The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-07-09

honor of DR.. De Vilbiss, and for Mrs
Lillian Mitchner, who will go east
soon to Winona lake chautauqua.,
where she will lecture, and to Pennsyl-
mia, where she will assist in the
suffrage campaign.
DR.. Lydia De Vilbiss, formerly of
New York, now at the head of the de-
partment of child hygiene OF Kansas.
was given her formal introduction to
the women of this state at a, reception
Thursday afternoon at the governors
house, Buchanan street and Eighth
avenue.
The rooms of the executive resi-
dence were crowded throughout the
afternoon, and many women who
came. were unable to get into tine
house at all. Some three or four
hundred women listened to the
hours of the party. and greeted the
newcomer to Kansas at the close of
the program. The Good Government
club was hostess at the party, and
representative women from all over
the state were invited to assist the
club.
The rooms open to the guests were
handsomely decorated. In the par
Tor there were sweet peas and pink
and white roses. Daisies were used
to decorate the living room, and in the
front hall were immense bouquets of
yellow daisies. In the library, the
nasturtiums, and the decorations in
the dining room were nasturtiunls.
Mrs. Howard n. Rhodes, president
of the club, made a short Introductory
address. She told of the interest of
the club in the child hygiene bill, and
the work its members had done in the
passed. Mrs. Lee Monroe she
said, Originated the idea of pre-
senting such bill, and laid it be-
fore the club. They Endorsed it and
agreed to give it their support" Mrs.
Rhodes promised on behalf of the
club, the support of its members to
the work of the bureau.
Every child BORN DR.. De Vilblss
said, lis born with the right to de-
cent, sanitary surroundings, a fair
chance to live, to be properly fed and
clothed and to the care of thinking,
babies born in Kansas every year. OF
this number, one out of every eight,
under two years of age, dies. And 65
per cent of the deaths are from pre-
ventab1e causes, chiefly due to the ig-
norance of the mother or the economic
conditions that make its proper care
impossible. The record today is that
for every child that reaches his ma
jority, two children must be born.
This is a severe arraignnlent of our
civilization, and think of the enor-
nous economic loss. Only mothers
can know what it means in suffering
and heartaches.
I'VE have to learn that the bust
ness of rearing children IS the great
est business in the world, and that
everything else must be contributary
to that. 1t is useless to go around
the country preaching against race
suicide and telling the women of the
land that they must bear and bring up
children. When women ara taught
how to care for children, and when
the men are able to earn enough TO
support family decently, women will
want families. No farmer on earth
would remain in the cattle business a
year if he had to produce two head
of cattle to bring one to its full value.
Every article of food that comes
into the home, touches the question
of child hygiene. Sanitation, the wa
ter supply, the tuberculosis question
and a thousand others, are phases of
the child hygiene problem. Our de-
problem, and every woman in Kan
saS is interested in it. Every child in
the state is a community child. II
the women of this state want to get
behind this movement and make 1t
success, the first thing they are to
do is to forget all personal an1bihons
and animosities, and unite for the
great cause. Men have taught us the
secret of successful organization, and
we should be swift to learn from their
long experience.
DR.. De Vilbiss is considered one of
the best trained women in the coun-
try for the work she is to do in Kan
sas. She is experienced in conducting
baby clinics, in holding contests and
giving lectures. She was in charge of
the baby contest department for the
Woman's Home Companion. She was
enga ged in child hygiene work with
DR.. Baker, an eminent authority on
=, hi cot nd