44 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



pushed the bale of hay into the lighted lamp, and that it was 

 another child under the age of sixteen, employed on a notary 

 public's affidavit on the perjured testimony of its parents, who 

 pushed that bale of hay into the mine, causing one of the most 

 frightful disasters in the history of the mining industry of the 

 country. If every birth was registered, the enforcement of 

 the child labor laws and factory laws would be greatly sim- 

 plified and strengthened. 



Women's clubs and social organizations should also de- 

 mand the passage of such a law for the protection of women 

 and girls. Laws regulating the age of consent are equally 

 valueless without birth registration. In practically all prose- 

 cutions for the protection of children and young girls, the 

 contest conies over the age of the girl. If this fact was a mat- 

 ter of official record, the enforcement of the law and the pun- 

 ishment of its violators would be easy. 



To sum up the entire situation, in so far as it interests us 

 as citizens of this state, the proper registration of births and 

 deaths is fundamental to any proper and adequate social 

 organization. It is to our discredit as citizens that Illinois is 

 not one of the eight states which register births, nor 

 one of the thirty-six states that register deaths. Outside of 

 Chicago, Peoria and a few of the larger cities, there is no 

 death registration, while even in Chicago the birth registra- 

 tion is incomplete and unsatisfactory, and elsewhere in the 

 state it practically does not exist. The present law is in- 

 effective and inadequate. It has been a dead letter ever since 

 its passage in 1903. For the sake of future generations, as 

 well as for the enforcement of law and order and the securing 

 of better sanitary conditions, it is tlie duty of each one of us 

 to use all his influence in enlightening the public and demand- 

 ing from the state legislature, the passage of a modern, up to 

 date, scientific registration law in order that this blot on our 

 state may cease to exist. 



