Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1915-12-16

-Four years of Latin and what
good does 1t do me now!" cried a
tired young mother, and she endeav-
ored to restrain the tears that seem
ed determined to overflow. Baby is
fussy and cries most of the time.
she continued. land get no rest day
or night. We can not afford train
ed nurse. The doctor helps when he
comes but he cannot stay all the
time, l am so discouraged. What
shall / do?"
Hundreds of young parents are
asking this same question each day
and finding it hard to find satisfact-
DRY answers. They have plunged in
to matrimony and parenthood with,
out any, raining whatever and now
find themselves face to face with the
hardest problem they ever tried to
solve;--that of keeping an infant in
good physical condition, with the re-
sultant steady proportional growth
and happy disposition.
Notwithstanding the fact that con-
siderable has been said in the past
few years favoring educated parent
hood, there is still an inclination on
the part of many, to cling to the ola
idea that maternal instinct and moth
er love are sufficient to rear the
human species satisfactorily.
But 1t is generally conceded that
1t takes number of years of study
under experts to teach boy how to
raise baby animals in exactly the
right way, that Is. unless the breed
er of live stock is satisfied with herd
of scrub stock.
Even in poultry raising one is adj
vised to study the business long and
earnestly so that no mistakes will be
made. You see mistakes might
cause the loss of many chicks by un-
timely death.
But the big business of baby rails
ing is sadly neglected. Even the
Federal Government carefully doles
out its scanty amount of available
literature ON this subject in painful
contrast to the startling profussion
of its distribution of all sorts
of pamphlets on every conceivable
subject PERTAINING to money making,
or live stock raising which are sent
free of charge to both interested and
uninterested people in every part or
the country
Wealthy Iowa, a state progressive
enough to maintain research stations
in the interest of horticulture and
animal husbandry could not spare
sufficient funds at the time of the
meeting of the last legislature, to
finance a similar undertaking for the
benefit of the human family. So the
babies must get along a few more
years without the benefits to be de-
rived from extensive study of the
child.
But although both state and ma
tional government has been slow IN
recognizing its opportunity to i'm
prove the kind and quality of its cit
izenship, enterprising publishers are
sensing the need of the people and
supplying articles on child rearing
in popular magazines, and life insur-
ance companies are distributing
quantities of good literature on THE
Care of the Child" as a matter of
business. But as / said before, 1t is
still hard to make people see the
need of educated parents, or make
them understand that mothers can
learn from books.
A member of one Child Improve
ment Circle says she has several
times been referred to. saccastical-
ly, as "the woman who raised
her baby by book" Now no one
can raise baby by one book, for no
one book will contain sufficient
knowledge to meet all the needs of a
baby. A book is written to help many