286 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
affecting children in the several states and territories, and such other facts as have a bearing upon the health, efficiency, character and training of children.
The following arguments and opinions are presented for consideration :
"There should be a children's bureau in one of the departments of the federal government, dealing exclusively with the problems of childhood. Such a body of experts working under the direction of the best trained specialist in the country could bring together the statistical results of the census, without duplicating any statistical inquiry now carried on, and could formulate schedules and questions for further statistical inquiry. Through the agency of traveling experts the bureau would report upon the exceptional conditions with respect to high or low birth-rate, high or low infant mortality, the conditions of ex- cessive juvenile crime, the most successful methods of dealing with problems presented in children's courts, the reasons for child labor in particular industries, the operation of successful child-labor laws, the methods of meeting the problem of juvenile dependency, and many other allied questions.
"Systematic and co-ordinated inquiry, investigation and report, in the form of bulletins available as a basis for legislative and administrative action by state and municipal officials and by the means of agents of private societies, would immeasurably increase the effectiveness of the work now being done in education, philanthropy and preventive social work." — Samuel McCune Lindsay, Director, New York School of Philanthropy.
"The federal government does not even afford up-to-date information con- cerning the children. We need full, consecutive, trustworthy, current informa- tion concerning the children of our nation. This can be obtained only through a bureau devoted to them which should issue promptly the data gathered by the census and the departments of education and labor, not, as now occurs, years after the figures have lost their chief value and have become ancient history." — Mrs. Florence Kelly, General Secretary, National Consumers' League.
"If the bureau is established it will not be entirely unique. The same work has been done for years by the central governments of France, Germany, and England. The United States stands alone among great nations in its apparent apathy toward its children. It is almost the only central government of highly civilized people which has done what seems to be almost nothing to promote the healthy growth and development of children. The reasons are plain enough. The central government is obliged to leave most special legislation to the state governments." — Editor of the New York Evening Post.
"The children's bureau contemplated in this bill will not duplicate any work that is now being done by the national government, but it will co-ordinate and render effective for practical uses, at a very small cost, much that is now done at a very great expense." — Editor of the Lowell (Mass.) Times.
"A national bureau would not only provide for the welfare of the child directly in many matters that cannot be provided for by the state, but it would also aid the state in bettering the condition of its children in various ways. There would be a co-operation — a communion of interest — that could only result in the betterment of childhood, and, therefore, of manhood and womanhood. It is not merely a question of child labor ; not merely a question of education ; of healthful food ; of proper clothing ; of proper homes. The movement carries with it everything that pertains to the good of the child, mentally, morally, and physically." — Miss Lillian D. Wald, Nurses' Settlement, New York City.
The following paragraphs are from the July 4, 1908, issue Charities and the Commons, by the Editor, Edward T. Devine :
"A convincing argument in favor of the plan for the bureau in the interests of children in the federal government is to be found in the handbook of child- labor legislation of which the new annual edition has just been issued by the Consumers' League. The admirable, brief introduction to this publication refers directly to this subject among others, but the facts concerning the chaotic and, even yet, on the whole, backward condition of the legislation on this subject in our several states, speak even more eloquently of the need for further public enlightenment. The existing Bureau of Labor, Census Bureau, Bureau of Public
