City and State excerpt March 23, 1899, p. 192

City and State, March 23, 1899, p. 192 1899.45029

THE EDUCATIONAL HOME - CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS

In our last issue we showed, by quotations from numerous reports of the State Board of Charities and from other sources, to what a monotony of adverse criticism the Educational Home, during the fourteen years of its existence as an Indian industrial training school, had given rise. No institution spending Government money could have survived such unanswerable condemnation through a long series of years – especially existing, as the Home has done, in the midst of a great civilized community - without the aid of powerful social and political influence. Judged solely upon its merits, this institution would have lost its Government subsidy long ago.

We now ask the attention of our readers to a comparison of statements made by the First Directress of the Home, Mrs. J. Bellangee Cox, regarding charges of cruelty alleged to have been perpetrated on some of its scholars in the spring of 1896, with contradictory statements made by her in writing during the present year. The First Directress, in a letter dated February 12, 1899, addressed to Hon. James S. Sherman, chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the House, states:

“The same man who was discharged from the Home for incompetency and started all these reports to the Indian Rights, was the one who made complaints to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Their Superintendent met me at the Home, and afterward several of the managers conferred with their Board, and no charges that this man made were sustained. [ Italics ours.]”

The man here referred to is Noble Haigh, formerly employed as a teacher in the Home. What were his charges, and were they sustained? The agent of the Society for thew Prevention of Cruelty to Children reported on September 29, 1896, to his Board as follows:

“On September 18, 1896, Noble Haigh made complaint to this office that Francis Cook, Ephraim Budrow, John Bender, Louis La France, and Raymond Hooper had been put in the lock-up, and afterward cruelly beaten by the defendant,” -

And gave as witnesses the boys themselves and certain employees. Mr. Crew then details the steps taken to ascertain the truth of the charges. He continues:

“Learning that the Superintendent [Jackson] had returned from his vacation, I visited the Educational Home Saturday morning, the 19th inst., had an interview with Mrs. J. Bellangee Cox, President of the Home, and George Jackson (Superintendent) and Mr. Mercer (Assistant Superintendent). After stating to them the object of my visit, I was invited by the President to make a full investigation. I then stated the complaint as made at our rooms. Mr. Jackson said they were substantially true. .. [Italics ours.] The Secretary made an examination of the Home and the lock-up. ... It is close to the stable, and is permeated at times by the offensive odors from the horse stalls. There was no furniture in it; it was cold, gloomy, and cheerless. That which impressed me very forcibly was the servile deportment of the boys as they approached their superiors. I do not mean the stolidity as shown in the Indian character; to me it betokened fear of the man they were addressing.

“I have often, in my official capacity, visited most of the reformatories and educational institutions of this city, but never have I heard of such shocking and revolting inhumanity (as I view it) as in the case I have just investigated.” [Italics ours.]

We now call attention to quotations from an autograph letter of the First Directress; addressed to Mr. Crew and having date of September 26, 1896. This furnishes the absolute contradiction to the truth of the statement made by the same lady in February of this year, to the effect that Haigh’s charges were not substantiated, - if anything beyond Mr. Crew’s testimony were needed:

“I did not know, until during your investigation, that the boys were ever stripped of their clothes. I do not approve of that, and I have written to Mr. Jackson that he must never do so again. I also see the wisdom of your suggestion that all cases requiring corporal punishment should be placed before a committee of the managers before it is inflicted. ... He [Mr. Jackson] was brought up in the navy, and looks upon flogging in a different light from you and I do. I know you will do justice to him, and remember the hard position he occupies with such large boys and men, who, until they came to us, never knew right from wrong.”

But Jackson did not wait for justice or the lack of it at the hands of the investigating Society, for he suddenly disappeared, leaving the memory of his cruelties and the instruments with which they were inflicted as an heirloom to the institution. Under these circumstances the facts of this horrible case were permitted by the Society to slumber, in the hope that a new and satisfactory regime would follow. It has not done so, but, instead of that, inefficiency and a deceptive appearance of industrial training has continued, although no cruelties like those indulged in by Jackson have occurred. This proves conclusively that the true and only remedy for a condition of affairs which is a disgrace to Philadelphia and to the Federal Government must be found, as the Indian Rights Association reported, in a complete change of management, or in closing the institution. Since Congress, in its wisdom, has seen fit to continue the appropriation, the Home will doubtless continue for another year at least; but it is within the power of the sixty ladies and gentlemen who compose the Boards of Council and of Management, and who are responsible for this institution, to assume the duties of their office and no longer permit its management to rest with a single member of their Board. We earnestly appeal to these ladies and gentlemen to take this necessary step at once. We beg them, in making this appeal, to consider the foregoing facts; to reflect upon their duty to the helpless Indian youth, for whose tuition they are expending public money; and we trust that they will also remember that the Hon. Commissioner of Indian Affairs has publicly expressed the opinion that under present conditions these funds are “ wasted.”

Document History

• Transcribed by HS 2025-08-06