Three of the nine boys named above were tried first in the country without success.

If a boy under twelve years of age must be sent away, there are few alternatives for us in western New York. A child under twelve cannot be sent to Rochester except for a felony, and the George Junior Republic and the Berkshire Industrial Farm are both small and much in demand. The Republic haş about 150 citizens, boys and girls, from all states in the Union as well as from New York, and the Berkshire Farm has about 75 boys. "Father Baker's" is a well-known Roman Catholic reformatory near Buffalo, well administered and with good industrial training. Except these, there are no reformatories for boys under twelve, and in addition to these, only Rochester for boys and girls between twelve and sixteen. Moreover, the State Industrial School, the Republic and the Berkshire Industrial Farm take boys only for a term of years. If an unruly Protestant boy needs merely to be taken from his family for a few months, until he appreciates his home privileges, there is no place near Buffalo. The Kensico Farm School is available for New York city only. There is a boys' reformatory at Charlton, Columbia county, but it has less than 20 children. There is need in this State, and apparently everywhere, of more boys' and girls' reformatories of the free type to supplement the work done at Rochester.

I have again alluded to the difference between the two types of reformatories. Both are intelligent and both effective, but the difference in their methods is a fundamental one. I do not imagine that either type will displace the other, and for many children the regularity and method of the State Industrial School are more valuable than the more desultory life at the Republic. This is a subject closely related to probation, for it concerns the dispositions of the children. I speak on it with diffidence, for it is apart from my special work in charity. I have, however, been for two years on the board of managers of the George Junior

Republic, and also of the State Reformatory for Women at Albion, and have made many visits to each. The latter, of course, is not for juveniles, but it illustrates one of the same principles of reform in its emphasis on social pleasures. There is no attempt at self-government.

I hope no one here will doubt my admiration for the State Industrial School and for its management. It is of a high type, and a model of its kind. It educates both head and hand, and is never guilty of the anomaly spoken of by Warden Hatch — the anomaly of holding that crime is the result of character conditions, and then subjecting a prisoner to a process which does not contemplate a change of character. This one institution, however, has nearly 1,000 children, while the Republic and the Berkshire Farm together have less than 200, and my plea is for a more even balance. Randall's Island, Rochester and other institutions of their type necessarily neglect the affections. A boy finds himself kindly and wisely treated, but his social side is not much considered, and this is not in keeping with modern pedagogy. Very much can be done through a boy's affections.

The lessons of self-government are also valuable. Control has so long been considered the essential thing in forming character that to preach liberty seems to many like heresy.

It is possible to draw many analogies. In medicine we now give fewer drugs and rely on the natural powers of the body, with the personal service of trained nurses. In charity we give fewer alms and rely on the natural resources of the family, with the personal service of trained friendly visitors. In government we use less law, but rely on natural forces, with the aid of the church, the school and other instruments of social reform.

It seems to me that the theory of probation rests also on the value of social influences and of natural conditions in reform. The two features of probation are, first, the retention of natural conditions, and second, loving, patient, personal service. In stead of withdrawing the child from the environment in which

it lives, it tries to assist that environment. The logical deduction from this is a reformatory which in a measure shall be a counterpart of the environment.

It seems to me to be the lesson of the century, the lesson alike of charity, of christianity and of civilization, that in forming character force must give way to freedom and love. A militant christianity has already been condemned, and a militant civilization is as bad. I believe in civilization by contact, in civilization by commerce, but not in civilization by conquest. Force leaves rancor and reaction, and the slower methods are more sure. The United States has been called the pioneer in an age of republics, but it is not through force, but through example, that in neither North nor South America is there to be found a king. The republics of Central and South America make many errors, but they are slowly developing good secondary education and commercial stability. India and Egypt, under the most intelligent tutelage the world has ever known, are less fit for self-government. With boy life as with national life, we may well stop to ask whether the least possible interference and the largest possible freedom, even with all the mistakes and struggles which this involves, will not build character most surely in the end.

DISCUSSION ON "JUVENILE COURTS AND JUVENILE PROBATION."

The discussion was opened by Mr. Homer Folks, Secretary of the State Charities Aid Association, New York:

Mr. FOLKS.-In my opinion, the rapid extension of the probation system during the past three years and a half is the most striking fact in the history of child-saving work in the United States. Three years and a half ago the probation system was in operation in but one state in the Union - Massachusetts, and there it had been in operation for twenty-seven years. To-day the probation system is in actual operation in fif

teen of the twenty-five largest states in the United States. I am of the opinion that the probation system has come to stay, because it seems to me to be in harmony with several facts which we know to be very characteristic of human nature.

It seems to me to have three central ideas. The first idea is,

one more chance" after seeing what punishment means. Do we not all, when we are doing wrong, forget what the penalty is, and when we come suddenly face to face with the penalty, and see how much it is and all that it means, we wish we had not done wrong, and we feel sure that if we had one more chance we would not do it again. In many cases we would not do it again, when we had once realized what the penalty really means.

The second idea is the continuing possibility of punishment for the deed already done. If a boy is let off for his first offense on an absolute discharge, he knows that in order to be punished, he must not only do wrong again, but he must be found out again, and he must be found out in such a clear and unmistakable way that he can again be convicted by legal process. Now to be able to secure a second conviction is a very different thing from being morally certain that the boy is not doing well; and a clever boy, having once been convicted and discharged, may find it very easy to avoid those particular circumstances which led to his being found out and convicted. Under the probation system it is only necessary for the probation officer to convince the court that the boy is not doing well, and the boy knows all through the probation period, that if the probation officer feels that he is not doing well, whether or not he can prove any particular thing, he can be brought into court and committed for the original offense. The fact that we know that the commitment is not for punishment but for education and reformation, does not alter the case; the boy regards deprivation of his liberty as a very serious punishment, and his point of view is in this connection the one that

counts.

The third idea is that of a friend. The probation officer is simply a friendly visitor. It is a human, direct, personal influence, the thing that does more good, secures more reforms, and saves more people than anything else in this world.

What are the dangers of the probation system? It seems to me they are two. In the first place, the rapid extension of the system may lead us to think that it is in some sort a panacea for all the ills connected with wayward children. I think it would be a very great mistake to put all children who are first offenders on probation. I think that many cases come before the courts I am not sure but that I should have felt that way about the boys who started the automobile in which it is perfectly clear that a commitment to an institution for training is then and there the proper and desirable thing; and in those cases I think it would be a mistake, and a serious mistake, to delay that process by providing first a period of probation.

The second mistake to which I think we will be prone in the development of the probation system, is that of doing superficial work. I once heard an agent engaged in placing out children solemnly assert that he exercised an entirely adequate and suitable visitation and oversight over 1,900 children! Now, the probation relation is one which, it seems to me, must call for a great expenditure of moral and nervous force, and no probation officer can expect to do thorough work, to be really influential and effective, in dealing with a very large number of children. We may have large numbers of children placed on probation, and think that they are receiving a great deal of benefit, when, as a matter of fact, we may have little or no actual effect upon them. Therefore, it seems to me of the greatest importance in starting probation work that we shall be perfectly sure that we hold ourselves to a high standard of accounting for every boy and every girl who is placed on probation. Let us know exactly what becomes of them, where they go and what the results of the probation period

are.