has accomplished things which are almost miraculous, which have wiped out the seeds of yellow fever and of malaria, and has accomplished innumerable things

The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean the Public Health Service?

Dr. HILL. I mean the Federal bureau. They cooperated with the States

Senator MCKELLAR. I know, but that is what is being done here. Dr. HILL. Now that is a scientific body of the very highest importance. This association disclosed the germs of the dreaded yellow fever, and of malaria, and many others they have taken care of hog cholera and all of those things. If that had been a political appointment by the President or by anybody or by any body of political men, and if they went in there through political appointment and allowed to struggle along in that way, we would have yellow fever still in New Orleans-

Senator MCKELLAR. AS I understand it, Gen. Bolteon did more to stamp out yellow fever than any other man. He was a sort of a political appointee, wasn't he? He was a good Democrat and was appointed by the Republicans a number of times.

Dr. HILL. I do not remember.

Senator WARREN. He was in the Army.

Dr. HILL. In his official position, and his wonderful service, there is no politics; he is above all an American citizen.

Senator SHORTRIDGE. Perhaps you mean partizanship. Is not that the proper term?

Dr. HILL. Yes; I mean partizanship.

The CHAIRMAN. And if this is put under the Public Health Service you would not have any objection to it at all?

Dr. HILL. Not at all.

The CHAIRMAN. And you would not think that it would be conflicting with State rights if it were put under the Public Health Service?

Dr. HILL. No; because the Public Health Service cooperates with the States.

Senator JONES. Are you connected with any private or local association?

Dr. HILL. No; not with any local association. I belong to all of the medical societies in Baltimore and in the State, that is the general societies, but my work is local-

Senator MCKELLAR. You speak of the work now being done in Maryland. Can you give us the child death rate, the infant mortality in Maryland?

Dr. HILL. I can not repeat it. I do not recall it, but it is rather lamentable.

Senator JONES. Are you active in your profession now?

Dr. HILL. Yes, sir.

Senator JONES. And in what way?

Dr. HILL. I am the physician in chief of Mount Hope Retreat, and I also carry on my private consulting practice, as I have been for 50

years.

The CHAIRMAN. But in order to really save the baby and the mother, does it make much difference whether it is done through the State agencies or through the Federal agencies?

Dr. HILL. If you can save them, of course, if you can save them

The CHAIRMAN. It is worth while.

Dr. HILL. It is worth while.

The CHAIRMAN. And there is no conflict of State rights when you are unwilling to let the public die?

Dr. HILL. There are no State rights on that at all.

The CHAIRMAN. The real truth is that our southern Democratic friends are trading away their States rights for a mess of pottage. Dr. HILL. I am sorry to say that that is frequently done.

Senator MCKELLAR. I would like to know just in what way the so-called Democrats of the South have traded the State rights away for a mess of pottage.

The CHAIRMAN. The boll weevil head

Dr. HILL. I am not sufficiently enough of a politician, but I am from the South, and I am very much interested in keeping up the standard.

Senator MCKELLAR. I happen to recall that the appropriations for hog cholera and cattle were started under a Republican administration.

Dr. HILL. Yes; and it is a very good thing.

Senator MCKELLAR. No matter who started these appropriations, I think that we might do as much for the human beings. You think so, too, don't you, Doctor-that we might do as much for babies as we do for cattle and hogs and so on?

Dr. HILL. Yes, but they are doing as much. With the baby, and with the mother of the child, there is a human instinct even in the poorest woman to take better care of the children. Some times the

wealthiest woman has not that maternal instinct as much as the poorest woman. In our State there was a complaint of the orphan asylums that well-to-do people send their children to orphan asylums so that they can enjoy themselves. The complaint is that the rooms should be held for those who are really in need, for the orphans who have no homes. If you can make mothers mothers, and compel them to take care of their children, and if you could instruct the mothers to take care of the children themselves, it would be all very well if it can be done. If you had a tribunal, a body of men of any kind, and if you could collect the statistics and put them in a simple form of instruction it might be a good thing. People are eager to read every kind of medical literature or matters that they can get hold of, and if you could distribute among these women of the South, it would take only a small part of the proposed amount in this proposition, for $100,000 or so, I am told, would distribute this information among the women throughout the land and keep it before them, I believe you would add more in organizing through the State bodies already in existence, and you would give them a lift, and you would hold up their hands, and you would accomplish more than you could by a bureau in Washington.

Senator MCKELLAR. And you think, as a southern States right Democrat, that the Federal Government might do as much for the babies and for the mothers at the time of maternity, as they do for the cattle and the pigs?

Dr. HILL. I am sure that would-I am sure that you do not need to do that. The cow and the pig has not the maternal instinct of mother

Senator MCKELLAR. But they do appropriate millions of dollars for them.

Dr. HILL. Yes, sir; and very profitably. The offspring of a family of an old sow, we will say, gets the cholera, or anything of that kind, and that old sow does not administer medicine to them. and consequently they need the help. The human family, the intelligence of the community, and the agencies of the various health departments, in almost every State would look after that without a measure of this kind.

The CHAIRMAN. We are very much obliged to you.

STATEMENT OF MRS. ALBERT T. LEATHERBEE, BOSTON, MASS., REPRESENTING MASSACHUSETTS ANTISUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you represent any association, Mrs. Leatherbee?

Mrs. LEATHERBEE. I represent the Massachusetts Antisuffrage Association, composed of about 40,000 women, 21 years of age and over, and I am going to be very brief.

We object to this bill because it is paternalistic, socialistic, and meddlesome in nature and of no practical value for the objects it pretends to effect.

Its paternalism is self-evident, for it assumes that the people are incapable of properly managing such personal and private matters as the birth and care of their own offspring, but should rely upon the Federal Government to assume the position of midwife, nursemaid, and parent. It is the first step toward governmental. interference with family life, and may prove the entering wedge for still further encroachments.

The main object of socialism is to disrupt the family and make the individual the unit of society. The fundamental basis of our civilization is the family. It is the nucleus around which the great social fabric has been wrought. It is the very foundation of our national life. It is the one institution that all good men and women respect and hold dear. The family is the core of every Christian State; and it is for these reasons that those who would overturn present Governments consider it the first point of attack. Abolish the family and the whole structure must fall.

Marx and Engels preached destruction of the family, and their followers have never repudiated this teaching. But our socialists, our radicals, our atheists, although they openly preach enmity to the family, dare not bring warfare against it at once. They seek its destruction by insidious and indirect means. They are beginning with legislation that pretends to benefit the family. They come garbed in sheep's clothing, but their nature is lupine, and we must be on our guard.

After 2,000 years of Christian civilization are we to progresss in a circle until we get back to the pagan standards of ancient Sparta and the code of Lycurgus, 800 years before Christ, and regard the child as the property of the State and the functions of parenthood mere machinery by which citizens are produced?

This bill is meddlesome because it allows agents-I do not say that it provides for-but allows agents of a Federal bureau to invade the homes of our people and subject prospective mothers to annoyance and insult in the most personal and delicate relation of life. It is an invasion of the castle of the American citizen. It is an infringement upon personal liberty and the personal rights of the people in the most literal sense possible.

Is it proper, is it decent, to knock on the door of a private home and subject a prospective mother to intimate questions on the conditions and prospects of her pregnancy?

This bill is impracticable because it provides nothing useful for either mother or child. It makes no provision for maternity hospitals, delivery rooms, or professional advice. On the other hand, it does provide for "nontechnical instruction" on the "hygiene of maternity" and "related subjects."

The words "related subjects" may cover a multitude of sins. Is it unreasonable to infer that when these agents are "making studies, investigations, and reports" that they may wander a bit afield and delve too deeply into the psychology of sex and the control of prenatal life? It is placing great opportunities for evil in the hands of the unscrupulous and it is vain to believe that each and every agent is bound to be above such things.

We must face facts as they are, not as we should like to have them, and no great army of any kind can be organized with every individual of perfect ethics. The subject of sex seems rampant to-day, and this type of investigation has a powerful appeal to many who are unsuited to pursue it.

It is not in any way a subject to be handled save by those technically trained and scientifically educated especially for it. It is a matter for professional skill, not amateur bungling.

This bill provides no standards by which the work shall be done, and without proper standards procedure is dangerous. The present State laws allow of great laxity in medical practice. All sorts of schools of medicine proclaim their varied theories and isms and send out their graduates to practice their divers teachings. What school shall these maternity agents follow? The bill makes no provision. There are almost as many medical sects as there are religious sects, and in some cases the two overlap. What is to be done in these cases? A subject for wide and wild discussion is opened right here. We believe that such matters can best be handled under local supervision. There is a great difference in conditions of the various portions of our great country. What might be advisable in remote mountain regions is not practical in the thickly populated districts, and vice Each section should be allowed to solve its own problems. No sweeping legislation can possibly be made that will cover the maternity needs of the industrial centers of Massachusetts and the plains of New Mexico equally well.

versa.

I know this, for I have lived in both places. What is this bureau going to do for the child-bearing women of the mountains of the Southwest? Are investigators to be sent over miles of unpopulated country to visit a prospective mother in some arroyo of the Sierra Caballos? Hardly. And yet she needs advice and care as much

as any.

Is it supposed for one moment that a bureau of the Federal Government can decrease the percentage of childbed deaths better than local physicians? Has any attempt of the Federal Government to manage purely local affairs been such as to warrant this belief? Is it not true that governmental organizations of every kind have more employees and greater expense than corresponding private institutions? Do not all departments of Government demand each year larger appropriations for their support and a larger personnel to carry on their work?

If we keep on establishing bureaus to take over the personal duties and responsibilities of the individual, where are we going to end? Is the model State, the vigorous nation with forceful, energetic citizens to be formed by governmental coddling and care? If the citizen be relieved of responsibility for his own welfare and that of his offspring, we shall rapidly become a nation of inefficient weaklings, depending upon governmental bureaus in every concern of life.

It

This country was made, this Nation was built, by red-blooded, independent, hard-working, and self-respecting men and women. will die when its citizens become devitalized parasites living on bureaucratic sustenance.

If the individual is to be discouraged from initiative and private exertion by governmental meddling, may God help America, for no one else can.

Senator STERLING. Do you believe that the State itself should do anything toward promoting the care of maternity and infancy? Mrs. LEATHERBEE. The individual State?

Senator STERLING. Yes, ma'am.

Mrs. LEATHERBEE. I think that it would be a very good thing if we could work it out in a very careful manner. It is not the object of the bill to which we object. It is the manner in which it is drawn.

Senator STERLING. Well, if the States should do anything toward promoting the care of maternity and infancy, it does it because of its interest in this subject

Mrs. LEATHERBEE. That is what it should do it for.

Senator STERLING. Because of its interest in its citizenship?
Mrs. LEATHERBEE. Yes, sir.

Senator STERLING. And is not that an interest in the citizen-is not that a matter for the National Government also? In other words, is not the National Government interested in its citizenship, and interested in anything that will promote and advance its citizenship?

Mrs. LEATHERBEE. There are certain lines, which are general lines, which should be considered a matter for State control. I mean by that that it might be better handled by the State than by the Government. I do not say that the Federal Government can not pass a bill which will be all right. Our people believe that State matters can be handled better by their own people, and would it not be better to have the clinics, and the maternity hospitals in the industrial centers, and delivery rooms, in those centers under the supervision of those particular States? They can handle their own problems better than the Government can. Take a State like New Mexico, where the population is scattered. They can handle their problem there better than if they relied on the Federal Government to do it.