generally accepted as the only means of handling these matters. In
smaller communities the need may be met by setting aside regular
sessions of the magistrates' courts for this purpose.

Juvenile courts and domestic relations courts having proved a success
separately, there is a strong movement on foot to combine them into one
court, for which the name Family Court has been proposed.

A leader in this movement is Judge Hoffman of the Family Court of
Cincinnati, which he describes thus:

"The Court of Cincinnati was organized for the purpose of dealing
with the family as a unit and to ascertain possibly the cause of its
disruption. It has exclusive jurisdiction in all divorce and alimony
cases, and all matters coming under the Juvenile Court Act. It also
has jurisdiction in cases of failure to provide. The ideal court
would include in connection with the foregoing functions, adoption
of children, the issuing of marriage licenses, and bastardy
cases."[49]

One advantage of this plan is the economy it effects in the time of
probation officers. It is generally admitted that in children's court
cases it is the parents rather than the children who are really on
probation; and with two courts and two separate probation systems, we
may even have the anomaly of the same family being under the care of
two probation officers at once. Specialization can no further go! Other
leaders in the domestic relations court movement see little merit in the
proposal for a one-part family court. They think that, in the large
cities at least, the need would be better served by having the domestic
relations and juvenile courts under one roof, but as two separate and