The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-04-26
How the Govt Deals
With Children OF the
Working Class
BY S. VAN YEEN

SS~@4
W holding the front page it is well to recall
the crimes OF capitalist society against the
children OF the working class.
When the newspapers stated that the kida
mapping OF the Lindbergh child was the greatest
crime of modern times" they lied; they did so In
order to hide the news Of the starving and
Gripping of millions Of children Of the working
class
Many hundreds and thousands Of children are
starved crippled and lost, but the newspapers
and the boss government do not get excited
about It, but make every effort to hide the
facts
Let US enumerste some Of che ways in which
our children are crippled-that is weakened and
damaged as well as permanently crippled.
Through starvation and the diseases Ghas
result from insufficient food and the in1propeS
kind OF food. The Washington Child Health
conference reports that 100000 children are
slowly starving at the present time.
1.-The same reports show that $4,000 chIl-
dren are tubercuIar, the result OF lack Of food
and fresh air.
100000 children are suffering from dana
aged hearts. This Is also the result Of work in
sweatshops and facDorie2, al also starving and
the lack OF fresh air.
LACK of medical care. According TO the
above report only is per cent Of the above are
receiving any medical attention whatever.
5-The New York Maternity Center reports
that each year, 10000 die from causes that could
be prevented If the parents could afford the
proper food, environment and medical care foS
mothers and children.
6-Charity institutions. The o. s. buro for the
study Of child-welfare laws reports "Unspeakable
conditions in charity institutions resulting in tbs
not infrequent disappearance of children Also
criminal neglect Of children in various child
placing institutions affecting thousands OF chile
dren in charity homes, state institutions and
private welfare gaencieS
According to reports Of well known DOCTORS
children born during the present depression are
smaller and weaker at BIRTH reach adolescence
in O weakened condition and do not attain full
growth
S-In many places in the south, no provision
whatever is made for homeless or neglected
Negro children. This means that these homeless
children die, are taken in by neighbors, or are
bound out in sem-servitude to plantation owners
or wander into the cities victim Of every sort
of circumstance
S-PenaI institutions for delinquent children
According to the same q. s. report on child
welfare laws, "the delinquent child in the United
States is treated as criminal. Physical and
mental examination are lacking in the courts
conduct can be sent to the chain gang or to work
on the roads" "Grls can be sent TO the poor
house or bound out for long terms as servants
It is clear that all the children above listed
are children Of the working class. Children OF
milhonaires or wen-to-do parents are well fed
and receive all necessary medical care.
AS for delinquent" only workers children are
ever called delinquent" Restless pranks or
even actual crime when committd by the sons
and daughters Of the rich never land them in
reformatories or state institutions. just as mem~
bers Of the working-class fill the jails, so the
children of workers are the ones that are forced
into the horrors of institutions "for delinquent
or incorrigible children"
The capitalist press tries to hide all the facts
Of the miseries Of workers and children OF
workers. 1t is their task to fill their columns
with the joys and sorrows Of the ruling class.
Loss OF one OF
their children is news to be played UP at all
times
On the same Gay when the pages were filled
with the details Of the kidnapping of q million
dollar baby, thousands of Chinese children were
murdered by order OF the Japanese rulers.
The innocent Scottsboro Negro children face
the electric chair. They are children Of toiling
half-starved mothers; but when the young Chi
cago murderers, of the millionaires Loeb
and Leopold, went on trial, they were sent up
for few years and will be freed as soon as the
politicians feel that the case has been forgotten
The son OF Ward, Millionaire baker, got away
scot free after numbering a young sailor, These
are only Q examples. Pages could be written
about the exploitation, starvation and miserieS
of the children of the working-class; about the
death of children in damp unsanitary tenements;
about child laborers in factories and sweatshops,
killed and crippled by flying machinery; about
the horrors of reformatories and state charity
institutions.
There is only one country where there is no
unemployment, no starvation and where the
children are healthy, happy and given every
opportunity known to science for physical and
mental development. That is the Soviet Union,
land of the workers
The first consideration Of a workers govern
ment in the U. S. would be to fed and care for
the children Of the working class.
Gals for 100000 jobs.'D