as it was necessary to keep them in the house because they didn't have sufficient clothes to keep them warm out doors. The mother was constantly scolding and threatening to strike the children if they did not desist in making so much noise. The training these children had received while at the school had all been forgotten and from all appearances they could not possibly have been placed in a less promising home than with their own parents.

The state agents visit the children and their guardians as friends of both. The visits are made at home, in school, or wherever the child may be occupied at the time of such visit. A friendly talk is had with the child in an endeavor to learn the exact conditions in the home and with the guardian to learn the disposition of the child, its progress in school and at home. The correspondence between children and the agent is quite extensive and while it is not solicited it is nevertheless a pleasant duty to answer such correspondence. I quote a couple of letters from a little girl whom I was instrumental in placing in a splendid family. These letters are verbatim except name and address: "Kind friend: Thinking you might like to receive a letter from me telling you how I am doing in my new home. It is a year, April 28th, since you found me this good home. I have grown much in a year that perhaps you would not know me now. I have not missed one day of school since I came here or at Sunday school. My class marks are good and I passed into the fifth grade for next year. In reading I stood 92, arithmetic 87, geography 89, spelling 95, language 90, writing 90, drawing 90, music 95, conduct and industry 100. What do you think of that? I was eleven years of age the 7th of February. I often think of the times before I came here and wonder if has found a good home. I hope she has. Perhaps it will be so I can see you if it ever comes your turn to come to again. I hope so. I am known here only as

and wish it to be that way. With kind regards. Your friend, ." "Dear Friend: Last June I received your very kind letter and was glad to hear from you. The reason I had not replied sooner was that I thought you would get to see me. School closed last Friday and we had Christmas exercises and a Christmas box. I have done as well this term as last and in some things better. My lowest mark was 85 and last month I stood 100 in spelling. I think of you often. I am sending you by mail a little calendar, some of my school work. Our Sunday school is to have a carol service and Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. I shall try to do all that you wrote and hoped I would do. Sometimes I hope I shall see you. May you have a happy and pleasant Christmas. Your friend, December 21, 1913." I have since visited this little girl and found everything as satisfactory as her letters would indicate. As I left the house I met a prominent citizen who a few days before had been interested in a case of directly opposite nature and where the girl was removed. He said, "You found no cause for complaint there, did you?" I told him I wished we had a thousand such homes for our children, and I meant it.

One of our boys won a trip to the state fair with all expenses paid. He was the scholar with the highest average standing for the previous year in one of the largest counties in the state. He is endeavoring to go again this

year and his standing late in the school year would indicate that he might succeed.

Applications for children are generally made by responsible people who can bear investigation and such applicants are supplied as fast as we have children available for them. But the scarcity of help and the high wages demanded by farm hands actuate many to apply to us for twelve to fourteenyear-old boys "for company." They figure that the compulsory school laws exempt boys over sixteen from attending school and that if they could procure a boy from the school the hired help problem would be solved for a time at least. Where people were evidently actuated by this motive alone I have not recommended the home except on a wage contract commensurate with the work expected and the boy's ability to perform it. I have not recommended any home where liquor is used to excess although such home might be good in other respects.

In conclusion I wish to thank you for your consideration and assistance. Respectfully submitted,

P. G. SWANSON.

MR. HARPMAN'S REPORT.

During this period I have visited 660 children in their homes, investigated 197 applicants for children, transferred to other homes or returned to the school 36, accompanied 14 to homes, and made 371 special visits not included under the above classification. The territory covered comprises part of the seventh, all of the second, tenth and fourth and the greater part of our sixth districts, which includes thirty-two counties in Southern Minnesota and six counties in Northeastern Minnesota. I also visited our children in Iowa and Wisconsin. During the first year I traveled 2,419 miles by team and 12,334 miles by train. The last eleven months of this period I have worked in the Twin Cities and as there are comparatively few children in farm homes in this district I have traveled only 505 miles by team and 9,134 miles by train besides many miles by street car. The expense necessary in doing this work has been: Railroad and street car fares, $528.99; livery, $391.15; hotel, $701.55; books and printing, $9.45; telephone and telegraph, $10.75; and incidentals, $18.70. Total including salary, $4,540.99, making the per capita cost of visits $3.57.

In the seventh district with the exception of a few cases of short schooling, which will bear watching, the situations are generally good. One home . in this district illustrates the affection and consideration our children receive. The foster parents had taken a little girl some years ago. As she grew older they were not satisfied with the development she was making and thought that possibly some other home might be able to do better by the girl. They returned her to the school but soon found she had made a larger place in their home and affections than they had realized and that their home was not complete without her. They decided that if they moved on a small farm home near town they would be in position to better care for the child. They have done this and now have the girl back with them.

My work in the second district was very pleasant. One boy in this section had been in the school eight years. Nobody wanted him. For this particular home the selection was left to us and we sent him out. He is well liked, is happy, and will stay.

Where the foster parents have taken very young children into their homes with the idea of legally adopting them later on if everything is satisfactory, they frequently ask us in making our visits not to let the children know the nature of our visit. In one such home, when I introduced myself as being from Owatonna, the foster mother knew at once what information I wanted. The problem was how to get it without arousing the curiosity of the child. As they had just finished churning I began talking the Owatonna Home Churn to her and in the course of our conversation I was given the information I wanted without the child learning my actual business. I have acted as machine agent, land man, and cattle buyer in making visits to homes where the children had been taken at such an early age that they had no recollection of any other homes.

From the second district I went to the tenth or Duluth district. In the three large cities, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, one finds the extremes of society, the very rich and the very poor. As Duluth is the terminal for all emigrants seeking work in iron mines on the range one finds a more cosmopolitan population here than in any other part of our state. I have been in the D. M. & N. depot when it looked like a depot in some foreign land. Nearly all the conversation one heard was in a foreign language. Accidents in the mines and the forests of Northern Minnesota tributary to Duluth contribute their share of the children sent us from this district. Especially is this true if they have been in this country but a short time and are without friends or relatives here. These children are healthy, happy, bright children, and after they have been provided with homes soon become so well Americanized that you would hardly know but that they had always been there. This is the second time I have made the visits in the Duluth district and I feel better acquainted with our children and with the probation and humane officers here than in any other district. I shall always be glad to go to the Duluth district.

The visits in the fourth district were generally very satisfactory.

In visiting our children in Iowa and Wisconsin I not only had an opportunity to compare the homes of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, but also to visit the state public school of Wisconsin at Sparta and the home at Wauwatosa. I have also visited the Old Soldiers' State Orphans' Home at Davenport, Iowa, the homes at Vasa and Wabasha, Minnesota, and many of the homes in the Twin Cities. These visits have been profitable to me.

In Minneapolis and St. Paul one comes in contact with a greater number of children who have gone back to relatives than in other districts. I am sorry to say that some of these homes have not proven to be what they promised to be, before the children were allowed to go back to them, and it has become a question whether the home should not again be broken up by the children being returned to the school. In my work in St. Paul and Minneapolis I have gained much inspiration by my contact with the capable workers of the probation offices, humane societies, associated charities, and sunshine societies. There are many more special cases and perplexing problems in connection with the city work than in the rural districts. For that reason I have come to believe that the farm home where the school advantages are good is the best for the average child.

The problem of successfully placing children is the problem of getting

the right child in the home. It would be as useless to place a quick, highly nervous child with slow phlegmatic foster parents and expect good results as it would to expect good results from a team composed of a trotting horse and an ox.

Respectfully submitted,

ALBERT J. HARPMAN.

MISS MCGREGORS REPORT

Mr. Galen A. Merrill, Superintendent.

Dear Sir: The following is respectfully submitted as my report for the biennial period ending July 31, 1914:

I completed the work in the eighth district where I was working when I made my last report. I visited the third district, Waseca, Blue Earth, and Faribault counties; the tenth district, St. Louis, Lake, Cook, Koochiching, Itasca, Carlton, Pine, Aitkin, Kanabec and Mille Lacs counties; and the eighth including Benton, Sherburne, Stearns, Morrison, Crow Wing, Cass, Wadena, Otter Tail and Wilkin counties. Besides this special cases have taken me to different parts of the state and I spent five months at work in the institution.

In going over the territory I had formerly visited I found many changes in homes, some in communities. In some cases where we had had trouble with school attendance I found the records improved. In others where the foster mother had been lax about her housekeeping the home was tidy and clean. Some had improved in the personal care of the children. Part of this is due, I believe to their attention being called to these matters by the agents, and to the many suggestions made by them concerning home betterment. This is seldom resented.

On the other hand it has been found necessary to romove some children from homes formerly good and to put others on the special case list to be closely watched. On the whole the care and schooling of the children in the third district had improved. The eighth remained about the same with a few cases of short schooling and wage claims of older children to be adjusted. One little boy was placed in a childless home and was given a calf, three chickens and a little plot of ground for his own garden. He later met with an accident and was in the hospital for eleven weeks. During this time his foster mother wrote the state school every week. A girl in this district was legally adopted when she was seventeen in order that she might inherit the property of the two old people who had provided her with a home.

The tenth district presents cases of varying conditions in the foreign homes of the mining district, the settlers' homes in Koochiching, Itasca and Lake counties, and the excellent homes and opportunities that are given in Duluth. The majority of children placed here are under five years of age and many are small babies taken with the ultimate object of legal adoption.

In some counties local organizations have assumed the responsibility of placing children in homes subject to the approval of the state school after the visit of the agent. This has not proved satisfactory in all cases. Babies have been placed in homes we could not approve and it is not fair to the people to take them away after they have cared for and learned

to love them. Whenever possible the child should be taken to the school unless the home has been visited before it is placed.

The work with the babies is promising and never loses interest. At this time the problem that needs our attention is what to do for the older, ordinary girl. The girl who adjusts herself to the conditions of the home, who advances in school and takes her place in the society of the community is not the one who needs much from us after she has been placed.

It is the girl of ordinary mentality, and below, who becomes hard to manage as she grows older, who does not advance in school, and who needs more special training than she can receive in the usual home open for such a girl, who needs our constant care and supervision. Every child has the right to be educated, cared for and trained to earn an honest living. Those who are unable to do this. with ordinary normal conditions should have the period for their training extended. I believe that in many cases when a girl is not doing well in a home, where she cannot do the normal amount in school and needs special training at home, it might be well to return her to the school for a course of training that would fit her to go out as an earner. This industrial training should extend over a period long enough to be of real benefit. Here she should learn to sew, to mend, darn, make her own clothes, to clean and take care of the house, to cook and do laundry work, and if she has the requirements to take care of smaller children. To do all this thoroughly would take much time. She should do one thing well and the most important part would be to teach her to love her work. The work already done in our department of domestic science has done much for our girls, especially in their attitude toward household tasks. Besides the technical training she should receive continuous and uninterrupted training along the line of social relations. With such a course our girls would all be better fitted to take their places in a community as independent self-supporting citizens.

Where clothing, a bed, and enough to eat are provided the dependent remains dependent. They need a favorable environment that will afford a fit opportunity and training whereby each one can earn a living. The best sort of work comes from the best sort of worker and much more should be given to training the poor worker for efficient service than is needed for the bright girl. Such training calls for experts with sympathy, firmness, understanding and faith in humanity.

It is with the deepest regret that I leave this work to enter a field where, I believe, I am needed more. Anything I might say would be inadequate to express my appreciation of the co-operation, assistance and consideration I have received.

During this time I have visited 562 children, 277 applicants, Investigated 182 special cases, returned 10 to the school, transferred 11 to other homes, and accompanied 22 to other homes. I have spent for railroad and street car fares, $438.16; hotel, $749.00; livery and bus, $516.80; telephone and telegraph, $12.25; incidentals, including board for children, $4.10; making with salary, $4,120.31 and a per capita cost of $3.87.

Respectfully submitted,

ELIZABETH MCGREGOR,
State Agent.