Keeler-Bailey Family, 1828-1928

Wilson Favors Baby Week: 

Nation's Chief Executive Endorses Campaign Danbury is Furthering

(Contributed by Local Baby Week Committee.)
    
The dignity of the Baby Week project and the genuine worth of the object are amply supported. by the, highest authorities in the land. The national government is furthering the campaign and the Child's Bureau in Washington, D. C., was the initial promoter of the plan. To-day the endorsement of President Wilson is announced. The New York Times prints the following under Washington date: 

``The fact that President Wilson's expression of approval of Baby Week would have a value to the American public was overlooked in the office of the the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor until yesterday afternoon. Miss Jane Lathrop,  chief of the bureau, called the matter to the attention of Secretary Wilson, and it was decided to make public the President's letter on the subject. The letter follows:

My Dear Mr. Secretary. I have your letter of Feb. 24 inclosing a memorandum from Miss Lathrop of Feb. 23, and hasten to say that the work of the bureau has my warmest approval, and that I with pleasure sanction its plan for a nation-wide observance of March 4 to 11 as Baby Week.
    
Cordially and sincerely yours,
Woodrow Wilson

Hon. William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor. 

The Secretary of Labor has also expressed his interest in Baby Week as follows:

``We have an infant mortality problem because we have a labor problem. Problems of education and of civic responsibility must also be solved, but poverty is a prime factor and it is most fitting, therefore, that a bureau of the Federal Department of Labor should participate in this popular educational campaign which calls attention to the factors involved in the welfare of American children.''

    Every city is proud of its intellectual standing. The Baby Week campaign being conducted this week in Danbury and in 2, 027 other cities and towns in the United States has elicited the following from the Children's Bureau:

 ``Babies are the raw material of civilisation; the plastic clay to be wrought partly at least, by our hands into what form we will. If we decide that we have no responsibility for shaping and molding this clay, we show ourselves to be outside the present trend of scientific thought. Leading thinkers, not only in the United States, but all over the civilised world, are telling us that there is no better index to the intelligence of any given community than the one to be read in the conditions under which it allows its infant citizens to develop; the comfort of its houses; the purity of its drinking water; the cleanliness and care demanded of its milk producers; the civic regulations over refuse removal; the fly nuisance, paving and drainage, the provision of fresh air and recreation---and the general oversight it exercises over its sanitary conditions.

``This is the responsibility of every adult citizen, whether parent or not.

``Baby Week has been instituted for the purpose of bringing home this responsibility to all of us. Look about you and ask yourself whether the conditions of this community are such as make it an ideal place for children.''

One of the foreign organisations which has followed in the wake of the baby week campaign in America, is the Women's National Health association of Ireland. On account of lack of funds caused by the war, its child welfare work has been greatly interfered with and the infant mortality in cities of Ireland alarmingly increased.

The week of St. Patrick's Day, March 11 to 18, therefore, has been designated as ``Irish Babies' Week'' and a campaign will be carried on in the United States to arouse interest here in the crying need of saving the infants of Erin's Isle. The idea was suggested to Lady Aberdeen, president of the Irish association, who with Lord Aberdeen, former viceroy of Ireland, is now in the United States, by a young Irish-American, Charles H. McCarthy, of the office of the assistant secretary of the navy. He wrote to Lady Aberdeen, suggesting that the week following American baby week should be celebrated as ``Irish Babies' Week.'' and Lady Aberdeen promptly replied, heartily approving the plan.
    
To-morrow evening at eight o’clock, Prof. C. E. A. Winslow, of Yale, will deliver his lecture on ``Child Welfare'' in Odd Fellows' hall, West street. The room should be crowded to hear this man, who is a master of his theme.
    
Mrs. W. E. D. Scott, of Greenwich, secretary of the Connecticut Research association, bureau of public health, will also be here and will bring charts to illustrate Pref. Winslow's lecture. This is a combination that promises to provide an enjoyable session for the public in general. No admission will be charged.

An attractive program will precede this lecture. It will be in charge of Mrs. John Woodruff and will be as follows: Violin solo, Miss  Marion Dickens; Song, Nathaniel Wagner; Recitations and songs, Mrs.  Antoinette Williams-Daniels and Mrs. Angie Hull-Dickens, piano, and Miss  Dickens, violin, will be the accompanists.

It is emphasised by the committee that men as well as women will find much of interest in the lecture and it is hoped there will be a large attendance of ``both sides of the family.''
    
Saturday afternoon from 3:30 to 4:30 o'clock, in St James' church Parish House, West street, three free talks will be given that will be of special interest and instruction to mothers. The subjects will be ``Care of Infants,'' ``Preparation of Modified Milk, '' and "Children,'' and the speakers will be Dr. Annie Keeler, Miss Mary Brennan, visiting nurse and Mrs. Matilda Collins, school nurse. 

The lecture and talks will be free to the public.