The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-29
PROTECTION FOR
 MOTHERS VITAL,
 ASSERTS EXPERT
Should Have Been Institut- ed Long Ago, Is
 Declared.

i the economic calamity of sickness were discussed in two striking ad- dresses at this mornings session Of the American Association for Labor i Legislation, at Rankin Hall.
 Miss Julia Lathrop. Chief of the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor, address ed the convention on the social safe guarding of motherhood, and Dr. Alexander Lambert, New York city, Chairman of the Social Insurance Committee Of the American Medical
 Association, brought the message that the medical profession is looking to compulsory Health Insurance not only to relieve the burdens of unnecessary sickness, but also to assist the medi-
 cal profession toward it's highest de- velopment.
 Protection for Mothers.
 "The pubhlic protection of mater nity,'' said Miss Lathrop, is a busi- ness upon which we should have em- parked before this, and we may we'll
 be glad that the discussion of Health Insurance has brought this matter to the fore.''
 By-way of emphasizing this state ment, Miss Lathrop quoted striking figures from recent investigation.
 She said: '"The study of the Chill
 dren's Bureau in Manchester. N. H.,
 which is now in press, showed that 936 per cent. of all the 1,564 babies
 born in the year ending October 31, 1913, were in families where the father earned less than s1,250 per years" And she added: "Even if we restrict ourselves to those who, un- der the terms of the tentative bill are insurable by compulsion or vol
 untary, or who are in receipt of cash income less than $100 per month, it is fairly certain that the large pro- portion of the 2,5O0,000 women who
 mothers each year, would be includ- ed'
 healthful Junction." she continued 'there is a certain-or rather very uncertain-degree of mortality and morbidity. The probable extent of sickness and death is startling. Of special importance is the fact that all authorities agree that the greatest part of the loss of life and health is preventable. Thus we have a solv- able problem, however vast. It in- wolves adequate rest and protection in normal cases, and whatever special facilities are needed for exceptional
 cases. It is complicated, difficult
 costly, but not impossible. > 'This is not a question of protect ing wage earners from industrial risks than can be eliminated by safe ty devices or good shop hygiene. This
 is a general question: inevitably per-
 manent.'>
 Sickness a Social Calamity.
 Sickness is an economic calamity
 for which all members of the com
 munity are responsible in varying de-
 grees and for which the whole com
 munity pays" said Dr. Lambert, in touching upon the social aspect of | unnecessary sickness. "The greatest economic asset that a workman possesses is the health that enables him to go to work each day Most ,wage-earners live on a I wage from which they can store up l but little to protect them against any mishap. And the great misfortune of l their poverty is not that they are l poor, but that when calamity beballs them their poverty changes to desti- 1 tution.. If it is possible to develop | health insurance by which sickness | is rightly judged to be a calamity | that may befall anyone, and in which
 scheme every, one has joined together
 to aid those temporarily stricken, the | dire effects of sickness are warded 1 off. Poverty ceases to turn into des- | titution. Proper convalescence is | possible to the sick individual that he
 may regain his damaged health and i be again of the value equal to his | former value as an economic asset in | the community. This seems to me to be the present situation and the jus 1 tification from a medical point of 1 view for the change from the econo-
 mic conditions under which we live | to those which, a compulsory health l insurance scheme would bring about in community. l Dr. Lambert pointed out that phy- 1 sicians are an essential part of the 1 huge and intricate machinery neces-
 sary in any large health insurance
 scheme. And he outlined a system
 under which the aims of the proposed Health Insurance law can be carried
 out effectively.
 AS an essential part of the plan i Dr. Lambert asserted that there must l be free choice of physicians among 1 the issued and that the organization l of an efficient form of nursing must libe @ necessary feature of this law. Dr. Lambert said that the medical
 organization incorporated in the pro-
 posed Health Insurance law 'is a
 we'll balanced scheme by which the
 quarrels and friction produced under 1 the health insurance laws of the old 1 world are avoided.' And he added 1 "All health insurance to be success l full must be locally controlled, and ! the medical benefits and the medical nursing are, done by local control un- der this present scheme
 It was stated by Dr. Lambert that the medical profession is beginning | to realize that present social condi-
 tions do not give the best opportuni-
 ties for adequate care of the sick that the profession desires. And he
 said, '"The scheme as here promul-
 gated in the dispensaries and hospi- tai offers not only a better method
 than IS now in vogue and one toward
 which the medical profession is to- day developing, but it offers the very scheme through which medicine is developing and through which it is
 bound to develop to the highest de- gree in the, near future--that of group medicine
 The speaker called attention to the