Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-10-01
|CHILDREN'S CROSS.
Is Heavier and Harder to Bear
Than the Misery of Either
Man or Woman,
W. |. BODINE TELLS HEARERS
Makes Some Statements in His Leo
ture That Go Right to the Point
Without Mincins Words.

The first in series of talks on phil
anthropic movements under the aus
pices of the Tri-City Social Service club
was given last evening at the Y. NJ c.
A. auditorium by w. l.. Bodine super
intendent of compulsory education in
Chicago, who spoke on 1.-THE Cross of
Childhood" Owing to so many counter
attractions the audience was not large
but those present listened to an inter
esting and very instructive talk on
child rescue work. Rabbi Fineshrei-
Der, president of the club, spoke of the
object of the organization, and of what
the members are trying to do, and then
presented Mr.. Bodine.
The speaker scored bandit literature
and exhibited a number of firearms,
knives and lurid-backed James Broth
ers periodicals taken from hayward
boys in Chicago. He said the nickel
library was the first reader in crime,
and declared that cheap yellow litera-
ture created hOld-up men. Backward
pupils and defective children, discip-
line and ungraded rooms were also dis
cuSsed. He read some statistics on
child-saving work in ChinagO, New
York, Boston and elsewhere, and de-
clared that Illinois leads the world in
child-saving work. Rock Island, he
said, is big enough and broad enough
to do its duty in the fight for good cit
izenship.
ChiId's Cross Heavier.
His remarks, in brief, were as fol-
lows:
He who has seen the misery of man
only has seen nOthing-he should see
the misery of woman. He who has
seen the misery of woman only has seen
lnothing-he should see the misery of
childhood.
This is truism of Victor Hugo
| 1t was true yesterday. 1t is true to
day. 1t will be true tomorrow and
world without end, unless more active
public interest is awakened to respond
to the cry of the children. Theoretical
reform is sham. Basic causes of tru
ancy and delinquency should be re
duced to the minimum. Child labor
must go. Compulsory education laws
should be enforced without fear or ia
vor in every community against la,
Iparenthood
| Parents Often to Blame.
| What we want in this country i!
fewer institutionalized children anl
more Americanized parents. Many o
1.-THE children in the corrective and char
titable institutions are merely the pa
thetic sequels of fathers failures ant
mothers mistakes. Arrest and fin,
fathers and mothers if they don't sen,
their children to school. Put them il
Jail, if necessary. AS a result of 20
prosecutions of this kind in Chicag
THAT city has the lowest percentage o
truancy based on total enrolment. O
any metropolis in the United States
You have the same law in Rock Islam
Why not enforce it?
Too Much POsterfty.
"Mis-mated individualism in matr
mony is responsible for many of tn
tragedies of childhood. Stormy home
that are mere Kilkenny batteries ofte
cause children to become delinquen
The orphan asylums resound with til
sad chant of children, whose father
did their drinking in private and rec
ing in public, until at last they sta.
gered to the grave where alcoholism
claimed its own. Our marriage law
permit epileptics, moral perverts an
e. i
the defective children who bear
tainted heritage. Inconsiderate an
limprovident marriages. with inovitabl
large families and small incomes al
prolific of social harm We have to
> much prosperity among the rich an
? too much posterity among the poor
| the childless home among the MAJ
| sions and the homeless child anon
l. the tenements. Sociology and tt
2 study of economics is progressive pc
1 agOgy, but practice is better than tn
Tory; prevention better and cheap,
than ours. We have the new age ar
the new woman-but not the he
man. 1t is the same old man wi
\ follows Father Adams line of defen
and puts all the blame on the woma
r if the children go wrong. We ne,
e, more of the father heart, as well
the mother heart in the care and ed
) cation of children.
Burned mt Both Ends.
Al Modern industrialism is encoura
} ing the employment of children al
II women and refusing work to m
over 45 years of age. This is burni
II the candle of life at both ends-fo
ing children's productive years prem
n turely and driving older adults in
Is dependency. What we want in O
factories is the closed door for ct
T. dren and the open door for adul
Is according to ability and not age. I
lie competitive life tinkles in the ears
X old men like the bell of death.
" Competitive commercialism b
k brought prejudice against adults
;, preference for women and children
:, especially girls who will work che;
-, The girl problem is destined to be