Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1901 — STATE CARE OF CHILDREN. [ARTICLE]

STATE CARE OF CHILDREN.

Indiaaa’a Scheme Seems Beat and Michigan’s Most Economical. A statement showing the progress made by the child-saving work of the Board of State Charities was issued recently by Secretary Butler. “The problem of the care of dependent and neglected children,” says the statement, “la one that has had earnest consideration in all our more progressive States. Various methods have been tried. Some have been successful, others not so. In New York the plan was tried of boarding these children in private institutions, but eventually the influence of these institutions became so strong that it could not be overcome. Ohio adopted the method of establishing county orphans’ homes, in which the dependent and neglected children of the county aould be gathered and reared. Indiana started out with the same plan, but its evils became apparent in time and another plan was tried. Michigan proceeded on the theory that children of this class are wards Of the State and an institution was built for them, called the State Public School, to which all such children are regularly sent by action of court. 'The school has a capacity for about 350 children. As soon as fitted for it, the children are placed in homes. An effort to adopt the Michigan plan was made in 1895, but without success. The present plan was inaugurated in 1897. It is the Michigan idea modified to suit our conditions, the theory being the same. The best place for a child to grow uf> is in a good family home. We have a number of orphans’ homies instead <ff one receiving home. Our children are not committed by the courts, although the law makes them the-State’s wards and objects of its careful oversight.” The statement furnishes interesting comparisons of the three systems. New York now supports in orphans’ home oyer 30,000 children; Ohio cares for 3,000 excluding those in the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphans’ Home; Indiana is caring for 1,650, not counting inmates of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphans’ Home;. Michigan maintains less than 200 children in its State Public School, “Since the cost of a child’s support in Indiana is SIOO per year and probably the same elsewhere,” says the statement, “the economic feature of child-saving is obvious. New York spends millions of dollars annually on this account, Ohio over a quarter of a million, Indiana more than $150,000, and Michigan only a few thousand dollars.”