Vashon Island news-record. [volume] (Vashon, Wash.) 1919-1954, 1920-06-24
THE WORTH OF A CHILD

In publishing the above poem
from the pen of Rose Trmbull
we desire to call attention to an
idea which has been clinging to
our pen and asking for utterance
for several months. Not that we
believe the developing of pedi-
greed chickens, and calves, and
colts, or prunes, and peaches, and
pears with ancestral names have
received too much attention, but
that we believe too little atten.
ton has been given to the stand
ard of the coming mcn and women
Nlo are to lie i'll the centuries
that lie before and beyond us.
How much is a man better
than a sheep '-excl;.imed the
great Teacher two thousand years
ago But is there as much time
spent on the average child in the
average home by the average
father-as the average father
gives to his sheep, or his hogs, OF
his flock of white birds? This is
a sad arrangement if it be true,
and who will honestly rise and de.
ny its truth?
Men will subscribe for farm
papers, and read each line with
care, but what man gives much
time to the perusal of an occasion
al page dealing with the early
education and trainging of the
boy or girl in that home?
Pestalozzi, the great Swiss
teacher, and the founder of oul
modern popular system of educa,
ton, knew the value of a child
and in all his letters and instruc,
tion he emphasized the importance
of the child over everything else
AS a result of such a life came
Froebel the founder of the present
kindergarten system, who was a
pupil of Pestalozzi. Under his
teaching, the child came into a
place of recognition, and the kin
dergarten idea rapidly spread
throughout the world.
We have our registry book of
shorthorns-but where is our reg
istry book of poets and painters
We have our Observation-Disclosures
association, but where is the socie-
ty for men and women of science
and music-to pass an official
test" and thereby become eligible
to registry?
We trapnest our leghorn layers,
but who can and will trap nest
the kind deeds of the small boy,
or the number of roses the little
girl carried each season to the
sick and the infrm?
The editor of the News-Record
was prosecuting attorney of one
of the Idaho counties, and had
occasion to know some of the
criminal law of that state. 1t is
Ia fact that now, in the state of
Idaho, it is a worse offense to steal
"a pig or calf, than it is to steal
IA child. The penalty is more Sc
we're. To steal calf is punish
able up to IA years. of imprison-
ment and to steal a child is pun
ishable up to ten years only. Is the
child of less value than the calf
We expect to see the women who
are at last enfranchised, correct
some of these glazing incongrui-
ties, and take the lead in things
which build and mould boys and
girls into good men and women,
instead of yammering their heads
off, as the men have been doing,
about "Americanism" and the
'Old Flag" and a lot of other
senseless noise which really means
nothing more than sounding brass
or tinkling symbals.
People scof at meestry-but
blood tells. People may ridicule
the family tree-but they will
boast of their Cruikshank line of
Scotch shorthorn cattle, and grow
eloquent describing a Holstein
COW which bears the ode kol"
prefix to her maiden name. What
is good for a COW should be good
for a child. Are we not of more
value than many sparrows? While
there may be many noble families
with a long line of ancestral
breeding-which viii occasionally
furnish son or daughter to sad
don thp life and haart II 10 olso