nswer in the
United States to the right of the child and its mother to life and
health. There are those who deplore the tendency to seek for such aid
to individuals through the Federal Government. The Governor of New
York State, for example, although a man of progressive ideas and
liberal point of view, opposed "starting aid to mothers and babies
from the Washington end," declaring that work for the "welfare of
citizens of any class should start at the locality to be benefited."
He would not have the people educated to depend upon the Federal
Government for benefits. He feared that the Sheppard-Towner Bill would
tend to "make the public expect to be nursed from the cradle to the
grave" and be a detriment to the public life rather than a benefit.
New York State made a good appropriation for its own aid to mothers
and babies, but did not apply for the Federal aid in addition. By the
middle of the second month of 1922, however, nearly thirty states had
accepted the Act as a welcome help in their welfare work, and few will
be left outside of its provisions by the end of the year. The fear
that such an Act would make the general government the active
controller and director of the lives of parents and their children in
most intimate ways seems not justified by the facts. The Bill, when
passed, simply provided money to be given to the states on the
fifty-fifty basis "for the purpose of cooeperating with them in
promoting the welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy." The
specific plans for each state are to be made by the state agency in
charge of the work and the only Federal supervision is that of
standardization, by which the Chief of the Children's Bureau, the
Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, and the Commissioner of
Education must approve those plans as "reasonably appropriate and
adequate to carry out the purposes of the Act" before the money of the
Federal Government is passed over to any state.

It is rather as a help to states desiring aid in this particular than
as a compulsory requirement that the Act is intended to operate. There
are those, however, who fear any extension of power of the National
Government even through influence acquired by subsidies for necessary
aids to the common life. It is a matter for thought and unprejudiced
study what form of public aid is, on the whole, the best for our
country. It cannot be denied, however, that different states have
differing burdens to carry for the i