"The state begins too late when it permits the child to enter the
public school only when it is six years of age. It is locking the
stable door after the horse is stolen."
"Remember that from a single neglected child in a wealthy county in
the State of New York there has come a notorious stock of
criminals, vagabonds, and paupers, imperilling every dollar's worth
of property and every individual in the community. Not less than
twelve hundred persons have been traced as the lineage of six
children who were born of this perverted and depraved woman, who
was once a pure, sweet, dimpled little child, and who, with proper
influences thrown about her at a tender age, might have given to
the world twelve hundred progeny who would have blest their day and
generation."--_Sarah B. Cooper, before the National Conference of
Charities and Correction._