Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27
Continued From First Page).

training 1OT IlldIly years bCSoA %4&%M -
whole tendency is to delay the n. W .lty
of youth. in so far as reaching plane
Of self-support and family support Is
concerneS.
It now takes an average of IS years
to prepare properly physician, lawyer,
minister, teacher or an expert in the
field of business administration. It re-
quires also much study beyond that
period to provide the experts for the
trained services of our community life,
Our future safety will rest on the num-
Der of these we can find. train ade-
quately and put into service.
The child is acquiring a new signifl-
canoe with this extension of response
bility and opportunity. We are sens
Ing the values of the child in many
new ways. Our present democracies
are the result of a definite shift in
human thinking. The more imperial
istic conceptions of providing cannon
fodder and drudge labor through an
advancing birth rate. while still IN the
world, are of less significance. We see
in the proper training of the child
the opportunity for continued advance
In our social mechanism. We see IN
the failure to give such training the
crashing of our hopes and the degreda-
ton Of our opportunities.
Use of knowledge Is Uneven.
Great advances have been made In
every phase of the handling of child
hood from conception to maturity
But there is a very uneven use OF the
knowledge we possess. President Hoover
In setting up the White House confer
ence on child health and protection has
brought together a group of seveIal
hundred experts to consolidate the gains
4. L. 10 d. tan
dren in the years that have gone by
and to map out the next great cam
paign which will move us forward.
One man alone-Pasteur-thr through
his discovery of the relationship of
micro-organisms to disease, did more
for children than any one is ever likely
to do again. Before his discovery, all
children had to pass through series
of tragic and dangerous periods due to
infectious disease, many OF them now
known to be preventable. We are free
from many Of the terrors that kept
mothers In anxiety and filled the cene-
teries with little collins. and We can
now extend the range of interest and
assistance to children to many other
fields. The White House conference
will begin with the beginning and ex-
tend through to maturity.
One of the sections of this conference
will study the whole question of medi-
cal service for children. DR.. Samuel
Nice Hamill is chairman IF this section.
Another, under the craftsmanship OF
Surg. Gen. Hugh S. Cumming, will
study the Public Health Service and its
administration, with subcommittee
specializing on communicable disease
control and milk production and control
Training to Be Considered.
The education and training of the
child will be the subject of third sec
| ton of the conference. DR.. F. j. Kelly
| will head this study. Separate groups
will consider the problems of family
and parent education, the infant and
pre-school child, the school child, voca-
| tional guidance and child labor, rec
reation and physical education, special
classes and the problem of youth out
side of home and school.
Problems presented by the handi-
capped child will be studied by fourth
section, under the craftsmanship of DR.
| G. c.. Carstens. The State and local
organizations for the handicapped will
be investigated and other subcommittee
will seek ways of bringing relief to the
physically, mentally and socially handi-
capped and the delinquent child.
The participation of the conference
| in the domain of health Is of vital i'm.
portance. This will form, necessarily
much of the basis upon which results
| for the child are to be obtained. The
| conquest of the various diseases, while
well on it's way, is far from complete
Each day the unselfish, patient workers
| in the laboratories of the world are
providing more and more information
which can be put to the service of the
child in the prevention OF disease anc
| in the relief of those who are i'll.
| More significant, perhaps, than any
| thing else is the new conception which
our people are developing of health as
a source both of wealth and happiness
The former conception of illness as un-
avoidable and due perhaps to acts OF
F., Providence is rapidly passing from the
public mind We are conscious more
and more that disease in child means
| that something has gone wrong which
need not have gone wrong.
Nutrition Is uldamental.
| The nutrition of the child is funda'
mental to health. With the decrease II
| the capacity of the human mother x
nourish her infant, there has come the
| compensation of accurate studies or
| other forms of feeding. The bottle-fec
| child lacks certain qualities that come
| from the mothers breast, but can still
| be vigorous, strong and resistant to dis
ease. The relationship of nutrition K
sunshine and to proper food is now suf
| hciently understood so that diseases such
as ricketts, no longer need occur, anc
| tuberculosis is subject to control. We
/ can provide vitamins from known
sources in foods and can, to a consider
able measure, even with our present in
! complete information, understand anC
deal with deficiencies or exaggerations ir
the physiological action of the variou.
and powerful glands of the body.
There is no glory that approximate:
| the glory of a perfect child, perfect IL
body, mind and mental reaction. 1t Il
| sad, indeed, that we must face In oul
country the misery of the blasted child
| damaged perhaps before birth in body
or in mind, or damaged by disease later
| We cannot escape the fact that we
have considerable number Of menta
| culls and physical culls to be considered
as part of our child population.
In so far as we can see. there vii
| always be a certain number of idiots
Of subnorma1 children and of the deal
and the blind. Nature does not always
| evolve a perfect product with any OF its
! living organisms. but study and con-
! troll of habits. of parenthood and 81
eugenics can reduce to lower levels the
human misery associated WIFI GLleSe
| types. There will always be accidents
| to human beings. Legs and arms will
be cut of, heart valves will be damaged
by disease, nerves will be paralyzed
even when the child starts with nor
NAL foundation.
Must Salvage the SubnOrmal.
With our concept of human life as
something that must be preserved at all
costs for the longest possible time, we
face the problem of salvaging those who
are below the normal level. One of the
great problems before the White House
conference will be to see how far this
salvage work can go and how it can be