The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-04-01
MOTHER THE ONE SUPREN:
ASSET Of NATIONAL LIFE
Roosevelt Addresses Congress Of
Child Life in Washington.
MORE HONoRED THAN VETERANS
President Condemns Brutality Of Men
Toward Women and the Women
Who Fail in Their Duty of Moth
erhood-MaTine Band Plays.

WASHINGTON. D. c. The White
House was the scene of the formal
opening of the FIRST International con-
gress on the welfare of the child IN
der the auspices of the National Moth
ers' Congress. The zoo 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 War veterans, because, he
said, n 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 more 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 condl-
ton, but there is no other society
which I am quite as glad to receive
as this. This is the n body thai l
put even ahead of the veterans of the
Civil War; because when all is said,
it is the mother, and the mother only,
who is a better citizen even than the
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 we'll as a more important po-
sition, than any successful man IN 1t.
mo scheme of education, no secla.
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 SUI
fcient number of children, so
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 trirmphs
of science and industry will avail to
save the race from ruin and death.
The mother is the n supreme asset
of national life; she is more i'm
portant by far than the successful
statesman or business man or artist
or scientist.
Il abhcr and condemn the man
who is brutal, thougntless, careless,
selfish, with women, and especially
with the women of his " house
hold. The birth pangs make all men
the debtors of all ONE 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. / abhor and
condemn the man who fails to recog-
nize all his obligations to the woman
who dooc her duty