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 JUVENILE COURT 
 LAWS, ETC. 
 
 SUGGESTED BY 
 
 THE JUVENILE IMPROVEMENT 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF 
 
 DENVER 
 
 
JUVENILE COURT 
 LAWS, ETC 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE JUVENILE IMPROVEMENT 
 " ASSCXnATION OF 
 DENVER 
 
 \j_^Oiil 
 
OF 1 
 
 
 A STATEMENT 
 
 By the Judge of the Denver Juvenile Court concerning 
 
 Juvenile Court Laws with information and suggestions 
 
 concerning the w^ork of such courts. 
 
 JUVENILE COURT BILLS. The bills that follow are 
 compiled from the laws of Illinois and Colorado. They were 
 compiled by the writer at the request of the State Commissioner 
 of Charities and Corrections of the new state of Oklahoma as 
 suggestive for that state. The bill relating to contributory de- 
 linquency and dependency is the result of work and experi- 
 ence under that law for the past five years, and since it was 
 first adopted in the State of Colorado. The bill relating to 
 juvenile delinquency contains the additions and suggestions 
 recently added to the Illinois law, which went into effect July 
 1st, 1907, with amendments that have been suggested in that 
 and other states since it was first passed in 1899. The bills 
 as printed are compiled from the sources referred to with a 
 view primarily of being fitted to conditions such as pertain 
 to the average state. A few alterations or additions as to 
 details have been made and some others may be required. 
 These will depend largely upon the peculiar conditions of 
 each state. Care should be taken in their preparation 
 that they conform to directions of the particular state 
 constitution. In some states the matters covered by 
 these two bills may be embraced in a number of statutes, but 
 it is believed after long experience that the subjects contained 
 in the bills that follow are fairly embraced within the pur- 
 poses of their titles. This is an important matter for con- 
 sideration in those states where the constitution forbids more 
 than one subject to be embraced in a single bill and that sub- 
 ject germane to the title. 
 
 DETAILS. Such details as the number of probation 
 oflficers, their salaries, by whom appointed, and the detention 
 home school in place of the jail for the larger cities, etc., are 
 matters that must be worked out in any state by those most 
 familiar with conditions and. the needs of the particular city 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 8 
 
 or State. It is an advantage to have such bills considered and 
 backed by those representing the educational departments of 
 the state, the cjiild saving agencies or those actively interested 
 therein, such as the different women's organizations, for the 
 women led by those like Mrs. Lucy Flower and Mrs. Stevens 
 of Chicago, and Mrs. Schoff of Philadelphia, are particularly 
 responsible for the Juvenile Court in this country. Some good 
 lawyer or committee of lawyers should carefully test the bill by 
 the provisions of the state constitution and see that it otherwise 
 harmonizes with the judicial system and other statutes of the 
 state. It will be found, as a rule, in bills of this character, that 
 if an attempt is made to embrace within it too many subjects, 
 such, for instance, as establishing state institutions, constitu- 
 tional difficulties may arise that might subject the bill to at- 
 tack. As a general rule, such institutions are established by 
 separate bills for that purpose. 
 
 THE COURT. In those states having under the con- 
 stitution a system of courts of record, with broad probate or 
 chancery powers and jurisdiction in misdemeanor cases, as 
 may be vested in county or probate courts in each county, it is 
 generally wise to put the jurisdiction under these laws in such 
 probate or county court. The fact that there is always a judge 
 in each county makes the advantage of the county or probate 
 courts apparent. The jurisdiction falls naturally in such courts 
 in line with its other equity jurisdiction in probate matters, 
 the appointment of guardians, etc. For convenience in the 
 trial of these cases relating to children, the court is termed The 
 Juvenile Court, and the trials, are held separate or on separate 
 days from the trials of adults. :_This accomplishes all that could 
 be accomplished by a separate court, and has many advantages 
 over a separate court. It is less likely to be attacked and is 
 more serviceable as a rule, because of the broad and unlimited 
 chancery and criminal jurisdiction of a constitutional court of 
 record. In Illinois, outside of Chicago, the county or probate 
 court is the juvenile court, as it is in Colorado and in a num- 
 ber of western states having the county courts provided for 
 under the constitution. In Chicago, because of the size of the 
 city and other local conditions, the circuit court, which has a 
 large number of judges, is designated as the juvenile court, and 
 
 178101 
 
4 JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 
 
 the judges of that court designate one of their number to act as 
 juvenile judge. The court began there with Hon. Richard S. 
 JTuthill as the first judg^, who served for the first five years of 
 the court. He was succeeded by Hon. Juhan W. Mack, who 
 served for about three years. At present the court is presided 
 over again by Judge Tuthill, but these two judges have be- 
 tween them done substantially all of the court work of the 
 juvenile court during its existence in that city with substitutes 
 only during their absence from the city. This method does not 
 necessarily and should not require that judges rotate every few 
 months, which is a disadvantage if insisted upon. In Denver, 
 because the city is one of two hundred thousand people, and 
 Judge Lindsey, who founded the court there while county 
 judge, was crowded with work and for other reasons, a special 
 court was created after his ideal of such a court, which simply 
 continued the jurisdiction he had employed for seven years in 
 trying practically all cases that pertained to children, and also 
 adults in any way involved, in a special court for that purpose 
 having unlimited chancery and criminal jurisdiction to deal 
 with every aspect of the case that pertains to a child. This ad- 
 vantage enjoyed for years in Denver was one that was not gen- 
 erally possessed by other juvenile courts, but it may be con- 
 ferred by statute, we believe, upon most of the county courts 
 where a county court system exists, as was done in the state 
 of Colorado. A special court is not recommended, except for 
 very large cities, and even in those cases, if it is to be adopted, 
 it should be only after the work has progressed in one of the 
 regular courts for a number of years until it is thoroughly un- 
 derstood and the needs and conditions of the city with reference 
 thereto are also better understood. Otherwise a special court 
 is liable to be a serious mistake. 
 
 SEPARATE COURT. Because of the crowded condi- 
 tion of Judgfe Stubbs' court in Indianapolis the leofislature o^ 
 Indiana created the first separate juvenile court for this city 
 about five years ago, and Judge Stubbs, one of our most effi- 
 cient juvenile judges, has presided over it ever since its crea- 
 tion. We understand the juvenile court in Baltimore, Md., so 
 ably presided over by Judge Heuisler for the past five or six 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 5 
 
 years, is also a separate juvenile court. Both of these judges are 
 among the best known in the country and have done much to 
 develop the separate court system for a large city. Two years 
 ago a separate court was established in Boston, Mass., and is 
 ably presided over by Judge Harvey Baker. The writer has 
 doubted the wisdom of a "separate" court, such even as that 
 first established in Indianapolis, unless it could be given com- 
 plete chancery jurisdiction that is, armed with equity powers 
 to deal with every aspect of the case concerning the child and its 
 parents, and also criminal jurisdiction to deal with all contribu- 
 tory dependents and delinquents, and such other misdemeanor 
 laws as forbidding the sale of liquor, tobacco, immoral litera- 
 ture, firearms, etc., to youths and forbidding girls an^. L-oys 
 in improper resorts. The Court must be able not only to cor- 
 rect the child but to protect the child, and to this end it should 
 have power to deal with every aspect of the case and thus spe- 
 cialize in the protection of the youth of the state by enforcing 
 its laws for their protection as well as correction. In time it is 
 the hope of the writer that such a court will exist in 
 every large city and that its quarters will be in a building to 
 itself in which will also bo the quarters of the probation officers, 
 truant officers, humane society officers, and the detention home 
 and school. Such a permanent building, in a measure, has 
 recently been established in Chicago and begun in Milwaukee 
 and committees have been appointed to secure it in Denver, 
 v/here a start to that end has been made.. It has been sug- 
 gested that the jurisdiction be put in one of the regu- 
 lar courts even in large cities like Chicago, and an ad- 
 ditional judge be added to the regular constitutional court 
 for such special purposes as a better plan than establishing 
 separate courts. However this may be, there is nothing 
 new or of special advantage about a separate court further than 
 the fact that it relieves the judge of much other w^ork. It does 
 not, however, seriously affect the probation officers. They 
 must in any event do most of the personal work with the child 
 or children, and they have nothing to do with the other civil 
 cases in the court. The only state having no large city, so far 
 as we are advised, having a so-called "separate" court, is the 
 state of Utah, although it is not the first court of the kind. 
 
6 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 This separate court that was thus estabhshed in Utah about 
 two years ago was based upon that of IndianapoHs, Indiana, 
 and sections of the laws of Colorado and Illinois. 
 
 The law was repealed because of its many defects, and 
 able members of the bar in Utah, taking parts of the laws of 
 other states and making some additions to comply with a recent 
 decision of the Supreme Court of Utah and the constitution of 
 that state have succeeded in having passed during the past 
 year a very good juvenile court law, containing the material 
 principles of such laws from Illinois, Colorado and Indiana. 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS OF JUDGES. A difference of 
 opinion exists on this point. The writer believes that an 
 educator, even if not a thoroughly trained lawyer, may make a 
 T competent juvenile court judge, provided that he shall have 
 made some considerable study of the law relating to children 
 as well as criminal law. Still many of our best authorities 
 and pioneers in juvenile court matters like Judge T. D. Hurley, 
 the first chief probation officer of Chicago, and Hon. Julian 
 W. Mack, one of the able judges of the juvenile court of Chi- 
 cago, seriously question permitting a layman as juvenile judge 
 when some of the most sacred rights of the citizen, not to be 
 lightly regarded, are being constantly dealt with in both the 
 chancery and criminal jurisdictions of the juvenile court. As 
 to the child, however, the most important and indispensable 
 qualification in a judge or probation officer is an understand- 
 ing of child nature. 
 
 SOME MISCONCEPTIONS. The advocates of Ju- 
 venile Court legislation do not say that a child can- 
 not do a criminal act until after he is twenty-one 
 or even sixteen, and it is not the purpose of the juvenile 
 law to so affirm. Indeed, the law itself, if it is an elastic 
 and wise one, will permit prosecutions on the criminal 
 side of the docket where it appears necessary. Some of the 
 most dangerous criminals we have had to deal with have been 
 young boys, such as the car barn murderers in Chicago and 
 others. Spreading abroad such an erroneous idea as juvenile 
 court doctrine, that a child cannot do a criminal act within 
 the ages of delinquency, which is as high as eighteen in many 
 states, will influence legislators against this law, as it did in 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 7 
 
 one state to such an extent as materially to assist in its entire 
 repeal. Stealing is stealing, and it is not the purpose 
 of the Juvenile Court to teach children or to spread 
 the doctrine abroad that what they do in this respect is in any 
 way justified. The idea is rather to correct the child under 
 the forms of law without stigmatizing him in the first instance 
 as a criminal and handicapping him, and also to reach the child 
 for acts short of crime but which will develop into crime un- 
 less corrected. And thus the delinquency act permits us to 
 reach out and assist the child before the criminal stage is 
 reached. The criminal law did not permit this. Under seven 
 or ten, where a child has not yet come to the age of reason 
 and does not know the difference between right and wrong, it 
 may be said, as courts and statutes have said, that it cannot be 
 guilty of crime. 
 
 ESTABLISHING DELINQUENCY IN THE CHAN- 
 CERY COURT. This law embodies the doctrines of a chan- 
 cery court for hundreds of years in so far as dependency is 
 concerned, and this principle able judges, lawyers and laymen 
 have long been endeavoring to apply equally to delinquency, 
 in order that the child may be headed off before he commits 
 crime, or if he does commit a crime he may not in the 
 first instance be charged therewith, but dealt with as 
 a ward of the state, and as specifically declared by the 
 Colorado act, for instance, "As far as practicable, not as a 
 criminal, but as being misdirected and misguided and needing 
 aid, help, assistance and encouragement," and by the original 
 juvenile delinquency act prepared by Judge Hurd in Chicago 
 in 1899, when it declared that the purpose of the act was that 
 the child should be treated and corrected as it would be by its 
 parents, and it should be cared for in some suitable family 
 home, and not in jails, etc. Thus it has been that the chan- 
 cery or equity jurisdiction has always been specifically invoked 
 by these acts in every state so far as they deal with the child. 
 
 This purpose, therefore, has always been declared by the 
 construction clause of these acts, but it was not till after a 
 struggle in the courts that it was settled in accordance with 
 such declarations, so that until it was finally settled some of 
 these acts had to be drawn in the alternative, declaring this its 
 
8 JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 
 
 purpose in such language as this ''As far as practicable the 
 child shall not be treated as a criminal, etc.", thus so framing 
 the law that in case, as it was first held under such acts in 
 Pennsylvania in 1902, that a child having reached the age of 
 reason could not be treated as a delinquent and different from 
 others, the juvenile act could still be sustained and the other 
 good provisions, such as probation, etc., availed of for the good 
 of the child. The juvenile courts in Chicago, Denver and other 
 cities followed the chancery idea in dealing with delinquents 
 as it did with dependents and in recent cases in Pennsylvania, 
 Illinois and Utah, the Supreme Courts of those states have sus- 
 tained the chancery theory and all new laws or amendments 
 should be framed exclusively on the theory declared in these 
 acts. It is believed this is now settled for all time. 
 
 THE PROBATION OFFICER. The work of the court 
 in dealing with the child must necessarily be done mostly by 
 the probation officer. One who is a good school teacher is 
 generally well equipped for the work of probation officer. Yet 
 any good average man or woman who understands the spirit 
 of the juvenile court, and who can be firm, and yet kind, may 
 develop into a good probation officer. The most important 
 work is the attitude of this officer toward the child. Success 
 must largely depend, not on the law, but the kindly, tactful, 
 patient and yet firm manner to which not only the child, but 
 also the home, parents and others are approached. The time 
 will no doubt come when probation officers will be trained 
 after a system somewhat similar to that being adopted in 
 schools of philanthropy for the training of philanthropic work- 
 ers, or in a normal school for the training of teachers. 
 
 The probation officers in Colorado are appointed 
 by the judge of the court. Any number of volun- 
 teers may be appointed. In cases, however, where the 
 officer receives a salary from the county, the ap- 
 pointment may be, as in Colorado, for instance, submit- 
 ted to the State Board of Charities and Corrections, and that 
 board pass upon the qualifications of the appointee before it is 
 confirmed. Where there is no such board, it may be consti- 
 tuted of persons like the Superintendent of Schools, the Com- 
 missioner of Charities and Corrections, or similar officials. In 
 large cities like Chicago, the probation officers who receive pay 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 9 
 
 from the County must qualify by civil service examination. 
 This has never been suggested except for very large cities. 
 The purpose of these suggestions have been to keep this work 
 out of politics, and to secure men and women as probation 
 officers who are qualified for the work and who are doing it 
 because they have the temperament and the spirit for it, and 
 not merely to draw the salary that may be attached to such 
 a position. This paper more particularly deals with juvenile 
 legislation. Able papers on the subject of probation have been 
 
 I written by Hon. C. T. Lewis, Hastings H. Hart, Hon. T. D. 
 Hurley and Hon. Julian W. Mack of Chicago and others, and 
 may be had by applying to the last two gentlemen in Chicago, 
 or the secretary of the National Conference of Charities and 
 Corrections, 105 E. 22nd St., New York City. The Problem 
 of the Children, containing papers on the subject, may be had 
 from the Juvenile Court of Denver. 
 
 DEFINITION OF DELINQUENCY. The definition 
 of delinquency has been made very broad and liberal. The 
 primary purpose of this is to enable the court to assist in pre- 
 venting, as far as possible, those habits in childhood and youth 
 that if persisted in may lead to criminality or undesirable cit- 
 izenship. Thus the court literally prevents crime. Its pur- 
 pose also is, in connection with the contributory law relating to 
 adults, to hold to a rigid accountability all men and women 
 who may by any act cause or encourage delinquency or de- 
 pendency. In this respect the definitions of juvenile depend- 
 ency and delinquency must be read in connection with the defini- 
 tion of contributory dependency and delinquency in order that 
 these purposes may be appreciated. The state has undertaken 
 to protect its children by making all persons legally responsible 
 for their moral welfare, where such responsibiirty may be fairly 
 and reasonably exacted and enforced; for instance, if a child 
 goes to a saloon, we say he is "delinquent," as defined by Sec- 
 tion 1 of the juvenile delinquency act. The man whojent it 
 to the saloon, or who permitted it to remain in' tlie place, can 
 he held for "contributory delinquency." It will be seen also that 
 it is not even a term of opprobrium or reproach. Perhaps the 
 child even did right in going there if sent by a parent. He is not 
 charged with being a criminal, but that he has entered a con- 
 dition, environment or state of delinquency, and unless the 
 
10 JUVENILE COURT DAWS. ETC. 
 
 State interferes to take him out of the bad environment to 
 which he is subjected and correct those who are causing or 
 encouraging it, it may lea J to making him a criminal or 
 weakling. No child could be taken away from its parents or 
 put in an institution for this or similar reasons unless the par- 
 ents were given first a chance to correct it and it was shown 
 that the parents were incompetent to care for it. Throughout 
 the proceeding their rights are protected by the court. So like- 
 wise many examples could be given as in case of a girl if she 
 is taken to a wineroom or other disreputable resort ; the person 
 taking her there or the person even letting her in the place, 
 would be guilty of contributory delinquency and she would be 
 delinquent, not criminal, and dealt with in the chancery court, 
 as the juvenie court has always been intended to be in dealing 
 with the child. 
 
 BRIEF HISTORY OF JUVENILE LAWS. It will be 
 found in examining juvenile court laws that in so far as law 
 is concerned they are based on principles that by no means all 
 originated with the so-called juvenile court, as many seem to 
 think. Some of these principles may be considered briefly. The 
 first is probation ; that is, suspending any final judgment in the 
 case and permitting the offender to have a chance to overcome 
 his weakness or mistake by co-operating with the state to that 
 end through its probation officers, or as in the juvenile court, 
 through such natural agencies in addition to the work of that 
 officer as the home and the school. It is really a method of 
 teaching or permitting one to "overcome evil with good." One 
 on probation has not been committed or detained in any insti- 
 tution. Parole differs from probation, in that one on parole 
 under somewhat similar circumstances is supposed to have been 
 originally committed to some institution. The principle of pro- 
 bation was first embodied in the law in Massachusetts about 
 1869, but we believe not very usefully systematized until about 
 1876. Separate trials for children were first required by law 
 in Massachusetts and New York. A separate building for this 
 purpose was first established in New York City. Laws forbid- 
 ding placing children in jails existed in many states long before 
 the juvenile court came. The next important principle in order 
 that was invoked by these courts was that permitting the child 
 to be corrected by the state in its capacity of parens, patriae 
 (regarding the child as a ward of the state), of acts short of 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 11 
 
 crime, but which if persisted in might result in crime; and if 
 it had committed a crime permitting its care and correc- 
 tion without charging it with crime. This was done by acts 
 defining certain conduct of the child as disorderly or delinquent 
 and permitting it to be brought into some constitutional court 
 of record for correction, in which the scheme of probation was 
 directed by these laws to be employed. A special section was 
 embodied in the school law of Colorado of April 12th, 1899, 
 permitting this to be~done^~s"o"tHat it a child, for instance, werif 
 to a store and took something of value without permission it 
 could be brought to the county court, which was given juris- 
 diction of such cases, by a ^petition being filed by any person 
 charging it with disorderly conduct, but not necessitating that 
 it be either charged with or found guilty of any crime. At 
 first the law was little understood and little used, but the Den- 
 ver Juvenile Coiirt was subsequently established under it and 
 because of this and its close co-operation with the school, it 
 was sometimes called the school cpurt, a term that in many 
 respects more correctly described its particular system of work 
 with and for the child which work is largely educational. In 
 re-enacting the law subsequently the acts and conduct of a child 
 described as disorderly conduct were described as delinquency, 
 as they had been in the first law designating such a court as a 
 juvenile court by name. This was the law of Illinois drawn 
 by Judge Harvey B. Hurd at the request of leading club women 
 in Chicago like Mrs. Lucy Flower and Mrs. Stevens, formerly 
 of Toledo, Ohio, and the Visitation and Aid Society, 
 Hon. T. D. Hurley and Mr. Hastings H. Hart of 
 the same city. That law went into effect June 1st, 
 1899. It declared that the circuit court, for convenience, 
 in the trial of children under the act, might be called the 
 juvenile court and required that court to assign one of its 
 judges to try such cases. They assigned Hon. Richard S. 
 Tuthill. In all other counties outside of Chicago jurisdiction 
 under this law was given the county or probate court 
 and each county judge in Illinois thus became the 
 judge of the juvenile court in the trial of children. 
 But naturally the city of Chicago, because of its 
 tremendous population, mostly employed the act,. It 
 seems to have been very little followed in Illinois for several 
 
12 JUVENILfB COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 years after its enactment outside of the city of Chicago. These 
 laws permitted the child to be corrected in this manner 
 by requiring the chancery court to treat the case very much as 
 it had always treated the case of the dependent child and this 
 was the new principle in such acts. In other respects they 
 were merely a sort of compilation of older well-known 
 laws already existing in the particular state or taken 
 from other states. But this is not said to minimize their 
 importance. This change was profoundly important. It cer- 
 tainly gave an impetus to probation work for children that had 
 been entirely lacking before. It took them out of the old jail 
 conditions and eventually led to building up a splendid work 
 for children in Chicago, Denver, and recently nearly all the 
 large cities, that could not have been built but for 
 this spirit thus diffused and made possible by this law. Its 
 good effects and the credit due those (good women, princi- 
 pally) who started it can never be overestimated. The third 
 new legal principle was that holding all persons legally respon- 
 sible for the moral welfare of children announced in a statute 
 generally termed the "contributory delinquent" law which grew 
 out of the experience and the work of the juvenile court in 
 Denver and was first enacted in Colorado about six years ago. 
 The fourth principle that may be said to be somewhat new 
 was to get into one court before the same judge and the same 
 set of officers all cases that pertained to children, and indeed 
 all the youths and minors of the city, including those of adults 
 who violate laws for their protection. This has reached a 
 degree of perfection so far in only a few of the courts. It 
 seems to be difficult of accomplishment in some of the very 
 large cities like Chicago, for instance, where, so far, only chil- 
 dren are tried in the juvenile court. All of these cases tried 
 in one court has been of immense advantage in carrying on the 
 fight for youth and childhood in the juvenile court of Denver. 
 
 In considering this brief history of the juvenile court, so 
 far as laws are concerned, it is impossible of course, to do 
 credit to all those who are entitled to credit, since the juvenile 
 court is really a growth with reference to law as well as work, 
 and no one man or woman' can be credited with its origin. 
 The writer has always said that the women of this country 
 in particular are responsible for this court, and I have fre- 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 13 
 
 quently credited some of them as mothers of the juvenile 
 court. The women's clubs are entitled to much credit, and in 
 Pennsylvania the Mothers' Congress, of which Mrs. Hannah 
 K. Schoif is the President, were the most active workers for 
 the juvenile court, and indeed its origin in that part of the 
 world may be directly attributed to the work of Mrs. Hannah 
 K. Schoff, President of the National Mothers' Congress, which 
 has also done much to advance and sustain an effective proba- 
 tion work in the state of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Schoff has lec- 
 tured and written much upon the subject, having been the 
 first to present the matter to the women of Utah about four 
 years ago, as well as some other states. These good women 
 are especially entitled to credit for that long, hard fight they 
 made to establish the equity principle of the court in the state 
 of Pennsylvania, where it was first denied in 1902, and then 
 affirmed later after they had brought into the state a number 
 of the juvenile judges of other states, to present the matter 
 correctly, thereby winning the first victory in the supreme court 
 for the application of the equity or chancery jurisdic- 
 tion in dealing with the delinquent child. Its far- 
 reaching effect in other states cannot be over-estima- 
 ted, nor can the credit due these women for their 
 part in the fight for childhood, be too generously accorded. 
 The settlement houses like that of the University settlements 
 and especially Hull House in Chicago, have done much for 
 these courts. Such work has been largely due to the efforts 
 of Miss Jane Addams, Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, Miss Julia 
 Lathrop, Miss Minnie F. Lowe, the Visitation and Aid Society 
 and others in Chicago. The help of all the settlement houses 
 and institutional churches in the cities is a most promising de- 
 velopment in the w^ork of juvenile courts. 
 
 In this brief pamphlet no attempt can be made to give more 
 than a passing reference to some of these agencies and the pro- 
 gress of the laws and work. But a word must be said of the 
 splendid work of the children's courts in New York City. They 
 are pioneers in work of this kind. But there is an essential 
 difference in proceedings in these courts. In the children's 
 courts of New York these proceedings, we understand, are still 
 of a criminal character and are, at least technically, under that 
 jurisdiction, though a splendid system of probation and per- 
 
14 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 sonal work has been inauguarted in which Mr. Coulter, clerk of 
 the courts as well as the judges and others are taking a 
 lively interest. This court has always been assisted by the 
 well known original society in New York for the Prevention 
 of Cruelty to Children, that is entitled to so much credit for 
 pioneer work for children. It was the first to maintain, as it 
 does now, the most elaborate detention home that exists any- 
 where in the world. The work of Mr. Brace and the Chil- 
 dren's Aid Society in this direction is also like that of others 
 really too well known even to require any reference here, fur- 
 ther than that some who may not be well informed may know 
 the chief sources of information as to work and laws for the 
 protection of children, and that the importance of such 
 sources may not be inferred to be underestimated or unac- 
 knowledged by the writer. There are no abler or kinder 
 judges of children's courts in this country than those in New 
 York City, such as Judge Wilkin, Judge Olmstead, Judge 
 Holbrook and others, and especially former Judge Julius M. 
 Mayer, who has added much in the way of literature and help- 
 ful suggestions in this work. Indeed the list of judges in 
 both the children's and juvenile courts of this country, who 
 have already performed magnificent services, is so long that 
 the brief character of the pamphlet upon juvenile courts can 
 not well attempt the personal reference to which they are all 
 so honorably entitled. One of the most effective schemes of 
 probation work is to be found in the "Big Brother" movement 
 that is being systematized by Mr. Coulter and others in New 
 York. It is extending the excellent idea of enlisting one young 
 man as a probation worker to become interested in one boy 
 in the Juvenile Court limiting his efforts to the one case. 
 Over one thousand young men have so far contributed to this 
 w^ork and various men's church organizations in particular are 
 taking it up with good results, according to the reports we 
 have. 
 
 ITS REAL SIGNIFICANCE. Perhaps the real signifi- 
 cance of the juvenile court movement in America has not been 
 so much the spread of law, or anything new in law, as the 
 spread of the spirit involved in regarding every boy or girl 
 brought to court as one to be saved, to be strengthened, under- 
 stood, helped and not hurt or degraded. To know, for instance. 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 15 
 
 how to get the truth out of offenders through sympathy and 
 understanding; to make them obedient to the law whether it 
 be the law of the home, the neighborhood, the school or the 
 state ; to know how to teach them to be trusted even to going 
 alone to institutions unattended because we have been able to 
 convince them that we are absolutely just, that we are 
 working for them and not against them, and because 
 they have been taught tp be willing to want to get 
 strong enough in character to want to do right because 
 it is right to do this because they want to and not so much 
 because they have tOi In a word the juvenile courts mark the 
 employment by courts of the divine instruments in the build- 
 ing of human characteri These, of course, are the wise and 
 proper use of sympathy/ that is not permitted to be confused 
 with justification of any wrong, patience, kindness and yet 
 the firmness that yields respect and not hate. These are all more 
 significant than any law. Thus we are gradually building up for 
 the benefit of the children of the state a more scientific and sys- 
 tematic scheme for their correction and protection, which, as 
 to the child, means literally education and character building 
 through the law of love that does not overlook justice, for 
 there is no real love without justice. This of course does 
 not mean to tolerate sentimentality any more than brutality. 
 It is hardly necessary to say then that the real law of the juven- 
 ile court and the qualities for its successful application will not 
 be found in statute books alone, however complete they may be 
 as to so-called juvenile court laws, or where they originated or 
 who is responsible for them. 
 
 AN INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT. A significant 
 fact in connection with this work for children and as showing 
 that the law without the spirit availeth nothing, is, that Jn a 
 number of states, believing they needed juvenile court laws, / 
 big hearted judges have become imbued with the spirit of this 
 work and found ample authority under laws already existing | 
 in their respective states, together with their inherent chan-'i 
 eery powers, or right to suspend sentences or continue cases, A 
 to do work for erring children or youth that compares favor- 
 ably with that of judges who are equipped with elaborate laws. 
 No doubt such work of an intermittent or spasmodic char- 
 acter has been done by many judges before the juvenile court 
 
16 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 ever came as a systematic scheme. One of the most notable 
 instances of systematic work of this kind by a judge, not only 
 handicapped by the lack of sufficient juvenile laws but also phy- 
 sical affliction, is Judge N. B. Feagin, of Birmingham, Ala- 
 bama, who has been judge of one of the municipal courts in 
 that city for a decade or more and who for five or six years 
 has conducted a splendid juvenile court. 
 
 EXAGGERATED DANGERS. The fear so often ex- 
 pressed by many that the judges of the courts will not take 
 the interest necessary in the children's cases is in the judgment 
 of the writer very much exaggerated. As a matter of fact, 
 when there is a demand for such work the supply will come. 
 Judges of courts as a rule become imbued with the spirit of 
 the juvenile law and very little is known of the splendid work 
 of this character that is being and has been for years quietly 
 done by the judges of our courts of record in many 
 cities and states. If the entire number was known it 
 would be surprising and overcome much of these unnecessary 
 fears. The juvenile court in some form or other now exists 
 in the majority of the states and in nearly all of the large 
 cities. What these judges most need is help and support in 
 their local communities. In most instances they are doing 
 their part. Again where they may be deficient in those qualities 
 necessary to successful dealing with the child, their efforts may 
 be supplemented by the services of the probation officer, and 
 these officials must necessarily do most of the personal work 
 w^ith the children, including visitation of homes, neighbor- 
 hoods, etc. 
 
 THE SCHOOLS. The judge in the court may not only 
 be greatly assisted by the schools as has been the case in Den- 
 ver and other cities, but he may also greatly assist the 
 schools, as has been pointed out in detail in papers on this sub- 
 ject in "The Problem of the Children,'* a little booklet by the 
 writer. Business men and churches and other agencies like 
 the Y. M. C. A. may also render much assistance, as they have 
 in many cities. 
 
 DECISIONS OF COURTS. The following cases as to 
 the law may be examined with interest : 
 
 In re Harry Benson 62 Cent. Law Journal, page 219 
 (1906), (and numerous authorities there cited). Ex-parte 
 

 JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 17 
 
 Loving, 178 Mo., 194 (1903). Mills vs. Brown, 88 Pac, 609 
 (Feb., 1907), Utah. Commonwealth vs. Fisher, 62 Atl., 198 
 (1905). Re The Milwaukee Industrial School, 40 Wis., 328 
 (1905). Farham vs. Pierce, 141 Mass., 203. State vs. Home 
 Society, 10 N. Dak., 493. Reynolds vs. Howe, 51 Conn., 472. 
 Ex Parte Liddell, 93 Cal., 633. Ex Parte Nichol, 110 Cal., 
 651. State vs. Phillips, 73 Minn., 77. In re Mason, 3 Wash., 
 609. In re Kelly, 152 Mass., 432. State vs. Kilvington, 41 
 L. R. A. 284. Matter of Knowack, 158 N. Y. 482. 
 
 THE DETENTION SCHOOL. In the large towns 
 and cities a detention home school should be provided for the 
 temporary care and custody of dependents and delinquents. 
 It is very necessary and has been called the right arm of dis- 
 cipline of the court. It need not be very expensive, except in 
 large cities where there should of course be a permanent build- 
 ing for this purpose, as in New York and Chicago. In the 
 smaller towns and cities it has been found that a residence 
 house can be rented and someone who has had experience in 
 teaching and handling children, preferably a man and his wife, 
 can be placed in charge with one or two employes such as a 
 cook and helper about the house. The juvenile law generally di- 
 rects how these children should be cared for in so for as their 
 detention is concerned. It then becomes the duty of the legis- 
 lature by separate enactment to provide for such a detention 
 home, or they may be maintained by the county authorities or 
 city councils. State industrial schools exist in most of the 
 states, and if they do not exist, they should be established 
 by separate acts. Cities may pass ordinances providing for 
 detention homes or other industrial schools for the large cities. 
 In the country or sparsely settled districts where the child is 
 apprehended it has been found that the Sheriff is generally 
 able to provide separate quarters for the child, sometimes keep- 
 ing it in his own family under the supervision of his wife or 
 some member of his household. Again in the country dis- 
 tricts the evils of the jail that resulted in the debauchery of so 
 many children are not so generally encountered. 
 
 CRIMINAL CHILDREN. Discretion is vested in the 
 court by a section of the juvenile delinquent act to direct 
 a criminal prosecution under the statutes of the state within 
 the discretion of the judge, which, of course, is only used in 
 vicious or depraved cases of criminality, and is seldom 
 
18 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 necessary with boys or girls coming within the ages of deh'n- 
 quents. This elastic provision will avoid any abuse of the 
 statute in differentiating between the child who is merely mis- 
 directed and mislead and the older boy who has become vicious 
 or 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 de- 
 pendency 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 informa- 
 tion filed in court would better not be entitled by the terms 
 ordinarily used in criminal cases. 
 
 POWERS OF PROBATION OFFICERS. Provision 
 is made in the juvenile bills here recommended whereby power 
 is conferred upon the probation officer who receives pay from 
 the county to make arrests and also to file complaints or in- 
 formations in court against any person guilty of contributory 
 dependency or contributory delinquency. There are believed 
 to be many advantages in these features. It frequently be- 
 comes necessary for the officer to have such power and in 
 some cities where there is a certain kind of bad politics and 
 the police department or the district attorney do not always 
 willingly enforce these laws for the protection of the youth 
 of the community such provisions have been a powerful aid Lo 
 effective and efficient work in the probation department of 
 the juvenile court. 
 
 SUSPENDED SENTENCES. Very broad provisions are 
 made as to conditions for suspended sentences in cases of adults 
 found guilty of contributory dependency or contributory delin- 
 quency. Ample power is also given to require such offenders 
 where parents to support their children, even though they may 
 be in an institution. The purpose of all these provisions is ap- 
 parent. There is nothing in these laws to encourage some 
 parents to shirk and put their responsibilities on the state by 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 19 
 
 seeking to have their children committed to institutions. On 
 the contrary, the law is framed for just the opposite effect. 
 These provisions have worked very satisfactorily in Colorado 
 where they have been longest in force and so far as we have 
 learned when wisely and properly applied have given satis- 
 faction in other jurisdictions. 
 
 THE FEE SYSTEM. Provision is made forbidding 
 court officers to collect any fees in children's cases unless the 
 cases are filed in pursuance to the juvenile act and indeed no 
 fee should be allowed to be collected at all where that can 
 be done, since the fee system may become a pernicious inter- 
 ference in a juvenile court and where that very pernicious sys- 
 tem exists care should be taken that it is not allowed to inflict 
 its evils in this court. 
 
 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 eighty 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 as- 
 sume that because a boy apprehended may have been 
 an inmate that the school was in any way respon- 
 sible. 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 fifteen years of his 
 
20 JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 
 
 formatic 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 observa- 
 tion in this respect that more mistakes are made in not com- 
 mitting boys and girls to industrial schools than in committing 
 them there, and, as a rule, when such a one should be com- 
 mitted 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 large- 
 ly 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 sup- 
 posed. 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, profes- 
 sional nurses or useful helpers in the very work that re- 
 sulted in their own salvation. Of course, it must not be under- 
 stood that all girls in such institutions are there for sex in- 
 discretions or misfortunes. Many are unfortunate in other 
 particulars and in either event are entitled to the greatest sym- 
 pathy 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 com- 
 munity, 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 re- 
 sponsibility. Would that each state had a Republic and a Wm. 
 R. George. 
 
 JUVENILE COURTS IN SMALL TOWNS OR 
 COUNTIES. Certainly much good and no harm can come 
 in making the juvenile court law state wide, especially where 
 there is a county or probate court system in each county, and 
 this court may be designated as the juvenile court. Indeed a 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 21 
 
 very determined fight was at one time waged in the state of 
 Missouri against the constitutionaHty of the juvenile court be- 
 cause it did not apply to all the counties and merely cared for 
 city children and was, therefore, class legislation. In this fight 
 the court had a narrow escape. So that not only from the 
 legal standpoint, but from that of fair dealing, as far as prac- 
 ticable, the juvenile court system, in the opinion of the writer, 
 should be permissive in every county, city or town. If there 
 is only one or two children to be dealt with in each year or at 
 each term of court, those children are entitled to whatever 
 benefit may come from its provisions. In Colorado our towns, 
 especially in the mining towns and even in the agricultural 
 towns, like for instance. Cripple Creek, a mining town of ten 
 thousand, and Greeley, an agricultural town of perhaps the 
 same number, the county judge, being the juvenile judge, has 
 been able greatly to assist the schools and protect many boys 
 and girls from drifting into a life of crime, and where they 
 have become delinquent, to apply with gratifying results the 
 probation system in most cases. Superintendents of schools, 
 court officials and citizens, we believe, will generally unite in 
 testifying to the efficiency and necessity of the court in a small 
 town. I recall a case in Colorado in one town of about twelve 
 hundred people, where the county judge and the very active 
 principal of the schools, acting as probation officer, were the 
 means of restoring to good citizenship a gang of little fellows, 
 who were fast becoming criminals of a "^dangerous type, and 
 who could not have been apprehended until they had already 
 reached that stage had it not been for the provisions of the 
 juvenile act. 
 
 THE PHYSICIAN IN THE COURT. In addition to 
 that co-operation that comes through school teachers, who may 
 materially help the school probationers, and the business 
 man who may materially help with juveniles out of employ- 
 ment, no more important help can be rendered the court than 
 some kindly disposed physician or physicians who may be wil- 
 ling to co-operate with it. It will frequently be found to be 
 of great advantage to send children of certain types to the 
 doctor for professional examination. Some minor surgical 
 operation or advice from this source is very helpful to many 
 children afflicted with evil habits and disposed to criminal 
 
22 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 tendencies. In our own experience we have found the services 
 of a speciahst in eye, ear, nose and throat troubles, an ahenist 
 or speciahst in nervous diseases, a surgeon and a general prac- 
 titioner to be of inestimable value. It will generally be found 
 that there are splendid men in this profession who will very 
 gladly assist the court and the probation officer when requested 
 There are many boys who need the services of the doctor more 
 than they do that of the jailer. 
 
 METHOD OF TRIALS. There should be as little pub:--. 
 Jicity as possible in the trial of children. Except in trivial 
 cases in our own work the parties all come into the judge's 
 chambers, the stories of parents, officers and children are all 
 listened to in a very informal but dignified manner ; that cold- 
 ness and rather unnatural condition for a child that comes from 
 formal court procedure should be dispensed with as far as 
 possible. It is responsible in most cases for the common dis- 
 position of the average boy to lie or conceal important facts 
 unless he knows they are actually in the possession of the of- 
 ficer. At some stage of the proceeding, especially where there 
 is any question about the truth, the child should be talked to 
 alone by the judge. In doing this he should be put at ease and 
 relieved of all fear by a companionable kindly talk. Unless 
 facts are known it is, as a rule, more or less common (because 
 generally of the false attitude of parents and others), for 
 children to Jie in the presence of their parents. They are 
 niucH more candid when alone. Especially is this true with 
 girls, who will very seldom tell the truth in the presence of 
 the mother, especially w^here the mother has persisted, as she 
 usually does, in the innocence of the child, who has generally 
 been frightened because of the wounded pride and mortifica- 
 tion that might afflict the vanity of some parent. 
 
 PARENTS. As a rule cautions to the parent as to their 
 responsibility and any blame placed upon them should be dis- 
 cussed between the judge and the parent out of the hearing of 
 the child. The court's duty is not to usurp the function of the 
 parent, but to see that the parent properly performs it when 
 the child under the laws of the land comes legally under its 
 jurisdiction. In all such cases parental right must be respected. 
 
 NEWSPAPERS. The newspapers may, unintention- 
 ally perhaps, do a great deal of harm to the juvenile court, 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 23 
 
 and those brought before it, by the indiscreet publication of 
 cases in which the names of boys are given, and this becomes 
 positively fiendish when a girl's name is published. Every 
 effort should be made by kindly consultation to get news- 
 papers to co-operate to prevent this. They can often print 
 stories without using names. A law ought to forbid such pub- 
 lications. No agency more than the press has popularized and 
 approved the juvenile court, and it is to be hoped they will 
 make a small concession to its successful operation by re- 
 fraining from publishing the names (and indeed if possible 
 the proceedings) of children in the court. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND SUGGESTIONS. The work 
 of the juvenile court will not be understood all at once. There 
 will be discouragements and failures both as to laws and 
 work. The best laws drawn have had to be amended time 
 and again, and may have to be amended again and ais^ain 
 until a perfect system is devised. The bills presented in this 
 pamphlet are the latest of their kind in a general way. Per- 
 fection is not claimed for them. Neither will the work to be 
 done be thoroughly understood until after some experience. 
 Mistakes are bound to be made, for no law or system is per- 
 fect until after an active experience under it. It is now con- 
 ceded that we are on the right track through this method, and 
 if difficulties come it will not be from the system itself, but 
 from misunderstanding and mis-applying it, just as such dif- 
 ficulties might come from any law. The juvenile court is not 
 a cure all. It does not pretend to do all the work necessary to 
 correct children or to prevent crime. It is offered as a far 
 superior method to that of the old criminal court system of 
 dealing with the thing rather than the child. That method 
 was more or less brutal. The juvenile court system has 
 a danger in becoming one of leniency, but as between this 
 method and that of the criminal court, it is much to be pre- 
 ferred. But the dangers of leniency as well as those of brutality 
 can be avoided in most cases. Juvenile Court workers must not 
 be sentimentalists any more than brutalists. In short, the 
 idea is a system of probation work, whiclK contemplates 
 co-operation with the child, the home, the school, the 
 neighborhood, the church and the business man in its 
 interests and that of the state. Its purpose is to help all 
 
24 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 it can and to hurt as little as it can ; it seeks to build character 
 to make good citizens rather than useless criminals. The 
 state is thus helping itself as well as the child, for the good of 
 the child is the good of the state. 
 
 TRiyiAL CASES. While the jurisdiction of the court is 
 broad in order to protect the child, it is very seldom that trivial 
 cases should be brought into court. They are generally settled 
 as they should be, out of court, by the probation officer. There 
 is nearly always someone in every community who will act 
 as a voluntary probation officer, even if there be no salary pro- 
 vided for the place to assist the court in such cases. The 
 work in the juvenile court is of more importance than the 
 law, but the work cannot be done unless the law is back of 
 the workers. 
 
 LITERATURE. Literature relating to the laws and 
 work of the juvenile court may be had from various sources, 
 and among those best known is the Juvenile Court Record, 
 Unity Building, Chicago, a monthly publication devoted to 
 this work, which publishes a little booklet, recently issued by 
 Hon. T. D. Hurley, upon the Juvenile Court Laws of Illinois, 
 with blank forms used. There are to be had in printed form 
 able addresses upon the subject delivered by Judge Stubbs of 
 the Juv^enile Court of Indianapolis, Judge Heuisler of the 
 Juvenile Court of Baltimore, and Judges Tuthill and Mack of 
 the Juvenile Court of Chicago. Much literature has also been 
 sent out from the Juvenile Court of Denver, and a little book en- 
 titled *'The Problem of the Children," containing explanations 
 of the workings of the Juvenile Court, especially with refer- 
 ence to administrative work with children, and various reports 
 and pamphlet addresses of the Judge of the Denver Court may 
 he had. The philanthropic publication. "Charities and Com- 
 mons," 105 East 22nd street. New York City, has devoted 
 much service to this cause and has published several special 
 numbers, dealing almost entirely with the juvenile court, its 
 purposes, its laws, etc., which no doubt may be had upon ap- 
 plication to their office in New York City. The Juvenile Court 
 Record of Chicago (Unity Building) is an able and helpful 
 publication devoted especially to juvenile courts and probation. 
 No one publication has done so much for juvenile courts. 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 25 
 
 Forms of bills suggested for establishing what is known as 
 the work of the Juvenile Courts. It will be understood, of j, 
 course, that these bills may have to be materially modified in 
 details zvith reference to the particular states in which they are 
 adopted. 
 
 The bills that follow are suggested as the most recent 
 forms of bills defining juvenile delinquency and dependency, 
 and establishing the probation system for the correction and 
 protection of children. Where it is necessary some provisions 
 as to certain details may be modified or changed to conform to 
 different conditions in different jurisdictions. 
 
 JUVENILE COURT LAW SUGGESTED FOR THE 
 STATE OF OKLAHOMA. 
 
 A Bill for an Act Relatino- to Children Who Are Now or May 
 Hereafter Become Dependent, Neglected or Delinquent, 
 to Define These Terms, and to Provide for the Treat- 
 ment, Control, Maintenance, Protection, Adoption and 
 Guardianship of the Person of Such Children. 
 
 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Oklahoma : 
 
 Section \. Definition. That all persons under the age of 
 twenty-one (21) years, shall, for the purpose of this act only, 
 be considered wards of this state and their persons shall be sub- 
 ject to the care, guardianship and control of the court as here- 
 inafter provided. 
 
 For the purpose of this act, the words "dependent child" 
 and "neglected child" shall mean any male child who while 
 under the age of seventeen years or any female child who while 
 under the age of eighteen years, for any reason, is destitute, 
 homeless or abandoned ; or dependent upon the public for sup- 
 port; or has not proper parental care or guardianship; or 
 habitually begs or receives alms ; or is found living in any house 
 of ill-fame or with any vicious or disreputable person ; or has 
 a home which by reason of neglect, cruelty or depravity, on 
 the part of its parents, guardian or any other person in whose 
 care it may be, is an unfit place for such a child ; and any child 
 who while under the age of ten (10) years is found begging, 
 peddling or selling any articles or singing or playing any musi- 
 
26 JUVENILfE COURT DAWS, ETC. 
 
 cal instrument for gain upon the street or giving any public en- 
 tertainments or accompanies or is used in the aid of any person 
 so doing. 
 
 The words "delinquent child" shall mean any male child 
 who while under the age of seventeen years or any female child 
 who while under the age of eighteen years, violates any law of 
 this state; or is incorrigible, or knowingly associates with 
 thieves, vicious or immoral persons ; or without just cause and 
 without the consent of its parents, guardian or custodian ab- 
 sents itself from its home or place of abode, or is growing up 
 in idleness or crime; or knowingly frequents or visits a house 
 of ill-repute; or knowingly frequents or visits any policy shop 
 or place where any gaming device is operated; or patronizes, 
 visits or frequents any saloon or dram shop where intoxicating 
 liquors are sold; or patronizes or visits any public pool room 
 where the game of pool or billiards is being carried on for pay 
 or hire; or who wanders about the streets in the night time 
 without being on any lawful business or lawful occupation ; or 
 habitually wanders about any railroad yards or tracks or jumps 
 or attempts to jump onto any moving train ; or enters any car 
 or engine without lawful authority, or writes or uses vile, 
 obscene, vulgar, profane or indecent language or smokes cigar- 
 ettes in any public place or about any school house ; or is guilty 
 of indecent, immoral or lascivious conduct ; any child commit- 
 ting any of these acts shall be deemed a delinquent 
 child and when proceeded against such proceeding shall 
 be on behalf of the State in the interest of the child and 
 the State, with due regard to the rights and duties of parents 
 and others, by petition to be filed by any reputable person, and 
 to that end it shall be dealt with, protected and cared for in the 
 probate or chancery court as a ward of the State in the manner 
 hereinafter provided. 
 
 A disposition of any child under this act or any evidence 
 given in such cause, shall not, in any civil, criminal or other 
 cause or proceeding whatever in any court, be lawful or prop- 
 er evidence against such child for any purpose whatever, except 
 in subsequent cases against the same child under this act; nor 
 shall the name of any such child in connection with any pro- 
 ceedings under this act, be published in any newspaper, without 
 a written order of the court. The word "child" or "children" 
 may be held to mean one or more children, and the word "par 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 27 
 
 ent" or "parents" may be held to mean one or both parents, 
 when consistent with. the intent of this act. The word "associa- 
 tion" shall include any association, institution or corporation 
 which include in their purposes the care or disposition of chil- 
 dren, coming within the meaning of this act. 
 
 Section 2. Jurisdiction. The county courts of the sev- 
 eral counties in this state shall have original jurisdiction in all 
 cases coming within the terms of this act. In all trials under 
 this act any person interested therein may demand a jury of six 
 or twelve persons or the judge of his own motion may order a 
 jury of the same number to try the case. 
 
 Section 3. Juvenile Court. The findings of the court 
 shall be entered in a book or books to be kept for that purpose, 
 and known as the "Juvenile^Record," and the court may for 
 convenience be called the "Juvenile Court." 
 
 Section 4. Petition to the Court. Any reputable person, 
 being a resident of the county, may file with the clerk of the 
 court having jurisdiction of the matter, a petition in writing 
 setting forth that a certain child, naming it, within his county, 
 is either dependent, neglected or delinquent as defined 
 in Section 1 hereof; and that it is for the interest of the 
 child and this state that the child be taken from its parent, 
 parents, custodian or guardian and placed under the guardian- 
 ship of some suitable person to be appointed by the court ; and 
 that the parent, parents, custodian or guardian of such child, 
 are unfit or improper guardians, or are unable or unwilling to 
 care for, protect, train, educate, correct, control or discipline 
 such child, or that the parent, parents, guardiian or custodian 
 consent that such child shall be taken from them. 
 
 The petition shall also set forth either the name, or that 
 the name is unknown to petitioner (a) of the person having the 
 custody of such child; and (b) of each of the parents or the 
 surviving parent of a legitimate child ; or of the mother of an 
 illegitimate child; or (c) if it allege that both such parents 
 are or such mother is dead, then of the guardian, if any, of 
 such child ; or (d) if it allege that both such parents are or that 
 such mother is dead and that no guardian of such child is 
 known to petitioner. All persons so named in such petition 
 shall be made defendants by name and shall be notified of such 
 
28 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 proceedings by summons if residents of this state in the same 
 manner as is now or may hereafter be required in chancery 
 proceedings by the laws of this state except only as herein 
 otherwise provided. 
 
 All persons, if any, who or whose names are stated in the 
 petition to be unknown to petitioner, shall be deemed and taken 
 as defendants by the name or designation of "all whom it may 
 concern." The petition shall be verified by affidavit, which 
 affidavit shall be sufficient upon information and belief. Pro- 
 cess shall be issued against all persons made parties by the des- 
 ignation of ''all whom it may concern" by such description, and 
 notice given by publication as is required in this act shall be 
 sufficient to authorize the court to hear and determine the suit 
 as though the parties had been sued by their proper names. 
 
 Section 5. Summons.---The summons shall require the 
 person alleged to have the custody of such child to appear with 
 the child at the time and place stated in the summons ; and shall 
 also require all defendants to be and appear and answer the 
 petition on the return day of the summons. The summons 
 shall be made returnable at any time within twenty days after 
 the date thereof and may be served by the sheriff, or by any 
 duly appointed probation officer, even though such officer be 
 the petitioner. The return of such summons with indorsement 
 of service by the sheriff or by such probation officer in accord- 
 ance herewith shall be sufficient proof thereof. 
 
 Whenever it shall appear from the petition or from affi- 
 davit filed in the cause that any named defendant resides or 
 hath gone out of the state, or on due inquiry cannot be found, 
 or is concealed within this state or that his place of residence 
 is unknown so that process cannot be served upon him, or when- 
 ever any person is made defendant under the name or desig- 
 nation of "all whom it may concern," the clerk shall cause pub- 
 lication to be made once in some newspaper of general cir- 
 culation published in his county, and if there be none published 
 in his county, then in a newspaper published in the nearest 
 place to his county in this state, which shall be substantially as 
 follows : 
 
 A, B, C, D, etc. (here giving the names of such named de- 
 fendants, if any), and to "all whom it may concern" (if there 
 be any defendant under such designation). 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 29 
 
 Take notice that on the day of A. D. 
 
 19 , a petion was filed by in the court 
 
 of county to have a certain child, named 
 
 declared a (dependent or delinquent) and to take from you the 
 custody and guardianship of said child (and if the petition 
 prays for the appointment of a guardian with power to consent 
 to adoption, add and to give said child out for adoption). 
 
 Now, unless you appear within twenty days after the date 
 of this notice and show cause against such application, the peti- 
 tion shall be taken for confessed and a decree granted. 
 
 E. F., Clerk. 
 Dated (the date of publication). 
 
 And he shall also within ten days after the publication of 
 such notice send a copy thereof by mail, addressed to such de- 
 fendants whose place of residence is stated in the petition and 
 who shall not have been served with summons. Notice given 
 by publication as is required by this act shall be the only publi- 
 cation notice required either in the case of residents, non-resi- 
 dents or otherwise. The certificate of the clerk that he has sent 
 such notice in pursuance of this section shall be evidence there- 
 of. Every defendant who shall be duly summoned shall be 
 held to appear and answer either in writing or orally in open 
 court on the return day of the summons or if such summons 
 shall be served less than one day prior to the return day, then 
 on the following day. Every defendant who shall be notified 
 by publication as herein provided shall be held to appear and 
 answer either in writing or orally in open court within twenty 
 days after the date of the publication notice. The answer shall 
 have no greater weight as evidence, than the petition. In default 
 of an answer at the time or times herein specified or at such 
 further time as by order of court may be granted to a de- 
 fendant, the petition may be taken as confessed. 
 
 If the person"Havihg the custody or control of the child 
 shall fail without reasonable cause to bring the child into court, 
 he may be proceeded against as in case of contempt of court. 
 In case the summons shall be returned and ifiot served upon the 
 person having the custody or control of such child or such per- 
 son fails to obey the same and in any case when it shall be made 
 to appear to the court by affidavit, which may be on informa- 
 tion and belief that such summons will be ineffectual to secure 
 
30 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 the presence of the child, a warrant may be issued on the order 
 of the court either against the parents or either of them, or 
 guardian or the person having the custody or control of the 
 child or with whom the child may be or against 
 the child itself to bring such person into court. On default 
 of the custodian of the child or on his appearance or answer, 
 or on the appearance in person of the child in court with 
 or without the summons or other process and on the answer, 
 default or appearance or written consent to the proceedings 
 of the other defendants thereto or as soon there- 
 after as may be, the court shall proceed to hear evidence. The 
 court may, in any case when the child is not represented by any 
 person, appoint some suitable person to act on behalf of the 
 child. At any time after the filing of the petition and pend- 
 ing the final disposition of the case, the court may continue 
 the hearing from time to time and may allow such child to re- 
 main in the possession of its custodian or in its own home 
 subject to the friendly visitation of a probation officer, or it 
 may order such child to be placed in the custody of a probation 
 officer of the court, or of any suitable person appointed by the 
 court, or to be kept in some suitable place provided by the city 
 or county authorities. 
 
 Section 6. Probation Officers. The county courts of the 
 several counties in this state shall have authority to appoint 
 any number of discreet persons of good moral character to 
 serve as probation officers during the pleasure of the court; 
 said probation officers to receive no compensation from the 
 county treasury except as herein provided. It shall be the duty 
 of the clerk of the court, if practicable, to notify the said pro- 
 bation officer when any child is to be brought before the court ; 
 it shall be the duty of such probation officer to make. investiga- 
 tion of such case; to be present in court to represent the in- 
 terests of the child when the case is heard; to furnish to such 
 court such information and assistance as the court or judge 
 may require, and to take charge of any child before and after 
 the trial as may be directed by the court. The number of pro- 
 bation officers to receive compensation from the county, 
 named and designated by the county court, shall be as follows : 
 In counties having a population of over thirty thousand, two 
 probation officers, one of whom shall be appointed and des- 
 ignated as chief probation officer, who shall receive a salary of 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 31 
 
 not exceeding twelve hundred dollars ($1,200.00) per year; 
 and one to be designated as assistant probation officer, who 
 shall receive a salary of not exceeding nine hundred dollars 
 ($900.00) per year, and expenses may be allowed the chief 
 probation officer in a sum not exceeding two hundred dollars 
 ($200.00) per year; in counties having a population of over 
 fifteen thousand and less than thirty thousand, one 
 probation officer may be appointed at a salary of 
 not to exceed twelve hundred dollars ($1,200.00) per 
 year and expenses of probation work may be allowed by the 
 county in a sum not to exceed two hundred dollars ($200.00) 
 per year. 
 
 In all counties of over fifteen thousand population proba- 
 tion officers, receiving compensation from the county, shall be 
 appointed by the Judge of the County Court, and the said sal- 
 ary or expenses shall be paid in monthly installments from the 
 county treasury. In any county of less than fifteen thousand 
 population, one probation officer, at a salary of not to exceed 
 nine hundred dollars ($900.00) per annum, to be paid as pro- 
 vided for probation officers in other counties, may be appoint- 
 ed by the County Judge, whenever in the opinion of the County 
 Judge, the County Superintendent of Schools and a majority 
 of the Board of County Commissioners of such county it shall 
 be necessary to care for the dependent and delinquent children 
 of the county. Any County Judge appointing such probation 
 officer to receive a salary or other compensation from the 
 county, provided for under this act, shall transmit such appoint- 
 ment to the Superintendent of Schools of the county in which 
 such appointment is made, the State Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction and the State Commissioner of Charities and Cor- 
 rections, who shall constitute a Board to investigate the com- 
 petency of such person so appointed to act as a probation 
 officer, and it shall be the duty of a majority of said board to 
 approve or disapprove of such appointee, within thirty days 
 after submission thereof by the said county court, and a failure 
 to act thereon within such time shall constitute an approval of 
 such appointment; if a majority of such board are of the 
 opinion that such appointee does not possess the qualifications 
 for a probation officer, they shall notify the court of their con- 
 clusions within thirty days of the submission of such appoint- 
 ment to the respective members thereof, whereupon it shall be 
 
82 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 the duty of the County Judge to withdraw such appointment 
 and appoint someone who shall receive the approval of said 
 board. 
 
 Probation officers receiving a salary or other compensa- 
 tion from the county, provided for by this act, are hereby 
 vested with all the power and authority of police or sheriffs to 
 make arrests and perform any other duties ordinarily required 
 by policemen and sheriffs which may be incident to their 
 office or necessary or convenient to the performance of their 
 duties; provided that other probation officers may be vested 
 with like power and authority upon a written certificate trom 
 the County Judge that they are persons of discretion and good 
 character, and that it is the desire of the court to vest them 
 with all the power and authority conferred by law upon proba- 
 tion officers receiving compensation from the county. 
 
 In counties of over thirty thousand population, whenever 
 in the opinion of the Judge of the County Court, the Board of 
 County Commissioners and the Superintendent of Schools, ad- 
 ditional probation officers to those allowed by law are neces- 
 sary for the care of dependent and delinquent children, not to 
 exceed two assistant probation officers, in addition to the one 
 provided for herein, may be appointed in the manner provided 
 by this act, at a salary not to exceed nine hundred dollars 
 ($900.00) per year. 
 
 Salaries or compensation of paid probation officers 
 permitted by this act shall be fixed by the County Judge, 
 not to exceed the sums herein mentioned, and any bills 
 for expenses, not exceeding the sums herein provided for, 
 shall be certified to by the County Judge as being necessary in 
 and about the performance of the duties of probation officer 
 or officers. The appointment of probation officers and the 
 approval thereof as to the qualifications of such officers by the 
 board herein designated, shall be filed in the office of the Clerk 
 of the County Court. Probation officers shall take an oath 
 such as may be required of other county officers to perform 
 their duties and file it in the office of Clerk of the County 
 Court. 
 
 Nothing herein contained, however, shall be held to limit 
 or abridge the power of the County Judge to appoint any num- 
 ber of persons as probation officers, whom said Judge may see 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 33 
 
 fit and who may be willing to serve without pay from the 
 county for such services as probation officers. 
 
 Section 7. Dependent and Neglected Children. If the 
 court shall find any male child under the age of seventeen 
 years (17) or any female child under the age of eighteen years 
 (18) to be dependent or neglected within the meaning of this 
 act, the court may allow such child to remain at its own home 
 subject to the friendly visitation of a probation officer, or to 
 report to the court or probation officer from its home or school 
 at such times as the court may require. And if parent, parents, 
 guardian or custodian consent thereto, or if the court shall fur- 
 ther find that the parent, parents, guardian or custodian of such 
 child are unfit or improper guardians or are unable or unwill- 
 ing to care for, protect, train, educate, correct or discipline 
 such child and that it is for the interest of such child and of the 
 people of this state that such child be taken from the custody 
 of its parents, custodian or guardian, the court may make an 
 order appointing as guardian of the person of such 
 child, some reputable citizen of good moral character and order 
 such guardian to place such child in some suitable family home 
 or other suitable place, which such guar'dian may provide for 
 such child, or the court may enter an order committing such 
 child to some suitable state institution, organized for the care 
 of dependent or neglected children, or to some training school 
 or industrial school or childrens' home finding society or to 
 some association embracing in its objects the purpose of caring 
 for or obtaining homes for neglected or dependent children, 
 which association shall have been accredited as hereinafter pro- 
 vided. 
 
 Section 8. Guardianship. In every case where such 
 child is committed to an institution, or association, the court 
 shall appoint the president, secretary or superintendent of such 
 institution or association, guardian over the person of such 
 child and shall order :such guardian' * to place such 
 child in such institution or with such association, whereof he is 
 such officer and to hold such child, care for, train and educate 
 it subject to the rules and laws that may be in force from time 
 to time governing such institution or association. 
 
 Section 9. Delinquent Children. If the court shall find 
 any male child under the age of seventeen years or any female 
 
34 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 child under the age of eighteen years to be delinquent within 
 the meaning of this act, the court may allow such child to 
 remain at its own home subject to the friendly visitation of a 
 probation officer, such child to report to the court or probation 
 officer with such record of its conduct in its home or school 
 as the court may require as often as may be required, and if 
 the parents, parent, guardian or custodian consent thereto, or 
 if the court shall further find either that the parent, parents, 
 guardian or custodian are unfit or improper guardians or are 
 unable or unwilling to care for, protect, educate or discipline 
 such child and shall further find that the parent, parents 
 guardian or custodian are unfit or im^proper guardians or 
 are unable or unwilling to care for, protect, educate or dis- 
 cipline such child and shall further find that it is for the in- 
 terest of such child and of the people of this state that such 
 child be taken from the custody of its parents, parent, cus- 
 todian or guardian, the court may appoint some proper person 
 or probation officer, gu^a'dian over the person of such child 
 and permit it to remain at its home, or order such guardian 
 to cause such child to be placed in a suitable family home, or 
 cause it to be boarded, out in some suitable family home, in 
 case provision is made by voluntary contribution or otherwise 
 for the payment of the board; or the court may commit such 
 child to any institution incorporated under the laws 
 of this state to care for delinquent children, or to 
 any institution that has been or may be provided by 
 the state, county, city, town or village suitable for 
 the care of delinquent children, including a detention home 
 or school, or to some association that will receive it, embracing 
 in its objects the care of neglected, dependent or delinquent 
 children and which has been duly accredited as hereinafter 
 provided. In every case where such child is committed to an 
 institution or association, the court shall appoint the president, 
 secretary or superintendent of such institution or association, 
 guardian over the person of such child and shall order such 
 guardian to place such child in such institution or with 
 such association, whereof he is such officer, and to hold 
 such child, care for, train and educate it subject to the rules 
 and laws that may be in force, from time to time governing 
 such institution or association. 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 86 
 
 Section 10. The court may in its discretion in any case of a 
 [delinquent child permit such child to be proceeded against in 
 accordance with the laws that may be in force in this state 
 governing the commission of crimes or violation of city, vil- 
 lage, or town ordinances ; in such case the petition filed under 
 this act shall be dismissed. 
 
 Section 11. The court may, when the health or condition 
 of any child found to be dependent, neglected or delinquent, 
 requires it, order the guardian to cause such child to be placed 
 in a public hospital or institution for treatment or special care, 
 or in a private hospital or institution, which will receive it for 
 like purposes, without charge to the public authorities. 
 
 Section 12. Any child found to be dependent, neglected or 
 delinquent as defined in this act, and awarded by the court to 
 a guardian, institution or association, shall be held by such 
 guardian, institution or association, as the case may be, by 
 virtue of the order entered of record in such case, and the 
 clerk of the court shall issue and cause to be delivered to such 
 guardian, institution or association a certified copy of such 
 order of the court, which certified copy of such order shall be 
 proof of the authority of such guardian, institution or associa- 
 tion in behalf of such child, and no other process need issue 
 to warrant the keeping of such child. The guardianship under 
 this act shall continue until the court shall by further order 
 otherwise direct but not after such child shall have reached 
 the age of twenty-one (21) years. 
 
 Section 13 The court may, from time to time, cite into court 
 the guardian, institution or association to whose care any de- 
 pendent, neglected or delinquent child has been awarded, and 
 require him or it to make a full, true and perfect report as to 
 his or its doings in behalf of such child; and it shall be the 
 duty of such guardian, institution or association, within ten 
 days after such citation, to make such report either in writing 
 verified by affidavit, or verbally under oath in open court, or 
 otherwise as the court shall direct; and upon the hearing of 
 such report, with or without further evidence, the court may, 
 if it sees fit, remove such guardian and appoint another in his 
 stead, or take such child away from such institution or asso- 
 
36 JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 
 
 ciation and place it in another, or restore such child to the 
 custody of its parents or former guardian or custodian. 
 
 Section 14. Transfers from Justice and Police Magi- 
 strates. When in any county where a court is held as pro- 
 vided in section 2 of this act, a male child under the age of 
 seventeen years or a female child under the age of eighteen 
 years is arrested with or without warrant such child may, in- 
 stead of being taken before a justice of the peace or police 
 magistrate, be taken directly before such court; or if the child 
 is taken before a justice of the peace or police magistrate, such 
 justice or magistrate shall inquire into such case, and unless 
 it be of the opinion that no sufficient foundation exists for the 
 charge of dependency or delinquency, it shall be the duty of 
 such justice of the peace or police magistrate to transfer the 
 case to the county court, and the officer having the child in 
 charge to take the child before such court, and in any case the 
 county court may proceed to hear and dispose of the case in 
 the same manner as if the child had been brought before the 
 court upon petition as herein provided. In any case, the court 
 shall require notice to be given and investigation to be made as 
 in other cases under this act, and may adjourn the hearing 
 from time to time for that purpose. 
 
 Section 15. Children Under Twelve Years Not to Be 
 Committed to Jail. No court or magistrate shall commit a 
 child under twelve (12) years of age to a jail or police 
 station, but if such child is unable to give bail it may be com- 
 mitted to the care of the sheriff, police officer or probation 
 officer, who shall keep such child in some suitable place pro- 
 vided by the city or county outside of the enclosure of any 
 jail or police station. When any child shall be sentenced to 
 confinement in any institution to which adult convicts are sen- 
 tenced, it shall be unlawful to confine such child in the sam* 
 building with such adult convicts, or to confine such child in 
 the same yard or enclosure with such adult convicts, or to bring 
 such child into any yard or building in which adult convicts 
 may be present. 
 
 In counties of over thirty thousand population it shall be 
 the duty of the proper authorities to provide and maintain at 
 public expense a house separated and removed from any jail 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 87 
 
 or lockup, to be in charge of a matron or other person of good, 
 moral character, wherein all children within the provisions of 
 this act shall, when necessary before or after trial, be detained 
 either for securing the attendance of such child at any hear- 
 ing or trial of any cause, or for such disciplinary purposes as 
 may seem necessary to the court for the best interests of said 
 child and of the state. 
 
 Any child within the provisions of this act, informed 
 against or regarding which a petition has been filed, or 
 for any purpose taken into custody, shall, at any time 
 before it is tried and adjudged to be delinquent, be en- 
 titled, by any friend or parent offering sufficient surety, to give 
 bond or other security for its appearance at any hearing or 
 trial of such case, as such right is given to persons informed 
 against for crime; and the court may in any such case, upon 
 the request of said child or its parent or person representing 
 it, appoint counsel to appear and defend on behalf of any such 
 child, such counsel to receive no pay from the county. 
 
 Section 16. Agents of Juvenile Reformatories. It shall 
 be the duty of the board of managers, trustees or such author- 
 ities as may be vested by law with the control or management 
 of any state institution to which juvenile delinquents may be 
 committed by the courts of this state, to maintain an agent 
 of such institution, whose duty it shall be to examine the homes 
 of children paroled from such institutions, for the purpose of 
 ascertaining and reporting to said institutions whether they 
 have suitable homes; to assist children paroled or 
 discharged from such institutions in finding employ- 
 ment and to maintain a friendly supervision over 
 paroled inmates during the continuance of their parole; 
 such agent shall hold office subject to the pleasure of 
 the board or other authority having charge of said institution, 
 making the appointment, and shall receive such compensation 
 as such board or authorities controlling such institution may 
 determine out of any funds appropriated for such institution 
 which may be applicable thereto. 
 
 Section 17. Supervision of State Commissioner of Char- 
 ities and Corrections. All institutions or associations receiv- 
 ing children under this act shall be subject to the same visita- 
 tion, inspection and supervision by the State Commissioner of 
 
28 JUVENILE COURT LAWS. ETC. 
 
 Charities and Corrections as are other charitable or correc- 
 tion institutions of this state, and it shall be the duty of the 
 said Commissioner of Charities and Corrections to pass an-, 
 nually upon the fitness of every such association as may re- 
 ceive, or desire to receive children under the supervision of 
 this act, and every such association shall annually at such time 
 as the said Commissioner of Charities and Corrections may 
 direct, make report thereto, showing its condition, manage- 
 ment and competency to adequately care for such children as 
 are or may be committed to it, and such other facts as said 
 Commissioner may require, and upon said Commissioner being 
 satisfied that such association or institution is competent, and 
 has adequate facilities to care for such children, the Com- 
 missioner shall issue to the same a certificate to that effect, 
 which certificate shall continue in force for one year, unless 
 sooner revoked by said Commissioner, and no child shall be 
 committed to any such institution or association which shall 
 not have received such certificate within eighteen months next 
 preceding the commitment. The court may, at any time, re- 
 quire from any^^sociation receiving or desiring to receive chil- 
 dren under the provisions of this act, such reports, informa- 
 tion and statements as the Judge shall deem proper or neces- 
 sary for his action, and the court shall in no case be required 
 to commit a child to any institution or association whose stand' 
 ing, conduct or care of children, or ability to care for the 
 same, is not satisfactory to the court. 
 
 Section 18. Incorporation of Association. No associa- 
 tion whose objects embrace the caring for dependent, neg- 
 lected or delinquent children shall hereafter be incorporated 
 unless the proposed articles of incorporation shall first have 
 been submitted to the examination of the state commissioner 
 of charities and corrections, and the secretary of state shall 
 not issue a certificate of incorporation unless there shall first 
 be filed in his office the certificate of said state commissioner of 
 charities and corrections that the said commissioner has ex- 
 amined the said articles of incorporation, and that, in his 
 judgment, the incorporators are reputable, reliable and re- 
 sponsible persons, the proposed work is needed and the incor- 
 poration of such association is desirable for the public good 
 and the welfare of dependent, neglected or delinquent chil- 
 dren, amendments proposed to the articles of incorporation of 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. S9 
 
 any such association shall be submitted in like manner to the 
 state commissioner of charities and corrections, and the secre- 
 tary of state shall not record such amendments or issue his 
 certificate therefor unless there shall first be filed in his office 
 the certificate of said state commissioner of charities and cor- 
 rections that the commissioner has examined the said amend- 
 ment and that the association in question is, in the judgment 
 of the commissioner, perfoming in good faith the work under- 
 taken by it, and that the said amendment is, in the judgment 
 of the commissioner, a proper one and for the public good and 
 in the interest of neglected, dependent or delinquent children. 
 
 Section 19. Order Relating to Adoption. Whenever 
 the petition filed, as is provided in Section 4 hereof, or a sup- 
 plemental petition filed at any time after the appointment of 
 the guardian shall pray that the guardian appointed or to be 
 appointed shall be authorized to consent to the legal adoption 
 of the child, and the court upon the hearing shall find that it 
 is to the best interests of such child that the guardian be given 
 such authority, the court may, in its order appointing such 
 guardian, empower him to appear in court where any proceed- 
 ings for the adoption of such child may be pending, and to 
 consent to such adoption; and such consent shall be sufficient 
 to authorize the court where the adoption proceedings are 
 pending to enter a proper order or decree of adoption without 
 further notice to, or consent by the parents or relatives of such 
 child ; provided, however, that before entering such order the 
 court shall find from the evidence that ( 1 ) the parents or sur- 
 viving parent of a legitimate child or the mother of an illegita- 
 mate child, or if the child has no parents living the guardian of 
 the child, if any, or if there is no parent living and the child has 
 no guardian or the guardian is not known to petitioner, then 
 a known, near relative of the child, if any there be, consents 
 to such order; or, (2) that one parent consents and the other 
 is unfit for any of the reasons hereinafter specified to have the 
 child, or that both parents are or that the surviving parent or 
 the mother of an illegitimate child is so unfit for any such 
 reasons the grounds of unfitness being (a) depravity, (b) 
 open and notorious adultery or fornication, (c) habitual drunk- 
 enness for the space of one year prior to the filing of petition, 
 (d) extreme and repeated cruelty to the child, (e) abandon* 
 
40 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 ment of child or (f) desertion of the child for more than six 
 (6) months next preceding the filing of the petition, and (3) 
 that such child, if of the age of fourteen years or over, con- 
 sents to such order. 
 
 Section 20. Foreign Corporations. No association 
 which is incorporated under the laws of any other state than 
 the state of Oklahoma shall place any child in any family home 
 within the boundaries of the state of Oklahoma either with 
 or without indenture or for adoption, unless the said associa- 
 tion shall have furnished the state commissioner of charities 
 and corrections with such guaranty as they may require that 
 no child shall be brought into the state of Oklahoma by such 
 society or its agents, having any contagious, or incurable dis- 
 ease, or having any deformity or being of feeble mind, or of 
 vicious character, and that said association shall promptly re- 
 ceive and remove from the state any child brought into the 
 state of Oklahoma by its agent, which shall become a public 
 charge within the period of five ( 5 ) years after being brought 
 into this state. Any person who shall receive, to be placed in 
 a home, or shall place in a home, any child in behalf of any 
 association, incorporated in any other state than the state of 
 Oklahoma, which shall not have complied with the require- 
 ments of this act shall be imprisoned in the county jail not 
 more than thirty days, or fined no less than $5 or more than 
 one hundred (100) dollars, or both, in the discretion of the 
 court. 
 
 Section 21. Religious Preference. The court in com- 
 mitting children shall place them as far as practicable in the 
 care and custody of some individual holding the same religi- 
 ous belief as the parents of said child, or with some associ- 
 ation which is controlled by persons of like religious faith of 
 the parents of the said child. 
 
 Section 22. County Boards of Visitors. The county 
 judge of each county may appoint a board of six reputable 
 inhabitants, who will serve without compensation, to consti- 
 tute a board of visitation, whose duty it shaU be to visit, as 
 often as once a year, all institutions, societies and associations 
 receiving children under this act; said visits shall be made by 
 not less than two of the members of the board, who shall go 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 41 
 
 together or make a joint report ; the said board of visitors shall 
 report to the court, from time to time, the condition of chil- 
 dren received by or in the charge of such associations and in- 
 stitutions, and shall make an annual report to the state com- 
 missioner of charities and correction in such form as the com- 
 missioner may prescribe. 
 
 Section 23. Officers of Courts. It shall be unlawful for 
 any court clerk or other person to tax or collect, or for any 
 county to pay any fees whatever which may be permitted by 
 any law to be taxed or collected for the benefit of any court 
 officer or person for any case concerning any child coming 
 within the provisions of this act for violating any law of this 
 state, unless such child shall be proceeded against under the 
 provisions and in accordance with the purpose of this act, ex- 
 cept in capital cases or where the courts shall direct a pro- 
 ceeding under the criminal code, as provided in section 10 of 
 this act, or where a case has been instituted before a justice 
 of the peace or police magistrate, who shall duly comply with 
 the terms of section 14 of this act. 
 
 Section 24. Reports of the Juvenile Court. Between 
 the first and fifteenth days of September of each year, the 
 clerks of the county courts shall submit to the state commis- 
 sioner of charities and corrections a report in writing, upon 
 blanks to be furnished by said commissioner, showing number 
 and disposition of neglected, dependent or delinquent chil- 
 dren brought before such court, together with such useful 
 information regarding such cases and the parentage of such 
 children and the character of their dependency or delinquency 
 as may be reasonably obtained at the trials thereof, and which 
 may be required by the said commissioner; provided that the 
 name or identity of any such child or parent shall not be dis- 
 closed in such report. 
 
 Section 25. Construction of the Act. This act shall be 
 liberally construed to the end that its purpose may be carried 
 out, to-wit, that the care, custody and discipline of the child 
 shall aproximate as nearly as may be that which should be 
 given by its parents, and in all cases of dependency where it 
 can properly be done, that the child shall be placed in an ap- 
 proved family home, and become a member of a home and fam- 
 
42 JUVENILE COURT DAWS, ETC 
 
 ily by legal adoption or otherwise, and in cases of delinquency^ 
 that as far as practicable any delinquent child shall be treated, 
 not as a criminal, but as misdirected and misguided and need- 
 ing aid, encouragement and assistance, and if such child can- 
 not be properly cared for and corrected in its own home, or 
 with the assistance and help of the probation officers, then, 
 that it may be placed in a suitable institution where it may be 
 helped and educated and equipped for industrial efficiency and 
 useful citizenship. 
 
 Section 26. Support of Children. If it shall appear, 
 upon the hearing of the cause that the parent, parents, or any 
 person or persons named in such petition who are in law li- 
 able for the support of such child, are able to contribute to 
 the support of such child, the court shall enter an order re- 
 quiring such parent, parents or other persons to pay to the 
 guardian so appointed or to the institution to which such 
 child may be committed, a reasonable sum from time to time 
 for the support, maintenance or education of such child, and 
 the court may order such parent, parents or other persons to 
 give reasonable security for the payment of such sum or sums 
 and upon failure to pay, the court may enforce obedience to 
 such order by proceeding as for contempt of court. The court 
 may, on application and on such notice as the court may direct 
 from time to time, make such alterations in the allowance as 
 shall appear reasonable and proper. 
 
 Section 27. Order Relating to Support. If the per- 
 son so ordered to pay for the support, maintenance or educa- 
 tion of a dependent, neglected or delinquent child shall be 
 employed for wages, salary or commission, the court may 
 also order that the sum to be paid to him shall be paid to the 
 guardian or institution out of his wages, salary or commis- 
 sion and that he shall execute an assignment thereof protanto. 
 The court may also order the parent or the person so ordered 
 to pay the sum of money for the support, maintenance of edu- 
 cation of a child, from time to time to make discovery to the 
 court as to his place of employment and amount earned by 
 him. Upon his failure to obey the orders of court he may 
 be punished as for contempt of court. 
 
 Section 28. Guardianship of Person. Nothing in this 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 43 
 
 act shall be construed to give the guardian appointed under 
 this act the guardianship of the estate of the child or to change 
 the age of minority for any other purpose except the custody 
 of the child. 
 
 Section 29. Appeals. Cases under this act may be re- 
 viewed by writ of error to the Supreme Court. 
 
 Section 30. Population of Counties. In construing the 
 provisions of this act, the following counties shall be deemed 
 to have a population exceeding thirty thousand, to-wit: 
 
 and the following counties shall be construed to have a popu- 
 lation exceeding fifteen thousand: 
 
 Section 31. Contempt of Court. Any person who shall 
 interfere with the direction or disposition of any child under 
 any order of the Court concerning any child made in pur- 
 suance of the provisions of this act, or with any probation or 
 other officer of the court in carrying out the directions of the 
 court under any such order, shall be held to be in contempt of 
 court and subject to punishment as for contempt of court. 
 
 Section 32. Validity of Acts. The invalidity of any 
 portion of this act shall not affect the validity of any other 
 portion thereof which can be given effect without such invali 1 
 part. 
 
44 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 Form of hill suggested in order to hold parents or other 
 persons legally responsible for the moral and physical welfare 
 of children. This hill has sometimes been called the adult de- 
 linquent act, hut is more properly termed the contributory de- 
 pendent and delinquent act, since it creates the offence known 
 as contributory dependency and contributory delinquency. 
 
 JUVENILE COURT LAWS SUGGESTED FOR THE 
 
 STATE OF OKLAHOMA. RESPONSIBILITY 
 
 OF PARENTS AND ADULTS. 
 
 A BILL FOR AN ACT TO DEFINE CONTRIBUTORY 
 DEPENDENCY AND CONTRIBUTORY DELIN- 
 QUENCY AND TO MAKE THE SAME A 
 MISDEMEANOR AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE 
 PUNISHMENT OF PERSONS GUILTY THEREOF. 
 
 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Oklahoma : 
 
 Section 1. Definition Any person who shall by any 
 act cause, encourage or contribute to the dependency or de- 
 linquency of a child, as these terms with reference to children 
 are defined by the statutes of this State, or who shall for any 
 cause be responsible therefor, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, 
 and upon trial and conviction thereof, shall be lined in a sum 
 not to exceed five hundred dollars or imprisoned in the County 
 Jail for a period not exceeding one year, or by both such fine 
 and imprisonment. When the charge against any person 
 under this act concerns the dependency of a child or children, 
 the offense for convenience may be termed contributory de- 
 pendency and when it concerns the delinquency of a child or 
 children for convenience it may be termed contributory de- 
 linquency. 
 
 Section 2. Suspension of Sentence. The court may 
 suspend any sentence, stay or postpone the enforcement of 
 execution, or release from custody any person found guilty 
 in any case under this act upon such conditions as shall be im- 
 posed by the court in accordance with the provisions of this 
 act. 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 46. 
 
 Section 3. Conditions of Suspended Sentence. (a) 
 Such conditions may include the following : Any person found 
 guilty under this act of contributory dependency may be re- 
 quired to furnish a good and sufficient bond to the People of 
 the State of Oklahoma in such penal sum, as the court shall 
 determine, not exceeding one thousand dollars, conditioned 
 for the payment of such amount as the court may order not 
 exceeding twenty dollars per month for the support, care and 
 maintenance of the child to whose dependency such person 
 has contributed ; such sum to be expended under the directions 
 and orders of the court for the purposes mentioned. 
 
 (b) The court may permit any child to remain in the 
 custody of the person found guilty by this act of contributing 
 to its dependency, under such suspended sentence, upon such 
 conditions for the treatment and care of such child as may 
 seem to the court to be for its best welfare, or as may be calcu- 
 lated to secure obedience to the law or to remove the cause 
 of such dependency or neglect, and while such conditions are 
 accepted and complied with by any such person, such sentence 
 may remain suspended subject to be enforced upon the vio- 
 lation of any of the conditions imposed by the court ; and such 
 bond may be forfeited upon a failure to comply with any such 
 conditions, as well as upon the failure to pay any amount re- 
 quired for the maintenance of such child. 
 
 Section 4. Conditions of Bond. As a part of the 
 conditions of any such bond mentioned in Section 3 hereof 
 it shall be understood that it shall not be necessary to 
 bring a separate suit to recover the penalty of any such 
 bond which has become forfeited, but the court may 
 cause a citation or summons to issue to the surety or 
 sureties thereon, requiring that he or they appear at a time 
 named by the court, which time shall be not less than ten or 
 more than twenty days from the issuance thereof, and show 
 cause, if any there be, why a judgment should not be entered 
 for the penalty of such bond and execution issue for the 
 amount thereof against the property of the surety or sureties 
 thereon, as in civil cases, and upon failure to appear or failure 
 to show any such sufficient cause, the court shall enter such 
 judgment in behalf of the people of the State of Oklahoma, 
 against the principal and such surety or sureties on such bond 
 
'S JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC 
 
 not to exceed the sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) 
 including the costs. Any moneys collected or paid upon any 
 such execution or in any case upon such bond, shall be turned 
 over to the clerk of the county court, (Juvenile Court) of the 
 county in which such bond is given, to be applied first to the 
 payment of all court costs and then to the care or mainte- 
 nance of the child or children for whose dependency such 
 conviction was had, in such manner and upon such terms as 
 the court may direct. If any such moneys so collected be un- 
 necessary for the purposes last mentioned, it shall be turned 
 over within one year to the treasurer of the county. 
 
 Section 5. Violation of Conditions of Suspended Sen- 
 tence. In the case of any person found guilty of contributory 
 dependency or contributory delinquency where the court has 
 suspended the execution of the sentence during the good be- 
 havior and satisfactory conduct of the defendant or upon 
 any other terms and conditions which may have been imposed 
 by the court, it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of 
 the court at any time during such suspended sentence or stay 
 of execution, that it ought to be enforced, the court may 
 thereupon enforce the same, and any jail sentence thereunder 
 shall commence from the date upon which such sentence is 
 ordered to be enforced. 
 
 Section 6. Limitation of Sentence Two Years. No sen- 
 tence shall be suspended or final judgment or execution shall 
 be stayed in the case of any person found guilty under this 
 act, to exceed a period of tv^o years. If at any time prior 
 thereto it shall appear to the satisfaction of the court that such 
 person has complied faithfully w^ith the conditions of any 
 suspended sentence, judgment or execution, or is for any 
 cause in the opinion of the court, entitled to be released there- 
 from, the court may suspend such sentence indefinitely, in 
 which case such person shall be finally released and discharged, 
 as he shall be in any event at the end of tw^o years from im- 
 position of any such sentence ; Provided, that if any defendant 
 be actually serving a jail sentence imposed under this act and 
 enforced before the expiration of said two years in accordance 
 with the provisions of this act, then in such case the defend- 
 ant shall not be finally discharged until the expiation of any 
 such sentence. 
 
JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 47 
 
 Section 7. Officers to File Complaints. Probation offi- 
 cers having the powers of sheriffs or police officers, as well 
 as county prosecuting attorneys shall have the right and be 
 vested with all power necessary to file complaints against any 
 person under this act and to prosecute any such case. In all 
 such cases it shall be the duty of the county prosecuting officer 
 representing the people to prepare any such complaints and 
 prosecute any such cases for such probation officer when so 
 requested by such officer or the judge of the juvenile court; 
 but nothing herein shall be construed to interfere with any 
 county prosecutor representing the people prosecuting such 
 cases under this or any other act as in other criminal cases. 
 
 Section 8. (a) Construction. In order to find any per- 
 son guilty of violating this act it shall not be necessary to 
 prove that the child has actually become dependent or delin- 
 quent, provided it appears from the evidence that through any 
 act of neglect or omission of duty or by any improper act or 
 conduct on the part of any such person the dependency or de- 
 linquency of any child may have been caused or merely en- 
 couraged. 
 
 8. (b). This act shall always be liberally construed in 
 favor of the state for the purpose of the protection of the 
 child from neglect or omission of parental duty toward the 
 child by the parents, as well also to protect the children of the 
 state from the effects of the improper conduct, acts, or the 
 bad example of any person or persons whomsoever, which may 
 be calculated to cause, encourage or contribute to the depend- 
 ency or delinquency of children, although such persons are 
 in no way related to the child. 
 
 8. (c). Nothing: in this act shall be construed to be in 
 conflict with or to repeal or prevent proceedings under any 
 act or statute of this state which may have otherwise defined 
 any specific act of any person as a crime of any character 
 which act might also constitute contributory delinquency or 
 contributory dependency, or to prevent or interfere with pro- 
 ceedings under any such acts, nor shall it be construed to 
 be inconsistent with or to repeal any act providing for the 
 support by the parent or parents of their minor children, or 
 any act providing for the punishment of cruelty to children 
 or the taking of indecent liberties with or selling liquor, to- 
 
4S 
 
 JUVENILE COURT LAWS, ETC. 
 
 bacco or firearms to children, or permitting them in evil or 
 disreputable places, and nothing in any such acts or similar 
 acts shall be construed to be inconsistent with or to repeal this 
 act or prevent proceeding hereunder, but in all cases where 
 there shall be more than one prosecution for the same offense 
 under whatever acts of the character herein described the fact 
 may be given in evidence to the judge of the court, and may 
 be in the discretion of the court considered in mitigation of 
 any sentence in any such cases. 
 
 8. (d). Invalidity of any portion of this act shall not af- 
 fect the validity of any other portion thereof which can be 
 given effect without such invalid part. 
 
 OF THE 
 
 N I V E R S ( T V 
 
 
Literature Suggested 
 
 Instructions to Probation Officers 
 
 By Hon. Harry Jewell, Judge Juvenile 
 Court, Gri|nd Rapldn, Mich. 
 
 Report of Probation Committee of New York 
 
 Homer Folks, 105 E. 22nd St., New York City. 
 
 The "Big Brothers" Association 
 
 Address Children's Court, New York City. 
 
 Juvenile Delinquency (1908) 
 
 By Thos. Travis, with introduction by Ben B. 
 T Jndsey. "Thos. Y. Crowell, New York Pub- 
 ]Ishers. 
 
 Winning Boys (1908) 
 
 By liUhnrn Merrill, Introduction by Ben B. 
 [ilndsey. Published by Fleming H. Revell, 
 New York, 
 
THE I.AST: DA1= 
 
 THIS BOOK O ^^ go CEN ggvENTH 
 
 lUU 
 
 OVEBDU 
 
 HICK8-FAIRALL DENVER.