oughly. However, a case committee organized among private societies to assist in selecting worthy cases has been a valuable aid. In Kansas City no pension is granted unless some reputable private society has approved of the plan for the particular case. In the large cities private charities are striving to cooperate with the public so as to insure a proper selection of cases. The excellent type of officials now selected for our juvenile courts should result in investigations quite as adequate as those made by private organizations. The safeguard of requiring the approval of a private society is wise. The investigations made in the small towns will probably furnish the real difficulty. They will not be thorough, and bad results will follow.

Fourth, adequacy of relief. It is easy to criticise a relief system, and probably very few private charitable agencies are giving adequate relief, but the blame is not always theirs. The various pension laws all provide for a scale of compensation, the mother to be paid a certain sum for one child under a certain age, and a smaller sum for each of the additional children. For example, the New Jersey law allows $9.00 per month for the first child under 16; $5.00 for the second, and $4.00 for each additional one. The Ohio laws allows $15.00 for the first child under 14, and $7.00 for each additional child. These are upper limits, but the courts use their discretion in granting the full amount. These differences between states are not justified by differences in the cost of living, so very dissimilar results may be expected. Adequate relief is not so much a problem of the amount allowed by law as the amount necessary to make a decent standard of living possible. Under no conditions can the private resources of the family be omitted from consideration. The public can readily adjust the pension to the apparent needs, but it cannot at present develop the resources of the family so as to make relief in the future unnecessary. Private philanthropy is better equipped for this task, but it has been far from successful in the past.

Pensions for mothers have probably come to remain for a long time. The wave of favorable legislation has, however,

been too precipitous, and much harm will be done. The inclusion of pensions for deserted mothers is by many regarded as an indication of a dangerous tendency. At any rate, the public must experiment cautiously, and types of cases long since considered worthy of pensions by private agencies should be selected, but no others. Experience with these would indicate the next step, but the state-wide application of the pension plan is likely to prove disastrous. It should at first have been limited to large cities, where well-developed systems of private charity are in operation, and then be gradually extended.

That the state should develop its charities in the field of outdoor relief, the author firmly believes, and a guarded pension system is a step in the right direction. The objection to public relief in the early days of private charity was partly due to official incapacity, but this difficulty is gradually being removed, and limited work along these lines is already very successful. As public philanthropy must increase we must move forward and profit by our mistakes. The present inelasticity of public systems will somewhat handicap pensions for mothers. The juvenile court, however, has shown a remarkable amount of elasticity, such as is needed by the public agency that will administer these pensions. Constructive work with mothers, which is so necessary to relief, can be developed under a system of public charity, and this will be necessary to make it a success and to prevent an overgrown pension list.

So-called pensions for mothers, although classified by some as a form of insurance, do not represent the form of relief that is ultimately desirable. Workingmen's compensation, insurance against accidents and occupational disease, old age insurance, and other forms of protection must develop. Nor will pensions for mothers retard this movement, since the expenditure of money for this purpose should assist in the creation of sentiment that will demand that private industry, and whatever other agencies are responsible for the existence of needy children, shall bear the burden of their support. Furthermore, a plan of pensions should hasten the advent of the most rational systems of public care or insurance, since the attention of the

people will be called to the problem that is to be solved and an endeavor to work out an ultimate solution will be made. Not

only should a well-guarded system of pensions accomplish much good, but it should also point the way toward the most effective forms of insurance against poverty and need.

CONCLUSION

In reviewing the problems of child welfare, it is apparent that many of the simplest analyses are still wanting. A successful solution of these problems depends on more social research, for in these days of exaggeration and yellow journalism, we are in great danger of losing our social sanity. The establishment of a Federal Children's Bureau has been a great forward step. This bureau has begun to investigate the causes and preventability of infant and child mortality, and has presented to the public other information of considerable value. It is authorized by statute to study problems relating to practically every phase of child welfare and to publish the results. Gradually it will be able to extend its work and to study such questions as are in need of further investigation. In this way an enormous amount of useful information will be gathered, and this will serve as a basis for social legislation. Following the lead of other federal bureaus, the Children's Bureau can eventually utilize the carefully prepared studies of private organizations that have value for the United States as a whole.

The spirit of investigation is now so strong that in many cases before public action on important questions is taken, a thorough study of the problem is made in order to lessen the probability of ill-advised legislation. Unless our methods of work are based on correct principles, our social program will be neither consistent nor successful.

Special attention should be given to the subjects most in need of additional study. For example, we need to know more of the origin of the juvenile offender; whether heredity as an influence can be directly traced; whether the decline of parental authority increases delinquency; and how the contributing factors operate. The results of probation need more investigation, and the relation of juvenile delinquency to crime, poverty,

pauperism, and mendicancy should be determined. We need to know more of the problem of physical degeneracy, its nature and its causes; to what extent prenatal conditions affect the growth and vigor of the child; and what are the influences of city life, malnutrition, and slum conditions.

The dependent child needs more attention. The influence of orphanages and homes is capable of more extensive study. These institutions have been condemned on evidence not wholly conclusive, hence the subsequent career of their inmates needs further examination. The true outcome of neglect still remains unsolved. The relation of the environment of youth to the character and disposition of the homeless, vagrant, and unemployable class would furnish much material for preventive philanthropy. The problem of sex education must have considerable further attention, and the different conditions necessary for the moral development of our children must be analyzed. In addition, other phases of child welfare need the searchlight of study and investigation; in this way only will the foundations for lasting reform be laid.

Another important item of consideration is the economic basis of social reform. The social worker threatens to attempt reform without having properly weighed the importance of the fundamental conditions that shape and determine the problems he wishes to solve. Too often the sight of intolerable conditions prompts him to appeal to the reputed omnipotence of law, when the basis for effective legislation has not even been touched. It is not easy to overthrow the economic and psychological forces that drive men to action, but it is possible to direct these forces to the end that conditions may be improved. Social legislation frequently resembles an inverted pyramid, which at the slightest jolt will lose its balance and fall to the ground; to become substantial it must rest on enduring foundations. Our social workers need more training in economics and politics; otherwise much unwise and impossible legislation will be enacted. Unless conditions and effects are related to causes little can be accomplished.

At present we are in great danger of making men and women