Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 182, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1919 — HOME UNDER LOCAL FIRE [ARTICLE]

HOME UNDER LOCAL FIRE

RESTRAINING ORDER LODGED AGAINST PLYMOUTH ORPHANAGE BY HOME COUNTY.

Plymouth, Ind., August 1. —Suit by injunction to restrain the board of Marshall county commissioners from paying further moneys to Julia E. Work, for the care, training, or discipline of delinquent, dependent or orphan children at what is known as the Julia E. Work Training school, sometimes designated as “Brightside,” north of here, and to restrain said Julia E. "Work from receiving any moneys from the county, for such purposes’, was instituted in the circuit court here yesterday. A restraining order is also askpd against said. Julia E. Work further advertising said institution as an orphans’ home, or training school, declaring that it is not properly organized or incorporated a|s either, under the state laws, and is not entitled to public patronage or support under the laws of Indiana, and that Mrs. Work, the matron, is an unfit person to have charge of dependent, delinquent or orphan children under court decrees. Tells How She’s Paid. William O’Keefe appears as the plaintiff, in the petition for the injunction, and is represented by J. W. Kiltch and Martindale & Martindale, attorneys, though it is reported that a considerable number of the citizens of Plymouth and Marshall county are back of the proceedings. Mr. O’Keefe institutes the suit as a citizen and a taxpayer. He sets for that a contract has been entered into between the board of commissioners and Julia E. Work by which the latter is paid 50 cents per day for the care and training of each of the children entrusted to her by the courts of Marshall county, and it is to restrain further payments under such contract that the suit is brought. It is contended that the contract is illegal and void for the reason that “Brightside,” so-called, or the Julia E. Work orphanage or training school, is not a legally organized orphanage or training school, but is a private institution, operated for profit. Children Treated Cruelly. The petition recites the accumulation of a considerable amount of wealth by Mrs. Work, on the profits of “Brightside,” and .points out that these .profits have been accumulating, “orphan, dependent, and delinquent children have been * * * * most cruelly treated * * *; that they have been under-fed and food they get is so nauseating to many of the children that they cannot eat it and therefore go hungry for days, weeks and months; that when an inmate does not eat the food that is placed before it any meal, the food is set back and returned to it for the next meal and this plan is followed until starvation compels the child to eat; that the quantity of food is entirely insufficient to support a growing child, and the quality is stale, unpalatable, and unwholesome.” ' . ~

Proceeding to show that the institution has been operated for-profit and the extent of it, the petition sets forth (that the so-called “home” started with 17 acres of Hnd with a modest house and bam, but that the i acres have been increased to 200, and the buildings to several, at a I cost of $25,000 to $30,000, practically all derived from moneys paid /Mrs. Work for the care and custody of children; that the “(buildings in which said children are forced to dwell are all' wooden buildings, and i are unsafe, unsanitary and veritable fire traps; that large numbers of children, as many as fifty or more, are crowded in one small room, locked in part of the day and at nights compelled to sit in rows for hours and are not allowed to converse with each other except in a whisper.” It is asserted that the 1 rooms are lacking in air and ventilation and that inmates are required jto go for long periods without

'water. • . School Township Affair. Further complaint is made that ■the only schooling given inmates of this “training school” is provided at the district School of Center township, winch is appropriated without cost to Mrs. Work, and conducted at the expense of the township; that complaints and protests have repeatedly been made to the county commissioners and the state board of corrections and charities, but have brought no honest or efficient investigation; that children are placed in the institution, not only from Marshall county, but from other counties of the state, and that Mrs. Wonk should be restrained from advertising her business in such false colors as alleged, bringing such business to her from such counties. The petition asks that the restraints therein prayed for be made perpetual, but there will probably be no hearing until the September term of court, Judge Stevens now being on 'his vacation. Parties (back of the proceedings assert that there will be plenty of evidence to back up the charges made therein, notable, among which will be the testimony of Capt. A. E. Trevitt, representing the 'board of guardians of LaPorte county;

Sheriff True Woodworth and C. M. Sands, probation officer, both of Jasper county, and a number of children who have been taken from the place during the past few weeks, through the appointment of guardians and withdrawal by parents. Get Former Record. Correspondence received here with reference to Mrs. Work’s fitness to conduct such an institution as “Brightside” is advertised to be, comes from LaPorte and Mishawaka, Ind., where she formerly operated in a similar capacity. She was one of the oiganizers of the South Bend and Mishawaka Orphans’ home, started in 1892 by the Mishawaka W. C. T. U., Of Which she was a member. Later, Mrs. Abbie Lugee, of LaPorte left $7,000 to the home and LaPorte people wanted it moved (to that city, whereupon Mrs. Work, then in charge, packed everything up and got ready to move, before the >oard knew anything about it. It required the services of an attorney to stop Mrs. Work in her plans, and though she left, going to LaPorte, the children and home were left behind. Mirs. J. M. Studebaker, widow of the late wagonmaker, was elected president of the South Bend-Mishawaka society to succeed her. Members of the Mishawaka board offered to testify in the injunction su|t if needed. One of them says, “when Mrs. Work left here for LaPorte, it was found that the children had been slept on straw piles and that bed bugs and lice were in abundance.”

— The conditions which existed at the school .and which are responsible for the above action on the part of the Marshall county authorities were first told of through the colilmns of The Republican, following reports of Sheriff Woodworth and Probation Officer C. M. Sands, who visited th esehool recently. Their sensational charges caused a sensation and many of the large city dailies featured the exposure.