Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-03-11
ADDRESS ID MOTHERS
President Roosevelt Speaks to
 Gathering at White House.
TALKS ON ANTIRACE SUICIDE
Executive Says Good Woman Is the One Who Rears the Average Num-
 ber of Children - Gives Views on School Playground and Child Labor.


 School Playground and Child Labor.
 Washington, March 11.-"This is the one body that put even higher than the veterans of the civil war;" was the remark of President Roosevelt in receiving delegates to the Congress of Mothers at the White House.
 The president made the occasion a decidedly more formal reception by having the Marine band in attendance and his military and naval aids in full uniform.
 The president said in part:
 I 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 betterment of our social and civic condition, but there is no other society which 1 am quite as glad to receive as this. This is the one body that I put even ahead of the vet erans of the civil war, because when all is said 1t 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 genera ton, Is of greater use to the community and occupies, if she only would realize 1t, a more honorable as well as a moro important position than any successful man in 1t.
 No scheme of education no social atti- tude. can be right unless 1t is based Fundamentally upon the recognition of seeing that the girl is trained to under stand the supreme dignity, the supreme usefulness, of motherhood. Unless the average woman is a good wife and good mother, unless she bears sufficient number of children so that the race shall increase and not decrease unless she brings uR these children sound in soul and mind and body-uniess this is true of the average woman no brilliancy of genius, no material prosperity, no tri- umphs 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 important by far than the successful statesman or business man or artist or scientist.
 l abhor and condemn the man who Is brutal, thoughtless, careless, selfish, with women and especially with the women of his own household. l abhor and con denn the man who fails to recognize all his obligations to the woman who does her duty. But the woman who shirks her duty as wife and mother is just as heartily to he condemned. We despise her as we despise and condemn the sol dier who finches in battle. A good wo- man who does full duty is sacred in our eyes. exactly as the brave and pa- triotic soldier is 10 be honored above all other men. But the woman who. wheth- atA Aal,, having a false and vacuous Ideal, shirks her duty as wife and mother earns the right 10 our contempt, just as does the man who from any motive fears to do his duty in battle when the country calls him.
 want to ask your assistance for two or three matters that are not immediate | ly connected with the life in the family l itself but that are of vital consequence to the children. In the first place. in the ! schools see that the school work is made l as practical as possible. For the boys 1 want to see training provided that shall | train them toward and not away from 1 their life work: that will train them to- ward the farm or the shop. not away | from it. With the girl see that 1t is not ] made a matter of mirth that the girl | who goes to college comes out unprepar- l ed to do any of the ordinary duties of l So. in other words. that ] with the higher education which she . should have-for she should have a right ] 10 just as much education, to just as . high an education. as any man-see that . with that goes the education that will fit i her to do her fundamental work in the world. As regards our public schools especially. I want to put fin a special word fin behalf Of the right kind of play grounds. No school is q good school if it has not a good playground.
 You cannot have good citizens, good men and women of the next generation f the boys and girls are worked in fac tories to the stunting of their moral. mental and physical growth. Wherever he national government can reach it should do away with the evils of child labor. and trust this will be done but much must be done by the actions of he several state legislatures and do. each ,f you. in your several states all that rou can to secure the enactment and hen the enforcement uf laws that shall put a stop 10 the employment Of children ,f tender age in doing what only grown people should do.