The Penn's Grove record., 1908-03-13
MOTHER THE ONE SUPREME
ASSET OF NATIONAL LIFE
Roosevelt Addresses Congress of
Child Life in Washington.
MORE HON0RED THAN VETERANS
President Condemns Brutality of Men
Toward Women and the Women
Who Fail in Their Duty of Moth
eriOod-Marine Band Plays.

erhOOd-Marlne Band lay
Washington, D. c. The White
House vas the scene of the formal
opening of the first international con-
gress on the welfare of the child un-
der the auspices of the National Moth
ers' Congress. The 200 delegates
representing all the States and Terri
tories and a dozen or more of the
leading countries of the world were
received at the White House when
President Roosevelt delivered an ad-
dress to them, in which he declared
that he placed the society ahead of
the Civil Wa veterans, because, he
said, in the final analysis it is the
mother only who is a better citizen
than the soldier who fights for his
country.
The President made the occasion
decidedly mor than an informal re-
ception by having the Marine Band
in attendance and his military and ma
val aids in full uniform.
The President said in part:
Il receive many societies here in
the White House, many organizations
of good men and women, striving to
do all that in them lies for the better
ment of our social and civic condi-
ton, but there is no other society
which l am quite as glad to receive
as this. This is the n body that l
put ever ahead of the veterans of the
Civil War; because when all is said,
it Is the mother, and the mother only,
uyL~ g., n ho{fo, as4i1@r o-o Tho, tho
soldier who fights for his country.
The successful mother, the mother
who does her part in rearing and
training Alright the boys and girls who
are to be the men and women of the
next generation, is of greater use to
the community and occupies, if she
only would realize it, a more honor
able, as well as a more important po-
sition, than any successful man in it.
mo scheme of education, no social
attitude, can be right unless it is
based fundamentally upon the recOg-
milton of seeing that the girl is
trained to understand the supreme
dignity, the supreme usefulness OF
motherhood. Unless the average
woman is a good wife and good
mother, unless she bears a suf-
LCl0uC uumD6T Ol CulluISu, 81
that the race shall increase and not
decrease, unless she brings up these
children sound in soul and mind and
body-unless this is true of the aver
age woman no brilliancy of genius,
no material prosperity, no triumphs
of science and industry will avail to
save the race from ruin and death.
The mother is the one supreme asset
of national life; she is more i'm
p~ortant by far than the successful
statesman or business man or artist
or scientist.
Il abhor and condemn the man
who is brutal, thoughtless, careless,
selfish, with women, and especially
with the ONE of his own house
hold. The birth pangs make all men
the debtors of all women. The man
is a poor creature who does not
realize the infinite difficulty of the
woman's task, who does not realize
what is done by her who bears
and rears the children; she who can
not even be sure until the children
are we'll grown that any night will
come when she can have it entirely
to herself to sleep in. l abhor and
condemn the nan who fails to recog-
nize all his obligations to the woman
who does her duty"