e children of parents who, well-meaning and in their
own ancestral land capable of parental control, here lose command of
the family life because the children have to become the interpreters
and representatives of the family in the new country to a degree that
reverses the natural order of dependence and direction in the family
life, and gives the children undue power of leadership in family
affairs. As Professor Cooley wisely says, "It is freedom to be
disciplined in as rational a manner as you are tit for." We might give
the converse of this truth in the statement that it is not freedom but
dangerous tendency toward anarchy and disaster to be called upon for
rational decisions in advance of our intelligence and will-power, and
a tragedy to lose the habit-drill of parental control in the period of
life when that is a necessary foundation for wisdom in independent
choice. The child of the immigrant often lands in the Children's Court
not because he is bad or stupid or even mischievous by nature, but
because he is too early forced by circumstances into a position of
command and of unrestricted choice in action, due to the ease with
which the young can learn new ways and the difficulty of the old in
mastering strange language and manners.

=Dangerous Rebound from Ancient Family Discipline.=--Again, the
Children's and the Domestic Relations Courts bear testimony to the
fact that to-day we are in a rebound from inherited forms of
discipline of children and youth which have given to all, immigrant
and native-born alike, a feeling that society exists for their benefit
and that they owe nothing to society in return. The very
standardization of child-care by public demand, in matters of health
and education, of free books and free recreation and free music and
free parks and playgrounds and even free lunches in schools, and free
baths and medical and nursing care--all that is increasingly called
for and provided out of the public purse for the nurture and
development of child-life--tend toward giving children and youth the
idea that the world belongs to them.

The old crushing and often cruel pressure of older life upon the young
is happily gone. The new ideals of education, within the school and
the home, which emphasize the right of each human being to its own
development into a unique, a free and a happy personality, are ideals
that must grow in realization more and more if we are to have fit
people for making democracy wo