HM

206

Is

UC-NRLF

III

BIRMINGHAM STUDIES

IN

SOCIAL ECONOMICS

AND ADJACENT FIELDS
Edited by Professor W. J. ASHLEY

tenvironment and Efficiency

I A Study in the Records of Industrial
Schools and Orphanages

BY

MARY HORNER THOMSON

WOODBROOKE SETTLEMENT

WITH A PREFACE BY

J. RENDEL HARRIS, LL.D.

i]\

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

http://www.archive.org/details/environmentefficOOthomrich

I

ENVIRONMENT AND EFFICIENCY

NOTE

The Studies in this Series are the outcome of the
inquiries of students working for the Social Study
Higher Diploma or for the Higher Degrees of the
University of Birmingham.

The Social Study Committee — consisting of teachers
in the University, and of representatives of various
institutions in the City of Birmingham — directs a course
of preparation for Public and Social Service which
combines systematic instruction at the University with
practical training in the city under due supervision.

Those who have completed this course, or have been
adequately prepared by similar or cognate studies
elsewhere, may proceed to a Higher Diploma ; sub-
mitting a Thesis embodying the results of an original
investigation conducted under the supervision of the
Chairman of the Committee.

Copies of the Social Study Syllabus may be obtained
on application to The Secretary, The University,
Birmingham.

BIRMINGHAM STUDIES

IN

SOCIAL ECONOMICS

AND ADJACENT FIELDS

EDITED BY

Professor W. J. ASHLEY, Ph.D.

DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF COMMERCE AND CHAIRMAN OF THE SOCIAL STUDY
COMMITTEE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

I

Environment and Efficiency

A Study in the Records of Industrial
Schools and Orphanages

BY

MARY HORNER JHOMSON

WOODBROOKE SETTLEMENT

WITH A PREFACE BY

J. RENDEL HARRIS, LL.D.

DIRECTOR OF STUDIES AT THE WOODBROOKE SETTLEMENT

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

I912

All rights reserved

At

PREFACE

The essay which occupies the following pages is something
more than an academic dissertation ; it is, within its elected
narrow limits, a real contribution to a very pressing problem.
We are all of us anxious to solve, both theoretically *and
practically, the problem of the man that fell among thieves
and was left, only half alive, i.e. only half a man, by the
roadside ; but while the spirit of the Good Samaritan is
increasingly with us, and to that extent benedictions multiply
on those who help and, to some extent, upon those who receive
help, we are all of us also increasingly aware that it is not
enough to take a stricken man to a shelter, nor even to
produce the financial equivalents for his restoration. We
want to be assured that he will not fall among thieves a
second time, in view of the fact that his journey must be
continued on the same road ; and in order to satisfy ourselves
on that point, we have to identify and, if possible, to catch
the thieves. Thus the problem of life is expanded ; it began
with Matiy know thyself ; it was re-stated as Man^ know thy
neighbour : and it is now becoming a questionjof the neighbour's
ancestry and the neighbour's environment. More than this,
the problem has an added pathos for those who love their
kind, in that the man by the wayside turns out to be a child,
or, at all events, as in the present investigation, an inter-
mediary between child and man. It might have been imagined
that in a properly ordered world children would at least have
been secure ; on the contrary, they appear to be least secure ;
and it is darkly hinted by the Eugenists that the child's own
parents are the robbers, and that they have pauperised the

280211

vi Environment and Efficiency

child in mind and body; that no good Samaritan, however many
may pass along the road, will ever prevail to find real shelter,
or restoration, or healing for the wounded and the hurt and the
incapacitated. It is even maintained that two robbers can be
identified, chief outlaws on the high-road of human life, and that
of these two. Heredity and Environment, the second is power-
less against the first : if he should turn pitiful, as in the case
of the man that was mildest of mood in the story of the Babes
in the Wood, he will not be strong enough to stay his mate ;
we are deaHng with factors, of which the first is irremediable,
even if the second should be removable or capable of meliora-
tion. At least this appears to be the judgment of a certain
very logical school of Eugenists. Miss Thomson, in the
pages that follow, attempts to apply the test of statistical
experiment to the problem, and to find out for us whether
Environment is adequate to unsay what Heredity has been
proclaiming ore rotundo ; her close and careful investigations,
not disfigured by undue optimism, will be encouraging to
those who believe that both man and his world can be made
demonstrably better, and do not insist that it shall be done
all at once (in which plea for the help of adequate Time they
appear to have the backing of the Intelligent part of the
Universe itself).

The problem is not a new one, in any sense except that
the study is closer, and the statistics more extended: all
philosophers are at work upon it, and all saints. Here is
a suggestive extract from the writings of Jacob Boehme,
who qualifies both as philosopher and as saint. According
to Jacob, what we have to know is the Signatura Reruniy
the hidden quality which is expressing itself in Nature and
especially in Organic Nature and Life ; for, says he : —

" If an herb be transplanted out of a bad soil into a good,
then it soon gets a stronger body, and a more pleasant smell
and power, and shows the inward essence externally ; and
there is nothing created or born in nature, but it also manifests

Preface vii

its internal form externally, for the internal continually labours
or works itself forth to manifestation ; . . . therefore the
greatest understanding lies in the signature wherein man
(viz. the image of the greatest virtue) may not only learn to
know himself, but therein he may learn to know the essence
of all essences ; . . . the fiat of that essence forms the quality
of the essence in the voice or virtue which it sends forth."

It will be at once pointed out that Jacob Boehme's words
may be taken in two opposite senses ; for the Essence of
which he speaks is elusive, and the Signatura Rerum may be
our old enemy (or disguised friend), Heredity. Who shall
decide ? Who will tell us whether there is any certain road
from the manifestation of the children of the drunkard and the
dissolute to the manifestation of the sons of God ? It is not
for me to frame the answer: all I have to do is to ask for
a proper scrutiny of the facts presented by Miss Thomson and
the conclusions which she suggests.

RENDEL HARRIS.

CONTENTS

SECTIOK PAGE

I. Introduction i

II. Scope and Methods of Investigation ... 9

III. Records i5

IV. Institutional Training 68

V. Conclusions 85

Appendix A 89

Appendix B 98

Appendix C 99

ix

Environment and Efficiency

SECTION I

INTRODUCTION

My chief purpose in writing this thesis has been to show by
a collection of definite results the overwhelming part played
by environment in the building-up of human efficiency.

Perhaps It will be well to state in the first place what I
have taken as my standard of *^ efficiency." Mr. Charles
Booth, in his Labour and Life of the People^ classes the popula-
tion of East London as follows : —

Class A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

H.

The

The Very

The Poor,

Those who

Those

Higher

Lower

Upper

Lowest

Poor, who

supported

although

above the

Class

Middle

Middle

Class,

exist on

by inter-

they have

Poverty

Labour

Class :

Class ; con-

consisting

casual

mittent

small

Line, who

and the

shop-

sisting of

of ' ' some

earnings ;

earnings.

regular

earn from

best paid

keepers.

all those

occasional

' ' many of

engaged in

earnings

22S. to 30s.

artisans

small

above G —

labourers,

them in-

seasonal or

cannot be

per week

and

employers,

may be

street

evitably

irregular

said to rise

for regular

foremen.

clerks, &c.

shortly

sellers,

poor from

work ; very

above

work. This

defined as

loafers,

shiftless-

generally

Poverty ;

class in-

"the

criminals.

ness, help-

'' hard-

" as a

cludes

servant-

and semi-

lessness.

working,

general

carmen,

keeping

criminals."

idleness,

though

rule have

porters.

class."

\

or drink."

shiftless
and im-
provident."

a hard
struggle to
make ends
meet, but
are, as a
body,
decent,
steady men,
paying
their way
and bring-
ing up their
children re-
spectably."

warehouse-
men, per-
manent
dock
labourers,
&c.

2 ^ * " " * ^Environment and Efficiency

Suppose we can take a member of the loafing, criminal, or
semi-criminal Class A, and transplant him into Class D, thus
transforming him into a "regular wage earner, a decent,
steady man who will pay his way and bring up his children
respectably " ; then, in spite of the fact that he still dwells on
the wrong side of the " poverty line," I venture to think that, in
consideration of the class from which he has sprung, and more
especially in consideration of the decent home which he is able
to provide for his children, we may characterise him as efficient.

The majority if not all the children with whom these
records deal are children born into Class A ; that is to say,
they are the children of criminals, of drunkards, of prostitutes,
and of vagrants ; in some cases they have been " found
wandering " or " deserted," or " under improper guardianship " ;
in others they have been themselves convicted of petty theft,
and are therefore fast qualifying for a criminal career.

It does not seem necessary to collect statistics, to prove
that, left to themselves, these children would inevitably form
the Class A of a future generation. Under such circumstances
there could be no pitched battle between Heredity and En-
vironment ; and the results which each unaided might fail to
bring about, their combination would surely achieve.

The term *^ efficiency " is necessarily a relative one ; and in
dealing with the evidence I have collected, I have considered
in every instance not only the record of the child as it grew
to manhood or womanhood, but also the record of the parents.

" Inefficiency " is also a relative term ; but, looked at in
the light of these parental records, it is in almost every case
synonymous with vagrancy, with dissolute living, with drunken-
ness, and with crime. There are, of course, isolated instances
where the record has been one of accumulated misfortune,
rather than of inefficiency; but these are so rare as to be
swamped in the general whole.

Before proceeding further it may be as well to refer to the
extreme position adopted by some members of the Eugenic

Introduction 3

Society. Mr. C. P. Mudge, in the Mendel Journal for 1909,
says : — " It is tacitly assumed by the exponents of this senti-
ment (the sentiment of the modern social reformer), that the
qualities of the individual depend upon his environment, that
he is vicious because of the viciousness of his surroundings,
and good because his environment is made up of good
influences.

" It is entirely wrong — there is no justification for it in all
the realms of fact. The very converse is true, for in social
life the environment is the product of the individual, and not
vice versa.

'*The stunted individuals are not the product of a one-
roomed tenement, but the one-roomed tenement is the expres-
sion of the inherent incapacity of this race to be able to do
anything better for itself; it is the natural outcome of their
already existing physical, moral, or intellectual degeneration.
These degenerates are ' mutations,' and breed true to their
degeneracy."

Again, referring to the Tasmanians, Mr. Mudge says : —
"The life they lived was the product of their desires.
They were not the product of their mode of life ; they made
their life, not their life made them. It is the same with our
own social classes. The mode of life of the higher strata is
the outcome of their inherent qualities, in just the same way
that the mode of life in the lower is the outcome of their inborn
desires and capacities. The higher classes are the outcome
of their evolution, the lower of theirs. The social conditions
are the products of the social classes, not the social classes the
products of social conditions."

Extravagant statements of this kind are obviously open to
criticism. In the first place, few people who have seriously
studied this subject are prepared to maintain that environ-
ment is the only factor in determining character. They admit
that within certain limits we are hereditarily determined ; that,
as Professor Thomson says, " Heredity, function and en-

4 Environment and Efficiency

vironment ; — what the living creature is, or has to start with,
in virtue of its hereditary relation, what it does in the course
of its activity, what surrounding influences play upon it, —
these are the three determining factors of life." ^ What they
hesitate to accept are such sweeping statements as those
just quoted, which entirely eliminate Function and Environ-
ment as determining factors of character.

Again, Mr. Mudge asserts that '^vice" or 'Megeneracy"
occurs originally as a " mutation " (i.e, a spontaneous varia-
tion), and is thus handed down in the germ-plasm from one
generation to the next. But if we admit that our Class A is
largely made up of ^Regenerates," how can we prove that
what may have arisen as a " variation " is necessarily handed
down?

To quote Professor Thomson again, "Variations are
more or less transmissible, but they are not always trans-
mitted. . . . Even where there is reason to believe that an
offspring has inherited a predisposition to a particular disease,
it does not necessarily follow that this item in the inheritance
must be expressed in development.^ ... If it does not find
appropriate nurture it will not express itself ; it may simply
lie latent and be expressed in the next generation. Eventually,
whether it find expression or not, it may die away altogether
— just as useful variations seem sometimes to disappear." ^

The question naturally arises how are we to distinguish
between what is " innate," i.e. arising as a germinal variation,
and what has been " acquired " — as the result of nurture or
function. For instance, a disease which persists in a family for
several generations may have originated, in the first place, not
as a ** variation " but as a " modification " — the result of an
unhealthy neighbourhood or trade ; but if the same conditions
are reimpressed on each succeeding generation, that is, if the
children live in the same environment and work at the same

1 Heredity, p. 3. * Ibid., p. 296.

3 Ibid., p. 258,

Introduction 5

trade as their fathers, the reappearance of the disease is not
necessarily a case of heredity at all. It is the external con-
ditions which are hereditary rather than the disease.

But even if we allow that a disease — whether physical or
moral — is a matter of heredity, or rather the predisposition
to that disease — because a disease as such is never inherited —
then what is our position ?

"I. If it does not find appropriate nurture, it will not
express itself.

2. Or it may lie latent and express itself in the next
generation.

3. Or it may eventually disappear altogether."

In Professor James' famous chapter on ^' Instinct " ^ there
is an illustration of the ^' inhibition " of certain instincts through
want of appropriate *' stimuli." He relates the case of a young
puppy removed from a stable, where he had been wont to
burrow in the earth for a hidden bone, to a lady's drawing-
room. For a day or two the puppy amuses himself at the
same game, but the appropriate stimuli are all missing. A
glove is a poor substitute for a bone ; the carpet is not the
stable floor, and, as the puppy has been regularly fed, the
chief incentive of hunger is also missing. Eventually he
loses interest in his purposeless game, and the instinct is
inhibited ; so that when similar stimuU reappear in later life
he will not respond. The analogy is obvious.

Let us suppose the child of' a thief inherits his father's
criminal instincts — which is doubtful — or suppose that he has
himself been convicted of petty theft. If removed from his
unsatisfactory surroundings to a decent home, given a dif-
ferent standard of behaviour, and trained in habits of obe-
dience and self-control, when the temptation comes to him
in later Hfe the instinct will probably be inhibited. It will
be inhibited because the appropriate "stimuli" supplied by
his early environment, which, put briefly, were the forces of
^ Principles of Psychology ^ vol. ii. p. 339.

6 Environment and Efficiency

suggestion, of imitation, of hunger and want, have so long
been missing that when they again make their appearance
the instinct is either dead or controlled by habit.

To refer again to the extreme importance of the child's
external inheritance. One hears so often the expression
that '' so and so has inherited his mother's brilliance, or his
father's piety." This may be the case, but it is equally true
that the mother's mode of thought, the father's attitude
towards life, in fact the whole personality of that mother and
father, are commonly part of the child's external inheritance.

Let us contrast this fair inheritance with that of the slum
child, who is said to inherit his mother's viciousness, his
father's criminal tendencies. Upon whose horizon does the
personality of the parents loom largest? Upon that of a
child growing up in the atmosphere which all good and
cultivated persons so insensibly create around them ; or
upon that of our little '^hereditary criminal" who, during all
the early and most impressionable years of his Hfe, lives,
eats, and sleeps in one poor room, which he shares with his
drunken and dissolute parents, and which is pervaded by that
atmosphere which they also so insensibly create around
them?

There comes also the question whether the environment,
with its ensuing modifications, may not in course of time,
in a sense, induce innate variations.

" Modifications that are effectively advantageous — adaptive
responses in fact — may have an indirect evolutionary im-
portance ; for they may serve as sheltering, life-preserving, or
welfare-furthering screens, until coincident variations in the
same direction have time and opportunity to establish them-
selves. Thus a modificational change may be gradually
replaced by a strictly variational and by hypothesis heritable
one." 1

Let us suppose a member of the Class H group to be

* J. A. Thomson, Heredity ^ p. 516.

Introduction 7

unfortunate in business. In the majority of cases his relatives
come to his assistance, and he is helped on to his feet again ;
he does not descend into the class below, but remains in
his own, though possibly as an inefficient member, and his
children do not necessarily suffer. But suppose a member
of Class E, who is above the poverty line and in regular
work, loses his situation through illness or no fault of his own. '
His relations — who, if they are in the same class as himself,
are earning from twenty-two, to thirty shillings a week — are
not in a position to help him, and he may slip gradually
down through the intervening classes into Class B. For
this man's children the whole aspect of life is changed. In
place of the respectable neighbourhood where they formerly
dwelt is substituted a mean street with all its sordid associa-
tions and undesirable acquaintances. Food is no longer so
plentiful nor probably in course of time so daintily prepared,
for the mother of the family in many cases is by now its
main support. The boys as they leave school are hustled
into the first *' blind alley" occupation which presents itselO
instead of being apprenticed to their father's trade as would
formerly have been the case. For now the family circum-
stances are such that forethought in matters of this kind has
become impossible ; the claims of the present are too insistent-
Then the youth, as he becomes too old for his first job, has
a long period of looking for work ; and experts in '* boy
labour" are continually telling us what will be the probable
result of such a course.

Does it not seem likely that the children of the third
generation will have sunk into Class A; and that in course
of time, if ^' degeneracy " and ^* vice " do indeed arise as spon-
taneous *^ variations," such an environment as Class B repre-
sents, with its ensuing modifications, may have ^^ acted as a
screen until variations in the same direction [i.e, in the direction
of degeneracy and crime) have had time and opportunity to
establish themselves."

8 Environment and Efficiency

Nowadays there are statisticians who prove to us that the
" correlation " between the mental capacity of the elementary
school child and that of its parent is infinitely greater than
the correlation between the mental capacity of that child and
its environment ; and in the same way that the mental ability
of the Oxford undergraduate has a much greater correlation
with the mental ability of his father and brothers than with
his and their environment. But each of these calculations is
based solely upon the child in relation to its usual en-
vironment. Has anyone worked out the correlation between
the efficiency of the young person trained in an institution
or cottage home and his efficiency if left in his previous en-
vironment, or between the efficiency of the young person so
trained and that of the parent in the Class A from which
he has sprung? Have they taken a child of the upper or
middle-classes and submitted it to a Class A environment,
and then, as they watched its subsequent development, found
the correlation between this result and what he would have
been if left in his earlier environment ? And if this has not
been done, are we in a position to regard environment as a
negligible quantity in the formation of character.

It seems to me that, until it can be proved to us that
the transformation we see effected in these children is but a
superficial growth doomed to be uprooted by the strong arm
of Heredity, for every drunkard we pass in the street, for
every criminal who is driven past us in a prison van, we are
bound to say — to paraphrase the words of John Bradford —
" There, but for the force of circumstances, go I ! "

SECTION II

SCOPE AND METHODS OF INVESTIGATION

When I first started upon this inquiry, I intended to confine
my investigations principally to the records of Poor Law
children ; that is to say, children brought up in Poor Law
institutions, or those boarded out by the same authority.
But the importance of keeping such records, dealing with the
subsequent careers of children trained in institutions, whether
Poor Law or otherwise, appears, until quite recently, to have
been underestimated by the majority of institution authorities.
Again, I naturally tried to restrict my investigation as far
as possible to institutions in my immediate neighbourhood,
and this necessarily limited the number of Poor Law Homes
at my disposal.

At the Homes to which I first went no written records
were kept.

At the Cottage Homes I next visited the superintendent
had been there too short a period for the records to be
of any value, and the previous superintendent had not kept
any. At first I thought I could make use of the Admission
and Disposal Books. But I soon found that the children
were so usually taken out by their parents within a year or
two that records of adequate length were extremely diffi-
cult to find. Of the first thirty cases looked through, not
one stayed long enough to be significant for my purpose.
Taking a page elsewhere at random, I found that, of the thirty
names it contained, nineteen had been taken out by parents
within a year or two, six had been transferred to the local
Union, one to the Infirmary, and four were unaccounted for.
Under these circumstances I came to the conclusion that the

9

lO Environment and Efficiency

time at my disposal would be better employed in seeking
material elsewhere.

Before leaving the subject of local Poor Law Institutions,
I might mention that with regard to '* Children Boarded Out "
by a certain Union, I received the following information from
the secretary : —

*'The Guardians of this Union intend to keep records of
the after-careers of the children boarded out by them.

" No child has yet been placed out, who has been boarded
out by the Guardians, either within or beyond the Union.
The eldest child at present boarded-out is just 14 years old."

Of the fifteen ** Homes, Schools, Orphanages, &c. for
Children," whose names are supplied in the "List of Charities
and Charitable Institutions and Societies " compiled by the
local Charity Organisation Society, I wrote to eight. Of the
remaining seven, two stipulate that the children shall be of
" good character or respectable parentage," and are therefore
of no use for the purpose of this inquiry; two prefer them
to be over fifteen years of age ; one keeps whatever records it
may have at headquarters ; and the other two did not appear
to be specially suitable for my purpose.

Of those eight to which I wrote, I visited and obtained
records from three. Of the remainder, one Catholic associa-
tion forwarded me a copy of its Annual Report. This con-
tained a number of short records and a list of skilled trades
to which boys had been apprenticed. I have placed this list
in Appendix A. The others, although they appeared to
keep in touch with their children as far as possible, had not
the time to keep written records, with the exception of one
institution where the superintendent kept them in shorthand.

The three whose records I investigated were : —

I. The Y. Children's Emigration Homes, supported by

private charity.
II. The X. Home for Boys, also a private charity.
III. A Certified Industrial School.

Scope and Methods of Investigation 1 1

These were all the local records I was able to obtain.

In the case of II., which is a small home, the records were
given me from memory by the lady superintendent, and I took
them down at her dictation.

Besides these local records I obtained others from the
following sources : —

IV. A Girls' Industrial School in the South of England,
from a case-book lent to me by the lady super-
intendent.
V. A Boys' Industrial School in the North.

VI. Records of twenty children boarded-out by the Glasgow
Parish Council; for which I am indebted to the
kindness of Dr. LesHe Mackenzie.

Besides these records, 295 in all — which, with the exception
of the 20 procured for me by Dr. Mackenzie, were the result
of my own personal investigation — I received a certain amount
of information, more or less relevant to my subject, from the
secretaries of 20 Poor Law Schools, Voluntary Homes, and
Certified Industrial Schools, in different parts of the country,
of whom I made inquiries. I quote from the information sent
me by nine of these in Appendix A.

My method of collecting the records was as follows : When
the books had been placed at my disposal, I opened the
Admission Book (in which each child's history is entered) at
a date sufficiently remote to allow of a record of available
length. I did not, for instance, start from the year 1907, be-
cause I knew that by 191 2 the child would barely have left the
institution, and could not possibly possess any record worthy
of the name. An exception to this rule was necessarily made
in the case of the Emigration Homes, where the child is sent
out either in the same year or the year following its admission ;
and I have therefore taken the record from that time onwards.

Having found a suitable starting-place, I proceeded to take
the names in consecutive order. I mention this to show that

12 Environment and Efficiency

my records are not in any sense " picked ones/' but are taken
in the order in which they came, starting from a given date.

To this rule there had also to be exceptions.

{fi) Where, as in dozens of cases, the records had been
kept an insufficient time, I passed on. My minimum period
was four years.

To this again I made exceptions in the case of (i) The North
of England Industrial School, from which I got, in all, eighty
records. These were so particularly well kept that I was anxious
to collect as many as possible, and the last ten or so have only
a three years' record up to the end of 191 1. Most of these
were from boys settled in Canada, and the letter or report for
191 2 had not yet arrived at the time of my inquiry. As in
the seventy other records which I had collected there was not
one really unsatisfactory case, it seemed fair to conclude that
when the fresh report arrived it would be found as satisfactory
as in previous years.

(2) The X. Home for Boys. — Several of these boys, though
starting work at fourteen or fifteen, continued to live in the
Home until eighteen years of age. One or two of the records, I
believe, are under the four years' minimum ; but I particularly
wished to include the information from this Home, as I con-
sider it valuable as illustrating the sort of work for which
boys of this class may be prepared.

{b) Where, as in two of the Industrial Schools, some
children came from '' respectable " homes, I omitted these
wherever known, and passed on to those whose previous
environment had been evidently unsatisfactory.

I mentioned that I took four years for my minimum record.
The average record of the 200 cases of which I have the exact
dates extends over 8.1 years.

Of the remaining ninety-five, I find I have not entered the
length of record — most, if not all, of these being doubtful
cases.

Ten of the 2QO records have been kept for a period of

Scope and Methods of Investigation 1 3

twenty years and upwards, 36 for ten years and upwards, and
only 32 for four years or less.

And if there are some who argue that it is impossible to
draw any satisfactory conclusions from a four years' record,
I would draw their attention to such statements as the
following : —

" Under existing conditions those members of the work-
shy class who have never done any regular work, have spent
the five precious formative years between 14 and 19, when
they were not engaged on casual jobs of no educational value
whatever, in hanging about the streets. Scarcely any better
system for producing a class of loafers could be devised, and
there is little hope of effecting any satisfactory reduction in
the number of the work-shy unless strong influences are
brought to bear upon them in the critical years after they
leave school." ^

" In the return of 1899 it appears that 40 per cent, of boys
leaving London schools became errand boys, van-boys, &c. . . •
The industrial biographies received show clearly that there is
generally a time of transition when boys have to seek new
occupations for which they have little or no aptitude. They
begin all over again, and may or may not be able to fit them-
selves for their new position. The main question is whether
their previous years have benefited or deteriorated them ;
whether, in fact, they have been improved or worn out and
wasted from the standpoint of their own industrial fitness as
producers and wage-earners." ^

Again : " The boys who fail, or partially fail in life, drift
almost from the moment they leave school. Perhaps they
leave their first place within a few days, should the work be at
all difficult or the hours long. Within six months the perma-
nent out-of-works of the future are hanging about the play-
ground gates, whence they soon remove to the street corners." ^

1 Rowntree and Lasker, Unemployment (1911), p. 195.

2 Cyril Jackson, Report on Boy Labour [Refort of Commission on the Poor Laws,
Appendix, vol, xx., 1909), pp. 4, 7, 3 /did,^ p. n.

14 Environment and Efficiency

The extreme economic importance of regular and suitable
employment during the first critical years after leaving school
is the point insisted upon by the authors of these and dozens
of similar statements. But if it is correct to infer that the out-
of-work and unemployable of forty is the outcome of the youth
who enters a blind ally occupation or hangs about street corners
at eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, it is surely equally fair to
infer that the youth satisfactorily employed until twenty will
probably be the man satisfactorily employed at forty.

I have classified my records as follows : —
(a) Satisfactory.

{b) Fairly satisfactory, or doubtful.
{c) Unsatisfactory.

From many of the outside institutions to which I wrote, I
received their annual estimate of satisfactory or unsatisfactory
children turned out by them. But, in cases like these, the
difficulty arises of the need of a common standard.

As the lady superintendent of the X. Homes said to me,
referring to a Home for Boys in the same neighbourhood,
" What they would count satisfactory would not satisfy us at
all. Our standard is so much higher." Or, again, another
superintendent : ^* My own opinion is, you must not take the
various classifications too literally ; they are broad and general ;
the opinions (perhaps loosely formed sometimes) of district
visitors, some keen and interested, some only casual."

And because of this unavoidable looseness of definition, I
felt with regard to the institutions whose records I investigated,
that it was infinitely more conclusive to personally go through
a limited number of cases from each Home and submit them all
to one standard than to accept unquestionably the annual
statistics upon the subject, and then proceed to search for sup-
posedly representative cases.

With regard to the small number of records I have taken
from some of the Homes, my apology must be the length of
time involved in collecting even a little satisfactory evidence.

Scope and Methods of Investigation 1 5

This was due (i) to the numerous exceptions to the rule of a
consecutive order, to which I have already referred ; and (2)
in the case of the Emigration Homes, where the cases are
kept on the Shannon File system, to the time required to hunt
through the records. They here included reports from em-
ployers, reports from the appointed visitor, letters from
employers, and letters from the children themselves. But
this completer information was often more satisfactory than
that given by the Industrial Schools, where simply the gist of
reports, letters, &c., was entered in the Disposal Book. In the
last Industrial Home investigated, however, I was myself able
to read through a pile of letters from old boys.

In concluding this section I should mention that my inves-
tigations have dealt solely with the normal child, using the
word *' normal " as opposed to the " mentally or physically
defective," classified as such. Both in the Emigration Homes
and in the Industrial Schools, the rule is to exclude the men-
tally defective ; and, where such cases crop up, the defect has
probably not been sufficiently advanced at the time of admis-
sion to be notifiable.

SECTION III

RECORDS

In this section I give records obtained from the six different
sources already referred to in Section II., namely : —

The Y Emigration Homes.

The Industrial School for Girls.

Boys' Industrial School (No. i).

Boys' Industrial School (No. 2).

The X Home for Boys.

Children boarded out by the Glasgow Parish Council.

Before tabulating the records, I have given some account
of the nature and scope of each institution, either by quotations
from its annual report, by quotations from the report of the
Government Inspector of Industrial Schools, 1910, or from
my own personal observation.

With regard to these institutions I do not, however, attempt
to give any detailed account of their organisation, nor to com-
pare the relative advantages or disadvantages of different
methods of administration. There could be no point in re-
capitulating the exhaustive information on this subject to be
found both in the Majority and Minority Reports of the Poor
Law Commission, 1909. Besides, it seems to me that in the
past too much attention has been devoted to statistics having
regard to the administration and financial returns of these
institutions, and far too little to those human results by which
alone, from a practical point of view, their existence can be
justified. Therefore, the object of this thesis is to deal entirely
with results.

In reference to my records I wish also to suggest that
there are certain conditions or influences which one would

Records 1 7

expect in the majority of cases to produce unsatisfactory or
doubtful results. These are : —

{a) Mental defect.

(b) Admission at an age when it is too late to counteract
the effect of previous environment.

{c) In cases of '^ boarding out," or apprenticeship in
Canada : —

1. An unsatisfactory new home.

2. A possible bias on the part of the employer who

makes the report.

3. The fact that the case is reported on by more than

one visitor.

4. A constant change of homes.

(d) A return to the original environment.

The Y. Emigration Homes.

^' These homes were established in 1872 to save boys and
girls from vicious, pauperising, and criminal surroundings. . . .
The method adopted is that of permanently removing them
from the environment amid which they were born and bred,
and transferring them by means of emigration to entirely
different and hopeful associations. In a word, they emigrate
children from a slum to a Canadian farm.

^' The emigration system fights heredity by new environ-
ment. The children are led out of temptation and delivered
from the evil of their associations. They lived in what are
well called ' black areas,' in an atmosphere of filth and drink,
of starvation, overcrowding, and open immorality. They knew
evil without a chance of knowing good, and would join natur-
ally in drunkenness and vice without dreaming of a possible
alternative.

'' Each year 130 children or more are taken from slum life
to country homes in Canada. . . . Over 4200 children have
been taken to Canada from our Emigration Homes, and have
been placed in the main on farms where the conditions of their
lives are precisely opposite to those of slums." ^

1 Annual Report, 1910.

i8

Environment and Efficiency

Sources from which Children were derived during 1910.

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children, magistrates' orders ....

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children, recommended by inspectors of.

Council school officers and probation officers

City Aid Society

Ministers of religion .

Police Court and other missionaries . . . .

Private recommendations

Children's Court

Warrant and relieving officers

Personal applications

From various Unions and other sources, for emigra-
tion only

Total . . . .

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

3

2

S

15

12

27

II

2

13

2

0

2

i °

5

5

I 20

6

26

II

7

18

4

2

6

2

I

3

17

15

32

34

20

54

119

72

191

Reasons for admitting Children during 19 10.

Treated with criminal cruelty by parents or guardians
Street arabs — practically homeless
Drunken and criminal parents or guardians
Children who have appeared before magistrates .
Cases of pauperism and abject destitution .
Cases where children themselves are chiefly to blame
From various Unions and other sources, for emigra-
tion only

Total

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

i 7

9

16

1 8

2

10

34

22

56

3

0

3 1

22

17

39 1

II

2

13

34

20

54

119

72

191

Canadian Statistics for 19 10.

Visitor.

No, Visited.

Satisfactory.

Unsatisfactory.

Mr. F. G. .
Mrs. F. G. .
Mr. G. J. .

Total

•

611

41
60

582
39
58

29
2

2

712

679

33 1

These tables are s^ll from Annual Report^ 1910, Y. Emigration Homes,

I

Records . 1 9

I went through 40 records, taking those of 20 boys and
20 girls. Of these 40 —

28 were entirely satisfactory.

8 ] ^ ? I were doubtful or only fairly satisfactory.

4(2 boys } ^^^^ unsatisfactory.

Comparing these results with the '^ Canadian Statistics for
1910," previously given, it will be seen that my proportion
of unsatisfactory or doubtful cases is somewhat greater. But
in the Canadian statistics there is no mention of doubtful or
only fairly satisfactory cases ; and as in so large a number it
is practically certain that some such must have occurred, it is
probable that, not being definitely unsatisfactory, they were
classed with the satisfactory cases.

The average record of 37 of the 40 cases of which I have
taken down the dates is 6.1 years.

These records differ considerably from the remainder of my
records, being kept from the year of emigration to Canada, as
compared with, in the other cases, the year when institutional
training ceases, or the year when children cease to be
" boarded out."

It will be seen that many of these children are sent out
when quite young, so that during the earlier years the record
compares rather with that of the child at school than with that
of the boy or girl who has started out in life. The average
age to which the records quoted are kept is only 17.5 years.

I am aware that on these grounds the records may not
appear so satisfactory as those of other Homes, where the
records are kept to a much later age. On the other hand, it is
during those precious ^' formative years between 15 and 20,"
to which I have already referred, that the majority of these
children give proof of being satisfactorily employed.

The records all start from 1902; and for obvious reasons

20

Environment and Efficiency

the real names and initials have not been employed, and the
last report in satisfactory cases has sometimes been omitted if
it mentioned locality.

Types of Satisfactory Cases.

Name.

Age.

Previous
History.

On Emi-
gration,

On Ter-
mination

of
Record.

Record.

Nature of
Home in
Canada.

Charles

1901
II

18

Father dead. 7
children, partly
kept by neigh-
bours. Mother
earns 4s. 6d.
weekly charing.
Obliged to part
with children.

1903. Charles is
happy and well-
liked. Goes to
school in the
winter, to Sun-
day School and
meeting.

1905. Boy now
hires himself
out, was on
drive this
spring.

1909. This boy
is now of age,
and working
on a lumber
boom.

People in humble
circumstances.
Boy receives
good treatment.

1907. Home
fairly satisfac-
tory.

1908. Satisfactory
though rough.

2.

John B.

12

17

Parents separ-
ated. Mother
living with an-
other man.
Father been a
great drunkard,
in gaol several
times, now in
consumption.
Boy a street
arab.

1903. Boy lazy
and careless,
going to school.

June 1903.
Grown a nice
boy, very happy.

1905. Bright and
intelligent, go-
ing to school,
rather free of
speech.

1907. This young
man is now
on his own
account ; has
grown to be
a big, strong-
looking chap.

1903. Boy has a
splendid home,
and would have
a grand chance
if he knew how
to appreciate it.

1905. Treated
as one of the
family.

Records

Types of Satisfactory Cases — {Continued).

21

Name.

Age.

Previous
History.

Record.

Nature of
Home in
Canada.

On Emi-
gration.

On Ter-
mination

of
Record.

-

Herbert
T.

1902
10

18

Father dead.
Mother a great
drunkard ; sent
to gaol for neg-
lect of child;
now in work-
house infirmary
owing to filthy
condition of
head. No home;
prosecuted by
N.S.P.C.C.

1907. Attends
school in winter,

1908. Has a fair
common school
education. In
good health.

1909. This boy
is driving a milk
team for em-
ployer, and is
doing well.

1910.

People away on
visitor's call,
but neighbours
reported H. to
be earning good
wages ; is driv-
ing a team.

1907.

Home satisfac-
tory.

4.

Mary

C.i

IS

18

Drunken im-
moral parents ;
children filthy
from dirt and
vermin ; very
ragged and
looked starved.
Father a fore-
man earning
40s. (pays to-
wards support).
Father buys
clothes, which
the mother
pawns.

1903. Spoken
most highly of.

1904. An excel-
lent reputation,
attends Sunday
School and
Church.

1905. Is in ser-
vice on her own
account ; has a
most excellent
reputation.

A good home ;
good clothing
supplied.

1904. All cloth-
ing provided
and a fair
amount of poc-
ket-money.

Ruth
C.i

14

19

Ditto.

Satisfactory.

Home excellent.

6.

Ethel

C.I

12

17

Ditto.

Ditto.

Treated as one
of the family.

Maud
C.I

7

13

Ditto.

Ditto.

Home excellent.
Treated as one
of the family.

1 Four sisters ; the last not included in the statistics on account of youth.

2 2

Environment and Efficiency
Types of Satisfactory Cases— {Continued),

Name.

Age.

Previous
History.

Record.

Nature of
Home in
Canada.

On Emi-
gration.

On Ter-
mination

of
Record.

7-

Susan

P.i

13

i8

Mother dead.
Father a drunk-
ard ; children
neglected and
verminous.
Father pro-
secuted by
N.S.P.C.C; re-
ferred to as a
gross case. Sen-
tenced to three
months' hard
labour. Father
has lost five sit-
uations through
drink.

1903. A good
report ; attends
Sunday and day
school. Taught
to play the
piano, and given
a bicycle ; has
grown a very
lady-like girl.

1907. Girl is of
age and learn-
ing a trade;
still lives with
Mrs. J.

Home excellent.
S. treated as a
daughter.

Ehza-
beth P.i

9

13

Ditto.

Satisfactory.

A good home.

Mary P. 1

6

?

As above.

Ditto.

Good home.

Types of Doubtful Cases.

8.

II

17

Illegitimate; par-

1905. Tom is

1903. Boy says

Thomas

ents very poor ;

going on nicely.

he has a first-

H.

ill-treated by

Feb. 1905, Going

rate home.

step-father, who

on well.

1906.

drinks and is

1906. Boy of low

Home satisfac-

cruel to the boy.

intellect ; has, I

tory. Boy not

Mother delicate;

think, bad ten-

as good as he

lai-ge family ;

dencies.

should be.

boytrouble-

1909. This boy

some.

has run away,
and is now liv-
ing with Mrs.
M.2

1 Three sisters ; the last two not included in the statistics on account of youth.
' This case was reported on by two different visitors.

\

Records

Types of Doubtful Cases — {Continued).

23

Name.

Age.

Previous
History.

Record.

Nature of
Home in
Canada.

On Emi-
gration.

On Ter-
mination

of
Record.

Rachel
B.

10

17

Mother dead 7
years. Father a
collier, dpnks ;
several times in
prison as drunk
and disorderly.
Lodges with re-
latives, no
bedding, no fur-
niture. Father,
children, and
woman slept on
rags in place of
a bed ; children
half starved,
ragged, and ver-
minous. Father
prosecuted by
N.S.P.C.C. and
convicted.

1903. Reported
well and a good
child.

1904. Child
seems happy.

1906. Girl satis-
fied with home ;
no desire to be
removed ; at-
tends school ir-
regularly.

1904. Poor home
and old people.

1906. Home un-
tidy.

1908. Poor home.

1909. Below the
average.i

Types of Unsatisfactory Cases.

10.

15

18

Illegitimate.

1902. ' ' The boy

1903. H. dis-

Henry

Mother dead,

I got last spring

satisfied with

P.

boy placed out

has proved more

home. Removes

at a baby-farm ;

than I could

to P. J. m 1903.

became un-

manage; I have

1904. In new

manageable ; a

tried to correct

home, given to

fresh home and

him, but failed

telling lies, but

work found;

to master him,

said he would

needed training.

and abuse an-
other man's
child I cannot.
I am willing to
keep him and
send him to
school all fall
and winter, and
do what I can
for him for a

try to improve.
A strong healthy
boy.

1905. H. so bad
and unmanage-
able that he was
sent to Mrs. J.'s
son. Is of age
next month.

1903. Mr. J. reports boy wonder-

fully improved, and thinks he will

be able to keep him.

1903. Mr. J. complained about boy

being untruthful and generally bad.

1 Reported on by two different visitors.

24

Environment and Efficiency
Types of Unsatisfactory Cases — (Continued).

Name.

Age.

Previous
History.

Record.

Nature of
Home in

On Ter-

On Emi-

mination

Canada.

gration.

of
Record.

II. 8

i6

Mother a prosti-

1905. M r. D.

Home is very

Albert

tute. The man

complains that

humble, in an

C.

she is now

Albert is hard to

inaccessible

living with was

manage ; goes

backward place.

sent to gaol for

to school when

The D.'s are

six weeks with

there is any, but

poor, and live

hard labour for

is not disposed

in a primitive

ill-treating the

to learn.

way. A mistake

boy. Also fined

1907. Boy im-

to have settled

several times for

pudent and un-

Albert with

drunkenness.

manageable.
There is no
school in the
district and no
prospect of any.

them. In the
same home for
7i years.

1908. Unsatisfactory.

1910. Reported as stealing in the

neighbourhood. A regular devil.

Mr. D, anxious that the autho-

rities should take him in hand.

12.

lO

17

Mother dead.

1902, Girl un-

Adopted mother

Hilda

Father a drunk-

truthful.

has been re-

G.

ard, out of

1903.

ported for ill-

work, and de-

H. is strong

using the girl.

serted his chil-

and healthy.

The visitor

dren.

but full of bad
habits (report
of adopted
mother).

1906. There ap-
pears to be
something the
matter with the
girl, as she will
lie down at any
time of the day
and go to sleep;
does not appear
very bright.

igio.

Reported strong
and healthy. H.
very disobedi-
ent, untruthful,
and dirty ; no
change since
she came.

thinks there is
no truth in the
report.

igo6. Too many
young children
in this family.

•

Records
Types of Unsatisfactory Cases — {^Continued).

25

Name.

■
Age.

Previous
History.

Record.

Nature of
Home in
Canada.

On Emi-
gration.

On Ter-
mination

of
Record.

Elsie
M.

12

17

Mother dead.
Father a lab-
ourer ; rriarried
a second time.
Girl beyond
control and be-
fore the magis-
trates for theft.

1903. Girl im-
possible to
manage, steals
and tells lies ;
has a violent
temper.

1904. Girl is a
good worker,
but quarrelsome.

1906. Uneven
temper ; goes
to school,

1907. Girl is un-
satisfactory.

1908. In service.

1909. Girl has
been in 4 homes
since emigra-
tion; tendencies
are strongly im-
moral ; keeps
improper com-
pany (visitor's
report).

1903. Foster
parents wish to
get rid of E.

1904. In fresh
home. Home
good.

1906. Fresh
home; to be re-
moved.

1908. Fresh em-
ployer.

1909. Home
satisfactory.

Remarks.

It will be seen with regard to Records 4, 5, 6, and 7 that
these are exceptions to rule b (page 17, above), that a child
admitted at a late age is likely to have an unsatisfactory
record. The ages of these girls on admission were 15, 14,
12, and 13 respectively, and their records are satisfactory.
It may be thought that at 12 years it should not be too
late to counteract the effects of a previous environment.
But children of this class (Mr. Booth's Class A.) mature
early, and more especially is this true with regard to the
girls.

26 Environment and Efficiency

If those who expect good results in the after career of a
girl (or boy) admitted at the age of 12, will pause to consider
for a moment what the life of such a child has been previous
to its admission, will picture its probable nightly sleeping
accommodation, its probable daily associates, and the haunts
of its parents, they will surely not be surprised to find,
on reading later records, that many of the children classified
as unsatisfactory or doubtful were admitted at the age
of 12.

Records 4, 5, 6, and 7, considered in the light of their
previous history, seem singularly free from any hereditary
taint.

I should class No. 9 as fairly satisfactory, because the
record, although favourable as far as it goes, is so scanty ;
also the home being ^' untidy," and ^^ below the average," it
is not likely that the girl would attain to a very high standard
of efficiency.

No. 10 may be regarded as a hopeless case from the begin-
ning ; admitted at the age of 15, and reported as unmanageable,
there was little chance of his succeeding. It is possible that
institutional training, with its discipline and regular routine,
might have produced better results.

The unsatisfactory record of No. 11 is qualified by the
nature of the home, which comes under condition (<;),
clause I, on page 17. This home was in "an inaccessible
place " ; '^ there was no school in the district and no
prospect of any," and " the people lived in a primitive way."
The authorities acknowledged that it was a mistake to have
settled the boy there.

With regard to No. 12, the adopted mother gives a bad
account of the girl. On the other hand, the adopted mother
has been herself reported for ill-using the child. The visitor,
however, does not believe this report, but suggests that there
are too many young children in this family.

One is reminded by these two last records and by No. 9 of

Records 27

the objection, always advanced by those not in favour of the
boarding-out system, as to the difficulty of finding suitable
homes. But, thanks to the care taken by the Y. Emigration
authorities, both in placing out the children, and through their
system of regular visiting, such homes are very much in the
minority, if we may judge from these records.

No. 13 was committed for theft, and has been accused of
stealing since emigration. The record is bad. The sole
extenuating circumstance seems to be that this girl was 12
on admission.

To sum up, four of the satisfactory cases, whose records I
have given, might, in accordance with the conditions specified
on page 17, have been expected to turn out unsatisfactory;
and three of the unsatisfactory cases are qualified by one or
other of the same conditions. As will be seen on referring
to page 19, the total number of unsatisfactory cases out of the
40 investigated was 4.

The Industrial School for Girls

The lady from whose case-book I procured these records
had been superintendent of this school for fifteen years ; she left
in 1 9 10. During her superintendentship she kept continually
in touch, as far as she was able, with all the girls who passed
through the school ; thus far exceeding the Home Office regu-
lations, which require a report to be made upon each child up
till the age of 1 8 — involving, that is, a two years' record only.
Some of the longer records are of girls who left before her
time, and of these unfortunately the records are scantier and
no previous history is given.

With regard to the training of these girls, I quote from a
letter sent to me on the subject by the lady in question.

^' As at most Girls' Industrial Schools, the industrial train-
ing is mainly in the direction of the ordinary household needs,
supplemented by technical classes on the same subjects, i.e.

28 Environment and Efficiency

cooking, laundry, house and needle-work. The older girls are
in school about half the time, and for the rest are at work
under direction either in the kitchen, laundry, or workroom, or
cleaning about the house.

" The girls have all the housework to do under the care of
assistants, so they have ample opportunity for all varieties of
domestic work, including house and parlourmaid work, in the
superintendent's house.

*' All the washing and needlework are done in the house, so
that there is a large amount of practical work always at hand."
I went through 129 of the records. Of these :
80 were satisfactory.

27 were doubtful or only fairly satisfactory.
22 were unsatisfactory.
Of the 49 unsatisfactory or doubtful cases :
7 were definitely mental,
2 " almost deficient,"
I '* hardly responsible,"
and I had an insane parent.
The average length of 74 of the 129 records of which I
have copied the dates is 10. i years, 26 of these being kept ^ for
periods of more than 10 years.

As the girls are committed to this school until the age of 16,
and only in very exceptional cases are discharged at 14 and 15,
we may reckon the average age to which these 74 records are
kept as 26.

It will be seen that the majority of these records are of
girls employed in domestic service. To anyone having the
most superficial knowledge of the "servant question," it will
be apparent that the fact of a girl remaining for several years
in the same place does not necessarily imply any very high
standard of efficiency. There are mistresses who will put
up with any imperfections rather than face the alternative

^ In some cases I find that I have omitted to enter the length of record ; in
others the final date was not given, though all conform to the 4 years' minimum.

Records

29

of remaining servantless. It is also a fact that the really
efficient and skilful servant is often possessed of undesirable
morals, and that the girl who is honest and virtuous may, on
the other hand, be totally incompetent.

Nevertheless, most of the satisfactory records which I have
quoted seem to me to prove a real efficiency ; some others,
however, not quoted, contained remarks such as these : " Not
a girl of great attainments, but kept her places steadily," *^ did
fairly well in service, &c." Now, the homes from which all
these girls are taken were, with scarcely an exception, parti-
cularly bad ones. As I have said before, *' efficiency" is a
relative term ; so that when I have found the child of a
drunkard, or a prostitute, or a vagrant ^' doing fairly well in
service," or '* keeping her places steadily," I have classed her
as satisfactory; she is at any rate no longer a member of
Class A.

Most of these records date from 1 896 onwards ; there are
some earlier ones to which I have already referred.

Types of Satisfactory Cases.

Name.

§■1

<

Previous
History.

Record.

11

u

go

||

< c3

Mary F.

10

16

Charged with not
being under pro-
per guardian-
ship. Mother a
prostitute and
indifferent to her
child.

M. grew up a tall fine girl, not
very strong ; did well as a cook,
earned good wages, much at-
tached to the school, returned
to help on several occasions ;
was helpful in looking after
younger girls and keeping in
touch with them ; spent holi-
days at the school for several
successive years. Has been
cook since 1908 in a very good
family.

7

years

23

30

Environment and Efficiency

Types of Satisfactory Cases — {Continued).

Name.

S.2

II

<

§1
Mo

^3

Previous
History.

Record.

0 .

C (U

Alice B.

II

1907
16

Sent by London
School Board,
charged with
wandering.
Mother dead ;
father poor and
drunken, took
no notice of
child. Brother
sent to the
Shaftesbury.

A. grew up a fine bonny girl,
capable and much attached
to the school. Began service
as between maid.

Ap. 1909. Went as scullery maid
to a house where many ser-
vants kept. Means to work
her way up ; works under a
chef who helps her.

1908, 1911. At Old Girls' party.
Wages ^18.

1908, 1909, 1910. Spent holiday
at the school.

1912. In a very good situation.

s

years

21

3.

Flor-
ence M.

8

1901
16

Sent by County
Council charg-
ed with destitu-
tion ; is an or-
phan ; had been
cruelly treated
by an older
sister.

Began service as scullery maid
at Orphan Asylum.

1902. Was promoted to kitchen
maid. The matron reports her
as "very sensible."

1903. Left the Orphan Asylum

and went to Poor Law

School.

1905 to 1910. At Workhouse as
assistant labour mistress ; is fill-
ing a responsible position well.
A tall, fine-looking young wo-
man, interested in her work
and thoroughly capable. At
Old Girls' Party in 1903, 'og, '10
and '11.

1909. Spent a holiday at the
school.

19 II. Visited her and saw over
workhouse, had tea in her
room. Wages ^26.

10
years

26

Kate F.

8

1893
16

Not given. 1

Became an excellent kitchen

maid, and later cook.
1899 to 1900. Kitchen maid at a

great house. Married well.

19 11. At Old Girls' Party with
her little girl.

1912. Ditto.

19
years

35

1 This girl left before the superintendent's time.

Records

Types of Satisfactory Cases — {Continued),

31

Name.

c 0

SI

ME

<i3
Q

Previous
History.

Record.

1^

•S'H

Maud
F.

6

1893
16

Not given. 1

Delicate and rather deaf, but
had excellent places. Return-
ed to the school as cook.

J^n. 1903-4. Married a groom,
lives in comfortable rooms in
West End.

191 1. At Old Girls' Party.

17

years

33

6.
Edith I.

10

16

Not given. 2

A dependable, reliable woman,
much attached to the school.
For many years at an Embassy.
Frequently visited the school
in holidays, and regularly sub-
scribed to it.

1910. Went as cook to one of
the Secretaries of Legation.

28
years

44

7-
Jane D.

13

1886
16

Not given. ^

A rough, awkward girl, but with
lots of determination which en-
abled her to qualify herself as
trained midwife and nurse.
Has a comfortable home of her
own in the country where she is
district nurse.

19 10. Visited the school.

26
years

38

Types of Doubtful Cases.

8.

Mary F.
(Mental
causes. )

[899
16

with

Charged
" found wan-
dering;" mother
in prison 6
months for ne-
glect of children.
Father a suicide.
Parents previ-
ously separated.

years

An intelligent, superior girl, sub-
ject to fits of hysteria, during
which she was unconscious for
hours. When normal had a
keen imagination and wrote
rhymes. Did not settle well in
service, probably had fits. The
following year was found wan-
dering. Wrote extraordinary
letters. At 18 learnt type-
writing and entered an office improved in edu-
cation and did well ; made a neat and dainty
home and visited the school frequently. Broke
her arm and health failed. Sight affected.
1909. Badly off and unable to do much.

26

1 Sister to No. 4. 2 Left previous to

3 Left before the superintendent's time.

1896.

32

Environment and Efficiency

Types of Doubtful Cases — {Continued).

Name.

d

II

<

4
II

G

Previous
History.

Record.

0 .

Is

so

1%

9-

Maria P.
(Mental
causes).

5

1898
15

Charged with
" found wand-
ering." Mother
bad, no home.
Child born in
HoUoway Gaol ;
lost herself sell-
ing matches.

A little wizened old woman,
charmed with new surround-
ings, never got over early
neglect, always dwarfed and
dull ; apprenticed to a dress-
maker, could sew well ; was
not found reliable, changed
her places frequently. Poor
health. Decidedly weak-
minded at 17.

3
years

18

lO.

Hannah
Y.

II

1901
16

Sent by School
Board, charged
with being un-
controllable ;
girl has a sullen
dogged look ;
says her step-
mother was
cruel to her, so
she ran away
and slept on the
beach.

A melancholy-looking, sullen-
faced girl. Health soon failed
in service (Chronic ulceration
of the stomach). Had several
places between times in Hos-
pital up to 1907, when she

went to M Infirmary and

remained there. Writes grate-
fully occasionally.

1903. At Old Girls' Party.

1904. Spent holiday at the
school.

1910. Confined to bed in In-
firmary ; has tuberculosis of the
spine.

1911. Better report.

10

years

26

Types of Unsatisfactory Cases.

IX.

Ethel S.

10

16

Sent by County
Coitncil, charg-
ed with pilfer-
ing and being
uncontrollable.
Lived with
father and
grandmother
after her
mother's death.
Grandmother
had no control.

A big, strong, rough girl who
stammered. Placed in service
as laundry-maid. Unsteady
and untrustworthy. Is only
safe under strict control. Was
in House of Mercy for 2
years. Later, 1910, admitted
to L. Home, finally moved

to D to a home specially

for girls who fail in service.
" Ethel is too morally deficient
to be safe anywhere but under
protection." A good hand at
laundry work.

Oct. 1910. Made head-laundry
girl at the Home, hopes "to
be a help to them all."

1911. Ditto.

Ap. 1911. Made a matron.

6

years

22

Records

Types of Unsatisfactory Cases — {Continued).

Zl

Name.

8J

Sol

Previous
History.

Record.

1%

S g
24

12.

JaneO.

12

16

Committed
by Borough,
charged with
immoral sur-
roundings.
Father dead ;
mother in work-
house.

A refined-looking girl but with
little character ; was giddy and
fast, "probably inherited from
her mother, who was bad."
The school made little impres-
sion on her. Last heard of
1907, when she was discharged
from Union.

8

years

Kate J.
(Mental
causes. )

10

1899

16

Charged with
' ' found wand-
ering." Mother
dead, child
neglected.

An undersized, unresponsive
girl. When in service she
gave trouble with a sulky bad
temper. Returned to London
to be near her friends.

1902. At the age of 19 was
taken to workhouse, having
developed epilepsy. Reported
as a confirmed epileptic. Not
likely to be able to earn her
living.

Dec. 1902. Committed to Epi-
leptic Colony at T .

3

years

19

14.

Const-
ance D.

7

1899
16

Charged with
neglect. Father
a wretched man
with distorted
features, of
whom the girl
was ashamed
and afraid ; he
was immoral
and scarcely re-
sponsible.

C. was a quiet, nice-looking
girl ; no moral character, could
not be prevented attracting the
attention of men.

1900. Admitted to workhouse
at 17. Her child was born in
workhouse.

1903. Sent to Home for

2 years.

1905. Returned to service and
remained there 5 years. At
Old Girls' Party for 5 con-
secutive years. Spent a holi-
day at the school; influence
undesirable.

12

years

28

34

Environment and Efficiency

Types of Unsatisfactory Cases — (Continned).

Name.

•

c 0
o'55

Sac
<

Previous
History.

Record.

ll

i 8

P

< CJ

Alice S.

12

1905
16

Charged with
' ' found beg-
ging." Parents
deaf and dumb
tramps. Chil-
dren tramped ,
sleeping out in
common lodg-
ing-houses.
Girl a regular
sturdy beggar,
with no regard
for truth.

A strong sturdy girl of very low
type, not fit for service to have
her liberty; was placed in a
Home ; unable to be kept
owing to bad influence and
rudeness. Tried in other
Homes.

1910. At 21 reported as in
workhouse.

191 1. In X. Home to stay 2
years. Is very naughty.

6

years

22

16.
Lilian B.

II

1906
16

Charged with
living with pro-
stitutes. Father
an army pen-
sioner, who de-
serted his wife.
Mother's char-
acter bad.

A big strong girl, rather stupid,
not a bad girl at school, but
morally uncontrolled, gave
endless trouble in various
places by her infatuation for
men.

1906. Confined in Lock Hos-
pital. Replaced in service,
ran away at once and lost
sight of for months, and re-
turned to Lock Hospital. Two
years later in the workhouse,
and later, 1910, sent for 2 years
to House of Mercy.

1911. Not fit to be at liberty.

S
years

21

17.

Grace E.
(Mental
causes.)

12

1904
16

Charged with
wandering.
Father and
child living with
child's grand-
mother ; child
charged with
stealing along
with another
girl. Very thin
and peevish.
Father died
1904.

Grew up a tall, discontented
girl, not reliable; did little
good in service, constantly
changing, and very flighty and
unsteady.

1908. At Old Girls' Party.

1909. Admitted to penitentiary
for 2 years at House of Mercy.

Oct. 1909. Had been expelled,
and was reported as subse-
quently in an insane asylum,
and later in a Church Army
Home.

S
years

21

Records

35

Types of Unsatisfactory Cases — {Continued).

Name.

fig
^1

II

P

Previous
History.

Record.

1^

'is

i8.

Hannah
0.

II

1900
14

Charged with
stealing. A wil-
ful , sullen child
who had been
badly treated.
Mother dead ;
father a con-
sumptive who
died later.

Was transferred to Industrial
School, where they also found
her " deceitful beyond descrip-
tion " ; constantly tampered
with locks and keys, and had
times of rebellion.

1903. Returned to her grand-
mother.

1905, In Infirmary ill.

1906. When last heard of, was
wanted by police on a charge
of stealing ; had left her place
and could not be traced.

s

years

19

Reinarks,

There seems little to say about most of these records ;
they speak for themselves.

With regard to Nos. 4, 5, 6, and 7, where the history is
not given, these girls left before 1896, the year when the
superintendent took charge of the school. It is not likely that
if recorded their previous history would have been better than
that of the average case.

As to the doubtful cases : the father of No. 8 was a
suicide, and she herself was subject to fits ; the facts seem to
point to the probability of an inherited taint. This girl was
intelligent and superior ; she learnt typewriting, ^* and made
herself a neat and dainty home " ; finally, however, her health
failed, and she was unable to do much. It seems almost
callous to suggest with regard to a career that held so many
promising features, that here after all was one " of many
(cases) who, although they contribute materially to their own

36 Environment and Efficiency

livelihood, would be better if under permanent custodial treat-
ment." 1

No. 9 was " decidedly weak-minded." No. 1 1 is an example
of a morally deficient girl doing well when subjected to special
treatment and segregation.

As to the unsatisfactory cases: with regard to No. 12,
the superintendent suggests '^ that this girl's immorality " was
*' probably inherited from her mother, who was bad ! " On the
other hand, she was admitted at the age of twelve, and had
" previously lived in immoral surroundings." No. 13 was an
epileptic. No. 14 " had no moral character " ; the father was
also immoral and '^ hardly responsible." I have not classed
this as a mental case, but it seems probable.

The history and record of No. 15 are, I think, pathetic.
The parents of this child were deaf and dumb ; they were also
vagrants who tramped the country-side, so that not only was
the child shut out from the advantages of treatment in the
Special Schools, but she was cut off also from the ordinary
common-school education of the normal slum child. It is
impossible to think of a case as normal which possessed such
an abnormal history, but I have not classified it as mental.

With regard to No. 16, I suppose this would be quoted by
the Eugenists as a clear case of inherited vice. On the other
hand, might not the disadvantages involved in admission at the
age of twelve apply almost equally to the age of eleven ? It
does not seem fair to imply that this is a clear case of heredity,
when the child during the most impressionable years of its life
had been living with prostitutes.

I have purposely quoted a fair number of these doubtful
and unsatisfactory cases, in order to illustrate the kind of
failings which appear most prevalent. Many of these unsatis-
factory cases I would class as " moral defectives " — people who,
to quote the definition given by Sir James Crichton Browne,
^* have by reason of disease or disorder of the brain, undergone

1 Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded,
Part III, p. 9.

I

Records * 37

a change of character, manifested in a course of vicious or
criminal conduct without obvious impairment of intellect." ^

Such cases '^ are greatly wanting in initiative, and are
easily influenced by others ; their moral sense is very defective,
and they have little self-control or power to resist temptation
when it comes in their way. They are frequently in trouble
for breaking the law, and it is difficult to know what to do with
them. By their proneness to commit larceny, arson, indecent
assaults, &c., they are a constant source of annoyance, expense,
and danger. Many of them are quite unfit, if left to them-
selves, to lead decent, inoffensive lives ; they require care and
discipline, &c." ^

It would be ridiculous to argue that all these girls who have
failed morally have necessarily some mental taint. I would
only suggest in cases which are persistent and ungovernable
that it might be possible, if the family history were carefully
investigated, to find something of the sort to account for it.

And with regard to the standard of conduct exacted from
the woman, as compared to that exacted from the man, it is
already clearly fixed by social use and custom. The man's
private morality, if he be an efficient workman, is little called
in question ; the woman's, more particularly if she be engaged
in domestic service, it is impossible to dissociate from her
general efficiency. And certainly I have generally found in
these records that the efficient servant has also a quite satis-
factory moral character.

The Industrial School for Boys (No. i)

This is one of the larger Industrial Schools, and accommo-
dates 150 boys. They are trained in tailoring, shoemaking,
gardening, woodwork, metal work, gymnastics, rifle-shooting,
and band practice. ^' Of 73 boys who are 1 3 years of age or
over, 43 are regularly engaged in skilled occupations, and

1 Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble- Minded,
1908, Part III, p. 190. 2 Ibid., p. 117.

38 Environment and Efficiency

14 others are so engaged during partial time. Forty-one boys
have left the school during the past year, and all but one
have entered skilled or progressive occupations. No less than
31 have gone to farm- work. All but two of the situations
were found by the school." ^

Of records I have only a small number. The school was
awkwardly situated, so that much time was spent in going and
coming. I also found it difficult to procure records which had
been kept for any length of time, many of them stopping at
the age of 18. This is the regulation time appointed by
the Government, and after that age there is no compulsion for
records to be kept.

I originally got 33 of these records. Unfortunately half
of them were accidentally burnt, so that I am unable to
give the number of satisfactory or unsatisfactory cases out
of the whole number, but only out of the 16 which remain.^

I regard these records as less carefully kept than most.
The information given was in many cases so scanty that it
was often most difficult to classify them properly ; and I think
had I been able to take a larger number of cases there would
have been a higher proportion of unsatisfactory records than
in those of the other homes. This I judged from turning over
the pages of the disposal books and seeing the word " recon-
victed " occur pretty frequently in the record column.

The report on this school by the Government inspector for
1 910 was quite satisfactory.

Of these 16 records

1 1 were satisfactory.

2 were doubtful.

3 were unsatisfactory.
The average length of record was 5 years.

The average age to which 12 of these 16 records were
kept was 20 years 6 months.

1 Report of the Inspector of Reformatory and Industrial Schools, 1910.

2 I have not counted the 33 in the 295 cases investigated, but only the 16.

Records

39

Types of Satisfactory Cases.

Name.

§1

§1

Previous
History.

Record.

0 .

I-

'i 8

0) a

Henry T.

12

1898
15

Charged with
frequenting the
company of
thi'eves; not
under proper
guardianship;
previous charac-
ter bad. Father
a labourer, now
in gaol, await-
ing trial on two
charges of ' ' re-
ceiver of stolen
goods."

1898. In situation as page boy
to a doctor.

1899. Satisfactory in every way ;
employed later by Cycle Co.
as frame finisher.

1905. Employed by National
Telephone Co. at 24 j. a week.

7

years

22

2.

George
P.

12

1903
16

Non-compliance
with attendance
order. Boy il-
legitimate.

April 1903. OnafarminWales,
Oct. 1903. Doing well.
Dec. 1903. Doing well.

1905. Doing well.

1906. Changed employment.
1910. Employed as a miner.

Appears to be doing well.

7
years

23

Types of Doubtful or only Fairly Satisfactory Cases.

John E.

12

1899
IS

Charged with
begging ; par-
ents' character
bad ; they send
their children
out to beg, and
are about to be
prosecuted by
theN.S.P.C.C.

1899. Employed as picture-
frame maker at %s.

Feb. 1899. Report good.

1900. Visited school ; is em-
ployed as blacksmith's labourer
at 9^.

June 1900. As liftman at 14J.

1901. As liftman with a fresh
firm at 2ps.

1903. As timekeeper with same
firm.

1903. Visited school.

1908. In hospital with enteric ;
previous to this was a soldier
in India for 2^ years. Was in
army for 3 years. Is now out
of work.

9
years

24

40

Environment and Efficiency

Types of Doubtful or only Fairly Satisfactory Cases — {Continued).

Name.

c

G O
SI

<

O ^

Previous
History.

Record.

.212

fl
19

William
T.

7

1903
14

Charged with
destitution, pre-
vious character
good. Father a
butcher under-
going 3 months'
imprisonment
for cruelty and
neglect of his
family. Mother
dead.

Employed at barracks as band

boy.
1803. Letter asking for bank

money.

1903. Sailed for S. Africa.
1904 and 1905. At Gosport.

1906. Letter asking for bank
money. Invalided home with
tubercular hip.

1907. In Convalescent Home,

5
years

Jack U.

12

1905

16

Charged with
not being under
proper guard-
ianship. Father
a bricklayer,
address un-
known. Father
convicted of
theft, and
mother reported
as no fit guar-
dian for the boy.

1905. Employed as messenger
boy to bootmaker at 45. 6d.

1905. Employed at a dye works
at6j.

1906. At a brick-yard at from
125. to 135-.

1908. Out of work and con-
victed for sleeping out.i

3
yeairs

19

Types of Unsatisfactory Cases.

1903

6.

10

15

Beyond parent's

1904. Working as a tailor ;

5

20

Peter F.

control. Illegi-
timate. Father
has been paying
3^. a week to-
wards child's
maintenance.

good report.
1905-1906. Unknown,
1908, Letter from Master of
workhouse stating that P. is
an inmate.

years

5

19

7-

II

1905
14

Charged with

1905. Employed as under-

James G.

felony. Parents
dead.

groom.

1905. Left this post. Visited
school. Employed as groom
gardener,

1906. Working as a collier in
Wales.

1908. Convicted of stealing ^^5
from his lodgings.

years

1 This case was classed as " satisfactory " in the Disposal Book,

Records

41

-

Types of Unsatisfactory Cases — {Continued^,

Name.

0-35

<

5

Previous
History.

Record.

0 .

S 8

8.
John S.

13

1903
16

Charged with
beyond parent's
control. Father
dead ; mother
living with an-
other man.

1903. John employed as pit
boy.

1906. Out of work. Re-
convicted.

4
years

20

Remarks.

No. 5 was admitted at the age of 1 2. I should have classed
this case as unsatisfactory, but as it was entered as satisfactory
in the Disposal Book, there may possibly have been some
favourable report not noted down in the record. Otherwise,
this boy seems in a fair way to joining the ranks of the
unemployable.

Nos. 6, 7, and 8 are poor records.

In fact, all the records obtained from this school compare
most unfavourably with those of the Industrial School (No. 2),
which is the next on my list.

The Industrial School for Boys (No. 2)

This school is certified for 60 boys, and was first started
in 1874. At the time of my visit a new wing was being
erected, and the school when completed will accommodate
100 boys.

With regard to industrial training, I quote from some notes
sent to me by the schoolmaster :

^' Gardening, — This is the branch of the work that by far
the larger part of the boys love most. We have 3 fine green-
houses, and about 5 acres of tilled land. The master gardener

42 Environment and Efficiency

has 12 boys each half day under his care. They are taught
flower-gardening, market-gardening, and French-gardening,
digging and trenching, sowing seeds, manuring, utilisation of
space, manipulation of cloches and French frames, pruning,
layering, bedding-out, &c. — all forming topics for very detailed
lectures. And the business side is not neglected, as the boys
themselves sell the produce and keep small books to make
themselves conversant with current trade prices.

'^ Poultry -farming. — Some of the boys look after the poultry
farm. Regular feeding, punctual collection and labelling of
eggs, perfect cleanliness, rearing of chickens, and careful
penning of the different species are important points which
the boys must attend to.

'^ Tailoring. — The tailor's shop is an important branch.
All the boys' clothes are made on the premises, with the
exception of shirts, jerseys, and boots. The uniform is very
smart, and does the tailor masters and the tailor boys great
credit. ... To watch some of the smaller boys seaming,
felling, making button-holes, sewing on buttons, &c., as if
their whole life depended upon its perfection, is a sight of a
lifetime.

^^ Laundry Work, — The laundry is another part of our
school. The laundress usually has 4 boys helping her with
the work, which is considerable. In this establishment, as in
all other branches of training, the boys are taught to manage
the entire work, and occasionally they do so.

'* Cooking. — Many of the boys are trained to be cooks in
the kitchen.

" Carpentering. — Some are carpenters, learning their trade
in an outside centre, although when the new wing is completed
a special carpenter's shop will be opened.

" Shoemaking. — Some are shoemakers ; and although we
make no new boots, yet there are some repairs which test the
boys' abilities to the full.

" Baking. — The bakehouse claims the attention on Fridays

Records 43

of 4 boys. These bake 34 stones of flour, sufficient for a
week.

" The physical drill of these scholars is famous in the neigh-
bourhood. The Government inspector reports : ^ The physical
training is absolutely first-rate, as it has been for years past.' ^

''Of 39 boys who are 13 years of age or over, 29 are
regularly engaged in skilled occupations.

''Of 17 boys who have left the school during the past year
14 entered skilled or progressive occupations, and 12 of these
situations were found by the school." ^

The earliest of my records dates from the year 1901 ;
the superintendent of this school having held his present
position for ii years. He was previously schoolmaster in the
Boys' Industrial School (No. 1).

Of the 80 records procured from this school —

73 were satisfactory.
7 were doubtful or fairly satisfactory, and none were
definitely unsatisfactory.

The average length of record of 54 of the records of which
I have all the dates is 6,6 years. The average age to which
these 54 records are kept is 22.2 years.

There are two features in particular which stand out from
the general impressions which I received of this school : —

1. The cheerfulness and content of its inmates.

2. The loyalty and affection for their school and its head-
master continually evinced in the many letters from old boys
which I read.

I visited this school three or four times, and on each
occasion the door was answered by a very smiling, happy-
looking boy, who held himself well, and smartly saluted.
Sometimes I would hear him in the distance whistling to him-
self as he came along the corridor. I do not think it was
always the same boy who answered my ring,

1 Report of the Inspector of Reformatory and Industrial Schools, 1910, p. 144.

2 See Appendix B. »

44 Environment and Efficiency

I stayed for several weeks in the neighbourhood of this
school, and one often met these boys in the town and bought
flowers from them (the produce of their own garden) at the
door.

They are very popular in the neighbourhood, and people
one knew would sometimes say : *^ Oh ! whenever we want
a boy we get one from the Industrial School, they are so smart
and thorough about their work."

When I went to the Industrial School No. I the door was
locked, and on the other side sat a small boy knitting. Before
I left, this boy hastened to tell the superintendent, who either
came and let me out himself or gave the boy the key. I went
only twice, and I do not know whether I saw a different boy
on each occasion or not. The impression I got was of a very
subdued, almost cowed, little boy. This may, of course, have
been the boy's natural attitude, and not the result of discipline
at all.

I have mentioned that I have not gone into the question of
the administration of these schools at all, so that I do not
know in the least in what way No. i differed from No. 2 in
this respect. I simply give the general impressions received.

No. I was a very splendid modern building, with a fine
entrance hall. The entrance to No. 2 was distinctly insig-
nificant, and the door opened on to a narrow stone passage ;
the whole place, moreover, was more or less at sixes and
sevens, owing to the building operations then in progress.

It may be thought by a strict disciplinarian that the boy
who opened the door of school No. 2 ought not to have
whistled. One knows that such behaviour is prohibited for
instance during lesson hours. What I personally felt was
that to the boy who whistled the institution was a home ; to
the boy who looked subdued it had never been anything but
an institution.

I had an opportunity of reading a great many letters from
old boys. One boy wrote at the time of the present coal

Records 45

strike, from a town some distance away, and declared that he
would come on foot to the school reunion if unable to get there
in any other way. Another from Canada complained that he
had not heard from the superintendent for some time, and
reminded him for how much his letters counted to a person
all alone in the world.

Another, who was in the army, describes how he has
bragged about his school to the rest of his comrades (many of
them Industrial School boys) ; how none of them had enjoyed
such good times as he had done, and how much they wished
that they had been brought up in such a splendid school.

It seems difficult to realise that the feeling displayed by
many of these boys for their old school — a school whose name
is, I suppose, associated in the minds of respectable working-
class people with sorrow and disgrace — was in its way as
ardent and as keen as that of the upper or middle-class boy
for any one of the famous public schools of England.

One feels that if much depends upon the personality of the
head of a public school, this must much more be the case with
this little provincial reformatory, whose scholars are already
marked out as victims of a bad environment or a bad heredity,
and who now know no other home.

The terms '^ on licence " or '^ licensed " which will be found
in these records refer to boys let out before the age of 16,
when their term expires. During this period they may be
recalled at any time by the superintendent should their con-
duct be unsatisfactory. There is a working boys' home in
connection with the school, in which many of these boys live.

46

Environment and Efficiency
Types of Satisfactory Cases.

Name.

SI

<

Q

Previous
History.

Record.

It

Jl

22

I.

Henry
D.

12

190S
16

"Neglected."
Mother bad ;
had been di-
vorced.

Licensed May 1905. During
licence was working for motor
and cycle maker at 5^. a week,
and living in Old Boys' Home.
Sept. 1905 licence expired.

1906. Attended Old Boys' Re-
union ; still in same work and
doing well.

1907. In same employment ;
making 15J. a week and food.

1907 (Dec). Employed by
a doctor as chauffeur at aSj-,
a week.

1908 (Jan.). At Reunion.

1908. Employed at electric
works at 30?.

1909. Chauffeur at 255-. with
house, coals, and gas.

1909 (Nov.). Took post at
j^2, xos. a week.

Dec. 19 10. Still in same em-
ployment.
Dec. 191 1. Visited the school.

6

years

2.

Joseph

•

II

1906
IS

Found wander-
ing ; previous
character
" fair." Father
spends part of
his time in the
wo rk house;
was once a
butcher, but
had been ' ' sold
up."

On licence Jan. 1906. Ap-
pointed assistant gardener to
the school ; lives in Old Boys'
Home; earns 55. a week,
board and lodging, with wash-
ing and clothes provided.

Oct. 1906. Licence expired.

1907 (Nov.). Doing well, and
turning out a first-class gar-
dener.

Dec. 1907. Working for school,
living in Home, and banking
money.

Jan. 1908. Continues satis-
factory.

1908. Took a post as under-
gardener at ()s. with food.

Dec. 1909. Still as above with

Jan. 19 1 1. Left for London.

April 1911. Wrote asking to
come back, but advised to stay
in London, where he is working
in a nursery garden and doing
well.

Sept. 191 1. Wrote a pleasing
letter ; doing well.

S
years

20

Records

47

Types of Satisfactory Cases — {Continued).

Name.

Previous
History.

Record.

c 0)

13 -a
So

Frank
H. ..

1907
16

4-

Henry
A.

1907
16

S
years

Charged with April 1908. Left for Canada,
non-attendance, July 1908. Satisfactory letter ;
previous char- is working for a farmer
acter good. 6 dollars a month.
Father dead. Sept. 1908. Letter ; is doing
Mother lives in well.

a slum and Aug. 1910. Letter from em
hawks herrings, ployer. Boy much improved
A bad home. and doing well.

Nov. 1910. Letter.
1911, Dec. I, Canada.
" Dear Sir, — A few lines to let
you know that I am going on well, and hoping to see my
brother this next summer. I have done well since I came
out, and kept in work and had a good holiday each year. I
am getting 35 dollars a month and board."
1911. Sept. " If you can send my brother next spring I can
get him a good place at 10 dollars. There are all kinds of
work for men who will work. I am saving a little every 5^ar
so that I can come and see you all at the school.'"

Jan. 1912. "Dear Sir,— I am getting on good, and am think-
ing of going West to look for a homestead. ... I would
like to see more of our boys out here. I am driving mail
to a distance of 20 miles, and getting 15 dollars a month for
the winter, and board. I would like to know if my brother is
coming, as I could get a job for him or any other boy."

This boy has now taken up a homestead of his own.

Boy charged
with frequenting
the company of
thieves ; a bad
home ; mother
disreputable.

May 1907. Licensed to work

for Mrs. A. as gardener at 7s.

a week with food ; living in

Old Boys' Home ; is a good

lad.
June 1907. Licence expired.

1908. Going on well ; still

Uving in the Home.

May. Sailed for Canada.
July. Received postcards and letters. Likes his place and
the country well.

Dec. 1908. Sent photo of farm and self; writes regularly;
very satisfactory report.

July 1909. Sent a dollar towards boys' camp.
Mar. 19 10. Report from employer; boy earns 85 dollars a
year and board.

Sept. 1910. A fresh employer — at 100 dollars.
Mar. 1911. Letter; is doing well.
April 191 1. Letter ; quite happy, and saving money.
Sept. 1911. Letter with subscription for 8j. 4^. towards
boys' camp.

48

Environment and Efficiency

Types of Satisfactory Cases — (Continued).

Name.

<

c t*
0

Previous
History.

Record.

It

c 5

i'H

§1

5-

William
L.

12

I90I

16

Charged with
being beyond
parental con-
trol. Father
drank. Step-
father a fur-
naceman at 36s.

1912. W. is now chargeman at
the A. Ironworks,'and|is earning
£(i a week. The investigator
read a letter from W. , in which
he speaks in most affectionate
terms of his old schoolfellows
and the School Reunion. He
writes at the time when the
coal strike was threatening,
and speaks of walking all the
way to C. if unable to get to
the School Reunion by train.

II

years

27

6.

Bernard
E.

ID

1904
16

Found wander-
ing and without
proper guard-
ianship. Father
an engine-driv-
er, mother dead;
previous charac-
ter, so far as
known, good.

19 1 2. Now a cattle farmer on
his own ranch in Canada, and
married his master's daughter.

8
years

24

Edward
D.

13

1903
16

Charged with fre-
quenting the
company of re-
puted thieves.
Father a lab-
ourer ; boy ne-
glected.

1912. This boy is now a pro-
fessional footballer, a fine
fellow, a teetotaller, and a non-
smoker.

9
years

2S

8.
Jack S.

II

1903
16

Found wander-
ing. Father a
company pro-
moter ; living in
a brothel.

1912. Employed as bandsman
in the army. Doing well.

9
years

25

9-

Norman
S.

7

1907
16

Ditto.

1912. In a Highland regiment.
Doing well.

5
years

21

Records

49

Types of Doubtful or only Fairly Satisfactory Cases.

Name.

II

<

<1

Previous
History.

Record.

g<2

a u

s 8
*j 0

<

lO.

Patrick
K.

7

1904
14

Found wander-
ing and without
proper guardi-
anship ; prev-
ious character,
so far as known,
suspicious.
Father a brick-
layer.

Committed until 14 years of
age. Licence expired May
1905.

1905. Working as a chemist's
errand boy.

August 1905. Committed to a
reformatory for theft,

1906. Doing only fairly.

1907. Not a very good boy.

1908. Fairly well ; reported by
supt. as " very sly."

1910. Returned to this town ;

working at iron works at 20J.

a week.
Dec. 1910. Still working ; going

on nicely.
Dec. 1911. Seen at the football

match, looking quite smart.
Final report, " doing well."

7
years

21

II.

Harry

II

1906
16

Committed for
stealing ; father
a bricklayer ;
mother a char-
woman in poor
circumstances.
Bad home.
Child neglected.

On licence till July 1906.

April 1906. Living in Old Boys'
Home and working at motor
works.

June 1906. Doing well.

May 1907. Living in Home.

Oct. 1909. Left motor works
and working for a farmer at
^6, JOS. a year, all found.

Dec. 1907. Working as a miner
at 15J.

1908. No news.

Aug. 1908. Rumour that H.
had joined the army; no con-
firmation.

Dec. 1909. Unknown.

1910. Ditto. Supposed to be in
the army band. Was solo
cornet player in the school
band.

2

years

I7i

50

Environment and Efficiency

Types of Doubtful or only Fairly Satisfactory Cases — {Continued).

Name.

SI

§1

Previous
History.

Record.

It

•S'H

I}.

12.

John F.

12

1906

16

Charged with
being in com-
pany of re-
puted thieves.
Previous cha-
racter fairly
good. Father
an engineer.

1906. Living with parents and
working as a painter.

Oct. 1907. Working at blast
furnaces, 145-. a week.

Dec. 1907. Out of work. This
boy has done some very strange
things. His friends think he
is of unsound mind.

Nov. 1908. Brought back after
being in two Boys' Homes else-
where. Given work in school
garden, finding food, clothing,
and pocket-money until work
could be got on a farm. Be-
haviour very strange.

1909. Sent to an asylum for
supervision.

191 1. Discharged, and found
work at the shipyards. Seen
by a schoolfellow looking well-
dressed.

5
years

21

13-
Arthur I.

9

1906
IS

Frequenting the
com.pany of
reputed thieves.
Mother dead.
Father a labour-
er. Home bad.

Committed till 15 years of age
(time expired July 1906).

June 1906. Has post as assistant
gardener.

Aug. 1906, Sent to Reforma-
tory.

1907. Good report.

1908 and 1909. Satisfactory.

1910. Absconded from Reform-
atory.

Nov. 191 1. Joined an Irish
regiment. Reported as doing
well by superintendent.

5
years

20

Remarks.

With regard to the ages at which these children entered
the school: — Nos. i, 5, and 12 were admitted at the age
of 12, and No. 7 at 13. Of these No. 12 is a doubt-
ful case, and the rest are satisfactory.

The record of No. 12 fulfils three conditions which,

Records 5 1

as has been previously stated, might be expected to react
unfavourably upon his future career.

1. He was admitted at an age when it is difficult to
counteract the effects of a previous environment.

2. It was found necessary to commit him to an asylum,
and, therefore, he has been classed as a mental case.

3. On leaving the school he returned to his parents,
though the record states that his home was a bad one.^

Records 8 and 9 suggest interesting conclusions. The
children of a degenerate parent, probably by birth a member
of Class G, or possibly Class H,^ they have been rescued
from the vicious environment into which their father's de-
generacy has plunged them, and have become at 22 and 21
respectively, so far as one can tell, decent, respectable
members of society. These children, if left to themselves,
and having no other alternative, would probably have followed
in their father's footsteps, and appear to have inherited his
vices. And it seems to me that it is often by illustrations
such as these that certain Eugenists endeavour to support
their theory of the futility of trying to redeem the members
of a racially degenerate stock.

With regard to No. 11: — This boy at the age of \J\
had already been engaged in four absolutely dissimilar occupa-
tions, and though I have given him the benefit of the doubt it
seems most probable that this should be classified as an
unsatisfactory case.

The X Home for Boys

This Home was started about eleven years ago in one of
the suburbs of a great city. The accommodation is for 34

1 I am inclined to think that there must have been some special reason for allow-
ing this boy to return to his friends, because in this school, as in all others of the
same nature, the greatest care is taken to prevent these children from returning to a
former environment ; for this reason many of them are sent straight to Canada, and
this is, of course, the raison d'etre of the Y. Emigration Homes.

2 See page i, above.

52 Environment and Efficiency

boys, but at present, owing to the lack of funds, there are
only about 20.

The Home originally consisted of 2 private houses, which
have since been thrown into one. A playroom is provided
for the younger boys, and a combined study and meal-room
for the elder. The latter have also separate bedrooms, which,
although plainly furnished, give scope for just those little
individual touches which so seldom show themselves in a
typical institution room.

The life here is essentially home-like ; and though it may
perhaps possess points in common with the Poor Law Scattered
Home, yet it differs considerably, as in this case the foster
mother or superintendent is a woman of culture, having a ^^xy
varied experience of social work. The lady superintendent
is assisted by a matron who is a trained nurse, and an
assistant matron. Those of the children who are old enough
attend the nearest council and church school.

It is particularly desired that a child should be admitted at
as early an age as possible, and at the time of my visit the
youngest boy was two years old.

On admission to the home, the parents of the child, if
alive, agree to renounce all claim to determine its future.

Of records I have 10. They are not entered in any case-
book, but were given to me verbally by the lady super-
intendent. As far as she could remember, these were all the
children who had passed out of her hands since the Home
was started.

I have already mentioned in section II (page 12, above) that
I do not consider these records of any value as records in
themselves. Two only have been kept for five and six years,
and of 4 the length of record is not given, but I imagine they
were kept only for very short periods. But the histories of
some of these children are especially interesting, as showing
what may be made of the slum-child in a better environment.
Most of the children were sent to the Home from London slums.

Records

53

Satisfactory Cases.

Name.

<
8

al

History.

Character in
Home.

Record.

fl-O

■go

W. B.

i8

The father of this
boy was con-
sumptive and a
chronic invalid.
The mother also
was ailing.
They lived in a
London slum,
and the children
were on the
streets.

This boy showed
self-will and
temper amount-
ing almost to
insanity, but
was honest and
wished to do
right. Seen by
a mental speci-
alist who pre-
dicted lunacy or
epilepsy if tem-
per not con-
trolled. The
boy gradually
acquired self-
control and dur-
ing the last year
in the Home was
absolutely free
from temper,
Wasartistic and
loved drawing.

This boy con-
tinued to live in
the Home and
studied at an art
school ; after-
wards was ap
prenticed to a
large firm of
jewellers ; was
sent to Germany
for further ex-
perience, and is
now a designer
and pattern
maker.

4
years

19

2.

H. P.

^^

IS

A dirty, thriftless
home ; parents
too poor to keep
the children.

This boy became
a soldier and
was solo-clar-
inet player in
the band, a
good musician
and had special
tuition; has a
very good re-
cord.

6
years

21

Charles.

8

17

This boy was ille-
gitimate. The
mother drank
and lived with
a married man
whose wife was
in an asylum.
She was left un-
provided for.

This boy grew
up steady, hon-
est, and trust-
worthy, 'Was
of average
ability.

Charles is now
in an account-
ant's office, do-
ing well, and is
presently to be
articled free of
premium.

Not
given.

?

54

Environment and Efficiency
Satisfactory Cases — {Continued).

Name.

ll

Q

History.

Character in
Home.

Record.

£ 8

ti.D.

8

17

Mother delicate
and died when
C. was a baby.
C. lived with
his father and
brothers in a
London slum.
The father dis-
appeared one
day and was
never heard of
again.

Learnt garden-
ing.

C. D. is now in
Canada. He
went out at 17,
and so far is
doing well.

2

years

18

1
1

5-
S. A. S.

?

i6

Home very poor
but respectable;
nothing bad.

At 16 went into
the navy; has
an excellent
record.

S
years

21

6.

Wil-
liam.

8

14

Father a scamp
who deserted
his wife ; the
latter reduced
to absolute
poverty. The
mother a re-
spectable wo-
man of the
middle class.

19 12. This boy is
now doing office
work, and is ex-
tremely satis-
factory. Living
with friends.

Not
given.

1
? 1

i

Doubtful Cases.

w. s.

10

■s

This boy came
of a family of
tramps. He had
tramped all over
England, Scot-
la nd, and
Wales. Mother,
disreputable.
Disreputable re-
latives; no
morals.

W. improved tre-
mendously ; is
absolutely
honest, but does
not settle for
long at a time
to any work.
If he can get
over roving ten-
dencies will do
well.

Not
given.

Records

55

Doubtful Cases — {Continued).

Name.

§1

bflC
<

if

Q

History.

Character in
Home.

Record.

§8

II

16

8.
Henry.

13

15

This boy was a
street arab.
The home was
of a low type.
Father a dock
labourer.

H. told lies and
stole because
he had no other
standard. When
taught he be-
came absolutely
honest and
truthful, but
could not live
down 13 years
of street life.
Could not be
respectable. He
preferred a
piece of bread
and cheese in
his hand to a set
meal. But tre-
mendously im-
proved.

1912. This boy
now has work
in London, but
is lost sight of.

I

year

9-
B. K.

II

IS

Born in a Lon-
don workhouse,
lived there till
lo years old ;
one of a large
family of illegi-
timate children.

B. was abso-
lut ely idle,
inane, and
vapid.

Sent to Canada.
Because no em-
ployer could do
anything with
him, only out a
year.

I
year

i6

Unsatisfactory.

10.

Frank.

14

I5i

This boy was a
street arab;
parents dead,
lived in a bad
slum.

F. absolutely im-
possible. Was
received too
late.

Quite unemploy-
able; was sent to
2 other Homes
and dismissed
from both.

56 Environment and Efficiency

Remarks.

The record of No. i (W. B.) is a good illustration of the
latent possibilities for good of the ordinary slum child, from
which, by means of careful training and encouragement, such
satisfactory results may be produced, and which, on the other
hand, meeting with no appropriate stimulus in the external
environment, must inevitably die away through disuse. This
boy, born into Class A, may now certainly be looked upon
as a member of Class F.

No. 3, also born into Class A, will, if he takes the social
position of other members of his profession, in future be
ranked in Class H.

No. 8 was 13 on admission. It seems probable that had
this boy been admitted at the age of 7 or 8 his record would
have been satisfactory in every respect. No. 10 also was
admitted too late.

Children Boarded out by The Glasgow
Parish Council

With regard to the manner in which these children are
boarded-out, I quote from a report on ^* The Boarding-out of
Parish Children in Scotland," by Miss Aikman (Member of
the Glasgow Parish Council). This report was printed in the
year 1904, and refers especially to children on the Boarded-out
Roll of the Glasgow Parish Council at that date ; the twenty
records which I possess spread over a period of years from
1895 to 1912 :

^' The average cost of maintenance for a boarded-out child
under the Glasgow Parish Council amounted to slightly over
;^i8 per annum for the year 1903. This sum included aliment,
clothes, school books, medical relief, and visitations by members
of Council, and the Inspector of Poor and his assistants.

*' The aliment paid at present is 3J". weekly for children
under 6 years old ; 3^. 6</. for children between the ages of
6 and 10, and d^s. for children above 10 years.

Records

57

"Nothing is spared to equip the child thoroughly for a
successful future. If a child shows special aptitude in any-
particular line, care is taken to provide whatever is necessary
to follow it out. It may be of interest to note that, where at
all possible, brothers and sisters are placed together, so that
the family tie may not be altogether broken.

"Children from a few months up to 13 years of age are
boarded-out. Before being boarded-out a child is suppHed
with a new outfit of clothing., A duplicate of the outfit of
clothing is either taken with the children for their use, or it is
forwarded the next day.

"The children are visited at least twice a year by the
Inspector or his assistants, and once a year by two Members
of the Council, accompanied by an official, and all are surprise
visits. . . . The majority of the guardians of these children
are crofters and villagers who have comfortable homes, and
are found to be of respectable character.

"After a child has left school a situation is found for it,
either by its guardian or by the Inspector. In the majority
of cases the child obtains employment in the district where it
is boarded, and often continues to live with the guardian."^

No. of Children on Boarded-out Roll, March 1904.
Orphans. Deserted. Separated. Total.

43S

280

1192

1907

Classification of Separated Cases.

Both parents drunken, been in prison, &c. .

Parents sent to gaol (Cruelty to Children Act) .

Father dead, mother drunken and immoral

Father in hospital seriously ill, mother dead

Mother in hospital seriously ill, father dead

Mother dead, father been drunken, in prison or deser

Illegitimate, mother been drunken, immoral, or in prison

Father dead, mother unfit to support, not suitable, unable to control

From variety, such as remits from Sheriff Court, one parent dead

other in asylum, illegitimate through bigamous marriage, &c.
Father in hospital, mother drunken

ed

Deduct separated cases taken off Roll during month

X98

62

317

32

19

148

222

147

35

21

1202

10

1 192

This remark does not seem to apply to the records which I shall quote later.

58

Environment and Efficiency

As to the children boarded-out in lona by the Glasgow
Parish Council, I have not needed to classify the twenty records
sent to me by Dr. Mackenzie, as I have only received satis-
factory ones. The average length for which 17 of them are
kept is 9 years. The average age to which 17 of them are
kept is 24.5 years.

Of these 20 records, 12 are of children admitted at 8
years and under, and only 2 at 12 years or over.

Name

< 0

it
11

Previous
History.

Record.

It

Alec D.

8

1904
18

The father of this lad was
a hawker of stucco, &c.
He made a precarious
living for himself and
his family, and the
records of the parish
show that the neigh-
bours of the district
where they resided com-
plained that the children
were being starved and
neglected.

1912. Alec is at pre-
sent managing the
croft for the two sisters
of his late guardian,
and has done so for
the past two years.
He is in every sense
a well-doing, success-
ful business young
man.

8
years

26

2.
John N.

9

1904
15

The father of this boy
who was a clerk in a
good situation deserted
him in 1898. The
mother died in hospital
in the same year.
Father dismissed from
his employment for
drunkenness and mis-
behaviour.

1912. J. is now a
stoker in the navy,
which he joined in
1909. He is getting
on well, having 2|
years' service without
one " black mark "
against him. Prior
to joining the navy he
was in the merchant
shipping service.

8

years

23
24

Patrick
T.

3

1906
18

Illegitimate. The parents
of this lad are both
supposed to be dead.
They lived together for
a number of years, and
there were three illegi-
timate children born.
They tramped all over
the country; it is said
that both drank, especi-
ally the father.

1912. This young man
is now a salesman
in a store, and is
doing well in every
respect ; he has been
in this situation for
three years.

6
years

Records

59

Name.

ij

^1

<•-

Previous
History.

Record.

%

John L.

fcter
Q.

8

1903
14

This boy's father, who
was an iron -roofer, died
in 1895. The mother
was in receipt of out-
door aliment up till
1897, when the aliment
was discontinued on
account of her drinking
habits and neglecting
her house and family.
Since that date she has
been chargeable to the
parish in the poorhouse,
and left the poorhouse
last in October 191 1.

1912. This youth is at
present in Chicago,
U.S.A., in one of the
large drapery stores
as a salesman, and
is getting on well.

9
years

23

lO

I90I

14

The father, a spinner,
died in 1893. The
mother's out-door relief
was stopped in 1907 on
account of her immoral
habits and the fact that
she had given birth to
an illegitimate child,
and on the same date
she was sentenced to 21
days' imprisonment at
the City Police Court
for keeping a shebeen.

1912. Peter is at pre-
sent employed in a
motor car manufac-
turing firm learning
motor car driving,
and is a specially
well - behaved lad,
sober, and industri-
ous.

11

years

25

6.
David

8

14

Ditto.

1912. At present em-
ployed as a motor
car demonstrator in
a motor car manu-
facturing firm, and
is specially reserved
as chauffeur for the
directors ; is spoken
very well of by his
employers; he keeps
himself very well
groomed and respect-
able.

Not
given.

1 Brother to No. 5.

6o

Environment and Efficiency

Name.

Previous
History.

Record,

it

Donald
O.

8.

James
K.

II

1906
18

Father a carter, addicted
to drink, frequently in
prison for assault, w^as
in the habit of deserting
his children ; he died in
1902. The mother also
addicted to drink, and
the parish took charge
of the children whilst
she was undergoing a
term of imprisonment
for drunkenness. She
died in 1904.

1912. D. is at present
a railway clerk and
has all along done
exceedingly well in
his work and be-
haviour, and is a par-
ticularly smart young
man.

6
years

24

II

14

The mother died in hos-
pital from the effects
of burning whilst under
the influence of drink.
The father remarried,
and when this lad be-
came chargeable the
father was in prison for
assaulting his second
wife, who was living
apart from him. They
were both much ad-
dicted to drink, and
treated the lad very
badly.

19 12. J. is working as
a chief ship's steward
on a foreign trading
steamer, to which
position he has
worked himself up,
and is doing well.

No
dates
given.

9-

Mary
E.

8

1901
17

The father, a bookbinder,
died in 1888. Mother
in receipt of aliment
from the Parish, but
was struck off the out-
door roll for drinking
in 1891, and died sud-
denly the same year.

1912. M. is now a
certificated headmis-
tress in a public
school, where she is
doing well.

II

years

28

lO.

Rachel
W.

7

1893
IS

The father died in 1883,
the mother in 1885.
The mother prior to her
death was much ad-
dicted to drink.

1912. At present a cer-
tificated fever nurse,
and is in one of the
city hospitals under-
going general train-
ing, and has all along
done very well.

19
years

34

Records

6i

Name.

II

Previous
History.

Record.

II.

Ethel
P.

8

1899

IS

The parents of this girl
are both supposed to be
dead. The mother died
in the Infirmary, and
the father is supposed
to have died about 16
years ago. The girl
became chargeable in
1889, being deserted by
her father, and she was
admitted to the poor-
house on the above
date. He was much
addicted to drink; was
sentenced to terms of
imprisonment on three
occasions for deserting
and neglecting his child.

1912. E. is at present
a certificated nurse,
and has all along
done well in every
way.

13

years

28

12.

Jane F.

5

I90I
IS

This girl's mother, who
was a pottery worker,
died in the poorhouse
in 1892, She had two
illegitimate children
born to different fathers.
She belonged to a
family with a bad his-
tory, who were well
known to the officials of
the parish as criminals.

1912. J. F. is at pre-
sent a domestic ser-
vant with a lady in
R., where she has
been for some years,
giving entire satis-
faction.

II

years

26
21

13-

Bridget

i

6

I90S
14

The father, who was a
spinner, died in 1893.
I'he mother was in re-
ceipt of out-door ali-
ment, which was stopped
in 1907 on account of
her immoral habits, and
having given birth to
an illegitimate child.
On the same date she
was sentenced to 21
days' imprisonment at
the City Police Court for
keeping a shebeen.

1912. B. is now en-
gaged as lady's maid
in a good family,
and has been in this
situation for fully two
years past, where she
is giving entire satis-
faction.

7
years

1 Sister to 5 and 6.

62

Environment and Efficiency

Name.

II

1 ■ ■

"H-d

11

(U W)

Previous
History.

Record.

1^

it

n

14.

Kate B.

6

1905
16

The parents of this girl
have been chargeable to
this parish twenty-eight
times since August 1886.
The mother died in
i8go, and the father, a
coal miner, has applied
to this parish from
model lodging - houses
in the city, and has also
become chargeable to
various parishes
throughout Scotland,
and is at present an
inmate of T. Poor-
house. Since November
191 1 has been before
the magistrates for
begging and in prison
for deserting his child.
He tramps about the
country, and begs his
living as he moves
about.

1912. K. is at present
training as a teacher
in a Training College,
and has done well in
her class examina-
tions, and very well in
her general behaviour
and habits.

7
years

23

Maud
C.

6

1906
13

The parents of this girl
have been repeatedly
chargeable to Glasgow
Parish since 1889, and
have an exceptionally
bad history. They are
drunken people, and
tramp from place to
place ; have been fre-
quently in prison, and
are well known to the
officials of Glasgow
Parish as a " thoroughly
bad pair." Their re-
cords of applications
and chargeabihties in
the books of the parish
are very bad.

1908. She went as a
servant to Canada to
get away from her
parents, as she had
recollections of her
parents' conduct in
the district where she
was "boarded out."
The girl prior to her
marriage was a tele-
phone operator in
Canada.

1912. M, is at present
in Canada, and com-
fortably married.

6
years

19

Records 63

Remarks,

These records seem to me on the whole to be more satis-
factory than any others which I have collected, yet all these
young men and women, highly estimable and blameless though
their records would appear to be, are included in Mr. Mudge's
wholesale denunciation of the children boarded-out in lona,
which appears in the Mendel Journal for 191 1.

He says : *^ Faced with the pressing problem as to what is
to be done with this class of defective citizen, the Glasgow
Parish Council cast their municipal eyes upon the beautiful
and verdant Western Coast of Scotland and upon its honest
and simple inhabitants. ^ Here,' they said, ^ is a good environ-
ment, and a trusty people ; among the native population. God-
fearing and honest, we may find a human environment which
will appeal to the better nature of our morally and mentally
crippled citizens. We cannot hope to do much with the parents,
but with the children it is otherwise . . . and in the midst of
these honest people we will plant our tares, the children of
paupers, ne'er-do-wells, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, hooli-
gans, drunkards, &c. From such an ancestry we shall, with
ratepayers' money and good environment, rear a community of
civic saints.'

*' But let us leave the intentions and come to the results ;
they are the very reverse of what it was intended they should
be. Doubtless in a few cases there have been ostensible
successes ; I say ostensible, because in some of the supposed
successful cases, with which I am acquainted, a sufficiently
long period has not elapsed to enable me to judge of permanent
success, and in a few cases it is possible that the ancestry has
not been bad.

'* Leaving then these questionable, untested, and unanalysed
successes alone, what are the results with regard to the re-
mainder ?

^^ We may sum them up in a single sentence. It is, that in

64 Environment and Efficiency

this beautiful island, with its historic and even sacred associa-
tions, a new slum area is being created by the operation of the
inherent slum instincts of the putatively rescued denizens of
Glasgow's slums.

"There we see in the making, not slum people by slum
environments, but slums fashioned out of the depths of the
slum instincts of a congenital race of slum producers."

In illustration, Mr. Mudge gives instances of ^^ sheep
worrying," of '^the breaking up of evening classes," and of
'* Hooliganism." ^^ The Glasgow rowdies congregate in bands,
they link their arms, and, rushing through the village street in
a serried rank, shouting, whistling and gesticulating, drive all
others before them."

Dr. John Macpherson (Commissioner in Lunacy), who was
requested, on account of Mr. Mudge's assertions, to inquire
into the conditions of Glasgow Parish Council children in lona,
reports on the above assertions as follows :

" The island contains 222 inhabitants, and there are between
40 and 50 families. If the school children (60 in number),
infants, and the older inhabitants and heads of families are
deducted, there are left about 60 persons who might possibly
behave in this manner. If again we deduct the younger female
population, against whom the charge does not appear to be
made, the number may be reduced to 30, or less.

'' But the indictment is distinctly made against ^ Glasgow
rowdies,' presumably males. There are on the island at present
the following five Glasgow youths, hired as farm servants by
the crofters " (the initials follow). *^ Last year there was
another, who has since left,

^' Of these six youths, three do not go to the village, or,
if they do, only on errands. They are exceptionally quiet
and well-behaved, and are exonerated by all my informants
of any bad tendencies. There remain " (three other initials
given). '^The two former are more or less weak-minded, the
latter has left the island and was not seen."

Records 65

Dr. MTherson goes on to explain how, in some way, these
three youths came into colHsion with Mr. Mudge during the
time he was resident in the island, and annoyed him in various
petty ways. " Moreover, during an altercation with the youths,
he told one of them that ' he had the face of a criminal, and
would come to a bad end.' As human nature is constituted,"
says Dr. M'Pherson, '' it does not require that a person should
be either inherently vicious or criminal to resent such language."

The criticisms I wish to make with regard to Mr. Mudge's
statements are these :

(i) That their author is a member of a society which prides
itself upon the thoroughly scientific nature of its investiga-
tions, and

(2) That although he refers to the "few ostensible suc-
cesses " of this system, and lightly disposes of them as :

{(i) Having been kept for too short a period, and

{b) As not showing a sufficiently bad ancestry, yet on the
other hand he does not himself bring forward any large number
of unsuccessful cases, observed for a sufficiently long period,
in order to substantiate the indictments which he has already
made. He contents himself with drawing his conclusions
from the few boarded-out youths still at work in the village,
after school age — a number which Dr. M'Pherson has further
reduced to 3 (2 of whom, as has been stated, are mentally
deficient),^ and then proceeds to generalise with regard to the
total number of children boarded-out in lona by the Glasgow
Parish Council after the manner already referred to. I do not
know what proportion of mentally-deficient children are actually
boarded-out by the Glasgow Parish Council in lona. In the
records sent to me there are of course none.

I should imagine that the same rule would hold good here
as in the Industrial Schools and Emigration Homes in England.
The point which I have tried to maintain throughout this thesis

1 In this connection Mr. Mudge does not even attempt to show what proportion
the " mentally deficient " bear to the rest of the Glasgow boarded-out children.

66 Environment and Efficiency

with regard to the mentally defective is that these are neces-
sarily exceptions to my argument that good results should
follow upon a good environment ; in such cases one pre-
supposes failure.

If, however, we rule out the two feeble-minded cases in
lona, as foredoomed to failure, there is left one normal youth,
upon whose unsatisfactory behaviour the whole of Mr. Mudge s
overwhelming conclusions are based. And even to a novice in
the ranks of investigators such reasoning appears absurd.

Conclusions

Of the 295 records investigated, I have quoted 80 in this
section, and I have purposely given a large number of doubtful
and unsatisfactory cases because I have wished to show in
what circumstances and under what conditions such cases are
likely to occur.

On reviewing the manner in which I have dealt with the
different Case Books at my disposal, there are many alterations
and additions which, in the light of increasing experience, I
should like to have made. With a longer period for my
inquiry, I should wish to have quoted a far larger number
of cases. Also I am conscious that these records are, many of
them, inadequate, that my standard is possibly too low, and so
forth.

On these and other grounds the following figures (see next
page) are open to criticism. But, as I have said before,
efficiency is a purely relative term ; and my chief object in
collecting these records has been to point out the contrast
between the child's previous history, with all that it entails,
and its later record as influenced by environment.

Records

67

Summary of Four Institutions.

Sources.

No. of
cases.

Satis-
factory.

Doubtful.

Unsatis-
factory.

Y. Emigration Homes .
Girls' Industrial School .
Boys' Industrial School, No, I.
Boys' Industrial School, No. II. .

40

129

i6

80

265

28
80

TI

73

8

27

2

7

4
22

3
0

Totals

192

44

29

This table summarises the results of four institutions only.
Those of the boarded-out children and of the X. Home for
Boys are not included, the first because only satisfactory cases
were furnished, and the second because the records were kept
for an insufficient period.

Out of 265 cases 192, or 72 per cent., are satisfactory;
44, or 16 per cent., are doubtful ;
29, or less than 1 1 per cent., are unsatis-
factory.
Of the 29 unsatisfactory cases —

8 are definitely mental ;
5 described as " almost deficient, &c."
And out of 80 records given at length in the above tables,
8 unsatisfactory and doubtful cases were admitted at 12 years
or over. I have not any statistics with regard to the proportion
of those admitted over 12 to the total number of children, but I
think it would be considerably larger.

SECTION IV

INSTITUTIONAL TRAINING

In this section I wish very briefly to refer to :

I. Some objections raised against institution life ; and

II. The advantages of such a Hfe as compared with that of
children living below the Poverty Line, e.g. the children of
widows on out-relief.

III. A. Employments of children trained in institutions.

B, Employments of boarded-out children.

C, Employments of children whose parents have been

or are at present in receipt of out-relief.

D, Employment of boys.

I. Some Objections to Institutional Training

Objections commonly brought against institutional training
are the monotony of the life ; the lower educational standard
than in the elementary schools ; the lack of home influence.

Before referring to these points in detail, I should say that
I shall consider them rather in relation to their effect on the
child's future efficiency than in relation to the comfort or
happiness of the child whilst undergoing training.

I. Monotony of the life. — ^^ Under the most favourable
conditions, when the responsible officials are men and
women of high intelligence and character, these schools
may produce certain good results ; but the children, except
in especial cases, tend to be lacking in general intelligence
and the power of observation. . . . The normal excite-
ments of ordinary life, excitements which come to all

68

Institutional Training 69

children in the natural family, are the most healthy stimu-
lants in the formation of character. The dull monotony of
institution life which reduces everything to the dead level of
a colourless existence has much to answer for." ^

"Such training I feel sure is not an effective one, for
girls at any rate. It may not be bad for a boy who is to
become part of the great industrial machine ; but for a girl
the question is a different one. She is certain to be sent into
an ordinary household as a domestic servant, where initiative,
common sense, and powers of observation are far more needed
than the power to fit into a great system, and to do what she
is told and only what she is told."^

The special reference of both these quotations is to Poor
Law District Schools ; but I have quoted them as illus-
trating a feeling very prevalent about institutional training in
general.

I have already shown that objections which may fit some
institutions do not necessarily apply to institutional life as
a whole. 3

A second answer seems to be that although the life of the
child in the Scattered Home, or of the child " boarded-out,"
gives greater opportunity for originality of effort or develop-
ment of personality, yet the very discipline and routine of
institutional life may be necessary for the suppression of bad
habits and the formation of good ones. In higher strata
of society do we not frequently hear the expression, " Oh !

the 's have sent their boy to boarding-school : they could

do nothing with him at home." I do not wish to suggest for
a moment that any form of institutional life can be equal to
the ideal boarding-out home, but rather that a well-managed
institution is to be preferred to the second or third rate
separate home, and also that there may be special reasons
why certain children will do better in institutions .

1 Margaret Alden, Child Life and Labour, p. 130.

* Miss E. N. Williams, Report on Condition of Poor Law Children, p. 103.

* See above, p. 44.

70 Environment and Efficiency

With regard to girls, let me refer to the records of the
Industrial Schools for Girls already given (p. 27).

Some time ago it was remarked to me by a doctor, whose
wife generally engaged servants from an institution in the
neighbourhood, that they had no idea of the value of money.
But this seems a defect which could easily be rectified, as,
for instance, by some plan like that in the Boys' Industrial
School (No. 2) of allowing boys to sell the produce of the
garden and keep accounts of the same.

2. A lower standard of education. — One hears also the
objection that it is impossible to get really efficient teachers
in institutions of this kind, that the teaching is not up-to-date,
&c. &c. I am not sufficiently well informed with regard to
the educational work in such schools to be able adequately
to discuss this side of the question.

But there are one or two points with regard to the industrial
training which I should like to mention :

To quote first from Mr. Cyril Jackson's Report on Boy
Labour. In reference to certain returns made to him by
London schoolmasters he remarks :

" One headmaster in the East of London divides the boys
leaving his school into two *■ very distinct ' groups —

(i) ''The bo3^s who reach the upper classes pass the
Oxford Local Junior or the Council's Merit Examination, and
pass at once into good places in City offices.

(2) " The boys who find their mental powers taxed to the
utmost in the lower classes, and pass out as errand boys,
postal and telegraph messengers, van boys, shop boys, &c." ^

And to quote from a memorandum by the Rev. D. B.
Kittermaster :

" The boy's schooling has been almost entirely book-work.
He has been fitted by his years at school for nothing but
office-boy work — if he has reached one of the top standards,

^- Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress, Appendix,
voU XX. ; Report on Boy Labour, by Mr. Cyril Jackson, p. 11.

Institutional Training 71

and, if not, for no sort of work at all. Must we not agitate
then for a large increase of industrial training in the
schools ? " ^

It is the members of group 2, the boys who never reach
the fifth standard, but find their mental powers taxed " to the
utmost in the lowest classes," who are saved from *' passing out
as errand boys, van boys and shop boys," &c., by just the
kind of training received in an Industrial School, and who are
the most likely to become the efficient skilled and unskilled
workers of the future. The day of Juvenile Labour Exchanges
and After-Care Committees has now dawned. But hitherto
it has been an advantage of institutions over ordinary schools
that there has always been someone whose duty at any rate
it was to see that every child had a suitable start in Hfe.

3. Lack of home influence. — Miss Williams in her Report
on '* Out-Relief Children " says :

*^ We may well ask, would not the pauper child be better in
an institution of this kind (Ponteland), rather than in an
average Out-Relief Home ?

^' I take it that what every child wants, and what every
home which is reasonably good gives, is a certain stability in
Hfe, a sense that there is one place, one little group, to whom
it stands in a unique relation, and who regard it as they regard
no one else, a point to which under any circumstances it can
turn.

'^ When a pauper child goes out to work is the time when
the need of this relation is most keenly felt, and I have had it
borne in upon me during the last few months that many of the
children who fall under the influence of unsatisfactory relatives,
when they go out from the Poor Law Institution to a situation,
do so because they want this very thing, something that
belongs to them and them only." ^

Of the six institutions whose records I have investigated,

1 Ibid., p. 154.

2 Report on Poor Law Children , p. 85.

72 Environment and Efficiency

the two which should be least touched by this criticism are
those whose children are boarded-out in working-class homes,
namely, the Y. Emigration Homes and the Glasgow Parish
Council.

Should the home they provide be a satisfactory one, it
should be able to supply the child with just that sense of
stability and closeness of tie that Miss Williams thinks so
desirable.

The Commissioners signing the Poor Law Majority Report
say:

*' One grave defect which we have noticed is the absence
of systematic record as to what becomes of the children after
passing from the care of the Guardians, generally at the early
age of fourteen.

" In a few cases such records are kept, but in the great
majority of Unions the Guardians keep no record of their
children, and it is a matter of chance whether some individual
guardian or official keeps in touch with a child sufficiently to
know what becomes of it after the lapse of a year or two. In
many of the schools we are glad to know that the super-
intendents have made themselves so trusted that the children
will turn to them in times of difficulty, but we think that
something more than this is needed. It is not sufficient to
send a child of fourteen to a situation which may prove un-
suitable and leave it there to look after itself." i

Let me contrast this with the descriptions already given of
the efforts made by both the superintendents of the Girls'
Industrial School and of the Boys' Industrial School (No. 2)
to keep in touch with the children who have passed through
their hands, not only for one, two, or three 3^ears, but for the
rest of their lives if possible. And if we look back at the
girls' records and see how repeatedly we come across the phrase,
'* Was present at the Re-union " ; ^' Brought her baby to the
Re-union"; "Spent her holidays at the School three years

^ Majority Report, Part iv. ch. 8.

Institutional Training 73

running," &c., and remember the expressions of loyalty and
affection for their Superintendent expressed in the letters of
Old Boys from School No. 2 ; or if we realize, what I have
tried to show, that the X. Home for Boys is a home in the
ideal sense of the word, then it is made clear to us that the
difference which exists between these and the pauper children
of whom Miss Williams speaks is due simply to a lack of
thoughtful after-care.

Yet it is certain that even were a system of compulsory
after-care established for a definite number of years, this
would not in itself create the feeling *' that there is one place,
one little group to which these children stand in a unique rela-
tion which they regard as they regard no other person, and
to which under any circumstances they can turn." How far
an institution can provide this depends very largely on the
personality of its Head.

II. The Advantages of Institution Life as compared
WITH THE Lives of Children on Out-Relief ^

In endeavouring to make some slight comparison between
the life of institution children and the life of some other group
of children, in regard to their future general efficiency, I have
chosen the children on out-relief for several reasons. It is
partly because I wished rather to compare these institution
children with children of a more respectable class than with
children of the class from which they themselves have sprung.
Presumably few widows on out-relief are members of Class A ;
for out-relief should only be given to people of respectable
character and antecedents.

But chiefly because, desiring to make some comparison
between the mode of life of two different groups, and between
the efficiency of the child and the efficiency of the parent in

1 I shall speak only of some drawbacks in the life of Out-Relief Children— the
obvious possible advantages are taken for granted.

74

Environment and Efficiency

each group, and having no time to undertake any original
investigation on these lines, I have been very glad to make
use of the information supplied in the section dealing with
children on out-relief in Miss E. N. WilHams' " Report on
the Conditions of Children who are in receipt of the various
forms of Poor Law Relief in England and Wales." ^

First, then, as to the character of mothers in out-relief
families. I have said that we naturally should not expect to
find many out-relief families in Mr. Booth's Class A — a class
which includes '* the lowest kind of occasional labourers,
street-sellers, criminals and semi-criminals." The majority
will probably be found in classes B, C, and D, though if we
rank them according to the wage-earning capacity of the
husband when ahve, some may be members of E and F.^

Miss Williams has classified her out-relief mothers, accord-
ing to character and intelligence, as follows:

Class I.

Class II.

Class III.

Class IV.

Women above the
average, capable
and trustworthy,
able to give their
children an excel-
lent training, to
plan for their future
well-being, and to
sacrifice a present
gain to a future
good.

Women of lower
morale, good in in-
tention, but less
able to carry out
their intentions or
to cope with re-
sponsibilities, often
women whose
health has failed,
and whose force of
character has not
given them the
power to rise above
It.

Include the slovenly
and the slipshod,
women of weak in-
tentions and often
of weak health,
who are not able
to make the most
of their resources ;
the comfort of their
homes falls even
below their means.

The really bad
mothers — people
guilty of wilful
neglect, sometimes
drunkards or people
of immoral charac-
ter, (No woman
has been put into
this class of whom
it was not fairly
evident that she
was unfit to have
the charge of chil-
dren. )

She gives also, as the proportion of out-relief mothers be-
longing to each class, the following estimates :

^ Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress, Appendix, vol.
xviii., 1909.

* See above, p. i.

Institutional Training

75

Percentage
in Metro-
politan
Unions.

Percentage in
Extra-Metropoli-
tan and Urban
Unions.

Percentage in

Rural and

Semi-Rural

Unions.

Extended
Percentage

for the
Kingdom.

Extended
Number
for the

Kingdom.

Class I

>> 2

.. 3

.. 4

3°
43
IS

12

i8
15

33

42

19
6

29

41

l8

12

16.700

23.300

10.300

6.800

It is obvious that any advantage that the children of the
12 per cent, of mothers who fall into Class IV. may reap from
the possession of a '^ home " must be more than counteracted
by their unsatisfactory environment and mother's character.
And with regard to the children of the Class III. mothers, will
the advantage of the home life make up for the inefficiency of
the parent ? an inefficiency which when it reappears, as it is
likely to do, in the children, may be the result of heredity, but
more probably of the forces of suggestion and imitation ; in
fact of general adaptability to the environment.

As to Xh^foodoi out-relief children : the diets of the out-
relief children have been classed as follows : —

^' Class I. — In this class the meals are regular, and at least
one meal daily consists of cooked food. An example of
the diet which would qualify for this class is meat and
potatoes on Sundays ; on other days, fish, eggs, soup,
rice and other puddings, bread baked at home (York).
*^ Class II. — Here, too, the meals are regular, but they
are not always prepared. This is often because the
mother goes out to work, leaving a dinner of bread and
margarine or dripping on the table for the children, and
does not trouble or cannot always afford to give them a
cooked supper when she comes home. A typical case
provides ' a hot dinner four days a week ' if possible,
consisting of rice, suet, or other puddings, little meat.
On the other days the food would consist of bread
and tea.

76 Environment and Efficiency

" Class III. — The families in this class are those whose
meals are apt to be irregular, either owing to a definite
shortage of food, which makes it necessary to go with-
out, or owing to a habit of eating whatever food is
obtainable at any hour of the day. There is still a
certain amount of cooked food. An example of this
class is, ' sometimes twopenny worth of meat and
potatoes, Quaker oats, bread and lard or dripping.'
Also, * a turnip and some potatoes for dinner, sometimes
only bread ; meat and milk very rare,' &c.

*' Class IV. — Here the food is definitely bad. It is irre-
gular and seldom, if ever, prepared. A diet of this
type consists of (i) * mostly bread, tea, and scraps';
(2) * much bread, occasionally a halfpenny worth of
soup ' ; (3) ' mostly bread, potatoes when they can be
afforded ' (York)." ^

Percentage of Children in each Class for each Group of Unions.

Metropolitan
Unions.

Extra

Metropolitan

and Urban

Unions.

Rural and

Semi-Rural

Unions.

Extended
Percentage

for the
Kingdom.

Class I . . . .
,, 2 .
.. 3 .
,. 4 •

43
23
20

14

41
30
12
17

24
37
25
14

36
32
17
15

Miss Williams remarks : *' I think we may safely decide
that the children in Class IV. are all unsuitably, if not insuffi-
ciently fed. Bread and tea can never provide a suitable
or even a sufficient diet for growing children. And if we
regard the Unions investigated as a sample of the whole
country, this means that 15 per cent., or about 27,100 children,
are being fed on little else than bread and generally milkless
tea. This is not a really cheap diet. It is a poor one to

1 Report on Children in receipt of Poor Relief , p. 6i.

Institutional Training 77

' grow out of/ and is very unproductive of muscular or nervous
energy.

'^Thirty-two per cent., or 55,500 children (in Classes III.
and IV.), are irregularly fed ; of the remaining 68 per cent.,
or 115,700 children, placed in Classes I. and II., it is very
difficult to say what proportion of them are sufficiently fed."

Let me add the following observations of Miss Williams on
the after-care and employment of children of school age :

" In certain Urban Unions a good many out-relief children
of school age were employed out of school hours and on Satur-
days. Altogether we have notes of 66 so employed, 52
boys and 14 girls. Except for 11 children (5 boys and 6
girls) working in the Bradford mills, all are employed either
as errand boys and girls, selling newspapers, &c., in the
streets, taking round milk — the boys also as golf caddies and
as barbers' boys, &c.

*' In Lambeth 13 boys are employed in these various
ways. A very large proportion of these, i.e. 35 per cent., are
described as dull ; and though the numbers are too small to
draw any conclusions from them, yet it should be remembered
that milk and newspaper boys often cannot get as much sleep
as growing children need, while the same is true of lathering-
boys in barbers' shops who are kept very late at night. In
Liverpool 17 boys work in much the same employment as
the Lambeth boys, and 3 per cent, of them are stated to be
dull or very dull. In Bradford 11 children work as half-
timers in the mills. These children work five hours at a
stretch, and attend school the other half of the day. ... I can
hardly believe that a child of twelve working for five hours in
the mill can profit much by his education in the other part of
the day. . . . The schoolmasters at Rochdale were loud in
their condemnation of the system, saying that the children
were not able to learn, and became quickly demoralised.

*' No Board of Guardians, so far as my investigations go,
takes any interest whatever about the placing and starting in

78 Environment and Efficiency

life of boys who have had outdoor rehef, nor does it try to help
them to any technical training. . . . For a boy, out-door relief
stops at 14, and he turns to the first job at which he can earn.
Most likely this will be one which will lead to nothing ; it may
be street-selling of some kind, it may be an errand or van boy's
job. When it is over, he finds or tries to find another, pro-
bably also leading to nothing; and so he drifts on. I have no
numbers or figures for these statements, but in the cases I
visited personally I saw many lads in this process of being
manufactured into casual labourers." ^

To sum up, I have quoted freely from Miss Williams'
report, to illustrate four of the principal drawbacks of the out-
relief system as it affects children : —

1. Unsatisfactory character of many mothers.

2. Insufficient food.

3. Employment of children of school age.

4. Want of after-care.

There are others besides these, such as —

5. Over-crowding.

6. Unsanitary surroundings.

7. Want of proper medical supervision.

It seems plain that the six and a half thousand children
estimated as suffering from drawback No. i, i.e. the possession
of Class IV., mothers (bad, neglectful, drunken, and often
immoral women, described as unfit to have the charge of
children) will inevitably suffer also from drawbacks 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, and 7. The 10,000 odd children of Class III. mothers (the
slovenly and slipshod, the comforts of whose homes fall even
below their means) will also most probably suffer from in-
sufficient food, over-crowding, unsanitary surroundings, want
of proper medical attendance, and may be employed under
14 years.

It is possible that the Class II. children may suffer from
one or any of these disadvantages.

^ Report on Children in Receipt of Poor Relief , p. 87,

Institutional Ti^aining 79

The Class I. children will probably escape all, even No. 4.
The point that I wish to insist upon is, not that a large pro-
portion of these children would necessarily fare better in
institutions (in the ideally managed institution, I think they
would) ; but only that, in the face of such obvious disadvan-
tages, they cannot be so well equipped for their start in life,
physically, mentally, or even morally, as the majority of insti-
tution children.

And when we talk glibly of the ^^ home tie " supplied in the
lives of these 17,000 children by the mothers of groups 3 and
4, is there not a risk that we shall sacrifice a very tangible
good, to a sentiment which we may be very far from being
able to give satisfactory effect to ?

III. Employment
Nature of Employment of Out-Relief Fathers,

An interesting attempt was made, in connection with the
Poor Law Commission, to discover the employments previously
followed by the fathers of the families in receipt of out-relief.
The facts ascertained have been roughly classed under the
four divisions of — commercial, skilled, unskilled, and ^' other
employments" (very doubtful cases being omitted), and the
results arranged as percentages.

Cominerczal includes all work connected with buying and
selling from factoring to hawking.

" Other Employments " includes army, navy, and other
public services, policemen, as well as all forms of domestic
service.

The table is given on the following page.

8o

Environment and Efficiency

Employments of Fathers in Percentages ; Unions of Lambeth^
FaddingtoHj St. George^s, Bradford^ Derby ^ Liverpool^ Merthyr-
Tydfil^ Newcastle^ Rochdale^ West Derby ^ York^ Mitford and
Launditch^ and Warwick.

Metropoli-
tan Unions.

Extra Met-
ropolitan
and Urban
Unions.

Rural and

Semi-Rural

Unions.

Percentage
extended

for the
Kingdom.

Commercial

Skilled

Unskilled

Others

9
23
60

8

9

33
45
13

7
22

53
18

8

29
49
14

Employments of Out- Relief Sons {over 14) in Percentages.

Commercial

Skilled

Unskilled .

Other Employments .

Nature of Employment of Out-Relief Sons,

*' In the Unions of Bradford and Paddington, all the sons
of out-relief families are in unskilled employments.

" Leaving out Rochdale, the greatest proportion of sons of
out-relief families in skilled employments is at York, where
there are 21 per cent. Taken as a whole, 29 per cent, of the
fathers of out-relief families are skilled artisans, while only
14 per cent, of their sons are following or preparing to follow
skilled employments. Doubtless this is partly due to the fact
that, when a lad becomes a skilled workman, his wage, so long
as he remains at home, will put the family income above the
maximum for out-relief. This is borne out by the fact that
in Bradford and Paddington, two of the strictly administered
Unions, there are no sons in skilled employments.

** At the same time, in the course of my visits to the out-
relief homes, I was struck by the number of ill-nourished,

Institutional Traimng 8i

ill-grown lads whom I saw, who were evidently living on odd
jobs, and on the road to join the army of casual labour." ^

The table summarising the occupations of these out-relief
children is based on 9CXD odd cases.

I had hoped to make a similar comparison between the
occupations of institution children and the occupations of
their fathers, but on going through my records I have found
only 23 cases where the occupation of the father is actually
stated.^

In many cases where the record of the son is particularly
satisfactory, the father is referred to as " a drunkard " or '* in
gaol," or *' dead and the character of the mother undesirable,"
or again both parents are referred to as " disreputable," and
the home as a bad one, and so on, but the occupation is not
given.

I feel that a comparison between a summary of 900 cases
and a summary of 23 would be no comparison at all, so I have
not troubled to make out a similar table of these occupations,
but give the Hst as it stands.

Occupation of Father. Occupation of Son.

1. Hawker Farmer.

2. Clerk* Stoker.

3. Tramp Grocery Salesman.

4. Iron Roofer .... Drapery Salesman.

5. Spinner Chauffeur.

6. Carter Railway Clerk.

7. Labourer Chauffeur.

8. Spinner Motor Car Demonstrator.

9. Labourer Chief Ship's Steward.

10. Butcher Nursery Gardener.

1 1. (Step-father) Furnaceman* at 36s. Chargeman at Iron Works at ;^6.

12. Engine Driver .... Cattle Farmer.

13. Labourer Professional Footballer.

14. Company Promoter* . . . Army Bandsman,

15. Company Promoter * . . . Soldier.

1 Report on Poor Law Children, Miss E. N. Williams, Section X.

2 I refer only to the 80 records quoted, of the 295 investigated. In the other cases
I noted down only the character of the child s record.

F

82

Environment and Efficiency

Occupation of Father.

1 6. Bricklayer

17. Bricklayer*

18. Engineer*

19. Labourer .

20. Labourer .

21. Butcher* .

22. Bricklayer*

23. Soldier

Occupation of Son.
Iron Worker.
Army.

Labourer (mental defect).
Soldier.

Telephone Co. employee.
Army.
Labourer.
Farmer.

With regard to this list, I believe if a calculation were to
be made as to skilled trades, it would work out at about twelve
fathers and ten sons. It would be unsafe, however, to base
any conclusions on such an estimate for a variety of reasons.
Three of the sons, for instance, are engaged in particularly
good commercial occupations.

Again it will be noticed that I have marked with an asterisk
cases where the fathers are engaged in skilled trades and the
sons in unskilled. These fathers are, without exception, men
of unsatisfactory character.

And, even if I had attempted to take as my standard of
efficiency the skilled worker — which I have not — it is obvious
that, regarded from most points of view, the respectable un-
skilled worker is of more value to the community than the
disreputable skilled one. The same conclusions may, of course,
be drawn with regard to the out -relief fathers and sons, but it
is not so probable that in these families the father, when alive,
was unsatisfactory, whereas in a large proportion of these
institution cases the father is still living, but is not regarded
as a fit guardian for the child.

The inference that I would draw from a comparison of this
kind is, that the out-relief son starts his industrial life often on
a lower plane than his father did, whilst the position of the
institution child, in the majority of cases, is very distinctly
higher than that of his parents.

The following table of Birmingham Boys' occupations is
taken from the Report on Boy Labour by Mr. Cyril Jackson.

Institutional Training

83

The original table is filled in for the consecutive ages from 14
to 20 of 135 boys ; I have quoted those at 15 and those at 20.
From the difference in the two totals it would seem that many
of the boys by the age of 20 are absorbed in other occupations
than those given. I have then endeavoured to make out a
somewhat similar table, stating the occupations of 130 institu-
tion boys. I realise that the comparison is not a very satis-
factory one, as I have not been able to state at what particular
ages the boys were engaged in these trades, but roughly, that
their ages varied from 15 to 30. About half these boys are
natives of Birmingham ; the rest are from the North of
England Industrial School, and 9 are Glasgow Parish Council
children. No children from the Emigration Homes are included.

Birmingham Boy^ Occupations (135 cases).

Number.
Aged 15.

Percentage.

Number.
Aged 20.

Percentage.

Skilled .
Clerks .
Low Skilled .
Carmen .
Van Boys .
General Labourers
Errand Boys .
Post Office
Army

i8

IS
29

3
40
18
10

13-4

H.2

21.7
0.7

2.2

29.9

13-4
7.5

19
10

13
3

16

I
5

28.4

14.9

19.4

4-5

23.8
i-S

Total

134

67

My own table showing the occupations of 130 boys from
institutions will be found on the next page.

84

Environment and Efficiency

Institution Boys' Occupations (130 cases).

Number.

Percentage.

Skilled ....
Clerks ....
Low Skilled .
Carmen. Van Boys
General Labourers .
Errand Boys. Post Office
Army and Navy
Gardeners. Grooms
Shop Assistants
Sailors ....
Salesmen ....

84

5
6

8

12

7

2

3
3

64.6
3.8
4.6

6.1

9.2
5-3
i-S
2.3

2-3

Total .

130

I

SECTION V

CONCLUSIONS

In introducing the subject of this thesis, reference was made
to the confusion in some minds as to the terms Heredity
and Environment; and an attempt was made to show, fol-
lowing Professor Thomson, that they are often almost in-
distinguishable.

The extreme position adopted by some Eugenists was then
stated ; and by means of the records collected I have en-
deavoured to show the importance of environment as a
determining factor of character and industrial capacity.

Some comparison was then made between the life of the
institution child and the life of the child whose previous home-
surroundings and parents' history are of a more satisfactory
nature, namely, the child of the widow on out-relief; and it
was shown that there are some great advantages in the life of
the institution child when the institution is reasonably conducted.

It will be seen, on referring to Section III., that 72 per
cent, of the records investigated proved satisfactory, and that
of the 29 distinctly unsatisfactory cases, 13 are mental or
'* almost deficient."

Most of these satisfactory records are of young men and
women whose position in life is now much above the " poverty
line " referred to in Mr. Booth's classification.

One or two cases may probably fall into Class D, but the
large majority will be members of Groups E, F, and G. The
majority of the parents, on the other hand, were undoubtedly
members of Class A.

I would urge that it is only by producing accurate records

8s

86 Environment and Efficiency

of this kind, extending, if possible, over a much^ longer period,
that those who have the welfare of the institution child at
heart, can hope to refute the theory that larceny, drunkenness,
prostitution, and other forms of vice, are transmitted with the
same regularity from one generation to another as characters
of mental defect. For if the part played by environment
in the formation of the child's character is as small as some
Eugenists would have us believe, how can we account for the
marked contrast displayed between the early and later history
of these children ?

The following contentions of course may be raised : —

1. That it is not possible to base conclusions upon records
kept for periods of under, say, 20 years.

2. That in any case the vicious characters are lying latent
to be reproduced in a future generation.

With regard to the first of these criticisms, the inadequacy
of many of these records has already been acknowledged ;
and although the object of this thesis has been to prove the
very definite part played by environment in the development
of character and efficiency, as illustrated by these records, I
have never attempted to maintain the impossible position that
every one of these young people, so far classed as satisfactory,
will therefore remain satisfactory until the end of their lives.

I have, however, quoted various authorities to prove that
the unemployed workmen of middle life have frequently been
found to originate in those numberless boys who drift from the
moment of leaving school ; and I have thought it fair to infer
that the boy, satisfactorily accounted for during the first five
years of his adult life, may well become the reliable workman
of 40 or 50.

As to the length of time for which records should be kept,
two, if not three of the institutions whose books I have
investigated, will, in the course of another 10 or 15 years,
be able to produce records of 20 and 30 years' duration.
And with regard to the numerous institutions where either

Conclusions ^"j

no records at all, or quite inadequate ones are kept, it seems
almost unnecessary to suggest that it would be to their own
advantage, if instead of vague statements with regard to the
probable efficiency of most of their children, they could pro-
duce full and adequate records wherewith to meet the criticisms
at present being hurled at the whole system of which they
themselves form a part.^

To refer now to the second criticism, viz., that the vicious
characters will inevitably reappear in a later generation. Even
if this could be proved to our satisfaction, is it easy to conceive
the extent to which a community will have benefited, which
has raised but one generation of respectable and efficient men
and women, from a generation of paupers and degenerates?
Let us admit the possibility of the so-called hereditary taint
reappearing in certain cases in the third generation, and then
try to realise the difference which that intervening race of
relatively efficient men and women will have made in the whole
outlook and environment of these possible victims of Heredity
— the children of the third generation.

If the parent and environment of the child of the second
generation were equally bad, so for the child of the third
generation will they be good. In the first case the parent
was probably himself the outcome of his environment and not
its cause, in the second he has to a great extent created it.
In the one case the undesirable characters in the child were
stimulated and suggested by its environment ; in the other,
stimulus and suggestion will alike be missing.

And if in the face of an unsympathetic environment the
'* hereditary taint " still continues to persist, let us again step
in and rescue the child of the fourth generation from the
inevitable disadvantages which such a persistence will create.

Such a policy is full of hope. For let us recall the
biological conclusions of Professor Thomson : " variations,

1 As an example of a satisfactory system of " after care," see Appendix C. (Rules
for District Visitors of the Association for Befriending Boys. )

88 Environment and Efficiency

although more or less transmissible, are not always trans-
mitted; where a predisposition is inherited, it does not
necessarily follow that it will be expressed in development —
if it does not find appropriate nurture it will not express
itself; and eventually, whether it find expression or not, it
may die away altogether."

So our race of hereditary paupers and criminals will form,
as generation follows generation, an ever-increasing minority,
until eventually — who knows ? — they may be crowded out alto-
gether by the mere force of a beneficent environment.

I

APPENDIX A-

I. EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
ASSOCIATION FOR BEFRIENDING BOYS^

Of the boys reported upon, 1,318, or 56.85 per cent., are satisfactory,
as against 1,310, or 58.7 per cent, in 1909. This is a drop of
2 per cent., and consequently rather disappointing. These numbers,
however, must vary from year to year ; and a movement of 2 or 3
per cent, upwards or downwards is not very important if the number
of boys reported upon is taken into account. The other numbers
show but little change. As we pointed out last year, it by no means
follows that because 58 per cent, are reported satisfactory the
remaining 42 per cent, are unsatisfactory. This is by no means the
case. There are a good many boys about whom reports have not
been received recently ; then there are the boys on the Exmouth^
and in two Homes in South London, who, as long as they are in
these institutions, are reported upon directly to the Guardians by
the authorities. A very large proportion of these is doing well.
Even if those who are classed as "lost sight of" are counted as
unsatisfactory, which, of course, by no means follows, and added
to those we know are unsatisfactory, the number is only 196, or
just over 6 per cent. This is an astonishingly good result, and
would be regarded rightly as extraordinary amongst any set of 2000
boys in the kingdom. It is one more proof — if proof were required
— of the excellent training given in the much-decried Guardians'
schools. If those people who consistently and without knowledge
are trying always to bring these schools into disrepute could see
for themselves the products of the schools, we think that less would
be heard of the drawbacks and inferiority of the schools they are
pleased to term " barrack." The boys from the Guardians' schools

1 The work of this Association in the first instance is the care of boys up to the
age of 20, coming from the Poor Law Association (Metropolitan).

89 F 2

go Environment and Efficiency

are in no way inferior to the average elementary school boys ; in
fact, they are superior, for they have the benefit of excellent training,
good discipline, good food, and good lodging, and physical training,
which are not enjoyed to any great extent as a rule by the boys at
the elementary schools.

The difficulty of keeping in touch with the boys in the Royal
Navy and Merchant Service does not grow less, and is the chief
reason why the percentage of " no late reports " is unduly large and
slightly higher than in 1909.

2. LETTER FROM HEADMASTER OF THE POPLAR
TRAINING SCHOOL

The Guardians have received the Annual Reports from the
Association for Befriending Boys upon 279 boys placed out from
this Parish, which are summarised as follows : —

Satisfactory 127

Fair io\ Should be re-
Unsatisfactory 9 V garded as not

Returned to Guardians 5 / creditable.

No late report 31

Not yet reported i

Lost sight of 17

Reported directly to Guardians .... 74

Emigrated 4

Dead i

279
Of these, 29 will be 21 years of age in 1912.

3. LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF SIR JOSIAH
MASON'S ORPHANAGE

When children leave this institution they go either to situations
found for them or to the care of their own friends and relatives.
Generally speaking, we keep in touch with them for years afterwards,
and the Trustees have arranged for their "after-care."

From my record of "old boys" under 21 last year, I find that
very few are not in satisfactory situations. The following figures
may prove interesting : —

Appendix A 91

Satisfactory.

Engaged in Offices, &c 25 23

,, Works and warehouses ... 31 30

,, Farms, &c 7 7

,, Shops 17 14

Various Occupations 14 13

In several cases the cause of non-success is indifferent health.
Several who have been unsatisfactory at first have done well in
another sphere of labour.

4. REPORT FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF
THE PONTELAND COTTAGE HOMES

These Homes have been open eight and a half years. We have
sent out into situations about no boys and 70 girls. Of these, 2
boys and 2 girls may be said to have done badly. Of the others, 75
per cent, may be said to have done excellently.

The remainder includes some who ought to have done better ;
but it also contains some who have done better than one expected ;
and, on examination, I think the 25 per cent, of (only ?) moderately
successful cases contains a greater number of those who have done
better than expected than of those who have done less well than
they should.

5. DUNDEE BOARDED-OUT CHILDREN

From a Report on the Boarding-out of Pauper Children^ 1904.

During the five years from May 15th, 1899, to May 15th, 1904,
the number of boarded-out children was 354, — 152 boys and 202
girls. Of these, 172 are still chargeable and boarded-out, leav-
ing 182 who have ceased to be chargeable. Of the 182, 153 (55
boys and 98 girls) are now self-supporting, and, so far as known,
doing well. Of the remainder, 23 were either sent to an orphanage
owing to the death of guardians, or to hospital owing to illness, and
others have died. Two alone are known to have turned out
badly.

Going farther back than these five years, there is only one case of
a former boarded-out child who is now chargeable to the parish,
the cause being imbecility, and among the boarded-out children

92 Environment and Efficiency

now chargeable to the parish, there is one illegitimate boy whose
mother had been boarded-out and brought up by the parish.
Three boys now boarded-out are beyond the age of 14, and are
learning trades. They reside in a Working-Boys' Home where
some 20 boys are boarded, and are employed with firms outside.
There is always an opening in this Home for any boy who desires
to learn a trade. The practice of the Parish Council is to assist
the boys with a small aliment so long as their earnings are under
5/- a week, and, after this wage is reached, the authorities in charge
of the Home do not look for any further pecuniary assistance
beyond a supply of clothing which is given them until they can
do without it. The system has worked very satisfactorily for a
number of years, and the boys are employed as bookbinders,
upholsterers, cabinet-makers, &c. They go out and in to the
Homes at their leisure, having a fixed hour for returning at night.
They accompany the Superintendent of the Home to church on
Sundays, and they attend evening classes on week nights. Their
holidays they are in the habit of spending with their old guardians.

6. SOUTHWARK BOYS' AID ASSOCIATION

[Object : — The after-care of the orphan and homeless boys from
the Poor Law schools of the Southwark Union, including —

(i) Finding a suitable home for each boy, if possible in a
working-class family.

(2) Finding work suited to the capacity of each individual boy ;
if possible in a skilled trade.]

Report for Twelve Months ending Michaelmas 191 1.

During the twelve months the Association has been in touch with
219 boys and children, 87 of these being new boys: — 28 from the
Hanwell Schools, 12 from the Orpington School, 19 from the
Guardians direct, 14 from the training-ship Extnouth and 14
from other sources.

Of these 87 new boys 22 are disabled: — 14 physically, 6
mentally, and 2 both physically and mentally.

Special care and attention has also been given to 50 old boys
who are disabled either in mind or in body.

Appendix A

93

During the twelve months work has been found for 60 boys, of
whom 10 have been placed twice over and 2 more than twice,
making 74 placings in all, as shown by the summary below : —

Trade.

No. in Trade.

Able.

Disabled.

Baker's pastry-cook

Boot repairing

Builder's joiner

Chair carving and designing . .

Chimney sweep

Chocolate making

Electro-plating

(Bicycle)

Engineering-
Electrical

Mechanical

Brass-finishing

Clockmaking

Errand boy

Farming

Gardening-
Nursery

Market

Grocer's assistant

Hair-preparing

Iron and wire works

Kitchen boy

Lamp-shade making

Metal works

Mill, worsted

Mining, coal

Office boy

I
2
I
I
I
, 2

I

2
3
3

I

5

5

2

I
I
I
I

3
3

I

7

4
7
5
2

I
I

I

I
2

I

2

3
2

I

I
I

I
2

I
6
2

2

I
...

I

5
4

I
I
I

I
3

I
2
3
4

Private service, house or garden ,

Shop boy

Stationer, wholesale

Tin canister making

Van boy

Warehouse boy

Boys placed twice in the same trade

70
4

38

32
3

74

39

35

EXTRACT FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF
A HOME FOR WORKING BOYS

(after leaving an orphanage)

List of the Occupations of the Employers of Boys in the
Homey with Notes on their Work.

1. Brasscasters ; learnt the trade.

2. Metal merchant*" ; rough warehouse.

94 Environment and Efficiency

3. Goldbeater ; at the trade.

4. Boot manufacturer ; learnt the trade.

5. Silversmiths; learning the trade.

6. Bedstead works ; learning the trade.

7. Art metal works; learning the trade.

8. Art metal works ; learning the trade.

9. Art metal works ; learning the trade.

10. Brassfounder ; learning the trade.

11. Silversmiths; learning the trade.

12. Brush works; learning the trade.

13. Art metal works; learning the trade.

14. Wire workers ; learning the trade.

15. Bird cage works; learning the trade.

16. Metal turners, &c. ; learning.

17. Bird cage works ; learning the trade.

18. Soap works ; learning the trade.

19. Cabinet works; learning the trade.

20. Electrical works ; learning the trade.

21. Gold beater ; learning the trade.

22. In the Home, driving float.

23. Cabinet works; learning the trade.

24. Electrical works ; learning the trade.

25. Brassfounders ; learning the trade.

26. Jewellers; learning the trade.

27. Cabinet works ; learning the trade.

28. Art metal workers; learning the trade.

29. Cabinet works ; learning the trade.

30. Candle works ; learning the trade.

31. Jeweller; learning the trade.

32. At home.

33. Soap works ; learning the trade.

34. Silversmiths ; in the warehouse.

35. X Silver Co. ; at the trade.

36. Printer; to be apprenticed.

37. X Silver Co.; at the trade.

38. Shoeing smith ; at the trade.

39. Electrical works ; at the trade.

40. Motor tank manufacturers.

41. Electroplate manufacturers; at the trade.

I

Appendix A 95

8. FROM THE REPORT FOR 1911 OF THE SWANLEY
AND FARNINGHAM HOMES FOR BOYS

" What becomes of your boys ? "

" Are they as well fitted for the battle of life when they leave the
Homes as other boys of their age ? "

" Does the training they receive enable them to maintain them-
selves in the world ? "

These are the questions we are often asked, and rightly so, for
a Home which has not as one of its fundamental, underlying
principles the absolute necessity for giving to every boy who passes
through it such training as would fit him to earn his own living, can
never make any really powerful appeal to clear-headed, practical
men and women.

We can claim for the Homes for Little Boys that from their
foundation this end has been held steadily in view. The choice of
a trade, the boy's Hfe in the workshop, and his establishment in
some suitable situation, are matters of the first importance with us.

As soon as a boy is 14, or has passed the Vllth standard, he is
apprenticed to some trade, and every care is taken that he shall
follow one for which not only his peculiar bent but his physique and
aptitude especially fit him. His choice is a wide one.

Many trades are taught in the Homes. Printing, farming,
gardening, poultry - keeping, tailoring, shoemaking, engineering,
carpentering, plumbing and painting, and baking. In addition to
these, many boys go into the navy and army and into the mercantile
marine. Some of our band boys continue their studies in that direc-
tion, and have taken good positions in the musical world. The
bandmasters of some notable regiments . . . were trained in our
own band, and there are Swanley boys in no fewer than twenty-five
English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh military bands.

The " Little Boys' Press " is justly regarded as one of the most
important departments of the Home, training many of our boys in
various branches of the printing trade, fitting them to take excellent
positions when they leave. Every care is taken that their work and
methods should be up-to-date, and from time to time new machinery
is introduced to keep pace with the requirements of the printing
trade. There is nothing second-rate or amateurish about the work

96 Environment and Efficiency

done, for no fewer than forty-two of our apprentices have secured
certificates at the examinations of the City and Guilds of London
Institute. Boys from our printing office have held, and are still
holding, responsible positions in India, Africa, Bermuda, New
Zealand, and America.

As we pass from one workshop to another, see the boys in the
bakery, the carpenters, the shoemakers, and tailors, we feel that we
are indeed in an industrial village, for almost every necessary of life
is made on the spot, and all the repairs, alterations, and renovations
needed throughout the Home are done by our young carpenters,
plumbers, and painters under skilled masters. Not only the clothes
and boots worn by the boys, but the smart uniforms of the band are
made in the tailor's shop, and the whole of the repairs for our large
family neatly executed.

The most popular of the trades taught are farming and
gardening. One of our boys, after holding a position at Kew, went
out as botanist to a rubber expedition in Uganda. A number of
our young farmers are in good situations abroad ; one is managing
a large estate in West Africa, and another one of 27,000 acres in the
Argentine.

9. FROM ANNUAL REPORT OF DR. BARNARDO'S

HOME

Canadian Visitor^ Reports concerning Boys and Girls in
the Dominion.

B. W. Called on B. and found him in the oat-field. He is a
splendid type of vigorous manhood, and says everything is going fine
with him. Is the owner of a splendid 200-acre farm. Has a good
crop this year. Is married and has two fine children — a boy and a
girl. Has a comfortable frame-house and good outbuildings, and
everything bears an air of prosperity. Expressed himself as
delighted to see a Visitor from the Home.

H. B. H. B. recently bought a 50-acre farm, and expects to
move on to it shortly. He is spoken of in the neighbourhood as
a very steady, industrious young fellow and a credit to the Homes.
It seems hard to realise that over six years have passed since we
sent H. to his first place with his chum T. J.

C. D. is another of our old boys who is advancing to his fortunes

Appendix A 97

in the Great West. Our latest news of C. was that he had added to
his original homestead of 160 acres by the purchase of another
t6o acres, and has a team of oxen with which he takes contracts for
ploughing, making S3. 50 an acre. Considering that he only went
West in March last, it is evident that our friend has not been letting
the grass grow under his feet.

B. K. After faithfully fulfilling his apprenticeship and attaining
years of discretion, B. was left to make his own arrangements for
hiring, and from time to time we had good reports of him, and found
that he was increasing his substance, and, better still, maintaining an
excellent record. Then we learned that he had gone to the North-
west and taken up land. The news has just now reached us that
he has been paying visits to old friends, and we have gathered
some tidings of our friend B.'s welfare and advancement. We
hear that soon after he went to the West he took up a grant of
160 acres of land. It happened to be in a vicinity that was opened
up by the building of a new railroad, and B. was able to dispose of
his homestead for $8000. He is the owner of two teams of heavy
draught-horses, and in the winter he sends these teams to the
lumber woods in charge of a responsible man, and by this means
they are a source of substantial revenue to him. Altogether, B. is a
man of considerable substance, and that at 25 years of age, and as
the result entirely of hard work and steady perseverance.

H. M. is a young man of whom we can say nothing but what is
good. He has a record of twelve years in Canada of good work and
steady progress. In his last letter he says : " I am getting along
fine, enjoy good health, and have a bank account of S600 saved up.
At present I am working for Mr. B., and get $185 a year."

P. T. We learn that our friend and silver- medallist P. T. is
organist at the Sabbath School, and other circumstances are men-
tioned of him that show that he is one that merited a high place on
our roll of honour. P. has been nine years in the same locality, and
we think that we may say that he has found favour in the eyes of all
with whom he has had to do.

APPENDIX B

EXTRACT FROM ANNUAL REPORT OF
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, No. 2

In my Annual Report to the Home Office of boys discharged
during 1907, 1908, and 1909, there are 55 boys employed as
follows : —

Army Bands

Baker

Butcher .

Blacksmiths

Carpenters

Chauffeur

Clerk

Coal Miners

Farmers .

Gardeners

Iron Miner

Iron Works

One boy has died

3

Moulders

2

I

Rivetter .

z

I

Shoemaker

I

2

Shop Assistants

2

3

Sailors .

3

I

Ship Plater .

I

I

Slater .

I

6

Soldiers .

2

7

Tailors .

3

5

Coal Dealer (with father)

I

I

Casual ....

2

5

no boys have been re-convicted.

98

APPENDIX C
ASSOCIATION FOR BEFRIENDING BOYS

Rules for the Hon., District Secretaries

(i) The Hon. District Secretaries are appointed by the Executive
Committee.

(2) Visitors are appointed in each district by the Hon. District
Secretary of that district.

(3) A district book is supplied by the Central Office to each
Hon. District Secretary, containing the names of all the boys placed
out in his or her district, and this book must be kept up to date
with the history in detail of each boy as laid down in the particulars
required on the Blue Report Form. The Executive Committee
reserves the right of asking to see this book at any time.

(4) The Hon. District Secretaries should see that suitable
visitors are found to befriend all boys put under their care, and should
obtain regular reports from the visitors on each boy assigned to
them.

(5) When a new boy is placed out in any district, information is
sent by the Central Office on a White Form or History Sheet to
the Hon. District Secretary, so that his name may be entered in the
Report Book, and that he may be assigned to the care of a visitor.

(6) Blue Report Forms are supplied to each Hon. District
Secretary on application to the Central Office. These should be
sent out twice a year to each visitor for the purpose of securing a
full report on each boy every six months.

(7) The Hon. District Secretary, after the receipt of the Blue
Report forms from each visitor, should enter the information therein
contained in his or her District Book, and having done so should
forward the forms to the Central Office, so that they may be attached
to the case-papers to which they refer. The Hon. District Secre-
tary must arrange with the visitors as to sending in their reports on

99

lOO .Environment and Efficiency

the Blue Report Forms, so that he or she may be able to forward
them to the Central Office by April 15 and October 15 in each year
at the latest.

(8) The Blue Report Forms must contain the complete history
of each boy for the previous six months, and be duly signed and
countersigned by the visitor and the Hon. District Secretary and
carefully dated.

(9) If a visitor fails to trace a boy, information must be given at
once to the Hon. District Secretary, and the latter must without
delay pass it on to the Central Office.

(10) Should a visitor need advice on any boy, he or she should
apply to the Hon. District Secretary, who, if necessary, will refer to
the Central Office, so that the case may be brought before the
Executive Committee at its next monthly meeting.

(11) Letters and reports about boys, whether sent by the Hon,
District Secretary to the Central Office or by a visitor to the Hon.
District Secretary, should relate to one boy only, so that the infor-
mation may be attached as it stands to the case-paper of the boy
to which it refers.

(12) Visitors are directly responsible for their work to the Hon.
District Secretary, and the latter is directly responsible to the Cen-
tral Office.

(13) When a boy moves from one district to another, his new
address must at once be forwarded to the Central Office. It will
then be notified to the District Secretary of the district into which
he has moved. If in any case the visitor who has hitherto looked
after the boy desires to continue to do so, his or her half-yearly
report on that boy must be forwarded to the District Secretary of
the district into which he has moved.

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson b* Co.
Edinburgh 6^ London

UNIVERSITY OP CAT

BIRMINGHAM STUDIES IN SOCIAL
ECONOMICS.

Edited by W. J. Ashley.
ENVIRONMENT ANn ^'"'^'riTirT date

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