PROTECTION OF MATERNITY. 
19 
Miss Latiirop. Of course out attention was first attracted to this 
question by letters which we received from the great home State area, 
and we sent out a medical woman of high standing and study to 
report upon the matter, and she gave us such absolute evidence of 
the reliability of the information received, that in the next season 
we made a very careful and exhaustive study in the State of Montana. 
Senator Warren. Where were you first asked about it ? 
Miss Lathrop. In the State of Washington. 
The Chairman. Down in the Green River country ? 
Miss Lathrop. Yes, sir. Since that time we have put visiting 
nurses in that country which have been partly paid for by the State 
itself. 
The Chairman. Did you originate this bill? Was it a product of 
yours ? 
Miss Lathrop. The bureau did; and I wish to say this, that of 
course the bureau is not in a position to push this measure or to secure 
information or sanction for it, nor have we endeavored to do so. I 
have been astounded at the amount of publicity that it has received. 
It evidently has met the sense of a need long existing. 
Senator McKellar. What have other Governments done in ref 
erence to this matter, can you tell us, Miss Lathrop ? 
Miss Lathrop. The Governments of Europe of course have been 
for a long time much more concerned about the matter of infant mor 
tality than have we, and at the present time throughout Europe there 
is a sense of necessity which we do not feel, and while the measures 
adopted may seem very small to us, it has been a fact that there 
have been maternity benefits given throughout the countries of 
Europe. Under the social insurance of England, there have been 
maternity benefits, and although it may seem small to us, it allows 
to every insured man and woman a small amount, but before the war 
they had determined upon a measure of giving from the National 
Government of England aid by the local districts which resulted in 
health centers, such as Senator Sheppard has stated, and in actual 
medical care and supervision and in actual nursing, so that the second 
year of the war the infantile mortality of England was lowest in all 
its history, and it has since gone down, and the degree of attention 
given to the governmental agencies has steadily increased, so that 
the death rate decrease has accompanied the additional attention to 
the needs of the women and children. 
The Chairman. Did you hear the argument presented here in regard 
to the matter of birth control ? 
Miss Lathrop. Yes; I heard it. 
The Chairman. What would you say about that ? Does it bear on 
this bill at all, or does this bill bear on birth control at all ? 
Miss Lathrop. The bill ? Certainly not. I think no one present 
can read the bill and read that into it, and I think that the attitude 
of those best acquainted with the bill and with the purpose for which 
it was drawn is such as to show they are opposed to that doctrine. 
The attitude of Catholic organizations is perhaps evidence enough. 
A priest, professor in a Catholic university in Washington, spoke at 
the hearings of the House, and a statement from the Women’s Cath 
olic Welfare Council is evidence that this bill has no such idea in it. 
Senator McKellar. That certainly was not the argument used by 
those in favor of the other law on the same subject—it was quite the 
contrary.