“From the facts obtained it is evident that three main causes lie at the bottom of the prodigious child mortality among the illegitimate.
“First: The lack of method in recording vital statistics, some being kept at the city health department, the logical repository for such records, and others by the county clerk, who has no special interest in the matter.
“Second: The laxity of institutions and individuals in reporting promptly and fully the items which the law demands.
“Third: The inadequate provision for disposing of children who cannot be kept by the mothers. This last is perhaps the greatest factor.
“In conclusion, the truth is that thousands of children are lost in Chicago. Physicians and hospitals are careless in reporting demanded facts. Some hospitals give children away indiscriminately. Doctors, midwives and maternity homes do likewise. There is absolutely no check upon such disposition of babies; many hospitals and doctors and others do not want any safe supervision.”
Mrs. Stanley King, of Boston, the Secretary of the Conference on Illegitimacy, is one of the women who insist that the unmarried mother and her child must receive equal consideration with other mothers and children in any sincere plans for the reduction of infant mortality. As for the rest of the Conference, Mrs. King states that[10] “it has faced the question of segregation (of the feeble-minded of this class) in institutions and of sterilization as a means of preventing a continuance of this evil in future generations. They have asked whether it was ever safe to return a feeble-minded girl to the community. While agreeing that marriage of feeble-minded persons ought not to be permitted they have not reached a final conclusion as to the best means of prevention.
“A committee has been appointed to make an investigation of the causes other than feeble-mindedness that are at the root of illegitimacy. This committee has already done valuable work as a by-product of its main purpose in suggesting important points which agencies are apt to omit in their histories and in aiding in a greater standardization of work. A full report of this committee is expected next year.
“Study groups are being organized to take up the questions of legislation, venereal disease, the efficiency and range of existing institutions, public opinion, feeble-mindedness and statistics.”