THE sands of boys and girls, freed from lessons, are thinking about Harbor the work of school chil- dren has played a real part in the MONTHLY BULLETIN workers 14 through 17 years of age numbered 5 million last sum- mer, and as many may be at work are eager for new experience and Granted the job is legal, parents have an important responsibility to help in the selection of the job. Taking a job is an important step in the life of a child, and it is the parents' duty to see that the job's surroundings are healthful and suitable and that the work is such that it gives the young worker experience that will be of value ers should realize that their pri- mary job is education and that when school opens in September the first call upon them is to go to school, but give school the priority it deserves. Every Amer- ican boy and girl needs the best the State child-labor laws, write to the State department of labor at the State capital, which usually is the agency that enforces State child-labor laws. Certificates for from the local certificate-issuing officer, who in most States is a For information regarding Fed- eral standards write to the Chil- GENERAL CHILD WELFARE Third Annual Border Health Conference By KATHARINE F. LENROOT The third annual conference of the United States-Mexico Border Public Health Association, held in El Paso, Tex., and Juarez, Mexico, May 14-16, for the first time included a round table on maternal and child welfare. The association was founded 2 years ago to deal with health problems in the border States of Mexico and the United States, and it is making an outstanding contribution both to the solution of health problems and to the creation of friendships and mutual understanding on the part of health workers in the two countries. The round table on maternal and child health and child welfare was in part an outgrowth of the writer's visit to Mexico at the time of the InterAmerican Conference on Problems of War and Peace, when the possibility of including maternal and child health and child welfare in the program of the Border Health Conference was discussed with Mexican officials. The round table was held under the joint chairmanship of Dr. Pedro Daniel Martinez, Director General de Higiene y Asistencia Infantil, Secretaria de Salubridad y Asistencia, Mexico, D. F., and the writer. It was attended by some 50 persons, representing health and welfare services of Federal, State, and local Governments in Mexico and the United States, including representatives of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. The agenda for the round table covered programs of maternal and child health and child welfare on the border, employment of minors, protective legislation for children, training for social workers and nurses, and United States-Mexico cooperation in maternal and child protection. Obviously, such a broad range of subjects could be discussed only in general terms, but it was deemed important to review briefly the broad range of problems affecting children which should be included in cooperative programs. A feature of the discussions was a presentation of a city-wide program for the prevention and control of infantile diarrhea in San Antonio, by Dr. Lewis Robbins, director of San Antonio's city health department, and Dr. José Olea, an Ecuadorian physician who is serving temporarily as director of maternal and child health in the same department. The conclusions of the round table were presented to and approved by the resolutions committee of the conference and the conference itself. After expressing appreciation to the organization. of the conference for the inclusion of the round table in its program, the group expressed the hope that the Border Public Health Association would establish a permanent section on maternal and child health and child welfare. The remainder of the statement adopted by the round table is as follows: On both sides of the border there exist grave problems of maternal and infant mortality, childhood disease, child dependency and neglect, juvenile delinquency, lack of educational opportunity, and child labor that seriously interfere with the education and the general development of children. To deal successfully with these problems requires exchange of information and professional experience, the establishment of means of direct cooperation in individual cases between agencies and authorities of the United States and Mexico, and cooperation in planning for the ways in which children on both sides of the border may have the protection and the opportunities necessary for their best development. In order to obtain more complete information concerning the needs of children and the services available in border States, and to promote continuing Mexico-United States cooperation in matters pertaining to the health and welfare of children, it is recommended that a joint committee on children be established whose functions would include the following: a. Gathering and arranging for publication of information concerning the agencies and officials in the border States and border cities and in the Federal Governments whose duties relate to the health, protection, or welfare of children, and the services that such agencies and officials may be in a position to give. b. Promoting interstate and intercity conferences on child health and child welfare. 1 179 c. Developing cooperation in preparing health-education material of any type for Spanish-speaking parents and children. d. Developing cooperation in special projects, such as control of infantile diarrhea. e. Arranging for cooperation with respect to professional education and opportunities for observation and study by professional workers in Mexico and the United States. The round table expresses the hope that the Federal Governments of Mexico and the United States may be able to assign at least two persons, one from each country, to serve as joint executive secretaries of the committee and to promote Mexico-United States cooperation in matters pertaining to children. The conference adopted a resolution urging prompt action by the officials of Mexico an. the United States in appointing the committee. National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers By VINITA V. LEWIS Consultant in Social Services, Social Service Division, U. S. Children's Bureau Community leadership by parents and teachers in behalf of Negro children was emphasized at a joint conference between the Children's Bureau and the Executive Board of the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers, held at the Bureau March 15-17, 1945. The purpose of the conference was to explore the needs of Negro children in wartime and the postwar period and to consider ways of strengthening adult leadership for these children at a time when so many workers in the children's field have left this work to enter the armed services or other occupations connected with the war effort. The conference was attended by 48 persons, of whom 27 were members of the executive board from Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas; the others included representatives of the Children's Bureau and of other Federal agencies and national organizations concerned with parent-teacher activities. No stone had been left unturned to make this conference a joint one in every sense of the word. It was the climax of a long series of mutual activities in serving children by the Bureau and the National Congress. The President of the National Congress had served as a member of the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy, of several Children's Bureau Advisory Committees, and of the National Commission on Children in Wartime. A Bureau staff member had attended the 1943 annual conference of the National Congress at Richmond, Va.; and another had attended the executive board's 1944 planning conference on "New Frontiers and the Role of Parents and Teachers in Postwar Planning," at Nashville, Tenn. It was at this latter meeting that the invitation was extended to the executive board to meet with the Children's Bureau in the spring of 1945, as the result of the earnest desire of the Chief of the Bureau to learn of the needs of Negro children from Negro parents and teachers themselves. At the same time the Bureau hoped to provide opportunities through which Negro parents and teachers might learn more about wartime conditions and trends that affect all the children in the United States. Accepting the invitation, the President of the National Congress requested the public-welfare committee of the congress to serve as a planning committee for the joint conference, acting in cooperation with members of the Children's Bureau staff selected by the Chief. Katharine F. Lenroot, Chief of the Children's Bureau, who had just returned from the Chapultepec Conference in Mexico City, brought news of the Declaration of Social Principles of America, adopted by that conference, which stated "that poverty, malnutrition, sickness, and ignorance are lamentable and transitory situations of human life and that the American nations will undertake to combat them energetically and decisively." Furthermore, said Miss Lenroot, the Chapultepec Conference reaffirmed the principle, recognized by all the American nations, of equality of rights and opportunities for all, regardless of race or religion. Miss Lenroot told how the people of Mexico are combating illiteracy and are showing how a com |