a definite period of months, at the end of
which time the case drops unless the wife renews charges. A case of this
sort ought not to be terminable without a reinvestigation and final
hearing in court. Indeed it would seem, in such cases, that the children
involved should have at least as much protection as the children in
bastardy proceedings, and that the order should be made to cover the
term of years until the oldest child becomes of working age.

The most important step in advance with regard to payments is
undoubtedly the law which has been tried with signal success in the
District of Columbia and in the states of Ohio and Massachusetts,
requiring men serving prison sentences for non-support and abandonment
to be made to work, and a sum of money, representing their earnings, to
be turned over to their families.

In an interesting paper in the _Survey_ for November 20, 1909, entitled
"Making the Deserter Pay the Piper," Mr. William H. Baldwin discusses in
detail how this plan was made to work successfully in the District of
Columbia.

The movement for special courts to consider cases of juvenile
delinquency and marital relations has gained such headway that no word
needs to be said here in its favor. In communities where the volume of
court business permits such courts to be separately organized, they are
generally accepted as the only means of handling these matters. In
smaller communities the need may be met by setting aside regular
sessions of the magistrates' courts for this purpose.

Juvenile courts and domestic relations courts having proved a success
separately, there is a strong movement on foot to combine them into one
court, for which the name Family Court has been proposed.

A leader in this movement is Judge Hoffman of the Family Court of
Cincinnati, which he describes thus:

"The Court of Cincinnati was organized for the purpose of dealing
with the family as a unit and to ascertain possibly the cause of its
disruption. It has exclusive jurisdiction in all divorce and alimony
cases, and all matters coming under the Juvenile Court Act. It also
has jurisdiction in cases of failure to provide. The ideal court
would include in connection with the foregoing functions, adoption
of children, the issuing of marriage licenses, and bastardy
cases."[49]

One advantage of this plan is the economy it effects in the time of
probation officers. It is generally admitted that in