Some of the reformatory schools of America are governed as child republics, known as “Junior Republics.” In these the children exercise self-government after the example of the Great Republic itself, and the executive of the institution merely exercises a kind of supervision. The greatest possible weight is thus given to the educative influence of personal responsibility. Above all, the trial and punishment of offences against the discipline of the reformatory, by courts constituted by the inmates, works exceedingly well, because the comrades know one another better than anyone else can. The reformatory system of the United States of America meets with very general approval. In Europe, indeed, it is said that the system is too expensive, and that the inmates are treated too well. The view we shall take upon this matter will depend upon our general opinion as to how a reformatory should be organised and carried on. In the United States of America, intercourse between man and man is free and unrestrained, and the standard of life is higher than in Europe. Only the improvable children are so well treated; the habitual offenders, on the contrary, are subjected to a draconian régime. It is true that in Europe the cost per child is less, but in view of the meagre results obtained on this side of the Atlantic, the saving is apparent merely. The defects of the American system are the following. As soon as a new political party gains a majority, and a new government therefore comes into power, much of the official staff, including that of the reformatories, is changed. Hence, the greater part of the staff does not consist of persons who have devoted their life to the improvement of children, but is composed mainly of persons without proper professional training. But it is well known that the staff of our European reformatories also lacks proper professional training in respect of the hygiene and psychology of child life. _The Radical Solution of the Problem._--We cannot protest with too much energy against the idea that we can deal effectively with juvenile criminality by means of a few new paragraphs in our criminal codes, and of a few new societies with patronage to distribute. We must not regard neglected childhood and juvenile criminality as isolated phenomena, but must consider them in association with the economic, moral, and intellectual neglect of the proletariat, from which juvenile criminality springs. These proletarian conditions form the starting-point for our knowledge of neglect in childhood and of juvenile crime, and hence for our knowledge of the means we should adopt in dealing with these. The evils have to be averted, not from youth only, but also from the proletariat. Political care, which is directed towards the saving, in the narrower sense, of neglected and criminal youth, is inadequate; what is required is a general scheme of social and political reconstruction whereby the true sources of juvenile criminality will be dried up.