SHERMAN C. KINGSLEY 69 



final test of the efficiency of all kinds of charity work and evi- 

 dence of usefulness of various forms of social movements is 

 whether they are helping to make the home and the city the 

 right kind of place for the baby. 



Third Preventable disease. In the city of Chicago about 

 4,000 people each year die of tuberculosis. It is almost impossible 

 to compute the loss due to this one cause of sorrow and priva- 

 tion. The greatest part of the loss comes when the bread winner 

 is most needed, for it is during the period when there is a group 

 of growing children. It is bad enough for all of them, but here 

 again the baby is farthest under the whole load. One could go 

 on and cite the large per cent, of children in such families who 

 bear traces of infection, and give also a long recital of things 

 required to give them a chance and check the spread. Indeed, 

 if any of the workers in the general work of charity think they 

 are getting through their task, they will be remanded to their 

 places by the Infant Welfare Crusader, who comes along and 

 tests their work in the light of the baby's needs and rights. 



Fourth This particular baby was ushered into the world 

 through the aid of a midwife. This is the case with about one- 

 half of the babies born in the city of Chicago, and the services ot 

 the midwife are used largely among the poor in other cities. 

 These people are not adequately registered or supervised. They 

 are not trained. There is present among them no degree of 

 professional skill or exchange of information. Many of them 

 are ignorant and superstitious and guided by tradition. There 

 is no certainty that preventable blindness is prevented or that 

 any right kind of instruction is given to the mother to be used 

 after the midwife leaves, or that in the first days the baby 

 is adequately cared for by the midwife. The importance of the 

 individual citizen has not yet arisen to the point in this country 

 where the registration of births is appreciated. This birth was 

 not registered. We do not know to what extent we are, or 

 shall be, dependent upon the child born in this country, or to 

 what extent we can rely on immigration to supply needed citi- 

 zens. The whole chain of children's rights and privileges and 

 protection school, work, age of consent, property a long list of 

 social conventions, standards and institutions depend upon this 

 measure, and yet it is not done. With the establishment of 

 Children's Bureaus in our Health Departments this should be 

 brought about. Then the child can be reached and helped in 

 an hundred ways and at a time when help is most vital. 



Fifth Our child in question did not even have the right kind 

 of milk when deprived of the mother's breast because of the 

 exigency of her situation. Few communities appreciate the 

 importance of a good milk supply and of the price which must 



