New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-03-06
CRUELTY TO CHILDREN
Handicaps Worse than Beatings, DR..
Wise Tells Colony Club.

Every child has a right to be well born" said
the Rev. Stephen :. Wise IN 2 talk on The New
World FOR the Child" At The Colony Cub EesteT-
DAY morning The child born OF an oFeTWoTheo
,1rdernsla father isn't vel born The child born
OF a mother who cannot give i her time for the
first months at least Of its life is not well born
Cruelty 10 children IS not the cruelty OF the
father who beats the little one, but the cruelty OF
the system which robs the child Of the child's
birJhright-
Every child has right TO be well housed The
child born into dirty tenement-and 1 use the
word dirty advisedIy rather than unsaniJary- that
child doesn't have square deal. People talk
good deal about bad environment The phrase
has an impressive Larvinian sound. and doesn't
give Us any unpleasant sense Of responsibility
say tenement and instead - heredity7 I say
'ovarworked. undergrad parents Children have a
right to play IN good, clean fashion The state
must choose between Fairgrounds and gangism-
Fairgrounds and prisons.
The child has right II il seems delinquent
say seens-not TO be classed with chronic offend
Our prisons are bad enough for men They
place for child.
1T is necessary that the state should deal radi-
caly with certain problems-that it should stop
tinkeTing and 60 10 the root"
DR. Wise said that instead Of the new world"
he would prefer 10 speak Of the newer world for
children" The industrialisrn," he said.
meant many wrongs and unchildlike duties for
children. The newer industrialsm Is beginning to
see that II IS quite IS important 10 conserve the
child as IL is 10 conserve the rivers and forests
Child labor, The term is a paradox. for when the
child labors il ceases n he a child We are con-
fronted to-day with this tragic 6on5ition-on the
one hand unemployed men. on the other employed
children and the men have TIE right TO work and
the need. and the child has = right To its child
hood
Speaking Of the care Of fatherless children. Dr..
Wise said that the time would come when the
state would give bounty 70 every widow and de-
serted wife
Don't be afraid Of 'raternalisrn, 90 he said
There Is paternelisrn now. but IT IS the wrong
kind sort ef step-ps1ernalisnn- People argue
that every has the riEht 10 egislate for him
self Yes. bur can the woman legislate for her
seif-can the child Women and children are not
citizens. and the least the state can d. Is 20 pa
te-nslize them
In the newer world for children the state viii
protect them by safeguarding the fathers. Now
factories and mines murder men by the hundred
thousand. We make orphans and think We have
done al that can be expected when We thrust them
into barracks called an asylum. The mother Is
rewarded by having her children taken from her
She cant be compelled 10 give them UP, can
sheg" asked woman IN the audience
No" said Dr. Wise. quickly. but when q
mother must choose between starvation for her
children and an asylum she is likely to choose the
latter Il would. however, cost The state no more
70 for fatheTless child in its mothers home
than 70 for il IN asylum"
Dr. Uise's lecture was the opening one OF an
extension course Of ten upon The Public Care Of
Children TO be given Mondays and Fridays at
the Colony Club. The New York School Of Philan-
thropy IS cooperating with the committee on 1T
ersture and an OF the Colony Club in these lectures