the interest and attention of the women's clubs, the whole movement would be well worth while. The destitution of the Indians adds to the seriousness of the situation; and the aid of the Red Cross has been invoked in the case of the Blackfeet of Montana. A survey of the educational situation has developed much of vital concern. There are over twenty thousand Indian children who are lacking educational facilities. Close to seven thousand children on the Navajo reservation alone have had no opportunity for education. We cannot hope to better the condition of the Indian until we co-operate with the Government in an effort to furnish the Indian children the same rights and privileges that are given to our own. Our Government has contracted to supply a teacher for every adequate group of children on the Navajo reservation, but owing to the nomadic character of that tribe, it has been a difficult thing to do and the method has not been properly worked out. If we can join in working out a plan which will correct that situation, it will redound to our everlasting glory. One of the conspicuous developments of the survey has been the almost unanimous request from the various tribes of Indians to the women's clubs for help in marketing their products. Your Chairman has asked her committee members in the various states to interview the officials of the railroads and national parks and find out if it is not possible to have centers established in those places for the sale of the beautiful Indian products to tourists. That would be a tremendous help in relieving the tragic destitution of the Indians in many localities. Ever since the day of her appointment your Chairman has been deluged with appeals for relief from evils on reservations which arise from inharmonious relations between the agents and their wards. We have succeeded in having a number of investigations made and several unworthy agents have been dismissed from the service. One of the heartening statements made by our present Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Mr. Charles H. Burke, is that when he finds an agent unworthy of trust in one situation he feels that the thing to do is to dismiss him, and not to transfer him to another place, which has been the policy of many of the former commissioners. We have had the most cheerful and hearty co-operation of the Indian Office and the Department of the Interior in bringing about these investigations and the gratitude of our Federation is due to the officials in those offices. This The legislative program, of course, is the crux of the whole matter. All of the legislation affecting the Indian emanates from Congress. The legislative committees of the various states at the present writing, have under consideration the bills affecting their states and such committees communicate with their congressmen where they feel that it is necessary. Your Chairman has general oversight of the Indian legislation at large. One of the bills that has meant a great deal to the welfare of the Indians is the reimbursable act of 1914, an act that would have confiscated the land of many of the Indians, and is by a retroactive clause absolutely unconstitutional. act is finally the subject of a friendly suit in Montana, and the retroactive feature should be settled, once for all. The legislation concerned with the settling of land titles of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and Arizona has been a subject of much correspondence by your Chairman. She has been able to have briefs submitted from authoritative sources. Many bills of varying importance have been brought to the attention of the Committee, and one of the most onerous duties of your Chairman is to keep in touch with the activities of Congress along the line of this class of legislation. Much has been accomplished, but more remains to be done, in this great work. All of your Chairman's time has been devoted to it. To recount the hundreds of letters written, the scores of telegrams and telephone messages, the innumerable interviews and conferences with high Government officials and others, would exceed the bounds of a report of this nature. Among the achievements thus far may be mentioned the enlistment of notable people and organizations in co-operation with this Committee, and a gratifying awakening among thinking people generally to the importance of this unfolding endeavor. We must go on blazing the way, for inasmuch as the relation of our Government to the Indian as guardian to ward is unique in the annals of history, there are no precedents to guide us. But being a cause that concerns the life, liberty and happiness of human beings more or less primitive, situations unexpected and thrilling are constantly arising that must be dealt with effectively and constructively; and for this your Chairman urgently needs and earnestly invokes the active interest and support of every woman in the General Federation of Women's Clubs. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CLUB WOMEN IN PRO- MISS GRACE ABBOTT, Chief of Children's Bureau, Our Chairman of the Public Welfare Department has just said how the Children's Bureau had its beginning in the desire. of the Child Welfare Divisions of clubs all over the country to see their work put on a national basis, with national and official recognition of its fundamental importance. The General Federation of Women's Clubs was responsible in a large measure not only for the creation of the Children's Bureau, but by its co-operation in one piece of work after another that the Bureau has undertaken it has made possible many of its subsequent achievements. Until this year you had the inspiration of Julia Lathrop's leadership in these co-operative undertakings with the Bureau. I want at the very beginning to say that because her leadership is lacking the Bureau needs more than ever before your interest and support. The Bureau is directed by statute to investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of the children of all the people and to the extent of its resources it has endeavored to carry out this responsibility. Thus the Bureau has a Child Hygiene Division whose scientific research and popular bulletins for mothers are, I believe, familiar to most of you; it has a Social Service Division which has studied the problem of reducing the numbers of dependent, neglected and delinquent children, as well as the best methods of caring for these groups of children; it has an Industrial Division which is at work on the problem of preventing the premature employment of children as well as safeguarding the health of young persons in industry. I cannot hope to discuss concretely how you may co-operate in all these fields. I must use such time as I have this morning in talking over with you the new Division of Maternity and Infancy which was created after the passage of the SheppardTowner Act and of which Dr. Anna E. Rude is the director. You are familiar with the history of that measure because you helped to make its history, and all I can do is to bring down to date the story of the efforts of practically all the organized women of the country to reduce the unnecessarily and therefore disgracefully high infant and maternal mortality rates in the United States. The act passed by very large majorities in both Senate and House and was signed by the President on November 23rd last. The appropriation for the balance of the fiscal year became available the last of March. Surveys of existing facilities for maternity care, and other necessary steps of organization have been going forward in the past few months. Up to date, the act had been accepted by 11 state legislatures, and by 31 governors pending the next regular sessions of the state legislatures, and the work begun. To secure, finally, the benefits of the act, it must be accepted by the state legisature and the available Federal funds must be matched by a state appropriation. The act allows the states the greatest freedom and variation in the adaptation of their plans to local conditions; those which have been approved range from pioneer educational work by newly organized state child hygiene divisions to the establishment of infant health stations, public health nurses for rural districts, prenatal and postnatal letters for mothers containing simple information for them, registration and supervision of midwives, and intensive measures in states having well organized work already under way. The appropriations act for the year beginning July 1, 1922, makes available $1,240,000 for that year. From this sum $240,000 is to be divided equally among the states accepting the act, regardless of their own appropriations, but the remainder is available to them only as they match their apportioned shares. Of this remainder an amount not to exceed 5 per cent ($50,000) may be used by the Children's Bureau for the Federal administration of the act and for further research in this field. The measure has met opposition; its constitutionality has been questioned; and the most amazingly incorrect statements have been made by persons who cannot have read the act or must have deliberately misread it. However, I do not propose to discuss this opposition. It would be in the nature of a post mortem. I want to talk with you about the next step-how you can help your State Child Hygiene and Child Welfare Divisions in the task of saving the lives of mothers and babies. In the first place it is impossible for any state to know its own problem-when and why and where the babies and mothers die-until the state adequately registers births and deaths. The first annual report of the Children's Bureau for the year 19121913 records the fact that at the request of the General Federation of Women's Clubs a pamphlet had been prepared on the subject of Birth Registration. Since that time through your efforts and the efforts of a number of official and private agencies much progress has been made. But there are still three states which have not adopted the model law and sixteen others which, although they have adopted the model law, are still not adequately registering the births of children and are therefore not included in the Birth Registration Area. It ought to be possible for you to use the Sheppard-Towner Act as a new lever in securing the passage of model laws as well as their enforcement after they are passed. As for the plan that is to be put in operation in your state and what your part in it should be, it is easy to answer in a general way, but difficult, almost impossible, to answer for the individual club in any one state. There can be no single model plan because conditions differ so widely in our forty-eight states. Everywhere, however, the program will be largely educational demonstration and consultation for mothers and prospective mothers. Without the cooperation of the women the program must necessarily fail. What part the organized club movement can plan in interesting the individual mothers will depend to a very large extent on local conditions. A good working relationship with the state officers who are administering the act is a first requisite. In some states where considerable work has already been done in the field these relationships have been established; in those in which no work has previously been undertaken, it may be necessary to make quite clear, what those of us who have worked with you know so well, |