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Show lj INVESTIGATION IS BEGUN I AT INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL i i i Four Witnesses Testify in Regard to Alleged Mismanagement by ! Heber H. Thomas Mrs. . Lottie B. Halsted Tells of Cruel i ; Punishment of Girls Mrs. Crosbie Relates Pitiful Story. i! ' ' " I ness and replied that he had none at the present time. Mrs. Helen Crosby was the next witness wit-ness called. Mrs. Crosby. Is an elderly lady with gray hair and her story was related between sc)jb which she had difficulty to control, at times completely breaking down ind being I unablo to speak. She said that she I had a grandson, Robert D. Turner, who, when seventeen years of age. was committed to the school, in January, 1908. In August, 190S, he died of scarlet fever while still nn Inmate of (he school. She said he was taken sick Sunday and died Tuesday night. She-was She-was not notified until Tuesday morning morn-ing of the condition of her boy, as she called him, and that when she applied , j The Investigating committee recent- ' ly appointed by Governor Spry to look . I into the alleged mismanagement of the Utah industrial school by Superln- .tondeut Heber H. Thomas, began ,1 their labors yesterday morning, an ex- , ccuthe and "iwo regular sessions be- j ing held. But four witnesses were ex- ( amiued, three or them being former : employes of the Institution under Mr. Thomas' supervision. The Investlga-:! Investlga-:! tion committee will hold the next reg- ' t:lar session at either 9 o'clock or 10 ! o'clock Thursday morning. i Promptly at 11 o clock the mem- ;! bers of the board, consisting of A. C. Nelson, state superintendent of schools; District Attorney Nathan J. i Harris of Ogden; Judge Gowan. Ju- , i venile court officer of Salt. Lake; Rab- j bl Frennd of Salt Lake, and three ; school trustees. Harold Pecry, H. S. Joseph and JoTm Walsh, met in executive exec-utive session at waich Harry S. Jo-ieph Jo-ieph was appointed to preside over the Cieeting: Nathan .1. Harris was chosen ! as examining committeeman, and Har- j rold J. Packer was given the position , of official reporter, I Beside the regular committee there i were present Mrs. Kate S. Hllliard. ! i Mrs. J. M. Bishop and Rev. N. S. El- served at the school and said that the girls were not satisfied with it. She said that during the month of August she went to a point in South Fork canyon in charge of a vacation party of girls, and stated that Superintendent Superintend-ent Thomas was negligent Inasmuch as he allowed the girls to roam about at will while they were In the canyon. Then came the real sensation of the meeting. Mrs. Halsted related thai I during the vacation trip sho was seat-jed seat-jed In front of her tent one afternoon , and saw a girl rush up and whisper something to another who was Iving in o hammock. She said she felt excitement ex-citement In the air. nnd asked the girl I where the others were, and the girl I pointed up a hill. She went up and j paw Ada Sorenson, one of the Inmates, I being chased by a man. and as she j came closer saw three other men running run-ning away from four girls, namely: I Emma McKnight. Ada Sorenson, Mln-I Mln-I nic Wallace and Minnie Gordon. She called the girls to. her and by the fumes of liquor discovered that two of them. Ada Sorenson and Emma Mc-K Mc-K night, had been drinking. She reported re-ported the matter to Superintendent Thomas, who questioned the two girls who had not been drinklnir A ft or hlo ! at the school for permission to Visit him she was denied that privilege and that she did not see him ."igaln, although al-though she and. her husband had purchased pur-chased a glass casket, at an expense of $30, which they sent to the school In order to be able to see their grandson's grand-son's face before he was burled. Even then, she said, Superintendent Thomas refused her permission to sec the boy. She stated that the nurse who had charge of her grandson during his Illness Ill-ness had eight others to care for and that in her opinion it was impossible for one nurse to attend nine patients and-give any of them proper care; that her grandson would have lived much longer if he fond been cared for in a proper manner. She was asked if the boy had not been addicted to the use of cocaine before "he was sent to the school and she said she thought perhaps he was, as the had seen him snuff something up his nose on various occasions. Mrs. Bishop asked her If she did not think ihe boy had been at school long enough before ais sickness to havo ridded his system of the effects of the drug. Mr. Joseph objected to this question, but Mrs. Crosby answered that she thought he had. Rabbi Freund asked if the cocaine habit was j derkln. who are members of a commit tee appointed by the citizens' nass I meeting hold at the Weber Stake hall I and who drew up the resolution prc,- sentod to Governor Spry, and a large ! number of persons Who will be called 1 upon as witnesses. The regular session ses-sion was held in the class room of the school. The investigating committee announced that the resolution which . was passed by the citizens' committee ! last week at the Weber Stake hall, I declaring that Superintendent Thomas ; was manifestly unfit to have charge of the school, did not make any spo-j spo-j cific charges, and asked that the'eili-1 the'eili-1 zons' committee draw up formal and ' specific charges. Rev. Elderkin want-' want-' Cd to know what power the committee ' had in regard to the calling of wlt-! wlt-! ncsscs and was informed that they : J would have no legal power that they ! could ask witnesses to be present for i I examination but could not subpoenae I them. Chairman Joseph announced i that no counsel would be employed by i either side. Adjournment was taken j until 2 o'clock to allow the citizens' j committee to draw up specific charges. At 2 o'clock tho committee again J questioning, he announced that the j party would break camp and return j to tho school the next morning. Sho j said that she had had a hard month of I it and decided to resign. Superlnten-l Superlnten-l dent Thomas accepted her resignation, she said, with the understanding that she would return to be present when he "held court," an she termed It. To j the best of her recollection, she said, lit was several weeks before-this "court" was held, and she understood I that during this lime all four girls had I boon kept In a cell on a bread and wa-e;- diet. When "court day" arrived, lie girls were brought In one by one. and in her presence Superintendent Thomas asked them pointed questions concerning their experience with tho men In the canyon. "Questions such as I stated in my letter to the citizens' committee," said Mrs. Halsted. The committee was not satisfied with this, and required Mrs. Halsted to again repeat re-peat them. They were of a nature w hick-caused those present to hang their heads in Ehamc. and a sigh of relief went up from all parts of tho a greater detriment to tho boy than improper food and she said tha't both were bad but that a combination of the two was worse. Mrs. D. T. Tracy, who formerly was matron of the school, then took the stand and told of the food served at tho school, which she thought was Improper. Im-proper. Among other things, sho 6ald. separated milk was used. She said she was not allowed to discipline any of the Inmates without an order from Thomas; that he dictated everything and allowed her no discretion whatsoever. what-soever. Mrs. Maud Malan, mother of Hattfe Malan. was tho last witness of the day. She slated that at one time she had two children at the school and when she visited them she found her daughter Hattie was being confined in a solitary cell which was small and unsanitary, the stagnant water being so deep on the floor that the girl had to walk on a heavy plank to get to her bed. The investigation was then adjourned ad-journed until 9 or 10 o'clock Thursday morning. '' b.v umoiii'ii, iuis. riuiaicti sai l Mint the girls were deeply hu-mili&ted hu-mili&ted by the questions, and sho hor-relf hor-relf was forced to blush with shame. She did not consider such questions propei ones to be asked by a gentleman gentle-man in the presence of a lady. She ma no complaint to Mrs. Tracy at once, she said, and to several other people! connected with the school. She was questioned as to what other complaints she had made, and said that on one occasion Mattie Malan, a girl Inmate of the school, was suspect-' cd of having some connection with the disappearance of a diamond ring be-lorglng be-lorglng to Mr. Kneass. and was put iu a cell which, she said, was not more than S by S foot, and was kept there for several days on a bread and water diet. As to the condition of the cell sh.? said that il was totally unfit to be j occupied by a human being, being narrow nar-row and having pools of stagnant water wa-ter on tho floor so deep that the girl was forced to walk on a thick plank to gc to and Trom her bunk. The cell w:.s both unsanitary and filthy, j She said that butter was served but twice- a week at the institution, and j tht it was unfit to eat, none ofthe inmates caring for it, Rabbi Freund wanted to know if she wit, in a position to know whether or nor., considering the surroundings of the girls before ihey entered the schools, the questions asked them by Suj erintendent Thomas were of such a nature as to humiliate them. Mrs. Halsted stated that in her opinion" the gi.Is were very much humiliated by the questions, as most of them talked with her about tbcm and said they fCK the shame deeply. assembled and Mrs. Hilllaid announced an-nounced that the citizens' committee I wished to submit the following: I Ogden. Utah, June 14, 19.9. j Hon. Harry Joseph, Chairman of the Governor's Investigating Committee, Commit-tee, Dear Sir: We. the undersigned, clt-Jzcns clt-Jzcns of Utah, hereby, at the request of your committee and under the statement on the part of your committee com-mittee that you would not' hear evidence evi-dence agains't Superintendent 11. II. Thomas of the Industrial school unless un-less such charges were reduced to writing and specifically specifying tho grounds upon which the committee Is asked to take testimony, hereby chHige the said Heber H. Thomas, superintendent su-perintendent of said school, with incompetency in-competency and as being unfit to hold such position, upon tho following j' grounds, iz: That in his dealing wUh the Inmates ! of said institution he has at various j times been cruel and treated the In mates in a cruel and inhuman man-j man-j nor, in this: By confinement in the j solitary cell; by unnecessarily and I without any sufficient reason coufin- j I Ing the male Inmates In what is known i as t?ie cell and feeding them' only i bread and water; that the condition j of the cell and the condition of the buildings where food is kept has at ; 1 various times been unsanitary and not 1 properly eared Tor; that he has In his I dealings with the girls confined in said school been guilty of propounding i unnecessary and indecent questions, and that the questions propounded rc- I quired if they had been compiled with by the inmates, acts on the part : of the girls which no gentleman would have asked or required of such inmates. in-mates. We further charge that Mr Thomas by temperament and which has been fl IlllTlilj n t It- , . . . Dr Gowan then asked her if she thought the food served was nutritious and suitable for the physlcial needs of the children. She said she did not thiiik so". ' Superintendent Xelson asked her if the questions asked by Superintendent Thomas were typical of those asked at other court investigations, and she an- swered that while sho did not know she had heard that they were. Rabbi Freund asked her why she hod not told her story before, and she said that sho did not do so because she thought the word of one woman .uncorroborated, would not bo sufficient to have the desired effect. Chairman Joseph then took the witness wit-ness in hand and asked her If she did not think that Superintendent Thomas hud done a great deal for tho betterment better-ment of the girls at the institution; if she -had not read the newspapers where it was stated that $20,000 had boon appropriated by the state for tho purpose of erecting a new girls' cot- uiuuusiidieu ay nis management man-agement is an unfit person to have , f ,ar?,? of sucb ar institution, and that ; his management of the same has not at all tended to the betterment or ele-' ele-' V , .7 of,those entrusted to his care, and that f..r the Institution to continue under such management is a reflection reflec-tion iip,,n the whole state I tl,Wf , submit as citizens' that we rules In presenting these charges, and tatp1!.0 Slate that " Mr' Tliom iJ 1 It I by sur"r'so by any evidence uhlch may be produced before said ! ; nie fs will enable him to get ! Ith the like privilegegiven to us in nRuanL testimony; and we fur-, fur-, ntrhs"bnit th,at. owing to the nature of the institution In question, it ought i HknT ;nd6h?U,,d haVC th0 very best i a 'nPa ticular'v fitted for euc-a ! ork. that can be had. 1 Af-i'er uA sveatuWy submitted. . . i hi' u.an Jo8ei,u announced that the committee was ready to hear the st,mony. of witnesses and SJ d t . no doubt much plain talk "would be ! U!at whi th" public Jr th! 1 Cd.to atteDfI tne fu session of the investigation, the ladies were Vt I to withdraw at any ti.ne t'iey the tand ""y "0,,,nB8 worth oa las iful w ?rt,as,kocl nis position I Tu . , . 8 ,nfnicd by Mr Josenh ck o'f J be?" .pointed reading 1 rl 01 tbo committee Ivv. ?as iIrs- Ittlo B. Halsted 1 ihL -V . K (,, tinnier r roofi ranged from fifteen To nineteen vo-frs 3 one Bin helng fifteen and the , q from eighteen to nineteen. She a" It ron -.TrS- TTy WM 11,0 'e, u,- mn- 'ron during lhf ,.,.,. t, z ernploye.I m the t;,.,in, ;y ; asked about the cbuvacur ol tLe Wi , 1 i j iflge and other questions of like nature. na-ture. Superintendent Xelson asked her who was responsible for the menu served at the school, and she said she thought that Superintendent Thomas was, as all requisition papers had to gj to him, and many of them were turned down by him. Governor Spry entered the room at this minute and look a seat. Mrs. Halsted said the fo'ofj served at the school was of a very poor order, or-der, that the syrup served at'lbe morning morn-ing meal was often soured, and tho school was usually without hot water Regarding the bods in the rooms for the inmates, she said they were very poor-bad mattresses and l.ad comfortables; comfort-ables; that tbo beds sagged, and vermin ver-min prevailed to n sickening degree. The sanitary conditions of the r.Hms. she said, were very bad. no toilet articles ar-ticles being provided except a common com-mon chamber, and that the excretions were not emptied except on very sparse occasions. Asked if the same conditions now prevail as when she was employed at the school, she said she had been through the school last summer when on a visit to the ma- prTvaflcd ' th am COI"u,ion9 TV conclusion of her tostirnm. v ' -tendont Thomas was asked if i lie. Lau, uuy qucbtlouo to ask the Vit- |