Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/730

716 The Lansing School was established early in the history of the state, the State Public School in 1871 and opened in 1874 and the Adrian Home some few years after. The Board of Corrections and Charities was provided for in 1871 and its County Agency in 1873.

The State Public School has been on trial nearly twenty-two years and can now demonstrate the value of its work for the dependent children of the state. It has more than realized the highest expectations of its friends. It is a state institution, entirely supported and conducted by the state, the expenses being paid with biennial appropriations. Its basic principle is the support and education of all the dependent children of the state of sound mind and body under twelve years of age in a temporary educational home, from whence they are to be placed in approved families as soon as practicable on indenture or by adoption. It has no connection with the penal system of the state and is a part of the educational system, making its reports to the Superintendent of Public Instruction. No taint of crime attaches to any child by reason of its admission. No child is admitted because it has become delinquent. Poverty is the only cause. Michigan radically separates the dependents from the delinquents. It is the first government that ever undertook such a work, and the trial was looked upon with interest in and out of the state, and by some almost with alarm, who feared the expense would be greater than the results would warrant. But it was intended to be helpful to the state as well as to the children and so it has proved.

While admissions to private and sectarian asylums are usually informal, often by direction, by parents or by town or city officers without form of law, no child is admitted to this state school except on evidence in probate court and on order from the judge after full opportunity has been given the parents or friends of the child to be heard. There is thus a public record of the dependence of the child and a history of where the child comes from and where it has gone to. Even a destitute child has rights and these rights and the rights of its par-