Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-06-03

trust, ana get at IL III Sucn way
that the consumers would benefit.
REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS ANc
DEATHS.
In an article with the caption. 1.-THE
Way Out" printed in the June number
of the Woman's Home Companion and
which is contributed by director Of
the American Association for the
Studay and Prevention Of Mortality
Among Infants, part of the article
deals with the registration of births
and deaths. The article is of par
ticular interest in the state just now
on account of an effort being made to
collect more dependable statistics re-
garding births and deaths in North
Dakota. A part of the article follows:
"The association platform also adj
vocates the enactment Of uniform state
laws for the compulsory registration
of births and deaths. 1t seems OBJ
vious that, If state and municipal
health boards and the proposed ma
tional department are to be of serv-
ice to mothers. they must know where
those mothers are. Moreover, unless
we have accurate records of the dis
eases that result in death, our best
intentioned efforts to reduce infant
mortality are likely to stray down
blind lanes.
ut is amazing to learn how remiss
we Americans have been in this pro-
foundly important matter.
"Dr. Cressy l.. Wilbur. chief statis'
tician of the bureau of the census in
Washington, told story taken from
court records, which fairly typifies our
national attitude toward vital Stats
tics.
Farmer Hadley." he said. "of lndi'
ana, on dying, left his valuable farm in
trust to his unthrifty son. to become
the property of his granddaughter on
her twenty-first birthday. The girl
had been told the date of her birth
and when her twenty-first anniversary
as she supposed, came around, she
claimed her inheritance. But her
father refused to surrender the farm,
that she was only nineteen.
The dispute was taken into court.
The family Bible was appealed to, but
the page for births and deaths was
blank. The father had rendered. no
report to the town authorities; the
family doctor was dead. Finally a
neighbor remembered that q certain
cow, much priced by the grandfather,
had given birth to calf on the very
same day when the girl was born, and
he could swear to it, Perhaps the
court opined, the grandfather had re-
corded the birth of the calf? The old
carefully preserved in the
family strong box. sustained the
judges theory; all the circumstances
Of the calf's birth were fully recorded.
And thus the birthday of the human
being was at length established"
No Registration Of Births Or Deaths.
u '"Talk about the registration of
births and deaths in the United States!
exclaimed DR.. Wilbur; "Why, for not
much more than half of the total pop
llation is there fairly accurate regis
tration of deaths and births, Of which
we have nowhere in the country re.
liable or complete information, and
many of the states are so little con-
cerned about human life that they
make no more account of the deaths
u their citizens than of the trees they
burn and make clearings."
There is one other great factor in
The campaign against unnecessary
leath among infants, the education of
public opinion in the folly of permit
ing economic pressure to crush moth.
,rs in factories and sweat shops.
In 1905 the supreme court of ILL.,
lois, in ruling against law limit
ng the working day for women. de-
;lared that "inasmuch as the sex is
10 bar under the constitution, to the
endowment of women with the funda-
mental and inalienable rights of liberty
md property. which include the rights
o make her own contracts. the mere
act of sex will not justify the legisla.
ure in putting forth the police power
If the state for the purpose OF limit
ng her exercise of those rights, un.
ess the courts are able to see that
here Is some fair, just and reasonable
between such Limitation
md the public health, safety, or well
saro There Ia No Such reason