NATIONAL CONGRESS OF MOTHERS 4074 NATIONAL CONGRESS OF MOTHERS 



minent men in the country interested 

 in the project, and it included in 

 ::ibership such men as Grover Cleveland, 

 Charles \V. Kliot and Archbishop Ireland, be- 

 large employers of labor, like John D. 

 :,ller, and labor leaders, like Samuel 

 Gompers and John Mitt-hell. While the in- 

 fluence which the organization has been able to 

 irdly justified the most optimistic 

 hopes of its founders, the federation has un- 

 doubtedly played its part in producing a better 

 understanding between capital and labor. 



NATIONAL CONGRESS OF MOTHERS AND 

 PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS. With 

 the earnest purpose of promoting better oppor- 

 tunities for all children a group of persons met 

 in Washington February 17, 1897. Mothers, 

 fathers, educators, clergymen and statesmen 

 were there, but the central figures of that great 

 Congress were Mrs. Theodore W. Birney and 

 Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, both of them mothers, 

 and both women of broad outlook on social con- 

 ditions and needs. Both had reached the con- 

 clusion that the foundation of civic and social 

 betterment could be reached by more intelli- 

 gent, comprehensive care of children. It was 

 the first time in history that mothers of a na- 

 tion had been called together to consider their 

 own responsibilities as mothers and the rela- 

 tion of the home to civic and social life. 



The objects of the National Congress of 

 Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations then 

 organized and incorporated were thus stated in 

 the constitution: 



The objects of this Congress shall be to raise 

 : i < lards of home life; to give young people 

 opportunities to learn how to care for children, 

 so that when they assume the duties of parent- 

 hood they may have some conception of the 

 methods which will best develop the physical, in- 

 tellectual and spiritual nature of the child ; to 

 bring into closer relations the home and the 

 school, that parents and teachers may cooperate 

 intelligently in the education of the child; to sur- 

 round the childhood of the whole world with that 

 wise, loving care in the impressionable years of 

 life that will develop good citizens; to use sys- 

 tematic and earnest effort to this end through 

 the formation of Parent-Teacher Associations in 

 every public school and elsewhere, through the 

 establishment of kindergartens, and through dis- 

 tribution of literature which will be of practical 

 use to parents in the problems of home life ; to 

 secure more adequate laws for the care of blame- 

 less and dependent children, and to carry the 

 mother love and mother thought into all that con- 

 cerns childhood. The Congress believes that, 

 with the aid of Divine Power, these objects will 

 be accomplished. 



First of all, the Congress placed emphasis on 

 home life, for every child comes into some kind 



of a home, and the iniluences for good or evil 

 \ <T forgotten. Tin- COD for its 



primary work the raising of the standards of 

 even- home to best fit the requirements of in- 

 fancy, childhood and youth. That meant edu- 

 cation of parents in child nnrt lire, in all that 

 conduces to the best kind of a home. It meant 

 reaching every home with the knowledge which 

 is essential in good home making. The Con- 

 gress saw children suffering from parental igno- 

 rance concerning health, foods, physical, mental 

 and spiritual growth and methods which best 

 promote each. It saw parents craving more 

 light, but with no means offered for satisfying 

 the craving. It assumed the task of supplying 

 this need of parents and children. 



The Congress saw teachers who were sharing 

 with parents the guidance of children, yet since 

 neither was in communication with the other, 

 the task of both parents and teachers was made 

 the more difficult, and the children suffered by 

 this lack of mutual understanding and coopera- 

 tion. 



The Congress saw the majority of children 

 coming under school jurisdiction, and through 

 the well-systematized school system it discerned 

 the way to open the opportunity for home 

 education to parents, and at the same time se- 

 cure intelligent cooperation of home and school 

 through the establishment of a Parent-Teacher 

 Association in connection with every school. 



The National Congress of Mothers assumed 

 the work of organizing these associations, and 

 it also assumed the permanent function of the 

 educational direction of the home education 

 work of all these associations, which would 

 make them of real value to parents wherever 

 they might be, insure their continuance and 

 keep them true to their fundamental, far-reach- 

 ing purpose. The Congress saw what to the 

 mother heart seemed gross neglect of depend- 

 ent, orphan and erring children. It saw chil- 

 dren in prisons and jails in every state; it saw 

 children associated with criminals in all court 

 procedure; it saw no discrimination between 

 the offenses of children and adults and no ade- 

 quate provision for helping them. To put 

 mother love and mother thought into the solu- 

 tion of these conditions and to ask Divine guid- 

 ance in the great work of guarding and guiding 

 little children was one of the objects to which 

 the Congress pledged itself. 



Comparatively little attention had been given 

 to protecting legislation for all phases of child 

 welfare before 1897. In changing this condition 

 the National Congress of Mothers has wielded 



