Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-21

4 &AlQ VI SE0WLS up lealtly CHtiuIS
| in the Island Of New
| Infant Health in Zealand that in any
r.z..,. other country Of the
~S" world. Emphasis has
been placed on this fact by Miss Julia e.
Lathrop. chief of the United States chill
dren's bureau. in study which she has
made of the last report of the New Zea-
land Society for the Health OF Women
and Children Miss Lathrop. who for
some months has been in Chicago Ill
with para-typhoid fever, and who is now
at Atlantic City regaining her health calls
attention to New Zealand's work of bet
tering infants health In an outline OF
suggestions which she makes to Mrs. s.
s. Crockett of Nashville, Tenn. who is
chairman of the public health committee
of the General Federation of Women's
Clubs.
New Zealand says Miss Lathrop.
has long enjoyed the reputation of haV-
ing the lowest infant mortality of any
country in the world. Yet the people OF
New Zealand We're not satisfied with
their child welfare work. and year by
year for the past five years the already
envtable record of that country has been
reduced point by point. until, to give a
single instance, the death rate in Dune
din the principal city, is now only four
in every 100 births. or one-seventh of the
infant death rate of Moscow, or less than
one-half of the death rate of New YORK,
or about one-half that of Hartford, which
| is a city comparable in size.
Mothers OF this country and physl-
clans and others interested in the infant
mortality problem will ask how these
conditions have been secured, l will say
that the death rate of infants In New
Zealand has been lowered by methods
which are within the reach OF every
community within the United States
There is intelligence and there Is good
will enough in any American community.
If once attention is aroused, to do all
that has been done by the New zealand
society. Comparatively little money IL
required there and little will be needed
here. Under. the presidency Of DR.. TRULY
King a voluntary society was organized
in 1905 with the avowed purpose OF i'm
proving the health of the mothers and
babies of New Zealand,
There are six or seven distinct points
to the plan. of organization of the New
Zealand society. There is first the crea-
! ton of many small committees. and at
the present time there are seventy in the
country, which is about the size of the
| state of Colorado and has a population
somewhere near that of Connecticut or
Maryland. Secondly, the society gives
publicity to methods of improving the
health of mothers and babies. and this
| use Of the press includes the publication
4
umn'' In various newspapers, SO there is
scarcely a home into which it does not
enter. Various pamphlets and leaflets
on the care of babies are also distributed
| One of the important features OF the
society's plan of work is the employ
ment of nurses known as Plunkett nurses
| in honor of the wife of the governor gen
| eral, who took a great interest in the So
| ciety. These nurses help In every way tc
| instruct the women of New Zealand or
\ the af hahipS and fha
vention of disease. The society has es
tablished a number of welfare stations
| and what corresponds in this country t
| a baby conference is an important de-
velopment. On the side of organization
| the society co-operates with public health
| authorities of the New Zealand govern
| ment.
| THE business of the nurses is to ac
as field agents, not as bedside nurses
and to instruct a whole country de in tn,
! essentials of the proper care of babies
the cooperation with the public health
| authorities Is very close. and much EN-
phasis is laid on the fact that the benefit:
| of the society are available. not from thu
point of view of charity, but with a clear
| recognition that the functions, while
broadly humanitarian, are not patroniz
ing or charitable, nor even in the Ordi
nary sense philanthropic. but are essen
| italy patriotic and educational
| The average person win ask what sor
/
democratic ADVANCEMENT along various
| lines has attracted; the attentionspf thu
world. AS I have said, az is a country
about the size of the stAte OF Colorad,
| or Nevada, and has a little more thar
! 900, 900 people. It's climate is favorable
! but in this respect we cannot admit tina
| it is easier to arouse public sentiment OF
behalf Of little children in New Zealand
than in any American state.
| THE question of infant mortality is &
ntIoction which he in vii.
lagos and rural communities as well as
| i'm the large cities of the United States
and if we are right in believing that or
| the whole the simple methods of the
New Zealand Society for the Heath oi
| Women and Children has practica bic fea
lures which need only to be slightly modi-
| fled for use i'll this country, then the
women of the United States should take
up the subject afresh and urge every
where suitable local public action
|
| Most chiefs of government bureaus
have to give occasional attention to freak
| correspondence of
Revenue Cutter one kind or an
Correspondence. ,.,tar - fro unus ',a
| usual people come into practically all oi
| the Offices, but. SO far as there is any
| record in the departments, the United
| States revenue cutter service has the dis
| tnction of having among it's correspond
! ents the most persistent letter writer
known to official Washington.
| Nearly five years ago number, of men
! on one of the United States reveMue. cut
tiers entertained some visitors at dinner
| at which wine or beer Was used. In &C
cordance with agreement, the officers oil
the vessel were assessed for the expenses
of the entertainment. civilian In
structor on the cutter, with pronounced
ideas temperance, objected to the
assessment. but paid it, A few days
of the Treasury, of whose department
the revenue cutter service is branch
and outlined his objections to paying his
assessment which amounted to only q
few dollars, this being his part of the
| wine bill.
Former Secretary MacVeagh was the
first head of the Treasury Department
who had to consider the civilian IN
structor's request to be heard ON his oo'
jections to paying the liquor bill which
figured in the dinner on the revenue cut
ter. The assessment for the whole din
nor. including the food and the things
which accompanied it. was "A private
affair between the officers on the vessel
and Mr.. MacVeagh wrote the former
civilian instructor to the effect that the
matter was a closed incident SO far as
the Treasury Department was concerned
and that nothing could be done to gel
him his money back. The man was not
discouraged. however, and since he first
wrote to the Treasury Department he