The Natchitoches enterprise., 1919-07-10
Vital Statistics

| vita. SIZE cstics have become an es.
fentisl OF every town, community, and
state that wishes to guard the health
and prosperity of its people. These
statistics include the registration Of
marriages, births, deaths, and usually
those relating to the diseases of the
community. They furnish the life
history of the nation. and the means of
comparing it's history with that of an
other.
Vital Statistics have not recently
come icto use, for many generations
back the Egyptians, Greeks, and Ro-
! mans required all deaths and births to
be registered. However for the past
few years they have become better
! organized and the records have been
kept more accurately.
Every business man keeps All accu-
rate record of all his transactions. He
does this so that he may try new
methods and compare them with old
ones. In this way he is able to tell
which is the most profitable. Now if
the business man considers his busi-
ness profitable enough to keep these
accounts, surely the state considers
that their business is of as much i'm
portance.
In foreign countries there is enough
interest shown to register births,
deaths, etc. Is the Uniten States OF
less importance than other countries?
And 60 We care 80 little about our
birth and death rate that we do not
take the trou Die to record them? There
are now twenty-six states that keep
accurate records of the deaths and
births and forty cities in other states
where the records are not kept.
Recently however since the Model
Law has been adopted requiring the
registration of deaths. births and re-
cords relating to the other social activ-
tiles, a number of states have realized
the need of these records. and have
been trying to keep more accurate ac-
counts.
The reason that this country is be-
hind some of the others is that this is
new nation and has not been so
thickly settled, making it difficult to
collect the:e statistics. Then the
changes in the form of the government
has had something to do with i, also
the difference in the laws of thu: states
make it SO that it is almost impossible
to get all the states to act together on
one social need. Most of them, too,
are ignorant Of the need of these sta
tistics.
Louisiana has made slow progress in
the keeping of these records, due un-
fortunately to the fact that there is SO
small an appropriation made that it Is
impossible to carry on this WORK.
However, recently they have appointed
one person in eacE ward to make
record of each birth and death 10 the
For each one recw. ded q
fee OF twenty cents is paid.
This would be good system if the
records were kept accurately, but in
this state they are not all turned in.
For instance, if person from another
town dies in the hospital at Shreveport
ne is counted as nome sident and is
1ot registered there, then the town
rom where ne came depends upon his
ieath being registered in Shreveport.
30 IN this way ne' cher place makes a
'ecord of the de- tn, alui many deaths
're not recorded For rhe past three !
Iears, howev.r, the State Board of
dealth has ,Aade nerS stent efforts to
;orrect Terms iron every section in
ne stats. In 16sS1 -
ilodel Law now exists
IN Lou.saansa bat there are other things