15

depraved. In the interest of the greater number of children such clause should be resorted to in exceptional cases.

Officers Filing Petitions. In the smaller counties where there are no probation officers, and a County Attorney or Deputy County Attorney, this officer (as well as any citizen) may file the petitions or complaints, but when doing so he does so as an officer of the chancery court and not as an officer of the criminal court. In order to bring the information to the attention of the court relating to the dependency or delinquency of the child it is considered best to entitle the paper doing this, a "petition," although the name is not material. At least as a matter of sentiment, the information filed in court would better not be entitled by the terms ordinarily used in criminal cases.

Committing Delinquents. Good industrial schools conducted like those to be found in some of the states, are much better for the training and the care of delinquents than the street, and that bad environment that may lead them into crime in spite of the probation work of the court. When this is apparent, there should be no hesitation in committing the boy or girl. These institutions have been blamed for a great many things for which they are not responsible. Sev enty-five to eigthy per cent of the boys committed to the up-to-date industrial schools are turning out to be good citizens, while probably nearly all of those who ought to be there and are permitted to remain in their old environment are drifting into criminality. These industrial schools are not what was known as the old reform school of ten or twenty years ago. Their methods are educational rather than punitive, and such an institution should exist in every state and near every large city. It is very unfair to these schools to assume that because a boy apprehended may have been an inmate that the school was in any way responsible. This may be so in rare instances, but such conditions are generally in spite of the school and not because of it. If a boy apprehended has been in such an institution that fact is always seized upon in the newspaper account, but as a rule, it is just as reasonable to charge the result to this school as it is to charge it to the Sunday School, the public school or any other school in which the ten or fiften years of his formative period have been passed. The one or two years in the average industrial school is frequently all too short a period to straighten or strengthen an image that has been weakened by years of bad homes or bad environment. I am convinced after seven years of observation in this respect that more mistakes are made in not committing boys and girls to industrial schools than in committing them there, and, as a rule, when such a one should be committed there is no better service to be performed by the court. These schools when properly conducted, as most of them are, through their splendid superintendents, are doing a service to the state that is poorly appreciated. The girl problem is largely a sex problem, and I do not recall having ever committed a girl to such an institution unless I believed she was weak in this respect and in a proper case I do not. hesitate to make such commitment as being the very best thing for the girl, since a larger proportion of them are reformed than is generally supposed. I know, personally, of some women who have come from such institutions afterwards to become good wives and good mothers, and in a number of cases, professional nurses or useful helpers in the very work that resulted in their own salvation. Of course, it must not be understood that all girls in such institutions are there for sex indescretions or misfortunes. Many are unfortunate in other particulars and in either event are entitled to the greatest sympathy and help.

New York is particularly fortunate in having the George Junior Republic at Freeville for both boys and girls. This is not a state institution, but an independent self-governing community, doing perhaps the best work in the country in leading delinquent boys and girls into good citizenship through the development of their self-control and sense of personal responsibility. Would that each state had a Republic and a Wm. R. George.

Concluded in the October number.

THE AMERICAN BOY.
Continued from page 7.

able effect in producing what we call American civilization,
and a boy cannot really understand the beginning of this
country unless he knows quite a little of the historical strug-
gles through which England, Germany and Scandinavia
passed. I would not have him miss the history of Russia,
nor of France, but that that I have named are to my mind
the most important.

I would have him study the history of the popular struggle for liberty in every part of the world. This story has been shaping itself and developing since long before the birth of Christ. The motives of men and the motives of governments are not to be well understood unless we know something of the different battles for personal and national liberty that have happened in the past history of the world. In studying all this story, a boy should observe and firmly fix it in his mind that good personal conduct on the part of the individual goes hand in hand with good laws. When we have had nations where the people were bad, we have had laws that were bad, and there have been bad rulers. Where the people of a nation have been good and have tried to lead rightful lives, the laws of that nation have reflected their good conduct, and as a rule the chief authorities have been men of ability and character. When a boy understands this he will see that cleanly private conduct has a great deal to do with the character of the government which is above him.

A boy who studies history in this way will also learn that the boy or man who does any wrong privately, eventually does wrong publicly. If boys and men are going to be good in upholding their nation, they have got to be good in their daily lives-in their homes, in their schools, and in their business. No one can get away from the law. Saying one thing and doing another invariably leads to disaster. There is just one way of being right, and that is to be right.

A boy can study with advantage naval and war history of the United States for the purpose of learning national heroes, but the best of this knowledge is to know the value of peace and to understand where war may at times be a necessity, and yet often where it can be wholly avoided. This is the real point of view from which to study what our army and navy has done through our century and a quarter of national history. A boy should not fail in his historical studies to closely scan the lives, habits and sayings of our great national characters, from Washington down to the present day. He should read how they lived in their homes, how they performed their work, what they sacrificed, how they overcame obstacles, and how they maintained their characters. He will find many helpful inspirations in their writings and in what they accomplished.

This is giving the American boy a great deal to think of. and much to read about and study. I would add one more short paragraph of advice that may help to round out this boy's character. Live out of doors every moment that you can. Make your work out of doors as much as possible; get just as much sunshine and fresh air into you as possible without neglecting your duties of home and school.

There is no better tonic for gloominess, for lack of courage and spirit, than to get into the sunshine, rain, and storm, and know Nature in all of her varying moods. I think the American boy who will try to do these few things that I have mentioned, will sincerely incorporate them into his daily life, will not lack in patriotism, nor in that respect for others that is certain to win respect for himself.-Hon. Wm. H. Taft.

OF THE

Illinois Juvenile Court Law

and other Juvenile Information is now

in BOOK FORM. It can be procured

AT

The Juvenile Gourt Record : Office,

79 Dearborn Street, Ghicago

AT $1.00 PER GOPY

(GLOT H)

Le Beau
Engraving Co.

200 So. Clinton St.
CHICAGO, ILL.

Designers and
Engravers

Any Children's Society or Charitable Organiza-
tion using half tones or zinc etchings will find it to
their advantage to write us for Special Rates.

The Galbraith Press

183-187 North Peoria St.

Printers in All Languages

We print THIS MAGAZINE
What can we print for YOU?

WE MAKE THE HALFTONES
FOR THIS MAGAZINE.

597

eqr IT IS WISER AND LESS EXPENSIVE TO SAVE CHILDREN THAN TO PUNISH CRIMINALS

TJUVENILE CURT RECORD

¶ We Advocate the Establishment of a JUVENILE COURT in every State in the Union.

¶ AGENTS are NOT Authorized to represent Local Juvenile Courts or to accept Donations for any purpose.

"Entered as Second-Class Matter Aug. 28th 1903 at the Post Office at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3rd 1879."

OBJECTS OF THE JUVENILE COURT RECORD

The object of The Juvenile Court Record is to disseminate the principles of the Juvenile Court throughout the United States, and, in fact, the entire world.

When the Juvenile Court was first established the sociologists of the entire country stood by watching anxiously the outcome of this new departure in childsaving methods. It was realized that a medium was needed whereby the results accomplished by the Juvenile Court might be set forth in an intelligent manner. The Juvenile Court Record stepped into the breach and has devoted its pages exclusively to news of the various juvenile courts. As a result of the publicity thus given to the foundation principle and routine work of the Cook County Juvenile Court other States have passed juvenile court laws, and bills are being prepared in nearly every State in the Union to be presented at the next sessions of the Legislatures of the various States providing for similar legislation.

PLEASE NOTE! ALL agents for the Juvenile Court Record carry credentials.

The agent presenting this paper to you is authorized to sell single copies at 10c, and to take annual subscriptions at $1.00 per year.

This paper is published only as an exponent of Juvenile Courts.