Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-27
Mother Resents Morgan's
Attack on u. S. Bureaus

To the Editor of The Star:
have read with much interest the
| report recently printed in your paper
Of a radio address given by DR.. Gerry
Morgan, dean of the Georgetown Uni
versity Medical School. DR.. Morgan
attacks the Government bureaus for
what he terms interference in the
American home, and he stresses extra
constitutional Federal efforts" to exert
power over child education and child
labor. He claims the American home is
in danger Of political propaganda from
the Children's Bureau.
These charges are almost too silly to
require refutation, but in this day so
many mistaken ideas are being broad
cast that those who care about truth
must speak up. It is too easy to dis
credit good work by draping it with bad
names. When DR.. Morgan makes the
statement that "it is the idea to make
the public believe that American moth
ers and infants are not as we'll cared
for by American physicians and nurses
as foreign mothers and infants" I am
surprised at his sense of ethics. What
right has he to impugn the motives Of
Government workers? The information
sent out of the Children'S Bureau Is in
tended to help American mothers and
infants to be the best cared for in the
classes because of the form in which it
is prepared and particularly valuable to
the American mother who wants the
best possible information regarding pre-
natal and infant care but is not in a
position to command the services of ex-
pensive specialists. DR.. Morgan's charges
are serious, and in the name of fair
play, as fourth generation American
mother, resent them.
As for the so-called extra constitu-
tional Federal Efforts to exert power
over child labor let me remind ali real
Americans that our Constitution was ex-
pected to be amended. The idea that
our country must live forever under un-
changing conditions is unthirkable
There were no machines in this fair
land when my, ancestors came here, and
every one knows that machinery has
brought new problems to be solved in
the field of industrial relations, some
OF which may require changes in our
Constitution. Only medieValist fails
to recognize this. Surely DR.. MORGAN
could not deny the need for better laws
to protect children if he had seen with
his own yes the conditions in certain
industries in the South. At one time
and perhaps the practice still prevails
records were kept by the cotton mill
owners of the ages of children in the
1dInllleS WORKING CEere, so that when.
ever possible they could be forced to
make up the difference in pay taken out
Of the fathers earnings. This was a
clever scheme to bring the children In
at lower wages just as soon as pos
sible. Children work for less money
and do not organize in unions. Never
as long as I live shall forget the thin
faces and arms like sticks of wood. their
hair filled with cotton lint and their
hopeless expressions. Some Americans
feel that people are greater than the
instruments they contrive for use: there
fore they expect to retain control over
these inventions whether they be con-
stitutions or mechanical devices. Fin
gers were made before forks.
Every woman in Washington and
throughout this country who cares about
other peoples children-who must Of
course live in the same world with her
own-as well as every man who thinks
straight will ask Congress to discount
DR.. Morgan's attack as a remnant of
medievalistic reasoning and therefore
not relevant to our machine age.
MRS. SCOTT BALLARD.