Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-23

Would De Ialal, anu the ODJecQon 10
charity on the part of parents
whose children can afford to pay,
however little spare cash there be
at home. makes 1t necessary that the
lunch be at least nominally self
sustaining. 1t Is, so far as food is
commemorative be even more so with
the central kitchens-and If every
child spent cents, the cost of serv
ice could be met as well. Thus far
the committee has made up the de-
felt. and in a few cases lunch tick
cts have been bought for particularly
needy children by the organized
charity societies. Several children in
each school earn their lunches by
helping to serve
The Improvement in the physical
condition of children who were sui
len or stupid during the afternoon
session. before the lunches. were
tried. leads their teachers to be-
lieve that the school lunch, simple
as it is. is their most substantial
meal of the day. It's advantages on
rainy or very cold days-for there
are courtyards In the schools suffi-
cient for exercise-are obvious
enough. The prospect of discontinp-
ing 1t is viewed by the teachers in
whose schools it has been tried with
something like CONSERVATION.
Why StRrve the Children
The only argument against these
lunches appears to be the general one
that such enterprises tend to reduce
the responsibility of parents. 1t
would undoubtedly be desirable to
have the lunch pay for itself, liter
ally, as it now does in theory, and If
it were made general, central kitchens
established, and the work kept as
free from graft as it has been under
the volunteer committee, this might
be DONE The fact that an average
expenditure of five cents would pay
for the lunches, even as now con-
Quoted, shows how narrow the mar
gin of deficit is. Some of the lux
uries," like sweet chocolate, could be
sold at a higher price. Two slabs
similar to the ones sold for cent
each in slot machines are now sold
for a penny, and the amount sold
shows how keenly the children appre-
ciate the bargain. But the theory
here is that wholesome sweets must
be made attractive in order to meet
the competition of the pushcart ped
dlers, whose wares, however .unhy-
gienic, often exhibit alluring size and
the colors of the rainbow.
So far as New York is concerned
there seems to be little In the
'pauperization" argument, inasmuch
as the city already supplies its public
school children with schoolbooks. The
feeling of those interested in the
lunches is that it is scarcely common
sense to spend millions for the edu-
cation of children's brains and moth
ing for the care of the bodies which
house the brains and keep them In
working order.
The Intelligence required to plan,
cook and serve attractive and whole
flty rnf C q c.
tonishingly rare among those with
whom the mere matter of getting
enough to eat is the most vital prob
lem of life.
A little of this sort of intellience
applied in such form as the public
school lunch goes a long way-both
in its direct results on the children
and, very possibly in its indirect
education of the mothers as to the
best way to prepare cheap and
nourishing food.
Lunches or Hunger-Whichs
The suggestion that this use of sur
plus intelligence should be withheld
on the ground that parents ought
not to be helped lest they never
learn to help themselves loses some
of it's force when confronted with a
growing generation actually suffering
any rate, If it would commend itself
strongly to anyone who had watched
a few hundred of these tiny Ameri-
cans pour downstairs at the noon
hour: crowd up in line to the sery-
ing tables with their trays in one
hand and their precious pennies tight
ly gripped in the other-or knotted
by some careful mother in a hand
kerchief corner, almost beyond the
hope of undoing-observed the busi-
ness like and discriminating air with
which they made their purchases, and
then seen them stretched down the
long board tables spooning away for
dear life at the nearest thing to a
square meal they get.
Nothing Vague About This.
The cheerfulness of the thing is
contagious-its economy of time and
effort-one well-run kitchen and
scientifically planned meal instead of
hundreds of badly run kitchens and
no meal at all--the feeling in the very
air. so to speak, that it's doing them
good" Many forms of helping the
less fostunate are expensive and
seem aimless and vague at best.
There is nothing vague about this,
1t is as immediate and concrete as
the sight of thirsty land drinking up
a long-delayed rain. Even were the
school lunch not to pay for itself, the
cost of 1t to the taxpayers would be
small probably, in comparison with
the money now wasted in equipment,
of which ill-nourished children are
not able to make use,-Arthur Ruhl,
in Golfers.
- nr ANNEngr A