THJ SMOKY riLGRLMS 499
criminal class. Not essentially vicious in their fundamental character, they have reached their present status in consequence of bad economic conditions. Once thrown into the struggle for existence on a low plane, they have adapted their lives to a standard which has developed pauper and criminal tendencies.
But why has this family been permitted to live in this manner? Primarily because they have been placed, on account of misfortune, and on account of conditions and characteristics, in a helpless condition. That they have been permitted to live in this condition in one of the most respectable, substan- tial, and moral towns of the land gives evidence of a lack of earnest effort or else of an exercise of misguided efforts on the part of citizens. In this particular case the facts show that both of these causes have been prominent. Much has been done by the good people of L to relieve
the distress of the members of the tribe, and much has been done unconsciously to help them onward in the road to ruin.
It will appear evident that no reform of any permanent character can obtain in this tribe without a change in their present mode of habitation. The home must be improved or entirely broken up. It is impossible to reorganize a group of this kind so long as they live in dirty hovels and lead a semi- gypsy life. The adults should be sent to the county poor farm and there be forced to earn a living. Unfortunately this is not , on account of the loose methods of administration of county almshouses, and from lack of compulsory acts to force unwilling inmates to remain. The older children should be sent to the reform school. This statement is met with two difficulties. The first, that a person can be committed to the Kansas reform school only upon sentence by the judge of a competent court on some specific charge. This is a difficult thing to obtain. Secondly, at present the reform school of Kansas is over- crowded, and if a person were committed he would be obliged to remain in a county jail until there was room for him. This would be worse than the present mode of existence, for our county jails are at present the most prolific breeders of crime in the land. 1
