Announcement This paper is published to disseminate news and ideas helpful to Handicapped, Dependent and Delinquent Children O less an authority than our own Census Bureau tells us NR that in this country alone—our own civilized U. S. A. -approximately 300,000 babies under one year of age die annually. Here's the part that hurts: One-half of these babies die needlessly. Just think, 150,000 babies under one year of age die annually, in this country alone, from preventable causes. Ignorance is what keeps the little white hearses working overtime. There is but one logical way to stop this "slaughter of the innocents." Educate the parents and guardians. Education is prevention and the best manner of educating the people is by publicity. This magazine will publish nothing but articles of vital importance in regard to Child Welfare and Race Progress, and no man or woman in the United States, who is interested in children, can afford to miss the coming numbers. THE JUVENILE COURT RECORD is published and sold to you on its merits in the interest of general child welfare work by Children's Charities, Incorporated, which is a business enterprise, supported by subscriptions and sales of single copies of its magazines. Agents who sell this paper are allowed to state to persons whose patronage they solicit that the paper is published in the interests of homeless and neglected children, but they are not allowed to state or represent that said paper is published in the interest of, or for the benefit of any society, institution or particular work for children in the state in which the paper is sold. It will be a favor to the managers of the paper if purchasers will report any violation of this rule, as we do not intend to allow any misrepresentations on the part of any employe of this magazine. Children's Charities, Inc. HOME OFFICE 1006 Hearst Building, Chicago, Illinois Canada Postage 50 Cents Extra, all Other Countries, $1.00 Extra Entered as Second-Class Matter April 12, 1907, at the Post Office at Chicago Under the Act of March 3rd, 1879 All subscriptions begin with current issue, unless ordered for a future date The expiration date of current subscriptions is shown on the wrapper F "Kids" By Harvey C. Smith Juvenile Judge, Zanesville, Ohio NOLKS are too prone to find fault with little poeple and too often make serious mistakes in dealing with children either because they do not know or they do not care. The beloved poet-the late J. Whitcomb Riley-expressed volumes in the little poem: "I believe all children good, It seems so easy for some folks to see the one bad trait in a boy and overlook a hundred good ones. There is enough good in every normal child to make a good citizen if properly developed Children-boys especially-are a blend between animal and angel and unless they have proper guidance the animal is almost sure to predominate. In dealing with children it is very essential for us to survey all matters from the child's viewpoint. You have heard some older people remark, "Children are not like they were when I was a child." Popular fallacy! Conditions change, but children are naturally the same. Some of us as we grow older are inclined to get nervous when we hear the echoes from the mirthful rollicking of our children, or of the children in our neighborhood. If you are one of these don't find fault with the children-consult a nerve specialist. The trouble is with you and not with the children. Indeed, the best boys I ever saw occasionally upset things and got boisterous and had the fidgets. Someone has said that the goody-goody kind of children make namby-pamby men. Some folks think it is religion that makes their boy sit by the stove while all the boys of the neighborhood are out skating and snowballing. It isn't religion-it's the "dumps." The boy who does not love to play will grow into the man who does not like to work. The boy without a playground will become the man without a job. Work is a wonderful moral antiseptic for children, but amusement and recreation are also essential to proper development of both mind and muscle. Look out for the boy who never has the fingers of a good laugh tickle him under the diaphragm. Did you ever notice that the most solemn looking old family horse can make the most desperate kind of a runaway? The boy who has no fire in his nature may, after he has grown up, know enough to change a tire on an automobile, but he will never own the automobile nor have money enough to buy the tire. This is an age of opportunity and an era is dawning wherein childhood is too receive the recognition to which it has always been entitled. The world is calling today for the boy who was born with a peck of sand in his will rather than the one who was born upon the lap of luxury with a silver spoon in his mouth. Some folks boast of their ancestral blue blood, but red blood is the only kind that wins today. Ability will command recognition. Have you not seen striking instances of freckled-faced farm boys who came out of the tall grass and made good? It is little less than criminal for any community through neglect to permit natural ability to be dwarfed for lack of proper opportunity to develop. It is difficult for some to see any good in the dirty, ragged street urchin. Why? Because they do not understand him. Because they are too busy with selfish projects to even pause and give him a single word of encouragement. Do you know what Victor Hugo says of the street urchin? Here it is: "He lives in gangs, rambles about the streets, lodges in the open; he runs, watches, begs, kills time. colors pipes, swears like a fiend, haunts the wineshops, knows thieves, is familiar with women of the town, talks slang, sings filthy songs, and has nothing bad in his head, for he has in his sout a pearl-innocence, and pearls are not dissolved in mud." All he needs is a little "Big Brothering." The question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" has been ringing down through all the ages till at last the world is awakening and the affirmative answers are being echoed from all sides. ."Kids is kids" and always will be, and we would not have them anything else, so it is up to us to wade in and help them get every possible ounce of enjoyment out of life. Wouldn't you pity a kid who had an experience like this: My parents forbade me to play basebal.; I don't! Or to romp with the neighboring children at all; They made it plain I must not go I don't! I'm not to mix with other boys, Nor run nor laugh nor make a noise; I play no games-not even one; You wouldn't think I have much fun, Have a Child in Your Home Τ By L. E. Eubanks HERE is an interdependence between national welfare-I could just as well say that of the world-and individual welfare that can never cease to exist. In the nature of things, the health, moral stability, power of progress, etc., of a nation depend on that nation's individuals. Reduced to fundamentals, the individual means the child. Just as we, the children of yesterday, are today shouldering the responsibilities of the troubled world, so will our schoolboys, in their turn, take up the work. The other side of the interdependence lies, of course, in the fact that every loyal member of society receives certain protection, privileges, etc., in return for his compliance and service. We may say that the individual is a brick in a vast wall. The wall, as such, serves a useful purpose--unity is strength. Each brick is helping to shield all the other bricks from the sun and wind, and in return enjoys that shade it is helping to make. But primarily, it is the child, always the child; for human government presupposes the existence of people. In this day of patriotism it requires no argument to show the duty and importance of building for the future; and that future will rest with the child of today. What are you doing for the soldiers of tomorrow? Or do you say that we will not need them? Always we will need them—not necessarily gun-bearing soldiers, let us hope not-but soldiers of civilization, men who are fighters for the Right, strong alike in prayer and in battle. The world needs them, it may need them even more sorely in the next generation. Who can look into the coming years? What are you doing to perfect that individual of tomorrow's army? There are many ways of "doing one's bit." You may be too old to bear arms, or beget chil. dren, but if you are financially able there lies at hand a duty unsurpassed for its patriotism— the adoption, rearing and training of a child. You are building for eternity, for the example of an upright, well-regulated life is never lost. Behind a canon or behind a pulpit we need manhood; you can do your country no more lasting service than to reclaim a human being. Do all you can, give all you can immediately; but save, O save the children in all their strength and purity for the future. No adult need be told that dependence is embarrassing, blighting. But there is one thing still worse-having nothing upon which to depend. The existence of dependent children is regrettable, but the only remedy is care and support. Save them we must. The causes of dependence are many. Bohmert thus covers the principle ones, in his report on 13,000 children: Orphanage 38.75 per cent; lack of work on part of guardian 14.90; sickness, etc., 11.88; abandonment by guardian 11.66; imprisonment of guardian 4.7; abuse and neglect 4.5; sickness of guardian 4.34; laziness of guardian 3.49; drunkenness of guardian 1.54; mental or physical defect of guardian 1.74. You can't dismiss this vital matter by merely saying there are institutions for such children. Some institutions are unfit for any child, and many children are unsuited to any institution. These places are best for feeble-minded, epileptic, deformed and incurable cases-not for sound, normal little ones whose only trouble is lack of adequate guardianship and pecuniary means. True, many institutions are all that an institutions can be; but at best they have a cramping, inhibitory effect. and should be used only as temporary measures. To say that the institution and orphanage have done away with the dependent child, as some foolishly assert, must be an effort to ignore real conditions, or a display of dense ignorance. We have them, and we always shall have more or less of them. Another class of "slackers" in this care of children argue blindly for the rights of the home Many of them are no longer able to dodge the truth of the defects in the institutional system, so they go to the opposite extreme and claim that there is no justification for taking children from parents. On this subject, George B. Mangold said: "The duties taken from the home |