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Show Kathleen Norris Says: Broken Homes Break Children Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. His head bung, he looked fixedly at a pulley be had in his hand. "That all?" he asked thickly. By KATHLEEN NORRIS WHAT are "broken homes?" The phrase is new, for it has been in circulation only a few years. But now one hears it on all sides. Recently I visited a home for boys. I asked the nice motherly woman who was in charge how many of the 200 eager, lonely, little fellows, whose ages ranged from 10 to 15, were orphans. Almost none, she answered quite simply, as if that were the most natural thing in the world. "But then where are their fathers and mothers?" "Oh," she said, looking cautiously cautious-ly about and lowering her tone, although al-though we were alone, "they're living. liv-ing. Well, no," she corrected it, "some of them have only one parent. par-ent. But most of them come from broken homes." "Broken homes? Divorces?" "Well, both," she said cheerfully. cheer-fully. "Mothers working, very often. The domestic situation is hard now and many people don't actually feel equal to the claims of children. So they send us a boy or two." "You mean " It made me sick to think of it. "You mean they may have other children?" "Often. David," she called to a small boy who went past us as we wandered into the grounds. "Your mother has another child, hasn't she?" Child Is Ashamed "Yep," he answered, not meeting meet-ing her look. The whole story was there the shame and bewilderment bewilder-ment in a nine-year-old's heart when he was sent away. Oh, nf course, sent way to sufficient meals, a good bed, honest, kindly care, safety. But they kept little Sharon and they sent him away. His head hung, he looked fixedly at a pulley he had in his hand. "That's all?" he asked thickly. There's another home for boys near our city. I went there, heartsick, heart-sick, yet determined to know what percentage of these little fellows had parents, too. And again it was the same story. Divorce, high living expenses, working mothers, desertion the most important clement In any commonwealth, the absolutely ab-solutely Indispensable element, the home, broken up. The much-feared, much-discussed danger of communism is nothing to this. This is a national outrage. That these little fellows, who ought to have love from someone, who ought to have a corner in some comfortable place, a few books, dinner table talk. Mom or Dad to run to in trouble, are herded away like cattle is so terrible an indication indica-tion of national irresponsibility that the atom bomb is a harmless tallow tal-low candle beside it. What are these mothers and fathers putting in the boys' places? What domestic luxuries, movies, comfortable quiet evenings and dancing compensate for this injustice in-justice to their sons and this loss to them? Are we American women wom-en so unimaginative and so flaccid that we cannot adjust our lives to make room for our boys? v Seven hundred boys from "broken homes' we went without things . KEEP TOGETHER After visiting several homes for boys Miss Norris discovered discov-ered that most of the young fellows were not orphans but unwanted children from broken brok-en homes. In many cases the parents felt that they couldn't manage man-age all their children satisfactorily satisfac-torily so they sent one or ttvo of their boys to a home where they would be less bother. Other boys were the sons of divorced parents who did not ivant the custody of them. Miss Norris strongly warns that the danger of communism commu-nism is insignificant compared to the national outrage of casting cast-ing little tots among strangers where they never will receive the love and affection they need so much. As an example of how a home can be preserved, Miss Norris cites her own case. Three brothers and sisters, only one of them out of the teens, supported three younger young-er children. By dint of much striving, work and sacrifice they managed to keep together. right here in my neighborhood and, for all I know, 7,000 in my state. There have been years in my life when we were very poor, when three brothers and sisters, only one of them out of the teens, supported sup-ported three younger ones. We lived in four rooms for a while, but they were clean rooms and they rang with plans and laughter. Old Clothes Fit Well. We wore the discarded clothes our friends gave us and congratulated congrat-ulated ourselves that they looked better on us. We scrimped, we went without things, we had no butcher bill for months because we had no meat. We suffered, of course, when a small boy smashed a window or a small girl played hookey. But there never was a moment mo-ment In all those years when we two older ones could have said to a little sister or brother, "We are sending you tc the loneliness, the unlovcdness, the dreary vague hours that no Institution In-stitution can spare children." We stuck together 45 years ago and we are together still. What are we made of, we Ameri can women, that we don't dare sacrifice, sac-rifice, plan, contrive and work to keep our homes and our children together? We don't know our own power or we would know that if social conditions aren't right for us, if Dad's salary is inadequate and home hours and obligations too heavy to leave room for working hours, then we can change the conditions. v We don't have to beg, we can dictate, even if it means that shops are open only between 11 and 4 every day or that one mother in a group takes care of all small children chil-dren two days a week and works four. For the boys' sake and for America's sake, let's solve this problem some other way. Spare the Rod CHICAGO. Any parent who spanks his child has a spanking coming himself, in the opinion ol Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs, a Chicago psychiatrist. Childhood whippings, the doctor explained, are undesirable because they leave a lifetime mark upon the victim's character. If a "servile, timorous" adult is at the same time "cringing and crafty," the chances are that h received a paddling now and ther as a child himself, the doctor said |