New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-28
KILLING OFF CHILDREN.
Remedy for Modern Slaughter S"g-
gested By Mrs. Herbert Parsons.

People who think the world nice place to live
IN and who have no patience with any one who
is SO stupid as not to enjoy 1t as much as them
selves might derive some mental Illumination
from an article In the current number OF CHAR
ties'' by Elsie Clews Parsons Cdrs. Herbert Par
sons) on '"The School Child and the Local School
Board" Mrs. Parsons has been obliged to take
her statistics from English sources for lack Of
anything better. but she says that any IA
mtliar with tenement house life in New-York
cannot doubt that substantially the same oon-
ditions exist here. The suffering represented by
these bald statistics the Imagination cannot
picture. There ancient king, Herod
by name who has been an object Of execration
for 1900 years because Of his slaughter OF IN
nocent children, but this slaughter Of the IN
nocents was a bagatelle, It seems, compared with
the slaughter that goes on continually In New
York, and about which very few people care.
This slaughter, Mrs. Parsons says, sis tanta-
mount to the infanticide practices of savage
man. Moreover, this modern method OF check
ing population is much harder on civilized man.
or rather woman. than the primitive method
on primitive woman. The savage infant Is gen.
orally killed within the first minutes or hours
of life If killed at ALL In modern life the sickly
or diseased life OF the short lived. Ill fated in
FAINT is a severe drain upon both mother and
older children. This strikes US more foroibly if
less logically, when we turn from the bare bones
Of statistics to individual cases. English wit
nesses stated as follows: In Dundee It was
quite common thing to find woman had had
as many as thirteen children, and had lost
eleven or twelve out of that number, in some
cases the whole Of Them In Sheffield one woman
has buried seventeen out OF eighteen children,
another has had sixteen sons Of whom only
six are living Among certain number Of
appeared that 38 per cent Of the children born
to them had died in infancy. IN Burnley one
woman is said to have had twenty children ana
buried sixteen. all having died between onA ans
eleven months Of age
In the records Of Family Monographss a
study Of New-York tenement life we fnd that
In one family OF eight children zone was still
born. one died a few minutes after birth ona
died at the age OF fifteen months from a sun
stroke while playing on the roof, one died at the
age of five years from the effects OF burns. her
dress having caught fire while she was playing
near the kitchen stove; one is a hunchback from
falling out Of her seven-year-oId sisters arms
when she was fifteen months old; one is foolish.
from falling down stairs before she was year
old, and one has been very delicate since In
fancy because of poisoning by tye (not to speak
Of subsequent home remedies brandy etc)
swallowed when year and a half old from q
cup on the kitchen table,"
To remedy these shocking conditions Mrs Par
sons recommends the utilization OF the school
nurse and the local school board It has been
found. she says, that the nurse receives a well
coma and a hearing when all other means Of
reaching rundown family have failed. The
state she thinks should take advantage of this
disposition and make the school nurse an agent
IN keeping down its budget for founding
asvIums. hospitals, departments of health, Ju-
venrIe courts truant schools and reformatories.
Such a functionary could reach not only the run
down family, but the independent. charity
stunning but ignorant type
1.-THE school nurse" continues Mrs Parsons.
Asbopld be the agent of all the private social
She should be the source Of information in re-
cord to neighborhood needs and opportunities.
and the local school board should be the pro-
imoter OF means Of filling these needs
AS fields for private enterprise Mrs. Parsons
suggests day nurseries and self-supporting
school restaurants. Such restaurants. she thinks,
should be quite ASSOCIATED from charity, with q
ticket system, by means OF which the children
of temporarily destitute parents could be pro-
vided for without the knowledge Of the man
ager or patrons.
The English committee, whose statistics Mrs
Parsons quotes, believes that the State should
insure adequate nourishment TO children In at
tendance at school" The committee concurs In
the opinion OF an earlier governmental commits
sion that 1.-The preparation and cooking Of these
school meals where II is found necessary to
provide them. ought to be regarded as one OF
the charges incident to school management"
The article suggests post-graduation classes
for girls OF all social grades in domestic science
and art, with diplomas. which should create
kind OF white list" Of the matrimonially eligi-
blsA