New-York tribune., 1911-01-15

In flItSDu1Sl JllCIC 10 lllC Neii'N
for Mothers, with four-year course
don't know what their degrees stand for'
Improving the Little Ones Health
THERE is a word that we hear a good
deal lately. 1t is "eugenlcs.' sup
pose that physical, mental, and moral de.
fects will gradually decrease as we STUDY
this science. IL
Take, for instance, the matter OF needless
blindness (obhthdlmia neondtornm, II Is
called, the trouble that causes nan the
blindness in the world, which can be cured
by dropping a solution of nitrate OF silver
into a baby's eyes during the FIRST three
days of its life.
Crede of Leipzig, the celebrated obste-
trician, discovered this cure as far back as
thirty years ago; but it remained for Helen
Keller, working through the New YORK
State Department of Health, to make the
distribution of these silver solution outtltS
free to every doctor in the State OF Ne"
York. Other States are following the eX-
ample, and when the light that shone IN
Leipzig illuminates also all the dark corners
of our dingy tenements, then we may nope
to see an end of needless blindness or the
beginning of the end. This curse that was
laid on the innocent because of the guilty
is about to be lifted. Thus does man com
bat even the curses of the gods.
Ellen Key, who is a wise woman OF Scan
dinavia, quotes in her book the following
dialogue from "The Lions Whelp' between
an older and a younger man:
THE OLDER MAN-"The next century will
be the Century Of the Child just as this century
has been the Wonan's Century. When the
child gets his rights, morality will be perfected.
Then every man will know that he IS bound 10
the life he has produced with other bonds than
those imposed by society and the laws. You
understand that man cannot be released from
his duties as father. even If ne travels round
the world? kingdom can be given and taken
away but not fatherhood.
THE YoUrH-"I know this"
This dialogue supplies Ellen Key with a
title to her book The Century of the
Child" The first right that she gives to the
child is to select its own parents; in other
words, The supreme right of the child that
it shall not be born in a discordant mar
rage" w
The second right she gives to a child is
the right to a home. In her chapter on
"Homelessness, the homelcssnesS Of peo-
ple with homcs,-She shows the real home
and the artificial makeshift.
"A good home is always cheerful says
Ellen Key; its affection real, not senti-
mental. No time is wasted in it by preach
ing about petty details, or pressing. Mother
and sister do not look shocked when the
small boy tells funny story or uses strong
language. LivelinesS, want of prudery,
which can be combined, so far as the femi-
nine part of the household is concerned,
with purity of mind and simple nobility,
are characteristics for which there can be
no substitutes.
Thoughtful people" she goes on, talk
a good deal about personality; but they
are. nevertheless, filled with doubts when
their children are not Just like all other
children when they cannot show in their
offspring all the ready made virtues required
by society. And so they dull their children,
rcpressing in childhood all the natural in
stincts which will have freedom when they
are grown. People still hardly realize how
new human beings are formed; therefore,
the old types constantly repeat themselves
in the same cirCle,-the fine young men,
the sweet girls, the respectable officials, and
so on. And new types, with higher ideals,
travellers on unknown paths, thinkers of yet
unthought thoughts, people capable Of the
cr;r,a of inar,pr,r9 ting new WAYS SI1Ch tVDeS