Incorrigibles. As already explained, special officers are assigned to incorrigible girls. In Philadelphia it is the practice to keep these cases out of court, if possible. Cases of street-walkers, runaways, and incorrigibles placed upon probation by the court are handled by special officers-four for street-walkers and six for runaways and incorrigibles.

BOSTON

Arrest, bail, and detention. -Men and women arrested in Boston for offenses against chastity may be released on bail at the local police station. If unable to make bail, the men are detained there, but the women are transferred to the so-called House of Detention in the basement of the courthouse.

Preliminary investigation. There at eight o'clock on the following morning a woman probation officer, after interviewing each girl, consults the card catalogue to see whether she has been brought in under that name before. Unless the officer recognizes the girl and suceeds in learning her aliases, it is not possible, in the absence of a finger-print system, to know whether or not she has had a previous arrest. Another probation officer then seeks to check up the girl's statements by verifying such facts as can be corroborated within the short time before trial. Girls on bail are sometimes hurriedly interviewed on the morning of the trial, but little opportunity of verification of their statements is afforded.

Physical and mental examination. -No routine physical or mental examination of all men and women brought into court for offenses against chastity is made. Certain cases are referred by the judge or probation officer to the Medical Department although no precise basis for the selection was apparent. Some cases are selected by the Medical Director for examination.

Identification.-Finger-prints of this class of offenders are not taken either before or after conviction.

Trial.-Morals cases are heard exclusively in the second session of the Municipal Court, all cases involving women are tried here as well as many others regardless of the sex of the offender or the nature of the offense.

No prosecutor conducts the trial.

A man or woman convicted of a sex offense may be placed on probation with or without a suspended sentence but always for a fixed period of time not exceeding two years.

Probation. The Probation Department of the Municipal Court of the city of Boston serves the three criminal sessions of that court and its Court of Domestic Relations.

Women may be extended one of two types of probation, "inside" or "outside." Inside probation is applied to those girls who, in the judgment of the probation officers, need closer supervision than can be exercised by a single probation officer. Two private institutions, one Catholic and one Protestant, are used for this purpose. The court cannot commit girls to these homes, but their agreement to spend a specified time (varying from one month to one year) within them is made a condition of their probation. A girl placed upon inside probation cannot be released without the consent of the judge who sentences her.

Girls placed upon outside probation are assigned to the probation officer in whose district they reside. This officer, after studying their special needs, seeks to adjust their manner of living and to aid them in any way possible. She visits the probationers from time to time, but they are not permitted to call at the probation office until date of expiration of their term unless in need of special assistance.

Women probation officers are said to carry about 125 cases at one time. The men probation officers often carry as many as 200.

In considering for a moment the procedure of the three courts under discussion it will be recalled that two (Chicago and Philadelphia) make a routine medical examination, and of these only one (Philadelphia) a general medical examination. Only one (Philadelphia) gives a routine mental test. Two (Philadelphia and Boston) render genuine probation service. Only one (Philadelphia) can say with certainty in respect to each girl brought to it whether or not she has been there before.

Only one of the courts studied (Philadelphia) has the machinery for rendering complete service along the three lines mentioned: medical, mental, and social.

While many courts throughout the country dealing with sex offenders undoubtedly have medical, psychiatric, or social service departments and while many may have workers who are 100 per cent efficient, and while many may be able properly to limit the number of probationers assigned to a single officer, one may venture to question whether any court in the country can qualify in respect to all of these presumably desirable requirements. It is doubtful whether many communities could so convince their legislatures of the value of these facilities and standards as to secure appropriations that would make their realization possible. We are all discouraged by patchwork methods. What concrete step, then, can a community take in view of its financial limitations that will bring it nearer a solution of this tremendous problem?

Let every court dealing with this class of offenders treat qualitatively at least a small percentage of the number handled. In addition to the regular staff, select the finest trained probation officer who can be found and assign to her perhaps a dozen unselected cases. If the court has no medical department, let this probation officer's cases be examined by the most skilled and socially minded physician in the community; if no psychiatric department has been created, let her cases at least be tested at the best clinic in the community; give her every facility for studying the social history and needs of her charges, and let her confer not only with the doctor and the psychiatrist, but with a selected group of persons eminent in other fields-the sociologist, the minister, the lawyer. A small advisory community or district board might thus be formed. Let her visit her probationers constantly, carrying out the recommendations made on their behalf. Above all, no matter how great the volume of business transacted in the court, strictly limit her assignments to the number that can be thoroughly studied and supervised. Let no policy be determined in advance, but rather try everything that science and human ingenuity can devise to unravel these girls' difficulties and to restore them to the community. After two or three years have passed some successful methods for dealing with this group may have become apparent. Then will the court become in reality a laboratory for the prevention, treatment, and cure for delinquency.

DIVISION III-HEALTH

CO-OPERATION AND CO-ORDINATION IN HEALTH WORK

A. THE NATIONAL HEALTH COUNCIL-ORGANIZATION AND

PROGRAM

Donald B. Armstrong, M.D., Acting Executive Officer, New York

The National Health Council was organized at a meeting in Washington, D.C., on December 20, 1920. This step, following immediately upon a survey made during the preceding summer to determine the feasibility and timeliness of such a venture, was in reality the outgrowth of many years of study into the problem of the co-ordination of the national voluntary health agencies. It followed many efforts to initiate such a movement. These previous attempts, in 1913, 1916, and 1918, -to mention the more important periods of activity, initiated by such agencies as the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, etc.-simply sowed the seed which is now, we hope, maturing into a concrete movement.

It was perfectly evident that in any effort to co-ordinate the programs and activities of the extra-governmental agencies, a simple start, with a moderately progressive policy was essential. Any such movement must preserve the autonomy and identity of the existing agencies. It must effect a marriage, so to speak, between the type of national voluntary agency with a great popular membership and backing on the one hand (such as the Red Cross), and an agency with a relatively small membership, but a highly trained professional staff of field workers on the other hand (such as the National Tuberculosis Association and others).

It was also felt that a small homogeneous group was essential, the original members being primarily interested in health, and that the membership should be composed of strictly voluntary agencies, except that adequate provision should be made for a very close and intimate advisory contact with official bodies.

With this theoretical background, the National Health Council has been initiated with the following membership: American Public Health Association, American Red Cross, American Social Hygiene Association, Conference of state and Provincial Health Authorities of North America, Council on Health and Public Instruction of the American Medical Association, National Child Health Council (representing indirectly at present its own constituency not otherwise a part of the Council, namely the American Child Hygiene Association, the Child Health Organization of America, and the National Child Labor Committee), National Committee for Mental Hygiene, National Organization for Public Health Nursing, National Tuberculosis Association. In addition there is, as a conference or advisory member, the United States Public Health Service.

Each agency is required, by the by-laws adopted by the Council, to appoint one representative and one alternate to serve on the Council. The by-laws also provide that "other national health organizations may hereafter be elected to membership by a two-thirds vote of the members."

In line with the idea of beginning on a modest scale, with those activities that promise to be of greatest experimental value in developing the point of view of co-ordinated action, the Council has approved and has in part initiated the following functions: an information bureau of special service to the members, a health legislative bureau on national and state legislation, a statistical bureau, the development of health educational material, periodic joint conferences, and the co-ordination of health activities.

In addition, the Council has given aid and support to the group representing those members with New York offices very actively engaged at present in the development of the common office arrangement and the joint national headquarters in the Penn Terminal Building in New York City.

The Council has established a headquarters office in Washington, D.C., where a legislative information service is being maintained for the members, and where the Council is working in close co-operation with governmental agencies on the problem of reorganization of federal health activities. In addition there has been established a co-operative office in New York in conjunction with the joint renting arrangement for the agencies with New York headquarters. In this New York office is being developed the Information Bureau, the Statistical Bureau, and other joint activities.

The co-operative renting arrangement in New York City constitutes the largest project now on the program of the Council. This movement has been made possible through the energetic work of the Common Service Committee, representing the New York members originally interested in the project, working under the chairmanship of Dr. William F. Snow, of the American Social Hygiene Association. This is a practical experiment in co-ordination, illustrating the purpose for which the National Health Council was created. Through this arrangement a number of national health agencies have secured adjoining quarters in the building adjacent to the Penn Rail Road Terminal. The agencies on the fifteenth floor of this building are as follows: American Social Hygiene Association, National Committee for Mental Hygiene, National Organization for Public Health Nursing (with the American Nurses' Association and the League for Nursing Education), National Tuberculosis Association.

On the sixteenth floor, with the office of the National Health Council and the Common Service Committee, are the headquarters of the following agencies: American Public Health Association, Bureau of Social Hygiene, Child Health Organization of America, Maternity Center Association, New York Community Service, New York Diet Kitchen Association. Others considering space on this floor are the American Society for the Control of Cancer (also under consideration for membership in the Council), the United States Public Health Service (Liaison office), etc.

While zealously preserving the autonomy of each participating agency, the Common Service Committee is planning to offer certain optional common services. The work of this committee is closely linked with the program of the National Health Council and will be housed in a common office with the Council. It is anticipated that experience may lead to a gradual assumption of many, if not all, of these services by the Council itself. The more important proposed activities of this Committee, to be offered to all National Health Council agencies in the building, are as follows: centralized telephone service; conference, exhibit, and projection room; joint library service; stock rooms; shipping facilities; restroom; lunch service; messenger service; multigraphing and addressing; mailing service; leasing, subletting, etc.; purchasing facilities; publicity and publication service. In addition, some experimentation is planned in the partial pooling of the dictagraph, typing, stenographic, and other routine office facilities.

The National Health Council should serve as a valuable clearing house and co-ordinating center in many fields where common functions are performed. It aims to be an integrating force among independent autonomous agencies, rather than a merger of such agencies into one organization. It is attempting to follow sound lines of group organization, substituting organized purpose for scattered desire in health work. It aims at a unity and harmony of object, with variety and freedom of activity. Through the creation of a collective will, it seeks to express a synchronized health program.

B. THE NATIONAL CHILD HEALTH COUNCIL-A COUNCIL FOR CO-ORDINATING CHILD HEALTH ACTIVITIES

Courtenay Dinwiddie, Executive Secretary, National Child Health Council, Washington

All of us in the public health field want co-ordination; I believe most of us have wanted it sincerely for a long time. But when it has come to the point of taking the lead and bringing about co-ordination, too many have assumed the attitude of an advertisement by a certain wet wash laundry which came to a city where such things were unknown. The promoters, in order to attract attention, inserted an advertisement across the entire page of a local paper, which read: "The Wet Wash Laundry of Brownsville. Why kill your wife? Let the Wet Wash Laundry do the Dirty Work."

The National Children Health Council was organized because several national agencies engaged in health work for children felt there must be co-ordination in their own work. They knew that many suggestions and plans for co-ordination had been outlined but believed that the test of working together had not yet been made. Instead of conducting a widespread educational campaign which might bring together a large and perhaps heterogeneous group of agencies, they came together as a small and harmonious group, actually to plan and work together and to see whether from such practical experience other developments would not come. The organizations which thus came together early last year to form the National Child Health Council were the American Child Hygiene Association, the Child Health Organization of America, and the National Child Labor Committee-three whose work is distinctly for children -and the American Red Cross, the National Organization for Public Health Nursing and the National Tuberculosis Association, whose work bears largely upon the health of children.

The council is formed very simply by two delegates from each of these organizations, one an executive and the other a board member. This double representation has been thought most desirable in that the points of view of both the administrative staffs and the government boards of the organizations might contribute to the policies and decisions of the council.

Children Legislation an Early Problem. One of the first things which came to the attention of the council was a request from the National Child Labor Committee which illustrated a problem that the council has attempted to study and to find a