THE STATE DOING ITS PART
That the nation and the state are active partic.i.p.ants in these new forms of child-conserving and man-saving endeavor is indicated on every side.
The national government has encouraged the states in the enactment of stringent child-labor laws. In the usual instance children under fourteen to sixteen years of age are prohibited from working away from home at gainful occupations. Correlated with this is the compulsory-education law in the several states.
The national and state governments have also cooperated in the enactment of laws prohibiting the adulteration of foods and foodstuffs and in enforcing better sanitation. As a result of such measures, state and local, together with the help of greatly improved hospital practice, the infant mortality in several of the large cities has been reduced more than fifty per cent in the past decade.
Inspired by the splendid pioneer work of the National Playground a.s.sociation, the cities and towns have recently made very rapid progress in the establishment of playgrounds and recreative centers for old and young. Many millions of dollars have already been expended for such purposes. Now the country districts are adopting the same means of social improvement.
The primary system of selecting candidates for political office is proving to be a most potent agency for the general uplift. By means of it, better men are being inducted into office. Better still, the old corrupt practice of the ward politician, so deleterious to the character of youth, is losing its once powerful influence on government.
The so-called social evil, so damaging to the health and morals of thousands of our best young men and young women, is now under fair promise of improvement. The remarkable survey of the Chicago Vice Commission and the work of the other well-planned organizations looking to the solution of the same general problem have proved most effective in revealing the true conditions and of awakening the public conscience.
All of these activities in the interest of putting down the s.e.x evils point very clearly one moral to all conscientious parents; namely, that the best and most certain method of inculcating lessons of purity in the case of the young is through preventive measures, and through the practice of purity during the years of growth. Open and frank discussion of the s.e.x problems as they arise normally out of the experiences of the child, admonitions and prohibitions in regard to impure a.s.sociates, the insistence upon a single, and not a double, standard of purity for the two s.e.xes--these are some of the specific duties of parents.
As an instance of what may be achieved by way of helping the weak and depraved to defend themselves against debasing habit, and especially of what may be done by way of prevention of a character-destroying habit in time of youth, the Kansas prohibitory law is cited. The longer this statute remains, the more effective its work and the more unanimous the public sentiment supporting it. So popular has this measure become that no political party and no faction of any other cla.s.s has been able to take any effective stand against it. It can be shown to any fair-minded investigator that the great majority of the citizens of Kansas are total abstainers from the use of intoxicants; also that the state has brought up a new generation of tens of thousands of men, now mostly voters, who have no personal knowledge of the use and abuse of alcoholic drinks and who have become confirmed as total abstainers for life.
Another unique Kansas measure--ignored and derided at first only less than was the prohibitory liquor law when new--is the statute forbidding the use of tobacco in any form on the part of minors. The wisdom of this statute is supported by the conclusions of scientific study of the effects of tobacco on the young. The general purpose of the law is to prevent the youth from taking up the tobacco-using habit before reaching full maturity of years and judgment. The general result will be the gradual development of a generation of total abstainers from the use of tobacco.
THE NEW ERA OF RELIGION
Even into the sanctuary of the modern church is the new scientific spirit finding its way. It has become an accepted principle of procedure among ministers and other church workers of late that the best way to save souls is not to depend wholly upon divine grace, but to a.s.sist this subtle power by means of the constructive work of many human agencies.
Preventive measures that aim at safeguarding the young against evil contaminations, the inst.i.tution of social improvement organizations and of literary and economic clubs, the formation of good-fellowship societies, of societies for conducting social surveys, of committees for giving vocational guidance and for the administration of spiritual healing--these and numerous endeavors of the same cla.s.s give evidence of the great service which the modern church is rendering young humanity.
And all this splendid work is being carried forward without doing any violence to the essential doctrines of the great historical inst.i.tution so long engaged in its serious efforts in behalf of human salvation.
FINAL CONCLUSION
As a closing remark the author can only express again his belief that no past age ever held out such inspiring hope and such splendid encouragement to the many parents who appreciate the needs of intelligent care and training for their children. And because of the natural advantages of the surroundings, country parents have the greatest justification of all for being enthusiastic over the outlook.
Now, let them go patiently and reverently at the work of bringing up for the service of the world a magnificent race of men and women--men who have brain and brawn and moral courage and religious devotion; women who have a profound sense of maternal responsibility, an inspiring superiority over the perplexing duties of the household, a deep and far-reaching social sympathy, and such a poise and sublimity of thought as to reveal the divinity inherent in their characters. For lo! In the hidden depths of the natures of the common boys and girls there lie slumbering these splendid possibilities!
REFERENCES
The Meaning of Social Science. Albion W. Small. University of Chicago Press. An epoch-making book, restating ably the general problem of social reconstruction.
Report of Committee on Rural Social Problems, National Conference Charities and Corrections. Address Porter R. Lee, Sec"y for Organizing Charity, Philadelphia, Pa.
Annual Report. a.s.sociation for Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality, 1211 Cathedral Street, Baltimore.
Government Report on Children as Wage-earners. Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington, D.C. This department is bringing out nineteen volumes in all, each covering a particular problem of women and children as wage-earners. The following are especially related to the subject matter of this chapter:--
The Beginnings of Child Labor Legislation in Certain States; A Comparative Study.
Conditions under which Children leave School to go to Work.
Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment.
Causes of Death among Women and Child Cotton Mill Operatives.
Family Budgets of Typical Cotton Mill Workers.
Hook Worm Disease among Cotton Mill Operatives.
Employment of Women and Children in Selected Industries.
Reports and Circulars National Christian League for Promotion of Purity, 5 East 12th Street, New York.
Annual Report of National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1911. Charities Publication Committee, New York.
See this valuable volume for reports of progress in the different lines of child-welfare effort.
The White Slave Traffic. _Outlook_, July 16. 1910.
The Rockefeller Grand Jury Report of White Slave Traffic.
_McClure_, May, August, 1910.
Moral Research in Social and Economic Problems. G. Connell.
_Westminster Review_, February, 1910.
My Lesson from the Juvenile Court. Judge Ben. B Lindsey.
_Survey_, Feb. 5, 1910.