, 1922-05-05
Investment in Humanity

June IN administrative agency OF
L the federal government upon which the hand of
budget c~urtailment has not been permitted to fan is
the ehldrens bureau. Indeed, under the present
administration it has been the policy to broaden and
to extend the work of this humanitarian agency. The
present congress has increased its appropriation for
the current fiscal year from $271 900 to 1911. 900.
In addition the so-caIled Maternity Act" passed by
the Republican congress and signed by Mr.. Harding
in November, 1921, creates n new division under the
bureau which will disburse $3.50, 900 during the cur
rent year and $1,240,o00 during the coming year.
The children's bureau has been fifty characterized
as "Uncle Sans greatest investment in humanity"
Certain it is. that a bureau which, according to the
act which created it, is to Investigate and report all
matters pertaining to the welfare of children and
child life among all classes of people" is striking out
a strategic field for citizen building. Its work will
be fruitful in dividends of a better nation in the next
generation. The children's bureau was created by n
Republican congress under a Republican president
The Democratic members of congress bitterly OPP
posed the bill creating the bureau largely because
they feared the work of the bureau in southern cotton
mills, turpentine camps and elsewhere. Southern
Democracy fought the creation of the children's
bureau just as it fought the enactment of the child
labor law. Failing to prevent its being created, the
Democratic party when in control of the Sixtyfourth
congress, made a fight against the bureaus continu-
ance, by the Democratic house committee on appro-
priations deliberately emitting any appropriations to
the ~childrens bureau. The Republican minority.
under the leadership of Representative Good. Repub-
Gcan, of Iowa, waged a fight on the floor of the house
for the appropriation by offering an amendment TO
the committees report. The Republicans contributed
practically all their voting strength in support of this
eHehumeht IN Ineir SOHO support OF II, Plus the
scattering Democratic strength it received. was
enough to save the appropriation. All but one of the
votes against the amendment were Democrats.
The bureau today is ~justifying its existence. At
present there are six divisions
The hygiene division has conducted extensive sur
veys of the health conditions of children in the vari-
Gus states, particularly those most backward. 1t has
sent into such sections its "health special" of trained
examiners who have studied sanitary conditions con-
corning child life, and in cooperation with state and
local authorities, have inaugurated needed reforms.
The industrial division of the bureau concerns itself
with child labor and the betterment of working con-
ditions affecting children. Such work is its own JUS
tification. The battle against child labor finds much
of its inspiration in this divson of the chldren's
bureau.
The social service division of the bureau prosecutes
its studies among delinquent and defective children.
It has contributed national leadership TO probation
work among children in cities.
The maternity division, the latest addition, allocates
among the states an annual grant for maternity and
child welfare. Since the present Republican congress
enacted the law and passed the appropriations, AZ
states have fallen into line, accepted the act and
created machinery to administer its provisions. The
two other divisions of the bureau are the statistical
and the editorial divisions. They prepare and dissem-
mate findings of Investigations conducted by the
bureau. The demand for this information is tremen-
dous and the amount of information furnished is
limited only by the funds provided for that purpose.
The fact that the bureau was created by a Repub-
lican administration. continued by the efforts of the
Republican members in congress during the Demo
cratic administration, and its appropriations increased,
its influence strengthened and its work extended by
the present administration has earned the warnest
appreciation from the laboring classes, from the
women and from those who are interested in and
devoting a great portion of their time and energy to
the Improvement of child life in the United States.