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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1912)
LOOK ATTff UnCLE-SaM-WJLL .at"' MAJt, S i errs MMyV 0 ,N APRIL, Prmldent Trt lnea A ;w that mrans more to the fu ture of the American raue than any Ugtalatlon of rrrrnt years. A thlldren'a bureau, charged with the rpor.flbi:ity f wt;ln out the trourfei of Illiteracy, child lavry. Im moral environment, unhealtliful hon ln:. anJ linorant home life, hag at !at been etab,lhel In the t'nttftd States, after years of lbor on the part of N tloral leaders In aocial study ajid child welfare. It Is rot a pollre body. It cannot so Into the horr.e and ormpel the nurture of rhi1!ren atone Imes approved by Government officials: It will not ac complish Its treat ends by orders or commands. But around Its activities Is expectei r irov up a new understanding of child life: a new responsibility for those children who hy poverty, orrhan. as or dlrease are forced upon the mcrld at an early age. and who today constitute the great nienace to the fu ture of the American race a weakened citizenship. The children's bureau Is to be part of . the feDartment of Commerce and I-a - ! hor. By the law which createa It. In troduced in the Senate bv Senator Bo rah of Idaho, and In the House by Rep resentative Peters of Massachusetts. It Is empowered: To lnveMicate and report on all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child lf. and especially the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage. Juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, acci dents and diseases of children, employ, ment and legislation an ting children in the several ststes and territories." With all of the vast development of governmental agencies In the last two decades, there has been practically nothing done for the tclentlflc improve ment of conditions surrounding child hood, and for the proper directing of the activities of the future cltlsens of the Nation. That work which haa been done has either been the voluntary ac tivity of Individual persona and socie ties, or the action of states following patha along which they have few guide posta of experience. The Government is spending over J3. 7.0" annually for the great bureaus of plant and animal Industry In the Ag ricultural Department. It is appropri ating large aums for the study of plant diseases and for the improvement of plant breeds. But practically all that has been done toward a systematic study of the conditions surrounding children and women wage earners has been through the occasional Investiga tions ordered by Congress. B'l Laaebe Goe4 W erk. To two whole-souled women, devoting their hearts to the problem of the child, belongs much of tlie credit for the es tablishment of the new children's bu- '-a.i Thee, women are Mi l.llltan 1. naid. of New lork. founder and head I of the Henr -Street Nurses' settlement, and originator of the system of "visit ing nurses' in American cities: and Mrs. Florence Kelly, of New York, secretary of the National Consumers' League. It Is most significant that some years ago. when I came to Washington to speak for this measure," said Miss IVald at a Congressional hearing on the children's bureau bill, "the boll weevil bad appeared In the South, and quite rapidly had alarmed the people who were responsible for the eltralna tien' of such dangers. "Tet nethlng that could have hap pened to the children of the country, no etcesalve infant mortality, no evidence of Illegitimacy, illiteracy, delinquency nothing that could have happened to the children would have called forth any Inoulry from the government to find out what was at the bottom of It. "There I not a farmer In the whole T'nlted States but has the power and privilege of sending to Washington If he is aniloiis about his crops or his hog or bla rattle. There Is nothing that affects the grossly material Inter esm of the country that the Govern ment does not concern Itself about. "And yet. so far as the children are concerned, every community Is depend ent npoa the accident of having some Interested citlien who will be' public spirited and ft to the trouble to write all over the country to discover what has been developed." Miss Weld and Mrs. Kelly, as mem bers of the National child labor com mittee, began the agitation for a chil dren's bureau many years ago. Around their efforts grew up the great move ment that haa taken In the full organ isation of the child labor committee and many great voluntary organisations, which has run through three Con gresses, and which has finally resulted In the enactment of the desired law. The National cM'd lahor committee has maintained offices In Washington for four yeers. under the c.iarre of Dr. A. J McKelway. Its secretary lorSouth- D0-50TnR0UGn BIG NEW JC 1 f.r ern states. In the campaign of educa tion and argument that has been going; on in behalf of the children's bureau. "I happen to own a little farm clown In Maine." said Mrs. Kelly In tenlfylnjr for the bill In Congress, "and last Bum mer while I was there I got Informa tion out of the newspaper of two cir culars published by the Federal Gov ernment. I have little clam flat planted on my farm, of not much value because the clams have ail died out, The farm was once covered wljh pines, but they have all been cut off. Help t'klldrea aa Well aa Claam. "The newspapers announced the Is suance of two circulars by the Federal Oovernment. one dealing with the re filling of defunct clam flats and the other calling attention to the fact that the seed of white pine trees If gath ered that Summer would be worth i a pound to the person who gathered them to be sold to people like myself who wanted to re-pine their abandoned farms. "Now. It may be paternalism to have a bureau to give Information about In fant mortality and Its relation to foul milk, hut why should the Federal Oov ernment be a little father to my clam ,'!at and to my pine forest. If it is not suitable fur It to look after the chil dren T" The entire Nation knows in a general way about child lahor, both In the North and South. The textile strlkea In New England have served recently to bring striken" children before the pub- !i eve with their Ktorleit of Rrmlv p00r living. - T,, ,,. m, ,h c.,tK ,. preyed upon the bodies of children for ers. not only weakcrtnjr them physi rally, hut preventing thetr normal men tal growth and education. The oyster and ahrlmp rsnnerles of the coast: the glass factories of the Middle and Kast ern States, the textile mills of New Knsrland: and scores of Industries have levied their toll upon the childhood of the Nation. The firm hand of the state has been graduslly applied to many of these oc cupations. There is but one state. Ne vada, that haa not child labor laws of some kind: but In many of them chil dren of 1! or 14 are still permitted to- work lone hours: and In Georgia the orphan child of dependent parents can even go to work at 10 years of ago. Children in the truck gtrdrn lands of Maryland and Delaware, who work through the long Summer In the fields, berry patches ami canneries, are packed up by their parents In the Fall and taken to the Gulf coast, to work in the shrlmp-plrking and oystrr-shuck-1 tar establishments thst line the coast. F.ducation. recreation or normal child ish development has no part in their life. Investigators for the National child labor committee have actually found child-en of and & years helping in the oyster shucking establishments. "By actual count." says L. W. Hlne. an agent of the National child labor committee, who made a trip through the canning factories from F.orlda to Louisiana In 1)11. "I found IIS boys and girls whom I Judged to be from ? to 11 years of age." Sincere efforta are being made In most of the ststes to better conditions of children: but the deplorable fe,ct re mains that there Is no tclentlflc basis upon which to work thst betterment; no stsndard by whli h to Judge whether any form of employment Is for the best Would you know what the children's bureau proposes to find out? Head this array of problems r-repared by Mra. Kellv: "How many clinl children are there? THE SUNDAY ORUGONIAN. PORTLAND, APRIL' T Lau Provies for Wiping Out Scourges of Illiter acy, Child Slavery, Immoral Environment, Un healthful Housing and Ignorant Home Life I. ft- v -Vsw? A 4l A," t . --T-r , , . - 1 Vm.1 A. T s. . i v At V w . ' s 1. " - -" 4, r & & Jeff. uSe1 Oyster SAcscst cV-J" &ni ts s Oc. Why are they blind? How can blind ness be- prevented? How are they be ing educated? But of the great underlying causes that make children mentally, morally BUREAU. A MORAL NVlCONf- sttCNT a 4tJ 1 4trrrf , Vnirr'- -"- ' ' ' on phiically weak: of the relation of living to Infant mortality: of the as sociation between the conditions of ex pectant mothers and the health of their children; and of the real facts sur- 4 V fe . f 'i 4' i I ( $', " A " V..i.tfllillHI toundlng child labor, with Its effect upon the minds and bodies of the ris ing generations, the country knows but little of scientific value. Certain itustrles have coma to ba mi 4fl ' -J 1 In- " ml 7 -4 . 1 4X f - 1. recognized as destructive of the entire fabric of American citizenship, at least so far as they touch the children. The night messenger boy who runs er rands and messages in, a big city is subjected to demoralizing influences which almost never fail to destroy his moral sense and leave him a physical wreck and an Industrial incompetent. How many Illegitimate children are there? What is being done tor their care and development? How are the dependent children of weak mind being fitted for life? To what training flo they most readily re spond ? What occupations are most hazardous for children? How many are left or- PUTTING A STOP TO CHILD MARRIAGE (Continued from Page 3.) Hon. Nadhova Rao. C. I. K.. retired Time Minister of Mysore and Travan core. recently, "but this little women ays to me "do this!' and I go and do it: and she says 'do that!' and I go and do that also. It seems very strange, for we of the Kast are not 1n the habit of thus being ordered about by a woman; and vet, you know," he added naively, "I rather like It. And, what is more, she seems to know so much better than we do what needs to be done." Said another prominent Hindu edu cator and reformer: "The league was a clock without a mainspring, a motor without gasoline, before the advent of Miss Tennant. She is our mainspring, our gasoline, our energy, and Just look at the way we are running!" But some are really concerned for the health of this dauntless young re former: she is going under a pressure too heavy to maintain, and, besides, she Is trying to "hurry the Kast." And what was It Kipling said about the ill advised individual who essayed that Jlerculean task? And the end of it all Wa a tombstone tall. With the name of the late deceased; And the Epitaph clear: The man lies here Who tried to hurry the East." Dining the last four months of 1911 Miss Tenr.ant traveled through nearly every province and native stste in India, speaking almost dally, the net result of the trip being the founding of thirty new branches of the League for men and half that number for wo men, tc say nothing of the Incalculable valus o? the Incident educational campaign- Now her sitting-room in Cal cutta between the hours of 9 In the morning and 10 at night Is rarely empty of a waiting visitor, while every few. minutes her interviews are Inter rupted by messengers, ranging from the telegraph boy or the "devil" from some ratlve printing establishment to the red-coated, gold-braided "chupras sie" of a visiting Maharajah. "Why don't you take a vacation?" I 4 f3 i &3MwSj urns phans by avoidable accidents to their parents? How much illiteracy is there? Where is it? What are ir causes and how mav it be prevented? What laws are needed to protect children against crime? Against ac cident? Against moral delinquency? How many children are employed in the different Industries? What is the ultimate effect of an in dustry upon, the children engaged in it? Inquiry to Be Thorough. This is but a beginning. The census shows that infant mortality is frlght fullv high in certain towns and low in others. The children's bureau can go Into these towns, study the reasons for high death rate, and solve problems that are now costing thousands of baby lives each year. The milk supplies of cities: the san itary housing of the working classes: the emplovnient of poor mothers too close to the time of child birth: the care of Illegitimate children: the occu pations of women that work greatest harm to the physical health of their children subsequently born all these things come within the range of inves tigations that the children's bureau will direct in the effort to protect the chil dren whose home life Is unfortunate, or who have no adequate protection or gullding influence. "Is information about children of less Importance to the peop-.e of this coun try than information about animals and bugs." said Representative Peters, of Massachusetts, in the House of Repre sentatives, when the children's bureau bill passed that body April 2. "Today the problem of bringing up and haridlinar our children Is being treated with a lack of information which in no other subject would for a moment be tolerated." asked her a couple of days ago, as she "dismissed" the president of a univer sity tlie'. raised her eyes to my card with a wan smile of impersonal wel come, to let her head fall to her hand in a half-collapse of weariness when she saw that it was no one cormected with 1 er work and that there was no harm m letting the mask drop for a space. "Vacation!" she murmured dreamily. "I have heard that there are such things, but I don't expect ever to know what they are really like. Why, I can't, tion't you see? I'm a very busy persoi'. There is so much to do and so little time to do it In." "Almost the Identical sentiments one Cecil Rhodes expressed a short time be fore Ms decease." I ventured. "Better take warning and run on the low speed for a while." "Can't be done." she cut in decisive ly. "Just see what I have outlined for the next three months." The tired look disappeared as quickly as it had come: her head was erect and her eyes flashing with eagerness and enthusi asm. "Next month I leave for Madras, and after that Bangalore, and after that " I don't recall precisely what was to r.npper In the next three months, ex cept tnat Hindu India was to be vigor ously thaken. turned over several times and finally set "right side up with care" in the condition that It should be. and that Mies Tennant had a half dozen appointments in that very room Imme diately on her return to Calcutta. "And have I ever told you," she said In breathless conclusion, "that I'm do ing ai . this without begging, borrowing or stealing from anyone? No? Well, 1 am. And what's more " "WHhoufeven stealing?" I interrupt ed in affected surprise. The corners of her mouth drew down In another of her wan smiles. "With out even stealing." she asseverated. The young woman actually has a sense of. humor, and a reformer with a sense ot humor Is such a rara avis!
