The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-06-28
SAVE MOTHERS AND
YOUNG BABIES
Miss Abbott Explains Shep-
pard- TOwner Act to
WOmen's Clubs
STATE CONDITIONS
VARY TOO MUCH

Proper Registration of Births and
Deaths Prime Necessity-Clubs Should
Work to Save Life Rather Than In
dividuaI Credit-Baek Merit System
CHAUTAUQUA, n. Y, June 2S-
Urging her hearers to labor to reduce
needless and tragic deaths among moth
ers and infants, Miss Grace Abbott. chief
of the federal children's bureau of the
United States department of labor. to-
day addressed the delegates to the Gen
eral Federation of Womep's Clubs
Her subject was the Sheppard-Towner
act and the responsibility of club women
in promoting the welfare of children
After reviewing the history of this fed
eral measure Miss Abbott turned her
attention to the existing situation in va
rious states of the Union.
In the first place" she said. "it is
impossible for any state to know its own
problem-when and why and where the
habieS and mothers die-until the state
adequately registers births and deaths.
There are still three states, Arizona. Ne
vada and South Dakota, which have not
adopted the model law to this end and
is others Alabama. Arkansas, Colorado.
Florida. Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa.
Louisiana. Missouri, New Mexico, North
Dakota. Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas.
and West Virginia. which although they
have adopted the model law, are still not
adequately registering the births of chill
dren and are. therefore. not included in
the birth registration area. 1t ought to
he possible for you to use the Sheppard
TownCr act as a new lever in securing
the passage of model laws as well as
their enforcement after they are passed.
What TO Do in Your State
AS for what should be done in your
individual state there can be no single
model plan because conditions differ so
widely in our Is states. Everywhere,
however the program win be largely ed
ucati0n and demonstration for mothers
and prospective mothers their own vel
fare and that of their children are of inn
mediate concern; without their COOPER
alton the program must necessarily fail.
~ hat part the organized club movement
can take in interesting the individual
mothers viii depend on local conditions.
Leadership in the whole matter rests in
most states. with the state commlsSionef
of health and with the director of the
child hygiene division in the state de-
uartment of health. \ good working re-
Iationship with these officers is a first
requisite.
Must Fulfil Its Purpose
1T nav be necessary to make quite
clear what those of us who have worked
with you know so well, that the sole in
terest of the women in the sheppard
Towner act is that it shall fulfill the
.DurD0sa for which they urged its passage
reduce the needless and tragic deaths
among mothers and infants; that they
desire neither credit nor prestige for
Themselves or their clubs, but that they
must be able to say that they did what
they. could toward this end.
I hope that whenever local politics,
whether medical. party or personal,
have hammered the development Of your
state health program, this new interest
Of the women in our joint undertaking
to reduce mortality among mothers and
babies is going to give new backing to
the merit principle in the work.