Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-03-18

The recent dance given by the Daughters
os 1919 at the New-Century Club was for
the benefit of child welfare work IN Della
yrare with the result of a neat little sum
reaI;,ed for Miss Marie Lockwood's de-
partment of nursing.
The splendid work accomplished by
Miss Lockwood as chairman of the child
welfare department of the Delaware
Federation of Women's Clubs is very
modestly and concisely given in the re
port she has made before several of the
state clubs recently.
In this report, Miss Lockwood says, in
part:
CHILD WELFARE (ANp WHAT II MEANsl
You are hearing great deal IN Della
ware about subject that we term Child
Welfare" This term is one that embraces
a good many phases of children's work,
and has many subdivisions. The main
divisions are child health, education,
labor, recreation, dependency and deln-
Quency, but as my topic Is health, | shall
cOnfine myself to its consideration.
These big divisions dealing with thous-
ands of the little citizens of our state,
should be n regular function of some State
department, either specially created
Department of Child Hygiene, or OF the
Department of Health. 1t should be
adequately financed and placed under the
guidance OF experts.
We could say much on each OF the above
named divisions for the betterment OF
Delaware childhood, for Delaware Is no
exception 10 the rule in the immediate
need of redoubled efforts to protect Its
youth. The health of Delaware children
has been found questionable Every
other State that has been intelligent
enough to look after this big interest, has
found itself staggered with the immensely
of its task, but l. know of no State turning
its back on il, when once undertaken, and
Delaware will not be satisfied with what
il is doing now, when | tell YOU OF the
limitations we arc obliged to observe on
account of lack of money. Our children
are lust as dear TO lis In Delaware, as they
are to Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania or any other State.
The infant death rate in Delaware,
while disputed figure, is alarming, to
SAY the least. For every 1000 births,
Delaware is losing more babies than any
other State. About 1000 babies die in
Delaware every year and 200 are still
born. This is a disgraceful toll.
My special interest In talking TO you, IS
nv knowledge of my own State and her
people. When once you know facts, you
VIII 1plp GTiuttdtH iitIil ouI SN<hbiStAtS CbA II
enormous figures of physical disability and
mortality as we now have. | know IN
speaking to group like you. that | am
talking to the thinking people of Della
ware So, let us be frank with each other.
Child welfare nurses are busylng them
selves with all ages of children, but today
the subject will be limited TO our school
children and their needs.
HEALTH AND THE SCHOOL CHILD.
In the "pre-school period" the child
is considerably neglected The helpless
ness OF the little baby calls attention to
MS needs, but the Older child falls be-
tween the baby and the school child,
where be or she becomes unwillingly neg
lected. This age is from one to five years.
In Massachusetts,, the death rate of this
group annually is about $500 children.
The community as a whole Is not awake
to its duty In seeing that physical educa-
tion is available for its little children.
Everywhere II seems to fall upon group
of interested persons or organizations to
furnish a demonstration of the value of
educating the State and municipality to its
obligations.
1t is soin our own State. We have such
groups here in Wilmington and through
out Delaware. The Visiting Nurse Asso-
citation supported by voluntary subscrip-
tions, has for several years, visited the
homes, instructed prospective mothers,
instructed and demonstrated infant feed
ing and given bedside nursing TO limited
number They also have examined,
school children, gathered them
10 clinics and physicians.
Now. the Delaware child health centers.
and the newly establishe school physi-
cians in Wilmington, and their nurses
and the proposed physicians and nurses
for rural Delaware, are to work
hand In hand on an enterprise that
means much for the future citizenship OF