he latter
is all that is meant, the phrase the "abolition of illegitimacy" is
unfortunate and the real agreement among philanthropists, educators
and all right-thinking people on the just claim of all children
(however they may chance to arrive on this troubled planet) to the
best development possible, should be emphasized in the slogan. It is
well to remember that only a minority of children in any country, and
in many countries a very small minority, are involved directly in this
problem of the right treatment of children born outside the legal
family. It would seem the part of social wisdom, therefore, in this,
as in all other matters of social control, to ask ourselves the
question, What rule on the whole gives the best condition for the
largest number of persons?--and on the answer to that question base
our law and custom, then add considerate treatment for the minority
who must in the nature of things have some handicap if the rule is
obeyed by the majority.

=The Work of the Children's Bureau.=--To lessen this handicap, the
Federal Children's Bureau in Washington, D.C., began in 1915 an
inquiry into illegitimacy as a child welfare problem, causing studies
to be made of laws in different States of the Union. The results of
this study were published in 1919 in Bureau Publication No. 42. In
1920 conferences were held under the auspices of the Bureau to
consider standards of protection which might be embodied in laws. A
Committee appointed to draft suggestions arrived at and to recommend
the same made a Report, which is published in Bureau Publication No.
77.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws on
request formed a Committee on Status and Protection of Illegitimate
Children which reported at length to the Thirty-first Annual Meeting
of that body in August, 1921. This report formed the basis of
discussion by legal experts, and in the meeting at San Francisco of
recent date a revised program for "Uniform State Legislation for
Children Born Out of Wedlock" was accepted and recommended. The title
used is itself an advance upon old ideas.

=The Suggested Uniform Law.=--It is less harsh to speak of "those born
out of wedlock" than of the "illegitimate." Moreover, the
recommendations include a suggestion that in future in all reference
in legal papers or official notices to a child born out of wedlock it
"shall be sufficient for all purposes to refer to the mother as the
parent having the sol