look after his boys, to be companionable, or take an interest in them. We have no more dangerous citizens than such men. In the end, I believe such a man would profit more by less business and better boys.” Parental laxness in the enforcement of discipline may be due to indifference, obtuseness, or a false sense of affection which rebels at stern correctional measures. Whatever may be the motive of the parent, the effect on the child is the same. Obedience is largely a matter of habit which becomes fixed, as do other habits, by continued repetition. Dr. William Byron Forbush stated the thought in this language: “In the American home, especially where there is not sore poverty, the cause of delinquency in children is, without question, the flabbiness and slovenliness of parents in training their children to obedience and to orderly habits.” Too often the training of the boy is shunted back and forth from father to mother like a shuttlecock which is finally knocked out of bounds. The father more frequently than the mother succeeds in evading the obligation and thereafter he rarely attempts to interfere unless we consider an occasional walloping of his son in anger the accomplishment of his duty. The average parent is not fully equipped for his job. He is either unskilled or underskilled in boy-training. He needs education, insight, and understanding to cope with the problems of his son. If the parents default in the training of the boy--even through ignorance--need we wonder that the boy defaults in the making of the man? Numerous boys attain the average perfection of manhood in spite of poor training--but none of them because of it. Many a father, because his son has turned out well, is wearing a self-imposed halo--when he is only lucky. CHAPTER III CHILD PSYCHOLOGY