Evening star., 1937-01-09
Bv VeSta CUMMINGS.

the care you take OF your own chill
dren's health, but the care everybody
else takes of their boys and girls
that matters even to your own.
With those problems in mind, the
Parent-Teacher Association was es-
tablished 40 years ago in this city
movement that has spread in that
time from handful of District moth
ers until the organization is now one
Of nearly 100000 parents and teach
ers all over the United States, $4,000
of them in Washington.
Long after the organization was
formed scientists started writing tones
about milk and spinach, the psychol-
ogy of the child, the art of discipline
and the influence of early home life
that follows the young into a world
expecting maturity of them when per-
haps, no examples of truly adult con-
duct have ever reached them in their
own environment. When members of
the association celebrate Founders day
IN Washington, February II, they will
present a program sketching their
early foundation work, revealing that
young preceded the child experts by
many years in correctly analyzing the
needs Of childhood beyond, but includ-
ing beds and butter.
Accomplishments of the organiZa-
tion within the lifetime of any person
of middle years are astonishing, as
related by Mrs. Walter B. Fry, now
president of the District Congress of
the association. She tells of adult
education classes for bewildered par
ents eager to bring up their young
sters properly, of dental, optical and
medical care and decent clothing for
the poor, of campaigns for safety, Of
physical examinations for those who
are not poor, but merely neglected,
or activities on behalf of Federal and
State legislation beneficial to children,
of cooperation with juvenile courts,
of work for exceptional" children,
physically handicapped, and of better
understanding existing between par
ents and educators and children as
the result of PIT. A.
1t was in January of 1895 in Chevy
Chase, Md, that the late Mrs. Alice
Mcclellan Birney conceived the idea
of a National Congress of Mothers,
Mrs. Fry says. Mrs. Birney was op-
pressed with needless suffering and
injustices perpetrated upon little chill
dren through Ignorance and neglect
and thought that some plan must be
worked out to educate mothers and
make the Nation recognize the su-
preme importance of the child.
That Summer she went to Chautau-
qua where a series of mothers meet
ings was being held. and spoke on
Better Trained Mothers" a speech
she was asked to repeat from the pull
pits of several churches. In Novem-
Der Mrs. Birney presented the idea of
mothers congress to the National Fed
Grafton of Mothers Clubs in Atlanta,
Ga, and decided that public interest
in such an enterprise could only be
aroused through educators, the pulpit
and the press. She started a Nation
wide campaign of letter writing to
persons who might be interested in
child welfare, and IN this way Mrs.
Phoebe Apperson Hearst, mother OF
William Randolph Hearst, became
co-founder. At that time many young
men and women owed their education
to Mrs. Hearst's generosity, and sew
eral kindergartens in San Francisco
and Washington were maintained
through her philanthropy. She
financed the organization during the
first three years of its existence.
Mrs. Birney wrote and published
circular making suggestions for moth
ers' clubs and opened an Office in
washington. Sponsors giving pres
tige to the movement were secured,
among them wives, sisters and daugh-
ters of President Clevelands cabinet
members.
In the Fall Of 1896 the first call was
issued, addressed to leading women's
clubs all over the country, in the
hope of interesting at least so women
sufficiently to make them come to
Washington for congress. BY De-
cember, meetings of local women were
being held regularly. Mrs. Birney was
elected president and Mrs. Hearst
vice president. Mrs. Adlai e. Steven
son, wife of the then Vice President
Of the United States, was also a vice
president. Miss Emma Morton, sister
OF the then Secretary OF Agriculture,
was made treasurer, and several cab
met officers wives were appointed
committee chairmen.
The attendance of so persons hoped
for turned out to be more than 1000
when the first congress opened Feb
ruary II. 1897, at the old Arlington
Hotel ball room. 1t was necessary to
move the meeting to the First Baptist
Church, and when even this proved
inadequate the assembled parents and
teachers secured the armory over the
Old Center Market.
In her opening address Mrs. Birney
placed great stress on character train
ing and proclaimed again and again
the principle of prevention rather
than of cure, novel notion at the
time. Better parents as well as better
babies was her idea. Mrs. Grover
Cleveland, wife of the President, gave
o reception at the White House to
those attending the first congress.
New York was the first State to
form a branch, the organization start
ing nationally and working down to
State associations and local ones now
numbering around $4,000, Idaho being
the only State without representation.
Hawaii and Alaska are both organized.
Almost within year the founders pre-
scribed fundamental lines Of work
which have been followed continu-
ously, establishing clubs or classes
where mothers might meet for the
study Of their problems, fostering CO.
operation between parents and teach
ers, and utilizing services Of; all agen-
cies concerned with child welfare.
Stated objects are to promote child
welfare in home, school, church and
community; to raise the standards OF
home life; to secure more adequate
laws for the care and protection OF