The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-08-16
Give Child Best of Everything

This world is a nursery, not merely
for immortal souls, but for flesh and
blood babies Growth is its business,
growth. the only thing that it insists
upon. After we have done our own
growing our chief excuse for further
eXis tence is to make our babies grow.
Grown-ups could get along in tree
tops and in cages, but for the shelter
of the child, houses had to be invent
ed. There was only one room in the
primitive house and that was the nur-
sery. And the modern one ought 10
be run on the same plan. Cities, on
the other hand, were made to huddle
in for shelter against enemies or TO
do business in. Now the most urgent
demand of thoughtful lovers of their
kind is that they should be made
places to grow children in. And the
community would profit just as much
by such a change as the children
would Any place which is not fit 10
rear a child in is not fit for man or
a woman to live in.
The more thoughtfully We consider
our children the more deeply We will
benefit ourselves. That one phrase,
and a little child shall lead them,
sums up the millennium. The child not
81, h,,. to hn In, I,pt
he will bring out the best that is in
us. The race has made us what We
are-the child is the embodiment Of
the race and the debt that we owe to
the race We pay 10 him. The highest
debt. the most sacred obligation that
any community owes is to its children.
If business interests must suffer in
order that the child may be provided
with pure food. then they must suf-
fer If the growth of our cities will
be interfered with by insistence or
Fairgrounds and brea.h hing spaces and
well-lighted houses and homes, then it
must lie interfered with, no matter
what tax is necessary upon property
to provide school houses and parks
and Fairgrounds, and fair start in
life for every child, it must bear it.
After all, these things are but the
small dust of the balance compared
with the child. 1t was the chill, in
fact. and his care that started US up
wald from savagery and has kept us
from reapsing back into it ever since.
Only in educating and training ana
improving its children can the race
educate and train itself. All honor TO
Old age and to authority, but it is the
honor paid the child and the mother
rnat stamps the rank of civilization!
! Not only what the lace will be in the
next generation. but what it Is IN the
| present. depends upon its treatment OF
! its children. Run your house in tue IN
| te ests cf your children, run your bus
mess and see that everybody else runs
! his business in the interests of your
! children. Run your politics and your
government i'll the interests OF your
children and the world will become a
| Utopia within three generations. No
SACRIFICED too great to make, no sum
too large to demand for the proper
and intelligent care OF children. Thai
Lat ,,C will 1(
per cent every year, good or bad.
The supreme test OF civilization is
the sort of men and women it breeds
and the time TO influence men and wo
men for better or fer worse is in child
hood. Ii costs far more to raise and ed
ucate a child than it used to, but /
we are getting better child for ou
money, it is money well spent. Wha
else are we here for?
And we must spend more than mon
ey on our children-we must spent
ourselves and our time. 1; is no
enough simply to provide a good hous'
and plenty of food and substantial
clothing
It is a particularly good thing fol
a child to have two parents, one o
each kind. We fathers are far too APT
to echo piously the Hindoo proverb:
God could not be everywhere, so ht
made mothers" and consider that W,
have done our duty when We have
provided place and means for on
wives to take care of our children
Not only do We regard it as a waste
of time to take an hour or a halliday
from our sacred business and devote
it to the personal care of our children
but We have even come to feel that i
is something undignified, almost unmai
" and a fair game for ridicule to pla!
nursemaid to our own children in pun
&c.
BY common consent We place Jh'
d tense Of our country and the call o
D .-. I'D .I11-o oil nc -enpa1 and II