The problem, fellow human beings, is plumped right back into our laps. But if you will stop to consider, just for a few minutes, some of its aspects, and the terribly important political and social implication inherent in it, I think you will realize that it is very much our problem, and that we better start right in thinking about it, as such.

I want you first of all to think of your own children. That shouldn't be too difficult! It always delighted me, in the hospital trains, to have the same experiences every time I'd meet another new G.I. Immediately after the first brash introductory remarks of a rather wolfish nature, the proud parent would emerge from the "wolf's clothing" and present me with the rather battered snapshot of "junior."

You do a great deal for your children. In every way that you know, you try to insure that their bodies shall be healthy and strong, that their education be the best you can give them, but how much do you think of the world in which they are going to live and work? How often do you Rotarians think of the Fourth Object of Rotary: "The advancement of international understanding, good will and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional men united in the ideal of service?"

This world fellowship, for your children, is composed potentially of all the children growing up in all the countries of the world–children growing up happily and healthily as are your own, or else growing up as many of the German children grew up after the last war with a sense of bitterness, frustration and injustice which was such good ground for the growth of fascism and communism.

Our first job is surely to look after the physical and material needs of the child victims of the war, irrespective of race, color or creed and in so doing, prove to them the reality and greatness of our democratic principles.

We must win these children to our side. They must be our children's friends. They must at least have a chance to see the way Democracy works, because I can assure you from bitter personal experience that the voice of the totalitarians is not silent. Those children, if we let them grow up with a sense of injustice, will be your children's enemies and they will form yet another military machine to menace peace in your children's lifetime.

It is vital that we help them therefore–we the people–and that we take the leadership in a new and dynamic crusade. Where governments have failed, we, being more personally involved, can win.

The press, time and time again, has urged the public to take action. A recent editorial in the New York Times says:

"Americans, with just a little imagination, can surely see the challenge. But that is hardly enough. What is needed is the impatience born of decision–articulate demand that this challenge be met with real action. It is true that the U.N.'s International Children's Emergency Fund is giving a measure of help to some 4,500,000 children in Europe and in China, chiefly with dried skim milk and some canned meat and fish. But seven times that number in Europe alone are in immediate critical need of supplemental feeding, and the question is, must they suffer and sicken because governments have fallen down on their contributions to the Children's Fund? It is not enough to point out that the American government has given more than other governments, as indeed it has. For the contribution is still woefully small compared with the need. Nor is it enough to sit idly by and condemn leading South American countries for ignoring their obligations and contributing not a penny while supporting the Children's Fund in principle, as, indeed, they must be condemned. Rather, it is for Americans who do care about children to show their concern by getting actively into this fight against disease and malnutrition, which finally are a threat to their own children.

"On December 11, 1946, the General Assembly of the United Nations, in creating the Children's Fund, expressed 'the earnest hope that governments, voluntary agencies and private individuals will give the Fund their generous support.'

"Because of the failure of the national campaign to support the United Nations Appeal for Children, which was an appeal to individuals, private Americans have not had a true opportunity to express themselves. But surely it is not too late for the American people to demand that they be allowed to serve the cause with honor."

If, as it seems, UNICEF is to fold up, something must take its place and immediately–unless, of course, you and I can sleep happily in our beds at night when millions of children are allowed to suffer and die.

The conscience of the world is not sleeping, fortunately! In England there has been organized the World Community Chest for Children, which works through existing organizations in all countries, forming a committee with representatives of these organizations and interested individuals within each country. It works in close contact with UNICEF, UNESCO, the Red Cross and other international associations. This committee is composed of volunteers, they have a head office in London with six paid secretaries and that is the extent of their overhead. You see, it does not need a large bureaucracy and heavy overhead to make a thing like this work. It needs enthusiasm and a burning belief in a cause, all of which I know exists here, if only we have the energy to harness it and put it to work.

I know, from my own very small experience, that since I proposed a resolution to the U. S. Committee of the UNICEF that there be constituted an International Children's Day, there has come to me from people in many countries, the most heartening encouragement! People all over the world, like you and me, want to do something for the children and it seems to me that if we could reach out to each other, and join hands, we would constitute such a force that the problem before us today would very soon cease being a problem.

I am only one woman, and will be remembered probably only because I loved children and tried to find a way to help them. I would not presume to tell as important and powerful an organization as you are what you should do.

I can only make a few humble suggestions. You are powerful and you are many, you can really help the children of the world.

I know that your organization has a very special interest in youth.

I know, for instance that just before the outbreak of war, you were considering chartering a ship, which would affect regular exchanges of young people between Europe and The States.

Even then, certain among you had realized that, with our boundaries and frontiers shrinking every day, if we are to survive this era we must learn to think of ourselves as part of a world family.

Rotarians, use all the good influence you have in your community to persuade the educational authorities, the Parent-Teacher Associations and all such organizations to redouble their efforts in the teaching of better international understanding and good will. There is, I have discovered quite recently, a tendency in the high schools, for instance, to cut down on the teaching of foreign languages. An official of the New York Board of Regents recently announced: "We should give more job training and less importance to liberal arts in the secondary schools."

My younger sister learned how to be a very excellent typist but was killed at her typewriter by a direct hit from a German bomb in London's 1941 Blitz. It seems to me that had the generation previous to hers been more interested in encouraging good neighborliness between countries, there is a chance my sister might be alive today.

I am emphasizing all this because I have a very strong feeling about this new generation of children growing up today. I see in them not at all the generation of bobby-soxers, which preceded them. On the contrary, I am amazed at their seriousness and their readiness to learn more and more about the world they are to live in. It is our duty to do all in our power to see that this knowledge is made available to them so that they may still further be conditioned to the responsibilities that lie ahead.

Let us give them yet more responsibility and a greater participation, especially in any plans for a new Children's Crusade. I believe that they can succeed where we adults have so miserably failed.

As Franklin Delano Roosevelt (far left) said, when speaking to the International Student Assembly in 1942: "Before the first World War, very few people in any country believed that youth had the right to speak for itself, as a group or to participate in councils of state.

"We have learned much since then. We know that wisdom does not come necessarily with years; that old men may be foolish, and young men may be wise. But in every war it is the younger generation which bears the burden of combat and inherits all the ills that war leaves in its wake."

It was because I believe so strongly in the youth of today that I would like to suggest and even urge the inauguration of an International Children's Day as a sort of spearhead to a new and challenging campaign: one which should have color, drama and new meaning.

On such a day, children all over the world would unite in a common aim: to help the less fortunate ones among themselves. You, ladies and gentlemen of Rotary, can bring this small idea of mine back to your communities and nurse it into growth, you can start an international understanding of children by encouraging your own children to understand and help children of their own age in their own towns, less fortunate, of different classes, of different racial strain or religious beliefs. And I believe the example of their sincerity and earnestness would prove salutary to those of us whose consciences have become dulled.

Someone must help the children. Are we going to leave this job to the Fascists so that they may organize yet another black, green or brown shirted horde; or to the Communists; or shall we, before it is too late, grasp at those extended hands all over the world, and give them the opportunity of seeing how "Democracy goes to work to save the children?"

photo/speech research

Wolfgang Ziegler

Doug Rudman