accomplish something quite as real. Om of the misfortunes we find is the reception the girl meets in her home, from Our best women will say, "there is a girl who has been at women more than men. Instead, the girl is often the reformatory," and rarely reach out a helping hand. treated as one with whom it is dangerous to come in contact. be of much use. I am afraid that some good ladies look at the institution as a place which will take the unfortunates out of their sight. But there must be a willingness to associate in a manner wholly free from patronage with those who have been in the school, before the school can I feel that the girls who are sent to the reformatory are generally sent there because they are bad, and some sent because they haven't good homes, and the training school should be made a place to give them strength of all kinds. Some fancy the school should turn out a finished product, but the finished product from a state institution is at best of very doubtful quantity. It is very inferior to the home product. I think that securing homes for delinquent as well as dependent children is one of the things that the men and women engaged in charitable work best state home ever invented, for boys and girls. It is impossible to keep wayward should pay attention to. Any decent home, any reasonable home, is as good as the they get out they will come together. If they were separated, that of course would boys and girls in anything like the proximity they are now, but that as soon as be impossible. If the girls were by themselves we could segregate the smaller girls from the bigger, and the better from the worse class, and in that way we could get better results. There can be no question about it. And it is impossible for me to think that the legislature will refuse a reasonably liberal appropriation to at least start a training school for girls. The room now occupied by the girls in Red Wing will not be wasted; we need all the room we have in order to give the boys a better I think the girls' school would be a benefit, and the women's clubs of the state are entitled to a great deal of credit for agitating the chance than they now have. |