Solicitude

Representatives of every state in the Union met in Manhattan. Their mission : the Child Welfare Conference (TIME, May 18). Their motto: "A home for every child-preferably with his mother."

Four governors were there-Moore of Idaho, Smith of New York, Winant of New Hampshire, Brandon of Alabama. U.S. Secretary of Labor Davis was there, a politician or two, notables various, such as William Jennings Bryan, Mrs. W. R. Hearst, Miss Margaret Wilson. The sessions were to last five days.

Chairman Sophie Irene Loeb, President of the Child Welfare Board, began the speechmaking, all of which bore upon uniform national laws concerning child protection and widows' pensions. Her point: Though many local groups agitate for the desired laws, no national body directs or helps these groups. That direction will be the task of the Child Welfare Committee.

Governor Smith: "Laws can be passed only after public conference and after the public makes up its mind what it wants."

Secretary Davis: "Shame to a state which will permit a child of a normal mother to be taken away or which will allow brothers and sisters to be auctioned off to the highest bidder ..." (The Secretary's metaphoric reference was to institutions for orphans which can care for applicants only according to the extent of their facilities, the size of their endowments, and to adoptions by well-to-do foster parents arranged by bureaus.)

Mr. Bryan: "No home with money is even a fair substitute for the love and parental guidance which a child gets in his own home."

Commissioner of Public Welfare (N.Y.) Coler: "It is easy enough to get a society woman to be photographed with a nice clean-looking baby. But to get the same amount of attention for defective, diseased children is quite another matter."