Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/321

Rh the age of fourteen years than in Illinois, these states still kept them longer in school.

When thus tested by the two available objective tests — the decennial census and the departure of the children from school, considered in connection with the age at which they are permitted to go and the acquirement required at the time of leaving — Illinois appears not to have the best laws in the country for the protection of the children. There are, however, some further comparisons which can profitably be made.

A law which far excels any in force at the present time in its effective defense of the interests of childhood is the unique statute of Colorado which defines the delinquencies with which a child under the age of sixteen years may be charged, and holds the parent, guardian, or other adult person responsible who contributes to the delinquency of a child.

Excellent as is the truancy law of Illinois, it is limited in its operation to the seasons when the schools are in session. But the delinquencies of children know no such limitations. Boys commit petty offenses out of school hours, on Saturdays, Sundays, and during vacation. Moreover, the compulsory-education law of Illinois ceases to take effect upon a child when he reaches the fourteenth birthday, unless, being illiterate, he may be required to attend a night school until he has either learned to read and write, or reaches the age of sixteen years. If a boy in Chicago buys cigarettes wherewith to stupefy himself and render his school attendance useless, the truancy law is of little value to him. If he spends the hours after school in picking coal from a railroad track, at the risk of his life, it is not the truancy law which meets his case. What such boys need is the protection of a law which would bring into court the mother and the cigarette dealer, in the case of the former; and the railway officials who fail to police their tracks, together with the family who profit by the child's thefts, in the case of the latter.

The law of Colorado holds responsible, for all the delinquencies of all the children until they reach the age of sixteen years, all those adult persons who contribute to such delinquencies. If a boy fetches beer for the family, the man who sells him the beer