Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-15
Opinions and Views
from the Exchanges
The Gold Lady of New hampshire

The Gold Lady of New Hampshire.
From the Kansas City Star.
Up in Northern New Hampshire
placid old lady, sitting in the Kitchen
of a farmhouse, was visited by the
man on whom the country's attention
has been centred for the last fort
night. II am Harry Thaw.' he an
nounced. He might just as well said
that he was Jones or Brown or Smith.
The name made no impression on
her. She knew what was going on
at West SteWartStown, and perhaps
she had taken mental fights as far
as Canaan, VT. But as to stranger
named Thaw from the great world
beyond-how should quiet body like
her know anything!
There are q good many persons
scattered over the country like the
old lady of Northern New Hamp-
shire. who live their quiet lives and
pay no attention TO what is going on
outside their own communities.
Occasionally one of them is moved
by some unwonted occurrence to write
a. letter of inquiry to the Star. only
the other day an apparently earnest
oIlestioner wrote to ask who received
the most votes in the Republican ma
tional convention, and whether there
were charges of fraud in connection
with the convention. Another letter
from a woman, who explained that
she was the mother of a large family
and had little time for public matters,
inquired what Congress was. NOW
and then somebody finds out that
there has been n war somewhere In
Europe or Asia in the last year and
writes to ask who has been fighting
and why.
Such incidents serve as reminders
of the way the great binding forces
OF steam, electricity and the printing
press have operated to develop such
thing as public opinion in the last
century. For a hundred years ago
the persons who really knew what
was going on in the world were COM.
paratively as few as the persons VINO
are I'm ignorance today.
1t is an important social develop
ment that eighty million persons
should be talking about the same
topic every day. This real commu-
nitv of interest over the country has
created the possibility for the quick
and effective expression of Intelligent
public sentiment working for the gen
eral welfare such as would have been
out of the question over such Ter
ritory only a few decades ago.
Our Maternal Government.
From the outlook
ANY mother understanding English
who wishes to be told In sample IAN
guage what every mother ought TO
know in preparation for the birth
of her child can have the informa-
ton py simply writing and mailing
a letter, as follows:
Department of Labor, Washington,
Dear Madam: Please send me q
copy of the monograph on Prenatal
Care Care of Children series No. ], |
bureau publication No. 4, Very truly
yours"
And eigning her name, with address.
This pamphlet, prepared by Mrs.
Max West. under the direction of
Miss Julia c. Lathrop, chief of the
bureau alone is enough to justify the
law PASSED a little over year ago,
establishing in the Federal Govern |
ment u Children's Bureau. If 1t Is
circulated and read as 1t ought TO |
be. an uncountable number of chill |
dren wLo would otherwise die will |
live, and an uncountable number of
children who would otherwise be UNI
happy and untitled for life because |
sickly or diseased will be healthy, |
happy and vigorous In this PAM !
phlct the government has made a be-
ginning of doing for the children OF
tile country what il has done superb
Nv for the country's crops and herds.
Through the Department of Agricul-
tura the government has acted as a
volunteer expert farm counselor or
consulting farmer. Through the
Children's Bureau the government is
now undertaking to act as sort of
expert home counsel or consulting
mother And, whatever one may
think of paternalisn in government,
no one car examine this pamphlet
without welcoming most heartily this
fora Of government maternalism.
The wide circulation of this pam
phlet can also serve a useful purpose
in giving the American people a def
mite idea, at least in part, of what the
childrens bureau really Is, and how
intimately this new arm of the gov
crnment concerns the lives of the
people themselves. During the period
when the bill creating the bureau was
under debate one eminent official high
in the federal government persisted in
calling it the child labor bureau. as If
it was to be devoted to the considera
ton solely of children i'm factories. I'm
portant as that aspect in the life of
children in America is, it is, fortu-
nately, only one aspect. The bureau
has to do with all the children of
America That the children need the
help that such a bureau can give is
evident from some of the facts stated
in the preface of this pamphlet that
Slightly more than AZ per cent. of the
infants dying under l year of age in
the registration area in 1911 did not
live to complete the first month of
life, and that of this AZ per cent.
almost seven-tenths died as u result
of conditions existing beforedhey We're
born or of injury and accident at
birth"
Population and Food supply.
From the Philadelphia Record.
An English scientist has raised the
old cry that population is outstrip-
ping the production of food, and that
in the not distant future, perhaps be-
fore the end of the century, posterity