The Chicago star., June 19, 1948, Star Edition, Image 1

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
The Chicago
3 -
—-
Published
Weekly
Vol. 3. No. 25
Citizens say:
tofue
BOOST
See Page 5
Alert!
While we're busy congratu
lating ourselves on stopping
the Mundl Bill, let's not drop
our guard completely.
The enemies of civil rights
were not able to win in a clean
fight with the people.
The flood of protest wires,
petitions and delegations*was
something the Un-American
Committee had not foreseen.
But in these closing days of
the congressional session, the
danger is acute.
There is no telling what
tricks can be suddenly pulled
out of the bag to sneak the
Mundt Bill through before ad
journment.
We urge our readers to be
ready to act at a moment's
notice during the next few
days to take whatever action
is necessary to halt a move to
push through this fascist bill.
Be on the alert!
66
life
DEAN OF THE HOUSE Rep. Adolph J. Sabath <D.. 111.1. places a
wreath on the memorial to Supreme Court Justice John Marshall.
Ceremony commemorating civil rights was sponsored by Committee
to Defeat the Mundt Bill, now lobbying in Washington against
attempts to railroad a "New Look" Mundt Bill through the Senate.
A
S'Sf
the people’s viewpoint
Jr
Chi. ie 19.1948
* <
PUBLICITY pictures from Si. Charles School for Boys. like
the one above, show a pretty picture of the excellent school
ing inmates receive. The Star reporter found the "training** to
be much more in the form of brutal treatment and hard labor.
Edition Five Cents
What goes on
at St. Charles?
By ISABEL CARR
When I visited St.
Charles, I was prepared for
what I found there.
“I was at St. Charles for
two months—working as a
member of the staff—before
I discovered that there was
anything at all wrong with
the place,” one psychiatric
social worker, recently re
signed from St. Charles, had
told me.
But, I wondered, would it be
as difficult for me to penetrate
St. Charles’ protective colora
tion, armed as I was with the
unbelieveably shocking inside
story of that state institution as
told by former employes there?
I didn’t think so . . .
* * *
THE “school” itself is set in
an enchanting, idyllic location,
about 50 miles outside of Chi
cago. Green, rolling lawns form
a “campus” for the institution’s
well-cared-for red brick build
ings. Huge old trees, f illed with
nesting song-birds, grace the
grounds with their verdant fol
iage. Neat, white gravel roads
wind carelessly between the
buildings.
It isn't hard lo imagine why
tourists and travelers, passing
by the grounds of the Illinois
State Training School for Boys
at St. Charles, quip jokingly:
"Boy, Lookit that country re
sort! Oh. to be a juvenile de
linquent!"
Except for a high wire fence
surrounding the spacious
grounds; except for a solitary
horseman, slowly trotting his
horse in a nonchalant patrol—•
there is nothing to betray the
proof I possessed of hidden bru
tality.
e • *
J. C. HODGIN. superintend-
ent of St. Charles, received me
in his office with all the cor
dial hand-shaking aplomb of
the politician, a mien which he
has acquired during many years
of Republican vote-getting
down-state in the service of
Gov. Dwight Green.
Hodgin, who looks lis& a mild
caricature of Harry Truman,
nervously toyed with papers
and pencils on his desk, as I
asked questions about his ad
ministration of St. Charles.
With a polite little grimace,
intended to serve as a friendly
smile, Hodgin told me in con
fidential tones that . . . “those
stories in the newspapers (about
St. Charles) obviously aren’t
true.” If they were true, Hod
gin added, “we’d have more es
capes than we do . . . The boys
just wouldn’t stay here.”
* * *
THEN. in a manner which I
later learned is characteristic of
the man, he neatly “stuck his
foot in his mouth,” when he
said:
"We'll always have escapes
from here . . . But we've had
less than 20 escapes in the last
six months ... Os course, to
night we may have more than
that . . . This is the most un
predictable place."
A personally autographed
portrait of the Illinois National
Guard’s Brig. Gen. Cassius
Poust, on one wall of Hodgin’s
office, reminded me of how
Hodgin, a former telephone line
repairman, had obtained his
post at St. Charles.
When Gov. Green appointed
his buddy. Poust, Stale Public
Welfare Director in 1945, Poust.
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