106 BIRTH REGISTRATION 



diagrams prepared by the Bureau of the Census, which show 

 the great value attached to these subjects in the official statistics 

 of all civilized countries except our own and the most lamentable 

 deficiency of the United States in surrounding infant life with 

 these safeguards of legal registration, which are not only of 

 the greatest personal and legal value to the individual and the 

 State, but whose absence renders our efforts for the saving of 

 infant life, and also all organized public health work in the 

 United States, largely a blind groping in the dark when we 

 are entitled to, and should have, just as full information in 

 regard to the mortality of infancy and its preventable causes as 

 the citizens of any other nation. 



The most urgent matter at the present time is to secure the 

 registration of all births and deaths that occur in the United 

 States ; to aid the movement for the adoption of such laws ; and, 

 most important of all, to SECURE THE THOROUGH ENFORCEMENT 

 OF REGISTRATION LAWS. We therefore present the following pre- 

 amble and resolution, which we hope may be adopted by this 

 Association, and that the active interest of all workers for the 

 prevention of infant mortality will be concentrated on this 

 point until satisfactory results shall be accomplished: 



WHEREAS the registration of all births and of all deaths is 

 most essential for the study of infantile mortality and the pre- 

 vention of the deaths of infants and children from avoidable 

 causes, therefore, be it 



Resolved, That the American Association for Study and Pre- 

 vention of Infant Mortality cordially approves of the model law 

 for the registration of births and deaths, as recommended by 

 the American Medical Association, the American Public Health 

 Association, and the United States Bureau of the Census, and 

 urges the thorough enforcement of such laws by the officials 

 charged with the responsibility of their execution, with prose- 

 cution of physicians and midwives who neglect their duties to 

 their clients and to the public health by failing or neglecting 

 to register births as required by law. 



