The Coconino sun., 1916-03-17

| crime. we point q nnger or ScOrn aC him and speak of him as a criminal, simply because we have made laws for him to obey, with which he has never had the mental abilities to grasp. The taxpayers have to bear the expenses. The life history of female that should reach womanhood can better be imagined than described. Now you can see, hope, what friend nature is to us. The community and all concerned would have been much better off had the individual died in infancy.
 I am trying to bring to your minds very forceably that you may the bet ter understand the remedy that l may suggest further on. When we seek to understand what the founders of our Republic meant when they said that all men are created equal, we at once have to come to the conclusion that they intended to convey the idea that all white men are created equal, for we know it to be a fact that more than one signer of the Declaration of Independence was slave holder, therefore they intended to say that all white men are equal. But as civiliza- ton has progressed we now look upon all men as an immense brotherhood. Am l my brothers keeper? was asked many ages ago. say you today that you are your brothers keeper, and the sooner you recognize that fact, the better it will be for all mankind. It is no longer theory but fact and from what I have related above you can readily see that if you do not re- cognize your fellow man as brother, you have to suffer the consequences, directly or indirectly.
 It is a pretty hard thing to say; but as things stand in our beloved country today it is better that we do not de- crease our infant mortality, and when we take into consideration the classes where the infant mortality is highest it would be better for all concerned should we increase it; for then it would not jeopardize the life of our better children so much. Our christ tian teaching and understanding does not permit us to dispose of the prob lem in any such manner for it tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and had that maxim been put into effect when it was given to mankind, the question of the conservation of our babies would not be with us to- day. How do we intend to lessen our infant mortality. The only solution is the one that has ben offered for years and years. Do away with poverty! Of course the task is an immense one; but if the women's clubs throughout the country would take the question under consideration l have not the least doubt but that in the course of ten years it would be very perceptably diminished. never see hungry man but what 1 think what a blot it is upon the escutcheon of our christian civilization. It is useless and uncalled for. Very frequently he is the father of a family, and what must be the fate of that family? Perhaps his father before him was in the same condition as the man himself, and did not know what it was to have full meal until he reached manhood. Then it is too late to feed them. His body and mind are both underdeveloped and he knows on other occupation except the one in which he is engaged, that of begging. He may appear to be big and strong and you will say that he does not want to work. Remember my friends that he has the mental development to engage in only the very simplest occupations and makes very poor hand at them and when it is taken into consideration that there are millions in the same condi ton as he, our problem seems the more appalling.
 Who is to blame for this condition? The ruling classes throughout the ages. Simply because they failed to carry out the injunction, love thy neighbor as myself. Who is my neighbor? All mankind.
 Now the first thing for the better ment of our babies and the reduction of our infant mortality is to see that every family in our land has suffi- cient food, then we will have in a very short time stronger and a bet ter baby and our infant mortality will automatically lower itself.
 l We have based our faith on indi- vidual liberties and we see what a deplorable condition our country is in today, judging from our mortality