The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1921-08-26
BUILDING FOR FUTURE

When a hundred members of a community no larger than is the
white population of Maui gather together in conference to discuss
subjects connected with social welfare, it is highly crcdhablc to the
community and a clear indication of the progress Of these times.
When those subjects are child welfare and the juvenile delinquent.
as was the case on Maui last week, the occasion becomes more than
ever worthy of notice.
Social welfare workers are builders for the future, their mate
rial is human lives and the cdificc which they are building is the
social structure of the future. 1t is a work for which the compcnSa-
ton is to be found not in rewards in the present, not in any per-
sonaI ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, for the dividends in good citizenship will be
Child welfare work as it is being conducted ON Maui is to be
especially commended. and NIauis methods arr = shining cvorrlo IN
the rest of the territory, for this county spends more money and the
money is spent to better advantage than in any other part of IIa-
waii nci. The county is far more liberal in its cypondturcs than arc
the others and the board of volunteers who handle its distribution
are conservative, painstakng, careful persons and conduct the af-
fairs of their board in a busincssike manner, and yet without the
cold calculation which is too apt to be found in organized charity.
Giving of aims is likely to work to the disadvantage of the re-
cipent and the community, promiscuous giving encouraging idle
ness and discouraging sefreiance. But the child welfare board of
Maui renders assistance in a way that is designed to lift the rcGpi
ents Of the aid given from dependence to independence. It's records
show a splendid degree of success along such lines.
Where it is possible to bring a child up in clean family associa-
tons it is, generally speaking, far better than institutional training
though orphanages are none the less necessary and are deserving of
the Warmest and heartlest support. But Keeping the little family
united, the mother with her children, the little ones at their mothers
side, saves many and many a heartachc, sigh and tear, is an incentive
to continued and continuing effort and a preventive of discourage
ment. Such is the work Of the child welfare board supported by the
public funds of Maui. How far better it is to assist those who will
struggle on toward independence than to label them "Paupers!'
The subject of Juvenile delinquency is one just beginning to at
tract the attention it deserves. It's the salvagng of human material
which without attention will destroy itself and undermine the struc-
ture of society. The attention it is receiving ON Maui is encourage
ing, but here, as almost everywhere else, we are behind the march
OF progress. 1t is a subject that requires deep and constant study
not only of individual cases, but of child psychology, psychoanaly
sis, physiology, hygiene and biology, and leads on into the study of
eugenlcs. DIR. loag has truly said the task is to find the pre-deln-
quent i'll the schools. Then it becomes the task to find the cause and
fl be not congenhal, to remove it and to bring the subnormal child
back to normaity.
Here, as elsewhere, perhaps more than elsewhere, there will be
found great numbers of cases where the subnormal and later delin-
quent child has been condemned to subnormaity and delinquency
by the mating of improper persons, and there comes up the subject
that in a generation or two will be recognized as the aIIimportant
problem, and not until it is solved will be removed the chief obstacles
to social progress.
Those working in Maui are the advance guard merely, the pio-
neers who are blazing the way, and there is cause for community
pride in that there are so many of them, and those so interested and
active.