Show shall hall we ir pauperize lauper ize the state 0 by JOS A GEDDES president utah state conference of social work GROWING UTAH RESOURCES L I 1 tho the now new tate state S training school at amerl american ean fork well its here all right the long talked about school for the mentally handicapped is now a reality acres of land plenty of room two dormitories a laundry a service building a f farm rm c col 0 I 1 any and a site on the amri american c fork bench overlooking utah lake lahe and beautiful utah valle valley 2 that could hardly be more inspiring or reflect better the kindly feeling of the people of the state towards the less fortunate of its citizens besides the medical superintendent and secretary bookkeeper there is a supervisor nurse three full time teachers and two part time teachers shall we Pre preserve serie a strong racial stock new social institutions arise out of a long recognized and increasingly in I 1 y realized social need although we have had no school for the feeble minded until 1931 we have had feeble minded people with ith us from the beginning since these people are much mo more e prolific than higher strains it is probable that the quality of human stock has been somewhat on th the decline during the last lant half century when the two new dormitory buildings were opened for use they were both filled to capac capacity ty wither a few months and many are arc still left among the people throughout the state when the pioneers settled utah the racial stock was relatively clean and strong made so by the rigors of migration and settlement the weak and the handicapped remained in the cast or died en route the strong survived ross holds that the religious motive also attracts super representative people and the religious motive was strong in early day utah thus good stock tended to predominate it is probable that later migrations have impaired the quality of stock somewhat for defects of various kinds are increasingly demanding attention why should utah have so high a percentage of the deaf and dumb for instance that the people of utah are becoming awake to the importance of preserving and improving the quality of her human stock is evident at two points 1 the establishment lish ment of a training school for the mentally handicapped where prorogation may be controlled and 12 2 through the passage of a sterli sterilization I 1 liza tion law lav making it possible for J nien men and women who are congenitally handicapped to have companionship I 1 through marriage without bringing into the world handicapped children unfortunately because the law is confined to institutions only and because of red 1 tape difficulties it Is practically inoperative our legislature should remove these technical obstructions improve the law lav and broaden its scope it is pertinent to inquire why the law is not in operation in spite of a little red tape having put our hand to the plow we should not turn back A strong race is worth every safeguard its perpetuation requires A defective race is the price of ignorance and unwise philanthropy defective stock breeds weakness sickness unhappiness and death we need not only to strengthen our sterilization law and to increase the facilities of the training school but we must give increasing attention to the larger body of the blesy less fit fic who are arc not defective but whose capacities are arc limited the schools are now taking up this th is task ask the much talked problem of birth control has meaning at this point likewise chamber of commerce ad e et ising campaigns a widely touted high wage rate or a missionary system may not help matters if inferior stock that must later be carried on charity funds aie brought into the state if utah can att ctt act the strong the cultured and the righteous if she can limit the reproduction of the unfit and can prevent a vor vorace accous ous machine age from taking strength health and beauty out of her people there will vill not be so much to v orry about good human stock is the greatest resource of this state the new school should help to preserve it an interesting thing about the new training school is that students are admitted they are not committed the utah state training school is no jail this institution not only has a beautiful site with commodious well lighted well ventilated well kept buildings but it has set out to develop a spiritual structure in which the less fortunate find kindly paternal care it is just as easy to fill the school with the kind of people it is designed to serve in this way as it is to force them in it is going to make a great deal of dif terence after they get there how thy were put there the writer is happy to cong congratulate rat chairman skeen the board of trustees and former ft arnier superintendent whitten on this enlightened policy II 11 the probation service of the utah juvenile courts the probation department of the juvenile courts occupy an important position in the juvenile court movement it is through bliem clieny that the old idea of punishment is discarded in favor of a new nev attack on problem children the new approach attempts to draw heavily on the sciences of sociology biology and psychology to first find ou out t what is wrong either with the or ins his environment and second in the light of a knowledge of the facts in the case to work out a program designed to bring about normal socialized cia lied citizenship r i t I 1 es h I 1 p among the specialists who may be called on for assistance arc the psychiatrist for mental and emotional maladjustments the lycho psychologist for mental and apsit udina measurements the physician and the dentist for physical disabilities and the sociologist for failures in group integrations it is to be remembered that juvenile court cases represent the failures of the home the church and the school they present genuine difficulties can the juvenile courts through the new approach handle this job what kind of probation service is needed to do it good citizens of utah there are times when you fall down terribly on this job of running your government do you think you can become interested enough in a fine movement of this kind to have your legislature pass a juvenile court law set up machinery creating many appointive jobs and then go back to your work forget all about it and expect the new system to provide you with the social gains that leaders have promised you Is it likely that political machines will fill these jobs with poorly qualified people such as ex police officers whose training has been largely in repression and punishment when a father fails with his son when the school teachers give up when the sunday school teacher finds his efforts unavailing what does docs society then do 7 if they are progressive gres sive and lnell intelligent igent they insist that appropriated money be used in providing highly qualified probation service for many years mr air citizen while you slept on the job a considerable amount of good utah money was spent with mediocre returns the present situation the juvenile court movement in utah looks better today than it has ever done this does not mean mean that adequate probation service has been achieved it means that progress is being made and that several promising developments have taken place during the past few years 1 the juvenile court commission with B H robinson as executive secretary have under way a probation development pro gram through thong which the resources of three colleges of the state are arc being used to de bevelot probation officers last year extension courses in this field were given in salt lake ogden provo and logan it is the intention to continue this program of improvement 2 acting under the 1931 law the commission Is in process of establishing a merit system under which through a graduation of position and pay better qualified people may be attracted to this field improved probation is the greatest need of the state juvenile courts today whether the commission has determined to eliminate polities politics entirely from the field as they ought to do or whether they have decided to limit it remains to be seen it is evident that they are arc going further and more vigorously in this direction than at any proceeding time 3 1 the recent extension of the district plan by which the rural areas are arc organized on a large enough base to warrant selecting better qualified judges and probation officers i is decidedly in the interest of more adequate service such efforts as these les leads one into a happier frame of min mind Is the time far distant when we may have one probation officer in each district who is properly qualified by this I 1 mean a college graduate with a major in sociology and a strong background in biology psychology ch economies economics and political science and who in addition has had one or two years of graduate work in a school for social work where supervised field work would be included when such a policy goes into effect we may expect to get increasingly fruitful results it would not be much more expensive to do it this way the boys are arc going through college why not give them a chance |