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 79 2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

state board. 1 The town charges are under the direction of the overseers of the poor. They may send them to some asylum to be cared for at public expense, or they may find family homes for them, with or without expense. When placed or boarded with a family, children are to be visited by the overseers or an agent at least once every three months. 2 If no local provision has been made, they may be committed to the care of the state board.3

Something should also be said of the provision in the Dis- trict of Columbia. In 1892 a board of children's guardians was created, and the guardianship of the dependent children vested in it. The board, through its agents, is to board children with families or with institutions, or secure their adoption or bind them out, visiting each child committed to its care at least once each year. 4

So much for the provision made by the several common- wealths for the care of dependent children. There remain two points of which we wish to speak, viz.: the "boards of chil- dren's guardians " of Indiana, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia, and the state regulation of private institutions caring for children.

Frequently there is insufficient incentive to obtain, or inade- quate provision for, the enforcement of a law sufficiently wide in its scope. The board of children's guardians is an institution designed to obviate this difficulty.

A measure providing for boards of children's guardians was enacted in Indiana in 1889, and amended and put in its present form by the two succeeding legislatures. It applies to all coun- ties (four at present) having a population of 50,000. It pro- vides that the court in these counties shall appoint a board of six, three men and three women, whose duty it shall be to take charge of all children abandoned, neglected, or cruelly treated ; all children found begging, or who arc idle or incorrigible ; the children of drunken and vicious parents, and all children living

' Ch. 181 and ch. 84 of Supplement. 3 Act of April 19, 1888.

9 3, ch. 84. 4 Act of July 26, 1802.