through increased numbers of illegitimate births and pregnancies. After thorough investigation, it may be said that none of the many sensational stories which have been heard in camp communities or announced in newspapers, regarding the large number of pregnant girls who claim soldiers and sailors as fathers of their children, has been found to be true. The story of fifty or more pregnant girls in a camp town is usually found to be based on the experience of some one or two girls in the community. Of 217 fornication and bastardy cases in the municipal court in Philadelphia from October 1, 1917, to March 1, 1918, 30 involved men who were in the draft or who had joined the service after the offense was committed, but in only one case was the man in the service when the offense was committed.

The girl problem has increasingly been found to be a problem of venereal disease. It has been discovered that young girls were infected— girls who have been at work in the towns and cities and who do not belong to the ranks of professional prostitutes. Not until increased facilities are available for the physical examination and treatment of diseased girls and accurate records are taken, will the truth about this part of the problem be fully known.

Feeblemindedness is an important factor in the girl problem, but as yet we have almost no facilities in camp communities for diagnosing or caring for the feebleminded.

Very few serious crimes by soldiers or sailors against young girls have been reported. One such case in which two 13-year-old girls were complainants was referred by the protective officer at Camp Dix to the judge advocate and was tried by court martial. The official order was given that the soldier be sentenced for five years to the Atlanta penitentiary and dishonorably discharged from the army. A soldier from Camp Doniphan was arraigned before the district court charged with rape. The complainant was a girl 15 years of age. The judge of this court arranged a marriage, and the case against the soldier was discharged.

D. R., 15 years old, was taken in a raid on a house in Rockford, Illinois. The girl's confession involved two soldiers who were turned over by their commanders to the local police and indicted for rape. One soldier confessed in writing. In spite of conclusive evidence of guilt, the other, who was vigorously defended by the major who was assigned for this service, was found not guilty in the circuit court.

The dispositions in cases tried by civil and military authorities indicate clearly that much more satisfactory results are obtained when cases involving soldiers are tried by the military authorities. Some of the civil courts are very unwilling to take cognizance of these cases, and others are very lenient in their attitude toward them, apologizing in some instances for the arrest of the soldiers. It is advisable that uniform practice be observed concerning this and that, if possible, all cases involving soldiers be turned over to the military authorities.

Governmental Responsibility

As the protective work has increased in the vicinity of the camps, as cities, counties and private organizations have failed to provide salaries for a sufficient number of protective officers, and as the necessity of centralized control of workers for most efficient work has been clearly demonstrated, it has become evident that the government must make provision for this important branch of work and assume responsibility for it.

Small communities are utterly unable to cope with this increased social problem which has arisen as the result of the coming of the camp. It is not worth while to argue that because they sought to have the camp come to them, they must meet and solve the problem which came with the camps. They simply cannot do it. If there is a serious health problem in a camp community, the government does not wait for the small town to solve it. It sends its own health officers to grapple with it. If there are law-enforcement problems concerning the sale of liquor to soldiers, the government sends its Department of Justice agents to ferret out offenders. Since there is need of protective work for girls, both lor the sake of girls and the sake of soldiers, it is the responsibility of the government to send its own workers to do it.

Adequate government funds must be appropriated for this work, 50 that officers will be assigned where and when they are needed and not according to whether salaries are available in one community or another. Some cities that now have one officer should have six or eight officers. More colored workers should be employed for work in the southern cities and Mexican workers for work along the Mexican border. At least 200 women protective officers should be assigned to this duty, and the number of these should be increased as the need is demonstrated.

This force of protective officers should eventually be organized as a part of a Women's Army Corps, which should be a part of the military establishment. Government funds should be available for the salaries of these workers, as for nurses, telephone and telegraph operators, laundry workers, ambulance drivers and other divisions of women making up this Women's Army Corps. Provision for enlistment, physical and mental examinations, uniforms, and training of workers, would be similar to that made for the other divisions.

II. Houses Of Detention And Reformatories

The lack of suitable places of detention where girls could be held temporarily and of reformatory institutions to which they could be committed has led to a campaign in many communities to secure increased facilities for the care of stranded and delinquent girls.

Investigations and work of protective officers revealed the fact that there were in many camp towns and cities no places where young girls who were stranded or runaways from home could be cared for apart from a jail, that there was no provision for separation of the different classes of offenders in the jails, and that many of the jails were unfit for habitation. Little girls, eight, ten and twelve years of age were in the same cells with murder witnesses; young girls who had run away from home to marry soldiers or to try to get work in a camp city were in the same cells with hardened prostitutes; and girls who had never been exposed to venereal disease were associated closely with infected women. Girls were being released because judges refused to sentence them to jails, or were being sent to jails for thirty days instead of being committed to suitable reformatories. Many jails had no matrons, and girls and women were entirely under the care of men jailors.

There is need in nearly every camp community of at least one detention place supported by city or county or both, where girls can be held, where there is segregation of different classes of offenders and where there is provision for complete physical and mental examinations. The character of this place of detention varies in different communities according to the local needs and available facilities. In some cities it is virtually an extension of the station house or the local jail and receives girls under the same authority; in others it is a voluntary home and receives only girls who come voluntarily, even though it has been designated by the court as the place to which they shall go. In both cases the place of detention is usually a private house which has been rented or purchased and remodeled for this specific purpose. The cost of a place of detention for an average group of fifteen girls with adequate matron service is approximately $5,000 a year.

The efforts to secure places of detention for girls in camp cities have resulted in part as follows:

PETERSBURG, VA., has established a house of detention, which was opened February 1st. A city ordinance provides for commitment of girls to this pending their trials in the court. The city council appropriated a fund of $6,500 for the place of detention and the salaries of workers.

SAN ANTONIO, TEX., has opened a Woman's Building. A fund of $10,000 was appropriated by the War Camp Community Service for this and for protective workers. This building has detention quarters and also rooms used by the Department of Civilian Relief of the Red Coss for stranded women and children. The average number of persons cared for each night is thirty.

CHARLOTTE, N. C.—City and county officials voted to combine a house deten tion and place of commitment and have paid $25,000 for property for this institution

SPARTANBURG, S. C, has secured a place of detention called Carolyn House, to be maintained jointly by the city and by the Girls' Protective Bureau. The city gave and repaired the house; the Protective Bureau has supplied funds for matron service and maintenance.

GREENVILLE, S. C, received an appropriation of $2,500 from the War Camp Community Service toward a house of detention and the city has promised to help in the support of this.

COLUMBIA, S. C, was urged to increase the facilities in its house of detention and to provide for others than dependent children. This has been done and additional funds have been granted.

NEWPORT NEWS, VA.—A fund of $250 a month was raised by the local committee toward the house of detention.

CHILLICOTHE, O.—A small house with three rooms has been given for a place of detention and turned over to the Protective Bureau.

PATCHOGUE, L. I.—Two rooms have been given for use by protective officers as a place of detention.

REDWOOD CITY, CAL.—A house of detention has been secured for care of girls in San Mateo County.

TACOMA, WASH.—The New Shield Home of the W. C. T. U. has given one of iU floors for use for stranded and runaway girls.

ANNISTON, ALA.—A house formerly used as a school has been promised at a nominal rental of $25 a month as a place of detention, and county officials have agreed to help in supporting this.

PENSACOLA, FLA.—County officials voted to appropriate one-half of the cost of a house of detention.

MONTGOMERY, ALA.—The Chamber of Commerce voted $2,500 for a house of detention on condition that a fund of $2,500 be given. A request has also been made for use of three vacant cottages at the City Hospital for care of diseased girls.

MACON, GA.—County commissioners and the city council have promised to co-operate in the establishment of a detention home.

AUGUSTA, GA.—Investigations have been made regarding a detention home and recommendations submitted to city officials.

HOUSTON, TEX.—One individual has promised to finance and to pay rent and salaries of workers at a house of detention for three months.

ST. LOUIS, MO.—A temporary home, Euclid House, has been opened by a committee of women and the sum of $6,000 raised for this.

ATLANTA; GA.—County officials voted $5,000 for opening Buckhead Home as a place of commitment and $5,000 for a ward at the City Hospital for diseased girls. The Buckhead Home has been opened.

EL PASO, TEX.—An appropriation of $3,500 has been made by the city for a house of detention for the younger girls, and one individual has promised to secure an additional $3,500. The county will pay the per capita cost of maintenance. A model ward has been secured for infected girls and the Red Cross has given twenty-five beds for this.

FORT WORTH, TEX.—A hospital ward for infected girls and women with a capacity of twenty beds has been secured and a large house with room for sixty-five girls has been promised as a detention home. Efforts to secure a detention house for younger girls have not been successful.

The efforts to secure appropriations from cities and counties for the rent and maintenance of these places of detention and their immediate establishment have been unsatisfactory. Even after appropriations have been secured, it has been difficult for local officials to rent suitable houses and to arrange for repairing them quickly and providing the necessary personnel.

Federal Appropriation Sought

To meet the urgent need of the present moment it became clear that the government must help to provide these places of detention or at least grant some funds for them. Consequently, a request for an appropriation for this purpose was included in the memorandum prepared by the chairman of the committee to be submitted to the Secretary of War. Although the full amount was not allowed in the appropriation it has been decided that part of the fund of $250,000 will be available for houses of detention.

The necessity of having more delinquent girls committed to institutions for long periods of time and the lack of facilities in reformatories, especially in southern states, were responsible for the urgent request made by this committee for an appropriation from the President's emergency fund, for increasing facilities in reformatories. It was found that many of the young women discovered by protective officers needed to be sent to reformatories where they could remain for a longer time than in a city or county jail, and where they would receive the necessary medical care and industrial and moral training. The need for additional reformatory facilities was found to be greatest in four states—South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Texas. It was also very great in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The plan included the erection of one or more cottages at existing institutions and provision for additional personnel, including women physicians.

The appropriation requested in the original memorandum of the committee was for $1,000,000, including $225,000 for protective and probation officers, $260,000 for houses of detention, $500,000 for reformatories and a small amount for administrative expenses. The appropriation granted was $250,000 for providing facilities for the isolation and custody of infected women, so that its expenditure is necessarily limited to institutions.

A Committee appointed by the Committee on Protective Work for Girls, to help in standardizing institutions which receive girls and women committed by federal courts and institutions receiving federal funds, made recommendations concerning the expenditure of the fund of $250,000 and the types of building to be erected. One type was a rectangular cottage for thirty girls, complete in itself, with kitchen, living room and single bedrooms on the first floor, and with single rooms on the second floor and sleeping porches at both ends of the building. Another unit for 60 girls consisted of two cottages with single rooms and sleeping porches and a small building between the two containing dining room, kitchen and recreation room. It was recommended that buildings be of simple construction, erected at minimum cost.

An appropriation of $40,000 has been authorized for the South Carolina institution. At the 1918 session of the legislature in South Carolina, a bill was passed creating a reformatory for girls and appropriating $40,000 for this.

Mrs. Martha P. Falconer who has had long experience in reformative work, has been granted a leave of absence for six months to supervise the work relating to houses of detention and reformatories, under the Law Enforcement Division.

A step forward in improving standards of industrial training and work within the institutions will be taken with the passage of the Prison Labor Bill, providing for purchase by the government of products from institutions where wages are paid to workers.

III. Educational Work

Educational work has been done by supervisors and field workers of the committee, who have gone into communities where little was known about protective work and have told of the needs and methods of accomplishment. Meetings have been addressed by workers; many conferences have been held with groups of public officials; and conferences have been established to bring together workers of different organizations dealing with girls.

As a result, it has been possible to secure improved laws and ordinances relating to dance halls and moving picture theatres in some of these cities, to secure better lighting and policing of public parks, to secure the appointment of additional Travelers' Aid Workers and official policewomen, and increased support and help for the protective work. In Texas aid was given in securing the passage of two bills— one raising the age of consent from 15 to 18 years, and another penalizing persons contributing to the deliquency of minors. Protective work