OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3167, 18 August 1917, Page 2

OUR BABIES

fBT HTGEU.I

Published under the auspices of Iho ' Society for tho Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put ud a fenco at tho top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." OHIJ/D-WELFABE CONFERENCE AT CAPE TOWN. '/ 'Address by Mr. I'aul D. OlUTor. (Continued.) ' Duty of tho Community to the Ohild. "Our work to-day is in thn flret place to oducate ourselves as to what wo can do towards saving the child from disaster by safeguarding it during; infancy, and thus at least Elvinc it a fair start. "Our second duty is to devise means to educate public opinion as to tho valuo of tho child. How urgently necessary this is tho following extract from tho address' given by Dr. Imrie at tho last Municipal Congress will show:— Government Indifference. Is it not true that tho Governments of our country snend hundreds and thousands of nound6 yearly in the medical inspection of sheejp, ili tho eradication of scab, and havo spent nearly a million pounds in the eradication of rinderpest and East Coast fever? Yes. And it is also truo they havo not spent a penny on ironi-ovlng the health and physique of our future citizens in tho Cape Province. ■". . . However, it is not fair to nut all the blame for tho neglect of tho child on the Union and Provincial Governments, when our legislators are quite apathetic. Nor should wo denounce tho legislators when the electors tako no interest in the qucstioi]. .•■' Popular Ignorance, Prejudice, aud Fatalism Mainly to Blame. "The ordinary oleotor, again, is not altogether to blame; bo has not been educated to understand tho importance and needs of child-lite. Ho is usually an casyeoins fatalist, who holds such exploded views as:— 1. That tho sooucr his children get measles the better. 2. That wroiiE feeding and want of cleanliness havo nothing to do witli tho decay of tcoth, but that this is due • to constitutional defects. "Instead of waiting for the Government to tako notion, wo should make every effort to change Iho views of that section of tho publio which considers jackals' tails of far greater value to the State than henlthy children; which believes in curing our social cancers by palliatives such as hospitals, ,asylums, prisons, reformatories, and poor-relief, lit will be necessary to point out how expensive such methods are, and that (hero would be an enormous gain to the State iC effective steps were taken to remove the cause of the evil, which in most eases can bo traced to the neglect of tho ohild. Jfroryouo of us can do something in this direction in our own special spheres; much can also be done by eccurinc the interest of local educational and municipal authorities.

"The greatest asset a. town possesses is its energetic and healtb.Y-minded residents. It follows, then, that the'children arc its greatest potential source of wealth. The wolfaru of the child should therefore be of the first importance to the Town Council, and to-day we arc here to discuss what should be done for the child by town councillors, so that they cau merit the name of City Fathers." Mr. Benjamin Broadbent (Huddorsfield) on SafeguardiiiE tho Child. Following on Mr. Clurer's oddress came a papor by Mr. Broadbent, the devoted pioneer in England of the systematic visitins of hoines, with a view to safeguarding and helping mother and child through the agency of committees of capable women working on broadly humanitarian lines, nkin to the Plunkct work in New Zealand. Mr. Broadbent is deeply impressed with tho benefits that accrue from getting the whole community helpfully, intelligently, and humanely interested "in the cause of motherhood nud infancy." Commandeering All Classes for the Service of Mother and Child. "Will it be considered that I am asking too much in thus wieuing to commiindcer practically tho whole of the educated Masses for service in the cause of the babies? I could say much in justification of my demand. . . .1 say this only a-s ft plea: that the whole future of mankind depends upon the right treatment of tho ■infant and the child. ... It is my conviction that if we aro ever to emerge into a larger and more spacious realm of righteousness, freedom, and enlightenment, it ■will be the little child that will lead the way thereto, and by serving these little onos wo shall make possible a future happier for thein than the -wrecked world around us today." Appreciation of New Zealand. "I dose with a reference to what has hoen dono by ono section of tho British Empire in their caro for infancy. We that live in tho British Isles havo been ocoply impressed by tho manner in which all the Dominions havo come to tho help of the Empire in tho awful struggle that has been forced upon us. AVo havo seen tho kind of men that aro bred and born in these comparatively new settlements, and wo admire them all. I would not givo tho palm to any. nor would bo understood to undervalue any because I select for illustration ono Dominion out know what tho Now Zealandors are like of them all. Vt merely happens that I that have' come over to help us, and I know somcUiing of tho conditions which provail in New Zealand in regard to babies. "I do not say that cither in tho production of mnn or in the care of infancy that Now Zealand surpasses South Africa or Australia or Oamula-, but I do know, and confess it with shame, that we in tho British Isles oome out very badly in any comparison with the Dominions as to tho statistics of our ca.ro of infant life. . . . "I do not know whether or no tho results in South Africa are belter or worse than in New Zealand. If they aro better,

1 would only say, look to your honour, lest thoy surpass you. If they aro not so good, would eay: See that you emulate, and, if possible, surpass tho best hitherto. Healthy manhood, healthy womanhood, aro tho purest and best wealth of tho world, and it is only possible- to grow them from healthy babyhood and healthy childhood. May this truo wealth- grow and increase in South Africa, and may your conference do somcthinc to promote and to forward tho moro abundant production of this true wealth." I should lilio to add to Mr. Broadbcnt's peroration, as ominontly in keeping with the wholo spirit of his fervid plea, Emerson's beo.uh.ful words: "Tho child is tho perpetual Messiah, sent into the arms of fallen men to win them back to Paradise."