The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-12-04
DISTRICT HEADS
URGE REFORMS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.
A larger force for the medical inspec-
lion of schools.
Additional bathing beach facilities.
A municipal asphalt plant and money
10 investigate municipal waste disposal
plants in other cities.
That part of the report dealing with
uIegitimacy, gives statistics worthy of
careful thought. In part it follows:
''Of all children whose births were
recorded, both live-born and stiIl-born.
IA, or 1913 per cent, were illegitimate; of
white births 1l2. or 23 per cent, and of
rdapred births, 5H, or 22.7 per cent. The
sglres are below the actual facts, since
in Lightweight instances the color of the
illegitimate child is not stated in the
record, and these cases are not included
in the above computations. The ages Of
the mothers at the time OF the birth of
these ilIegitimate children were stated in
seventy-nine instances as sixteen years
and under and in 800 instances as more
than sixteen years and less than twenty
one years.
THE number of cases of rape and Sc
duction covered by these reports repre-
sents of course. only the cases in which
births have occurred and been reported.
The cases in which no such conse-
uuences have followed are undoubtedly
even more numerous. Together they tell
a story OF girlhood life of the Dis
trict that calls for some remedy, II
any can be found. And in this connec-
ton it is worth considering whether
something might not be accomplished by
requiring reports of all births of illegiti-
mate children to women less than
tVenty-one years of age. or at least
all births OF such children to girls
sixteen years old and under. to show
the usual data concerning the parents
of the child, in so far as ascertainable
should Not he Public.
One objection to the making OF such
reports might be removed by providing |
that they should not be open to the |
public, but even under such CirCum- |
stances it would doubtless be necessary
TO provide stringent penalties in order
TO insure that they should be made.
With such reports it might be possible |
10 bring the father of the child to pun
ishment and to require him to provide |
for the support of the child. In view,
too, of the motives that exist for the |
destruction of such illegitimate children, |
either by act of omission or by commits |
sion, and the inability in any event of |
the youthful mothers of such children |
to care for them properly, some pro- |
vision might well be made for the con- |
through guardians willing t. assume re-
sponsibility for them, or a through |
the official agents of the Board of Chill |
drens Guardians
A section of the report on health con- |
ditions is, in part, as follows:
Deaths reported to The health depart |
ment during the calendar year 1872 num-
bered 6.259 equivalent g "A death rate Of
I7.73. the lowest ever recorded in this
District. In the six months that elapsed |
after the close of the calendar year 1872
and the close of the fiscal year covered |
by this report 3.l92 deaths were reported, |
which during the corresponding period Of
the preceding year there were S,257.
Among the causes of death in 1912 or
ganic heart diseases headed the list withS
7S6 fatal cases. Pulmonary tuberculosis
followed. with rs; pneumonia, with SIS;
Bright's disease. with 504; apoplexy. with
80. and malignant tumors. with 80. OF
all decedents. $50 were under one year of
age. equal to 1896 per thousand of chill
dTeu born.
Death Rate of Negroes High.
There was the usual relatively excess
sive death rate among the colOred popu-
lation. 2GS9 per thousand, compared
with 14.lS among the whites. Attention
has heretofore been drawn to the fact
that as the Colored race forms Is per
cent of the entire COmmunitS its eX-
cessive death rate tends very strongly
TO cause a relatively high death rate for
the District IS a whole when compared
with other communities not constitut-
ed. And as the colored death rate under
conditions OF life existing In this coun-
try seems to be uniformly higher than
the death rate for whites, the high death
rate for the District generally is to be
regarded a consequence of the race
composition of the population. and not
Of any relative Embellishments OF con-
ditions OF life.
Nowhere does the heavy mortality
that falls upon the COlOred race show
more conspiCuousiy than with respect to
and infant mortality. The
death rate among the white people in I
1912 from tuberculosis Of the lungs was
100 per 100000; that for the colored people
was 436. or more than three and one-half
times as great. The number of deaths J
among white infants during the first year !
Of life was AZ, equivalent to 80 out of 7
ey cry loo recorded births; among colored i
infants, Az. equivalent to 20S per 1000.
If it he true. is probably the case.
that the colored race is more than usu 5
ally susceptible to tuberculosis, it fol- }
lows that the District of Columbia should
make more than usually good provision
for caring for patients suffering from
that disease. and not be contented with
merely drifting along. Dispensary and 7
sanitarium facilities and provisions for I
home instruction and nursing in appro- l
pirate cases are badly needed. Moreover.
provision must be made whereby the r