Atlanta Daily World

Chief
Would
Stop
D.C.
Patrol
Trips

By JOHN BRITTON

Chief of Police Herbert T. Jenkins said Monday that he has written a letter to local school officials asking that the annual school safety patrol trip to Washington be discontinued as far as Atlanta students are concerned.

Chief Jenkins said his decision to ask for a discontinuance of the trip was sparked somewhat by the fact that 56 children who were able to pay and willing to go to the capital city this time were left standing on the platform last week as the special train for Washington, D. C., pulled off.

Jenkins said he has since learned that Seaboard Railroad officials intend to become even stricter in their train regulations and that next year perhaps 250 qualified youngsters will not be able to make the trip if the number is still swelled at its present rate.

Jenkins said he had proposed that: 1. The trip be discontinued. 2. If continued, it be limited to boys. 3. Each school should be limited in the size of its patrol so the trip can be limited.

The second proposal contained in the letter would not work, Chief Jenkins acknowledged, "because the patrol right now is almost being taken over by the girls."

The police chief hastened to say that the patrol trip was a fine thing, but he said he believed that it needed evaluation "in consideration of the facts."

Jenkins said the patrol and the capital trip have grown to the point where "demand is greater than capacity." He contrasted the first patrol trip more than 20 years ago with its 50 members to the latest junket that included very close to 3000 youngsters.

If school officials act immediately on Jenkins' proposal as he has asked, there will be no school safety patrol trip to Washington next year for Atlanta students.

But, Jenkins said, if things work out smoothly there is a ray of possibility that the trips may resume in 1961 after the "re-evaluation" has knocked out some of the kinks in the trip.

Jenkins' main contention was that the size of the group making the trip had gotten way out of hand.

He pointed to the fact that the sponsoring police department is strained by requiring almost 100 police personnel to accompany the patrol on the three-day trip as chaperones.

Meanwhile, the tired, but happy youngsters who returned from Washington Sunday after three fun-filled days met an army of parents at Terminal Station Sunday morning when the special train pulled in.

The trip itself was a big experience for the thousands of Atlanta youths who were able to go. They all stood up under the rapid pace of the capital tour with adult-like endurance.

The unsung hero of the whole tour was a petite Grady Hospital nurse who did trojan work in keeping the youngsters healthy during the trip.

Miss Essie Rowser, the young nurse assigned to take care of the Negro youngsters who made the trip, was worn to only half of her usual vibrant smile when she departed from the train station Sunday morning.

Miss Rowser, from the time she stepped on the train Thursday, was on constant call by youngsters who had filled their stomachs too full and those who had contracted slight colds from the change of weather.

She even treated a case of measles on the way back to Atlanta when a little girl patroller came down with that childhood affliction. The youngster turned red all over and Miss Rowser was "johnny on the spot" to diagnose the illness.

She quarantined the little girl, and did her very best to make the child comfortable during the more than 700 mile trip back home. When the train pulled into Atlanta Sunday morning, Miss Rowser, without success, even sought to locate the sick child's parents among the multitude to explain that the illness was nothing to worry over and that the child should be kept out of school for a while to rest.

Everybody else went home, but Miss Rowser still had work to do after the train had pulled in. She had to make out a report to her hospital superiors, giving a detailed account of every drop of medicine she used in treating the illnesses of the kids.

If Miss Rowser got more than 10 or 12 hours of actual sleep during the entire three day trip, she must have done so while standing on her feet guarding the health of the children in the typical Florence Nightingale tradition.

But through all the work and sweat, Miss Rowser said she enjoyed her first trip to Washington, D. C.

Also deserving of mention for the herculean tasks they performed were Detective Howard Baugh, who had direct charge of some 68 lively boys, A. J. Lewis, overall coordinator of the Negro travelling unit, Patrolman A. A. Harris, who also rode herd over a group of prancing boys, and the patrolwomen and teachers who accompanied the youngsters on the trip as chaperones. And of course, Chief Jenkins and his men performed in their usual fine style.

The trip was very rewarding all the way around. The great Washington High School Marching Band, leading the sparkling Atlanta patrolmen in their high-stepping down Constitution Ave., brought back to Atlanta an award given to the Atlanta group for being one of the seven best appearing groups in the Saturday parade.

To quote those who saw the parade: "They couldn't help but give them an award for the best appearing outfit in the parade, because they were. Nobody else could touch them."