The Washington herald., 1913-08-15
TRIES TOSAVE
NATIONS BABIES
Children's Bureau Working
Faithfully with that End
IN View.
MAYORS ASKED TO HELP
Find Chief Drawback in Lack Of
Funds to Conduct the
Fight.
MAYORS ASKED TO HELP

| Theodore Roosevelt. when President,
startled the nation with his race sui
eide prophecies. After the shock had
subsidized the nation began to think. The
thinking had a good result, for the peo-
pie. or rather their representatives In
Congress. began to look into the subject.
After a lot of thinking and lot Of
looking into the subject, interspesed
with much talking. Congress decided that
1t did not possess legislative powers to
increase the birth rate, but did have
legislative powers to decrease the death
rate.
All of this went on during the time
William Howard Taft was n the White
House, and about a year befor" he va
Gated the Presidential chair he placed
his signature to an act by Congress, es-
| tablishing a Children's Bureau to be a
part of the Department of Labor.
Appoints Miss Latbrop.
Taft then looked around for some one
to take charge of the Children's Bureau
and selected Julia C. Lathrop.' He said:
Miss Lathrop, the government wants to
pay some one $500 a year to save its
! babies. They are dying too fast. Do you
, want to do this work for Uncle SamT
Miss Lathrop said she did.
All OF this is history. but II Is interest
ing. Miss Lathrop took the job. She had
| to organize the Childrens Bureau, an
entirely new departure in Uncle Sans
general scheme OF conservation of natu-
raj resources She realized that Uncle
| Sans most valuable natural resources
are the babies OF the nation. and she
knew Just how important her work was
| to be.
| When Miss Lathrop took her position
there We're some who wanted TO know:
How Is she going to save babies? It's
asking a lot of women to ask her to start
in saving the babies of all of the nation
when some women have all kinds of
trouble raising their own. What Is Miss
Lathrop going to do?"
Made No Boasts.
Miss Lathrop said nothing. Therefore
she made no boasts. But she has at las;
broken her silence OF more than a year
by issuing a l0o-page pamphlet which
! answers the questions in the foregoing
paragraph.
Miss Lathrop would like to give every
! girl and woman in the nation a copy.
| But with limited funds she could have
printed only 1000 copies. These are be ny
sent to health officers In cities, towns.
and villages throughout the nation. With
| the distribution Of this pamphlet Miss
Lathrop let it be known that such a
pamphlet will be issued yearly by tn.
Children's Bureau. And in the interim
between the yearly pamphlets will be
bulletins equally as valuable in savir:
| babies.
| of the Children's Bureau she sent letters
to the Mayors of the 100 cities in this
country having a population Of more than
! 5000. She wanted to know what these
| cities were doing to save babies. She
wanted TO know il some cities had baby
| saving plans that would be valuable to
ether cities. In other words, she wanted
&c get the net result of what already had
| been done in this country to save babies,
After Miss Lathrop had read the re-
plies Of all of the 100 Mayors, she knew
there was plenty Of baby-saving work
left for her. In some cities, she dis
covered. there was no baby-saving work.
while in others remarkable results had
been obtained.
Miss Lathrop collected this informa-
ton. selected from the great mass Of
facts the most valuable, put these facts
in her 1Oo-page pamphlet and sent 1t
broadcast over the nation.
Now she said, the baby savers
in all the cities know what all other
baby savers are doing. The baby savers
are getting acquainted. After . while
they will get together and our great
national baby-saying campaign will be
under way"
That is Miss Lathrop's plan in brief
In the pamphlet Miss Lathrop also
shows that the chief reason for the
high death rate of babies is lack Of
money to save babies. She says:
THE principal impediment to efficient
work in the health departments Of most
cities is the lack of adequate funds either
II pay a suitable salary to the health
officer or to provide means for carrying
on preventive measures intelligently."
| Fifteen.Cent Tax.
| commission in New York which has
to do with baby saving says that the
health officers in towns and villages
should not be paid . penny less than Is
cents for each person in that town or
village. And this * of Is cents for each
inhabitant should be in addition to the
/ money which Is used to defray the ex-
/ pense Of carrying on health work In
other words, the 15-cent tax should be for
health officers salaries alone.
| Clerk Sends Letter.
Mics Lathrop received letter from the
clerk Of the board Of health in a city
with q population Of nearly 100000, In
which he says: THE health department.
has no funds available for organizing a
/ division for the c. re Of infants"
| Another letter received by Miss Lath-
4 rop from the health officer Of a city with
a population of nearly 100000 says: I'VE
have been unable to get an appropria-
ton from the City Council for carrying
on . summer campaign against infant
mortality"
Public health is purchasable; within
natural limitations q community can de-
termine its own death rates" This Is
the motto Of the New York City Health
Department. Miss Lathrop says that
when the truth Of this motto Is recog-