ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT 



J. H. MASON KNOX, Jr., M. D., Baltimore 



Honored Guests, Directors, and Members of the American Asso- 

 ciation for Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality: 



LADIES AND GENTLEMEN In the name of this new Associa- 

 tion devoted to the interests of the babies of the country I bid 

 you welcome. 



We are met together to consider one of the gravest problems 

 that can confront a commonwealth, namely, the problem of con- 

 serving its future citizens. Badly stated, we have reason to 

 believe that in the United States upward of 300,000 deaths occur 

 each year under 12 months of age out of a total infant population 

 of one and a half million. That is to say, that one out of every 

 five children born alive fails to reach its first year. The total 

 number of deaths from tuberculosis, the most devastating of all 

 diseases, each year is about 160,000, but little more than half of 

 the number of infant deaths. It is conservatively estimated that 

 at least one-half of the yearly infant death rate is a toll paid to 

 parental ignorance and indifference and can largely be averted. 

 The immediate and thrilling aim of our endeavor, therefore, is 

 the saving of 150,000 human lives a year within the borders of 

 our own land. Surely a goal to enlist the co-operation of every 

 warm-blooded citizen and a sufficient reason for the establish- 

 ment of a national society! 



From the outset it has been the policy of the Association to 

 have its proceedings dictated by sound common sense. The need 

 of relief is most pressing and immediate, it is true, but many of 

 the causes of this large mortality are sanctioned by long habit 

 and protected by well-meaning ignorance. To uproot these causes 

 we know is a work of time and patience. We cannot go further 

 than an enlightened public sentiment will approve. We can only 

 point to the irredeemable suffering and loss which this needless 

 infant death rate is producing and at the same time demonstrate 

 how it can be curtailed, and then await the demands of an aroused 

 popular summons to save the babies. Some years ago Dr. Osier 

 referred to the public as being just awakened to the importance 

 of stamping out tuberculosis; it was, as he said, sitting on the 

 edge of the bed and beginning to take note of the inroads of the 



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