Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-09
D. S. IS CHALLENGED
ON CHILD ILLNESS
Wilbur Cites Importance Of
White House Conference
In Forum Address.

these children have communicable dis
eases, with . large annual death rate,
and communicable diseases, 1t has been
proven, are to q large extent prevent
able. Three, to i've million are suffer-
ing from handicaps- deafness, blind
ness, Gripping or mental deficiencies
o good per cent of which, it has also
been proven, can either be prevented or
ameliorated. Eighteen thousand die OF
accidents, and accidents, Of course. are
preventable. Two hundred thousand or
more pass annually under the judgment
OF courts.
There exists in this country. II
brought to light and applied, sunicient
let us say, three-fourths Of these ills
that I have mentioned. Think Of that
first in terms Of your individual homes
and families, your children or your
neighbor,s next door and across the
street, who died of typhoid or diph-
liberia or were run over by automobiles.
And think that that need not happeni
Multiply that hopeful possibility by
hundreds Of housands-Fnillions Is
not that possibility significant enough
10 arrest the attention Of the whole
Nation7
Recalls Floyd Bennett Service.
4 Do you remember when the great
aviator Floyd Bennett was Ill with
nneumonia In Canada and o certain
serum was needed as q last resort to
save him? How Col. Lindbefgh new
with the doctor to take the serum TO
him? And the anxiety Of a whole
country new in that plane with Lind
bergh. When 1t comes to one whose
life or happiness concerns Us deeply
there Is no miracle Of help too great to
call into service. If we knew that help
was available and we had no means
70 secure It, 1t would seem to US the
greatest Of calamities.
Our laboratories are richly stored with
remedial knowledge which Ia falling,
maybe SO per cent short Of the use to
which It might be put-falling short
because people don't know about It. or
because they have not been sufnciently
convinced of its value, or because the
means Of applying It have not been
IN July Of last year, three months
after his Inauguration, President Hoover
set out to fulfill what he considered
his obligation to the voiceless and vote
less citizens Of this Nation, who for the
most part are unaware that the Gov.
ernner1t concerns itself with their well
fare, other than to provide schools for
them and arrest them when they break
the lawn short, to the citizens Of
tomorrow. He called q conference here
IN Washington To consider solely the
rights and welfare Of our forty-fiye MIL
Her children.
wns.. 1neodore Roosevelt was Presi-
dent Of the United States, he did q lot
Of things that people have been think
ing about and acting on ever since. He
! left an impress on our very vocabularies
s<-fhNra UTaP ArHA rAVaa -
Rooseyeltian that stiIl ring In our ears
after twenty years; the strenuous life, /"
perfectly great, ade-liRnted."
Another Of those WORDS. which always
bring him to mind Is conservation. -
1t rang through the country. He popu-
lArized IT. He populArfzed the idea OF
conservation. It was apparently the first
time . President Of the United States
had Thought In such terms. Others who
developing and promoting development.
ri Conservation at that time was inter-
preted 70 mean protection and safe
guarding OF our great natural resources
Our forests, our rivers, our land, our
minerals af1d our fuel supply That plan
Tor conservation wlfIch echoed through
ne country marked = national coming
pf age. We were no longer young,
pronlgAfe OF our resources. We were
tive.
Pleads for Conservatism Of Human Life.
Now another President, after q Iapse
pf twenty years, uses again that word,
conservation. and thinks and acts in
eerms OF conservation. But with . new
Interpretation and q new significance.
PRESIDENT Hoover gives TO the word
nual meaning, not only protection and
thrift Of resources, but wise use OF
them. And that protection and wise
use he pleads for IN relation not only
% our natural resources, but to our
human resources and vitality. For Of
What avail Is it to US to have rich
natural resources II we have not A
physically At, mentally alert. and spirit
gally contented people 70 make use Of
President Roosevelt did, however ex-
tand this meaning Of conservation
begin TO think in terms Of human Vi
ATTY when he called. in 1903, the first
White House conference concerned with
eniloren. That conference considered
merely dependent children. II left.
however, results In social work which
We are sttn feeling today It was the
rrst time voice was lifted saying that
ne nome was . better place for the
fepenoent child than the institution,
conc
ference was the initiation Of the Chill
&rens Bureau In the Department Of
labor, which. through its splendid work
Tor the children Of this country, has
made history.
President Hoover called another white
House conference for children-the
White House Conference on Child
Health and Protection-and the key
note OF this conference Ia conservation
conservation OF our human vitality at
tne source-in the life of our children
FirSt. In order to conserve we must
know: We are beginning to apass much
knoWieoge on the actual waste Of child
PIE, our most vital and precious human
asset. Through the application Of pre-.
yenttve measures. diseases which once
took heavy toll among children. such as
Aiphtheria, typhoid fever, smallpox and
malaria, have been forced down, and
those that remain at the top Of the
mortality list are diseases which we
have not yet learned TO control we
eeems to be Just at the threshold OF such
knowledge and have yet to apply even
that which we already have
We are beginning to understand some
~ the things In . childs nature, or In
MS environment, or In his parents way
o. dealing with him-too much spank
ING, too much putting In dark closets.
700 many don'ts-that cause youngsters
70 grow up mentally warped, ne'er-do-
wells and malcontents
q We are finding out that the same
method Of education for al types Of
children 10 just as far from sound as
putting the same kind and size Of
clothes on al children just because they
are the same age. There are bound
20 be insists.
Poverty Major Handicap.
Not only must our children have the
advantages Of education and training
Of q character that viii at them 70 meet
iife's problem and be protected from
the ravaRes Of communicable diseases,