Milford chronicle., 1923-03-30
THE CHANGING Child PRORLEM

average person inclined to think that Doverv dis
ress crime neglect and orphanage were part the natu
al order of things, like the currents of the ocean, the
movement of the heavenly bodies and the coming and
going OF winter and summer and that every year
not exactly fixed but regular proportion of trouble and
distress and poverty which had to be cared for and all we
had to do was elaborate social machinery agencies and
institutions to take of that particular amount which
existed in the community.
Today, within interval of only few years the
public mind fairly appreciates that the conditions and
facts which produce orphanage neglect distress and
ery are part of that complicated series of human affairs
which we call civilization; that they man-made; that
man can change them, and that man is changing them
twenty-five years ago." said Homer Folks in recent
address, city district committee charity organiza
ton nearly always had before it the case of the children
and the wife whose husband injured in an accident
That was substantial demand on private charity It is
perfectly obvious now, of course that the change in that
respect the introduction of modern wormen's compen
sation act makes vast change the number of children
who have to receive charity either their homes or else
where.
I'VE beginning to get the benefit of the things
which were undertaken in preventive line fifteen and
twenty 1t just about twenty years ago that
the movement for the prevention of tuberculosis was be-
gun wonder if of begin to understand the
many ramfcations of what has happened partic
lar field of chldrens work within last twenty years?
Unless we stop to think not realize that tubercu
had taken away the parents of half children in our
orphanages, has been reduced one-haIf.
The control of typhoid fever has a similar bearing
Every step taken by health authortes-by the state
and by the ocaityin reducing causes of death is step
in the reduction of the the chldrens orphanages
Of child adoption societies. of homendng societies and
juvenile reformatories."
Now, after two decades of intensive work for and
with the child beginning to reap the harvest of
better and more humane laws and to feel the benefits of
widespread effort in the direction of disease prevention
Yet today still have to face two main causes for
neglect of children.
The first is that neglect which the result of intem-
intemperance The second is that
which is due to mental deficiency mental lack or
he beginning of mental disease the part of the par
mt And making good deal of progress in those
wo directions The eighteenth amendment and our local
greatly reducing the actual use of liquor BY
he bulk of the people, which must result in marked re-
ucon in the number cases of that extreme neglect
children which leads to their from their homes
Through mental clinics and the examination of school
hldren we are finding Of mental disorder and men
al deficiency at an earlier period and instead remov
ng them from their homes after they become den
uent or for other may forward to find
them at earlier date caring for them as thew sbou1d
cared for and then they themselves will not be giving
irh later to children whom they will subsequently ne
lect.
Mr. Folks above quoted, is president of the National
conference on social work. and such is in close touch
nth every phase of child welfare work He SAYS 1--WE
actually diminishing volume of neglect but the
Increasing proportion which comes to our attention is
ealt with in somewhat wiser way. One used to read
this or that terrible of neglect of child look at
picture of the child and the account of the trial.
nd then at the end with what sigh of relief and salts
action, read that the child taken away from the
arents and committed to institution That is where
lie citizen stopped. Now we are looking it up
tile to how many those going at the front door
some private home institution, before long go out of
back door and back into that very home that very set
circumstances from which he had been rescued not so
cry long before"
He admits that this is not very effective wav of deal
with neglect and that the better method is to keep the
lid in the home wherever possible and carefully super
Sc its and treatment there.
The problem of the crippled child ALSO has changed
Id in this field the trend is that they should be taken
re Of cured, if possible their conditions improved
The first hospital for crippled children established
the father Of Theodore Roosevelt may read in
book by his sister, Mrs Robinson Fifty years ago we
ID two three hospitals for crippled children and they
equal to the demand But that was just the trou-
Neither the crippled children their parents in
way of demanding We do not stop to think how far
the workngman's family these agencies and how
tie he knows how to about it. and the fact that
does not know what to do he does nothing in a
eat many cases.
AS regards mentally deficient children we now know
definite and appreciable proportion of mental dis
bance and mental defects is based upon complications
accidents attending childbirth, and really adequate
ternal would reduce the mental disturbance
These some of the ways in which the child prob /
is changing and these changes are due in no small
results which have been secured through wise
patient dealing with the situation which faced the pio-
n workers in this field twenty-five years ago. It is
yng to know that such progress is being made in an
rt so vital to human welfare