Congratulations on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Children's Bureau.

My dear Madam Secretary:

Will you extend to the friends of the Children's Bureau and to its staff my congratulations on the occasion of its twenty-fifth birthday? Through all these years the country has come to depend increasingly upon the Children's Bureau as the agency through which the Federal interest in the health and welfare of the children of the Nation may be best expressed. As a research center, the Children's Bureau has demonstrated the integrity of its work, and as a counselor its advocacy of the needs of children is known to be based upon unchallengeable facts.

At a time when so many of the Nation's mothers lack the care necessary to insure their own health during the period of maternity and the health of their newborn infants, when so many of the Nation's children are ill-fed, ill-clothed and ill-housed, I am grateful for the vision and the statesmanship of Julia Lathtop and Grace Abbott, who with their co-workers and their successors now responsible for the administration of the Children's Bureau, have developed so fine an instrument for us all to use in our efforts to advance the day when all children will have their fair chance in the world.

Very sincerely yours,

The Honorable

The Secretary of Labor,

Washington, D. C.