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VNOHV INO

 
CHILD WELFARE IN OKLAHOMA

An Inquiry by the National Child Labor Committee for the
University of Oklahoma

Under the direction of

Edward N. Clopper, Ph.D.,
Secretary for the Northern States

PUBLISHED BY

National Child Labor Committee

INCORPORATED

105 East 22D STREET. NEW YORK CITY
Copyright 1918
by the
National Child Labor Committee

@ 1 Soo9

 

PRESS OF CLARENCE S. NATHAN, INC., NEW YORK,

 
CONTENTS

INDRODUGTION tact Avis teere coer Edward N. Clopper
Puspric HEALTH WoRK..............2++- Gerirude H. Folks
RECREATION  jauipdauadiaar edule Gerirude H. Folks
BDUCATION. . pansihag ses ahaa whence Elizabeth Howe Bliss
CHILD sIGABO Ric 2 neoih i acy accor wakes Goi mein wp astelabtant Lewis W. Hine
AGRICULTURE y:cerceig wp erwiserenees Charles E. Gibbons
JUVENILE CouRTS AND PROBATION....... Mabel Brown Ellis
INSTITUTIONAL CARE OF CHILDREN....... Mabel Brown Ellis
FROME: FINDING 90.25 bey ap cuaoaee a oe Mabel Brown Ellis
POOR: REMIER. 0 coc cc aamie etd tacedee Soniedes Eva Joffe

PARENTAGE, PROPERTY, AND GENERAL PRoTeEcTION, W. H. Swift

ADMINISTRATION... 1.2.0... cece eee cate een ences W. HZ. Swift

PAGE

11

38

62
106
118
141
164
194
208
220
246
INTRODUCTION

Epwarp N. CLopPER

The well-being of the children of a community may be fairly
judged by the laws that govern it. As a rule they reflect public
opinion. In a new state however, it frequently happens, as seems
to have been true of Oklahoma’s child welfare acts, that they are
suddenly seized upon because of their adoption elsewhere without
any clear conviction as to their suitability for the control of local
conditions. Laws function best in any community when developed
out of that community’s own thought and experience, for then
they are adapted to the local needs and are understood and appre-
ciated by the people they affect. But such an ideal process is not
feasible in a newly organized community faced by the necessity
of immediate measures for the regulation of its affairs. Oklahoma,
being a new community of unusually rapid growth and having
been organized as a state long after most of her sisters in the Union,
naturally deemed it wise in framing her laws a few years ago to
avail herself of what the others had to offer as the fruit of their
experience and accordingly lifted a mass of legislation bodily from
their statute books and spread it on her own. Fortunately, this
legislation in respect to dependent, delinquent, and defective children
was generally modern, but with regard to normal children especially
in the fields of health and school administration it lagged behind
progressive thought elsewhere. The state has since been struggling
to make these acts meet the conditions within her borders and in
that struggle has become aware of their defects and convinced of
the need for revision. It cannot be accurately said that in respect
to her child welfare laws the state took a long step forward and
then retrograded—it is perhaps nearer the truth to say that Okla-
homa leaped out into this field somewhat prematurely and im-
petuously, but bravely and confidently, and finding herself in a
confusion of antiquated and modern acts, is striving to correct the
situation and to keep from falling back. However,:Oklahoma was
not original in this respect—she merely copied the mistakes of others.

Legislative measures for the protection of children are of more
or less haphazard growth. They are commonly the result of

5
6 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

spasmodic and unrelated efforts on the part sometimes of official and
sometimes of private agencies or individuals, put forth at different
intervals as occasions seemed to require. A society interested in
juvenile delinquency drafts a juvenile court and probation bill
and has it introduced into the legislature; at another session a
measure to provide a state asylum for orphans is urged upon the
law makers by some other organization; later on a compulsory
school attendance law is proposed by some official or private agency;
and at some other time amendments to the child labor law are
brought up for consideration at the instance of the labor depart-
ment or of some volunteer committee. So the body of laws safe-
guarding boys and girls has been built up gradually through the
separate contributions of public and private organizations and
individuals, each interested in only one phase of the general problem.
Inevitably there results a lack of harmony and coordination. The
parts of the body so constructed fail to articulate and function
smoothly. The effectiveness of such laws in operation as a general
program is correspondingly reduced. Frequently laws that have
a close correlation in purpose are found to be contradictory in their
provisions and the attempt to administer them jointly creates
hopeless confusion. Social workers themselves have not been dis-
tinguished for cooperation within the fields of their own activity.
They commonly pursue their own ends independently of others
engaged in closely related work and utterly oblivious or even ignorant
of the opportunity for joint endeavor. This aloofness on the part
of the workers also has contributed to the random growth of our
laws on social welfare. This state of affairs has become so in-
tolerable that a movement started a few years ago to remedy it
through the codification of laws and the encouragement of co-
operation among those who administer them has met with hearty
endorsement and support.

Three acts of the British Parliament known as the Consolidated
Factory Acts, the Consolidated Educational Acts and the Chil-
dren’s Act of 1908, together with amendments that have been
adopted at different times, constitute what is virtually a code of
laws for the benefit of children in the United Kingdom. The sub-
ject matter of the first and second of these acts is indicated by their
names; the third is wider in scope and divided into six parts,
treating of (1) infant life protection; (2) prevention of cruelty to
Introduction 7

children and young persons; (3) juvenile smoking; (4) reformatory
and industrial schools; (5) juvenile offenders; and (6) miscel-
laneous and general matters such as giving intoxicating liquor to
children, safety at entertainments, definitions, etc. Mr. Bernard
Flexner, the American authority on juvenile courts, made special
efforts to bring this Children’s Act of 1908 to the attention of social
workers in the United States shortly after it became effective, and
suggested that action be taken here looking toward the simplifying,
standardizing and codifying of our own state laws somewhat on
the plan of the British procedure.

About the same time, upon the invitation of President Roose-
velt, a conference now known as the White House Conference, was
held in Washington at which the principles governing the care of
dependent children were set forth as agreed upon by the repre-
sentative social workers who took part in the deliberations. This
statement of principles has been useful throughout the country
wherever measures for the care of dependent children have been
under consideration.

The National Child Labor Committee and the National Con-
sumers’ League had for some time been urging the adoption of a
standard child labor law and in 1911 the National Conference of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved a draft, prepared
and submitted at its request by the National Child Labor Com-
mittee. This proposed measure was recommended by these com-
missioners to the states for enactment so as to promote uniformity
of standards in this field and its provisions have since then been
adopted in whole or in part by several commonwealths.

A standard juvenile court law was written by Mr. Bernard
Flexner for the guidance of communities contemplating the improve-
ment of their methods and procedure in dealing with juvenile un-
fortunates and has served as a guide for a number of years past.

In 1913 the report of the commission appointed by the Governor
of Ohio to revise and codify the laws of that state relative to children
was submitted to the legislature and marked the first comprehensive
effort in this country to coordinate laws affecting children and to
make them harmonize with the best thought in the several fields
concerned. The report of this commission covered the organiza-
tion, powers and duties of state agencies dealing with children,
juvenile courts, methods and control of child placing, management
8 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

of children’s homes, orphan asylums, reformatories and institutions
for defective children, provisions for widows’ pensions, compulsory
education, the regulation of child labor, and punishment of offenses
against children.

Two years later a similarly constituted commission reported
to the legislature of New Hampshire its findings and recommenda-
tions concerning the care of dependent, defective, and delinquent
children, especially in connection with the problems of infant
mortality, feeble-mindedness, and the organization of juvenile courts.

In 1917 the legislatures of Minnesota and Missouri considered
the reports of commissions appointed in those two states. The
proposed children’s code of Missouri embraced 42 bills of which
only 11 were enacted into law, while of the 43 measures recom-
mended by the Minnesota Child Welfare Commission, 35 were
adopted.

The subject has been discussed at the National Conference of
Charities and Correction and at the annual meetings of the National
Child Labor Committee. So much interest was shown in it at the
National Conference of Charities and Correction at Baltimore in
1915 that an organization which took the name of the National
Committee for Standardizing Children’s Laws was immediately
formed to further the development of the children’s code idea through-
out the country and C. C. Carstens, of the Massachusetts Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, was chosen as Chairman.

A children’s code is exceedingly complex and yet its elements
fall into relatively simple groups. First there is that body of laws
which might be listed under the heading Preservation of Life and
Health, including among other matters the segregation of the unfit
to insure reduction to a minimum of the birth rate of abnormal
children, the requirement of physical fitness of applicants for the
marriage license, freedom of mothers from toil before and after
confinement, birth registration, insistence upon responsibility for
illegitimacy, medical inspection of children in schools, in institu-
tions, and at work. The second group of laws might be termed
Protection from Want, Abuse, and Crime and would include the care
of dependent, neglected, and defective children, protection from
cruelty and premature toil, regulation of work conditions, cor-
rection of delinquency, procedure in dealing with juvenile offenders,
fixing the age of consent, providing for public relief, safeguarding
Introduction 9

of property rights, and protection from obscene literature, intoxi-
cants, tobacco, dangerous weapons, etc. In a third and final group
would be found the provisions for the benefit of children generally
under the heading Education and Recreation, comprising schools,
compulsory attendance, vocational training and guidance, social
centers, parks and playgrounds, public baths and libraries. The
laws covering these three fields and their several divisions are by
no means so independent of one another in their functions as might
be inferred; indeed the inter-relations are so extensive as to weave
a veritable network which is revealed upon but brief study of their
administration.

The conviction has been growing that any action looking to-
ward the adoption of a code should be preceded by careful study of
conditions existing throughout the state so that all the factors
entering into the situation may have due consideration. In all
instances, so far, the official commissions of our states have been
instructed to submit their reports to the legislatures at the sessions
next ensuing; their work has consisted of the study of conditions,
consultation with workers in the different fields, the compilation
of laws and the preparation of reports, and inasmuch as their mem-
bers have devoted to the task only such time as they could spare
from their regular work, it has not received the attention necessary
for thoroughness in an undertaking of such magnitude and im-
portance. Again, nearly all the members of these commissions
have been selected from among the residents of the larger cities in
the state concerned, and because of their familiarity with urban
conditions and comparative ignorance of rural affairs, there is
noticeable in their reports an undue emphasis upon the needs of
children in cities and an implied assumption that what is good for
the city child is necessarily good for the country child too. A
children’s code is so complicated and far-reaching in its effects, that
haste in its preparation should at all costs be avoided and sufficient
time be granted to insure satisfactory results and to enable the
public to become informed as to its provisions and purposes.

When the propriety of seeking the authorization of Oklahoma’s
legislature for the creation of a Children’s Code Commission was
recently under discussion among social workers in that state, the
consensus of opinion was that inasmuch as they themselves were
unacquainted with the actual situation pertaining to children in
10 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

all parts of the state, it would be unwise to entrust so important
a task to any group however disinterested whose services might
be enlisted, before the facts were known. It was felt that the first
essential step to be taken was a comprehensive study of conditions
and in the light of the knowledge so gained, substantial progress
towards the desired end could be more certainly achieved. The
National Child Labor Committee in the early spring of 1917 was
conducting an inquiry into the causes of absence from rural schools
in Oklahoma, which required its agents to cover the entire state,
and as the Committee was equipped to study the various allied
branches of child welfare, the University of Oklahoma perceived
the opportunity for collecting the information needed to throw
light on the question of whether or not the interests of children were
adequately cared for under the present laws and system of ad-
ministration. Accordingly President Stratton D. Brooks of the
University, suggested that the Committee extend the scope of its
inquiry so as to include other matters relating to the welfare of
children and the Committee gladly consented and set about the
work of gathering the facts desired. Eight agents of its staff have
spent the greater part of a year studying the situation from all
angles. The following series of reports is the result of their labors.
Each chapter treats of a phase of the child welfare problem studied
especially by its author and taken together these chapters afford
a general view of the conditions existing over the entire state.
The volume is submitted in the hope that it may be found useful
in some degree at least by those who may in the future undertake
the task of preparing a children’s code for Oklahoma.

For his painstaking review of the manuscripts of these reports
and for his helpful advice throughout the progress of the inquiry,
grateful acknowledgment is made to Professor Jerome Dowd of the
University of Oklahoma.
PUBLIC HEALTH WORK

GERTRUDE H. Foixks

Introductory

The absence of effective public health work in Oklahoma is
due fundamentally to a poor organization of the Health Depart-
ment. Although the Constitution provides for a State Board of
Health, it does not specify of whom this Board shall consist, and
the State Commissioner of Health, appointed by the Governor,
truthfully says, ‘‘I am the State Board of Health.” The law also
provides for an Assistant Commissioner of Health, a State Registrar
(newly created), eight food, drug, and sanitary inspectors, and cleri-
cal help.

Such a staff is, of course, inadequate for a state the size of
Oklahoma. Nevertheless capable local authorities have not been
created to deal with the situation. The Board of Directors of each
township, the Board of Trustees of each town, and the Mayor and
Common Council of each city, except where other provision is
made, are constituted a Board of Health for the territory under
their jurisdiction. Their primary interest, however, is not health
and except in cases of flagrant abuses they do not exercise their
power. There is also in each county a superintendent of health
appointed by the State Commissioner, on a part-time basis, and
the appointment of a similar official is optional for each city. The
law provides that they shall be paid per diem, the total salary not
to exceed a specified maximum. As might be expected, in some
cases, the position is political, the superintendent receiving the
maximum salary and on the whole doing a minimum of work. As
a rule inspection is made only on complaint, cases of contagious
diseases are not properly isolated, complete records of vital statis-
tics are not kept, and practically no constructive or educational
activity is carried on. The health officers frankly state that their
salary is not sufficient to permit them to develop the work, and
that their private practice comes first. Not only do they give
little of their time, but they are loath to take any measures, even
when required by law, that might antagonize their clients or fellow

11
12 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

physicians. The result of this system is that the most intelligent
and capable of the physicians do not enter the field of public health.
The work is not considered of much importance in the community,
and for the most part, both the county and city superintendents
are mediocre physicians, with little knowledge of medical science
and none of modern public health methods. Oklahoma City,
Tulsa, and McAlester are exceptions to the general rule. The health
officers in these cities are doing work as effective as is possible with
the staff and money at their disposal.

In three of the cities visited having a population of about 4,000,
the county health officer did the work for the city also. In one
instance, the city clerk explained, ‘‘Our city ordinances do call for a
health officer but the last few administrations have kind of over-
looked it.”’

The law also provides for county and city physicians whose
duty it is to give medical care to the prisoners in the county and
city jail, and in some instances to attend the indigent sick. They
are also supposed to be paid on a per diem basis and there is a tend-
ency for them also to receive the maximum salary. Frequently the
position of health officer and of county or city physician is held
by the same man. This year, in one city, the board of county
commissioners, as a measure of economy, adopted a new system
of caring for the indigent sick, letting out the work for the entire
year by contract. The physician in the town giving the lowest bid
was awarded the contract, but the sum which he specified was so
inadequate that after performing one operation for appendicitis
early in the year, he felt that he had given all of the time and money
to the work that he could afford. The rest of the indigent sick are
receiving little care.

Such a health organization would be ineffective in any com-
munity. It is doubly so in a rural state like Oklahoma where even
the most elementary of health measures are seldom observed. Con-
ditions as to sanitation are appalling; large families live in one and
two-room shacks, amid filthy surroundings; the water and the milk
supply are frequently contaminated; persons with contagious
disease are not properly isolated, and patent medicines take the
place of intelligent medical advice.

Even the rural schools, which might be expected to set the
health standard for the community, contribute to the unsanitary
ERRATA, PAGE 13.

According to the returns sent in, the death rate in Oklahoma
of children under five years of age would be only 1.0 per thousand,
although in the total registration area of the United States it is
about 26 per thousand. Similarly that for children under one year
of age would be only .58 per thousand, as compared with about 92
in the registration area, still births in both cases being omitted.
Public Health Work 13

conditions which surround the child at every point. Often the
buildings are dirty, the heating insufficient, the ventilation poor,
and the lighting wrong. The desks are not fitted to the children,
the toilets are not properly constructed, a pure water supply is
not available, and even when the water is pure, there is great danger
of disease from the use of the common drinking cup.

Infant mortality figures, the most obvious measurement of
the health conditions in a community, cannot be resorted to in
this case, for they are worthless. According to the returns sent
in, the death rate in Oklahoma of children under five years of age
would be only 1.0 per thousand of the population, although in the
total registration area of the United States it is 288.4 per thousand.
Similarly that for children under one year of age would be only .58
per thousand, as compared with 172.7 in the registration area, still
births in both cases being omitted.

The attendance records of the schools, however, do throw light
on the situation. The record books of 174 rural schools in ten
counties were studied, and it was found that illness caused 23.7
per cent of all the absences.

The situation is too manifest to have escaped notice. Yet the
State Health Department prides itself on not spending its full
appropriation. Last year $50,500 was appropriated, of which only
$34,500 was spent, and as $15,000 was paid in to the State Treasury
from license fees and other sources, the State Health Department
last year cost the state only $19,500. This, in spite of the fact
that there is no well organized department, no regular inspection
of public buildings, schools, motion picture houses, etc., no pro-
vision for proper hospital care or treatment for the indigent, no
medical inspection of schools and little preventive or educational
work.

Birth Registration

The registration of births in Oklahoma has been very incom-
plete up to the present time. In spite of an increase in the popu-
lation of the state of 32.8 per cent* between 1910 and 1916, there
was a decrease of 14 per cent in the number of births reported for
the year ended September 30, 1916, as compared with the number

* Based on 1916 estimate of Federal Census Bureau.
14 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

for the year ended September 30, 1911. There are two explana-
tions for this:-—(1) An inadequate law—the law which has been in
force until this spring did not require the registration of midwives.
Consequently, those births attended by midwives or others not
licensed physicians were seldom reported. This includes the great
majority of negro births as well as many white births. Although
it provided that local physicians should report all births to the
county health officer, who should in turn report monthly to the
State Department, it did not make any provision for the enforce-
ment of this law. (2) The indifference of state and local health
officers—a county health officer as a rule made no attempt to
compel local physicians to report to him, because ‘‘they are my
friends,” and the State Department in turn accepted the returns sent
in without making any effort to oblige him to secure complete lists.

A new law was passed by the legislature last winter, providing
for a reorganization of the Vital Statistics Department. A state
registrar is to have charge of the work; each city, town, and town-
ship is to constitute a registration district, and deputy and sub-
deputy registrars are to be appointed for each district; the regis-
tration of all midwives and physicians is made compulsory; a
report of birth within ten days by the physician, midwife, other
person attending, or in the absence of anyone, the parents of the
child, is required; and, heavy penalty for failure to report is provided.
The State Commissioner of Health believes that under this law
Oklahoma will soon be included within the registration area. Its
effectiveness, however, will be determined by the attitude of the
health authorities in enforcing it. Only four of the county super-
intendents of health interviewed in the six weeks following the
passage of the bill knew that such a bill had been introduced and
only two knew of its passage.

Though conforming to the standards of the ‘‘model” law sug-
gested by the Children’s Bureau it lacks two features included in
modern systems: first, it does not provide that return slips shall
be issued to the parents of every child registered; second, it does
not make compulsory a statement as to the treatment given the
child’s eyes at the time of birth.

RECOMMENDATIONS. Until this law has been in force for two or
three years, its adequacy cannot be judged. Later on it would be of
value for women’s clubs to undertake a “birth registration test” as
Public Health Work 15

outlined by the Federal Children’s Bureau. In the meantime every
effort should be made to have physicians realize the importance of
its observance, and offenders should be prosecuted. A statement of
the treatment given the child’s eyes at birth, and the issuance to
the parents of a notification card stating that the child is registered,
should be made compulsory. No fee should be exacted for the
issuance of a transcript of a birth certificate for use as the proof of
age required for work permits. (See report on Child Labor, page 117).

The Prevention of Contagious Diseases

In spite of state laws requiring that certain diseases (pellagra,
hookworm, infantile paralysis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, puerperal
sepsis, hydrophobia, measles, diphtheria, smallpox, scarlet fever,
pneumonia, chicken pox) be reported by physicians to the county
or city superintendent of health, and authorizing the health officer
to supervise the isolation of patients with such diseases, epidemics
of measles, scarlet fever and smallpox are not infrequent, either in
rural or urban districts. This can be traced to two preventable
causes:—(1) The health authorities, either because no physician
has been called or because the physicians do not report contagious
diseases as required by law, do not get in touch with the situation.
(2) Even when in touch with the situation, through failure to en-
force a strict quarantine and through lack of cooperation with the
school authorities, they do not check the disease. As the juris-
diction of the county and the city superintendents of health is
separate, arid the problem of the county officer is more difficult
than that of the city, because he has a much greater territory to
cover and there are fewer local physicians, the conditions found in
the counties and cities will be dealt with separately.

Counties. The study covered 21 counties—Atoka, Bryan,
Canadian, Cherokee, Cleveland, Creek, Garfield, Grady, Kingfisher,
McClain, Muskogee, Noble, Oklahoma, Okmulgee, Pittsburg,
Pontotoc, Pottawotamie, Rogers, Tulsa, Wagoner, and Washington.
In 16, the county superintendents of health were interviewed, and
in all, the county superintendents of schools were questioned with
regard to health conditions.

The superintendent of health does not secure a complete report
of cases of contagious diseases in a single county. Two stated that
16 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

about three-quarters of the physicians reported cases; one, that
if a physician was called the case was usually reported; one, that
physicians were ‘urged’ to send in reports; one, that “more than
formerly” were reported; and the remainder that comparatively
few cases were reported.

While admitting that the physicians were lax in this respect,
the superintendents of health on the whole attributed the prevalence
of contagious diseases more to the failure of the country people
to call in physicians. In one community there was a severe epidemic
of scarlet fever and ‘‘things got pretty bad.” There were no at-
tending physicians and the nature of the trouble was not recognized.
Not until the epidemic was well under way and a boy came to the
health officer for treatment for ‘“‘acute bronchitis” was the situation
discovered.

In no county is there any systematic cooperation between the
school and the health authorities. In a few cases the teachers
report to the health officer any cases of contagious diseases which
they discover, but the health officers practically never report cases
to the school. One school superintendent stated that he did not
want the health officer to report cases to him, that health wasn’t
part of his job, and he had enough to keep him busy. This means
not only that there is no guarantee that other children in the family
who may spread the contagion are not attending school, but that
the teachers are not on guard when the child returns to see that all
danger of contagion is passed. This is especially serious since permits
from a physician for a child absent from school on account of illness
are seldom required on his return. Only four of the counties visited
even claim that they require such permits, and in none of these
is the provision strictly enforced.

The remarks of the health superintendents, when asked about
the return of children to school after illness, give a fair idea of the
situation —

“If the child returns and the teacher isn’t sure and sees a rash or
anything, he sends the child home again.”

“The teacher is supposed to look at them and decide whether they
should come back or not.”

“The child is told to stay home a certain length of time. Each disease
—scarlet fever, measles, smallpox, and whooping cough, has a regular
period.”
Public Health Work 17

The one who most truly described conditions said, ‘“The
children come back when they feel like it.”

In one school visited there had been four cases of smallpox
and two of scarlet fever. These children returned to school without
a certificate of any kind. In two counties the health superintendent
stated that they were not particular about quarantining for
measles, for it did the children no harm—‘Measles are more
contagious at some times of the year than at others and I am glad
for every case I hear about in the spring. It means one more
over with it, but we have to quarantine some or the schools would
make a fuss.”

It is not surprising that the country is invaded by disease
every year. Sixteen counties reported severe epidemics of measles,
and eight reported that three or more schools had been closed for
this reason. Others reported less severe epidemics of whooping
cough, pink-eye, scarlet fever, typhoid or smallpox. One superin-
tendent stated that although no schools had been closed, attendance
in one town school had been reduced for one week from 400 to 57.
Another stated that there had been epidemics in 12 schools. They
were not closed, however, ‘because everybody has already been
exposed so they might as well see it through.”

Cites. The report is based on 24 cities—Ada, Atoka, Bartles-
ville, Chickasha, Claremore, Dewey, Durant, Edmond, El Reno,
Enid, Kingfisher, Lawton, McAlester, Muskogee, Norman, Oklahoma
City, Okmulgee, Perry, Purcell, Sapulpa, Shawnee, Tahlequah,
Tulsa, and Wagoner. The city school superintendents were ques-
tioned as to health conditions and in 18 the city health officers were
interviewed.

In spite of the fact that a larger medical force, better sani-
tation, a well-organized school system and a generally higher level
of intelligence should decrease the amount of contagious disease
in the cities, conditions are similar to those found in the country.

The reporting of contagious diseases is better observed. In
two cities, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, practically all of the cases
are reported. In four, about three-quarters of the physicians report
the cases which they attend. In two, most of those cases for which
a physician is called are reported, but these form a comparatively
small percentage of the total number that occur. One health officer
stated that all contagious diseases except measles were reported,
18 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

and it was not necessary in the case of measles, because the danger-
ous period was over by the time any noticeable symptoms had
appeared. Two health officers frankly stated that complete lists
could never be secured from the local doctors, because they feared
to incur the displeasure of their patients. It is due to this unwilling-
ness of the doctors to take any measure which would offend their
clients rather than to negligence, that reports are so inadequate.

Seldom is any attempt made by the county superintendents
of health to force physicians to comply with the law, the chief
reason for this being a false idea of loyalty to friends and co-workers
in the medical profession. As one superintendent expressed it,
“TI suppose there is a penalty for not reporting but all of us doctors
in town are friends and I hate to arrest a physician.”

There is not much more cooperation between the school and
the health authorities in the cities than in the counties. In only
three is any attempt made on the part of the health officers to re-
port to the schools cases of contagious diseases. In one of the largest
cities in the state the principal of a public school stated that only
once within the last few years had the health authorities been in
communication with his school and that was in connection with a
case of smallpox. The principal of another school in the same city
stated that last year there was a severe epidemic of scarlet fever
in the school and 53 children were sent home. Wo city health officer
came to the school or assisted in any way.

Fourteen cities reported that children must have permits to
return to school after absence for contagious disease. In seven,
these are issued by the health officer; in one, by the family physician;
in four, by either the family physician or the health officer; in one,
by the health officer or the school superintendent; and in one
(Lawton) by a school physician. In two cities where the health
officer is supposed to issue the permits, that officer stated that he
was too busy to do it himself and left it to the family physicians,
relying on their honesty. The general feeling of both the school
and health authorities is that when the physicians are allowed to
issue permits, some of them, to please the parents, do so before all
danger of spread of contagion is past. In one city, the health officer
stated that he frequently issued them over the telephone. His
judgment as to whether the child was in a condition to warrant
issuance of the permit would be of doubtful value. Another
Public Health Work 19

reported that no permits were required, but that in the case of small-
pox, diphtheria or scarlet fever, ‘“‘there is a general understanding
with the school that children will not return until the quarantine
is raised.”” Another reported that “if a child returns and still looks
sick, he is sent home for two or three days.”” The teacher, with no
special medical training whatever, is hardly qualified to determine
whether or not all danger of contagion is passed.

Evén when cases are reported, the quarantine is ineffective.
One physician stated that when a boy is about well and wants to
return to school, he merely orders him to take a bath and get cleaned
up, doubtless on the theory that the germs will be washed away.
Another went one step further and stated that he ‘fumigated the
boy.” To the average health officer quarantine for contagious
disease is a matter for compromise. The dilemma was stated by
the superintendent in one of the larger cities, “If I don’t let ’em
out the parents cuss, and if I do let ’em out the neighbors cuss.”

At the time of this investigation, no city schools were closed
because of epidemics. Seven cities, however, reported the prevalence
of measles and in a few other cities there were occasional cases of
measles, scarlet fever, pink-eye, and typhoid. Last year in one of
the larger cities a school had been closed for one week because of a
scarlet fever epidemic which had gotten beyond control.

RECOMMENDATIONS. 1. That the law requiring physicians to
report cases of contagious disease to city and county health officers
be enforced and that all cases of violations be prosecuted.

2. That the county and city truancy officers report to the
county and city health officers the names of all children absent for
illness, and that the county or city health officer visit all such cases
(if they have not already been reported by a physician) to determine
whether the child is suffering from any contagious disease. In
cities having a school health officer, this work could be done by
that officer, a report of all cases being sent to the county or city
health officer.

3. That the health officer notify the school of any child absent
for contagious disease, and that such child be re-admitted only on
presentation of a permit secured from the city or county health
officer or from the school health officer.

4. That children living in a family in which there is a case of
contagious disease be prohibited from attending school until a
20 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

permit is secured from the city or county health officer, and that
parents be held responsible for any violation of this rule.

5. That teachers be given training in the recognition of the
earliest symptoms of the common contagious diseases, and that
this instruction be included in the normal school course and also
be given by the school health officer.

6. That a pure water supply be provided for every school.

Medical Inspection in the Public Schools

 

One of the essential requirements for healthful conditions in
both rural and urban communities is a well-developed system for
the medical inspection and treatment of school children. Such
work not only helps to safeguard the children from contracting
transmissible diseases and improves the health of the individual
child, but raises the standard of the work of the school through
detection of the physical defects which form the basis of much
mental retardation. On the whole, Oklahoma has done little along
this line. The school boards hesitate to introduce a measure which
in their minds has no relation to regular school work and which
might be regarded by the parents as an interference with their private
affairs. There is also strong opposition to any work of this kind
in Oklahoma on the part of certain schools of medicine and certain
religious sects. One of the best county school superintendents in
the state attributed her defeat for re-election to the stand which
she took in favor of medical inspection.

Where medical inspection has been tried, the work has been
done largely by physicians who volunteered their services. Although
many of good standing, interested in the work, gave a large share
of their time to it, unfortunately in other cases the actuating motive
was neither the need for the work nor the desire to demonstrate
to the city its value, but personal considerations. These latter
expected that children advised to secure medical treatment would
come to them for it. When they found that the large majority of
parents failed to ‘‘cooperate” and that there was no compensation
in increased practice for the time given to the work of inspection,
they lost interest.

In no county and in only three cities (Oklahoma City, Tulsa,
and Lawton) is there any permanent basis for the work and a
Public Health Work 21

salaried officer employed. In the other counties and cities where
the work has been tried, it was carried on for a year or so and then
dropped, or else is being done without any system.

Counties. Of the 23 counties studied, 15 have done nothing
whatever along the line of medical inspection. The work of the
remaining eight will be briefly described:

1. Canadian. The County Medical Association agreed to
examine, free of charge, all children sent to it. A thorough exam-
ination was not attempted but serious defects of the eyes, nose or
throat were looked for and anything else, such as tuberculosis or
heart trouble, suspected by the teacher sending the child. In
addition to this work, about one-quarter of the schools in this
county have had medical inspection. The county superintendent
knows little about this work and it is not being continued this
year.

2. Comanche. Some of the teachers give the children eye tests
and oculists have volunteered to examine the record cards and
recommend attention for those who need it. Occasionally the
city medical inspector or physician cooperating with him works
in the rural schools. On the whole, however, little is done.

3. Creek. Most of the rural schools of the county have had
some form of inspection. The work is usually done by the teachers,
occasionally by physicians living in the school district.

4. Kingfisher. Medical inspection of the children in the
county schools was made last year by the State Health Depart-
ment. Specialists gave their services for eye, ear and throat ex-
aminations and in some cases for treatment also. The work is not
being continued this year. The State Commissioner of Health
reported similar work in Lincoln and Blaine Counties.

5. Oklahoma. Last year two doctors from the Oklahoma Eye,
Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, just before a bill was to be intro-
duced providing for medical inspection, volunteered their services
to start the work and about 25 per cent of the children in the county
were examined. The notification of defects which was sent to the
parents also informed them that if they were unable to pay for
medical attention, free treatment could be secured at the hospital
in Oklahoma City. This year the physicians did not offer their
services and little work is being done. Children may still receive
free treatment, however, at the Oklahoma City Hospital.
22 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

6. Pittsburg. Last year a local physician was appointed by
the State Commissioner of Health to inspect the rural schools of
the county. He received no compensation and visited only those
who requested his services. Last year schools in five villages were
examined. The work is being continued along similar lines this
year.

7. Pontotoc. The Society of Optometrists volunteered to
inspect the eyes of all the children in the public schools. After
inspecting a few village schools they gave it up because so few
followed their suggestions.

8. Washington. The doctors of the county volunteered their
services for the inspection of any schools that desired them. A
letter was sent out by the county superintendent to the parents
living in each school district, explaining the value of medical in-
spection and asking whether they desired it. Only six of the 22
districts addressed responded affirmatively. The work has been
completed in two of these districts and the superintendent hopes
to make arrangements for the others in the near future.

Cittes. Of the 24 cities visited, 11 have never had medical
inspection of any kind. The extent of the work and the methods
used in the remaining 13 will be described briefly :—

1. Ada. All children in the schools including the high school,
were examined last year by local eye, ear, nose, and throat specialists
and some of the children were also examined by the county super-
intendent of health, as to heart, lungs and spine. The physicians
did not volunteer their services this year.

2. Bartlesville. Until this year the school children have been
examined once a year by physicians of the city who gave their
services. This year the pine: were not asked until December,
when they were ‘‘too busy.”

3. Claremore. Medical inspection is desultory. Free dental
inspection was offered by the dentists of the city, but little was done
because the school superintendent considered that until free treat-
ment also was offered, the inspection was of little value.

4. Dewey. Two years ago the city physicians offered their
services. They began with an examination of markedly defective
children, and later extended their work hoping to include all chil-
dren. The work was never completed, however, and nothing is
being done at the present time.
Public Health Work 23

5. Enid. The only medical inspection in any of the schools
of the city consists of a physical examination required of high school
boys joining the Volunteer Corps. If they fail to pass, special
corrective training is given under one of the regular teachers.

6. McAlester. The city superintendent himself sometimes
examines children for mental defects and the teachers report to
him obvious physical defects. He then urges the parents to provide
medical care. Occasionally physicians have been called in to examine
the children, usually when contagious diseases are prevalent. This
year the physician who inspected the children in the rural schools
of the county has done some work in McAlester also.

7. Muskogee. There is no medical inspection. A physical
examination is required of all high school girls. Although a regular
record form is used, the test is not complete—there is no apparatus
for measuring lung expansion, for instance, and some of the measure-
ments are taken by the children themselves, and are not accurate.
The city superintendent last year included in the annual budget an
appropriation for medical inspection, but the county excise board did
not grant sufficient funds to allow this work to be undertaken.

8. Norman. Each year an examination of the children in
both the graded and the high schools is made by the teachers.

9. Okmulgee was the first city in the state to establish medical
inspection. For the last five years until the present year, a paid
medical school inspector has been employed, his work included
the examination of all school children, the inspection of school
buildings and grounds, with regard to lighting, heating, sanitation,
etc., and the exclusion of children with contagious diseases. Al-
though the schools increased in number and in enrolment, there
was no corresponding increase in the appropriation for the work.
It became less and less thorough and the attempt to give a personal
examination to all school children was given up. Last year the
physicians made inspections only when called to the school. This
year, because of lack of funds there is no paid physician and a new
system is being tried. The high school has two, and the grade
schools one physician each, the best in the city, who have volun-
teered their services for work in that school. It is hoped that next
year provision will again be made for a paid school physician and
that a system of the examination of all children can again be estab-
lished. Dental inspection has never been included.
24 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

10. Sapulpa. The last two years the doctors and dentists
in town volunteered their services for medical inspection; this year,
however, the offer was not renewed.

11. Lawton. A retired physician is employed at $50 a month
to act as truancy officer and medical inspector. He gives after-
noons to the latter work, examining the children for eye and ear
trouble. A few local physicians cooperate with him by examining
the nose, throat, and teeth. This year nearly 1,000 children were
examined.

12. Tulsa. The supervisor of hygiene acts also as school nurse
and has charge of medical inspection. She is subject to call and
also makes an inspection visit to every school once every two or
three weeks. At this time she examines all children sent to her as
defective or retarded. The work of the ungraded classes is also
under her supervision. (See report on Education, page 86.) This
year she is attempting to inspect all of the children in the schools.
In a few buildings this has been done but since there are nearly
8,000 children enrolled, and she has no assistants in the work, it
is doubtful whether the work can be completed.

13. Oklahoma City. For several years Oklahoma City has had
a school medical inspector, paid $1350 for two-thirds time. This
year she has had as assistant a school nurse paid from funds saved
from the sale of Red Cross Christmas seals for several years. This
means that she is employed only on a temporary basis; that unless
the city makes an appropriation for her salary hereafter, there will
be no fund from which to pay her. The doctor makes an inspection
of all the school children of the city at least once a year. Defects
are reported to parents on regular blanks which must be signed by
them and returned to the school and subsequent examinations are
made of all such children. The school nurse cooperates with the
home in securing the necessary medical care.

In only a few cities have any reports of this work been made
to the city or county superintendent. These few, however, reveal
the general situation. They constitute the best proof that could be
offered as to the need for medical inspection.

In one ward school in McAlester, examined on complaint, 31
children were found crowded in a hall which was being used as a
classroom. Only one child was free from eye trouble of any kind;
18 had sties; many also had catarrhal condition of the nose and throat.
Public Health Work 25

 

 

 

COUNTY OR NO. OF PER CENT FOUND DEFECTIVE
CITY CHILDREN
EXAMINED | Eyes | Ears | Throat} Teeth | Nose
NG Ea tvs ucnsval gir ited Over 1,200 40 31 84 59 39
Kingfisher County
White sceus seca 514 37 11 46 42
Colored......... 100 53 8 60 35
Washington County
(1 school)....... 27 40 4 29 40 7
Oklahoma City..... 350 32 21 52 49*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Over half had but one cavity.

In Okmulgee over 35 per cent of the children examined were
found defective in some respect, not including teeth.

Of 245 children examined in one school in Pittsburg County
only three were reported sound in every respect. Of 100 examined
in another school only four were sound.

These figures refer, of course, only to the most obvious defects.
The conditions under which the examinations are made in most
cases do not permit of thoroughness. There are too many children
to be tested in a short period of time; the examination is made in
the presence of the class; there is no attempt to secure data with
regard to the family history; and the physician has to be careful
to do nothing to antagonize the child or his parents. One doctor
stated that he had to judge whether or not the child had adenoids
by hearing him talk. “I don’t dare to put my finger down the
child’s throat for I have 15 to 20 in a room at a time, and if I did
the rest would all run away.”’ The tests made by the teachers are
of little value, for medical experience and special training are
essential.

Aside from the irregularity of the work and the lack of thor-
oughness of the examinations, the greatest weakness of medical
inspection in most cases is the lack of the necessary ‘“‘follow-up”’
work. The majority of parents, either through indifference or
poverty, pay no attention to the recommendation that they consult
a family physician with regard to the condition of their children.
26 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Yet not in a single county and in only three cities is any effort made
to see that the needed treatment is secured.

The superintendent of one county where about half the chil-
dren had been examined, reported that she knew of only two in-
stances of action taken by parents as a result of the medical inspec-
tion. Another reported that ‘‘occasionally a child is sent as advised,”’
and a third estimated that 1 per cent of all the cases examined
and recommended for treatment received such treatment. It was
in a village school in this county that 15 cases of trachoma were
found. Nothing was done, however, because the district board
“made a fuss.” Some of the parents refused even to have their
children treated. “I had the legal authority to suspend those
children and I ought to have done so, but some of my best patients
live in that district and I simply couldn’t.”” In another school
of this county a member of the school board, who had particularly
requested to have his children examined, upon finding that his
daughter had trachoma, refused to allow the doctor to notify any
parents in the district of the defects of their children.

In only two counties (Pittsburg and Oklahoma) was any
provision made for the treatment of children whose parents could
not afford to consult a physician. In the former, the physician
who made the inspection also sent word throughout the county
that he would treat and operate, free of charge, all children examined
whose parents could not provide the necessary medical care. In
Oklahoma, free treatment was offered by the Oklahoma City Hospital.

In the cities conditions were little better. In most cases the
county superintendent reported that few parents acted on the advice
given. With the exception of Norman, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City,
there was no effort made to do ‘follow-up’? work. In Norman
the teacher making the examination is supposed to have a personal
interview with the parent of any child whom she considers defective,
to urge a more thorough examination, and treatment if necessary.
In Oklahoma City the school nurse is a connecting link between
the school and the home, following up cases in which the parent
does not signify his intention of securing medical advice. In Tulsa
the supervisor of hygiene does similar work. If the parents do
not cooperate, the school nurse visits the home and urges treatment.
In a few cases when the parents have persistently refused to provide
it the matter has been taken to court. In only five cities, McAlester,
Public Health Work 27

Bartlesville, Norman, Tulsa and Oklahoma City, is provision made
for the treatment of children whose parents cannot afford medical
care. In McAlester the same physician who treats county children
free of charge cares for the city children. In Bartlesville there are
two physicians and one osteopath who occasionally give their
services. In Norman a few doctors will examine eyes and remove
adenoids free of charge. In Tulsa twenty dentists have promised
to give free treatment to one case each month. Medical and surgical
attention is also given when necessary, and hospital bills paid. When
a physician undertakes the care of a school child he works with the
entire family as well. Eyes are examined free of charge and glasses
furnished by the county. In Oklahoma City the doctors cooperate
by giving free dental treatment and medical attention, and a private
club raises money annually to furnish glasses for children who other-
wise could not obtain them.

RecommenpatTions. 1. That a practising physician should be
appointed as school health officer by the city board of education on
the recommendation of the superintendent of schools in every city
having 5,000 or more inhabitants and by the county board of
education in every county. The latter should have jurisdiction in
all territory not under the city school health officer. In counties or
cities where this is not practicable, the county or city health officer
should serve also as school health officer, his salary being paid by
the board of public welfare and the board of county commissioners
jointly, in proportion to the amount of time given to the school work
and public health work respectively.

2. That the duties of this school health officer should be:

a. To make medical examinations of all children, in the graded and
high schools both public and private, twice a year, and to report to
parents any defects found, with recommendations for treatment,
and to follow up such cases until defects are corrected.

b. To make additional visits to schools as often as possible, to re-examine
children found defective at previous visits, and to inspect all children
sent to him by teachers as retarded and possibly defective.

c. To inspect school buildings as to sanitation.

d. To issue health certificates to children applying for work permits.
(See report on Child Labor, p. 116).

e. To issue permits to children desiring to return to school after re-
covery from contagious diseases. (See report on Public Health Work,
p. 19).
28 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

f. To vaccinate against smallpox and typhoid fever all children whose
parents request it; to vaccinate all children when in his opinion the
local situation requires it; and to compel parents who refuse per-
mission, to remove their children from school in case of an epidemic.

g. To issue certificates of health to teachers, such certificates being
required of all applicants for teaching positions in the public schaols
of the state, to be renewed each year after thorough examination.

h. To give instruction in hygiene in schools. (See report on Education,
p. 68.)

i. To instruct teachers in the symptoms of mental abnormality and
deficiency, as well as of physical defects, and to cooperate in work
with backward classes. (See report on Education, p. 86.)

j. To study school problems in their relation to health—such as the
need of hot lunches for school children, desirable length of school
day, advisability of homework, etc.

3. That a school nurse be appointed by the Board of Education
on the recommendation of the school health officer in cities with
25,000 or more inhabitants, to assist in this work; that whenever
possible cities under 25,000 appoint a part-time nurse; that she
have charge of the follow-up work, and make all visits to homes;
and that she do educational work in the homes.

4. That free treatment be given by the school health officer and
by the school nurse to children for whom it is recommended, but
who cannot afford it; and that glasses be supplied by the school
health officer to all children who need them but cannot afford to
purchase them.

5. That a room be provided in each school for the special use
of the school health officer and the school nurse.

Educational Work

Tue HeattH Department. There is no well-organized pub-
licity or educational work in the Department of Health to encourage
a more general observance of the laws of hygiene and health. Aside
from occasional lectures given at the request of women’s clubs and
other organizations, the county and city health officers have done
nothing to stimulate interest in such matters. Many of them have
not the necessary qualifications. The State Health Commissioner,
however, has tried throughout the year to carry on educational work.
He has issued a pamphlet “Conserving the Public Health” for the
Public Health Work 29

use of mothers; he has given about 25 lectures in various parts of
the state, using the slides and charts of the United States Public
Health Service; he has secured speakers for meetings which he
himself could not attend, and sent out weekly letters to the news-
papers, many of which relate to the care of children. Although of
great value, this work does not begin to reach the number of people
who could be reached nor approximate in amount what could be
done if there were a regular publicity bureau in the department
conducting an educational campaign. Part of the unused appro-
priation of the Health Department might well have been used for
this purpose.

Women’s Ciuss. In several cities women’s clubs and teacher-
patron associations have attempted to educate the community with
regard to public health, but without the cooperation of the local
health authorities they have not been able to do very extensive work.
They have been instrumental in securing the observance for the
last two years of “Better Babies Week” by many communities and
have been assisted in this by the State Commissioner of Health.
Of the 23 cities visited, 14 had ‘‘Better Babies Weeks”’ of some kind
last year, varying from merely a baby contest held in connection
with the county fair in some counties, to a well-organized campaign
in others. Of these 14 cities, 12 had baby contests open to the entire
county, 7 had lectures on infant hygiene and allied subjects, and
2 had free clinics. Special films in motion picture houses and
special sermons in churches on the Sunday preceding the campaign
week were also arranged for in a few instances.

“Better Babies Week” is being observed again this year, and
although several of the smaller cities which observed it last year
do not intend to do so again, certain of the larger cities are intro-
ducing new features. Oklahoma City has carried on effective pub-
licity work and is organizing a baby-poster contest, and Tulsa is
planning visits to the day nursery, the hospitals and the detention
home, and proposes to equip a room as a model nursery and give
demonstrations in proper infant dressing.

ScuHoots. The schools are probably doing more than any other
agency to introduce new standards of cleanliness and new methods
of health preservation. But even their work is pitiably small in
amount. The unsanitary conditions which exist in many of the
schools speak louder than the hygienic teachings of a few.
30 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Some of the state normal schools offer courses in school hygiene,
with a view to training the teacher to diagnose anaemia, adenoids,
myopia, etc., to teach correct posture, the care of the teeth, the
value of cleanliness, and the relation of hygiene to general efficiency.
The state course of study prescribed for the rural schools as well as
that followed in the cities, includes an excellent course in hygiene,
sanitation, and physiology, with special attention to oral hygiene.
Unfortunately, however, this study is neglected by practically all
of the rural and by most of the city schools. In many, no instruction
whatever is given in hygiene and in others no practical application of
the study is made. The importance of this work is gaining recog-
nition, however, and interest is gradually being aroused. Eleven
of the 28 counties visited reported some activity along this line.
In 7 counties “tooth-brush brigades” have been organized in at
least some of the schools, the children being supplied with tooth-
brushes and instructed in the care of the teeth, and similar work is
done, though less frequently, with regard to the care of the finger
nails, the washing of the hands, etc. Three counties reported that
teachers laid special stress on health work, emphasizing it in the
classroom and urging high standards of cleanliness and sanitation
in the homes, and two reported a “clean-up” week. Eight reported
lectures usually held during rally week. These were occasionally
given by the county health officer, but more often by a lecturer
sent out by the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College.
Even though not well organized and carried on under difficulties,
this work is not without its effect. A teacher in a rural school told
of a seven-year-old boy who returned to school the day after a
talk on cleanliness had been given, full of enthusiasm. He had told
his mother what the teacher had said, and she had promised that
she would give him a bath every two weeks, that as soon as his
father was better she would give him one every week, and when the
hot weather came, every day that she could possibly find the time.

As in the case of medical inspection, the chief difficulty en-
countered is the hostility of the district school board to the intro-
duction of any new feature, especially if it does not seem strictly
educational, and in some the indifference of the school officers them-
selves. In one county a supply of pamphlets on “Minimum Health
Requirements for Rural Schools” published by the National Edu-
cation Association and the American Medical Association, had been
Public Health Work 31

sent to the county superintendent for distribution among the
teachers and lay in his office untouched for over two years.

In the city schools the work is along similar lines. Four cities
reported tooth-brush drills, four regular courses in hygiene and sani-
tation given by the teacher, sometimes in the upper grades with the
assistance of a physician, four lectures by outsiders, two clean-up
days for the school, one, a clean-up day for the entire city, and two
Red Cross courses.

In Oklahoma City the school medical inspector gives a talk on
sex hygiene to the high school boys and the nurse expects to do
similar work for the girls. In no other city, however, has this been
started, the general feeling being that opposition on the part of the
parents would be too great.

OrHer AcENcIES. The county farm agents in some counties,
have also worked along public health lines, organizing health clubs
among the women, with a view to raising the sanitary standards of
the rural communities. This activity, however, is incidental to the
agricultural and domestic science work and has not been very fully
developed.

The Oklahoma Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis
has a paid secretary and plans to do propaganda work throughout
the state.

The U. S. Public Health Service has made a complete health
survey in Okmulgee County, and it is hoped that the work done by
the federal government there will be undertaken by the state in
other communities.

RECOMMENDATIONS. Health Department. That a division of
Education, Publicity and Information be established in connection
with the State Health Department to carry on educational work
throughout the state by means of bulletins, newspaper articles,
lectures, exhibits, pure food campaigns, etc., and to supply free
information to anyone who may inquire concerning matters of
health, sanitation, food preparation, etc.; that a special study be
made of infant mortality and child hygiene; and that the county
and city superintendents of health cooperate in this work.

Women’s Clubs. That the “Better Babies’ Week” campaigns
be continued; that local committees be organized to study the
health conditions of the community, to suggest needed changes
and to awaken public opinion to demand these changes; that these
32 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

clubs work in cooperation with the local health authorities; and
that whenever possible a Children’s Health Conference be held,
as outlined by the Federal Children’s Bureau, pamphlet No. 15.

Schools. That the course in hygiene be given more fully and
in accordance with the outlines of the state course of study, and
that an examination in this subject be required; and that the school
health officer and the school nurse give talks on hygiene at least
once a week to the boys and girls to enable them to apply the prin-
ciples studied to local sanitary conditions.

Milk Inspection

Milk inspection in Oklahoma has suffered from the division
of jurisdiction between the Department of Health and the Board of
Agriculture. The latter by virtue of its authority over the live
stock supervises the conditions under which the cows are kept on
the farm and the handling of dairy products until they reach the
city. The Board of Health has inspection of the product only after
it is delivered.

An annual appropriation of $5,000 is granted to the dairy com-
mission for the inspection of dairies, creameries, cream stations,
ice-cream factories and oleomargarine dealers. One inspector and
four deputies are employed. Money is transferred from other
departments, however, so that in all, about $10,000 a year is actually
spent, and some feed inspectors give part time to this work. There
are about 120 dairies, 500 cream stations, 25 creameries and 100 ice-
cream factories in the state. The Board of Agriculture keeps in
close touch with the ice-cream factories, annual licenses are issued,
and an inspection is made at least once a month. Good work has
been done along this line. Several factories in the largest cities of
the state have been ordered closed and are remodelling as necessary.
Inspection of cream stations and creameries is also fairly well
organized. On the other hand, the Board cannot give adequate
attention to dairies, because of the limited funds at their disposal.
An adequate staff cannot be employed and the expense of trans-
portation in rural districts is great. The Board of Agriculture has
prescribed certain standards with regard to the conditions under
which the cows must be kept, the methods used in milking and
preparing the product for market and the transportation of milk
Public Health Work 33

to the city, and the tuberculin test for all cows furnishing milk for
public dairies to be sold either wholesale or retail is required. Very
seldom, however, is a chemical or bacteriological test of the milk
made either on the farm or after it reaches its destination. In about
12 cities, the county or city health officer assists the Board of Agri-
culture in the inspection of dairies, either by cooperating in the work
of the State Board or through local ordinances and inspection. With
the exception of Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and possibly Sapulpa, the
local work is not effective. There is no regular system of dairy
inspection, visits are made only on complaints, no records are kept,
and the tuberculin test is not always made.

RECOMMENDATIONS. 1. To secure an efficient system the in-
spection of milk and milk products must be concentrated under one
department. Although the State Board of Agriculture is the agency
which has been doing this work, it is recommended that the control
of the entire situation, from the sanitary conditions on the farm to
the delivery of the milk to the consumer, be placed under the Board
of Health (a) because the necessary chemical and bacteriological
tests are not being made at the present time, and the Board
of Agriculture has not the necessary laboratory equipment to
undertake this work, and (b) because the Department of Health
has local officials to assist in the enforcement of the standards
adopted.

2. That the standards, suggested by the U. S. Public Health
Service in the report of the Commission on Milk Standards, pub-
lished February 1917, be adopted by law as the standards for the
state.

Hospital Care and Medical Treatment

 

The absence of free hospital service is one of the greatest weak-
nesses of the health work. There are no state, county or city hospitals
for the care of indigent sick or those who can pay only a moderate
amount, except the detention hospitals which have been established
in a few cities for the isolation of contagious diseases. In a few
cities there are a limited number of beds in private hospitals, which
may be used by “free” patients if the city or county pays. The
result is that the sick remain in their homes, they do not receive
the close medical attention which is essential and in many cases
34 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

live in the midst of surroundings that increase, rather than decrease,
the danger from disease. In most cases even contagious diseases
are treated in the home.

Actual hospital care is provided more fully in Oklahoma City
than in any other community, though even here the need of more
adequate provision for the city’s poor is felt. The University Hospital
and the University Emergency Hospital, under contract with Okla-
homa City, give treatment to men, women and children. The patients
are not charged, but the city pays for them at the rate of $10
a week. They are given free treatment by the clinical staff of the
faculty of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. A free
dispensary is also operated in connection with the University Emer-
gency Hospital one hour every week-day. There is a dispensary
staff of ten and the following departments are included: Medical,
Surgical, Genito-Urinary, Gynecology, Eye, Ear, Nose, Throat,
Children, Rectal, Consulting Dentist, X-Ray and Dermatology,
examination of pregnant women. The average daily attendance
at the dispensary is about 30. There is also a City Detention Hos-
pital with 100 beds, all free, for the use of tuberculous patients and
those with contagious diseases. Professional service is rendered
to these patients by the city physician and his assistants. A City
Maternity Hospital for indigent cases has been established. There
are also several private hospitals in the city, one of which, St.
Anthony, has 10 free beds. No social service work is done in con-
nection with any of the hospitals.

In Muskogee, the P. & S. Hospital operates a free clinic for
such work as the removal of tonsils, eye, ear and throat treatment,
and the city also has the use of five beds at the rate of $10 a week.
Last year only 81 patients were sent by the city and a total of only
893 days of service given. In other words, only 893 of the 1820 days
allowed the city were used. Nevertheless the city health officer
refuses to send patients there, on the ground that there is no room
for them. This plea of overcrowding may be true, but it is not due
to the number of city patients. As long as the hospital is under
contract with the city, it should be obliged to receive city cases.

In Chickasha there is a hospital with about ten beds; children
are admitted though there is no regular children’s ward. The min-
imum fee is $10.50 and if any indigent cases are received, this fee
must be paid by the city.
Public Health Work 35

In Guthrie, the Methodist Church maintains a hospital having a
children’s ward with four beds but no patients suffering from con-
tagious diseases are admitted. Patients unable to defray their
expenses are received as well as those who can afford to pay the
charges.

A hospital with accommodations for contagious disease cases
and admitting children is located in El Reno. The Women’s Hos-
pital Association supports one bed for poor patients.

In Durant there is a sanitarium run by the county superin-
tendent of health. Occasionally city and county charges are re-
ceived here and paid for by the county.

Tulsa is at present raising funds to build a large modern and
well-equipped hospital. Provision will be made in it for free cases.

In some counties, the county or city physician attends persons
who cannot afford medical care. In other cases these officers do
little except attend the prisoners in the county and city jails, and
in these communities the people who are too poor to call in physicians
are unattended.

Aside from the free treatment given in connection with medical
school inspection, there is little free service, except as individual
physicians treat special cases that come to their attention. One
physician in Bartlesville gives free treatment twice a week. He
estimates that he treats about 400 cases a year, of whom about one-
half are children. He acts purely on his own initiative, and does not
cooperate with any organization. At present two cities have visiting
nurses, Oklahoma City and Muskogee.

In Oklahoma City, besides the school nurse, a visiting nurse is
employed by the Provident Association. She is paid from the milk
and ice fund of the Association, receiving 50 cents a visit, about
$10 a week. Her work is chiefly with children and pregnant
mothers. The children are taken by her to the Emergency Hospital
dispensary for treatment, and if an operation is needed the Provident
Association pays for it. The Association also supplies milk and
ice to tuberculous people and young children in winter and to older
children also in the summer.

A district nurse is employed by the United Charities of Mus-
kogee, who also does work for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.,
50 cents for each visit being paid by the Company to the United
Charities. About one-third of her patients are children—chiefly
36 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

cases of underfeeding, due to poverty. Last year 1197 calls were
made for the United Charities and 273 cases were cared for. Of
these 22 were sent to a hospital, 13 died, 150 were dismissed as
cured and 88 were carried over to the next year. Of the cases treated
during the year, 28 were maternity and 35 tubercular.

Bartlesville and Enid expect to secure the services of nurses
next year. In Enid, the Associated Charities will pay, and in
Bartlesville the Smelters are planning to hire one to work in co-
operation with the Provident Association. A nominal fee of 50
cents will be required. In Tulsa the local physicians cooperating
with the school nurse partially fill this need.

Nowhere in the state, however, are there any infant welfare
stations of any kind, any prenatal work, obstetrical clinics, or
classes for mothers in infant care.

General Recommendations

In view of the inadequacy of the present health department
to deal with the situation, a complete reorganization of the state
and local systems of administration is recommended in accordance
with the following outline:—

1. A State Board of Health of five members, a continuing body,
to consist of the State Commissioner of Health, the President of the
State Medical Society, the President of the State Board of Agri-
culture, a member of the Faculty of the Oklahoma School of Medi-
cine, elected by that body to serve for four years, and one, not a
physician, to be appointed by the Governor for a term of four years,
these members to serve on this board without pay, but necessary
traveling expenses to be paid.

A. Division of Inspection—15 inspectors.

(1) Buildings—with regard to the ventilation and
sanitation of public buildings, stores, factories, motion
picture houses, hotels, etc.

(2) Institutions—the ventilation, sanitation, gar-
bage and sewage disposal, milk and water supply, etc., of
institutions and the medical inspection of inmates,
and the approval and disapproval of plans for public
buildings and institutions with regard to these matters.
Public Health Work 37

(3) Pure Food—including also drugs, milk and
water supply.

(4) Contagious Diseases—supervision of the work
of local health officers and control in cases of wide-
spread epidemics.

(5) General enforcement of sanitary conditions
in state.

B. Division of Vital Statistics (as provided in present law).
C. Division of Education, publicity and information.
2. The Commissioner of Health, appointed by the Governor,
should serve as executive secretary of the State Board of Health.
3. Local Organization.

County. The proposed county board of public welfare should have
general supervision and control of the health work of the county,
and should appoint on a full-time basis a regular practising physician
to serve as county superintendent of health and county physician,
care for all indigent patients, assist the State Department in the
inspection of milk, and organize educational work in addition to the
duties now prescribed by law.

Cities. The present organization of the board of health in cities
of 5,000 or over should be abolished, and the proposed city board
of public welfare should have general supervision and control of the
health conditions. This Board should appoint a regular practising
physician to serve as city superintendent of health and city physician,
who is wherever possible, to be employed on a full-time basis and to
exercise in the city the powers and duties which the county super-
intendent of health exercises in the county.

The organization of the proposed county and city boards of
public welfare is set forth in the chapter on Administration, pages
251, 252.
RECREATION

GERTRUDE H. Foixs

The recreational problem of the sparsely settled rural com-
munity and that of the small town and city are very different.
That of the former is, first, to utilize the physical advantages which
the country offers by organizing and directing activity, and, second,
to break down the complete isolation of rural life by organizing
social activities, to render more tolerable that amount of isolation
which is inevitable, and to counteract any tendency towards im-
morality among farm young people which may arise from their
lack of opportunity to form normal social relationships. The city,
on the other hand, must not only direct the physical activity of its
children and young people but must supply the opportunity for it,
and its social problem is not to create social contact but to direct
it through public and private agencies along wholesome and con-
structive lines and to supervise commercial forms of recreation.
The report will, therefore, deal separately with the various phases
of the work in the rural community and in the city.

The Rural Community

ABSENCE OF COMMERCIAL Forms oF RECREATION. Com-
mercial forms of recreation have not yet reached the country.
Moving pictures are impossible both because of the expense of
securing films and because of the absence of electricity in all but the
larger towns. In Muskogee County, excluding the city of Muskogee,
which may be taken as a typical county, there are only four towns
equipped with electricity. Of these three have motion picture
houses which are in operation at least occasionally but they are
open mostly at night and are, therefore, inaccessible to farm children.
In other words, only 20 per cent of the population of the county
outside of the city of Muskogee can have this form of recreation,
and only 16 per cent actually have it. The only form of commercial
recreation which reaches the country is the circus or carnival which
once or twice a year visits small towns and to which the farmers

38
Recreation 39

come in. These are as a rule of a cheap sort, patronized by a rough
crowd and unsuitable for children.

Lack oF SocrtaL INTERCOURSE. The average rural community
has little social life. In some sections of the state, especially the
cotton-growing belt, a large percentage of the population is migratory.
(See report on Agriculture, page 128.) Families move into a district,
live there a short time, the children perhaps attend no school, and
contact with others is negligible. A far more serious factor in this
social isolation is the poverty of the farmers and the consequent
lack of leisure time even for children. A third factor contributing
to the isolation of farm life is the absence of the usual social agencies.
Fortunately, there are no saloons to serve as a general meeting place,
but so far no acceptable substitute has been provided. There are
very few rural churches and those which do exist have few interests
beyond the Sunday morning service, and the schools, with few
exceptions, have hardly begun as yet to recognize the relation
existing between the physical and social needs of the child and his
“education.”

Tue Scuoors. Interviews with 22 county school superin-
tendents reveal a lack of adequate recreational work. The district
boards as a rule do not admit the need of such work and refuse to
vote money for playground equipment, that which the children
themselves provide is insufficient and often of a crude type, and there
is little effort to introduce supervised play.

Twenty-two counties were studied, Alfalfa, Atoka, Bryan,
Canadian, Cherokee, Cleveland, Comanche, Creek, Garfield, Grady,
Kingfisher, McClain, Muskogee, Oklahoma, Okmulgee, Pittsburg,
Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Rogers, Tulsa, Wagoner, and Washington.
Of these, one reported that there was not a piece of apparatus in
any school in the county, 14 reported that some of the schools,
ranging from two or three to half the schools of the county had some
equipment, often only two or three pieces; and seven reported that
practically every school had at least one piece. In only eight cases
had the district boards contributed anything for the purchase of
this apparatus, and of these three reported that the amount con-
tributed by the boards was almost negligible. In the remainder,
the apparatus was either made by the children or paid for with
money raised by box and pie suppers. Special mention should be
made of the work in Canadian, Creek, and Washington Counties.
40 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

In only two of the counties was any use made of the apparatus on
Saturdays and Sundays.

This report from the county superintendent is, if anything,
more than just to the situation. Ninety-six rural schools were
visited, located in ten counties. In only six of the schools were there
more than three pieces of apparatus. A great number had only a
basket-ball outfit, often crude and home-made, and perhaps a see-
saw for the younger children. In many, what apparatus there was,
was in poor condition. By far the best equipment seen was that at a
small school in Pittsburg, Pittsburg County, a town of 800. The
apparatus, attractively placed and in splendid condition, consisted
of eight see-saws, two basket-ball outfits, a tennis court and net,
eight swings, a giant stride, four sets of parallel bars and a vaulting
bar. This had been purchased by the school board.

A few counties are trying to encourage the installation of play-
ground apparatus through the score-card system. Of the 22 counties
visited, five kept score-cards, Canadian, Kingfisher, Muskogee,
Oklahoma, and Washington. In Oklahoma County two, and in
Canadian and in Kingfisher Counties five of the maximum 100
points are allowed for apparatus. In Muskogee County, the scoring
is on the basis of 10 for each of the 27 points. No mention is made
of playground equipment. In Washington County, out of a total
of 1,000 points, 100 are allowed for playground apparatus. Of the
38 schools reporting last year on this basis, 15 had rating of 0, 11 had
20 or under, 7 from 20 to 40 inclusive, 4 had 45, and 1 had 50.

More serious than the absence of playground equipment, is the
lack of organized play. Of the same 22 counties, 14 reported that
no organized play was conducted in any of the schools. Six reported
that there was a little of this work in a few of the schools where the
teacher had taken courses in recreational work at the summer normal
school. One reported that the teachers were required to play with
the children. This, however, amounted to little in practice. One
county reported that nearly one-half the schools had folk-dancing,
games, etc., and that an exhibit of this work had been given at the
county fair by two of the schools. The courses at the normals
referred to above, constitute about the only attempt being made to
interest the rural teacher in this work. Of the four Normals visited,
one gave no course in recreation, two reported summer courses,
and one reported a two-term course in which special attention is
Recreation Al

given to the needs of the rural community. This course is elective,
however, and no mention of it is made in the catalogue.

The most generally adopted recreational work is the “county
meet.” All the districts of the county, excluding usually the larger
independent districts, are free to send contestants. Interest runs
high and the affair is made a big occasion for the youngsters who
come to the city. Of the 22 counties visited, 17 were holding a meet
this year, and in seven a literary contest was held as well.

The social use of the school has been confined chiefly to the
box suppers and to the traditional Christmas party and closing
exercises, with perhaps an occasional Easter program. In no case has
this been developed to establish any permanent basis for community
work. The lack of any social relationship between the average school
and the home is even more marked than the isolation of the school
buildings.

Work oF THE County Farm Acents. (See reports on Agri-
culture, page 133, and Education, page 69.) Although the county
agents come directly into contact with the farm situation, their work
is chiefly agricultural, and except for creating some degree of leisure
time by introducing more efficient methods of farm work, anything
that they may do along recreational lines must of necessity be
incidental. The canning and poultry clubs which they organize,
the interest which they arouse in the county fair, and any other
measures which bring the children into contact with each other have,
of course, recreational value.

Work OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA. ‘The Extension
Department of the University of Oklahoma through its visual
instruction course and its traveling libraries, has also begun to touch
the rural community. The professed purpose of visual instruction
is to stimulate community feeling. A series of lectures with slides,
chiefly travel and description, are sent out to a community for use
in about ten nearby districts. It was estimated that last year 544
communities were reached, with a total attendance at lectures of
over 360,000 persons. A large percentage of this work was done in
the cities, however, not in the rural communities.

In addition to the lecture work, 35 rural libraries were dis-
tributed last year, chiefly among the schools. The University is
planning to extend this work along such lines as community singing
and educational motion picture circuits.
Missing Page
Missing Page
44 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Physical Safety of Buildings. There is no state regulation
whatever with regard to fire protection, and on the whole the cities
have not met the situation. Of the 23 visited, 5 required no license
fee, 11 required $50 a year or less, 4 required over $50, and in 3 the
information was not secured. In 3 some of the houses had not paid
for the required license, and in no case is the license dependent upon
conformity with the city ordinances.

In nine cities varying from 3,000 to 12,000 in population there
are no building-code provisions except the creation of a fire restric-
tion area. In two, the city clerk could not find a copy of the ordinance
relating to motion pictures. And in one there is merely a provision
requiring that before a theatre is opened application be made to the
mayor and city council setting forth the kind of building and show
—an ordinance passed, it was stated, to protect the existing house
and prevent others from opening. Twelve cities have ordinances,
some of them very detailed and comprehensive, covering all of the
essential points, and others very incomplete. The general inadequacy
of the ordinances in these 12 cities can be seen from the following table:

 

 

 

Number | Number
ORDINANCE REQUIREMENTS of cities not
having having
Requirement of approval of building inspector or fire
chief before use of building......................0. 7 5
Regulation of construction of booth.................. 9 3
“ * number of aislesss cca negates tee ery 4 8
ff BS WIiGthuGk aisles ayncas 2 ask dt's soee-eeacs pes 7 5
*S ‘* distance of seats from aisles............ 5 7
a A> SHGTNEE OF ERE i «oats dai gg arora eo bsseaed and 6 6
i SSA OCD MOL ORES #2. a sacnlarle aascbiei GLA Aueselousagion 6 6
“Marking: OF GxitSs.0.2 alates aed tea ease 10 2
Requirement of control of exit and passage lights from
BOX OMICE i, css ssaie's gorse aera aut eae ine Hob Seine Manna tes 5 7
Regulation of heating apparatus..................... 4 8
Requirement of chemical fire extinguishers or their
CQUIVE EN tis cies ice. Bal A pee ei) ate a ea 4 8
Prohibition of standing in aisles.................... 5 7.
i . “ anywhere in theatre......... 2 10
Requirement that seats be fastened to the floor........ 6 6
“ of city license for operator.............. 4 8

 

 

 

 

 
Recreation 45

This does not mean that in those cities without specific regula-
tion, the point in question was violated, nor, on the other hand, does
it mean that in those cities with ordinances, the requirements were
observed. In cities having ordinances, violations were frequently
found—including the locking of exit doors, the opening of the theatres
into another building, failure to mark exits, the blocking of exits
by advertising posters, baby carriages or other obstructions, standing
in the aisles, and the absence of chemical extinguishers.

In some of the cities having no ordinances the buildings were
veritable fire-traps. In one city, the theatre situated on the second
floor of the building is reached by a wooden staircase and has no
other exit. The rest of the building is occupied by stores, living-
rooms, etc. In another, the seats in two of the three theatres were
not fastened to the floor. In another the theatre, though situated
in the business section of the city, was a wooden building, so roughly
constructed that daylight could be seen between the boards. There
were two narrow entrances and no other exits, and one entrance
was blocked by a baby carriage.

Of the 22 cities from which information was secured, not one
had a regular system of inspection. This was to be expected in the
ten cities having no ordinances. Of the 12 others, however, one
did not require inspection, one required it twice daily (no one knew
of this provision), and the remainder every 30 days. In no city,
however, is the inspection systematic or adequate. The usual
reply of the fire chief when questioned was, “We have no regular
inspection. The boys drop in at the show occasionally when they
have a half-holiday and if they see anything wrong, they speak
about it.” Absolutely no records of such visits are kept. In Okla-
homa City, the system of inspection would be effective if it were
carried out. Inspection is made by the fire warden and his deputies
and records are supposed to be kept on a specified form-card covering
all points included in the ordinance, complaints, return inspections,
etc. The examination of these records, however, showed that none
had been kept for either of the colored shows or for the most recent
of the white theatres. Except for a visit to one theatre in February,
1916, to another in December, 1915 and to another in August, 1915,
there were no entries since June, 1915. The fire warden’s explana-
tion of this was that only those visits are recorded where a change
is ordered and a second visit required to follow it up, If conditions
46 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

are satisfactory or the change made while the inspector waits, no
record is kept. ‘‘The movies are all right now that they have once
been cleaned up.” However, when inspections were made fairly
frequently in 1914-1915, violations were found in certain theatres
on every visit, and there is no reason to suppose that the managers
have suddenly adopted a new policy.

Health also is endangered by the motion picture houses. Al-
though the State Commissioner of Health states that the control
of hygienic conditions of theatres is included in the power of the
county and city superintendents of health “to abate any nuisance
calculated to injure or endanger the health, safety, comfort or repose
of the public,” this authority has seldom been used. Only two of
the 23 cities have any ordinance regarding ventilation. Although
several houses have installed electric fans and other apparatus
without such an ordinance, most of them have not done so and the
air in these houses is close, foul, and probably germ-laden. Except
in Tulsa, little effort is made to prevent the spread of contagious
disease through the motion picture house—a serious omission in
view of the wide-spread epidemics of measles, scarlet fever, etc., in
Oklahoma. With two exceptions all of the theatres visited were well
lighted.

Nature of Performance. Any classification of the merits of
the motion picture houses on the basis of the films seen is impossible,
because the individual house cannot be judged by one day’s pro-
gram. If the films are bad on the days visited, the possibility of the
presentation of objectionable films is proved. On the other hand,
if the films are good, a uniformly high standard cannot be inferred.
Visits to a large number of houses do, however, form a basis for
judging the general situation in the state.

The exhibitions of the average picture house in Oklahoma must
be characterized as common. A few houses present regularly a high
type of picture, but even these occasionally spoil a good programme
by one poor film. On the other hand, several films were seen which
contained features decidedly bad for children—such as street-
walking scenes, violent attacks on women, vivid murder scenes,
and plots in which crime appears attractive. The large majority,
however, present, with perhaps the exception of one or two special
features a week, a cheap type of film which, though not immoral,
is vulgar and low—objectionable in general tone rather than in any
Recreation 47

Specific incidents portrayed. To the adult such films serve simply
as a temporary diversion, but on children and young people the
effect of constant vulgarity is disastrous. An occasional view of the
condemned sex-problem play does far less to create in the child a
sordid view of life and an attitude of irresponsibility than does the
witnessing three or four times a week of vulgar farces, melodramatic
love scenes, and criminal exploits.

Of the 65 theatres investigated, 34 present vaudeville also.
Of these, 18 include it at every performance, seven about half the
time, and nine only occasionally. The type of vaudeville shown is
similar to that of the films. Three performances of an unusually
high standard were seen. At the other extreme were several which
contained low jokes, objectionable dancing, and vulgar burlesque.
But here again the majority are of a cheap and tawdry kind con-
sisting of typical chorus girl dancing and singing, burlesque, jokes,
etc. No one, outside of movie managers, was found to stand up for
the vaudeville, nor to countenance the attendance of children.
Nevertheless the combined show is as popular as the ‘‘movie only,”
and many children do attend.

The public recognizes the problem created by the motion picture
house but is at a loss to know how to deal with it. Efforts have been
made to meet the situation along three general lines—first, local
censorship; second, special children’s programmes; and third, the
presentation of motion pictures by non-commercial agencies.

Local Censorship. In four cities, Oklahoma City, Sapulpa,
Enid and Guthrie, there is provision for censorship, but in no case
is it effective. In three of the cities it has practically never been
used, and in the fourth, it is directed only against films that deal
frankly with sex questions. Vulgar and suggestive pictures and
vaudeville exhibitions are not questioned.

The attitude of the managers was, of course, decidedly hostile
to censorship. Of 48 interviewed, three stated that they favored it—
of these two were in cities having censorship committees which
had never used their power. Two were not intelligent enough to
have any opinion regarding it, and the remaining 38 opposed it.
The usual arguments were advanced—that the public was the best
censor, and demanded a clean type of show; that censorship was
ruining the film business; that censorship boards were composed
of old women and politicians—and that the Kansas Board proved
48 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

this. Invariably the managers presenting the worst films would
base their opposition on the ground that, “It isn’t needed, for I
put on only the best and cleanest of plays such as anyone would be
glad to see.” Their attitude toward any restriction on the attend-
ance of children was similar.

Special Children’s Programs. Of the theatres visited 14 in 12
cities reported some attempt at special programs for children. Of
these, six reported that they were financially a failure; five of the
others have had them only occasionally; and the remaining three
have had them for only three or four weeks. Several managers
reported that they were anxious to establish such programs but
that it was difficult and expensive to secure suitable films. In two of
the houses where the special program proved popular, Charlie Chaplin
was the drawing card, and in one, the lower grades of school had
been excused to attend a special performance of a serial ‘“The Great
Secret,” a film of no special educational value, and with little appeal
to children except for the highly melodramatic situations it presents.

Moving Pictures by Non-commercial Agencies. Few attempts have
been made to provide moving pictures through non-commercial
agencies. Last year in one city, Dewey, the school occasionally gave
entertainments for the school children. Though successful, the
plan was dropped this year, because of overcrowded conditions, to
the disappointment of the children’s parents. A new building is
under construction, however, and the school superintendent is
planning to start this work again. Two other schools had motion
picture booths, but no machines, and in several other cities including
Oklahoma City and Muskogee, the school superintendents recog-
nized the legitimacy of motion picture entertainments as a function
of the school, but stated that the expense of such an undertaking
was too great. In Tulsa the Y. M. C. A. occasionally has a motion
picture evening for the boys, and in Oklahoma City the Community
House gives a film about once a week. When compared with the
extent of the motion picture house business, however, this work
reaches too few to have influenced the general situation.

Recommendations. 1. Physical safety of the buildings.

a. Certain measures for all theatres such as the approval of the
building by the building inspector before use, prohibition of standing
in theatres, the fastening of seats to the floor, marking of exits, and
regular inspection.
Recreation 49

b. Detailed provisions varying for cities of various sizes regu-
lating the construction of the building, the size and construction
of the booth, the number and width of aisles and exits, the light-
ing and heating arrangements, the installation of adequate fire
extinguishers, and other points now specified by the insurance
companies.

c. Absolute enforcement of these provisions by the local fire
authorities, and supervision by the State Fire Marshal.

2. Nature of the performance.

The chief difficulty in controlling the type of film presented
arises from the fact that although what is not harmful to adults
may be undesirable for children, they both attend the same per-
formance. The most obvious remedy, censorship, is both unwise
and ineffective, whether local or state. Local censorship is unfair
to the theatre owners—in many towns the films do not arrive until
late afternoon for presentation that evening and, if they are rejected
entirely, no substitute is at hand. It is unfair to the public, for
each individual censor has his own standard, and the type of film
presented in a city will be determined by the standards and the
prejudices of that individual. The most serious drawback is that
films barred from the larger cities by the censorship board will be
forced upon the smaller communities which have no censorship.
State censorship also is undesirable. It is difficult to secure a repre-
sentative board which will agree on what should or should not be
presented. The tendency is to leave the decision in any specific
case to one or two members of that board and the system is again
open to criticism that the individual determines the standard for
the community—in this case, the entire state. If the board is
volunteer, it will soon lose interest, and fail to give careful con-
sideration to the pictures. If, on the other hand, it is paid, it is
more than probable that it will become partisan. State censorship
may easily become an abridgment of freedom of speech.

The state should, however, pass a law, prohibiting the pre-
sentation of pictures containing anything obscene, degrading or
tending to incite criminal acts, and the mayor and the police de-
partment in each city should be charged with the enforcement of
this ordinance.

For a real remedy, however, one must resort to public opinion.
Through publicity in the newspapers, through the school, the church,
50 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

the women’s clubs, and other groups of socially-minded people,
an organized protest must be made and an educational campaign
for a better type of film conducted.

If interest is evidenced in enough cities and the managers are
assured of an attendance sufficiently large to warrant the extra
cost, circuits of films especially selected for family groups or for
children can be sent out at comparatively little expense. The
National Board of Review has prepared a catalog of such films put
out by all the different companies, and each month publishes a
list of those which have appeared during the month. The Edison
Company has recently arranged a series of films to be released weekly
in “locked” groups, each program containing a variety of subject
matter and type of film so as to appeal to the entire family. The
“locked group’ means that these films will always be exhibited
together, thus preventing the introduction of one poor film in an
otherwise good program. In those cities which did not join the
circuit, volunteer committees could be established to visit the different
houses and advertise those films which were desirable for children.
The establishment of such ‘family groups’ programs should be
followed by a state ordinance prohibiting the attendance of children
under 16 at night at other than these special shows, unless accom-
panied by parent or guardian.

It would also be desirable to make it the duty of some city
official—licensed inspector or member of the police department—
to cooperate with the National Board of Review by making certain
before the presentation of any film passed by that Board, that all
changes which had been ordered in the film had been made. This
would not only assist the National Board of Review in its effort
to secttre good films throughout the country, but would sometimes
eliminate the most undesirable features of the pictures shown. The
worst film seen in the entire state was one put out by one of the
best companies but which contained a scene that had been ordered
cut by the National Board.

Two other measures are worthy of consideration though their
constitutionality is doubtful, (1) the enactment of a state law pro-
viding that only pictures passed by the National Board of Review
may be presented in Oklahoma, and (2) the licensing of certain
theatres only as children’s theatres, all young people under 16 being
prohibited from attending the others.
Recreation 51

With regard to vaudeville exhibitions, even less can be done,
especially in a community which offers so few recreational oppor-
tunities as the average Oklahoma city. Vaudeville responds to a
demand for a kind of entertainment which the moving picture house
does not give. As long as the performance is not sufficiently bad
to warrant any action by the police authorities, little control can
be exercised, other than the prohibition of the attendance of children
under 16 at night unaccompanied by parent or guardian. Aside
from this, public opinion must again be relied upon. It is true,
nevertheless, that certain houses will persist in giving a low class of
vaudeville and there will be a certain type in the community who
prefer this and who will permit their children to attend it with
them. This evil cannot be eliminated.

No substitute for the commercial motion picture house can be
effective. The expense, the danger of a private agency over-
emphasizing the educational film, the comparatively small group
which would be reached, and above all, the firm establishment of
the motion picture house at present would render futile such effort.
The chief substitute for the motion picture house is to be found in
an opposite type of recreation—outdoor play. When facilities for
this are more fully developed the child may have less craving for
the picture as his daily form of amusement.

Dance Halls

Cities Under 35,000. Nineteen cities with a population varying
from 3,000 to 35,000 were visited. In 15 there were no public dance
halls; in one a public dance is held at least once a week; in one,
three times a week; in two, the mayor reported that “he thought
there were no dance halls’ but investigation proved that they did
exist. In three of the four cities having dance halls, no license was
required. The information was not obtained from the fourth. One
city, where no dance halls exist, has an annual license fee of $100,
passed as a precautionary measure to keep them out. Failure to
require a license is a serious defect, for without it the city officials
have no check on the situation.

Cities over 35,000. Muskogee. A license fee of $5 a month is
required. There is a city ordinance prohibiting the use of liquor,
the admittance of disreputable characters, and the performance
52 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

of vulgar dancing. There is no restriction on the attendance of
children. The halls close at 12 o’clock and the managers have re-
quested that a policeman be stationed in each hall. There are two
dance halls in the town. Both have an excellent reputation and
are considered the best in the state.

Tulsa. The situation here is difficult to determine, for, when
visited, the dance halls were still under the influence of an investi-
gation made by the police department last year. The hall with the
worst reputation in the city was visited twice, and even here nothing
objectionable was seen. Whether this change will be permanent is
still a matter of conjecture. It will require a more systematic policy
of investigation and a more rigid enforcement of the law than now
exists. On January Ist a law went into effect requiring the payment
of a license fee of $100 a year for halls having four entertainments
a month or less, and $250 a year for those having more than four
entertainments a month. In April, however, the license fee had not
been collected from any of the five halls in the city. An official
of the police department stated that they were all running on the
‘Gnvitation” system, thus evading the license fee requirement. An
ordinance was also passed at this time prohibiting the attendance
of minors, but with the exception of one official in the police de-
partment no one knew of the existence of this ordinance.

Oklahoma City. The ordinances provide for a license fee of
$50 a year, establish 11:30 p. m. as a closing hour, forbid Sunday
dances, and prohibit the attendance of children under 18 unless
accompanied by parent or guardian. The prohibition of Sunday
dances, however, is the only regulation which is generally observed.
Of the six dance halls in the city only three have paid for the license,
and two at least, admit children.

At the time of the investigation, the city was in the midst of
an anti-dance hall campaign, the complaints being that liquor was
sold, disreputable people admitted, vulgar dancing allowed, and
children permitted to attend. How far these charges are true, it is
impossible to determine. It is a fact that young children do attend,
and there is doubtless some degree of truth in the other complaints.
But does not this point to the inadequacy of the system of inspection
tather than to any inherent evil in dance halls? It is unfair to the
young people in the city to close the halls entirely, when no plan
of systematic inspection has ever been tried.
Recreation 53

Recommendations. In spite of popular protest, conditions
found in the dance halls cannot be characterized as bad. There is a
strong group in Oklahoma opposed to dancing in any form and to
the public dance hall in particular. When anything of a question-
able nature occurs, conditions are likely to be exaggerated and a
campaign to close the dance halls started. The fact that in some
instances this has succeeded, is a deterrent force with the others
and tends to prevent any flagrant abuses. This does not mean that
a uniformly high standard is always maintained, nor does it minimize
the need of regulative legislation, but the problem should not be
solved by prohibition. It is the duty of the community to recognize
the legitimacy and the value of this form of recreation, and to provide
opportunities for it; if it fails to do so, many young people will find
the opportunity through less desirable agencies.

Although, with the exception of the larger cities, the dance
halls are not yet an important factor in the recreational facilities
of the state, it must be recognized that their spread is inevitable,
and the problem which they create must be faced. Action taken
at the present time will determine whether their development is
to be along good or evil lines. A municipal dance hall open at least
twice a week, should be established in every city or town of over
2,000. Until this is done, however, every precaution must be taken
to secure high standards in the commercial halls. The character
of the proprietor should be ascertained, a reasonable license required,
based on the number of dances held a week, people of disreputable
character should be excluded, 12 o’clock should be established as a
closing hour and children under 16 should be prohibited from
attending. Above all there should be an adequate system of in-
spection and enforcement of these laws with revocation of the license
as a penalty for violation. All dances for which admission is charged
either through the purchase of tickets or an “invitation” system
should be subject to inspection. The system in each city must be
determined by the agencies existing in that city. In some cases it
could be made the duty of a paid officer already existing, such as a
recreational director, school superintendent, high school principal,
probation officer or truant officer. Other communities might prefer
to create a large volunteer committee appointed by the mayor, each
member of which would give two nights a month to the work, thus
providing a chaperon for every dance held. The difficulty of this
54 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

plan would be to secure enough people of sufficient judgment to
supervise dance halls who would consent to give the necessary time
to it. Either plan, however, is preferable to that now in force where-
ever there is supervision—of having the police in charge. The
presence of a uniformed officer suggests an atmosphere of wrong-
doing which it is most undesirable to create.

Miscellaneous

1. In three cities, Oklahoma City, Muskogee, and McAlester,
there are large theatre buildings, at which a good type of play is
given. In Tulsa, there is a fair-sized theatre which employs a stock
company and also gives vaudeville and special traveling shows.
A bad feature of this house is the weekly amateur night, in which
both adults and children participate. When visited, one 14-year-
old girl sang and a younger one sang and danced. This child stated
that she was 11, that she liked the work though, “I was a little
scared,” and that she had never done it before. Her theatrical
manner, however, indicated that she was perfectly at home on the
stage. Outside of the theatre was a large poster offering a dollar
to any man, woman or child who would “sing, recite, dance or in
any way entertain the audience for three minutes.” This theatre
also makes a special appeal to children once a week by giving
out candy, dolls, teddy bears, etc. Amateur nights should be
abolished.

2. Pool-rooms and bowling alleys constitute one of the most
common forms of recreation for adults. No children under 16 were
seen here, however, except two workers.

3. In only one city was there a roller skating rink; this had
been closed for several months.

4. In one city there was an indoor swimming pool, operated
in connection with mineral baths. It is now patronized by very few
people, however, having been practically condemned by the Board
of Health.

5. There are a few private amusement parks in the state, open
only in summer. These contain the usual attractions—dancing
pavilions, merry-go-rounds, swings, picnic grounds, occasionally
water for swimming and boating, candy and cold drink stands, etc.

6. Traveling circuses, carnivals, etc., visit the cities several
times a year. These are usually of a cheap sort and patronized
Recreation 55

by a rough crowd. At one carnival held this year in Tulsa, several
of the shows were closed on the ground that they constituted a
violation of the gambling ordinances of the city.

Non-CoMMERCIAL AGENCIES
School Recreation

Cities under 35,000—based on visits to 21 cities.

A. Physical. The city schools have done little more than the
rural schools along recreational lines. Only three of the cities visited,
Okmulgee, Claremore, and Tahlequah, had playground equipment
which can be classified as good. In one funds were on hand to pur-
chase apparatus on the completion of a new building. In three,
the equipment might be classified as fair; and in the remaining 11,
it was decidedly poor in respect to both amount and condition.
In the schools with good equipment, the money had been furnished
by the school board.

On the whole, there is very little supervised play in the grade
schools. In one city, Okmulgee, such work is done under a paid
city director; in four others, a regular program is carried out in
each grade under the direction of the teachers; in four, a little work
is done by a few individual teachers who have had courses at a
normal school; and in the remaining 12, no work of this kind is
. done. No ward school buildings are provided with gymnasiums.

In the high schools the work is fairly well developed as far as
the boys are concerned, probably because their activity is chiefly
along the line of athletics, and they are old enough and interested
enough to organize the work themselves. Less than half of the
buildings have gymnasiums, however, and all of these are not
equipped. For girls, the opportunity for athletic work is slight.
In one city, Okmulgee, calisthenic work is required throughout the
entire four years; in about six, basket-ball, volley-ball or tennis
teams are organized; but on the whole this work has received little
attention.

Most of the city schools participate either in the county
meet (see page 41) or else in a separate meet for independent
districts.

B. Educational and Social. There is more social life in the
city schools than in the rural schools, but at the same time this work
56 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

has not been developed to the extent that it should be. Several
of the grade schools reported annual May-day festivals, school plays
and entertainments of various sorts. The high schools oftentimes
have debating, musical and dramatic clubs. There are individual
instances of schools which are doing special work of one kind or
another. In Dewey, for instance, the school owns a motion picture
machine. In another city, a lyceum lecture course is held in the
high school. In another, community singing has been started. One
of the most promising lines of work is that to be tried in Claremore
this summer. A director is to be employed to supervise manual
training, school gardens, and recreational work. All the apparatus
in the city is to be moved to the most central school, and at certain
hours each day, the director will be there to supervise the play,
organize games, etc.

Recommendations.

Physical. As far as the grade schools are concerned, the
recommendations are similar to those suggested for the rural schools
—the inclusion of organized play in the course of study, special
training in this work for teachers, the purchase of apparatus, the
neighborhood use of the school playground, and, whenever possible,
the employment of a full or part-time recreational director to super-
vise the school work and organize community activities.

Those high schools which have gymnasiums should equip
them, and as many others as possible should build them. The
plan adopted by Okmulgee is an excellent one—a separate building
is used as a gymnasium and manual training shop. Physical training
of some sort should be required for both boys and girls during the
entire four-year course. Competitive athletics should be organized
among the girls and inter-school contests encouraged. The recrea-
tional director should, of course, supervise the work of the high
school as well as that of the grade schools.

Educational and Social. In the city, the school must compete
with private and commercial agencies in providing recreation and
its function is not only to bring the people of the neighborhood
together on a social basis, but also to provide a substitute for the
less desirable forms of recreation that the city offers. To do this,
occasional plays and entertainments are not sufficient. The school
buildings should be open to the public at least three nights a week,
Recreation 57

with programs of sufficient interest and variety to attract the public
—concerts, lectures, occasional plays, political gatherings, club
meetings, and when the building is of such a type as to make it
possible, motion pictures, and dances.

Cities over 35,000.

Oklahoma City. Playground work is just being organized in
the Oklahoma City schools. Last year the city voted $15,000 for
recreational work. The services of an experienced recreational
director have been secured and plans for the installation of apparatus
and supervision of play are being worked out. In eight schools,
three sets of apparatus are to be installed—one for children, one
for older girls, and one for older boys. In the rest, one combination
set is to be installed, including pieces suitable for all ages. The
eight playgrounds, with three sets of apparatus are to be used for
summer work. The public library is planning to keep branch
libraries open in each of these buildings, and it is hoped that
this will furnish the nucleus for organized community centre
work. A director will be employed to supervise the work of each
school.

Teachers’ classes for training in apparatus work, exercises, and
folk dancing are held and each school is required to give ten minutes
for graded exercises and ten minutes for recess in the forenoon, and
in the afternoon fifteen minutes for recess. In addition, two boys’
and two girls’ clubs are being organized in each school, to play
against each other in the various games and to stimulate interest
in the work. In many of the grade schools, as well as in the high
schools, musical, dramatic, and debating work is done.

Muskogee. Muskogee has a well-developed system of recrea-
tional work, employing three teachers in the physical culture de-
partment. Physical training is required for 10 minutes each day, and
two 15-minute recess periods are given for outdoor recreation. The
supervisor visits each school every two weeks, inspecting the work
of each class room and outlining the work for the next period. A
regular grade course is followed; folk-dances and games are given
for the younger children; contests in physical culture work are held
between the different classrooms for each school; and calisthenics
is included for the older ones. Folk-dancing is given a place in the
program of the school entertainments and all the schools combine
58 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

in a special May-day program. Both the boys and the girls compete
in inter-school and inter-class games.

The high school building contains a modern and well-equipped
gymnasium and physical training work is compulsory through the
junior high school and the first year of the senior high school (the
6-3-3 plan). Many of the girls voluntarily continue this work through
the remaining two years of the high school course.

The chief defect of the recreation work is the lack of adequate
playground apparatus. Two years ago the Park Board established
a municipal playground and installed playground equipment. Be-
cause of the absence of a supervisor the plan was a failure and in
the fall of 1916, the apparatus was given to the schools. It is, how-
ever, insufficient to meet their needs and in poor condition.

The social activity of the Muskogee schools is also being con-
ducted along constructive lines. In addition to the annual May-
day festivities, each school has a picnic in one of the city parks for
the children and the parents. The superintendent has four stere-
opticons for the use of the schools; community music has been
started; several of the schools have orchestras, glee clubs, and de-
bating societies; and children’s meetings in connection with the
teacher-patron’s meetings have been organized.

Tulsa. Like Muskogee, Tulsa has practically no playground
apparatus, except volley-ball nets and basket-ball frames. The park
equipment, however, is occasionally used by the schools. On the
other hand, the city has an admirable system of organized play
under the direction of two recreational directors. In the lower
grades, ten to twenty minutes a day are given to folk-dancés, ex-
ercises and games. The older children of these grades also play
volley-ball and smash-ball. For the boys and girls of the upper
grades, calisthenics is given three times a week. During recess the
older girls are taught folk-dancing, and the boys practise baseball,
basket-ball, etc.

The work of the high school will be reorganized next year with
the completion of the new building. In addition to an indoor
gymnasium and swimming-pool, there is to be a playground with
baseball, basket-ball and some gymnasium equipment on the roof.
Physical training will be compulsory for the first two years of the
high school course. Four tennis courts in the city parks are reserved
for high school children, from 3 to 6 every day except Sunday.
Recreation 59

Recommendations. Aside from the installation of playground
apparatus in Muskogee and Tulsa, the chief need of the schools in
these cities is a further development of the social centre idea. By
introducing new features, such as school dances, motion pictures
and community singing, by further utilizing the school building for
outside interests, and by working in cooperation with other agencies
such as the women’s clubs and especially the Park Commission
(which is also installing playground apparatus in Tulsa and Okla-
homa City) the foundation for effective recreational work will have
been laid.

Parks
Cities under 35,000

Several of the smaller as well as the larger cities of the state
have public parks, but many of them are undeveloped and not
centrally located, and few have any special attractions for children.
Even though there are no congested sections in the smaller cities,
the parks should, in cooperation with the schools, supply facilities
for outdoor play, such as sand-piles, wading-pools, and the simpler
kinds of apparatus. In only two cities under 35,000, however, was
such equipment found.

Cities over 35,000

Muskogee has two large parks and several small ones with a
total acreage of 79. There is no playground equipment in the parks
—they are used chiefly for picnics, walks, etc.

Tulsa has six parks with a total acreage of 145. Three of these
are equipped with tennis courts and regular play apparatus such
as swings and see-saws. The children in school buildings located
near the parks are sometimes allowed to play there during the
school day.

Oklahoma City has about ten parks with a total acreage of over
1,700. One of these parks, located less than a mile from the heart
of the city, is used as a recreation centre in the summer. In it are
a zoo, greenhouse, wading-pool, sand-pile, swings, see-saws and a
small merry-go-round. Two other parks are to have apparatus
installed this summer, and if funds can be secured, three more will
be equipped next year. This apparatus, designed more for the
amusement of the younger children than for athletic purposes,
60 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

will consist chiefly of ‘ocean waves” and swings. Although some
of these parks are situated near school buildings where apparatus
is also being installed, there has been no cooperation between the
two departments. Two of the parks have been leased to private
amusement companies, one of them being the colored park of the city.

Libraries

The libraries in five cities were visited, Oklahoma City,
Muskogee, Tulsa, Enid and McAlester. The work for children
is of the usual kind, the distribution of juvenile books, a children’s
reading-room, branch school libraries, a story-telling hour, and
occasional contest of one kind or another.

Settlements, etc.

Practically the only work of this sort that exists in the state is
that of the Community House in Oklahoma City, run in connection
with the Pilgrim Congregational Church. The building is small,
but modern in its equipment. It was opened only this spring and
the work is still in a formative stage. In addition to the Sunday
School work, about which the other activities center, motion pictures
are given once a week, plays are presented occasionally, an orchestra
has been started and three gymnasium classes have been organized,
one for adults, one for children, and one for factory girls. A domestic
science class has also been established for the older girls and women.
The influence which such an institution might come to have on the
young people of the community will necessarily be limited, however,
by its dependence upon the church. It is, for instance, due largely
to the opposition of the church members that no provision has been
made for dancing.

Y.M.C. A. and Y.W.C. A.

Although these organizations do some recreational work, it is
of little importance because of the comparatively small number of
people whom they reach. In Tulsa, where the organizations are
the strongest in the state, the only recreational work of the Y. W.C. A.
is field hockey for school girls, working girls, and married women.
The Y.M.C.A., however, has a splendid equipment and has
organized various types of activity, such as swimming classes,
hikes, games, motion picture evenings, a newsboys’ club, a boys’
farm, a summer camp, etc.
Recreation 61

Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls

The organization of Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls has like-
wise brought to many children new forms of social activity and a
new type of pleasure. But their appeal also is limited. The success
of these groups with the few children whom they reach demonstrates
the necessity for the city’s furnishing similar opportunities for all
of its children.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS.

The recommendations suggested under the various subjects
dealt with in this report have been offered with a view to the
immediate needs of that specific activity. The one step, however,
which would do more than any other to improve the whole recrea-
tional situation of the state, would be the establishment of recreational
associations.

A voluntary association should be organized in each city with
a population of over 5,000, consisting of the school recreational
director, the park superintendent, the librarian of the Public Library,
possibly the superintendent of health, and ten to fifteen repre-
sentative citizens, appointed by the mayor, familiar with the social
conditions of the community and interested in recreational work.
It would be the function of this association to keep in touch with
all the recreational work in the city, to secure cooperation between
the school board and the park commission, to recommend an
equitable distribution of the funds appropriated for this work be-
tween the two agencies, to develop social centres, to encourage new
lines of activity, and also to inspect motion picture houses, dance
halls and other commercial forms of recreation. Such an organiza-
tion would not only increase the effectiveness of the work by co-
ordinating all of the agencies engaged in it, but it would be a tangible
expression of the fundamental place which recreation occupies in
the life of the people. Similar associations for each county would
be desirable, though less feasible.
EDUCATION

ELIZABETH HowWE BLIss

RURAL SCHOOLS

For this investigation, rural schools in the following counties
were visited: Bryan, Pottawatomie, Garfield, Cherokee, Creek,
Washington, Alfalfa, Muskogee, Comanche, Stephens, and Jackson.
As these counties are situated in different parts of the state and
represent different economic conditions, it is believed that they give
a fair representation of the general situation in Oklahoma.

Rural Schoolhouses

The old-fashioned one-room schoolhouse is the usual type found
in the rural districts. This is generally a frame building in varying
states of repair. The objectionable cross-lighting is found in almost
every case. It has no cloakrooms, so coats and hats are hung on
the walls or laid on desks in the back of the room. Invariably
the stove is placed in the center of the room, making proper heating
impossible. It is not at all unusual to find children whose desks
happen to be near the stove actually suffering from the heat while
others in the farther corners of the room are too cold.

Occasionally one finds good conditions in one of these poorly
planned and badly constructed buildings. This is almost entirely
due to an efficient, interested teacher. In these few isolated cases
the schools will be found clean and in fair repair but even then the
conditions are far from ideal. How bad a school can become is
illustrated by one instance in Pottawatomie County:

This school is situated on a bare plot of land, no effort having been
made to beautify the grounds either by the planting of trees or the
cultivation of gardens. The schoolhouse itself was once white but
the paint is worn off in many places. Four of the windows are broken
and the panes stuffed with newspapers and rags. The shades at the
windows are torn and flapping. Although it was a warm day when
the investigator visited this school, a big fire was burning in the stove

and the children were restless from the heat and bad air. Clothing
was hung on hooks along the back of the room and piled on three desks

62
Education 63

at one side. Other desks were covered with dinner-pails. The whole
place was indescribably dirty, walls and desks defaced, and an accu-
mulation of at least a week's papers, dirt, and remnants from dinner-
pails were on the floor. In this building children attend school for a
5-month term. It is small wonder that there is great irregularity
of attendance and that the work done is of little value.

The old type two-room schoolhouse is in some respects superior
to the one-room school. In the first place one room is generally
correctly lighted and as a rule the school is not so crowded. The
unfortunate part of it is that an old building renovated and made to
meet the need, is usually not worth the money spent upon it and
its use postpones the erection of a modern building.

There are very few model schoolhouses in the state although
interest in the movement to provide them is increasing. The model
one- or two-room schoolhouse guarantees improved conditions for
pupils and teachers. Each classroom accommodates between 30
and 40 children, light coming from the left side only, although high
windows at the back are permissible. There is sufficient black-
board space on the right side of the room. Provision is made for a
separate cloakroom for boys and girls, a supply closet for the teacher,
and wherever possible, a room that can be converted into a work-
room when vocational education is established. A few such school-
houses, somewhat modified in form, have been erected.

In District 45, Alfalfa County, there is a one-room schoolhouse, light
coming from the left and back of room, stove in one corner of the room,
and with separate cloakrooms. The building has a cement basement
which provides room for domestic science and later can be converted
into a manual training shop.

In Creek County there is a model two-room schoolhouse on a large
plot of ground where trees have been planted and gardens cultivated
by the children. Around this plot is a neat wire fence. Each room
has its own cloakroom and supply and library closet. Both have correct
lighting and are heated by properly jacketed stoves placed in the
corners.

School Equipment

In almost all of the schoolhouses there is very meagre equipment.
The great majority still have old-fashioned non-adjustable desks
with seats accommodating two children. Among 47 only 9 were
found with adjustable seats. Little children are not able to
64 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

reach the floor with their feet, and are cramped and uncomfortable
during the entire day. In almost every case there is too little
blackboard space and no effort has been made to accommodate
children of different heights. Many of the blackboards are in
bad repair, making it often difficult to read the writing upon them.
The few pictures on the walls are usually not framed and are poorly
selected. Unframed religious mottoes are a very common decoration.
Only occasionally is a library seen and the books are commonly in
bad condition. It would be well if greater use of the traveling libraries
‘of Oklahoma University were made, but few teachers know that
this service is available. Most of the schools have maps, agricul-
tural charts, etc., which are often ragged and in disuse. About one-
fifth of the schools have organs, a few have pianos, and occasionally
a phonograph is found. The playgrounds as a general rule are in-
sufficiently equipped. (See report on Recreation, page 39.)

Consolidation of Schools

Two movements have been instituted to improve the schools
throughout the state and to do away with defects inherent in the
local school. One of these is the establishment of union graded
schools. These are formed by uniting not less than two whole
districts and establishing one school to provide instruction for all
pupils above the sixth grade, including all grades of regular high
school work. Parts of districts cannot enter. The younger children
are provided for by the local districts. Transportation is free by
special vote to all pupils living two miles or more from the union
graded school. Unfortunately, owing to the difficulty of arousing
district boards to the advantage of this system, there are at this
writing only seven of these schools in the state.

The second progressive movement which is somewhat more
popular in Oklahoma, is the consolidation of schools. This method
is again the uniting of several districts or parts of districts and the
establishing of a common school to provide instruction for all pupils
in the districts. This school may or may not include high school
instruction. There are at the present time 103 of these consolidated
schools in 39 counties.

There is no doubt that these consolidated and union graded
schools can provide better instruction and opportunities for children
Education 65

than the isolated district school. In the first place, the buildings
more nearly meet the need. They are constructed of brick, contain
four or more rooms and have far more modern equipment than is
possible in the local unit. Laboratories, workshops, gymnasiums,
and auditoriums are impossible in the small school. There is not
sufficient money in the district to pay for them, nor a sufficient
number of children to warrant the expenditure of so much money
even if the district could appropriate it. The larger unit formed by
consolidation is able to maintain an efficient school. In addition,
the curriculum in the small country school is necessarily crowded
since a teacher must teach eight different grades of work during one
day which means that very often she can give only ten minutes to
a class. Adding new subjects or introducing laboratory methods
into the course is absurd under such conditions. On the other hand,
the consolidated school permits the uniting of classes and, by the
appointment of more teachers, the lengthening of recitation periods
while still giving time for new subjects.

Not only are there more teachers in the consolidated school,
but those appointed as a general rule are better prepared for the
work. There is an increase in salary to attract the teacher who has
given time and money to prepare herself for the profession and in
addition to this she has the stimulus that comes from working with
others. There can be closer supervision of work, and, if necessary,
departmental teaching so that a teacher need not be responsible
for all the subjects in the curriculum of her grade.

The consolidated school is the only practicable way to secure
the rural high school. Under the existing system many children do
not go to high school because they would have to be away from
home and pay tuition. In Pottawatomie County a girl who graduated
from the eighth grade two years ago is attending a little district
school. Her father does not think he can afford to send her to a
nearby town school and so she has had to abandon all hope of further
education. The teacher reports that she is an exceedingly bright
girl and longs for greater opportunity. Secondary education should
be free to every child in the state. This would be possible under
some form of consolidation.

As state aid for consolidated schools is provided by law and
comes from the national gift as a building fund, it does not increase
state taxes. This completely disposes of the objection that
66 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

consolidation costs too much. In 1916, the monthly per capita cost
of district schools based on 15114 districts was $2.26. In the con-
solidated districts the cost, including transportation, was $2.70.
The district term averaged 7 months; the consolidated, 8.3 months.
As a matter of fact, consolidated schools on the whole are more
economical than the small district schools. There is enormous waste
in having three or four teachers instructing three or four separate
classes in a subject when one could do it better if the classes were
combined. The great advantage of consolidated schools is that
they permit the study of more subjects, so securing greater efficiency
and adaptability.

While recognizing that model school buildings are being erected,
that the movement for consolidation has been launched, and that
in many cases new and modern equipment has been provided for
the schools, it is still fair to state that the great mass of schools
are conducted in old, insanitary, and inadequate buildings, with
meagre equipment. These conditions make impossible proper
instruction for the children of the state. As the burden of choice of
buildings and the providing of equipment rests upon the local
board, it seems only fair to admit that in this respect the district
board has not proven an efficient unit of administration.

The Rural School Teacher

When we come to the question of the teachers in these schools,
conditions appear even more serious. Many of the teachers are
poorly prepared for their work, have had insufficient education,
and lack experience. This is not to be wondered at when we con-
sider some of the conditions the rural school teacher must meet.
In the first place, there is the isolation of the community in which
she must live, lack of social opportunities, and the necessity of
boarding under disagreeable conditions. Some effort has been
made to meet this last difficulty by the erection in a few places of a
teacherage, generally a three-room house given to the teacher for
her use while employed in the district. We find constantly teachers
whose one ambition is to advance from the rural to the city school.
This feeling that the position is temporary naturally limits her
interest in the community in which she finds herself. Too often
she merely stays from Monday morning until Friday night, and then
Education 67

eagerly makes her way to the city where she can find her friends and
some opportunity for recreation.

In addition to these disadvantages the teacher is confronted
with peculiarly difficult problems. With poor school equipment she
must teach from 40 to 60 children all the subjects of the common
school curriculum, from the primary department through the eighth
grade. There is very often a lack of any helpful cooperation on
the part of the district board and a constant check placed on any
efforts on her part to establish modern methods. A well-educated,
experienced teacher would find the task a difficult one. Is it any
wonder then that many of the present rural teachers become too
weary and discouraged to attempt any longer to better conditions?

A very small proportion of normal school students, either among
the graduates or those having had a year’s study, go into rural
school teaching. Therefore, ordinarily, the best preparation en-
countered at present is graduation from the normal training course
of an accredited high school. A great many of the graduates of
these high schools go into the rural district school merely for ex-
perience. They intend to remain only long enough to secure the
training necessary to enter one of the city schools. These teachers
are perhaps among the best but the fact that they do not regard the
work as permanent keeps them from accomplishing anything of
lasting value. One of the great weaknesses of the system is this
constant change of teachers. Another type of teacher all too
often found, is the old man or woman who has taught for many years
under difficult conditions and who clings to the most antiquated
system of teaching. The schools over which such teachers preside are
the most discouraging ones in the state. There is a dreary, deadened
atmosphere, the children seem to have lost all their normal interest
and fun, and one goes away wondering whether the education which
the child procures in such a school is not more harmful than bene-
ficial. The attendance in schools of this kind is very irregular and
one realizes that the character and life of the school itself play a
greater part in the control of attendance than is usually believed.

Teachers’ Certificates and Salaries

’
The granting of teachers’ certificates is a somewhat complicated
procedure. The laws provide that these certificates may be issued

 
68 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

by the county superintendent, city superintendent, State Superin-
tendent and State Board of Education. There seems to be no good
reason why there should be so many authorities issuing them.
Those granted by the county superintendent should be abolished
as they do not demand a high enough standard for teachers in the
rural schools. Even the first grade certificate, the highest one
issued by a county superintendent, requires far less technical prepar-
ation than that of a normal school student, which should be the
minimum education demanded. The authority for the issuing of
certificates might well be placed exclusively in the hands of the
State Board of Education. This Board should be responsible for
the examination of all candidates for positions in the several kinds
of districts and for the supervision of schools whose work in edu-
cation is fully accredited.

It is not reasonable to expect the country school to offer the
attractions for the man or woman making teaching a profession
that the city school does. The work is much more difficult, and
because of the lack of supervision the teacher must rely upon his
or her own ingenuity in meeting special problems. Considering
that opportunities for social intercourse are lacking in the country
and that at best the life of the teacher must be somewhat lonely,
it would seem wise to suggest decided increase in salary in order to
attract the right persons to this work. Although the average
monthly salary paid at the present time is equal to and in some
cases greater than that of village and city districts in the same
county, the annual salary is less owing to the fact that the school
term is shorter.

Course of Study for Rural Schools

 

The State Board of Education provides a course of study for
district schools which is intelligently planned and gives a good
outline of the fundamentals of common school education. One of
its good features is that it gives minute directions to teachers. If
a teacher follows this, he is in touch with certain progressive methods
of presenting his material.

Some features of special interest in this course are the following:
An excellent course in hygiene is outlined, which should give to the
children a knowledge of the fundamentals of health. Special effort
Education 69

is made to encourage care of teeth, to show the importance of
cleanliness of the body, and the necessity of proper sanitation. Un-
fortunately, this course is not followed as closely as it should be.
The teaching of cleanliness is not likely to have great force if the
instructor is herself unclean in her personal habits and the work
is conducted under unsanitary conditions. Therefore, the value
of this course is lessened except in a few schools where the teachers
recognize its need and are intelligent enough to carry out directions.
One of the schools that best illustrate this work is located in Comanche
County, where daily inspection of teeth and hands is made.

A second interesting course is the study of thrift. This is
planned to give children knowledge of the conservation and intel-
ligent use of money. Pupils are also to be encouraged to raise
poultry, calves, and other live stock. Cooperation with the County
Farm Agent working in connection with the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture and the State Department of Agriculture is
suggested. Provision is made for encouraging the planting of gardens,
the canning and marketing of vegetables, etc. Each pupil is urged
to have a savings account and to deposit funds in the bank at the
usual rate of interest. Again there is evidence that this course is
not taught to any great extent, nor with much success.

Another interesting suggestion is that of the cooperation of the
school with the district in encouraging the desire for and the actual
building of good roads. In Stephens County school children built
14 miles of road, 40 schools taking part in the competition. The
importance of this movement is the educational value upon the
voters in the districts. With good roads, better schools are possible.
This experiment proved to the people of this county the possibility
of constructing and maintaining good roads.

The course of study also provides for a certain amount of
vocational education. Agriculture must be taught thirty minutes
a week. Of course, this is an absurd allotment of time to give to a
subject of such importance to children who are for the greater part
destined to become farmers. There is not sufficient provision made
for practical work. Excellent suggestions are made as to the use
of the farm and the school garden but laboratory methods are not
made compulsory. Until this work is more fully developed and the
importance and opportunities recognized, the rural school will fail
to fulfill its purpose. In connection with this, the county farm
70 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

agents are doing excellent work, in fact the only practical work
of any considerable value along this line. Grain, poultry, pig, and
calf clubs are organized and children are being interested in intel-
ligent farm labor. The effect that this work among children has
had upon the community is most enlightening. The response of
the pupils and the lively interest they take in the clubs show how
far the school itself has failed to meet the needs and interests of
the children along this line.

There is an excellent course in home economics planned for the
rural schools but this is carried out to a very slight degree. The
work is practically all theoretical. Occasionally one comes across
a teacher doing all she can in the way of practical work. She en-
courages the children to cook at home and to report upon their
success. She utilizes the equipment on hand by encouraging hot
lunches in the school. This, however, can not fairly be called real
vocational education. A hot lunch generally is limited to the prepara-
tion of different kinds of soup. In the model school in Alfalfa County,
which has already been mentioned, there is equipment for teaching
this subject which has been furnished by the pupils themselves
whose interest was stimulated by the teacher. This is very ex-
ceptional. No provision for vocational work for boys beyond that
in agriculture already mentioned, is made in this outline.

It can be seen by a study of the above illustrations that this
course is neglected to a great extent in the majority of the rural
schools in the state. There are several reasons for this—the in-
efficient teacher, unable to cope with the work; limitations of the
one-room schoolhouse; the poor equipment for practical work.
In addition it must be remembered that the course of study is
planned for an 8-months’ school. Rural districts vary from 5 months
to 9 months, with an average of 6.8 months. The responsibility
for many of these limitations rests upon the district board which
all too often shows too little interest in the schools to recognize
their needs.

That the child in the rural districts has far less opportunity
for proper education than the child in the independent districts,
is shown by the following figures: 56.1 per cent of the school popu-
lation of the state is in the rural districts, only 25.3 per cent attending
school in the independent city districts, the remaining 18.6 per cent
living in villages. In the rural districts the school term averages
Education 71

6.8 months per year or 136 days, while the independent district
term is 9 months or 180 days and the village term 8.3 or 166 days.

We find that in the rural districts only 2.5 per cent receive
free high school instruction. Other children in these districts who
attend high school in the villages or cities nearby must pay tuition.
In contrast to this, 67.8 of the city and 29.7 of the village children
attend high school.

The city child, as a general rule, is taught by more efficient
teachers. Ninety-one per cent of all third grade certificates issued
and only 21.9 per cent of the first grade certificates are held by
teachers in the rural districts. A partial explanation of this is found
in the cost per capita of education in independent village and rural
districts. The city pays $22.65 for each child’s education; the
village, $19.36; and the country community only $13.80.

It is evident that as a whole, conditions in the rural schools are
far from ideal. Inadequate buildings, unsanitary conditions,
meagre equipment, inefficient teachers, an unadaptable course of
study, are all too common features. Something must be done to
remedy these if children in rural districts are to have opportunities
anywhere near equal to those of children living in independent
districts.

Compulsory Education Law and the Rural School

 

In studying the compulsory education law, the following
counties were visited: Oklahoma, Garfield, Cleveland, Noble,
Pottawotamie, Kingfisher, Grady, McLain, Muskogee, Pontotoc,
Cherokee, Atoka, Wagoner, Pittsburg, Logan, Alfalfa, Tulsa,
Okmulgee, Creek, Craig, Rogers, Mayes, Washington, Bryan,
Canadian, Comanche, and Stephens. These counties are in all
parts of the state and represent varying conditions. Therefore it
is believed that they represent fairly the conditions in the state.

There is a surprising amount of irregularity in attendance at
the rural schools. It is not at all unusual to find a school with an
enrolment of 50 and an attendance of 15 or 20. There are a number
of reasons for this condition. In the first place, many children are
working in the fields during the fall and spring months, especially
where the chief product is cotton. They do not enter until the term
is well advanced and they drop out at the beginning of spring,
72 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

While one would expect the older boys to be most affected, many
of the girls also work in the fields and even the younger children
are utilized for this purpose. The attitude in the state toward
this problem is illuminating. Many superintendents and teachers
regard farmwork as a legitimate excuse for absence provided the
poverty of the family makes impossible the employment of paid
laborers. One county superintendent told the investigator that
she wrote a letter to all the parents of children who were irregular
in attendance, asking them for their reasons. In that letter she
said: “If there is any good reason why you should not keep the
compulsory education law, please write me the cause, and have it
endorsed by a member of the school board.’”’ In this case farmwork
was considered a valid excuse and no prosecution was brought if
the absence was due to this, provided, of course, that the poverty
of the parents was first proven. Another superintendent said:
“This is a cotton growing country. What can you expect?” A
third made the statement that he supposed there were a great many
children working during school days in the spring and fall, but they
were mostly the older ones and ‘“‘their parents need them.”’

A second reason often given for irregular attendance is illness.
Out of 22 counties there was but one that did not report an epidemic
of some kind in the rural schools. In addition to reports of con-
tagious diseases, many reports came of ‘“‘chills,”” which had kept the
pupils out of school. When one recognizes the conditions under
which some of these children live and work, it is not surprising that
illness plays so important a part in the interruption of their school
work.

Indifference is all too often the excuse given by the teacher for
the absence of the pupil. After a study of actual conditions one is
not surprised that many children do not like school and whenever
possible remain away. Boys and girls are naturally susceptible
to the influences surrounding them. The dingy rural schoolhouse,
the lack of vital interest in the curriculum, the absence of handwork
from the course, the inefficient and unintelligent teacher, prove
unattractive to the child. The school itself is far more to blame for
these frequent absences than is generally supposed. Occasionally a
county superintendent recognizes this, and attempts to counteract
it. Special rewards are offered for perfect attendance, children’s
clubs are formed, and home credit work becomes one of the important
Education 73

parts of the course. Until this effort is universal there will always
be irregularity in attendance.

Many of the pupils are children of tenant farmers or small
landowners, who move frequently from one place to another and
their change of residence is one of the chief causes of irregular
attendance. They come for a few weeks, leave for another district,
and often do not enroll again before the next term. There is little
evidence of the proper transferring of these children from one district
to another. The responsibility of the teacher ceases when the child
leaves her school but some checking up of removals should be pro-
vided for and this could be done to best advantage if the rural
schools were organized on the county unit basis.

The compulsory education law is most difficult to enforce.
It reads:

“It shall be unlawful for any parent or guardian living in the State of
Oklahoma to neglect or refuse to cause or compel any person or persons
who are or may be under their control as children or wards, to attend
and comply with the rules of some public, private or other school or
schools, unless other means of education are provided for, at least 66
per cent of the number of days the school or schools of the district
are maintained, which shall apply to all children of the district over the
age of 8 and under the age of 16, unless they are prevented by mental
or physical disability.”

The law’s weakness lies in the clause compelling the presence
of a child for only two-thirds of the school term. In the first place,
it is often impossible to determine until the end of the school year
whether the child has been present the required length of time.
Until he has been absent more than one-third of the time it is im-
possible to prosecute the parent. There is no good reason why the
child should not be compelled to attend school during the entire
term. If he attends only part of the term it is difficult for him to
do the work required for promotion, and retardation commonly
results. One superintendent told the investigator of a bright boy
who had been in attendance for nearly 6 months of the 8-
month term. He had then been taken out to work on a farm, missed
over two months of the work, and as a result, promotion was im-
possible. It was legal, however, for the boy to be out of school that
part of the time. A teacher in a district school reported nine pupils
who would not be promoted because they had been out at least
one-third of the year and were unable to complete the work.
74 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Not only is the law itself at fault, but provision for its enforce-
ment is inadequate. The law states:

“Tt shall be the duty of the School District Board, or any person living
in the district, to make complaint to the Justice of the Peace of the
township in which the school district is situated, against any person
failing or refusing to comply with the provision. It shall also be the duty
of the teacher of the school to ascertain if any person is absent without
a proper excuse, and if so, to advise the County Superintendent of
Public Instruction of that fact. Such County Superintendent shall
then report such information to the County Attorney of the County,
who shall file complaint in any Justice Court of the county where the
offending party resides.”

One of the weak spots in this provision is that the authority
for enforcing the law is not placed in the hands of one person, for
the district board, the county superintendent and indeed any
person may bring action. As a result, each places the responsibility
on the other. The superintendent says “‘it’s up to the district board,”
while the local board members refuse to prosecute their own neighbors
and friends. As a result the law almost invariably is unenforced.
A second disadvantage rests in the fact that the county superin-
tendent is elected by the people. In order to carry out the provisions
of this law he must prosecute some of the very people upon whom he
depends for re-election.

The law provides that the census be taken by the clerk of the
district board, who shall be paid 5 cents per name. This enumer-
ation includes all children from the age of 6 to 21. It is doubtful
that names and ages are accurately taken. One county superin-
tendent told an investigator that if the census report of a district
was not ready at the time specified by the State Superintendent of
Education, he sent in the figures for the previous year in order that
the appropriation of state funds might be assured for his county.
In some schools the enrolment exceeds the number of children in
the enumeration. This can be explained to a certain extent by the
frequent moving in and out of tenants and small landowners in
the district, but there is reason to believe that it is also due in part
to the inaccurate taking of the census. And yet the enumeration
is the basis for enforcement of a compulsory education law. An-
other weakness is that the statistics submitted by the county super-
intendent concerning enrolment, attendance, and enumeration, are
based on the ages from 6 to 21 instead of the compulsory schooling
Education 75

ages 8 to 16. A distinction should be made here if the State De-
partment is to have a correct conception of the actual operation
of the compulsory education law. In 27 counties only 3 super-
intendents reported that they made any comparison between the
enumeration and the enrolment, and in one of these three no follow-
up work was done. The one purpose of the census recognized by
all was to furnish a basis for the distribution of county and state
moneys to the districts. That there was a possibility of using it
as a means of preventing the evasion of the compulsory education
law seemed to have occurred to very few.

Recommendations

1. The present district system of school administration should
be abolished and the duties of the district board limited to the care
of school property and the election of the teacher upon recommenda-
tion of the county superintendent. That the district school board
as a unit for administration is totally inadequate is evident in every
phase of the system. There are various reasons why this is to be
expected. In the first place, interest is necessarily local. As a rule
the members of the board know very little of the general problems
of education. They are for the most part practical, self-made men,
who have had little schooling themselves and are inclined to be
skeptical of new subject matter or advanced methods. They are
interested in providing the fundamentals of common school edu-
cation according to their ideas, but have little faith in the innovations
which have come during the past decade.

Another disadvantage of the local unit is the variation of school
standards throughout the county. Often one hears as a defense
of the system that it is more democratic than the county unit. No
system is really democratic, however, unless it provides good edu-
cation for all the children in the county. This the district system
does not do. In one school conditions may be ideal and excellent
work done. Two and a half miles away across the district line,
another school will offer decidedly inferior opportunities and do
little to prepare the children for the part they must play in life.
This is not democratic. There cannot be a fair distribution of funds;
some districts have far more valuable taxable property than others
and therefore have more money to spend on their schools. Another
76 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

variable factor is the length of the school term which depends to a
great extent on the amount of money that the district can raise for
the support of the school. It is grossly unfair that some children
should be given the opportunity for eight months’ schooling, while
others in a neighboring school have only five months.

It is almost impossible to secure the consolidation of schools
under the present local system as the attitude of the boards is often
hostile. There seems to be a feeling that the district would be giving
up its “rights” by merging its interests in those of a larger unit. At
present there is a serious lack of provision for high school instruction.
The local board is unable to finance this work, and children go to
independent districts and pay tuition in order to secure this necessary
instruction. This condition will exist just so long as this form of
organization is continued.

Teachers are appointed and their salaries determined by the
local district board. Again we find varying standards and little
interest in these appointments. At the same time, owing to limita-
tions of the powers of the county superintendent, adequate and
intelligent supervision is almost impossible. There are many schools
with inefficient teachers, giving inferior instruction. The remedy
for these low standards lies in the abolition of district board admin-
istration and the establishment of the county as the unit.

2. A county board of education should be elected by the people.
It should be a continuing body composed of three members, each
serving six years, one retiring every second year. Women should be
eligible for the office. This county unit plan would insure uniformity
in school standards. Many counties at present have 100 or more
rural school districts. Each is controlled by three men. This
means that rural school policies of a county are in the hands of 300
or more different men. It is unreasonable to expect so large a group
to be in touch with modern educational thought, or to have uniform
standards. A county board composed of a few carefully chosen men
would inevitably be more effective. Another important advantage
would be a fairer distribution of funds. The entire county would
be taxed, and the amount distributed equitably according to the
school population; a poor district, therefore, need not have a poor
school. Consolidation and the establishment of high schools would
be a natural outgrowth. Narrow local interests would not be pre-
dominant and a broader, more democratic relationship would result.
Education 77

In the same way the length of the school term and the salaries would
become standardized.

3. The county superintendent should be appointed by the
county board and his powers increased. Under the present system
he has no legal control over the choice of teachers. More authority
in this matter should be conferred on him, and the board should not
appoint any teachers unless recommended by him. This would
make the standards for appointment, efficiency, experience, and
education, instead of personal “pull.” The superintendent should
have an assistant to relieve him of clerical work and to assist in
actual supervision. It is impossible for the superintendent to be
of much assistance to a teacher when he has time to visit the school
only once in the year, as is usually the case at present. Every effort
should be made to establish closer relationships between him and
the local teachers.

The proposed county board of public welfare (see report on
Administration, page 251) should select a probation and truancy
officer who should administer mothers’ pensions under this board,
supervise the taking of the school census, issue work permits, have
charge of probation work and enforce school attendance. Women
should be eligible for this office. In counties having cities of 10,000
or more inhabitants, there should be at least one assistant. The
salaries of these officers should be fixed by the county board of
public welfare, and paid one-half from general funds of the county
and one-half from the county public school funds.

4. The minimum educational requirement for a teacher in the
rural schools should be the completion of a normal school course.
There is not now sufficient opportunity for all students desiring
to teach to receive this education. Teachers with only one year’s
work might be given temporary certificates, good for a period of two
years, after which they would be required to complete the normal
school work.

5. The annual salary of the rural school teacher should be
somewhat in excess of the salaries paid in cities located in the same
county for work of the same grade.

6. Provision should be made for free high school education, by
transportation or otherwise, for all students in the county.

7. As rapidly as possible consolidated schools should be erected.
It might be wiser at present to have such schools for pupils above
78 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

the fourth grade, devoting the small buildings now in use to classes
for the younger children. However, no one-room schoolhouses
should be built and as soon as the present ones are no longer in good
repair they should be abandoned and the children accommodated
in consolidated schools, some form of free transportation being
provided.

8. Vocational work should be introduced into the country
schools, special emphasis being placed upon the study of agriculture.
Provision should be made for practical work and the time devoted
to this subject increased.

9. The rural school term should be lengthened and should be
continuous.

10. Teacherages should be erected in connection with rural
schools for the use of teachers as dwellings and each should have at
least three rooms.

11. Wherever possible a teacher should be appointed to serve
not only for the school term but for the full calendar year. In the
summer this teacher could do community work in cooperation with
the county farm agent.

« INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Cities with Population of 10,000 or Over

 

The rapid growth of cities is largely responsible for the con-
ditions found in independent districts. Overcrowding, inadequate
buildings, and overemphasis of commercial interests are some of the
bad effects of this abnormal growth. On the other hand, the in-
creasing wealth has made possible the increase of funds for school
purposes. There is also a growing demand for schools worthy of the
new interests.

1. Ward school buildings.

The usual type of building found in the ward schools in most
of the cities is a two-story, square, brick building situated in the
center of a good-sized plot of land. These buildings as a general
rule are in good repair. The school rooms are lighted from the left
side and back, and are equipped with adjustable seats for about 40
children. Unfortunately, they are usually badly crowded and lack
sufficient workrooms. There are practically no laboratories, and
Education 79

very few domestic science and manual training rooms, libraries or
study halls.

An interesting exception to this usual form of building is found
in the Tulsa unit system. The unit buildings, each consisting of two
individual school rooms with separate cloak and toilet rooms, are
grouped about an entire block, so as to form a hollow square whose
courtyard may be used as a playground and athletic field. The
buildings are placed on the outside of the block, three units on each
side. Two buildings opposite each other are used for administration
and vocational purposes. In one of these are the auditorium, the
principal’s office, and the teachers’ rest room; in the basement is
the heating plant for the entire system. In the vocational buildings
are sewing and fitting rooms, kitchen and pantries, manual training
tooms, shower baths, and lockers. In addition to these there are
ten buildings, one used as kindergarten, the others for regular class
work. These unit buildings have very modern equipment. In
many of the rooms, movable chairs with arms that can be used as
desks and with drawers for books have been substituted for the old
type securely fastened to the floor. This does away with the formal
appearance of the schoolroom, tends to develop individuality in
the method of conducting a class, and makes it easy to put aside
the furniture for any purpose.

The unit buildings have many advantages: The danger of
accident from fire is reduced to a minimum; the enclosed play-
ground keeps the children away from the streets, and makes super-
vised play possible; there are no stairways or basements so that
disciplinary problems are simplified and teachers relieved of much
supervisory work; the younger children can be more easily isolated
from the older ones; the small unit makes possible more individual
work; when the building is erected it is not necessary to wait until
the money for a complete system is appropriated, as one or more
units can be built and others added as the need grows; and the
units chosen can be those especially adapted to the peculiar needs
of the community.

When considering the advisability of constructing school
buildings on this plan, the question naturally arises as to the differ-
ence between the initial operative cost of this system and that of
the old two-story building. The superintendent of schools in Tulsa
has worked out this matter very carefully. He reports that the
80 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

initial cost is somewhat less, per pupil, than that of the old type of
building. On the other hand, the operative cost is slightly in excess.
He explains that the new Horace Mann School there offers more
diversified opportunities than the old type and that this accounts
for the additional cost. This is a practical plan for the building of
schoolhouses in cities where land values are not exceptionally high.

2. Teaching staff in ward schools.

The teachers in ward schools as a rule are well educated, efficient
and interested in their work. A great many are graduates of the
state normal schools, others of accredited high schools who have
taken summer work in the normal schools and have had at least two
or three years’ experience. Unfortunately, one still finds high school
students appointed immediately upon finishing their course. In
one of the larger cities the superintendent reported that he was very
much opposed to the appointment of these younger girls and that
he did not even consider them as candidates. However, in one of
the schools of that same city the principal told the investigator
of three different teachers who were unable to do satisfactory work,
all of them having come directly from the high school to that
building.

In most of the cities the school board has given the superin-
tendent the power to choose the teachers, and has agreed not to
appoint any without his recommendation. This is undoubtedly
one reason why the teaching force is of such high standing. A
superintendent is closely connected with educational conditions,
and as the supervision of the men and women who instruct in the
schools rests upon him he is more likely to choose teachers because
of their actual fitness for the position than the members of the school
board who are not necessarily familiar with the qualities essential.

3. Course of study in ward schools.

The course of study in the city schools is generally prepared
by the superintendent and accepted by the board. It is based upon
the state course for common schools, with modifications, and ex-
panded to cover a 9-month term. The chief objection is that it
does not provide adequate vocational work. Very little time is
given to handwork and where vocational subjects are taught there
is often little practical work done.

In McAlester the only work of this type presented is agriculture,
in the eighth grade. It is theory only, for no effort is made to
Education 81

cultivate either school or home gardens. Domestic science and
manual training are provided only in the high school.

In Muskogee the course in agriculture is practical. Every
school has a garden where the children of different grades work
on their own plots. The younger ones from the first to the fourth
grades rarely raise anything but flowers, but the older children
cultivate vegetables. Home gardens are also encouraged and prizes
offered for the best products. Through the cooperation of the
county farm agent it is hoped that a municipal market will be opened
where children may have stalls for the sale of their products. The
greatest obstacle in the way of successful gardening is that the
schools close at the very time when it is most necessary to do the
work. In Enid an agricultural supervisor has been engaged to give
time during the summer months to instruction and supervision.

Manual training and home economics start in either the fifth
or sixth grades in Tulsa, and the Horace Mann School is perhaps
the best equipped ward building for this work in the state. The
only agricultural work, however, is theoretical and does not begin
until the eighth grade. The same vocational work is carried on in
Oklahoma City although the equipment is not so new and the work
does not start until the seventh grade.

The course of study shows a serious attempt to introduce
modern methods of instruction into the curriculum. For example,
special effort is made to connect the teaching of geography with
nature study, agriculture, and elementary economics. Attention
is given to local conditions and their significance. A considerable
amount of time is devoted to the study of the geographic and
economic status of Oklahoma. Too little attention is paid to the
correlation of work. This is especially true of the vocational sub-
jects which as a rule are completely separated from the regular
course of study.

4. High school buildings.

High school buildings are almost always superior to the ward
schools and many of them are beautifully equipped. The Okla-
homa City High School is a large, well-lighted, well-ventilated
building with an attractive auditorium, a large gymnasium, and
excellent laboratories and shops. It is little wonder that good work
is done there. In Enid one of the unique features of the high school
is the English room. Here effort has been made to abandon the
82 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

old formal classroom. The room is finished in dark wood; there
are no desks, the students occupying chairs with broad arms for
use in writing; well-chosen pictures are on the walls; and the
general effect is similar to that of a room in a college library. There
are also good buildings at Muskogee, Shawnee, and Okmulgee.
In Tulsa a beautiful new building is in process of construction.
There are still a few high schools, however, that are old and hope-
lessly inadequate. One of these is in Guthrie where the building
now occupied was originally the high school for Logan County.
It is old, the classrooms small, and there are very poor facilities
for work. A fault in all the cities is the overcrowding of the buildings
which is a result of rapid growth.

5. High school teachers.

Excellent teachers are found in the high schools. There is an
increasing demand for university graduates and very few new
teachers are appointed unless they hold advanced degrees. Many
normal graduates are still employed but seldom is a teacher found
with less training. A large number have received their education
and experience in some other state and have brought with them
different ideas and methods which have, of course, tended to broaden
their outlook upon educational questions.

6. Course of study and vocational work in high schools.

As a usual thing five different courses are offered: The classical
or old Latin college preparatory course; the commercial; the
normal; the scientific and industrial; and the general course for
those who wish a rounded education but who do not expect either
to go to college or to take up practical work. This variety shows
the tendency to emphasize vocational work and not to uphold the
Latin course as the sine qua non for all.

The vocational subjects taught are, home economics, manual
training, agriculture and commercial branches, and special edu-
cational topics for the normal training students.

One of the best courses in home economics is given at the Okla-
homa City High School under two heads, first, domestic art which
includes garment making, millinery and house decoration, and
second, domestic science which teaches food preparation, house
management, and home nursing. These subjects are presented in
the most practical way. For example, one of the problems given
to the class in house decoration each year is the furnishing and
Education 83
decorating of a small apartment for a small sum of money. Last
year a five-room house was to be furnished for $300. Lectures were
given to the girls by decorators, makers of furniture, etc., and
samples of wall-paper, cretonnes and materials for upholstery dis-
played. Visits were then made to the various household depart-
ments of stores. One gave the use of five show-windows to the school
for one week, to be fitted out with the furniture the girls had selected.
The experiment was so great a success that it is to be continued each
year. Another example of the practical application of this work
is in the course in home nursing. In addition to two recitations a
week two lectures are given by specialists on personal hygiene and on
the care of special diseases. For example, a children’s specialist gives
a lecture on contagious diseases of children. One day a week the girls
are taken to the local hospital where they observe and help in simple
work preparing bandages, sterilizing, etc. The students are interested
and the classes are among the most popular in the curriculum.

With the exception of Oklahoma City, Muskogee, and Tulsa,
the manual training in the high schools consists of woodwork only.
The work done is good but is necessarily limited as ironwork is
omitted. Oklahoma City has an unusually fine machine shop and
forge. More work of this nature should be added to the other
schools in the state.

Everywhere there is a demand for office workers and most
schools have added to their curriculum commercial courses, offering
stenography, bookkeeping, accounting, commercial law, industrial
history, economics of business, including advertising and salesman-
ship, and in some cases actual practice work. One of the best courses
noted was that in Muskogee. Three rooms are used, one for lectures
and recitations, one for typewriting, and one for bookkeeping and
office practice. This last room is divided into two sections, one for a
bank where practical business methods are taught. In addition
to the study of the subject matter, actual work in the offices of the
city is planned by the head of the department. A vocational service
bureau has been established with the object of placing the right
person in the right place at time of graduation, and also of securing
work for the hours after school and for Saturdays for all pupils
who need financial assistance to finish the high school course. The
members of the senior class are expected to do practical work in
the offices of the city. They are excused from the afternoon session
84 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

and school credit is given for office work done without pay. The
experience secured helps them to find better positions upon gradua-
tion. The business men of Muskogee have cooperated most heartily
with this bureau.

Normal training courses are incorporated in the curriculum
of all the high schools of these cities. Graduates are given a two-
year state certificate and secure positions to teach in the rural schools
and in the cities. The usual course includes, in addition to the
regular subjects, two years’ work in either home economics or manual
training, one year in agriculture, and in the fourth year special
work in psychology, pedagogy, and methods of teaching. During
this last year students are required to observe in the schools of the
city or the surrounding country and various methods of practical
teaching are employed. In some cities the students serve as sub-
stitutes in the ward schools for the regular teachers when absent.
In other cities the student is required to teach a certain number
of hours under direction of the teacher in charge of the classroom
and the principal of the school. The length of time given to this work
varies but averages about three hours a week for three months.

In many cases this is the only training that the student is ever
to receive in preparation for teaching. Where this is the case the
course is undoubtedly inadequate. It is impossible to give sufficient
time for technical work in the high school when the student must
also be taught the subjects of the regular high school curriculum.
In addition to this, little attention is given to rural problems of
education although the majority must secure their experience in
the country school. Only one-half year is given to the study of
psychology and pedagogy and it is impossible to give more than the
simplest outlines in that time. Often the students must observe
and teach in schools not of high standard. For the sake of the
children who are to be taught by these graduates it would seem far
wiser not to grant the two-year state teacher’s certificate to any
high school graduates until they have also taken some technical
training in the normal schools or the university of the state. In
addition to the inadequacy of the course there is the objection of
sending so young a boy or girl into the teaching profession.

It is the theory of agriculture, not the practical work, that is
emphasized throughout the high schools. One year of this subject
is given, often with excellent indoor laboratory work; in Chickasha,
Education 85

for example, there is an exceptionally good laboratory, scientifically
equipped. But work in gardens and on farms is sadly neglected.
In Oklahoma City students are urged to have home gardens and
many respond, but there are few school gardens anywhere. In
Guthrie students are sent to nearby farms for observation and
actual work. This could be done in all the cities since they are
situated in agricultural districts with opportunities for field work
all around them. More than one year should be devoted to agri-
culture as it is undoubtedly the most important vocational subject
for children living in Oklahoma.

7. Junior high schools.

For a long time the pupils in the seventh and eighth grades of
the public schools have been a difficult problem in all educational
systems. They have reached the age when they rebel against the
formality and strictness of discipline common to the lower grades
and when they long for the greater freedom offered by the high
school. At this period many drop out because of lack of interest.
Recently junior high schools have been established in various parts
of the country to meet this peculiar need.

In Oklahoma two types of these schools have been established.
In one, children of the seventh and eighth grades are organized
into a special school. Here departmental teaching is introduced,
the same hours are maintained as in the high school, and a new
freedom is given to students to prepare them for the greater freedom
of high school life. Upon graduation they enter the senior high
school, which they complete in four years. Other junior high schools
combine the work of the seventh and eighth grades with the first
year of high school, making the senior high school term only three
years. This is known as the 6-3-3 plan.

In Chickasha a junior high school building has been erected
along model lines. It is a one-story building with large, light rooms
which give opportunity for both class and laboratory work. A new
wing is to be devoted to the teaching of vocational subjects. The
seventh and eighth grades of all the schools of the city meet here
and follow the general course for these grades throughout the state.
The departmental method has been introduced and the school has
the same hours as those of the senior high school.

In Muskogee the junior high school is in the Central High
School building. This plan has not proven as successful as that of
86 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

a separate building as it is inconvenient to have two different sets
of rules and regulations for children in the same school, and as
many of the younger children are not prepared for the greater freedom
the problem of discipline is difficult. In Tulsa a plan is under con-
sideration to establish district junior high schools, probably three,
for the entire city. These will be in different sections and will
draw children of the seventh and eighth grades from the ward schools.

There is little doubt that this method of instruction is a great
improvement over the old. With the beginning of the adolescent
period some effort must be made to meet the new demands and needs
of children. The establishment of these schools has not only done
this but has also relieved the overcrowding.

8. Provision for backward and defective children.

There is a surprising lack of interest in the study and care of
backward children, but Tulsa, Enid, and McAlester are awakening
to the seriousness of the situation and planning special work in
this field.

In Tulsa, those pupils who are likely to be retarded are reported
to the supervisor of primary grades. Investigations are then made
as follows:

(1) A study of the teacher’s method in the grade where the retarded
child is placed. Is she by any chance to blame because of lack of
understanding or interest or sympathy? Is it a case of too many
pupils for one teacher and therefore too little individual attention?
What school adjustments can be made?

(2) The child is then given a physical examination. This is done in
cooperation with the school nurse. Is the child ill-nourished? Has
he adenoids or other physical defects? Should he receive medical
treatment?

(8) A home visit is then made by the teacher, the nurse or the instructor
in charge of the survey. What light can a parent throw on the
child’s condition? Is there need of financial aid? Is the fault here?

(4) After the above investigations, if the child is still unable to keep
up with the normal grade he is given individual instruction in a class
of not more than four. In a great many cases this is the only help
necessary. Last year 93 per cent of children who would have failed,
passed after this special help had been given and are doing fair work
at present. Where the coaching had been in one subject only, the
renewed confidence of the child in his own powers has resulted in a
decided improvement in all subjects.

(5) Children who do not respond to this individual work are then given
psychological tests. This is done in cooperation with the head of the
Education 87

Department of Psychology in the Henry Kendall College. If the
child is found to be defective he is allowed to try his skill in shopwork
whether or not he has reached the grade where manual training is
usually begun. In several cases the child has made good under the
new conditions.

There is good reason to believe that as a result of this survey
special classes will be formed, taught by teachers trained for this
work. It is to be hoped that this movement will not be confined to
Tulsa as there is great need of it throughout the state.

In McAlester the superintendent of schools, in cooperation
with the University of Oklahoma, has been giving a course for
teachers in the study of defectives. Successful work has secured
university credits. Defective children have been examined by the
superintendent in the presence of the teachers. This would seem
most unwise, as it is generally conceded that the child must have
individual attention and must be free from disturbing circumstances
in order to respond to the tests. The effect of this course upon the
teachers, however, is excellent as it awakens in them a recognition
of the need and must give them at least some skill in recognizing
children with physical and mental defects.

Two of the ward schools in Enid have introduced the super-
vised study room. All children who are not reciting study in one
room. Each day the principal is given a list of the names of re-
tarded children and as far as possible he gives them individual
instruction. This is undoubtedly a help to many of the slower
children but does not by any means effectively aid the defective
child.

9. Teacher-Patron Associations.

Most of the cities have established teacher-patron associations
for the purpose of interesting parents in the work of the children
and establishing closer cooperation between the school and the home.
Meetings are held five or six times in the winter at schoolhouses.
The program includes both instruction and entertainment. A
growing interest on the part of parents in the schools is a result of
this club work.

10. Free textbooks.

McAlester is the only city in Oklahoma where free textbooks
are provided. They are paid for by the city and the superintendent
believes this policy has been of great help.
88 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

11. Enforcement of compulsory education law.

The two-thirds time clause in the compulsory education law
and the lack of provision for adequate enforcement make regular
attendance in city schools difficult to attain. While there is with-
out doubt better attendance in independent districts than in rural
communities, this is due, first, to the fact that fewer children are
employed in agriculture and, secondly, that public opinion is some-
what more enlightened with regard to the importance of education.
There is still a great deal of truancy and the methods of dealing
with the problem commonly followed have not been successful.

The school census is taken in January, usually by three enumer-
ators appointed by the superintendent or the board of education.
They are paid three cents per name. The original records are kept
at the office of the superintendent in books provided by the state.
Unfortunately, after the census report has been made out and sent
to the State Department of Public Instruction, the books are seldom
referred to again unless some emergency arises. There is little
evidence of comparison of enumeration with enrolment for the
purpose of enforcing the compulsory education law. One excellent
exception to this rule is found in Muskogee. Here the census is
taken, not in books but on cards issued by the city board. A card
can be used for four consecutive years and a check kept on the
activities of each child. The cards are filed in record boxes and may
be referred to at any time. A careful comparison is made between
the enumeration and enrolment; if names given in the census do
not appear on the school registers, the truant officer visits the home
and sees that the child is enrolled in the proper school. On the
other hand, if unreported children are enrolled the superintendent
is able to check up the efficiency of the enumerators’ work and thus
secure more accurate returns another year. Another interesting
innovation found in Muskogee is that the city does not recognize
the existence of the two-thirds time clause of the law but insists
upon the attendance of all children between the ages of 8 and 16
for the entire school year. There has been no difficulty in com-
pelling parents to observe this local regulation.

In three out of the ten cities with population over 10,000 no
truancy officer has been appointed. In McAlester there was at one
time a truancy officer giving part-time service at $600 per year
but the work was not successful and the fund was withdrawn. The
Education 89

reason given for the failure was the impossibility of enforcing the
law when so little authority was vested in the officer. Unless he
could have police power the superintendent believed there was little
use in having one appointed. Guthrie and Chickasha also have no
officers. This leaves the responsibility of enforcing the law in the
hands of the teachers and the superintendent. Little can be done
by them as they have not sufficient time to devote to this work.

In cities where truancy officers have been appointed there
seems to be no definite standard of education or experience necessary
for the appointment. Three cities reported that their officers were
formerly teachers. One has the physical training director do the
work, another the recreation director, and the third officer reports,
“he is just interested in boys.’’ While these men are earnest in their
efforts to enforce the regulations, they have not had the needed
training or experience.

There is no standard method for enforcing the law. According
to the one usually adopted the principals report daily either to the
superintendent or the truancy officer all cases of unexplained absence.
The officer then goes to the home, ascertains the cause of absence
and sees that the child, if in condition to do so, returns to school.
No prosecutions are reported in any city, with the exception of
Tulsa, where the child instead of the parent is usually prosecuted
and in some cases committed to a reform school, and Bartlesville
where no penalty is inflicted. Few records of cases are kept.

Cities with Population of 2,000 to 10,000

 

The following cities were visited for this survey: Ada, Atoka,
Cherokee, Claremore, Dewey, Duncan, Durant, Edmond, El Reno,
Kingfisher, Lawton, Norman, Perry, Pryor, Purcell, Sapulpa,
Tahlequah, Tecumseh, Vinita, and Wagoner. It is believed that
owing to their situation in different parts of the state they are fairly
representative of the general conditions in cities of that size. The
schools in these cities are far less efficient than in the larger cities.
There are as a general rule few school buildings, all badly crowded.
Poorer facilities are provided for vocational work, the courses are
formal and not adapted to the peculiar conditions of the individual
communities, and many of the superintendents are lacking in edu-
cation or experience. There are notable exceptions, but in these
90 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

cases the superintendents must fight against conditions which make
a successful school system almost impossible.

1. School buildings.

Many of the buildings are inadequate and in bad repair. In
Wagoner one of the ward schools is a two-story frame building, with
small crowded classrooms and dark halls. In Atoka the one school
building is in fairly good condition but is so badly crowded that
good work is impossible. The high school in Norman also is over-
crowded, every available space, both offices and workrooms, being
utilized for recitations.

2. Teaching staff.

As a tule the teachers are inferior to those of the larger cities.
This is natural, owing to the lower scale of salaries and to the fewer
opportunities for recreation. As a result there is unfortunately a
constant change in personnel. One superintendent told the in-
vestigator that he no sooner found a good teacher and trained her
for efficient work than she left for a larger community. Two distinct
types of teachers are found, the young inexperienced girl who is
securing her training and if successful will soon leave for a better
position, and the older woman who has taught a great many years
without much success and clings to antiquated methods. The dis-
cipline is often poor owing to a lack of resourcefulness on the part
of the teacher.

3. Course of study and vocational work.

In the grades the state course for common schools is in use.
This seems to be followed fairly faithfully, with the exception of
the provision for vocational work. There is almost no work of this
kind in the high school, with the exception of agriculture, which is
merely theoretical. These smaller cities are the very places where
practical agriculture could most easily be taught for work on the
farms is easily available. In no case was anything of the kind noted
while home economics and manual training were found in the grades
in only a few places. In the high school the Latin college preparatory
course, slightly modified by vocational work, is the one invariably
offered. As a very small number of the graduates of these high
schools go to the university or other schools of higher education,
this is a most unwise arrangement. One superintendent remarked,
“We don’t need many courses because very few get to high school.”
Another said, “Since we can afford but one course it never occurs
Education 91

to the board to give us any but the Latin one. We are too poor
to have any vocational work. If we could strike oil or start a re-
finery here you would see this work pick up. There is not enough
available taxable property to provide money for the schools.” A
limited amount of manual training and home economics is taught
in the high schools but generally both the subject-matter and the
equipment are inadequate.

4. Enforcement of compulsory education law.

There is but little attempt at enforcement of this law in these
smaller cities. Truancy officers are rarely found and only flagrant
cases of violation noted. In two cities janitors of ward schools
investigate the most serious complaints, while in another city the
“mayor sends the policeman.” No prosecutions were recorded
in any of these cities. In Lawton a serious attempt has been made
to enforce the law. A truancy officer is appointed and devotes
mornings to this work. He is a retired physician and is paid $50 a
month. This salary also includes his work of medical inspection in
the schools. In Duncan the jailer has recently been appointed to
give his services as a truancy officer.

5. Special features.

An interesting experiment has been tried in the schools at
Dewey. This is known as the ‘‘Dewey System of Individual Train-
ing.” The superintendent reports, ‘“We have proceeded on the
theory that no two children are alike and have demonstrated beyond
question that children prove this theory in the fundamentals of
education as well as in the more concrete manners of growth if
given an opportunity to do so.” The plan is to allow the child to
work in the grade and in the subjects he can get the most out of
regardless of what he knows or does not know about the studies in
the previous grade. In this individual method children are allowed
to go as fast in their school work as their ability enables them with-
out reference to the work of others. The pupils meet in classes
just as in the usual method. If they are reciting arithmetic, each
child has a different problem and is allowed to take as many problems
as he is able to solve without waiting for other members of the class
to arrive at the same point. This is true of all other subjects.
Children in the same room are often separated 50 or 100 pages. An
example of the way this method works is found in the report of the
reading lessons in the first grade. Each child is given a different
92 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

book and is allowed to select the story he wishes to read. He knows
he can read his story without being interrupted, and the other
children are interested and listen because they have never heard it
before. The children are allowed to read as many books as they can.

A new and concrete method of teaching school subjects, espe-
cially arithmetic and English, has been introduced into the schools
at Lawton. The pupils have written food manufacturers asking
them for samples to be placed in a school grocery. Upon the arrival
of the material, letters of acknowledgment have been written to the
donors. Problems in arithmetic are worked out by actual practice
in these stores. How useful this method will prove is yet to be seen.

With the exception of the two experiments described above,
little evidence was found of progressive methods.

Recommendations for All Independent Districts

 

1. A bureau of attendance should be organized in cities of
5,000 or over with a truancy officer who should receive a salary
sufficiently large to insure the appointment of the right man. Some
standard, similar to civil service standards, should be made com-
pulsory for the appointment. The duties of this bureau would be:

(1) To enforce the compulsory education law, including attendance
at continuation schools wherever they have been established.

(2) To take the census.

(3) To issue work permits. (See report on Child Labor, page 116.)

(4) To maintain some form of placement bureau where children leaving
school can secure positions and from which follow-up work of all
children in industry can be administered.

In cities with population of 30,000 or over more than one officer
will be necessary. In cities under 5,000 this work may be done by
one man giving part time.

2. In all cities where children are employed in industry, con-
tinuation classes should be established. Boys and girls between
the ages of 16 and 18, regularly employed, who have not completed
the eighth grade should be required to attend not less than five
hours a week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. during the full term the
schools are in session.

3. Special classes for backward children, under the direction
of teachers with psychological training, should be established in
Education 93

all cities with population of 10,000 or over. In the smaller cities
one teacher should be appointed who has had some training in this
work and can give at least part time for individual work with back-
ward pupils. This should be done in cooperation with medical
inspection in schools. ;

4. It is recommended that before erecting new buildings, some
plan of construction similar to the Tulsa unit system be considered.

5. Separate buildings for junior high school work should be
established in cities with population of 10,000 or over. In the smaller
cities the seventh and eighth grade work should be concentrated
in one place, with departmental teaching.

6. The minimum education required for appointment as
teacher in independent districts should be graduation from a normal
school or its equivalent. Increase in salary should be assured all
successful teachers who obtain credits in higher institutions after
appointment.

7. The minimum salary paid to teachers in these schools should
be $600 per annum. Some arrangement should be made for regular
increase in salary for a certain period of time on proof of satisfactory
work. The teachers in the grade schools should be paid as high a
salary as those in the high schools.

8. Vocational work should be introduced into the curriculum
as early in the course as the fifth grade. Some form of handwork
should be assured for every grade. The course of study should be
rearranged so that some knowledge of various vocations would be
imparted through teaching of regular school subjects, especially
in connection with geography and civics.

9. There should be in all schools either a school library or
close cooperation with the public library.

10. Supervised study rooms should be introduced into the
grade schools as well as the high schools of the cities. These study
rooms offer excellent opportunity not only for individual work with
retarded pupils but for training the normal child in right habits
of study.

NEGRO SCHOOLS

In 1916 six per cent of the enumerated children between the
ages of 6 and 21 were colored. The great mass of these negroes are
concentrated in the east central part of the state, in three counties
94 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

in the south, and in one county in the central section. In Wagoner
County 39 per cent of the children are negroes, presenting, therefore,
a serious problem. Separate schools for negroes are established by
law. ‘The public schools of the State of Oklahoma shall be organized
and maintained by the complete plan of separation between the
white and colored races, with impartial facilities for both races.”

Negro Schools in Independent Districts

 

These school buildings are usually located in undesirable
neighborhoods. In Tulsa all schools for colored children are so near
the railroad tracks that the recitations are continually interrupted
by the noise of the trains. In Muskogee two of the schools are on
the edge of the red light district. As a rule the buildings are old
and in almost every case too small to provide for the great number
of children enrolled. In the Dunbar ward school at Muskogee 75
children in the sixth grade are accommodated in an abandoned
lunch room in an old wooden building near the schoolhouse. There
are two small windows at the back of the room and show-windows
at one side. The room is so crowded that often three children must
use one seat. There is no cloakroom, the clothing being hung on
hooks at one side of the room. The teacher complains that she has
great difficulty with discipline as the pupils are constantly restless.
With incorrect lighting, bad air, insufficient equipment, and entirely
too many children for one teacher trouble may reasonably be ex-
pected. In this same school 123 children of kindergarten and primary
grade age are enrolled in one room, which normally holds 40, under
one teacher. The day the investigator visited this school the teacher
said, ‘“There must be an epidemic today, there are only 70 present.”
The colored high school at Tulsa is a four-room building accom-
modating 80 pupils. At the time of the visit 160 were attending.
It would have been impossible to provide for them at all if arrange-
ments had not been made for some to have domestic science work
in another building while the rest recited. Although the super-
intendent of schools has recommended again and again that this
building be enlarged, or a new one erected, the county excise board
has refused to appropriate the money. The colored schools in
Oklahoma City are also badly overcrowded and near the railroad
tracks. The buildings are old and there are too many children for
Education 95

the space available. However, a new vocational building is being
erected which will greatly relieve this congestion.

In practically all the schools there is lack of proper equipment.
The rooms for sewing, cooking, and manual training are inadequate
and classrooms are most unattractive.

The teachers in the grade schools lack technical training, and
in many cases have but meagre education. It was only rarely that
the investigator visited a class where the lesson was being taught
by modern methods. In a fourth grade class a reading lesson was in
progress and not only were the children mispronouncing simple
words but the teacher herself was making bad mistakes. Too often
the lesson consisted merely of questions asked directly from the text-
book and answered from memory. In the high school, however, the
teachers are, as a whole, of a surprisingly high standard. Among
them are graduates of institutions for the colored, such as Hampton
Institute and Fisk University. These men and women are intel-
ligently concerned about the difficult problems of their race but
are discouraged at the conditions they find and many doubt whether
any change is possible until the people of the state manifest a livelier
interest in the situation.

The course of study used in the grades is the state course for
common schools. This is followed very carefully as far as is possible
with the facilities provided. There is too little vocational work
in every school. Manual training begins in the eighth grade and
continues through high school, though in Muskogee it is confined
to the high school. This is particularly unfortunate as many of the
colored children drop out of school before reaching the eighth grade
and the very ones who most need a practical education are those
who never receive the opportunity in school. When manual
training is found it is woodwork only. Three principals told the
investigator they had urged the board of education to establish
shops where the boys could learn blacksmithing as there is a demand
for colored boys in that trade. They had also asked that the boys
might be taught shoemaking as this means of livelihood would be
open to many if properly trained, but nothing was done. In Muskogee
the high school is known as the Manual Training High School for
Negroes, and is supposed to specialize in all kinds of handwork.
The actual opportunities for manual training, however, are far fewer
here than in the high school for white children. Three years ago,
96 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

through the efforts of the principal and one of the teachers, the boys
were given the opportunity of building a house for one of the colored
residents of the city. The man provided all the lumber and the
students did all the work, even helping with the plumbing and the
electric lighting. This is the most practical piece of work accom-
plished by the school, and the idea and plan did not originate with
the school board but with the instructors. In Oklahoma City an
excellent exhibition of furniture made by colored boys in the grades
and high school is prepared each year for the state fair. The quality
of the work done proves conclusively that this course is an excellent
preparation for the colored boy. The need of shops and forges is
unmistakable. It is also important that this work begin much
earlier in the course. E

There is a good course in home economics, which is generally
well taught by teachers specially prepared. It is introduced too
late, however, since it does not start until the eighth grade. More
time is given in the high school for this course than in the white
high school, as 90 minutes a day are devoted to it. As a rule the
equipment is inadequate, though a good home economics room has
been erected recently in Tulsa and the new school for negroes in
Sapulpa gives excellent opportunity for this work.

Practically all the work in agriculture is theoretical. The only
evidence of outdoor work of any kind is found in Muskogee where
there are school gardens for colored as well as white children.

Normal training is also being started in Muskogee. There is
great need for this particular course. When one considers the need
for more colored schools, and therefore, for more colored teachers,
and also realizes that the state is making little preparation for
training teachers, its importance is evident. Unfortunately the
course commonly given in the high school is the old-fashioned Latin
college preparatory course which fails to meet the needs of the mass.
Very few of the graduates can hope to go to schools of higher learning.
They must earn their living, and the only preparation they have is
what they secure from the school.

In the smaller cities the schools are even more inadequate.
In Tahlequah the negro school is so crowded that only children of
compulsory attendance age are admitted and pupils must leave at
16 whether they have completed their work or not. In general
there is little provision for high school work. The superintendent
Education 97

in one town, when asked about a high school course for negroes,
answered, “I suppose there must be one given if anybody wants it,
but I never heard about it.”’ There is often no vocational work.
It is little wonder that the colored child leaves as soon as possible
when the schools are so hopelessly unattractive.

Negro Rural Schools

In rural communities the colored school is worse. There are
usually very short terms and irregular attendance. The buildings
are in bad condition and there is little disposition in the district to
improve them. In Creek County the superintendent is unusually
interested and anxious to provide the best possible facilities for the
colored schools. One school in this county is held in a schoolhouse
discarded by whites in that district. Owing to the energy of the
superintendent and the teacher the building is in fair condition
but is still most unattractive and far below the standard for even
the poorest white schools. The inside is painted in dark colors,
there are a few old-fashioned seats each accommodating two or
three children, and benches are used to supplement these. The
teacher, who is exceptionally good, is handicapped by lack of equip-
ment and the county superintendent who is eager to improve the
conditions is unable to do so.

Negro Schools and Compulsory Education Law

In addition to the ineffectiveness of the compulsory education
law already mentioned, and the difficulty of its enforcement, there
is usually in the case of the colored child the disadvantage of lack
of interest on the part of the superintendent and the truancy officer.
It is often considered of little importance whether or not the negro
child attends school regularly. One superintendent frankly said
that he made no point of enforcing the law for them. In another
city a special colored truancy officer has been appointed to give part
time to this work, but two principals report that they can never
find him when they want him and have given up trying to do any-
thing. The fact that the schools are already overcrowded is given
as another reason for the lack of interest in preventing truancy.
98 Child Welfare in Oklahoma
Recommendations

The law for the support of separate schools reads:

“Tn all counties where county separate schools for white and colored
children are maintained, the county excise board shall annually levy a
tax on all taxable property in their respective counties sufficient to
maintain such separate school, as hereinafter provided, upon an estimate
made by the county commissioners, said taxes shall be estimated, pub-
lished, levied and collected in the same manner as other taxes for county
purposes, and in school districts where such separate schools are main-
tained, no white child shall attend a colored school or a colored child
attend a white school.”

1. All schools for negroes should be supported in the same
manner as those for white children. The law provides for the county
support of the separate school but in almost every city the excuse
given by the superintendent for the poor condition of the negro
schools is that under the present law governing financing, it is
impossible to provide equally good schools for the two races. There
seems to be no good reason why there should be any difference in
method of financing the schools.

2. The erection of sufficient buildings to accommodate all
colored children in the districts is an immediate need. Provision
should be made for keeping them in good condition and for necessary
equipment.

3. The appointment of efficient teachers should be assured.
Normal training courses should be introduced in all colored high
schools.

4. The curriculum should be changed to include introduction
of a greater number of vocational subjects, and provision should
be made for vocational work in the lower grades. Definite trade
training should be included. The Latin college preparatory course
should be only one of the courses offered in the high schools.

5. Special classes and special teachers should be provided for
backward children in cities.

6. The compulsory education law should be enforced and the
same attention given to the truant negro as to the truant white.

7. All recommendations concerning schools for white children
apply also to negro schools.
Education 99

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS

There are at present 49 schools supported by the Catholic
Church. As these are privately financed there is no inspection by
any state authorities, except in a few cases where graduates are to
receive certificates from the state to enter normal schools or the
university. There seems to be a very pleasant relationship between
the church schools and the state officials. One of the priests told
the investigator that any representative of the state was welcome
at a school, “provided he does not claim any authority, but they are
too busy with their own affairs to pay much attention to us.” These
schools represent the work of eight grades and the secondary school.
A very few have university work, and where these courses are given
the standard is below that of the state university.

The buildings are similar to the old type two-story ward buildings
in the public school system but they are generally in poor repair
and lack modern equipment. Many have provision not only for
day pupils but for boarders also. One of the most noticeable features
is their extreme cleanliness. Little effort is made to beautify class-
rooms although plants and flowers are sometimes found and religious
pictures adorn the walls.

The teachers are Sisters or Brothers who have been prepared
in Catholic convents or universities. They consecrate their lives
to the work and secure in return food and a home, and occasionally
a small sum of money—never more than $20 a month. In almost
all cases the teachers were found to be kind and considerate and
especially interested in the physical and religious welfare of the
children in their charge.

The state course for common schools is the basis for instruction
in the grades of these parochial schools. In addition to the regular
subjects, the study of the catechism and religious subjects forms
an important part of the curriculum. In the high schools the Latin
preparatory course is universally found. Occasionally some com-
mercial work is given but the equipment is usually inadequate and
the subject not featured. There is practically no vocational work
largely because of lack of funds and poorly equipped buildings.
“As we can not do everything we attend to the intellectual life and
leave the things of secondary importance.’”’ Home economics is
limited to the housework done by the girls boarding in the school.
There is no vocational work for boys.
100 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

According to the reports given by the superintendent and
truancy officers, there is even more irregularity of attendance in
parochial schools than in public schools and it is difficult to enforce
the compulsory education law. The enforcement is now in the
hands of the public school officials in the district where the parochial
school is situated but there is too often lack of interest on the part
of the local truancy officer in the truants of these schools. Some-
times it is possible for the school to keep in touch with the family
through its church affiliation and secure regular attendance. Children
of the parochial schools often leave as soon as the law allows them
to go to work. This can be attributed in many cases to poverty
but undoubtedly the unattractivenss of school buildings and curri-
culum repel the child as he reaches adolescence.

Recommendations

1. There should be regular state supervision over the course
of study in all schools having children of compulsory attendance
age enrolled.

2. Local truancy officers should be held strictly accountable
for the enforcement of the compulsory education law in these private
schools.

8. Vocational work should be introduced into the curriculum.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS

The six normal schools are situated in different parts of the
state and had in 1916 a total enrollment of 9562 students, 3533 in
regular winter courses and 6029 in summer courses. These schools
prepare students to teach both in rural and independent districts
but most go into the latter. There are two departments, the normal
academy which offers four years of secondary work in accordance
with the curriculum provided for accredited high schools, and the
regular two-year normal training course. There are many more
students enrolled in the preparatory department which often serves
as the local high school for the community in which the institution
is situated, than in the normal school proper. This is one of the
weaknesses of the system. The course of study is often adapted to
the special needs of this group of younger and less advanced students
to the neglect of the work of the upper years and the school, instead
Education 101

of being a specialized institution for normal training work, is inclined
to develop into a high school offering two years of advanced study.

The course adopted for the normal schools was prepared by a
council of normal school presidents and approved by the State Board
of Education. It is divided into five groups of subjects under the
following heads: the general, the history-English, the science-
mathematics, the foreign language, and the rural teachers’ courses.
As can be seen from the titles, these courses enable students to
specialize in what chiefly interests them and to prepare themselves
for the teaching of particular subjects. They cover six years of
work with the exception of the rural teachers’ course which may be
completed in four years. All require in the senior year special work
in observation and teaching, history of education, and the philosophy
of education and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, the rural teachers’ course is not a popular one
and only a small per cent of students elect it. The president of one
state normal told the investigator that at the time he knew of but
one student in the institution who intended to make rural school
teaching a profession. The presidents and teachers recognize their
inability to interest students in the country schools. While they
are attempting to make these courses more attractive they are
aware that social conditions in the rural community prevent the
students from choosing this work.

Vocational work is provided for regardless of the course elected.
This consists of home economics, manual training, agriculture and,
of course, specific normal training subjects. The equipment is
good and the courses well planned and well taught. In home econ-
omics some attempt is made to give students not only the actual
knowledge necessary for understanding and teaching the subject
but also to arouse their interest in special problems they will meet
in school work, such as preparation of hot lunches, and special diets
desirable for school children of different ages. This work is only
beginning and is still in a somewhat crude form but in the four
normal schools visited at least elementary work along this line had
been started.

There is too little practical work done in connection with
courses in agriculture. In all schools some attempt at school yardens
was made but there was no record of either observation or actual
work on the nearby farms and the knowledge of the subject acquired
102 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

was somewhat superficial. The curriculum provides for three
different courses in agriculture: first, animal husbandry; second,
a study of the fundamental principles of agriculture including crop
and fruit production; and third, crop husbandry. If these subjects
were given in connection with practical farmwork they would prove
extremely useful.

The manual training course includes both wood and metal work.
An interesting course in rural mechanics is also given as an elective.
This is a “careful study of rural conditions and general occupational
outlook and service for the rural child.” Methods of helping the
farm boy and girl in construction work, labor-saving devices, home
decoration and furnishing are also presented. Unfortunately only
a few of the students elect this course.

The most important phase of vocational work is represented
by the practice school. In each of the state normals a school from
the primary through the eighth grade is established and children
living in the city take advantage of the opportunities given here.
These schools are under the direction of skilled critic teachers who
supervise and plan the work, assisted by the normal students who
are receiving their training. All students must observe in this
school and also teach one hour a day for 120 days in their senior
year. It is the duty of the critic teachers to train these students to
observe the important features of school routine, to aid them in
forming lesson plans and to give helpful and constructive criticism
of the work done by the student teacher. Each student teaching
in this school is required to make a weekly outline of the work she is
preparing to teach. There must also be a definite lesson plan for
each lesson. These are submitted to the critic teacher before the
teaching period so that the child will be assured a well-planned
lesson. Weekly conferences are held at which special problems are
discussed. As a general rule the critic teachers try to advise students
to specialize in subjects in which they reveal most ability.

The summer courses held at all these normal schools have a
very large enrolment, teachers both from independent districts and
rural communities attending in great numbers. This results in
improvement of schools throughout the state. The courses are similar
to the winter ones but adapted to the shorter term. In addition
special school problems are presented according to the needs of the
group enrolled.
Education 103

The buildings of the state normal schools are for the most part
modern, well-planned and well-equipped. Most of the teachers are
graduates of universities and many continue their study during
the summer terms. The president of one of the normal schools told
the investigator that he encouraged the teachers to spend one of
the four periods of the year in study instead of in teaching and that
promotion and increase in salary resulted from this plan.

Recommendations

J. All high school work should be removed from the normal
schools and the time given to the instruction of graduates of accredited
high schools who are preparing to teach. If there are not enough
students to warrant the maintenance of six schools after the prepara-
tory departments have been eliminated, these six might be so com-
bined as to form three, giving normal instruction only.

2. Greater emphasis should be placed on rural school teaching
and efforts made to show students that the greater need is in this
field. The students should be trained not only in the subject matter
to be taught but in ways of raising rural schools to a higher standard,
such as arousing community interest, beautifying school grounds,
and developing social centers.

3. The system of practice teaching should be changed from
one hour a day for 120 days to four full days a week for eight weeks.
Under the present system the student-teacher secures good training
in scientific methods but gains little experience in the actual problems
of school management. If four days were given to the actual teaching
and one day to conference and criticism, the student would be
better prepared to meet the problems of his first school. It would
also be better for the children in the practice school as under the
existing system they are under the direction of too many teachers,
and this is especially confusing to children in the early grades.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

In addition to the recommendations attached to the several
sections of this chapter, the following changes in the school laws
are suggested:

1. The compulsory education law should be changed to read
as follows:
104 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

It shall be unlawful for any parent or guardian living in the state of
Oklahoma to neglect or refuse to cause or compel any person or persons
who are or may be under his control as children or wards to attend
and comply with the rules of some public, private or other school or
schools unless other means of education are provided, during the full
term the schools of the district are in session, which shall apply to all
children of the district over the age of eight and under the age of eighteen,
unless they are prevented by mental or physical disability, the question
of disability to be determined by the school district board or board of
education upon a certificate of a duly licensed and practising physician;
provided, however, that this requirement shall not apply to a child
between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years who is (1) regularly
and lawfully employed and has satisfactorily completed the work of the
sixth grade of the public schools or its equivalent, or (2) who has satis-
factorily completed the full course of instruction provided by the public
schools of the district where he resides.

2. For the purpose of enforcing the compulsory education law
it should be the duty of the principal or head teacher of each school
to keep records of the attendance of all children and notify the
county or city truancy officer, weekly in rural and village districts,
daily in independent districts, of the absence of every enrolled
child between the ages of 8 and 18, together with cause of such
absence if known. It should be the duty of every parent, guardian
or any other person having charge of any child of compulsory at-
tendance age to notify the teacher of the school concerning the
cause of absence. Truancy officer and teachers should be required
to report to the school health officer all children absent on account
of illness.

3. The distribution of the state school funds among the counties
should be based on the average daily attendance of children for
the preceding school year instead of the enumeration. The state
should then require each county to enforce the compulsory edu-
cation law and in the event of any county’s failure to do so that
county should be deprived of all state funds for school purposes.

4. The State Board of Education should be authorized to super-
vise the work of county and city truancy officers and to remove
such officers upon proof of incompetency or failure to enforce the
compulsory education law.

5. All deaf, blind, seriously crippled, incurably diseased, and
feeble-minded children found through the school census should be
reported by the county truancy officer to the State Board of
Education 105

Education, and also to the Commissioner of Charities and Correction.
The county truancy officer should follow up such children and see
what disposition is made of their cases.

6. The State Fire Marshal should inspect public and private
schools with regard to fire protection, and order and require ne-
cessary installation.

7. Free textbooks should be provided for all children in all
public schools.

8. All teachers’ certificates should be issued by the State Board
of Education.

9. The State Board of Education should approve all plans for
school buildings and no schoolhouse should be built without com-
plying with the minimum requirements fixed by this board.

10. Medical inspection should be established in all schools.
CHILD LABOR
Lewis W. HINE

There is a very complacent attitude toward child labor through-
out the state and a general feeling that “we haven’t any of it here.”
It is true that in stores, factories, and mines its extent is quite limited
but in street trades and rural work a large number of children are
engaged.

This fortunate scarcity of children in most of the industries is
due to several factors. Oklahoma is a new state and her industrial
development is just beginning. From now on the further division
of labor and use of mechanical devices will increase the demand for
cheap workers and steps should be taken to prevent possible ex-
ploitation in the future. The progressive attitude of the people
towards education is helping to develop a rational attitude toward
child labor which should be cultivated and encouraged in every way.
Many of the citizens came from progressive communities and be-
lieve that so far as children are concerned, education should take
precedence over employment. Another favorable factor is the work-
man’s compensation law which acts as a deterrent because it is not
to the employer’s interest to hire children as they are more liable
to injury than adults. The 8-hour workday for minors under 16
years has caused some establishments to employ only persons over
that age, and the State Department of Labor in endeavoring to
enforce the provisions of the child labor law has contributed toward
reducing the abuse of children in industry. But there are phases
of the problem as yet untouched by law and hence beyond the control
of any administrative office.

The statements in this chapter are based upon personal visits
to practically all the manufacturing and mercantile establishments
in the state, reinforced by the testimony of social workers, school
superintendents, teachers, and labor officials whose work is most
closely associated with these problems.

Street Trades

By far the most obvious kind of child labor in the state, and
probably the most serious, is found in the streets of the larger cities.
106
Child Labor 107

The number of youngsters plying their trades there is very large,
especially in commercial centres like Oklahoma City where news-
boys are a prominent feature of street life. Boys begin selling papers
at four and five years of age, helping their older brothers, who are
always willing to let the little ones, with their youthful appeal,
relieve them of much of the labor. Many of the children rise early
in the morning as some of the papers are on the street by 6 a.m.,
but they are not out late at night except occasionally when one has
not sold all his copies or wants to spend the evening begging with
his papers as a pretext.

In April the two leading papers in Oklahoma City reported 225
boys from 6 to 15 years of age in their service, 63 of them from 6
to 10 years old. All of these were selling in the streets. Most of
the boys having regular routes as “carriers”? were older. These
figures account for only a part of the actual number engaged in this
work as one paper failed to report and many of the children sell
intermittently or for only a short period.

One morning a four-year-old newsboy was seen coming out of
a lunchroom with 45 cents in nickels which he exhibited proudly,
saying, ‘See what I got in there.” His brother said’ that he made
$1.50 some days. Others about the same age may be found at various
times of the day in public places, the recipients of much mis-spent
sympathy. Several hundred from five years upward come into
contact with the influence of the streets from early morning until
evening.

The most patent result of the work is its influence upon school
attendance. A count of newsboys of school age selling papers during
school hours was made in Oklahoma City one day in March, and
21 were interviewed in two hours’ time by one investigator. Five
of these had never been in school since moving to the city; two of
the five had lived there six months, and three others about a month.
Another had been out of school three months because he had been
expelled. One was kept out because he had the “itch,” but in spite
of this was handling papers and selling them to the public. Two
had measles, another wanted to get a new pair of shoes, one thought
he had to support the family, and one had been transferred to an-
other school but rather than report there preferred to work in the
streets. A 12-year-old boy of an itinerant family that had lived in
the city for six months, said, “I got to make a livin’. Never been
108 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

to school in my life but I got a purty good eddication—sellin’ papers.”
His two brothers, of school age, have also been selling papers daily
and not attending school. In another family five brothers, from 4
to 13 years old, had been out of school a great deal in spite of the
efforts of teachers and truancy officer. The mother said, ‘They
can earn more than the charity society sends. We can’t live unless
they sell papers.”

On a smaller scale these conditions are to be seen in the streets
of the other cities of the state. There is less demand for newspapers
and fewer temptations to truancy in Muskogee, but a dozen regular
and a few transient newsboys from 10 to 15 years of age sell papers
early in the morning, after school, and Saturdays, and occasionally
are excused from school early in order to handle an “extra.” In
Tulsa a few boys of 8 or 10 years of age and more from 12 years
upward begin selling at 4 a.m. but do not sell much at night or during
school hours. Three older “hustlers,” similar to those employed
by metropolitan papers, direct the younger sellers and replace them
to a large extent, weeding them out for the sake of efficiency. The
boys reported some very high earnings, among them an 8-year-old
making $2 a day and upward and a 12-year-old who made $5 on
Sunday. McAlester has a few young boys out early and during
school hours selling out-of-town papers. The manager of the local
paper reported no boys selling for him and said his carriers were
all 14 years old or over.

Similarly, in Shawnee, Enid, Chickasha and other towns, while
at various times newsboys from six years upward were seen, there
was little steady work for them to do. In the very small towns few
children sell papers at any time but as population increases regula-
tion and supervision will be needed, as has been shown in the pre-
ceding paragraphs.

Some of the boys under discussion are habitual truants, attracted
by street life and lacking the right kind of family influences, but
the truancy of a large number is intermittent. Practically all of the
teachers, as well as others who know the children, testify that the
bad influences of the street far outweigh any financial help or
business training that may be derived from this source. They note
its evil effects not only in school work but still more in the degrading
of their moral standards. The street environment develops precocity
and imitation of undesirable adult traits. A common misconception
Child Labor - 109

of the whole situation was shown by a truancy officer who said,
“We have the cooperation of the newspapers. When extras are
out, the managers ’phone to school principals and the children are
excused earlier.’ If any real progress is to be made along these
lines, not only the general public but many officials must come to a
better realization of the dangers inherent in street trading.

No newsgirls were found in any of the towns or cities. The state
labor law prohibits such work by girls under 16 years (disregarding
boys entirely) but as there is no provision for its enforcement their
absence can hardly be attributed to the activity of the authorities.

The sale of the Curtis publications (The Saturday Evening
Post and others) is not attended by the disadvantages referred to
above because there is no selling in the street. These periodicals
are delivered at the homes of subscribers, one day each week, out
of school hours. According to the company’s local manager, about
100 boys from 8 to 14 years old do this work in Oklahoma City and
are encouraged to save their earnings, one boy of 13 years having
saved $500 from the sale of these magazines.

In the larger cities messenger and delivery work also engages
many boys from 10 to 15 years of age who are seen darting through
the streets on their wheels on casual errands which are often mere
excuses for avoiding school attendance. In eight public schools of
Oklahoma City, 44 boys from 10 to 15 years of age were found who
had worked for the messenger and telegraph companies in the past
school term. The managers of these companies reported only 11
boys under 16 years in their employ and expressed progressive
opinions on the question of better standards as to age and super-
vision, but as the actual number delivering messages was much larger
it was evident that they either misjudged the situation or that some
of them were not willing to face the facts.

Regarding night work the officials were still more evasive. The
manager of one of the largest telegraph companies declared they
never permitted boys to go to houses of questionable character
but the messengers themselves who work at night and also many
of the day boys, all ranging from 11 to 15 years of age, almost in-
variably testified to having frequent calls that took them to pros-
titutes in hotels and resorts. Personal interviews with 30 night
messengers of these ages in the larger cities showed that many worked
until 1 a.m. and that two of them were in the office ready for calls
110 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

all night long. Furthermore, according to their own testimony,
the boys are thrown into constant contact with the worst forms of
vice, have intimate knowledge of the underworld, its gambling,
drunkenness and prostitution, and some have learned to associate
with and help the prostitute and bootlegger; all of this in spite of
the fact that street-walking and other activities of the underworld
seemed to be fairly well controlled in most cities of the state. So
long as the messenger can be of use in this miserable business he
will be utilized either openly or under cover. Juvenile court judges,
probation officers, teachers, and social workers unite in the demand
that boys be eliminated from such work for it is the only way to
stop this education in vice.

Other boys were found delivering packages for groceries, drug-
stores, and miscellaneous establishments. The most striking features
of this service are the irregularity of the work, its temporary char-
acter, the lack of supervision, the youth and irresponsibility of the
workers, the small wages, and in some cases the long hours. The
demands for their services fluctuate even from day to day, creating
periods of overwork and idleness; most of their jobs last only a
few weeks, tending to cultivate habits of casual effort; too much is
left to their own unguided initiative; and the bad influences of the
street environment frequently prove too much for them, as the
majority of these boys are only from 9 to 18 years of age and some
are compelled to work until 9, 10 and even 11 pm. In most cases
they earn, when working, from $1 to $3 a week, but their earnings
seldom compensate them for what they lose; in fact there is little
to be said in favor of such employment for children and much to
be said against it if the best interests of the child, the employer, and
the consumer are considered.

Another phase of street work in which a few boys are employed
is that of public chauffeur. The lives of pedestrians and riders alike
are subjected to extra hazard when boys from 15 to 18 years of age
are permitted to drive automobiles with little or no supervision as
to age, qualifications, license and hours. A recent case brought this
very vividly to the attention of the public when a reckless 15-year-
old public chauffeur ran over and killed a man. He was imprisoned
for a short time and then released on account of his youth but within
a few weeks it was reported that he was back at the same work
again after the demand for public safety had died down.
Child Labor 111

Stores and Factories

At the time this study was made these establishments were
creditably free from children under 16 years of age. The few in-
stances of such employment found merely gave point to the general
feeling that more efficient inspection and enforcement is needed and
must be provided, especially before the industries become more
highly developed. There are only two inspectors of factories and
workshops for the entire state and provision must be made for an
adequate staff to insure general observance of the labor laws. It
is absurd for the state to expect two inspectors to do this work.

Most of the employers in the industrial and commercial centres
were interviewed and gave the following reasons for not employing
more children under 16 years: ‘We do not believe in working children
so young, they ought to be in school. It is not fair to them to let
anything interfere with their education.” “We do not find it
economical to work young children. It costs so much time and
money to train them that we can get much better returns if we take
children a little older, who are more responsible and efficient.”
“We cannot take any chance of accidents. It is too dangerous to
have children around the machinery.”

Some of the stores employ young messenger and delivery boys,
and some of the glass factories, according to common report, had
used boys in violation of law. The State Labor Commissioner had
recently obtained conviction on seven counts, four of them for boys
under 14 years and three for boys of 14 and 15 years, against a glass
manufacturing company in Sapulpa. The company plead guilty
and a nominal fine was imposed. When this study was made,
however, but few boys were seen in such places.

The chief telephone company in the state employs some chil-
dren. Operators under 16 years of age are rare and managers say
that older girls are needed for this work, but that girls 14 and 15
years old are used as ticket clerks. The manager of the installation
department for the state reported 10 children under 16 years, most
of them working out of school hours as janitors and messengers—
one boy of 12 years getting $2 a day as “‘cable helper.”” An assistant
manager said that the policy of the company is not to employ any
under 16 years and he thinks this is a fair age limit but cannot
promise that younger ones will not be hired when the demand for
labor becomes greater.
112 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

At Guthrie where the only cotton mill in the state is located
few workers were found under 18 years of age. The absence of young
children was equally noticeable in the laundries all over the state
where practically none under 18 years were seen although some of
the managers said that in summer vacation a few children are em-
ployed as helpers. Only one manager attempted to justify child
labor on the ground of its being good training. He believes that
children should be able to begin this kind of work at 14 years of
age, but says that on account of the 8-hour law it is not possible
to employ them. It is likely that the exclusion of children from the
factories where machinery is used has been due not only to the
working of this law but also to the operation of the workmen’s
compensation law because of the fear that in case of accident damages
would have to be paid by the employer if the injured person were
not legally at work.

Large car-shops, oil and gas wells, some lumber yards and wood-
working plants in different parts of the state employ thousands of
workmen but practically no children under 18 years of age were
found in them; nor were any under this age seen in any other occu-
pations where they were exposed to physical danger.

Most of the child labor problems have developed further in
Oklahoma City than elsewhere for it is by far the largest commercial
and industrial centre. A few cases will show what may be expected
in other cities in the future and point the need for careful planning
to prevent such exploitation. Glen, a frail anaemic lad of 11 years
had become so obsessed by the desire to work that he made a practice
of helping in a bakery until midnight, sleeping on the floor, and
getting up early in the morning to work before he went to school.
He was irregular in attendance at school and so poor in scholarship
that he was graded below his younger brother and sister. On his
way home from work at 3 o’clock one morning he was picked up by a
policeman and some stolen articles were found in his possession.
When taken before the juvenile court he was released as it was his
first offense but even then no one undertook to correct the conditions
under which he lived with a view to preventing a recurrence of
the trouble. Another boy, John, 14 years of age, was carrying out
a remarkable program. In addition to his school work, he made
and packed ice-cream cones daily after school and Saturdays,
working sometimes from 4 p.m. until midnight in violation of the
Child Labor 113

night work provision of the law, earning $8 a week. In the same
shop a 12-year-old boy was working all day, also in violation of the
law. Still another 14-year-old boy was acting as assistant manager
of a large dance-hall and theatre where he ushered, sold “pop” and
acted as general utility boy from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. several nights
a week and at the same time attended school regularly. This had
been going on for several years. In a McAlester macaroni factory
were found two boys of 9 and 11 years helping, and a 15-year-old
boy regularly employed. On account of the machinery used, the
age limit for employment in such places should be 18 years.

Mines

According to the latest available statistics (1915), Oklahoma
ranked fifteenth among the states in the amount of coal shipped,
with nearly 8,500 men employed and 94 mines in operation. These
are located chiefly in the eastern part of the state in Pittsburg,
Okmulgee, Coal, and Latimer counties. The federal census of 1910
records 45 children under 16 years employed as coal mine operatives
but the state labor law passed in that year provides that ‘‘no child
under age of 16 and no girl or woman shall be employed or per-
mitted to work underground in any mine or quarry.”

The Chief Mine Inspector has three assistants, each in charge
of a district. The law requires at least four inspections a year for
each mine but the Chief Inspector reports an average of six. There
have been no prosecutions of mine operators for child labor violations
in the past six years.

During the present year some mines have not been operated
at all while others have been worked only part time. There was
therefore less temptation to employ children, but the testimony
of mine workers, union members, and officials who were interviewed
shows that boys under 16 years are rarely used. Most of the mines
are unionized and the unions are strict about the employment of
children; the contract between the mine operator and the union
contains a clause covering this point. Furthermore, the compen-
sation law and the employer’s liability companies again act as strong
deterrents to the employment of children under legal age. It was
admitted that parents in order to get around the law misrepresent
ages, but the men keep up the standard and bring offenders to the
knowledge of the authorities.

 
114 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

No children under 18 years of age were found working around
oil or gas wells.

There are several defects in the law covering this phase of
child labor. No proof of age is required, either for mining or other
dangerous occupations, and no provision is made concerning the
employment of children above ground around mines or about oil
and gas wells, but only underground in mines and quarries.

The Labor Inspector has assumed authority over child employ-
ment above ground in the vicinity of mines but such overlapping
of effort is wasteful. Inasmuch as the duties of the Chief Mine
Inspector relate to mines, oil and gas wells, the regulation of child
labor in and about such places should be in his care.

One miner voiced the sentiment of many others when he said
that while he was in entire accord with the law he considered it a
still greater problem in mining communities to find ways of keeping
the boys busy after they have lost interest in school because they
feel too old for it and get into the habit of loafing which they are
reluctant to give up for work even when past the age limit.

Administration

The administration of the child labor laws at present is in the
hands of the Commissioner of Labor through the Bureau of Factory
Inspection, the State Mine Inspector (who is not connected with the
office of the Commissioner of Labor), county superintendents of
schools, and local truancy officers. The county superintendents of
schools issue work permits and the factory inspectors and truancy
officers are authorized to inspect them in places of employment.
The local truancy officer is in closer contact with the children than
the county superintendent and it would be desirable to entrust to
him, under the supervision of the local superintendent of schools,
the issuance of work permits in connection with his other duties
of maintaining school attendance and taking the school census.

The county superintendent of schools is directed by law to
approve the ‘“‘age-and-schooling certificates” of children 14 and 15
years of age working in factories, factory-workshops, theatres,
bowling-alleys, pool-halls, and steam laundries, and of children 15
years old in occupations injurious to health or morals or especially
hazardous to life or limb.
Child Labor 115

In some of the larger cities various forms of work permits have
been evolved in the endeavor to meet the need for better supervision.
One attempted to cover in addition to the usual requirements,
behavior, industry, and general questions of morality. The trouble
with these is they are too ambitious in form and ineffective in use.
The persons in charge soon become discouraged over the amount of
work involved and the whole thing lapses into neglect. Another
difficulty is that too much emphasis is placed upon the economic
status of the family for in many cases no question is raised if there
seems to be sufficient need for the child’s earnings.

A radical revision, simplification, and standardizing of the whole
matter should be the next step and provision made not only for the
present but for the future as well. There are likely to be many
industrial changes in the next few years and the needs of the children
must be kept constantly in mind.

Recent reports from the Commissioner of Labor show that a
number of prosecutions have been brought for violation of the child
labor law since August 1, 1917, most of which, the Commissioner
states, have been settled to the satisfaction of the Department of
Labor. In Tulsa alone 55 complaints were filed. Convictions were
obtained and the minimum fine of $10 and costs imposed in cases
against parcel delivery companies, drug stores, grocery stores and
laundries. In the disposition of cases against a telegraph company
for violation of the 8-hour law, there was a misunderstanding so
that though 15 cases were filed, 13 were dismissed with only costs
paid. In all other cases where a fine was not imposed costs were
paid. At Sand Springs, in one case of violation of the night work
section of the child labor law, a fine of $25 and costs was imposed.
Similar cases were brought in Oklahoma City and Muskogee.

Recommendations

CHILDREN UNDER 14 Years. No boy under 14 years and no
girl under 18 years should be employed, permitted or suffered to
work at newspaper selling in any street or public place.

CHILDREN UNDER 16 Years. No child under 16 years of age
should be employed, permitted or suffered to work in any mill,
factory, workshop, lumber yard, store, office, hotel, restaurant,
bakery, laundry, garage, bootblack-stand, place of amusement,
116 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

bowling alley, delivery, errand or messenger service, nor as a driver
or peddiler.

CHILDREN UNDER 18 Years. No child under 18 years of age
should be employed, permitted or suffered to work in or about mines
or quarries, around oil or gas wells, nor in any of the other occupa-
tions commonly specified in child labor laws as dangerous or in-
jurious to health or morals.

Hours. No person under 18 years of age should be permitted
to work more than 8 hours a day nor 6 days a week, nor between
the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., in any of the gainful occupations
prohibited to children under 16 years. Boys 14 and 15 years old
should not be permitted to engage in newspaper selling during school
hours, nor before 6 a.m., nor after 8 p.m.

Work PeErmits. Work permits should be required of all
children under 18 years of age employed in occupations prohibited
to children under 16 years. They should be issued upon personal
application of the child and his parent or guardian, by the city
truancy officer in cities and by the county truancy officer else-
where, upon receipt of the following:

1. Proof of age as specified in the Rules and Regulations for the enforce-
ment of the Federal Child Labor Law;

2. A written statement from the prospective employer, giving the nature
of the employment;

3. Physical fitness of the child for the kind of work to be performed, as
shown by a certificate of a school health officer or public health officer
granted only after thorough physical examination;

4. Educational qualifications as shown by certificate of the principal
of the school last attended, setting forth that the child has satisfactorily
completed the work of at least the 6th grade of the public schools or
its equivalent.

Three copies of the permit should be issued, one to be kept
on file in the office of the issuing officer, one forwarded to the office of
the Commissioner of Labor for filing, and the other to the employer
to be kept on file in his office so long as the child is in his employ,
but to be returned to the issuing officer immediately upon termin-
ation of the employment. These work permits should be open for
inspection to truancy officers, factory inspectors, and health in-
spectors.
Child Labor 117

On application of any employer, the issuing officer should
require of any person seeking work of such employer and repre-
senting his or her age as 18 years or over, the same proof of age as
that required of children under 18 years and upon its receipt should
issue to the employer a certificate of such person’s age:

For the protection of the employer as well as of the worker
age certificates should be issued to minors 18 years of age and over
for occupations prohibited to children under 18 years.

Vacation work permits may be issued to children between 16
and 18 years outside the public school term, for occupations for-
bidden under 16 years, to be valid until the opening of the next
school term, on the same requirements as to age, physical condition,
and promise of employment as the regular work permit, but waiving
the educational qualification.

Children should be required to return to school within one week
of the termination of work if another job is not obtained.

The truancy officer should send to the Department of Labor
monthly the name, age, and place of employment of each child
granted a work permit.

The truancy officer should also issue permits to newsboys
between the ages of 14 and 16 years and should enforce their use.
Each permit should be in the form of a badge to be worn conspicu-
ously by the boy when selling papers.

No fee for issuing a birth certificate should be charged a child
applying for a work permit.

InspEcTION. 1. Regular inspection of places of employment
should continue to be made by the state factory and mine inspectors,
and prosecutions for violation brought by the Commissioner of
Labor and the Chief Mine Inspector within the fields of their re-
spective jurisdiction. Penalties should be prescribed for second,
third, and subsequent offenses, as now only one penalty is fixed for
violation of the factory acts, and one for the mine acts.

2. The State Board of Health through its local officers should
be charged with the oversight of the physical condition of all young
workers to see that they continue to be able to do the work assigned
to them. If either the character of the work or the health of the
child warrants such action, the inspector should recommend to the
issuing officer that the child’s permit be cancelled.
AGRICULTURE
CHARLES E. GIBBONS

As the welfare of children depends principally wpon the economic
condition of their parents and as this in turn is determined largely
by the economic system to which families are obliged to adapt
themselves, it becomes necessary in dealing with our subject to
examine this system somewhat in detail and to measure, so far as
possible, the effect of its various elements in their bearing on families
that seek to gain their livelihood from the soil. Oklahoma’s popu-
lation is chiefly rural and most of the children in the state live on
farms. To judge the situation as it affects this great number of
boys and girls not only must these elements be discussed but the
history of the state’s agricultural development be briefly considered.

Settlement

The state of Oklahoma comprises what were formerly Oklahoma
and Indian Territories. In the former practically all the land was
taken up by citizen settlers under the Homestead Law free of
charge except for the filing fee of $15 or $20 each. Each settler was
allotted a quarter section or 160 acres. The first ‘‘opening”’ for settle-
ment occurred in 1889 and the last in 1906, and this was generally
regarded by the people as the final opportunity to get good agri-
cultural land free of cost. Fabulous stories of the richness and
productivity of the soil had been circulated far and wide and men
from all parts of the country flocked to the new territory. It was
a conglomerate group. The honest farmer seeking a home for his
family, the adventurer craving excitement, the speculator eager for
riches, and the outlaw in search of pastures new, jostled one another
in the great rush for the land of promise.

Here had been the home of the Indian hunter and the buffalo
but after the subjugation of the former and the extermination of the
latter in the ’seventies the land had been gradually taken over by
ranchmen whose great herds of cattle roamed at will upon the
prairie. None of it had ever before been cultivated except small
portions used by the Indians. Most of the early settlers were from

118
Agriculture 119

northern states where the soil and farming methods were unlike
those they were to use in their new homes and to the majority this
new experience was costly, resulting in absolute failure for many.

The Indian Territory was settled in an entirely different way.
About 1830 it was set aside for the Indian by the Federal Govern-
ment and was held in common chiefly by the Five Civilized Tribes—
Creeks, Seminoles, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws—who
came from southern states. Its land could not be sold and the great
numbers of white people who followed and settled there could not
get title to it. Between 1893 and 1902 a federal commission
negotiated with the Five Civilized Tribes for the relinquishment
of their tribal government and the allotment of their land in severalty.
At first restrictions were placed upon the sale of this land by the
Indians but gradually these have been removed until at present they
apply only to full-blood Indians and to a less extent to those who are
more than one-half of the race, while those whose quantum of
Indian blood is less than one-half are free to sell all their land if
they so desire. Of the 101,519 Indians on the rolls, such restrictions
have been removed from all but 32,005.

Practically the whole of the Territory belonged to the Five
Civilized Tribes. Its area is approximately nineteen and one-half
million acres; about fifteen and three-quarter millions were allotted,
two and three-quarter millions sold, and one million remain yet
unsold. It is estimated that of the lands allotted to Indians from
whom restrictions have been removed, not more than 10 per cent
is now in the hands of the original allottees. The rest is owned by
white men.

Agricultural Development

Although the methods pursued in settling the two Territories
were quite different, the problems confronting the agriculturists
were largely the same.

By the terms of the Hatch Act of 1887 the Federal Government
gave each state and territory $15,000 for the establishment of agri-
cultural experiment stations and this was later supplemented by
an additional $15,000 from what was known as the Adams fund,
the Federal Government maintaining supervision of the work.
Because of the serious problems that had arisen in Oklahoma and
120 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Indian Territories, the experiment station came to the front and
began developing activity among farmers in the form of institutes,
the first one having been organized in 1893. These were community
organizations for the express purpose of studying local conditions
and helping in the marketing of products. The greatest difficulty
was that they were not even loosely bound together but were entirely
local in character and worked independently of one another. Recog-
nizing the need for better organization, the territorial legislature in
1901 created a Territorial Board of Agriculture consisting of six
members and the governor (ex-officio). These six members were to
be elected annually by delegates chosen by the county institutes.

Upon the application of not fewer than 15 farmer residents of
a county the Secretary of the Territory issued a charter for a corpora-
tion to be known as the Farmers’ Institute of that county, and as
soon as there were nine duly chartered and organized institutes,
the Secretary of the Territory notified the governor who called a
meeting of the delegates to elect the members of the board. The
required number of county institutes was not secured and the Board
organized until 21 months had elapsed after the passage of the act.
Aside from the general appropriation of funds to cover the mileage
and per diem of the Board members no appropriation was made
to enable them to proceed with their duties until 1903 when the
legislature appropriated $2800 per year for the secretary’s salary
and contingent expenses for the ensuing biennium.

In 1862 Congress by the Morrill Act granted to each of the
states 30,000 acres of land for each representative in Congress to
provide a permanent fund for the endowment and maintenance of
at least one college whose main object should be to teach military
tactics, agriculture, and the mechanic arts without excluding other
scientific and classical studies, with a view to promoting the liberal
and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pur-
suits and professions in life.

Inasmuch as Oklahoma was not a state at this time she did
not share in these benefits. However, through the Enabling Act
specifying the conditions on which statehood would be granted,
Congress reserved and granted to the proposed state section 13 of
the Cherokee Outlet, the Tonkawa Indian Reservation, and the
Pawnee Indian Reservation and also section 13 of all other lands
opened to settlement in the Territory of Oklahoma, as well as all
Agriculture 121

lands theretofore selected in lieu thereof, one-third for the University
of Oklahoma and the University Preparatory School; one-third
for normal schools; and one-third for the Agricultural.and Mechanical
College and the Colored Agricultural Normal University.

Section 12 of the Enabling Act provides that “the following
grant of land is hereby made to said state from public lands of
the United States within said state for the purpose indicated,
namely: For the benefit of the Oklahoma University 250,000 acres;
University Preparatory School 150,000 acres; Agricultural and
Mechanical College 250,000 acres; the Colored Agricultural and Nor-
mal University 100,000 acres; for the benefit of the Normals now
established or hereafter to be established 300,000 acres.” This is
commonly called the New College Fund.

This makes a total of 1,400,000 acres reserved by the Federal
Government for institutions of higher education, and the control
of the income from this land is entirely in the hands of the state
government.

In 1890 Congress passed another law known as the Second
Morrill Act which provided as follows: To each state and territory
for the more complete endowment and maintenance of colleges
for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts now established
or which may be hereafter established in accordance with an Act
of Congress approved July 2, 1862, the sum of $15,000 for the year
ending June 30, 1890, and an annual increase of the amount of such
appropriation thereafter for 10 years by an additional sum of $1,000
over the preceding year, and the annual amount to be paid there-
after to each state and territory shall be $25,000 to be applied only
to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language,
and the various branches of mathematics, physical, natural, and
economic science with special reference to their application in the
industries of life and to the facilities of such instruction.

By the terms of the Smith-Lever Act passed in 1914 the Federal
Government gives the state $10,000 and in addition an amount up
to $50,000, equal to what the state itself gives annually, for
farmers’ cooperative demonstration work. Of all the agricultural
activities in the state this has undoubtedly done the most good,
especially through the county agent whose work will be described
later. The liberal policy of the Federal Government and its deter-
mination to stimulate agricultural development throughout the
122 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

country are evident in this significant series of acts. The achieve-
ments of the states in this field are to be attributed mainly to this
federal impetus.

While the State University, the Colored Agricultural and
Normal University, and the Normal Schools all teach more or less
agriculture, yet it is from the Agricultural and Mechanical College
at Stillwater as a center that the greatest agricultural development
proceeds, and this school handles all the direct appropriations of the
Federal Government. However, early in the history of the insti-
tution, the Territory did not show much appreciation of the advan-
tages of such development. From 1890 to 1899, the territorial
government contributed only $15,000 towards the establishment
and growth of the college and no provision was made for its running
expenses which could not be met out of federal funds. In 1899 the
legislature appropriated $20,000 for buildings and authorized a
levy of one-tenth of a mill for running expenses, but the same legis-
lature diverted $15,000 of the accumulated federal funds and $2,500
per annum to Langston University. The college came out about
even but it now had money for building purposes and this marks the
beginning of its real progress. But the state government still does
very little for agricultural education compared with what the Federal
Government does. Of the total expense for the Agricultural and
Mechanical College for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1916, 36 per
cent was appropriated directly by the Federal Government, 50 per
cent came from the public lands originally set aside by the Federal
Government, and only 14 per cent from direct state appropriation.

The state constitution provides for a Board of Agriculture of
four members, appointed by the governor, and a president elected
by the people. The only qualification required for membership is
that the men shall have had at least five years’ practical experience
as farmers following attainment of their majority. This Board of
Agriculture is the Board of Regents for all agricultural and mechan-
ical schools. It selects all presidents, professors, and employees,
fixes their salaries and prescribes their duties. It has charge of the
live stock sanitary work such as tick eradication, etc., nursery,
orchard, and bee inspection, inspection of feeds and management
of the marketing bureau.

A careful study of the constitution and of the laws passed by
the several legislatures shows that the Board of Agriculture was
Agriculture 123

given broad powers to meet the tremendous responsibility placed
upon it for developing the chief industry of the state. But when it
is remembered that all this responsibility was laid on the shoulders
of untrained men—men of whom the only qualification demanded
was that they be practical farmers of five years’ experience gained
after reaching the age of 21—we do not wonder at its failure in the
early stages. The machinery was provided, the opportunity for
development afforded, and the path of duty clear, but politics and
graft crept in. Public good was forgotten in the pursuit of personal
gain, weak and corrupt men were on the Board, and the affairs of
the Agricultural and Mechanical College sank to a low ebb. Finally
there was a general exposé and the Board was reorganized in 1914.
Since that time its work has been gradually improving but it is still
handicapped by the heritage of former days when confidence in
this vitally important body of public servants had almost been
destroyed.

Resources

From the standpoint of soil, climate, and rainfall few states are
so fortunately situated. The elevation increases from about 500
feet above sea level along the southeast border to nearly 4,000 feet
in the extreme northwest. The greater part of the land is rolling
but portions of the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw holdings
and of Comanche, Kiowa, and Greer counties are broken and
mountainous.

The Arkansas, Canadian, and Red Rivers with their tributaries,
the Cimarron, North Canadian, and Washita extend in a general
southeasterly direction throughout the entire state. The fall of the
land is sufficient to insure effective drainage with but slight loss
from floods.

The soil is a rich red clay or sandstone decomposition. In
many places it is covered with a black alluvial deposit which makes
it highly productive.

The normal temperatures are well adapted to the growth of the
staple crops. Winters are open and mild and few days of work are
lost because of inclement weather; preparation for the spring
plantings can be carried on during the winter months. The mean
annual temperature in the southeast is between 62 and 63 degrees
124 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

and decreases slightly towards the northwest where it is between
58 and 59. The mean annual temperature for the state as a whole
is 59.8 degrees.

The rainfall follows the same general course as the elevation
and temperature. In the southeast the normal fall is between 40
and 45 inches per year. This decreases gradually towards the north
and rapidly towards the west until in the extreme northwest it is
only 15 inches. It is said that 30 inches of rain, if opportunely
distributed throughout the growing season are sufficient for the
staple crops. The growing season is from March 1 to November 1
and two-thirds of the rain falls in this period. The mean annual
rainfall for the entire state is 32:10 inches. The extreme western
tier of counties have only between 20 and 25 inches but the fall
varies more or less and there have been prolonged drouths when
crops suffered severely, but no year of general failure. Comparing
one year with another over a 10-year period, the natural conditions
are favorable for prosperous agricultural development in Oklahoma.

According to the annual report of the State Board of Agriculture
for 1916, the chief crops in the order of their value are cotton, corn,
wheat, grain sorghums, hay, oats, broom corn, fruits, potatoes,
barley, rye, and peanuts, their total value being $177,500,000.
The live stock in the order of their importance are cattle, horses,
mules, swine, sheep, and goats, their total value being $169,000,000.

Most of the cotton is cultivated in the southern part and most
of the wheat in the northern part, the Canadian River roughly
dividing the state into these two sections. Such marked predomi-
nance of a single crop is unfortunate in that it tends to prevent the
diversification so necessary to a complete development of agricul-
tural resources and to the farmers’ independence and contentment.
Other things being equal, there is more prosperity in a region where
diversification of crops is intelligently practised than where the
farmers cling to the one-crop system. This prosperity brings with
it a train of consequences that make for happiness and a higher
standard of living—better homes, domestic conveniences, improved
schools, increased social advantages, better roads and means of
transport and communication.

To attain these conditions, more feed and food crops should be
raised, a greater variety and better grades of live stock, and every
farm should have a vegetable garden, poultry and at least enough
Agriculture 125

hogs and cows to supply the family with meat, milk and butter, for
by raising food for their own families and feed for their stock, farmers
become more independent of the towns. In general terms, the
individual farmer’s acreage at present sown in wheat or cotton should
be reduced and the land so released should be used for the cultiva-
tion of other necessaries, so that a well-balanced diversified system
may be established.

Lack of diversification is most pronounced in the region where
cotton is cultivated, especially among tenants and small land-
owners, great numbers of whom raise little else and have as live stock
only a team of mules. Most of them have no gardens, chickens,
hogs, or cattle. Their one purpose is to raise the cash crop—cotton
—and they cultivate this largely to the exclusion of everything else.
Crops other than cotton, and live stock other than mules, are raised
in the southwestern part of the state, however, where the people
are more progressive and the conditions better.

Land Tenure

Professor Vogt of Ohio State University says: ‘‘Increase in
tenantry destroys every one of the necessary bases of successful
organization and unless some policy is adopted which will lead to
permanency, homogeneity, and stability, the outlook for effective
economic organization in America is not good. . . . The
experience of the race appears to justify the private ownership of
land by the operator thereof for the reason that such ownership
tends to preserve and improve the property held, and to insure its
most efficient use for society. If the principle is accepted that
private ownership of farm lands by the operator is desirable for the
social good, then it follows that constructive measures should be
taken by the state while the problem is not yet acute to prevent the
rise of either a permanent tenant class or of a permanent proletariat
in the country.”

Using the figures furnished by the Board of Agriculture for
1916, we find that in the north 42.2 per cent of the farms are operated
by tenants, and in the south 58.4 per cent. With reference to old
Oklahoma and Indian Territories, we find that in the former there
are 107,227 farms, 40 per cent of which are operated by tenants and
in the latter 87,558 farms, 64 per cent of which are worked by tenants.
Thus it will be seen that the land on the Oklahoma Territory
126 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

side has changed hands in less than 30 years to such an extent
that at present two-fifths of it is farmed by men who do not own it.
On the Indian Territory side not only is the Indian being reduced to
a state of tenancy at a very rapid rate, but the men who are getting
this Indian land are not the men who are farming it, for almost
two-thirds of this land is tenant farmed. This becomes all the more
striking when we realize that the change has taken place in less than
15 years. Of all the farms in the state, 50.8 per cent are rented.

The tenant farmer must deal with the following classes of land-
lords, named in order of increasing importance:

1. Large corporations and companies.

In most instances, especially with the lumber companies, the
men who farm the land are hired on a monthly or yearly basis and
in addition do other work.

2. Indian Cwners.

This situation would not be so bad were it not for the fact that
speculators lease from the Indian much of his surplus land for a period
of five years, then sublease it to the farmer, usually for one year.
The prevailing price paid to the Indian is $1 per acre per year.
The farmer leases it on a crop basis—one-fourth of the cotton and
one-third of the grain going to the lessor. The margin between what
the farmer pays and what the Indian gets would improve the land
very materially but under the present system it is not being used
for such purposes.

3. The non-resident owner.

The land owned by this class has been bought mainly by in-
dividuals seeking safe investment for their money. However,
some of it was acquired on pure speculation. It is usually looked
after by a real estate agent and often is rented on a cash basis,
frequently for more than one year.

4. The business and professional men, especially the banker and
the merchant, living in the small towns.

This is the largest class and the one that has placed the heaviest
burden upon the man who farms the land.

The Tenant

Tenants constitute the largest class of people living in the rural
districts. To improve their condition in life is a fundamental
Agriculture 127

social necessity. Those in the south came largely from the cotton
states where their people before them were renters. They own
nothing but what they can put into a wagon and drive off with.
They have had very little schooling themselves and are indifferent
about the education of their children. They have never cultivated
anything but cotton and do not want to raise anything else. Very
few have vegetable gardens of any description. Their supply of
meat, milk, and butter they buy or go without—most of the time
the latter—and a great many of them are actually on the border
line of starvation. The writer has been in their homes when there
was not enough on the table for even a smaller family. Much has
been written and said about the poverty of the people living in the
congested districts of our cities but little is known of the poverty
in many of these rural tenant homes. The country has been pictured
as a beautiful place to live, where all human wants are supplied—
a picture that never reveals the suffering and privation these tenants
endure in order to live the barrenest kind of a life. The system
that shapes their lives has made them hopeless and ambitionless.
They are disgruntled, suspicious, and antagonistic toward everyone
and every agency that attempts to work in their behalf.

There are three factors chiefly responsible for the making and
perpetuation of this system:

1. The Landlord.

Most of the land is rented on a share crop basis—one-fourth
of the cotton and one-third of the other crops going to the owners.
Under ordinary circumstances this would leave a fair return to the
tenant for his labor and the tenant should be able to buy and own
some land. But very few are passing into the land-owning class.
Frequently they are inveigled into purchasing, especially by specu-
lators, when they are not able or ready to buy and then because of
their lack of business judgment and of knowledge how to handle the
land they soon drop back into the tenant class.

On the whole the landlords are furnishing miserable structures
for residences. Most of them are mere shacks lacking the most
elementary home conveniences. No screens are on the doors and
windows, there are no toilet facilities, and the wells, if any, are un-
protected. The tenant has no place to store his crop, nor even to
store his seed for the next year. Consequently he must sell all his
produce at harvest time—the very time when prices are lowest—
128 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

and then in the spring must buy seed, oftentimes the very same he
sold in the fall.

The landlords have been generally unwilling for the tenant
to have much stock. Fences are poor and they do not want to incur
the expense of building good ones. The landlords generally dictate
the kind of crops to be raised. In the south they have almost uni-
versally insisted on the raising of cotton and when asked the reason
why, a number said the tenants could not steal and eat the cotton.
In many instances they will not provide garden space, and when
they do they frequently insist on the cultivation of so much cotton
that the tenant does not have time to raise vegetables.

The term of lease is usually one year. This means the tenant
moves annually. He has no incentive to become interested in the
land and this constant changing has given rise to a feeling of dissat-
isfaction. He is always looking for a better place. The landlord has
been similarly influenced for he is always looking for a better tenant.

The landlords have generally failed utterly in cooperation.
Many have been successful farmers themselves and now reside in
the towns, expecting their tenants to do just as well as they did
but at the same time demanding more and more money from the
“old farm.” They do not see that it is no longer an individual
proposition and that they must cooperate with their tenants to get
the best results.

However, within the last year because of the emphasis laid on
the national situation by the Federal Government through the county
agents in the feed and food campaign, conditions in this respect
have appreciably improved.

2. The Banks.

As the country was opened up and settled, there was an im-
mediate need of capital to develop the land. Most of the land
especially on the west side was taken up under the Homestead Act
which practically gave the land to the settler, but he had no working
capital. The man who had money found eager borrowers and small
banks sprang up everywhere. Almost anyone who had money
could and did start a bank. Although the territorial laws fixed the
interest rate at 10 per cent a year, the commonly accepted rate was
3 per cent a month. The quality of ‘fitness scarcely entered into
consideration of what a banker should be, and naturally dishonest
as well as honest banks came into existence.
Agriculture 129

In 1907 a law was passed creating a guaranty fund for the
protection of depositors and all state banks were required to con-
tribute to it. This forced all the state banks into involuntary
partnership. The state assumed control but no financial responsi-
bility. The good banks were made liable for the wrongs of the bad
banks. There was no investigation as to the standing of individual
banks. The panic came on and one large bank failed, with a loss
of about $750,000, which nearly depleted the guaranty fund and
forced the issue of guaranty warrants. A few years later the law
was amended so that now the banks have a voice in the management
of banking affairs. All banks are examined by the Bank Com-
missioner, and this has served to recoup the loss and put the fund
on a good basis.

In the meantime usurers were doing a thriving business. - While
it is true that by the heavy failure referred to the depositors did
not lose a dollar, yet the banks themselves sustained the loss and
sought to make it good. The usury question had been up before
every legislature since statehood but was not acted upon until 1915,
largely it is said because the banks needed time to recover their
losses incurred by this failure. There was strenuous opposition to
the passage of the bill but the situation had become so bad that it
simply had to be relieved. The rates being charged were completely
out of reason. The main provision of the law is that when more
than the legal rate (10 per cent) has been charged the lender may
suffer a penalty of twice the amount of interest charged. Its chief
weakness lies in the fact that upon information concerning any
bank violating the law, furnished to the Governor by the Bank Com-
missioner, the former ‘‘may”’ direct the latter to bring suit to have
the charter cancelled.

In territorial days the farmers generally went to the merchants
to buy on a credit basis but the latter charged not only exorbitant
interest on the amount of credit granted, but also an unreasonable
credit price for their goods so that the farmers then preferred to go
to the banks and borrow money with which to trade. Especially
was this true during early statehood days. Since the passage of the
usury law the tendency has been for the farmer to swing back to
the merchant. As a general proposition it is unprofitable for the
banker to violate the letter of the law but there is nothing to prevent
him from investing his capital in general mercantile business.
130 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Credit in many cases cannot be gotten at the banks but the banker
can refer the farmer to a store in which he is financially interested
and where the farmer can get everything he needs.

However, open violations of the law are not uncommon. One
banker told the writer he charged one per cent a month. A white
farmer was paying interest at the rate of 65 per cent per year on a
small loan, and a number were paying 12 to 15 per cent.

According to the customary procedure when a farmer needs
money to ‘‘make his crop” or to “grub stake” himself until his crop
is harvested, he goes to the bank and negotiates a loan, giving a
mortgage on all his stock, tools and growing crops. The total value
of the security is always on a safe margin to cover the loan. Notes
usually run from March 1 to November 1—the general crop season.
Formerly the interest was deducted from the loan when it was made,
but now the interest is added to the face of the note and itself bears
interest from maturity. Many farmers pay the full year’s interest
at 10 per cent for the part of the year their notes run. The system
has had a very decided tendency to force the farmer to raise a cash
crop—one that he can turn into money in the fall to pay his debt.
Many do not break even but carry the balance owed over into the
next year, thus being in debt constantly. These ignorant people
often know they are being charged more than the law allows but
need the money and make a contract to pay so much—feeling honor
bound to pay it regardless of any advantage the law may afford them.

It is true that the banks are not entirely to blame for this
situation, for in many instances the risks have been great. A tenant
may default and drive off with his “‘little ole team of spike-tailed
mules” and all the goods he gave as security, but the system as a
whole has been decidedly in favor of the banks. The Federal Farm
Loan Act benefits only those farmers who already have land which
they can give as security, or who have money to use in the purchase
of land and can borrow the balance of its price from a federal farm
loan association, giving this association a first mortgage on it.

3. The Merchant.

Not all the farmers go to the banks to borrow in order to tide
them over until they realize from the sale of their crops. Many go
to the merchant and give their note for about one hundred dollars
and in exchange are credited with this amount against which they
buy the supplies they need. This note bears interest from its date,
Agriculture 131

although the farmer does not use up his credit for months. The
farmer because of his ignorance, his indifference, and inability to
protect himself, is mercilessly exploited. Like the banker the mer-
chant takes a mortgage on everything the farmer owns and also
his growing crop. The merchant has an advantage over the banker
in that he can charge the legal rate of interest on the credit extended
and in addition sell his merchandise at credit prices which are usually
20 per cent higher than cash prices. A few years ago the situation
had become so bad, that the farmers quit dealing with the mer-
chants except on a cash basis, borrowing the money from the banks.
However the system is gradually changing, until now many farmers
are again dealing only with the merchant. Many of the stores are
run by general mercantile companies selling hardware and imple-
ments, groceries, clothing, and feed stuffs. Once a man has made
arrangements to deal with one of these companies, then all his wants
are supplied from the one store. He has no ready cash to buy
where he pleases until his crop is harvested and even then he must
pay his debts before he is free to trade elsewhere. Frequently the
proceeds from the sale of his crop are not enough to free him from
debt. Some merchants as well as bankers are the so-called ‘‘curb
stone brokers” found standing about upon the streets of the small
towns, buying the products the farmer brings to town. In some
towns especially in the cotton belt there is a general understanding
among these men whereby each enjoys the exclusive right to do
business with certain farmers recognized as his particular customers.
For instance, when a farmer brings a load of cotton to town one of
them will walk out and place his foot upon the hub of the wagon
wheel and begin talking to him. This is the accepted sign that he
is “his customer.”

The price he pays for the products is not always fair. The
writer recently observed an example of petty swindling. A load of
cotton was brought into one of these small towns and the buyer
looked at it and pronounced it of a certain grade. Then the cotton
was ginned and baled. In the meantime the farmer had taken a
sample of it to the government grader who declared it to be one
grade higher than that fixed by the buyer, and this meant $1.25
more to that farmer for each bale of cotton. Buyers are not inten-
tionally dishonest in all cases but it is generally conceded that those
who buy the farmers’ products buy on a safe margin.
132 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Thus it is seen that the farmer is compelied through force of
circumstances to sell his crops at harvest time, oftentimes to the
very men who sell back to him the things he has brought to town and
later needs himself. This so-called business through its buying and
selling process is taking almost the farmers’ entire profit.

The effect of the usury law in reducing the interest rate and
thereby making business with tenants and small landowners un-
attractive to the banker, is to force these farmers into credit relations
with the merchant. This involves merely a change of banker.

Small Farm Owners

The lot of a great many in this group is little if any better than
that of the tenant. President Frank M. Gault of the State Board
of Agriculture estimates that 50 per cent of the farms owned by
farmers are mortgaged, the average amount of indebtedness being
about $1,000. Most of this money has been borrowed from farm
loan bureaus which do a thriving business. Interest rates have been
as high as 8 and 10 per cent but at present loans can be negotiated
on a six per cent basis. The Federal Farm Loan Act will help many
of these farmers, unless, as is often the case, their mortgages are too
heavy to leave enough of the required security in land. In the latter
event it is just a step to tenancy, and indeed quite a number of the
owners of such heavily encumbered small farms are actually passing
into the ranks of the tenants. The frequent foreclosures reported
in the local press bear witness to this condition. The small farming
mortgagor is subject to the same system as the tenant in the cul-
tivation and marketing of his crops—he deals with the local banker
and merchant and in addition is prodded along by the agent of the
loan bureau.

Work of Children on Farms

 

In the report of the National Child Labor Committee’s study
of the causes of absence from rural schools in Oklahoma, we find this
significant statement: ‘‘In the totals for all the groups (of absentees)
farmwork comes first among the causes—and is far ahead of the
next cause, illness. The days of absence due to farmwork and
housework together nearly equal the sum of those due to all other
Agriculture 133

causes combined. This fact shows how serious a factor labor is in
the breaking down of rural school attendance especially as the total
of days absent is much more than a third of the total days present.”
In the springtime we find the children aiding in the work of
preparing the soil for the planting of cotton, corn, grain sorghums,
etc. As soon as these crops are up, we see them hoeing, weeding, and
cultivating. Frequently children are found doing work, especially
in the handling of teams and cultivators, that is unquestionably
beyond their strength. At harvest time we find them shocking the
wheat and oats, shucking the corn, and picking the cotton. The
work is hard and the hours are long. It is no uncommon sight to
see the whole family—father, mother, and children even as young
as five years—going down the cotton rows, dragging long bags
fastened about the neck and shoulders, picking from dawn to dark.
When one sees the children robbed not only of their schooling, but
also of their right to normal childhood, where play has its legitimate
part, it is then he recognizes the injustice of a system that makes
their exploitation necessary in order that the family may live.

The Work of the County Agent

 

The Federal Government, understanding the need of relieving
this distress by imparting to the masses of the people the agricultural
information it had accumulated, began in 1904 what was called
Farmers’ Cooperative Demonstration Work. The immediate
cause was the spread of the Mexican boll weevil in the cotton section.
The Agricultural and Mechanical College had been doing some
extension work. When the Smith-Lever Bill became a law in 1914,
the extension work of the Federal Department of Agriculture and
of the college was made cooperative. A division of extension was
established as an independent division of the Agricultural and
Mechanical College, ranking with the experiment station or college
teaching force. There is a general working understanding between
the Federal Department and the College. Thus the county agent
who is jointly employed, stands as the direct representative to the
people of the Federal Department of Agriculture and the Agricul-
tural and Mechanical College.

From the very start the county agent found his most fertile
field for work in the landlord because not only had the ravages of
134 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

pests cut down returns from the land, but also the system of farming
was making the soil produce less. The county agent was welcomed
at first by the landlords and his function was looked upon and rightly
so, to increase production. But the landlord failed to see that the
agent had other things to do, things that would strike at the very
root of the tenancy problem. The county agent’s work may be
fairly said to fall into four divisions, the first three of which are
well advanced.

1. The education of the adult farmer. He is not only helping
by increasing production but also proving to tenant and landlord
the value of diversification. His program of farming in the south
is one-third cotton, one-third grains, and one-third feed stuffs on
every farm. This same program applies to the north by substituting
wheat for cotton. There has been more feed and food raised in
the present year than ever before in the history of the state. The
agent is helping (1) to show the value of live stock, not only en-
couraging the raising of more’stock but better grades; (2) to bridge
the gap between the interests of the towns and of the rural districts;
(8) to make the relation between the landlord and tenant better;
(4) to replace the one-year lease with a long term lease; (5) to con-
serve the fertility of the soil; and (6) to establish farm loan asso-
ciations in order that those who own land may take advantage of
the Federal Farm Loan Act.

2. The education of the children or the development of the boys’
and girls’ club work. It is in this branch of the county agent’s
work that the most far reaching effects are to be found. Two things
are being taught the children, the value of ownership, and business
accounting. They are urged to buy a pig, or a calf, or plant an acre
of corn, or cotton, etc. If the child does not have the money, or
the parent cannot furnish it, the county agent usually makes arrange-
ments for the child to borrow it, giving the pig or calf as security.
The child is required to keep a strict account of all factors entering
into the cost of production and at the end of the period he knows
and appreciates what that pig, calf, acre of cotton, corn, etc. has cost.
He compares his products with those of other club members and
the rivalry is indeed very keen especially when exhibitions are held
at the county and state fairs.

3. The development of community life. One of the drawbacks
of rural life is its isolation, lack of social intercourse and wholesome
Agriculture 135

tecreation, and it is to counteract this that the county agent is
organizing clubs and centering them about the school houses. Here
the farmers with their families may come and enjoy a sociable and
discuss the problems common to them all. Cooperation is the
result.

4. The standardization and marketing of produce. The farmer
should have a fair price for produce of standard quality. He now
receives only an average price. There is no incentive to him to
raise a high grade product unless he gets its proportionate value over
the man who raises a medium or poor grade. On the other hand the
buyer can and will pay more if he knows that what he is buying is
of standard grade and quality.

The great difficulty with the work is that the county agent’s
duties are so many and varied and the counties so large that he does
not come in contact with as many farmers as he should. He should
have more time to give to the organization of farm loan associations.
It is only as the county agent is able to get hold of tenants, show
them how and what to plant, how to save and economize, and in
general be their adviser, that there is hope of their acquiring owner-
ship of land. And it is only when they have land or money to buy
it that the Federal Farm Loan Act can help them. The majority
of the tenants do not and cannot accumulate anything under present
conditions. Their lot would be much better if they only knew how,
and the county agent is trying to teach them. Each agent should
have several assistants.

The county agent should be relieved of the club work. This is
primarily educational and should be done by the schools. The
development of these clubs by another agency is itself a charge of
failure of the rural school system. The rural school authorities
have turned a deaf ear to vocational education. Many of the county
superintendents are either too busy politically or too indifferent to
the value of this work to cooperate in its development. Too many
of the teachers are unprepared to help. It will remain a part of the
county agent’s work until the school system itself is changed.

The county agent stands out as the best single exponent of
what agriculture should be in the state to-day and the Agricultural
and Mechanical College through this branch of its work is reaching
more people and doing more to correct the evils of the system than
through any other of its activities.
136 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Schools

With regard to special training of teachers for rural service
the situation is discouraging. The constitution provides that agri-
culture shall be taught in the rural schools and although this pro-
vision has been vitalized by law, very little attention has been paid
to the matter. What is taught is most perfunctory and the require-
ment is a dead letter—largely because teachers do not know how
to teach it.

So long as the higher institutions of learning lay so little em-
phasis on knowledge of agriculture as a qualification for teaching,
it is hardly to be expected that second and third grade teachers
whose education along agricultural lines is at best second hand, will
go into the rural schools and really teach agriculture. The difficulty
with the rural school teacher is not so much that she has not had
training as that she has had the wrong kind of training. Dead
languages are not suitable standards in preparation for such service.
But little thought has been given to real development of vocational
agricultural education. A very small percentage of rural school
pupils will ever go beyond the eighth grade, and the education they
are receiving is of little practical value to them.

The equipment, buildings, and grounds of most of the rural
schools are anything but inviting. The total value of the 5,951
school buildings and lots in rural districts is approximately one-
third that of the 960 buildings and lots in city and village districts.

In 1916 the lands, buildings, and equipment of the State Uni-
versity, the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the six normal
schools were valued at $2,659,451. In 1915-16 there were 13,245
students at these institutions, or an investment of $200.77 per student.
The investment per child in rural schools is $18.56 and this is a
decrease of $1.18 per child in 1916 as compared with 1915. These
figures do not show that the higher institutions of learning have
received one dollar more than they need or should have, but they
do emphasize the fact that the rural school—the ‘“‘college’”’ of the
masses—is not receiving its proper share of the money spent for
educational equipment. Oklahoma is primarily an agricultural
state and most of its children live in the rural districts and will be
found there for years to come. The grammar and high schools
as feeders for the higher institutions of learning receive most con-
sideration but there can be no real educational development so long

 
Agriculture 137

as the rural schools, the chief factor of the system, are neglected.
All the parts of a state’s educational system from the primary grades
to the college, must grow and progress together, and no one of the
parts should be developed out of proportion to the others.

Taxes

 

Schools receive support from three sources, state, county and
district.

1. State. The largest part of the income from the state is
derived from school lands. In the Enabling Act Congress set aside
sections 16 and 26 of each township for common school purposes.
This applied only to Oklahoma Territory. In lieu of lands on the
Indian Territory side, Congress appropriated $5,000,000. Congress
appropriated in 1916 $275,000 towards the support of schooling for
Indian children. This is paid directly to the districts on an attendance
basis—10 cents per day for each child that attends. The state also
makes a direct levy of one-fourth of a mill for common school purposes.

2. Each county may levy not to exceed one mill for common
school purposes.

3. The district through the school board may levy up to 5 mills
for the maintenance of common schools. This can be raised, not
to exceed 15 mills by vote of the electors of the district. Of the
$9,564,342 spent for common schools in 1916, only 40.4 per cent
was spent for rural schools although they have 56.1 per cent of the
total enrollment. The raising of 62 per cent of the money used for
rural school purposes is in the hands of the boards of rural districts
and the electors of those districts. These people, often ignorant, are
not opposed to schools but do not know their value. To them the
raising of their taxes is almost the greatest calamity that can happen.

A tax of one-half of one per cent on the gross production of oil
is also levied for school purposes. This is collected by the state and
paid directly back to the county from which it came. This extra
benefit from natural resources makes it unnecessary to levy addi-
tional local taxes. There is at least one county in the state in which
not one district exceeded the 5 mill levy last year. On the other
hand there are many districts, especially where there is much Indian
land, that levy the limit and still do not have enough properly to
run the schools. Manifestly in this connection the system of taxa-
tion is unfair.
138 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

The compulsory attendance law is a failure. As pointed out
by the National Child Labor Committee in its report on the causes
of absence from rural schools, ‘‘the simple fact brought out by this
study is that in rural districts, the compulsory attendance law is
commonly ignored. It is at best a poor law for its purpose but it
cannot be doubted that attendance would be better if it were en-
forced. Its weakness lies in its application to only 66 per cent of the
school term, but as according to figures of Table B, children were
present in the school year just passed only 59.8 per cent of the time
they should have attended, it seems that even the meager possi-
bilities of the law as it is were not developed. The law is poor but
the attendance is poorer.”

It was not possible to ascertain how long the schools were
actually attended by the children of families that changed their
places of residence in the school year because in most of these cases
it was not known where they had gone nor whether they enrolled
after reaching their new homes. The following figures are based
on the complete records of 4,290 children affected by the compulsory
education law who were enrolled last year in 174 rural schools in
10 counties. The law requires children between 8 and 16 years to
attend school only 66 per cent of the time it is in session. Of those
of these ages whose absences from school were due chiefly to farm
work, only 51.9 per cent kept within the requirements of the law.
In other words, 48.1 per cent of the farmworking absentees violated
it—they attended only 44.4 per cent of the time instead of the 66
per cent required.

Of those within the age limits mentioned whose absences were
caused principally by housework, 68.8 per cent observed the law.
The 31.2 per cent who failed to observe it were present in school
only 46.5 per cent of the time.

The non-working absentees, that is those who missed on account
of illness, bad weather, distance from school, indifference, etc., have
a much better record, 80.3 per cent of them having obeyed the law.
The 19.7 per cent of this group who violated it attended only 40.7
per cent of the time.

It is a curious coincidence that only 66 per cent of all the chil-
dren were present at school 66 per cent or more of the time. One-
third of the entire group did not comply with this very modest
requirement of the law. The striking fact is that the working
Agriculture 139

children make the worst showing. But what can be expected when
their parents are struggling for a livelihood against such heavy odds?
Inevitably the boys and girls are kept out of school to aid in the
work on the farms.

Consolidated Schools

The consolidated schools have indeed had a hard uphill struggle.
This failure to develop is largely due to the fact that the state has
not held to the program originally made. By the terms of the
Enabling Act Congress set aside section 383 in each township for
public buildings, penal and charitable institutions, etc. This was
commonly called the Public Building Fund. However, Congress
reserved sections 33 in Greer County “for such purpose as the legis-
lature of the future state may prescribe.” Accordingly the legis-
lature of 1911 set aside this land amounting to 40,480 acres, the in-
come of which was to be used for consolidated schools and the
legislature of 1913 appropriated $100,000 of this accumulated fund
for these schools. The legislature of 1915 failed to make an
appropriation from this fund but that of 1917 made $125,000
available.

In 1913 the legislature after a bitter fight set aside the residue
of the Public Building Fund as a union graded or consolidated school
fund. This was to be for building purposes only. There was some
question as to the constitutionality of the act (no court has passed
upon it) and inasmuch as money was needed to build the Capitol
the legislature of 1917 repealed it. No appropriation for these
schools was ever made from the fund. It was estimated to have been
about two million dollars. In lieu of this, and in order to establish
a precedent with reference to this so-called Building Fund, there
was secured as a compromise a direct appropriation of $50,000 from
the general revenue funds for these schools. Thus the state is now
appropriating $175,000 annually for these schools.

In the six years that have passed since the consolidated school
program was started but little progress has been made. The people
have not fully appreciated their value and at times the state has
not adhered to the program agreed upon. [ft is well known that
these schools cost more than the district schools they supplant but
the results obtained are far ahead even in proportion to their cost.
140 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Conclusion

In summing up, we find that the methods of farming and land
tenure together with the school system fail to overcome the evils of
poverty and ignorance. The state has by its neglect and by bad
laws permitted to develop two well-defined groups of people—the
banker-merchant-landlord class and the tenant-small-landowner
class. The breach between these two classes has been widening,
although the work of the county agent tends to bring them to-
gether. The former class has lived and largely made its money from
the latter class. This latter class is not only the product of the
prevailing system but also the product of its own misfortune. The
state must recognize that here is a large group of people, who, from
an economic and business standpoint, are incapable under present
conditions of taking care of themselves. They need not only pro-
tection against those who have been adding to their burden but also
protection against themselves. The state provides for its feeble-
minded, insane, dependent, and criminal wards, and as its economic
misfits cannot or will not take care of themselves, then why not
provide for them also? These people do not need cheap money—
they need to know the simple principles of thrift and economy.
They must be taught to help themselves. Competence cannot be
superimposed from without but nust be developed within. Laws
cannot create better conditions but they can create the opportunity
for improvement. If the state will develop a wise system of laws
based on knowledge and sympathetic understanding ‘of these
unfortunate people, the majority of them can rise up and make
themselves economically fit.

The present rural school system has outlived its usefulness
and should be practically revolutionized. Even as it is, rural
children have not had their fair share in money spent for buildings,
equipment, or the training of teachers. The curriculum is furnishing
them very little that will help them in after life.

The county unit system should be established and the entire
school system taken out of politics. Vocational agricultural edu-
cation should be the leading feature of the rural curriculum.

If the school will honestly and earnestly do the part it can and
should do, ignorance will be removed. Until that day comes Okla-
homa’s progress will not be shared by all her people alike.
JUVENILE COURTS AND PROBATION

MaBeEL Brown ELLIS

Origin and Development of the Juvenile Court Law

 

The Juvenile Court Law of Oklahoma was passed in 1909.
Drafted at the request of the first State Commissioner of Charities
and Correction by experts familiar with the operation of similar laws
in older states, its provisions were fully abreast of the most advanced
legislation of the time. The law made the establishment of a juvenile
court compulsory upon every county in the state, utilizing the
already existing county courts of probate for this purpose. It
embodied the three cardinal principles of juvenile court theory:
a civil procedure, designed not to punish the child as a criminal,
but to correct the social conditions which brought him to court;
the separation of the child from adult criminals, by giving him a
private hearing and by forbidding his commitment to jail either
before or after trial; and the establishment of a probation system
for interpreting the real causes of the offense to the judge and for
giving friendly supervision to any child who might safely, under
such guidance, be permitted to return to his home. Unfortunately,
the juvenile court was not given power to prosecute the adult re-
sponsible for the delinquency or dependency of the child and such
an act has not yet been made an offense by the Oklahoma code.
Neither has the code been influenced by the recent socio-legal move-
ment which is in certain states gradually transforming the juvenile
court into a court of domestic relations by extending its jurisdiction
to cover all cases involving the entire family group, as bastardy,
desertion and non-support cases, the administration of widows’
pensions and prosecutions against violators of the child labor and
compulsory education law.

In other words, the Oklahoma Juvenile Court Law, excellent
in its conception, has failed to keep pace with the advancing stand-
ards of other states. In one respect it has taken a decided step
backward. For reasons variously stated, the legislature of 1915
repealed that section of the law which permitted the appointment

141
142 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

of probation officers. The law originally provided that the officer
might be appointed by the county judge, “by and with the approval
of the county commissioners” and the salary was fixed at $50 a month.
Administrative difficulties arising from the failure of the commis-
sioners in certain counties to ratify the appointment of the probation
officer by the judge; dissatisfaction over the arbitrary fixing of the
salary at $50, which in practice was too small for the large courts
and too large for the small courts; and misuse of the position for
political purposes, are among the reasons given. It is said that
the act which abolished the office was slipped through as rider to
another bill and that few members of the legislature realized what it
involved.

The constitutionality of the law establishing the juvenile court
was upheld in the test case of Powell vs. State (6 Oklahoma 495).
A boy under 16 had been sentenced to the State Penitentiary by the
district court. The State Commissioner of Charities and Correction
sought his release by writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the
district court had no right to try any child under 16, unless his case
had first been heard in the juvenile court and jurisdiction had been
waived. The question raised was whether the juvenile court law
thus interpreted was an invasion of the constitutional right of the
district court to commit for felony. The Supreme Court held that
far from being a usurpation of powers, it was the duty of the juvenile
court to handle all such cases and that the action was within the
constitutional rights of the State Commissioner.

We have then at present in Oklahoma a juvenile court law,
the constitutionality of which has been definitely established, which
is state-wide in application, and which embodies the fundamental
principles of juvenile court theory, but has for two years deprived
the judge of his right hand,—the probation officer. How does the
law work out in practice?

Method Followed in Investigation

 

As a guide to the counties where intensive studies of the juvenile
court law in operation would be most likely to answer the question
for us, the reports which the juvenile court judges are now required
to send quarterly to the State Commissioner of Charities and Cor-
rection were carefully analyzed.
Juvenile Courts and Probation 143

Out of the 77 counties in Oklahoma which should have sent
four reports each during 1916, 11 failed to report at all; 8 made
one report only; 17 made two reports; and 19 made three.

Even when the reports are fully filled out, it is impossible to
check up on them with any degree of certainty. From a statistical
standpoint, the blank forms now sent out from the office of the
State Commissioner of Charities and Correction are so arranged
that it is practically impossible to tabulate the totals. Further,
the looseness of terminology which our study found everywhere
clouding the classification of children (see page 145) made it im-
possible to determine the relative proportions of known dependency
and delinquency in any given county.

But incomplete and inadequate as these reports proved to
be, they were the best available. In combination with the geo-
graphical and industrial considerations, which would naturally lead
to the choice of certain counties different in type, they guided our
selection of the 20 courts which were covered, more or less completely,
in the study. These courts threw light on the juvenile court situa-
tion in Oklahoma from three distinct angles.

Oklahoma, Muskogee, Tulsa and Garfield Counties have as
county-seats the largest and most representative towns in the state,
Oklahoma City, Muskogee, Tulsa, and Enid. Industrial and social
conditions in each are such that juvenile delinquents are brought
before the courts in larger numbers than elsewhere in Oklahoma,
and they have a correspondingly large group of dependent children.
Each one of these cities has an associated charities, humane society
or other kindred organization, so that the court has an opportunity
to cooperate with other social agencies. It was natural to expect that
the most advanced work in the state would be found in these centres.

On the other hand, Alfalfa, Bryan, Canadian, Custer, Jackson,
Logan, Mayes, Rogers, Wagoner, and Washington counties repre-
sent the strictly rural type of community. Geographically they
extend from Texas to the Kansas border and from the eastern to the
western tiers of counties. The work done by their county courts,
it was believed, might fairly illustrate what is being accomplished
in spite of difficulties by the rural judge.

Coal and Pittsburg counties are in Oklahoma’s mining district
where the presence of foreign labor and foreign standards of living
complicates the problems of dependency and delinquency.
144 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Comanche, McIntosh, Pottawatomie, and Stephens counties
were chosen partly because they had filed no reports at all during
1916, and it was felt desirable to investigate some of the non-
reporting counties, and partly because they were convenient of
access from other centres. All are agricultural counties.

In general, the plan of work was, first, to copy from the original
records at the court house, or the county and city jail:—

1. The number and date of last petition filed. This gave some
idea of the volume of business handled by the juvenile court in each
county since its establishment in 1909.

2. The name, age, sex, charge and disposition of each child who
passed through the court in the calendar year 1916. Names were
recorded because it was frequently possible to trace a child from the
court to the institution, and sometimes to the jail.

3. The name, age, sex, charge, date of admittance and date
of discharge of each child held in the city or county jail during the
calendar year 1916.

Any unusual cases, or any in which the disposition of the child
was not clear were noted for further investigation. A few cases,
chosen at random from the juvenile record, were always checked up
with the original papers in the files, to find out whether the papers
were complete and in order. Particular attention was given in the
study of the records to the forms used, the adequacy of the infor-
mation they called for and the completeness with which they were
filled out.

In the second place, personal interviews were obtained, always
with the county judge who acted as judge of the juvenile court and
whenever possible, with the ex-probation officer or person now acting
unofficially in that capacity, the truancy officer, county sheriff, city
chief of police, chairman of board of county commissioners, secretary
of local charity organization society, or any other available persons
who were familiar with local conditions. They were questioned
about the method of hearing juvenile cases, the method of handling
children pending commitment or preceding trial, the conduct of
the probation work, the actual working relationship between the
court and state and private institutions, the placing-out work carried
on in many counties by the judge, and the local causes of delinquency
and dependency. It was impossible, in the time at our disposal,
to test the value of such probation work as was being done, by
Juvenile Courts and Probation 145

personally investigating any cases. Whenever the records showed
that children had been held in jail, the places of detention were
visited, to note proximity to adult prisoners, sanitation of building,
and quality of food provided.

Extent of Jurisdiction

The juvenile court law of Oklahoma applies to all children under
16 who are dependent, neglected, or delinquent. A later addition
to the code requires juvenile court judges to report “wayward”
girls to the Governor, “who shall provide for them.” In actual
practice “wayward” is usually interpreted as meaning “delinquent.”
The term is nowhere defined. The statute makes no distinction
between the terms “‘dependent” and “neglected.” Section 4412 of
the 1910 code defines a dependent or neglected child as:—

“any child who for any reason is destitute, homeless or abandoned;
or dependent upon the public for support; or has not proper parental
care or guardianship; or who habitually begs or receives alms; or who
is found living in any house of ill-fame; or within a vicious or dissolute
place; or whose home by reason of neglect, cruelty or depravity on the
part of its parents, guardians or any other persons in whose care it may
be, is an unfit place for such a child; and any child under the age of 8
who is found begging, singing or playing any musical instrument upon
the street, or giving any public entertainment, or who accompanies
or is used in aid of any person so doing.”

A delinquent child is ‘‘any child under 16 who violates any law of
the United States or of Oklahoma, or any city or village ordinance; or
who is incorrigible either at home or in school; or who knowingly asso-
ciates with thieves or vicious or immoral persons; or who without just
cause and without consent of parents or custodian absents himself from
home or place of abode; or who is growing up in idleness or crime;
or who knowingly frequents a house of ill-repute or gaming house; or
who visits public pool rooms or bucket shops, or who idly roams the streets
at night; or habitually wanders about any railroad yards or tracks;
or habitually uses obscene, vulgar or profane language; or who is im-
moral in any public place or about any schoolhouse; or is addicted
to intoxicating liquors or any injurious drugs or uses cigarettes.”

The distinction between delinquents and dependents is clearly
drawn in the law, yet children are frequently entered in the juvenile
record as “delinquents” when a glance at the charge against them
shows only dependency.
146 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

In some cases this is due to the carelessness of the recording clerk, but
in one instance a judge who is serving his second term, and who handled
at least 70 children during 1916, told the investigator in all seriousness
that there was no difference in the eyes of the law between a delinquent
and a dependent child, that the two terms meant practically the same
thing. Later, in conversation with the superintendent of the Oklahoma
Children’s Home Society, it developed that the same judge was sending
dependent children to this organization to be placed out for adoption,
but classed them as ‘‘delinquent’’ on the commitment papers.

In another court, action was brought against a 5-day-old baby asa
“‘delinquent.’’

In still another court three little colored girls, 12, 11, and 9 years old,
were committed to the state school for dependent and defective colored
children as ‘‘delinquents,”’ at the request of their mother, on the ground
that ‘“‘she is a widow and unable to care for them.”

Provided the child gets to the proper institution he may suffer
no immediate ill effect from this improper classification, but the
record stands against him on the court books and may some day
be used to his discredit. Further, unless a complete record of the
child is sent with him to the institution, and this is seldom done,
the superintendent may consider him a delinquent child, he may
be placed with the wrong group of children, and his chance at being
placed in a good family home may be correspondingly delayed.

In practice the terms ‘‘dependent” and ‘‘neglected’”’ seem to be
used interchangeably. This is perhaps to be expected since the law
itself applies the same definition to both groups, but it is a great pity
that no attention is paid to the decided difference in parental attitude
which the two terms, when correctly used, imply. Oklahoma has
no law which provides for the punishment of adults contributing
to the dependency or delinquency of children, and action is seldom
begun against the parents who are guilty of neglecting their children,
unless the neglect involves positive cruelty.

Since instances of inaccurate classification were found in nearly
every court visited, the state-wide statistics on delinquency and
dependency among children, which one should be able to compile
from the judges’ reports on file in the office of the State Commissioner
of Charities and Correction, have no value unless the charge against
the individual child is known.

The juvenile court law makes no statement regarding defective
children but the law establishing the State School for the Feeble-
Juvenile Courts and Probation 147

minded provides that the admittance of children unable to pay
charges shall be only on court commitment. Admittance to the
schools for the deaf and the blind is on voluntary application, with-
out court action.

The jurisdiction of the juvenile court, once established over a
child, continues during minority, which is in Oklahoma 18 years for
girls and 21 years for boys, or until the child shall have been dis-
charged on order of the court. The conflict between this section
of the juvenile court law and the provision which gives the privilege
of paroling a child from the institution to the superintendent of that
institution, will be discussed later in the report. (See page 157.)

The judge of the juvenile court may waive jurisdiction in certain
cases and turn the child back to the criminal court for trial.

Only three instances were found in the course of this study where such
action had been taken. All occurred in the same court, under the same
judge. All concerned boys of 15, accused of burglary (three different
cases). In at least one case, there was doubt as to the boy’s age; in the
other two, the details recorded were so meager that it was impossible
to tell the reasons for the judge’s action.

The fact that boys of 16 and under were found in the State Reformatory
at Granite (see report on Institutional Care of Children, p. 182) would
indicate that other judges may also be waiving jurisdiction in cases
which seem to them to involve serious offenses.

Organization and Procedure

 

It is essential, in discussing the organization and procedure of a
juvenile court, to have some idea of the number of cases which are
likely to come before it in the course of a year. Oklahoma has only
ten cities with a population over 10,000, and the largest number of
children handled in 1916 by any court visited in our study (which
included all the largest courts) was 159, an average of 13 a month.
During the eight years which have elapsed since the juvenile court
was established in Oklahoma, the largest number of petitions filed
in any one court was 552 in Oklahoma County.

The table appended shows for each county visited the number of
children who passed through the court in 1916 and the total number
of petitions filed in the court since 1909. One petition, of course,
may include more than one child but it did not seem practicable to
check back through all the petitions in the larger courts to determine
148 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

the exact number of children involved. It is also true that some of
these petitions may represent cases which were never brought to
trial, because the complainant dropped the matter, or the family
moved away or for some such reason, but on the other hand, we
found that many judges do not enter in the juvenile record all the
children’s cases which they hear, so perhaps one element of in-
accuracy may offset the other.

 

 

NUMBER OF TOTAL NUMBER
CHILDREN OF PETITIONS
COUNTY PASSING FILED SINCE
THROUGH COURT | ESTABLISHEMNT
IN 1916 OF COURT
Afar sacogety eaten ote 13 23
Biya. etrak Naas Rees 12 99
Canadiane se. Vebas deaeat 11 58
Coal ix. de ucacos ants sees 21 43
(Comanche iaiis.cscrnerncs ave se 22 89
Custer ntincs Seinen 5 29
Gartield- nx. Sandown ones 15 68
Jacksons. ceweies aa wees 4 40
Oganws ven ew aa te 8 18
MayeSiises cus ey oe ek we 3 64
IM elntoshiin.:.t seca Setace 9 33
Muskogee................ 73 353
Oklahoma's onknecctel ocean 159 552
PIttSDUTES ea wet k oe nas 74 245
Pottawatomie............. 31 186
Ropers sncsds Mens eiiens oe 19 77
Stephens.ccincavesvesiewse 7 29
MBulsarice et iceauc cu eee ees 131 472
Wagoner ..ccsdccae cuties 1 24
Washington.............. 20 79

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously, in courts where only three, seven or fifteen children
are handled during an entire year, it would be absurd to expect the
formal procedure necessary in a court which handled hundreds.
It is not absurd to expect, however, that the transactions of the
court should be fully recorded and that the spirit of the juvenile
court law should be preserved in the manner of hearing the case
Juvenile Courts and Probation 149

and in the attitude of the judge toward the child. It should be even
easier to attain these ends in the rural courts than in the city.

The county judges who preside over the juvenile court in
Oklahoma are elected every two years. To be eligible for office, a
man must be a qualified voter, a resident of the county and a lawyer
licensed to practice in any court of record. Judges draw a salary
ranging from $1350 to $3500, according to the size of the county.
Aside from their juvenile court duties they must handle all the probate
work of the county and certain civil cases and appeal cases may
come to them.

The short term, combined with the small number of children’s
cases, is peculiarly unfortunate. In only three courts in the state,
Tulsa, McAlester and Oklahoma City, is the number of juvenile
cases large enough to present itself at once as a real problem to a
new man. Elsewhere, these hearings are likely to be regarded as
incidental to the main business of the court and to receive correspond-
ingly scant attention. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule.
A few judges were found in the rural counties who are taking time,
not only to give a thorough hearing to the juvenile cases brought
before them, but also to do definite preventive work.

One such judge who is serving his second term attributes the decrease
in juvenile delinquency in his court to the passage of a curfew ordinance,
which he says is really well enforced; to a successful effort to drive out
of town those junk dealers who persisted in buying from small boys;
and to the personal calls which he made upon every tobacco dealer in
town after the passage of the anti-cigarette law to give warning that
he would prosecute to the limit anyone found selling cigarettes to minors.

A situation peculiar to Oklahoma arises from the large number
of cases involving Indian lands. Occasionally this business assumes
such proportions as to occupy most of the judge’s time.

In McIntosh County, over 2,000 guardians of Indian children are said
to report annually to the court. Muskogee and Tulsa Counties also
report heavy work of this sort.

Any reputable citizen may bring action in the juvenile court
by filing a petition in which the alleged offense is specified. Notice
is served upon the parents or guardian of the child by summons
rather than by warrant, although a warrant may be issued if nec-
essary. Jury trial is guaranteed on request and the right of appeal
150 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

”

is established. Cases are to be heard “in a summary manner.
This clause is usually interpreted to mean a hearing in chambers, in-
formal and private.

Out of the 20 counties included in our study, 10 reported that children’s
cases were heard in open court, but six of these added that outsiders
seldom attended. Six reported that cases were always heard in cham-
bers. One judge varied the hearing according to the nature of the
offense. If a ‘‘crime’’ was charged, the trial took place in open court,
otherwise in chambers. In three counties the information was not
secured.

Informal hearings at which the judge discusses the charge with
the child and the complainant before a formal petition is made out,
thus frequently saving the child from a court record, were reported
from Washington, Logan and Garfield Counties.

No court was visited in which physical or mental examinations
were made a part of the regular procedure or were even occasionally
resorted to, except where children were committed to institutions
which demanded a certificate of health. The juvenile court law
provides that the judge may order medical treatment for a sick
child, if it can be secured without expense to the county. No instance
was found where this had been done.

Disposition of Child Pending Trial or Commitment

 

The juvenile court law of Oklahoma provides (Section 4419)
that pending trial, the child may be left at home or kept in care of
sheriff, police or probation officer, but no child under 12 may be
committed to a jail or police station. A later section (4425) provides:
“When any child shall be sentenced to confinement in any institution
to which adult convicts are sentenced it shall be unlawful to confine
said child within the same yard or enclosure where adult convicts
are confined or to bring him into any yard or building in which adult
convicts may be present.”” He may be permitted to return to his
home if the judge has confidence in the parents, or he may be cared
for, as while awaiting trial, by probation officer, sheriff or police.
The age limit is too low and a penalty clause should be attached if
the law is to be truly effective but the intention of its framers was
obviously to establish the right method of procedure.
Juvenile Courts and Probation 151

In practice, frequent violations of the law take place—how
frequent, it is impossible to say with certainty, even for the counties
visited, because not all county jails record age of prisoners received
and the court records seldom give any indication of the method of
detention used. During 1916, 13 counties reported to the State
Commissioner of Charities and Correction that children were at
times held in jail. They were Beckham, Carter, Cherokee, Choctaw,
Cleveland, Craig, Kingfisher, Le Flore, Love, McCurtain, Mayes,
Pittsburg and Tulsa counties. In addition, out of the counties
visited, Bryan, Comanche, Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Washington,
were found occasionally to resort to the jail as a place of confinement.

MUSKOGEE

Muskogee has attached a little wooden shack or ‘‘hold-over’’ to the
rear of the county jail, in which there is a steel cell with six bunks for
children’s use.

On the day of the inspection, a 15-year-old boy had been for 21 days
in this cell, awaiting the time when some one from the sheriff’s office
would take him to the Boys’ Training School at Pauls Valley.

The records here showed that between January 1, 1916, and February
22, 1917, 23 boys under 16 had been held in the county jail for periods
varying from a few hours to 21 days.

TULSA

In the Tulsa County Jail, no record is kept of the ages of the prisoners
so it was impossible to check back on the number of children held.
On March 28, the night preceding the inspection, three boys, one 13,
one 11, and one, age unknown, had been locked up in the ‘‘padded cell”
all night. The cell, which is ordinarily used for the violently insane,
could not have been more than ten feet square and the only ventilation
was from a narrow grating at the top. The boys, after their trial the
day before, had amused themselves by turning on the faucets in an
adjoining room and flooding the courtroom. Brought up to the jail,
in high glee, they had attempted to repeat the exploit and an irate jailer
had put them ‘‘where they would be safe.”” The ‘‘woman’s department,”’
where such culprits are usually kept, is part of the cell block with only
an iron grating to separate it from the men.

Ordinarily, all children are turned over at once to the Humane Society
which carries on the probation work for the juvenile court, and are
cared for in its detention home.

BARTLESVILLE

Only three children were held in the Washington County Jail during
1916, one for three days, one for four, and one for five.
152 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

McALESTER

In Pittsburg County, nine children under 16 were held in the county
jail during 1916, and five had been committed up to April 10, 1917.
The judge of the juvenile court told the investigator about one Indian
boy, aged 11, whom he had recently committed to the jail for a few
days, but the name was not entered on the jailer’s book. When ques-
tioned about the omission, the man said that they did not always enter
the children’s names if the offense was slight and the child was held
for a short time only. So the figures quoted above may represent only
a fraction of the whole number of children. They are not separated
in any way from the other prisoners.

OKLAHOMA CITY

The records at the county jail do not give the age of prisoners so it was
impossible to trace the number of children held, except when the place
to which the prisoner was sent was clearly an institution for children.
Five cases were found where it was clear that the prisoner was under
16. Two boys were held over night, two for eight days each, and one
for seven. All were destined for Pauls Valley.

The Oklahoma City jail is not used as a place of permanent detention
for children. Any whom the city court sentences are transferred to the
county jail. Yet during 1916, 76 boys and 8 girls under 16 were held
in the city jail for periods varying from a few hours to nine days.
Forty-two were released on the same day they were received, however,
including all but four of the children under 12 years detained there.

With the single exception of Muskogee, where the children
are completely isolated from adults in the county jail, no jail was
visited where detention in the “woman’s ward” or the “hospital
ward” or the “corridors” prevented the children from seeing and
hearing adult prisoners. It did prevent actual physical abuse.

The judges interviewed divide themselves into two distinct
groups on the question of committing children to jail. The majority
of them believe it to be a bad thing, but necessary, since there is
“no other place to keep the boys.” Girls are so seldom held that
they hardly enter into the discussion. A few men think the experience
is wholly salutary, as a warning to others. In the three largest
courts, there is real need for some suitable place of detention for
the large boys who need disciplinary restraint and for the really
immoral girls who should be kept away from the merely wayward.
As it is, the boys are sent to jail and the girls are released. The
lack of a probation officer often makes it necessary to hold children
Juvenile Courts and Probation 153

several days until someone from the sheriff’s office can find time to
escort them to an institution.

Detention Homes

The conditions described in the preceding section would be
unnecessary if the law permitted the erection of detention homes
in at least the larger counties. As it is, Oklahoma County uses the
receiving home of the Oklahoma Children’s Home Society for certain
cases, chiefly dependent and neglected children and Tulsa County
uses the refuge of the Tulsa Humane Society in the same way.
Pittsburg County boards out its dependent children and a few of
its delinquents in a private family home. All pay a per capita charge
from the county funds. But, as we have seen, each one of these
counties also resorts to its jail as a place of confinement for delin-
quent children.

Chapter 165 of the Session Laws of 1915 authorized counties of
population between 24,800 and 25,100 by the last census to levy a
tax of not more than one-half mill for establishing a county home for
the maintenance of neglected and dependent children.

The population limits are said to confine the operation of this
law to the county of Oklahoma, but as a matter of fact, the United
States Census of 1910 lists no county whose population falls within
these limits and no county has started such a home.

It should be possible at least for the counties having cities with
a population over 10,000, if the number of juvenile cases warrants
it, to erect and maintain a detention home at public expense. In the
less thickly settled counties, arrangements can be made for boarding
the children in well-selected family homes, also at public expense.

Final Disposition of Child

If a delinquent child is found guilty of the offense charged,
four courses are open to the judge: he may release on suspended
sentence; he may put on probation; he may place out or board in
a suitable family home; or he may commit to the proper institution
or organization. ‘‘Wayward” girls must be reported by the county
judges to the Governor, “who shall provide for them.” This is
simply a means of commitment to the Girls’ Industrial School which
154 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

has heretofore been a semi-private institution, caring for such girls
by contract with the Governor.

Probation

Probation work includes three distinct tasks, the preliminary
investigation, the presentation of the case in court, and the super-
vision of the child after the hearing. Since the legislature of 1915
abolished the position of probation officer in Oklahoma, only one
of these tasks is being attempted, except in courts which still retain
a probation officer under another name. The juvenile court judges
can, and do, in many cases supervise the child after trial, laying
down certain conditions which he must observe, and requiring him
to report to them regularly. But the judge cannot properly go out
ts investigate a case which is to come before him for a hearing and
he cannot present the substance of such findings to himself as pre-
siding justice.

Nine of the 20 judges interviewed had one or more children
on probation to them at the time and only one judge said he never
had a case on probation.

No written reports of the visits of probationers were kept in
any court visited. It was impossible to tell how regularly they kept
their weekly or monthly appointments or on what points they gave
information to the judge. The possibilities of doing constructive
work during the probation period were seldom realized.

Besides the probation work of the judges, a probation officer
was still at work in three of the counties which were visited.

TULSA

In Tulsa, the superintendent of the Humane Society, who formerly
acted as probation officer on salary, continued to give his services without
pay after his position was abolished by the legislature.

In 1916, 1,950 calls were made on juvenile cases. 102 boys were placed
on probation and 21 girls. One hundred and eighteen children were
admitted to the detention home (this would include a few children
admitted by other than court procedure) and 96 were discharged, 33 of
them to family homes for adoption. Nineteen boys were sent to Pauls
Valley and five girls to Oklahoma City. The juvenile record lists 131
children as being petitioned against, although in some cases, impossible
to tell how many, no further action was taken. The officer makes an
investigation into the family circumstances and reports to the judge
at each hearing.
Juvenile Courts and Probation 155

BARTLESVILLE

Washington County has a bailiff-probation officer who has served ever
since the juvenile court law went into effect. Only 20 cases passed
through the court last year, but the officer claims to have settled many
outside of the court. No record whatever is kept of the probation work,
except the few notes which the officer jots down for personal reference
in his own notebook.

OKLAHOMA CITY

The ‘probation files’’ contained only the duplicates of petition, commit-
ment papers, and history sheets. The present officer, who was new in
the position, knew nothing about them. His predecessor claims to have
sent only five boys to Pauls Valley during his two years in office and
says he never used the jail for detention purposes.

Only one other county, Carter, reported a probation officer
in 1917, but Okmulgee County is said to have a good man at work.

In two definite ways, the removal of the officer has weakened
the work of the juvenile courts:—

(1) There is now no way of touching the recognized delinquency
against which no one is willing to make out a formal petition. Form-
erly the judge could send out the probation officer to investigate the
alleged wrong-doing, and if he thought best, to make out the petition
against the offender.

(2) The only person now available to act as escort when a child
has been committed to an institution, is the sheriff, or one of his
deputies. A longer time is apt to elapse between the time of com-
mitment and the time of delivery to the institution than was the
case when a man was specially employed for the juvenile work,
and this time the child frequently spends in jail.

It is impossible to tell whether the loss of the officer has greatly
increased the number of commitments to state institutions, because
in 1915 only two such institutions were available for delinquents,
and both were receiving up to their capacity. The fact that both
have been enlarged and that training schools for the negroes have
been added does not necessarily indicate an increase in delinquency
or inability on the part of the judges to handle the situation without
the probation officer, but simply a previous lack of adequate facilities
for care. The court records are too incomplete to form any basis of
comparison.
156 Child Welfare in Oklahoma
Placing-out Work

No court was visited in which the judge does not occasionally
place out children for adoption. This function is considered so
important that a section is given over to it in the chapter on Home
Finding, page 199) and it will not be disctssed here except to say
that the same lack of adequate records characterizes it, that there
is practically no investigation of homes before the placement and
no supervision of the child once placed.

Commitment to Institution

Few judges believe in committing a delinquent child to an
institution for a first offense unless it is particularly serious. Yet
occasional instances were discovered where commitment seemed
decidedly premature.

Two boys, ten and nine years old, broke into a store by means of a
skeleton key, ‘‘with intent to steal.’’ They were caught before they
took anything and it was a first offense for both, yet they were com-

mitted to the State Training School at Pauls Valley “‘for minority, unless
sooner discharged.”

There can be no doubt that some children are committed to
institutions as dependents when an adequate investigation would
produce relatives able and willing to care for them.

In a Bryan County case, a worthless mother asked for the commitment
of her son to an institution and it was granted. The boy’s father, who
had been separated from his wife for five years, was not notified. As
soon as he heard what had happened, he produced evidence of his
ability to provide a good home for his son and the boy was released
to him.

When it is impossible to get children into the proper state
institutions at once, they are frequently given into the charge of
private organizations or are occasionally held at the county poor
farm or placed with private citizens.

No serious criticisms were heard of the present methods of
commitment to state institutions. The institutions, however,
have much to say on the inadequacy of the records which accom-
pany the children sent them, and the lack of understanding which
will send a dependent child to an institution for delinquents, or
vice versa.
Juvenile Courts and Probation 157

Parole

 

Once adjudged delinquent, the child remains a ward of the court
until he is 21, or until he shall have been discharged on order of the
court and the court may “during the period of wardship cause such
child to be returned to such court for further or other proceedings,
including parole or release from an institution.” Ten days notice
must be given the superintendent of any institution before parole
hearing for any of his charges, unless his consent to the parole has
previously been filed in writing. The preceding section (4423,
Code of 1910) gives the same power of parole to the superintendent
of the institution, to be granted “under such conditions as he may
prescribe.” This obvious conflict of powers occasionally makes
trouble. :

There seems to be in the minds of most judges interviewed,
the impression that they retain their jurisdiction over the delin-
quents, but in case of dependents transfer jurisdiction to the in-
stitution or agency receiving the child. This uncertainty about the
meaning of the law ought to be cleared up. It seems more reasonable
to expect the superintendent of the institution, who is presumably
more familiar with the child’s actual improvement under super-
vision, to pass upon his application for parole than to leave the power
in the hands of the judge, on whom the child’s parents can some-
times exert much pressure.

Although the superintendent of the institution is supposed to
notify the judge when a boy who has been committed from his
county is ready for parole, this is not always done.

Recently a boy who is a pyromaniac was sent home ‘‘on leave of absence,”’
without the knowledge of the judge. When he accidently heard of the
boy’s return, the judge insisted that he be sent back to the institution,
and he went.

Some judges keep in close touch with boys after their parole,
requiring monthly reports of good conduct, and helping them to
find work if over school age. Others feel no responsibility in the
matter, provided the boy commits no further offenses which bring
him to court notice.

None of the training schools has a parole officer. The mere
fact that the percentage of returns for violation of parole is not high
means little unless we know what has happened to the boy, and
158 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

unless someone is responsible for him, we have no means of getting
information.

Records and Reports

The juvenile court law of Oklahoma provides that a separate
docket and record book must be kept for children’s cases. Only
one county was visited which did not comply with this requirement,
but there was the widest possible variety in the printed form of the
record.

In general, the same forms were used for both dependents and
delinquents, sometimes with blank spaces to be filled in with the
proper description, and sometimes with descriptions of both classes
printed and instructions given to cross out the phrases which did
not fit. Some courts, for instance, print the entire definition of the
delinquent child, as given in the statute, and the clerk is supposed
to go over it and cross out those offenses which are not charged
against this individual offender. Errors are less likely to occur
when the offense charged in the petition is written out in a space
left for it.

Custer, Garfield, Stephens and Wagoner counties use a book
in which, after the name of the child and the nature of action (i.e.,
dependency or delinquency charge), attorney, etc., are recorded,
space is ruled off for fees to judge, officers, witnesses. Few courts
visited make a custom of charging any fees at all for the juvenile
work, but others charge the full amount allowed by law.

The printed forms followed in Mayes County were not only
adequate in their inclusion of the copy of petition, notice to persons
interested, order of continuance and final order, but suggestive,
in the provision of space for recording two items on which informa-
tion is desirable and seldom obtainable: the disposition of the child
pending continuance, and the date when each case was reported to
the State Commissioner of Charities and Correction.

However, the best record forms are valueless unless they are
intelligently filled out and kept up to date. Mayes County had
entered no cases since 1912; Pittsburg, none since 1913. To get
the number of children handled by these courts in 1916, it was nec-
essary to check through the court papers, and experience in other
courts taught the investigators that the court papers themselves
were often incomplete.
Juvenile Courts and Probation 159

The inadequacy of the records concerning children placed
out in private homes for adoption or on contract by the county judges
will be discussed in the chapter on Home Finding, page 200).

Most of the judges seemed to feel that the records were of
secondary importance and the investigator could not find that the
courts which once had probation officers, or still had them, fared
much better than the others so far as the kind and amount of in-
formation recorded was concerned.

There are no written records of probation work in any court
in the state.

The law requires the clerk of the juvenile court, or the judge
acting in that capacity, to report annually to the State Commissioner
of Charities and Correction, upon blanks to be furnished by him,
“the number and disposition of delinquent children brought before
such court, together with such other useful information regarding
such cases and the parentage of such children as may reasonably
be obtained at the trial thereof; provided that the name or identity
of any such child or parent shall not be disclosed in the report.”

This information as filed at the office of the State Commissioner
is neither complete nor clear. The blank form issued by the depart-
ment is poorly arranged for statistical tabulation; certain questions
are not clear as they stand; and no follow-up work checks inac-
curacies or obvious misunderstandings.

Causes of Juvenile Delinquency and Dependency

 

The absence of any reliable state-wide statistics on juvenile
dependency and delinquency such as these reports to the State Com-
missioner of Charities and Correction should give, the lack of any
probation officer’s investigation to supplement the petition on file in
the local courts, no transcript of the testimony given, no record what-
ever of the family situation, and the petitions themselves often very
incomplete—such a situation makes it practically useless to attempt
to classify causes of delinquency by the technical charges brought
against the children.

Petit larceny and “delinquency” among the boys and immoral
conduct among the girls held the same high proportion here as
elsewhere. Some judges will assure you that all the troubles lie in
lack of family control. Others think the ‘broken family” contributes
160 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

more than its proportionate share to the juvenile court docket.
A few recognized the effect of local conditions which might be
remedied: unsupervised motion picture shows, cheap dance-halls, the
custom of permitting young boys to act as ‘‘newsies” and night mes-
sengers, the sale of cigarettes to minors, the operation of pool-rooms
and billiard parlors, but no one mentioned the need for legitimate
amusement which is even greater in the small towns and rural com-
munities than in the cities, and only one man spoke of making the
public schools more attractive as a means of reducing truancy.

Illegitimacy causes much dependency in Oklahoma where the
oil fields attract men of easy morals, and spectacular fortunes are
made over night. Wife desertion, sickness, insanity, low wages,
and the bleak poverty of the tenant farmer contribute their share.
Intemperance is no longer an important factor, since the state went
dry some years ago. But these factors are all opinions drawn from
scattering records and from the personal experience of the judges.
Figures to back them will remain lacking until the juvenile court
work of the state is made more uniform and complete.

Causes of Failure

If we accept the distinction drawn in ‘‘Juvenile Courts and
Probation’* between the juvenile court and the criminal court
ideas in the treatment of children, namely, that “emphasis is laid
not on the act done by the child but on the social facts and cir-
cumstances that are really the inducing cause of the child’s appear-
ance in court,” and that “the purpose of the proceeding here is
not punishment but correction of conditions, care and treatment of
the child, and the prevention of a recurrence through the con-
structive work of the courts,” we cannot but feel that the juvenile
courts of Oklahoma on the whole are failing to accomplish the pur-
poses for which they were created. It is not merely the absence of
anything approaching the order and system of a city court. That
could not be expected, perhaps, in the rural counties. Neither
would it be fair to expect so elaborate a system of record forms as
city needs might require. But it is surely not too much to demand
that the court should be able to account for the disposition of its

* Juvenile Courts and Probation, by Bernard Flexner and Roger N. Baldwin.
The Century Co., 1914.
Juvenile Couris and Probation 161

wards, and that the social facts brought out by the testimony of
the witnesses and by the investigations of a probation officer should
be made part of the permanent court record. Neither of these
two conditions is at present fully met by any court visited in the
State of Oklahoma.

Three reasons, at least, occur at once in explanation of this
failure: the lack of any supervising or standardizing agency; too
frequent changes of judges; and lack of social understanding in the
state at large.

It is not at all strange that in Oklahoma, as in other states, the
very fact of democratic independence makes for that inefficiency
which need not necessarily, but often does accompany democracy.
Seventy-seven counties, seventy-seven judges, likely to change every
other year, each man free to carry out his own ideas in the admin-
istration of the law, no friendly agency at the top to point the path,—
is it any wonder that methods lack uniformity and judges suffer
from lack of contact with their kind? The readiness of response
which greeted our study in practically every instance, the desire
to know “what folks are doing in other places,” the real eagerness
to accomplish the best thing for the children, all evidenced the wel-
come which a well-trained, tactful worker from a State Division of
Child Welfare, for instance, might hope to win and gave proof of the
kind of system he might gradually hope to evolve from the present
chaos. Massachusetts has had a State Probation Commission since
1908, New York since 1907. Neither state would claim that through
it their juvenile courts have attained perfection, but certainly both
have made more rapid progress than could otherwise have been
achieved.

So long as the juvenile court judge remains in office only two
years, and handles a comparatively small number of children during
that time, the work of the court will lack continuity. But if a pro-
bation-truancy officer be appointed as we recommend by the county
board of public welfare, (see report on Administration, page 282) he will
be independent of local political changes and can supply the element
of continuity at present lacking. He will be able to build up a wide
acquaintance among the children of the county, and will familiarize
himself with state and private institutions, so that when a new
judge takes office, he may be able to profit by the experience of his
predecessor in a way now impossible.
162 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Such an officer will also be a most helpful factor in developing
the social understanding of the community. It is, after all, largely
a question of articulating those kindly impulses which are found
everywhere, and nowhere more abundantly than in the pioneer
regions of the great Southwest. The establishment of county boards
of public welfare will give to certain representative members of the
community their first introduction to the social needs and resources
of the county and state. They cannot help but grow in breadth
of vision. They cannot help but pass on to their acquaintances
some of the new ideas. The experience of other states has shown
that gradually public opinion can be educated to the point where
observation of the juvenile court law, and other laws pertaining
to child welfare will be considered a matter of community concern.

In the hope of hastening that time, we submit the following
recommendations.

Recommendations

1. A State Child Welfare Division should be created under the
State Department of Charities, its chief appointed by the Com-
missioner of Charities and Correction. The duties of this Division
should be to visit and inspect all institutions and agencies, public
and private, which care for dependent, neglected or delinquent
children; and to supervise the juvenile courts, the work of the
county probation-truancy officer, the administration of the widows’
pensions and any similar undertakings which directly affect the
welfare of children.

2. There should be a county probation-truancy officer in each
county who will also act as school attendance officer outside of the
independent (city) districts and have charge of taking the school
census and issuing work permits through the whole county. He
should be appointed by the county board of public welfare, sub-
ject to the approval of the county board of education, and should
receive pay from both bodies.

3. The county board of public welfare should act as an advisory
committee to the judge of the juvenile court.

4. Counties containing a city of 10,000 or over, should be per-
mitted to provide county detention homes, supported by public
funds. Other counties should provide for temporary detention of
Juvenile Courts and Probation 163

children in suitable family homes specially designated by, and
subject to, the approval of the State Child Welfare Division.
Adequate records and reports should be required of each such home.

5. The age limit for holding a child in jail should be increased
to 16, and a penalty provided for violation of the law.

6. The juvenile court law should forbid the commitment of
any child under 16 to any state reformatory or penitentiary and the
Commissioner of Charities and Correction should have power to
prosecute in the name of the state for any improper imprisonment
of a child.

7. Provision should be made for physical and mental exam-
inations of every child brought before the juvenile court.

8. A woman escort should be required for girls taken to in-
stitutions.

9. The institution to which a child has been committed should
have the sole right to release the child on parole.

10. All placing-out work now done by the county courts should
be transferred to the State Child Welfare Division.

11. The right to commit dependent or neglected children to
the state training schools should be taken from the county judges.

12. The now obsolete provision requiring juvenile court judges
to report “wayward” girls to the Governor “who shall provide for
them” should be repealed.

13. New forms should be devised for reporting and recording
necessary transactions in juvenile courts.

14. A small manual should be prepared for distribution to
county judges and probation officers, which would contain informa-
tion on the juvenile court law of Oklahoma; the various institu-
tions, public and private, to which children may be sent; the method
of filling out court records in such commitments and reports to the
State Child Welfare Division, and similar information.
INSTITUTIONAL CARE OF CHILDREN
Maset Brown ELtis

The Problem

In March, 1917, approximately 2,300 children were receiving
care in Oklahoma institutions. Nearly 1,550 were entirely sup-
ported by the state, and about 750 by private philanthropy. Two
hundred and seventy-two were deaf, 109, blind, 357, feeble-minded.
Three hundred and nine were in training schools for delinquents
and 481 in homes for dependents. Nearly three out of every thousand
children under 20 were in an institution.

These figures mean little, however, unless we know how many
other children in the state need similar care. Unfortunately, esti-
mates are available only for the defectives. The superintendent of
the State School for the Blind says there are at least 300 blind children
who ought to be reached. There are 250 known deaf in need of
education, according to the superintendent of the School for the
Deaf. Three hundred and fifty-seven feeble-minded and epileptic
children are enrolled in the State School at Enid. At least 2,000
more ought to be there if we accept the estimate of the superintendent.

The State Home for Dependent Children at Pryor has been so
overcrowded as to compel the superintendent to discontinue ad-
mittance until the congestion could be relieved. The same course
should have been followed at the institution at Taft, which has been
shockingly overcrowded with the dependents of the negro race.
Juvenile court judges have been compelled to release delinquent
colored girls in need of institutional care because there has been
no place where they could be sent, and a training school for colored
boys has been available less than a year. There is still no place in
the state, except in private hospitals, where the crippled or the
syphilitic child can receive proper treatment.

The legislature of 1917 attempted to meet two of the most
pressing needs by creating a state training school for delinquent
colored girls and by establishing a second state home to be known
as the West Oklahoma Home for White Children, on the grounds

164
Institutional Care of Children 165

of the former Connell School of Agriculture at Helena. A bill was
also passed making the Girls’ Industrial School which has been
heretofore conducted as a private institution, receiving delinquent
girls by contract with the governor, a state institution under state
management.

The legislative appropriations for these and the seven other
institutions for children supported by the state, total $1,050,065
for the biennium 1917-18. The budgets of the eight private in-
stitutions, from which it proved possible to get figures covering their
last fiscal year, totalled $106,512.90. They cared for 463 children.
The yearly per capita expense would then be approximately $230
or $19.16 a month. On this basis, it would cost about $65,909 to
care for the 283 children in the six institutions from which budgets
were not secured. A rough estimate of the expenditures by private
philanthropy for dependent children during the next biennium,
would be about $343,205. With a grand total of $1,393,270 as an
estimate for moneys to be expended by public and private institu-
tions for children during the next two years, with a present institu-
tional population of approximately 2,300 and two much needed
new institutions to be opened within the year, it is obviously good
business judgment for Oklahoma to inventory her present resources
and to test her; present methods of dealing with children in insti-
tutions by modern standards of social efficiency.

The fifth biennial report of the State Commissioner of Charities
and Correction, which covers the period from January 11, 1915,
to December 31, 1916, lists seven state institutions* and 15 private
institutions devoted wholly or in part to the care of children. Be-
tween the time when the report was published and the time our
study began, one private institution, the Nazarene Rescue Home at
Bethany, had been closed, and one state institution, the Negro
Training School at McAlester, had been added.

The list as it stood in March, 1917, follows:

I. STATE INSTITUTIONS
Approximate

a. For Dependents Enrollment
1. Oklahoma State Home, Pryor (white children)................... 275

2. Industrial Institute for Deaf, Blind and Colored Orphans, Taft
(tiesto Children). sats LSet gore a chao omnes swiss Aled culne ea aealece 225
166 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Approximate

b. For Delinquents Enrollment
1. State Training School for Boys, Pauls Valley (white)............ 136

2. State Training School for Boys, McAlester (negro).............--- 50

*3. Girls’ Industrial School, Oklahoma City (white)...............-.: 123

ce. For Defectives
1. Institute for the Feeble-Minded, also receiving epileptics, Enid

(CWPIGE)na2i58 Gia < Gtceitis-o. 8 dada cee neldads aa Moga S sidealeed aren have Saeaet’ 350
2. Institute for Deaf, Blind and colored Grplans, also receiving feeble-

minded, Lath (Me gto) iia.g meres « ¢ Seew eaves aos Seung ee H denies ee eee 225
3. Oklahoma School for the Blind, Muskogee (white)..............-. 109
4. Oklahoma School for the Deaf, Sulphur (white).................. 272

II. PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS
(All for Dependents)
a. Orphanages. No placing out done.

1. Oklahoma Orphanage, Bethany (white).....................0055 17
2. Murrow Indian Orphans’ Home, Bacone (Indian)..............-. 54
3; Page Ratm, Tulsa; Qwhite).2ccasses ace ca eee ds eas ees es ems 60
4. ‘St. Joseph’s Orphanage, Bethany (white).................0...005 73
5. Oklahoma Odd Fellows’ Home, Carmen (white) .................. 111
6. Oklahoma Odd Fellows’ Home, Checotah (white)................. 54
b. Orphanages. Placing out done.
1. Jabbok Faith Missionary Training Home, Thomas (white)........ 32
2. Benevolent & Orphanage Association, Cornish (white)............ 21
3. Masonic Home, Darlington (white)..........0.0. 0000 cece eee 168
4. Sunbeam Orphanage, Oklahoma City (white).............2...... 39
5. Baptist Orphans’ Home, Oklahoma City (white)................. 58

c. Home Finding Societies
1. Child Saving Mission, Enid (white).........0.0 0.00.00. c eee eens 5
Note. This number represents average in receiving home.
Society handled 26 children in 1916.
2. Oklahoma Children’s Home Society, Oklahoma City (white)...... 14
Note. This number represents average in receiving home.
Society handled 172 children in 1916.

d. Maternity Homes. (Placing out done.)
1. Holmes’ Home of Redeeming Love, Bethany (white)............ 40

* We have included the Girls’ Industrial School among the state institutions
because at the time of our study, it was wholly supported by state funds although
privately managed and unsupervised by any state board. The legislature of
1917 placed the school entirely under state control.
Institutional Care of Children 167

In addition to this list, the State Reformatory at Granite, was
found to have received four 15-year-old boys and fifty-two 16-year-
olds in the 16-month period ended October 31, 1916. It was there-
fore included in the study. Eleven boys under 16 were received in
approximately the same period by the warden of the State Peni-
tentiary at McAlester.

Since our study deals primarily with administrative problems
it will be more convenient to separate in the discussion the insti-
tutions supported by public funds for whose management the state
can be held strictly accountable, from those supported by private
funds where its powers are supervisory only.

State Institutions

SUPERVISION

The state of Oklahoma maintains eight institutions for children,
two of which receive negro children only, and six only whites. The
dependent and defective children of the colored race go to Taft, and
delinquent negro boys are sent to McAlester. For white children
there are the State Home at Pryor where dependent boys and girls
are sent pending placement in family homes, the Training School
for delinquent boys at Pauls Valley, and a similar institution for
delinquent girls at Oklahoma City, and the schools for defective
children, the blind, deaf, feeble-minded and epileptic, at Muskogee,
Sulphur, and Enid respectively.

Six of these institutions have really a triple system of super-
vision. The State Board of Public Affairs handles their financial
transactions; the State Board of Education plans their adminis-
trative policies; and the State Commissioner of Charities and
Correction is given general powers of inspection with the right to
make ‘“‘suggestions,’’ which in practice seem to have been confined
to the correction of abuses rather than to the creation of standards
or the collection of data of social significance.

Over one institution, the Training School for Negro Boys, the
State Board of Public Affairs was given exclusive jurisdiction,
probably because it was already vested with the control of the
State Penitentiary, on whose grounds this school was established.
This question of convenience will no longer affect the situation when
168 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

the school is transferred to its new site at Taft, and it is extremely
unfortunate that the new Training School for Negro Girls which will
adjoin the negro institution for boys has also been placed under the
State Board of Public Affairs. Since this board is made by law
responsible for the management of penal and reformatory insti-
tutions such an arrangement tends to create the impression that the
training schools for negro children, unlike the similar schools for the
whites, are penal rather than educational institutions.

The Girls’ Industrial School has up to this time been conducted
as a private institution, unsupervised by any state department, but
responsible to the governor with whom the superintendent signs a
contract for the care of the girls. Senate bill 213, passed by the
legislature of 1917, transforms this school from a private to a state
institution, but continues it under the direct supervision of the
governor alone. This is doubtless due to the arrangement by which
juvenile court judges are required to ‘report wayward girls to the
governor who shall provide for them.’”’ There seems to be no good
reason, however, for relieving this one institution from the same
kind of supervision as that provided for others similar to it in purpose.

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction recommended
in his last report that the schools at Enid, Pryor, Taft, and Pauls
Valley be transferred to the supervision of the State Commissioner
of Charities and Correction, and that separate boards be established
for the School for the Deaf and the School for the Blind, each board
to be composed of the state superintendent as chairman, and two
members to be appointed by the governor, one of them a physician.*
The plan of separate boards of control for state institutions has
once been tried in Oklahoma and has been abandoned as unsatis-
factory. The tendency everywhere is toward unified control. We
would not favor a return to the old plan for the schools for the deaf
and the blind, but we agree as to the wisdom of transferring the other
schools, and we would add to the list which should be placed under
the State Commissioner of Charities and Correction, or the proposed
Division of Child Welfare, (see report on Administration, page 284)
the new Girls’ Industrial School and the Training Schools for Negro
Boys and Girls which are to be located at Taft. The management

*Sixth Biennial Report, State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Oklahoma. 1916. Page 17.
Institutional Care of Children 169

of the financial interests of these institutions, however, should con-
tinue to be centered in the State Board of Public Affairs. (See report
on Administration, page 284).

PERSONNEL OF THE STAFF

Perhaps in no way would the influence of a State Division of
Child Welfare make itself felt more quickly than in its efforts to
secure the selection of trained social workers for institutional posi-
tions. Except at the schools for defective children not a single
institution head in the state is a man of special social training or
experience. If Oklahoma wishes her state institutions to rank well
she must recognize the value of expert service and be willing to
pay for it.

The salaries now offered are only fair—$1800 to $2500 with
maintenance. No provision is made for vacation or for traveling
expenses. A State Division of Child Welfare, alive to the quickening
which comes from mingling with leaders in one’s field, would stim-
ulate visits to state or national conferences of social workers, or to
well-conducted institutions in other states, and higher professional
standards might be expected to result.

At present the whole power of appointing employees rests with
the superintendent of the institution. Some system of civil service
examination might well be introduced which would give him the
privilege of selecting from a list of applicants whose technical ability
has already been proved to the satisfaction of an examining board,
the one whose personality best suited the particular position to be
filled. All employees should have at least two weeks’ vacation on
pay during the year. Their hours of work should be reasonable
and the salaries paid should be sufficient to attract and hold high-
grade people.

The spirit of the state schools with a single exception was ex-
cellent, but there was not in all cases, evidence of the intelligence
which must supplement devotion, if the child in the institution
is to be made ready to return to the community on an equal footing
with other children and if the underlying causes of his dependency
or delinquency are to be removed.

The number of employees appeared to be sufficient to handle
the work satisfactorily everywhere except at Taft and the Girls’
170 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Industrial School, which were decidedly under-staffed, but more
teachers could be used to great advantage in the School for the
Deaf at Sulphur.

PHYSICAL EQUIPMENT

The physical equipment* of the state institutions can best be
described in the separate paragraphs devoted to each. In general
the housing is on the congregate plan, except at Pryor and Pauls
Valley, where the cottage system is in use, and all except the Schools
for the Blind and the Deaf have large farms, adjoining or easily
accessible, which help to furnish employment for the children.
Sanitary conditions were fairly good everywhere except at Taft.
Dormitory space was generally inadequate and overcrowding re-
sulted, in a few cases, to a very serious degree.

In detail, the state institutions have the following physical
equipment:

1. Oklahoma State Home, Pryor. On outskirts of village of Pryor. Forty
acres in campus. Farm of 320 acres, a mile from campus; 31 buildings;
8 cottages and dormitories, 6 of brick and 2 of frame construction;
school building, frame; one mechanical building used as school-house,
brick; administration building, used also as dormitory and school
building, stone; hospital, laundry, commissary, bakery, detention
cottage, farm residence and farm buildings, frame. Total value of
buildings, $150,875. Total value of equipment, $29,300.

2. Industrial Institute for Deaf, Blind and Colored Orphans, Taft. Eight
miles from Muskogee. 101 acres belonging to institution; 180 acres
additional rented. Buildings:—girls’ dormitory, brick; boys’ dormitory,
frame; superintendent’s residence, frame; light and heating plant; barn.
Total value, farm and buildings, $48,900.

3. State Training School for Boys, Pauls Valley. Four miles from village
of Pauls Valley. 400 acres belong to institution; 80 acres additional
rented. (Institution land poor for farming.) 16 buildings:—4 dormi-
tories, brick; school building, brick; industrial or trade building, brick;
hospital, laundry, dining hall and kitchen, administration building,
heating plant, all of brick; 2 residences, frame; three barns, frame.
Total value of buildings, $100,000. Total value of equipment, $4,000.

4, State Training School for Negro Boys, McAlester. On grounds of State
Penitentiary. Institution owns no land, but the boys work about 100

*Figures on value of buildings and equipment taken from Sixth Biennial
Report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1916.
Institutional Care of Children 171

acres belonging to the penitentiary. One building, brick, first floor
used for storage of farm implements, feed, harness, etc. Boys occupy
second and third stories. Building adjoins penitentiary stables.

5. Girls’ Industrial School, Oklahoma City. Within city limits, but at some
distance from other dwellings. 160 acre farm. Three buildings, all
frame; administration building and dormitory; schoolhouse and dor-
mitory; isolation cottage. Figures on value of buildings and equipment
not available.

6. State School for Feeble-minded, Enid. One mile from city of Enid.
5-acre campus, 640-acre farm. Number of buildings, 13: 4 dormitories,
school building, administration building, hospital, laundry and power-
house, all of brick; farm house, two barns and dairy barn, frame. Total
value of buildings, $130,000. Total value of equipment, $16,548.30.

7. Oklahoma School for the Blind, Muskogee. One-half mile from city limits
of Muskogee. 25-acre campus. 6 buildings; administration building
and two cottages of reinforced concrete; heating plant, laundry and
gymnasium, frame. Value of buildings and equipment, $110,000.

8. Oklahoma School for the Deaf, Sulphur. In outskirts of village of Sulphur.
74 acres. 5 buildings: school building, two dormitories, dining hall
and power plant and laundry, all of brick. Total value of buildings,
$181,347.37. Total value of equipment, $21,809.73.

HEALTH

Although each one of the state institutions has a paid physician
on its staff, only one, Enid, makes a practice of giving a complete
physical examination to each child on admittance and recording
the results of that and subsequent examinations in permanent form.

At the Girls’ Industrial School the physical diagnosis and recommenda-
tions are recorded, together with a running statement of the treatments
given. But such important facts as height, weight, condition of heart
and lungs are not entered.

At the School for the Blind, children are usually weighed soon after
admittance and again shortly before the end of the school year. The
attending oculist examines their eyes and prescribes treatment for the
partially sighted whose vision can be improved, but his records are kept
at his own office, not at the school.

No institution in the state has a resident physician. No records
are anywhere kept of the number of visits which the attending
physician pays to the school. Without exception he is available
on call, and no one of the men employed is farther than four miles
from the institution.
172 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

At the Girls’ Industrial School the doctor regularly spends every Sunday
morning examining the girls. At McAlester the penitentiary physician
looks in on his daily rounds. Elsewhere, the attending physician visits
“nearly every day.”

Fifty dollars a month is the salary paid at Pryor, Taft, Sulphur,
and Pauls Valley. The physician at Taft has to furnish all needed
medicine for 225 children from this salary. Forty-five dollars each
is paid the physician and oculist at the School for the Blind.

Only three of the State institutions provide adequate hospital
care for their inmates.

Pryor and Pauls Valley have small hospital buildings on the grounds,
in charge of a resident nurse. At Pryor she is a ‘‘practical nurse,” with-
out hospital experience. Information as to the nurse’s training was
not obtained at Pauls Valley. The legislature of 1917 appropriated
funds for a hospital at Sulphur. Taft has a so-called ‘‘hospital room”
in which the entire furnishings consist of six single cots, a table and a
chair. It is in charge of the boys’ matron who is much over-burdened
with her ordinary duties. At McAlester ten beds are set aside in a
separate room for hospital purposes. The Girls’ Industrial School uses
rooms in the dormitory for minor illness, but has a small isolation cottage
for contagious disease. The older girls act as nurses. Enid, which is,
properly speaking, a hospital in itself, has a splendidly equipped building
with a small training school for nurses under a graduate nurse, and very
good medical work is being done by a competent man.

The other institutions must depend upon hospital care in nearby
cities for seriously ill children and must rearrange dormitory accom-
modations for slight illness.

No institution has a dentist on the staff. No institution makes
a practice of having teeth examined once a year or cleaned by a
dentist or even filled unless the child has the toothache or the de-
cayed condition is particularly obvious.

Tooth-brushes are provided at Pryor, at Enid and at Oklahoma City.
At Muskogee and Sulphur, children are expected to buy their own. If
they cannot do so brushes are given them. At Muskogee, children are
required to brush their teeth after each meal. Information was not
obtained for McAlester and Pauls Valley.

No institution has a consulting staff of specialists. The nearest
approach to service of this sort was an all-day clinic held at Pryor
during the summer of 1916, when the State Health Commissioner
brought a group of nose and throat specialists to the institution to
Institutional Care of Children 173

operate on tonsils and adenoids. Sixty operations were performed
in one day.

No mental examinations have been given although in each
institution where a study of the age and grade statistics was made,
retardation so marked as to be suspicious was found in many cases.
At Pryor, Taft, Pauls Valley, and McAlester, children were reported
to the visitors as feeble-minded in the opinion of the superintendent
and teachers, but no specialist had ever passed upon these cases.

It is not customary, anywhere, to isolate children for obser-
vation upon their arrival. The superintendent or the matron looks
them over and if anything ‘suspicious’ is observed the child may
be held for the physician’s arrival and examination. This means
that epidemics and children’s diseases must be fairly frequent, but
how frequent we cannot tell since no records are kept. The mortality
record is uniformly good, but we must remember that the age when
most children are receiving institutional care coincides with the age
when the mortality rate is lowest among children in general.

Diseases of the skin and eye are of common occurrence among
the class of people from whom the majority of children in the state
institutions of Oklahoma come, and it is of extreme importance that
the spread of infection be prevented at the institution.

Except at Taft and possibly at McAlester, there was no evidence of
carelessness in failing to provide separate towels and other toilet con-
veniences. Everywhere else separate beds were found and hospital care
provided for severe cases. At Taft one little girl was seen whose hands
and limbs were covered with open sores. She was sleeping in the same
bed with three other children. The physician here said he had treated
50 cases of ringworm among the boys, spread by the one roller towel
which they all used.

Sanitary conditions are, of course, of the utmost importance
in determining health. Except at Taft, modern plumbing was every-
where the rule, and the legislature of 1917 appropriated money for
the installation of a modern water system at Taft.

The reports of menus served and the requisitions of food supplies
sent to the State Board of Public Affairs show a plentiful supply
of food and a reasonable variety everywhere except at Taft. There
can be no question, however, that all the institutions would profit
by the services of a skilled dietitian. Milk ought certainly to take
the place of the tea and coffee served daily at some of the schools.
174 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

RECREATION

With the exception of McAlester all the institutions are so
located that ample grounds for play adjoin the buildings, and even
McAlester has a fair-sized baseball field.

No institution has a playground leader, but Sulphur and Muskogee have
gymnasium instructors who direct the sports. The boys at Sulphur have
good football, baseball and basket-ball teams. In these games and in
track events they compete frequently with outside players. The girls
play basket-ball and share in other outdoor sports. The pupils at the
School for the Blind cannot, of course, compete with sighted-persons
and are deprived of games in which vision is essential, but they enjoy
themselves with remarkable freedom on their own playground apparatus
and are required, as part of their school work, to spend much time out-
of-doors daily. Each pupil must take a half-hour walk every morning,
winter and summer. Baseball is the chief amusement of the boys at
McAlester and Pauls Valley, but volley-ball and basket-ball are also
played. Neither school competes with outside teams. At Pryor, where
the population is constantly shifting, there is less opportunity for team
work, but even greater need of well-supervised play, particularly for the
younger children. The supply of games and toys for this younger group
was quite inadequate everywhere.

Small libraries were found at Pauls Valley and Oklahoma City,
and a few magazines, some bound volumes and some current copies.
Few beside school books were seen elsewhere. At Pauls Valley
permission to use the library comes as a reward of good behavior
and some boys are said to have read every book there.

Enid has a motion picture machine and gives ‘“‘shows”’ regularly
once a week.

Holidays are celebrated in the conventional manner. Special pro-
grams, often with little plays prepared by the children, are given, but
there seems to be a dearth of outside speakers or musicians and all
the institutions need more of this sort of contact with the outside world.

The daily program at each institution provides from two to
three free hours for each child daily, but it is impossible to tell how
closely these programs are followed, and free time does not neces-
sarily mean recreation.

ETHICAL TRAINING

It is customary, even in the School for Feeble-minded Children,
to hold some form of religious service on the Sabbath. Sunday
Institutional Care of Children 175

School classes are taught in all state institutions by the regular school
teachers or other employees. Church services are conducted by
pastors from nearby villages, different denominations serving in
succession. At Pauls Valley the state pays for these services. At
McAlester some of the boys are permitted to attend church and
Sunday School in the city, and a prayer meeting is held regularly
on Thursday evening at the school.

The question of discipline naturally arises most frequently
in the state training schools. Corporal punishment is not forbidden
by law, but it seems to be seldom resorted to. The emphasis is
rather laid upon constructive methods of character-building.

Pauls Valley has an elaborate system of merits and demerits by which
a boy can earn his parole in 15 months if he has no demerits or when-
ever he gets 1,500 merits to his credit. Boys with 1,000 merits or more
are housed in a cottage known as the ‘‘Honor Cottage,” and this arrange-
ment is said to have a decidedly stimulating effect upon the general
spirit of the place.

At the Girls’ Industrial School the superintendent has introduced a semi-
military organization which divides the children into squads of 15 girls
each, with a monitor in charge of each squad, a lieutenant over every
three monitors, and a commander over all, who acts as assistant to the
superintendent. The appointments are made by the superintendent and
a shift in officers occurs frequently, promotions being made as rewards
of merit. The superintendent says that this method of developing
individual and group responsibility has reduced her disciplinary troubles
to a minimum.

The superintendent of the Training School for Negro Boys at McAlester,
is gradually developing a scheme whereby the boys themselves have a
part in prescribing the punishment for any infraction of rules. Since
this school is to be managed under the same law as Pauls Valley, a similar
system of merits and demerits will doubtless be applied there, but no
steps had been.taken in that direction at the time our study was made.
Solitary confinement on bread and water takes place occasionally at
McAlester. The only place where this kind of punishment can con-
veniently be given is a cage, which was used for prisoners in the peni-
tentiary. The superintendent has asked to have the cage removed and
some more suitable method of isolation provided.

At Pryor and Taft corporal punishment is administered by the super-
intendent only, and only as a last resort to runaways or other serious
offenders. Supt. Gardner, at Pryor, has worked out a blue ribbon method
of rewarding good behavior which he believes stimulates the children to
better conduct. He has forbidden his employees to deprive a child of
his meals or to send him to bed as a means of punishment, because he
176

Child Welfare in Oklahoma

believes the former method is bad for the child physically, and the
second humiliates him unnecessarily before his mates.

The Schools for the Blind and for the Deaf never employ corporal pun-
ishment. Expulsion is the penalty for the most serious wrongdoing.
Reprimands and deprivation of some cherished privilege ordinarily work
any desired reformation. Infinite patience and kindness are necessary
with these afflicted children, many of whom are badly spoiled at home
because of their handicaps, and for whose future welfare, self-reliance
and moral integrity are more than ordinarily essential.

EDUCATION

Everyone familiar with institutional work for dependent and

delinquent children knows that retardation is common among them.
Our age and grade studies at Pryor and the Girls’ Industrial School
on the three-year standardization basis showed 65 per cent retarded
at the former and 85 per cent at the latter. Surely children like
these are in as great need of a thorough education as the children
outside the institution gates. Yet what is the situation?

At Pryor, school is in session for ten months. Children over
the fourth grade attend only half time, alternating morning
and afternoon.

At Taft, the younger children were apparently expected to be
in school full time, but the rooms were so overcrowded and the
equipment so meagre that ‘“‘some of them” attended half time.
The difference between the class enrolment reported by the
teacher and the number of children actually counted in the
school-room on the morning of our visit indicated that this
condition was also true in the upper grades, where the children
are old enough to perform certain institution tasks.

At Pauls Valley, school is in session eleven months out of the
year. All the boys attend half time—the first, second, fourth
and seventh grades in the morning, and the third, fifth, sixth
and eighth in the afternoon.

The 50 boys at McAlester attend school for the entire calendar
year, alternating one day at work and one day at school.

At the Girls’ Industrial School classes are held for nine months.
The girls combine their school work and institution duties in
such a way that it is hard to tell whether they are getting the
equivalent of full-time schooling or not. The two rooms set
aside for school purposes are not large enough to accommodate
all the girls at once, so they come in for recitations and do their
studying elsewhere.
Institutional Care of Children 177

The following table shows the number of teachers employed in
strictly academic work for the state schools for delinquent and
dependent children in March, 1917. It does not include teachers
giving industrial courses.

 

 

NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER OF
SCHOOL OF OF CHILDREN

CHILDREN TEACHERS |TO TEACHER
Pry ORian nie de yeon naan 275 8 34
Tables ated nn asin 1 teauchieh ve 225 5 45
Pauls Valley............ 136 2 68
McAlester.............. 50 1 50
Girls’ Industrial......... 123 1 123

 

 

 

It was impossible in the time at our disposal to attempt any
report on the quality of the teaching. All the teachers interviewed
held certificates from the local education authorities, but the county
superintendent of public instruction seldom, if ever, visited the
schools, and there was no close relationship between the institution
teachers and those in the community.

The school equipment seems fairly adequate everywhere except
in the lower grades at Taft and at the Girls’ Industrial School.

Music lessons on piano or violin are given free at Pryor by a
resident teacher who handles all the music work in the grades. At
the Girls’ Industrial School those pupils whose.parents wish to pay
for piano lessons may receive instruction from a teacher who comes
out from Oklahoma City once or twice a week for that purpose.

The situation with regard to part-time schooling, though bad
in any case, would be less serious if the children in their time out
of school were receiving vocational training which was truly edu-
cational. But there is grave danger of letting vocational training
degenerate into the mechanical performance of institution tasks.

These are some of the occupations which are called ‘‘vocational training”
in the state institutions of Oklahoma: Sorting the clothing in steam
laundry; scrubbing the dormitory floor; clearing away stones and
tubbish from the yard; washing and dressing younger children; cleaning
the teachers’ rooms; washing dishes; feeding stock; mending stockings
and clothing; polishing the bathroom fixtures; stoking the furnace.
Pryor and Taft give no other form of training for boys than farm and
dairy work, except that at Pryor two boys work in the bakeshop.
178 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

At Pauls Valley a tailor shop on the grounds makes all the institution
clothing. Under the supervision of an experienced tailor the boys are
taught to operate the power machines and do some cutting, but the
patterns are plain and all the same. The shop where formerly all the
shoes were made now does little more than repair work. The machinery
is incomplete and out-of-date. The manual training department does
a little repair carpentry work about the institution.

The boys at McAlester, under the supervision of the matron, make all
their own clothing such as underwear, shirts, overalls, handkerchiefs,
and all the bed linen and towels. They do all the cooking and dish-
washing, cleaning and scrubbing.

Everywhere, the girls’ training consists of the traditional tasks
of woman—cooking and sewing and cleaning—and nowhere was the
instruction given by a teacher with any training other than experience.

There was little or no attempt to correlate the vocational training
with the academic work, although institution life affords a fascinating
opportunity for efforts of this sort. There was too little rotation
of tasks. A child who performed some special piece of work par-
ticularly well was likely to be kept at it indefinitely. Certain assign-
ments, such as the preparation of meals, interfered seriously at times
with the school work. Other tasks, as the feeding of stock, required
very early rising and some exposure during the winter months.
The farmwork during the summer often lasted long hours, and with
no thorough physical examinations of the boys by which to gauge
their endurance it must occasionally have been overtaxing.

There was no indication, however, of children being seriously
overworked at any time. The indictment rather strikes at the
monotony and lack of valuable training afforded by the work to
which they have been set.

When we turn to the state schools for defective children we
have occasion to wonder how long it will be before schools for normal
children can hope to attain such excellent standards.

Quite the most attractive school building visited in the state
was that provided for the feeble-minded pupils at Enid. Single
desks, ample floor space, correct lighting, abundant supplies of
attractive materials for handwork, and three teachers, all grad-
uates of the Vineland Training School, made a combination above
criticism. High-grade feeble-minded children can be taught
to perform certain simple tasks, but the main purpose in
training them is to keep them busy and happy. They are
taught to make baskets, to embroider, to make artificial flowers,
to do simple sewing, and they can be trusted under direction
Institutional Care of Children 179

to help with farm and kitchen work. There is no danger,
under the present management at Enid, of these tasks becoming
heavy drudgery.

Both the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf
follow the course of study laid down by the State Superintendent
of Public Instruction for the public schools of the state and their
graduates are accredited at the State University without exam-
ination. Children are in school full time five days a week, for
the nine months that school is in session. They return to their
homes during the summer vacation. The teachers are specially
trained for the work and the technical side of the academic
courses is very well handled. A delightful spirit of companion-
ship and cooperation between the teachers and children pre-
vailed at both schools.

The School for the Deaf follows what is known as the American
Combined system of instruction. Each child is placed under
oral instruction for at least two years. If he shows little or
no ability to learn articulate speech and lip-reading he is then
transferred to the manual department where he is taught by
signs, spelling on the hands, and writing. Each teacher at
Sulphur has now an average of 14 or 15 children. Ten is con-
sidered by the best authorities a reasonable number in the lower
grades. In oral classes in the upper grades 12 to 15 is con-
sidered the maximum.

Vocational training for the deaf boys is given in the school
printing shop where only hand presses are used, a shoe and
harness shop and a carpentry shop. A few of the boys work
on the farm and in the garden, but this is not considered a part
of the regular course of study and the work has never been
developed as it might be if the school owned more and better
land and some stock.

The girls’ work is in charge of a graduate domestic science
teacher. The girls do their own mending, make a few garments,
and help make the household linen for the school. The cooking
classes have as yet done no practical work, but the superin-
tendent plans to utilize them later in the preparation of special
dishes or meals.

At the School for the Blind the vocational training department
offers courses in piano-tuning, broom-making, chair-caning,
hammock-weaving and basketry for the boys; weaving, sewing
and domestic science for the girls. The superintendent plans
to add courses in typewriting as soon as possible.

Instruction in music receives great emphasis, and good courses
in piano and organ are offered as well as in voice culture. Several
students are preparing for professional work and three are
expecting to enter the State University in the Fall.
180 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

PLACING-OUT WORK

Only one state institution, the State Home at Pryor, does any
placing-out work. Its methods are discussed in the chapter on
Home Finding, page 196.

PAROLE WORK

The power of parole or discharge from a state institution is at
present vested in two persons, the superintendent of the institution
and the judge of the juvenile court in the county from which the child
was originally committed. As pointed out in the chapter on juvenile
courts (see page 157), the current impression among the judges is that
they transfer guardianship and thereby lose jurisdiction over the de-
pendent children when they commit them to institutions, but retain
jurisdiction over the delinquents. We recommend that this uncer-
tainty as to the exact meaning of the law be cleared up by entrusting
such powers to the superintendent of the institution alone.

Of the three state training schools for delinquent children, only
Pauls Valley has a definitely worked out system by which a boy
may earn his parole ina stated time. (See page 175.) At McAlester a
similar system will doubtless be introduced since the law specifies that
the management shall be in all respects the same as at Pauls Valley.

Girls pass from the jurisdiction of the institution at 18, boys
at 21, unless sooner released.

None of the training schools has a parole agent, although one
is greatly needed now at Pauls Valley and at the Girls’ Industrial
School and will soon be needed by the Training Schools for Negro
Children. The work that should be done by a parole agent is left
undone except in unusual instances where the superintendent is
able to secure work for a pupil or the judge of the juvenile court is
willing to look after the child on parole.

We cannot fairly estimate the permanency of juvenile refor-
mation accomplished by state institutions unless we know what
happens to the children after discharge, and this we do not know
at present unless they chance to be rearrested while still of juvenile
court age and are returned to the institution for violation of parole.

RECORDS AND REPORTS

The records at any institution are of two kinds, those which
precede the admittance of the child and those which cover his life
while the institution is responsible for him.
Institutional Care of Children 181

The state institutions for delinquents and dependents receive
children on court commitment only, and at Enid all patients unable
to pay the charges (practically all) are also committed through the
juvenile court. The law states definitely for Pryor and Pauls Valley
what records shall accompany the child, and these standards may
be accepted as applying to Taft, McAlester, and the Girls’ Industrial
School as well.

Section 7113 of the Code of 1910, provides that any boy sentenced to
Pauls Valley shall be delivered to the superintendent ‘‘together with a
statement of the offense for which said boy was convicted, also his
name, age, nativity and a copy of the sentence of the court.”’ Our
investigator’s report on the actual situation showed that the information
furnished by the various judges was very meager, and by no means
uniform. In many cases the commitment papers simply showed the
court’s findings and stated that the boy was committed. Frequently
the child’s age is not given or any explanation of his offense, and afew
cases were found where it was impossible to tell whether the child was
dependent or delinquent.

At Pryor the superintendent found it so difficult to secure
adequate information from the juvenile courts regarding the children
sent to him that in 1915 he secured the passage of a law which made
it imperative upon the courts to send

“a complete copy of the proceedings of the commitment to the superin-
tendent of the Oklahoma State Home for his records.” It was further
specified that the court should keep as part of the commitment pro-
ceedings ‘‘the names and addresses, if possible, of all the near relatives
of the children, cause of the death of relatives, stating the disease, if
known, and before said children shall be assigned to the State Home
the county court shall have them examined by a competent physician
to determine if they are of sound mind and body.”” (S. L. 1916, Page 232,
Sec. 1.)

It seldom happens that a complete transcript of the testimony is sent
because few Oklahoma courts have a stenographer present at such
hearings, but there has been some improvement in the care with which
commitment papers are made out since the passage of this law. It is
still difficult to get information about the parents and other relatives.
This is a particularly serious omission when it is a question of studying
children for placement in family homes, for most foster parents want
to know something about the heredity of the child they propose to make
their own.

At the schools for defective children the only preliminary
records are the application blanks. We found much more complete
information on file regarding the children who returned to their
182 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

parents yearly than for those children whose only hope of ever
gaining any information about their birth lay in the completeness
with which their commitment papers were filled out. This is a
great injustice to the latter group.

All children are expected to bring health certificates from local
physicians. Some of the forms simply state that the child is of
sound body and mind, others that he has not been exposed to in-
fectious or contagious disease within a specified time. None that
were seen recorded any of the essential physical data which should
be known to determine the child’s treatment.

The running story of the child’s life at the school should in-
clude records of health, scholarship, and character development.
No state institution of Oklahoma keeps an adequate health record
of its children. The scholarship records are kept by the school
teachers, but are not transferred to the permanent files anywhere
except at the Schools for the Blind and the Deaf. The character
record is seldom entered in full, and when found at all deals mainly
with offenses.

Delinquent children should have, when they leave the insti-
tution, an order of parole from judge or superintendent, and the
ideal, of course, would be to have the reports of a parole officer
continue the story until the child is discharged. At present no
Oklahoma institution has a parole officer.

For dependent children who are placed in family homes there
should be filed the application blank from foster-parents, reports
on the investigation of the foster-home, contract or indenture blanks,
reports of subsequent visits to the home and all correspondence
regarding the child until its adoption or coming of age. These
records were in excellent condition at Pryor. Reports of subsequent
visits to the home were seldom found, however.

Over the defective child the state institution exercises no
aftercare.

BOYS IN STATE REFORMATORY

The annual report of the warden of the State Reformatory at
Granite shows that in the 16-month period ended October 31, 1916,
four 15-year-old boys and fifty-two 16-year-olds were behind the
bars. The warden of the State Penitentiary at McAlester reports
11 prisoners under 16 during the same period. The incarceration
of boys under 16 is unquestionably illegal, as the Supreme Court
Institutional Care of Children 183

held in the case of Powell vs. State (6 Okla. 495). Theoretically,
imprisonment in the reformatory might be considered the lesser of
the two evils but actually the need for strong men to develop the
chief industry at the reformatory, the granite quarry, has led to the
elimination of all age or crime distinctions and the class of prisoners
committed to reformatory and penitentiary is practically the same.
The boys are not separated from the older criminals on the basis of
age, but the warden does attempt to keep those committed for
slight offenses in a separate dormitory.

No educational or recreational work is carried on at the reform-
atory. Plans are under way for a school-room and library, a band,
a motion picture machine and other similar features when the
addition to the building is completed. However, the introduction
of such improvements will in no way justify the open violation of the
juvenile court law which forbids, for reasons universally recognized
as sound, the incarceration of young boys with older criminals.
It is a serious matter that such a condition should be permitted
to continue.

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

The state institutions of Oklahoma which deal with white children
have fairly good physical equipment. This cannot be said at present
of the institutions for the negro children. But the appropriations
made by the state legislature in 1917 will greatly improve conditions.

Without exception, the state institutions are either filled to
capacity or badly overcrowded. This may denote the necessity
for erecting more buildings, as it doubtless does in the schools for
defective children, or it may indicate a need for developing other
departments of child care which would tend to reduce the institution
population. Good probation officers should be able to decrease the
number of commitments of delinquent children by carrying them on
probation so long as any reasonable hope could be entertained of
thus reforming them; and of dependent children by discovering
new sources of family support and tiding over occasional emergencies.
A corps of efficient placing-out agents could still further reduce the
number of children in the State Home by stimulating a demand for
children in family homes and by a sympathetic supervision of these
foster-homes, which might reduce the number of replacements.

Further, our investigation found dependent children in in-
stitutions for delinquents and vice versa, and children said to be
184 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

feeble-minded mingling with both delinquents and dependents.
A general sifting and readjustment based on a thorough physical
and mental examination of each child in the state training schools
and homes would perhaps still further reduce the population.

Health conditions, except at Taft, are generally good. The
ventilation and sanitation of dormitories and dining-rooms are
excellent at Pryor, Muskogee and Enid; good, except for over-
crowded dormitories, at the Girls’ Industrial School and Sulphur;
fair in Pauls Valley and McAlester; and very poor at Taft. The
food served is abundant and nourishing everywhere except at Taft.

The medical care of children in state institutions is good as
far as it goes, but it falls far short of modern standards of preventive
medicine. No institution in the state except Enid gives a complete
physical examination to every child on admittance. No institution
makes adequate provision for dental work or the correction of physical
defects. No institution quarantines a child on admittance. No ade-
quate records of health work are available anywhere except at Enid.

Recreation everywhere receives insufficient attention, except
at the schools for defective children.

Educational facilities are excellent at the state schools for
defective children so far as the buildings, equipment, training and
personality of the teachers are concerned. Sulphur, however, is
somewhat under-staffed at present. The School for the Blind offers
vocational training in piano-tuning, broom-making, chair-caning,
hammock-weaving, and basketry for the boys; weaving, sewing, and
domestic science for the girls. The School for the Deaf offers printing,
shoe and harness-making, and carpentry for the boys, cooking and
sewing under a graduate domestic science teacher for the girls.

The delinquent and dependent children of the ages covered by
the compulsory education law at Pryor, Taft, Pauls Valley, McAlester
and the Girls’ Industrial School, are attending school only part time.
In the two schools for which statistics were obtained, the percentages
of retardation were high.

The ‘vocational training’ with which these children occupy
approximately half their school time is not so handled as to make
it highly educational. Pauls Valley is the only institution in this
class where shops of any sort are found. Here, the tailor shop is
the only one equipped with really modern machines and provided
with a trained instructor. Elsewhere, the boys do farmwork and
the girls perform the household tasks of the institution.
Institutional Care of Children 185

The record systems are everywhere inadequate but particularly
so in the schools for delinquent and dependent children. This is
partly due to the meagre information which the county judges send
with the commitment papers, partly to the lack of clerical help at
the institutions, and partly to the lack of realization of the importance
of records.

Only one state institution does any placing-out work. The con-
clusions and recommendations on this point are discussed in the
chapter on Home Finding, page 196.

Practically no parole work is being carried on. The institu-
tions for delinquent children have no parole officer.

Incarceration of boys under sixteen in either State Peni-
tentiary or State Reformatory is illegal yet 15 boys under 16 were
so imprisoned in the 16-month period preceding October 31, 1916.

The greatest weakness in the institutional care of children by
the state of Oklahoma to-day is the lack of skilled supervision by
one highly trained and efficient central body. The present system
by which some institutions have three state departments exercising
some supervisory powers, others two, and still others only one, makes
for confusion. It is impossible under such circumstances to establish
the uniformly high standards of management that each institution
desires to attain. Yet the situation is very hopeful because the
tools are at hand. With the present equipment and the present
employees it would be possible greatly to increase the efficiency of
the state work for children, simply by furnishing intelligent direction.
It is not a question of undoing bad work so much as it is of under-
taking to establish standards, hitherto unemphasized, of good work.
This, we believe, would be best accomplished by the creation of a
State Division of Child Welfare, working under the State Com-
missioner of Charities and Correction and devoting its whole energies
to the children who for any reason need the protection of the state.
(See Administration, page 284.)

Private Institutions

Two of the 14 private institutions were not visited, the Baptist
Orphans’ Home at Oklahoma City and the Benevolent and Orphanage
Association at Cornish. The Oklahoma Orphanage at Bethany was
visited in the absence of the superintendent and it proved impossible
to repeat the visit. A brief description of the remaining 11 follows:
186

Child Welfare in Oklahoma

1. The Murrow Indian Orphans Home. Location, 160-acre farm three

miles southeast of Muskogee. Superintendent, Rev. J. Harvey Randall.
Purpose: to care for Indian orphan children between the ages of 3 and
20 and train them for self-support. Present on the day of visit, 54 chil-
dren. Age limit not closely enforced. Children kept until self-supporting.
Half-orphans also received. No children given out for adoption. $150
a year charged pupils with property for full care including school books
and clothing. Seventeen children paid in full last year; 10 paid in part;
21 were cared for free. Shares campus and educational advantages of
Bacone University. Physical equipment, fair. No hospital, no trained
nurse. Physician’s care only in case of illness. Academic work of high
grade. All teachers but one college graduates. No vocational training.
Records in good condition but inadequate. Pleasant homelike atmos-
phere. Supported by the Baptist Church.

. Page Farm. Location, large country estate at Sand Springs near Tulsa.

Head, Charles R. Page, millionaire oil man. Purpose: to be a family
home for dependent children. Present on day of visit, 60. Children
adopted by Mr. Page or by Home Farm Association. No age limits
for admittance or discharge. No special qualifications. Children not
necessarily orphans. Families of brothers and sisters not separated.
No children given out for adoption. Physical surroundings excellent.
Every advantage in education, vocational training and recreation
provided on most lavish scale. Supported entirely by Mr. Page.

. Sunbeam Orphanage. Location, Oklahoma City. Matron, Mrs. Morris-

son. Purpose: to provide a home for children, temporary or permanent
as their needs require. Present on day of visit, 39. No children received
on court commitment. Many children boarded by parents. No age
limits enforced. Children sometimes placed in foster homes. Appli-
cations for admittance investigated. Frame building in good residence
section of city. Children attend public school. No vocational training
at orphanage. Health certificates required on admittance. Medical
care only for illness. Records inadequate. Supported by private board
of women who raise funds by solicitation.

. St. Joseph’s Orphanage. Location, 40-acre farm near Bethany. Purpose:

to provide a home for orphans and half-orphans. Present on day of
visit, 73. No children received on court commitment. No placing-out
work done. Twelve children paid for by parents. Physical surroundings
poor. One brick building, unheated. School on grounds taught by two
Catholic sisters, graduates of Catholic Academy of Oklahoma City.
Vocational training for boys. Broom-making taught by blind man.
Carpenter shop and printing shop not in use. Girls taught cooking,
sewing and music if they show ability. Farm worked by two men and
older boys. Supported by Catholic Church.

5and 6. Oklahoma Odd Fellows Homes at Carmen and Checotah. Superin-

tendent of Carmen Home, L. C. Madley. Superintendent of Checotah
Home, I. S. Hanshaw. Purpose: to give a home and education to
any child of an Odd Fellow in good standing who would otherwise
Institutional Care of Children 187

be dependent upon the public for support. Old people also received
at Carmen. Present on day of visit at Carmen, 111 children; at
Checotah, 54. Seven parents paid part expenses last year. No children
received on court commitment. All applications investigated by
Home Board. No children given out for adoption. Boys discharged
at 16, girls at 18. Work found for children on discharge. Children
attend public school. Good study-rooms and fair libraries. No
vocational training except farm and housework. Health certificate
required on admittance. Medical care only for illness. Records kept
at Home Board office. Only ledger lists at Home. Physical surroundings
fair. Supported by per capita levy on Odd Fellows of State.

. Masonic Home. Location, 620-acre farm near El Reno. Superintendent,
William M. Robertson. Purpose: to give home and education to any
child of a Mason in good standing who would otherwise be dependent
upon the public for support. Old people also received. Present on day
of visit, 168 children. Children need not be orphans but parents must
sign relinquishment papers and give consent to adoption of children.
No children received on court commitment. All applications investi-
gated by Home Board. A few children placed out for adoption. Placing-
out work to be extended. Investigation and supervision of foster-home
by local lodge. Boys discharged at 16, girls at 18. Work found for
children on discharge. Physical surroundings excellent. Generous
playground equipment. Records adequate and in good order. School
on institution grounds attended by children of district which shares in
its support. Supervised by county superintendent. No vocational
training except farm and housework. Health conditions excellent.
Hospital and nurse on grounds. Physical examination before admit-
tance. Physical defects corrected. Fund available for surgical opera-
tions. Children vaccinated for smallpox and typhoid. Supported by
per capita levy on Masons of state.

. Jabbok Faith Missionary Training Home. Location, large farm near
Thomas. Superintendent, E. N. Engel. Original purpose to give
dependent children training as missionaries. Missionary idea now
abandoned. Present on day of visit, 32. No restrictions as to age or
sex. Children need not be orphans or dependents. Children seldom
received by court commitment. A few given out for adoption. Relin-
quishment papers secured by Board. Boys discharged at 17, girls at 18.
Older children occasionally hired by nearby farmers for summer work.
Physical surroundings poor. One brick building. School on institution
grounds. Not all children attend full time. No vocational training
except farm and housework. Largely self-supporting by sale of farm
and dairy products. Aided and controlled by Church of the Brethren
in Christ.

. Child Saving Mission. Location, Enid. Superintendent, Rev. D. E.
Cripe. Purpose: to place orphans and dependent children in good family
homes either for adoption or on contract. Present on day of visit, 9.
Children received by court commitment or from parents. Twenty-six
188 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

received in 1916. Average of five in receiving home during year. Home
in excellent sanitary condition. Matron not trained nurse but efficient.
Health work under supervision of Enid General Hospital. Records in
good order but inadequate. Foster-homes sometimes investigated by
correspondence. After-care of placed-out children inadequate. Sup-
ported by Dunkard Church.

10. Oklahoma Children’s Home Society. Location, Oklahoma City. Super-
intendent, C. W. Putney. Purpose: to find deserted and neglected
children, receive them into guardianship, and place them in family
homes for adoption, keeping them under observation until maturity.
Present in receiving home on day of visit, 12. Children received by court
commitment or from parents. Home in Oklahoma City used also as
temporary detention home by Oklahoma County Juvenile Court. In 1916,
county paid $1,871.87 for such care. Number of children received in 1916,
172. Placed in family homes, 172. Average number in receiving home, 12
to 14. State districted. Three agents in field soliciting funds and doing
child-placing. Some foster-homes investigated by correspondence.
Records at present inadequate but undergoing revision. Good medical
staff but no physical examination necessary before placement. Sup-
ported by general public. Funds largely raised by solicitation.

11. Holmes Home of Redeeming Love. Location, 80-acre farm near Bethany.
Superintendent, Miss Anna L. Wittman. Purpose: to serve as a mater-
nity home for unmarried girls. Dependent old women also received.
Children sometimes boarded for unmarried mothers. Present on day of
visit, 7 old women, 22 girls, 14 babies, and 4 children. No cases received
on court commitment. Seventy girls cared for in 1916; 51, free, 19
paid part charges. Thirty-three kept babies; 32 relinquished children
for adoption. Oklahoma Children’s Home Society handles all placing-
out work for home. Records in fair order but inadequate. Physical
surroundings, fair. One brick building in use, one nearing completion.
Provision for maternity care inadequate. No resident physician. No
trained nurse. Delivery room poorly equipped. Supported by general
public and by farm. Funds largely raised by solicitation.

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

The 14 private institutions of Oklahoma care for dependent
children only. All are for white children except the Indian Orphans’
Home. The two home-finding societies are both state-wide in
operation, but one, the Child-Saving Mission, is very small, handling
an average of only about five children at a time. The one maternity
home receives dependent old women and deserted wives as well as
unmarried girls awaiting confinement. All institutions except this
maternity home receive both boys and girls. No hard and fast age
limits are anywhere set, but in general boys are not received after
14 or girls after 16, and all orphanages except the Indian Orphans’
Institutional Care of Children 189

Home plan to discharge boys at 16 and girls at 18. The Baptist
Orphans’ Home receives only destitute children under 12. At the
Murrow Indian Orphans’ Home the children are kept “until they
are ready for self-support,’’ and this with Indians is frequently
above the usual age limit. Placing-out work is carried on by seven
institutions.

Various church denominations are represented in the manage-
ment of these institutions: the Baptist Church supports the Baptist
Orphans’ Home in Oklahoma City and the Murrow Indians’ Home
at Bacone; the Catholic Church has a large orphanage, St Joseph’s
at Bethany; the Jabbok Faith Missionary School, at Thomas, is
supported by the Brethren in Christ; and the Child-Saving Mission,
at Enid, by the. Dunkards. The other agencies and institutions
are non-sectarian in management and support. None of those
financed by particular denominations requires the children received
to be of its own faith, but the religious training at such places
naturally receives a denominational emphasis.

Three institutions are financed by fraternal orders: the Odd
Fellows have combination orphanages and old people’s homes at
Carmen and Checotah; and the Masons have a similar institution
at Darlington.

Oklahoma has one unique private agency for child care in the
Page Farm at Sand Springs, near Tulsa. Here some 60 children are
cared for through the private resources of a wealthy man who is
said to have legally adopted them. He gives them just such care
as they would receive in a good family home and there is nothing
of the institution about the place. Page Farm is entirely inde-
pendent of public support.

The institutions maintained by fraternal orders raise all ex-
penses by a per capita tax upon the state membership. Most of
the other private agencies depend upon house-to-house solicitation
to raise at least a portion of the funds for their current expenses.
Solicitors receive from 40 to 50 per cent commission on what they
secure. While certain of the agencies, notably the Oklahoma Chil-
dren’s Home Society, keep careful account of moneys received in
this way and permit only accredited persons to solicit for them,
similar care is said not to be exercised by all, and indiscriminate
solicitation for charitable purposes is ‘an openly recognized nuisance
in the state at large. Unless actual fraud can be proved there is at
present no legal method of checking this abuse. In Muskogee and
190 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

other cities where the charity organization movement is getting
under way, social workers are asking the business men of the town
to refuse to contribute to solicitors who cannot show credentials
from the local charity organization group. The State Commissioner
of Charities and Correction urged the 1917 legislature to pass a bill
which would have made it illegal for anyone to solicit funds for
charitable purposes anywhere in the state without credentials
from the State Commissioner himself, but the measure failed of
passage.

The physical equipment of the private institutions is not, as
a tule, equal to that of the state institutions. Exceptions to this
statement are found on the Page Farm and at the Masonic Home.
All the private institutions use the congregate system of housing.
Of the 11 visited, sanitation was apparently good at four, fair at
six, and poor at one. No records of inspection by the State Board
of Health were available. Fire protection could nowhere be called
really adequate. Double beds were found everywhere. At only
one small institution had the dietary been planned by a trained
person. Little or no distinction was made anywhere between food
served to babies of two or three years and to older children.

Health care was inadequate everywhere except at the Masonic
Home. This is the only private institution in the state where a
physician gives a complete physical examination to each child on
admittance as a matter of routine and where his findings and recom-
mendations are preserved in permanent form, where a special fund
is available for surgical operations, and a hospital and nurse are
maintained on the institution grounds. Even here dental work
does not receive sufficient attention. The two home-finding societies
have consulting staffs of physicians and their children receive good
care when ill, but do not necessarily receive physical examinations
or blood tests before placement. The equipment and the nursing
staff at the Holmes Home of Redeeming Love are not sufficient for
the number of maternity cases handled by the institution.

Three institutions maintain private schools for all the children
on the institution grounds. In only one of these was the academic
work of high grade. One institution conducts a school in conjunction
with the local school district and others beside institution children
attend. In one village the superintendent of schools sends a teacher
to the institution grounds to conduct classes for the first four grades.
In both these instances the schools are practically public schools.
Institutional Care of Children 191

One home-finding society sends the children from its detention
home to the public school. The other considers this arrangement
unwise since the children are likely to be present only a short time.
One institution pays for a kindergarten and an elementary school
teacher and sends the older children to the village school. No
institution except Page Farm makes any provision for educating the
children beyond the high school

No vocational training except practical instruction in farm
and housework is anywhere attempted. The fraternal homes find
employment for all children discharged on account of age. Little
after-care is exercised by any institution, however.

Records nowhere, except at the home-finding societies and at
the Masonic Home, have advanced far beyond the ledger state.

We are now fairly certain that an institution which opens its
doors without question to any child in apparent need is not en-
couraging the development of that very moral stamina in the parents
which it should be its first duty to cultivate. Only three of the private
institutions make any pretense of investigating applications for
admittance and none of these three employ a trained worker on the
investigations. Applications for admittance are investigated for
one orphanage by the women on the board and for the fraternal
homes by a central state board which investigates through local
lodges.

None of the employees interviewed at private institutions had
received special training for his position, and while some excellent
work was being done the management in general lacked social
intelligence. No constructive or preventive work was under way.

The situation of the private agencies in Oklahoma is much more
serious than that of the state institutions, because with them it
is a question of support as well as of supervision. They need, per-
haps even more than the state institutions, the skilled guidance of a
strong Commissioner of Charities or a good Division of Child Wel-
fare (see report on Administration, page 284), but even with this
supervision certain changes could not be accomplished without money
and the support of private charitable enterprise is always an uncertain
thing. The poverty of equipment which characterizes some of the
smaller orphanages, the lack of recreational facilities, and the
general barrenness of the life which they offer must make an in-
eradicable impression upon the sensitive minds of the children who
grow up there.
192 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Recommendations
INSTITUTIONS, PRIVATE AND PUBLIC

Supervision

All state institutions caring for dependent, defective, and de-
linquent children except the State Schools for the Blind and the
Deaf should be under the joint supervision of the State Division of
Child Welfare and the State Board of Public Affairs, the latter
handling only business transactions as distinguished from adminis-
trative work. (See report on Administration, page 284.) The Schools
for the Blind and the Deaf should be left under the supervision of
the State Board of Education and the State Board of Public Affairs.

Education

All inmates of children’s institutions who are within the com-
pulsory education age limits should have full-time schooling.

The State Board of Education and the county board of edu-
cation should have supervision over educational work in institu-
tions which should conform in every way to the course of instruction
outlined for the public schools of the state.

Dependent and neglected children who are normal should
attend the public schools when possible.

When children are placed out on contract or for adoption full-
time schooling should be guaranteed by the foster-home.

The vocational training in state institutions for dependent and de-
linquent children should be greatly extended, placed under competent
instructors, and correlated more closely with the academic training.

Health
Better systems of medical supervision and health records should
be installed by all child-caring institutions. This might include:

(a) Physical examination of all children on admission to include
at least the minimum procedure specified by the New York
Committee on Child-Caring Institutions, this examination to
be made by the home physician regardless of medical certificates
from local physicians;

(b) A physical history record to be filled out and kept on file
for each child in the home, this card to include recommendations
for treatment and to have space for recording any diseases or
operations while child is in home;

(c) Isolation of all children on admittance for a period of at
least ten days,
Institutional Care of Children 193

(d) Wasserman or other similar tests to be given all children
before placement, and vaccination for smallpox to be given on
admittance;

(e) The establishment of a consulting staff of experts on children’s
diseases through whom necessary operations could be secured
and puzzling cases given expert diagnosis.

Recreation

More playground equipment is needed at all the children’s
institutions. In the larger places a recreation director should be
employed. In the smaller institutions volunteer workers could
perhaps be secured.

Small well-chosen libraries and a few good periodicals should
be easily accessible to the children.

Provisions should also be made for occasional lectures and con-
certs by outside speakers and musicians.

Fire Protection

Minimum standards of fire protection should be established
for all child-caring institutions and the State Fire Marshal should be
required to inspect semi-annually and to report his findings to the
State Child Welfare Division.

Sanitation

Minimum standards of sanitation should be established for all
child-caring institutions and the State Board of Health should be
required to inspect semi-annually and to report its findings to the
State Child Welfare Division, the inspection to include the con-
dition of sinks, drains and plumbing, ventilation and over-crowding
of dormitories, adequacy and preparation of food, survey of health
of children, also tests of water, milk and ice, etc.

Parole Work

Parole officers should be provided for the four training schools
for white and negro boys and girls.

Survey of Institutions

An immediate need in the state training schools and the state
homes is a careful study of the physical and mental condition of the
individual children and a re-distribution, if necessary, among other
institutions better fitted for their care.
HOME FINDING
MaseL Brown ELLts

Oklahoma has officially endorsed the best modern standards
in her plan of care for dependent children. The state home for
dependent white children was designed not as a permanent custodial
institution but as a receiving station where boys and girls whose own
parents could not provide for them might be prepared for reception
into other family homes. A state agent was appointed to find such
family homes and to supervise them after the child had been placed
there. Theoretically the scheme is sound.

But the state failed to take the additional steps necessary to
extend the benefits of this plan to children who might happen to
fall into the hands of private agencies. No law has been passed
which requires the licensing of such private agencies, and no statute
requires that anyone placing out children for adoption shall in-
vestigate the foster-home or visit the child after disposing of him.
It is still quite possible for any private agency, any maternity home,
any humane society, any county judge, any township trustee, or
any private citizen to hand over a child for adoption without being
held in any way responsible for its future welfare.

Supervision

The State Commissioner of Charities and Correction is required

by law to ‘‘inspect and if found satisfactory to certify for one year all
lying-in hospitals, rescue homes, orphanages and foundling
institutions wherever established in the state,” and to “‘examine
methods and records of all orphanage children’s aid or home-finding
societies and all other similar organizations whether incorporatd
or not, and formed for the purpose of adopting into families such
foundlings, orphans, and dependent children as come into their
hands.”” He may institute prosecutions for any violation of law
discovered and he must investigate all sworn complaints made
against such agencies. But it is not clear how far his power goes.
If definite charges are made and sustained against the management
of any institution, the Commissioner may order the place closed,

194
Home Finding 195

but it is not clear whether he may follow so drastic a course when the
institution continues to operate after having been refused a certificate.

Since this is the case, standards of child-placing work in Okla-
homa are very uneven. A large number of different agencies are
working at the situation with little cooperation and, indeed, with
little knowledge of each other’s activities.

Home-Finding Agencies

The home-finding agencies of Oklahoma may be classified as
follows:

J. The State. Placing-out work is carried on by State Agent
from State Home at Pryor.

2. The County. Juvenile court judges find homes for many
children in private families. County commissioners are said occa-
sionally ‘‘to give away children for adoption,” but we encountered
no such instances.

3. Private Organizations:

A. Children’s Home-Finding Societies.
1. The Oklahoma Children’s Home Society, Oklahoma City.
2. The Child-Saving Mission, Enid.
B. Maternity Homes.
1. The Holmes Home of Redeeming Love, Oklahoma City.
C. Humane Societies.
1. Tulsa.
2. Sapulpa.
D. Associated Charities.
1. Muskogee.
E. Orphanages.
1. Jabbok Faith Missionary Training School, Thomas.
. Masonic Home, Darlington.
. Oklahoma Benevolent and Orphanage Association, Cornish.
. Baptist Orphans’ Home, Oklahoma City.
. Sunbeam Home Association, Oklahoma City.

or WN

HOME-FINDING WORK BY STATE—DEPENDENT CHILDREN

Since the state scheme of care was followed out only at the
State Home, a somewhat detailed study was made of the methods .
in use there. The Home receives only white children under 16 who
are of sound body and mind. Children come only on court commit-
ment and that process is considered to transfer guardianship of the
child from the parents to the governing board of the Home.
196 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

The administration of the placing-out work of the State Home
has been provided for by the creation of the office of State Agent.
He is appointed by the Board of Education at a salary of $1500.
His duties are two-fold: to find suitable family homes for children
committed to the institution, and to supervise them after placement.

Children may be placed out by the State Agent for adoption
or on contract, “the contract to provide for the education of the
children in the public schools for at least six months of every year;
for teaching some useful occupation; for kind and proper treatment;
for payment to the board for the use of the children such money
as is named in the contract.” (Sec. 7001, Code of 1910.)

Any person may apply for a child, but all homes must be
approved by the Board and none will be considered where ‘‘any
member of the family is addicted to the use of liquor or engaged in
the liquor traffic or in any immoral pursuits.” The State Agent
must visit and report upon any home at the request of the Super-
intendent of the State Home and must investigate immediately
upon complaint from any source. The county attorneys are re-
quired to act as his legal advisers when needed. After legal adoption,
all responsibility of the Home for the child ceases.

When a child is placed on contract, however, the Home is required
to secure information ‘‘as often as practicable’ and written reports
must be made “at least once in every three months.” A system of
postcard reports has been started which is said to work fairly well.

So far as the forms and the method of handling them are con-
cerned, the placing-out work is fairly well done. But the great
weakness in the whole system is that it is practically all done by
correspondence. The State Agent rarely visits a home in person
before a child is placed there, and seldom afterwards. Almost the
only times when the State Agent actually sees either the foster-
home or the child in the foster-home are occasions when some com-
plaint has been made which must be investigated. It not infre-
quently happens that a child will be returned to the institution from
a foster-home before the State Agent has visited it at all, with no
more definite statement from the foster parents than, ‘Couldn’t
get along with him,” or “hard to handle.” Such a situation is
usually too delicate to be covered satisfactorily by correspondence.

How great the need is for a closer study of the reasons which
have caused maladjustment in the foster-home or failure to secure
Home Finding 197

a foster-home, can be seen from two tables made at the time of our
visit to the State Home. The first covers 51 children who had been
returned after placement for reasons summarized by the State
Agent as follows :—

Lazy or hard to handles. «.cc602cnn0yeeamdeners 13
Illness or physical defect.................2000% 8
Interference of relatives..............02220000% 6
REI W AY cascucnh astwnteusisocatetio, Sh axed Satietee hcesatstson lads 6
Changes in foster-home..............000-000 ee 6
Didn't give satisfaction..............2202ee00 5
Miscellanéousis vssucsn wae carne omeax cetnk sore 7

The second table covers 224 children who have never been
placed in family homes. For seven of these children, applications
were on file. For the remaining 217, the State Agent gave the fol-
lowing reasons for failure to find homes:—

INGE ChoSeninacs:: </nuss se games a seas mess 99
Unattiractive: vs2ecacnianaie tees vedi: eee a Ee 32
Interference of relatives. ...........00200:0 eee 29
Illness or physical defect..............-.-.--04. 16
Deli Quen tty Pesce capice cs agguce ea tuned teeta. a iesienernie 15
GY CV ARN nsec See pen Bass Sod tar ic WAS seo AS tase Shee ta hrc 13
Feeblesminded 4. cuncie'scmgaias euigd aeaniin steal as a 8
Miscellan couse. 2ccceca ss whan eceiat deere’ ce eiglie was 5

The term, “‘Not chosen,” covers the large group of children who
have no mental or physical defects and who are ordinarily good-
looking but who for one reason or another have failed to strike the
fancy of persons looking for a child. They are regarded as dis-
tinctly ‘“‘placeable.”” Of the 30 girls “not chosen,” three had been
in the institution over 18 months; six between one year and 18
months; ten, 6 to 11 months; eight, 3 to 5 months; and only three
under 3 months. Of the 69 boys “not chosen,” two had been at
the Home over 5 years; three, between 4 and 5 years; three, be-
tween 3 and 3 years, 11 months; four, between 2 and 2 years, 11
months; thirty-one, between 1 and 1 year, 11 months; six, be-
tween 6 and 11 months; twelve, between 3 and 5 months; four,
under 3 months. It is a question at least worthy of consideration
whether these 99 children, all but seven of whom had been cared for
in the State Home over three months, might not have been placed out
in good families in the state, had a sufficient corps of well-trained
state agents been at work.
198 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

The children classed as “‘unattractive”’ are also without physical
defect, but so plain-featured and devoid of personal charm, in the
opinion of the State Agent, that people are not likely to want them.
A skillful study of the field would in all probability reveal homes
where beauty was not the first requisite in a foster-child and where
perhaps a difference of opinion might exist, if people were given a
chance to see the children at their best.

So real a problem did the interference of relatives become that
in 1915, Supt. Gardner, of the State Home, secured the passage of a
bill which made it a misdemeanor punishable by fine of not less
than $100 or more than $200 for any parent ‘‘to visit a home
in which one or more of his children shall have been placed by the
superintendent of the Oklahoma State Home for Children for the
purpose of enticing away or causing said child or children to become
dissatisfied.” (L. 1915, Chap. 145. Sec. 2.) There have been no
prosecutions under this law, but the mere knowledge of its existence
is believed to act as a deterrent.

Judges sometimes commit children to the State Home on an
insufficient hearing and before the resources of the child’s own family
have been investigated. No evidence could be found, even in courts
where probation officers had been appointed, of any effort to com-
municate with relatives in other cities, although the names and
addresses of such relatives sometimes appeared on the records. The
present office force at the Home is not sufficient to permit of such
work being carried on but a well-trained staffworker capable of
handling records. intelligently could probably find homes with their
own kinsfolk for some of these wards of the state.

Children classed as ‘‘delinquent type’ include a few boys and
‘girls who are known to practise self-abuse, some who steal, and
several who are persistent runaways. A careful study needs to be
made of these children to determine whether they belong at Pryor,
at one of the reform schools, or at the school for feeble-minded
children.

The Indian children present a special problem. It is practically
impossible to place them with families of their own nationality,
according to the State Agent, and no one else wants them. Would
it not be advisable to transfer them to the Murrow Indian Orphans’
Home, where they would get equally good care and a better education,
and leave their places open for children who are really placeable?
Home Finding 199

The feeble-minded children, of course, should be transferred
to Enid as quickly as possible, provided that after careful examina-
tion they are found to be fit subjects for that institution. One
feeble-minded boy has been in the Home just one month short of
five years, the others for periods of three years, seven months;
one year, three months; and ten months respectively. In this con-
nection it is suggested that all the children now at the Home be
given mental tests, since it is possible that some of the retardation
in school may be due to mental defect.

Since there is no other place in the state where dependent
crippled children may receive care, the seven boys who are more ‘or
less disabled will have to remain a permanent charge upon Pryor
until they become of age to be dismissed. But expert medical
examination should insure the fact that their condition cannot be
remedied, and they should be given special training in some trade
adapted to the handicapped.

The comparatively small group who are left are suffering from
conditions more or less temporary or remediable. Good medical
supervision will probably in time make them fit for placement.

The only means now taken to stimulate the demand for children
is an occasional advertisement in the county papers, the use of
children’s pictures on the institution stationery and the distribution
of cards of appeal to visitors at the State Home.

HOME-FINDING BY STATE—DELINQUENT CHILDREN

Under the law by which the legislature of 1917 transformed the
Girls’ Industrial School from a private to a state institution, the
superintendent is given power to place girls who have done well in
the institution at service in private families. The superintendent
of the Boys’ Training School has long had a somewhat similar power,
but it has rarely, if ever, been exercised. Certainly until the state
provides a parole agent or some responsible person to keep in close
touch with children thus sent out from institutions for delinquents,
it will not be wise to undertake such work.

HOME-FINDING BY COUNTY JUDGES

In 1916, county judges presiding over the juvenile courts of 11
Oklahoma counties reported to the State Commissioner of Charities
and Correction 33 instances where they had placed children in
200 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

homes for adoption. Since reports which covered the full year’s
work were received from only 22 of the 77 counties in the state, this
is without doubt an understatement of the number of children
actually thus placed out. It was impossible to tell from the reports
in every instance whether these children were classed as dependents
or delinquents, but our visits to 20 county courts found only one
where it was customary to seek homes for delinquent children.

In this county the judge calls his jury together during each term
of court and spends an evening explaining to them the various
functions of the court, particularly its work with children. He
thus manages to spread the news that the court has children for
adoption and so obtains a waiting list of applicants. He feels that
his greatest success has come with the delinquent boys whom he
has sent to farm homes. Sometimes they have remained for a few
months only, sometimes for a term of years. No investigation
precedes the placement. Most of the farmers are known to the
judge personally or are vouched for by personal friends. No official
record whatever is kept of such transactions but ‘“‘the parents always
know where the child is.”” This court occasionally also commits
children to the Child-Saving Mission for placement. The judge
could not tell how many homes he had found for children during
his two terms in office nor how many were being cared for in that
manner at the time of our visit. He exercises no after supervision.

In a second county the judge places out on contract. The
foster-parents must agree to educate, feed, and care for each child
until it reaches its majority, just as they would treat their own
children. This judge committed no children to institutions in 1916.
He placed six children, all dependents, in family homes. One boy
was returned by his foster-parents to the judge who then sent him
to the Oklahoma Children’s Home Society. Apparently no effort
was made to prevent the separation of brothers and sisters.

Another judge who claims to do much placing-out work, chiefly
with dependent children, keeps no records at all except in adoption
cases. Only three entries of adoption had been made in his juvenile
record book since 1913. He insists upon a period of trial before
adoption can take place. His predecessor in office is said to have made
a practice of advertising the children in the county papers.

In a fourth county all dependent children are placed with
“good farmers whom I know.” No adoption or contract papers are
Home Finding 201

signed. No record is kept of the transaction. The judge did not
know how many children he had so placed.

Oklahoma County turns over all its dependent children who
need family homes to the Oklahoma Children’s Home Society,
Tulsa to the Tulsa Humane Society. The length of time which
it has taken to secure admittance to the State Home at Pryor, since
it has been so badly overcrowded, is the reason given by certain
judges for using the private home-finding societies instead of the
State Home. They have a feeling, too, that the child is more quickly
placed by the private agencies and runs less risk of being institu-
tionalized meanwhile.

When a baby or very little child is to be found a home, there is
perhaps less danger in the judges’ friendly, neighborly method of
procedure than is the case when older children go before the court, but
in any event there can be no excuse for failing to make proper record
of so important a transaction. The court machinery, however, is
not fitted for the delicate task of selecting and supervising homes
and it would much better relinquish the function to the state.

HOME-FINDING BY PRIVATE AGENCIES
Home-Finding Societies

Foremost among the private agencies engaged in home-finding
work are the two socieites maintained for this express purpose. The
Oklahoma Children’s Home Society and the Child-Saving Mission
both do a state-wide work, but the former is much the larger of the
two and is strictly non-sectarian, while the latter is supported by the
Dunkard Church. It draws no sectarian lines, however, in its work.

During 1916, the Oklahoma Children’s Home Society received
172 children for the first time. Twenty-one were returned from
foster-homes for replacement and five were in the receiving Home
at the beginning of the year, so that a total of 198 children passed
through the office during the year. The total number of place-
ments was 235. One hundred and seventy-two children were placed
in families for the first time and 21 were replaced during the period.
Three children died.

The Child-Saving Mission handled a total of 26 children during
the same year. By March, 1917, 16 had already been adopted by
foster parents; six were in foster homes on trial; two had died,
one had been restored to her mother by the same court which had
202 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

previously taken her away; and one was still in the Receiving
Home awaiting placement.

The methods used at the two organizations are much the same.
Both receive many children on court commitment, and both, so
far as possible, try to secure the voluntary surrender and signing of
relinquishment papers by parents even when the juvenile court
has declared them to be unfit guardians. The reason for this ap-
parent excess of caution is the attitude which the court has taken
in occasional cases towards the later claims of parents once declared
unfit. If an abandoned child is brought to the Child-Saving Mission
and it proves impossible to learn anything of its parentage, the
superintendent always asks the county judge to declare the child
abandoned and to appoint him as its guardian.

The Oklahoma Children’s Home Society has divided the state
into three districts with a field agent in each. This enables the
workers to make a personal investigation of the majority of the
homes which make application for children and to keep in fairly
close touch with children after placement. Unfortunately, lack of
sufficient financial support compels these agents also to assume the
responsibility of raising funds in their districts and these demands
make large inroads on their time.

The Child-Saving Mission makes all investigations of foster
homes through the superintendent or his wife. They claim to
have made personal inspections in most cases but neither their records
nor those of the Oklahoma Children’s Home Society show in just
how many cases this has been done. The Mission insists on a period
of 90 days’ trial before adoption is permitted. The Children’s
Home Society permits immediate adoption.

All applicants for children at either Society must fill out blank
forms similar to those in use at the State Home, and the method of
handling the application is much the same as at the state institutions.
The Oklahoma Children’s Home Society claims to visit all foster
homes at least once a year until adoption takes place. Neither
organization has complete records of children placed out in former
years.

Neither organization makes a practice of giving blood tests or
complete physical examination before placement. The Oklahoma
Children’s Home Society has a consulting staff of physicians in
charge of its health work. The Child-Saving Mission uses the staff
Home Finding 203

of the Enid General Hospital in the same way. No health records
are kept.

Neither agency investigates applications from parents who
wish to relinquish children and in general the recorded information
on parentage and heredity is very meager.

Maternity Homes

The Holmes Home of Redeeming Love, the one recognized
maternity home in the State, entrusts all its placing-out work to the
Oklahoma Children’s Society. Unmarried mothers are always urged
to keep their babies when there is any possibility of supporting them.

Humane Societies.

The Humane Societies at Tulsa and Sapulpa report a few chil-
dren for whom family homes have been found. In 1916 the Tulsa
Society placed out 33 children of whom eight were adopted. Many
of these children came to the Society through the juvenile court,
a few through hospitals or from private sources. The application
blank which foster-parents are required to fill out is very brief.
Name and address, date of marriage, ages of other children, church
membership and ownership of home are the only points on which
information is asked. The three persons whose names must be given
as references are usually consulted by correspondence. The only
records kept are entered on blank filing-cards and several which
were seen contained simply the name of the child and the name of
the foster-parent. No after-care is exercised.

The Salpulpa Humane Society when visited had just taken
charge of a new day-nursery building, the gift of a wealthy resident
of the city, and was planning to carry on some placing-out work.
Plans were still in process of evolution at the time of our visit.

Associated Charities.

A peculiar situation was discovered at the Muskogee Day-
Nursery which is maintained by the Associated Charities of that
city. The Nursery gives night as well as day care. When a woman
brings her children she is required to sign a paper which gives the
nursery the right to “remove the child from the nursery’’ if the
mother fails to make payments when due. The matron interprets
this to mean that she may give the children away for adoption
and three or four instances were found where this had been done.
204 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Orphanages.

Among the orphanages of the state, five make a practice of
finding homes for their young charges either occasionally or regularly.
One has a field agent at work. With the others the placing-out
activities are incidental to the main business of the institution.

The Oklahoma Benevolent and Orphanage Association which
supports a small receiving home at Cornish, was not visited and the
figures quoted are taken from its reports to the State Commissioner
of Charities and Correction. During 1916, 47 children were received
and 57 were placed in family homes. Twelve to 14 children are usually
in the Receiving Home. No information was secured as to methods
of work.

The second institution which was not visited, the Baptist
Orphans’ Home, near Oklahoma City, placed 13 children in family
homes during 1916.

The Sunbeam Orphanage at Oklahoma City occasionally
places children in foster-homes with the consent of their parents.
Four children were so placed during 1916.

The Jabbok Faith Missionary Training School placed one
child in 1916.

The Masonic Home where 168 children were entered in March,
1917, has done a little placing-out work and intends to develop it
still further. Three children found homes in 1916. Records here
are excellent, but the weak point is the use of the local lodges for
investigating their own membership. Local ties are strong and
often embarrassing, but even where this factor does not enter into
the matter, the best intentions in the world will not make up for lack
of information as to sound methods of procedure.

General Summary and Conclusions

 

Home-finding work in Oklahoma is carried on by state, county
and private agencies.

The state plan is to place all dependent white children of sound
mind and body in family homes either on contract or for adoption,
the homes being carefully investigated and supervised by the state
agent. One man has been appointed to handle this work from the
State Home. The numbers are now too great for one person to
manage and the result is that the Home has become overcrowded
Home Finding 205

and some children are not having a fair chance at placement. If
the original plan is to be followed those children who are really
cases for custodial care should be removed from Pryor and the staff
of placing-out agents should be increased to facilitate the disposal
of those who are left. The records at the State Home are in good
condition but they should be amplified.

The Superintendents of the State Training Schools for Boys
and for Girls have now the legal right to transfer children from the
institution to family homes, placing them at service on contract,
but no instance was found where this had been done. Such action
should not be taken until parole agents have been appointed to
supervise children so placed.

The placing-out work done by county judges is in practice
chiefly confined to the dependent children though one county was
found where delinquent boys had been successfully placed in farm
homes. The work is characterized by its surprising lack of pre-
liminary investigations and subsequent supervision, and records
of any sort, except in adoption cases, are usually lacking.

Two private agencies devote all their energies to home finding.
Their records are fairly good but neither is able in every case to
make a personal visit to the proposed foster-home and after-care
is almost without exception inadequate. Both agencies are ac-
quainted with proper standards and are working toward them as
rapidly as financial limitations permit.

The one maternity home in the state does all its placing-out
work through one of these private agencies.

Two humane societies, one associated charities, and five
orphanages occasionally give out children for adoption. Only one
of these agencies employs a field agent. One, the Masonic Home,
has good records. It investigates and supervises through local
lodges and its own governing board. In general, the records of
the other agencies, for which information was secured, were quite
inadequate and their investigations and supervision were un-
satisfactory.

The present system of supervision by the State Commissioner
of Charities and Correction is unsatisfactory because his powers
are not clearly defined and cannot in any event be exercised until a
given project is under way. There is at present no legal means of
preventing needless duplication in the child-placing field and no
206 Child: Welfare in Oklahoma

way of reducing the amount of public solicitation for private
charitable enterprise of this nature.

Recommendations

1. The supervision of all child-placing work in the state should
be under the proposed State Division of Child Welfare (see report on
Administration, page 284) whose duties in this regard should be as
indicated in the following sections:

2. No placing-out work should be begun or carried on without
a license from the State Division of Child Welfare; the license to
be good for one year only and to be granted originally and renewed
only after inspection of the receiving home, methods, and records
of the agency and after a report of the work of the previous year
has been made by the agency to the Commissioner of Charities and
Correction and pronounced satisfactory; the Commissioner to
have power to refuse to grant license or to revoke for cause.

3. Any effort to begin or carry on child-placing work before a
license has been granted or after it has been refused or revoked,
should be considered as a misdemeanor and punished accordingly,
the power of prosecution to be vested in the State Commissioner of
Charities and Correction, and no juvenile court to have authority
to commit children to any institution or agency operating without
a license.

4. The State Division of Child Welfare should be required to
inspect at least once a year, the methods, records, and receiving-
home of each agency engaged in child-placing work, and to inspect
at any time on complaint, the reports of such inspections to be made
in writing and preserved in the files.

5. Each agency should be required to report monthly to the
State Commissioner of Charities and Correction upon blanks to
be furnished by him, the name, age, sex, color, names of parents,
previous address and any other facts which may be desired for each
child placed out during the previous month, together with name
and address of family with whom child was placed.

6. All children placed in private homes by any agency should
be visited by an agent of the State Division of Child Welfare with-
in three months of placement, and at least once a year thereafter,
so long as they remain wards of the agency, and written reports of
Home Finding 207

all such visits should be made by the state agent both to the State
Division of Child Welfare and to the agency responsible for placing
out the child.

7. No child should be accepted for placement by any agency
without investigation to determine the ability of parents or rela-
tives to support, and any facts regarding heredity or relationship
gained by this investigation should be made a part of the permanent
record of the child.

8. No child should be placed in any family home which has not
first been personally visited by a competent investigator, either the
state agent or a representative of the agency entrusted with the
guardianship of the child, and pronounced satisfactory for this
particular child.

9. All children in foster homes should be visited by a represen-
tative of the placing-out agency within three months of placement,
and thereafter at least once a year, reports of these visits to be
added to records of child kept by agency, and such records to be
continuous from date of reception to date of discharge.

10. The Wasserman or some equivalent blood test should be
given to any child suspected of venereal disease before he is offered
for placement.

11. The State Board of Health should be made responsible
for a semi-annual inspection of all receiving homes maintained by
any agency for placing-out children, inspection to cover sanitation
of buildings and grounds, purity of water and milk supply, general
provisions for medical inspection and survey of health of inmates.
All cases of contagious diseases should be reported, immediately
upon occurrence, to the county health officer.

12. The State Fire Marshal should be made responsible for
an annual inspection of all receiving homes maintained by any
agency for placing out children, to determine the adequancy of
protection against fire.

13. When guardianship has been once legally transferred,
there should be no right of recovery except by the free consent of all
parties involved.
POOR RELIEF
Eva JOFFE

Material poor relief is available from four sources:

1. Mothers’ Pensions. Monthly allowances granted by county
judges to women with children under 14 years. Appropriations
are made by the county commissioners.

2. Scholarships. Monthly allowances granted by county schoo]
superintendents to women with children under 16 years. No
special appropriation is made, the money being supplied by the
county commissioners from the county fund for the poor and
insane.

3. County Poor Fund. Orders for groceries and other necessaries
are allowed by the county commissioners. County poor farms,
where such exist, are maintained by this fund.

4. Organized Private Sources. Charity organization societies;
churches; clubs and lodges.

Mothers’ Pensions

A law was passed in 1915 authorizing county courts to pension
indigent mothers of children under 14 years whose husbands are
dead or insane or prisoners in any state institution. A woman
must have been a resident of the county for two years prior to filing
an application for an allowance; she must be fit morally, physically
and mentally, to bring up her children, and the children must be
living with her. The allowance is not to exceed $10 per month
for the first child and $5 for each additional child under 14 years;
and it is to be granted only if without it the mother would be obliged
to work away from home and neglect her children. When a child
reaches the age limit, the allowance for that child ceases. The
appropriation made for the purpose by the county commissioners
is not to exceed $8000 for any fiscal year. The county court may
discontinue a pension at any time and in case the appropriation is
not sufficient to pay all allowances, it is to select from among the
applications only the most urgent cases for award of the relief.

208
Poor-Relief 209

This report is based upon information gathered through per-
sonal inquiry in the counties of Bryan, Canadian, Cleveland,
Comanche, Craig, Creek, Custer, Jackson, Logan, Mayes, Muskogee,
Oklahoma, Pawnee, Pottawatomie, Rogers, Tulsa, Wagoner, and
Washington. Their appropriations range from $500 to the maxi-
mum of $8000 per annum, but so far only one, Oklahoma County,
has appropriated the maximum.

If there are more new applications than expected, the com-
missioners sometimes request the county judge not to pass upon
any of them favorably until the appropriation for the ensuing year
is made so there will be enough money in the fund for the regular
beneficiaries during the remainder of the year. But occasionally
a judge grants new pensions and the appropriation is used up before
the end of the year, cutting off without warning all pensioners both
new and old from what is in many cases their only means of sup-
port. The legislature of 1917 provided for such a contingency
through a new law empowering the excise board to transfer funds
from one department to another when the need arises. When this
study was made, advantage had already been taken of this means
to cover additional needs, $200 having been transferred in Jackson
County from the court fund to the mothers’ pension fund.

No child in Oklahoma County enjoys the maximum allowance,
and indeed the demands are so great that on the average it is im-
possible to grant it. There were over 80 families there with from
two to three children receiving this aid and the maximum appro-
priation distributed equally among them would give to each family
only $8 per month. As the seventeen other counties studied are
not so populous it would seem that the beneficiaries there. might
fare better, but their appropriations are very much smaller and
pensioners seldom get the maximum amount for each child regardless
of the number in the family. The number of families in the 18 counties
receiving the maximum allowance was only 57 with a total of 72
children. Altogether there were 1325 boys and girls who had en-
joyed pensions in all these counties but only 5.4 per cent of them
had the benefit of the full allowance.

But even if the appropriation in each county were large enough
to grant the maximum of $10 per month to every worthy applicant,
a woman with one child cannot live on this amount. The act was
passed presumably to enable poor women to rear and educate their
210 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

children under normal and healthful conditions and surely children
who live with their mothers are not less worthy of help than children
who are sent to orphanages. No institution can shelter, feed
clothe, educate and give medical care to a child under 14 years for
$5 per month which is the maximum allowance for each additional
child, the $10 for the first child including the support of the mother.
But if it is impossible for a woman to make both ends meet with the
whole amount, how much worse are conditions when less is allowed!

Few applications were found that threw much light on the con-
ditions under which the applicants and their children had been living,
and the only conclusion that can be drawn from the study of such
material in combination with statements of judges and county clerks,
is that nearly all were very poor and depended entirely for support on
their work or outside aid. Few owned their houses and still fewer
owned their farms. The word “‘indigent”’ is interpreted by some judges
to mean ‘‘destitute of property,”’ and therefore a woman who owns
the house she lives in is not in their opinion entitled to a pension,
although such a woman may have several children under 14 years and
no means of support. When work was unavailable the pension was
the only resource and yet sometimes a woman with five or six children
had a grant of but $10 per month, although the object of this aid is.
to enable mothers to stay at home and look after their children.

The pensions have been administered for two years and the
experience already gained should lead to an increase in appropria-
tions in those counties where sufficient money has not been provided
to meet all needs. But what should be done in a county which has
already appropriated the maximum, no provision having been made
in the law for the growth of population? The pensioners can not
live on a steadily decreasing sum and bring up their children
properly. The limit of appropriation should be based on the pop-
ulation of a county according to a sliding scale. The mere institution
of mothers’ pensions is not sufficient; the full purpose of the act
must be accomplished. Until pensioners are able to provide suitable
shelter, sufficient food, warm clothing, and proper education for their
children without breaking down under the burden and without
recourse to charity, the state cannot feel satisfied with the results.

A divorced woman or mother of an illegitimate child is not
eligible for a pension under the present law. This discrimination
is to be regretted. The aid is granted not as a reward for scrupulous
Poor-Relief 211

conformity with the conventions, but to enable mothers to rear
their children properly, and neither divorce nor an illegitimate child
necessarily makes a woman unworthy asa mother. A woman leading
an immoral life may be denied by the state the right to take care of
her children and it is logical for the state to refuse to give her a
pension as she is not considered a proper guardian. The granting
of pensions to women with illegitimate children however, would
in some cases prevent a resort to immoral living, for they might be
driven to that extreme if other means of support failed them.
Illegitimate children should be given opportunity to live and de-
velop normally. They are already handicapped by their illegitimacy
and when their mothers are needy their misfortune is aggravated.

A divorced woman, when given the custody of her children, is
considered by the state the proper person to care for them. Why
then does the state withhold from such a mother, if she is poor, the
support it gives to other women in straitened circumstances? It
is not likely that the granting of pensions to divorced women would
result in an increase of divorces, but this could be determined only
through experience and the welfare of the unfortunate children
concerned is worth the experiment. To avoid any such possible
encouragement of divorce, the law should provide that six months
or a year elapse between the granting of the decree and the filing
of an application for a pension, and relief should be given in such
cases only when the state is unable to obtain funds for the support
of the children from their fathers. A mother with an invalid or
crippled husband also should be eligible.

The maximum age limit for children entitled to this support
should be raised to 16 years, especially if the employment of children
under that age is prohibited as recommended in another chapter
of this volume. Children are required to attend school until
16 and poor families should be aided in this way to obey this law.
Scholarships have been used for this purpose in certain counties.
They are designed to prevent hardship in the enforcement of the
compulsory attendance law and are available to children up to the
age of 16 years, but it is a violation of the principles of good admin-
istration to have two governmental departments at work on the
same task. As scholarships are a duplication of pensions they
should be abolished and pensions made available in all worthy cases
where children under 16 are in need.
212 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Methods of granting pensions vary in different counties. In
some there is only a hearing by the court; in others, a hearing and
an investigation; in others, no hearing, no investigation, no calling
of witnesses because the judge declares he is acquainted with the
financial affairs of every family living within his jurisdiction and
regards this knowledge as sufficient. Two instances serve to em-
phasize the folly of such complete failure to ascertain the facts:
In one county, upon the representations of a friend, a woman was
granted a pension of $12.50 for the support of three children under
14 years, but as she owned a house and lot, valued at $700 and earned
as a seamstress from $15 to $25 per month, she did not need such
assistance and declined to accept it. In the same county a pension
was granted in another case and a warrant for five months’ pay
was drawn by the county clerk, but no one ever called for the money,
and at the end of the fifth month it was cancelled.

A hearing alone is not an adequate investigation for even
though publicly held it can hardly reveal to a judge just what the
applicant’s needs are and what would constitute proper relief in
her case, and the award might be based upon the testimony of
persons present by chance, or through curiosity, or for ulterior
motives. Even when a hearing is well advertised in advance, which
rarely occurs, no one attends unless called as a witness, or drawn
by personal enmity or curiosity, and the hostile and curious are not
the ones to be consulted in so important a matter. The publicity
of a court hearing is undesirable in such proceedings but an investi-
gation tactfully conducted should not be objected to by even the
most sensitive. As the pension is a public expenditure it should be
granted and administered in a businesslike way but without ex-
posing the applicant to unnecessary mortification.

In only a few of the counties visited is a thorough investiga-
tion made and the subsequent supervision is usually extremely
superficial. In two counties humane officers often do the investi-
gating but as they have a great deal of other work they give their
time to this task only when they can spare it.

In one county the judge takes extra precautions to guard
against foolish expenditure by beneficiaries whom he considers
incompetent in money matters. At the beginning of each month
he sends cheques for their allowances to a local grocer and the women
draw their groceries and cash for other necessaries against this credit.
Poor-Relief 213

All accounts are turned over for examination to the judge, who
assured the writer that the grocer was a reliable man and there was
no fraud. However, the women should not have their choice of
dealers denied and thus be obliged to patronize a single individual
for if this method of paying pensions were used widely, the bene-
ficiaries would sometimes be at the mercy of dishonest tradesmen
with no way of escape. Supervision of this kind makes the woman
too dependent and does not stimulate her to exercise the right
influence over her children. When the beneficiary is lacking in
judgment and common sense, the administrator should, of course,
acquaint himself thoroughly with the home conditions and guide
and help her as much as possible. But even then he should seek
only to guide, not to direct, and avoid any abuse of the woman’s
confidence. When deemed able to do so, the mother should be
allowed to exercise her own judgment and to manage her affairs as
independently as feasible under the circumstances. The investi-
gation should be made by persons free to devote to it as much time
as necessary; it might be entrusted to the local probation and truancy
officer. Supervision should begin immediately after the pension is
granted. There should be regular visits by the officer to the pen-
sioner’s home and neighborhood to see that no fraud of any kind is
practised and that the children are not neglected.

The county judge is elected primarily for judicial duties and
the administration of pensions is generally considered of minor
importance. He may not be the best person for this kind of service;
he may consider such aid a waste, unimportant or even harmful,
as appears from the manner in which the pensions are administered
in some counties. A man who does not believe in pensions should
not be allowed to administer them for as he has the power to inter-
pret the law as he sees fit he disregards or misunderstands its spirit
and the women and children are the sufferers. For instance, one
judge denied a pension to a woman when she declared she would
not part with her children under any circumstances because he held
that in view of her determination the family would be kept together
without such aid. The same judge denied a pension in another case
because the applicant’s older children were working and with their
meager earnings ought to have supported their mother and brother
and sisters. Of course, the law may be interpreted in different ways
but in these as in other cases its spirit was violated. It was never
214 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

intended that a mother who is willing to bear any hardship for her
children should be allowed to break down under too heavy a burden
or be obliged to work away from home and neglect her family.

But let us see how the beneficiaries fare when the county judges
are not out of sympathy with the system. One judge claims the
right to cancel the allowance of a beneficiary at any time if he con-
siders that someone else is in greater need. Another grants a pension
for only eight months of the year, because he thinks that the bene-
ficlaries can somehow get along during the four summer months.
Still another grants a small amount, which is paid during the greater
part of the year but in the winter months he increases it when he
thinks more is needed. Thus, in some counties, even where the
judge is sympathetic, the beneficiaries can never be sure of their
future allowance but may be deprived of this aid at any time for no
fault of their own. It is inadvisable to leave the-administration of
so important a matter in the hands of one person who qualifies
and is elected for other duties. So much has to be left to the dis-
cretion of the administrator that this feature of the system tends
to aggravate the conditions. At best the beneficiaries can expect
to have only barely enough to live on and should be spared all
unnecessary worry over the uncertainty of their means of sub-
sistence. The allowance once granted is not something to be
taken away capriciously. Unless conditions change, or evidence
is found against her, the beneficiary should not be deprived of
this aid.

The administrators often lose sight of the aim of the act and
in deciding upon the amount to be granted are guided entirely by
the merits of the parents and forget the needs of the children. In
one county a woman with two children of 13 and 9 years, the widow
of a policeman killed in the performance of his duty, is drawing the
maximum allowance of $15 per month. She collected insurance of
$2000 of which $450 was used for burial expenses and to pay some
debts of her husband. With the remainder she bought the house she
is living in, two cows, and hogs for meat, and has two horses. An-
other woman with four children under 14 receives likewise $15 per
month but owns no house, cows, or hogs. Three of her children
have to go to school barefoot and before the pension was granted
she had worked four months in a restaurant away from home. In
another county a woman with one child under 14 and four others
Poor-Relief 215

over 20 years of age, one of whom gives her $5 per month, has a
pension of $10 per month, while another woman with ten children,
two over and eight under 14 years, is receiving only $15 per month
and her entire property consists of two mules, “‘heavily encumbered.”
The judge of this county maintains that he grants pensions on the
basis of ‘‘worthiness and absolute destitution.”

As administered at present, the pension has not yet become what
the framers of the law undoubtedly intended it to be. So far it
has been only an attempt at relieving the burden falling upon mothers
of fatherless children. The beneficiaries rarely have enough to
keep the children well nourished and warmly clad. Often they
have to work, when work is obtainable, and neglect their children,
or have to appeal to other agencies for supplementary relief and
this tends to pauperize them. The county commissioners, as a rule,
give to beneficiaries no additional assistance save free school books
for their children and some clothes, so the women have to get along
the best way they can when there are no other resources.

In a few counties applications for renewal have to be filed
before the end of the fiscal year. The reason for this given in one
county was that the county had no right to pledge any payment
beyond the end of the fiscal year, and further that it helped the
authorities to keep in touch with the beneficiaries. This necessity
of periodically submitting women to the humiliation of a public
hearing of their cases is another element contributing to their
possible pauperization. The law does not specify that the pension
must be granted only to the end of the fiscal year and renewed
annually. It reads: ‘‘Whenever any child shall reach the age of
14 years any allowance made to the mother of such child for the
benefit of such child shall cease. The county court may at its dis-
cretion, at any time before such child reaches the age of 14 years,
discontinue or modify the allowance to any mother and for any
child.”

Scholarships

A law providing for the support of widowed mothers was en-
acted in 1909 and empowers the county school superintendent after
careful investigation and upon the recommendation of the local
board of education to issue a certificate called a ‘scholarship’ to
216 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

any widowed mother who can prove that she needs the wages of her
children under 16 years for their support. The amount is paid by
the county commissioners to the beneficiary upon presentation of
the county superintendent’s certificate. No appropriation is made
for the purpose, the money being taken from the fund for the poor
and insane.

In only 6 of the 18 counties visited were scholarships found to
have been issued, although these 18 counties are among the most
progressive in the state. In a few there had been no applications
but in others the county commissioners refused to honor the certifi-
cates in spite of the fact that the law is mandatory if the mother
shows that she needs such help.

The object of the law is to keep poor boys and girls from working
prematurely and to make it possible for them to stay in school.
This assistance is available in the school term only, hence the family
cannot depend upon it for a portion of the year. Moreover, it is
supposed to be paid only for days of actual attendance at school
and, as a rule, deductions are made for absences caused by inclement
weather, combined with distance and bad roads, or even sickness.
Only in one county are payments allowed for justifiable absences.
Sometimes there is an understanding between the county school
superintendent and the county judge whereby no pension is granted
in addition to scholarships, and vice versa. This arrangement
operates to the disadvantage of children under 14 years during the
summer in the one case, and of children between 14 and 16 years
at all times in the other.

Every month the child must get a certificate of school attendance
from the teacher before the money can be collected. This is dis-
tasteful to sensitive children. One county superintendent told the
writer that a certain mother with two children wanted to give up
the scholarship because the children felt humiliated when asking the
teacher for the record of attendance in the presence of the other
pupils. In another county the county school superintendent avoided
this difficulty by arranging with teachers to have the records of the
children’s attendance given directly to the mothers. It was done
so delicately that the children were beneficiaries for from two to
three years without becoming aware of it, but unfortunately this
method was used only in the cases of a few sensitive children, there
having been altogether 31 scholarships in the one county.
Poor-Relief 217

County Poor Fund

The county commissioners are in charge of the fund for the
poor and insane. If the applicant is considered worthy and there
is money in the treasury, an order for a specified amount, usually
for groceries, is given by the commissioners and no investigation
is made. The poor are also given clothes, medical care, and other
necessaries. Needy children are supplied with school books paid
for by the county commissioners upon the recommendation of the
county school superintendent. In one county a city superintendent
of schools found it easier and more expeditious to supply the children
with books himself, instead of applying to the county superintendent.
He takes the books needed by poor children from the stock kept
on hand by the Board of Education and at the end of the year,
charges them to “‘poverty.”’ At the end of the term they are re-
turned to the teachers for use by other children. In this way the
city has on hand about 300 sets of free school books for use by poor
children of the town.

Private Sources

Ten of the 18 county seats visited have made attempts to
organize private poor relief. In three of them, provident associa-
tions were found; in two, associated charities; in two, united
charities; in two, humane societies; and in one, a benevolent
association. Only five of these societies have offices and employ
persons who give their entire time to the work.

In Washington County the county commissioners discovered
that through lack of cooperation with the local provident asso-
ciation duplication of work often occurred for one family sometimes
was assisted by both and others received no help from either. This
caused them to work out a plan of joint operation whereby the county
is to bear all expenses of relief and the provident association, whose
funds are collected once a year by a committee of three, is to pay
the salary of the investigator who, in addition to his investigative
work, makes out all records and orders the groceries for the poor.

Two charity associations maintain nurseries; one humane
society has a detention home for children and another is helping
to conduct a nursery. In Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties nurseries
218 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

are maintained by club women. Oklahoma City has another con-
ducted by the local provident association. The one maintained by
the women’s clubs has been located in the poorer section of the city
as they consider the one conducted by the provident association
too far from the neighborhood in greatest need. All the workers,
save the woman in charge, give their time gratis.

In Tulsa a nursery has been maintained for two or three years
by 50 women who pay dues, give public bridge parties or musicales
for its benefit and help with the work in every possible way. It
is in charge of a paid trained nurse and assistant.

Recommendations

The administration of pensions should be taken out of the
hands of the county judges and their powers in this field entrusted
to the proposed county boards of public welfare. (See report on
Administration, page 251.) After a thorough investigation by an
officer, this board should determine whether a pension should be
granted and what the amount should be.

At present a pension may be granted to a widow, or to a woman
whose husband is insane or a prisoner in any state institution. No
other women are eligible. A woman with an invalid or crippled
husband, a deserted or a divorced woman, or a mother of an illegit-
imate child should be entitled to one if worthy and in need. To
avoid any possible encouragement of divorces, the law should pro-
vide that payment of pension begin only when the divorce decree
becomes absolute. A deserted woman should be eligible only after
one year has elapsed since desertion. The relief to deserted or
divorced women and mothers of illegitimate children should be given
only in such cases where the state, after due effort, is unable to
obtain funds for the support of the children from their fathers.

The maximum age limit for children entitled to support through
mothers’ pensions should be extended to 16 years to conform to the
present compulsory school attendance law. Scholarships should
be abolished. The law should not fix the maximum appropriaton
for a county. The maximum allowance for a child, however, should
be specified, subject to increase of not more than 50 per cent in
any case upon authorization of the proposed State Child Welfare
Division (see report on Administration, page 282) which should have
Poor-Relief 219

general supervision over the work of the county boards with power
to review and revoke their grants. One-third of the funds should
be supplied by the state and two-thirds by the county.

The law at present does not provide for any local investigation
prior to the award of a pension nor for any subsequent supervision.
Such work could be done to advantage by the proposed county pro-
bation and truancy officer (see report on Administration, page 263)
and his assistants whose recommendations would be of great
assistance to the county board of public welfare in reaching decisions.
Supervision should begin immediately after the award and regular
visits should be made by the officer to the home and neighborhood
of the beneficary to see that there is no abuse of any kind and that
the children enjoy the advantages of schooling and a normal home
life.

The allowance for each child should be continued until he
reaches the age of 16 years, unless a change in the family’s condition
warrants its cancellation. In case of the beneficiary’s death the
aid should be given, if needed, to the relatives who take the children
into theirhome. No reduction, increase or canceling of an allowance
should be made without a thorough investigation under the direction
of the county board of public welfare.

There should be uniform methods of administration. Blank
forms should be drawn up and adopted by the State Child Welfare
Division for use in all counties and accurate records kept of all
pensions granted and canceled, amounts paid, and allowances
reduced or increased, with dates and reasons for such action. Such
uniform and correct records with data as to the applicants’ financial
circumstances and marital condition would greatly help in deter-
mining whether the granting of pensions increases divorce, desertion
and illegitimacy. All of this information is now lacking and greatly
needed for successful administration.
PARENTAGE, PROPERTY AND GENERAL PROTECTION
OF CHILDREN

W. H. Swirt

Parentage and Property

MARRIAGE

One of the purposes, if indeed not the chief purpose, of marriage
is to insure the birth and proper care of children. The character
of the race and of the type of civilization will always be determined,
somewhat and largely, by the regulations governing marriage.

Who May Marry

In the State of Oklahoma, no boy under 18 years of age, and
no girl under 15 years of age may legally marry, except that the
court may authorize the marriage of parties under 18 and 15,
respectively, in settlement of an action for seduction or illegitimacy.
Where the boy is under 21 or the girl under 18 consent of the parent
or guardian is required.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 3886.

Marriages of Relatives Forbidden
Marriages between relatives to the degree of and including
second cousins is forbidden. Such marriages are void, not voidable.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 8884. Fearnow vs State—84 Ok. 694.

License Required for Marriage

Before any marriage can be solemnized a license must be
secured from the clerk of the county court. Such license is issued
upon application, stating age and residence of the parties. The
county court may require evidence of the legal capacity of the
parties for whom a marriage license is sought. All records of mar-
riage license and of marriage certificates are kept by the clerk of
the county court.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 3886-8897.

220
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 221

The parties seeking a marriage license are not required to
present themselves before the clerk of the county court. Notice
of applications for license to marry, or that the parties are about to
marry is not required.

DISCUSSION

Marriage being a contract there seems to be no good reason
why a girl should be permitted to marry without the consent of her
parents or guardian at 18, whereas the boy must be 21. The law
should be changed so as to make the age of majority for girls the
same as that for boys, namely, 21.

There are three parties to a marriage, Society being the third
party. The interest of all demand:

1. That public notice of ten days should be required before a
marriage license is granted.

2. That both parties to a marriage should be required to present
themselves before the clerk of the county court and answer in-
quiries under oath before the marriage license is granted. The
answers should be a part of the record.

3. That no one who is affected with venereal disease should be
granted license to marry.

RIGHTS OF PARENT AND OF CHILD

The majority of children in any state live with their parents.
The relation of parent and child occupies, therefore, a large field
in the law.

Right of Parent to Protect Child

Force may be used by a parent to protect his child or by a

guardian to protect his ward.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2958-5587.

Damages for the Wrongful Death of Father

A child may recover damages in a civil action for the wrongful
death of his father. Even if the child was unborn at the time of the
death of his father, he can recover.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 6281-6282. Herndon vs St. L. & S. F. Railroad 87 Ok. 266.

There is no law permitting the recovery of damages for injury
to an unborn child.
222 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Right to Custody, Services and Earnings
The father of a minor child is entitled to the custody, services,
and earnings of the child. If the father is dead, or has abandoned
his family, or is unable, or refuses, to take the custody, then the
custody, services, and earnings of the child belong next, to the mother.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 4868-4881.

Earnings of Child Living with Mother Apart from Father
If the mother with her minor child lives separate and apart
from the father, the mother is entitled to the services of such child
and the earnings of the child are her separate property.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 8357.

Custody of Illegitimate Minor Child
The mother of an illegitimate child is entitled to the custody,
services, and earnings of such child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4369.

Liabilities of Parents for Torts of Child
A parent, as such, is not liable for the acts of his child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4888.

When Parent May be Deprived of Custody of Child

While the parent is entitled to the custody and services of his
minor child, the court may deprive him of these for the abuse of
parental authority.

A parent may relinquish his right to the services and earnings
of his minor child. Abandonment is evidence of relinquishment.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 4372-4380. Sweet vs Crane 89 Ok. 248. Revel vs Pruitt
42 Ok. 696.

Residence of Child
The parent of a minor child has the right to determine the
residence of the child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4882.

For the application of the Poor Law and of Poor Relief, the
residence of the child is determined as follows:—

1. The residence of the father is the residence of the child.

2. The residence of the father being wanting, the residence of
the mother determines.
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 223

3. The residence of an adopted child is the residence of his
foster-parents.

4. The residence of an apprentice is the residence of his master.

5. A minor child by living six months in a county acquires
residence.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 4584.

When Authority of Parent Ceases

The authority of the parent over the child ceases

1. Upon the appointment of a guardian of the person of the child.
2. Upon the marriage of the child.

3. Upon the child’s attaining his or her majority.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 4378.

A boy is of full legal age at 21.
A girl is of full legal age at 18.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 879.

Control of Property of Minor Child

A parent, as such, has no control over the property of his child.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 3827, 4871.

Power of Parent to Appoint Guardian
The father of a legitimate minor child may, with the mother’s
consent, appoint a guardian by will or deed. If either parent is
incapable of consent, the other parent may appoint a guardian.

A mother may appoint a guardian for her illegitimate child.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 8326-3327.

Duty of Parent to Support Child

It is the duty of the parent, the father first, and then the
mother, to support and educate the child.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 4867-4868.

If the parent neglects or fails to support and educate his child,
the court will enforce the child’s rights against the parent. The
court may order that the child be taken away from the parent, and
may place such child in its discretion. Relatives of the child or the
county poor officers may bring the action.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 43872. Allison vs Bryant 21 Ok. 687.

An action may be brought against the estate of a parent for

the support of his minor child’
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4874.
224 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

If a minor child has property, the court may order an allow-
ance out of the same for the support and education of the child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4370.

Support of Children—Parents Separated

A husband and wife may make an agreement for separation,

and for the support of minor children.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 3354.

Action for Divorce Not Granted
When there is an action for divorce and the same is not granted
on account of the guilt of both parties, the court will award the
children to either party, having a view to the best interests of the

children.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4966.

Divorce—Custody of Child
When a divorce is granted, the court will order the child to
either party having in view its best interests, and will make provision
by order for its care, support, and education. This order may be

modified from time to time.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4968. Bondies vs Bondies 40 Ok. 164.

Duty of Parent to Support
A parent must furnish his child with food, clothing, shelter,
and medical attention. In a criminal indictment of the father for

failure, the wife and mother may testify.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 2434. Owens vs State 6 Ok. Cr. 110. Hunter vs State 10 Ok.
Cr. 119.

Liability of Parent for Necessaries

A parent is liable for necessaries furnished his minor child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4376.

Liability of Stepfather for Necessaries
A stepfather is not bound to support his stepchild. When the
child is, however, received into the home, the relation of parent and
child is presumed to exist. The stepfather is entitled to no com-

pensation for support. Neither is he liable to pay for the services

of the child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4878.
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 225

Liability of Minor Parent for Necessaries

A minor parent cannot disaffirm his promise to pay for neces-
saries furnished his minor child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 886.

Insurance for Dependents

It has been held that where insurance is made payable to de-
pendents, such dependents may be those other than members of the
insured’s family or blood-kin.

B. Supp. 1915, Sec. 8486. Woodmen of the World vs Noel 34 Ok. 597.

Exemptions

The earnings of a debtor for three months previous to the date
of execution, are exempt from execution for the payment of debts,

when such earnings are necessary for the maintenance of his family.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 5601.

Unborn Child Deemed to be Existing

An unborn child is deemed to be an existing person in so far
as it may be necessary for its interests in the event of its subsequent

birth.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 881.

Habeas Corpus for the Benefit of Children

The writ of Habeas Corpus is to be granted in favor of parents,
guardians, masters, husbands and wives, to enforce the protection

of, and the rights of, children.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 49085.

DISCUSSION

1. A parent should have the same control over his girl as over
his boy. The age of majority for girls should be changed from 18
to 21, as for boys.

2. No parent should be entitled to the earnings of his child,
if such parent is able to work and refuses to work and lives upon
the earnings of the child.

3. The law does not give a minor child the right to recover for
the wrongful death of his mother. This right should be given the
child when it is shown that the child was dependent upon the mother
for care and support.
226 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

4. The law does not permit a child to recover damages for
injury received before birth. Clearly, the child should have this
right and the law should be so written.

ILLEGITIMACY

It should be said to the credit of modern civilization that the
status of the illegitimate child is gradually, but surely changing.
Not that we deplore an illegitimate birth less: rather, we deplore
it more. But the people are coming to see that the sins of the
parents should be visited, in as small measure as possible, upon the
unsinning child.

Jurisdiction

The county court has jurisdiction in all illegitimacy proceedings.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 1816.

Who May Begin Action
Any person may make complaint to the county court that an
illegitimate child has been born, or is about to be born. A state of
pregnancy or birth in any county gives the court of that county
jurisdiction.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4401. Liby vs State 42 Ok. 603.

Proceedings

When complaint is made, a warrant is issued for the accused
and any later judgment of the court becomes a lien from the date
of filing the complaint against any real property of the accused
in the county. The property of the accused may be attached.
The action is in the nature of a civil action. Trial may be had by
jury, and the issue is guilty or not guilty. The greater weight of
the evidence is all that is required.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 4401-4407. Liby vs State 42 Ok. 603.

If the accused makes bond and this bond is forfeited, the pro-
ceeds of the same are held and paid out for the benefit of the illegiti-
mate child upon the order of the court.

If upon trial, the accused is found to be guilty, the court, in
its judgment, will charge him with a sum sufficient to support the
child. This sum may be changed from time to time. Execution

will be issued to satisfy the judgment of the court.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4408-4409.
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 227

Where the mother and child are liable to become county
charges, it is the duty of the county commissioners to bring the
action.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 4411.

There is no specific allowance for the support of the mother
at the birth of the child.

There is no provision for compelling the mother to declare who
is the father of her illegitimate child.

Where it is shown that any one of several persons might have
been the father of the child, there is no provision for compelling
all of these to support the child.

 

Presumption of Legitimacy

It is presumed, that all children born in wedlock, and all chil-
dren born within ten months after the dissolution of marriage are
legitimate. Even where there is no direct evidence of the marriage
of the father and mother, the presumption rules, but this presump-
tion may be overcome by evidence. The question of legitimacy,
however, can be raised only by the husband or wife or their
descendants.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 4864-4866. Locust vs Caruthers 23 Ok. 878.

Effect of Marriage of Parents of Illegitimate Child

The subsequent marriage of the parents of an illegitimate child

makes the child legitimate.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4866.

Adoption of Illegitimate Child—Consent of Mother
The consent of the mother of an illegitimate child is required
for adoption, but the Court has the authority to take the child from
the mother and place it elsewhere, when it is for the best interests

of the child.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 4369-4388. Allison vs Bryant 26 Ok. 520.

How Father May Adopt Illegitimate Child
The father of an illegitimate child may adopt and legitimate
such child by receiving it into his home and treating it as his child.

The consent of his wife is required.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4399.
228 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Inheritance from Illegitimate Child

But this does not give the father the right to inherit from such
illegitimate child as against the mother.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 8420-8421. Templeman vs Bruner 42 Ok. 6.

When Illegitimate Child Inherits from Father

An illegitimate child will inherit from his father, when the
father has acknowledged in writing in the presence of competent
witnesses that he is the father of such child, or has adopted it into
his family. The acknowledgment in writing must be direct, un-
equivocal and unquestionable.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 8420-8421. Holloway vs McCormick, 41 OR. 1.

Dissolution of Marriages—Issue Legitimate

The issue of all marriages null in law or dissolved by divorce
are legitimate, but this does not apply to the issue of second cousins
or of persons closer akin. “

R. L. 1910, Secs. 8420-8421.’ Fearnow vs Jones 34 Ok. 694.

DISCUSSION

1. A woman, whoever she is, must have support during her
period of confinement and necessary physical incapacity for work.
The father of an illegitimate child should be required to provide
support for the mother during this period. In illegitimacy pro-
ceedings, in addition to provision for the support and education of
the child, the court should in its discretion have the power to compel
the father to support the mother during the period as stated above.

2. Every mother of an illegitimate child should be required
to declare who is the father of such child. The court should deter-
mine who is the father of the child and a public record of this fact
should be made.

3. When the court is unable to determine who is the father of
an illegitimate child because of the fact that any one of two or more
men may have been the father, the court should have the power
to find that two or more men had opportunity to become the father
of the child and to compel all men so found to care for the mother
and to provide for the support and education of the child.

4. For the father of an illegitimate child to leave the state to
avoid being declared the father of the child and made to comply
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 229

with the law, should be made a felony to the end that he may be
extradited. Funds should be provided for bringing him back.

5. Legal means should be provided in order that the court
may investigate and declare who is the father of an illegitimate
child at any time during the minority of such child. But no person
not living should be declared to be the father of an illegitimate
child after one year from the birth of the child.

6. After the court has formally declared who is the father of
an illegitimate child, such child should be made a lawful heir of the
father, so declared.

FOSTER-PARENTAGE—ADOPTION

It is now generally believed that in most cases, the best place
for a child is with his natural parents. There are times, however,
when it seems to be wise to create a parentage by law. The tendency
is toward making any transfer of the child from the custody and
care of his natural parents to foster-parents a formal legal proceeding
of which a public and permanent record is made. In adoption as
in marriage, there are three parties: the natural parents, the adopting
parents, and Society. Society should not permit a change of parents
without the approval of the proper public official. Adoption,
therefore, is coming more and more to be a court proceeding.

Meaning of Word Children

The word “children” under the laws of the State of Oklahoma
means children by adoption as well as by birth.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2914-2920.

Who May Adopt a Minor

Any adult person may adopt any minor child, except that the

person adopting must be 10 years older than the minor.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 4385-4386.

Consent of Husband or Wife Required for Adoption of Child

Either husband or wife may adopt a minor, but the consent
of the other must be had, unless they are legally separated or one

of them is incapable of giving consent.
R.L. 1910, Sec. 4387.
230 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Consent of Natural Parents of Child Required

A legitimate child cannot be adopted without the consent of
his parents, if living, and an illegitimate child cannot be adopted
without the consent of his mother, except where the father or mother
is deprived of civil rights or guilty of cruelty and adultery, and divorce
is granted, or is an habitual drunkard, or where the court for cruelty

or neglect has deprived the parent of the custody of the child.
R.L. 1910, Secs. 4888-4389.

Proceedings in Adoption

The husband and wife jointly petition the court for the right
to adopt a child. The petition may pray a change of name. It
must be shown to the court that the lawful consent of the natural
parents of the child has been obtained. All the parties come into
court and an agreement is entered into, in which it is stipulated
that the adopted child is to be treated by his foster-parents as
their own child.

RL. 1910, Secs. 4390-4892.

The Court upon the hearing may decree adoption and a change
of name. The result in law of this adoption is to create the relation

of parent and child between the foster-parent and the adopted child.
R.L. 1910, Secs. 4893-4396.

Adoption by Father of an Illegitimate Child

In addition to the method set out above, the father of an
illegitimate child may adopt such child by receiving, with the con-
sent of his wife, such child into his family, and treating him as a
member of the same. This is really legitimating an illegitimate
child rather than adoption.

R.L. 1910, Sec. 4899. Allison vs Bryant 26 Ok. 628.

Inheritance

An adopted child inherits from his adopting parents just as
if he were a natural child, except that he cannot inherit property
limited to the heirs of the body or take by representation of lineal

or collateral kin of his adopting parents.
RL. 1910, Sec. 4397.

Adopting parents and their heirs inherit from an adopted child,
just as if the child were natural, except that the foster-parents
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 231

cannot inherit property taken in any manner from the blood-kin
of the child.
R.L. 1910, Sec. 4397.

Rights of Father and Mother of An Illegitimate Child
Even if the father receives his illegitimate child into his family
and thereby legitimates such child, the father does not inherit from
such child. The right of inheriting from an illegitimate child be-
longs to his mother.
Templeman vs Bruner 42 Ok. 6.

DISCUSSION

The laws relating to adoption in the State of Oklahoma are
largely in conformity with the better standards. It is wisely fixed
in the law, that adoption is to be always a court proceeding.

GUARDIANSHIP

The courts which administer the law in the State of Oklahoma
very properly hold themselves to be the special protectors of the
tights of minor children. A child often does not know how to care
for either his person or his property. His inexperience and his
innocence may make him an easy dupe. Knowing this, the courts
deal with him as the special ward of the court and keep watchful
eye upon any one who undertakes to care for his interests or welfare.

What Court Has Jurisdiction

The county court has jurisdiction and control in all matters
of guardianship.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 811-324.

Classes of Guardians

Guardians may be of the person or of the property of a minor.
Both may be combined in one person. A General Guardian has
care of both person and property.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 3821-8326.
Appointment of Guardian by Parent

The father of an infant may, with the consent of the mother,
appoint a guardian for his minor child by will or deed. If either
232 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

parent be dead or incapable, the other may appoint. The mother

of an illegitimate child can appoint a guardian for such child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 8826.

Appointment of Guardian by Court

If an infant have property in the county, the county court

will appoint a guardian.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 3328-6622.

Control of Property of Infant

No person has control over the property of an infant except
by appointment.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 3327.

Person Not to be Appointed

No person who is already guardian for five minors may be

appointed guardian of another minor.
B. Supp. 1915, Secs. 6522a-6522b.

Guardian Ad Litem

The Court will, when need arises, appoint a guardian ad litem,

who is guardian for the purposes of the action and none other.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6588.

Parents as Guardians

Either father or mother may be appointed guardian of their
minor child if the other consents. In the case of dispute, the court
determines for the best interests of the child. If the minor be 14

years of age, he may with the consent of the court, select the parent.
B. Supp. 1915, Sec. 6580.

While neither parent has prior rights, the court, considering
the best interests of the child, will prefer the mother for younger
children, the father for older. In the appointment of a guardian,
the court will prefer: (1) the parents; (2) wishes of deceased
parent; (8) trustee of fund for child; (4) relatives of the child.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 3328-3382.

Selection of Guardian by Child

A child over 14 years of age may with the consent of the court
select his guardian. If the child is under 14, the court selects. Where
a guardian has already been appointed for a minor child, such
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 233

child may, with the consent of the court, at the age of 14, select
a new guardian.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 6523-6524-6529.

Children in Institutions

Managers of paternal and charitable institutions having a
minor child in care may select the guardian of such child. The

court must prefer the selection.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6525.

Care of Child—Guardian of the Person

Guardian of the person has the custody of the child, and must
look to its support, health, and education.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 3334.

A guardian must see that the child complies with the com-

pulsory education law.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 7980-7981.

Custody of Child—Parents Wanting

If a minor child has neither father nor mother, the guardian
takes custody of the child.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6531.

Care of Property—Guardian

Guardians of property must preserve the same and account

for it in full.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 8335.

Bond of Guardian

A guardian must file a bond binding him:

(1) To inventory the estate and make return to the court;

(2) To manage the estate for the best interests of the child and
for the performance of duty in care and education of the child;

(3) To account in full to the ward.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 6532.

Court Will Enforce Care of Children

If the guardian neglects, fails or refuses to maintain, support
and educate the child, the court will order and enforce the guardian

to do so. The bond of the guardian insures these.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 6542-6546.
234 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Special Provisions for the Care of the Child

The court in appointing a guardian may make special provi-
sions for the care, treatment, education and welfare of the child.

The guardian’s bondsmen are bound to the observance of the
provisions.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6688.

Removal of Guardians

A guardian may be removed by the court:

(1) For abuse of trust;

(2) For continuous failure to perform duties;
(3) For incapacity;

(4) For gross immorality;

(5) For adverse interest.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 8337-6189.

Fund for Maintenance of Child

The income of the child’s estate is to be applied to the support
and education of the child. If this be not sufficient, the guardian
may, upon order of the court, sell the real property of the child for
this purpose.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 6585-6542-65 45.

Power to Lease

Guardians have the power to lease the lands of their wards
including both oil and mineral lands.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 6546-6547.

Termination of the Power of Guardian

The power of a guardian is terminated:

(1) By the order of the court—removal;

(2) By the ward’s majority.

(8) As to person, by the marriage of the ward.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 8836-8341.

DISCUSSION

No transfer of the custody of a child from his natural parents
should be made without investigation and the approval of the
juvenile court. A record of such transfer of the custody of the
child from his natural parents should be made. No opportunity
should be given for farming out children.
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 235

DIVORCE

The laws of the State of Oklahoma are liberal in permitting the
dissolution of marriage. The statutes bearing on the subject of
divorce show clearly that the law-makers realized the fact that the
children of the parties seeking to be divorced are most vitally in-
terested. The law gives to the court ample power to deal with
children of parties coming into the divorce court, so as to promote
what appears to the court to be the best interests of such children.

Grounds for Divorce

Divorce may be had for:

(1) Abandonment for one year;

(2) Extreme cruelty;

(3) Gross neglect of duty;

(4) The commitment of a felony and imprisonment in the
penitentiary ;

(5) Habitual drunkenness.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 4962.

Any unjustifiable conduct on the part of the husband which
outrages the woman’s feelings, and destroys peace of mind so as to
impair health or endanger life or destroy the legitimate end of
matrimony, is extreme cruelty. A false charge of adultery con-

stitutes extreme cruelty.
Hilderbrand vs Hilderbrand 41 Ok. 806. Lyon vs Lyon 39 OR. 111.

Jurisdiction in Court Proceedings
The district court has jurisdiction in all matters of divorce.

Custody of Children—Divorce Pending
If an action for divorce is pending, the court may make an
order for the custody and care of the minor children. The property

of the defendant may be attached.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4967.

Custody and Support of Minor Children—Alimony
When a divorce is granted to mother and the custody of the
minor children awarded to her, the court will allow alimony for

the benefit of the mother and care of the minor children.
Hilderbrand vs Hilderbrand 41 Ok. 306.
236 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Where a wife is at fault and divorce is granted, the court may
set apart to the husband and for the support of minor children, a

part of the wife’s separate estate.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4969.

Liability of Father—Child Awarded to Mother

If in case of divorce, the court has awarded the minor child
to the mother, the father will not be liable for necessaries furnished
such minor child.

Bondies vs Bondies, 40 Ok. 164.

When Decree of Divorce Becomes Absolute

A decree of divorcement does not become absolute until six
months from date. It is unlawful to marry again until the decree
becomes absolute.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 4971-4972-4978. Barnett vs Frederick 33 Ok. 49.

Action to Declare Marriage Void

Any parent or guardian may bring an action to declare the
marriage of a minor child or ward under age void. But the children
of any such marriage declared void are legitimate, except the children
of an incestuous marriage.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 4974.

DISCUSSION

What are proper grounds for divorce is not for discussion here.
If the district court will but exercise its powers where parties come
before it in divorce proceedings, minor children should be well cared
for. Whether an action for divorce be pending, be granted, or be
denied, the minor children are in the care of the court to be placed
and provided for at its order made in its discretion. That feature
of the law which permits the court to modify its orders relating
to minor children from time to time as circumstances may change
is good.

INHERITANCE AND OTHER PROPERTY RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

Under the laws of the State of Oklahoma a legitimate or adopted
child is held to be the lawful heir of his parent and entitled to share
with the father or mother and other children in the distribution
of the property of a deceased parent. The basis of the law is that
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 237

the child is entitled to take a part of the property left by his parent,
and even an illegitimate child, if legally recognized by his father,
may inherit from such father.

Homestead and Other Exemptions for Benefit of Family

A homestead is not more than 160 acres of land not in a city
or town, or not more than one acre of land in a city or town.

The following are exempted from execution for the payment
of debts:—

The homestead whether the title lies in the husband or wife; the house-
hold and kitchen furniture; the cemetery or burial lot; the implements
of husbandry on the homestead.

Apparatus or books of trade or profession; library; pictures and wearing
apparel of the family.

Five cows with their calves under 6 months old; one yoke of oxen;
two horses, and one wagon; one carriage or buggy; one gun; ten hogs;
twenty sheep; all saddles, bridles and harness; a year’s provision for
all stock on the homestead and all wages for 90 days.
These exemptions do not apply as against the payment of the
wages of a clerk, a mechanic, laborer, or servant.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 6328-2636.

Payment of Money Into Court for Minor
If any money in probate proceedings is paid into court for a
minor, and there is no guardian, the court will hold the money
in trust for the child until the appointment of a guardian. Search

must be made for absent minors.
B. Supp. 1915, Sec. 6488a-c.

Income and Inheritance Taxes

Inheritance from a father to a child up to the amount of $10,000,
is exempt from income taxation.
B. Supp. 1915, Secs. 7528a-f.

Descent and Distribution of Property
If a husband or wife die with only one child or lawful issue
thereof, the husband or wife and the child share equally in the
property of the deceased. If more than one child be living or one
child and the issue of deceased children be living, the husband or
wife takes one-third of the property of the deceased and the re-
maining two-thirds is divided equally between the children or issue
238 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

of the children. If no husband or wife is living, the children or

issue of children share equally in the estate.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 8418.

Inheritance by Illegitimate Children

An illegitimate child is heir of his father if such father has
properly acknowledged in writing that he is the father. Where an
illegitimate child has been received by his father, with the wife’s
consent into the family, and thereby legitimated, the brothers and
sisters of such illegitimate child inherit from him just as if he were

legitimate and the child likewise inherits from his brothers and sisters.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 8420.

CAPACITY OF MINORS UNDER CIVIL LAW

Under the laws of the State of Oklahoma children who have not
reached the age of majority and upon whom the rights of majority
have not been conferred by the district court are deemed to be
incapable of making contracts or of transacting their own business.
Whatever power any minor may have comes, therefore, under the
statutes specifically enacted.

It is the policy of the law, however, to preserve whatever rights”
or powers the infant would have 1f he were at the age of majority
and to appoint some one to exercise the power until he shall have
reached his majority. The law will not however permit an infant
to speak or act for himself in a civil action. A guardian must always
be appointed to speak or act for him.

Rights of Majority Conferred
The District Court has the power to confer the rights of
majority wpon a minor. When such rights of majority have been

conferred, the minor may make binding contracts as if of full legal age.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 4427-4480.

Minor as Executor
No person under the age of majority can act as executor.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6234.

If a minor be named as executor, another executor acts until
the minor reaches majority.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6288.
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 239

Administration

Children next after father or mother are entitled to letters
of administration.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6246.

Where a minor child is entitled to letters of administration,

the guardian of such minor takes the letters of administration.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6248.

Delegation of Power—Contracts as to Real Property

A minor cannot delegate a power. A minor under 18 years of

age can make no contract relating to real property.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 883.

Capacity to Make a Will

A minor over 18 years of age has the capacity to make a will.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 8388.

Minors as Witnesses

A child under 10 years of age who appears to be incapable is

incompetent to testify.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 5050.

Civil Actions For or Against an Infant

A civil action for a minor is brought by his guardian. A civil

action against a minor is defended by his guardian.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 4686-4688.

Service of Summons on Infant
If a minor is under 14, service of summons is made on him and
on his guardian or father or mother. If neither parent nor guardian
is to be found, or if the minor is more than 14 years of age, service

on such minor is sufficient.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4721, 6866.

Pleadings of Guardians in Civil Actions

When a guardian pleads a general denial, every allegation is

put at issue.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 4752. Sims vs Hedges 82 Ok. 688.

Every presumption is in favor of a minor. The guardian must
use every available defense. If the guardian fails in this the court
240 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

will protect the rights of the minor. An infant cannot waive issuance
and service of summons.
Bolling vs. Campbell 86 Ok. 671.

Modifications of Judgments

In any case where judgment is given against a minor, cause

may be shown why such judgment should be modified or vacated.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 5142.

Infancy Shown—District Court Reviews
When the fact of infancy did not appear at a former trial, but
where infancy could have been shown, the district court will

review its judgment and may modify or vacate the same.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 5267. Sawyer vs Ware 36 Ok. 139.

Powers of Minors in Contracts
Minors, unless given powers of majority by the court, are not
capable of making contracts and have only such capacity as is

given by statutes. A minor may disaffirm his contract.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 877-879. Webb. vs. Harris 82 Ok. 491.

An action brought by a guardian to cancel a lease made by a
minor is a disaffirmance of the contract.
Bryan vs Morrison 40 Ok. 49.

If an emancipated infant has contracted, he can enforce his
contract. While the minor may plead infancy, infancy cannot be

pleaded against him.
Webb. vs Harris 82 Ok. 491.

Negotiable Instruments

A minor has the power to indorse a negotiable instrument so
as to pass property in the same.
R.L. 1910, Sec. 4072.
Real Property
A minor may take and hold title to real estate.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 1178.
Torts of Infants
Minors are civilly liable for wrongs, but cannot be held liable

for exemplary damages.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 891-892.
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 241

Child Born After Will

Where a child is born after a will made by the father or mother,
the child will share in the property of the deceased as if no will
had been made.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 8871-8374.

Building and Loan Association

A minor above the age of 14 may hold shares in a building and
loan association.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 1317.

But no minor under the age of 15 can be a member of a mutual

accident or sickness insurance company.
B. Supp. 1915, 3580h.

DISCUSSION

The age of majority for girls should be changed from 18 to 21.

General Criminal Laws Enacted Altogether, or in Part
For the Benefit and For the Protection of Children

 

 

When we come to consider the criminal laws of any state as
they relate, not only to children, but to everybody, we soon come to
the point of basing our estimate of the life of the people upon these
laws. A people who are striving to do the best for all, will write
their laws so as to insure, as far as may be, care and protection to
the young. Children will often be the subject of laws especially
directed to the prevention and cure of evils incident to child life.

It is, in fact, the duty of the state to see that no one does
conscious or unconscious hurt to a child. Neither personal liberty
nor the natural rights of parents should be permitted to be exercised,
if when so exercised a child is robbed of any part of his birthright,
or is in any degree held back from what he might be and ought to be.
Whether the child is the normal one who should be at home or in
the public schools, or a feeble-minded one who should be under
institutional care, the rule is the same. The law should protect
not only from physical abuse, but from that lasting harm which
may and often comes through neglect.
242 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Abandonment of Child Under 6

It is a crime for a parent or any person to desert a child under

6 years of age, with the intent wholly to abandon the same.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 2438.

Abandonment of Wife and Children under 12
It is a crime for a husband to abandon and neglect, and refuse
to provide for his wife and to abandon minor children under 12
years of age, and to neglect or refuse to provide for them. The wife
is a competent witness against the husband. Upon conviction, a
husband may be fined and ordered to pay to the wife or guardian

of a minor child, stated sums at stated times for a term of one year.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2434a-b.

A bandonmenit—V agrant

Any habitual drunkard who abandons, neglects, or refuses to

support his family, is declared to be a vagrant.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2515-2516.

Failure to Provide for the Child

It is a misdemeanor for any parent to fail to furnish food,
shelter, clothing, and medical attention for his minor child.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 2434. Owens vs State 6 Ok. Cr. 116. Hunter vs State 10 Ok.
Cr. 119.

Abuse of and Cruelty to Children—Married Woman
Duress of husband is not presumed as a defense for a married
woman charged with the abuse of a child or cruelty to a child, or
with abortion, concealing death of an infant, producing false heir,
seduction, keeping a bawdy house, or with aiding in case of rape.
Actual duress may be shown.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 2099.
Protection of Child
One has the right to use sufficient force to prevent an offense
against his family.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2958-5557. Ex Parte Torens 6 Ok. Cr. 246.
Abduction—Kidnapping—Child Stealing
In an indictment for kidnapping, the consent of the child

under 12 years of age is no defense.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 2374.
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 243

The abduction of a girl under 15 years of age from her parents,
guardian or any other person, for the purpose of marriage or im-
morality, is made a felony.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 2422.

It is a felony to steal a child under 12 years of age.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 2436.

A bortion—Procuring

Killing an unborn child by injury to the mother, is man-
slaughter in the first degree. To cause the death of an unborn child
or of the mother in an attempt to destroy the child is likewise man-
slaughter in the first degree.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 2322-2324.

It is a crime for the mother or any other person to aid in pro-
curing an abortion.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 2436-2437.

If any physician aids or abets in any criminal operation or
advertises medicines for the prevention of childbirth, the certificate
of such physician is revoked, and his right to practice medicine
taken away.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 6905.

Admittance to Pool-Rooms

It is unlawful to permit any child under 18 to resort to any
pool or billiard hall, unless accompanied by his parent or guardian.
For violation, the court will revoke the license upon five days’
notice.

R. L. 1910, Sec. 2511c.

Obscenity

It is a misdemeanor to use obscene language or exhibit obscene
pictures in the presence of children.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 2408.

Prostitution
It is unlawful to procure girls for a house of ill-fame, or to
permit acts of prostitution to be carried on in one’s house. The
fact that the defendant is a married woman is no defense.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2426-2480. Emmonds vs State 9 Ok. Cr. 603.

It is a crime to keep a house of ill-fame.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2467-2469. Emmonds vs State 9 Ok. Cr. 603.
244 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Sale or Gift of Cigarettes to Minors

It is a misdemeanor to sell or give cigarettes or cigarette papers
to minors.
B. Supp. 1915, Sec. 2532a-b.

Sale or Gift of Weapons to Minors

It is unlawful to sell or give to any minor the weapons ordinarily
used in fighting.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2545-2550.
Sale of Intoxicating Liquors

It is unlawful to sell intoxicating liquors to any person in the
State of Oklahoma.

Seduction

It is unlawful to seduce a woman under promise of marriage.
The marriage of the parties is a defense, but where a man seduces a
girl or woman and marries her to settle the case and then within two
years deserts her or by his treatment forces her to leave him, he is
guilty of abandonment after seduction and marriage and may be im-

prisoned for a term of ten years. The wife is a competent witness.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 24238-24244. ;

Rape
A boy under 14 is presumed to be incapable. Where the boy
is under 18 and the girl is over 14, and consents, the boy is not
guilty of rape.
Where the man is over 18 and the girl is under 14 and consents,
it is rape in the first degree.
The age of consent for rape in the second degree is 16, or 18

if of previous chaste character.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2414-2419.

Wrongs Against Personal Relation

It is a wrong against the personal relation to seduce a daughter

or orphan sister.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 2987.

Seduction Under Promise of Marriage

In an indictment for seduction under promise of marriage, the
woman must be corroborated as to promise of marriage and inter-

course, but not as to previous chaste character.
R. L. 1910, Sec. 6886. Cheek vs State 8 Ok. Cr. &80.
Parentage, Property, and General Protection 245

Production of False Heirs

It is unlawful to produce a false heir or to substitute one child
for another.
R. L. 1910, Secs. 2290-2291.

Concealing Death of an Illegitimate Child

It is unlawful for a woman to conceal the death of an illegitimate
child under two years of age or the stillbirth of a child that would
have been illegitimate, if born.

R. L. 1910, Secs. 2438-2807.

DISCUSSION

1. There is no law to prevent blindness. It should be made a
crime for any physician or midwife to fail to use preventives against
blindness at childbirth.

2. Midwives should be required to procure licenses from the
county superintendent of health.

3. Before any one who abandons, neglects or refuses to support
his family can be declared a vagrant, it must be shown that he is
an habitual drunkard. The law should be changed so that anyone
who abandons, neglects, or refuses to support his family may be
declared a vagrant.

4. The law relating to the abandonment and failure to support
minor children should be changed so as to include all minor children
under the age of 16.

5. It should be made a crime for the father of any illegitimate
child to fail to support such child.

6. It should be made unlawful for the parent, guardian or any
other person to contribute to the delinquency of a child.

7. The abandonment of a pregnant wife or a wife with minor
children under the age of 16, or of a minor child under the age of 16,
should be made a felony to the end that the father may be extra-
dited. Funds should be provided for bringing the deserter back.

8. It should be made criminal for any husband to permit his
wife to be employed within 30 days before or 30 days after child-
birth, and it should be declared unlawful for anyone to hire, employ
or work any woman for 30 days prior or subsequent to the birth
of a child.
ADMINISTRATION
W. H. Swirt

Whoever reads with care the Constitution of the State of
Oklahoma, adopted in 1907, will be impressed by the fact that
much thought was given to childhood by the people of the State.
Although a young people, they were deeply conscious of the now
accepted fact that progress in any state is determined on the one
hand by the provisions made for its boys and girls and is measured
on the other by the care provided for those unable to care for them-
selves.

The words of the Constitution and the powers conveyed by
them are evidence of the vision of the people at the time the Con-
stitution was adopted. These powers are ample for giving proper
care to every child. There need be none overlooked, and it was
evidently the intention that none should be overlooked.

In studying both the plan of administration and actual con-
ditions in the state, one finds himself wondering, now and then,
whether or not the original high ideals still prevail. They ought to
have become none the less exalted. Each year of statehood ought
to see them somewhat more fixed in the life of the people.

Definition

Children are normal, dependent or neglected, delinquent or
defective. By normal is meant the ordinary child who will not be
classed as a dependent or neglected, a delinquent, or a defective,
but who will live and’move as the majority of children live and move.
By dependent is meant a child who has not for any reason the means
of support. In Oklahoma a neglected child is a dependent child
by reason of the neglect. By delinquent is meant a child who has
either violated some of the laws of the state or who is found in such
circumstances or under such conditions as indicate that he is liable
to become a lawbreaker. Both dependent and delinquent children
are defined by the law of the state. A defective child is one with
any handicap, physical or mental, sufficient to call for special care,
training, and attention.

 

246
Administration 247

Under a proper system of administration, the state will, through
its administrative officers, have an eye upon every child. It will
know every child’s condition, and if need arises and it appears
that the child is not in a proper place or not receiving proper care,
will come to its aid immediately.

Children are directly affected by the following administrative
departments of the state government:

(1) The Department of Public Health.

(2) The Department of Public Education.

(3) The Department of Labor.

(4) The Department of Charities and Correction.

The Governor of the State, the judges of the different courts
and especially the judges of the county courts who are judges of the
juvenile courts, prosecuting attorneys, peace officers, the State
Commissioner of Agriculture and Industrial Education, the State
Board of Agriculture, the Pure Food Commission, the State Dairy
Commission, the State Board of Vocational Education, and the
Board of County Commissioners also have functions which affect
children.

Department of Public Health.

 

The Constitution of 1907 makes it the duty of the Legislature
to establish a State Board of Health and Pure Food Commission
(Article V, Sec. 23, Const. 1907.) A Department of Public Health
has been established and has the oversight of all matters relating
to public health. A State Commissioner of Health is appointed
by the Governor for a term of four years. He is the State Board
of Health. No provision is made for other members.

The office force of the State Board of Health, as provided for
by the Legislature of 1917 consists of the following:

The State Commissioner of Health, an Assistant Commissioner
of Health, three clerks, one bookkeeper, one record clerk and stenog-
rapher, two clerks in the Department of Vital Statistics, two chemists
and two bacteriologists. In addition there are eight inspectors.

The State Commissioner of Health has full power to quarantine
and isolate in order to prevent the spread of disease. He supervises
all matters relating to the public health and has power to make
and enforce all regulations necessary to prevent, cure, and stop the
248 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

spread of disease. He may remove whatever endangers the public
health and condemn impure food. He is to take cognizance of the
interest of life and health, make sanitary investigations relating
to the cause of disease, of epidemics, of the sources of mortality,
and the effect of location, employment, conditions: and circum-
stances. He is to investigate the condition of schools, prisons, public
institutions, mines, railroads, street-cars and all buildings and
places of public resort. He is to supervise and cooperate with county,
city, and township boards of health. He is charged with the duty
of enforcing all laws and regulations relating to food, drugs and
medicines. He is, in fact, the Pure Food and Drug Commissioner.
He compiles vital statistics under the Vital Statistics Law enacted
by the legislature of 1917. The clerks in the Department of Vital
Statistics and all other officers and employees in the Department
of Public Health are appointed by the Commissioner of Health.
No examinations are required for appointment.

 

The powers as well as the duties of the State Commissioner are
wide. In the enforcement of health laws and of rules and regula-
tions promulgated by him, he may call to his aid all peace officers.
He has even the power to call the state militia.

COUNTY DEPARTMENTS OF PUBLIC HEALTH

The State Commissioner of Health appoints county superin-
tendents of health for a term of two years. The county superin-
tendents must be regular practising physicians of good standing and
character. They are paid $5 a day for their services for time
actually and necessarily served. The amount which they may be
paid in any one year varies for different counties, being determined
by the population of the county and the board of county com-
missioners.

The county superintendents have the power to abate nuisances
dangerous to health, to isolate in case of contagious disease, and
to do such other things under the direction and with the approval
of the State Board of Health as may be necessary for the preserva-
tion of the public health. They have the same power and aid in
enforcing public health rules and regulations as the State Board of
Health.
Administration 249

There is no county board of health or any other county organi-
zation corresponding to a board of health. There is no provision
for employment of a full-time county health officer.

The county superintendent of health has nothing whatever to
do with county jails, poorhouses, or indigent sick persons. The care
and control of these county institutions and of the inmates belong
to the board of county commissioners in the first instance and then
to the State Commissioner of Charities and Correction.

TOWNSHIP BOARD OF PUBLIC HEALTH

The board of directors of each township in the state constitutes
the township board of health. These boards act under the county
superintendent of health and State Board of Health and are governed
by the laws of the state and the rules and regulations of the State
Board of Health.

CITY OR TOWN BOARDS OF HEALTH

The mayor and common council of any city or town constitute
the board of health of that city or town. These boards are under the
state laws and the rules and regulations of the State Board of Health
and the direction of the county superintendent of health. They
may, however, make additional sanitary regulations not inconsistent
with the laws of the state or the rules and regulations of the State
Board of Health. Cities have the power to employ a city superin-
tendent of health and pay him reasonable compensation.

GENERAL

Physicians must report to the county superintendent of health
all cases of infectious and contagious disease. City physicians report
all such cases to the city superintendent of health.

Power is given by the laws of the State to the county and city
superintendents of health to compel owners of property to abate
nuisances, sources of filth, and causes of disease.

Under the act of 1917, each city, incorporated town and town-
ship, constitutes a vital statistics registration district. A local
registrar is appointed by the State Commissioner of Health. Pro-
vision is made for the appointment of sub-registrars whenever needed.
250 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

A permit from the local registrar must be had before the body
of any dead person may be buried, cremated or otherwise disposed
of. No burial permit may be issued until a proper death certificate
shall have been filed with the local registrar.

All births must be reported within ten days by the physician,
midwife or person acting as midwife, or by the parent of the child
or the owner of the property where the child is born.

Every physician, midwife, and undertaker is required to register
in the registration district in which he or she resides.

All hotels, lodging and rooming houses, drug stores, restaurants,
soda fountains, manufacturers of food and bottlers of soft drinks,
confectionery stores, fruit-stands, bakeries, and meat-markets, are
required to be licensed by the State Board of Health. The annual
license fee is from one dollar to five dollars. The license is issued
upon the payment of the fee without inspection.

The Legislature of 1917 gave the State Board of Health the
power to preserve the purity and to prevent the pollution of drinking
water but this law does not become active until September 30, 1918.

There is no housing code in the State of Oklahoma. Neither
the State Board of Health nor any other department of the govern-
ment has authority to condemn or close up improper living quarters.

OVERLAPPING OF AUTHORITY

The authority of the State Board of Health to investigate and
control, as it relates to milk, dairies, creameries, and cheese factories,
is shared with the State Dairy Commission. As it relates to stores
selling and plants manufacturing food and drink, the authority
of the State Board of Health to investigate and control is shared
with the Department of Labor.

There is no law or regulation requiring vaccination against
smallpox or typhoid. Neither is there any law or regulation to
compel the treatment of the eyes of infants at childbirth to prevent
blindness. There is no provision for the medical examination of
public school children nor for a certificate of good health for teaching
in the public schools. Persons with tuberculosis may attend the
public schools either as teachers or pupils. There is no provision
for the licensing of midwives nor for a division of child hygiene or
child welfare.
Administration 251

DISCUSSION

A State Board of Health

The law of the State of Oklahoma contemplates a State Board
of Health and the Board should be created. It should consist of
the State Commissioner of Health, the president of the State Medical
Society, the president of the State Board of Agriculture, a member
of the faculty of the Oklahoma School of Medicine selected by the
faculty of the school for a term of four years, and one member,
not a physician, appointed by the Governor for a term of four years.
The State Commissioner of Health should be the paid secretary
of this Board. The Board should serve without compensation but
actual travelling expenses of the members should be paid.

A County Board of Public Welfare

There should be in each county a county board of public welfare.
This board should act as the county board of health and perform
certain other functions hereinafter set forth. The members of this
board should serve without compensation.

The county board of public welfare should consist of the fol-
lowing: the county judge; one member selected by the board of
county commissioners; one member selected by the county board
of education; these three should select two other members one
of whom should be a reputable physician. Women should be
eligible for election as members. The county superintendent of
public instruction and the county superintendent of health should
be non-voting members of this board. The members should be
selected so as to make the board a continuing body.

The county board of public welfare should be empowered to
employ at reasonable compensation a county superintendent of
health for full-time service. He should be a regular physician
and should be approved by the State Board of Health.

The board should have charge of all public health matters in
each county. It should administer the county poor fund. All
health inspection work should be done by, or under the direction of
the county superintendent of health. This should include all jails,
poorhouses, public and private schools, and all other buildings
and places named in the public health act and located in the county.
The county superintendent of health should give medical attention
to the indigent poor. He should visit and inspect public schools
252 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

and examine public school children. He should examine and certify
yearly to the health of public school teachers. He should be the
local food and milk inspector.

Reports of every examination or inspection should be kept in
the office of the county superintendent of health and filed with
the State Department of Health.

Whenever any institution under the care of the Commissioner
of Charities and Correction is inspected, a report should be made to
the Commissioner who should have authority to call for reports
at any time on any institution under his care.

City Boards of Public Welfare

In cities and towns with population of 5000 or over, similar boards
of public welfare should be composed of the following: a physician
appointed by the mayor for a term of two years, one member selected
by the city or town council and one member selected by the city or
town board of education. The members should be selected so as to
make the board a continuing body. Women should be eligible.
City superintendents of schools and city superintendents of health
should be non-voting members of the city boards of public welfare.
A city board should have duties and powers in the city corresponding
to the duties and powers of the county board in the county.

Township boards of health might well be abolished.

All county or city penal and charitable institutions should be
visited and inspected once a month by the county or city super-
intendent of health.

All state, county, and city institutional buildings and all private
institutional buildings under the care of the Commissioner of
Charities and Correction should be approved by the State Board
of Health and by the State Fire Marshal.

All powers of the State Dairy Commissioners to inspect dairies,
creameries and cheese factories to insure pure food, should be taken
away and placed with the State Department of Public Health.

The power which the Department of Labor now has to inspect
bakeries and other places manufacturing food in order to insure
pure food, should be taken away. All this should be left with the
Health Department. The Labor Department should inspect to
insure safety, care of employees, proper working conditions, and
the observance of all labor laws.

 
Administration 253

The number of state inspectors under the State Department of
Health should be increased from 8 to 15. Every state institution
and every private institution under the care of the Commissioner
of Charities and Correction and certified by him should be inspected
by the State Board of Health semi-annually.

Treatment of the eyes of new-born infants to prevent blindness
should be obligatory. Provisions should be made for preventing
tuberculous persons from attending public schools as teachers or
pupils. There should be medical inspection of all school children,
whether in public or private schools. Public school teachers should
be required to present each year certificates of good health from
the county superintendent of health.

Department of Public Education

 

In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution the
legislature has established a system of public education.

STATE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

Public Education in the state is under the joint control of the
State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction.

The State Board of Education is made up of the State Super-
intendent of Public Instruction, who is president of the board, and
six members appointed by the governor for a term of six years each.

The State Board of Education is the Board of Control of the
following state institutions: the State University, the two University
Preparatory Schools, the six State Normal Schools, the State College
for Women, the State School of Mines, the State Training School
for Boys, the two Homes for White Orphans, the Institute for the
Feeble-Minded, the Colored Orphans’ Home and the Colored Agri-
cultural and Normal University.

The State Board of Education also has the following duties:
Supervision of public schools, formulation of courses of study for
public schools and state normals, formulation of rules for granting
certificates to teach in the public schools, preparation of questions
for county and city examinations of teachers, examination of appli-
cants for state certificates, preparation of questions for graduates
254 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

from the eighth grade of the public schools, classification and
accrediting of high schools, formulation and adoption of courses of
study for reading circles, preparation of an educational budget,
and control of business colleges.

The members of the State Board of Education are paid travelling
expenses. The secretary of the board is paid for full time.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is elected for a
term of four years. The educational interests of the state are under
his supervision and management. He gives notice of the semi-
annual state appropriation for public schools. In conjunction with
the Attorney General, he construes the school law and compiles
and publishes the school laws with all forms and instructions. He
issues a two-year state certificate to graduates of properly accredited
high schools and district agricultural schools, and life high school
certificates to graduates of properly accredited colleges. He col-
lects educational data and publishes the same in a biennial report.

The office force of the Department of Public Instruction con-
sists of a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, an Assistant
Superintendent of Public Instruction, one chief clerk, one agri-
cultural assistant, and two stenographers. All officers and employees
are appointed by the State Superintendent.

State Board of Agriculture

The State Board of Agriculture controls the State Agricultural
and Mechanical College and all of the district agricultural schools.
The president of this Board of Agriculture is elected for a term of
four years. The other members are appointed.

State Board of Vocational Education

The legislature of 1917 created a State Board of Vocational
Education. The board consists of five members: the chairman of
the State Board of Education (the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction), the president of the State Board of Agriculture, the
president of the State University, the president of the State Agri-
cultural and Mechanical College, and one member to be appointed
by the Governor. The last one named is to be the full-time paid
secretary of the board.
Administration 255

State Commission of Agricultural and Industrial Education

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the president
of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the president
of the State Board of Agriculture constitute the State Commission
of Agricultural and Industrial Education. This Commission must
see that the elementary principles of agriculture, horticulture, stock-
feeding, road-building, domestic science, and the elements of
economics are taught in the public schools. A course of study on
these subjects is to be prepared and examination in them is
required for certificates to teach in the public schools.

The State Agricultural and Mechanical College is made the
head of the State Commission of Agricultural and Industrial Ed-
cation.

COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

There are no county boards of education. The county superin-
tendent of public instruction is elected by the people for a term of
two years.

His duties are: To visit each school; to correct any deficiencies
in the same; to confer with teachers; to examine school plants and
report to district boards; to encourage teachers’ associations and
to attend their meetings; to attend county institutes and’teacher
training courses and to keep records of and to inspect the same;
to hold at least one public meeting in every district; and to hold
county examinations. He is to keep a record of all candidates for
certificates and of every certificate granted or endorsed by him, and
a record of the apportionment of state and county public school
funds. Within certain well defined limitations he divides the county
into convenient school districts. He makes an annual report to the
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. In the larger counties
the county superintendent may and does employ a clerk.

LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Provision is made in the law for five kinds of local school dis-
tricts and for what is known as a county separate school. In every
case the district board is a corporate body, having the right to sue
and be sued and to own both real and personal property. The
members of the district boards are elected in every case.
256 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Common School District

This is the ordinary public school district. An annual meeting
of all electors including women is held and one member of the
district board is elected every year. The board consists of a director,
a clerk, and a member, each of whom holds office for three years.

The district board controls the school and all school property.
It contracts with the teacher, purchases supplies, and provides for
taking the census of all children between the ages of 6 and 21. No
relative of any member of the district board may be employed to
teach. The district board reports to the county superintendent.

As keeper of the district school house, the district school board
may open it for the meetings of religious, political, literary, scientific,
mechanical, or agricultural societies. There is no provision for
social meetings.

The board makes the annual estimate of the amount needed
for the school.

Joint School District

This is simply a common school district comprising parts of
two or more counties. As in all other districts, the territory embraced
must be at least nine square miles. The joint district is controlled
by the superintendent of the county having the largest territory in
the district.

Independent Districts

Each city of the first class and each incorporated town main-
taining a four-year high school fully accredited under the require-
ments to the State University constitutes an independent district.
The board of education in cities of the first class consists of a treasurer
and one member from each ward, all elected. In independent dis-
tricts, not cities of the first class, the board consists of three members,
elected. Women are eligible for election. Provision is made for taking
in outlying adjacent territory.

The board determines what tax levy is needed. If more than a
five-mill levy is needed, the excess must be voted by the people.

The board may make provision for recreational places and play-
grounds in its annual estimate of funds needed for the schools.
If the board refuses to provide for these an election may be held
to compel the board to provide them and to make a special levy.
Administration 257

Boards are authorized to establish such grounds for both adults
and children. They may receive and expend public funds for this
purpose.

Consolidated Districts

A consolidated school district is formed by the vote of the
electors of two or more adjacent districts. The board consists of a
director, a clerk, and a member, all elected. Free transportation
for children under ten years of age may be voted and must be
provided for children living two miles or more from the school
building.

No consolidated district may have an area of less than 25 square
miles, or a property valuation of less than $300,000. Provision is
made for giving state aid to consolidated districts which have com-
plied with the standards fixed by law.

Union Graded Schools

A union graded school is established by a vote of the electors
of adjacent districts for children from the sixth grade through the
high school. It has the usual board of three members who are
elected. Free transportation may be voted.

COUNTY SEPARATE SCHOOLS

Negroes are not permitted to attend any school or other edu-
cational institution with other races. When negro children and
other children live in the same school district a county separate
or minority school is established for the race having the fewer public
school children. This school is supported by the county and con-
trolled by the county superintendent of public instruction.

PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OTHER THAN PUBLIC
SCHOOLS.

A. The State of Oklahoma maintains and supports the following
educational institutions under the control of the State Board of
Education :—

(1) Two University Preparatory Schools located at Tonkawa

and Claremore.
258 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

(2) Six State Normal Schools located as follows:
Central Normal School, Edmond.
Northwestern Normal School, Alva.
East Central Normal School, Ada.
Southeastern Normal School, Durant.
Northeastern Normal School, Tahlequah.
Southwestern Normal School, Weatherford.

(3) A State School of Mines located at Wilburton. (The
Governor disapproved most of the appropriation for the
School of Mines for the years 1917-18 and 1918-19.)

(4) A Colored Agricultural and Normal University located at
Langston.

(5) The Oklahoma College for Women located at Chickasha.

(6) University of Oklahoma located at Norman.

(7) Oklahoma School for White Deaf located at Sulphur.

B. The State also maintains and supports the following edu-
cational institutions under the control of the State Board of Agri-
culture :—

(1) Five State District Agricultural Schools located as follows:

Haskell State District Agricultural School, Broken
Arrow.

Panhandle State District Agricultural School, Goodwell.

Cameron State District Agricultural School, Lawton.

Murray State District Agriculture School, Tishomingo.

Connor State District Agriculture School, Warner.

(The Legislature of 1917 converted the Connell State District
Agricultural School at Helena into the West Oklahoma Home for
White Orphans.)

(2) The Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater.

TEACHER TRAINING COURSES

The county superintendent of public instruction may hold a
teachers’ training course every year. The term is two to four weeks
and the county appropriates $200 to pay for instruction. A fee of
$2 for each certificate goes to support the training school. All
teachers in the county are required to attend. The rules and regu-
lations are promulgated by the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction. Instruction must be given in these teachers’ training
Administration 259

courses in school law, government, civics, sanitation, methods of
teaching, child psychology, and primary methods, including the
fundamentals of all common school subjects. The county superin-
tendent employs the conductors and instructors, both of whom must
be certified by the State Department of Education. Colored
teachers must attend separate teacher training schools.

CERTIFICATES TO TEACH IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The kinds of teachers‘ certificates are varied and many.

County Certificates

The county superintendent of public instruction and two other
persons holding first grade certificates or graduates of some state
university, normal school or agricultural college, and who are
appointed by the county superintendent, constitute the county board
of examiners and four examinations are held a year. Candidates
for certificates to teach must show ability to teach and govern
children.

Three grades of county certificates are provided for: first grade
certificates good for four years, second grade certificates good for two
years, third grade certificates good for one year. County certificates
of any grade may be renewed under conditions prescribed by law.
All first grade certificates must be endorsed by the county superin-
tendent of any county. All second grade certificates must be en-
dorsed by the county superintendent of any adjacent county. The
county superintendent may grant a temporary certificate. Certi-
ficates are required for all public school teachers. Any certificate
may be revoked for immorality or any other cause which would
have prevented its being issued. Provision is made for city superin-
tendents to grant certificates for teachers in the public schools of
the cities but there is the same requirement for a county or state
certificate.

 

State Teacher's Certificates
The State Board of Education grants the following on ex-

amination :—
(1) Primary certificate authorizing the holder to teach in the
first to the fourth grades inclusive in any school in the state.
260 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

(2) Elementary certificate authorizing the holder to teach
in any rural school of the state, in the primary or grammar grades
(first to ninth inclusive).

(8) General high school certificate authorizing the holder to
teach in any school of the state in any grade from the first through
the high school.

(4) A special certificate is issued authorizing the holder to
teach or supervise the teaching of a special subject. This is issued
to graduates of departments of special work of approved schools.
The applicant must pass an examination in special and professional
subjects.

All the above are granted upon a satisfactory examination
for two years. At the expiration of the two years they may be
renewed for five years provided the holder has taught successfully
for at least 40 weeks. Provision is made for granting certificates
to graduates and holders of certificates of other states.

General Requirements for State Certificates

The applicant must be 21 years of age unless a graduate of an
approved school or has completed the required work in an approved
school. He must show two years of successful teaching. All certi-
ficates expire when the holder has been out of school work for two
years. Any state certificate may be revoked for immorality.

State Certificates Granted to Graduates and Students

(1) Graduates of the State University, of the State Agricultural
and Mechanical College, of the State Normals, or of the approved
colleges are entitled to life certificates.

(2) Students of any of these institutions who have earned
credit for two years’ work with courses in psychology and education
may be granted a certificate for two years equal to a county first
grade certificate.

(3) Graduates of accredited high schools who have a credit of
15 units in any of the above named institutions and who have done
full work therein for one year or three summer sessions may be
granted a state grammar certificate valid for two years.

(4) Students 18 years of age who have finished the first four
years’ work in any state normal and had courses in psychology,
school management and observation, may be granted a common
Administration 261

school certificate valid for two years equal to a county first grade
certificate.

(5) Grammar and common school certificates herein provided
for are not renewable unless the holder attends one of the institutions
named above for one full year after the certificate is granted.

TEXTBOOK COMMISSION

The State Board of Education is the Textbook Commission.
Uniform textbooks are adopted for all grades of the public schools
from the first grade through the twelfth. The adoption lasts for a
term of five years. The retail price of every book is fixed by contract
between the State Board of Education and the publisher.

SCHOOL CENSUS

A census of all children between the ages of 6 and 21 is taken
in January of each year by enumerators appointed by the district
school boards. The census shows the name, color, sex, and age of
every child, and also whether the child is deaf or blind.

There is no entry for feeble-minded or crippled persons.

The census report is sent to the county superintendent. He in
turn transmits the corrected county census to the State Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction. The apportionment of state and
county school funds is made upon the census of all children between
the ages of 6 and 21.

 

COURSE OF STUDY IN THE DISTRICT SCHOOLS

Agriculture, orthography, reading, penmanship, grammar,
physiology and hygiene, geography, U. S. history, civics, arithmetic
and such other branches as the State Board of Education may
determine are to be taught in the district schools. The nature and
effect of alcoholic drinks and narcotics must also be taught.

GENERAL

The public school term in any district must be at least three
months. If any district fails to have as much as a three-months
school in two years it may not receive any part of the state school
funds.
262 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Compulsory Education

Parents and guardians must keep their children between the
ages of 8 and 16 in school 66 per cent of the local school term unless
other means of education are provided. This does not apply to
children declared by the district board to be physically or mentally
disabled.

It is the duty of the district board to make complaint to a
justice of the peace of the failure of any parent or guardian to comply.
It is the duty of the teacher to ascertain whether any child is out
of school without a proper excuse, and if so, to report the fact to the
county superintendent of public instruction. The county superin-
tendent reports to the county attorney who files a complaint in any
magistrate’s court.

Free Textbooks to Indigent Children

If any district school board finds any parent or guardian unable
to provide school books for his child and recommends to the county
superintendent that books be furnished such child, it is the duty of
the county superintendent to furnish them, to be paid for out of
the county funds.

County Scholarships

If any widowed mother makes affidavit that the wages of her
child or children under 16 years of age are necessary for her support,
the county superintendent is to investigate and may upon the
recommendation of the district board allow the widowed mother a
scholarship. This scholarship is paid by the board of county com-
missioners out of the county funds for so long only as the child or
children attend school.

DISCUSSION

Control of State Charitable and Training Institutions

All of the state institutions now under the control of the State
Board of Education and subject to the inspection of the State Com-
missioner of Charities and Correction except the schools for the
deaf and blind should be taken from the control of the State Board
of Education and placed directly under the control of the Depart-
ment of Charities and Correction.
Administration 263

County Board of Education

County boards of education should be created. These boards
should consist of three members, one elected every two years, and
each for a term of six years. Women should be eligible. This

county board of education should appoint the county superintendent
of public instruction.

 

The county board and the county superintendent should have
jurisdiction in all school districts except independent districts. The
county should be made the educational unit. The length of school
terms in the counties should be equalized.

The district board should have the right to employ teachers
only upon the recommendation of the county superintendent of
public instruction and to hold and care for school property in trust
for the county board of education.

The county board of education should have the right to approve
or disapprove and reject the appointment of the probation and
truancy officer selected by the county board of public welfare.
In larger counties when probation and truancy work is placed in
the hands of different persons, the county board of education should
select and employ the truancy officer.

In counties large enough to demand a school health officer for
the medical examination of school children other than the county
superintendent of health, such school health officer should be selected
and employed by the county board of education. He should be
certified by the State Department of Public Health.

Provision should be made for the medical inspection of all
school children, and for yearly certificates of health to all public
school teachers.

The probation and truancy officer, or the truancy officer in
counties large enough for the work to be divided, should take the
school census, enforce the compulsory education law, issue work
permits, and see that every defective child is properly cared for.
The jurisdiction of the probation-truancy or truancy officer should
extend throughout the county except in cities of more than 5000
inhabitants.

In cities of more than 5000 inhabitants there should be a bureau
of attendance with the same jurisdiction and duties in the city as
belongs to the truancy officer in the county. :
264 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Educational Requirements for Teachers

The minimum amount of education required for teaching in
the public schools should be graduation from one of the state normal
schools or its equivalent in accredited schools.

Free Textbooks

Provision should be made for furnishing free text-books to
every child in the public schools.

Compulsory Education

One of the most noticeable defects in the laws of Oklahoma
is that the compulsory education law and the child labor law do not
harmonize. The following changes should be made:—

(1) Continuation-schools for children working in industry
should be established in the independent districts. Children be-
tween 16 and 18 years of age working with permit who have not
completed the eighth grade or its equivalent should be required to
attend these schools at least 5 hours a week during the public
school term.

(2) The compulsory school attendance period should be from
8 to 18 years, except (a) a child who is physically or mentally disabled,
this to be determined by a physician; (b) that any child between the
ages of 16 and 18 who is at work with a permit may be excused from
attendance; and (c) that any child between the ages of 16 and 18
years who has completed the sixth grade of the public schools or
its equivalent and who is regularly and lawfully employed may be
excused; and (d) that any child who has completed the public school
course in the district in which such child resides may be excused
from attendance.

(8) The compulsory period should be for the full public school
term.
(4) The truancy officer should be notified weekly of absences
from school. It should be his duty to enforce attendance by prose-
cution.

(5) The truancy officer should see that mentally and physically
disabled children are cared for. He should report the list of all such
to the State Board of Education and to the Commissioner of Charities
and Correction and should follow up each case in his county.
Administration 265

(6) The State Board of Education should supervise the work
of both county and city truancy officers and have authority to remove
either for failure to enforce the compulsory education law.

Appropriation of School Funds

The appropriation of state school funds should be based upon
the average daily attendance of the preceding year and not upon
the school census.

Public School Buildings

All plans for public school buildings should be approved by the
State Board of Education. The buildings should be inspected by the
State Fire Marshal for safety and by the county superintendent of
health or school health officer for sanitation.

Teachers’ Certificates

All certificates should be issued by the State Board of Edu-
cation.

Private Schools

All private schools should be required to report to the county
superintendent of public instruction to show whether children
within the age limits are complying with the compulsory school
attendance law.

Department of Labor

The State Department of Labor is under the Commissioner of
Labor who is elected for a term of four years. It is his duty to
carry into effect all laws relating to labor. He appoints all officers,
clerks and employees in the Department of Labor except that the
Chief Inspector of Factories is appointed by the Governor.

The office force of the Department of Labor consists of the
Commissioner of Labor, an Assistant Commissioner of Labor, one
statistical clerk, one stenograher, and two factory inspectors. There
are also four superintendents of free employment bureaus.

FACTORY INSPECTORS

It is the duty of the factory inspectors to visit and inspect all
factories and manufacturing establishments at least once a year.
266 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

They have the right of’ entrance into any place where labor is being
performed. It is unlawful to hinder or obstruct the work of the
Commissioner of Labor or of anyone under him.

The Superintendent of the State Board of Health (the State
Commissioner of Health) the Commissioner of Labor, and the
Chief Factory Inspector are to formulate, publish, and enforce
rules for the sanitation of manufacturing plants.

Factory inspectors have the right to require proper safeguards
for machinery, proper elevators, lighting, doors, and stairways,
separate toilets for men and women, and fire escapes. They are
charged with the duty of enforcing proper sanitation of plants where
food is manufactured, canned, packed, pickled or preserved. This
includes inspection for light, ventilation, sanitary plumbing, and
the health of employees. No one with tuberculosis or a skin disease
is to be permitted to work in such plants. No cellar is to be used
as a bakery.

Any factory inspector may declare any building used as a
manufacturing plant unsafe and enforce its repairs to make it safe.

GENERAL LABOR LAWS

There is to be no contracting for convict labor. Eight hours
constitute a day’s work in all state, county, and municipal work
and in all employment underground in mines. The employment
of children under 15 years of age in occupations injurious to
health or morals, or especially hazardous to life or limb, is forbidden.
It is made a felony for any employment agent to send any female
help or servant to a house of ill-fame or home kept for immoral
purposes.

CHILD LABOR

It is the duty of the Commissioner of Labor to see that all
laws relating to the employment of children are obeyed.

It is unlawful to employ or permit to work:—

(1) Any child under 15 at occupations injurious to health or
morals, or especially hazardous to life or limb; under 15 under-
ground in mines; or under 16 in any work except agricultural or
domestic service more than 8 hours in one day or more than 48
hours in one week.
Administration 267

(2) A boy under 16 or a girl under 18 in any factory, workshop,
theatre, bowling alley, pool hall, or steam laundry at night.

(3) Any child under 14 years of age in certain named occupations.

(4) Any child under 16 years of age in certain named dangerous
occupations.

(5) Any child under 16 years of age in any of the occupations
named in (3) above unless said child is able to read and write and has
attended school the required period of the year previous.

Seats must be provided for female employees.

Before any child under 16 years of age can be employed in
those occupations in which children under 14 are forbidden to be
employed, the employer must get and keep on file an age-and-
schooling certificate for such child. The employer must post a list
of the names of all children under 16 employed and also the number
of hours of work permitted. The time of opening or closing, for
meals, and the hours for shifts, if there be more than one shift,
must be posted.

The age-and-schooling certificate is granted by the county
superintendent or by some school officer designated by him. Power
to administer oaths is granted to the grantor of age-and-schooling
certificates.

The age-and-schooling certificate is granted under the fol-
lowing conditions :—

(1) A certificate from the teacher of the school which the
child attended must be presented. This certificate must show that
the child has attended school the year previous.

(2) The child must appear in person with his parent or guardian
before the county superintendent of public instruction or school
officer authorized by him. Proof of age must be required and pro-
duced in the following order :—

a. A birth certificate, or transcript thereof, issued by a registrar
of vital statistics.

b. A certificate of baptism showing the age of the child.

c. A bona fide record kept in the family Bible, a certificate of
church confirmation or other church ceremony at least one year
old showing the age of the child, a passport or a certificate of arrival
in the United States, or a life insurance policy one year old.

d. A certificate signed by two physicians, one of whom must
be a public health officer or public school medical inspector stating
268 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

that they have examined the child and that in their opinion he is
14 years of age.

The grantor of the age-and-schooling certificate must be satisfied
that the child is physically able to perform the work which he
intends to do. The child must sign the certificate in the presence
of the grantor.

A duplicate copy of the age-and-schooling certificate must be
forwarded to the Commissioner of Labor.

DISCUSSION

Work Permits

The county or city truancy officer should be charged with the
duty of following up the working children in his county or city.
He should issue all work permits. Before issuing the work permit
the truancy officer should be informed of the nature of the employ-
ment. A certificate from the county health officer or public school
medical inspector that the child is physically able to perform the
work which he intends to do should be required. Work permits
should not be issued to any child who has not completed the sixth
grade in the public schools or its equivalent. Work permits should
be required for every child under 18 years of age employed in occu-
pations forbidden to children under 16 years of age.

Three copies of the work permits should be issued, one to be
kept on file by the truancy officer, one to be kept on file by the
employer of the child and returned to the truancy officer when the
employment ceases, and one to be forwarded to the office of the
Commissioner of Labor for filing.

Provision should be made for issuing permits to children be-
tween 16 and 18 years of age for work during vacation, the edu-
cational requirements only being waived, which should not be valid
after the opening of the following public school term. Children
working with permits should be required to enter school within
one week after the termination of the work unless new employment
is obtained under a new work permit.

The county or city truancy officer should forward immediately
to the Commissioner of Labor a copy of every work permit issued
by him. He should also visit and inspect all children working with
permits and should report immediately to the county health officer
Administration 269

or school medical inspector any changes in the physical condition
of the child or character of the work. The county health officer
or school medical inspector should have authority to order that
any work permit be cancelled on account of the nature of the work
or the health of the child.

The following changes should be made in the law relating to
employment of children :—

(1) No boy under 14 years of age and no girl under 18 years
of age should be employed or permitted to work at selling news-
papers on the street or in any public place. No boy under 16 years
of age should be permitted to sell newspapers during school hours or
before 6 a.m. or after 8 p.m. A permit badge issued by the truancy
officer should be required for boys between the ages of 14 and 16
to sell newspapers in the streets.

(2) No child under 16 years of age should be employed or per-
mitted to work in any mill, factory, store, office, hotel, restaurant,
laundry, garage, bootblack-stand, place of amusement, or in mes-
senger or delivery service. Work permits should be required of all
children under 18 years of age employed in any occupations named
in this section.

(8) No child under 18 years of age should be employed or per-
mitted to work underground in mines or quarries, or in any occupa-
tion dangerous to health or morals or hazardous to life or limb, or
more than 8 hours a day or 6 days a week in any gainful occupa-
tion, or between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. in any gainful
occupation.

The county probation-truancy or truancy officer, as well as
factory inspectors, should be required to prosecute for violations
of the child labor law. He should report all violations to the Com-
missioner of Labor who should aid in the prosecution.

Department of Charities and Correction

STATE DEPARTMENT

A Commissioner of Charities and Correction is elected by the
people for a term of four years. The Commissioner may be a woman.
No person under 25 years of age is eligible for election. (Article VI,
Sec. 11 and 27, Const. 1907.)
270 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

It is the duty of the Commissioner of Charities and Correction
to investigate the entire system of public charities and correction,
to examine into the condition and management of all prisons, jails,
holdovers, reformatories, reform and industrial schools, hospitals,
infirmaries, dispensaries, orphanages, and all public and private
retreats and asylums which derive their support wholly or in part
from the state, county, or municipality. The officers of all the
above named institutions must furnish information to the Com-
missioner on demand. The Commissioner has the power to summon
and examine persons under oath and to compel the production of
papers. A report of each investigation must be made to the Governor
(Article VI, Sec. 29 Const. 1907).

The Commissioner makes a yearly report to the Governor with
such suggestions as he may deem suitable and pertinent.

The legislature has the power to alter, amend, or add to the
authority of the Commissioner of Charities and Correction.

The Commissioner of Charities and Correction must visit and
inspect all state penal, reformatory, and correctional institutions
at least once a year, and likewise all eleemosynary institutions and
also all county penal, correctional, and charitable institutions.
He makes recommendations concerning all such county institutions
to the Board of County Commissioners. He has the same duties
and powers in all cities and makes his recommendations to the
mayor and council.

It is his duty to visit and inspect all hospitals, rescue homes,
infirmaries, dispensaries, retreats, lying-in-hospitals, orphanages,
foundling and home-finding institutions or societies. Upon such
inspection, examination and approval, he issues a certificate author-
izing each to operate for one year. This certificate may be revoked
after due notice. He may prosecute in the name of the state in
the county where the institution is located for any violation of the
law. He may ask that the charter of any institution be revoked.

On sworn complaint, the Commissioner of Charities and Cor-
rection must investigate any county, city, or private institution.
He has the power to order abatement of wrongful conditions. In
case of refusal, he may prosecute the officers of the institution.
He must appear as next friend for all minor orphans, defectives,
delinquents, and dependents, inmates of any state, county, city or
municipal institution. He asks that legal guardians be appointed
Administration 271

for such children when it appears that they have an interest in
any estate, legacy, or property. He has the power to prosecute,
defend, or institute an action in any court for any such child. He
has the power to intervene for any minor child in the state when
it appears that the estate of such minor is being mismanaged or
dissipated.

The office force of the Department of Charities and Correction
consists of the Commissioner of Charities and Correction, an
Assistant Commissioner of Charities and Correction, one inspector
and a stenographer.

DEPENDENTS

County Poor

The board of county commissioners are the overseers of the
county poor. The board may build or rent poor homes, or they
may contract for the care of the poor. If there is a poor home, the
board appoints the superintendent and a committee to visit it
once a year. It is within the power of the board to give outdoor
relief to parents of helpless children who are unable to provide for
such children.

Legal residence for the benefits of poor relief is acquired in
six months. For children, residence is determined as follows:—

(1) Residence of father, determines residence of child.

(2) Residence of mother, father wanting, determines residence
of child.

(3) An adopted child takes the residence of foster-parents.

(4) An apprentice takes the residence of his master.

(5) A child acquires residence in 6 months.

Outdoor relief may be given in the following cases -—
(1) To parents of idiots or helpless children whom such parents

are unable to support.
(2) To mothers with dependent children under the mothers’

pension act.

(3) To widowed mothers of school children under the scholar-
ship provision of the school law.

(4) To strangers by the board of county commissioners for
temporary relief.
272 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

CARE OF COUNTY PRISONS

The board of county commissioners is charged with the duty
of keeping clean and sanitary all county poor homes, jails, and
prisons. The mayor and city council are similarly charged in cities.

MOTHERS’ PENSIONS

It is the duty of the board of county commissioners of every
county to provide each year a sum not to exceed $8000 to be used
for the support of indigent women whose husbands are dead, insane,
or confined in any state institution, when such women are mothers
of children under 14 years of age and reside in the county. If there
is but one child under 14 the amount to be paid can not exceed
$10 a month. If there is more than one child under 14, the amount
can not exceed $10 a month for the first child and $5 for each addi-
tional child.

The allowance is made by order of the county judge upon the
following conditions :—

(1) The child or children must be living with the mother.

(2) The allowance is made only when without it the mother
would have to work away from home, but with it will be able to
remain at home.

(8) The mother must, in the judgment of the court, be a proper
person to care for her children.

(4) The amount must be necessary to save the child or children
from neglect.

(5) Two years’ residence in the county is required before the
application for the pension is made.

STATE INSTITUTIONS

The Commissioner of Charities and Correction investigates
and makes an annual report to the Governor on the following state
institutions having the care of minors :—

(1) Oklahoma State Reformatory (for white and colored) at

Granite.
(2) The State Training School for Boys (white) at Pauls Valley.
(3) The Russell Industrial Home for girls (white) at Oklahoma
City.
Administration 273

(4) The State Training School for Boys (colored) at McAlester.
(Moved to Taft by the Legislature of 1917.)
(5) The State Institute for Feeble-Minded (white) at Enid.
(6) The State Institute for Deaf, Blind and Orphans (colored)
at Taft.
(7) State Home for Orphans (white) at Pryor.
(8) West Oklahoma Home for Orphans (white) at Helena.
(9) Oklahoma School for Blind (white) at Muskogee.
(10) Oklahoma School for Deaf and Dumb (white) at Sulphur.
The Girls’ Industrial School at Oklahoma City has been a
private institution caring for white girls placed within its charge by
contract with the Governor when such girls were committed by the
juvenile courts to the care of the Governor. The Legislature of
1917 provided for the erection of a girls’ industrial school as one of
the state institutions and appropriated money for its equipment
and maintenance.

Institutions for Criminal and Delinquent Minors

The State Reformatory for men located at Granite, is under the
control of the State Board of Public Affairs. The Board has the
right to transfer convicts from the reformatory to the penitentiary
or from the penitentiary to the reformatory, whenever in its judg-
ment it is necessary to do so in order to separate confirmed and
incorrigible prisoners from other prisoners, if the efficiency of neither
institution would be impaired. Judges may sentence persons con-
victed of a felony to either the reformatory or the penitentiary.

Whenever either the penitentiary or reformatory becomes self-
supporting, the Board of Public Affairs may provide for payment for
work done either to the convict or to persons dependent upon him.

The Governor has the power to reprieve, commute, parole or
pardon any person confined in the reformatory. The Eighth As-
sistant Attorney General is the State Pardon and Parole Officer.
No power is given to the State Board of Public Affairs or to the
superintendent of the reformatory to parole or pardon. Neither
is any provision made for the recommendation of parole or pardon.
Provision is made for credits.

Judges may in their discretion suspend sentence and parole
to themselves under orders of the court any person convicted of
a crime.
274 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

Training Schools

a. State Training School for White Boys located at Pauls Valley.
b. State Training School for Negro Boys located at McAlester.
(This institution will be moved to Taft.)
c. Industrial Home for White Girls located at Oklahoma City.
(Established as a state institution by the Legislature of 1917
and known as the Russell Industrial Home for White Girls.)

The Training School for White Boys is under the control of
the State Board of Education. The Russell Industrial Home for
White Girls will be under the direct control of the Governor. The
State Training School for Negro Boys is under the control of the
State Board of Public Affairs.

d. There is now no training school or industrial home for de-
linquent negro girls but the Legislature of 1917 made provision for
the establishment of one at Taft. This school for negro girls will
be under the control of the State Board of Public Affairs.

The inmates of each of these schools or homes are committed
or should be committed only by the juvenile courts.

No child under 12 years of age can be legally confined in any
prison or in any prison yard or with adult prisoners.

 

 

 

JUVENILE LAW OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

The judge of the county court, who is elected by the people of
each county is the judge of the juvenile court. A special juvenile
record is to be kept. There is no provision for private hearings
and the practice varies in different counties.

 

DEPENDENT AND DELINQUENT CHILDREN

A dependent or neglected child is, by legal definition, any child
under 16 years of age who for any reason is destitute, homeless,
abandoned or dependent upon the public for support, or who has
not proper parental care or guardianship, or habitually begs or
receives alms, or lives in a house of ill-fame or in any other dis-
reputable place, or whose home by reason of neglect, cruelty, or
depravity is an unfit place for a child, or who, if under eight years
of age, begs, sings, gives or aids in giving public entertainment.
Administration 275

A delinquent child is, by legal definition, any child under 16
years of age who violates any United States, state, city, or town
law or ordinance, or who is incorrigible at home or at school, or who
knowingly associates with thieves or vicious or immoral persons, or
who without just cause and without consent absents himself from
home, or who is growing up in idleness or crime, or who knowingly
frequents homes of ill-repute, policy shops, gambling places, pool-
rooms, or bucket shops, or wanders about the streets at night without
lawful business, or habitually wanders about railroad yards or
tracks or habitually uses vulgar and improper language, or is guilty
of immoral conduct in any public place or at any school house, or
is addicted to the use of liquors, drugs, or cigarettes.

Any person may under oath petition the juvenile court to deter-
mine whether or not a child is delinquent or neglected or dependent.

Summons may be issued requiring whoever has the child in
charge to bring him into court within 24 hours. Summons may be
served upon someone appointed by the court to produce the child,
and also may be issued against the child himself. In any case, a
jury trial, if demanded, may be had. Pending a hearing the child
may be kept by the person having him in charge or in some suitable
place under orders of the court.

 

Dependent or Neglected Child

If the child is found to be dependent or neglected, the court
may commit him to some suitable person or a suitable state insti-
tution, to a training or industrial school, or to an accredited asso-
ciation, which cares for or obtains homes for neglected or dependent
children. The court may commit the child to a private hospital
or institution provided there are no charges.

If the child is committed to an individual or association, he
becomes the ward of such individual or association. Either has the
authority to indenture the child or to consent to his adoption.

Delinquent Child

In case of a child declared delinquent, the court may continue
the hearing from time to time and allow the child to remain in his
own home, or in the care of some person, or in some suitable home
other than his own, or boarded out in a home where provision is
made for such children. The court may commit the child to a
276 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

training school or duly accredited child-caring institution. No
child over 16 can be committed to an institution. The superintendent
of the training school to which the child has been committed has
authority to parole him.

A child adjudged delinquent remains the ward of the court
until discharged or until the age of 21 if a boy and 18 ifa girl. The
court may recall the child for further order including parole or
release. The superintendent of the institution must have 10 days’
notice before the recall of the child.

The court may in its discretion order a child under the age
of 16 to be proceeded against for the commission of a crime.

The juvenile court act was construed and applied by the Supreme
Court in Powell’s Case 6 Oklahoma Cr. 495. The Court held:

(1) That a child under 16 can not be guilty of a crime unless

it is shown that the child knew the wrongfulness of the act.
It is only an act of delinquency.

(2) Before any child under 16 can be proceeded against in
any court other than the juvenile court, the juvenile
judge must find that the child knew the wrongfulness of
the act and certify the same to the district court. Even
then the burden is upon the state to prove that the child
knew the wrongfulness of the act. The effect of this is to
lift the age of discretion from 14 to 16.

(3) The act takes away none of the jurisdiction of the district
court.

(4) The act is constitutional and in conformity with the State’s
duty.

(5) The juvenile court has sole and exclusive jurisdiction of
every child under 16 until the juvenile judge shall have
held that the child is to be tried by the district court.

(6) The district court cannot sentence a child under 16 for a
term of years in the state training school.

There is no probation officer. The law creating the office of

probation officer has been repealed.

State Training School for Boys, Pauls Valley

The State Board of Education controls the State Training School
for White Boys.
Administration 277

The same laws and regulations apply to the Training School
for Negro Boys and the Industrial Home for White Girls, except
that the State Board of Public Affairs controls the school for negro
boys and the Governor controls the home for white girls. The
State Board of Public Affairs will control the industrial home for

negro girls when it is established.

Commitment is made to any one of the state training schools
by the judge. Boys are committed until they are 21, girls until
they are 18, unless sooner reformed and discharged. Under the
Juvenile Act neglected or dependent children may be sent to these
schools. A parent or guardian may indenture his child to a training
school.

The Board of Control may give to any inmate absolute dis-
charge when release will not be harmful to society or the inmate.
No other application for release or pardon is to be considered. The
Board of Control may place any inmate with the head of a family,
if of good moral character, on such conditions and stipulations as
the Board may establish. The Board may bind any inmate by
articles of indenture to any suitable person. Provision for three
months’ schooling each year must be made.

The inmates of the training school are to receive education
and to be instructed in industry, agriculture, mechanics, etc.

State Institutions for Dependent, Neglected, and Defective Children

(1) State Home for Orphans (white) at Pryor.

(2) Industrial Home for Deaf, Dumb and Orphans (colored)
at Taft.

(83) West Oklahoma Home for White Children at Helena.
(This was established by. the legislature of 1917. The
Connell School of Agriculture was converted into the
West Oklahoma Home).

(4) State School for Deaf and Dumb (white) at Sulphur.

(5) State School for Blind (white) at Muskogee.

(6) Institution for Feeble-Minded at Enid.

The State Board of Education controls all these institutions.

The laws and regulations of the State Home at Pryor apply to all
these institutions except where noted.
278 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

State Institutions for Dependents

1. State Home for Orphans (white).

This home is for white children under 16 years of age sound in
body and mind and dependent upon the public for support. The
Board of Control may admit neglected and dependent children
regardless of physical condition. No child found guilty of a crime
or to be incorrigible may be received.

Dependent and neglected children are taken care of temporarily
in the Home until they can be placed in permanent homes and may
be retained until they are 18. Children may, however, be declared
to be self-supporting at 16 and released. The Board of Control
is the guardian of the estate of any inmate during his minority or
until discharged.

Power is given to and the duty imposed upon the Board of
Control to place children in suitable family homes under written
contracts which must provide for six months’ schooling a year,
for treatment as a member of the family, and for payment to the
Board for the use of the child a stated sum of money. When the
child is over 16 and not indentured the contract may be for wages
and kind treatment. The institution retains always the right to
modify or cancel the contract. All earned money must be turned
over to the child when the guardianship terminates. When the
parent of any child becomes able to support and educate it the
Board may certify that fact and return the child to his parents.

The Board returns a child to his county:—

(1) When by reason of vicious habits or incorrigibility he cannot
be placed or kept ina home. Notice is given to the county
and the returned child becomes a charge of the county.

(2) When the child is unsound in body or in mind.

When the home is crowded admissions are prorated to the
different counties. It is unlawful for the board of county com-
missioners to retain and support in their county any child admissible
to the State Home.

The Board must keep informed as to placed children and see
that contracts are observed. It is authorized to employ a placing
and visiting agent. There must be a written report every three
months from the family and state agent. If the child is not properly
cared for the superintendent may cancel the contract.
Administration 279

Application for adopting an inmate is made in writing. There-
upon the superintendent or agent investigates. On the recommenda-
tion of either, the Board approves indenture or adoption. No child
is to be placed in a family, any member of which uses liquor, or is
engaged in the liquor traffic or an immoral pursuit. In case any of
these is found the child is to be removed from the home.

2. Institute for the Deaf and Blind and Orphans (negro), Taft.

The same laws and regulations apply to the Institute or
Orphan’s Home at Taft as apply to the State Home at Pryor, except
as they are modified by the laws and regulations relating to the deaf
and dumb.

The purpose of the institute is declared to be to train colored
deaf and blind, and orphans in rudiments of English and in practical
industries to fit them to be self-helpful.

3. The West Oklahoma Home for White Children, Helena.

This is really a second State home for white children of the
western section of the State. The same laws and regulations prevail
here as for the State Home at Pryor, except that the State Board
of Public Affairs is given somewhat more control of the institution,
and that provision is made for the transfer and for the payment
of the public school money for each child from his home school
district to the institution.

State Institutions for Defective Children

1. Oklahoma School for White Deaf, Sulphur.

This institution is controlled by the State Board of Education.
All white deaf persons of the state are to be admitted, provided
they cannot be educated in the common schools, are of suitable
age and capacity and of good moral character. Every deaf child
6 to 16 years of age must be sent to a suitable school six months
every year.

The purpose of the school is declared to be the physical, intel-
lectual, and moral training of the deaf to make them self-sustaining
citizens. The superintendent is selected by the Board of Educa-
tion. He must be an experienced educator of the deaf. The Board
must visit and inspect the school and report yearly to the Governor.
Parents of inmates must furnish transportation, clothes, incidentals
280 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

and support during vacation. If the parents are unable to do this
it is charged to the county in which they reside and is paid out of
the poor fund of that county. The Board of Education may allow
up to $300 a year for higher education to not more than 10 pupils
a year.

2. The negro deaf and dumb are to be cared for at the school for
the Deaf, Blind and Orphans at Taft, already referred to under the
head of State Institutions for Dependent or Neglected Children.

3. Oklahoma School for the Blind (white), Muskogee.

This school is controlled by the State Board of Education. It
was established for the purpose of providing academic, musical and
industrial education for the blind. All persons between 6 and 21
years of age whose vision is so defective that they cannot attend
the public schools are admissible if they are physically, mentally
and morally fit. The Board may admit persons over 21 years of age.

4. The negro blind are provided for at the Industrial School for
Negro Deaf, Blind and Orphans located at Taft and heretofore
referred to.

Institution for the Feeble-Minded, Enid

The Institution is controlled by the State Board of Education
and all feeble-minded children under 16 must be admitted. The
purpose of the Institution is declared to be to support, train and
instruct feeble-minded children and to control female imbeciles
between the ages of 16 and 45. Special care is to be given to physical
conditions. Two departments are provided for: (1) the training
department for the capable; (2) the asylum department for the
incapable.

Feeble-minded children between the ages of 5 and 16 are to be
received on application, by father and mother if living together,
by the parent having the child in custody, by the child’s guardian,
by the superintendent of an almshouse, by the superintendent of
a child-caring institution, or by the trustee of any township.

If the parent is unable to pay for the child, the board of county
commissioners certifies to the fact and then the state bears the
expense. Children may be admitted by the board without pay. If
parents are unable the county pays transportation and outfit charges.
Administration 281

Anyone may bring an action in the county court to show that
a feeble-minded girl or woman is not being cared for. It must be
shown, that the female is between the ages of 16 and 45, that she
is not pregnant, that she is in good health, that she is feeble-minded,
and that she is a legal resident of the state.

The county court may commit such feeble-minded female to
the institution. The county pays transportation and outfit charges.

There is no school for negro feeble-minded. All the above-
named state institutions for reformation or for dependent, neglected,
delinquent or defective children which are controlled by the Board
of Education are in some measure financially controlled by the
State Board of Public Affairs.

DISCUSSION

In addition to all the institutions enumerated above as visited
and inspected by the Commissioner of Charities and Correction,
the Commissioner is required to visit, inspect and report on the
State Penitentiary, three hospitals for the insane, the Confederate
Home at Ardmore, all county prisons, almshouses, hold-overs,
and private charitable institutions which care for either adults
or children.

With the force provided for the Department of Charities and
Correction it is impossible to do the work effectively. The responsi-
bility for the sanitary condition of state, county, and city jails,
almshouses and hold-overs should be lodged in the hands of the
county or city superintendent of health under the county or city
board of public welfare as provided for in the discussion under the
Department of Health. He should be required to report to the
Commissioner of Charities and Correction the sanitary conditions
of all these city and county institutions in order that the latter may
know that all persons who have a right to look to him for care are
being housed in proper quarters.

All state penal, charitable, and training institutions should be
under the care of the State Department of Health to insure proper
sanitary conditions. A report of these should be filed with the
Commissioner of Charities and Correction to the end that he may
be informed as to the sanitary conditions of all state institutions
to be visited and inspected by him. All child-caring institutions,
282 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

whether public or private, should be approved by the State Board
of Health and the State Fire Marshal and should be inspected
semi-annually.

Probation Officer

It is to be regretted that the legislature repealed the law creating
the position of probation officer. Any effective juvenile court law
must provide for a probation officer in every county of the state.
The work of this officer should be combined with truancy work under
the county board of education so that he would be a combined
probation and truancy officer. He should be selected by the county
board of public welfare on the approval of the board of education
and employed for full time. He should do all probation work and
should make investigations when mother’s pensions are asked for.
When a mother’s pension is granted, he should visit the family
from time to time and report on the same to the board of public
welfare. Such pensions should be granted by the county board of
public welfare, and only after full and careful investigation by the
county probation officer.

Women with invalid or crippled husbands, deserted or divorced
women, and mothers of illegitimate children should be entitled to
mothers’ pensions as well as widows and wives of insane or convicts.
In case of divorce no application should be allowed until the decree
becomes absolute. Deserted mothers should not be eligible until
one year after desertion. Relief should not be granted to divorced
or deserted mothers or mothers of illegitimate children as long as
the State is able to compel support by the fathers of the children.
Mothers should be entitled to pensions for children up to the
age of 16.

The maximum amount allowed as a mother’s pension should
be fixed by the State Child Welfare Division of the Department of
Charities and Correction. The State Child Welfare Division should
have general supervision of mothers’ pensions with power to review
and revoke grants.

When a mother’s pension is not granted because the mother
is not a fit person to care for her children, the children should be
taken from her and placed as dependents.

As the law now stands, there is no assurance that the distinction
between the penitentiary and reformatory will be observed. Nothing
Administration 283

controls the discretion of the judges and there is very little to
control the discretionary power of the State Board of Public Affairs.
Under the law it is possible to confine a child under 16 years of age
in either institution. The law should be amended so as to make
it impossible to send any person under 18, or better 21 years of age,
to the penitentiary.

There is no very great probability that any substantial pay-
ment will be made either to the convict himself or to those dependent
upon him by the State Board of Public Affairs. For the benefit of
the convict’s family as well as for himself, arrangements should be
made by which the convict while at labor for the state will either
contribute to the support of his dependents or will accumulate for
himself a sum of money.

Where the judge in any county suspends sentence upon a convict
and paroles him, he should be placed in charge of the probation
officer of that county.

The juvenile law permits the juvenile judge to commit dependent
or neglected children to a training school. It is unwise to have
dependent or neglected children thrown with delinquent children
and the law should be amended so as to prevent this.

It is unfortunate that the State of Oklahoma still permits
children to be apprenticed. Where children are placed,. they should
be adopted after it has been determined that an adoption is proper
or else placed under specific contract. The apprenticing of children
should be abolished.

There is a conflict of authority between the Superintendents
or Board of Control of the state training schools and the judges
of the juvenile courts. The law should be so written that once a
child is committed to a state training school, all power of parole
or release should lie with the institution and the judges should not
have the right of recall and discharge.

A study of conditions indicates that sufficient effort has not
been made by state agents to place dependent children from the
state orphanages. Instead of building additional orphanages it
would be better to provide additional and efficient state agents for
placing children in proper homes.

The facts brought out in the investigation also lead us to
believe that there is not sufficient attention given to the placing of
defective children in the different state institutions. Provision
284 Child Welfare in Oklahoma

should be made for having a census taken of all defective children
in each school district and for the transmission of these reports
from the county to the State Department of Charities and Cor-
rection and thereafter it should be made a part of the duty of the
county probation and truancy officer to see whether or not such
children are placed in proper institutions or are properly cared for.

Provisions should be made for confining all female feeble-
minded until they are clearly beyond the child-bearing age. It
would be better to place all feeble-minded in well managed in-
stitutions.

There is no institution for the care of negro feeble-minded.
This should be provided at once.

The training schools for negro boys and for negro girls are
placed under the control of the State Board of Public Affairs.
There is no good reason why the Board of Control of these should
be different from that of the other child-caring institutions. Neither
is there any good reason for placing the Industrial Home for White
Girls under the care of the Governor. He will not be able to give
it proper attention.

Control of Institutions

Whatever financial control the State Board of Public Affairs
now has over state penal, reformatory, charitable, and training
institutions should be continued. The state schools for the blind
and deaf should be left under the control of the State Board of
Education. All other state institutions for dependent, delinquent,
or defective children should be placed under the control of the
Department of Charities and Correction.

Full-time schooling should be given every child whether in
an institution or placed out. If possible the children in the different
institutions should attend the public school, but if this is impossible
the courses of study should be those of the public schools.

Full-time, efficient placing-out agents should be provided for
the state homes. Parole officers should be provided for the state
training schools.

Changes in the State Department of Charities and Correction

A State Child Welfare Division should be created and placed
under the Commissioner of Charities and Correction. This division
Administration 285

should inspect and supervise all child-caring or child-placing
agencies, public or private, and supervise the probation officers
in the administration of mothers’ pensions and probation work.

A license to care for or place children should be granted only
after inspection by the State Child Welfare Division. The juvenile
courts should place children only with institutions licensed or
persons approved by the State Division. The State Child Welfare
Division should visit and inspect annually all homes in which
children are placed.

Changes in Juvenile Law

The county board of public welfare should select the probation-
truancy officer who should be approved by the county board of
education. Larger counties should have the right to build detention
homes for children. Every child brought before the juvenile court
should be given a mental and physical examination and no child
under 16 should be imprisoned in any jail or committed to the
reformatory or penitentiary.