PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 35 



company of dogs, who I think would be much happier with 

 the company of other people's children; and I make this 

 suggestion, that if, instead of wasting guineas on overcoats 

 for lapdogs, and slippers for hounds, and bracelets for 

 favourite puppies as sometimes you may see if some of 

 these ladies will come to me I shall be only too pleased to 

 convert myself into a children's agency by means of which 

 I can provide them with substitutes human substitutes 

 for their feline and canine pets, and it will do them more 

 good than they think. (Laughter and applause.) 



I come now to one other point about the supervision of^. 

 mothers^ I would only say this : If all the poor mothers 

 hacTthe same standard of supervision and care that Poor 

 Law mothers generally get in Poor Law institutions, I am 

 convinced that infant mortality would drop down very 

 rapidly during the next few years. 



I have one or two suggestions in conclusion to make 

 to you. Next year I think this Conference ought not 

 to be held in London. This Conference ought to be 

 held where it is most needed, viz., in Lancashire. I 

 suggest either Manchester or Liverpool; and here may 

 I say how much credit the Editor of the Manchester 

 Guardian deserves for the manly and courageous way 

 in which he reviewed the report of Dr. Newsholme, 

 and told Lancashire to its face that it ought to be 

 ashamed of the condition which that report reveals ? If 

 you will adopt my suggestion, I think you ought to have 

 next year's Conference either in Liverpool or Manchester, 

 and I should be delighted to go to either city and preside 

 over it, unless you can get someone better. There is 

 another thing I wish to say, and it is this : In all the work 

 you do by the State officials, the doctors, the health visitors. 

 the midwives, the nurses, and the voluntary associations, 

 remember this you cannot supersede the mother. I hope 

 you will not try too much. Do everything you can within 

 your power to instruct her, to educate her, and to persuade 

 her how best to look after herself, and safeguard her off- 

 spring, but do not by over-attention paralyse her initiative, 

 her capacity, and her volition to do as a mother what every 

 mother ought to be able to do for herself. 



My next point is a difficult and a serious one. Next 

 year the Conference should consider more closely than it 

 has done in this year's papers the diseases of maternity and 

 paternity. We ought really to get at the reason and the 

 doctors want your help as much as you want the help of 

 the doctors we ought really to get at the reason why 23 

 per cent, of the total cancer deaths among women occur in 

 the genital organs. We have got to look very closely 



