Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-05-30
FRENCH FACTORIES NOW GIVE
PREMIUMS FOR BABIES, EMPLOY
MOTHERS AND NURSE CHILDREN

dren: and he has no fear to urge France
TO fight d~epoprlaiion By paying cash for
babies.
He is president of the senate committee
relative to subsidies which the law already
permits TO be granted to communes for
distribution to poor families counting
more than four children. But when he
finally gets his anti-iepopulation bill
through 1t will not be five children but one
single little baby that will cnt!tle its moth
er to draw subsistence for it from the
child-needing French state.
What is the allowance made up between
the general government. the department
and the commune toward the expenses OF
a family with Ave little children?" argues
my young doctor. Theoretically. it is
the cost of living OF the five children.
Very we'll. Then let them give the cost
OF one child's maintenance to the mother
of one child"
A Hoie-in 1.-the Wall for Babies.
OF course, 1t comes to this when babies
are abandoned. In every ward of Paris the
assistance publioue has a strange and
sacred hole-in-the-wall.
1t IL a kind OF low window without
glass. Looking into 1t you see 1t ends in u
closed wooden box. movable and discon-
nected with the wall. Indeed. you might
imagine 1t to be a sort Of dumb waiter or
dish elevator.
1t is a dumb waiter, not for dishes. but
for babies. 1t is the size of a baby. Up the
dark street comes a wretched mother.
What shall she do with the infant? Shall
she put the baby on a doorstep?
No. She knows-everybody knows in
Paris-of this strange and sacred hole-in-
the wall OF the assistance publique.
She waits till the street is deserted. She
walks up to the hole-in-the-wall. She lifts
I,r he HI, trtn tic Anroh wnitor VNhop SIn
pulls a seeming bell rope No bell rings.
But the dumb waiter slides to one side
and the baby disappears.
Perhaps the poor mother stands and
ooks a moment at the hole. All she sees
is another waiting box s%pace-the size of
n baby. But inside that building Of the
assistance publique she knows her infant
is already warm and cared for.
These are nightly Paris tragedies, but
there are others Infant mortafttyr,w which
in certain prosperous country departments
is as low as % per cent. rises in Paris as
high as 50 per cent. Blu Paris itself has
more terrible comparisons. In certain rich
and aristocratic divisions OF wards it is
only s per cent. while M. Husson. director
Of the assistance publique, declares that
in the very poor quarters 1t rises as high
as 90 per cent. According to the great
Oeuvre de PAllaitement Maternal over
10000 infants die needlessly in France
each year.
During the last ten years of his life, the
late Casimir-Perier gave nearly all his en-
ergies and great sums of money to this
work of rescuing the infant population Of
France. For the wives and daughters Of
his own coal miners he established model
creches-day nurseries in the style of that
Of my shirt factory.
Such is the principal of the first great
Oeuvre de la Maternite, founded at Nancy
by Professor Alphonse Herrgott. the pro-
, totype OF the Partisan Abatement Mater
mel. Professor Hergott is convinced that
the only way to combat the phenomenal
infant mortality OF France is to prevent
any separation of mother and child.
If ! give none at the start, how will
1t be cmployed?" he argued. will ! get
results? No Therefore he said to each
mother quitting his maternity hospital.
Nurse your babe. and in six weeks come
back and see me. Thu babe will be
weighed and examined. If he is in fine
state, I'll give you 500"
The results were magical. Il course of
time Professor H~errogott had so many
grateful mothers proudly bringing him
their superb babies, and demanding money
at each weighing. thai the private fortune
of the good man melted. Fortunately, prt-
vate donations and subsidies from the de-
rartment came to his aid. The work ex-
tends over all Nancy-and the infant NOR
tally has fallen to 3la per cent.
In Nancy they call 1t the Oeuvre de
Sourlre-the Baby's Smile!
When a man can hang Oh to his
money it's a sign he isn't married.