Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-07
STORES ARRANGE
BABY CARE TALKS
Young 4 McCombs and l.. s. McCabe's
flan Program for Thursday With
Lectures by Doctors.
NURSES WILL SHOW LITTLE FOLK
Explain Proper Method of Bathing and
Dressing Them-Dentists to
Tell of Teeth.

The Young & McCombs and L. S.
McCabe & Co. department stores have
arranged special features in observ-
ance of baby welfare week in Rock Is
land and have selected Thursday as
the day to carry out these programs.
At 1880 O'clock at Young & McCombs
store, Miss Catherine Dixon, nurse,
will have one of the babies from the
baby welfare station and with it will
show the proper method of caring for a
child, bathing and dressing it, etc. At
2 o'clock DR.. E. NJ Sala will speak on
a subject of interest to mothers and
at 2:30 DR.. H. G. Trent will speak on
the care Of the teeth of children
At the McCabe store at o'clock Miss
May kale nurse, will have the Will
hite twins from the baby welfare sta
ton and with them demonstrate the
proper care of children. At $3.50
o'clock Dr.. G. L. Eyster will speak and
at 4 O'Clock DR.. R. NJ. Pearce will talk
on the care of teeth.
Bothpf the stores have arranged spe-
cial exhibits of articles pertaining to
children and the management of the
stores as we'll as the Visiting Nurse
association are DESTROYS of having as
many as possible of the mothers of the
city attend the meeting.
Tomorrow at o'clock at the West
End Settlement DR.. Emily Wright will
address mothers on the care Of their
babies. Musical numbers will be given
by Miss Harriet Larkin and readings
by Mrs. Faye Hough Mccarthy and the
Helpers circle of Kings Daughters
will serve lunch and act as hostesses.
Station of Much Good.
The baby welfare station at the set
Element building has been of great
benefit to many mothers in the care of
their little folks, che Of the leading
physicians of the dty remarking that
no other single institution has done so
much for the good of the community.
The modern movement for saving
babies lives is Of recent origin in all
countries. FraTce took the lead so
years ago in organizing community
work for infam welfare with, first, a
society for instucting mothers and en-
couraging maternal nursing, and, 10
years after, another society providing
special care for the eXpectant mother.
The infant Welfare station was a later
Development for which France again
deserves thu credit.
DR.. Emmett Holt has spoken of the
infant welfare station established by
Budin in Paris in 1892 and the milk
depot established two years later by
Dufour as really marking the begin
ming of tie modern movement for the
reduction of infant mortality. They
have spread all over the civilized world
and have proved to be,when properly
conducted, one of the most effective
agenies, if not the most effective
| ageEcy, known for the reduction of in
| FAM mortality"
infant mortalit"a as problem of ma
| tiOnal Importance was discussed in
! this country as early as 1871 at meet
| Ing of the Social Science association in
Philadelphia, but the awakening of the
nbllc to the urgency of the problem
lind the organizing of national asso-
ldaton to reduce the death rate among
babies dates only from within the last
10 years. When the Federal Children's
bureau was created in 1912 infant NOR
tality headed the list of the problems it
was directed to investigate and report
upon. Systematic all-year-round in
FAINT welfare work in New York City
is only ID years old but these years
have been marked by a steady reduc-
ton of the babies death rate in that
city. Similar results may be looked
for from similar work in any commu-
nifty, for it is generally agreed that at
least half of all infant deaths are pre-
ventable.
The census bureau estimates that
on an average one in eight of all the
babies born in the United States die
before they are II months old. But
This average does not tell the whole
story, for more babies die in some dis
riots than in others and such an aver
age may mean that in some groups one
in three of all the babies die and in
others in in twenty-five. The Chill
lrens bureau in the course of its in
.ensive study of infant mortality in Sc
ected typical American communities
has found within one community an
infant death rate varying in the differ
nnt wards from one baby in twenty to
about one in four.
In the light of such facts baby week
may well assume a new Importance.
Baby week aims to show the cOmmu-
nifty what it owes to all its infant citi-
zens in the way of suitable living con-
and to show all the mothers Of