The Semi-weekly leader., 1921-11-30
BILL FOR MOTHERS
HAILED BY WOMEN
Expected to Be Means of Saw
ing Many Women and
Babies.

Washington, Nov. 26.- Woman's
first major demand of Congress since
her. enfranchisement has been won.
The vote of 279 to 80 for the Shep-
pa. d-Towner maternity and infancy
bill shows how overwhelmingly was
the rush on Capitol Hill to grant her
wish.
Throngs of women filing silently
and radiantly out of the galleries of
the House of Representatives, heads
of the greatest woman's organiza-
tions in the country, showed in their
faces their appreciation.
1t was the Children's Bureau some
years ago that uncovered the appall-
ing mortality among mothers and
young children. The United States
has the highest maternal death rate
of any of the principal countries. We
lose one child in every ten. To bet
ter these conditions the fight for a
maternity bill was launched.
AS passed this week, the bill pro-
vides appropriations for centers of
instruction in the hygiene of mater
nifty and infancy through Public
Health nurses and other suitable
methods" The organization and ad-
ministration will be entirely through
the states with plans approved and
supervised by the head of the Chill
dren's Bureau, at present Miss Grace
Abbott, aided by a board consisting
of the surgeon general of the United
States Public Health Service, and the
United States Commissioner of Edu-
cation.
Ignorance and poverty share re-
sponslbility for the tremendous death
rate. Consequently the remedy is
n ainly education and almost entirely
preventative work, consisting in the
employment Of trained nurses, the
establishment of baby health stations
or child welfare centers, and the
employment OF physicians for consul
tation work. The women will go ear
ly to these centers and be taught how
L
plans are not to attend actual sick
cases at all, but to teach adjustment
of environment that so often causes
i'll health.
In the foreign population of big
cities, and in the more remote rural
districts many women have little
knowledge of hygiene for themselves
or their babies, and no facilities for
learning. One of the arguments a.
gainst the Sheppard-Towner bill has
been that the funds are insufficient
to be truly useful. But where the
population is thin, little help will
go long way toward the preserva-
tion of motherhood, and in the cities
one provision Of the appropriations
remedies the defect to a distinct de-
gree.
The sum Of $1,240,000 annually is
appropriated for five years, for this
is an experimental measure. Of that
sum $4,000 is given outright to the
states. Another $4,000 also is given,
which must be matched by a like
sum raised by the state. The remain
der is distributed according to popu-
latton, and whatever sum is thus
available must also be matched by
the local Legislatures, thus making a
considerable amount.
Arguments against the bill most
widely circulated were that the meas
ure is form of birth control; it
would permit the government to en-
ter the home over the heads of the
parents and assume control over the
child; and that it was paternalistic
legislation, taking into the hands of
the federal government matters that
are for state legislation only. These
arguments were successfully over
come.
One of the means provided in the
Sheppard-Towner bill for instruction
is possible arrangements by the state
with any educational institutions
within the state for conducting ex-
tension courses by qualified lecturers
on these problems, although only a
quarter of the sum appropriated may
be thus used. For the rest, the ad-
m1nistration of the provision of the
act will be through the child well
fare divisions of the State Depart
ment of Health, and every three
months the Cnildren's Bureau will
look into the progress of the work.
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, chair
man of the Republican National
Committee; Mrs. Mand Wood Parke,
president of the National League of
Women Voters; Mrs. Florence Kelly,
president of the National Consumers
League; Mrs. Arthur Watkins, pres
ident of the National Congress of
Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associa-
tions, were among the earnest at
tendants on the long debate, feeling
that the lives of many thousands
were hanging on the issue.
Its the greatest thing for women
that has happened since suffrage" I"
they affirmed.
County School Notes.