The annual sacrifice of three hundred thousand American citizens from preventable causes is a waste far too great not to receive governmental consideration. Time need not be wasted on compiling statistics. There is need for prompt and decisive action to prevent this needless sacrifice; it means that each year the possibility for at least one hundred thousand homes of American citizens is cut off. That means a serious loss to this Nation and one for which immigration can not compensate.
The wonderful advance in agriculture can be paralleled in human culture if the same methods are used. The trains that go through the country for agricultural demonstrations should carry instruction to both men and women on home-making and child nurture. The list of valuable educational pamphlets published and sent free of postage should include instruction in child hygiene and sanitation.
There is today a need for a Home Department in the National and State Governments that is equipped to study the home problems of America and meet them as only can be done by thorough study and knowledge of conditions, their causes and remedies. The sacrifice of infant life is a small part of the waste that undermines the homes.
Juvenile crime, its causes and treatment are of more vital moment than the boll weevil or the chestnut blight, for the possible good citizen transformed into one who is a menace and expense to society is a great waste.
There are countless organizations which give material and charitable relief. There are few which give the help that will enable the average home properly to guide and train the boys and girls who are wayward, or will help parents to learn efficient methods of child nurture. The home has the greatest power over human life and human character. Too long has it been left to chance and ignorant experiment to make it efficient in its work, stable and permanent.
The home is founded by the marriage of a man and a woman. It is a matter of grave concern to the Nation when divorce breaks up one in every twelve homes, and leaves the children bereft, not only of a normal home but deprived of a true conception of what marriage and parenthood should be. The conservation of the home requires that serious study and work be done to change this condition in America. It can not be done by legislation alone, though one of the greatest needs today for the protection of the home is Federal law governing marriage, divorce and polygamy.
It is a serious menace to the home when forty-four States may make as many different laws as they choose on a subject which is the foundation of the Nation’s future.
That a man may be legally married in one State, and that such marriage is illegal in a State adjoining, that divorce is easy in some States and difficult in others, that polygamy is permitted to continue in some States, and that freedom to spread the cult is allowed, have all been undermining influences in the God-given standards of marriage, home and parenthood.
The Government has found it necessary to assume jurisdiction over interstate commerce, railroads and express companies. It is of even more vital importance that it should have jurisdiction over marriage, divorce and their violations. In addition to this, there is need for definite plain teaching of youth in regard to the true high ideal of marriage, of parenthood, and the making of a home. This would prevent a large proportion of the divorces. A standard should be set in regard to the home, and boys and girls should get that as part of their education.
Ignorance of hygiene is responsible for the drawbacks and failures of many homes. It is inexcusable that any boy or girl should be permitted to reach manhood and womanhood without a clear knowledge of personal hygiene, sanitation, and food values. This knowledge is essential to good home-making and good parenthood, and is equally necessary for men and women.