The Sauk Centre herald., 1930-12-04
PRESIDENT MAKES
His BEST ADDRESS
Mrs. MOynihan Tells of Inter-
esting High Lights on
Conference
WORK TO BE DONE
Better Safeguards to Assure
Health of Child's Mind
and Body
Mrs. A. F. Moynihan)


The White House Conference on
Child Health and Protection was
opened by President Hoov- /
er on the evening of Nov. 10. Con- /
stitution Hall was the scene of the /
meeting. 1t is beautiful building /
given to the Nation by the Ladies /
of the D. A. r. decorated in royal /
blue and grey and seating about ]
three thousand people.
The boxes were filled with not
ables in uniform. and decorations,
with ladies in gorgeous evening
dress while the main floor seated
the 1900 delegates and their guests. /
For half an hour during which /
the audience assembled, the United
States Marine band directed by
Captain Charles Branson played a
delightful and varied program of
popular music. At nine o'clock
sharp, Rev. A. J. Mccartney, of the
Church of the Covenant, in Wash
ington, gave the invocation which
was followed by a short address of
welcome by DR.. Ray Lyman Will
bur, secretary of the Interior, and
chairman of the Conference.
Then followed the opening ad-
dress by the President. Many peo-
pie who had heard Mr.. Hoover on
other occasions said that it was the
best address he had ever given. He
has rather monotonous voice, a
cold passionless delivery unconvinc-
ing to the listener and tiresome as
a rule.
On this occasion, however, he
apparently thoroughly enjoyed his
subject and brought to it a kindly
understanding as father and
grandfather and wealth of exper-
fence acquired in his relief work
during the war. In five sentences,
he summed up his views of child
hood.
I'VE approach all problems of
childhood with affection. Theirs is
the province of joy and good hum
or. They are the most welcome
part of the race, the sweetest, for
they are fresher from the hands of
God. Whimsical, ingenious, mis-
chievous, we live a life of appre-
hension as to what their opinion of
us may be; a life of defense against
their terrifying energy; we put
them to bed with sense of relief
and a lingering of devotion. We
envy them the freshness of adven-
ture and discovery of life; we
mourn over the disappointments.
they will meet"
president Hoover declared that.
the purpose of the Conference was
to set forth an understanding Of
those safeguards which will assure
children health of mind and body.n
He paid a fine tribute to the moth
erhood of America. Speaking as
a man and father, he said,
Our country has vast maiorc-
lty OF competant mothers am not.
so sure of the majority of conpe-
tant fathers. But what we are con-
cerned with are the things that are
beyond her power. That is, what
Johnnie and Susie take on when
out from under her watchful eye.
She cannot count the bacteria in
the milk. She cannot detect the
typhoid which comes through the
faucet, or the mumps that pass
around the play ground. She can
not individually control the instruc-
ton Of our schools or the setting
up OF community wide remedy for
deficient and handicapped children.
But she can insist upon officials
who hold up standards of protec-
ton and service to her children.
She can be trusted to put public Of
hcials to the acid test of infant
mortality and services to the chill
dren OF the town. That is, when
you set her some standard to 90
by"
Then, speaking as public official
he said:
II we can have one generation
Of properly born, trained, educated
and healthy children, a thousand
other problems of government
would vanish. We would insure
ourselves Of healthier minds in
more vigorous bodies to direct the
energies Of the Nation to yet great
er heights Of achievement. More
over, a good community nurse will
save a dozen future policemen"
Using the figures collected by the
various committees, he declared
that out Of 100000 children in
this country,
35,OOO,O0O are reasonably normal.
100000 are improperly nourish-
ed.
100000 have defective speech.
1,0O000 have weak and damaged
hearts.
675,000 present behavior prob
lens.
100000 are mentally retarded.
$4,000 are tubercular.
$4,000 have impaired hearing.
$1,000 are totally deaf.
100000 are crippled.
$4,000 are partially blind.
1900 are wholly blind.
10000 0aredependant.
100000 are dependant.
or about ten millions of defic-
tents, more than eighty. per cov,<