Evening star., 1915-02-26
Acts Prepared by Committee.

The proposed amendment to the eS-
listing legislation is drawn upon a
theory dianetrically opposed to the
present law. IT rests upon the broad
principle that henceforth the child who
finds his way into court is not to be
regarded as criminal. but rather as
the ward of the nation, whose individ-
ual welfare comedies with the we'll
being OF the state, and who is to be
saved to it, rather than prosecuted by
it The new court will become, there
fore. an explicit acknowledgment of the
obligation of the nation to throw
around the child of the District its aid
and protectionfsso as to direct it into
the paths that lead to good citizenship
Obvious regard for this principle
calls for legislation entirely different
from the existing law. 1t means that
the letter and spirit Of the law must
make il clear that from the moment
the law lays its hand upon the child il
is to protect and not to punish to help
and not to stignlatize. and the ma
chnery of the court will be CORE
spondingly modified to achieve this
purpose. This is the benef1cent and
humane thought underlying the Juve-
nile Court legislation of the past fif-
teen years, beginning with the pas
sage of the first of these later acts by
the Illinois Legislature in 1899. and
found in the statutes of more than two
thirds of the states of the Union There
is nothing essentially new i'll the
! thought behind this legislation, as will
be seen from the citation of authorities
made part of this report. The princi-
pies that are the brick and mortar of
the court are neither new. startling,
| nor experimental: on the contrary. they
are old: they stretch far into the past.
and are found in many of the early
! chancery decisions
| The primary questionable one that
we always find in the thousands of
! ca ses coming before xhe juvenile courts
| Involves the right of the court to
| control the custody of the child: to take
| il from it's parents or guardian upon
| the broad ground that the welfare of
| the child and the good of the state re-
| ouire that this be done. The whole
| structure rests upon this proposition.
Courts of last resort In this country,
! when called upon to construe laws
| creating Juvenile courts. have uni
| formly upheld the right; they have
| rested the decisions upon the broad
! principie that the court is exercising
! power used from the earliest times by
! the English chancellors.
| Spirit and Intent of New Law.
! AS far as it is possible to do so. the
snirit and intent OF this legislation is
written into the text Of the proposed
act:
| ".This act shall be construed literally
and as remedial in character; and the
powers hereby conferred are intended
to be general to effect the beneficial
purposes herein set forth. 1t is the in
tention of this act that in all proceed
Iings coming under its provisions the
court shall proceed upon the theory
that the child is the ward OF the court,
and is subject to the discipline and
entitled to the protection which the
court should give such child under the
conditions disclosed In the case: and
such discipline and protection may, in
tho discretion of the court, continue
until the child shall attain the age of
twenty -one years, during which period
the court may from time to time make
such orders az the welfare of the child
uuy require tSec. 0.)
The act embraces children as fol-
lows:
This act shall apply to any child
less than eighteen years Of ago re-
siding in or being actually within the
District Of Columbia:
"'(a) Who violates any penal Law. or