The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-12-30
HEALTH CERTIFICATE
BEFORE MARRIAGE
Eleemosynary institutions Tell Sad
Tale of Neglected Eugenics,

oklahoma City, Dec. S0.--That a de,
termined effort will be made at the
Forthcoming session of the Legislature
to enact law requiring the presenta.
tion of a health certificate by both
lparties contemplating marriage before
the issuance of the regulation mar.
lriage license is forecasted by the ac.
ltivities of the state health department,
the State Federation of Womens
Clubs, and other organizations, inelud,
ing many of the medical societies OF
Oklahoma
In the Biennial Report of the State
Health Department State Commits.
sioner of Health Mahr gives some in.
lteresting information on this subject
He declares that the records of in.
spection recently made by his depart.
ment Of all state institutions will show
that had medical certificates been re-
quired of the contracting parties 80
years ago, many of the inmates of the
penitentiaries, reformatories, asylums
and poor farms would not now be
charges of the state and a source of
Expense to the public.
Commissioner Mahr says in part:
Society recognizes only such unions
as are legalized by license and a
regularly performed ceremony. Yet
under this cloak these are daily per
formed crimes every bit as heinous,
and far more blighting, than that for
which an Oklahoman recently arose in
his might as father and took the life
of his daughters seducer.
Statistics throughout the United
States show that from 60 to so per
cent of all abdominal operations per-
formed for the purpose of relieving
pelvic diseases in married women are
the result of a contagious disease
from which the husband was suffer.
ing at the time of marriage Statistics
from our State Home for Feeble
Minded, located at Enid, show that rs
per cent of the inmates of this insti-
tuition are part of the crop of wild
single men, Forty SHRDLU RFRFR
oats" sown by their fathers when
single men Forty per cent Of the
children in the State School for the
Blind are denied the right to see the
beauties of this world, because their
fathers sowed wild oats. They must
suffer and pay the penalty for their
fathers few years Of reckless life.
There are at least 200 inmates in the
State Hospitals for Insane whose
brains are as blank as a stone wall.
They are doomed to live in mad
house for the rest of their natural
lives, the result Of alcohol, vice and
immortality on the part of their faith
ers, and the neglect of their maternal
grandfather. In the State Deaf and
Dumb School located at Sulphur, 40
per cent of the inmates can safely at
tribute their present physical defects
to parent Indifference
Commissioner Mahr declares that
such conditions will always exist until
they are remedied by law and become
a well-understood subject that is fear.
lessly handled by the pulpit and the
press. He declares that there are
many doctors who, for fear of losing
business, will not advise a patron that
should his daughter marry the young
man Of her choice, that he will be
permitting her to dedicate herself to
a life Of mental and physical suffering,
with the prospect of her becoming a
life long invalid
Commissioner Mahr says further:
The writer regrets that he is not
sufficiently gifted to draw a pen pic
ture so vivid that he. might impress
upon his readers the danger of pater-
nal Indifference in permitting daugh-
ters who have been treasured and
guarded, innocent of all worldiness,
without knowledge of the disease
which are a result of immortality and
vice, or of the dangers that lie in wait
for them. to become sacrifice when
they give themselves at the altar to
the men whom they hope to make
happy"
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