S.W.of A.

No President of the U.S. has been more interested in child welfare than Herbert Clark Hoover. On a $500,000 anonymous donation he has organized a large commission to survey this field, to recommend improvements. The Children's Bureau in the Department of Labor has his special favor. Last week he was amazed when two well-groomed ladies from Boston walked into his office and partly told him to his 'face that their whole purpose in life was to put his Children's Bureau out of business, to defeat all his elaborate plans for national child welfare. He advised his callers to use their energy for "some more constructive activity."

The Hoover visitors were Mrs. William Lowell Putnam, sister of the President of Harvard University, and Mrs. Francis E. Slattery. They have organized "The Silent Women of America," whose purpose is to combat "the nationalization of children" through various forms of Federal welfare aid. Mrs. Putnam specified the Silent Women's opposition to the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act under which the U.S. gave States a $1-for-$1 subsidy for welfare work; the Child Labor Amendment to the Constitution; and legislation for a U.S. Department of Education.*

Natural enough was opposition to President Hoover's welfare plans from Massachusetts, which was the first state to reject the Child Labor Amendment, which consistently refused to accept a U.S. dole under the Sheppard-Towner Act.

Explained Mrs. Putnam: "We're going to turn the spotlight on the Children's Bureau and abolish it. We thought it only fair to let President Hoover know it in advance. Oh, I don't think the Silent Women will be so silent after all. We'll have plenty to say yet."

* The Maternity Act lapsed June 30 last. The Child Labor Amendment was never ratified. No Department of Education legislation is in serious prospect.

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