The Vermont Children's Aid Society has made a real advance during the past year through a redivision of districts and the establishment of a second branch office. In November an office was opened in St. Johnsbury. Miss Alice Gray Hickox, who had journeyed back and forth from Burlington to northeastern Vermont for two years, was placed in charge of the new branch which has included Caledonia, Orleans, Essex and Lamoille counties. In April another change was made. The Southern Office, with headquarters at Bellows Falls, had for nearly five years served the four southern counties, but the work had grown to such an extent that one agent was quite unable to give adequate service to so large a territory. By the new plan, the Bellows Falls office is now headquarters for only three counties, Windham, Windsor and Orange, all of which are on the eastern side of the state, while the southwestern counties are worked from the central office at Burlington. It is hoped that before long an office to serve these three counties, Bennington, Rutland and Addison, may be opened, probably in Rutland, as that city seems the logical headquarters for that section of the state. The plan of having the agent make her home and headquarters within the district in which she works enables the society to serve the children of that district more quickly and effectively. Traveling is in this way reduced to a minimum which is a great saving of time and money in this mountainous little state.

Last year the society worked in the interest of 424 families and 872 children. As in the year before, the majority of the cases were previously known to the society. We are now reaping the benefit of the record keeping we have made from the beginning of the work. Happenings on cases worked on in years past are a matter of record, not of guess work. Moreover, scarcely a new case is reported that we do not already know about it through some other work we have done. It is a matter for reflection that the families that are coming to our attention are closely related. As an illustration: A woman recently brought her little boy to Burlington asking us to provide a boarding home. This was on the surface a new case, but we soon found that two of the child's paternal uncles (who by the way lived in a different part of the state) were well known to us, and we had heard of the mother and child through another family with whom we had been working who were next door neighbors.

The society is now caring for 157 children. They vary in age from our six months old twin boys to a young man in his twentieth year. During the past year seven girls have been discharged because they became of age. Although our legal control ceased when these girls were 18, our interest and care (when the latter is necessary) continues. We have reason to believe the following letter from one of the girls expresses the feeling of all of them:

“I want to thank all the people for the many, many things they have done for me and I hope I can and I will pay them back by taking advantage of all the things.

“Although I am not yours any longer I shall never forget you and I hope you will write when you have a chance."

Although the society, because of lack of funds, two years ago reluctantly limited the new admissions to children under 13*, we are at present caring for 51 children in their teens who were taken either before this ruling, or with younger brothers or sisters, or who have grown into adolescence while in our care. Unless they are adopted or other satisfactory provision is made for them, these young people remain under the control of the society until they are of age, which is 18 for girls and 21 for boys.

*Exception is made when younger children from the same family are taken.

Mental tests, which are given routinely to all children three years of age and over are especially helpful in planning the kind of training we should give this older group to equip them best for a serviceable and happy life. Two of these children are attending St. Johnsbury Academy, one is in Mount St. Mary's, one in Vermont Academy, 10 are in public high schools, one is attending a Radio School in Boston and two are taking a course to become trained nursery maids. Among the latter is a 17‐year old girl who secretly married a young fellow who at present is quite incapable of supporting her. The law is quite clear that the society continues to have control even when the girl is married. It also is clear that the marriage cannot be annulled as the girl was over 16 when she married, even though the license was obtained fraudulently. Our task therefore is doubled as we are now working not only to make the girl fit to be a good wife but to help her husband to live up to his responsibility.

In order to teach the habit of thrift, we encourage the children to start bank accounts with their pennies, as we believe that these children even more than the child from the average homes need to be taught the lesson of saving. Twenty‐five of our children have bank deposits aggregating $705.34, and in addition most of the older children are self‐supporting. Some are planning as soon as they can to reimburse the society for money expended for them so that the same money can be used to help other children.

Along with this favorable report, should be added the fact that this fall we have suffered from an epidemic of stealing. Five, and possibly six of our children have taken what did not belong to them. Two little nine‐year olds stole money from their foster parents to buy food and playthings for poor children in the neighborhood, keeping nothing for themselves but the satisfaction of a philanthropist. The other offenders are older girls who yielded to the lure of pretty clothes and jewelry. While we realize that stealing is by no means confined to children with a heritage of dependence and neglect, such children are in special need of careful training in the use of money. We are giving allowances to some of the children and are considering an allowance system for all children of school age. Psychiatric advice has been of great assistance in discovering and treating some emotional upsets that resulted in stealing and other misbehavior.

We have found that some hold the idea that all of our children are feeble‐minded; others, that we choose only bright, promising children. Neither is correct. The majority of those in our care are normal children. At least ten are superior for whom we hope to provide the advantages they deserve. Thirty, or about 20% are feeble‐minded, borderline, or what we call potentially feeble‐minded; that is, their heredity is such that there is a strong chance of their inheriting their parents' defect and they are not yet old enough or have not had sufficient opportunity, to enable one to judge of their ability. For instance, we have several babies of feeble‐minded mothers. Of course they cannot be offered for adoption. They are now unusually attractive. Only time will tell how they will develop. It is practically impossible to judge in little children who have been neglected whether their backwardness is constitutional or simply the result of poor physical care and lack of training. When five‐year old Marion was committed to our care, everyone thought she was a feeble‐minded child. Her response to standardized tests rated her as feeble‐minded. The society agreed to care for her until she could be admitted to the State School at Brandon. Physical defects were corrected. After four years in a foster home that provided affection as well as training, Marion has surprised us all. Last June, at the age of nine, she passed the fourth grade with nothing but A's on her report card. In a recent mental test she was graded as normal.

As Judge Whitham pointed out years ago, the mass of children in Vermont who need to be cared for are so forlorn and so neglected that they give every appearance of being defective. Only an opportunity and time can determine whether their defect is real or apparent. At any rate each deserves a chance to develop to his highest capacity. The Vermont Children's Aid Society has agreed to take over the responsibility of providing suitable foster homes and supervision for a group of such children provided the overseer of the town guarantees the actual cost of board. We realize that caring for thirty such children is but a drop in the bucket, but we hope it may demonstrate in a small way what can be done by suitable foster home care for children of this type. By giving a child an opportunity to develop under favorable conditions, there is no doubt but that some will be spared the necessity of being cared for in a state institution for defectives and will become useful citizens.

Again we are able to report that we have come through the year without a death among our wards, which makes an unbroken record of six years without such a disaster. For this we are indebted to the care given our children by their foster parents and the unstinted service of hospitals, physicians, surgeons and dentists who work as zealously to bring back health to these unfortunate children as they do for their wealthiest clients. An expenditure of $881.20 from THE HARRIET NEWELL CREENLEAF MEMORIAL FUND has enabled us to give surgical care to numbers of children whose parents were unable to secure this service for them. Some cases stand out as spectacular, such as operations at the Children's Hospital in Boston for two children with cleft palates, one hare‐lip operation, care after an operation on the Floating Hospital in Boston for a delicate baby and an operation on a little boy which is literally bringing sight to the blind. The bulk of the surgical work, however, has not been of a spectacular nature. Circumcision, appendectomy and the removal of adenoids and tonsils are the most frequent operations.

The FLETCHER D. PROCTOR FUND for Destitute Children has this past year spent through this society $1308.17. This doubtless saved the life of one very sick child and has brought health, clearer vision and improved physique to numbers of children from all parts of the state. A large proportion of this fund has been used for children under two years of age and has developed many puny infants into sturdy, happy youngsters. A complete physical examination for all children when they first enter our care and reexaminations at intervals has proved a wise precaution.

Work with the 157 children who are wards of the society constitutes only a part of the society's job. During the year we worked in the interest of 715 other children from all parts of Vermont. This phase of the work is so varied that it is difficult to give an adequate idea of it. The following is an enumeration of some of the services we have rendered:

Securing of physical and medical care. Investigations for the court with advice regarding disposition of children. Securing mental examinations and advice about difficult children. Securing the admission of problem children to the New England Home for Little Wanderers, where a diagnostic study was made and recommendations given for their care. Help in securing admission of feeble‐minded children and women to the State School for Feeble‐Minded at Brandon. Mothers' Aid to keep a good mother and her children together. Help in securing support from delinquent parents, including fathers of children born out of wedlock. Friendly visiting of families to advise with them about the care of their children. Securing of educational opportunities for promising older boys and girls. Giving warnings and advice to families neglecting their children and helping State's Attorneys to obtain evidence for prosecution where warnings were not sufficient. Sending children to the State Preventorium or to some of the private child‐caring institutions of the state.

The above is a very incomplete list of the services we have had an opportunity to render. Greater than any one service mentioned above is possibly the information we are day by day gathering as to the conditions in Vermont leading to child dependency and neglect. The society was able to give helpful evidence to the last legislature of the extent and disastrous consequence of child marriage. Thanks to the action of that legislature little girls under 14 cannot now be married in this state without special permission from the court and five days must always intervene between the granting of a marriage license and the marriage itself. We rejoice that a state program for the protection of the lives of mothers and infants has been inaugurated. We were glad to release a valuable member of our staff, Miss Harriett E. Abbott, to work under the direction of the State University of Vermont in making a eugenic study in Vermont. No longer are child‐caring agencies content to patch up broken little lives. Work of Prevention is now recognized as even more important. Societies which have had intimate contact with children who are homeless, destitute and neglected have laid upon them an obligation to bring to the general public not only the extent of this suffering but the underlying conditions which beget it.