CHILD LABOR

Press Bureau Organized to Conduct
Educational Campaign

Through the courtesy of its Editorial Director, Mr. J. Wirt Steele, we have received from the National Child Welfare Press Service an advance statement of its plans. The organization has been incorporated under the laws of Illinois—not for profit, so we are informed, but with motives of pure philanthropy, "to operate and conduct, through the press, a continuous educational campaign in the interests of child conservation and race betterment." Its executive offices are in the Hearst building, Chicago; its editorial offices are in the Law building, in Baltimore.

The present officers of the corporation are: James L. Clark, publisher of The Child Magazine, who is Chairman of the Board; Rev. J. P. Dysart, Superintendent of the Wisconsin Children's Home Society, who is ViceChairman; Dimmitt C. Hutchins, of Hutchings & Rippel, Y. M. C. A. building, Chicago, who is its Counsellor; Mr. John A. McCormick, Vice President of the Chicago Savings Bank & Trust Company, who is its Treasurer; Mr. H. Wirt Steele, Baltimore press agent of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, who, as already said, is the Editorial Director; and Dr. Hastings H. Hart, of the Russell Sage Foundation, of New York; Rev. S. W. Dickinson, of St. Paul; Rev. C. C. Stahmann, of St. Louis, and Paul D. Herwitz, Treasurer of the United States Printing Company, of Chicago, who are the other Directors.

"It is the earnest belief of the founders," the statement declares, "that this service will go far toward building up co-operation and promoting co-ordination of the various agencies dealing with children in the several states of the Union. They believe that it will foster a tendency toward higher standards of child-caring work in all the states. The service will not attempt to exploit any particular

children's agency, nor any special kind of child-helping work, but will confine its efforts to the dissemination of information as to what is going on in this field of activity throughout this country and abroad. The corporation has already begun to establish its connections in the various states of the Union, with a view to learning the exact status of children's work, in order that local programs of publicity may be prepared consistently throughout the country. A logical effect of this procedure, it is thought, will be that the legislation and practices in the several states will soon begin to conform to the best standards. One of the ideals of the service will be that the interests of the child are paramount to the interests of any agency or any group of agencies dealing with children.

"An interesting fact of great importance in the development of the service is the promised co-operation of the new federal Children's Bureau, which expects to gain, through our service, not only wider publicity but of a kind, and in a form, that is not always easily obtainable by a governmental department or bureau. The organization of the service and its present program were endorsed by the Board of Directors of the National Children's Home Society at a meeting held in Dcs Moines, la., on January 10th. The co-operation of executives of children's aid societies was also promised at a conference of these executives held in New York on January 31st. Many of them have pledged $250 each toward the initial work. It is the consensus of opinion of those interested in the organization that at this time numerous lines of work for children in the United States are so uncorrelated as to produce confusion in the public mind. The program for its publicity in the immediate future embraces such subjects as eugenics, proper parental care, hygiene, dietetics, housing, education, treatment of dependent children, treatment of defective children, treatment of delinquent children, recreation, child labor and allied subjects."

Contributions are invited.