The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-02-09
BABIES 70 BE EXHIBITED.
Baby Exhibit to Be Feature Of Iowa
State Fair,

5aby EXHIBIT to Be Feature OF Iowa
State Fair.
Des Moines, Ia, Feb. S.-Iowa has
officially decided that babies are
more important than pigs. AS a result
at the next state fair $50 will be hung
up as the sweepstakes prize for the
best baby, whereas the hog, with all
the perfection he can display, may
draw but $25.
Dimples, curly hair, the color Of eyes
and pretty clothes will win nothing
for the competing infants. Like live
stock displayed at the exposition
on a physiological test. A stout calf
will count for more than a handsome
face; a dusty yell, displaying lung
development, for more than a musical
gurgle.
This physical competition of young
sters is a carefully planned scheme to
make the Iowa baby stand before the
world as the standard Of physical
strength and to produce hereafter in
Iowa a strong, healthy, well-developed
race of men and women 1t was de-
vised, encouraged and set in motion by
the Iowa Mothers clubs. It was orig
mated by Mrs. F. S. Watts OF Audubon,
president of the Iowa Congress of
Mothers, who will be superintendent
of the first great Iowa baby show at
the fair next fall. .
DR.. Margaret V. Clark of Waterloo,
Ia, n of the earliest a~gitators in
the movement, is the official physician
for the mothers and under their aus
pices has gone to Europe for a years
study of eugenics in the leading edu-
cational institutions and hospitals of
Germany, France and England. She
is also author of the official baby score
card which has been copyrighted and
is at the disposal of the Iowa Congress
of Mothers. This provides for a scor-
ing on the children on the quality of
their muscles, teeth, nerves., skin, bone,
sight, etc. AS a standard of measure
ments the Iowa mothers have adopted
those outlined by L. Emmett Holt in
his book. These are:
At birth-Weight, ~ pounds; height
201a inches; chest, 1914 inches; head.
Ia inches. ~.
One overweight, Fl pounds; height
20 inches; chest, Is inches; head IS
inches.
Two years-Weight, 2sk, pounds;
height, 32h inches; chest, 10 inches;
head, 10 inches.
Three years-Weight, 81 pounds;
height, IS inches; chest, 20 inches;
head, 19A inches.
At the conference it was decided to
have the babies entered under three
classifications. Babies born in the cit
les in Iowa over 10000 in population
will be entered as one group, babies
born in a town with a smaller, popula-
ton will comprise a second group.
while the babies born in the country
will make up the third. These groups
will be subdivided into two classes.
The first will include all babies be-
tween the ages of 1 and 2 years; the
second. will include all those between
2 and 8 years. A first prize of $40
and a second prize of 50 will be Of
fered to the winning boy or girl in
each class, and a sweepstakes prize
of $50 for the winning boy and $50
for the winning girl in all classes and
groups.
The state fair board has appropriate
ed $500 toward the equipment OF the
medical laboratory, and will provide
graduate nurses to assist the physi-
clans in their examination of the ba-
bies. The judging will be by repre-
sentatiyes of the American Medical
association.
The fair management has set apart
a building for the exclusive use Of the
promoters of the contest. and will
pitch tents near by as rest rooms for
the mothers who have their babies on
exhibition. 1t may be necessary TO
provide permanent accommodations
for the mothers during the two weeks
of state fair, 1t is discovered, because
of a state law relative to exhibits at
the Iowa exposition which says:
No exhibit shall be removed from
the state grounds during the progress
of the state fair.
Unless some legitimate way can oe
discovered to evade this law the moth
ers will have to have sleeping and eat
ing accommodations near the "baby
hall" Judges will AXE the first three
days for awarding the premiums, and
after that the winners will be desig-
mated by blue, pink and white ribbons
tied about their waists.
Already Mrs Watts has received
hundreds of letters from all parts Of
Iowa asking for score cards, and it
Is evident that hundreds of mothers
have begun training their infants to
meet the physical requirements of the
standard adopted. County and city
mothers clubs have also inaugurateG
local contests all over Iowa with a
view of selecting their champion baby
to put up in the state competition.
Scientific means of proper development
is being added as a study course in the
uothers' clubs