_The child to be "raised" as he should be. Restraint for his
good. Teaching good habits the chief duty of the family._
Our success or failure with the unending stream of babies
(one every eight seconds) is the measure of our
civilization: every institution stands or falls by its
contribution to that result, by the improvement of the
children born or by the improvement of the quality of births
attained under its influence.
_H. G. Wells, Mankind in the Making._
Children are the most hopeful element of our population, and
we should concentrate our efforts on them.
_Dr. W. F. Porter, Harvard Medical School Lectures._
We want the mothers to be the health officers of the home.
_Charles W. Hewitt._
When human beings and families rationally subordinate their
own interests as perfectly to the welfare of future
generations as do animals under the control of instinct, the
world will have a more enduring type of family life than
exists at present. This can only be accomplished by the
development of controlling ideals which are supported not
only by reason and intelligence but by ethical impulse and
religious motive.
The home should be considered the place where are to be
developed and conveyed the precious qualities which are so
vital to the continuity of the race and the progress of
human society and civilization.
Those factors which are of a more material or physical
nature, such as shelter, food, dress, and personal health,
are to be estimated in their relation to mind, character,
and effective conduct.
In the confusion of relative values human health as one of
the essential means to many worthy ends is usually
neglected. Man is the most highly developed of all species
of animals. He is, to some degree at least, civilized, and
yet human beings are of all animals the sickliest, and this
in spite of the fact that human health is more important to
man and to the world than the health of any other creature.
And by health I do not mean simply existence, freedom from
pain, or absence of disease, but rather organic power and
efficiency, the maximum vital ability possible to the
individual for the doing of all that seems most worth while
in life.
_Dr. Thomas D. Wood, Lake Placid Conference, 1902._