Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-01-01
Birth andDca thRecords
By Frednrtc J.. HAaJkfn

Washington, ID. c., Jan. LII your
life, fortune, or happiness depended OF,
knowing the date and place Of your birth,
| could you prove by official record these
facts of your existenoe7
Probably not, for 80 recently as 1916
only twelve States registered births entis-
| factorily, and before 1900 very few States
| kept complete records Of vital statistics.
The importance Of birth and death
registration is shown by Instances that
occur every day There is the ancient
story Of an American in Europe who was
prohibited from marrying French girl
because he could not prove To the authori-
tics that he had been born.
More serious were the carcs during the
early part Of the war, when Americans
III Europe were suspected of being British
or German spies, and were informed
that their lives depended on ffcial records
OF their births In the United States
Gables sent to the native towns Of the
prisoners resulted in some cases in the
dcsired information being furnished inn
mediately, and the men suspected were
released In some INSTANCES, no records
could be found
NEED EoR VITAL RECORDS.
These situations, of course, were I'm
vital records IL constantly met with ia
legal procedure, IN the schools, and IN
employment Strangely enough, large
numbers Of grown people do not know
exactly how old they are. A man may
90 through life without ever being en-
barrassed by any mystery attached 20
his early days. But then again, II he is
to inherit property, the question Of the
heirs exact age becomes important; and
II the man who believes he is twenty-five
cannot prove this asscrtion by the family
bible, or by official records, the family
fortune may pass on to relative with
unquestioned status. The story ia still
told by lawyers of the boy who saved
his fortune by having witnesses testify
that he was born the Same day as n certain
registered horse.
Bmth records are often needed To en-
force school attendance laws, and to
keep parents from putting their children
into shops and factories on the claim that
they are Of legal age to work. Sometimes
the child is obviously under the legal
age limit, but if there IL no register t0
show the exact date of birth, the employer
usually can take the applicant without
fear Of breaking the child labor law
All these examples illustrate the uses
to which vital statistics are put by the
public. Yet only twenty-five States now
have satisfactory laws for registration Of
births, while thIrty-three register deaths
by systems pronounced satisfactory by
statlsticians
The registration Of deaths and sickness
Is as important, If not more So than birth
registration Practically all Of the States
attempt to keep some record of deaths,
but the methods vary so much that it Is
difficult 10 use the hglIres 10 compile
accurute statistics.
An effort 10 coordinate vital reglstra-
ton laws and 20 urge nationwide regis
tration IL to he made at a conferences Of
health officials and organizations fighting
disease. At the conference, To be held
at Washington this month, prevention
of deaths and methods Of combating dis
case will be discussed.
Many thousands of preventable deaths
occur IN the United States every year
This means that our knowledge Of santa
ton, surgery, and science Is not used Is
efficiently az It might be. One reason
for tins is that health officials and doctors
cannot attack discAsc until they know OF
it's existence II 8 typhoid epidemic
starts In a ncighborhood, and there IS
no law or local regulation to make The
doctors report cases, the disease may
spread all over the town before the city
officials are aware of its seriousness
Whereas If doctors report promptly the
first eases, the health officer can warn the
people as TO precautions against the dis
ease, and can investigate and attempt to
remove the cause.