32 ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT 



female high schools. In this way the future mothers of the 

 country would enter into that sacred relationship with some idea 

 of its duties and responsibilities. 



Many other topics of almost as much importance could be 

 touched on if time permitted. The value of milk stations and 

 of mothers' meetings and of carefully planned exhibits must be 

 mentioned. 



Certainly we are at the beginning of a movement which will 

 not rest until the preventable deaths among this most dependent 

 portion of our population are controlled. 



A word or two in closing as to the activities of this National 

 Association during the past year. It was established as the result 

 of a conference called by the Academy of Medicine, in New 

 Haven, in November, 1909. A permanent office was opened in 

 the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty Building, Baltimore, in 

 January of this year. From that time more than 500 active 

 members have been enrolled from 30 States and from Canada, 

 and 30 organizations have become affiliated members. These 

 include milk dispensaries, child-helping societies, social settle- 

 ments, health departments and similar organizations. We have 

 thought that our principal field for the first year lay in educational 

 propaganda carried on by means of literature, circulars and the 

 public press. More than 8,000 pieces of mail have been sent 

 out from the office, and 22,000 circulars and leaflets have been 

 distributed. The office has been a clearing house of information 

 concerning all matters pertaining to the improvement of infant 

 life and has brought many activities in various parts of the coun- 

 try in touch with each other. The strength of the American 

 Association for Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality lies 

 in the interest it has aroused throughout the country on behalf 

 of the baby and in the cordial assistance it has received from all 

 forces already interested in public health and social betterment. 



