Section 9 Is: “in the Case of a Delinquent Child the Court May Continue

the hearing from time to time, and may commit the child to the care and guardianship of a probation officer duly appointed by the Court, and may allow said child to remain in its own home subject to the visitation of the probation officer, such child to report to the probation officer as often as may be required, and subject to be returned to the Court for further proceedings whenever such action may appear to be necessary; or the Court may commit the child to the care and guardianship of the probation officer, to be placed in a suitable family home, subject to the friendly supervision of such probation officer; or it may authorize the said probation officer to board out the said child in some suitable family home, in case provision is made by voluntary contribution or otherwise for the payment of the board of such child, until a suitable provision may be made for the child in a home without such payment; or the Court may commit the child to a suitable institution for the care of delinquent children.”

It is just here that the Juvenile Court Act, in my judgment, offers its greatest good and opens up a new chance to deal intelligently with the case of a delinquent. Instead of making the child promise to be good, and sending him home, the Court places him in charge of a probation officer, and then lets him go home. Sometimes the result is that, for the first time a boy is given a fair chance in the battle of life to make something of himself. Many of the cases of delinquents brought into Court exhibit weakness, incapacity, and sometimes a worse condition on the part of the parents. Their offending is sometimes passive, sometimes active. The probation officer becomes the boy’s watchman and his friend, guarding him against himself, and, in some cases, against his parents.

A few months’ practical working of the act has shown what a wonderful agency for good the probation officer is. I shall speak of the officer in the feminine, because most of them are women.

She has, by reason of her appointment by the Court, an official position. Her station is one of grave responsibility and great honor, but of no profit. The act distinctly says that the officer shall receive no compensation from the public treasury. This will keep them from the contaminating touch of party politics, and prevent this particular office being sought after.

The probation officer is the child’s friend, but the Court’s adviser. Each boy is kept under surveillance. If, after the promises he and his parents have made to the Court, he stays away from school (if his parents can send him) or refuses to work or goes with his former associates, if they are bad boys, he is warned, and if he will not mend his ways, he is brought back to Court, and then the Judge has more knowledge of the case to guide him in intelligent action.

The first session of the Juvenile Court in Philadelphia was held July, 1901. Since that time there have been, up to May 21, 1902, 1,378 cases before the Court. Of these, 481 have been dependents, and 897 delinquents. But fifty-six have been sent to the House of Refuge, and of the rest (returned to their homes in almost every case) but thirty-three have been before the Court a second time. Most of these were given a second chance, and in but one case has the Court had a boy brought back more than once. He was, on his fourth appearance before the Court, committed to the House of Refuge.

One probation officer to whom since last July nearly one hundred children have been committed, told me recently that she had had but one child backslide. Surely such a record would be, if there were no more like it, sufficient warrant for saying that the act will do great good.

The whole scheme of the act is to prevent delinquents from becoming criminals. It is an act for child-saving. Its benefits, though conferred directly upon the child, are reaped by the entire community. It is the ounce of prevention which is far, far better than the pound of cure. It aims to place the erring child, of years too tender to yet fully appreciate the dangers ahead, under the restraining and guiding hand of an officer of the Court, who is at the same time the child’s friend.

The restraint is that of oversight; the guidance that of kindly admonition and advice, backed by that power everywhere recognized, the power of the law.

JUVENILE COURTS IN BUFFALO

By FREDERIC ALMY

Secretary and Treasurer Charity Organization Society, Buffalo

Juvenile probation is no new thing. It has been used in Massachusetts since 1869, or for over thirty years, and for the same length of time in that state a statute has required that children’s cases should be “heard and determined by themselves, separate from the general and ordinary criminal business of said courts.” There is no separate children’s court in Massachusetts, but in some of the courts the session for adults is formally adjourned, and the room is cleared of all except those who have to do with the juvenile cases; in other courts the session for juveniles is held in a separate room or in the judge’s private room. In either case there are evils, as is shown in a letter from Mr. Charles W. Birtwell, secretary of the Massachusetts Children’s Aid Society: “Unfortunately in all the courts juveniles under arrest are apt to be mixed with adults while waiting during the hour or so preceding the trial. If not under arrest but only summoned, they may wait in the outside lobbies, but get more or less mixed with the throng about and in the court room.”

The first juvenile court was opened in Chicago in 1899 and at once had wide notice, largely through the excellent work of the monthly periodical, the Chicago Juvenile Record. It was through this juvenile court that the probation system first became general. Mr. Folks tells us, in his “Care of Delinquent Children,” that “the system did not secure formal adoption, so far as we are aware, in any other state than Massachusetts until the enactment of the juvenile court law in Illinois in 1899.” “In 1901,” he says, “the probation system is in actual operation, or is provided for by statute, in fifteen of the twenty-five largest cities of the United States,” and the number is now rapidly increasing. It is another instance of the contagion of ideas which in this century outstrips the contagion of disease.

On February 26, 1900, the Buffalo Charity Organization Society appointed a committee on probation which held several meetings, but found that nothing could be done without legislation, which it was then too late to procure. A law passed May 1, 1901, through the efforts of this committee, allowed the Buffalo police justice to suspend sentence with juvenile delinquents, and place them under probation for a term not exceeding three months. The act allowed him to appoint five unsalaried probation officers, and provided that when practicable the probation officer should be of the same faith as the child placed in his care. The court opened July 1, 1901. By an amendment passed in February, 1902, the number of probation officers, still unpaid, was increased to ten, and authority was given to extend the probation for additional terms of three months in the discretion of the judge. A state probation law was also passed in 1901, but was so amended that it applied only to those over sixteen years of age. Consequently in New York State, outside of Buffalo, a chance is given to adult delinquents which is denied to little children.

Under the new New York City charter a juvenile court was created for the boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx (excluding Brooklyn), but with no provision for probation. This juvenile court was to open January 1, 1902, but for some reason did not do so.

Judge Murphy, of the Buffalo Police Court, was an active member of the committee of the Charity Organization Society which procured the probation law. Although the law was permissive only, he at once put it into effect, and also on his own motion transferred all his juvenile cases to a separate building, several blocks distant from the police court, where he holds his juvenile court on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. The great success of the court in Buffalo is chiefly due to his interest. Where for any reason a good judge is not available a juvenile court must suffer, for probation gives many opportunities for favoritism to both the judge and the probation officers. It is hardly too much to say that the character of the court will be the same as the character of the judge.

Of the ten probation officers in Buffalo all are unpaid for this special work, but two are truant officers, two are officers of the Charity Organization Society, and one is the head worker of Welcome Hall, a leading settlement. The city is divided into two districts, in each of which there are a Catholic and a Protestant female officer for the girls and the younger boys, and a Catholic and a Protestant male officer for the older boys. There are a Jewish officer and a Polish officer for the city at large.

It is not perhaps desirable to recapitulate here the peculiarities of all the juvenile courts. In Massachusetts and St. Louis the probation officers are paid. In New Jersey the court costs are paid them. In Chicago, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee and Buffalo they are unpaid, or paid from private sources. In Chicago the probation is until the child’s majority. In Boston, as in Buffalo, it is for short terms renewable on their expiration. It seems as if the short term would give the child a goal in sight and so help his striving.

The Buffalo juvenile court has not quite completed its first year, and no definite records have been compiled, but two results are already notable—the decrease in the number of commitments to the truant school and to reformatories, and the increase in the number of children arrested. The first result was expected, for many children are now cared for in their homes under probation who would otherwise have to be sent to the public truant school or to a reformatory. The second result was not anticipated, but is in this way excellent. Much juvenile lawlessness formerly ran riot without arrest because the officers knew that the judge would not send a child away for petty offences, and mere rebuke meant so little that the child fresh from court would jeer at the officer who had arrested him. With probation an arrest is taken more seriously by the children. At a recent session of the court Judge Murphy called attention to this increase in the number of arrests, and recommended legislation which should make convictions in the juvenile court inadmissible as evidence of character in either civil or criminal actions, so that mere juvenile peccadilloes could not constitute a criminal record.

The economy of probation greatly reinforces the support of the system on ethical grounds. It is not often that a measure of social reform makes an immediate appeal to the taxpayer, but probation relieves him from the public maintenance of many delinquents who under this plan are maintained at home at their parents’ charge. In Massachusetts, where probation has been in operation many years, the district attorney has prepared figures showing that it has saved the state much more than the cost of its operation, though it is administered there by salaried probation officers. On the side of morality the saving is still greater, though less definite. If this saving of character could be translated into dollars and cents the cash gain to the state through the diminution of crime would be seen to be even greater than the saving in maintenance.

Again, the presence daily in the court of a group of disinterested men and women of character helps to maintain the moral tone of the court. They sometimes see things which the court unaided might not see. More than once in Buffalo pettifogging lawyers, who have been reaping fees from parents on the pretence that their services caused the judge to put children on probation instead of sending them away, have been excluded from the court on report of the probation officers as to their practices.

The teachers usually co-operate willingly in filling out the weekly cards which show the behavior and the attendance of a child while on probation, and they use their influence to hold children to their best. Some have spoken with wonder of the favorable effect of probation on the school work.

A day in a juvenile court is fascinating, and the experiences of a probation officer are not less so. The little, curly-headed culprits are so anxious to tell their story to the judge, or sometimes so stolid, that either way it is pathetic. There is much weeping when children are found guilty, and sudden relief when the meaning of probation is explained to them, and the confidences made to the probation officer are irresistible. In many of the courts the proceedings are quite informal, and the children stand close to the judge and talk confidentially with him, without fear.

The care taken to keep children from contact with the adult criminal courts extends also to the jail. In several states the law prescribes that children shall not be lodged either in the jail or in the police court. If the child is unable to give bail, some place other than the jail or police court must be provided. In Pennsylvania a separate act, passed after the juvenile court law, authorizes the establishment of houses of detention. In Wisconsin it is provided that when a child has been sentenced he must be kept wholly apart from adult prisoners until he is committed. The period after arrest and before trial is also guarded.

It has been well said that the practice of arresting persons accused of minor offences, who are not in the least likely to fail to appear if merely summoned, is a relic of earlier times and should be abandoned. In Buffalo it is the general practice on arrest to take the child to a station-house and then let him go home under promise to appear in court at the time stated, and as yet there has been no failure to appear.

Criminal law has relied too much upon confinement and compulsion, both of which involve cost to the state and rancor and sullenness in the individual. The features of probation are first, the retention of natural conditions, in the home, if it is at all fit, and second, loving, patient, personal service. Instead of withdrawing the child from the environment in which it lives, it tries to assist that environment. It is possible to draw many analogies. In medicine we now give fewer drugs and rely on the natural powers of the body with the personal service of trained nurses. In charity we give fewer alms, and rely on the natural resources of the family with the personal service of trained friendly visitors. In government we use less law, but rely on natural forces with the aid of the Church, the school and other instruments of social reform.

With children the question of reformation is especially important. The chief cause of crime has been said to be neither intemperance, nor avarice, nor lust, but neglected childhood, for neglected childhood means neglected character, and at an age when character is still plastic. Children under arrest for the first time are more peculiarly susceptible to influence than even other children, and the impressions made at this crisis go far to fix their lives. If you catch character young, and at the right moments, you can do almost anything with it. It is even possible to confine the baser parts of a child’s life, as the Chinese do the feet of their children, so that the development of these baser parts will be permanently stunted. Swaddling environments, continued for years, can do much to form character by compulsion, so to speak, and to thwart the growth of what is undesirable. This exclusion of evil is the method of the military school and of the reformatory of the military type. There is something unnatural about it, but there is no doubt that in this way habits can be formed; and there is an inertia of character which makes good habits difficult to break as well as bad ones.

The other method is to leave the natural conditions with as little disarrangement as possible; to let the feet grow and become a support for the whole body; to take the activity which might become crime and turn it into industry; to take the affection which might become lust and turn it into love; and to do all this as far as possible under natural conditions. It is possible to do this, not by a high wall which wards off all contamination but casts a shadow on the young life within, but by applying some antiseptic which will make the contagions of daily life harmless. Those of us who with Milton “cannot praise a fugitive and cloister’d vertue, unexercis’d and unbreath’d,” believe that everywhere character is better formed by liberty than by force. Antiseptics against temptation are being found by modern charity. I would wish to leave a child undisturbed in its home, if the home is decent, and trust to the Church, the school, the tenement house law and the settlements, as antiseptics against contamination; next to this I would leave the child at home, but under probation; next I would seek a foster home, well chosen and well watched; next, for some children, an open reformatory of the free type exemplified in the George Junior Republic; and last, a reformatory of the more military type. In confinement a boy may find himself kindly and wisely treated, but his social side is not much considered, and this is not in keeping with modern pedagogy. Very much can be done through a boy’s affections.

Where the germ of pauperism or of vice cannot be killed, may there not be a treatment by antitoxin, as at the George Republic, by deliberately helping the poison to run its course in a mild form in order to prevent future attacks? It may be well to let a boy be idle and lazy for a time and suffer all the consequences of hunger and cold; to let him be violent, and as a penalty be duly and severely punished by his peers; in fact, to give him a brief rehearsal of life under natural conditions which will be very profitable when life arrives in grim earnest. These lessons are taught in a reformatory of the military type, but the more voluntary and natural the lesson is, and the more the child can be made to feel that he has chosen his own course and experienced its natural result, the deeper will be the impress on his life.

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

Appendix

Report of the Academy Committee on the Sixth Annual Meeting.

SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE American Academy of Political and Social Science Philadelphia, April 4 and 5, 1902 “SOCIAL LEGISLATION AND SOCIAL ACTIVITY”

The Sixth Annual Meeting not only met the expectations of your Committee, but was generally regarded by those who attended as completely fulfilling the high standards which were set by its predecessors. The sessions were largely attended by members from different parts of the country; in fact, the leading characteristic of this meeting was the large attendance from points at a considerable distance from Philadelphia. The Annual Meeting of the Academy has assumed the proportion of a national convention to consider the great economic and political questions that confront the country.

Before proceeding to an account of the individual sessions your Committee desires to express its thanks as well as those of the officers and members of the Academy to the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, to the President and Directors of the Manufacturers’ Club and to the Committee of the Octavia Hill Association, whose co-operation was of great value in making the meeting a success.

The expenses of the Annual Meeting were met in part from an appropriation from the treasury of the Academy, but in the main by a special fund contributed by generous friends of the Academy. Your Committee desires especially to express its appreciation of the services of those who took active part in the meetings and whose contributions give to this volume its chief importance.

SESSION OF FRIDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 4.

Topic: “The Child Labor Problem.”

The President of the Academy, in formally opening the Annual Meeting, said

Members of the Academy, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure formally to open the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Academy. The series of meetings, beginning with the discussion of “The Foreign Policy of the United States,” four years ago, and taking up thereafter “Corporations and Public Welfare” and “America’s Race Problem,” has furnished us with a series of volumes which have come to be standard reference works on the subjects with which they deal. It is safe to say that the Sixth Annual Meeting, which is devoted to the subject of “Social Legislation and Social Activity,” will not fall behind the others, either in the interest of the topics or in the character of the discussions. These Annual Meetings of the Academy focus the best thought upon the questions which are in the foreground of public attention.

The subject for discussion this afternoon is one which, as you know, has been agitating different sections of the country at different periods. Your Committee has succeeded in securing a representation of the different points of view in the discussion of the afternoon. We are also fortunate in having, as presiding officer of the afternoon, one of the leading manufacturers, and it is safe to say, one of the most public-spirited citizens of Philadelphia. You all know his services to our city, but I am not sure whether many of you know how close and careful a student of industrial conditions in both the North and South he has been. I take pleasure in presenting to you Mr. Frank Leake.

On taking the chair, Mr. Leake said:

Mr. President and Members of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

It was with pleasure that I accepted your President’s invitation to preside here to-day. The particular subject which you are to discuss is one having a very important bearing on the future of this country, because at the bottom of all progress is education, and child labor, if not properly regulated, will certainly prevent proper education.

I am, as your President has said, a practical manufacturer, and yet here in Philadelphia, where my work lies, we have very little of the child labor problem to contend with; it is almost self-regulating. There are very few manufacturers who do not fall in line, not only gracefully but gladly, with the laws of our state which regulate that matter for them. There is very little of child labor in the textile mills of this city, or of this state, so far as I am acquainted.

Whatever is done in the way of regulating child labor should be done in a very conservative and openminded spirit. The one seeking progress should be willing to consider local conditions. The key to the whole situation will be found in local conditions, because child labor at one point in our country does not present anything like the same problem that it does in another portion of the country.

The Pennsylvania laws, for the most part, are wise in their treatment of this question. I know of no organized opposition to the entire and careful enforcement of these laws. I am speaking more particularly in regard to textiles. That is my business and that is the line in which the New South is finding her great industrial development. In the South, textile mills started originally with the idea that proximity to the cotton fields was the great desideratum. It has been found that the question of proximity does not have much to do with their success. Freights on raw materials North are as low, or lower, than freights on the finished product, and in the North and West is where the finished product finds its largest market. Such being the case, the mills in the South have had to study the other problems that have come to be talked about in making their success sure, but in studying these problems they have found instinctively that the same conditions make for their success as made for the success of the mills in the North. Long years ago our New England forefathers found a sterile and rocky soil. They found it very difficult to get a living from the farm, and so turned their attention to manufacturing. In the South along the coasts and in the middle country the soil is very rich and very fertile and the people get their profit from the farm. It has always been an agricultural section, but the mountain farms are the ones where the ground is sterile, where the soil is frequently washed into the streams and where farming is on a very small scale. The Southern mountaineer has his home in a little cabin with a little patch of corn at the rear. Corn and bacon are the staple articles of food. The whites largely predominate in the mountain sections. At the foot of the Allegheny Mountains, the Appalachian Chain, extending through North and South Carolina, Northern Georgia and Northern Alabama, are conditions which should be considered in taking up the problem of child labor. The people live in little mountain huts year in and year out, scarcely seeing ten, twenty, very few of them seeing fifty dollars in cash a year. The cotton mill has come in there, going on the farms, taking the workers from them and bringing whole families into the manufacturing town. The farmer takes the little cottage built for him by the company, with a little patch of ground, given him on the supposition that he will cultivate it. Frequently the ground is not cultivated, and the man finds his employment in carrying the dinner-pail, while the wife, the older daughters and the older boys work in the mill. The younger ones are anxious to follow. These conditions are an advance over what they have had, and they should be advanced slowly and by degrees to anything which would be more theoretically correct. Practically they have the advance. In any question involving child labor, it is well to consider the local situation and the previous condition of those whom you are seeking to benefit.

The first speaker this afternoon is a gentleman who has had every opportunity to study the subject given to him. I am very glad that your President has had the wisdom, instead of picking those who look at these things solely from an academic standpoint, to take those men who have come into actual contact with the subject itself, men who have brought their best thought to the practical solving of this question, who desire in their everyday walk of life to be of benefit to their fellow-men, and while they are solving the hard problems of life, with which they must necessarily deal in their business, are seeking always to help and uplift those around them. Such a man is Mr. Franklin N. Brewer, General Manager of the largest department store in this city, who will address you on the subject of “Child Labor in the Department Store.”

Mr. Brewer then read his paper, which is printed on pages 165–177 of this volume.

In introducing Mr. Henry White, Mr. Leake said:

The discussion of “Machinery and Labor” has been given to one who has distinguished himself for broadmindedness in dealing with labor problems, who has recognized the broad principle that wherever advance is possible, either by machinery or by any other human function or agency, humanity is bound to take advantage of that possibility. As the latent forces are being developed in machinery, he has also advocated that the labor which it represents should recognize that and adapt itself to the new conditions with as little friction and as little loss and with as little captious criticism as possible. His attitude in all of these matters has been progressive, not radically reformative, but always seeking the advantage along the progressive, conservative lines which make for true progress. I have pleasure in introducing to you Mr. Henry White, General Secretary of the United Garment Workers of America.

Mr. White then read his paper, which is printed on pages 221–231 of this volume.

Following Mr. White’s paper and in introducing Mr. Hayes Robbins, Mr. Leake said:

As Mr. White has just shown, machinery is a revolutionizer, and machinery is so popular in this age of ours that it is revolutionizing all of our methods. One of the chief questions we have before us to-day is the harmonizing of the machinery of organization with Christian ethics. Sociology to-day is advancing so far and calling for answers to so many problems that it must of necessity merge itself with Christianity; Christianity must broaden and take the position the Master intended. All of the Master’s teachings were positive, not negative. Li Hung Chang says that the Confucianists have a rule which is very similar to our Golden Rule. He says very truly, something very similar, but totally unlike in its operation. I will quote it to you. It is in effect: “Thou shalt not do unto thy neighbor what thou wouldst not have thy neighbor do unto thee.” Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, is our Golden Rule. Everything Chinese is negatived; Christ, on the other hand, taught the positive. His teachings send men out into the world unto a life of helpfulness and benevolence; the contrary is producing the conditions which we find in China, where every man tries to live unto himself. It is these conditions there and here which sociology and Christianity must of necessity take cognizance of and unitedly bring to a conclusion.

The next speaker to address you has made an extended tour of the South in company with Dr. Gunton, and their findings coincide with my experience in the same country. I have made several trips to that section and they have brought me to practically the same conclusion. I have pleasure in introducing the gentleman who will speak on “The Necessity for Factory Legislation in the South,” Mr. Hayes Robbins, Dean of the Institute of Social Economics, New York.

Mr. Robbins here presented his paper, which is printed on pages 179–188 of this volume, after which Mr. Leake commented as follows upon the ideas contained in the paper.

The people employed in the Southern mills are for the most part descendants of the Scotch-Irish. They are not seekers for charity, nor anything of that sort, but the communities in which they live, or many of them, are burdened with an illiterate population composed of blacks, and they are being taxed to support that population in schools. These people coming down from the mountains are bringing to them an additional tax. The Southern Educational Society, with its headquarters in New York, has of late years taken cognizance of the conditions in which the poor whites of the South are found, and it is doing magnificent work along proper lines, without pauperizing, and is instilling in the hearts of these people a desire for education. I am happy to add to the speaker’s remarks that this work is bearing fruit. The movement toward better education is increasing and it is for me and for you to help it along.

In closing the meeting, the President of the Academy said:

I want to express to the speakers of the afternoon the sincere appreciation of the Academy for their valuable contributions to the subject. I may say, furthermore, that Dr. Murphy, who has led the movement in the South for the betterment of conditions, fully expected to be here, but has been taken seriously ill in New York and is now gradually recovering from an attack which at one time threatened his life. I regret very much that you had not the opportunity of listening to him, as well as to the paper prepared by Mrs. Kelley, but you will all have the opportunity of reading her paper, as well as the addresses presented at this afternoon’s session, in a volume containing the proceedings of the Annual Meeting.

SESSION OF FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 4.

The session of Friday evening was devoted to the Annual Address, which was delivered by the Honorable Martin A. Knapp, Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Professor Emory R. Johnson, of the University of Pennsylvania and member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, presided at the meeting.

Prior to the Annual Address the President of the Academy, Professor L. S. Rowe, of the University of Pennsylvania, presented a review of the work of the year.

Professor Johnson, in introducing Professor Rowe, said:

The Annual Meeting of the Academy has come to be a permanent and important part of the Society’s activity. The four sessions lasting two days, enable the Academy to discuss with some measure of detail several phases of the general subject which seems, at the time of the meeting, to be of greatest public interest. The most important of the four sessions of the Academy is the one at which the President of the Academy reviews the work of the organization and at which the Annual Address is delivered by some distinguished scholar.

The work involved in arranging for this Annual Meeting is far greater than one would suppose who has not undertaken such a task. In order to make these meetings a success, thought and labor must be given to the subject for many weeks. Success always seems easy until one undergoes the labor by which success is achieved; but onerous as is the work of arranging for the Annual Meeting, that constitutes but a part, and indeed a small part, of the administrative duties which devolve upon the President of the Academy. We are an organization of two thousand members, about one-fourth of whom live in or near the city of Philadelphia. The activities of the organization are national rather than local. To keep up this membership and to cause it to increase rather than to decline, to manage successfully the finances of a scientific body such as ours, and to pass upon the many questions of polity which arise in the administration of the Society, require the exercise of sound judgment and a devotion to detail. If the Society were to pay its officers for their work, the Board of Directors would not think of suggesting a remuneration for the President of less than $2,000 a year; but, as you all know, none of the officers of the Academy or editors of its publications receives any pay whatever. The work is entirely gratuitous on their part.

The American Academy has been most fortunate in its Presidents. During the first eight of the thirteen years of its existence, the President and directing mind was the honored founder of the Academy, Dr. Edmund J. James. When his academic duties called him to the University of Chicago, Professor Lindsay succeeded him as the administrative head. Those who know Professor Lindsay personally realize that he possesses in a very marked degree the ability to organize and administer. He has most exceptional powers of initiation and execution.

A few months ago, when President Roosevelt requested Professor Lindsay to take charge of the important work of administering the educational system of Porto Rico, the Board of Directors knew exactly whom to ask to succeed Professor Lindsay as President of the Academy. As First Vice-President of the Academy and for many years a member of its editorial board, Professor Rowe had manifested his zeal for the Academy and had in many ways aided the growth of the organization. Like his predecessors, Professor Rowe always thinks towards action, and this natural trait of mind has been strengthened by the training which he has received, not only in academic life, but in the execution of responsible public duties. When President McKinley selected the Commission which was provided for under the Foraker Act, to revise and codify the laws of Porto Rico, Professor Rowe was made one of the body of three men to whom that task was entrusted. The Commission appointed by President McKinley was succeeded the following year by one provided for by the laws of Porto Rico and appointed by Governor Allen. Of this second Commission, Professor Rowe was made the President, and in that position he has carried to successful completion a thorough codification of the laws of the island, has worked out a scheme of local government, and what is perhaps most important of all, his work has been so practical that the Porto Rican Legislature has adopted, with but slight changes, the recommendations of the Commission.

At the beginning of this calendar year, Professor Rowe returned to his duties at the University of Pennsylvania. He will now tell you of the work which the Academy has done during the past year, and I am sure we all feel that what he has already accomplished in the brief period of his presidency of the Academy is an earnest of a large and most gratifying growth of our organization during the coming year.

Dr. Rowe then presented the following review of the work of the Academy for the year:

REVIEW OF THE WORK OF THE ACADEMY FOR THE YEAR 1901–02.

The presentation of the work of the Academy during the last fiscal year is so closely bound up with the activity of my predecessor that any mention of the one necessarily involves reference to the other. Those of you who have followed the work of the Academy during the last few years thoroughly appreciate the great work which he has accomplished and the splendid traditions which he has left with us. During the three years of his direction of the affairs of the Academy as Acting President and then as President, the Academy has gradually drawn to its ranks the public-spirited men and women of all sections of the country, until to-day it is the most influential organization of its kind in the United States. Our meetings are attracting the leading authorities of the country and in the publications of the Academy the most advanced thought on the great political, social and economic questions is presented.

These results were accomplished by Dr. Lindsay by reason of his abiding faith in the mission of an organization such as ours, reinforced by the high standards of public service and public duty which he constantly kept in mind. His resignation as President of the Academy, made necessary by reason of his appointment as Commissioner of Education of Porto Rico, is a severe loss, somewhat mitigated by the fact that he still retains a keen and lively interest in our work.

The honor of succeeding him is commensurate with its responsibilities. The activities of the Academy have become so manifold and varied that the adequate performance of the duties of those entrusted with the direction of its affairs must mean a severe strain unless the co-operation and support of our members is assured. We are, in a sense, a great co-operative body, each member of which contributes his share in the study and solution of the great industrial, social and political questions that confront our country.

The prospects of the Academy have never been brighter than at present, nor have its opportunities ever been greater. Whatever our view as to the direction which our national affairs have taken, it is clear to everyone that we have reached a turning-point in both our domestic and foreign policy. The need of a forum for the calm and dispassionate discussion of the many questions arising out of this change is felt in every section of the country. Our power as one of the important enlightening forces of public opinion increases with each year and must be met with a keen sense of responsibility not only towards our members, but also towards the community at large. The Academy is a national, not a local organization, and as such its activity must be national rather than local. Every member of the Academy should feel it not only his privilege, but his duty, to watch over the direction of Academy affairs and to assure himself that the organization is fulfilling the high mission which constitutes its reason for existence.

The period since the last Annual Meeting has been marked by a number of important scientific sessions devoted to the following subjects:

On October 31 last, the topic for discussion was: “The Outlook for Civil Government in the Philippines,” at which addresses were delivered by Dr. George F. Becker, of the U. S. Geological Survey, and Mr. Abreu, a native Filipino connected with the War Department at Washington.

On December 13 last, the topic discussed was: “The Policy of Commercial Reciprocity,” and the speakers of the evening were Hon. John A. Kasson and Mr. A. B. Farquhar.

On March 1 the subject of “The Extension of American Influence in the West Indies” was considered; Dr. L. S. Rowe, of the University of Pennsylvania, delivered the address of the evening, and Captain W. V. Judson, of the Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, presented a discussion of the strategic considerations connected with the topic of the evening.

The publications of the Academy, which constitute the main channel of communication between our members, have kept in close touch with the trend of affairs. The plan of issuing separate volumes devoted to special topics has been further developed and has met with great success. In January a special volume on “Transportation and Commerce” was issued, with such eminent contributors as Hon. Martin A. Knapp, John Franklin Crowell, B. H. Meyer, Samuel Pasco, Emory R. Johnson, H. T. Newcomb and Alfred Nerincx. In May a special volume on “The Government of Dependencies” was issued, and the July number of THE ANNALS contains the proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting.

The membership of the Academy at the present time is 1,990, of which sixty-two are life members.

The magnitude of the Academy’s work has forced upon your Board of Directors the question of adequate quarters for the library and offices of the organization. At the present time the University of Pennsylvania places at our disposal quarters in one of the University buildings. The time is soon coming, however, when the work of the Academy will require a separate building with adequate library facilities. This is a question which I wish to bring to the attention of every member of the Academy, and especially invite their co-operation in devising means by which this end may be accomplished.

From whatever point of view, therefore, we examine the work of the Academy, there is evidence of steady and healthy growth in all directions. Our combined efforts must now be directed towards the further extension of the work, for in an organization such as ours lack of growth means retrogression and decay.

Professor Johnson, in introducing Judge Knapp, said:

When the Academy decided to devote the Annual Meeting to a discussion of “Social Legislation and Social Activity,” it was felt that the Annual Address should be devoted to the subject of transportation. Social activity is everywhere, and at all times, conditioned by the facilities for travel and shipment. They determine the measure and direction of social progress; and the first and possibly the greatest subject of social legislation is the regulation of transportation.

For the consideration of this great question, it was felt that the one man pre-eminently qualified was the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and not alone because of his official position, although as the guiding mind of that most dignified and influential body he has had unrivaled facilities for acquiring a clear and comprehensive insight into the problems of transportation, it was because of his exceptional personal qualities, because of his calm poise of judgment, his judicial fairness that makes him command the respect and admiration alike of the railway official and the complainant shipper, and because of the clear and lofty diction he has employed in all his numerous essays and public addresses.

The work of the Academy has had the benefit of Judge Knapp’s frequent co-operation. On the occasion of the Thirty-fourth Scientific Session he addressed our Society upon the subject of Railway Pooling, and the able paper presented by him was published in Volume VIII of THE ANNALS OF THE ACADEMY. Judge Knapp again contributed to THE ANNALS last January, when a paper by him on “Government Ownership of Railroads” was published. Both of these papers have been highly serviceable to all students of current transportation problems, and have done much to widen the beneficent educational influence of the Academy.

The trained jurist is not infrequently a cultured scholar, but it is seldom that a man possesses in addition to these attainments the genius to instruct and the altruistic spirit that prompts to a devotion of his talents to the furtherance of the public good. Judge Knapp’s powers are generously active for the betterment of the age in which he lives; and it is a source of satisfaction to the members of the Academy that the Society has been one of the agencies by means of which Judge Knapp has given to the public the results of his valuable experience and sound thinking.

Judge Knapp then delivered the Annual Address, printed on pages 1–15 of this volume.

SESSION OF SATURDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 5.

Topic: “The Housing Problem.”

The President of the Academy, in introducing the presiding officer of the afternoon, said:

Members of the Academy, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is fortunate for us, both as members of the Academy and as citizens of Philadelphia, that when a subject of great importance is to be discussed by our organization, we are always able to call upon some citizen of Philadelphia whose interest in the subject, whose work, whose activity along these special lines enable him to preside over our deliberations with the authority that the subject calls for. I have very great pleasure in presenting to you this afternoon as presiding officer the Honorable William W. Porter, Justice of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, in whose hands I now place the meeting.

Judge Porter, in introducing the Honorable Robert W. De Forest, said:

We Philadelphians are apt to pride ourselves on the descriptive title which others have given to our city and which we have adopted, namely, that it is a city of homes. This is true of it to-day. It has ever been true. But none of us can shut his eyes to the facts that the population of the poor and the vicious has become congested in certain sections of the city, and that tenement houses, unknown to us for many years, are intruding in considerable numbers. To us Philadelphians, however, the topic for discussion would have greater significance had it been made the “Homing Problem” instead of the “Housing Problem.” The workingman’s struggle has ever been, in Philadelphia, not for a “house” in the sense of a room in a tenement, but for a home where within the four walls he may know privacy and proprietorship. We have been wont to say that a man’s home is his castle and that he would die in a struggle for its protection. This may yet be said of the home owner who is a house owner. But there is no instance on record, known to me, where there has been any serious loss of life in the defence of a room in a boarding-house or tenement.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the first participant in the discussion of the topic before us, Hon. Robert W. De Forest, Tenement House Commissioner of Greater New York, a gentleman who comes from a city which has had to meet the problem of housing the poor in its most difficult form, a gentleman who, notwithstanding his large professional obligations and duties and the time required by them, has been able to give much thought and useful labor to the attempted solving of what is, up to the present time, only a partially solved problem.

Mr. De Forest then presented his paper, which is printed on pages 81–95 of this volume.

In introducing Miss Addams, Mr. Porter said:

There was a time when true charity, as we understand it, was unknown. The knowledge and practice of it came only with Christian civilization. The impulse to do for others was first and strongest felt by women. The early administration of charity by them was, however, largely of the heart, rather than of the understanding. The time is here when women, with hearts just as warm in the work, have tempered their enthusiasm with cool, deep, serious, conscientious thought. These women are furnishing to us the best type of the best citizenship in the department of altruistic work.

It is with pleasure that I introduce to you a woman who exemplifies what I have asserted; a woman who has been at the head of a charitable work which has accomplished wonders; a woman who has thought, wrought and written well. It is with very great pleasure that I present to you one who will speak on the “Housing Problem in the City of Chicago,” Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House.

Miss Addams’ address will be found on pages 97–107 of this volume.

Mr. Porter then introduced Mr. Nathaniel B. Crenshaw, who presented the results of an investigation by the Octavia Hill Association into the Housing Problem in Philadelphia. The paper read is printed on pages 109–120 of this volume.

The President of the Academy, in closing the session, said:

In closing the meeting I desire to express to the speakers of the afternoon, as well as to the presiding officer, the sincere thanks of the Academy, and I feel that I am simply giving expression to your feelings when I say that we all go away with new ideas and a new inspiration in the work of bettering social conditions.

SESSION OF SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 5.

Subject: “Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration; Its Possibilities and Limitations.”

In giving the meeting into the hands of the presiding officer of the evening, Mr. Charles Custis Harrison, the President of the Academy said:

Members of the Academy, Ladies and Gentlemen.

We have much of importance to hear this evening and there is therefore little time for formal introductions. I have the honor of presenting to you, as presiding officer of the evening, Dr. Charles Custis Harrison, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Harrison, in introducing Senator Hanna, said:

Ladies and Gentlemen.

The meeting to-night has to do with the questions which relate to the maintenance of industrial peace or to the restoration of peace relationships in industrial relations if they shall be disturbed. Perhaps I may say that question has peculiar interest to myself entirely outside of my academic connections, because many years before I entered the service of the University I was myself a large employer of labor. One of the testimonials, perhaps the testimonial which I most value of any which I have received, was one which the two thousand men in our service gave to us at the time we went out of business.

We do not realize that the conditions under which we are living are totally different from those of twenty-five years ago. During almost all my business life, and I suppose during Senator Hanna’s business life, the maxim on which business was conducted was that competition was the life of trade, and there was a constant struggle of competition between producer and producer and between man and man for a position, and it is only within a few years that it has dawned upon the mind of the world that another economic maxim might have weight, the maxim that where combination is possible, competition is impossible. We are working now under that maxim, and so we have federations of labor and we have federations of capital. So long as justice is not universal there will be a conflict of interests between labor and capital, and the practical question seems to be, how to bring these two interests together.

All these matters are really solvable only in a practical way. Most people need a mediator—somebody to intervene. We know, ourselves, even in the matter of the rental or buying of a house, a man is often not willing to disclose himself fully and must employ a third party. The practical question is, how to get the men together, because in that way difficulties are settled and only in that way. Whosoever takes a part in preserving industrial peace or in adjusting the conditions as between employer and employed confers an extraordinary benefit upon the whole community.

In everything the man is greater than the scheme. What one man finds impossible to do, another man succeeds in doing. The first speaker of the evening is Senator Hanna, a man who translates his oratory into action. He has consented to add to the extraordinary responsibilities of state, which he has borne for so many years, the duty of being one of the members of a board of conciliation or arbitration, and I have the very great pleasure of presenting him to you.

Senator Hanna’s address is printed in full on pages 19–26 of this volume.

The next speaker of the evening was Mr. Samuel Gompers, who spoke on “Limitations of Conciliation and Arbitration.” In introducing Mr. Gompers, the presiding officer said:

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I shall now introduce as the next speaker the President of the American Federation of Labor, who has devoted his life since boyhood towards the betterment of the laboring classes, and not only towards that question alone, but also to the philosophical side of everything which has to do with questions concerning labor. I am glad of the opportunity of introducing to you Mr. Samuel Gompers.

The address of Mr. Gompers is printed on pages 27–34 of this volume.

The speaker following Mr. Gompers was the Hon. Oscar S. Straus, who spoke on “The Results Accomplished by the Industrial Department of the National Civic Federation.” In introducing Mr. Straus, the presiding officer said:

The man to whom was referred the important duty of appointing the Industrial Committee of Thirty-six of the Civic Federation, to which reference has been made so often this evening, and who, in response to his first invitation received thirty-five affirmative replies, the Hon. Oscar S. Straus, is the gentleman whom I now have the pleasure of introducing.

The address of Mr. Straus is printed in full on pages 35–42 of this volume.

The last speaker of the evening was Mr. William H. Pfahler, who spoke on “Co-operation of Labor and Capital.” The paper read by Mr. Pfahler is printed in full on pages 43–58 of this volume.

Respectfully submitted, LEO S. ROWE, Chairman, JOSEPH G. ROSENGARTEN, JOHN H. CONVERSE, JAMES B. DILL, STUART WOOD, SIMON N. PATTEN, J. GORDON GRAY, CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF, JOSEPH M. GAZZAM, EDWARD T. DEVINE, JAMES T. YOUNG, WILLIAM H. ALLEN, Special Committee on Sixth Annual Meeting

-----

Footnote 1:

This statement was made April 5, 1902.

Footnote 2:

A strike was declared in the anthracite mines in May, 1902, and had not been settled when this paper went to press.—EDITOR.

Footnote 3:

We have assurances from eminent corporation attorneys that the proposed issue of deferred stock with the suggested limitations thereon is entirely legal and feasible, and that it can be done without danger of having the concern forced into a court of equity by the holders of such certificates.

Footnote 4:

The five wards are the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh. One-half of the Seventh extends out of the district towards the west, but shows many of the same characteristics.

Footnote 5:

Watson’s Annals, Vol. I, p. 43.

Footnote 6:

The Second Volume of the Census of 1900 is not yet issued.

Footnote 7:

“Homes of the London Poor,” by Octavia Hill.

Footnote 8:

“Lessons from Work.” (B. F. Westcott.)

Footnote 9:

The Board of Health, in their report for 1900, (p. 40) say: “A tenement house in Massachusetts is one occupied by four or more families, while in New York it is one occupied by three families which was the law in Massachusetts until the statute was amended in 1894.” This sentence is rich in blunders. No amendment was made in 1894. The Health Act of 1885, chapter 382, section 4, defined a tenement house as one with “more than three families.” The Act of 1889, chapter 450,