GEORGE EXPLAINS HIS "JUNIOR REPUBLIC"

In a lecture at Phillips Brooks House Saturday night describing the George Junior Republic, several ex-members of which have graduated from Harvard, Mr. William Reuben George expounded his theories on the Junior Municipality and the Social Sanitarium.

"Although the Junior Republic is entered in the State books as reformatory, it essentially is not one," Mr. George began; "for the rules and regulations of the republic are entirely in the hands of the citizens. These citizens consist of three groups: first, those who come voluntarily from public or private schools; second, those who are sent by their parents or school authorities; and third, those juvenile criminals sent directly from the courts.

All Start Equal

"All are absolutely on an equal basis when they enter the republic," he explained, "and advancement depends entirely on the individual. Almost all the professions and businesses open to men in the United States are open to the citizens of the republic. The chief justice is usually one of the prominent lawyers and the chief of police a capable disciplinarian. But before a citizen can be a lawyer, he must pass a strenuous bar examination. Those who are successful in business eat at the costly restaurants run by their fellow citizens, while the poor must forego deserts and cakes and eat at cheap lunch rooms."

Social sanitariums, according to Mr. George, should replace prisons, for a criminal is merely afflicted with a social disease which can be corrected. These would be organized on exactly the same principle as the Junior Republic. The Inmates would be in a large enclosure but would be perfectly free to live a normal, industrial life together. Incidently," said Mr. George," there would be plenty of prominent bankers and business men among them."

The Junior Municipality has been tried in Ithaca and has proved successful. Its plan is to give boys, between the ages of 16 and 21, responsibility by allowing them to govern themselves. For each customary municipal office, there is a corresponding one in the Junior Municipality.