separate defectives, dependents, delinquents in such a way as to secure intelligent and economical administration and the best results. If the State does not itself build and maintain institutions for the education of these children, for their permanent or temporary homes, it can at least follow the example of New York, which has enacted a stringent law prohibiting the keeping of children in the county poorhouses and requiring that they shall be supported in asylums or in families. There are doubtless objections to this law, but it is better than to educate children in the streets and poorhouses, to become permanent dependents or criminals. It may not be well for a State to support children in sectarian asylums, but that would certainly be better than to educate them in the schools of pauperism and crime.

THE MICHIGAN SYSTEM.

There is one State that has undertaken the work of the care and support of dependent children.

In one of the leading journals' of the Northwest I find, under date of the 5th instant, the following, which is an unexpected compliment from another State and similar to many expressions from the press:

"One of the noblest, wisest public charities of the country is the State public school of Michigan. Moved both by the instincts of Christian philanthropy and that farseeing political sagacity which discovers that it is the best in every way for society that indigent and neglected children be taken charge of by the State and trained for lives of usefulness, the people of Michigan have established a home and school for this class of children. And what they have undertaken to do they are doing well, doing nobly."

For humane and economic reasons the legislature of Michigan in 1871 established the State Public School for Dependent Children, the first one of the kind under any government. It is maintained entirely by the State, by taxation upon property, the same as are the public schools. It is a part of the common school system of that State, and in no sense is a part of its penal or reformatory system. It is not an asylum for orphans or defectives. It is purely a school, and is no more a charity than the district school supported by taxation, save only in the degree or extent of aid. It is a temporary educational home. Those to be admitted must be dependent on the public for support, over three and under twelve years of age, sound in body and mind. None are admitted on sentence for crime or on suspension of sentence. It is for the children of the poor, and dependence on the public is the only price of admission. Children requiring reformatory treatment must be sent to the reform school for boys in Lansing, or to the girls' reform school, soon to be constructed. This school, opened in 1874 in the buildings erected near Coldwater, is to save children from crime and pauperism. Its work begins at the source of the great river of life, which, if pure, generally

The Chicago Inter-Ocean.

flows on to the ocean of eternity forever pure. Its work is all educational, which, whether here or in the common schools or the higher, is especially and peculiarly preventive. It is on the tenable ground that if you save the child you save the man.

It recognizes that a good family is the best place for a child; so this institution is only a temporary home, it being an agency to obtain, as soon as may be, a good family home for the child, where he or she is placed under a contract securing treatment as a member of the family and an elementary education, with the right in the board to return the child to the school if the terms of the contract are not executed in good faith.

The admissions are divided pro rata among the counties according to the number of dependent children in each when there are more than can be admitted. The capacity is now 300, which receives about all those who are admissible in the State. They are educated in the common branches while in the institution, where they are not kept for any definite time; only until a home is found. Some have been so affected by poorhouse or vagrant life that they require longer moral and mental training than others to fit them to go into homes. The question of their dependence is determined by the judge of probate of the county where the child belongs. A copy of his decision, containing such facts as he can ascertain from witnesses as to the child's history and the habits and condition of the parents, is sent with the child to the school, and forms a basis of his history to be kept up on the records. A sworn certificate of a respectable physician is also sent with the child, showing that it has no chronic disease and has not within fifteen days been exposed to any contagious disease.

The children are comfortably dressed, kept clean, and have pure air, and wholesome, plain food. Uniform excellent health prevails. They are trained to industrious habits. The girls assist in housework, in the care of their cottage homes, and in sewing. The boys work on the farm, in the garden, in the shoeshop, and in keeping their cottages in order. There are eight cottages with 30 children in each, and one double cottage with about 60 children. Each cottage is in charge of a lady cottage manager, who cares for the children as a mother with a smaller family, only that the cooking and eating are done in the main building and the washing in the general laundry. There are six lady teachers, who teach the children as in the district schools. Those children who prove incorrigible, or diseased in body or mind, can be returned to their counties. The institution is in charge of a board of control of three members. It is conducted by a superintendent and the usual employés of institutions. The moral and religious-not sectarian-education of the children has special attention, as required by the law. There is a Sabbath school each Sunday in the afternoon, and the older boys attend service in the forenoon in the city. Everything possible is done by teachers, cottage managers, the superintendent, and all who have directly to do with the

children, to secure good discipline, good conduct, and establish a good moral character, so they will be fitted as much as possible while in the school to become good citizens-industrious, self-supporting producers and not consumers only.

Since the opening of the school over 700 have been received and over 400 placed in good family homes.

Indenturing children.—It is made the special duty of the board of control to secure homes for the children. The school is thus a half-way house from dependence to a family home. A person applying for a child must have a written recommendation from an agent of the State board of corrections and charities, one of whom is appointed for each county. He must certify that he has made full investigation, and that in his opinion the home will be a good one for the child, and that the applicant will faithfully execute the contract, which, among other things, requires that the child shall be treated as a member of the family, and shall attend the district school at least three months each year. No child can be indentured to an intemperate person or to one who sells liquor. Whenever in the opinion of the board the contract is not complied with, the child is returned to the school and a new home found. This is always done where the child's welfare appears to require it. Under one provision of law the child may be adopted through the probate court, a proceeding which has been had in numerous cases. In case of such adoption the child becomes the heir at law of the person adopting, and then its relation with the school ceases. The new home of the child is selected with great care, and the future of the child is carefully watched over as by a jealous parent by the agents in the several counties and by others at the request of the superintendent. Reports are had from the children at least twice a year. The guardianship of the board continues during minority. No institution supported by private or associated charity ever watched over its children more closely than do the officials of this school, assisted by the county agents. Everything possible is done for these little waifs that could be wished by the most humane. In their cottage homes, in their schools, and in families they have everything done for them consistent with their highest good. The good of the child takes precedence in all questions.

The general physical, moral, and mental condition, the behavior, advancement in schools, &c., of these children compare favorably with their more fortunate brothers and sisters in the district schools.

Some of the results.-First, children more readily find homes from this school than from the county houses. They are not considered paupers, but State children, and there is not the same discredit attaching to them as to county-house children. A few weeks in the school cleans them up, shows them what discipline is, that some one cares for them, and removes the poorhouse look, and the child appears as a new creation. Good examples, correcting and elevating influences from teachers, managers, their companions, and others soon effect a great change with the

worst. Such children so improved find homes when they never would from the county houses, except it be to graduate to the houses of correction or the prison. Here comes in a great economic advantage to the State, that by sooner being placed in families the sooner is the public relieved of their support. In one county three children had in the aggregate 29 years of support, while their aggregate support in the school was not three years. Second result: It is found in this State that there is little difference in the direct cost of maintaining and educating a child for a year in this school and in the county poorhouses. One hundred and twenty dollars each per annum is what the State provides for 300 children in the school on the average, and it has not on the average cost that. Add to this the 100 that go out into families each year (last year the net gain was 115), who have to be clothed, and the cost is $90 per annum for the 400 cared for during the year. This is at a less cost (as shown by the official reports from the counties to the secretary of state) than it is for each child supported in the county poorhouse. This economic showing is very gratifying to the friends of the school. The taxpayer wants figures, and we can show them here, and they cannot be impeached. Add to the result here shown the fact of the shortened term of support by the public, and the showing is very much. stronger. Third result: This school has only been in operation about six years, so that the effects upon the children cannot be fully shown. Enough is known, however, to satisfy us that there are very few of the children who go through the school who will not prove as good in morals and life as the average children in the community. I could not place the loss as low as 5 per cent. There are occasionally children sent here who inherit traits from insane parents, who cannot be cured. But they are improper inmates and rather belong to schools for the feeble-minded, and should not be considered in the estimates, though all have been. It is undoubted that the large mass of these children would in time have become permanent dependents and criminals, and it cannot be doubted that through the care and education given them by the agency of this school, the great majority of them will become good citizens. It is expected that the more this school is known to our people the more its influence for good upon the children will be increased. Our people appear satisfied with the results so far, and there is no more popular institution in the State among the people than this. The principles upon which it is based are believed to be right. The prominent features of the system

are

1. The radical separation of innocent from criminal children.

2. Education in a home by the State, under educational and moral influences; this home to be temporary.

3. Restoration to family homes as soon as children are fitted for them.

RESULTS ELSEWHERE OF PREVENTIVE EDUCATION.

I cannot close this outline without calling attention to the effects of educational preventive work elsewhere among the children. There has

of late been much done for these children in Germany, France, and England, and the results are very satisfactory.

In England it is estimated that over 400,000 have passed through the ragged schools, more than 100,000 have been placed out to trades and service, and more than 50,000 saved from a life of crime. Crime in one county named, in 40 years, has decreased over 300 per cent. Reports say that "this work has been effected in a large measure through the agency of reformatory institutions, industrial schools, training ships, refuges, homes, and such like establishments."

The directors of convict prisons in 1877 in England record the decrease of crime, and say that the development of the criminal classes has received a permanent check by the means adopted in recent times of cutting off the sources of crime by caring for dependent and delinquent children. They say that in 1836, with a population of fifteen millions, 10,125 were sentenced to imprisonment, 3,611 to penal servitude, and 4,273 to transportation to Australia; whereas in 1875, with a population of twenty-three and a half millions, only 9,282 were sentenced to imprisonment and 1,639 to penal servitude. Sir Charles Reed, chairman of the London board of education, in a recent address speaks of the decrease of juvenile crime in that city under the operations of the new system, by which the children of the poor are compelled to attend school. He says:

"The acknowledged diminution of juvenile crime in the metropolis may fairly be traced to the withdrawal of so many children from the streets. In the whole of London the number of arrests on suspicion of children under sixteen was, in 1877-78, 294 boys and 60 girls, being the smallest number for simple larceny within a decade. We do

not, indeed, suppose instruction will, in itself, suffice to work moral reformation, yet it is noteworthy how closely ignorance and crime do work together. In 1877 there were arrested 75,250 persons who could either not read and write at all or could do so only with great difficulty, while only 2,732 were arrested who could read and write well."

Scotland.-In Edinburgh the number of children committed to prison in 1847 was 512, and in 1875 the number was reduced to 131. In Aberdeen the average yearly number of thefts reported to the police during the five years ending 1860 was 1,142, while the average yearly number during the five years ending 1874 was 286, and in September, 1875, not a single case was set down for trial, the like not having occurred for more than a hundred years. The judge, in his remarks, imputed this result to the industrial and reformatory schools. This shows the world need not grow worse if the children are looked to.

Germany.-There are few statistics from this country in my reach. Those from the noted Rauhe Haus for children, near Hamburg, are quite gratifying, showing that a very large percentage of the children are saved by educational and reformatory treatment.

France. There is to-day no country where there is more intelligent