LAW ESTABLISHING THE CHILDREN'S BUREAU.

AN ACT To establish in the Department of Commerce and Labor a bureau to be known as the Children's Bureau.

[62d Cong., 2d session. S. 252. Public, No. 116.]

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be established in the Department of Commerce and Labor a bureau to be known as the Children's Bureau.1

SEC. 2. That the said bureau shall be under the direction of a chief, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and who shall receive an annual compensation of five thousand dollars. The said bureau shall investigate and report to said department upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and shall especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, legislation affecting children in the several States and Territories. But no official, or agent, or representative of said bureau shall, over the objection of the head of the family, enter any house used exclusively as a family residence. The chief of said bureau may from time to time publish the results of these investigations in such manner and to such extent as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.

SEC. 3. That there shall be in said bureau, until otherwise provided for by law, an assistant chief, to be appointed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, who shall receive an annual compensation of two thousand four hundred dollars; one private secretary to the chief of the bureau, who shall receive an annual compensation of one thousand five hundred dollars; one statistical expert, at two thousand dollars; two clerks of class four; two clerks of class three; one clerk of class two; one clerk of class one; one clerk, at one thousand dollars; one copyist, at nine hundred dollars; one special agent, at one thousand four hundred dollars; one special agent, at one thousand two hundred dollars, and one messenger at eight hundred and forty dollars.

SEC. 4. That the Secretary of Commerce and Labor is hereby directed to furnish sufficient quarters for the work of this bureau at an annual rental not to exceed two thousand dollars.

SEC. 5. That this Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved, April 9, 1912.

1 Transferred from Department of Commerce and Labor to Department of Labor, upon the creation of the latter by act approved March 4, 1913.

2

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,

CHILDREN'S BUREAU, Washington, D. C., July 15, 1913.

SIR: I transmit herewith monograph entitled "Prenatal Care," being the first of a contemplated series on the care of children.

A preliminary survey of the field prescribed by law for the Bureau's investigations showed at once the urgency of the question of infant mortality. The United States Census Bureau estimates that 300,000 babies less than 1 year old died last year in this country, and it is authoritatively stated that at least half these deaths were needless. Accordingly the Bureau's first field inquiry is upon the subject of infant mortality. The studies preliminary thereto have induced us to begin our series on the care of children with this monograph on Prenatal Care, for considerations of which the following statement is significant.

The latest reports of the Bureau of the Census on mortality statistics show that slightly more than 42 per cent of the infants dying under 1 year of age in the registration area in 1911 did not live to complete the first month of life, and that of this 42 per cent almost seven-tenths died as a result of conditions existing before they were born or of injury and accident at birth. Of those that lived less than one week about 83 per cent died of such causes, and of the number that lived less than one day 94 per cent died of these causes. Thus the Children's Bureau was drawn inevitably to begin its contemplated series of monographs on the care of children by a statement regarding prenatal care for mother and child.

The preparation of such a statement has been requested by the National Congress of Mothers and by members of other representative bodies of women. It has been written by Mrs. Max West, of the staff of the Bureau, from the standpoint of a woman who has university training, experience in Government research, and who is herself the mother of a family of young children. It has been prepared after careful study of the literature of the subject. It has been read and criticized by a large number of well-known physicians and nurses, and by many mothers. To mention by name all those to whom the

Bureau is indebted for valuable aid in its preparation would be impos sible, but especial appreciation may be expressed of the generous assistance of Dr. J. Morris Slemons, professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the University of California.

This monograph is addressed to the average mother of this country. There is no purpose to invade the field of the medical or nursing professions, but rather to furnish such statements regarding hygiene and normal living as every mother has a right to possess in the interest of herself and her children. A standard of life for the family high enough to permit a woman to conserve her strength for her family, if she knows the facts essential for her guidance, is necessarily taken for granted. The attempt is made here to present some of the most important of these facts.

Respectfully submitted.

Hon. WILLIAM B. WILSON,

Secretary of Labor.

JULIA C. LATHROP, Chief.