In the face of this expression of virtue stands the fact that
childhood has no assured protection within the boundaries of the
United States between the time of birth and, say, six or seven years
of age, when infants become eligible for admission to the public
schools. There are many who are the victims of haphazard parentage
with neither guardianship nor court of appeal for protection.
All children are the innocent and helpless guests of the nation to
which they are born, subject to the chance of haphazard parentage,
without their own volition of choice, and are the victims of whatever
conditions are provided in advance for them.
The neglect of the most intelligent hospitality known to the Science
of Child-Life is the especial reproach of every citizen who has a
vote, a voice, a dollar or any influence whatsoever in the management
of the national affairs, and the reproach is not mitigated by any
possible excuse as long as one of these helpless guests is denied
every facility for developing his God-given faculties or equipment
which he brings to us for cultivation.
This is the indictment on the score of duty. That on the score of
economy is as strong, but duty should be a sufficient inspiration in
the midst of a holy foreign war in which there is little prospect of
reward except the honor of having championed a righteous cause.
How is the indictment met by facts?
The single case of the waif of our story, the waif of our especial
plea, and the thousands of others of his deplorable condition, as well
as the millions that are influenced unfavorably by the neglect that
makes him and his fellow victims possible, is the answer on behalf of
Chicago and other American and English cities where similar conditions
prevail.
But this one alone is, or should be, a stab to the conscience of every
citizen.
What is the merit of the Cuban, or any foreign cause, compared with
the moral influence of an army of neglected waifs at home?