Emergencies arise in which relief must be given directly. Food, clothing, medicine, or even money must at times be forthcoming if certain predicaments of individual and family life are to be met satisfactorily. But in a larger number of cases there is need and opportunity to go deeper and to reach the roots of the difficulties in which children or parents find themselves. Homeless children need good homes, unless delinquency or mental defect indicate other treatment. Neglected children should be championed so that they may have a fair chance in life. Children in the midst of vicious surroundings and associates, or exposed to contagious or infectious diseases of a chronic sort, such as tuberculosis, should be removed and placed in healthful and morally wholesome surroundings. Mothers struggling ineffectually but devotedly to keep an orphaned brood together should be given a helping‐hand. More remunerative employment or "Mother's Aid" may be the answer to their problems. Reckless girls running loose and in moral danger from their own impulses as well as from predatory men should be given a steadying hand and friendly oversight. These are but a few of the various forms in which the constructive and preventive endeavor called "CASE WORK" searches for and treats the causes of social woes. It should be obvious that an experienced and competent social worker can in these ways save society vastly more than the stipend received for salary and expenses.

Our Executive Committee has adopted the policy of favoring, so far as considerations of humanity and social welfare permit, those cases in which there is promise of satisfactory results. We try to select the children who have "the right stuff" in them, but who need a better opportunity for growth and development, spiritually as well as physically. And so it happens naturally that we seek always to find good homes for normal children of promise who because of one accident or another are homeless or in the wrong box. Delinquents and defectives may require custodial care in institutions. The normal child should be in a family home which is physically and morally, sweet and clean.

Our workers seek in all possible ways to cooperate with all other child‐helping agencies. And it is a pleasure to acknowledge the cordial spirit of cooperation found in all our relations with the Red Cross, the Tuberculosis Association, the Kurn Hattin Homes, St. Joseph's Orphanage and the Home for Destitute Children. With the State Board of Charities and Probation an agreement has been formulated which precludes both rivalry and duplication of effort. This agreement also provides for a regular exchange of information so that each agency knows what the other is doing.

As a member of the Bureau for Exchange of Information our Society has command of the assistance and cooperation of the leading child‐helping agencies in other states. At the same time we investigate in Vermont cases in which agencies outside our State may be concerned and cooperate in treating them.

So extensive a work as ours promises to become should have the financial guaranties which only a permanent endowment can give. It is hoped that our Society may be made a beneficiary by those who include charitable bequests in their wills; and that both in this way and by direct gifts we may accumulate au endowment which will guarantee a regular income for the support of our important work of social insurance. (A FORM OF BEQUEST will be found on the last page of this pamphlet.)

Your President earnestly hopes that very shortly the various child‐helping agencies in the state will combine to secure for Vermont a CHILDREN'S CODE, such as many progressive states have already adopted. In matters affecting child life and the home, as in so many other matters, legislation in the past has been by the piecemeal method and consequently somewhat haphazard. The time has come to study the problem of the child and its relations in thorough and systematic fashion and to ensure, so far as law can, that child‐life shall be safeguarded from handicaps and hazards of all sorts.

Finally it is in order to acknowledge gratefully the highly effective manner in which our General Secretary, Miss L. Josephine Webster, has conducted the work of the Society. We were indeed fortunate in securing such a competent, energetic and faithful worker to direct the activities of our first year. Since July, Miss Webster has been assisted by Miss Harriett E. Abbott, who, as Field Agent in charge of our Southern District, has given evidence of rare ability as a case‐worker. In the office Miss Jessie F. Grandy has been a loyal and devoted assistant. Among volunteer assistants especial mention should be made of the generous and cordial services of Edmund C. Mower, Esq., as Legal Advisor and of Charles K. Johnson, M.D., as Medical Advisor. And perhaps I should not close without one word of appreciation for the generous, effective and loyal devotion of our Board of Directors. Their influence supports and their judgment guides a work the value of which the Vermont of tomorrow will indicate.

Respectfully yours,

A. R. Gifford

[Photo caption:] For such as these no institution suffices. Have they not a right to expect and to demand a good home‐‐physically clean and morally wholesome? Help the C.A.S. to find them homes.