New Britain herald., 1917-06-21

iron collars. Tho necessities of the
 working man of today were unheard of luxuries for the rich in Queen Eliz- abeth's time. Health has improved,
 illiteracy Is being wiped out, crime is reduced, and all these are potent fac-
 tors of poverty.
 Professor Irving Fisher of Yale l urged national system of registration of births, marriages and deaths. Without the bookkeeping of human life we shall have no economy of hu- | man life,' he said. Statistics were given at great length to prove the as- tonishing fact that at the present time it is safer for a baby to pass its first two critical years in New York city slums than in the country: that health and education are both far better In cities and that the average country
 town through neglect of public health questions is 20 per cent, less healthy than the city, this change having come about in less than decade. If Wis consin is a fresh air state it Is because all the bad air is sealed up in the houses said one speaker. .lt Uniform Probation Laws. That twenty-six states besides the
 District of Columbia now have proba- | tion, and that uniform probation laws
 are almost as much needed as uniform marriage and divorce laws, were facts brought out at the probation confer
 ence. Each state should have its pro- baton commission. it was urged, so
 that the good work done in cities
 might be extended to the country towns. Lawrence veiller of New York expended the half-hour of his speech
 in urging an advisory committee in connection with this work whereupon it developed that New Britain is the only city trying this scheme at pres. ent.
 "A sensible plea was made that all children be taught to consider the po- lice their good friends, not their nat ural enemies, and the prediction was made that in spite of the jokes about college-bred policemn, the day was not far distant when college men would be taking positions on the po-
 lice force as their life work
 Last year at the National Proba- tion Conference there was a general sentiment to the effect that juvenile courts had become almost a fad. that they were taking to themselves all manner of duties, and that while they stood for great progress and for child welfare. they were each and all being run according to different stan
 dards, and entirely without relation to other court work. It was decided
 that the unit of society was not tho individual but the family, and that l since juvenile delinquency, depend ency of children, desertion and non- support. pauperism, alcoholism, di- 1 vorce and marital troubles are all tnter-related, the goal to work for was a family court-a court of do- Inestic, such as some cities already use to excellent advantage. This year 1 the conference took another step for 1 ward, urging unity in court work in- stead of continual separation and l splitting off and the plan was advo- cated of having a president judge in control, who should assign to one | specially qualified judge all juvenile cases, to another, all non-support cases, and so on. covering the var ious branches. Apparently this unity \ is a matter of common sense, and it would seem that conservative states may be progressing as solidly and ef-. fectlvely as those that ruen aIteF III. l novations and have to submit to re- construction. Ample probation work, with physical and mental examina- 1 tions was urged in connection with l the new plan.
 l "One striking feature was tntro- duced by Thomas Mott Osborn and Dean Kirchwey who produced upon | the stage former convicts, members { of Sing Sings Mutual Welfare league, putting the huge audience through
 sort of guessing game As to which man fitted the particular life story