Chapter XI: Preface: To the Seventh Volume (10)

"ARTICLE I.
The High Contracting Parties agree by the present Convention
to constitute and maintain a permanent tribunal which shall be
called the ‘Central American Court of Justice,’ to which they
bind themselves to submit all controversies or questions which
may arise among them, of whatsoever nature and no matter what
their origin may be, in case the respective Departments of
Foreign Affairs should not have been able to reach an
understanding.

"ARTICLE II.
This Court shall also take cognizance of the questions which
individuals of one Central American country may raise against
any of the other contracting Governments, because of the
violation of Treaties or Conventions, and other cases of an
international character; no matter whether his own Government
supports said claim or not; and provided that the remedies
which the laws of the respective country provide against such
violation shall have been exhausted and that a denial of
justice shall be shown.

"ARTICLE III.
It shall also take cognizance of the cases which by common
accord contracting Governments may submit to it, no matter
whether they arise between two or more of them or between one
of said Governments and individuals.

[Footnote: After signing the treaties an omission was
discovered in this Article. An additional protocol was
thereupon signed by all the delegates adding to this Article,
and to be considered as an integral part of the Convention,
the following words:

"It shall also have jurisdiction over cases arising between
any of the contracting Governments and individuals, when by
common accord they may have been submitted to it.]

"Article IV.
The Court may likewise take cognizance of the international
questions which by special agreement any one of the Central
American Governments and a foreign Government may have
determined to submit to it.

"ARTICLE V.
The Central American Court of Justice shall sit at the City of
Cartago in the Republic of Costa Rica, but it shall be
authorized to transfer its residence to another point in
Central America when it may deem it proper to do so for
reasons of health, of guaranteeing the exercise of its
functions, or of the personal security of its members.

"ARTICLE VI.
The Central American Court of Justice shall consist of five
Justices named, one from each Republic and selected from among
the jurists who possess the qualifications which the laws of
each country may exact for the exercise of high judicial
functions, and enjoy the highest consideration, not only
because of their moral character but also on account of their
professional ability. The vacancies shall be filled by
substitute Justices, named at the same time and in the same
manner as the regular ones and who shall unite the same
qualifications as the former. The attendance of the five
Justices who constitute the Tribunal is indispensable in order
to have a legal quorum in the judgments of the Court.

"ARTICLE VII.
The legislative power of each one of the five contracting
Republics shall name one regular and two substitutes as their
respective Justices. The salary of each Justice shall be eight
thousand dollars, gold, per annum, which shall be paid by the
Treasury of the Court. The salary of the Justice of the place
where the Court resides shall be designated by the respective
Government. Besides, each State shall contribute two thousand
dollars, gold, annually for the ordinary and extraordinary
expenses of the Tribunal. The Governments of the contracting
Republics bind themselves to include their respective
contributions in their budgets of expenses and to remit
quarterly in advance to the Treasury of the Court the
proportion which corresponds to them on account of such
expenditures."

"ARTICLE XIII.
The Central American Court of Justice represents the national
conscience of Central America, wherefore the Justices who
compose the Tribunal shall not consider themselves prohibited
from the exercise of their functions because of the interest
which the Republics, whence they derive their appointment, may
have in any case or question. With regard to implications and
challenges, the rules of procedure which the Court may fix
shall make proper provision."

"ARTICLE XXII.
The Court is authorized to determine its jurisdiction,
interpreting the Treaties and Conventions germane to the
matter in dispute, applying the principles of international
law.

"ARTICLE XXIII.
Every final or interlocutory decision shall be rendered in
accordance with the agreement of at least three of the
Justices of the Court. In case of disagreement, one of the
substitute Justices shall be chosen by lot, and if still a
majority of three be not obtained other Justices shall
continue to be chosen by lot until three votes in the same
sense shall have been obtained.

"ARTICLE XXIV.
The decisions must be in writing and shall contain a statement
of the reasons upon which they are based. They must be signed
by all the Justices of the Court and countersigned by the
Secretary. Once they have been published they cannot be
altered on any account; but, at the request of any of the
parties, the Tribunal may decide the interpretation which must
be given to its judgment.

{79}

"Article XXV.
The judgments of the Court shall be communicated to the five
Governments of the Contracting Republics. The interested
parties solemnly bind themselves to submit to said judgment;
and they all agree to lend every moral support that may be
necessary in order that they may be properly fulfilled, in
this manner constituting a real and positive guarantee of
respect for this Convention and for the Central American Court
of Justice."

"Article XXVII.
The High Contracting Parties solemnly declare that for no
motive nor in any case will they consider the present
Convention as lapsed; and that, therefore, they will consider
it as being always in force during the term of ten years
counted from last ratification. In the event that the
political entity of one or more of the Contracting Republics
is changed or altered, the attributes of the Central American
Court of Justice created by this Convention shall be suspended
_ipso facto_; and a conference to adjust the constitution
of said Court and the new order of things shall be forthwith
convoked by the respective Governments; in case they do not
unanimously agree the present Convention shall be considered
as rescinded."

"PROVISIONARY ARTICLE.
As a recommendation of the five Delegations an Article is
annexed which contains an amplification of the Central
American Court of Justice, in order that the Legislatures that
may deem it proper may see fit to include it upon ratifying
this Convention."

"ANNEXED ARTICLE.
The Central American Court of Justice shall also have
jurisdiction over the conflicts which may arise between the
Legislative, Executive and Judicial Powers, and when as a
matter of fact the judicial decisions and congressional
resolutions are not respected."

CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1908.
Inauguration of the Central American Court of Justice.
Gift of a building for its use by Mr. Carnegie.

The Central American Court of Justice, contemplated in the
treaty of 1907, quoted above, was formally instituted, at
Cartago, Costa Rica, with appropriate ceremony, in the last
week of May, 1908. The Honorable William I. Buchanan, in
attendance as Commissioner from the United States, added
interest to the occasion by announcing the proffer of a gift
of $100,000 by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, for the erection of a
building to be dedicated to the exclusive use of the Court.

CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1909.
Financial undertakings in New York.
Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.

In the summer of 1909 various financial undertakings by great
banking houses in New York were announced, involving some
handling of the debts of Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.
It was thought that these operations were in line with efforts
of the State Department at Washington and the Bureau of
American Republics to bring about the establishment of a chain
of American banking houses in the Latin-American countries,
for the advancement of American trade and the promotion of
more intimate Pan-American relations.

CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1909.
Nicaragua.
Establishment of a colony of Sioux Indians from
the United States.

A dispatch to the Press from Boston, November 17, 1909, made
the following statement:

"To save the remnant of the Sioux tribe of Indians from
extinction by consumption and other diseases, a colony of the
Indians will be established in Nicaragua early in the new
year. Chief Little Bison, a full-blooded Sioux, sailed from
Boston on the steamship Esparta to-day for Nicaragua, where he
will receive the deeds to 16,000 acres of land granted by the
Nicaraguan government for the establishment of the colony. The
project is supported financially by F. S. Dellenbaugh, head of
the American Geographical Society, and several wealthy New
York people. The emigration of the Indians is expected to
begin in January."

CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1909.
President Zelaya a menace to peace.
His conduct trying the patience of the United States.

In the early spring of 1909 the disturbing attitude and
conduct of the Nicaraguan President, Zelaya, not only towards
his near neighbors of Salvador and Honduras, but also in the
relations of his Government with that of the United States,
had caused the latter to enter again into consultation with
the Mexican Government, as to joint action to preserve peace.

For some years the United States had been trying to bring
about the settlement of a claim against the Nicaraguan
Government preferred by an American company. This Emery claim,
as it was known, arose in connection with a concession granted
in 1898 for cutting and exporting mahogany. The concession
provided that any differences which should arise between the
Government and the company should be arbitrated by a tribunal
of three members, one to be selected by the Government, one by
the company, and the third by these two arbitrators. In 1903
an accusation of smuggling was brought against the company,
and the questions raised were submitted to the stipulated
tribunal. This decided that, inasmuch as the company had paid
taxes to the Government three years in advance, amounting to
$30,000, the concession could not be annulled, as President
Zelaya wished to have done. Nevertheless Zelaya declared it
annulled, and caused proceedings to be instituted for stopping
the company’s exportations. This led the American Government
to interpose. Under instructions from Washington, its Minister
at Managua, Mr. Merry, addressed the following note to the
Nicaraguan Minister of Foreign Affairs, December 15, 1906:

"I have the honor to inform you that I have received
instructions from my Government to make an urgent and firm
request that your Excellency’s Government will settle the
Emery company controversy by an international arbitration, and
that until a decision has been given thereby, your
Excellency’s Government will restore to the Emery company all
its property, dismissing all legal prosecutions in the case,
and permitting the company to resume its work under its
concession, as if no controversy had arisen."

This communication secured a promise of the desired
international arbitration, and the stopping meantime of
proceedings of interference with the company’s business. But
when the protocol of arbitration was to be drawn the
Nicaraguan Government refused to have any question of damages
to the company included. On this contention the settlement was
blocked for more than two years, and the patience of the
Washington Government was about worn out. In just what
wrappings of diplomatic language it made that fact apparent
has not yet been disclosed to the public; but evidently the
understanding of Señor Zelaya was duly penetrated.
{80}
On the 26th of May last (1909) his representative at
Washington signed a protocol which provided that the questions
at issue between the Government of Nicaragua and the Emery
Company should be submitted to arbitration, unless the parties
could make their own settlement within four months.

This, however, did not end troubles with Nicaragua,—or,
rather, with its presidential dictator. Revolutionary attempts
in the republic to unseat him gave rise to new offenses on his
part against the United States, which President Taft, in his
Message to Congress, December 6, 1909, recounted as follows:

"Since the Washington conventions of 1907 were communicated to
the government of the United States as a consulting and
advising party, this government has been almost continuously
called upon by one or another, and in turn by all of the five
Central American republics, to exert itself for the
maintenance of the conventions. Nearly every complaint has
been against the Zelaya government of Nicaragua, which has
kept Central America in constant tension or turmoil. The
responses made to the representations of Central American
republics, as due from the United States on account of its
relation to the Washington conventions, have been at all times
conservative and have avoided, so far as possible, any
semblance of interference, although it is very apparent that
the considerations of geographic proximity to the Canal Zone
and of the very substantial American interests in Central
America give to the United States a special position in the
zone of these republics and the Caribbean Sea.

"I need not rehearse here the patient efforts of this
government to promote peace and welfare among these republics,
efforts which are fully appreciated by the majority of them
who are loyal to their true interests. It would be no less
unnecessary to rehearse here the sad tale of unspeakable
barbarities and oppression alleged to have been committed by
the Zelaya government. Recently two Americans were put to
death by order of President Zelaya himself. They were officers
in the organized forces of a revolution which had continued
many weeks and was in control of about half of the republic,
and as such, according to the modern enlightened practice of
civilized nations, they were entitled to be dealt with as
prisoners of war.

"At the date when this message is printed this government has
terminated diplomatic relations with the Zelaya government,
for reasons made public in a communication to the former
Nicaraguan chargé d’affaires, and is intending to take such
future steps as may be found most consistent with its dignity,
its duty to American interests, and its moral obligations to
Central America and to civilization. It may be necessary for
me to bring this subject to the attention of the Congress in a
special message."

Some days previous to the date of the President’s Message, the
Secretary of State, Mr. Knox, had addressed a letter of
extreme severity to the Nicaraguan Chargé d’Affaires at
Washington, Mr. Rodriguez, reviewing the conduct of the
Nicaraguan Government, and saying: "In these circumstances the
President no longer feels for the government of President
Zelaya that respect and confidence which would make it
appropriate hereafter to maintain with it regular diplomatic
relations, implying the will and the ability to respect and
assure what is due from one State to another." The conclusion
of the letter was as follows: "To insure the future protection
of legitimate American interests, in consideration of the
interests of the majority of the Central American republics,
and in the hope of making more effective the friendly offices
exerted under the Washington conventions, the government of
the United States reserves for further consideration at the
proper time the question of stipulating also that the
constitutional government of Nicaragua obligate itself by
convention for the benefit of all the governments concerned as
a guarantee for its future loyal support of the Washington
conventions and their peaceful and progressive aims.

"From the foregoing it will be apparent to you that your
office of charge d’affaires is at an end. I have the honor to
enclose your passports for use in case you desire to leave
tins country. I would add at the same time that, although your
diplomatic quality is terminated, I shall be happy to receive
you as I shall be happy to receive the representative of the
revolution, each as the unofficial channel of communication
between the government of the United States and the de facto
authorities to whom I look for the protection of American
interests pending the establishment in Nicaragua of a
government with which the United States can maintain
diplomatic relations."

President Zelaya at once protested against this arraignment,
telegraphing to Secretary Knox that his sources of information
had been prejudiced, and asking that the United States send a
commission of investigation, proposing to resign if his
administration was shown to be detrimental to Nicaragua.
Receiving no reply, he resigned the presidency of Nicaragua on
the 16th of December, announcing the fact by cable to
President Taft in these words:

"To avoid harm to my country, and desiring that it shall renew
friendly relations with the United States, I have to-day sent
my resignation to Congress. As my opponents consider my
presence a disturbing factor, I propose to show my good faith
by leaving Nicaragua. I stand ready to account for my acts."

The vacant presidential office was filled by the Congress of
Nicaragua, which elected Dr. Madriz, the choice having been
dictated, it was believed, by Zelaya. The revolutionists with
whom Zelaya had been contending since October, and who had, on
their part, elected and proclaimed their leader, General Juan
Estrada, Provisional President of Nicaragua, refused to
recognize this Congressional election, and continued, against
the government of Madriz, the revolt they had organized
against Zelaya, determined to secure for Estrada the power to
order a presidential election by the people.

On Christmas Eve Zelaya left Nicaragua for Mexico, being
conveyed by a Mexican gunboat from Corinto to Salina Cruz. A
few weeks later he migrated to Europe and is understood to
have taken up his residence in Belgium.

The revolt led by General Estrada is still in progress at the
time this writing goes into print (early in March, 1910), but
the latest reports do not warrant expectations of its success.

----------CENTRAL AMERICA: End--------

{81}

CENTRAL AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

See, (in this Volume) also,
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

CENTRAL BANK QUESTION.

See (in this Volume)
FINANCE AND TRADE: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909-1910.

CENTRO CATOLICO.

See (in this Volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907.

CHAFFEE, Major-General Adna R.:
Military Governor of the Philippines.

See (in this Volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901.

CHAFIN, Eugene W.:
Nominated for President of the United States.

See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).

CHAMBERLAIN, Austen:
Postmaster-General in the English Ministry.

See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1902 (JULY).

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Address at opening of Colonial Conference of 1902.

See (in this Volume)
BRITISH EMPIRE.

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
On a State-rights question in Australia.

See (in this Volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1902.

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Declaration for Preferential Trade with the Colonies.
His resignation from the Cabinet.

See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1903 (MAY-SEPTEMBER).

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Visit to South Africa.
Views on the Labor question.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1903-1904.

CHAMPLAIN TERCENTENARY CELEBRATION.

See (in this Volume)
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1909.

CHANG CHIH-TUNG:
Measures as viceroy to check the use of opium.

See (in this Volume)
OPIUM PROBLEM.

CHANTABUN:
Restored to Siam.

See (in this Volume)
SIAM: A. D. 1902.

CHANUTE, OCTAVE.

See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: AERONAUTICS.

CHARITIES.

See (in this Volume)
POVERTY, PROBLEMS OF; SOCIAL BETTERMENT; and
CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW.

CHARLES I., King of Roumania.
What he has done for his kingdom.

See (in this Volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: ROUMANIA.

CHARLES, Prince, of Denmark:
Election to the Norwegian Throne.
Assumes the name of Haakon VII.

See (in this Volume)
NORWAY: A. D. 1902-1905.

CHARLESTON: A. D. 1901.
The "South Carolina and Interstate and West Indian
Exposition."

Under this name, a very beautiful and successful exhibit of
the progress of Southern industry and art, and of the
possibilities of West Indian and Spanish-American trade, was
opened at Charleston on the 1st of December, 1901. The site of
the exposition was a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of
ground, only two and a half miles from the business section of
the city, embracing the famous old Lowndes estate, with its
historic mansion, which the present owner permitted to be used
as the Women’s Building of the occasion. Fine taste and a high
public spirit entered into the making of this very interesting
Fair.

CHARTREUX MONKS.

See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1904 (June-July).

CHEMULPHO.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-JULY) and (FEBRUARY-AUGUST).

CHICAGO: A. D. 1896-1909.
Institution and work of the Municipal Voters’ League.

See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: CHICAGO.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1899.
Institution of the first Juvenile Court.

See (in this Volume)
CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW: AS OFFENDERS.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1903.
The burning of the Iroquois Theater.

Chicago has now two of the most painful memories of fire that
are in the past of any city. The second was added on the
afternoon of December 30, 1903, when 588 people perished in
the burning of the Iroquois Theater. The audience was made up
principally of women and children, many of whom belonged to
prominent families. The whole city was plunged in grief, and
the whole world shared in the sorrow and manifested its
sympathy. The theater was a new one, and was regarded as the
best of any in the city in its method of construction. But
inquiry soon proved that it was defective in its provisions
for safety. Further examination, moreover, showed a similar
condition in other places of assembly, with the result that
all the theaters, with many churches and halls in Chicago,
were closed by order of the mayor, pending their compliance
with certain provisions of the law.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1905.
Strike of the Teamsters’ Union.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905 (APRIL-JULY).

CHICAGO: A. D. 1905-1908.
Struggle for a better charter.

See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1906.
Packing-House Investigation.

See (in this Volume)
Public Health: PURE FOOD LAWS: UNITED STATES.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1907.
National Conference on Trusts.

See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1907.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1909.
Population, and race mixture.

The City Statistician of Chicago, in his manual for 1909,
gives the number of the inhabitants of the city as 2,572,835,
of whom 699,554 are Americans or persons whose parents are not
foreign born. The Germans rank second, with a population of
563,708; the Irish third, with a population of 240,560. Next
come the Poles, with 173,409; the Swedes, with 143,307; the
Russians, with 123,238; the Bohemians, with 116,549. Thirty
other foreign countries given are all below the 100,000 mark.
The Chinese population is given as 1,801, the Japanese as 257.
The Albanians are the lowest, with a population of 39.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1909.
"The Chicago Plan."
Systematizing the future development.

"Early in 1906 the Merchants’ Club, comprising a group of the
younger business and professional men of the city, arranged
for the preparation of a complete project for the future
development of Chicago. The next year the Merchants’ Club was
merged with the Commercial Club under the name of the latter
organization, and the city-planning work was continued under
the auspices of that body." The resulting "Plan of Chicago"
was reported in the course of the summer of 1909. "The report
represents about thirty months’ work by men whose thoughts for
years have dwelt upon the subject of city building and
beautification. The work was in charge of Daniel H. Burnham,
chief architect and director of works of the World’s Columbian
Exposition of 1893, who gave his services to his city without
compensation for the purpose of this report. Even so, the
expense of preparing and publishing the report has
approximated $75,000, all raised by voluntary subscriptions
from the business men of Chicago."

_George C. Sikes,
The New Chicago
(The Outlook, August 28, 1909)._

{82}

CHICAGO: A. D. 1909 (May).
The Second National Peace Congress.

See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1909.

CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE AND ST. PAUL TRANSCONTINENTAL LINE.

See (in this Volume)
RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909.

CHI-KUAN-SHAN, Fort, Capture of.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).

----------CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW: Start--------

CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW:
As Dependents:
England: The Poor Law Children.

The following is from a speech in Parliament June 17, 1909, by
Mr. John Burns, President of the Local Government Board, which
administers the Poor Laws and the Public Health Laws:

"In England and Wales there were 235,000 children supported by
the rates either inside or outside Poor Law institutions, and
of these 70,000 were in cottage homes, barrack schools,
scattered homes, and similar institutions. The cost per child
maintained in cottage homes varied from 12s. 9d. to 25s. 2d.
per week, and in scattered homes from 8s. 6d. to 11s. 2d. At
this moment the number of children in workhouse schools, which
in 1870 was 29,000, was only from 500 to 600; 19,000 of the
Poor Law children were being educated in elementary schools
outside. … With regard to sick children he was delighted to
hear the almost unanimous chorus of appeal that the Local
Government Board should do a great deal by administration.
They had, in fact, transferred 1,000 out of the 2,500 sick
children from the London workhouses and infirmaries to an
institution on the healthy and breezy downs of Surrey at
Carshalton, where they could be better treated, and where they
would recover much more quickly than in any of the workhouses
and infirmaries in London. If he could find more buildings or
institutions available he would transfer more children. He
should not rest until all the sick children throughout the
country were transferred from workhouses and infirmaries to
institutions in the country where they would recover health
more rapidly."

CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW:
United States: Proposed Federal Child Bureau.

Transmitting to Congress, on the 5th of February, 1909, the
proceedings of a conference held at Washington on the care of
dependent children, President Roosevelt accompanied it with a
message, in which he urged the establishment of a Bureau in
one of the Departments of the Federal Government, to
centralize attention to the subject; with the enactment of
such legislation as will bring the laws and practices in
regard to the care of dependent children in all Federal
territory into harmony, and certain legislation in behalf of
dependent children in the District of Columbia. The President
maintained that such legislation is important not only for the
welfare of the children immediately concerned, but "as setting
an example of a high standard of child protection by the
National Government to the several States of the Union, which
should be able to look to the nation for leadership in such
matters."

Statistics showing the large number of dependent children in
the country were presented by Mr. Roosevelt. "Each of these
children, he said, represents either a potential addition to
the productive capacity and the enlightened citizenship of the
nation, or, if allowed to suffer from neglect, a potential
addition to the destructive forces of the community. The ranks
of criminals and other enemies of society are recruited in an
altogether undue proportion from children bereft of their
natural homes and left without sufficient care. The interests
of the nation are involved in the welfare of this army of
children no less than in our great material affairs."

In urging a Children’s Bureau, one of whose duties will be to
investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the
welfare of children and child life, the President pointed out
that "the National Government is the only agency which can
effectively conduct such general inquiries as are needed for
the benefit of all our citizens."

CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW:
As Dependents and as Offenders:
England: The Children Act of 1908.
Infant Life Protection.
Reformatory and Industrial Schools.
Treatment of Youthful Criminals.
No death-sentence for them.
Special "Places of Detention."
Juvenile Courts.

An act entitled The Children Act, passed by the Parliament of
the United Kingdom in December, 1908, and which came into
effect April 1, 1909, has such importance that it has been
described as "The Children’s Charter." According to its full
title it is "An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating
to the Protection of Children and Young Persons, Reformatory
and Industrial Schools and Juvenile Offenders, and otherwise
to amend the Law with respect to Children and Young Persons."
It gathers into one great enactment nearly everything in which
the guardianship of Law can be specially extended to them,
except the matters of education and child labor, which are
subjects of distinct legislation. It repeals wholly twenty-one
previous enactments and amends more or less seventeen more. It
contains 134 sections and fills a so-called Parliamentary
"White Book" of 93 pages.

As used in the Act, the word "child" means a person under 14
years; the expression "young person" means one above that age,
but under sixteen.

The Act is divided into six parts, which are concerned with
the following main subjects:
(1) Infant Life Protection.
(2) The Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Young Persons.
(3) Juvenile Smoking.
(4) Reformatory and Industrial Schools.
(5) Juvenile Offenders.
(6) Miscellaneous and General.

The provisions for "infant life protection" have to do mainly
with the supervision of "baby-farming." Foster parents are
forbidden to insure the life of a nurse-child and insurance
companies are forbidden to accept any such insurance.

Juvenile smoking is dealt with very drastically, the penalties
for selling cigarettes or the material for making them to
persons under sixteen years of age being sharp, and both
policemen and park-keepers in uniform being empowered to take
such materials from the persons of Juvenile smokers.

{83}

The part of the Act which relates to reformatory and
industrial schools enables the Courts to deal effectively with
youthful offenders without subjecting them to the prison
taint. Boys or girls between the ages of 12 and 16 who are
convicted of offences punishable in the case of adults with
penal servitude or imprisonment may be sent to a certified
reformatory school. In certain defined cases, children may be
taken from depraved or drunken parents and consigned to a
certified industrial school. In these cases the child may be
brought before the Court by any person in order that the
provisions of the Act may be set in force. Parents who are
unable to control their children may themselves take advantage
of the Act, and in these cases the Court may place the
children under the supervision of a probation officer instead
of sending them to an industrial school. In all cases of
children who are liable to be consigned to an industrial
school, there is given to the Courts the alternative power of
committing them to the care of relatives or other fit persons
with or without the supervision of the probation officer.

The most important part of the Act, perhaps, is that relating
to juvenile offenders. It allows no young person under sixteen
years of age to be sentenced to death. "Sentence of death,"
says this Law, "shall not be pronounced on or recorded against
a child or young person, but in lieu thereof the Court shall
sentence the child or young person to be detained during his
Majesty’s pleasure."

In future, also, no child may be sentenced to imprisonment or
penal servitude for any offence, or committed to prison in
default of payment of a fine, damages, or costs. No young
person may be sentenced to penal servitude for any offence,
nor may he be sentenced to imprisonment or committed to prison
in default of payment of a fine or costs, unless the Court
certifies that he is of so unruly a character or so depraved
that it is not desirable to send him to a "place of detention"
provided under the Act. These provisions relating to the
substitution of "detention" for imprisonment did not come into
force until January 1, 1910.

This part of the Act makes elaborate arrangements for the
treatment of youthful criminals, both before and after trial.
Special "places of detention" are to be opened in all petty
sessional divisions. Here children will be placed on arrest
(if for some special reason they cannot be released on a
recognizance), or after being remanded or committed for trial.
Here they may be kept in custody instead of being lodged in
gaol if they are sentenced to terms of imprisonment of less
than one month. Persons under 16 years of age must also be
tried in special "juvenile Courts," unless they are charged
jointly with adult offenders. A "juvenile Court" must sit
"either in a different building or room from that in which the
ordinary sittings of the Court are held, or on different days
or at different times from those at which the ordinary
sittings are held." Only the Court officials, those directly
interested in the case, and the representatives of the Press
may be admitted to these Courts, unless the special leave of
the magistrate is obtained. Every effort is to be made, both
before and after trial, to prevent the association of children
with adult criminals. Finally, parents and guardians are to be
required to attend the hearing of charges against their
children or wards, and may be ordered to pay any fines,
damages, or costs imposed.

The miscellaneous provisions of the Act include a number of
importance, to prevent the giving of intoxicating liquors to
children, to exclude them from drinking places, to safeguard
them at entertainments, and to make the Act applicable to
Scotland and Ireland.

CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW: As Offenders:
Canadian provision for Separate Detention,
Reformatory Imprisonment, etc.

The Canadian Prisons and Reformatory Act of 1906 provides
that—"Young persons apparently under the age of sixteen years
who are,

(a) arrested upon any warrant; or,
(b) committed to custody at any stage of a preliminary inquiry
into a charge for an indictable offence; or,
(c) committed to custody at any stage of a trial, either for
an indictable offence or for an offence punishable on summary
conviction; or,
(d) committed to custody after such trial, but before
imprisonment under sentence;

shall be kept in custody separate from older persons charged
with criminal offences and separate from all persons
undergoing sentences of imprisonment, and shall not be
confined in the lock-ups or police stations with older persons
charged with criminal offences or with ordinary criminals."

Other sections of the Act confer discretionary authority on
courts and magistrates to sentence convicted offenders whose
age does not exceed sixteen years, and whose offence is
punishable by imprisonment, to reformatory prisons, for not
less than two nor more than five years; also, in certain
cases, to commit such offenders to a certified industrial
school, from which they may sometimes be permitted to be taken
for apprenticeship to any respectable and trustworthy person.

CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW:
The George Junior Republic.

Much attention has been turned from many directions, within
the last few years, upon the reformatory experiment which
bears the name of The George Junior Republic. From an ordinary
undertaking to give a few summer weeks of country fresh air to
a group of neglected, roughly-bred boys, out of the slums of
the City of New York, it has grown into a unique institution,
which remolds character and refashions life for hundreds of
the young of both sexes, who had been given wrong startings in
the world by the circumstances into which they were born. It
has done this by the simple method of organizing them into a
self-governing community,—a republic in which they are
citizens, invested with all the responsibilities, duties, and
cares that go with republican citizenship in its larger
spheres. They make and administer its laws, conduct its public
business and its politics, manage its institutions, generate
and have experience of its public opinion. The moral and
social influence of this training has now been proved by more
than a decade of success.

This remarkable organization was not framed up by its
architect, Mr. William R. George, on the lines of a
preconceived theory, but took its shape slowly from
suggestions of experience as they came.
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He began in 1890 to take companies of boys of the hoodlum
class from New York City to his place of summer residence, at
Freeville, a few miles from Ithaca and not far from Auburn,
New York. He found it hard to rule them, and no satisfactory
corrections of wrong-doing and bad behavior could be devised.
Physically they were bettered by their summer outings, but he
could not see much gain in other ways. This continued for some
seasons before his experiments with them began. The first to
be applied was a rule that such articles of clothing and the
like as had formerly been given to the boys must be paid for
in work. At the outset they resented the idea; but before the
summer was over they were all cheerfully at work, and the tone
of the party was much improved. In the next year culprits, who
robbed orchards and committed other misdemeanors, were
arraigned before the whole community, for a hearing and a
public verdict as to their guilt. Hard labor at stone-breaking
and the building of a road now became the penalty for
wrong-doing, and, presently, there was a boy constable to see
that they did their work.

So, step by step, from year to year, the fabric of
self-government and self-supporting industry was constructed,
until the Junior Republic emerged, with its President and
other executive officers, its representative legislature, its
courts, its police, its own monetary system and bank,—a
political and industrial commonwealth of boys and girls (for
both sexes have been included), taken out of a derelict class
for treatment by this simple inoculation with social
responsibilities. Writing of the George Junior Republic in
1908, Dr. Lyman Abbott said:

"It now has as a territory a hundred and fifty acres of land
owned by the Board of Trustees, and the practical use of a
hundred and fifty more belonging to Mr. George and some other
friends of the Republic who have made their home here because
such residence affords them an opportunity to give guidance
and inspiration to the boys and girls. The citizens, i. e. the
boys and girls in the Republic, number upwards of a hundred
and fifty. They are in some cases signed over to the Republic
by the parents, in other cases practically committed on
suspended sentences by the courts. They are extraordinarily
free within the territory, but are not free to leave it.
Laundry, baking, carpentry, and printing are the principal
trades indoors; road-making and land improvement the principal
industries out-of-doors. There are two jails, one for the
boys, one for the girls; a library, a school-house, a chapel,
bank, and a well-organized banking and currency system. There
is a court, and there is a judge, who is elected every year by
the citizens. From this court an appeal lies in certain cases
to a Supreme Court chosen by the boys from the Board of
Trustees, but this court only passes on the regularity of the
proceedings in the court below, that is, on what might be
regarded as equivalent to constitutional and jurisdictional
questions. There are a President, a Vice-President, a
Secretary of State, and a Secretary of the Treasury, all of
whom are elected annually; the three latter officers
constituting the Police Commissioners, the Board of Health,
and the President’s Cabinet. There are both a girl and a boy
District Attorney, who are appointed by the President, and
certain police officers and prison keepers. All citizens of
the Republic, both boys and girls, over fourteen years of age,
are voters; no one can remain a citizen after twenty-one. The
legislature has been abolished by the citizens themselves, and
all laws are made in town meeting, which is held once a month.
…

"The Republic has been in existence long enough to give the
experiment a fair trial, and the results justify the
expectations of its friends. In round numbers, about five
hundred have gone out from the Republic into life, most of
them taken from the class of boys and girls whose environment
was fruitful of crime and whose tendency was toward a criminal
career. Of these five hundred two or three are known to have
returned to crime, and five or six have disappeared entirely.
But of these eight or ten failures not one was in the Republic
more than a few months—not long enough to get the benefit of
the training. The other four hundred and ninety are known to
be earning an honest livelihood by honorable labor; and of
these four hundred and ninety, twenty have either graduated
from college, are now in college, or are just preparing to
enter college. At this writing two new Republics are about
being organized, one in Georgia and one in California, and a
movement is on foot for the organization of a National
Association."

Some months later than the above account of the Junior
Republic there were reported to be kindred organizations
modelled upon it in Connecticut and Maryland, with movements
to the same end in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New
Jersey, as well as in some countries abroad. Mr. Thomas M.
Osborne, of Auburn, who has been from an early day the chief
supporter of Mr. George in his work, said recently in a
published letter:

"I believe that the success of the Junior Republic idea, as we
have worked it out during the last fourteen years, is no
longer dependent upon Mr. George, its originator, or upon any
one man. Its established principles will now live on into the
far future, and work the sure righting of thousands of
youngsters gone wrong in every section of the greater
republic."

But it may work much more than "the sure righting of thousands
of youngsters gone wrong." It may, if its working widens and
roots itself among the institutions of the future, as it seems
likely to do, have a very potent and positive political
influence in the world. If men and women representative of a
class that is now troublesome to democracy, politically as
well as otherwise, should by and by be brought in large
numbers yearly from graduation in the Young Republic training
schools of imitative citizenship, to be joined with their
elders in larger spheres of more entire self-government, are
they not likely to introduce a profounder change in the
operation of republican institutions than can now be foreseen?

CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW: Juvenile Courts.
Their origin and development.

A collection of reports on "Children’s Courts in the United
States," prepared for the International Prison Commission and
edited by Mr. Samuel J. Barrows, Commissioner for the United
States, was published in 1904 as House Document No. 701 of the
58th Congress, 2d Session. The following account of the origin
of the now widely established Juvenile Courts of America and
Europe, and of their development in the United States during
the first four years of their existence, is derived from those
reports.

{85}

Commissioner Barrows opens his introduction to the collected
reports with the following remarks:

"If the question be asked, 'What is the most notable
development in judicial principles and methods in the United
States within the last five years?’ the answer may
unhesitatingly be, ‘The introduction and establishment of
juvenile courts.’ Never perhaps has any judicial reform made
such rapid progress. Beginning in Chicago in 1899, this
institution has sprung up in city after city and State after
State until it is now established in eight States and eleven
large cities. This progress has been made not merely by
changes in procedure or legal technique, nor by the
introduction of a new method; it is most of all by the
introduction of a new spirit and a new aim. … It must not be
supposed that the juvenile court is only a smaller court for
smaller offenders or simply a court holding separate sessions
for such offenders; it represents an altogether different
principle. The juvenile court is a life-saving institute in
society.

"It is scarcely necessary to say that child-saving methods,
institutions, and organizations have long flourished in the
United States. The Northern States have regarded juvenile
reformatories as a part of their correctional equipment, and
the courts have served as vestibules for such institutions;
but they have only been incidentally a part of the process. We
have not before realized what the court might be and do before
resorting to institutions. The children’s court still
maintains relations with the reform school, but it represents
in itself active and vital forces and invokes a whole range of
influence and motives which are personal and formative. It
appeals to the reform school not as the first, but only as the
last resort. The juvenile court has discovered that the child
is a child, and, as Judge Hurley says, ‘The child should be
treated as a child. Instead of reformation, the thought and
idea in the judge’s mind should always be formation. No child
should be punished for the purpose of making an example of
him.’ …

"The methods of children’s courts, or juvenile courts, as they
are termed in some States, differ in different places. In some
States the judge is detailed from some other court; in some
courts but one judge is assigned to this work. In New York
several judges from the court of special sessions act
successively in turn as judges of the children’s court. In
Maryland and Indiana the judges of the children’s courts
exercise this function only, and it is claimed that it is
better than the method of rotation, since the judge who
confines himself to juvenile court cases becomes a specialist
in this work. In Colorado Judge Lindsey is not only judge of
the juvenile court, but also of the county court. He finds
advantage in the fact that in his first capacity he can
protect the child, while as judge of the county court he can
also sentence the guardian or parent who is responsible for
the child’s delinquency.

"An essential feature of every juvenile court is the probation
system and probation officers. Their duty is to investigate
the case before trial, and, if the child is placed on
probation, to exercise watchcare over them until the period of
probation is closed. It is in this way that the parental care
of the State is exerted."

The City of Chicago and the Legislature of Illinois have the
honors of the origination of the Children’s Court as a
distinct creation of law. The Visitation and Aid Society of
Chicago had been laboring since 1891 to secure various
measures of advanced legislation bearing on child-saving,
without much success, until, as related in a report by Mr.
Hurley, of that Society, the Bar Association of Chicago took
the matter in hand, in 1899, and appointed a committee to
press it. This committee drafted the first juvenile court law
ever planned distinctly to that end and secured its enactment
by the Legislature of the State. The law went into force on
the 1st of July, 1899. The Court was soon opened, and Judge
Tuthill, of the Circuit Court of Illinois, who presided in it
from the first, has stated the principles of its constitution
and action in these following words:

"The basic principle of the law is this: That no child under
16 years of age shall be considered or be treated as a
criminal; that a child under that age shall not be arrested,
indicted, convicted, imprisoned, or punished as a criminal. It
of course recognizes the fact that such children may do acts
which in an older person would be crimes and be properly
punishable by the State therefor, but it provides that a child
under the age mentioned shall not be branded in the opening
years of its life with an indelible stain of criminality, or
be brought, even temporarily, into the companionship of men
and women whose lives are low, vicious, and criminal.

"The law divides children into two classes, the ‘dependent’
and the ‘delinquent.’ A dependent child, in the language of
the law, is a child—‘who for any reason is destitute or
homeless or abandoned, or has not proper parental care or
guardianship, or who habitually begs or receives alms, or who
is found living in any house of ill fame or with any vicious
or disreputable person, or whose home, by reason of neglect,
cruelty, or depravity on the part of the parents, guardian, or
other person in whose care it may be, is an unfit place for
such a child.’ A ‘delinquent child’ is defined to be—‘any
child under the age of 16 who violates any law of this State
or any city or village ordinance, or who is incorrigible, or
who knowingly associates with thieves, vicious, or immoral
persons, or who is growing up in idleness or crime, or who
knowingly frequents a house of ill fame, or who knowingly
patronizes any policy shop or place where any gaming device is
or shall be operated.’

"The law places its enforcement upon the judges of the circuit
court, who are required to select one of their number to
perform these duties as a part of the judicial work of such
judge. … The circuit court is a court of original and
unlimited jurisdiction, the highest in the State, and the duty
of holding the juvenile court was placed in the circuit court
(which for convenience is designated the ‘juvenile court’) as
an indication by the legislature of the importance to the
State of the work to be done.

"The case of each child brought into court, whether dependent
or delinquent, becomes of record, and every step taken in the
case is shown upon the court record."

Interest in the Illinois Law was awakened quickly in many
parts of the country, and requests for copies of it, says Mr.
Hurley in his historical sketch, "began to pour in from all
directions. These requests were promptly answered and copies
of the Juvenile Court Record, published by the Visitation and
Aid Society, containing the necessary information, were sent
to applicants.
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Agitation began in other States for a law similar to the one
passed in Illinois, and those who helped to form the Illinois
law were invited to visit other States to explain the measure
and the method of administering the law in Cook County.

"The Illinois law proved so satisfactory that many judges
throughout the country, not wishing to await the action of a
legislature, established branches in their several courts for
children cases only, and in the treatment of the cases applied
the probate and chancery powers of the court. This was the case
especially in Denver, Colorado, where Judge Ben D. Lindsey had
a complete and well-equipped juvenile court and probation
system before the legislature took any action whatever. A like
court was subsequently adopted in Indianapolis by George W.
Stubbs. The two latter courts were carried on practically in
the same way that they have been since laws were adopted by
these States. In most of the States the probation officers are
volunteers."

Judge Lindsey, of Denver, has won celebrity among the
presiding magistrates of the Juvenile Courts by the kindly
shrewdness of the methods by which he has won the confidence,
the admiration and devotion of the boys and girls of his city,
within the classes with which he has to deal. The scene which
his court-room presents on the appointed days when the
delinquents on probation come in a body to report to him and
to be talked to by him has been often described, and it seems
to exemplify a kind of influence that would go farther than
any other in resistance to the vitiating conditions which
surround masses of the young in all cities. Judge Lindsey’s
extended report of his work and experience in the Denver
Juvenile Court, published in the collection referred to above,
is a paper of remarkable interest.

As stated already, the Juvenile Court is now an established
institution in nearly every part of the United States, and in
many countries abroad. It was established in Great Britain by
the notable "Children Act" of 1908 (see above), and was
instituted that year in several of the German cities. A Press
despatch from Berlin, March 15, 1909, reported the opening of
a congress in that city, under the auspices of the German
Association for the Care of the Young, which aims at the
extension of this important reform. "The labors of the
society," says the despatch, "seem to have been stimulated by
the passing of the English Children Act of 1908, a German
translation of which has been distributed to members of the
congress. The movement for the establishment of special Courts
for juvenile offenders was taken up in Germany later than in
some other countries, but has recently made rapid progress.
The first children’s Courts were established on January 1,
1908, at Cologne, Stuttgart, and Breslau, and there are now 26
such Courts in Prussia. Official statistics, however, indicate
that in recent years the total number of juvenile offenders in
Germany has grown about three times as fast as the total
number of offenders of all ages. During 1906, 55,211 persons
under the age of 18 were sentenced, as compared with 51,232 in
1905 and 49,993 in 1904."

At the meeting of the International Prison Commission, at
Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1907, it was significant of the deep
interest which the children’s court has awakened in Europe
that nineteen societies in France, including the Academy of
Moral and Political Sciences, the General Society of Prisons,
and the faculties of law of Paris, Lille, and Montpellier, and
several of the most prominent tribunals in France, asked to
have the whole subject of the organization of children’s
courts elucidated and discussed. A similar interest was shown
in Switzerland and Germany.