The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 22, 1921, Page 11

Maternity Bill Gets a Hearing THE FARM WOMAN’S PAGE Writer Discusses Woman’s “Inferiority” Women Back Bill Testify of Need for Sheppard-Towner Meas- v ure in Congress R. S. JOSEPHINE BAKER, director of the child hygiene division of the New York City board of health, was a wit- ness the other day before the con- gressional committee considering the Sheppard-Towner maternity bill. “It is eight times as safe to be a soldier of the United States army as to be a baby in the United States,” said Dr. Baker, quoting official govern- ment figures as proof. Her plea for the maternity bill was based qn the remarkable results which the division of which she is director in New York City has attained in its welfare and hygiene work. New York’s child hygiene work, which Dr. Baker de- scribed as “giving the community the information it needs in order to keep well,” has reduced the death rate of mothers and children more than half. “The actual death rate per thousand for babies has shrunk from 144 to 85,” testified Dr. Baker. Dr. Philip Van Ingen, eclinical professor of dis- eases of children at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia university, who followed Dr. Baker, began his statement with a broadside of of- ficial statistics concerning the mortal- ity of mothers and babies, showing that the maternal mortality in the United States is exceeded only by tu- bercular mortality as causes of death among women of child-bearing age. The decrease in infant mortality from 1915 on, he states, was due to protec- tion of infancy and instruction in hy- giene. Foreign countries are doing child welfare work as an economic measure, according to Dr. Van Ingen, and England, which in 1914 appropri- ated only £11,000 for welfare work, in 1020 appropriated £526,217, more than Jlouble that for 1918-19. DR. ELLEN C. POTTER ALSO BACKS MEASURE Dr. Ellen C. Potter, director of the division of child hygiene, Pennsylvania state board of health; Dr. John A. Foote, professor of diseases of children at Georgetown University Medical school (Washington D. C.); Rev. John A. Ryan, director of the social action department of the National Catholic Welfare council; Edward McGrady, representative of the Amer- ican Federation of Labor, which unanimously indorsed the measure at its convention, all favored the bill. A ’ Those opposed to the measure also testified. The testimony of Mrs. Albert T. Leatherbee of Boston, president of the Massachusetts Anti-Suffrage asso- ciation, is typical of the opposition. She declared the bill to be a “paternalistic, socialistic, meddle- some attempt to bring about bureaucratic control of family life,” and “a fundamentally socialistic effort to destroy the family and make children wards of the state.” : According to Dr. Charles R. Hamilton, president of the Illinois State Medical society, who spoke against the bill, his chief objection to health nurses was that “women of means may go to them and get instruction and then differ with their family physi- cians.” - Women Urge Change The question of nationality and naturalization is one which appeals to the women of all nations. As time goes on and the league of nations becomes more of a reality, this question will naturally cause less heart-burning, but at any time it is surely right that no woman' should be unwillingly deprived of her nationality. Women’s organizations in England have ap- proached the British empire delegation in the league of nations on this subject. ' : “We are asking the government to introduce a rrreasure to provide that a woman on marriage with an’ alien shall not be deprived of her nationality against ‘her will, but that she shall be given the same choice of nationality as a man, including the right to naturalize independently of her husband,” says Elizabeth Macadam, one of the leaders of the move. “We are, moreover, asking that British dele- gates shall vote in favor of recommending the adop- tion of similar laws throughout the empire. “We know that the organized women in the dominions are also trying to have the law altered in this sense, and that Australia and Canada have already on their statute books legislation which is slightly less severe as regards married women than the nationality laws of the United Kingdom. “We have therefore urged the delegation to ap- point 2 committee on this subject, promised by the government in 1918, to include women members, to draft a bill to give effect to their demand.” Saving Babies - Government Report Shows How Educating Mothers Helps Prevent Deaths Since 1915 the federal government has been able to keep a ledger for the birth registration area showing profit and loss in terms of infant life and death. Of the nine largest cities in the birth regis- tration area since it was established in 1915, Wash- ington, Philadelphia and New York show the most | ON A NEBRASKA RANCH I A piece of outdoors that would furnish a subject for a painter, and two fine specimens of young womanhood on the farms. The picture was sent by a Leader reader in Nebraska. satisfactory progress toward a reduction of rates, though Minneapolis has consistently maintained the lowest rate of any of the nine. In Pittsburg in 1920 there was a loss during in- fancy of one life out of every nine. The rate in the most unfavorable ward was 157 deaths for every " 1,000 births, while in the most favorable ward the rate was only 64 per 1,000. Nearly one-half the babies who failed to survive died before they were a month old, when deaths are largely due to natal and prenatal causes. It has been clearly demonstrated that such deaths are largely preventable through care and instruction for the mother before the baby is born, and skilled care at and shortly after birth. Nearly one-fourth of the deaths were caused by gastro-intestinal dis- eases. Deaths from these causes occur for the most part in the heat of summer. They can be reduced through instructions to mothers in the proper care and feeding of babies and through civic supervision to insure purity and proper handling of milk sup- lies. : e % Milk stations, maternity and baby clinics and pub- lic health nursing service have been established in Pittsburg. . . WOMAN IN CABINET The Daily Mirror of June 3 reports that her ex- cellency, Mme. Khalide Edib Khanum, has been ap- pointed minister of education in the government of the Grand National assembly of Turkey, better known as the “Angora government,” of which Mustapha Kemal is the head. PAGE TWELVE ] “Inferiority Complex” Anne Martin Gives a Highbrow Name to . What She Calls a Bad Trait in Women NNE MARTIN, former chairman of the National Woman’s party and inde- pendent candidate for the United States senate in Nevada, writing in the New Republic (New York), says American women are suffering from an “inferiority complex,” a mental “disease.” She finds that the thousands of years of slavery which women went through, followed by another long period in which women were denied equal rights with men and were considered inferior mentally and _every other way to men, have left the female sex with a belief, conscious or unconscious, that women are naturally or inherently unprepared to enter politics and business on an equal footing with man. In other words, that, although women have the bal- lot and are gradually obtaining equal rights and - treatment with men in all fields, most women falsely believe themselves inferior to men. Miss Martin found that even women who have made a success in the professions, such as the law and medicine, and in business, believe that they are exceptions and that on the whole their sex is un- prepared at this time to make a suc- cess in these lines of endeavor. She found women who were prominent in the fight for the ballot who, now that the ballot is won, “admit” that women generally are not “ready” to take an active part in politics and that they must have many years of “education” before they can hold their own with men. All this Miss Martin scores as a mental weakness in women. She claims that they are as intelligent and capable as men and that the reason more women do not enter politics and business and make a success therein equal to man’s is because women are hampered by the false belief in their own inferiority, which destroys their confidence. She claims that woman’s own mental state is now all that pre- vents her from competing on equal terms with men in all walks of life, and she pleads for a new and more confident outlook on the part of her sisters. . Women Preachers The Manchester Guardian of June 22 reports that, as a result of the dis- cussion as to the right of women to preach at church services, arising out of Fru Steinsvik’s sermon at Gronland church, the Norwegian Women’s National council sent-a deputation requesting the presidency of the Norwegian diet to work for a law granting women the right of ordination. After deliberation in the c¢hurch and school committee and a discussion in the diet the sanction was granted unanimously. Among the speakers on the question was Gunnar Knudsen, former minister of state. This staunch defender of the franchise for women said that even .. if it should take a long while before one could over- come general opinion, yet he would still urge con- . sent to the proposition. He held that the ecclesi- astical vocation was especially the women’s prov- ince, and that the proposition was consistent with intellectual and Christian interests. d NEGRESS IS DOCTOR ; The first negress to become doctor of philosophy is Sadie Mossell of Philadelphia, who has received her degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She comes from.a noteworthy family. Her father was the first negro to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania law school, her uncle was the first to graduate in medicine from the West Philadelphia college, and her grandfather is Bishop Tanner of the African Methodist Episcopal church. : Louisiar}a has just adopted a new state constitu- tion, ::md it was signed by three women delegates.. This is the first time women in the United States __have been signatories to a basic law.