Excerpt from Proceedings of the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy: Washington, D. C., January 18-20, 1940; Including the General Report Adopted by the Conference The proceedings of the sessions of the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy held in Washington, January 18 to 20, 1940, including the addresses and brief summaries Of the informal discus sions which constituted the chief part Of the program, together with the General Report adopted by the Conference on January 19, 1940, constitute a record whose significance has been greatly intensified by the testing to which all democratic institutions have been subjected in the months since the Conference was held. The work Of the Conference began early in 1939, and plans were given shape at an initial session held in the White House in April of that year.1 On October 11, 1939, a letter was received from the President which read, in part, as follows: It was with great satisfaction that I learned of the recommendation of the Planning Committee of the Conference, adopted on October 5, that the Conference be called into session from January 18 to 20, 1940, and that the Report Committee have ready for submission at that time a report containing its major conclusions and suggestions for a follow-up program. I am in hearty accord with the statement of the Planning Committee to the effect that events in Europe must not be allowed to divert the attention of the American people from the task of strengthening our democracy from within, and that the needs of childhood re quire particular attention at the present time. Will you, therefore, ask the Planning Committee to proceed with arrangements for a meeting of the Confer ence on the dates specified? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.