CHILDREN, Legal Codes Relating to. Legislation in behalf of dependent, neglected, delinquent and defective children has been ac cidental and unsystematic until within the past few years. A progressive governor recom mends the creation of a juvenile reformatory, a State home for dependent children, a school for feeble-minded children or a State board of children's guardians; or a philanthropic legis lator introduces a bill for such an institution, and straightway it is created, without any in telligent study as to whether it is needed or whether something else is needed more.
In 1908 the British Parliament enacted an elaborate Children's Act, which was character ized by the Hon. Herbert Gladstone as the Children's Charter?) In 1911 a bill, prepared by Judge George S. Addams, of the Cleveland juvenile court, was passed by the Ohio State legislature, provid ing for a children's code commission. This commission consisted of two eminent lawyers, Judge Daniel Babst and Arthur D. Baldwin, F..N. After a careful study of the children's laws of Ohio and other States, they produced a comprehensive children's code, covering the care, training, protection and supervision of dependent, neglected, delinquent and defective children, including juvenile courts. The code authorized the board of State charities to supervise and certify all public or private insti tutions and associations which receive and care for children. The board was also authorized to become guardian of such children and place them in family homes.
The Ohio children's code marked a new era in children's legislation in that it aimed' to cover all of the obligation of the mother State toward children who lack proper care and training.
The governor of Missouri, in June 1915, ap pointed a children's code. commission of 23 men and women ((to revise the existing laws relating to children, to prepare such new legis lation as might seem desirable, and to bring together in one code all the laws relating to children?) No funds were provided by the State, but the commission raised $1,500 by sub scription for expenses.
The commission organized seven sub-com mittees on general laws for the protection of children; public administration; delinquent and neglected children; defective children; desti tute children; child labor and education; and health and recreation.
The commission submitted a code consisting of 42 bills to the legislature of 1917, covering the entire field of child welfare; but, owing to the large membership of the committee and the difference in point of view of the different sub committees, the commission was not unanimous in its recommendations. The legislature en acted 11 out of the 42 bills submitted and the remainder went over to the next legislature. Much of the legislation adopted was distinctly progressive.
The governor of Minnesota, in August 1916, appointed a commission of 12 members to •revise and codify the laws of the state relating to children? Although the time available was only six months, the commission worked with extraordinary industry, unanimity and wisdom.
In February 1917, they submitted to the legislature a code consisting of 41 bills, of which 35 were enacted into law. It is un questionably the most advanced and coherent body of law relating to children in the United States. Chapter I is "An act to give the State board of control general duties for the pro tection of defective, illegitimate, dependent, neglected and delinquent children; with author ity to act as guardian of children and to pro vide for child welfare boards in the several counties of the State to aid in the performance of such duties.' Chapter II defines the duties of the district, juvenile and probate courts re specting children. Chapter III relates to crimes by and against children. Chapter IV regulates child labor and provides a minimum wage com mission to establish proper wages for women and children. Chapter V, on education, deals with compulsory school attendance and the education of defectives. Chapter VI, on rec reation and health, regulates parks and play grounds and midwifery. Chapter VII relates to the support of children by relatives and counties. Chapter VIII provides for the reg ulation of private institutions and societies for the care of children and the supervision of placed-out children by the State board of con trol. (The supervision and certification of private agencies and institutions for children is authorized in Chapter I). Chapter IX relates to illegitimate children. It provides for an examination, on request of a mother, to determine the paternity of an illegitimate child and that when the paternity is judicially estab lished the father 'shall be subject to all the obligations for the care, maintenance and ed ucation of such child, and to all the penalties for failure to perform the same, which are or shall be imposed by law upon the father of a legitimate child of like age and capacity.* A National Committee for Standardizing Children's Laws was created in 1915 to promote the enactment of children's codes, and the National Child Labor Committee is working in the same direction. Movements are in progress for children's codes in several States. Michi gan has a permanent commission created by the legislature of 1917.
Bibliography.— (A Community Plan in Children's Work,' 12 pp., by C. C. Carstens, Russell Sage Foundation, New York; Juvenile Court Laws Summarized, Russell Sage Founda non, New I oric; xeport or inc t-omnussionto Codify and Revise the Laws of Ohio Relative to Children, State of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio; Ohio Bulletin of Charities and Correction, No vember 1913 (containing the Ohio Children's Code, Columbus, Ohio); Report of the Mis souri Code Commission, 1916, Saint Louis, Mo.; Report of the Minnesota Child Welfare Com mission, 1917, Saint Paul, Minn.; Compilation of the Laws of Minnesota Relating to Children; The Law of Children and Young Persons (London 1909).