The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-10-26

NNN))M cased in red bulb. Six times a
INklhlllM minute-7,640 times a day-the
(%NNG@9 light went out; and, every time
e. % Il the light faded from the bulb
somewhere in the world the light
faded from a mothers eyes. So fast do our chill
dren die
Sometimes they die faster, They died faster
last summer If babies kept diaries, last summer
would go down in the annals OF the survivors
as the BLACK summer of 1910" In the single
city OF New York, S73 died in a single week
livery little poor street had its little white hearse
worse SUN, durn gthe course OF the summer
s'ooo children died that ought to have lived that
Is to say, they died from preventable causes
children die from two kinds of causes; those
that are pfeVentable and those that are not This
Is news Your grandmother and, possibly your
mother believed that every child that died could
not have been saved Everybody thought so,
Preventable causes Of deaths were not recognized.
IL was taken as matter of course that women
should bear twice as many children as were re-
CURED to maintain the population because half
OF them We're bound to die
We still let half Of the children die but wa
Know better. We know they need not die We
know they We're born to live We know that
they 90 not have chance to live We have even
exploded the old supposition that the children OF
the physically weak must of necessity be phys,ca,
~ weak. We know that the children of no
physically weak born almost as strong &C
the child of the strongest
Every Intelligent physician knows this
statement to be true. However, let
some eminent physician stand for it. -
Caleb w. Saleeby, one of the most emf. 81
nent PHYSICIANS in England is such an I
an authority. Read what he says On the | i
subject in "Parenthood and Race Cul. W.
ture": We
Most of the babies born in the cums
are splendid little specimens of humanltv-so far
as physique is concerned-bearing no marks Of
degeneration to correspond with the detorior.+3on
o. 'uelr parents In word, hereditory works
start e0'' '4esn
IN another part of the same book, Dr. Saleebv
ESTIMATED that the number of children who are
born so weak that they have little chance for
life does not exceed ten per cent and he attr1.
buted the weakness of these to the effects Of aco
mol and certain impolite diseases upon one or
both OF their parents
having now some fundamental facts that meet
with general acceptance among the enightened
We may proceed to seek an answer to the uues
ton, why are children permitted to die from
preventable causes and what are those prevent.
able causes?"
We need not go far. Millions of children that
are born strong enough to live under favorable
circumstances are killed by their mothers The
rest that die from preventabe causes are killed
by the communty-by you and by me- ii we help
to keep things as they are, and by everybody
else who helps to keep things as they are.
We will first consider the mothers who kill
their children Every mother kills or tends to
XII! her children who does not take the trouble
to inform herself concerning the proper methods
OF chlldrearlng 1t is not that such mothers
are lazy. 1t is not that they Indifferent to
their children's welfare. They are simply ig-
norant Some of them are stepped in ignorance
Some of them half-steeped But they are all
ignorant They don't know that flies, by carrying
the germs of diseases, kill more children than all
the elephants, tigers lions, automobiles and street
cars in the world. Therefore, flies are considered
mere inconvenience They are regarded as un-
ornamental in the soup, but not detrimental to
the health. They swarm in the Kitchen the
pantry and the dining ROOM painstakingly deposit.
ing their filth upon every particle OF food that the
family, including the children eat. Some OF this
filth is not deadly; some OF it is. But no such
ignorant mother ever connects in her mind the
going Of her baby with the coming of the flies
Nor does any such ignorant mother have any
conception of the with which she should
feed. not only her baby, but her halfgrown chill.
dren. If she doesn't nurse her baby she doesn't
realize that any milk she is likely to find for
sale is more likely to be poison than food Nor
does she realize that such milk will be precisely
poisonous for her baby after it has been
weaned Such mothers usually buy their milk
from the nearest grocery store. The number OF
bacteria in milk when 1t exceeds 100000 to the
cubic centimeter, makes the milk unfit for use.
Yet, some analyses of New York store milk the
other day, showed bacteria high as IS, 900 900.
What wonder that every summer is a "black sum.
mer for the babies of New York's poor?
In many other ways, the ignorant mother kills
her children with the food she gives them. Many
a baby six months old is nbbling crackers
bananas and pickles, while putting in the rest OF
Its time at an "aday sucker or a stick OF candy
Mothers who want their children to live should
know that the premature giving OF any kind of
solid food to baby is exceedingly dangerous;
that after child is Weaned it should be given
solid food only in accordance with the instruc-
tons of an intelligent physician; that meat ana
fruit Except orange juce> are like SO much
poison, even If they do not produce death as
quickly as strychnine would; and that all during
childhood, the food should be simple with cereals
milk and vegetables as a basis and a little meat
not oltener than once week
But. as a d-kiIler, the community exceeds