The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-29
The Ritter Cry of the ChiIdren.

The Ritter Cry of the Children.
 By John spargo. MT. spar of the problem of poverty as 1t effects childhood with this startling proposition: Mature starts all her children, rich and poor, physically squal--each generation gets practically a fresh start, unhampered by the dis eased and degenerate past" Heretofore the whole world has believed that much of the misery and disease of humani- " was a heritage: the fathers have eaten sour grapes and tine children's teeth are on edge. MT. Spargo, after reading all the available evidence on $he side of inherited tendencies feeis gratifIed in accepting the newer ard higher view. ''lf. he writes. this the ory of actual degeneration is wrong, and we have not to reckon with grand fathers and great-grandfathers, the so- iution of the problem of awaiting and repairing the deterioration of the race is made so much easier" MT. Spargo begins with a very poem of hope for the child of today: Each generation starts afresh and unhampered--we are not handicapped from the start. We can begin with the child of today to make certain a brighter and nobler tomorrow as though there had never been a yes- terday of woe and wrong. That there are youthful criminals. degenerates. an aupalling death rate of babits and chill dren among the vast maJorities that live from hand to mouth is due Ic the cause of poverty
 "Poverty." Is Mir. Spargo's vigorous declaratfon; "is the .Herod of modern cIviIization, and Justice is the warn ing angel calling upon Society to 'al ise and take the young child out of the reach of tho monsters wrath"
 The death rate varies according to the ao,.ial classes, as classes are rated ac- cording to wealth
 The death rate of London's Bethnal Green Is double that of her Belgravia.
 Paris Menilmontant rate double that of her Elysee.
 Tn Chicago the death rate is some thing like twelve per thousard in parts of the city where dwell the well-to-do to thirty seven per thousand in the tenement wards
 Dr Playfair Is quoted as follows: .susIebteen per cent of the children of che IInper classes, thirty-six per cent oe inc tradesmen class, and hfty-five Ger csht, of those of the working class s,s nnder the age of five years"
 Mir Spargo from statistics shows 4hat eighty thousand baby lives are onpualiy in our country sacrihced 70 poverty Eighty thousand oapies dle thal our country, the richest Tn the 1,orId might save by giving the right sort of help at the right time.
 'Tt is not only that 75.ooo or So.ooo A,a but that as many more of those ,1ho survive are irreparably weaken ~S and injured. Not graves alone but hosnitals and prisons are filled with yictims of childhood poverty"
 Pitiable stories are told of mothers ,,ho work at factories to support children who die at the tenement homes of neglect and want of a moth
 Pitifui stories are told of the hun wry chSldren who come to the schools unable to fill the mind because or nun ger of the body. Much of this Is ig- norance as the story of poor Patscy. who spent his pennies iss,Tod foF TaT tSat 4at in HIs.S Yortr alone 6O,000 children in the nnbi,o schoois are suffering from lack of food. when good food is ss supplied gg1 as at breakfast stations of the salya- s tIon Army, the stomachs accustomed to pickles. and coffee and bread refuse nourishing soup and warm milk and