Conference on Infant Mortality 

 at Caxton Hall. 



AUGUST 4, 1913. 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY THE RIGHT HON. JOHN BURNS, 

 M.P., PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD. 



Mr. BURNS, in opening the Conference, said: 



Ladies and Gentlemen, This is the fourth Conference 

 on infant mortality held in this country and in this Hall 

 during the last seven years. This Conference has been 

 enlarged during the past two years in its object and in its 

 scope by uniting within its organization a few other associa- 

 tions and movements, by means of which greater unity and 

 solidarity have been given to the national movement as a 

 whole. The Conference from its humble beginnings has 

 become, I am glad to say, a world-wide movement world- 

 wide in a practical character, because its aims were sensible 

 and attainable and its methods being practical and sane its 

 achievements have been very great. The present Conference 

 is not confined to Britain, but includes 



"" 



^ 

 countries. anH a<; President I"" welcome to-day the 



American, the Dominion, and the Colonial representatives. 

 We can learn much from these new communities, some of 

 whom are without the heritage of difficulty that we have 

 endured and now endure. To them we can show many 

 illustrations of good and successful work, and above all, 

 many warnings, and if they do not take heed of them in the 

 early stages of their communal life, it may result in disaster 

 to themselves in the years that are to come. From the 

 English-speaking peoples have originated during the last 

 100 years the great codes of factory, of public health, of 

 sanitary, of penal, and education laws, and in the Mother 

 Country a new movement was be.sfun some seven or eight 

 years ago. That movement, which is your Conference work, 



3 



