52 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



need to be closed. So also must the State promote 

 town-planning, the prevention of future slums, and 

 the revival and development of village industrial life 

 on the principles of the Garden City movement, 

 devising means to prevent the financial interests of 

 municipalities from suffering by the removal of 

 industries to the country. 



Wages. Yet again attention must be called to the 

 part played in infant mortality by poverty. Infant 

 mortality is very largely a question of wages amongst 

 the very poor and half-employed, and in this Con- 

 ference we must not burke the fact. These are the 

 persons who indirectly suffer from every movement, 

 in these competitive days, for the advance of wages 

 or social reform. The more perfect become inter- 

 national communications and the more serious the 

 industrial competition, the more impossible must it 

 become to maintain both a system of free imports and 

 a higher standard of public health. One or other 

 must go. 



The State and Voluntary Agencies. In matters of 

 infant mortality the State gains much by working 

 through voluntary agencies, which not only provide 

 assistance but also form an unpaid corps of advisers, 

 to persuade the ignorant public how to avail them- 

 selves of the assistance provided. These agencies 

 should be linked to the State Authorities, both locally 

 and centrally. The new Central Health (Advisory) 

 Committee for London is a pioneer ; a Registrar 

 of such agencies would add much to their efficiency, 

 and by degrees the State, both centrally and locally, 

 may with advantage contribute to their funds in pro- 

 portion to moneys voluntarily subscribed. 



Medical arid Nursing Attendance. The provision 

 of nurses and midwives should be pressed on through 

 such agencies. A County Nursing Association should 

 be established in every county, and should be the sole 

 medium for generous contributions from the County 



