466 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION P. 



' Hiiuser fur Obdachlose ' (that is houses for the shelterless) are homes where 

 respectable working-men in search of work may find shelter without food for a 

 few days or weeks. This is a means of preserving men from the casual 

 ward, it is said that the number of tramps arrested in Austria when she had 

 first copied this system fell about three-fifths from this cause alone. In Sussex 

 the system of ' way ' tickets has been adopted, but it is far behind the German 

 plan. 



The German laws to protect the ' auscheliche ' or ' out-of -marriage ' child are -a 

 marvel of mercy and wisdom. Germany protects these children by means of the 

 Ladies' Committee of the Armenpriege, to whom the money due from the father 

 is paid by the employer of the man. If the father does not wish to pay, the 

 Armenpflege forces him. The mother is not allowed to spend this money at her 

 own will ; the Ladies' ' Verein ' watch that it is spent on the child. The child 

 must be properly fed and clothed until it is sixteen, and the father must also 

 pay for it being taught some means of earning a living. If the child is incapa- 

 citated by mental or physical weakness, then the father must support it all his 

 life. In England the ratepayers have to do this. This claim on the father does 

 not die with him, but is a claim on any property left by him. 



Children (at least under fourteen) cannot be over-worked in Germany. 

 According to our Howard Association the want of open spaces where children can 

 play is a fertile source of juvenile crime. In Germany playgrounds are being 

 formed everywhere, and the streets are hardly used by children in any German 

 city for play. Everything is organised and graded — there are gardens with sand 

 banks for infants, there are Schulerspielplatze for elder children, and there are 

 Spaziergange and Wanderungen for older ones. These are not free except to the 

 very poor, but the charge is small. 



Elaborate efforts are made to stop underfeeding of children : there are 'table 

 scholarships ' for the better class and elder scholars, and there are dining-halls 

 in the schools for the very poor and in the cities, where for a small price every 

 child may have a good meal. The mothers are not forgotten, especially when 

 nursing, and for them dining-halls are started where they also hear advice how 

 to train their children. Sterilised milks and other foods are either sold here 

 very cheaply or given gratis. 



2. The Organisation and Development of (he Resources of the Empire in the 

 National Interests. By C. Reginald Enock, F.B.G.S. 



Although the abundant natural resources, at present largely undeveloped, of 

 the British TCmpire could support all its inhabitants in plenty, there are 

 millions of people in England living in serious insufficiency. Under a system of 

 organisation all these could be made producing and prosperous citizens, and desti- 

 tution and unemployment gradually eliminated. This organisation would bring 

 about the establishing of new centres of possession and industry, as reciprocal 

 parts of each other, at home and in the Colonies. The producing power of 

 the Empire and the spending power and efficiency of the poorer classes would 

 be increased, and greater social equilibrium brought about. The author submits 

 that the time has come in the history of the world for the inauguration of 

 a new science : that of the organisation of natural resources, and of the human 

 material, and the establishing of the true relationship between them; beginning 

 with the British Empire. 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. 



Discussion on the Arrangement for Reciprocal Trade between Canada and 

 the United States. Opened by C. E. Mallet. 



The Problem stated.— The issue before the Canadian people. The general 

 character of the new treaty and the general grounds on which it is recom- 

 mended and attacked. The position of Canada; her geography, her resources, 



