NO ONE ANXIOUS TO
BE JUVENILE JUDGE.
THERE'S WORK AHEAD FOR THE
MAN UNDERTAKING IT.
Judge H. L. M'Cune Will Vacate That
Bench in January, and a Suc-
cessor Is to Be Chosen.
Duties of the Place.
On the first Thursday after the first Monday in January the judges of the circuit court will meet and select a presiding officer of the juvenile court form among their number. For the past two years Judge H. L. McCune has held this place, but he goes out of office in January.
So far, no judge has declared himself a candidate for the lace, although several have said they would prefer not to have the place. Judge James E. Goodrich and E. E. Porterfield seem at present to supply the list of candidates from which a judge will be selected. Neither of them is a candidate for the place, in the meaning that he greatly desires to fill it.
There are many arduous duties connected with the office of judge of the juvenile court. Conversant with the work as was Judge McCune when he took the place, it was some months before even he had things systemized. When he steps down next month the task of learning the ropes will not be an easy one for his successor, at least for a time.
What was at first a small matter, has expanded into a large department. Besides the regular trial of cases in court, there is general oversight over the probation officer and the Detention home, not to mention the McCune farm, on which there is now being constructed a home for boys. It is easy to let abuses creep into the juvenile court system. A knowledge of these, and the way to combat them, is the necessary equipment of a good judge.
There are people in Kansas City, and good people, too -- you wouldn't believe it if you saw their names in the paper -- who have tried to look upon the Detention home as a free employment bureau. It seems so easy to take a boy capable of earning $6 a week out of the home, which he wants to leave anyhow, and pay him $3 a week. 'Sides which, as the old proverb remarks, it saves money.
It has taken the greatest care of the probation force to keep these abuses out of the system in the past, and the same vigilance no doubt will be as necessary in the future. The case spoken of is mild and only one sample of the sort of matters which are brought up to juvenile judge and probation officer in almost constant succession.
The judge of the juvenile court appointed in January probably will serve until January, 1911. No specific tenure of office is fixed, but the intent of the law is that there shall be a change ever odd-numbered year. Of course, changes may be made more frequently, should conditions require it.
