CINCINNATI

There was formed last month in Cincinnati an organization known as the Juvenile Court Aid Association. If ever there was an organization to fill a long-felt want this is the one.

It is all right to have paid probation officers to work with the Juvenile Court. Have them and pay them well. There is work enough to do.

But the juvenile courts of this country that are making themselves felt and that are doing the really great work, are the ones that are backed by good men and women, citizens who take so much interest in the children who have gone wrong; who want to see the boys and girls who have not had a chance, grow into noble men and women, that they are willing and glad to personally look after the welfare of these little folks.

Can the public be depended on to do this work? Will women of birth and breeding; will busy men, of standing, try to get close to the heart of things and by personal contact, by talks and pleadings and good advice attempt to steer these wards of a court into correct ways of living?

They have done all this in other cities. THEY WILL DO AS MUCH IN CINCINNATI,

In Cleveland there has never been a lack of these citizen probation officers. No matter how unpromising the subject. there has always been a man or a woman to say: "Put that child in my care. I'll see what I can do. I'll visit the squalid home. I'll talk to the father and the mother who have failed in their duty. I'll be kind and forgiving and try to inculcate habits of industry and a desire for cleanliness and learnng in this little one. And I'll do it with all my might and try to save a child."

They are in the big houses in the factories and the banks. They can be depended on.

on the hills of Cincinnati and They will do their best, and

The Juvenile Court Aid Association of Cincinnati will do much for humanity and for a great city.

JERSEY CITY

A GOOD ORDER.

"Headquarters, Police Department,

"Jersey City, February 8, 1905.

"Orders No. 5:"Hon. Frank J. Higgins, Justice of the First Criminal Court, having determined upon a system whereby juvenile offenders against the law may be at all times kept apart from the criminal classes, has notified the Chief of Police that hereafter all such persons charged with such offenses against the law or ordinances of the city shall only be brought into court on Wednesdays at 2 o'clock P. M.

"All cases of juvenile offenders will be adjudicated upon in the First Criminal Court at time above mentioned.

"It is therefore ordered that hereafter, commencing tomorrow the 9th inst., all persons under the age of sixteen who may be arrested for any offence, after their names, addresses and pedigrees have been taken and placed on the blotter, will be paroled to appear in the Juvenile Court, on the Wednesday following the arrest.

"In all-cases where a juvenile may be arrested for a high misdemeanor and there is quite positive evidence of their guilt, Commandants of Precincts will detain them until Headquar ters has been communicated with for instructions. This rule will also be followed where the juvenile is a non-resident or homeless.

"On the morning of the day of the Juvenile Court it shall be the duty of Precinct Commanders who may have prisoners for said court, to submit a court return in due form. The names and pedigrees of the defendants, on that day, shall appear on the records and papers of the department. "By order of

"BENJ. MURPHY,

TOPEKA, KAN.

"Chief of Police."

The house has passed the Brady juvenile court bill. The bill invests the probate court with new authority. The probate judge is made judge of the juvenile court, and is to be provided with the necessary record books and dockets. He shall receive fees for his services such as are provided by law, and these fees shall be in addition to his present fees.

The jurisdiction of the court is defined as follows: This act shall apply only to children under the age of 16 years, not now or hereinafter inmates of any state institution or industrial school for girls or boys or industrial school for girls

or some institution incorporated under the laws of this state; provided, that when jurisdiction has been acquired under the provision hereof over the person of a child, such jurisdiction may continue for the purposes of this act until the child has attained its majority. For the purpose of this act, the words "dependent child" and "neglected child" shall mean any child who for any reason is destitute or homeless or abandoned, or dependent upon the public for support, or has not proper parenta care or guardianship, and has idle and immoral habits, or who habitually begs or receives alms, or who is found living in any house of ill-fame, or with any vicious or disreputable persons or whose home, by reason of neglect, cruelty or depravity on the part of its parents, guardian, or other person in whose care it may be, is an unfit place for such a child; or any child under the age of 10 years who is found begging, peddling or selling any article, or singing or playing any musical instrument upon the street, or who accompanies or is used in aid of any person so doing. The words "delinquent child" shall include any child under the age of 16 years who violates any law of this state, or any city, town or village ordinance, or who is incorrigible, or who knowingly associates with thieves, vicious or immoral persons, or who is growing up in idleness and crime.

The bill gives to the probate judge the right to appoint one or more probation officers at a salary of $2 per day for actual services in counties of less than 30,000 population, and $3 a day in counties of over 30,000. The judge may, if he desires, designate the truant officer of the county as the probation officer, and the truancy officer shall serve without extra pay.

Little has been done in the way of prevention to avoid the recruiting of the criminal classes from among the children of the state. Character building is done in the home and the public school. But it is a lamentable fact that some homes, instead of giving to their children the moral uplift which good citizenship demands, contain influences for the development of every evil tendency in child nature. More than half our criminals enter upon courses of wrong doing in their teens.

-Kansas City, Mo., Journal, Feb. 16. 1905.

MILWAUKEE, WIS.

Aims and methods of the Milwaukee County Juvenile Court were explained by Judge Neelen to the Milwaukee Social Culture Club.

Three things were essential to the successful prosecution of juvenile work, Judge Neelen said: Public opinion, a detention school, and a farm school should assist and aid officials of the court in working for the best interests of the child. The economical side of the question was also discussed, Judge Neelen showing how the county had been saved the cost of maintaining youthful delinquents since the introduction of the probation system.

"In spite of the economy of the system," said he, "I expect considerable opposition to a bill which we have in the Legislature asking for authority to appoint one salaried probation officer. We are doing the best we can, but the work is conducted by a corps of volunteer officers. The great trouble is that many of our officials do not appear to realize that the work should be conducted for the interests of the child, even if the law is not adhered to to the letter."

Judge Neelen also referred to the indifference of the county supervisors and to the difficulty which had been encountered in getting the detention quarters for juvenile prisoners, which is required by law, told incidents which had come under his personal observation, illustrating the unfair conditions surrounding many of the children in Milwaukee, incidents which were a revelation to the club women, and explained how the probation system aims to discover the child's good qualities and help him to overcome the mischievous or evil tendencies. He asserted that 80 per cent of the boys were actually saved by the Juvenile court system who undoubtedly would have been made into criminals at public expense by the old criminal court method of sending them to the reform school or house of correction without a chance.

While Judge Lindsay was a visitor to the Milwaukee Juvenile Court a boy was brought in by the truant officer. He was 9 years old and it was testified that he had played truant from school every day continuously for months and the officers could do nothing with him. Judge Neelen asked his guest if he wished to talk to the boy. The lad was crying stormily and interrupted the proceedings with the lament: "Please. judge let me go, I don't want to go to the reform school. I'll go to school every day if you'll only let me go."

The lad was evidently badly frightened and appeals and commands to him to stop crying were of no avail.

"Come right up here while I talk to you," said Judge Lind

say, drawing the boy to his side. "Now, what's the matter? Scared?"

"Yes, sir," gasped the boy between wails.
"What are you scared at?"

"Oh, I don't want to go to the reform school. I'll go to school if you'll let me go."

"Well, you know you will have to go to the reform school if you don't go to school. If the judge will give you another chance will you sure keep your word?"

"Oh, yes, sir, I'll go every day."

"On the square? You know a boy who doesn't keep his word isn't much good. Will you keep your word to the judge?" "Yes, sir."

"Sure you won't throw him down?" At the familiar phrase a laugh strove for mastery with the sobs and conquered. The idea was a new one to the boy, but it appealed to him and he solemnly gave his word not to "throw the judge down."

"Will you shake on it?" asked Judge Lindsay, and with the clasp of hands the compact was sealed. Then the judge asked he boy what he did when he "played hookey" and if he

did not know that boys who "played hookey" also "swiped things." The interested boy confirmed the judge in his ideals and finally admitted that he had "swiped things" once.

"What are you going to do about that now?" asked the

judge.

"I guess I'll cut that out." "Cross your heart?"

"Cross my heart."

"Good. I knew you were a good kid even if you have done some pretty bad things. You know, I like you." And by this time the smiling lad was seated in the same chair with the little black-eyed man, with the arm of the older "boy" around the younger one whom he understood. A minute later they shook hands again, the judge saying, with a ring of earnest sincerity in his voice: "Good-by, little man; I'm glad I met you."

"No juvenile court law," said the judge, "will be effective until it places the burden of responsibility for delinquent children on the parents or guardians of the child. The placing of the child under outside probation officers or hustling him off to a school maintained by the state will not work satisfactorily."

THE

So many conflicting opinions have been expressed as to the provisions of the Iowa juvenile court law, and the scope of influence of the detention home for delinquent and dependent children, that we have been asked to say something as to why the bill was worded as it is.

In 1901 the Iowa Congress of Mothers began to study the work of the Illinois juvenile court, and being impressed with its wonderful power to save children to society, build up better homes, reduce truancy in school, and save money to the city and state, we determined to secure a similar law for our own state. It was uphill work. We had first to educate ourselves, then gradually reach the public through little centers of influence all over Iowa. In 1902 we visited the legislature in a body, and before the senate in session stated that in 1904 we would present a juvenile court bill, and asked the lawmakers to study the needs of children in the meantime.

Letters of inquiry were sent to every juvenile court in the various states operating a juvenile court law, asking suggestions for our bill and to know what pitfalls to avoid. We were in close and constant touch with Colorado, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania. The law in the latter state was pronounced unconstitutional, and we were shown how to avoid that difficulty. Because the word "incorrigible" was left out of their law parents continued to claim the right to commit their helpless children to reformatories, simply to rid themselves of responsibility. So we include as delinquents the incorrigibles who are now protected by our law.

Railroads suffer from petty thefts by neglected and delinquent boys. Many accidents are occasioned by boys frequenting tracks, jumping cars, etc., so Colorado advised that definition of delinquency as shown in section 2.

Many parents able to support their children and send them to school will not do so. Having power to compel "parents able to support the child, or contribute to its support" often through investigation, even ordering "execution or in any way in which a court of equity may enforce its orders or decrees," Colorado urged us to do likewise as provided in section 13 and remedy this evil.

We were urged to make mandatory, not permissible, the provision referring to confining children in jails or prisonsso we say "shall" not "may."

All of this correspondence boiled down into a list of requisites together with copies of laws of twelve or fourteen states were put in the hands of Hon. Chester C. Cole, ex-chief justice of Iowa, and one of the best constitutional lawyers in the land. Judge Cole drew the Iowa juvenile court bill, incorporating in it all the suggestions received from the people who were succeeding in the work.

A great hue and cry has been raised because no appropriation was made for paid probation officers. The people who know the least talk the loudest.

The fact is, the majority of juvenile court workers oppose probation service paid by the state. Several states, wouldn't have it when they could get it, because the tendency is for politics to creep into such offices, and the positions are filled by persons without the knowledge of child nature requisite to the best work. We have a twelve-page letter from one of the leading juvenile court judges urging us not to ask for an ap

propriation for probation officers, but the first years of the work to depend on such workers as are known to have special fitness to deal with children, and pay one or none a modest salary out of funds raised from private sources.

Judge Stubbs of the Indianapolis court made a point of making "up to the seventeenth birthday" the limit when a child could not confined in jail or prison; "because," says the judge, "the children of the neglected or delinquent class are frequently stunted and dwarfed in mind and body, and often a child of 16 in this class is as immature as a child of 12 or 14 from a better class. To protect these have we made our law elastic."

While we remember with gratitude that the legislature passed the juvenile court bill without one dissenting voice, we do not forget that possibly had not Governor Cummins taken a position positive and favorable it might have failed.

Now, as to the detention house, section 12 says the children unable to give bail, as also the dependent children, "shall be kept in some suitable place, provided by city or county, outside the enclosure of any jail or police station." That is clear enough, and, carried out, will save money to the city and county. We claim that fewer children will be committed to the home than are now sent to the jail, as four out of five children brought to the court are returned to their homes under probationary`care. There is no expense for this class.

The detention home is solely for the temporary care of such neglected and dependent children as have no other place to go pending the disposition of their cases and for the delinquent children, the gravity of whose offense or unsuitableness of home environment make it unwise to place under probation. The detention home is not a "boys' jail" in any sense-it is a refuge from outside sin and sorrow, a shelter, whose influence may be the turning point in life for many. The children are not "under the ban of the juvenile court," as one paper incorrectly puts it, but they are wards of the court, whose friend is the law. We need to reform our manner of speaking and learn that the juvenile court is the child's best friend-created to help and protect children. Instead of a “complaint" or indictment," there is a "petition." There is no "warrant," only a "summons." The child is not "arrested," only brought in by parent and probation officer and usually returned to his own home.

Johnny steals coal from a box car. His parents or guardians are summoned to appear in juvenile court next Saturday. The probation officer is notified. He visits Johnny's home, finds out his reputation in the neighborhood, in the school, all about his family and home influences. When Saturday comes Johnny is taken to a room where the kind judge, reaching out his hand, says: "Come, my boy, how about it? Why did you take the coal?" Johnny feels he has a friendly ear and sobs out his little story. The parents are questioned-the officer tells, from thorough investigation, his story. There is no attorney, seldom need of one-therefore, that expense is saved-no jury, no need of one (though the law permits one)-that expense is saved. If Johnny's parents are decent, though negligent, if Johnny's fault is by temptation from outside influences or through "the gang,' he is put under the care of Mr. a business man, lawyer, doctor, or a lady, a church woman, club woman, King's Daughter or some one willing to give friendly care and counsel to this tempted child. The court appoints this person Johnny's

probation officer and sends the boy home with orders to report once a week. In the meantime there is not one penny's expense in the case, for the boy does not go to the detention home unless his parents are criminal and he an old offender. The friendly visitor is now an officer of the state and clothed with such authority can give counsel to the home which is now regarded. This officer looks after Johnny, his gang, finds work for him if he is over fourteen and in other ways builds up about the boy such safeguards as will make a man out of him.

The proof that this kind of treatment is efficacious is in the results attained. In four months and a half 1,112 delinquent children were brought before the Philadelphia juvenile courtonly 24 offended a second time and only 3 a third time.

In Baltimore, out of 3,360 cases tried only 28 were re-summoned. By actual figures $21,000 was saved to the court by this law. Arapahoe county in Colorado saved $908 in one year. In a few months' work in Pittsburg only 38 out of 487 delinquent children were sent to reformatories-the remaining 447 being returned to their homes and are doing well under probationary care, thus saving men and money to the state. Commitments to reformatories are reduced 50 per cent in all states, and over 60 per cent in some states operating the juvenile court law, and saves thousands of dollars to the states, and by caring for the child in the incipiency of his criminal tendency saves thousands of citizens to the state and nation.

In Denver the city council gives $4,000 a year to its detention home, and assigns as many police officers to help the court as are needed. Chicago pays the secretary, heat, etc., and the county supervisors the rent and care of their home. Every state reports that it costs less to maintain the few in the detention home than the many in jails and as paupers on the community. In every instance these houses are furnished and managed by a central committee made up of citizens, largely women.

In Philadelphia the Congress of Mothers set the standard of probation work. As students of childhood they recognize the need of trained service. All recommendations for appointment come from the committee, thus controlling the quality of service. The work in Chicago is in care of a committee from women's clubs, who, as in Philadelphia, raise all the money for paid probation officers after the city and county have done their part. Everywhere the judges are helped by the citizens. In Indianapolis 43 men of the Commerical Exchange act as probation officers for one or more children. Club women and church women, teachers and women in every walk of life feel it a privilege to help some child to a higher plane. In Denver 150 business men do likewise. All these are, of course, volunteers and report to the chief proba tion officer who is paid from funds raised by the committee, and reports also to the judge. Juvenile court children must go to school, and so blanks are filled out by the teacher and given to the court. Close tab is also kept on boys over 14, exempi from school attendance by our compulsory law. They are found jobs and the employer fills out a blank for the court. We feel sure there are one hundred men and women willing to give

volunteer service if called for. We are equally sure we can furnish the home neatly and tastefully by donations from per sons interested. Just as soon as the city council gives us the Tracy hospital, (as, of course, they will with the knowledge that scores of councils have done as much and more in other states,) we shall district the city and make a house to house canvass in behalf of the work.

Iowa is the sixteenth state to pass a juvenile court law, which law a chief justice of the nation rightly says "is the greatest advance in jurisprudence of the past fifty years." The law says "no child not yet having reached his 17th birthday shall be put in any jail or police station, but shall be put in some suitable place provided by the city or county, outside the enclosure of any jail or police station." Last year careful investigation was made of local conditions and from figures given by the police judge, police matron, humane officers, Associated charities, Sunbeam Mission, Salvation Army, etc., etc., we found about 1,600 children who were either dependents or delinquents in this city of 80,000 people. And yet all the naughty boys and all the neglected children were not reported.

There is no place in this city where a tempted girl may be temporarily housed; there is no place were a young mother and her babe can find refuge until they can seek other shelter.

There is no place but a jail where little deserted waifs, or erring children, or so-called incorrigible boys, may be kept, but the jail-but that is all soon to pass. We are fond of quoting Mr. Foster's epigram, "In all that is good Iowa affords the best," and we hope our children's detention home will be no exception to the rule. Our city owns the old Tracy hospital. It is admirably fitted for juvenile court work. On a high elevation, apart from near neighbors, roomy, and with a yard where boys can work, play and "let off steam." It is convenient to the courts and would be an ideal home for the purpose. For several years we have watched this building, hoping that as it was once the hospital for diseased bodies, it ought one day be the hospital for such souls and send out is little inmates clean and well. We should make this home a center of beneficent influence, and we should like to be called "central house." It is just as easy to learn to say central house as detention home. Let us get away from the idea of "detention," which does, after all, suggest jail, and "home," as applied to public buildings savors of charity. So about central house, let us bring all good influences. There must be a nursery for little children and babes, and a section apart for delinquent boys and girls. There must be a neat sitting room and dining room, a fumigating room where all clothing worn by children shall be treated on entrance, a bath room and boys' dormitory if single rooms or not possible. The humane work of the county should be set apart when in cases of neglected children the judge could order the delinquent mother to report to learn to cut out and make clothes for her children. A physical department must be organized where competent specialists may examine the children, for often a curable physical defect causes criminality.-Register.

lars, or by imprisonment in the County Jail, House of Correction, or Workhouse, for not more than twelve months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Provided, that instead of imposing the punishment hereinbefore provided, the Court shall have the power to enter an order suspending sentence and releasing the defendant from custody, on probation, for the space of one year, upon his or her entering into a recognizance, with or without sureties, in such sums as the Court may direct. The condition of the recognizance shall be such that if the defendant shall make his or her personal appearance in Court whenever ordered to do so within a year, and shall provide and care for such dependent, neglected, or delinquent child in such manner as to prevent a continuance or repetition of such state of dependency, neglect, or delinquency, or as otherwise may be directed by the Court, and shall further comply with the terms of such order, then the recognizance shall be void, otherwise of full force and effect.

If the Court be satisfied, by information and due proof under oath, that at any time during the year the defendant has violated the terms of such order, it may forthwith revoke such order, and sentence him or her under the original convicon. Unless so sentenced, the defendant shall, at the end of such year, be dis charged and such conviction shall become void.

EDITORIAL

PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.

A bill has been introduced into the Illinois legislature providing for the punishment of parents who by neglecting to exercise due control over their children, or otherwise, contribute to their delinquency. This is a matter of the first importance. The experience of the Colorado Court was that when parents were held to account cases of stealing brass and similar depredations from railway companies declined in number from over 20 in three months to none in eighteen months. "This demonstrates" says Judge Lindsay, "that the trouble is with the adults, not the children; yet in most courts it is the children and not the adults who are brought in." Where children are returned again and again to the Court, evil surroundings, vice of one or many sorts, accompanied by parental indifference or worse attended by parental participation, work evil in the young lives. It is folly, as well as cruelty to hold the little ones solely to account. The greatest apparent advance possible just now in dealing with delinquent children lies in the fixing of parental responsibility. If probation does so much for the children, why will it not be useful to the parents who breathe the same air, and are affected by the same conditions. If the state frowns on the child, warns and admonishes the little one that he must amend his life why not apply the same remedies with all care to the parents? It works beautifully in Colorado. Where 100 parents were brought into court for the truancy of their children, less than 5 per cent of these children failed to become regular school attendants A bill that does so well in Colorado will do well in Illinois.

CHILDREN'S COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Sam'l J. Barrows, Commissioner for the U. S. on the International Prison Commission has made a report on the above subject which deserves widest and most careful attention. If as Jane Addams recently said we are to be judged by our working men in the future, the children of the middle and lower classes hold the verdict in their hands. We see then the need of infinite wisdom, kindliness and patience in dealing with the delinquent class. It is not small although it may be made so. The fact that the Juvenile Court is now in active operation in eight states and eleven large cities is significant. A girl of 8 years in Philadelphia is not now dealt with like a hardened criminal on a charge of arson, as was once the case. That she had been motherless since she was 2 years old would now be taken into the account. The highwayman of 8 years in St. Louis, the horse-thief of 7 years in Iowa should such again appear can be taken in hand by the state and yet not be compelled to associate solely with criminals. These little lives all awry because the state has not been to them even a half-hearted step-mother, can now be taken in hand by judges who will say "This is not a question of punishment but of what is best for the child." And be sure what is best for the child is best for the body politic. This is a "most notable development in judicial principles, and methods." And it is as happy and hopeful as it is widespread and significant. The rusty curb of old father Antic the Law does not now come upon the little ones. If they have sinned because they did not know any better, they may be taught. Where it has been simply a matter of associates or environment these are

changed and the light of hope comes into the way of the little feet. Kind, and firm counsel which given sooner would have forestalled all the mischief, now get in their work, with often the best results. The state no longer educates children in crime, as Judge Tuthill once said. Crime is forestalled by educating them in the moralities, and decencies of life. Thousands of children are not now and decencies of life. Thousands of children are not now thrust in jails, with no provision or attempt for their betterment, or the keeping from contamination of those comparatively innocent. The simply unfortunate are no longer sent to school to the most vicious. The timid little fellow who has been made a tool of sly criminals in the alleys is not pilloried as a hardened ruffian, but brought right close to a kind-hearted Judge who puts his hand upon him, and assures him that he wants to help him toward a good and honest life. It is early for statistics tabulating results; but this much is plain that more than half of those who are put in charge of qualified probation officers do not need to be brought into court again. In Indianapolis but 10 per cent were charged with second offences. In Denver out of 554 children placed on probation in the first two years of the court, only 31 were returned to the dustrial school; while before the establishment of the court. And but 10 per cent are now sent to the State inJuvenile Court 75 per cent were committed to institutions. The economic gain while properly last to be considered, is yet so great as to demand attention. Judge Lindsay says the cost under the old system was per child from $839 to $1,036.76 and under the new $11.99. If we try to estimate the happiness following in the wake of parental action on the part of the state supplanting punitive action the figures will beggar our arithmetic.

THE ST. CHARLES HOME.

Prof. C. R. Henderson has visited this home and in a recent article commends it as doing an excellent work for the state and humanity. A pleasant ride by C. and N.-W. train and a bit of a trip by carriage brings one to the group of buildings housing this important child-training institution. The nice brick cottages look down from an elevation on a fair and fertile valley, decked with towns and suggesting to the mind a happy and thrifty population. The broad area of the farm attached to this home, with its thousand acres, gives good assurance that the muscle of the boys will not be suffered to remain undeveloped the well arranged school-rooms point to that from the earliest colonization. The buildings in plan mental discipline which America pre-eminently stands for and construction, in durability of materials used, and in the tidiness with which all are kept, will please the philanthropist, the educator and the economist alike. Here we see a token, nay a proof that the great state of Illinois has begun to be a wise and kind father to the neediest class of her youth. And all indications show that here in the boys to be trained for the manifold duties of citizenship is material worth care and cost; their eyes are bright, their checks round, they drill as if they might make soldiers to stand before the Mikado's if occasion should arise, (which Heaven forfend.) Basing an estimate on the work in similar schools 90 per cent may be expected to join in due time the goodly ranks of honest, industrious and reputable citizens. Does not this make glad classes this little host comes, and with the patience wisevery patriotic heart? Out of the ranks of the dangerous dom and love bestowed upon them they walk grandly into the ranks and fellowship of good citizens. All honor to each and everyone who has in any wise contributed to this noble transformation.