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Show 0. S. CHILDREN TO BE GUARDED Americans Must Ward Off Evils of War Inflicted Upon Young of Other Countries. BUREAU REPORT Sensational Stories Growing at an Alarming Rate of Gross Immoralities. WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 Why war's terrible strain on the children of belligerent countries, resulting In death, physical weakness, ignorance, untimely work and delinquency, must be ward'ed off from Ihe future citizens of the United States by "patriotic effort ef-fort and sacrifice on the part of our civilian population" in carrying out a reasonable chitd welfare program, is set forth in the annual report of Julia C. Lathrop." Chief of the Children's bureau of the department of labor. Sensational reports of an alarming rate of illegitimate births adjacent to the great army camps and charges of gross Immorality, were investigated by the bureau in three different cities, named in the charres. and in each case pronounced groundless. Army and Navy Officials Alert "Absolutely no foundation could be found In any one of the three towns for the statements made p.bout the girls there," says the report. "It was a case of rumors added to rumors equalling equal-ling fads. The danger that instancen of illegitimacy will result from the camps exists, of course. Undoubtedly the alertness of army and navy officials of-ficials in this country to the need of providing decent opportunities for social life among the mobilized troops will be an important factor in preventing prevent-ing the rise of the illegitimate birth I ratf here. "Protection must be afforded by proper policing, but far more by provision pro-vision of ample social' opportunities, ample hotel and boarding space of unquestionable un-questionable character for every woman wom-an who visits a cantonment town for jany legitimate reason, suitable chap-eronacre. chap-eronacre. and competent women guides to meet incoming trains. Must Provide Safeguards "For the, lack of any or all these safeguards young men and women cannot be held accountable. To provide pro-vide them effectively is the business of officials and of civilians no longer young." During the coming year, the bureau expects to make a country-wide study of state provisions for the care and protection of dependent children and a study of juvenile courts with respect to the increase of youthful crime which experience in other countries has taught always follows war. Studies by Child Welfare Studies of child welfare in the warring war-ring countries have shown that there has been a decrease in both the legitimate legi-timate and illegitimate births, but that the decrease in the former has been greater. To a smaller exicnt than in Europe the report says, the problem of wartime illegitimacy exists here and "in making plans for government allowances al-lowances (for dependents of soldiers) the question of support of illegitimate children of members of the military forces must be considered." The pressing essentials of the program pro-gram which the bureau considers necessary ne-cessary to guard the United States against the aftermath of the war, are stated in the report as follows: "1 Public protection of maternity and infancy. (Last year 15,000 mothers moth-ers and 300,000 children under 5 years of age died. Most of the deaths were preventable.) "2 Mothers' care for older children. Essentials: Adequate incomes, family allowances for soldiers' families, mothers' mo-thers' pensions for civilians, special provision for extraordinary needs, so far as required to enable mothers of older children to afford the homo comfort com-fort and protection which are the best safeguard against delinquency. "3 Enforcement of all child labor laws and full schooling for all children of school age. Standards should be maintained in spite of war pressure. "4 Recreation for children and youth, abundant, decent, protected from any form of exploitation." Reduction of Infant Mortality. Permanent success in reducing in-fant in-fant mortality can be achieved only in connection with the protection of mothers, according to the report, which adds tha investigations by the bureau prove that an adequate incomo earned by the father of a familv is essential. Studies made in eight cities showed that while the mortalitv among infants born to families having loss than $550 annual income was 162.5 in each thousand birth's, the average av-erage was reduced to 119.S when the income ranged from ?550 to $849 and was only 61.7 when the income was more than $1050. Mothers Forced to Work. Where mothers were forced to go into Industry by reason of insufficient other income, the infant death rate was more than twice as great as in families where the mothers remained at home.' More than one-fourth, or 25.8 per cent, of the fathers of the families investigated earned less than $550 a year; while only one in eight, or 13.1 per cent, had an income of ?1250 or more. The cities investigated were Johnstown, Pa., Montclalr, N. J., Manchester, N. H., Brockton, Mass., Waterbury, Conn., Akron, Ohio, Saginaw, Sag-inaw, Mich., and New Bedford, Mass. The number of women in industry has Increased since the United States entered the war and In the new workers work-ers an increase was found in the proportion pro-portion of married women to single women. The high cost of Hying was given as one reason for the return of wives to positions in the Chicago stockyards which they held before marriage. The report adds: "the employers feel within the next few months it will be practically inevitable in-evitable that this Increase in the number num-ber of womon employed and in the proportionate gain of married over 'single women will go still further." While close studies of maternal and infant mortality have shown the superior supe-rior healthfulness of the country over cities, as a whole, it was found ibat Isolation and low incomes mav together togeth-er overbalance fresh air and wholesome whole-some surroundings. Particularly in western grazing states, where the" population pop-ulation is sparse and scattered, it was found that lack of care and medical attention greatly increased the death rate among mothers and babies. Welfare Wel-fare work by industrial corporations in cities has reduced materially the mortality among mothers. Importance of Proper Care. "The importance of the care a mother moth-er receives Taeforo and at her child's birth is being c&nstantly more fully recognized," the report commonts. Whether or not children released from labor are obtaining the full benefits ben-efits intended for them by the child labor law will be the subject of future studies by the bureau, which will endeavor en-deavor to find out if thoy have gone into occupations not forbidden by law or are in school, or are both out of work and out of school. Chairmen of the state councils of defense have been asked to report on the number of children chil-dren not In school. , a |
