The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-15
FOR CHMDREN'S
 MAGMA CHARTA
Anniversary of the Barons Over King John Marked by
 Move to Protect All Children.
ANNA ROCHESTER,.

This week is the 7Ooth anniversary of Magma Charta, when the barons or England in conference with King John on an island in the Thames se- cured from him the first general bill of rights of the English people And now there Is group of people-not barons but plain Anericans-who say that We ought to celebrate the ami versary by drawing up a new charter setting forth the rights and needs of childhood-a ChiIdren's Charter.
 They tell us that thousands of cl1il- dren are not having a fair show in this country, and that for every one who is pampeFed and spoiled by pros porous. over-tndulgent parents there Is at least another who never has enough to eat, whose home is de- mora1ized through poverty or drunk enness or vice, whose parents are un- able through mental defect or through overwork to give it proper physical or moral care, whose educa- ton is neglected or iH-suited to it's needs
 The People Behind it.
 In short. they say. now that certain principles enunciated in Magma Charta. have been woven into the fabric of our political institutions, 1t is high time we should turn our at tention to the special needs and rights Of childhood.
 
 concertfng group and what do they. know about the actual needs of chill dren in America today7 The first to present the subject publicly was Roger N Baldwin, of St. Louis, a for mer probation officer of the Juvenile Court in that city, The man who has given more time and thought to the matter than anyone else is Ed ward N. Clappers the National Child Labor Committees secretary for the northern states He has taught in private and public schools, and as superintendent of schools in% Porto Rico did pioneer work in industrial l training, He has studied children in Industry and has had several years experience with delinquent children as superintendent of 8 c11ildren's s House of Refuge
 Then there is C. c Carstens of the Boston Society for the Prevention Of Cruelty to Children, a man of such breadth of view and detailed under standing of chfldren's problems that his report at Baltimore last month as chairman of the children's committee of the National Conference of Chart ties and Correction has been called an epoch-making document to be compared with only one other event in the forty-two years of the confer ence's existence
 Miss Julia c. Lathrop, chief of the 1us the charter is needed and indorses the proposal to draft one. Dr. P. F., C1axton, United States Commissioner of Education. has promised to help with the educational sections. It would be impossible to name all the the leaders in the field of child vel fare who have shown their interest in the charter.
 To Promote Co-Operation.
 The concrete way in which they propose to help the children is to promote cooperation and greater eff ficiency in all efforts toward child welfare. They are not proposing a panacea; they are not starting an other child welfare movement They merely want to survey the entire field of chiIdren's needs and clear up the principles on which the activities of they arious ctiIdren's associations ought to be based The breadth of the field is suggested in these words of MT. C1opper's:
 "A wholesome childhood really touches every phase of social life. If the child is to be well born there must be insistence upon physical fitness for the marriage license. Prenatal influences must be sound and health full and the mother must be protected from improper work conditions be- 1 fore and after confinement The de- velopment of strong physique in the growing child requires pure milk good food, fresh air and sunshine doing away with all the dangers that now threaten the period when infant mortality is at it's height.
 Problem of Recreation.
 After infancy we come to the problem of recrea ton. An education al experience begins at an early age with the vexed questions of child psychoIogy, and the right relation of cultural subjects and elementary in dustria1 training. The tremendous problem of dependency touches on one hand the whole question of in dustrial Justice and on the other the difficulties of ensuring to each child
 whatever his economic status, a nor nal childhood with home and school training"
 Having surveyed the field and es- tabHshed the principles on which we | should base our efforts, it is hoped
 that the charter may set forth these
 principles, so far as they concern the
 state, in a standard outline for 1egis- 1 1ation. Ohio, in her Chi1dren's s Charte is the only state which has
 any codification of her child welfare laws. In other states these laws are
 scattered through the statute books
 som etimes contradictory, usually in i coherent and never complete. As MT
 Homer Folks of New York said at l the last child labor conference: stIn
 New York we have consolidated and
 classified statutes. yet if anyone asks l what are the state laws affecting | children, no person in New York of 1 any position can without consider
 able research answer the question: l The benefits of the chiIdren,s
 charter will not be confined to this clearing up of the principles on l which this organization and that l committee should base their work | Tn fact inc friends of inc charter a ra inclined to believe that it's greatest
 value may lie in the simple fact that
 it will encourage cooperation. The | drafting of the charter, which must l be in itself a cooperative effort, will l teach workers in the various fields to
 think of their work as a part of a 1 larger whole. The relation, for in 1 stance. between the school attend