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Educating mothers and providing for them to educate their children has become a nation-wide movement, and this is what has lessened the work of the Juvenile Court. The child that used to play in the streets while his mother worked in a factory that he might have a crust and a blanket, is now cared for by that mother. The Mothers' Pension Law enables her to stay at home and care for the child, and the mothers' information propaganda carried on by the parentteachers organizations, and the better class of perodicals, teaches her how to rear and train him. There is no greater work than this, Mr. Blank. Surely you have not thought seriously when you doubt the wisdom of the present attention to child training."

“I certainly do believe in good homes and their influences,”* remonstrated Mr. Blank; "and I realize that the mother is the cornerstone of the home. If all this stir over better babies, school nurses and so on makes better and more capable mothers it has my sanction, but I have doubted this, it seems so absurdly overdone."

"It cannot be overdone," asserted the woman. "True, we have fanatics in every propaganda, but the cause of child improvement suffers infinitely less from their endorsement than it would from neglect or condemnation. National progress-the world's advancement-depends primarily on individual improvement, and does not this properly begin with the child?"

"Yes," Blank admitted, limply. "Results speak for themselves," went on Mrs. Collins. "You cannot continue to scoff at the workers in this field and doubt the results of their efforts when you keep in touch with the Juvenile Court. Speaking again of conditions in Seattle, Judge Dykeman pointed out the social significance of the lessening number of delinquents brought before his court." Mrs. Collins turned a few pages of her scrap-book, and read this paragraph to Mr. Blank:

"When a child comes to the Juvenile Court it means that the social organization has at some point been a failure. When the volume of Juvenile Court cases increases disproportionately with the in

crease of population it means that the social integrity of our citizenship is declining. Conversely, when fewer children drift into perilous conditions of neglect and irregular conduct because of insufficient guardianship it is the most immediate and reliable evidence of a substantial condition among the people. It is gratifying to observe that the number of children brought to the King County Juvenile Court during the year 1916 was 133 fewer than during the same period of 1915. If we admit the usual increase in population this decline is all the more significant."

"Perhaps I am a bit old-fashioned," admitted the old gentleman. "Such specialization and feverish enthusiasm were unknown in my youth."

"You are an ultra-conservative," responded his friend. "I am a bit reactionary myself in many things; I do not favor all the modern methods in use today; but the better child movement is proceeding on such sensible lines, and is proving so much as it goes, that I think we all owe it our earnest support. I could cite many instances of practical results. Childless women who attend lectures during baby week, who hear child betterment discussed at their clubs, and read of it in the magazines, often are led to the adoption of some needy little one. Seattle parents have responded nobly to the call for homes. The Washington Children's Home Society cannot meet the demand; during the holidays last year there were at least a dozen applications after all the little ones on hand had been placed. Were there no other claims for our 'feverish enthusiasm,' as you have termed it, this stimulation to the assistance of dependent children would amply justify it."

"That certainly is true," spoke up Mrs. Blank, and her husband nodded his agreement. Mrs. Collins went on:

"The fact is that the whole movement owes all it has gained to the spread of interest; publicity has done for it just what i did for your store-won attention. Big interest brings big effort. The parent-teacher associations are helping to show the importance of child culture, institutions and hospitals are treating many children without charge, libra

J

UDGE NEIL of Chicago has braved the perils of a sea voyage in wartime and has arrived in this country, in response to the invitation of the State Children's Association. Who is Judge Neil? And what connection has his name with the question of the welfare of State children in this country? He is a Judge in Illinois, who, in the course of his work has seen the tragic effects of a social system in which children are taken away from the care of those mothers who are too poor to provide for them. And he comes to suggest to the people of this country a way of dealing with the question of destitute children which has been tried with success in America.

The outstanding principle of his particular contribution to the great question of child welfare now engrossing the attention of all the civilized nations, is insistence upon the child's vital and supreme need of the mother, and the importance to the community of saving the mother from the scrapheap and giving her a secure position as an honorable and useful servant of the community at the same time as the State steps in to save the child from destitution. His special claim upon the interest of all people in our own country who are concerned to find a practical remedy for child poverty, is that he has been successful in securing legislation, not only in his own State but in twenty-nine other states of America-legislation which enables a widowed mother with no adequate means of support to be furnished with money to support her children out of the common county tax fund.

and so admittedly successful, cannot fail to be interesting to the members of the Women's International League. Reduction of juvenile crime, the actual economy secured to the ratepayer, are excellent arguments for the scheme. But the most significant fact from the International Women's standpoint is that, almost for the first time since the history of modern civilization, the service to the community of the mother, as the organizer of the home is publicly acknowledged and honorably recompensed. For it must be clearly understood that the Mothers' Pension System is not merely an expansion of the system of "outrelief" as administered by some of our more progressive Boards of Guardians. The distinguishing feature about the American scheme is that the adequate sum apportioned to the mother for the maintenance of her family carries with it no suggestion of charity and no stigma of pauperism. She is recognized as a servant of the state. She receives her monthly check from the same source and by the same method as that by which a warden of a state institution or a judge of a state court receives his stipend. She is responsible to the state in precisely the same way. Motherhood takes its due place as a social ministry to the whole community, and becomes by implication an honorable part of public life. And this reacts throughout the community in a readjustment on more true and more dignified lines of the position of women in the body politic.

Judge Neil believes in the mother. He is filled with reverence for the miracle that the working-class mother so often achieves, in spite of overwork and poverty. He understands, when the mother fails, how much of the tragedy is due to the fact that the state has failed the mother. "The more you help the moth

er," he says, "the more the mother helps. We have proved it, and now confidently assert it."

Since he came to this country he has seen the various systems by which destitute children are provided for under the Poor Law in this country. He has nothing but appreciation for the devotion and enthusiasm of those who make the welfare of those children their personal care and concern, and who are justly proud of their successes. Institutions for children who are bereaved or deserted of both parents, or who are victims of cruelty or vice, must continue to exist, even though we in Great Britain and Ireland were to make motherhood secure and honorable in the way that the State of New York and other states in America have done. There is nothing destructive in Judge Neil's proposition. But he sees the mother and the home and family love as an immense asset to the state; so definite an asset that it can, if necessary, be expressed in terms of pounds, shillings, and pence. He realizes, as hardly one man in a million realizes, the intolerable burden that the modern community is daily heaping upon the mothers in a country like ours, with its ever-rising standard of child welfare and ever-increasing demand upon overworked, halfstarved and harassed women.

"If you

were to see a horse fall down in the shafts because it is too weak to pull its load, what would you do?" asks Judge Neil in his simple and practical way. "Lighten the load? Yes; if you meant business. Then why not treat the broken mother in the same way? Lighten the load, and you will find that she will pull. I only plead 'horses' rights' for mothers!"

Judge Neil comes to this country at an opportune moment. Owing to the terrible destruction of the best life of the nation, the problem of what is called "man-power" and "woman-power" has become of absorbing interest to all patriotic people. The importance of efficient motherhood and effective child nurture has become a very practical question. Furthermore, the inauguration of the Pension Scheme for soldiers' widows and children, and its dissociation from the

stigma of pauperism, has opened the way to the further extension and application of this method of dealing with child poverty.

Many representative men and women, including members of both Houses of Parliament, are meeting Judge Neil. Public meetings are being arranged in many of the large centers of population for the discussion of this question, and it is greatly to be hoped that the utmost will be made of the opportunity presented by the visit of Judge Neil at this critical moment in the history of our country, when it is so essential that we shall discover the best methods of social reconstruction.

We do not think it necessary or advisable to wait till "after the war" to get going this great reform. Even if it were to cost more in money, we would still urge that the lives of the children are worth the extra cost. But it has actually been proved that it is more economical in money to follow nature's way and let the mother mind her own child.

Reforms of this kind are not, however, accomplished merely by enthusiastic meetings and resolutions. They need organization, so as to concentrate pressure and bring it to bear on the proper government departments. Everybody's business is nobody's business. The Women's International League hopes, therefore, that the response in this country to Judge Neil's selfless efforts for childhood and motherhood all the world over will be the formation of a working organization to press this reform at the earliest possible moment. Such an organization would be of infinite value for making effective the new voters, whom the Reform Bill will, it is hoped, shortly add to the electorate.

NOTE. In order to gather up and concentrate public opinion on this matter, it is hoped that the following resolution will be submitted at conferences and meetings:

"This meeting warmly supports the principle underlying the scheme for Mothers' Pensions now in operation in thirty of the United States of North America, which recognizes the valued services rendered to the community by mothers who tend and cherish their children in the home.

"It urges that a scheme on similar lines be established in this country, so that no mother who worthily discharges this great service should be brought under the operation of the Poor Law or prevented by economic stress from discharging it adequately and well."

T

HE Department of Health is one of the protective arms of the city government. As the fire and police departments protect citizens against visible dangers, the health department is engaged in protecting its citizens against invisible foes.

The Department of Health is invested with its authority by virtue of the state board of health rules, city ordinances and the police powers afforded it through the cities and villages act. For the purpose of administrating this protective feature against diseases, the department is made up of the following bureaus:

Bureau of Vital Statistics where are registered deaths and their causes, and also births. It is by a study of the figures compiled by this bureau that it is possible for the department to direct the activities of other bureaus in the direction where they are needed.

Laboratory Bureau has for its duties the chemical and microscopical analysis of the food and water supplies of the city; the examination of materials to determine whether or not the material and the source of this material is safe and free from the danger of distributing disease to others.

Sanitary Bureau has for its duties, the examination into the sanitary conditions of the home and the community; the examination of the plans for new buildings, and for remodeling of old buildings so as to make them safe from the sanitary standpoint.

Bureau of Hospitals is engaged in operating the contagious disease hospitals; the operation of the ambulance services in connection with these hospitals; the operation of the bath houses, swimming pools, the supervision of the general hospitals of the city, the day nurseries, foundling's homes, etc.

Bureau of Medical Inspection activi

ties include the locating and insolation of cases of contagious diseases and liberating these cases as soon as they are well; the medical inspection of school children for communicable conditions, the examination of school children for physical defects, and an effort to obtain correction of these defects when found. It also conducts a service for the conservation of infant life.

All of these activities are under direct orders of the Commissioner of Health. The function of the Department of Health originally was for the purpose of locating, quarantining and terminating contagious diseases. From this it developed to take in not only the duties immediately associated with the care of contagious diseases, but also to investigate all conditions that have to do with the health of the community, and to direct such steps as are necessary to improve and make safe all things that have a bearing on community welfare from the health standpoint.

The charge of paternalism has been made against the activities of health departments, but surely progress can only be made along the lines of combating the invisible foes by systematic, scientific procedures, and we believe that the activities of the health department are just as essential for the happiness and financial progress of a community as the protection afforded by our fire and police department.

The attitude of the public towards health department efforts has improved in the past few years. Only a few years ago parents objected seriously to the efforts of the school doctor and the nurse in the examination of school children. In fact, this antagonism frequently came from members of the Board of Education, but today I do not believe there is a principal or a school teacher who does