The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-12-15
Social Progress
Bv Charlotte Teller And the Rights
Of Children.

Intellectual bread. that is. education,
for the children. it was just as neces-
sary to secure the material bread, that
is, food, for them. In our Industrial
centers, where the working class is so
poor. how many children cannot go to
school, and thus come in conflict with
the laws on free and compulsory edu-
cation, because their stomachs are
empty One cannot learn anything
when he is hungry. : This fact
Of teaching and feeding at the same
time maintains, as it were, the en-
bryO Of the education vi the future"
This attitude of the French govern
ment toward children shows an appre-
citation of the fact that each child has
a right as it comes into the world to
demand fOOd clothing and education.
Though food and clothing have always
been the most essential TO human hap
piness, the state has but lately adopted
a policy which allows it to supply them,
whereas education has been recognized
for a century or more, and the equip
ment OF schools has become a matter
Of pride in al the progressive coun-
tries. Why the development of the
mind should become a social cOnsidera-
ton first and the development Of the
body be q late afterthOught is a ques
ton with both philosophical and eco
nOmic bearings.
An awakening social conscience now
demands that the physical wants of lit
tie children be met by society when
ever the family is unable to give them
proper care. 1t is. perhaps, a surprise
TO many that France should have
col -re..
cessity compelled it; in proportion as
the family disintegrates the problems
Of the home become the problems Of
the state. In France this disintegra-
ton has become so marked among the
middle classes that there has been less
opposition than in some country where
I the middle class still uphOlds the
ideals of kin5 hip duties and obligations,
as in Germany and America, or where
private charities ameliorate the cOndi-
tons Of poverty in such way as to
hinder public feeling from crystalhzing
into political action. Yet il is worthy
of notice that the initiative in France
was taken by the working classes,
whose use of the educational oppor-
tUnities given by the bourgeois enable
them To consider intelligentIy the eco
nOmic problems which confront them
on every side In spite Of the general
/ ly accepted ideal of the home as the
bulwark of the nation, It is true that
a large majority of the people of
/ France and Of the United States are
practically without such homes as
could be included in any middle class
definition Of the word. Where both
man and wife spend the day in store,
factory or sweat shop. the home be-
: comes less than a comfortable lodg-
ing. When children come into a world
Of back stairs and dirty pavements,
with cOmfortless family surroundings
and the least imaginable human care,
there is small chance of their becom-
ing useful citizens unless the life of
the working classes is reorganized
upon a basis which viii allow family
! responsibilities to be handed over to
competent servants Of the state. who
shall be authorized to give to the chill
dren the material comforts which pres
/ ent society, organized upon a capital
/ istic basis, has denied them.
Thus it is that this reorganizati ton
I may be regarded as a recognition OF
che rights Of children and be in itself
the first great step in the progress of
sO-iety
Copyright. 1901. by W. R. Hea-st-)-