able us to do good work in the future, and I think, without question, that it has brought to the Institution more acclaim than any other feature of the Institution or of its work. JANUARY, 1924 Work at the Institution Work at the Institution has continued the same as it did in December, that is: The boys have been engaged in cutting bushes and wood, shoveling coal, and getting in ice; one icehouse has been filled. The carpenters are making screens for the new buildings in the Girls' Group, and the painters are painting the interior of the buildings in the Women's Group. Sickness We are having a considerable amount of sickness just at the present time, especially pneumonia. There have been from 40 to 50 children and employees in the Hospital during the entire month. I think all have been well cared for, although we do not have a graduate nurse in the Hospital. It is practically impossible to secure one for such salary as we can offer. We continue to have a diphtheria case on hand most of the time. There seems no question but that there are carriers in the Institution, and even though we could determine all of them, we have no place in which we could isolate them. We especially feel the need of the new Hospital at this period. of the year, and are finding one building without any rooms, entirely inadequate for cases of pneumonia, diphtheria, septic troubles, mothers with babies, and other ailments. The Parole Girl The whole question of the parole of mental defectives is still an experiment, but one which has to be gone through with because of the public demand for it. Apparently, and as far as we have gone, parole is, from a certain point of view, a failure--that is: I doubt whether 10% of the mentally defective girls who are paroled from this Institution would go five years without getting into difficulties, and especially without reproducing more of their kind. Looking at it from another point of view, it is wiser to let these trained girls go out and reproduce more of their kind, than it is to leave the untrained ones on the outside doing the same thing. I have come firmly to the conclusion that sterilization must go hand in hand with parole, in order to give it any degree of success. We must have the same supervision of girls that we have now, and bring them back to the Institution for exactly the same reasons, but we could at least cut off future generations of mental defectives. FEBRUARY, 1924 Work at the Institution During the past month our boys have continued cutting bushes, wood, excavating for the Attendants' Home, Male Adult Group, and shoveling coal. The carpenters have been doing small repairs and making screens for new buildings in the Valley. The painters are painting the interior of the buildings in the Women's Group. Children's Recreation The regular weekly program of recreation for children is as follows: Dance for Girls, Tuesday Night. Dance for Boys, Wednesday Night; On Saturday nights during this season of the year there is a great deal of skating and sliding. On February 22, the entire afternoon was given up to out-ofdoor sports. All of the children who were physically able to be out were out on sleds or skates, and in the Boys' Group, bonfires were built around Secor Pond and the boys cooked their supper out of doors. Supper consisted of frankfurters, toasted bread, ginger bread, and coffee. The girls had the same kind of a supper, served indoors. Recreation for Assistants The Letchworth Village Club now arranges for all of the organized recreation for assistants in the Institution. During the past month they have held two dances, one of them being a masquerade, one sleighing party, and one skating party. The Club is getting ready to serve lunches of coffee, cocoa, sandwiches, and pastry every evening. The need of a regular clubhouse grows greater every day. The Eight-Hour Day A Bill at present in the Legislature, to establish an eight-hour day for all institutional assistants, is, much to my surprise, being opposed by most of the hospital superintendents, for the reasons, they claim, that there are no accommodations for more employees and no money to pay for more. Personally, I am for it, because I do not believe we shall ever be able to secure and retain the services of the kind of people we want if they have to work longer hours than they do in factories, stores, shops, etc. Attendants Home and Vanderlip Hall The Attendants' Home and Vanderlip Hall, Girls' Group, are now nearing completion. They should be ready for occupancy sometime in May. With the opening of these two buildings, it will again necessitate a rearrangement and re-planning of our school for girls. At the present moment it looks as though we might bring all of the school room work, now held in Cottage "L," to the basement of the Attendants' Home, have our gymnastic classes, which are now held in Cottage "M," in the Hall, and use the basement of the Hall for strictly manual work, thus providing for 120 more beds than we have at present. MARCH, 1924 Work at the Institution During the past month the boys have continued excavating for the Attendants' Home, Adult Male Group, chopping wood, cutting bushes, shoveling coal, and building a new road from the County Highway to the Storehouse. The carpenters have been making screens and doing small repairs. The painters are at work on the interior of the buildings in the Women's Group. Runaways We are always going to have a certain number of escapes from the Institution. The high grade defective delinquent type of boys and girls, who have had all kinds of experiences before being picked up and committed to this Institution, are not willingly going to remain here in every instance. In the first place that type should not be sent here. They should be sent to either Napanoch or the Reformatory at Bedford, which has a department for defective delinquent girls. We have learned by experience that when a boy or a girl of this type runs away from the Institution it is practically useless to look for them until they turn up somewhere in their home town or until they are picked up by the police of some adjoining town. If, in each instance, we should notify the local police or the State Police, we should constantly be in the newspapers. If, on the other hand, we attempt to commit every defective delinquent girl to the Reformatory at Bedford, we are going to be up against the same thing we were a year or so ago when someone complained to the Governor that we were "committing poor, innocent girls to that dreadful place at Bedford." I firmly believe, however, that a certain percentage of girls whom we are sure won't remain here, who are trouble makers when they are here, and who won't get on in the community, should be legally committed to some place where they cannot escape. The boy problem is comparatively simple, but the girl problem is extremely difficult; even those of us who have been at it a good many years are at our wits' ends at times to know what to do. APRIL, 1924 Work at the Institution During the past month the boys and the teams have been engaged in preparing land for planting, building a new road lead ing to the Storehouse, unloading coal, and grading in the Girls' Group. Work During the Coming Summer We propose to plant about 125 acres of land, divided by 80 or so acres of corn and the remainder of vegetables for summer and winter use. Our orchards now require a good deal of attention, spraying them as we do twice during the year and some of the trees three times, keeping them trimmed and the ground plowed and harrowed. Our roads, which have been built in a very permanent manner, need re-surfacing and we hope to do this work during the present year. All of the boys not engaged in farming and road work will be kept busy on the land which immediately surrounds the cow barn. We propose to change the course of the creek in two or three places for half a mile or so, draining the wet areas with ditches, removing all stones, stumps, etc., and making that piece of land into a good field. Trees and Shrubs We are again setting out in the vicinity of $1,000 worth of trees and shrubs in the various groups, according to the plan prepared by the Misses Alderson and Dell. It is much easier to set out trees and shrub than it is to protect them afterwards. It is very difficult, we have found, to keep the children from breaking off and running over shrubs, especially in the winter, and practically ruining many of our best shrubs, even after a year or two of growth. MAY, 1924 Work at the Institution During the past month the boys and men have been employed out of doors when it hasn't been raining, getting land ready to be planted. Some of this land has been planted, and in some instances the seeds have rotted. Most of the seed remains to be planted. The men and boys not engaged in that work, have been grading about the Storehouse and building a new road from the County road to the road running past the office, just east of the Minisceongo Creek. The carpenters have been making small repairs and have now started erecting a carpenter shop which will be built of stone. and, as time goes on, we may add a blacksmith shop and a machine shop. Meeting of the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-Minded This meeting was held in Washington from May 30 to June 2, Letchworth Village was represented by Mrs. Little, Dr. Storrs, |