New Britain herald., 1916-01-22
CAMPAIGN ID SAVE
 BABIES OF INDIANS
Three-F -FifthS Of Them Die Before
 Age Of Five Years
.IannarN 22. 1916

OIdl oeTN1Ce.
 In an address before the congress on Indian Progress held at San Fran cisco in August of last year I said:
 Tt is our chief duty to protect the Indians health and to save him from premature death. Before we educate q him, before we conserve his property, we should save his life. If he is to be perpetuated, we must care for tho children. We must stop the tendency of the Indian to diminish in number and restore a condition that will in sure his increase. Every Indian hos pital bed not necessarily occupied with those suffering from disease or in jury should be available for the mo- n thor in childbirth. It is of first inn portance that we begin by re-estab- fishing the health and constitution of Indian children. Education and pro- lection of property are highly impor- tant but everything is secondary to the basic condition which makes for the perpetuation of the race"
 That thought has deepened it's hold upon my convictions.
 We must guarantee to the Indian the first of inalienable rights-the right to live. No race was ever creat- ed for utter extinction The chief -toncern of all ethics and all science
 
 Something Fundamental Here
 We cannot solve the Indian prob lem without Indians. We cannot educate their children unless they are kept alive.
 ~< All our Indian schools, reservations, individual allotments and accumu- lated. incomes tend pathetica1ly to- wards a wasted altruism if main tained and conserved for a whitening decadent people. If We have an Indian policy wor- l thy of the name, it's goal must be 1 an enduring and sturdy race, true to | the noblest of it's original instincts 1 and virtues and Loyalty sympathetic 1 with our social and national life; a | body of efficient citizens blending | their unique poise and powers with l keen and sleepless vigor of the white man.
 Warfare Against Disease.
 We must therefore, renew daily our warfare against the arch foes of eff1ciency-disease
 We must begin at the right place not only with the infant at it's moth CTS breast but with the unborn gen. eTation.
 The new campaign for Health in which I would enlist you is first of all to Save the Babies
 Statistics startle us with the fact that approximately three-ffths of the Indian infants die before the age of five years
 Of what use to this mournfuI mor- tality are our splendid equipped schools,
 Help Reduce Percentage.
 l earnestly call upon every Indian Bureau employee to help reduce this frlghtful percentage! Superintend ents, Teachers, Physicians, Matrons. Nurses, everyone can do something by instruction or example, the phv slclan with his science, the nurse with her trained skill the matron With her motherly solicitude. all of Us by personal hygiene, cleanliness and sobriety
 The simplest rules of motherhood applied under intelligent and friendly direction would save most of the lndlan babies who annually fill un timely graves.
 % l want to send this safety. as far as pcss1ble,' into every home of an In dian mother whether that home be tepee, a tent, log house with dirt floors or more comfortable abode.
 Means Hard Work.
 This means work, hard work. but the reward will be living souls.
 d shall expect each superintendent to acquaint himself with the home conditions of every Indian family on the reservation and to adopt practical anC effective means for quick and certain improvement
 Superintendents must organize such system of cooperative information l h fTao;r- 1I.,,, them to do this, exercising, of course. 1 fh eat care and discretion in gather l ing the requisite information.
 Educational Propaganda.
 The educational propag ganda against | disease must, of course, be steadily in creased and strengthened Our h. | clan schools, where so many of the i rising generations are assem bled, are l we'll organized and should be mighty l instrumentality for health and higher 1 i':eals of life. In their education of | gSls l hope to see added emphasis l gwen to such subjects as home | nursing, child welfare and mother hood the sanitation, arrangement and 1 arrangement of the home and that l nothing reasonable shall be spared to l fit every Indian girl for intelligent housekeeping and for attractive home l gaking. There is among the Indians a marked and tender affection for their children, but too often the wife, the mother, is regarded and treated as the burden bearer I wish we might see this habit overcome. for it is dis tinct1y barbaric. I want to see deyei- oped and prevalent in every Indian school from the least to the largest , that modern and truly chivalrous