expected but is it not worth while to find out whether this increasing incapacity has not its foundation in the earlier years of strife and toil, and if so, to what extent?

These figures must not be misinterpreted, however, as indicating that work alone is responsible for the enormous increase in deaths from this disease, at what should be the most vigorous and productive ages, but it should awaken a desire for more specific knowledge. Ten states and the District of Columbia have a law permitting the certificate-issuing officer to require a child who does not appear to be in fit physical condition to go to work to be examined by a physician before he can secure an employment certificate.

While better than nothing, it is obvious that merely sizing up a child, as it were -and that by a layman-will fail to disclose even very serious defects of internal organs or of the special senses or of the nervous system, to say nothing about defects in an incipient stage which are still amenable to cure if treatment and supervision is exercised. Eighteen states only have a mandatory requirement of a physical examination by a physician for every child securing an employment certificate.

The terms usually employed in the laws are "Normal development" and "Physical fitness for intended work." These are very elastic terms. The Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor, with the aid and advice of a committee selected from those actively engaged in child health work, have formulated tentative standards of normal development and physical fitness for children about to go to work. These standards are based on such data as could be obtained, but these proved to be very meager and often inaccurate.

Child bodies do not vary to any considerable extent among the various states and it is sincerely hoped that these standards will be universally adopted that there may be uniformity in method of examination. The committee has also devised a form for the recording of findings in the examination. With the adoption of uniformity of procedure, normal development as used in the laws will have a definition; and physical fitness for a specific occupation can be determined by a precise and definite knowledge of the physical condition of the child; and, by a repetition of the examination, definite data can be obtained as to the effect of the various occupations on the growth of the body and on the health of the child.

No state now requires that every working child be examined at regular intervals. With the establishment of continuation or vocational school, a splendid opportunity is afforded to provide for re-examinations of children at work and to gather much desired data on the influence of occupations on growth, health, and development.

Twenty-two states now have in force a compulsory continuation school law, i.e., Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin; all except Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Washington have provisions requiring schools to be established and children to attend under certain specified conditions. These four have no compulsory provisions for establishment.

In Milwaukee two school physicians and one nurse are assigned to duty at the continuation school. Health supervision is conducted at this school in exactly the same manner as it is in the other schools, the teachers sending all children who seem to be ailing in any way to the doctors. Besides this the children are given a physical examination at as regular intervals as may be. These physicians also examine all children who desire a working permit if such examination has not already taken place at the school which the child last attended. It is the practice, whenever possible, to have the child examined in the school which he is attending so that the advisability of permitting the child to go to work may be determined by a consulta-. tion of principal and school doctor, i.e., those who have had the child under observation for a long period of time. If the child's application is considered favorably, his entire health record since his advent at the school is sent to the physicians at the continuation school for their enlightenment as to the health of the child during his school career. Because this close supervision is possible, it was determined to issue several kinds of permits, as follows:

A provisional permit. -Issued to children who have a correctable physical defect but who must pay for the correction of this defect from their own earnings because of poverty in the family. Such permits are issued with the proviso that the defect be corrected within a definite period of time, usually one month for defects of vision, for other defects up to three months as the judgment of the examining physician may dictate. Of 1,070 such permits issued from October 8, 1920, to June 1, 1921, 594 secured corrections within the time specified, 350 required one extension of time, 107 required two extensions, and 19 required more than two extensions. No extensions are granted unless definite proof is offered that the child is receiving regular treatment If proof of treatment is not present, revocation of the permit is recommended.

Temporary refusal of permit. If correction of a defect was recommended wl. the child was in attendance at school, and the parents were financially able to secu correction, the issuance of a permit is not recommended until correction is had.

Permit limited as to job.-Permits are recommended for definite winds of wor only, because of some untoward physical condition in the chil recommended when, in the judgment of the principal and th

the child would suffer by entry into industry. Revocation or suspension of permit is recommended when sufficient diligence is not shown in securing correction or if work is proving detrimental to the child.

Unreserved permits are recommended when the child has met all educational and physical requirements. This method of procedure is only possible because of the splendid co-operation of the State Industrial Commission in requiring children to report to the doctor at the time set. This is done by means of a postal card notice sent to the employer or to the child. It is distinctly stated on the permit that it is a provisional permit only, giving the reason for the proviso. Thus the co-operation of the employer is secured and he frequently insists that the child secure treatment as quickly as possible.

C. NOTES ON STREET TRADES DEPARTMENT AND MILWAUKEE NEWSBOYS' REPUBLIC

Perry O. Powell, Supervisor of Street Trades, Milwaukee Public Schools

The Wisconsin Street Trades Law, forbidding boys under twelve, and girls under eighteen years of age, and licensing all newsboys, bootblacks, bill boys, and street venders from twelve to seventeen years of age in cities of the first class, was enacted by the legislature in 1911, and took effect January 1, 1912. The law was made statewide in 1918. The Industrial Commission of Wisconsin established the inforcing agency January 2, 1912, to license all street traders within the city limits of Milwaukee. The duty of inforcement was transferred from the Industrial Commission to the Milwaukee Board of School Directors in June, 1913.

The Wisconsin law is progressive and practical, but additional power is given the inforcing bodies by virtue of the Wisconsin Workmen's Compensation Law, which stipulates that the employer will be assessed triple damages in case the child was unlawfully employed at the time of the accident. Two-thirds of the assessment must be paid by the employer, while the ordinary assessment or one-third can be liquidated by the insurance company. The Supreme Court has upheld this clause in the compensation law, hence strengthening the street trades law.

The Milwaukee Newsboys' Republic was founded October, 1912, for the purpose of inforcing the street trades law and carrying on a general program of constructive welfare work. The constitution of the Republic, which followed the plan of the United States Constitution, was adopted.

All newsboys in the public and large parochial schools are organized into clubs in charge of a teacher who acts as club advisor. Inspections are made by the club advisors once a month and checked over by the Supervisor of Street Trades at least once a year. A city-wide clean-up of miscellaneous violations of the law committed by boys outside of the rank and file of licensed street traders is conducted in the schools twice a year. About five hundred violations a year are checked in this manner.

The law is enforced by seventy-two newsboy officers, who wear badges of authority and report violations of the street trades law on a regular complaint blank. Upon receipt of the complaint at the office a summons is sent to the parent in accordance with the nature of the violation.

Nine forms of summons are used by the department, ranging from an ordinary notice to appear, to a summons requiring speedy action on the part of the parents. The attendance of the trial board is very satisfactory. About 30 per cent do not respond to the first notice sent out, but usually make their appearance upon receipt of another letter which conveys the importance of the violation. It is presided over by three newsboy judges who are assisted by the Supervisor of Street Trades.

The trial board has disposed of over five thousand cases involving the many sections of the street trades law in addition to cases such as smoking, swearing, petty stealing, and first stages of delinquency among newsboys. The aid of the Juvenile Court has been invoked in approximately fifteen cases.

Our direct control over the money-earning privileges of the newsboy and the present limitations of the Juvenile Court law are the reasons that the large percentage of street trades violations are handled in the trial board in preference to the Juvenile Court.

The first technical offender is usually warned and dismissed, but a record is kept of the case in the current file for future reference to be used in the event that the street trader becomes a chronic repeater. About 25 per cent become second offenders and the percentage of chronic violators is reduced to 2 per cent. The street trader who appears in trial board three times or more, loses his badge for a period of from two weeks to six months, which is equivalent to a fine, because he is prohibited from plying his trade during the period of suspension. We have our own reporting system, but do our best to refrain from using the terms of the regular court and, therefore, do not call it a probation system.

In 1911, 76 out of 143 boys from Milwaukee County at the Industrial School for Boys of Wisconsin were newsboys. In 1916, of 55 boys from Milwaukee County, 3 were newsboys, showing the decrease in the number of newsboys in Milwaukee County that had been committed to the industrial school.

Principals and teachers report less truancy and a higher standard of deportment and scholarship from newsboys than that achieved prior to the enactment and enforcement of the present street trades law.

The Republic is divided into states and the congressmen from each state are supervised by a deputy who must report to the president of the Republic and the Supervisors of the Street Trades as to the condition of his state and the work accomplished by the congressmen. The newsboy officers include president, vice-president, cabinet members, judges, deputies, senators and congressmen, who are elected annually by popular election in all the schools. The congressmen and officers of the Republic are presented with bronze and enamel buttons as a token of honor for services rendered to the Republic. Carfare is paid to all officers of the Republic.