Weekly journal-miner., 1916-05-31
BETTER PARENTS THEN BETTER
 BABIES
ONE OF THE AIMS OF CHILD'S WELFARE CIR GLE TO BE ESTABLISH ED IN THIS CITY.
(By Miss Mabel Bradt, Organizer of
 Child Welfare Circles).


 Precious little-in comparison with what there is to know, according 10 Miss Julia Lathrop, who for three years has been in charge of Uncle Sam's infant crop.
 And why?
 Largely-primarily-because of the indifference of parents.
 There are many millions fathers and mothers in the United States, in cluding many of the best educated fathers and mothers. who have never read a statistical table and never will. Yet hidden within the figures of the bureaus reports on infant mortality, the reading of which they will sue cessfully evade. lie stern facts about the dangers which besct American babies.
 These figures give clew to tte reasons why, on the great average, one baby in eight dies before the end of the first year of life. They show that this average obscures wide gamut, with comparative immunity from infant loss at one end and with fearful waste at the other.
 If the children's bureau is to inves- tigate and to report as the law directs then it must try to find ways of re porting which will be heard by the whole public which it was created to serve.
 The popular methods Of Baby Week. arc invaluable by reporting to the parents of this nation those starr dards of infant welfare which expert' are endeavoring to make clear. "Tne Baby Week." emphasizes the con structive side of infant care. It ad- dresses not only individual parents but communities The best test of it's value will be the work that follows 1t. But above all-better education for parents.
 The world has never doubted as a matter of sentiment mat mothers devotion is an inexhaustible, precious force. We have failed to see that ii could be strengthened. made more ei fective. by the same means which 'n crease a mans effective value - bv specialized education. This is colos- sal task No other specialized educa ton applies to such vast numbers cf persons of such varied circumstances. Why do we need to make a study of the family?
 We do not understand life at tie source. nor the reasons for its known wastage, nor how to economize the health and well-bcing of the race E" minimizing this wastage. The sub feet is regarded with such fatalistic indifference that we do not know how many children are born nor how many children die. nor why they dir in our own country. while the moro intensive knowledge Of infant well being which would enable us to e. tablisn convincingly its relationshi? to social well-being and to the recti- tude and intelligence of parents is yet to be secured and analysed.
 We know strangely little of the growth of the child's mind. Not long ago the advice of a distinguished alienist was sought as to the practical value of studies of the mental devcI- opment of normal children in earliest infancy and during the years before the school and the outside world di- rectlv affect the child He replied that such studies are of the highest value, that their primary usefulness as aids in working out the best home train ing of all children, goes without say ing; and that naturally enough he thought of them as especially needfrl because of the light they would throw on the bafAing questions with which an alienist wrestles in dealing with the history of mental disaster. Suca studies can only be made by aid O. the observations of individual moth CTS.
 Is it not complete revelation oi the unconscious relcgation Of the pro cesses of human development to the limits of instinct that while there are perhaps 13O00,O00 mothers in this country there are at present writing about one-lalf dozen studies of the growth of the child's mind (madc by mothers and fathers jointly), and in attempting d plan for such studies, the one great difficulty is present, to find a competent director.
 I do not propose d small thing nor a cheap thing in urging that the pres cnt status of the education of women demands new specification to he signaIized by the creation of center of higher study and research in the service of family life. It means thC greater endowment of trained minds set to the task of working out the eX pedients. of which that profound ma terna1 instinct, rc-enforccd by intelii gence. may freely work out the des ting of the young of the race.
 It is no less than revolution whic, is implied. Its aim is to give the work of the woman head of a house hold the status of a profession.