The Vashon Island Record

The Vashon Island Record, Thursday, September 4, 1919.

World Is Forced Into New Activity for the Protection of All Children

By JULIA LATHROP, Children's Bureau

It is not too much to say that the world is being forced willy nilly to a new activity for the protection of all children—not a few, not favored children, but all children. War losses of population and of wealth force Europe. A decent self-respect would force the United States even if it were not plain that the nations which are to maintain leadership will be those which most wisely and generously equip the children of today and tomorrow.

First, as to illiteracy, the United States is perhaps ninth among civilized nations; that is, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany all have a larger proportion of the population who can read and write than has the United States.

Second, as to maternal mortality, the United States is fourteenth in the list of civilized nations, judged by the proportion of deaths of mothers from causes incident to child-bearing. That is, in thirteen countries the mother's life is safer than it is in the United States.

Third, the United States is eleventh among civilized countries, tested by its infant mortality rate, a rate whose searching value as a sign of social wellbeing is axiomatic.

Considering the exemption this country enjoys from the poverty and hunger and devastation of Europe, it is not less than our reasonable service to make the United States stand first in every phase of child welfare in any list of countries. The war has left us no sectional questions. We have only the issue of a nation's welfare.