THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 13

THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN.

MR G. R. 'SOIS'S -ARTIOLES. ' (London '"Tnbtm'e*) "2-'

The great difficulty is that for every infant who succumbs to food totally uni fitted for a baby -" three or four survive and strtijjgle* through,, more or -less maimed for ;. life,'/ ricKety^ or " with the beginnings- of chronic broifeßiris, lifelong" indigestion", de- ' cayed teeth, deafness implanted in j tliem before- the^ are oufr of the cradle." ;. Mr 4 fSigis f ?ft,upj'lks a table by Professor |"£unge, who-Jias 'concerned hirriself with the father of the nursing mother. The~ effect of the drinking mother upon the daughter's nursing capacity is, of course, disastrous. Btlt^ this is one of the tables jof_ the result of ' "the father's drinking-" habits", on _ the daugto.ter'6 ability to nurse : The F.ather Daughter Consumes Alcohol. .- j ■; -Able -to^Nurse. Ndf Kabitually ~ v ~ .. . 91.5 per cent. | Habitually, but moderately. 88.0 per cent. Habitually, immoderately. . 31.4 per cent. ■Inebriate" -'. . -/.-." . .. 10 0 p'or cent. This table is given because Mr Sims thinks it has a distinct bearing upon the problem of infant mortality' in connection with the two battle-crie6 that, he niges, must be raised by these who eniist under the children's banner — " OUT OF THE DRAM-SHOP !" AND "BACK TO THE BREAST!" "The first great thing to dc i 6 to keep infante out of publichouse^ and to make it an .off ence for alcoHbl to be-given 'little children: 1 *- We cannot* help the mis^iief that has happened to the. parents, but we can save the children. A,tjeast, we can give j them a fair chance. If the mothers and ! fathers of the future become habitual frequenters '3f 'the- publichouse in their^infancy: I and young, childhood „the habit* will,, grow. I with them. The 'mothers and" fathers of to- ■ day are made. The mothers and fathers- ! of the future are ":n the N making. "Keep the I babies and the children .put of the publichouse, and the manufacture of fathers and mothers who will rob the children of the future of the one food upon which they thrive and come to healthy maturity will at once receive a powerful check." I Mr Sinus declares, in answer to some I critics, that statistics prove beyond the : shadow of a. doubt that the conditions of ' housing and environment do not lie at the | root of the . evil. Among the bonniest | babies and the healthiest children to be 1 found in London are the little ones of the j Italian quarter. The secret, he says, of the j higher death-rate among the English infants I in that many of the English, .mothers take- ! their. 'babies into the dram shop; the Italian ! mothers do not. The English babies are hand fed, the Italian babies are breast fed. WEEK-END DRINKING. ! A recent Monday morning tour in South London revealed some startling circumstances to Mr Sims. In 30 publichouse6 before noon he found women and babies and children in all but three of them, come I of the children having their share of the morning dram. In this busy district he declares that " From home to the pawnshop and from the pawnshop to the publichouse is the concentional Monday morning trip of a vast number of poor married women. "The three great drinkirrg periods of the week are Saturday night, when the wages are in hand; Sunday, when a good deal of drinking is crowded in(o a short space of time owing to closing hours; and Monday morning, wherju—tho money received from the pawnbroker is available. " The women meet their neighbours at the pawnshop and adjourn to the publichouse for a glass and a gossip. " One woman stands treat perhaps to her friends, and then each of the friends in turn stands treat all round. The little children sprawl about the public-house floor all the morning long. " The greatest number of drink cases in the London Police Courts occur on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Among the women charged there are always a large number who are the mothers of infants and little childreirT" " I am putting these facts forward not in their bearing upon the increase of the drinking habits among women, but solely in their bearing upon the problem of infant mortality. " The Saturday night drinking leads, as things are, to the presence of enormous numbers of babies and children in the dram shop. The . children on Saturday night are of all ages. On Monday morning the babies are plentiful, and the children are usually .under four years of age. The elder children are at school." Mr Sims then proceeds to compare the practice of motherhood among the Jewish population of the East "End with that of the English mother, much to the latter's disadvantage, thus concluding: — "Good motherhood triumphs over all external conditions. Bad motherhood is tha first great cause of our appalling infant mortality."