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9
Societies for what is euphemiously termed "pulling down
the death rate" have become quite numerous, and in some
respects fashionable, but, apart from certain exceptions, the
practical results, if carefully inquired into, do not appear to
quite tally with all the pretentious claims made in so many
directions.
The excessive death rate of young children is the product
of many factors—social, economic, industrial and personal—and
the one thing certain is that until the factors producing the
result are carefully inquired into and removed or remedied,
there is going to be no real or permanent improvement.
About the most useless thing to rely upon in a question of
this nature is that of sentimental expressions of platitudes and
pious opinions ; the facts must be faced.
The root cause of the matter lays deep down, and the
application of real remedies as distinguished from mere surface
palliatives must be equally deep, broad and far reaching.
Each according to his peculiar idiosyncrasy has his own
pet proposition as to the cause of the trouble as well as a
remedy for the same.
The extreme teetotaller has the advantage of brevity in a
one word definition of both cause and effect, but at the Conference
on the 20th, " ignorance of the mother " appeared to be
the bed rock of local opinion.
The sociologist will know that highly important as are the
questions of " drink " and " ignorance " in connection with this
subject, they are of comparatively minor importance in relation
to the whole.
Of the many points that will all have to be considered in
their proper perspective before we can even begin to talk
about " pulling down the death rate," are those of density of
population, poverty, occupation, heredity and individual habits.