OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 22, 20 October 1917, Page 14

OUR BABIES

fBT Hi'Glli.i

Pubiisli.nl uniiei' tin , auspices of tiio' Fot'lcty for tho Ilcallb of Women ana Oliiirtren.

"It it wieor to pnl Hi) u fence at the top of a /nftoipicc than to maintain an ambulance H the bottom."

a "BABr-suiJr/*Y" stjavtce. H liie City Temple, l«ndqn, on July 1, Wi. a. beautiful sermon, in connection will! the English Baby Wet?*. Campaißn, #** delivered, by the Kcv. .lotMl Fort iie.vtoii, D.J;itt., the eloquent jtirorioan prca'-itW. rwcntiy appointed as to Mm ft'V. 3!. J. Cauiphell. From lliis sermon the folio-will!? extracts, eve made. Dr. Kuwton took as liis text. "VflVaE.manner of chilli, shafl ihis in:'" (Jjuko i. 66).

Tfiß CRADIjK OF TJBE PUTUBE. Tlie iorrojy* of the worie-war arc uuutteraibic. us losses incalculable, ils tragedy unspeakable, "it is tho fuwrp. dies!" m«ane« a poet as lie. looked out ovc.v the wide-strctehiu:: desolation. ? But it la not all loss, not all ruin. Hot | alf destruction. • ■ • Hit nations «re filling,■ .aot losing I heir tonls. . V ider svmiW.lltea arc- growiiiif 'tp. clri'.v.iuir together iVdvlcs ivlw JI.IVC Jons jived a tool, and wise Wmis m-u Iwinc- jajci Jor 11 closer nnitv. . • - OiWly cnaugji. dark an tlio timw a.v «m- is aiviiro of :i stranec new JiofW »«•» the promise of a Vo' 1 sen now that mfiay fliioii we •sen half inclined to .■■cpa'"* »► inovi.jiliJi; ma\' lip orereniiiu. or by foiceitrftf. iMid skill, or .-.in;- ti»-' V.-..1- <ii«t not create lit in attitwlc. but H Has \ «ned it iti«fc i>* it l'«s liivshtcn-.'i! wiiat « „!■ ,:"|I :t fnisp »f publir-mimlpd'H-.-* 1 it! I/'- , V)l-"-3!>oiviii? us '.hsl w arc Jn>fi«>l j U>'"-H)f<ff , - niifl that njlßcbness «»<i ?" Jand body, our viO»!<(Kf? Qt pvrpnsr and will. and. do the ibiriif* tl>s*- nwJ to b< rtnno for th- romnicii 'K* l * .Men 111.13 differ in their views of DnW wovklmi™. but they swill now to a S reV i-ha*. Hj" , "- i- such a tl'iiiK a.-< human which muil. In. , t-acacious. forp< ,l iHft tolnu plans not onlv for Hie J"»'Sbill /o? thfwc yd. unborn.

On JSohalf «f the Raliy. Such is 111'' newer Jcclinc ami the er insight bavif o j -.hr many-frontal vm»paign beginninß; 10-Hay on ' teha-l of i c Irtbv, who is the fountain ot life. 1-n« fresh fiprine whence H'<«i the mraius thai, urigbU'u a n<l sweeten. ,tiw * "M; The hone or I lie Home, m *.bc Ol'.urch. cf the Stat- or soWsl beauty, national worth, and liiimaii wcll'nro i? bounu m> nt the child, who is the custodian «' cvr of U'uiii or beauty we arc t/J ncuurafh to the raw. At Hist we must•*>••• trusi Mo his hamla all thai, we hold nacred. all that we" have dreamed, all that vo ha.v<S liibonre,:) to a«liirve. Jn him we live again, and Ire who takes care that his child is uo'ni.v ami Bwectlj' born doee hhWi to hritis tlic fcingdcin of heaven nearer to the csrlbr-raore, indeed, tnan many sermons. .' , ~ . No wonder Emerson, as Holmes sciii of him, went about peeninK smo every <-ra< s lookinz f«v ■■'■ new To-il?> in Hie J.,..H.1"« nf EiH"ii'l !»• the W--and" saints or gers of the old, immortal song. ffcfince and neligion at Otic. Indeed, it is a fact of .science, as JoIiH .Jt'iske pointed out, tliM '!■ 'f p »« I. louijatUm of inliincy n> "»' )»"•>"" * O V"; is n.]«los3iii-« ami tho tenderness wliiuli it (TOk'd that we ov.c. the ui.-t.lv and 8-ov.h or our niton Vacuities. It created ShS homo,, and. iiwrtßl it with ««cv«, Jt made, 'marriage permanent, l,_ Haw togother thn.Biwip. Mk- tribe, to • no*P3 protective and ccoiiorux'.. lndei.nl. is the. very root |»ct wA on v the home and o£ the Suite, but ale*■ ot mo ■ temple of faith-as we pee in the Cult ot tho Child, at the heart or every lofty uid benign relifiou. One sura the came J*et in ho gaiety of the child Dionysius, i» tha pitv of the infant Uuddha. and in Inn- " ineffabfe bewity of One who Joum wcradle auiouir tho kindly boosts of Betule- : hem. TIIUB upon the. baby, tiny as ho in, rests the physical, the. social, tho political. au«l the spiritual future or the race, and , when we serve him mid Bivn him a cnaii'-e I we servo all the high interests oi human"when we look nt the baby in this large war-as Whitman did in his vision of -The Cradle Endletfly Bo( ! kine"-it teetear that- infant welfare should not ho the monopoly of a row enthusiastic idealists, but a chief concern of every one or *s. It 13 in this light, too, that the facts of infant, mortality, as now brought out,are so ghastly. . .. - Dangerous to b<! a Baby. Actually, as a noble woman has pointed out "it is more dangerous to be a oaby in London than lo be a soldier, in I'laaders"; and with aucii losses in the front line and in the back line it is time we woke up and looked about us. If in .linerica, we began to stir in our sleep a tew Hours earlier H was not more iar-seeine than the people of England. Not that. It is because in a new country, as George Eliot said it is with a uew friend, we can begin bo many new; things The matter of houeiUE, for example, is I very difficult in a very old community; but I in a newer country; where cities are still β-building, much may )x; done in a liitio while. Alas! it took the greatest war of all time- to wake some of is lip to many things which ought to have .been obvious, but it means that we are awake at last.

"Set Thy House iu Orders" Xor tuust we ever again uod iftntij the economic conditions, to which tliis' pitiful wa&te of precious child-life is in lar&epart duo, arc altered and at last uf course, such a think* uaunot bo (lone all at once; but it must be one of our uS*imate objectives in our war egaiust ignorance, negligence, aud misery. "Set my' house iu order, for thou shalt die and not live," was the prophetic word to the King of Judah. if Heaekiah had been a better housekeeper he might have averted the illness that threatened him .With early deat.il. "Set thy house iu order" is also a prophetic word to us, not because .we aro abou' to die, but because we wish those who coine after us "to iive, and to live well"—which ia the reason siv:n by Aristotle why a State should ■ exist.

I'he matter of infant welfare- is aii a ]>robleru of good community housekeeping, and tho advent of woman into a lo.tger field, both political aud social, ought 'o do mu2!i towards solving it. Not only ought to do so, but, manifestly will do so, aa has been shown iu many ways in actual practice.