A great deal of educational work must be done with the general
public and employers of labor to remove the resistance to the employ-
ment of older persons. That is why much fruitful labor can be accom-
plished at a conference such as this.
Let us all resolve here that no citizen of this great State will be cast
off in his old age, nor forsaken when his strength fails him.
ADDRESS, DEDICATION OF CHILDREN'S CENTER
CATONSVILLE
November 2, 1959
This is a day to be remembered in Maryland. We are here to dedi-
cate a new institution which is intended to serve thousands of children
in the near and distant future. These children, legally wards of the
state, are children who will appear before the courts of the state and for
whom the courts order detention for study prior to final disposition.
Since the 1952 fiscal year, admissions to the four state training schools
of the state have increased approximately 60 per cent. Admitted to the
state training schools during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1959, were
2, 306 children. Of this number 1, 244 were committed by the courts of
the state for long term institutional care and rehabilitation, while 1, 062
were detained by the courts pending final disposition. The training
schools in recent years have been placed under tremendous pressures of
overcrowding, some of which has been caused by the presence in the
school populations of many children on a detained basis. Because of the
concern of the boards of managers of the training schools, the State
Board and the Department of Welfare, various commissions, experts and
the courts, a great deal of thought and effort has been expended in
evaluating the Maryland program and in deciding upon a plan of action
to deal with the problem.
In 1953, the Administrative Organization Commission, studying the
state government, reported on delinquency control and strongly recom-
mended to the state that the courts of the state be provided with
adequate detention and study facilities. The Commission was par-
ticularly concerned that the State training schools were being used to
provide institutional service for both committed and detained children.
The Commission found that "the constant passage of detained children
in and out of the training schools; children without the same motivation
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