El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-11-11
REGISTRATION OF
BIRTHS NOT MADE
United States Official Con-
dennis Laxity of Regis
tratiOn Officials.

tratIOn Officials.
Baltimore, Md, Nov. 11-An import
ant feature Of the session on Munich
pal, State and Federal Prevention of
Infant Mortality, of the annual meet
ing of the American Association for
Study and Prevention of Infant Nor
tality, now in session at the Johns
Hopkins university, was a report on
Birth Registration" by DR.. Cressy l.
Wilbur, chief statistician of the de-
partment Of vital statistics of the bu-
reau of the census, Washington. The
session was presided over by DR.. VIII
liam H. WEIGH. Dr.. Wilbur said:
Because we do not register births
in the United States, it is impossible
to compute a death rate for babies in
any state or in any city in the United
States in such a way as to be COM
parable with the infant death rate of
any other civilized country.
1.-The blame is sometimes placed upon
physicians or midwives for failure or
neglecting to register births. This is
unfair. because the physicians and
midwives are not charged with the en-
forcement OF the registration laws, but
to obey them.
In rapidly growing NUMBER OF
states. children must produce their
birth certificates before they can go
to work. In New York city they must
produce such certificates before they
can enter the public schools, and again
before they can go to work Inc eN-
ceptional children admitted upon olher
evidence of age are put to such neon
venience in the process, that every eA-
ertion is made by parents TO get olrtn
certificates. Of $4,000 children, native
horn and foreign-born alike, VINO get
working papers each year IN New oIh
citv between the ages of II and 10
yeers three-ouarters have birth GER
tifcates. The remaining quarter VINO
fail 10 get birth certificates, are native
American children and those who come
from certain parts Of Russia or from
the earthquake district of Italy. what
earthquake and revolution 90 IN Eu
rome. official slovenliness accompllshes
+b-o1,ebout the greater part OF this ma
+ion in depriving the children and clta
zens of the most fundamental OF ali
vital and industrial statistics, the rec
ord of births. x,+
DR. Wilbur said that 1t is the -eult
of Ienien+ registration officials thfN
Si.+bs are not registered in those
states and cities which have operaoIe
laws.
Mothers, Problem. Says Phillips.
Asserting that it was up to the
mothers" to solve the problem Oh III
FAINT mortality, Wilbur =. rhiiiipS'
secretary of the New York milk com.
mission in an address on InfaEts
1TiIk Denots and Infants Mortality,
oTnnhasized the Importance of the edo-
90 +ional features of the babies MIX
dispensaries I'm the last analysls'
he said infant mortality is to be
solved not by philanthropy or by IN
situations, or by the medical PROBES
sion. or by the state, but by intelilse'l
motherhood" M
Mr. Phillips characterized the milk
depot as the fulcrum on Willcn rs
the lever of the situation-the lnstra-
ment through which medical, social
and philanthropic proven
tion affect their purpose and achleEe
success. Operated as it should be, ne
declares. at IS more than depot from
which milk is distributed. 1t is an
center, a district oranch
for the dispensation of rellef, ana an
co-ordinating unit be-
tween nurses, physicians, cilnlcs,
hospitals and various
institutions which con-
Germ themselves directly with the well
fare of the child"
.I look forward" the speaker sad,
ito the time when more effective ways
of cooperation and coordination can
be worked out between milk depots
which reach directly into homes anu !
hospitals, dispensaries and clinics
which care for babies on larger in |
stitutional scale, as L believe it is de-
sirabIe that the assistance and super
vision exercised over mothers from |
the period before confinement until
she child is weaned should be as uni |
,oEm as possible with respect to In |
,tr1iction given and methods taught !
Worse Than Cholera.
.Tn the event of cholera. yellow fe- |
YER smallpox, or other dreaded dis |
eases glazing headlines and front page
oewsbaper articles arouse and alarm |
he community, yet the mortality from
.hese Sdiseases sinks into significance !
n compSrison with the mortality of !
MIA nts" said Dr. Joseph S. Neff, d. /
,ector of Aublic health and charities
# Philadelphia
''Diarrhea Nand enterltas is term
increasing nA alram,'' DR.. Neff contin-
ned "va+ in h9O9, in the registration /
req If tbe T1nlted States in every 100,-
700 of nonnIAtion, 1913 infants died |
rom thi. "a use, 20 percent of the |
deaths being n,reventable. In the same