Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-12-04
STATE CONFERENCE
ON CHILD WELFARE
HELD At DOVER
Addresses Showing the Importance
of Caring for Health, Espc-
cially of Children.
DETAILS OF WORK DONE
Special Correspondence TO Every Evening

DETAILS OF WORK DONE
Special Correspondence TO Every Evening
Dover. Dec. 4.-The first conference of
Child Welfare under the auspices of the
State Reconstruction Commission con-
vened here, yesterday afternoon, in Dover
Opera House. Mrs. William III. Laird,
chairman of the commission, called the
session to order and extended greetings TO
the delegates She introduced Secretary
of State Everett &. Johnson as chairman
of the meeting Mrs Laird said in part:
ct is my happy privilege and pleasure to
welcome each one of you to this CON
vcntion, realizing, at tho same time, n
comfortable feeling of security in knowing
that we are bound together in common
bond of interest, that of children. We
have left the hurry and worry of our labors
to confer on this greatest of our State
problems the child We have been CON
sidering child problems from all angles
and have come TO this conference inn
pressed by certain facts discovered in
these studies Like Moses of old. we have
come to this Nit Sinai TO consider ques-
tions and methods Of procedure connected
with our work We can see our various
fields of activity spreading out below us
and can better define their boundaries
We may find out where they overlap, if
they should. and discover means to
Corolata or Join together IN closer union
al the departments of child welfare 4
few days ago n brilliant architect in VII
mington told me he had been doing jury
duty Of late His conclusions drawn from
his experience were these. That it is
useless to try to reform the criminal, but
that all ones energies should be given to
preventing crime and criminals, that ono
should correct conditions which make
criminals His viewpoint Of the hopeless
ness>of criminal reform is an unnecessarily
gloomy one. Tho statistics of those who
have gone out from prisons where prin-
ciples laid down bv Mott Osborne and
Dean Dircheway have been prac,ioed
show a remarkable percentage of reform
But the conclusions Of my friend we're
correct in that he felt the way to cure
crime was to prevent criminals from de-
velopng We all know the axiom that
water cannot rise higher than its surface
We may apply pressure at the source and
water will rise in Jerks and spurts, but
only for a time Our object in meeting
together IS 20 find methods 10 raise orr
work to higher level, and in order 10 do
this we must look 90 the sources or springs
~ power | bid YOU welcome, trusting
that we can all gain tho inspiration which
all of us need in this broad and most
interesting work Of training up the bodies
and minds and souls of the children com
mitted 10 our care. II occurs to the Re-
construction Commission that this first
Child Welfare Convention should tie pre-
sided over by the man who has long had
the vision for child welfare and little by
little has put stones in the foundation of
the slowly rising bulwark Of protection
for the children of the State The com
mission. therefore. requested the Hon.
Everett G. Johnson to honor the con
vention by presiding At this first meeting
Consequently. | take great pleasure in
presenting Mr.. johnson az chairman"
MOVEMENT PRAISED.
Secretary johnson paid tribute 20 the
work Of the Child Welfare commission
and expressed the belief that this con
vention would prove a red-lettcr day in
the State for thu advancement Of the
Child Welfare Movement. He predicted
that education and Child Welfare viii be
among the chief subjects Of consideration
at the coming Legislature. lie then intro
y
secretary of the National Child Labor
Committee, terming him the Children $
Statesman Mr. I1ovejoy's s1hbjeCt was
Foundation for Good Citizenship.
Mr.. Lovejoy declared that the general
public did not appreciate the new states
manship-the child. The safeguarding OF
the child is one Of the main things in
governmental affairs The trouble Is that
such things have been relegated TO the
kindergarten and the school The duty
of civilization. he said, IS the conservation
of its child life This is truly the Chill
drens Twentieth Century, and while we
as Americans people are too much engaged
in the humdrum and workaday life, We
must not fail TO become awakened to the
fact that the health OF our children Is the
one and all important thing Our great
trouble has been that we have waited
for something to happet before taking the
necessary steps of prechution or remedy.
We have relied too much on drugs, pre-
scriptions, operations and the surgeons
and have not given sufficient of our time
and attention to the needs and the wei
fare of the child Even as little State as
Delaware can turn out 100 per cent good
citizens. He referred to the condition OF
the men taken in the draft, showing that
20 per cent of the men had to be pushed
back. He also referred to the safe
guarding Of theslives of the people against
ire, against impure and exposed foods
drinking water, etc, all being put into
effect only after some great calamity had
visited the communities In which such
conditions existed.
Mrs. Ina J. Perkins, director of Child
Welfare, made report Of the work don,
during the year, showing good progress
She stated that in the legislation TO bC
asked for, one important thing would b,
request for travelling health centre FOL
those towns snarselY settled. where {