The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-08-02
"HOw Old Are YOu?"
How old are you2

country mas CnlS QuoStlOn 0een OF
such vital interest to so many peo-
pie as it is today.
Never before has the United
States government been so deeply
interested in knowing the exact
ages of the young men of the land.
Officials of Uncle Sans census
bureau believe that in view of these
facts, the public mind has never
before been so ready to grasp the
great Importance of complete birth
rec is@ration. Officials of the bur-
eau IA statement on this subject
says:
In ordinary times, as the years
90 by and problem after problem is
taken up and settled, our civilization
grows; and the more rapidly these
problems are taken up and settled
the more rapidly this civilization
grows.
In ordinary times the continual
demands upon our attention, first
by one problem and then by
another, easily explain the tenn
porary sidetracking in so many
states of the problem of complete
birth registration. 1t is not be-
cause the people believe birth reg
istra5ion unimportant, but the
problem has simply been crowded
to one side until more favorable
day.
when the story is told of the
American arrested in London as a
German spy, unable to obtain a
birth certificate because his birth
was never recorded and because
the doctor had died, the people
grasp the point and agree that
births should be registered; but as
the story relates to somebody far
away, somebody unknown, and
probably never heard of before,
the point is soon forgotten and no
wave of strong public opinion is
ever really started. So, too, the
statements that birth records are
needed to prove men of voting age,
to establish old age pensions and
pensions for children of soldiers,
to establish rights of inheritance,
to determine how efficiently the
states are protecting the health of
the children, and to determine who
is entitled to the protection of our
flag, these statements are too apt
to be treated as old axioms which
call for no immediate reform.
The need for complete birth
registration is recognized, but the
inertia of the people still prevails.
Thus, in ordinary times, the
problems of civilization are settled
slowly, but not so in time of war
or after great catastrophies.
''The city devastated by fire is
so rebuilt as to guard against a
second confagration.
THE terrible loss of life which
follows overlooking an excursion
steamer soon results in more strin-
gent laws and in greater safety for
future travellers.
And today the war call for the
registration of our young men
brings home the need of birth
records to every community and to
almost every family in the United
States.
Can you prove that you are
under twenty-one or over thirty
one, or must you forever be sus-
pected of having falsifed your age?
Perhaps a fond mother, to save
her son from the horrors of the
trenches, may swear that he is be-
low the age limit; perhaps years
later proof will be found that this
man should have registered; i'm
agine his chagrin at not having
done his part in the war.
"Surely. the need of complete
birth registration is evident to all.
MAY we not hope that the call
for the registration of all men be-
tween the ages of twenty -one and
thirty-one will awaken the people
from their lethargy and lead at
once to this forward step in our