Evening star., 1932-11-13

gOO1 service, DuL II tLlLS Is all IL can VO
this Winter, the loss of courage and
unemployed will be a wound in our
national Life from which we cannot
fully r1cyvrr in a generation.
Some of our fellow citizens are saying
openly that all this talk about morale
and spiritual comfort is bosh, that what
hungry man needs is bread and by
| implication nothing but bread. Every
time such statement is made. every
time We see it displayed on a billboard
we can measure the extent to which our
country has gone completely mate
rialistic. Under the guise of charity,
some of us are preaching the doctrine
| that man could or should live by bread
only. Those who will resent this doc
| trine most are the hungry themselves.
When their misfortunes are not. Of their
own making their bitterness will be only
| increased by the implication that with
the feeding of their bodies their minds
will go to sleep.
Feed the bodies, yesl But after that
| go on to human relief
Pleads for Children.
! 1t would be a strange thing IT, with
our supposed advance in the under
standing Of childhood, with the atten-
ton we have given to child psychology
!
child'S nature, even when tllN child is
in comfortable circumstances, we should
now fail to look after the child first OF
all In this unparalleled emergency. 1t
takes much skill and love to make child
hood as happy as it should be, even
under the best Of circumstances. Chill
dren and young people are always beSet
with natural worry about the great
world which they must enter, but which
he 4..,.. H. AA1.w
pared for. Even in happy times child
hood is under the temptation of healing
its own inferiority complex by noticing
the mistakes of its elders. Heaven
knows that we elders deserve the criti-
cism, but 1t is bad for the child to
make it. BY imperceptible stages youth
not infrequently finds so much wrong
with the world, even before it knows the
world, that it never makes a c0nstruc-
tive or helpful contact with its en-
vironment.
Under the lash Of actual destitution
and hunger, it Is not impossible for q
child within a few years to become
something very close to a wild animal
trusting no one. ready to snap at the
stranger, snatching ravenously at what
food comes its way, quick to rend its
fellows for slightly better place in its
insufficient sunlight
The women on Mrs Brady's commit
tee realize that whatever standard of
living we have enjoyed in this country
has been built up by devoted effort over
q long period. Were the effort to stop
now, our civilization could collapse in q
few weeks. If contagious diseases and
lnsanitary conditions have been elimi-
mated from country districts, as well
as towns, the improvement was no un-
explained miracle, but the effect of the
heroic labors of visiting nurses, of di-
rectors of hygiene, Of health agencies
Of every kind. If the children in
crowded cities or in lonely rural dis
tricts have had any proportion of their
share OF happiness, much Of the credit
must 60 to the religious and social or
ganizations which developed play
grounds, recreation centers, community
meeting places, libraries The cost of
maintaining these constructive agen-
cieS has been fabulous, but not too
great for the result. There is no meas
ure Of the cost of being civilized.
Tend to Cut Support.
Most Of us know too well that the
tendency today is to lop of our sup
port of all these agencies. Under eco
nom1c pressure some of our public off,
cfals, who ought to know far better,
are speaking of compulsory school as
a frill, and are slipping back to that
cheap idea of education which would
make the State responsible for teaching
the children OF the poor only so much
as will enable them to earn a living.
The support Of the constructive social
work OF the churches is falling of.
The hospitals, the visiting nurse service,
the health departments of all kinds
find themselves with reduced funds Just
when they are called upon to render
greater service. The recreation centers
and the Fairgrounds are closing
And the ready excuse for this whole
sale mistake Of ours is that the money
could be better spent in buying breadl
We'd like to be sure at least that the
money which Is now withheld from
these constructive spiritual agencies is
usually being given in undiminished
amount to the purchase of bread; but
it's a fair guess that when our ideals
shrink, our generosity contracts
little, too.
This sudden materialism in our talk
sounds suspiciously like an excuse for
cutting down our charities, since our
own pocketbook is pinched. If it's
choice between giving up our car for the
season or withdrawing our subscription
to the visiting nurse or the recreation
center, we can prove that the car. since
we drive it ourself, really saves money
for U.S. And if the poor are hungry,
we add, it won't help them to offer
recreation.
Mr.. Bakers large committee and
Mrs Brady's subcommittee of women
are trying to keep all our spiritual and
social agencies functioning at their full
power I am glad Mr.. Baker called
in a committee of women for this work.
Women are supposed to be sentimental.
I hope they are, in this case. This Is
a problem of the heart. What we give
to this work will depend on what kind
of hearts we have, and what this work
accomplishes may determine whether
some Of the next generation will have
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