FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING 177 



land; R. B. Mellon, Pittsburgh; Dr. E. A. Pierce, Portland, Ore.; 

 Dr. Joseph Y. Porter, Key West, Fla. ; Professor W. T. Sedgwick, 

 Boston; Dr. W. R. Steiner, Hartford, Conn.; Dr. Joseph Walsh, 

 Philadelphia. 



The following resolutions were reported favorably by the com- 

 mittee and were unanimously adopted by the Association : 



Resolved, That The National Association for the Study and Prevention of 

 Tuberculosis urges the centralization of the health activities of the United 

 States Government. 



Resolved, That The National Association for the Study and Prevention of 

 Tuberculosis hails with gratification the efforts of the George Washington 

 Memorial Association to provide in the capital of the nation a permanent 

 home and meeting place for the national, patriotic, scientific, educational, 

 literary, and art activities, including a great hall and rooms for large con- 

 gresses. 



Resolved, That the need of such a building was emphasized during the Inter- 

 national Congress on Tuberculosis, which was held in Washington during 

 September and October, 1908. 



Resolved, That this Association indorses the project, and while pledging 

 cordial cooperation also recommends the undertaking as worthy of popular 

 support. 



WHEREAS, Detailed knowledge of population, births, and deaths is a funda- 

 mental need of civilized governments; and 



WHEREAS, The government of the United States, through its Census Bureau, 

 can furnish the necessary information concerning population only, the power 

 and the duty of recording births and deaths belonging to the States; and 



WHEREAS, The government of the United States has assumed obligations to 

 furnish to foreign governments authoritative information concerning the 

 deaths of aliens in this country, the several States being party to these treaty 

 obligations the Government of the United States does not discharge, and can- 

 not discharge except through the proper exercise by the States of their reserved 

 rights; and 



WHEREAS, The government of the United States has more than once been 

 advised by foreign governments of its default in these obligations, and has 

 more than once called the attention of State governments to the existing 

 foreign obligations; and 



WHEREAS, Only 16 of the States are able to furnish reliable accounts of 

 , current mortality, while none can furnish reliable accounts of births; by these 

 defaults burdening their citizens, their courts, their boards of health, education, 

 charity, and labor with expensive and inferior substitutes for official and 

 authoritative records, and by the default in mortality registration, exposing the 



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