250,000 American Babies Die Before First Birthday, Mothers Safer in 14 Countries than U.S., Editor Says, April 14, 1921

France has been much alarmed over the problem of population since the war and her intelligent leaders have been thinking out various plans by which the depletion of manhood might be wiped out. It finally occurred to some of those interested in the project that the best and most feasible plan was to take better care of mothers and the infants already born and thousands upon thousands of whom have been annually dying because of improper care and nourishment.

An investigation was made and disclosed the fact that the death of infants in France was between 15 and 20 per cent. Among illegitimate children, and other children uncared for, it was as high as 45 per cent. Accordingly, the government asked the very sensible question, “Why bring children into the world to die in the first year of their lives?”

“It is better to conserve the life that we already have than to allow it to waste,” they decided, and with this sensible conclusion they have set to work to reduce their mortality.

One of the first steps was to open a large maternity hospital and to make plans for the opening of another one in the near future. Existing laws giving allowances and special privileges for expectant and convalescent mothers are to be altered so as to give a longer period of preparation and a longer period of rest after childbirth. Efforts are also to be made to give the new born babies every possible protection against disease and death.

Those who may be inclined to wonder why it is that France was only moved to safeguard the lives of the mothers and infants because of her necessity, caused by the havoc of war, will do well to take note of the fact that “Existing laws giving allowances and special privileges for expectant and convalescent mothers” are to be improved, while in America we have no existing laws of that kind to be improved. We have been content, or seemingly so, to see 250,000 American babies die before they are one year old every year. Statistics tell us that it is safer for a mother in 14 foreign countries than it is in the United States. Congress has never appropriated one cent for the medical and nursing care of its babies, while England appropriated last year $2,500,000 for this purpose.

The lead editorial from The Charlotte News, Sunday morning, April 24, 1921