Evening star., 1940-01-20

Children in Democracy last
night.
Miss Perkins, members of the
White House Conference on Chill
dren in democracy, I come here
tonight with a very heavy heart
because shortly ago I received
word of the passing of very old
friend of mine, a very great
American, Senator Borah. I have
known him for a great many
years, and I had realized, al
though on this or that or the
other political problem we may
have differed from time to time,
yet his purpose and my purpose
and the ultimate objective of,
think, every one in this room,
interested in the future of Amer
lea, whose purposes were iden-
tical, and the Nation has lost one
of its great leaders in his passing.
I am glad to come here in the
thought that Senator Borah of
Idaho would want us to 60 on
with the work of building better
citizenship in the days to come in
the United States.
You know I go back-not as far
as he did, but I go back a great
many years. 60 back to my
days in college when I worked
for an organization called the
Social Service Committeeman
after that my wife came into
the picture, and when we were
engaged, I discovered she was
teaching classes of children on
the East Side in New York. And
then very soon after I was ad-
mitted to the bar got to know
another very great American. an
old friend of yours and mine,
Homer Folks.
Both Worked for Facilities
To Provide Milk for Babies.
And probably Homer doesn't
remember himself, but in New
York in those days we were just
beginning to take up the prob
lem of providing milk for babies
for mothers in all parts of the
big city, and I, wanting to do
something in addition to trying
to learn little law, went in with
an organization which has long
ceased to exist because it was
absorbed by a much better Or
ganiaztion, the New York Milk
Committee, and I worked for two
or three years in trying to place
milk stations for babies on the
East Side, West Side, and up in
the Bronx in New York City.
Homer Folks was one of the prin-
cipal moving agencies In setting
that up, and it is a rather in
teresting thing that the woman
who was most greatly responsible
for helping to provide milk for
dependent poor children in the
great City of New York, Mrs.
Borden Hartman, I sent Mrs.
Hartman as United States Min
lister to Norway two years ago.
Last April when this confer
ence first met at the White
House, I asked you to consider
two things: First, how a
democracy can best serve its
children; and, second, how chill
dren can best be helped to grow
into the kind of citizens who will
know how to preserve and per-
feet our democracy.
Since then a succession of world
events has shown us that our
democracy must be strengthened
at every point of strain or weak
ness. All Americans want this
country to be a place where
children can live in safety and
grow in understanding of the part
they must play in the Nations
future. Adequate national de-
fense calls for adequate munitions
and implements of war and, at
the same time, for educated,
healthy and happy citizens.
Neither requisite taken alone
and without the other will give us
national security.
And now it is my pleasure to
receive from you the general
conference report with its pro-
gram of action. You have adopted
this report after two days of
careful deliberation, preceded by
nearly year of study and dis
cussion.
And by way of illustration-I
have a problem with the Con-
gress of the United States as to
whether the problems of the
United States are going to be de-
cided after a couple of days Of
careful deliberations in each
house or whether I am going to
get a couple of million dollars
that would correspond to this
year of study-this year Of dis
cussion that you good people have
been putting in on the problem
of children in a democracy-and
think I am going to win out.
Report Advises Thinking
OF Child As . Whole.
Almost every one within reach
of my voice thinks Of children
in terms of two or three subjects
in which he has special expert
ence, such as education or rec
reation or health. Or, he may
have great enthusiasm for one
particular kind of child-welfare
service. I myself am tremendous