The West Coast Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1910. A CHILDREN’S REPUBLIC.

West Coast Times, 18 March 1910, Page 2

The West Coast Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1910. A CHILDREN’S REPUBLIC.

Mu William Reece, of Christchurch, who was officially appointed by tho Dominion Government to report on reformatory work in England, Germany and America, has presented his report, which makes very interesting reading. Among other institutions visited was the “George Junior Republic” of New York State, America. Mr Recce said he had heard so much of it that he determined to pay it a visit. He was fortunate in meeting Mr George, who is an exceptionally fine character, from whose countenance beams forth goodwill and charity to all, and whom one can easily understand having extra ordinary magnetism over his fellow creatures. Mr George was very anxious that his ideas should be carried out in New Zealand, and kindly offered to fully instruct one or more young men if sent over by the Government. The following is condensed from an article on the juvenile governing idea generally, by J. F. B. Tinling;—“The greatest of American discoveries is the discovery of the child—in his selfgoverning capacity. The world has always been familiar with the child's will and power to govern, others, from his mother downward and outward; but this fact, although.perennially and progressively in evider.ee, has not encouraged much expectation of self-govern-ment by the tyrants of tho nursery or tho exacting roysterers of the school. Yet it appears from many demonstrations that good citizens may be made out of almost any sane human stuff that competent teachers will take in hand. Failure can no longer be referred to heredity. The last word of science on this subject seems to be that nature gives the great majority a chance. School Inspector Eichholz declares that 90 per cent come into the world in normal conditions, in spite of all disadvantages, and become what parents and society make them. Dr Barnardo’s representatives claim that 93 per cent of children sent to Canada from the streets or the worst homes turn out well. Miss Edith Sellers justifies a similar conclusion respecting the children cared for in peasant homes by the municipalities of Berlin and Buda-

pest. This can only moan that the failure of children is much less their own fault than that of society which has neglected them. The more cutting oil' of special temptations makes an enormous difference in the amount of juvenile crime. The George Junior

Republic is the earliest and most noted of the juvenile self-governing communities. A young business man, of New York—Mr William R. George—was an earnest student of social conditions, specially in relation to children. For five years ho had taken from 200 to 250 boys and girls every summer to a farm near Ithaca, in New York State. Under the influence of his promiscuous liberality in clothes and maintenance they were developing tho pauper characteristics of dependence and expectancy, and at the same time becoming a nuisanlce by trespass and depredations. Two thoughts flashed j into the mind of the embarrassed philantropibist: the first was “nothing without labour”; the second, “trial by jury, and police service furnished by the boys themselves.” The improvement realised in the summer of 1895 was so marked that the plan was made permanent, and the manifest importance of continuity decided Mr George two years later to discontinue the holiday work in favour of a permanent insitution embodying the ideas of a Junior Republic. The property in question consists of 350 acres of land and a village of some twenty-five buildings, of which ten arc the cottage homes of the young citizens. There is a body of trustees, the members of which are found in New York, Boston, and other cities, and, by a peculiarity not obviously desirable, the list is completely changed every year. The government on the spot is at once serious business, practical education, and varied entertainment. The slum boys of New York changed promptly into the citizens of Freeville, and each one shouldered the burden of office to which the votes of his fellow-citizens called him. the boy judge searching for precedents or authorities in the library, in view of a serious case, and the little jailer keeping guard over a couple of hulking offenders, eithc of whom could have made short work of him in the Bowry of New York, strikingly illustrate the new order, though in connection with the failure which more or less attaches to all things human; while the risk of hasty legislation is impressively taught by the experience of the Republic when it passed a law in favour of an eighthours day, and then, finding that the girls had in consequence prepared no supper, promptly rescinded the unworkable ordinance. The president and three members of his cabinet are elected annually by the citizens, and the president then appoints the girl judge, the boy judge, tho girl district attorney, the boy district attorney, police officers, and prison warders. A meeting for legislation by the citizens is held each month, the local ordinances, such as the prohibition of smoking, being added to the laws of the State of New York. A session of court is held every Tuesday, when all offenders of the previous week are tried before the judge and a jury( usually of four). The convicted offender must serve a term in jail, working for the Government instead of for himself, and getting nothing but prison fare. The free citizen is paid for all he does in cheques on the “Citizens National Bank,” and pays for all he gets in the same currency. 1 Nothing but labour ’ was the formative idea of the Republic, as it has ever since been its motto, cutting at the root evil of laziness and fostering independence and efficiency. The home life is secured by grouping ten or twelve boys or girls in a cottage, under a house father and mother, or tho latter only; yet the accommodation is graded according to the value of work, and each young citizen makes his own arrangement, according to his ability, with the managers of cottage, store, or farm, and becomes responsible for the payment of board and lodging, clothes, laundry, poll-tax, and other expenses. The average wage is 10 cents an hour, but half of the ten working hours of the day are spent by most in school, and for these, of course, there is no payment. There is a corps of seven teachers, and the ucrriculum includes a college preparatory course. It is, claimed that nearly all the children of the little republic have turned out well, a few of them being now in the learned professions, but the bulk in respectable trades. The celebrated Judge Lindsey, of the Denver Juvenile Court, after two visits to Freeville, has written fins year, ‘I simply cannot say too much for the plan. Ido wish some Carnegie or Rockfeller would endow a dream like that of Mr George’s Mr dream and hope is to see such a republic established in connection with every large city.’ ”