generally where there is no father and some poor mother who works all day and simply cannot look after the child, and therefore parental responsibility does not really exist. The child is without a home. It is such children that are generally sent to institutions.

Of course the definition of "delinquency" in other laws. may be either broadened or made less severe. One objection-though really never seriously urged-to this definition of delinquency in Colorado was that it was putting too great a power in the hands of the court, and that it would be abused by the probation officers and the courts because the definition is so broad that almost any child in any community could be brought within the terms thereof. Such fears have proved entirely groundless, since out of hundreds of cases brought to the juvenile court no such charge has ever been made and no exception has ever been taken to, or appeal from, a single judgment. On the contrary, as delicate as the relation between the parent and child is conceded to be, and as ready as people naturally are to resent any unwarranted or unjust intrusion, under this law in Colorado we do not know of a single case where any such abuse has been charged, and there have been several thousand cases under the law in the state. Such has been the real experience under these laws. The whole spirit and purpose of the law is to help and assist the child in the home, where it needs assistance, and to compel the parents to perform their duty where they are neglecting the child. It stands to reason that neither the court nor the probation officers are desirous of bothering with a child whose parents can and will take care of it. The parents of an offending child are generally first given a warning of their legal responsibility for its moral welfare and given a chance to correct it. It is rather the wish and effort of probation officers to obtain the assistance of the parents and in all proper cases to be relieved of the burdens of cases which properly belong to the home. It is intended —and in practice has demonstrated, that it strengthens and preserves the home. Its purpose is to compel parents to perform their duty where they are neglecting it and to help those parents who need help. Parents who are true to their own home and children are entitled to have the benefits of a law that will insure the performance of such duties by other homes, for the sanctity and security of each home, depends a great deal on how well neighboring homes are also conducted, for you cannot prevent children associating together, and they are often influenced

by their associates and the character of that influence depends on how well each child is reared and this of course depends largely on its home and parents. It thus follows that this court is an effort at character building in dealing with the child and at home building in dealing with the parent. The practical operation of this law in Colorado has more than demonstrated that such is its effect. Responsiible parents are given every opporuniy to correct the faults of their children, on the theory that such correction should be made by the parent, and the court simply sees to it that the parent is performing that function and that duty. It has no desire to usurp it. The trouble is, especially in the large cities of this country, that there are thousands of fathers who have deserted the mother, or through divorce, drink, or some other fault, have deprived children of their birthright the care and control of a wise, kind and firm father. The lack of this in the home is one of the most potent causes of the great increase of crime in this country. We must recognize that over half of the criminal inmates of prisons and institutions are from the youth of the nation, who arrive at the prison through neglect in childhood, and bad habits formed at the formative period of life, between eight and sixteen years of age. The purpose of this law therefore is to make a broad definition of delinquency and thus give the court and its officers 'power to aid, help, assist, and otherwise firmly and kindly deal with the children and their parents, especially in the large cities, where the intervention of the state is necessary. In this way and by this system, wisely operated, we are positively preventing crime. It is much better that the state should perform this function wisely, humanely, and well, while there is an opportunity to prevent crime, than to be compelled to postpone the evil day until the child has became a criminal, for the state is today taking care of tens of thousands of its young men after they have become criminals when they might have been saved from lives of crime by sane, sensible and sympathetic interest by the state in boyhood. From one-fifth to one-fourth of all arrests in cities (excluding common drunks and disorderlies) have generally been among boys under seventeen years of age and in proportion to ages of our population, by decades, this means that more boys are being arrested in cities than any other class of citizens, and these boys are mostly the criminals of tomorrow unless wisely corrected and protected today.

The cost of detecting and convicting criminals for a period of three years, in the city of Denver, through the criminal courts, was $1,020,000, as appears from the tables in the booklet on the "Problem of the Children." The saving to the people in actual dollars and cents during three years under the juvenile court system was over $250,000 cash. The governor of Colorado, in his message to the Assembly two years ago, declared that in a period of eighteen months the juvenile system in Denver alone had saved to the state and county over $80,000, and this statement was made after investigation set on foot by the governor.

WHAT IS NECESSARY.

The juvenile law is a good thing, but there can be little chance for its entirely satisfactory operation unless it be accompanied by the following: A law holding parents and others responsible for delinquency and dependency of children, as such laws now exist in Colorado; a wise child labor law; a good compulsory school law; a detention school in cities in place of the jail; the enforcement of all laws relating to children in one court before one judge, and a corps of paid and efficient officers who are sincere and earnest in their work. The best work can never be accomplished by depending entirely upon voluntary probation officers. Whatever degree of perfection may be credited to the juvenile court system of Denver, Colorado, is largely due to the fact that the law permits three paid probation officers for the city of Denver, and that these paid probation officers are not politicians and never were and never will be, and were never known to take any part in politics, but were selected because of the fact that they were educators and heart and soul interested in the problem of the children, knowing and understanding it, and because of a compulsory school law which permits us to keep children in school and thus out of idleness and consequent crime upon the streets. All of these things did not come at once, nor is it claimed that they are yet perfected in Colorado, but they will never come unless the fight is made. Even if the fight shall only win one at a time and the progress has to be gradual and in the face of difficulties, disappointments and misunderstandings the gaining of one will merely demonstrate in time the necessity of the others and thus convince the sceptical. The press, pulpit, schools, and all the people in Colorado are thoroughly convinced of the wisdom of the juvenile court laws and juvenile court system as one of the most potent

factors in the solution of the great problem of crime, and while the saving to citizenship is the most important thing, at the same time, nothing has saved to the state more of its wealth as well as its men and women of tomorrow.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ENDORSES JUVENILE

COURTS.

"The District of Columbia Government should be a model for the other municipal governments of the nation in all such matters as supervision of the housing of the poor, the creation of small parks in the districts inhabited by the poor, in laws affecting labor, in laws providing for the taking care of children, in truant laws and in providing schools.

In the vital matter of taking care of children, much advantage could be gained by a careful study of what has been accomplished in such states as Illinois and Colorado by the juvenile courts. The work of the juvenile court is really a work of character building. It is now generally recognized that young boys and young girls who go wrong should not be treated as criminals, not even necessarily as needing reformation, but rather as needing to have their characters formed, and for this end to have them tested and developed by a system of probation.

Much admirable work has been done in many of our commonwealths by earnest men and women who have made a special study of the needs of those classes of children which furnish the greatest number of juvenile offenders, and therefore the greatest number of adult offenders; and by their aid, and by profiting by the experiences of the different states and cities in these matters, it would be easy to provide a good code for the District of Columbia."-From the message of President Roosevelt to Congress, Dec. 6th,

1904.

"While President Roosevelt promises a report on the Colorado labor troubles from the bureau of labor, he honors the state by recommending to congress the adoption of Judge Ben B. Lindsey's Colorado juvenile laws. It would have been a nice thing, wouldn't it, if the local politicians had succeeded in pulling down Judge Lindsey and destroying that juvenile court just in advance of its honorable mention in the message of the president of the United States to congress? The Post feels proud that it was the newspaper medium of the campaign to resist that blow to civic pride, and it believes that, in the battle to prevent the ignomy,

was the center of the storm wave now purifying our politics." -Editorial Denver Post, Dec. 7th, 1904.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT TO THE PEOPLE OF COLORADO.

The last time the President was in Colorado the following statement was made in his address:

"Just one word on the future of the country-the country as it will be twenty, thirty or forty years hence. A good deal depends upon how we handle business, how we do our great industrial work, how we handle the farms and ranches, but what counts most is the kind of men and women that there are at that time in the country. No nation is safe unless in the average family there are healthy, happy children. If these children are not brought up well they are not merely a curse to themselves and their parents, but they mean the ruin of the State in the future.”

JUDGE BEN B. LINDSEY IN "THE PROBLEM OF THE CHILDREN.”

"It must become the belief of every earnest citizen interested in the home and the citizenship of tomorrow that questions of politics-the tariff, the money question, what is to be done with an alien race in the Philippines, or what not-cannot begin to compare in importance with the question of the children. A member of the President's cabinet (Secretary Shaw) recently said in a public address that the boys of America were the most neglected creatures in the world. I have seen them by the thousands and tens of thousands amidst the congested centers of population in all the great cities of the Union, and I know they do not receive near the attention given to live stock. The marvel is that they turn out as well as they do and that crime is no more prevalent than it is. The state is making magnificent efforts to provide for the intellectual welfare of its children, but it can never hope to get the best results from its labor unless this be supplemented by equal efforts for their moral welfare. The church and the school have a tremendous work, but when these, and the home fail the state is called in, for after all the state is above the parent. It is its duty to see that the child is cared for. It can and does send the child to school or keep it from work, whether the parent consents or not. It does not ask the consent of the parent. The parent merely has the consent