At the same time health authorities agree that a growing child should have a quart of good milk a day. Also that there is no adequate substitute for milk. At 15 cents a quart the bill for milk alone for six children would be over $6 a week. Of course, a man earning $25 a week can not provide that and all the other necessities too, and so his babies are puny. Or if they pull through it is at the expense of the parents’ vitality, or else charity steps in to save them. And when the children reach adolescence, the age when most of all they need alert, intelligent parents, the father and the mother—especially the mother—are worn out and dull, unfit to take a strong hand in rearing a race that will have brains and brawn and character. The point I urge is fair play for the millions. These, and other millions to follow, will for an indefinite period make up the actual majority in this country. They can not be left out of consideration. They are “the people.” We are bound to believe that on the whole they are decent, normal, responsible folks, who naturally love children and want as many as they can wisely rear; but they can not afford so very many, nor have them so close together that the family welfare depreciates beyond redemption. That parents and children should be crushed by the very things which ought to be the cause of their deepest happiness is too ironic. Congress surely has the heart to look at this matter humanely. All too often young married couples start out in life with an inadequate income even for the preparation of the first child, and the young wife finds she must continue working for the first year at least in order to help meet the expense which the birth of a baby involves. No decent, self-respecting woman wants to become the object of charity. Gentlemen, I ask you in particular to bear in mind the great army of these young married people, who are facing life and parenthood with high hopes and ambitions, and who have no background of financial security, with nothing but their individual earning power to safeguard themselves and their children. It is somewhat the fashion nowadays to decry the young people, and doubtless some of the worry is warranted, but also there are unnumbered thousands who long for and are working for everything that is fine and beautiful, including families of sturdy, well-born, and well-bred youngsters who will make the next generation. On behalf of these young people I beg you to enact this bill, so they may have free and proper access to whatever help science can give them in the vital task that is ahead of them.