Evening star., 1938-10-18
AID TO CHILDREN
SHELDESSENT|AL
Miss Lenroot Speaks to
Monday Evening Club on
Stake in Youth,

Extension of Federal aid to children
IN the poorer. sections of the country
was portrayed as one of the necessary
programs of the future by Miss Kath-
crime Lenroot, chief of the Children's S
Bureau of the Labor Department, in
an address last night before the
Monday Evening Club.
The Government must care for the
less fortunate youth in the rural sec
tions, she said, for it is precisely these
persons that the cities now are bur-
dened with caring for. Forty per
cent of all of the children of the
poor" areas in 1910 and 1920 were
living in cities by 1880, Miss Lenroot
declared
This group. the speaker asserted,
must be equipped educationally to care
for themselves in the future. They
must not be placed into problematic
world where they are lost.
Strive for Education.
Miss Lenroot said however, that
despite unfavorable economic condi-
tions more than the average effort
was made in the poorer sections to
educate the youth there.
In answer to a question. Miss Len
root said she believed the District
should provide education for its in
dependent crippled children.
The speaker likened caring for the
needy youth of the country to that
of the aged With some 100000
children born each year, she said. it
should be considered that about 1,l00,-
900 Of these are in families with an
income Of less than $1,000 per year.
Miss Lenroot said some system
should be worked out similar to the
ratio system whereby the State and
Federal Governments provide for the
aged under social security program
IF the United States is to continue to
uphold the concepts which is our
heritage"
The health of the child is equally
important, she said, and there should
be an increase Of nurses and pre-
natal and health centers.
This generation, Miss Lenroot de-
clared, has worked almost double
duty" having to contend with great
mass problems, but the individual
problems must not be forgotten, she
cautioned, in predicting 1889 would be
significant and challenging year in
social work.
Praises Newspapers.
1t is fortunate, Miss Lenroot said
that today we have such a volume of
material and facts to aid in meeting
the problems of the future. She
praised the newspapers of Washing
ton for taking an active interest in
the welfare problem here.
Capt. Rhoda Milliken of the Police
Woman's Bureau, president of the
Monday Evening Club, presided at the
get-together meeting, held at the
Admiral Club, Seventeenth street and
Rhode Island avenue NV
On recommendation of the Execu-
tive Committee. the club adopted a
resolution urging that the President
and his advisers" give particular atten-
tion to the following facts in selecting
3 Commissioner for the District to
succeed George E. Allen: That the
appointee be resident of the District
in fact and not theory; that he be one
whose economic and social interests
are in the city; that he shall have
demonstrated his interest in the busi-
ness manapement of tho citv,s offo ire
and in the administration of its laws;
that he be one with modern viewpoint
toward sociological welfare and relief
projects and one who can secure and
require efficiency in the administra-
ton Of Federal funds allocated for
these purposes in the District, and
that he be we'll and favorably known.