127 Ga. 68 | Ga. | 1906
4. A further contention is that the act violates the provisions of the 13th amendment of the constitution of the United States and that provision in the constitution of the State of Georgia which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude save as a punishment for crime after legal conviction thereof. When the State as parens patrise, through its properly constituted tribunals, takes ■under its custody and control those unfortunates who are unable to take care of themselves on account of physical or mental infirmity, or' on account of the fact that those charged with the duty of caring and providing for such persons fail to discharge this duty or are not of such character as that it is best for such persons to be under their custody or control, it can not be said that, because incidentally to this control such persons may be required to perform such labor as is proper to be required of them according to their age and condition, such persons are placed within slavery within the meaning of the constitutional provisions denying the power of the State to establish that condition of servitude. When the State takes into its custody, under the power above referred to, a child under the age of 21 years, the State occupies, so far as the care and custody and duty owed to the child is concerned, the same position that the parent occupies, and the parent is authorized to restrain the liberty of the child, and it is the duty of the parent to require of the child such service and labor as its age and capacity would admit of and as may be for the best interest of the child itself. Therefore it necessarily follows that when the State has to assume the control and custody of the child, its conduct towards
Complaint is made that the court refused to render a judgment directing the Home for the Friendless to permit the mother to visit her child once a week. There was no error in this ruling: This is a matter that must be left to the discretion of the authorities of the institution. So long as the commitment stands, the child is in the exclusive custody of the institution, and whether the parents should be allowed to visit the child must necessarily be left to the sound discretion of the governing authorities of the institution. It is not to be presumed that the authorities would
Judgment reversed.