The welfare of the children of any community is so largely responsible for the community's happiness and prosperity that very little argument needs to be presented in favor of the state's assuming responsibility for their good care.

As a matter of convenience the problems that come up for a state's consideration in dealing with its children may be classed under four heads, those connected with dependent, neglected, delinquent and defective children. A child may belong in any one of the four groups at different times and even be classified in several of these groups at the same time. The advantages of classification come largely in the matter of different treatment. It is, for instance, essential that a dependent child should not he dealt with in the same institution as a delinquent child, and that defective children, particularly mental defectives, should not be mingled with all the rest.

The subject with which I am particularly concerned is that of neglected children. A state's concern for its neglected children is fundamental to its own protection. If, for instance, a little child is neglected by its parents so that it does not have the necessary medical or surgical or other physical care that it needs and grows up to be a helpless cripple or invalid, it very soon becomes a dependent and sometimes a delinquent for whom the state must later provide much amid costly care. Likewise if a child is given poor care at home so that it does not have the education, the upbringing that it needs, but instead is thrown in contact with idle and vicious persons, it is likely to become a juvenile delinquent which often means that it becomes an adult delinquent later. If the state does not concern itself with the protection and if necessary the removal of the children of confirmed inebriates or of the immoral, in due time the child becomes a ward and a very great concern of the state. Whenever a mental defective is allowed to live in the community without adequate protection, is allowed to marry and to have children who are likely to be as mentally defective as the parent, the state through its negligence is heaping up additional problems for itself that will be an expense to it for many years to come, besides having in its citizenship those who can contribute nothing but weakness to it.

How shall a state assume its responsibilities? One way in which this is possible and almost the only way is that a board be established by means of which it may watch over the neglected and provide homes for the dependent or those who must have new homes in which they may have a fair chance. In most states of the union a State Board of Charity or Board of Control has been established by means of which this responsibility is undertaken. No state can fully give such care unless it is specifically equipped with agents to do its work, agents who are trained for their particular tasks.

I hope that the movement which is getting under way in Vermont for the establishment of a State Board of Charity may be successful. It is the type of organization that has proved its usefulness in the other states where it has been tried.