The Washington times., 1918-10-24
Poverty and Disease Their
Cruel Harvest

Year after year children die needessly by the thou
sands tens of thousands and hundreds Of thousands in he
great cities wherever Poverty and Disease do their work
unchecked
In an this world with an its accepted and approved
k7ble conditions there is nothing more dreadfu tnan
dis regular, hdeous murder Of children
Year after year there is made sacrifice OF child LIE
NAT puts Herod's feeble killings to shame.
One single great city contributes its hundreds OF need
les deaths every week Wherever little children are
crowded together overheated, underfed surrounded by
poverty ignorance and disease, death is at work.
is useless to talk of the needless suffering that comes
Of these tens Of thousands of needless infant deaths The
physical suerngs of the mothers that brought the ch
ren into the world and the greater mental suffering OF
Door helpless watching their children die have BE-
much matter OF routine that 1t Is tnesome In
pertnence to speak Of them
: But surely, from the purely COMMERCIAL point Of
view it ought to possible further interest the people
in the possibility of stopping the useless slaughter
After all a human child HAS its value CERTAIN
value even if it is of the cheapest Of human products
The country depends for its prosperity on its population
and the work done by individuals And every child need
esy sacrificed represents actual money loss to the ma
nna Of money which has already been spent on the
child and the loss of his future earning capacities
The Government of the United States maintains an ex
pnve combat the diseases Of PIGS and COWS and
sheep Millions spent to prevent excessive mortality
among these animals.
If an American citizen pig horse q sheep, his
Congressman acting on behalf Of the Government viii send
him books telling him how to take care Of them ne sus
poets that his has tuberculosis Government agent viii
promptly examine It for him.
Another Government bureau of more recent organize
cu looks after the welfare Of children Its appropriations
for expenses do not compare favor with those for care
Of animalS
The other day over one of the great railroads there
into great American city trainOad Of "freshair
children with their mothers.
Some benevolent agency exercising its benevolence in
fits and starts had taken the trainOad OF suffering human
beings for day In the fresh air.
As they got the railroad station their return
journey and started for their homes it possible to
view that most pathetic parade of the neglected and pow
ryhunted children that fills every year the great grave
dug by Poverty, Ignorance and Disease
The poor little children carried in their hands small
punches Of green thngsfaded flowers and weeds
that they had picked in their delight at meeting Nature
face to face
The mothsrs-tired, underfed worried and worn out
with too much work. too much care too many children
struggled keep the little together carrying those
young to walk losing their tempers sometimes with
There was little girl seven years old perhaps carry
ing with great effort child nearly half big herself
Many were crying from fatigue all were more or less mis-
cradle after the pathetic attempt to brighten their lives
with temporary change and short experience OF fresh
ain
There were hundreds of them, and safe to say
at for each child present there needlesy dead
and safe also say that of the scy undered army
many would be missing within year.
The deadly indifference to this useless destruction of
child life Is the most horrible feature OF CIVILIZATION
Civilized people view with horror the brutality of savage
life with its cannibalsm and tortures. Kropotkn ngy
2ebuked the czees that shut their eyes their moral
deficiencies:
"If these same Europeans were to tell savage that
people extremely amiable fond of their children and
mpressonable that they cry when they misfortune
simulated the stage are living in Europe within stones
throw from dens In which children die from sheer of
food, the savage, too would not understand them"
The above quotation taken from page 104 of Kopot
kn's admirable work. Mutual Aid Factor of Evolution
The writer in explanation of world wide hard hearted
quotes the saying Of the Russian peasant sone houses
make stony hearts"
But is not money palaces of stone that make
Indifferent to the deaths of many children sacrificed
neelesAy
Our trouble is individual concentration upon our own
comfort and especially lack of imagination
Each one Of is quick enough to sVmuathize with anv