In Italy, even to-day, all three of these factors—the local authorities, the central government and the community at large—are engaged in providing for the care of foundlings and illegitimate children; but the distribution of this work among the three factors varies in different parts of the country, these differences being referable to historical causes, and more especially to the former territorial subdivisions of the country. In many countries in which national responsibility for the relief of destitution is unknown, many of the subdivisions of child-protection are nevertheless administered by the State. As an example may be mentioned the care of foundlings in France. There is a special reason for this in France, inasmuch as, owing to the fact that in this country inquiries as to the fatherhood of illegitimate children (la recherche de la paternité) are forbidden, the care of foundlings constitutes[59] a great, general, and very pressing need, which can best be met by State action. In many countries in which the central government is responsible for poor-relief, some of the most important subdivisions of child-protection are administered by voluntary associations; England, the classical land of governmental poor-relief, affords a good example of this. Here the fact that in England voluntary associations, as the outcome of the collective activity of the community at large, have long exercised a decisive influence in all directions, accounts for the special conditions to which attention has been drawn.
Local Governing Bodies.—When we are concerned mainly with local conditions, the local governing bodies become of primary importance. They are best acquainted with the people and their needs, and their acquaintance with these is the more intimate the smaller the community. Hence the necessary duties can often be carried out most effectively and most economically by the local authorities. Many retrograde local authorities, especially the smaller ones and those in the country districts, are hostile to many of the applications of child-protection, regarding them as immoral, and they may even be quite unable to grasp the mental attitude of those who advocate child-protection. Many local authorities are very slow to undertake any extensions of communal activity; either on account of this reluctance, or else because in small communities the cost per ratepayer of the work of child-protection is easily calculated, they are apt to be too much influenced by narrow financial considerations. This is, in fact, the gravest defect of child-protection as carried out by local authorities; and this explains also why it is that many local authorities either entirely neglect the most necessary work of child-protection, or fail to perform it adequately; and it explains why the institutions founded by such authorities for the work of child-protection do not always fulfil the aims with which they were originated. It is well known that in many local government areas the homes for destitute orphans are at the same time workhouses, poorhouses, foci of all kinds of evil elements. It is well known that even to-day certain local authorities hand over the children for whose care they are legally responsible, under indentures, to those who will[60] take them for the smallest premium, the children receiving a wage of from 20 to 30 marks yearly. For the reasons explained, we find in many countries that the relief of destitution and child-protection are associated throughout extensive areas, and even that special ad hoc local authorities exist to deal with these matters. Just what institutions we find in any particular country will naturally depend upon how in that country the individual executive and administrative functions are allotted to the various municipal authorities, district councils, and such ad hoc authorities as may exist.
The Community at Large.—Where the sphere of functional activity of the local authority and of the central government ends, there the sphere of the community at large begins. The limit is that at which the local authority and the central government regard their duties as fulfilled; beyond this limit they are unwilling to interfere, and the assistance they are able to give is no longer adapted to the individual special cases, because their work is not individual but bureaucratic. Beyond this limit, then, the community at large must take up the burden. The benevolent activities of the community at large are better able than those of the central or local authority to deal with individual cases. The work of the State is done with head and intellect, that of the community at large is done with heart and feeling. But great as these advantages are, they are counterbalanced by very grave defects. Child-protection undertaken by the community at large is often nothing more than a multiplication of fainéant societies, and an arena for self-important busybodies who wish to thrust themselves well forward in the public eye, but are completely ignorant of the subject of child-protection. (In Germany, for instance, no subdivision, however minute, of the work of child-protection can be mentioned, which does not possess a special “Society” to deal with the matter.) Child-protection as undertaken by the community at large lacks co-ordination with reference to any well-defined plan of activity, it effects much that is unnecessary and even harmful, whilst very necessary work is often done badly or not at all. The expenditure of time and money are enormous; the results attained are exceedingly small.
[61]
Of late years, especially in England and in the United States of America, societies for the organisation of the voluntary charitable activities undertaken by the community at large (the Charity Organisation Society, &c.) have come into existence; these are central organs to effect the harmonious co-ordination of philanthropic efforts, but do not usually themselves directly undertake charitable work. Such societies may play a very useful part, but they do not render the organisation and administration of poor-relief and child-protection by the central government and the local authority altogether superfluous. A very instructive example of the centralisation of voluntary activities for child-protection is that furnished by the Ungarische Kinderschutzliga (Hungarian Child-Protection League), founded in the year 1906. It is gradually absorbing all the really valuable child-protection societies, founds and administers all kinds of institutions for child-protection, is directly associated with all the executive instruments of the official work of child-protection, and sustains and amplifies the work of government in this direction. Its work is supervised from a central office in Buda-Pesth.
The Central Government.—The central government must, first of all, undertake those duties which, for financial reasons, the municipal authorities, district councils, ad hoc authorities, &c. cannot attempt. It must also satisfy certain general needs—that is, those needs whose mode of satisfaction is unaffected by varying local conditions. As in other departments of administrative activity, so also in the sphere of child-protection, a certain uniformity is requisite; and this uniformity can be attained in no other way than by the intervention of the central government. The satisfaction of very pressing needs, the overcoming of extraordinary difficulties, is possible only to the central government. Even in those countries in which local self-government is in a very advanced state of development, it is better that such legislative activity as is requisite in the domain of child-protection should be left to the central government.
The central government more readily takes over the duties of child-protection from the hands of the community at large than from the local authorities. As time goes on, ecclesiastical[62] and voluntary benevolent activities become ever less important and less extensive as compared with those of the State. Whereas in ancient times private benevolence, and in the Middle Ages ecclesiastical benevolence, played the principal parts, in our own times these are more and more superseded by organised communal effort operating through the central government. At first the State takes over only the negative side of destitution—police regulation of mendicancy and the like. To-day there does not remain a single civilised State without at least the first beginnings of a national relief of destitution. The tendency to extend ever more widely the province of national responsibility for the relief of destitution is quite unmistakable. Those who oppose this tendency are already in a minority, and their number continues to diminish. State systems of poor-relief are by no means faultless, but the errors are not ineradicable; many of the defects are remediable, and are, in fact, being remedied as time goes on. In this respect the tendency of evolution in England, the classical land of national poor-relief, is extremely satisfactory.
The central government is harder to move, has more inertia, than the community at large. It is for this reason that new departments of activity are always first undertaken by the latter, and for this reason also that most of the subdivisions and institutions of child-protection owe their inception and the first phases of their development mainly to the community at large. But after this stage, when the new institution has been put upon its trial, when it has become generally diffused, and when its permanence is assured, it is taken over by the State. But, even then, there still remains one field of activity for the community at large, namely, to discover and draw attention to the errors in the State administration of child-protection. The development in Hungary of institutions for the care of foundlings and other illegitimate children since the beginning of the last quarter of the nineteenth century may serve as an example of this.
Every social institution which originates on a broad basis and meets a wide general need exhibits a natural tendency towards a unified organisation and towards centralisation. We see this tendency at work in the history of child-protection.[63] Another tendency of evolution is an enlargement in the sphere of activity of the State, in the direction of the satisfaction of all the important vital needs of the community by organised communal effort, operating through the machinery of the central government.
The national acceptance of responsibility for poor-relief may take the form of the State being satisfied with the centralised and thorough governmental regulation of the relief of destitution, the administrative details being left in the hands of the local authorities and of the community at large. Of course this is no more than a half-measure, and yet in certain circumstances it may be an advantageous division of labour. For, when we consider the respective r?les of the local authority and of the community at large in the work of child-protection, we must not forget that both are engaged in work delegated to them by the State, and for which the State is really responsible. Moreover, the relief of destitution, and that part of the work of child-protection analogous to the relief of destitution, are intimately associated with the problems of household-right and of domicile; because many central governments admit responsibility for the destitute only in the case of their own citizens, whilst in many countries a right to relief in case of destitution at the hands of the local authority is acquired by residence merely. Thus the problems of child-protection are interconnected with the legal problems of local administrative activity; and it may happen that the local authorities undertake certain departments of child-protection merely because these questions of domicile form part of their circle of interests.
A Unified System of Laws for Child-Protection.—Can the State institute a unified system of laws for child-protection, one comprising the entire legal material of child-protection? In former times such provision as there was for child-protection existed only in a dispersed form, as part of laws with other primary objects; not until later, when the question of child-protection had become one of considerable importance, did laws come into being dealing specifically with this subject. Provision for the enforcement in certain cases of a coercive reformatory education was originally a mere supplementary[64] provision of the criminal law or of certain borough by-laws; but to-day, in many countries, special laws dealing with coercive reformatory education have been passed by the central government. The earliest special laws on the subject of child-protection dealt with the care of foundlings and illegitimate children, this being the first subdivision of our subject to attain specific importance.
The tendency of evolution is to codify, in a unified system of laws, all the legal material bearing upon any particular question. But a unified system of laws dealing with the subject of child-protection is not at present attainable. For child-protection is subject to change, almost from day to day and from hour to hour. If the legislator wished to keep pace with its development, he would have to alter and patch his system of laws year by year; but if this were done, the unified character of the legal system would soon become illusory, and numerous legal technical difficulties would inevitably arise. The question of child-protection finds a place in every department of law. There are many legal regulations regarding children which, owing in part to the technique of legislation, and in part to other causes, are, for practical reasons, best embodied in other laws. For example, laws relating to guardianship and to the care of illegitimate children cannot well be dealt with apart from the general laws bearing on family relationships.
A Centralised Authority for Child-Protection.—Is a centralised authority for child-protection possible? That is, is it possible to group under a unitary control all the agencies dealing with the protection of children? This idea certainly represents the tendency of evolution. As regards the care of foundlings and of illegitimate children, the tendency of evolution is in the direction of family care, all the families with which such children are placed being under the supervision of a single central authority, which deals with them all in accordance with identical principles. Still more clearly does this tendency manifest itself in the foundation of children’s courts, and in the endeavour to extend the powers of these to embrace all the legal relationships of children. In further exemplification of this tendency may be mentioned the development of[65] infants’ milk dep?ts and of schools for mothers—a development which has by no means reached its climax. Unquestionably, in the domain of child-protection, institutions which originally appeared very different in character become unified. Thus, infants’ milk dep?ts, schools for mothers, schools for midwives, legal advice in children’s cases, &c., are now all being administered in connection with foundling hospitals.
The claims of the other departments of national and social life must not, however, be left out of account. Thus, whether certain questions should be referred to the law-courts, or to the local administrative authorities, to lawyers or doctors, to architects or schoolmasters; whether a local administrative authority should have the right to deal with one or two technical questions only, such as arise in a particular administrative area as to legal and executive powers, or with a number of such questions; whether certain duties should be undertaken only by specialised institutions, or by institutions which also subserve other functions—such questions as these involve a reference to other considerations in addition to those directly connected with child-protection.
Private and Official Activities.—To-day much of the work of the relief of destitution and of child-protection is undertaken by voluntary organisations, founded and administered by private individuals who are engaged also in other activities. These private persons work gratuitously, but often discharge their duties better than professional salaried and permanently appointed officials. Their work is better individualised, it is less bureaucratic, and has more heart in it. These advantages are the fruit of good-will and altruistic feeling. Nevertheless the r?le of voluntary societies becomes continually less extensive. The tendency of evolution is to bring into operation more and more the principle of the division of labour, so that questions needing expert knowledge are dealt with by professional experts, persons permanently appointed for such work, paid accordingly, and really in possession of the specialised skill which is needed. The relief of destitution, and child-protection are, as is well known, both questions for experts; and it becomes more and more necessary that their administration should be in the hands of well-paid professional[66] workers. Lawyers, although in the domain of child-protection they are laymen merely, play a decisive part to-day in this domain, as they do in most branches of administrative activity. They are placed at the head of the expert administrators, and have, if not the first word, what is perhaps even worse, the last word, in the majority of technical questions. It is necessary to enter an energetic protest against this predominance of lawyers. It is absolutely essential that not only the salaried professional workers, but also all those who take part in the work of child-protection in honorary offices or as occasional voluntary helpers, should receive an appropriate training for their work. Quite recently has originated the idea of Schools of Public Welfare—Schools and a Curriculum for Child-Protection. We must carefully distinguish from such schools for professional workers, courses of lectures whose purpose merely is to acquaint wider circles with the aims and methods of child-protection, or to initiate novices into such work.
The Medical Profession.—The most important task of child-protection is the protection of children’s health. The persons who should undertake the management of this department are those who possess the requisite expert knowledge in matters of health—that is to say, medical practitioners and specialists in the diseases of children. In most branches of child-protection, medical practitioners now play an important part. It rests with them to determine whether there does or does not exist a contra-indication to marriage. They have to render assistance before and during childbirth, they are the most important instruments for the protection of infants and for the care of foundlings and illegitimate children, and as consultants and administrators they exercise important activities in the domain of child-labour. Their part in other subdivisions of child-protection will be discussed in detail in a later chapter of this work. The importance of the work of medical practitioners continually increases. The tendency in almost all departments of child-protection is to arrange for a preliminary examination of the children by the doctor. Among the various reasons for such an examination, we may mention that in the case of uncontrollable children and[67] juvenile criminals the doctor can make a thorough examination of the child’s physical and mental condition, and upon this examination he will base a decision, whether the child should be placed in family or institutional care, in a reformatory school, or in some other specialised institution—as, for example, a home for mentally abnormal children; further, it is the doctor’s duty to examine all children, before they begin to work for a living, as to their physical fitness, and upon the results of this examination to base an opinion whether the child is fit to earn its living at all, and if so, whether the trade selected by the relatives is a suitable one. The tendency is, further, that the doctor should give an opinion regarding the method of protection suited for the particular child. Quite recently, indeed, the desire has been widely and strongly expressed that all children should be subjected to continuous and appropriate medical control. The institution of school physicians, supplemented in recent days by medical control of the domestic environment of the school children, shows clearly that such medical supervision of all children is likely in time to become universal. In addition, we owe a great deal to the doctors in connection with the literature of child-protection. The ablest and most important works in this specialty are by physicians. In several handbooks of hygiene, most of the problems of child-protection receive attention, although the matter is not always treated very systematically. The enormous influence which medical science has exercised and continues to exercise upon the development of the individual branches of child-protection will become apparent in the Special Part of this work.
Women.—To what extent can women play a part as executive instruments of child-protection? Women are better fitted than men to supervise the bodily care of children. Women can more readily gain the confidence of those who need support and protection—above all, the confidence of other women (especially of lonely and forsaken women) and of children. They are better judges than men of defects in housekeeping and how to remedy them. Many things are confided to women which are kept hidden from men; and women can remedy many concealed defects where[68] men could do no good. Such duties as these are commonly performed by women more conscientiously than by men, &c.
The following arguments have been put forward against the employment of women: (a) Women ought not to be exposed to the dangers and inconveniences inseparable from visiting the houses of the poor and other places subject to inspection; (b) Women are gossiping, soft-hearted, and credulous, so that they are unable to exercise authority, and are inclined to pay undue attention to exaggerated and quite irrelevant statements; (c) They interfere too much in the management of the households of the foster-parents, &c.
These arguments are worthless. Besides, the question of the employment of women in such capacities can only be decided fairly with reference to the individual subdivisions of the work of child-protection. Unquestionably, women are suitably employed as children’s nurses, matrons of children’s homes, governesses and school-mistresses, wet-nurses, medical practitioners, factory inspectors, sick-nurses, confidential agents of the official guardians of children, visitors of foster-parents. Where the common people have no confidence in women employees, for example, in rough, uncultivated districts, where, in the interests of child-protection, police intervention is necessary, as, for example, in the case of morally depraved and uncontrollable children, and where trusteeship has to be undertaken as in the case of orphan children who are heirs to considerable property, women cannot be employed. The tendency of evolution is to employ women as executive instruments of child-protection, and, indeed, to employ them as salaried public officials.
Numerous and serious objections must, however, be raised against the idea that ladies belonging to the upper classes should find amusement and relief from the tedium of their ordinary life by engaging in some branch of the work of child-protection (such as supervising the work of midwives, or visiting the foster-parents of boarded-out children). The work of such women is of little value in itself, and it takes bread out of the mouths of women who could do the same work very much better professionally and as a means of livelihood.