of such work are apt to be inferior. "Unofficial" work is highly unstandardized; yet, being under the aegis of the court, it doubtless discourages preventive case work by agencies of the welfare and educational systems and may lead to the wishing of cases upon the already overworked probation officer. For this and other reasons, unofficial practice in such courts, however well handled, seems to be false social economy.

The existence of this mass of "unofficial" work seems to the writer to constitute an admission that such cases do not call for court action, but for voluntary adjustment through welfare agencies.2

The treatment of neglected children by the juvenile courts includes the remanding of certain children to welfare agencies and institutions for treatment (board of children's guardians, etc.). This is quite proper, if the cases be such as could not have been handled successfully on a non-court basis. It is when the court tries itself to administer, or to control administration of, treatment in neglect cases, that confusion of function begins.

GROUP V: MENTAL DEVIATES

The space on both sides is shaded up to age three or so, as defect is not apt to be recognized or socially provided for before that period.

Chart A.-The treatment for backward, feeble-minded, and psychopathic children is individualized, and consists in clinical observation, investigation, and special adjustments of environment or curriculum in minor cases, and custodial care in more serious

cases.

Cases are discovered and treated through medical inspection, psychological and psychiatric clinics, visiting nurses, visiting teachers, and special classes or schools.

For custodial care or permanent segregation there are hospitals, asylums, and colonies.

All of these agencies, even those involving a transfer of custody, should treat cases without court action so long as agreement

'Cf. articles on this subject: Proceedings of National Probation Association, 1922-23; Journal of Delinquency, November, 1922, January, 1925; Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, May, 1923; Journal of Social Forces, September, 1923.

can be reached by persuasion. On the other hand, it should be equally possible for any of these agencies, even those special services attached to the present educational system,3 to appeal to the family court (left side of chart, neglect session) for sanction in carrying out treatment or securing a change of treatment. It should be possible for the court in disputed cases to order treatment under the appropriate educational or welfare agency, however near normal.

The majority of children being treated by special services of the educational system would thus be on a voluntary basis, but a few would be under treatment by court order; a majority of those (especially the older cases and adults) in custodial care would be then under court order, but a few, perhaps an increasing number, would be there on voluntary commitment. The Boston Psychopathic Hospital has many cases self-committed, or placed by relatives as in an ordinary hospital, though under suitable safeguards.

Proceedings for the proper care of defective children, like cases of neglect, are in behalf of the child, to be sure, and there must be impartial investigation of the child's condition; but the rights at issue are, after all, the claim of the parent to custody as against that of a social agency, or of the state as parens patriae. The parent, therefore, should be the party in whose name the trial is held, not the child.

If "eugenic" laws ever become fully operative, much will presumably have already been achieved in securing eugenic control on a voluntary basis, but family courts would appropriately have jurisdiction in disputed cases.

Chart B.-At present, there is an increasing amount of noncourt treatment of variate types of children, but custodial care ordinarily requires a court hearing with the child in the foreground, and a court order, even where there is general agreement as to facts and treatment. This is always the case for adults, except for a few sanatoria and psychopathic hospitals. The court is assisted in such cases by an expert or jury or commission. A few courts have jurisdiction over mentally and physically defective children.

"And including also the guardians of the child.

The juvenile court does not take cases on appeal from agencies giving milder treatment except to give more drastic treatment: it does not remand to the visiting teachers, for example, for a continuation of the same or similar treatment under court order. It is, therefore, it seems to the writer, limited in its effectiveness, and educational and social agencies are robbed of the potential or actual support of the court in problem cases until they become serious.

GROUP VI: TRUANTS

The chart space is here shaded to exclude (for children) all but the compulsory education (plus continuation school) period.

Chart A.-It may be that, as our conception of educational treatment broadens and unbends, we shall extend the scope of compulsory education. The writer should prefer, however, to see education not compulsory at all except in disputed cases, and then only after a hearing in family court. This is closer, in fact, to the actual state of affairs than it sounds. Education would still be enforced. It is an interpretation of the theory of compulsory education in consonance with the theory that compulsion should be only a last resort, and that parents should have their day in court. They have it now, but it comes on the thirtieth of February, so far as any good it does them, because the law is too ironclad and schools too uniform.

The treatment for truants (if they exist under a well-run system) should be social adjustment and special education, through attendance officers, visiting teachers, clinics, special classes, and custodial schools—the latter, like the former, on a non-compulsory basis unless there be unreconcilable recalcitrance. In which case parents, not children, should be brought into the family court, in a special session for truancy and child-labor cases, and the case investigated, judicially heard, and treatment ordered by the court to be carried out under educational auspices.

Where poverty is contributing to truancy or non-attendance, pensions or scholarships should be secured from relief sources by agreement, or by court order if necessary.

Chart B.-At present, the treatment of this group is rather confused. There is still something of the policeman about some truant officers. Others are socialized. Some school systems pro

vide special classes and schools; a few have individualized treatment, visiting teachers, etc. Some truant schools include cases assigned without court proceedings, others commit only on court order. The latter are chiefly residence (24-hour) schools. Parents are dealt with through persuasion or threat, and occasionally material relief is secured where needed.

Most juvenile courts have truancy jurisdiction. They need more specific power to deal directly with parents of truants. Some attendance departments are inclined to "pass the buck" too quickly to the court. The court may try to force back the responsibility, and friction results in loss to the children involved. If the court accepts the case and takes guardianship, it is apt to be a probation case, in which event, as in matters of neglect, the probation officer, though representing a court, is performing essentially educational or social treatment.

In other cases the child may be placed in a truant or parental school, or more drastic "reform" may be ordered.

The court cannot order the schools to continue treatment through the latter's special "out-patient" staffs, nor order relief in cases of need. So long as this is true, dismissal, probation, or commitment are its only official alternatives.

In these cases children are usually made the direct object of the proceedings in court, rather than the parents, but parents are occasionally punished.

Unofficial procedure is sometimes resorted to. A probation officer may hold hearings at a school, or an attendance officer at the court. This is a hybrid sort of bluff, but it works pretty well. If probation officers handle truants unofficially, however, they are certainly encroaching on the legitimate field of attendance officers and visiting teachers.

Even on official cases of truancy probation, they are doing what might more properly be done by the educational system with truancy-probation under their own administration, occasionally backed by the sanction of the court for a disputed case.

GROUP VII: CHILD LABOR

Because child-labor laws are negative, they require enforcement throughout the period of compulsory education, as well as

(for particular trades) before and after that period; and also against adults. The charts are therefore shaded out only up to about five years of age.

Chart A.-Normal treatment of children in respect to employment includes useful occupation of educational value, vocational training and guidance, scholarships if necessary to complete the education requirements or develop talents, protection of working-age standards of physique and education and conditions of work, adjustment in industry during early years.

These functions should be carried out by the home, the educational system (including attendance, medical, visiting teacher, and vocational departments), relief agencies, and labor inspectors.

For the most part the necessary adjustments should be made by home, school, and employer on a basis of mutual consent. The court should have a session for truancy and child-labor cases, to hear any disputed claims and back up the authorities, the parent, or the employer, as seemed to it just.

Recalcitrant parents in child-labor cases would be tried in the family court; even they might then be put on probation to noncourt social agencies rather than to court officers.

In the case of delinquent employers, the matter is different. The laws may make it necessary for other courts to have at least concurrent jurisdiction with family or juvenile courts. But, if juvenile courts were given power to enjoin and try employers, human, as compared to property, rights would probably get a better show.

Chart B.-At present, vocational education and guidance, scholarships, and protection of standards and conditions are being provided under non-court auspices, but inadequately and inconsistently. Inspectors, visiting teachers and vocational workers are unco-ordinated for the most part. Probation officers do much official and some unofficial work as an employment exchange-obviously a non-court function performed by the probation officer as a stop gap-to fill the breach in the communiy organization at that point. Court auxiliaries also undertake such work. A few states give juvenile courts jurisdiction over employers of child labor.

Work permits are, in a few places, issued through the juvenile court. It seems to the writer that this is a purely administrative