The Chicago star., June 19, 1948, Star Edition, Page 2, Image 2

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

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

                
2
Cont'd
St. Charles
From Page 1
in turn, appointed his chum. Col.
H. E. Thornton, as assistant di
rector, and Thornton, also a Na
tional Guarder. placed Hodgin in
control of the St. Charles reform
school. Os course, Hodgin is also
a Colonel in the National Guard.
* * *
HODGIN is on the skids. He
may be replaced any Jay now—
possibly by Charles 'W. Leonard,
now director of the social serv
ice department of the Catholic
Youth Organization in Chicago—
since the Illinois Youthful Of
fenders Commission has been
stumping for his ouster.
He submitted his resignation
last April, when things began
getting hot, but no action has
yet been taken.
Before taking me on a tour of
St. Charles, Hodgin briefly out
lined the workings of the insti
tution. At present, 427 bc-ys, be
tween the ages of 10 to 17, are
wards of St. Charles. There are
also 39 in Hodgin’s words
“tougher boys,” serving time at
the Security Branch of St.
Charles, in Sheridan, 111. Sheri
dan —aptly called “Little Alca
traz” by St. Charles’ wards —is
nothing more-or-less but a prison
cell-block set in the flat prairies
50 miles from St. Charles.
* * *
WARDS of St. Charles are
housed in 14 “cottages” on the
grounds, and “honor wards” live
in the institution’s seven “farm
cottages.” Although St. Charles
receives $3,000,000 biennally
from the state, it is operated on
a self-sustaining basis.
Hodgin, and former St. Charles
administrators, like to boast that
the boys are getting good voca
tional training “I wish that
when I was a boy,” Hodgin re
marked reverently several times,
“I had had the opportunities that
these boys have to learn a voca
tion.” But actually the boys
themselves sustain the institu
tion.
St. Charles’ wards work the
I, farm acres owned by the
state institution; they tend its
THE CHICAGO STAR, JUNE 19, 1948
Bias costs bar $300;
press smothers story
A State st. tavern has been
ordered to pay S3OO damages to
a Negro against whom it dis
criminated, The Chicago Star
learned this week.
The Star also found out that
the daily newspapers had the
facts in the case three weeks ago,
although they refused to print
the story.
The case was heard before
Judge Samuel Heller in Munici
pal Court. On May 27 he ordered
Peter Nechipor and his son. Peter
The Chicago
ft Cwr.cu ana puDnsned WEEKLY
by The Chicago Star Publishing
Co., Inc.. 166 West Washington
Street, Chieago 2. 111. Phone
RANdolph 0580.
Cable address: Chistar
Frank M. Daria Executive Editor
Carl Hirsch Managing Editor
William Senneti General Manager
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
(Except Canada
- and foreign) 1 Year $2.00.
Entered as second class matter
June 25, 1946 at the post office at
Chicago, 111., under the Act of
March 3, 1879.
Postal regulations require that
all new subscriptions for military
Kersonnel stationed overseas must
e accompanied by a written
request from the person to whom
the subscription is directed.
It's time to have the
truth about St.
IT’S time for Illinoisans to
begin to wonder why St.
Charles, the Illinois State Train
ing School for Boys, is breed
ing not curing delinquent
boys.
It’s time that we knew the
facts . . . about what goes on
inside St. Charles the sadis
tic beatings, harsh discipline for
young boys who have known
nothing but kicks and slaps and
abuse.
Last week The Chicago Star
front-paged the story of Joseph
L. Minnifield’s resignation from
his post as supervisor of Social
Service at St. Charles.
Then. The Star charged that.
"St. Charles has been exposed
often during its 50-year life
span in periods of political
shake-up . . . but each time
local newspapers lifted the lid
covering St. Charles' abomin
able operation . . . just long
enough for a shake-up in the
'school's' administration, then
hogs, chickens, turkeys, cows;
they can its food; they prepare
its meals; they operate its laun
dry; they tend its grounds; shovel
its coal; bind its books. There is
even a barbershop “school,”
where all wards get haircuts
from “students.”
* * *
THERE was still little indica
tion of the real story of St.
Charles, when Col. Hodgin com
pleted his summary of the
“school’s” workings, and rose
from his desk to take me on a
tour of the grounds.
But outside Hodgin's office, in
the reception room, sat a young
boy with his arm in a sling, and
bandages around his head.. "He
cracked up on the farm." Hod
gin muttered nervously, hurry
ing me through the room to the
outside porch. "Yes. that's it—•
he cracked up on the farm."
I wondered . . . how was this
boy injured. Could he possibly
be the victim of St. Charles’ no
torious discipline—that Col. Hod
gin was later to admit?
Jr., owners of she State Tavern,
501 N. State, to pay damages to
Peter Gallagher.
* * *
GALLAGHER told Judge Hel
ler that the discriminatory act
occurred about July 31, 1946,
after he entered the tavern and
ordered a bottle of beer.
“He was informed by the de
fendants and their agents that
the defendants would not serve
drink ... to any member of
the Negro race,” Gallagher’s suit
charged, adding that he was theti
“compelled ... to leave the
tavern”’
At Judge Heller’s request, the
Mayor’s Commission on Human
Relations assigned two investi
gators, one Negro and one
to the case.
Judge Heller said they report
ed that the Negro had to pay 50
cents for a bottle of beer which
cost the white investigator only
25 cents. A glass of draft beer
cost the Negro investigator 20
cents, the while man only 10
cents.
Mac Dougall Hq.
Curtis D. MacDougall, Pro
gressive candidate for Senator,
this week opened campaign head
quarters in his home at 537 Jutl
son av., Evanston. Earle A.
Bronson, 800 Simpson st., Evans
ton, was named treasurer of the
volunteer MacDougall for Sen
ator Committee, which is now
engaged in a fund-raising drive.
Charles!
the wraps were carefully put
back on the scandal."
The Star hit the nail right
on the head. In this past week,
local newspapers came out for
blood. They want a shake-up in
the personnel at St. Charles.
But why is the superintend
ent of St. Charles. J. C. Hod
gin. on his way out? What is
his Iwo-and-one-half year rec
ord? What conditions will a
new superintendent find ex
isting at Illinois' crime incu
bator? And why is the politi
cian who holds the actual ad
ministrative reins at St. Charles
—Governor Dwight Green— ig
nored, while newspapers make
scape-goats out of his appoin
tive administrators?
Unhampered by the political
apron strings which bind other
local newspapers, The Utaj isn’t
afraid to tell the story. This
week The Chicago Star begins
a series of articles, in order to
arm its readers with the inside
story of St. Charles.
'Sun never sets . . /
Hans Von Kaltenborn, reac
tionary news commentator on the
Mutual network, calls charges
that U. S. foreign policy is im
perialistic “Communist propa
ganda.”
But last week H. V. Kalten
born, the man with the authorita
tive voice, in effect admitted the
charge. Commented Kaltenborn:
"The sun never sets on Ameri
can armed forces."
In pre-Kaltenbom days, the
phrase used to be: “The sun
never sets on the British Em
pire.”
Two truths
PRESIDENT Truman was
homeward bound from
his “non-political” tour this
week—and one thing at least
had come out of it.
It was obvious that if
Truman is renominated the
Democrats will conduct a high
ly-demagogic campaign, making
with the talk about civil rights,
price control, social welfare, etc.
It shouldn’t be hard to prove
how thoroughly Truman himself
sabotaged this program in col
lusion with the Republicans.
Out of all the political jab
bering as the ’4B campaign got
into full swing > two statements
emerged as pure truth:
TRUMAN: "This is one of the
worst Congresses we've ever
had."
THE GOP: "Truman is one
of the worst Presidents we've
ever had."
Speed demons
IT may take Congress 100
years to pass good civil
rights, housing or minimum
wage legislation, but when the
boys are dealing with their own
bread and butter they can real
ly cook with gas.
The Senate took just three
minutes to pass a bill on June
3—one that provided $55,362,726
to pay congressional salaries.
And in that near-record three
minutes, the' Senators found
time to add $503,036 to the or
iginal amount voted by the
House.
This amendment, reported
one newspaper, made it neces
sary for the measure to be re
turned to the House "for ex
pected quick agreement."
But quick.
n
Aa long as you can't afford to eat, Dillingshy . . . We
can dispense with your lunch hour ...
Furniture workers give
solid vote to Wallace
CIO furniture workers wound
up their sixth constitutional con
vention in Chicago last week
with unanimous endorsement of
Henry A. Wallace for President.
All top officers of the union
were re-elected unanimously.
The convention also went on rec
ord with resolutions: ■
Denouncing the Mundt bill, or
any facsimiles of it;
Calling for CIO unity in sup
port of the militant policies on
It's in the mind
ABOUT a month ago Emil
Schram, president of the
• New York Stock Exchange,
told a congressional committee
that inflation is “a state of
mind.”
This new pseudo-psychiatric
school of economics now has a
fervent disciple none other
than Alfred P. Sloan, chairman
of General Motors Corp.
Sloan, at a stockholders’
meeting in Wilmington, Del., re
cently, reported the company’s
profits for the first three
months of 1948, after all taxes
and bills, were $96,500,000 as
compared with a mere $60,800,-
000 for first three months of
1947.
Then, after consulting his
dream-book, Sloan came out
with this gem: "The profits of
the industry in genera] are more
emotional than economic." It
such profits are emotional, the
boys are mighty close to an
hysterical jag.
Science has confirmed that a
Chinese girl has gene nine years
without eating.
Employers need not bother
sending scouts to China. It is
also reported that this method
cannot be taught to American
workers.
which the organization was
founded;
* * *
CONDEMNING the Marshall
-plan as Wall Street-inspired;
Opposing the draft or universal
military training;
Asking Federal legislation to
halt lynching, racial discrimina
tion, restrictive covenants and
.the poll tax;
Ending the embargo on arms
to Israel.
Whose truce?
THERE is an ominous quiet
in Palestine this week. It
is truce without peace.
Among those who are watch
ing and supporting the valiant
struggle of a long-tortured peo
ple for a homeland, there is a
fear that the truce was a defeat
for the Jewish people.
Will the Arabs be in a
stronger position when the
fighting resumes?
The hint that the truce was
a U.S.-British-Arab piece otf
treachery is contained in a re
cent statement by Britain's
puppet, King Abdullah of
Transjordan, who declared in
amazement over Jewish hero
ism and resistance:
"They have turned it into a
second Stalingrad. They refuse
to surrender."
Was the truce engineered to
give the Arabs time to regroup
their forces, secure more sup
plies and prepare for a new
assault?
Cardiogram
ON the University of Chi
cago campus, the maga
zine “Pulse” sometimes gets
pretty close to the heartbeat
of the students and faculty.
In a poll on the presidential
race in its current issue, the
magazine produced an interest
ing cardiogram.
Henry Wallace was far in the
lead with 42 votes from the 160
faculty members who partici
pated. His two closest rivals
were Stassen and Taft with 26
each.
Sidelight: A theology profes
sor wrote in the name of Wil
liam Z. Foster, Communist
leader.