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 THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

VOLUMEIII NOVEMBER, iSg? M-MBERS

THE JUNIOR REPUBLIC. I.

THK Junior Republic is an experiment in charity, penology, and pedagogy. It carries to a consistent extreme the principles of self help and individuality towards which thinkers and work- ers in these fields for a decade or more have been urging. Various of its devices have recently been hit upon here and there in reformatories, schools, and child-saving organizations, but it has remained for Mr. George to begin at the foundation and to build up a complete system, untrammeled by traditions. institutions, or trustees. And now that the Republic has become famous, the fascination of its Story and its apparent simplicity have led to the establishment of similar Republics elsewhere and the adoption of certain of its features in existing institutions. It is in the effort to imitate the Republic without fullv appre- ciating its motif, that discredit is likely to come upon its princi- and the conclusion to be drawn that onlv under the per- sonal inspiration of a Mr. ' can it succced.orth.it it is

an\ thing more than the fanciful pastime ct a harmless philan- thropy, In order to show that it has been developed not as an amusement but to meet the most fundamental practical problem

of sociology the education onal character for both indi-

vidual and social responsibilities I can begin with no m.ie incing recital than tin constitutional hi>tor\ <>t the Republic.

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