The Washington herald., 1921-01-03
WOMEN AWAIT
HOUSE ACTION
ON BABIES BILL
Prominent Welfare Edu.
Gators Come to d. c.
To Push Passage.
BY CONSTANCE DRExEL.

Women Of the country are asking
what has happened to the Baby
Bill, now the popular name for the
sheppard-Towner maternity and in
fancy measure. It galloped through
the Senate, having been passed on
December IS. after four days debate,
but since then nothing much has
been heard Of it.
What is its present status? Brief
hearings have been taking place
every day before the committee in
the House. Representative Esch Of
Wisconsin is chairman of the COM
mittee.
Among those who have been urg-
ing the passage Of the measure are
Miss Julia Lathrop. Chief of the
Children's Bureau; DR.. J. Whitridge
williams, professor of obstetrics,
Johns Hopkins; Col. Edward Mar
q tin, State health officer, Pennsyl-
vania, and w. F. Bigelow. editor
Of Good Housekeeping, who has
made a canvass of Governors and
received thirty-three favorable re-
plies.
Now the hearings are finished and
II is up to the committee TO report
on the bill to the House. So that
is where the Baby Bill stands to-
day.
Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman
of the League Of Women Voters
and chairman Of the joint women's
Congressional committee. said yes
terday she fully expected the com
mittee would report the bill fav-
orably, as did the Senate committee.
Speed Necessary.
There is, however, such over
whelming demand, increasing all
the time, from organized and in
dividual women all over the coun-
try, we do not see how the House
can fail to pass the measure. But
we must have speed in order to
reach all the State legislatures
meeting early in 1921. Calling as
1t does for State as well as a Fed
eral Appropriation, the sheppard
Towner bill must be acted upon by
State legislatures before they may
derive its benefits.
One unexpected development has
arisen Though the SpOOt amend
ment to the baby bill as adopted by
the Senate calls for its administra-
ton by the children's bureau, senti-
ment in the House committee which
is to report on the bill seems to be
developing to place the administra-
tiOn in the hands Of the Public
Health Service instead.
Women who have observed this
trend Of opinion are disappointed.
Not that there is any objection to
the Public Health Service. 1t is do
IN Oh
denies and other diseases But the
very multiplicity in the field OF
health and sanitation makes women
feel It cannot possibly devote to the
baby bill the attention that pioneer
work demands.
II is that psychological aspect
which is interesting to women of the
country. No one seemed to care very
much because the Senate cut down
the appropriation from its limit OF
s4.OOOOO0 to about S1,5OO,OOO. 1t is
the idea back Of the proposal the
women want to see given recogni-
tiOn in legislation.
The newest recruit to arrive to
swell the tide behind the baby bill
is Mrs Minnie Fisher Cunningham,
who has come from Texas TO serve
as legislative chairman in the head
quarters here Of the League of Wom-
IN Voters. Mrs. Cunningham is not
new at the task of sponsoring a bill
in Congress as she served on the
Congressional committee of the Ma
tiOnal American Woman Suffrage
Association when II was pressing for
that amendment. Miss Mary Bro
nauEh, young woman attorney Of
HOpkinsville, Ky, who has recently
- nF
lucky League Of Women Voters also
is in Washington.
Copyright, 1871, Public Ledger Co..