Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1916-12-08
Can You Prove Your Birth
BY Frederic ]. Haskin

Washington, D. c., Dec. 4-Have
you birth certificate? Can you ac-
tually prove to the satisfaction of any
court that you are Mary Brown or
Hiram Jones or whoever you may
Indiana girl failed to do not long ago,
and thereby lost legacy of $4,000.
Her story reads like highly colored
nightmare.
She was the daughter of Swiss
father and an American mother who
settled sometime ago in Indiana.
When she was three years old her
father was killed in mill accident
and her mother, left penniless, was
compelled to seek work as laundress.
After many years of hard work and
bleak poverty. word was received that
the girls uncle had left his brothers
child twelve thousand dollars, the on
ly condition being that she should
prove her identity. Upon investigation
the girl found that her birth had not
been recorded; that the doctor who
attended her mother was dead; that
no witnesses nor evidence Of any kind
could be produced to prove her claim
alone was not sufficient. The money
went to other relatives.
Now il Indiana had possessed an eff
fective birth registration law, this
could never have happened. The
girls birth would have been recorded
on the registrars books and the Swiss
government would have accepted such
evidence. Unfortunately, however, In
diana is not the only state that is re.
miss in affairs of this kind. The
United States as whole has the worst
birth registration records of any
civilized country in the world. Only
thirty-two states have enacted pass
able birth registration laws, and even
these do not meet the census require
ments. Great Importance is attached
to the marriage certificate and certi-
ficates of death are always insisted up
on, but it is safe to say that at least
third Of the people in the United
States have not the slightest idea
whether their records of birth have
been preserved or not.
The importance of systematic regis
tration is illustrated by the fact that
last year nearly two hundred thous
and persons applied to the registrars
office in New York City for copies OF
their birth records to be used in set
Ting legal disputes. Questions of age,
inheritance and genealogy.
that are continually coming up, can be
settled only by the birth certificate.
Only few months ago an American
girl, having reached the age Of twenty
one. applied to her guardian for the
money which by her grandmother
will was to go to her on her twenty
first birthday. For reasons of his own
the guardian refused to deliver the
stating positively that his ward
was only nineteen. If the young wo-
man had not possessed birth certi-
ficate which showed that she was
she would have had great
difficulty in collecting her legacy.
For the past two years the United
States Childrens bureau, in coopera-
ton with the census bureau, has been
waging an active campaign for better
birth registration. The children's
bureau la urging the cooperation of
the various states in the passage OF uni
form birth registration laws. and in
this it has been ably seconded by the
federation of woman's clubs.
which have conducted tests in cities
all over the country In New Orleans
this year the club women investigated
Eve thousand births that had not been
registered and in Florida and Califor-
MIA house to house canvasses were
made in which the number of unre-
corded births was so high that the
were moved to action and
passed laws making birth registration
But the most effective method OF Sc
curing the registration of every birth
the country is through the
individual, The matter should not be
left to the physician. who is usually Il
very busy man and apt to forget it: it
should not be left entirely to the CEN
sus taker. who is not infallible. but it
should be taken care of by the par
snts of the child, whose interests are
at stake. On the day the child is born
notice of his birth should he sent to
he city registrars opce. If it is put
off. the matter may be forgotten.
few places in this country, how
ever. have exceptionally fine systems
Of birth registration in which very few
# any. births escape the authorities.
In New York City. for example. every
city inspector carries blank inspec-
ticn report, one side of which is birth