Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of the Children's Bureau.

Mr. Secretary, Mrs. Oettinger, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

This is a double birthday party today. The Children's Bureau is 50 years old and so is Secretary Ribicoff. This is an awkward birthday for the Secretary, because he is too young to retire and too old to be President!

Chairman Glasser, Miss Lenroot, Dr. Eliot, ladies and gentlemen:

We are here to observe a very important anniversary. Fifty years ago this Nation showed the way in pioneering, in our concern for children, by the establishment of this Children's Bureau. And it is a source of pride and satisfaction to us that in the last 50 years over 20 nations have followed the example of the United States, early in the 20th century.

This Nation first established the Government Bureau solely devoted to the welfare of children, and while this 50th anniversary is an appropriate occasion for us to recall the accomplishments of the Bureau, it is also a more appropriate occasion for us to rededicate ourselves to making the life of every child as fruitful and productive as it possibly can be, and lay the groundwork for a useful and happy adult life.

fifty years ago, when this Bureau was formed, 10 out of every 100 babies born alive in this country failed to survive their first year of life. Today, fewer than 3 out of 100 babies born alive die in infancy.

fifty years ago more than 60 out of 10,000 American mothers died in childbirth. Today the number of maternal deaths for every 10,000 live births has been reduced to 4.

Somebody once said that things don't happen, they are made to happen. These statistics, like so many others with which you are familiar, are the result of the tireless dedication of all of you and those who went before you in trying to build and make this country a happy nursery and place for children to grow up.

These are only two of the problems that have been attacked by the Children's Bureau. Equally important has been their effort to stimulate programs that we now all take for granted, which are part of our American governmental structure. It is sometimes hard to remember that 50 years ago and less there was no program to provide services for crippled children, artificial limbs for children born without limbs, regional heart centers for children born with congenital heart diseases, diagnostic services for epileptic children, child health clinics, school health programs, the expansion of foster homes, the improvement of adoption laws, and basic standards for juvenile courts.

I mention all of these because I think it is a welcome reminder that the things which we now take for granted were once regarded as daring pioneer pieces of legislation. And it is a reminder to us today as we seek for new ways by which the National Government, the State, the county, and private groups can function together in providing a better life for our children, that what we regard now as daring and new will 50 years from now be regarded, I hope, as part of the normal, everyday life of Government and of people.

for 50 years the Children's Bureau blazed these trails. In the past year alone the National Government has embarked on a new series of efforts in which the findings and skills of the Children's Bureau will play an important part.

The first bill which was passed in the Congress last year was the provision of the aid to dependent children program, to include those in need because the parent is unemployed. It was one of the, I think, unfortunate parts of American life, that for a child to be eligible, if the father was unemployed, for assistance, that the father had to desert the home in order that his child might be taken care of. And now we have been able to amend that sorry situation.

Secondly, we obtained the first legislation by the National Government to begin to tackle the problem of juvenile delinquency.

And third, we have started to enlarge the chronically short supply of specifically trained teachers for deaf children.

And we have established a voluntary but beneficial program, I think, to improve the physical fitness of our school age children. There is nothing, I think, more unfortunate than to have soft, chubby, fat-looking children who go to watch their school play basketball every Saturday and regard that as their week's exercise.

I hope that all of you will join--and everybody in the United States--to make sure that our children participate fully in a vigorous and adventurous life--which is possible for them in this very rich country of ours.

The few pilot projects which we have been able to start in some of our States have yielded astounding results. In the short space of 2 or 3 months boys and girls who failed every physical test given to them are able to pass them. And if we can inculcate into them at an early age the habits of physical discipline, then as they get older they will continue, and it should be a part of their life from the beginning to the very end. And I hope that this will be one of the matters to which all of you who are so active in this field will give the closest attention. Concern not only for those who are underprivileged and sick but also making sure that those who are well, and therefore privileged, also participate fully in the life around them.

We have also recommended in the pending welfare improvements bill a fundamental reform and expansion of our services to dependent children. And we have set up a commission, which I hope will be reporting shortly, which is now in Europe, to look into the problem of mental retardation--to take that great challenge from under the clouds, and in the darker corners of the rooms, and bring it out into the open. So that all of us as a great national effort can provide the assistance for research and also for treatment for those children who because of nature or accident find their lives blighted at the beginning and never recover.

We had, a few months ago, two children, sisters, in the Mental Retardation Week-one was well and the other was sick--they were both born with the same disease. But because in the intervening 2 years research had shown that diet in the first few months made a decisive difference, one is now well, the younger sister; the older sister will never be well.

When we have as dramatic evidence of what can be done, I am sure that none of us wants to rest until every maximum effort is made to bring everyone into a fuller life.

We therefore realize, on this 50th anniversary, that we have got still a good deal to do, and the purpose, I think, of any anniversary or any birthday is to recommit ourselves to the unfinished business. There are too many children still dropping out of school, many of them the 8th grade or less. In looking at the long-range or the next decade's needs in manpower, the one thing we are going to need less and less of is unskilled labor. What we are going to need more and more of are educated men and women who are able, technically as well as generally, to handle the increasing complexities of modern industrial life.

If you look at the charts, which will probably be shown to you, you will see the sharp drop in the needs for unskilled labor. And yet any young boy or girl who drops out before the 8th grade, before the 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th--and there are millions of them--and 25 percent who have dropped out are today unemployed, you can realize what a great national problem and challenge this is going to be for all of us.

In addition, there are a good many children who have the talent but lack the means or the motivation--and both can be important in moving from school into college. There is no sense in wasting our most valuable resource, which is an educated and talented and capable young man or woman, particularly today.

And therefore we have to find means of making it possible for them to go on with their education. And this question of motivation, which is so much a part of environment and encouragement, and the accident of a gifted teacher, or church leader, or community, or mother, or father--all this, the final emphasis is on them. But the National Government has a supporting role.

There are still too many epileptic children unable to attend public schools, and still too many with cystic fibrosis who fail to reach maturity. There are still too many preschool children who have never been inoculated against polio or diphtheria or smallpox or whooping cough and tetanus.

There are still too many children in institutions who should be living in foster homes or with adopted families--too many small children at home without care while both of their parents are working full time-too many children of migrant farm workers whose needs receive almost no attention.

And our responsibilities will increase as our child population grows. By 1970 an estimated 43 percent of our population will be under 21 years of age. We shall not have fulfilled our obligation as a people unless our children, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, regardless of geography, regardless of their color, have the opportunity to grow to wholesome, self-sustaining adulthood and make something of their lives.

This Golden Anniversary of the Children's Bureau, therefore, should initiate another 50 years of increasing concern by all of us for the welfare not only of our own child but the child of our neighbor--a golden opportunity for children, an opportunity for individual health and well-being, an opportunity to make them citizens of the country in every sense of the word.

I want you to know that there's no work which I am sure gives you more satisfaction--there's no work closer to the hearts of all of us. We, all of us, I am conscious, feel that however fortunate our own children may be, we are not fulfilling our obligation as parents until other children have the same opportunities.

I congratulate you and tell you that I am grateful for your past services, and hope together we can make the life of children in the future somewhat easier.

Thank you.