TROISIÈME SECTION

— 388 —upon to supply the deficiency. Reliable statistics are not obtainableas to whether criminality is on the increase among thechildren of our country and therefore it is not possible to givein figures an accurate measure of the work aecomplished bythe various agencies just enumerated. But we must incline tothe belief that the helpfulness of such agencies is of inestimablevalue because of the multitudinous concrète évidencesof their worth.The kindergartens and fresh air movements have to dealwith infants at the earliest possible opportunity and thèseinstitutions must, as a matter of course, have a profoundinfluence tending to mental improvement and physical developmentin the children. The rapid growth of such movementsand the popular récognition and aid given them are a splendidtribute to the progress of the times. Probably the public playground has the strongest hold on the people of any singlepréventive effort at this time. There is not a city or largetown in the country which has not already established orwhich is not planning to establish public play grounds.Recognizing that the natural home is incomparably aboveail else best adapted for the normal child and the correctnesson which such home is conducted is the scale by which theperfection as préventive methods is measured, we believe thatnèxt in. importance come the child placing agencies. Thèseagencies deal with those classes of children known as dependentsand delinquents. We will treat first' of the dependents.The Indiana law has admirably definéd dépendent children asthose bereft of one or both parents, children found in povertyso abject that their rédemption is impossible until they areremoved from their présent surroundings, and children beingreared amid environments of immorality. Conservation of ournatural resources in a national issue with a practical unanimityof opinion on the affirmative' side of the question. We mustrecognize the fact, however, that the nation's greatest conservationproblem is how to perpetuate the race itself. The childof to-day must bë developed into a real asset for society ofto-morrow. As that child is sent forth, so will that society fulfillits obligations and duties as à section of the human family.— 389 —Assuming that parental supervision has been removed,either by death or otherwise, the dépendent child is thrust intothe care of society. The child placing agencies and the institutionsmust than be looked to for the moulding of the futureof the dépendent one., The conclusions and the recommendations of this committeealong this line are adequately summed up in the report toPrésident Roosevelt made by the Conférence on the Care ofDépendent Children, held in Washington in January, 1909. Thiscommittee regards that conférence as a préventive step ofsuprême importance and believes that the conclusions reachedby it furnish the most practical formulas thus far offered forthe uplift of dépendent children.Concurring with the conclusions of the conférence, thiscommittee finds that, next to the natural home, the foster homefor. the individual is the best for the care of the dépendentchild. Again attention schould be drawn to the fact that thenormal child alone is now under considération. Where theparents are suffering from temporary misfortune, the childsaving agencies should seek to keep the child in the family,supplying external aid to that end. Poverty alone should neverbe permitted to break up a natural home, so long as it canbe prevented with reasonable aid from without.Great care must be exercised in the sélection of the fosterhome which is intended to take the place of the natural home.Skilled agents should make the most thorough investigationand be satisfied that the child will receive adéquate physical,mental and moral training. Geographical location is a factorwhich must détermine whether the free foster home is best,or whether the foster home where payment is made for boardwill meet ail requirements. In a country representing suchvaried ideals of social proprieties as the United States, a hardand fast rule cannot govern this subject. Under either planmust be secured, however, the one desired resuit contact withfamily life.Generally speaking, institutional care of dépendent normalchildren should be only temporary. Then the cottage system isrecognized as having advantages not possessed by the older