clothes to be boys again and report to him. on the evils confronting the "kiddies."

One thing the commissioner did was to order the police of a certain precinct to set aside an entire block adjacent to a large public school, to permit no vehicles to pass through, to tell the boys and girls of neighboring tenement regions that this was to be used as their playground, and for them to go there and have just as good a time as they could have. At last the miraculous had happened in New York's child life. Last summer more than sixty streets were thus set aside for playgrounds, and during certain hours traffic therein was prohibited, while in each of these blocks children were freely permitted to carry on games under the care of a man in uniform. More would thus have been used if the infantile-paralysis epidemic had not started and compelled the board of health to interfere. The necessity for such playgrounds becomes apparent when it is known that even with sixty in operation, street accidents in the city during the year caused the death of 290 children under the age of sixteen, and the injury of 7386 others. Of those killed 106 were under the age of six years; of the injured, 2301 were less than six.

One thing the present commissioner did was to instruct the police of New York not to arrest boys for pranks in the street. A boy is warned, and if warning is not heeded, he is told to be at home at a certain hour when his father also will be there. At the appointed time the boy and his father and his mother are called on by a man in uniform who explains the situation. Boys must play somewhere, said the commissioner, recently, but it is not right for them to play in a crowded street. It is n't safe for them, and it is n't a fair deal for the policeman who is trying to direct traffic and has his hands full in other ways.

You

"Now, I don't want you to whip Tommy," the visiting bluecoat says, addressing Tommy's father; "but I want you and him to talk this over in a reasonable way, and see if Tommy won't help me. know, Tommy, I've got a boy of my own about your age and two little girls. I'd feel pretty bad if they were to get knocked down by a motor-truck or run over by a brewery wagon. And your father would feel just as badly if you got hurt. But it's up to you to help me, and to keep the other fellows of your gang from getting into trouble."

This is a revelation to Tommy.

learns that the man in uniform is human, that he has a boy of his own, and that he actually is friendly. At once Tommy feels a new and surprising sense of responsibility; he has been invited to act as an unofficial assistant to the police of New York. Instantly his mental attitude changes; he begins to see the policeman in a new light. This is what happens in a single instance. Multiply that call by many others, and imagine how great is the change as a whole. In order to grasp its full importance, remember that during recent months the police of New York have been making five hundred such calls every day.

One result of the experiment, which long ago passed the experimental stage, was the formation of the Junior Police of the City of New York, an organization. for boys between the ages of eleven and fifteen, who are regularly trained, drilled, and instructed in athletic sports, civic duties, and good conduct under competent and responsible supervision. The idea did not originate with Commissioner Woods. It occurred first to a police captain of the East Side-Sweeney of the Fifteenth Precinct. The commissioner and several civilians got together with Sweeney, and the idea was worked out. To-day the junior "force" is well organized, with inspectors and captains and other

young

of

ficers, and a growing membership that will reach five thousand and over by spring. Uniforms are permitted, but are not insisted on; every junior, however, is entitled to wear a special badge, which is never worn on the outside of coat or jacket excepting at drills or other gatherings. Duties of the junior police include the use of clean and decent language at all times, in all places. The code continues thus:

Never "hitch" on wagons or street-cars; always cross the street at the corners; do not build bonfires in the streets; do not break windows or street lamps, or deface buildings or sidewalks with chalk; do not smoke cigarettes or play "craps"; see that garbage-cans are kept covered, that garbage and ashes and waste paper are not mixed in cans; that cans are promptly removed from the sidewalk after being emptied; that persons are requested to keep sidewalks and areaways in front of their buildings clean, and that they do not throw refuse in the street.

In the performance of such duties the junior police are forbidden to enter any building in any circumstances. Meetings of the various bodies of juniors are held in public schools, public libraries, and other buildings of the kind, and where these are not available, in parish rooms of churches,

in armories, and in Y. M. C. A. buildings, etc. In order to stimulate interest in the movement, auxiliary organizations of parents are formed, and in the discretion of the adult local leader public meetings are held, to which the people of the precinct are invited.

This plan of replacing ignorance of the police with knowledge as to their functions has been carried still further. For nearly two years a number of sergeants, carefully chosen for special qualifications, have been systematically visiting the schools of New York, and explaining to the pupils why the police are maintained, what they do, how they strive to protect the children and their fathers and mothers from harm, and how the boys and girls can help in this work. The talks are delivered informally, and as a rule in the assemblyroom of the school. But those talks have been most carefully prepared so as to interest the audiences for which they are intended. One of the ablest of the nineteen police inspectors has devoted himself to training this staff of sergeants, and to seeing that the lectures are effectively delivered. This inspector is one of the busiest "superintendents of education" one might find in a long search among teachers of the young.

With a view to encourage further cooperation between the public and the police, another organization of citizens, the Home Defense League, has been formed in New York. This was first thought of at a time when many persons saw the possibility of war between the United States and a foreign nation, and the league was created solely for purposes of defense against invasion. Immediately upon announcement from police headquarters that such a league was to be formed, five thousand citizens sent in their names as recruits. Within a year the number increased to twenty-two thousand. Of this paper strength, fifteen thousand have been actively organized by companies in the ninety or more police precincts of the city. During the winter months members of the Defense League, under supervision of precinct captains and army drill-masters,

are given a course of instruction in police matters and in light gymnastic work. The men of each company choose their own company officers. Among the important. duties these volunteers have already rendered may be mentioned that of helping to guard school-children at intersections of traffic-crowded streets, while many of them were gladly availed of in the sanitary patrol of the city during the summer of 1916, when an epidemic of infantile paralysis for several weeks caused grave anxiety. A provision in the constitution of the Home Defense League specifically mentions that its members shall not be called upon as a body for police duty during labor disturbance; yet many companies permitted it to be known that they were ready to volunteer for maintaining law and order while the traction strike was at its height a few months ago. The Home Defense League is a big asset both morally and physically to the police department.

Turn again to still another human side of this new contact between the public and the police. Despite numberless charitable, philanthropic, and religious efforts, the population of New York includes a multitude of children who have never seen a Christmas-tree in all their povertystricken little lives. Early last autumn word went out from the commissioner's office at headquarters that when the Christmas season arrived a tree might be set up in each precinct station-house; that the citizens of each precinct might, if they desired, send to the station-house toys, clothing, food, books, candies, and other gifts; and that if such gifts were sent, the police could distribute the presents to children who would appreciate them. This was a new idea with a vengeancean idea that might make the old-time policeman turn over in his grave. But the men of the transformed police department sprang to meet the idea half-way, and as this is being written they are carrying it out with enthusiasm. No citizen is asked to contribute anything toward this great Christmas celebration, but he is given the privilege of doing so if he chooses to avail himself of the opportunity.