NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Eighteen Years Work for Child- Welfare 
by National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Association 
(From the February Issue of Child-Welfare Magazine) 
EIGHTEEN years ago this month the 
Mothers of America met in Washing- 
ton with the earnest purpose of pro- 
moting better opportunities for all 
children. Mothers, fathers, educators, 
clergymen and statesmen were there, 
but the central figures of that great 
Congress were Mrs, Theodore W. 
3irney and Mrs. Phoebe A, Hearst, 
both of them mothers, and both wo- 
men of broad outlook on social con- 
ditions and needs. Both had reached 
the conclusion that the foundation 
of civic and social betterment could 
be reached by more intelligent, com- 
prehensive care of children, It was 
the first time in history that mothers 
of a nation had been called together 
to consider their own responsibilities 
as mothers and the relation of the 
home to civic and social life. It was 
an epoch in the history of the world, 
for the objects there incorporated in- 
to the constitution have been carried 
into action and have had an inesti- 
mable influence “in rousing the whole 
community to a sense of its respon- 
sibility to the children’’—which was 
adopted as an important aim of the 
organization. 
Article II of the constitution states 
the objects as follows: 
‘““The objects of this Congress shall 
be to raise the standards of home 
life; to give young people opportuni- 
ties to learn how to care for children, 
so that when they assume the duties 
of parenthood they may have some 
conception of the methods which will 
best develop the physical, intellectual 
and spiritual nature of the child; to 
bring into closer relations the home 
and the school, that parents and 
teachers may co-operate 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 
systematic 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 distribution of literature 
which will be of practical use to par- 
ents in the problems of home life; to 
secure more adequate laws for the 
care of blameless and dependent chil- 
dren, and to carry the mother-love 
and mother-thought into all that con- 
cerns childhood, The Congress be- 
lieves that, with the aid of Divine 
Power, these objects will be accom- 
plished.”’ 
First of all the Congress placed 
emphasis on home life, for every 
child comes into some kind of a home, 
and the influences for good or evil 
are never forgotten. The Congress 
set for its primary work raising the 
standards of every home to best fit 
the requirements of infancy, child- 
hood and youth. That meant educa- 
tion of parents in child nurture, 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 
Congress saw children suffering from 
parental ignorance concerning health, 
foods, physical, mental and spiritual 
growth and methods which best pro- 
mote each, It saw parents craving 
more light, but with no means offered 
for satisfying the craving. It assum- 
ed the task of supplying this great 
need of parents and children. 
The Congress saw a great body of 
teachers who were sharing with 
parents the guidance of children, yet 
neither was in communication with 
the other, and without co-operation 
the task of both parents and teachers 
was more difficult; the children suf- 
fered by this lack of mutual under- 
standing and co-operation. 
The Congress saw the majority of 
children coming under school juris- 
diction and through the well systema- 
tized school system it saw the way to 
open the opportunity for home edu- 
cation to parents, and at the same 
time secure intelligent co-operation 
of home and school through the es- 
tabliishment of Parent-Teacher asso- 
cjlations 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 education- 
al direction of the home education 
work of all these associations, which 
would make them of real value to 
parents wherever they might be, en- 
sure their continuance and keep them 
true to their fundamental, far-reach- 
ing purpose. 
There had been parents’ associa- 
tions of various kinds in some schools, 
but the National Congress of Moth- 
ers originated the movement to make 
them universal and to widen the scope 
of the educational system by making 
‘the schools serve the double purpose 
of educating children, and of provid- 
ing the education for parents in ail 
that would enable them to be better 
parents and home makers, ‘This in- 
cluded the wider use of school build- 
ings, opening them for reading rooms 
and recreation centres wherever the 
need existed for such use, and plac- 
ing the direction of such use in the 
hands of those most concerned, viz.: 
the parents and teachers of the chil- 
dren in the schools. 
The plan was a comprehensive one. 
The Congress assumed the functions 
of a National University for Parents, 
with its headquarters in Washington, 
but radiating its educational help to 
all who could be reached. 
The Congress saw what to the 
mother heart seemed gross neglect of 
dependent, orphan and erring. chil- 
dren. It saw children 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 adequate provision for 
helping them. To put mother-love. 
and mother-thought into the solution 
of these conditions and to ask Divine 
guidance in the great work of guard- 
ing and guiding little children was 
one of the objects to which the Con- 
gress pledged itself. 
The National Congress of Mothers 
was consecrated to one great purpose 
—the welfare of the child in home, 
church, school and State, To that 
work it has given itself for eighteen 
years and has been the moving factor 
in creating the wide interest in many 
phases of child welfare which marks 
the present time. The demand creat- 
ed for books on child nurture made 
by the organized parenthood of the 
nation has caused a new bibliography 
which offers to parents opportunity 
for self-culture in their vital duty. 
Magazines, and daily papers give 
much space to articles relating to 
home and children. As leaders in 
this field of authorship Dr. G. Stan- 
ley Hall, Froebel Pestalozzi, Horace 
Mann, Elizabeth MHarrison, Kate 
Douglas Wiggin, Helen Hunt Jack- 
son will always be recognized with 
appreciation for directing attention 
to the fact that children were worth 
studying, that child nurture is a sci- 
ence, that by applying it to the care 
of every child, humanity will rise 
