Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/655

 no direct effort was made by the state to prevent children from acquiring criminal habits, or to reform them, without first convicting them of a crime.

There is another class of children of which the juvenile court has jurisdiction. They are the neglected and abused, known to the law as dependent children.

In dealing with dependent children, the object of the court is manifestly to see that they are cared for and provided with suitable homes. Nearly all the children committed to the Boys' and Girls' Aid Society and other charitable institutions, belong to this class. It would surprise most of our own citizens to learn how many neglected and abused children are in this city. There is a surprising number of utterly worthless and vicious parents, bringing children into the world to grow up in idleness and crime, while their worse than criminal fathers become the pawns of unprincipled politicians, saloon bums, and other pauper house wrecks.

It is estimated that 84 per cent of the children placed in the Detention Home are reformed and saved to grow up to useful lives. And of the children placed in the home, only 16 per cent are later sent back to their homes or other places, and no further trouble or annoyance is brought about by them. Under the discipline and restrictions of the home, the minds of the children are imbued with good principles.

When the school was first planned, it was intended only for boys, but it has since been found necessary to include girls among the eligibles. Through the efforts of the late Judge Frazer, after whom the home is named, the institution, was constructed by the county on a site donated by Dr. C. E. Brown. The grounds cover four acres and the building, which cost in the neighborhood of $12,000, is located on the highest point of the area. Besides the rooms occupied by those in charge, the bath rooms, etc., there are three dormitories, one for the girls and two for the boys, reading and school rooms, dining room, kitchen and reception room and office. One-half of the building is an exact duplicate of the other half, the west side being for the boys, and the east half for the girls. At present there are in the home 26 children, 8 of whom are girls, and the others boys.

Only children under 18 years of age who come under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court are eligible to the home, and may be classified as follows: Children who are considered incorrigible, but not ferocious, and whose wrongdoings do not justify sending them to the state reform school; those whose home environments are a detriment to their proper development, and the children whose mothers are widows, and who have to work for a livlihood, leaving them to run the streets. For a child to be placed in the Detention Home does not imply that he or she is incorrigible or a detriment to society. It is a place where children are held temporarily until they can be properly otherwise placed.

One of the purposes of the home of which the general public is not aware, is to ascertain the whereabouts of children who have run away from home and return them to their parents or guardians. Runaway boys from Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Washington, Arizona and California, have been apprehended and taken care of until the parents could be notified.

To the late Arthur L. Frazer, a judge of the circuit court for Multnomah county, is the honor due for organizing the juvenile court in this city; and that notable work has been recognized by naming the home "The Frazer Detention Home."

Every land and nation on the face of the globe is represented at Portland, Oregon, now at this year of our Lord, 1910. British, Irish, Scotch, French, Germans, Holland Dutch, Spaniards, Portuguese, Belgians, Swiss, Austrians, Italians, Hungarians, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, Russians, Turks, Syrians, Roumanians, Servians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Roumelians, Albanians,