Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-20
Text Of Hoover's Speech
Child Health and Protection Held Duty of Adult
Citizens-ResHlts Of Efforts Are Proved Sus-
cessfM by Decline in Mortality Rates.

Of the normal child: second, aid to the
physically defective and handicapped
child; third, the problems of the de-
linquent child.
Statistics can well be used to give
emphasis to our problem. One of your
committees reports that out of 45,000,-
600 children - 81, 100000 are reasonably
normal, 10000 are improperly nour-
ished, 100000 have defective speech,
100000 have weak or damaged hearts,
$4,000 present behavior problems,
100000 are mentally retarded, 382 900
are tubercular, $4,000 have impaired
hearing, $4,000 are totally deaf, 800, 900
are crippled, $4,000 are partially blind,
$4,000 are wholly blind, 100000 are de-
linquent, 100000 are dependent.
Millions Are Deficient.
And so on, to a total of at least
10000, 900 of deflcientS, more than 80
per cent of whom are not receiving the
necessary attention, though our know
ledge and experience show that these
deficiencies can be prevented and reme-
died to high degree. The reports you
have before you are not only replete
with information upon each of these
groups, they are also vivid with recon-
mendation for remedy. And if we do
not perform our duty to these children,
we leave them dependent, or we provide
from them the major recruiting ground
for the army Of ne'er-do-wells and
criminals.
But that we be not discouraged let
us bear in mind that there are SIS ,OOO,-
600 reasonably normal cheerful human
electronS radiating joy and mischief and
hope and faith. Their faces are turned
toward the light-theirs is the life of
great adventure. These are the vivid
romping, everyday children, our own
and our neighbors' with all their
strongly marked differences-and the
more differences the better. The more
they charge us with their separate prob
lens the more we know they are vitality
and humanity alive.
From what we know Of foreign coun-
tries, ! am convinced that we have a
right to assume that we have q larger
proportion of happy, normal children
than any other country in the world.
And also, on the bright side, your re-
| ports show that we have 100000 spe-
cially gifted children. There lies the
future leadership of the Nation If we
devote ourselves to their guidance.
Can Improve Lot.
In the field of deficient and handi-
and care can transfer them more and
more to the happy lot of normal chill
dren. And these children, less for
tunate as they are, have a passion for
their full rights which appeals to the
heart of every man and woman. We
must get TO the cause of their handi-
caps from the beginnings of their lives
| We must extend the functions of our
schools and institutions to help them
as they grow We must enlarge the
services of medical inspection and
| family doctor In their behalf, and very
greatly increase the hospital facilities
| for them. We must not leave one Of
them uncared for.
There are also the complex problems
of the delinquent child. We need to
turn the methods of inquiry from the
punishment of delinquency to the
causes of delinquency. 1t is not the de-
linquent child that Is at the bar of
| judgment but society itself.
Again, there are the problems of the
orphaned children. Fortunately we are
making progress in this field in some
Of the States through the preservation
for them of the home by support OF
their mothers or by placing them in
homes and thus reducing the institu-
tional services.
There are vast problems Of education
| in relation to physical and mental
health With so many of the early
responsibilities of the, home drained
away by the rapid changes in our mod
ern life, perhaps one of the most i'm
portant problems we shall need to meet
In the next few years is how to return
to our children, through our schools
and extra scholastic channels, that
training for parenthood which once
was the natural teaching of the home.
With the advance of science and adj
vancement of knowledge, we have
learned a thousand things that the in
dividual, both parent and child, must
know in his own protection. And
at once the relation of our educational
system to the problem envisages itself,
and 1t goes further. The ill-nouriShed
child is in our country not the product
ill-instructed children and ignorant
parents Our children all differ in
character, in capacity, in inclination.
If we would give them their full chance,
they must have that service in educa-
ton which develops their special quail
ties They must have vocational guild
ance.
industry Takes Toll.
Again, there are the problems of child
labor. Industry must not rob our chill
dren of their rightful heritage. Any
labor which stunts growth, either phys
ical or mental, that limits education,
that deprives children of the right of
comradeship, Of Joy and play is sapping
the next generation.
In the last half a century we have
herded SO, 900 900 more human beings
into towns and cities where the whole
setting Is new to the race. We have
created highly congested areas with a
thousand changes resulting in the swift
transition from a rural and agrarian
people to an urban, industrial Nation.
Perhaps the widest range of difficulties
with which we are dealing in the bet