Evening star., 1939-07-09

tody or management of the said
child in any way, or encourage or
allow any one else to do so.
Further. the undersigned does
hereby expressly authorize and en-
power the said -. in her
discretion, to consent to the adop-
ton Of said child without notice to
the undersigned and in all respects
and in the same manner as if the
undersigned personally gave such
consent at the time of the adoption. .
Range of Expenses.
1t is the adopting parents who pay
the price. The broker, who MAIN
tains list of persons seeking chill
dren, will find them a baby if re
/ imbursed' for the expense of the in
fant's care. Since these expenses
range from $10O to $500, for care
rarely longer than two weeks, ac-
cording to Mrs. Nina Trevvett, who
makes all the adoption Investigations
for the Division of Child Welfare,
babies can indeed be said to be on
sale in the District of Columbia.
That the baby business is a prof
liable one is shown by Mrs. Trev-
vetts estimates. In one boarding
hnr,,n Sbo no hard
thority that the average residence
time of infants is around two weeks
and that there are an average OF six
babies in the house at time Mrs
TreVVett estimates an average Of
three placements a week from this
one home, at prices in the hundreds
OF dollars per placement.
Mrs. Trevvett takes up the story
from her frst-hand knowledge OF
adopting homes.
There was a woman in division
Offices the other day who frankly
stated that she had paid $3.50 for her
baby" she said.
Many children have found good
homes through this baby-selling
system she continued, but it Is
pure happenchance. 1t is usually
the adopting parents who are the
victims. Local baby vendors spin
elaborate and entirely false tales fo1
every prospective adopter. They are
likely to say that the mother of the
child is from a distinguished famil,
and that the father is both prom
inent and tellectual-usually mar.
ried. Distinguished names are whis-
pered. "A niece or daughter of a
member of Congress is a popular
line. All of this arouses the adopt
ing parents sympathy-it sounds
like an answer to all of their hopes
and dreams
1T sounds good but it is never true
Lack knowledge.
The soliciting individual know.
nothing about the parents of tbs
child, usually not even the mother
correct name and makes no effort Il
find out. Only few of the children
adopted by this method come from
the higher cultural levels of society
and we know of many instances ir
which children of feeble minded
mothers who have no idea who thu
fathers of the children are have
been adopted into homes of profes.
sional people. Individuals who max.
business of babies have no facili.
ties for, or knowledge about. givins
mental and medical tests which
would determine that child il
able to benefit by the love and ad
vantages being offered.
That local baby solicitors operat,
within the law and are in some case
respected in the community is showl
by the fact that one of them CARRIE
engraved cards bearing recommen
dations given in good faith by lead
ing obstetricians. This woman i
said to have collected more thar
once on one child, in cases wher'
the child has baen retu-ned as un
suitable before the adoption wa,
completed
Ihere is clause in the law which
makes 1t impossible to complete al
aooptlon until the child has been il
Ille adopting home at least sil
months.
MRS. Trevvett says that it is no
the attitude OF social service expert!
IilaI leeole-mlnded and handicapped
cHlluren should not be given advan.
: tages, but they can be cared for hes