New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-12-11
''|NDUSTR|AL|SM running
NATIONS MOTHERHOOD"
DefeCtive Children Due to
Women's Toll in Factories,
Says Dr.. SChIapp.
LEAGUE TO ROUSE PUBLIC
Commissioner Drummond Will
Speak at Meeting-"Thi
Country Lags Behind
Rest of World"

"Ten years in industry ruin a woman
for marriage. physically and mentally.
The large number of feeble minded chill
dren to-day is direct result of the over
work and overstrain to which the mothers
are subjected in the factories"
So says Dr. Max Schlapp. who is in
charge OF the newly created clearing
house for detectives. in connection with
the Department Of Charities
DR. Schlapp has studied eight hundred
defective children in the few weeks since
the clearing house was opened and in the
majority OF cases, he said yesterday. he
found that the mother Of the child was
physically and mentally unfit because she
was an Industrial slave. Such startling
discoveries have already been made that
DR.. schlapp thinks no time must be lost
in waking up the people of the city. es-
pecially the women.
The Woman's Municipal League IS
awake already. a meeting viii be held
tomorrow morning at the headquarters.
No. As East 18th street. for the purpose OF
srousing the public. Commissioner Drum
moud OF the Department of Charities.
pr schlapp and Mrs. Mary c. Dunphy
superlntendent Of the childrens hospital
and school at Randalls Island, VIII be
the speakers.
@Wrona to Work Women So Hard"
"of course. l don't mean to say that
evsrv woman who works in a factory
has defective children" DR.. Schlapp ex-
plalned Women are all right In some
factories where they have decent condi-
tons and REASONABLE hours. but these
are mighty few. There is no question
about u that when a woman stands for
hours WI machinery whirling about her,
grinding her nerves and crushing her
vitality. with insufficient food and rest.
she can't have normal children. They
may not al be feeble-minded In the first
generation. but the tendency is there.
The woman in industry has ofsprinss
who are nervous. say. They grow up and
resort to some drug 20 quiet themselves.
Their offsprings are neurotic. The next
generation is feeble-minded.
1T is a terrible thing 70 have women
work this way. Oh, II I could only wake
I'D those rich women in Fifth avenue
to the terrible conditions among the poor!
would have everybody in this city feel
response bic. Think of il. there are some
@oQ0 feeble-minded children in this city
today
England recognized twenty years ago
that II was cn6angering the race to per
nit women to work I'm the mines and
some other branchesh Of industry. They
have forbidden IT, but we only make in
esectUal Efforts TO regulate IT, Conditions
sse worse IN America than in any country
d the world What is a human life 70
IS compared with a dollar? We suck
Ill the blood out OF our women, then
throw them aside and get in new blood.
What care we? Business prospers. In
Gustnallsn Is the worst demon that ever
struck humanity.
Favors Widows Pension.
The tragedy Of it Is that women. who
are the weaker sex, get the worst treat
ment We ought to give them handicap
instead Of grinding them harder than men,
because they are more helpless. The
women with children ought 20 be helped
by the state. I am in favor Of a mothers
pension. If the breadwinner Of a family
dies the breadwinners Of the state ought
10 provide for the widow. ] am in favor
Of taxing bachelors for this purpose. Not
a small tax, either. large one"
The purpose of the clearing house is to
systsmatize the care OF the defective chill
dren Of the city who have hitherto been
treated in various clinics without any
supervision from any central authority.
no accurate history Of the cases has been
kept. The promoters of the reform hone
10 have a building Of their own soon. in
the mean time their headquarters are at
the Post Graduate Medical School and
Hospital. Second avenue and goth street.
The Won1an's Municipal League has
been making a study Of delinquent boys
1T Hillside Farm, in White Plains. Some
ten or twelve boys from the Chldren's
Court have been farming all summer, and
the league hopes 10 prove through them
that proper care and outdoor life will