At the Aviation Meet, Salt Lake City

The Worth of a Boy. BY LELLA MARLER HOGGAN. Irving Fisher, Professor of Political Economy at Yale Col- lege, says, "An eight-pound baby is worth, at its birth, $302 per pound. That is a child's value as a potential wealth producer. If he lives out the normal term of years, he can produce $2,900 more wealth than it costs to rear him, and maintain him as an adult. ' ' "But," says J. L. Harbour, in referring to Professor Fisher's figures, "the babv's value as a joy-producer is not to be reckoned in dollars and cents." What is a boy worth? Ask the mother who has passed down through the shadows of the valley of death, and walked alone with God. As she clasps her precious gift to her heart in awe and grati- tude, she could tell you what a boy is worth, if she could find words. Ask the proud father who catches his little one to his heart when the infant lips first lisp his name. What is a boy worth to the anxious parent who bends over the little fellow's sick-bed, and pleads with God to spare the darl- ing one a little longer? What is he worth as he lies cold in death, and a broken- hearted mother touches his white lips, or arranges clustered blos- soms on the little heap of dust above him? What is the boy worth, as he stands in the prison cell, and kisses his white-faced mother and his gray-haired father a last goodby before he goes to a hangman's doom? Only God can name the value mark. He placed it upon the child before it came to the earth-life; but the figures are too diffi- cult for our mortal eyes to read. The boy's school-fellows, his family, his teachers and friends have each placed a value mark upon him. Perhaps the town board, and mayhap the constable or sheriff, has tagged the little fellow, "What is he worth?"