The Daily Banner, Greencastle, Putnam County, 8 May 1968 — Page 7

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Wednesday, May 8, 1968

The Daily Banner, Greencastle, Indiana

Page 7

To Cane Or Not to Cane? Question in Britain

NIXON, KENNEDY GHS WINNERS—Students at the Greencastle High School "voted" for President Tuesday and the results are quite interesting. On the Republican ticket, Nixon received 139 votes; Ronald Reagan 10, arid Nelson Rockefeller 1. On the Dem-

ocrat ticket, Robert Kennedy 214; Roger Branigin 62; Eugene McCarthy 62, and George Wallace 6. Shown above are (left to right) Howard Adams and Charles Burton handing out ballots.

By MARIS ROSS LONDON ( U P I ) — What would Charles Dickens say If he knew British children still get caned as a punishment at school? Dickens campaigned in his novels against corporal punishment. Yet one century later, with the weight of psychiatrists’ advice on Dickens’ side, caning remains common in many British schools, whether run by the government or privately. Boys and to a lesser extent girls at these schools in. England and Wales stand to get, say, “six of the best" on their bare, open hands or maybe their clothed posteriors for such offenses as persistent bullying, continual disobedience and violence aimed at teachers or fellow pupils. Scotland uses a three-tailed strap called the tawse. Britain last year abolished corporal punishment in prisons and also closed one reform school after an inquiry found four boys had been caned with excessive force. A staff member caused the inquiry by sending pictures of bruised

buttocks to a national newspaper. Head teachers at ordinary schools, however, are stiffly opposing attempts to wean them from their right to cane children when other methods of discipline fail. Allegations that they abuse the cane are rare. The so-called “public schools” of Britain, which in fact are non-state, fee-paying establishments like Eton, have an inbuilt tradition of caning which allowed senior boys as well as teachers to hit junior boys. “Boys beating other boys has not completely disappeared but has pretty well vanished," said a spokesman for the Headmasters Conference, which represents heads of public schools. He said no one could tell if use of the cane by headmasters in public schools had declined over the past 20 years. “Among headmasters I know, this is a sanction they keep for certain types of misdemeanors but it is not automatic,” he said. The Education Ministry said caning had declined as a whole in the state-run schools over

the last 20 years. But it is a telling sign that Education Minister Patrick Gordon Walker had to say in a circular to local education authorities in January he was convinced caning of handicapped children should cease. He said he believed corporal punishment should disappear from all schools, while recognizing that many teachers felt they would be put “in an impossible position if they were forbidden to use a reasonable amount of force by way of correction and if the pupils knew that the teachers were so forbidden.” When the city fathers of Cardiff in Wales recently banned caning of seven to 10 year olds in state schools, teachers objected so much that the ban was suspended pending consultations. The teachers complained the children had turned round and said, “You can’t touch us now.” Until 1948, courts might sentence criminal offenders to corporal punishment of a spray of birch twigs applied to the bare buttocks or the “cat

o’nine tails” made of Whipcord and lashed on the bare back. Boys aged 10 to 16 could be birched as well. Then this judicial corporal punishment was forbidden, though attempts were and still are occasionally made to reintroduce it. Britain’s Lord Chief Justice, Lord Parker, spoke in favor of a return in 1959. But a governmentappointed committee ruled against in 1960, saying Britain would be putting the clock back 100 years by bringing birching back. The birch and cat remained a punishment for prisoners who attacked wardens until 1967 when Roy Jenkins, then Home Secretary and responsible for law enforcement, overruled some prison officials’ objections that they would be left without any protection. Jenkins investigated after prison authorities applied to him for the necessary permission to give six strokes of the birch to Roger Maxwell, a teen-age criminal who had engineered a jail riot. Jenkins refused permission when psychi-

atrists reported Maxwell was unfit for any punishment and needed treatment instead. Jenkins also took action last August to close Court Lees Approved School, one of 130 in Britain which take children sent by the courts because they have committed a crime or been found in need of care and protection. An inquiry found Court Lees had broken the strict rules which govern administration of corporal punishment in approved schools. Three eminent medical witnesses said one of the four boys in question had injuries of “quite unusual severity.”. The head teacher of a second approved school, St. Swithin’s, was dismissed this year for breaking these rules.

Sleep Aid NEW YORK (UPD—“Early to bed and early to rise,” is harder than ever for the youngsters of the house in summer. A fine antidote; decorative room-darkening window shades.

Try and Stop Me By BENNETT CERF

CHAGGY DOG STORY number 62,774: A character enO tered a lunchroom and ordered a cup of coffee. When it was handed to him, he gathered up the salt and pepper receptacles on the table and poured a liberal helping of both into the cup. Then he reached for the catsup bottle, and added about two spoonfuls to the concoction. After tasting same, he complained, “Something’s very wrong. This stuff tastes horrible.” “No wonder,” agreed the waitress. “There’s nothing in that coffee now but salt, pepper, and catsup.” “You’re absolutely right,” he nodded. “Pass the mustard.” * * * Three compliments worth treasuring: . 1. Carl Van Doren, describing the brilliant, deeply loved playwright, Moss Hart: “There’s something about Moss that makes all the people in a room with him seem a little nicer than they really are.” 2. Harry Hopkins, summarizing his friend, Robert Sherwood: "Everybody who meets up with Bob leaves him feeling happier and more confident than before he happened along.” 3. A college senior, different than the kind getting all the publicity these days, describing his father: “He doesn’t tell me what I should be doing and thinking all the time—but he wants to know what I’m up to and why. He’s as interested in my point of view as he is in telling me his. He doesn’t need words to make me know he loves me. I think he’s wonderful.” C 1968, by Bennett Cerf. Distributed by King Features Syndicate. Free after 33 years

HOWELL, Mich. (UPI)Clarence R. Frechette is a free man Tuesday after 33 years in prison because prosecutors decided against a second murder trial. Frechette, 57, was convicted in 1935 of shooting and killing his employer, Robert Brown, during an argument over a girl. But the Michigan Supreme Court ordered a new trial on grounds that the trial court failed to instruct the jury to disregard reports of lie tests. Livingston County prosecutor Charles Gatesman and a representative of the Michigan attorney general agreed in court

Monday that it would not be feasible to try the case again, and it was dismissed by Circuit Judge Michael Garland. Frechette said he studied electronics in prison and planned to work in a television factory. When Frechette was 17, he was convicted of stealing an airplane while in flight and landing it at the Pontiac Airport. Seven years later, when Brown was shot, Frechette stuffed the body into a car trunk and drove to California.

ADMINISTRATOR'S PUBLIC SALE! In order to settle the estate of the late Clarence Ploenges, 1, the undersigned, will sell at public auction, the following personal property and farm equipment, at the farm, located 2.3 miles south of Belleville or 4 miles north of Monrovia, on State Road 39, on east side of road, on Saturday, May 11, 1968 at 10:30 A. M. FARM EQUIPMENT AND MISCELLANEOUS Minneapolis Moline ZA tractor and 2-row cultivator. International B. tractor and 2--row cultivator; F-20 International tractor; 2-bottom 14” John Deere plow; 3-bottom 14” Minneapolis Moline plow; 7-ft disc and tandem; John Deere No. 5 tractor mower; 13-hole wheat drill; 2-row Black Hawk corn planter; International No. 45 hay baler; Allis Chalmers pull-type combine; 3-bar side delivery rake; rotary hoe; tractor mount seeder; John Deere horse-drawn manure spreader; horse-drawn mower; spike tooth harrow; spring tooth harrow; 2 rubber-tired wagons; 1 hydraulic cylinder; 2 rolls new woven wire fence; 1 roll hardware cloth; wheel- barrow; hand drill press; 1 lot plastic pipe; garden hose; chicken crates; tomato hampers; plow shares; several tarpaulins; extension ladders; loading chute; railroad ties; seed bags; shovels, rakes, broom, forks, chains, masonry tools, bolts, 1 lot scrap iron, lawn mowers, harness, double trees, single trees, neck yokes, oil cans, hog troughs, hog ringers and rings, feed grinder, electric motors; approx. 1,000 lbs. fertilizer; 1 lot coal; 2 pair electric sheep shears; 2-wheel carts. CAR—1 1964 Ford Fairlane, 6 cylinder, with automatic transmission. HAY AND GRAIN Approximately 250 bushels of corn; approximately 200 bales of mixed hay; 1 bin of soybeans. HOUSEHOLD GOODS AND ANTIQUES Slant top desk; 2-piece living room suite; 2 curved glass china cabinets; refrigerator; Maytag ringer type washer; Kenmore washer; 4 poster bed; antique iron bed; chest of drawers; wardrobe; breakfast set; vanity, lawn furniture, Muntz TV Coleman oil furnace, 275-gallon oil tank; small heating stove; 1 lot throw rugs, 1 lot pictures and frames; wooden rocking chair; odd chairs, clock radio, wall clock, mantle clock, old fashion telephone, treadle type sewing machine, ironstone pitcher and bowl; Antique doll, flatiron, milk cans, ice tongs, hickory hall tree, iron wash-boiler, several iron kettles, lard press, hay hooks; dinner bell, kerosene lamp, kerosene lantern, shoe last, miscellaneous baskets, bed clothing and linens, scales, several electric lamps, step ladder, cake stand, several antique dishes, carnival glass, pressed glass; other dishes and kitchen utensils and many other articles too numerous'to mention. Terms—CASH. Not responsible in case of accidents. PAUL B. HUDSON, Administrator Kightlinger, Young, Gray & Hudson, attorneys for the estate. Sam Hutchins, 845-2437; Marley Neal, 831-4771, Auctioneers. Leonard Holbrook and Peggy Hutchins, Clerks. Lunch served by the Belleville Methodist W.S.C.S. Auctioneers’ Note: This merchandise is a collection of many years.

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