Evening star., 1952-03-26
Our Neglected Child Care Problem
10 The. Editor Of The Stor:

expose fof this voteless community's In
humanity to our juvenile wards. AS our
' shocked conscienceS are confronted with
indubitable proof Of moral default We
experience collective shame. We can
hear the Master saying AS We have done
it unto one or the least of these. ye have
done it unto Me.
Smugly like the scribes and pnarisees,
we listen to the crime hearings. As these
depraved characters parade before our
self Righteousness we take pious pride
\ that we are not one Of these. Yet are
we without guilt? The Star with the
I candor of surgeon exposes the malig-
sion, of responsibility; Our child wards
/ and firetraps; the innocent and the de-
PRAYED forced into corrupting intimacy:
the diseased minds Of juvenile delin-
quents left to tester into incurable re-
cidivism. If we plant .eyil.seed, what can
we expect but a harvest Of tares? And if
we plant good seed in the barren soil
of community indifference, should We
be surprised If it Withers?
This default OF community conscience
is not a new story Once before The
Star exposed the disgraceful conditions
at Gallinger Hospital. In its editorial
comment The Star put the finger on the
real cause of all community default in
matters of social conscience: Our po-
litical masters lack all sense OF righteous
indignation.
If our enforcement officials had q
sense of righteous indignation. much OF
present corruption and malfeasance
could have been nipped in the bud.
Their tolerance and feeble resentment Of
gambling, drug addiction. bribe-taking
and racKeteering fathered our present
pitiful fall from grace. Tragic events
have placed our future in our own hands.
If we fail to meet the grim challenge Of
community moral default, we will have
no one to blame but our hypocritical
selves.
Thomas E. Mattingly, MD.
You are to be commended for exposing
the neglect of the institutional child well
fare problem. How much better It would
be if the District Commissioners would
tackle and solve this problem before they
spend millions on such controversial
project as f1uoridation of the city water.
It is possible that such conditions exist
in other parts of our Nation. II so. we
taxpayers can think Of a large number
OF other alterations and expenditures
which could very well have been in
definitely postponed.
Let us have first things first for our
money in the District and the u. S. A.
Taxpayer.
# any one is deserving Of special
award for good civic work, it is The
Star for its unceasing battle for the
weak and helpless. The barbarous con-
ditions in District institutions for home-
less and delinquent children (related in
The starr due to the delinquency" Of
Congress which arbitrarily refuses to
allow the hard-earned tax money paid
by the people of the District to be spent
for things so badly needed, are almost
beyond belief. The slogan of Congress
apparently is Billions for foreign well
fare tpoor things but not one cent
more for domestic welfare than we can
help" Charity begins at home! We are
in the ridiculous situation of the shoe
maker whose own children don't have
decent shoes.
To give the same old excuse year in
and year out that there is not sufficient
money for domestic welfare, while bill
lions are being thrown down ratholes.
all over the world for the welfare Of
people who insult us and misuse the
money we have sacrificed ourselves Of
necessities for, to send them, is an af-.
front to the intelligence of the Ameri-
can people.
Also, there are endless acres of prop
erty owned by the United States which
no use is being made of, and from
which no taxes are being gotten locally,
which could be sold and provide abun-
dant money for the finest, up-to-date
institutions for the prevention and re-
habilitation of human wreckage A
prize example of this is the very loca-
ton The Star speaks Of at Loughborough
road and Macarthur boulevard NV,
which is valuable property, the sale of
which would do much toward helping
build decent. modern rehabilitation
centers out in the country where land is
cheap. But this will never be done until
the weary little band of stalwarts who
yearly trek down to the congressional
appropriation hearings is augmented by
every person in the District who has q
heart and soul to add his voice, until
they all swell to such volume that
Congress is at last joggled out of its
lethargy into doing the honest and de-
cent thing by the people of: its own
country!
I'm.
In reference to "Our Child Care Prob
lem: A Study in Neglected Delay" in
The Sunday Star of March %, there
was recent article on the city jail .
most modern. ETC.. with the District
government paying $40 day for TOO
transients ($1. 900 daily.
am an old resident of the District,
born here in 1882. and have lived all
my 68 years and three months in this
city. My family paid taxes here for four