Suffering the Little Ones
SUFFERING THE LITTLE ONES THE season, with its lists of destitute families and its answering impulses of benevolence, hears more tales than it should of neglected children. Here is an example...
...Delinquency naturally finds its chief opponent in recreational activity...
...Leadership is missing, the methodology of probation is obsolete, and there is a woful dearth of trustworthy data...
...The importance of the situation will be understood when the complexity of the enterprise is visualized...
...Social responsibility is deeply involved, and no one can face with equanimity the thought that improvement may be halted owing to a dearth of funds...
...Almost half of this group," says the report, "had received no prenatal care at all, and more than one-fourth had received very little care...
...In only eighteen cases did the care received approximate the standards recommended by the Children's Bureau...
...The question as to whether the federal government should take the lead in support of child welfare was, temporarily at least, answered in the negative when the legislation of 1921 was annulled...
...To send a child to school and to keep him out of the reach of prematurely exhausting toil are excellent ideals, but they must not be twisted into panaceas...
...For children properly born, adequate provision of many sorts must be made...
...Though one cannot expect many citizens to read so compact and technical a narrative, one does hope that the problem it discusses will receive wider and more fruitful attention...
...Quite as interesting, however, are the results of a study of the prenatal care received by nearly two thousand women who died in childbirth...
...It is sincerely to be hoped that comparable improvement will be widely effected...
...They show that a surprisingly high percentage of the deaths were brought on by induced abortions-a fact which reveals both a low level of personal and social morality and a high degree of ignorance...
...This need has also been discussed in a recent pamphlet by Mr...
...This generosity is symbolic of the constant work and sustained benevolence which the "future of the nation" demands of us all...
...It is of sovereign importance that these should be understood and rightly acted upon...
...Thus Minnesota has a new law providing for the maintenance of permanent health records of all children of school age, so that the state children's bureau may arrange for the treatment of defective or crippled little ones...
...The courts are frequently unable to appeal to any group of social workers qualified to reclaim those who have gone astray...
...The whole matter of dependent children was discussed during the spring of this year by a conference of representatives of state public welfare departments called by Secretary Davis, and it is hoped that similar meetings may be arranged in the future...
...Meanwhile the disposition to frown upon private institutions or agencies in the name of the state is diminishing...
...Such admirably conducted and notably successful agencies as the Catholic Boys' Brigade, which is a national organization though it has to date achieved most in New York City, are still hard put to it to find the support required...
...In a third of the cooperating states, the money appropriated is sufficient to continue the present activities...
...Once again the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor has issued its annual report...
...Alarmist gossip must be taken with a liberal quantity of salt...
...One of the greatest obstacles to advancement is the lack of proper coordination between state and private organizations...
...In this list there is just one southern state- North Carolina...
...Los Angeles has, however, profited to the extent that a full-time psychiatrist has now been made available to the juvenile court...
...Almost everybody realizes that the work to be done is so vast that all thought of competition must be merged in the earnest desire for cooperation...
...The information regarding juvenile delinquency may, indeed, be misread...
...There are no figures to show that the world is rapidly turning worse...
...As a matter of fact, only fifteen states have voted appropriations equal to those previously expended within their borders...
...Statistics for the years 1928 and 1929, as made available in a number of commonwealths, have now been studied...
...It is crammed with evidence secured through numerous investigations, and with accounts of remedial effort...
...The benefits of education and advice are obvious...
...There remains the problem of how to care satisfactorily for children who are either orphans or defectives...
...It is not alone a matter of preventing individual tragedies...
...Few countries in the world show so high a ratio of maternal deaths as does the United States...
...Cooley derives this pertinent example: "The need of a court clinic for psychiatric and psychological examination of delinquents was widely discussed in the newspapers in connection with the case of Edward Hickman...
...Such cases, of which there are many, cannot of course be attributed to society...
...Here is an example picked at random from the New York Times: a five-year-old girl, born to parents of high-school age who resented her coming and left her with a charity organization, waits in vain for a foster mother...
...The Report stresses the imperative necessity of "research in causes and in methods of prevention and treatment of delinquency," most of which must be based upon knowledge of varying local conditions...
...The conditions surrounding the social treatment of crime and criminals are," he declares, "at some points quite as unfavorable as the health situation of fifty years ago...
...It is nevertheless true that the number of youngsters haled before magistrates has increased, and that agencies equipped to deal with the evils thus indicated (which often bear a direct relation to local conditions) are progressing all too slowly...
...in the others, doctors and nurses will have to be dismissed and cooperative arrangements with counties and local communities will have to be curtailed unless the federal government continues to promote the health of mothers and babies through some sharing of the expense involved...
...But will the states pursue the task diligently, with no loss of energy...
...In many places the Christmas season is a time when Catholic and other religious bodies are urged to give alms for the care of orphans and other needy children...
...The preliminary work for the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection has already been done, and the object is ultimately to outline a sufficiently comprehensive program...
...It seems certain that, to date, Americans have relied too fully upon the twin agencies of education and leisure...
...From the realm of juvenile delinquency Mr...
...The omission of adequate mental and emotional diagnosis at a time when preventive measures might have been taken to alter Hickman's conduct, had a direct bearing on the tragic consequence of his subsequent behavior...
...Edwin J. Cooley, whose probation work in New York City is so well known...
...There is, to begin with, the matter of physical health...
...But there are many aspects of child welfare which impose direct social obligations and even tax the resources of the state...
...Many attempts are under way to supplement existing methods with various scientific expedients...
...sometimes they are indicative of that corrosion of family life which is one of the great perils of the age...
...Here much has been accomplished, although the public does not even yet realize the full value of this endeavor...
...Sometimes they result from the defection of individuals...
...The following statement from the Report is not wholly reassuring: "The threat of withdrawal clearly acted as a two-edged sword, stimulating some states to greater expenditures and influencing others to reduce the work if the federal government withdrew...
...Generally speaking, the exhaustive study of the needs of children in the United States, as inaugurated and promoted by President Hoover, is certain to result in good...
Vol. 11 • December 1929 • No. 8
