Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-08-25
Give Them a Chance

"Somebody's baby is sickly and i'll,
Losing his youth in the shop or the
mill,
Stunted and rickety, listless and
white,
Robbed of his birthright of laughter
and play;
Wasted as though by a whitening
blight,
Somebody's baby is fading away.
Swiftly they die while this evil en-
Somebody's baby-it might have
been yours
George Fitch says, 1.-THE human
scrap heap is the despair of the
American municipality. 1t is COM
posed of criminals, invalds, ignor-
ant and unequipped workers, pau
pers, degenerates, loafers.
1--WE are beyond the age when this
scrap heap of failures can be charg-
ed to the individuals that make it
up. 1t is not a scrap heap of fall
ures, but one of failure-the failure
Of the state to protect children-the
pitiful waste in the manufacture Of
citizens from babes.
"Child's welfare is not a fad or
philanthropy. 1t is the highest
form of bushes and yields the rich
est returns to the state"
August is almost gone. When
ably count it's remaining days on
one hand. What plans have you
made for the children who should be
in school this winter? Abe you
familiar with the house and the
environments that will be theirs
when they assemble in the school
yard and take their places in the
rooms their grades demand? Will
they have teachers who will live.
not lust talk about the good, the
beautiful, the true? Will their
lunches be just what they can
snatch from an untidy breakfast
table and stuffed in a paper bag,
or will they be nourlshing food?
1t is up to you to be better
mother in that line than you had:
If you do not know nourishing food
learn now. If your mother did the
best she could Tor you prove 1t by
doing your best for your children.
Your husband gives his stock a
balanced ration.
Women had plenty of responsible
ity before the ballot was given US,
but now we have the power as well,
and cannot sit with folded hands
and whine. We really could not do
that before the ballot was, ours, but
many of us did. Parent-Teacher as
sociations, women's clubs and of
ficious old maids" as some who got
stirred up called them, did a Won
derful work in the past, but they
can't do all the work all the time.
Remember when you see blea1
eyed, depraved creature, an element
of the human scrap heap, that some
body had a chance to make some
thing out of that creature in earlier
years and failed to live up to his or
her opportunity. Back of that fail
ure is ignorance or Indifference, lazi-
ness or brutality. Send the children
to school if you have to wash and
patch every night. Send them tc
school if you have to do without snuff
and tobacco, and to some parents
that would be the supreme sacrifice
I have watched and studied this
problem in many lands and under all
sorts Of conditions. I know that hui
man nature, parent nature and child
nature. are the same everywhere. In
the cities, villages, country, the line
Of least resistance is easiest and
when children prefer anything rather
than school it's a daily task to get
them started. But something is
children do not want to go. They are.
as a rule, gregarious creatures and
they may not want to study but they
generally want to play together.
When child says 81 don't want to
&C to school," the e is something back
of it. Find out what it is. When
we were little children my brother
and [ were frequently allowed to go
to the store late in the afternoon and
had the pleasure of going home with
father. Once it rained while we were
there and my brother had the time of
his life walking in the water. We
do not have real mud in Florida AS
it grew late father said, "You two
must run along home, 1 don't know
how late l may be-"
My brother hung back, again as
he saw we had not gone, he started
us home. Usually we were obedient.
was ready but would not go alone
and when father finally saw it was
my brothers unwillingness he stood