New-York tribune., 1916-02-23
NEW YORK'S HUMANITY TO CHILDREN
Boston Investigator Pays Tribute Our Suppression of the
Abuses Of Adoption and Baby Farmmg-Ihe Situation
Here Far Better Than 1t Is in New England.

were hardly more fantastic than the actual
conditions discovered several years ago by
Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly in baby farms in
New Hampshire just over the state line from
Massachusetts,. II is not difficult 10 Kill an
in fant. Nor is the motive far to seek. When
baby-farmer accepts lump-sum of 500 and
lets the mother disappear: or when the
mother pays the childs board weekly for al
time and then vsnishes and cannot be traced,
it is cheaper to kill the baby than to 20 on
feeding it.
Do you wonder that facts like these.
vouched for by the secretaries of the Boston
5. p. c. c., the Children's Aid Society. the
Chidren's Friend Society and two officials OF
the Massachusetts State Board Of Charities,
seemed to indicate a condition probably as
serious in New York in New England q
Ny late foray cor iasco. if you prefer was
suggested by a distinguished editorial writer
who recently rounded out fourteen years IN
New York City 1t was encouraged by New
York daily and watched with eXpectant inter-
est by a widely informed socologist connected
with the Chidren's Bureau at Washington,
which is conducting an extensive investigation
of ilegtimacy and although no conclusions
are as yet definitely announced, has turned
up sufficient data to give more than mere
local Importance TO what has come TO light
in New England Evidently. them the mag
nifcent child-saying work going on IN New
York City is sadly unknown to outsiders,
shamefuly unknown 10 most New Workers.
New York State has laws that bear down
heavily upon any one who attempts to get
rid of a baby. There must be an appearance
before constituted authorities. Under penalty,
there must be a satisfactory explanation. This
puts stop to adoption advertisements in the
newspapers or with exceedingly rare excep-
ticns it does. They invite official interfer-
ence, at once thorough and severe. Several
years ago such advertisements occurred IN
German-Americsn newspapers. The authorl-
ties quickly ended it. As for printing "All
Babies Adopted" on the stationery Of ma
ternity home anywhere in New York State,
K would be madness.
The greatest friend of New York Cty's
babies. however is the Society for the Pre-
vcntion of Cruelty to Children. Most New
Yorkers seem TO imagine that II busies itself
mainly with bothering chorus girls who cannot
prove that they are sixty years old. Others
think it is merely organization that
avenges crimes against children. Drop in
some day. and see.
They will show you the chamber Of horrors,
which is something like hardware shop and
something like an arsenal-crammed with
knives, hatchets, scissors, and even firearms
that have been used on child victims. They
will show you the innocents' gallery, with its
photographs of poor, abused little wretches
still bleeding. But the thing they show
proudly is the file of baby-farm documents.
In New York City every baby-farm must be
licensed by the Board of Health and the
board Immediately reports it to the 5. p. c.
c.. which investigates minutely and keeps an
eye on that baby-farm ever after. Not in the
- q 1
higher perfection. This prevents any possible
abuse of the babies II affords relief TO the
aby-farmers in case Of trouble. If mother
stops payment and disappears the baby-farm-
er brings the infant TO the ). ?. {. {.
New England means we'll on the whole. For
the things done officially in Massachusetts,
have respect amounting TO admiration.
And yet, with the law II Is, adoption ad
vertsements continue, and with the system
as il is. there are abuses that escape oftcal
notice until too late, not only in Massachu
setts but in other sections Of New England.
BY comparison New York City shines. ltI
is what friend of mine called it, fa~ and
away "the best baby town" can only
apologize for suspecting it of maintaining a
traffic in babies II is town where, II you
pick up sick or crippled infants as a couple
in Eighty first Street are doing, the doorbell
rings every few minutes and authorized in
spector pops in, looking for trouble; you are
spied on, bounded. Don't imagine | regret
the personal experience of coming over to-
New York with fire in my heart and blood in
ny eye and finding nothing to attack. tn ugh
see the colossal joke of it. In less solemn
mood than the present, could say, Brethren,
the burrs are on me. Words fail me TO tell
how many" ROLLIN LYNDE HARTT.
Brookline. Mass, Feb. II. 1916.