Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-15
MISS GRACE ABBOTT VICTOR
IN CHILD HEALTH WORK FIGHT
Her Defeat of Effort to Put
Aid for Children Under
Cumming Conceded.
Medic Group Conference Here
Next Week Slated to Avoid
Attempt at Transfer.
BY WILLIAM HARD.


This next week there will be a spa
cious and notable meeting in Washing
ton of the medical service section" of
the white House Conference on Child
Health and Protection" Reports will
be presented to President Hoover COW
ering the results of patient and extern
stve studies into the present and pros
| pective medical care of the American
| child population.
One feature, however, which charac-
terized the last session here of the
white House Conference on Child
Health and Protection" will probably
be very conspicuously missing. It is
highly unlikely that this time there will
be any important effort to transfer any
Federal child health activities from
the lady who presides over the Chill
dren's Bureau in the Labor Department
to the gentleman who presides over the
Public Health Service in the Treasury
Department.
Thus emerges quite considerable
triumph for that lady, Miss Grace Alb
Dott. The gentlemen who dominate the
White House Conference on Child
Health and Protection seemed to sup
pose at their last session that they
could surround one poor weak woman"
and hand her dolls over to Surg. Gen.
Hugh S. Cumming of the Public Health
Service effortleSsly and noiselessly. To
this end they presented to the con-
ference a recommendation In the course
OF which they did not bother to mention
MISS Abbott's dissent from it. Miss
ABBOTT thereupon arose and addressed
the conference in little speech sweetly
beginning:
7 am sorry to take the time of the
meeting for dissent"
Unn Cnuearn-on rs~AA
When she got through, and when the
supporters Of her views had evidenced
their arrival into existence, the chair
man did not seem to care to put the
| proposed recommendation to a vote.
Inquiry indicates that 1t will not be put
to vote at the session this week. The
| activities of the Federal Government
having specifically to do with the health
OF children and of mothers will remain
under the Jurisdiction of the Children's
Bureau and of Miss Abbott
| Two points Of interest then arise.
One has to do with Miss Abbott as a
woman and as an administrator The
other has to do with the Federal Gov
eminent as an agent In the health work
of the Nation.
Miss Abbott is the second person to
be in command Of the Children's Bu-
reau. The first was Miss Julia Lathrop
of Chicago and of Jane Adams Hull
House. Miss Abbott slso of Hull House,
became a division head in the Chill
dren'S Bureau under Miss Lathrop and
then succeeded her as the head of the
bureau. Most longtime observers here
would probably say that for cool, calm,
collected capacity in the navigating
of governmental weather there have
been in our day no men in Washington
superior to either Miss Lathrpp or
Miss Abbott.
Popular In Capital.
Relatively to them, most men could
be accused of being temperamental and
I hysterical and of having brainstorms.
Miss Lathrop carried, as it were, a
mental gyroscope that kept the boat of
her ideals and of her intentions steady
through all waves. Miss Abbott has
developed the same equipment. In the
midst of all the shocks of governmental
hurricanes and tornadoes in Washing.
ton she remains unperturbed, smiling,
humorous, resolute, fixed in convictions,
accommodating in manners, possessed
in the highest degree both Of impersonal
principle and of personal adroitness.
In biographical notices she describes
her occupation as that of social work
err" The worker" part Of that descrip-
ton is wholly accurate. The social"
part has to be more narrowly under
stood. Miss Abbott has few or no out
right recreations. Her Social life con-
sists of work for the social welfare.
She gives herself really entirely to the
improvement of the lot of others. Such
people are sometimes more useful than
likeable Miss Abbott's considerateness
seems to extend, however, not only to
our population in general and in the
abstract, but also to the individuals
with whom she is associated. Her bu-
reau adores her. All political Wash
ington that knows here is favorable to
her If the President, in response to
multitudinous suggestions and insist
encies, had made her Secretary of La
Dor and the first woman cabinet men,
Der in our history, the appointment
would have been, in Washington, ex-
tremely popular.
1t is due in considerable part to Miss
Abbott's character that the Senate has
just recently voted to revive the Fed
eral appropriation for financial grants
| to the States in furtherance of mater
nifty and infancy health efforts. Only
some 10 Senators recorded themselves
in opposition. The bill enacting the
revival is now In the House of Repre-
sentatives. There it has received an
amendment which throws quite ironic
| 1lSAI O1A oAAO PoAHO VA WIG AACoAoAA AAAaS
tons of the Federal Government as dis
cussed on the one hand in theory and
on the other in practice.
Has Hoover Backing.
Virtually every statesman, including
the President, makes speeches express
ing horror at further Federal interven-
tions in local affairs. Virtually every
statesman, nevertheless, including the
President, is impelled toward further
Federal interventions in local affairs in
order effectively to change local weak
nesses into local strengths. According