of the state to the custody of the child so long as it is to the child's best interest, and because of natural love and affection it is simply assumed that it is, till the contrary be shown. The state respects, protects and encourages these natural ties, but parents have not owned their children since the days of Roman slavery, and when the parents shirk or fail and their influence degrades the child, their right to its care and custody may be forfeited to the state. Then the state must compel the parents to do their duty; in many cases it must assist; and, purely in the interest of the child, it must often properly and necessarily assume (not usurp) these functions. In doing this let it discharge its duty as nearly as possible as a wise and loving parent should-with patience, with justice, with charity, with love, and yet with firmness and with strength."

"It is worth while observing that Mr. Roosevelt (in his message) gives a well-deserved compliment to the child laws of Colorado and the work of Judge Lindsey by recommending that the laws of Colorado and Illinois be followed in framing child laws for the government of the District of Columbia."-Editorial Denver News-Times, Dec. 6th, 1904.

"You know I believe in children. I want to see enough of them and of the right kind. * * * While in this country we need wise laws honestly and fearlessly executed, and while we cannot afford to tolerate anything but the highest standard in the public service of the government, yet in the last analysis the future of the country must depend upon the quality of the individual home, of the individual man or woman in that home."-Theodore Roosevelt.

Again, in his message to congress, the president says: "There should be severe child-labor and factory-inspection laws. It is very desirable that married women should not work in factories. The prime duty of the man is to work, to be the breadwinner; the prime duty of the woman is to be the mother, the housewife.

‘All questions of, tariff and finance sink into utter insignficance when compared with the tremendous, the vital importance of trying to shape conditions so that these two duties of the man and of the woman can be fulfilled under reasonably favorable circumstances.

"If a race does not have plenty of children, or if the children do not grow up well, or if when they grow up they are unhealthy in body and stunted or vicious in mind, then that race is decadent, and no heaping up of wealth, no splendor of momentary material prosperity, can avail in any degree as offsets."

The importance of the problems that affect the home. were never more powerfully impressed upon a people by any American statesman than in the last message of the President to Congress. Was there ever a stronger statement than the following sentence, occurring in the message?

"IN THE VAST AND COMPLICATED MECHANISM OF OUR MODERN CIVILIZED LIFE, THE DOMINANT NOTE IS THE NOTE OF INDUSTRIALISM; AND THE RELATIONS OF CAPITAL AND LABOR, AND ESPECIALLY OF ORGANIZED CAPITAL AND ORGANIZED LABOR, TO EACH OTHER AND TO THE PUBLIC AT LARGE, COME SECOND IN IMPORTANCE ONLY TO THE INTIMATE QUESTIONS OF FAMILY LIFE."

THE PRESIDENT AND JUVENILE COURTS.

(Editorial, Denver Republican, Dec. 11, 1904.)

The commendatory references to the work done by Judge Lindsey which President Roosevelt made in his message to congress are a scource of pleasure and gratification to all who have observed and approved the good work Judge Lindsey is doing to restrain and save boys in danger of going permanently astray.

It was in connection with his suggestions concerning the better government of Washington city that the president made the comments referred to.

The special feature of Judge Lindsey's work is that wherein he refuses to treat young boys as criminals, but rather as persons "needing to have their characters formed, and for this end to have them tested and developed by a system of probation." This method of treatment, it will be observed, is what President Roosevelt approves, and no doubt his endorsement will go far to secure its adoption in Washington.

The history of crime and of penal institutions is full of evidence of the evil effect of subjecting unformed characters to criminal influences by placing boys or young men in daily contact with the hardened inmates of jails and penitentiaries. So true is this that there should be no question in the mind of any intelligent person that to condemn a boy of 10 or 12 to such an environment is almost equivalent to condemning him to a life of crime.

The period of most effective education is the period of youth, and boys learn far more from example than from precept. To place them at the educative age in daily contact

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with criminals is to train them and educate them in crime. So long as the state follows that course it will have itself to blame for needlessly adding to the number of the criminal class. Judge Lindsey's aim is to save boys who come within the jurisdiction of his court from this evil contact and, while their characters are yet unformed, to start them upon the right path.

The only answer to his application of this method is to say that he maintains no control over the boys, and that his leniency tends to make them look upon criminal offenses as trivial and of little consequence.

Whatever foundation there may be for this charge during the season of school vacation, it is unquestionably not true in the period of school attendance. During the nine months and a half in which the schools are open the eye of the juvenile court for at least five days in each week is upon every boy who is put upon probation. He cannot escape school attendance, for if he remains away that fact is reported and a probation officer is sent after him. His conduct in school is reported by his teacher, and he is compelled to bring that report to Judge Lindsey. If he shows that he conducted himself well, he is praised; but if, on the contrary, his conduct is shown to have been bad, he is admonished and in some cases punished by confinement in the detention

home.

There is hope for a boy so long as he attends school regularly and brings a report of his conduct at stated intervals to the juvenile court. That some go entirely estray is not denied. It has been so since the world began. But this at least may be said that the state is not assisting those whose characters are not yet formed along the path of vice by condemning them to daily contact with criminals.

JACOB A RIIS “THE MOST USEFUL CITIZEN OF NEW YORK"-UPON JUVENILE COURTS.

"The problem of the children is the problem of the state. As we neglect or pass them by the blame for bad government to come must rest upon us.

"I said it before and I repeat it now, the whole life of this most far-reaching reforms hangs upon the faithful execution of the probation law by the judges. They are the keepers of the people's conscience in this matter, and have it in their power to smother or put it to sleep.

"You are altogether and everlastingly right. The child who gets yanked into court is a victim not a criminal. He is

sinned against, rather than sinning. 'He is not wicked, but weak,' is the verdict of every thinking superintendent and prison chaplain I ever met. Some one or something is responsible for his weakness, his lack of character. If that is the truth, then to register him as a criminal is the worst of crimes; it is folly, the kind of folly that wrecks the citizenship of tomorrow with the boy. The something that sent him adrift is the thing to be held responsible-hence our fight in the cities for better homes, for human rights for the lad, for play, for school, for everything that makes a natural childhood for him. Where the parents are at fault they should be put on probation, according to Colorado's wise plan; where it is any other guilty one he should feel the responsibility. Poor Tony, who alone can have none, who is the victim of everybody's else's neglect, or worse, all around, is dragged into court, frowned upon and fined, and headed straight for the jail, for the gallows, perhaps, for a criminal career that mulcts us all for the neglect and indifference of a few. What a perversion of justice and sense.

"Not only Colorado, but the whole country, owes the juvenile court a debt of gratitude for making our duty toward the lad clear. He has been trying in his own way to do it by holding before us the results of our wasteful ways, to call them nothing worse. It is bad to waste money on food, but to waste the tomorrow of the republic is criminal. Be sure he will respond to the ways of better sense. It does not take him long to discover that it 'pays better to be good than bad,' if, indeed, he has not long since made it out, waiting only for the day that should give him the chance."

JUDGE LINDSEY ON JUVENILE COURTS. The following remarks by Judge Lindsey at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in Portland, Maine, in June, 1904, will best explain one of the most important features of the Colorado juvenile law which does not pertain to that of any other state:

"I insist that one point respecting which we have been weak in the past has been our failure to do sufficient earnest work to help the boy in the home. We must have laws all over the union like that which has proven so satisfactory in Colorado, which holds the parents and other citizens responsible for the delinquency of children. In Denver, for six years past we have arrested the parent for the truancy of the child. The law gave us power to fine or send that parent to jail, and we have done that, too. For two years past it

has permitted us to do the same thing with parents and others who contribute to any character or delinquency of the child. Here is an actual case, as showing how the law operates: A man sent a twelve-year-old boy to a saloon. The boy entered the place and received a package from the barkeeper. He carried that package to a disorderly house. In Denver we brought in the man who sent the boy to the saloon, the barkeeper who gave him the package, for permitting him to enter the saloon, and the keeper of the disorderly house for permittng him to enter the disorderly house. Now, what is the effect of this? It is simply to force men and women to respect the sacred rights of children, and in doing this we improve the environment and detract from the opportunities for evil in the life of the child, and thus we begin to smash the mill that is grinding out the delinquent children of the great cities. We are not going to make much progress until we work along this line, and work hard and hit right and left, sparing no man who may be guilty. I note that thousands of children are being brought to the juvenile courts of the great cities. This is the product that comes from the mill. Now, I ask you, what are you doing to stop the mill?

"In Colorado we are trying to smash the mill, and so we are putting men and women on probation very often while we send the chidren home to become members of the Little Citizens' League. With us the police have brought in the product, but it has been left to the boys to turn upon the mill and help to smash it. We must enforce these laws for the protection of sacred childhood.

"I object to boys going to saloons and vile places more because of the example that is set them than from any fear that they may really become drunkards or gamblers by choice. Boys do what men do; they are imitative-if they see men doing things which they are forbidden to do, all of your preaching soon becomes a howling farce. One good example in the life of a boy is better than forty sermons.' TWO GOVERNORS OF COLORADO TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY RECOMMENDING

JUVENILE COURT.

Governor James H. Peabody:

THE

"The County Judges' Association, composed of all the county judges of the state, with painstaking care and much labor, has prepared and will submit to this assembly “A