< Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu
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THE MICHIGAN SYSTEM OF CHILD SAVING

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dren who have no home save what the state provides for them whose hearts are as pure and whose minds are as capable as those whose lot is a far different one. The children are surrounded with everything pertaining to a home save parental love, and we are teaching them to grow up to be true men and women and good and profitable citizens. From this school children have been adopted into the homes of good farmers, merchants, mechanics, lawyers and ministers of the country around. I do not mean apprenticed or bound out like workhouse children, but adopted into good homes with all their happy surroundings. What a noble work for the state to engage in, reaching out a hand not heavy and restraining, clothed in iron mail, but gentle, and with a tender clasp, folding in its arms these innocents, taking the place of their fathers and mothers and holding them out to its citizens as their brothers and sisters.

And now what has been the result of this work? When the school opened in 1874 there were 600 children in the county poorhouses and the number was increasing. The population of the state was then 1,334,403 and had probably increased to 1,500,000 in 1874. There would be then one dependent child to each 2500 of the population. The census of 1890 showed a population of 2,093,889. At this time the number of dependent children in the state had been reduced to about 250. In February of this year the number did not exceed 200, including 155 in the school and not over 50 below two years of age in the county poorhouses, if any. On the basis of the census of 1890 there is now only one dependent child in the state of sound mind and body under twelve years of age to each 10,468 of the population. The increase of population since 1890 would probably bring this ratio to l to each 12,000. In the twenty-two years child dependence has decreased in Michigan over 65 per cent., while the population has increased over 70 per cent. If the increase of child dependence had been at the same ratio as that of the population there would have been in 1890 one dependent child to each 2,500 of the population or 833 for the public to support and about 900 at this time. It formerly cost the counties $75 to $100 each to support these children in the poorhouses and at the lower rate it would now cost annually $65,000, and they

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