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INIWIIIIR, 1909, by the New Yell Herald 00. All Billh leirvlll
' N Colorado a judge has won_a name and _reputsf 1
, tion for his work'in the Ch1ldren's Court. In Phil
sdelphia lives a charming woman whose work in be-
half of unfortunate children in that city and State,
carried on for tea years against the greatest dif-
iicultles, is second to none, not even that of the
Colorado J udge. .
Judge Benjamin B. Lindsey is oiilcial Judge of
the Cliildren's Court of Denver. _Mi-s. Frederic
C.` Schod is _lust Mrs. Schott, without edicisl title,
and yet none the less she is the actual judge ei
the Children's Court in Philadelphia, and the magib
trstes and judges of that city with one voice ac-
cord to her that title. ’
lfor is the title merely honorary. Philadelphia(
has a rather peculiar judicial system. Its judges
rotate. They sit a while in one court, then move
to another, then to another, until they have made
the rounds. Consequently the Chlldren's Court is
presided over by some fifteen judges, coming one
after nmcéther, each one quite unacqualnted with
thef recor s of the little chaps lined up before him,”
One might have appeared before this same Judge
a ‘tweiveinonth ago and have been a prodigy of
plftue since, yet the Judge, fixing him with an eagle‘
eye, 'remembers only'that first, appearance, while
another who has appeared quite frequently within
the last' ten months is, to the Judge, a new offender.
Consequently Philadelphia judges are dependent
mainly for thelrldeclsions upon the information given`
by the probation otllcer. And the probation otiicer
every week goes over her cases in every detail at ri
joint meeting of probation oiiicers, at whose head is
Mrs. Schod. The probation oiilcer may he new and the
records of theboys may he only matters of scheduled
reports to her, but Mrs. Sched knows. For ten years
she has heard cases, gone over detail after detail,-and
she remembers this boy and that and his home sur-
roundings. She it is who _decides that a boy is to be
round work and kept at it. and`that employed ng
s 'an  ,of geadaeting..!rom court altogether,
§he"E%` o demands that s 'father be called before
the court sad' made responsible for his son. and her`de~
cisions are handed down via the probttion oiilcer to
the presiding Judge, who accepts them with e sigh of
relief as he hears:- ’
' “Mrs. Sched recommends that"-isnt! why? Why
should the word of one woman carry, such weight!
One must go hack ten years to answer.
One day in May, 1899, a Philadelphia newspaper
°printed as one of its dist page stories an account of the
arrest and imprisonment of a little girl of eight years.
.She had set tire to the house in which she lived. When
asked why she had started the tire she said franklyz-
` “To see the iire burn and the engine run."
The account was accompanied by a picture of the
child and stated that the presiding Judge had sent her
to a reformatory. The childs history revealed the
fact that she had been left motherless at two, placed
in' an orphanage, anti recently been made a household sm- the Fifa Bum and thc Engim, .
,- l  . -_ Run." 5he_Said.Eranldy ._
drudge in a city boarding house, with no associates
a _ __ _ .. >~' *r"°“
_ _ i.’l"H;Eg  Ar  
""~'~/ - é ~f» -f-,'-». ..»
/j\ Lfffze e Gif/ of Efghz,rP1a».'f.g  . 
._ ' *wt-th s Matches, Sfarfedf ai. Fire That, 
Famed by plies. Frederic  Sf/off, 
M of -Philadelphia, Greet) ]nfo-a.S‘zveep- _g '
" ing Blaze of fu<veriilé Reform, _ 
J
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4
i
save ignorant servants. The whole account was sur- “ -
mounted by the startling headline:-“A Prodigy of
Crlme.” '
The city read and was properly shocked by such de-
pravity in one so young. Doubtless several mothers
remembered the day their Marys set ilre to the lace
curtains “just for fun," and sct the paper aside wltha
sigh ot sympathy for the unfortunate 'little wait.
' \ One Mother Roused. ` \
~... .
pea'ied to the New Century Club, an organization of
six hundred women, to help her. When a committce
had been formed M~|°s. Scholl denioiistrntcti one of
the remarkable qualities that assure hor lcndershlp.
The women .with hcl' lmrriilcd bv the tales thcv had
heard, were for proceeding at once to relieve single" V
cases, but Mrs. Scholl' insisted that nothing be done
0|", mother umm, seemed tg feel q need for g¢¢1°|;|_ /until a thorough study of every .State in thc Union
Sitting in the cointornlble library nf her home, at No.
8418 Baring street, Mrs. Schott read the story.
“Prodigy of crime!" she said incligiiantly. Then she
looked at her own daughters at play. Suppose one of
them had set ilre to the house in ii spirit of fun, would
she have been sent to a reformntory? What was to
become of this innocent girl, to be associated with
companions whose ways had been proved evil? Mrs.
Schott put on her bonnet. She kissed her own daugh-
ters and hurried from the house. An hour lat_er found
her in the oliice ef the Judge who sent the child to the
reformatory. _ U
"But, Mrs. Scnod," pleaded the Judge, what am I to
do with her? I have no other place to send her, and.
truth to toll, they do not want her there, because of the
character of her offence." -
Mrs. Schod was bewildered. She retumed home de-
termined to know more of thc law that branded eiK\1f'
yeer-oldw children as criminals mid scat them to re-
fermatories. ,Wlth, as she says, “nn inward veg to
work unceasingiy until something better could be one
for unfortunate chlldren,"_ she set to work to investi-
“£;';?,‘:|::q€3n;ii:;|(:»‘h‘;;s, “that there were ilve hundred
¢||l1¢||-gn, ranging from six to sixteen, in Philadelphia
county prisons. There were from two hundred to
time honored children every 111011111 passing thrvush
the station houses of the city standing _in crlticailnerd
of intelligent direction and guidance, ye :ees vs S
nothing. There were children in every cogn y pflnod
in Pennsylvania, committed for trlillng o ences mm
submitted to innuences that could not ui; i :lemon in
ev". Mum, There were eight liuudr lc u ren M
each of the two reforxnstorles and no dist nc ogv wt'
made as to the children committed thelre. llmr
homeless little ones. children steeped in cr me, were ld
sent to the same institution. Any niagletratle col;
commit I child to n reformatofy 0” "le l"“`°“t Bas? 5;
ment of pdncorrlgibllity, and no edort wats m that
provg;-‘the p'drent’s statement. The resu _west
ste taste and stepmothers desiring to he fifed rom
theggl “ of* children took this methodtot! hi-r:lv‘;'i_i;§
them ugh the State, and more than lac t e c ; om-
m th. W* n Rem" we" were oi* “tu” dtligrs
ng, ggupfly ltipfllhefs B gpm '
., motmrrf mm wg, schud, as ii nielilns
s1_ 1 '|- boy, would condemn biz tio tI\ede:;":_
tion ef_naul1¢'! MY’ °°““"t_th “gut-e dm
mime a mir. and yet this wi" Wh* ° '
A sl in t criminal courts. and in the call"
Q3 ' gh. 52;; and girls waited' their turn, lis-
ten to gg too vile to mention and receiving les-
. ' - f tteul" ' _
f‘“"E"!mc”°»;:htfull° ifndr uma nn. some sa-
ns .-_. 1,-,,
1,’ W ,, _ _ li
be made, not only as to methods but ns to results, both
as to expense and as to ct`l’ccli_\'cncss in saving the
children.
These women worked all wlntcr compiling n re-‘
port, “The Statutes of Every Stale in the Unlicd
States Concerning l)cfecti\'e, licllnqucut and Ile-
pcndent Children." i\Ii\ssnciiusclts, Michigan and
illinois had the best records, so Mrs. Sclnifi’ pnckcll
her lrunit, kissed her own clilldreii and visited iliassn-
¢~l\u,~'\-tts, Michigan and Illinois. illinois, which had
Jiist introduced a jiiwiiilc court and probation sys-
tem, produced ii proi‘ound impression.
. ' Urging the Reform.
Armed with this dam the wuinen got in work.
Mrs. Sched went lo the (lo\'ci‘noi' of 1'cni|s)'l\':u\l»\,
in various political loiulurs, urging that reform
nieasnrcs be taken. Wiien questions were asked sho
was rl-ndy to answer. When stuioiucuts were ques-
tioned she produced hcl' data. At every turn she
met them.
Then she employed ii lawyer to draft t\vo bills for
the Legislature. Those bills provlded:-
First-Separate time and place for trial of chil-
dren'e cases and no detention of children lu police sta-
tions or prisons. , `
Second--Probation nlllcers whose salaries were not
to be paid from the public treasury, yet who were ap-
pointed by the Judge.
Third-A house oi' detention in ull cities of tirst
and second class for ciilldrcn awaiting trial.
Fourth--Boards ofyluitnrs composed of men and
women for all chlldrenis institutions.
Immediately the managers of the Flnstern House of
Refuge arose in opposition. ~l)cprlve them ‘of chil-
dren nnd lose their places! Nevertheless the bill went
through and in May, 1901, the lnws were inode. '
Then there arose ri storm oi opposition. Pennsyl-
vania is a conservatlvu State. I-Iuiulrclls of persons
really felt that the old laws were good enough. hun-
dreds of ‘place holders naw reformntories, oi-phanages
and “homes” emptied, and hastened to the politicians.
Mrs. Sched and her committee were privately termed
“n nuisance," and although. as they were not officials,
their position was imprcgmible. ce:-lnln organs of the
press sought by satirical comment and much publicity
to discourage them. i ' V ,
lint Mrs. Schott is not easily discouraged..." Sho
found n probation olilccr and the New Century Uluh
guaranteed hor salary. 'fin-n she got the Pennsyl-
vnnm (}m\g|~¢\sn of Motliers to sunpiy il second probe-
tion ofhcer. With those Mrs. Sched and her com-
mittee, ami thc jiidgi- ,\\ hir niippciwll tu be sitting,
and who was only len glad to he helped along in
this new order of prove ure. ovelwfl the llrst Jave-
f
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,',KN*~\r- - -|1,!I\~,
g Trying to Learn-How To
niie court of Pennsylvania, on June 14. 1900.
Meanwhile the disgruntled place holders, their
friends and allies startcd a suit against the constitu-
tionality of the laws. Mrs. Sched at once engaged
the best legal talent, and when, in February, 1903,
the laws of 1901 were declared unconstitutional Mrs.
Sched had also ready and presented to the Ifegis-
lature one month before five new bills covering the
detects of the previous laws. These were fought
every step of the way. Mrs. Sched and her com-
mittee went to Harrisburg. The Pennsylvania Con-
gress ot Mothers and the New Century Club held
meetings and sent to the Legislature hundreds of re-
quests for their passage. Even after their presenta-
tion to the Governor an appeal was made for is
vote, but the bills went through and still stand.
But Mrs. Sched did not feel that the work had
ended. She induced the Jewish people of the city to
provide the salary of a probation oiilcer who could
speak Yiddish, she spoke at prayer meetings in various
churches, and obtained the salaries of several others.
Then she met these oiilcers every week without fail
at her own home and went over with them, detail by
detail, every case. She attended the Juvenile Court
almost daily. She became acquainted with the young
pdenders. She also became acquainted with their
parents. This- gave her a new idea. ,Since the of-
fences of the children were, in a majority of cases,
directly due to the deilciencies of their parenm why,
not train the parents?
|_ Fathers, Toe, Interested. ‘ `
There had been sporadic attempts at mothers' clubs
in connection with the public schools before this. But
Mrs. Sched wanted a fathers' as well as a mothers'
club, and so she suggested the new name. These as-
ocistions were joined for the primary purpose of as-_
sisting parents in the training oththeli' children. After
one year of work there were thirty thousand parents
in these associations meeting at the public schools,
trying to learn how to he emcrenl: fathers and mothers.
Having set the bail rolling, Mrs. Sched never
stopped. In addition to the New Century Club Mrs.
Sched was formerly president of the Pennsylvanid
Congress of Mothers, which oillce she resigned te
become, in 1903, president of the National Congress
of Mothers. Into each one of these three organiza-
,-,-rn-'
in Evers
_ _.. W /i
tions she introduced her juvenile court worl”slC
parent-teacher associations. Arousing their intibt
she has been able to give an impetus to mev 1 tl
that have accomplished wonders. _Aiwa I 'l
crucial moment she has left her home adage the
hands of her grown daughters and hastened tothe
centre of the fray. _ .
One year after the opening of the juvenile equrt
in Philadelphia, at her instance, s similar- "
opened at Pittsburg. Now they extend all thre C'
the State. Other States in which Mrs. Schoili
been a direct intiuence in starting the juvenile court
and probation system are Connecticut, Louisiana
and Idaho. The National Congress of Mothers, stim-
ulated by her influence, is establishing parent-teacher
associations in every State in the Union. _
Mrs. Sched has been the recipient of unique honors.
She is the only woman who has spoken at their re-
quest before the members of the Canadian Parlia-
ment. This was ln 1907. Both houses adjourned
and held a joint session to hear her addlelm- At-
their request sbe trained two probation odicers, and,
as a result, juvenile court and probation work is will
started in Canada. ~ " ' _-= _
Despite her sudden accession to prominence luis-
tional aitairs, Mrs. Sched is justthe some apprw
able, unassuming woman that shs~.was before
She is the mother of seven children. ‘
“My family," she says, “is the best part of my life,
and the most delightful is being a grandmother. With-
out the direct responsibilities of motherhood, I cal
thoroughly enjoy my grandchildren." _
Only one year ago a certain Philadelphia mslilhlh
resigned because, as he stated to the reporters, “l`.l’l.
Sched meddled too much and she gave tee mush Ili
vice. One had no authority."
Concrete results of her worir are best sllewll ll
iigures. Q
There were six hundred children under ltrtsel
years of age in Moynmensing prison in 1900. ' ' `
To-day there are none. ,-
There were three hundred children a month- pi
ing through station houses in Philadelphia, 
To-day there are 50 per cent of that number lb
rested, and these are held in the House of Detention.
There were 1,468 cases in the Philadelphia Juvenile
Court ia 1908.  _ 4.:-|
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