Page:This side the trenches, with the American Red cross (IA thissidetrenches00desc).pdf/36

 It is through these discharges that the disease is chiefly spread.

The moral welfare of the children is often as much a concern of the Red Cross as their physical welfare. The wife of a sailor asked a Home Service worker for advice about the management of her three sons. They were under fifteen years of age, and, in the absence of their father, had become most unruly. The Home Service worker who was the mother of boys herself gave the perplexed woman some practical advice about discipline. Then she told the boys that she would have to send their mother away for a rest. The thought of separation, and the idea that this separation was necessary largely because of their behavior, had an immediate influence upon the children. They promised to be more considerate of their mother, and in the end, the whole family was sent away for a vacation by the Red Cross. When the mother and the boys returned, the Home Service worker planned various expeditions and excursions which used up some of the children's energy. Her advice to the mother has been so helpful that now the children have become an aid and a comfort instead of a hindrance and a perplexity.

Recreation is almost as important to children as food. It can be made a means of education and a moral safeguard. Yet there are thousands of boys and girls in the United States who have never known any other playground than the street in front of their homes; who have never been on picnics; who have never been able to play games without interruption by the policeman or passing automobiles and wagons. There are families whose members have never attended an entertainment or a