two state probation commissions, of the use of policemen for probation duties. Several states now have laws forbidding police officers from serving as probation officers. Massachusetts has a law to the effect that active members of the police force can not act as probation officers, and a bill recently introduced in the Legislature of that state at the instance of the state probation commission seeks to make sheriffs, clerks of the court, bail commissioners and other similar officials ineligible for probation work. * * * * * _Judge Wants Better Probation Officers and More Work for Them._—Approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation officers appointed by the courts, and the extension of the probation system to obviate imprisonment for non-payment of fine, were two changes urged recently in an address by Judge Charles A. DeCourcy, of Lawrence, Mass. “The keystone of the probation system,” said Judge DeCourcy, “is the personality of the probation officers. As the Departmental Committee under the English probation law recently expressed it, ‘the probation officer must be a picked man or woman endowed not only with intelligence and zeal, but in a high degree with sympathy and tact and firmness.’ When a properly qualified and earnest probation officer is attached to every court in Massachusetts, the probation problem will be solved. “Unfortunately, we have yet some probation officers who fail to come up to the standard, men who never interest themselves in their probationers outside of the courtroom, or take any concern as to their idleness, their companionship or habits, and do nothing to secure the confidence of the probationer or to aid him in restoring himself to manhood and good citizenship. The evils of continuing improper officers are so great that in my opinion it should be rendered impossible by requiring the approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation officers appointed by the court. “Probation ought to be extended also, to obviate the imprisonment for non-payment of fines, giving the person fined an opportunity to earn and pay the fine while remaining at home and supporting his family. “Another element new to Massachusetts will require consideration, namely, the proposed payment to the prisoners as a means of aiding in the support of their families during imprisonment and providing them with some means to start in life when they return to freedom. I should like to see an able commission appointed to consider and report on this whole broad question of prisons, so that in this, as in other respects, Massachusetts might lead the way with plans for an ideal system which the future will develop.” * * * * *