The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-19

Alexander the Great was not only the ruler Of Macedon, but the donin- ant power in all Greece; Charles James Fox became a member of the British Parliament before he was of age. and the younger Pitt became Prime Min ister of Great Britain when he had scarcely passed his majority. In short there is abundant evidence both in the past and the present that youth can and will rise to responsibility when it is placed upon them.
 ''Such being the case, we do here by resolve to organize ourselves into a Junior Municipality in order that we may at fonce actively serve our city as junior citizens and thereby prepare ourselves for more efficient citizen ship as adults.
 we hereby pledge ourselves to as- sist in the enforcement of all the laws and ordinances of the city, particular ly those directly relating to boys and girls and their interests.
 We further pledge ourselves that when elected to any office in the Jun for Municipality we will give our full and faithful cooperation to the adult official holding the corresponding of fee in the city government and will discharge our duties solely with ref erence to the welfare of the whole city.
 'If given the duties and privileges of junior citizenship. we pledge our sacred honor to strive to be worthy of the greatest trust placed upon us."
 The Junior Municipality is merely the latest extension of the self-gov- ernment movement for boys and girls which was first introduced into Amer ica when William R. George founded the Junior Republic at Freeville, N. r., in 1895. The only essential diff ference between this country village and any other in America is that this one is inhabited by boys and girls un- der twenty one and the voting age is sixteen. The motto of the commun- ity is Nothing without Labor Any citizen wh6p refuses to work is arrest ed by his fellow citizen, the police officer, indicted for vagrancy by his fellow citizens, on the Grandt Jury, tried, sentenced and sent to jail for that offence by his fellow citizen, the Judge, where he is taken in hand by his fellow citizen, the Keeper of the jail, and srnade to work for the com munity without wages. During this entire process no adult has any hand in the matter. This situation was | tersely summed up by the Republics young secretary of State in speaking on the work before mems club last winter He is the son of the mayor l of a, Southern city. He said, When first went to the George Junior Re- public they told me their motto was
 'sNothing Without Labor" didn't care much about labor so didn't la l bor Then I was arrested, tried and convicted as a vagrant and put into l jail and then I found my motto was, Labor without Nothing"
 i This miniature Republic was the 1 outgrowth of a fresh air camp. Ii 1 started as a new kind of reformatory for poor boys and poor girls whose | conduct was "a problem" Ther similar boys from well-to-do and even
 rich families were admitted and for
 them a tuition fee was charged but
 they were obliged Q support them
 selves just like the poor boys. Finally | Daddy George came to the conclu- sion that there was so much good ir bad boys and girls and so much
 bad in "good'' boys and girls that the
 difference between them was largely
 academic after all. The Junior Re
 public method of giving opportunit3 | should be open to all. When this
 step was taken Prof. Liberty Hyde l Bailey of Cornell said, The Junior 1 Republic has developed from a refor-
 natory method to great educationa l principle