The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 31, 1921, Page 10

Information About Bills in Congress The Maternity Bill All the Facts About It, and How to Help_ Get It Passed EADER readers and the Women’s Non- partisan clubs have done their share in urging the passage of the Sheppard- Towner so-called “maternity bill.” While it has passed the senate, it is still held up in the house. - More pres- sure must be brought on congressmen to get it passed. In order to assist women readers in under- standing the full facts, the Leader has prepared the following summary of the bill, the reasons for its passage, and the line-up for and against it. - REASONS FOR THE BILL—Nearly 18,000 mothers and 200,000 babies are dying every year in the United States from causes that can be eradi- cated if mothers are given proper information and aid before and after maternity. THE BILL—The measure appropriates $10,000 annually to each state in the Union, and in addition appropriates a lump sum of $1,000,000 a year to be divided among the states in proportion to their population. To get its share of the second appro- priation mentioned above, a state must appropriate for the work a sum equal to its share of the second appropriation and must maintain a state children’s bureau on a plan approved by the national chil- dren’s bureau of the United States department of labor. The money is to be spent by tlie states as follows: Local bureaus and -advisory local com- mittees are to be established in counties or smaller local districts throughout the states taking advan- tage of the act. These local committees, of which at least half must be women, under supervision of the state bureau, will provide courses of study for, and give various kinds of aid and advice to pros- pective mothers, and mothers who already have had their babies. There will be public health nurses in each community, and consultation centers where mothers can get free advice regarding pregnancy, maternity and infancy. No state or local bureau, nor committee, nor any of their nurses or agents, have authority to enter any home without consent of parents, or to take charge of any child. AUTHORS OF BILL—Miss Jeanette Rankin, former representative in congress from Montana, first introduced 'the bill, It has been re-introduced in each session of congress since then, in both house and senate, by both Republican and- Democratic members. Senator Morris Sheppard introduced the bill in the present session of the senate, and it passed that body with only seven votes against it. Representative Horace M. Towner introduced the bill in the present session of the house, and it is still held up in the house committee on’interstate and foreign commerce. It must be reported out of this committee before it can pass the house and thus become law. ARGUMENTS IN BEHALF OF AND AGAINST BILL GIVEN FOR THE BILL—Practically every women’s or- ganization in the United States, except anti-suf- frage organizations, is on record for the bill and is urging its passage. Practically every prominent woman in the country has indorsed it. The Ameri- can Federation of Labor and numeroys farmer, or- ganizations, the National Consumers® league, the National Organization for Public Health Nursing, the Bureau of Child Hygiene of New York, the American Child Hygiene association, the State Child Welfare bureau of New Mexico, the chief of the United States Children’s bureau, the National Catholic Welfare council, the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers associations,and many _ other social service and progressive organizations too numerous to mention, are fighting FOR the bill. AGAINST THE BILL—The opposition cemes from several sources. First, it is opposed by con- servatives and reactionaries “on principle,” because it is charged that it is “socialistic.” Second, it is opposed by many big business organizations who claim it will increase taxes, though the amount ap- propriated is so small that it will not be noticed. Third, it is opposed by the Illinois State Medical society, the Massachusetts Medical society and the medical professioni generally, for the selfish reason that the free advice to mothers will “cheat” doctors out of fees. Fourth, it is opposed by the so-called ’ " tween the consumer and the producer. - less country. - THE FARM WOMAN’S PAGE “drugless” doctors and new schools of curing, for the same reason that regular doctors oppose it, and for the additional reason that these unorthodox healers fear that the advice given mothers will not conform to the teachings of these new cure, cults. Fifth, it is opposed by the National Association Opposed to Women’s Suffrage and other anti-suf- fragists for no 4apparent reason than that progres- sive women, who believe in suffrage, are for it. These anti-suffrage organizations' and, their leaders live in the past. They don’t know this world has progressed and is progressing. Think of women being opposed to a bill such-as this! But only a very few /women belong to these anti-suffrage or- ganizations. WHAT TO DO—To get the bill passed, take it up in your clubs-and meetings and write your rep- resentatives ih congress. War on Cooties Editor Nonpartisan Leader: One day last week I sat in the shade of the willow tree, resting. A big shiny car stopped in the road out on the high- way, and two business men came leisurely down the lane. They asked if we were going to contract the potatoes in the adjoining field. “Sure, when ‘the price is right. . What are you con- tracting for?” “Oh, the prevailing price.” The prevailing price was 70 cents per hundred. I happened to know that the early crop was short, and even " the late one, and also short in other potato-raising localities. I said: “No, the hogs’ll get ’em first.” The business men went away then, and, we heard later, got one farmer to contract, at the prevailing price, his 90 acres. Two days later the prevailing price was $1.50; another two days, the price was $2.00. Reckon it up, Mr. Farmer, and see_what the “big cootie” made out of the deal. e The “big cootie” is he who sucks the life blood of the farmer; he who infests the dark place be- In Russia the terrible Bolsheviks are making war on the louse—the cootie who has caused more deaths than the revolution by carrying typhus and other dis- eases from one to another. They have great sign- boards erected in every place possible, asking the people to clean up on the cootie. The children are shorn, and the be-whiskered Bolshes are reauested to shear off the long hair and beard that seems to be the Russian habit, that the war on the cootie be to the death. & What the louse is to Russia the middleman -is to the farmer of the United States. Shall we find a remedy soon, ‘or go to ruin and starvation for lack of forethought, and much heedlessness? What is the matter with a fine-tooth comb called “organization,” with the' medicinal bath of “public ownership of public utilities,” a change of linen in the way of “co- - operation” and then our’ “cooties” will disappear from the face of the earth. Yours for a cootie- MYRTLE AYOTTE. Twin. Falls, Idaho. PAGE TEN I replied: . Letters and Articles by and for Women Death of Freedom BY MRS. A. SHORTEN OF EMMETT, IDAHO I am dying, Columbia, dying Fast the codes of life and liberty crumble an decay; How long, just God, shall tyrants vieing Hold freemen, crushed, at bay. I am dying, Columbia, dying; Have men-forgotten Him who died, and living’ cried; Go forth, courageous ones, my, freemen trying To loose the captives of autocracy, And let those long oppressed go free. I am dying, Columbia, dying; Has King George’s scepter once more flung Its wand of selfish lust and greed Where freemen once did boast to lead A people free, and freed by God. _ A nation, Oh, Columbia fair, Ordained of Him to live and hold £ Aloft the torch of liberty, so dearly bought, Beloved and treasured by that noble lot, Against unnumbered foes, called men. : Shall freemen here at length dare bend- Or yield God given rights to men; Autocrats at ease, at home, ‘\ . Who live as lords upon the throne Seized from a people peonized. % Columbia, fair, most loved, most blest, The purest hopes in the holiest breast Cries out with every gasping breath, Oh, give me liberty or give me death! Columbia, fair, thou must not, can not die. The one who gave to thee thy birth And holds the destiny of nations high, Gave his only begotten that the voice Of freemten should not unheeded cry. - Columbia, dear! the seers of old A nation to be born foretold, How from the mountain without hands Was cut this stone, to lead all lands. From darkness, sin and autocracy,, Till monarchies were dond to death; Crushed and smitten in the feet By the ‘voic;e of people, just, discreet. For Columbia’s star we thank thee, God; The noblest men who till the sod - - Are none too good to wield the rod Of thy dear son, the guiding star : : Who rules all freemen near and far. Dear Father, judging from thy throne above, - The heaxt of nations, yet untouched by love Raise up brave men from Columbia’s.soil, Sons true and unafraid to shout abroad; The voice of the people is the voice of God. Club Year\ Book™ _ Miss Kate Gregg, national manager of the Wom- en’s Nonpartisan clubs, has published a little book- let called “Year Book of Programs,” for use of the clubs. It is for use the remainder of this It contains pro- grams for two club meetings a month. The suggested programs for November and Decgmber, 1921, are as follows: % NOVEMBER—First Meeting Rolleall ; a book we ought to read; minutes. Program: Music or recitation ; civil liberty—Chapter IV in Beard; paper or talk, “Freedom of Speech in Minnesota for Nonpartisans.” . Second Meeting B s Rollcall ; items of interest about the disarmament conference, - state and international ; minutes. Program: Reading of poem; property rights—Chapter V in Beard’s American Citizenship; reasons _for unemployment in U. S.; open discussion—“How ‘Might Employment Be Handled Intelligently ?” DECEMBER—First Meeting Rollcall; current events; minutes. Program: Reading of Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death;” review of Beard on political liberty; paper, “The Famine in Russia.” . Second Meeting A community Christmas tree. Short program: Sing recttationn diotogs by the. children ; Santa Gloe and dtabe tion of candy to everybody. A b e s s e U e B K R e T T S DR R (The club })ofls soap for the Russians—a community soap boil-