Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/285

 REVIEWS 269

comparison of methods in France, England, Germany, Austria, and America. While this part is brief, it gives the essential and charac- teristic elements in the new legislative and philanthropic movements of those countries, and furnishes the perspective for the special study of educational philanthropy in the Union. The course of thought deserves the attention of American students and practical adminis- trators, for the author's warm sympathy and intelligent appreciation of our achievements have not prevented his making critical observa- tions and offering warnings which we can profitably consider.

The people of the United States vary much, not only as indi- viduals, but also as groups ; and yet they have a sense of unity and many common characteristics, economic interests, laws, customs, and impulses. Everywhere there is united with vast industrial energy an enthusiasm for education.

The description of methods begins with a chapter on our volun- tary associations for preserving the morality of imperiled children and youth : the Children's Aid Societies founded or inspired by Charles Loring Bruce ; the societies for the prevention of cruelty to children ; Girard College ; the Catholic Protectory of New York ; and the laws which have been enacted for the benefit of their activities.

The author then passes to the systems of care administered by several states, and he describes the systems of Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Michigan as types of varying methods with one common ideal. These accounts of the treatment of children lay the foundation for a discussion of the methods of dealing with delinquent youth. The institutions especially studied by the author were the Lyman School in Massachusetts, the House of Refuge in New York, the Rochester School, Glens Mills in Pennsylvania, Whittier in Cali- fornia. In all these forms of action there are certain common prin- ciples : that education must be substituted for punishment ; that transformation of character is the decisive consideration ; that courts cannot carry out an educational policy without a system of probation and the aid of competent probation officers ; that police supervision is fatal ; that the court must take time for the fruition of the educative process, and must employ the " indeterminate sentence " in order to make sure that its reformatory work is thoroughly done ; and that the judge must be given large freedom in adapting his measures to his purpose according to the needs of the individual.

It is when the author comes to persons in later youth and early