Evening star., 1939-04-03
By THOMAS r. HENRY.

The child is father of the man.
The adult criminal got his start
in childhood and if anti-social be-
havior-perhaps due in the begin
ming to conditions which could be
remedied easily-was averted early
in life, society would be saved
good part of the enormous costs
of keeping its criminal element in
custody.
Such is the philosophy Of the
Child Welfare Demonstration Unit
which has been in operation IN the
area around the Peabody School at
Fifth and E streets NE. under a
grant to the District of Columbia
Department of Public Welfare from
the Social Security funds admin
istered by the United States Chill
dren's Bureau. The purpose is to
mend homes so children can live IN
them and hence to reduce the total
of $500 youngsters who become
wards of the District each year.
The need of such an organization
was stressed in the report recently
submitted to the District Commits
sioners by DR.. Jacob Kepecs, Chicago
child welfare expert, on the pubic
child care program of the District.
Within the limited area of its opera
tions the demonstration unit has
more than paid its way in financial
savings alone, to say nothing OF the
saving in human happiness. Event
ually the system may be extended
to cover the whole city.
Has Small Staff.
The demonstration unit is directed
by Miss A. Medorah Donahue. as
sisted by a small staff Of social
workers. It acts in close co-opera-
ton with the schools, police, social
service agencies and churches OF
the neighborhood in an effort to de-
tect the first evidences Of child de-
linquency. 1t takes children who are
clearly on the way to the Juvenile
Court and probably a correctional
institution, sets them on the right
path and tries to arrange their most
intimate environments so that they
will be encouraged to continue So
cially acceptable behavior. Often,
Miss Donahue finds, the troubles at
the start are quite simple and easily
remedied when an objective-mlnded
outsider steps into the family situa-
tion.
It is always better, she feels, to
repair an inadequate home than to
help break it up.
The social workers seldom en-
counter, Miss Donohue says, cases
where the troubles of the child are
predominantly the economic trou-
bles of the family.
Far more frequent are the prob
lens due to clash of personalities
within the home which make life
miserable for the youngsters. Often
the parents are oversolicitous. For
example, there was 1-year-old
girl whose mother solicitously ac-
companied her to school every day.
Once the child had been reported
for truancy. When she was referred
to the demonstration unit by the
teachers for behavior difficulties the
mother was told frankly that she
should consider herself lucky that
her daughter had not run away from
home long ago. She had been made
an object of ridicule among her play
mates.
Ridiculed "Rube" Ways.
One of the most striking cases was
that of q 14-year- -old boy from the
country. His parents were dead and
he came to live with city relatives.
His "rube" ways were ridiculed in
the home to the point where he re-
volted and became unmanageable.
He was headed, says Miss Donahue,
straight for the reform school when
the social worker stepped in and
found the real dificulty. He is now
In the Navy and making good.
The neurotic makeups Of both
child and parents often are to blame
for the difnculty. This Is espe-
cially the case in broken homes,
where the offspring are placed in
the custody Of one parent. The
neuroticism of father or mother, or
both, probably had lot to do with
breaking up the home in the first
place. The child usually has In
herited or acquired his full share