The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-03-28


should come out again is futile. She
is going to stay there because she has
to. And industry itself is going to
try to keep her there because she
furnishes a cheap labor supply.
What is to be done, then? The
answer of the scientific feminists is
that laws must be made protecting
her from conditions that menace her
health and her value as a mother,
and giving her all possible aid in
caring for herself and her child
England and France have gone much
farther than we have in protecting
women in factories by laws regulat-
ing hours and character of employ
ment, prescribing rest periods and
the like. They have also gone much
farther in providing care for women
during the prenatal and maternity
periods. The SheppardTowner bill
is the most advanced step yet taken
in this country. 1t is chiefly an edu-
cational measure, providing for the
instruction of mothers by state
agencies under the general super
vision of the children's bureau. AS
originally drawn, the bill provided
also that actual medical care could
be given by the state when it was
needed. This obviously socialists
measure was stricken out by the SEN
ate, which then passed the bill with
a reduced appropriation. It will
doubtless come before the house at
S1t1 Of q
much favorable attention that there
is little doubt of its passage in some
form.
The proponents of the bill have
made out stronge case to the effect
that something should be done for
motherhood in America. A few ex-
tracts from the hearing before the
house committee will give in brief
space the main facts upon which the
demand for this legislation is based:
Wasted Lives
1--WE are still sacrificing the lives
of as many mothers as we did ten
years ago. In 1918. $4,000 made the
supreme sacrifice I say for
motherhood? No. Rather paid the
supreme sacrifice to lack of suitable
instruction, to absence of prenatal
care, to unskilled and bungling OBJ
stetrics, and to dirty hands. Reliable
statistics indicate that the material
mortality this year will be about Is
per cent higher than the preceding
year"
1.-THE infant mortality rate and the
maternity mortality rate are an in
dex of social we'll being. Every factor
that lessons the infant and maternity
mortality tends to lift up living
standards, and every advance in liv-
ing standards automatically tends to
lessen these death rates"
".The United States has the highest
maternal death rate in list of
seventeen civilized countries, and the
chances Of child surviving its first
year are worse in this country than
in ten other countries.
Studies of nearly $4,000 infants
in seven industrial cities show that
an income earned by the father fairly
guaranteeing the possibility of decent
family life and permitting the
ulOJuCI " Iclud1u az AOAAO VIII IhO
children, accompanies an infant
death rate about three times as
favorable as that in the lowest in
come group. In families in the low
est group, one baby in every six
failed to survive it's first year. In
families of adequate income but one
baby in seventeen died in the first
year. These studies have no class
basis. They include every baby born
in a given town in a given year.
''In one city the infant death rate
was five times as great as in the mill
district as in the fine residential dis
trict.
"The bureaus studies in rural
areas of six different states revealed
the fact that 80 per cent of the
mothers had received no advice or
rained care during pregnancy.-Salt
Lake Tribune.