STATEMENT OF DR. VALERIA H. PARKER, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL MORALITY, WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. Dr. PARKER. The Children's Bureau has been the greatest factor in the stimulation of birth registration throughout the United States. Medical authorities have already stated to your committee the importance of accurate birth registration in computing statistics regarding infant and maternal mortality. I therefore believe the Children's Bureau to be the logical agency for carrying on the important educational work outlined in the Sheppard-Towner bill. The educational work contemplated can not be carried on by physicians who are in private practice as was suggested by a member of the medical profession at the hearing. Efficient physicians are too busy with practice to conduct wide-spread education among prospective mothers. Those who are not efficient, and therefore not busy, are not the proper ones to conduct this education. Septicemia, which is the greatest single cause of maternal mortality, is absolutely preventable. Prenatal education will not only assist the mother by helping her to make personal preparations which will lead to surgical cleanliness, but will enlighten her as to what she has the right to require in the cleanliness of her attendants at the time of childbirth. Those physicians who are careless at such a crisis will not welcome such intelligence on the part of the patient. The statement made before your committee with reference to the state control of medicine in England preventing the individual choice of physicians is untrue. Documents in support of this statement can be supplied. In any case the argument has no bearing whatsoever on the Sheppard-Towner bill. Reputable physicians everywhere deplore any maternal or infant death from preventable cause, and therefore welcome the proposed agency which would reduce these losses. I may add that I am a physician, engaged in educational work for racial health. I am a member of the executive council of the National League of Women Voters, chairman of the social hygiene committee of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent Teachers' Associations and am submitting this statement on behalf of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, for which I am director of social morality. (The following letters, telegrams, briefs, and other documents were filed with the committee during the above hearing, indorsing the bill): Telegram from Ellen C. Potter, chief of division of child health, Harrisburg, Pa. Letter from Mrs. F. W. Brunkow, secretary of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, Dubuque, Iowa. Letter from Mr. and Mrs. Palmer O. Ostby, Forest City, Iowa. Letter from Mrs. J. H. St. John, secretary Mission Circle, First Congregational Church, Muscatine, Iowa. Letter from Girls' Friendly Society, 13 East Fortieth Street, New York City. Letter from Mary Sherwood, M. D., director Bureau of Child Welfare, Baltimore, Md. Letter from Mrs. Milton P. Higgins, president National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers' Association, Washington, D. C. Statement of National Catholic Welfare Council. Resolution of Maryland League of Women Voters, by M. Le M. Ellicott, president; Emma M. Weber, secretary. Resolution from Council of Jewish Women, signed by Elsie W. Kemper, corresponding secretary, Baltimore section, Baltimore, Md. Article entitled "The real rate of death to mothers from causes connected with childbirth," by William Travis Howard, jr., reprinted from the American Journal of Hygiene. Letter from Dr. Ralph Lobenstein, New York City. Letter from Ethel M. Watters, director of California Bureau of Child Hygiene. Statement from Dr. Richard M. Smith, Boston, Mass. Statement from William Plamer Lucas, San Francisco, Calif. Letter from J. Whitridge Williams, M. D., obstetrician in chief, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. Extract of letter from Dr. Thomas S. Cullen, gynecologist, Johns Hopkins University Medical School and Hospital. Booklet "Save the Youngest," published by Children's Bureau, United States Department of Labor. Booklet "Minimum Standards for Child Welfare," published by Children's Bureau, United States Department of Labor. Letter from Dr. J. H. Munson Knox, jr., to Dr. Richard Bolt, dated May 4, 1921. Booklet "Who, Where, and What we Stand For; What We Are Doing," by American Child Hygiene Association, Baltimore, Md. The following letters, telegrams, briefs and other documents were filed with the committee during the above hearing, in opposition to the bill: Letter from Massachusetts Public Interests League, by Mrs. B. L. Robinson, president. Telegram addressed to Miss Nellie Williams, from the Maryland Anti-Vivisection Society. Telegram addressed to Mrs. Nellie Williams, from Belmont (Mass.) Legislative League, Eleanor Agnes Frenning, secretary. Letter from Eleanor Agnes Frenning, addressed to the chairman. Telegram addressed to Miss Nellie Williams from Medical Liberty League, Boston, Mass., by Jessica Henderson, secretary. Letter from Jessica Henderson, secretary, Medical Liberty League. Telegram from Jessica Henderson, secretary Medical Liberty League, to the chair man. Telegram from R. Bendt Farber, secretary American Medical Liberty League. Telegram from Milton Constitutional League, Eleanor Holbrook, secretary, Milton, Mass. Letter from Mrs. C. R. Otis, Newport News, Va., addressed to chairman. Letter from Mr. and Mrs. Avery Brown, Belmont, Mass., addressed to chairman. Telegram from Donald Monro and Horace Gray, practicing physicians, Boston, Mass., addressed to chairman. Telegram from Warwick County Medical Association, Newport News, Va., signed by F. A. Sinclair, president; William Poindexter, secretary. Letter from Women's Anti-Suffrage Association of Massachusetts, by Harriet A. Frothingham, president. Telegram signed by Mrs. Brackley Shaw and Mrs. G. A. Haskell, Brookline, Mass., addressed to the chairman. Letter from United Progressive Association, by David Newton E. Campbell, president, addressed to the committee. Brief filed by Mary G. Kilbreth, president National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, and J. S. Eichelberger, editor the Woman Patriot. Article entitled "The bursting maternity bubble," reprinted from the Newton Circuit (Newton, Mass.) of March 4, 1921. Letter and telegram addressed to Eben W. Burnstead, the Civic Federation of Chi cago. List of 775 physicians of Massachusetts, who opposed State maternity benefits, filed by Eben W. Burnstead. Paper entitled "Why these physicians opposed the Massachusetts maternity bill,” filed by Eben W. Burnstead. Letter from W. A. Dolan, M. D., Fall River, Mass., to Eben W. Burnstead, dated May 2, 1921. Copy of the Massachusetts maternity bill, filed by Eben W. Burnstead. Leaflets opposing Massachusetts maternity bill, filed by Eben W. Burnstead. Letter to Eben W. Burnstead, signed by Dr. James Lincoln Huntington, opposing Massachusetts maternity bill. Letter to chairman, signed by 16 physicians of Boston, in opposition to the Sheppard-Towner bill. Report of the special commission to investigate maternity benefits, appointed by the governor of Massachusetts. (Whereupon, at 4.35 p. m., the above hearing was closed.) X |