PAGE FOUR THE CONCORD TIMES PUBLISHED MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS Entered ae second class mail matter at the post* >ffiee at Concord, N. C., under the Act of March l, 1879. J. B. SHERRILL, Editor and Publisher TV. M. SHERRILL, Associate Editor u - - % ■■■ ——■■ 11 - ■ 1 ■ ■ Special Representative: FROST. LANDIS & KOHN New York. Atlanta. St, Louis, Kansas City. San Francisco, Los Angeles tind Seattle CHILD CARE IN NORTH CARO LINA. \ Before 1917 North Carolina had done ittle toward solving the problems of des titute, neglected and delinquent chil dren but we have made, wonderful prog ress in the past 10 years. In fact the progress has been so unusual and s d marked that North Carolina is one of the three States selected by the Children’s Bureau of the United States Depart ment of Labor for a study of county pro grams of child care, the results of which have just been published under the title, '‘Public Child-Caring Work in Selected Counties of Minnesota, North Carolina and New York.” It has been proved conclusively that organization of child-caring and child protective work with the county as a unit makes it possible to reach rural children, as well as city children, and the plan is attracting country-wide in terest. It was found for instance, that chil dren are faring far better under the coun ty child-welfare or public welfare boards ;n Minnesota, North Carolina and New York than they did before such boards were created. Discussing the changes brought about in the State, a report ot the U. S. Department of Labor, Chil dren's Bureau, says: Before 1917 a juvenile delinquent in North Carolina who was convicted of the offense with which he was charged was sent to the chain gang to work on the roads and to live the adult of fenders in the road camps. A girl of fender was sent usually to the almshouse where the poor of all ages and classes, And sometimes even the insane; were com mitted. Blind and lame .children had nothing done for them. Family welfare agencies existed in a few cities and church and private societies helped as best they could, but there was no statewide pro gram for child protection, The problems of children in need of special care were little understood either by the officials or by the people of the various communi ties. The adoption in 1917 of a state-wide system of public welfare including, a broad but centralized and definite child caring program with the county as the unit of administration introduced a new era in the protection of children in North Carolina. This system is now state-wide, reaching into each of the 100 counties. It provides for the co-operation of the State and the counties through-State and county boards of charges and public welfare, and county superintendents of wefare who must have certificates of qualifications issued by the state board. By 1926 full-time superintendents of pub lic welfare, 7 of whom had assistants, were employed in 51 counties. In 8 - counties there were part-time superin tendents, and in 41 the superintendents of schools acted, as superintendents of public welfare. Analyzing the outstanding features of the North Carolina system, the report says: “There was a greater degree of in terrelation and co-ordination in the work of the various state and county depart ments than is found in many other states. The heads of all state departments met together as a governor’s council which had a definite function, so that the state departments were brought into very close relation. The care of the poor, the school attendance, juvenile-court work and the control of child labor were inti mately associated and interwoven in a most interesting fashion.” Among the activities of the county boards which need further development ~ the report lists the care of young unmar ried mothers, for whom, as yet, little pro vision has been made, and child placing and supervision, one of the most difficult branches of child care. The law author izes the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare to undertake the placing and supervision of dependent children in V foster homes, but the board has been unable to do this work on account of in adequate staff. Many of the county sup erintendents of public welfare were plac ing children in foster homes within their own territory, but it was felt that much closer investigation of conditions before placement and more thorough supervis ion after placement were necessary to insure the welfare of the' children, par ticularly in a state where children have minimum protection against labor. This need had been fully realized by the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare, which hoped to obtain appropriations to develop this work in the near future. hospitals. Dr. W. S. Rankin says that there are 49 counties in the state that have no hos pital iacilities at all. Dr. Rankin knows the hospital situation as no other man in the state knows it, and if there is one we should listen to it is Dr. Rankin. The facts will also show, as many of us feel that we know, that of the fifty-one coun ties that do have some hospital facili ties there is a sad lack oLsuflficiency to meet the demands. In these fifty-one there are but few we would sav, that have anything like adequate hospitaliza tion, and to the end that there may be a.bettered condition Dr. Rankin and others are busily engaged—Salisbury Post. In the fifty-one counties which have hospital facilities of some kind we have an idea that there is a lack of charity beds. That seems to us one of the greatest needs of the State. It is impossible, we havo been told by hospital experts, for private hospitals to operate at a profit when they maintain charity wards. That is the reason a number of former private hospitals have been changed so as to benefit from the Duke Foundation Fund. There was the desire to aid persons who could not aid themselves, but the desire was a costlw one, in some instances causing hospital failures. ; This trouble has been overcome in some counties and cities by appropria tions by the cities and counties. Under this plan the hospital offers eight or twelve charity beds; as the case may de mand, and the city or county makes an annual appropriation to cover their ex pense. That plan works well and could be followed in other counties with profit. There should not be a county in wealthy North Carolina without hospital facilities. Neither should there be one without facilities for charity cases. HE HAS THE RIGHT, BUT— Raleigh’s race warfare has about sub sided and George Rjissos has won hi§ point. Russos, a Greek, purchased a lot in the so-called fashionable Hayes-Barton development and outlined plans for a modern home there. There was insistent and immediate complaint from the resi dents already there. They didn’t want to have a Greek in their midst. Os course Russos had the law with him and there was no way to keep him from building a house where he wanted to. He is a naturalized American and his children were born in America and are classified as American children. His rep utation could not be assailed and he had the money to pay for his house. What could the “fashionables” do? R-X«sos has won the right to the home, we repeat, but will he be wise to build in the Hayes-Barton development? Can he be satisfied without happiness and can he have happiness without friendships? These are questions not covered by the law but they are important ones to the prospective builder. What will it profit Russos and his children to have a house in a fashionable development if there are to be no friends? He has the right to build where he wishes, but we hope he won’t go where he is not wanted. We are for the Greek in this controversy, and for that reason we hope now that he has won his point at law he will go build somewhere else, where there will be something finer to be gained. We hope he will build at some spot where there will be friends for his children, for his wife and for himself. What will it profit Russos to build the finest house in Haynes-Barton and not have a friend to cross its threshold? NO GUNS. Mr. Wade H. PhiUips, director of the department of conservation and develop ment, announces that there will be no flourishing of arms nor any gun play in the enforcement of the new game laws of the State. . Although admitting that the law, by designing the wardens as peace officers, gives authority for carrying pistols, the director declares that.it will be the policy of the administration to have the wardens enfore its provisions, except in extreme cases, without arms. “We want our officers to work on the idea of law observance rather than em phasizing enforcement as the primary consideration. lhe incident hm ° ubl «. “ nd “ thi^.~ newspaper man aft/' as a IS Judge for the , erni fter *wa,N the members of the asn ot^ f Jj not try the civil djl consulting the jud ‘ ket befoJS * h ' >»« in s*;” 1 hemeelwo a(] , ,! »O nut to draw , ju ” "* « the, had deeded S! The commissioner. ‘ to &0 torneys as law a „,i. cceptf d happened. PoJblv JV? 3 cause, or possibh- L th had *2 the local barristers « 5 a teaaon i„ 1J regular charge h, the commissioners hariT for the second week W statute which his honor * court so instructed. ,h„ tlw an indictment ,g, iw for failure ,o comply u?>l Thereupon ,he V b, OM-not unite .11 b * H hurriedly and with eJJ that it was all dut t ®' h, t»lmJ nobody so much as thoul any reflection upon the all been so bus? k