From a news story in the New York World we learn that 42 per cent of unmarried mothers cared for in the last two years in 15 Salvation Army homes in the Eastern territory were school girls of an average age of 16, Col. Margaret Boville, in direct charge of that branch of the Army’s work, said recently in a statement covering a survey made June 9th. Of these, one was 12, one 13, and many 14 and 15, she said.
Of the total of 397 unmarried mothers cared for, 169 were of 16 average and 137 of the 397 blamed automobile flirtations for their troubles.
Philadelphia had the greatest percentage of mothers of school age with a mark of 75 per cent. In New York “City the percentage was only 20, while Boston with 13 had the smallest per centage.
“Twenty years ago,” said Colonel Boville in her statement, “our resuce homes were always filled with woman of mature age who had deliberately degraded themselves. This is not t the situation today.
“In spite of reforms, such as doing away with red-light districts, the Salvation Army now has in this territory twice the number of maternity homes it operated in these urid days of the past, and they are all filled to capacity—by whom? Not by professional, but by school children, many of whom have been obliged to leave their desks in high or elementary grads to go direct to our institutions.
“The average age of these girls is 16. Any intelligent observer will see what this means. To have an average of 16 means that we must have an astounding number of girls who are becoming mothers between the ages of 11 and 14. “In a majority of cases we find the same cause—automobiles with predatory drivers. In hundreds of cases we have found girls either on the way to school or on the way home from school have been picked up by men in automobiles with disastrous results.
“In other words, we have relatively few deliberate and consciously bad women in our institutions. Those we have now mostly are girls good at heart, most of them with good homes, but who, as a result of indifference toward personal control or any kind of moral or ethical guidance, have allowed themselves to make mistakes.”
The cities covered in the survey and the per cent of girls whose age averages 16 in the Salvation Army maternity homes of each of these cities follow:
Philadelphia, 75 per cent; Jersey City, 60 per cent; Pittsburgh, 50 per cent; Buffalo, 40 per cent; Cincinnati (white) 70 per cent; Cincinnati (Negro) 60 per cent; Birmingham, 25 per cent; Boston, 13 per cent; Cleveland (white) 22 per cent; Cleveland (Negro) 60 per cent; Louisville, 20 per cent; New York City, 20 per cent; Richmond, 40 per cent.
It is this “indifference toward personal control or guidance” that creates the great problem for parents and for civilization. Apparently our young people have the “don’t care” attitude and that more than anything else accounts for the number of unmarried mothers of youthful years.
Figures quoted here furnish seed for deep thought. This is a very serious question, one that demands co-operation between the parent, the home, the school and the Church. These youthful mothers not only ruin their own lives in most instances, but worse still they bring into the world children that have no chance. The children are born in rescue homes and after a while are turned loose with the mother to get along as best they can. Such influences are not conducive to better citizenship.
Lack of inspiration, we heard a speaker say recently, is the greatest curse of the average young man today. It’s lack of inspiration all right, along with lack of regard for public opinion and the rules of nature that ruin so many young men and young women. When we can get the youths to strive for things they will protect their bodies, but so long as they drift along without aim or ambition, their immorality will ever increase.
From page 4 of The Concord Daily Tribune, June 16, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-06-16/ed-1/seq-4/
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