The Washington herald., 1911-03-19

| To be civilized or not to be civilized
! That is the question that is sQuareiy pre-
sented to this twentieth century.
! Whether it is better TO conserve the
home as carefully as the pigsty. or
whether those pitiful little strangers
! that first see the light of day in dirt
and poverty shall be allowed to straggle
! back into that bourne from which no
! traveller ever returns, by a world too
! cruel. careless, and Unthinking to guard
! the chief sources of its prosperity.
| In an economic age this latter thought
may have its appeal. The worlds work
is growing greater year by year. Where
Il century or so ago the chief concern of
! d na.lon was to have enough men to
Vanquish its neishbors, the problem of
| the future will be to secure enough able
| bodied citizens to run its factories, it's
| railway trains. till its fields, and do all
| the other manifold things that are neces-
| sary to keep a hundred or so millions OF
people alive.
OF all the problems of the present day
! this is the biggest. the most vital, be-
cause it concerns the l.fe and happiness
or every inhabitant of America 1t goes
| closer home than any other issue, be-
cause it concerns every nome itself 1t
may, indeed, be termed the conservation
| OF home.
Pigs Given More Care.
When the value of a years crop of
babies is computed it makes the years
| crop of porkers seem insignificant. Yet
| every year the pigs are being more care
fully protected from cholera and other
diseases which mean losses by death.
Few people realize that the average
Inc nF inf 18th &c
estimated a little more than a year ago
by the National Conservation Commits
sion. Therefore, if it pays to protect
pigs it must be many times more profit
able to safeguard human beings, because
mighty few porkers are worth more than
a twentieth as much as the average
baby.
Considering that it takes human in
fant about twenty years to become profit
able on a commercial basis, it may be
realized that by the time it has reached
that age it represents a considerable in
vestment. Estimated on cost and earn
ing power, the youth of fourteen is worth
5000, and one of twenty is valued at
zoo.
From this it can be seen that other
things are rising besides the cost of liv-
ing, and that human beings are increas-
ing in value as fast as the food they
cor sumo.
Wherefore the conservation of the
home" if that be taken to mean the
elimination of preventable deaths not only
of infants, but of growing children whose
economic value is constantly growing
as they increase in age, is rightly placed
first among the issues of the day. No
other represents so much money. So
important is it that some California ex-
perts, who have brought it into national
attention, would tax the imported labor
that will compete with our homegrown
babies in order that parenthood might
be encouraged.
A Crop of Babies.
On the average about 100000 babies
are ushered into America every year,
figuring on the usually accepted basis of
thirty-four per thousand of population,
SO that the crop is worth s279. 100000 to
start with. In fourteen years, II there
were no losses from death, It would rep
resent a value of sSS7, 900, 900 900, and in
twenty years $916,000. 100000. These fig
ures make. all others look small. Utterly
insignificant beside them seems the value