The following account of the baby week held in Rockford, Ill., illustrates organization, committees, publicity, etc., for a city celebration carried out as a single unit. Rockford has a population of about 45,000, according to the Federal census of 1910.

Plans for Rockford's baby-week campaign were initiated by the woman's club, acting through its president and the chairman of its child-welfare committee. In their names, invitations for a preliminary meeting were sent to all the organizations in the city most likely to be interested in the project, including the city administration, represented by the mayor and the health commissioner, the county medical society, the city hospital, visiting nurses, publicwelfare bureau, ministers' union, newspapers, chamber of commerce, superintendent of schools, all representative women's clubs, parent-teachers' associations, etc. The 40 invitations issued brought 40 acceptances, and the preliminary meeting, which took the form of a luncheon, developed much enthusiasm. Here temporary organization was effected, the president of the woman's club being chosen temporary chairman and empowered to appoint an executive committee to which all details of the enterprise should be intrusted.

The membership of this committee included the president of the woman's club, the president of the county medical society, the health commissioner, the superintendent of the city hospital, a professor of physiology from Rockford College, the superintendent of schools, and a representative each from the chamber of commerce (whose secretary also served on the committee), the ministers' union, and the four representative women's clubs. Chairmen of committees were appointed as follows:

Exhibits, the professor of physiology in Rockford College.

Finance, the health commissioner.

Education and publicity, the president of the county medical society.
Sunday observance, a member of the ministers' union.

Demonstration and mothers' conferences, the superintendent of the city
hospital.

Building, a member of the chamber of commerce.

Beginning three weeks before the 4th of March daily articles concerning the purposes and import of baby week or dealing with one or another neglected phase of the care of the baby, were printed in the three local papers and continued up to the time of the opening of the exhibit. In addition one comprehensive article each was sent to the Swedish and German weeklies and to all the immediately adjoining country papers.

The actual observance of baby week began on the 5th, with addresses from the various pulpits. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the Boy Scouts carried a United States flag into every home in the city where there was a baby under 1 year old whose birth had been registered. With the flag a pamphlet on the care of the baby was sent into every English-speaking home and a leaflet, locally prepared and printed in English, Swedish, Polish, and Italian, into every home where one of these languages was spoken. Inserted in these was an invitation to the baby-welfare exhibit. Twelve hundred baby buttons, paid for by the physicians and druggists, were given away during the week, and 300 attractive posters were put up about the city. On Tuesday afternoon the executive secretary of the Infant Welfare Association of Chicago delivered an address before the woman's club and its invited guests. Throughout the week the newspapers printed educational articles, fly-pest and birthregistration motion pictures were shown at the local theater houses, and the merchants of the city dressed their windows with baby goods.

The baby-welfare exhibit was formally opened Wednesday evening, with addresses by the mayor, the president of the county medical society, and the superintendent of the city hospital, and there was an attendance of 225 people in the hour and a half during which it was kept open. Evidently all of these 225 turned boosters for the cause, as the attendance increased steadily, reaching its climax on Saturday, when 3,800 visitors were recorded. Numerous requests to keep open at least one more day caused the committee to open the doors again on Sunday noon, and when they closed them at 10 o'clock that evening the attendance for the three and a half days totaled 9,666 people. Mothers' conferences, in charge of the visiting nurses and a committee of doctors, were held each afternoon from 2 until 4 o'clock, and each evening talks were made by physicians in a separate room. Both features proved very popular, and our quarters were inadequate for the people who desired to attend them. Throughout the exhibit trained nurses were constantly on hand to demonstrate and answer questions, and rotary committees from the various women's clubs took charge of the attendance.

The serious and interested attitude of the people visiting the exhibit was particularly impressive. It was an excellent exhibit, broad enough and ingenious enough to appeal to the many kinds of people who viewed it; nevertheless the uniform interest and seriousness with which toothless grandmothers, young mothers with babies in their arms, high-school boys, solemn husbands innumerable, "little mothers," and small boys regarded it filled us with surprise as well as gratification. The thing was an astonishing success, and it was a success because the people welcomed it eagerly.

Our expenditures amounted to $356.57. They were kept down to this very low figure by our success in getting all the work done by volunteers. Experts were chosen to head each committee, the best resources of the city being freely drawn upon. The wall panels were designed and executed entirely without cost, the necessary research work and the lettering and sketching being done by volunteers; the Rockford leaflet was written by local physicians and translated into three languages by local priests; all secretarial work was done without charge, and the use of the rooms in which the exhibit was held was given by the W. C. T. U. The exhibit consisted of electrical devices loaned by the State, still models, wall panels, cartoons, three-dimension exhibits, and living demonstrations.

Follow-up work to be done this year will include:

A committee that will endeavor to have the State law in regard to birth registration enforced and will mail a Rockford leaflet to each new baby whose birth is registered.

A committee to investigate and make recommendations concerning Rockford's midwife problem.

The establishment of a permanent baby-saving station in the most crowded part of the city, where mothers' conferences, in charge of a doctor and the visiting nurses, will be held regularly throughout the year. Plans for this are already advanced, and its establishment is virtually assured.

A committee to cooperate with the city health department in inspecting the handling of milk in the city.

A few cities have published printed reports of their baby-week campaigns. These include the following:

Greater New York Baby Week, published by the New York Milk Committee, 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York City.

Philadelphia's Baby Week, published by the executive committee of the Philadelphia baby week. Copies may be obtained from the

director of the department of public health and charities, City Hall, Philadelphia, Pa.

Los Angeles Celebration, Nation-Wide Baby Week, published by executive committee nation-wide baby week, Dr. Maud Wilde, chairman, 1437 Calumet Avenue, Los Angeles, Cal.

STATE CAMPAIGNS.

The State agencies most prominent in stimulating local communities to celebrate baby week were the State federations of women's clubs, the State boards or departments of health, and the extension divisions of State universities or agricultural colleges. Frequently other State organizations threw their resources into the work. While there were many successful local campaigns in States where no Statewide plan was developed, the States where two or more agencies worked together and plans were well outlined some time in advance show the largest numbers of uniformly good celebrations.

Governors' proclamations.

In many States the governors issued proclamations. The following is an example:

Through the activity of the Federal Children's Bureau and the General Federation of Women's Clubs great interest has been aroused the country over in the children's welfare movement. In our State many civic organizations and other associations, including the Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs and the Ohio State Board of Health, have given it enthusiastic cooperation and support. The welfare of the child is of the most vital importance to the perpetuity of our Nation and the advancement of our civilization. Infant mortality must be and can be reduced.

In cities of the United States the death rate among infants less than 1 year of age ranges from 70 per 1,000 to 250 per 1,000. That is, in some localities one-fourth of the babies die before they reach the age of 1 year. This frightful loss of life must be reduced; so far as possible, the "slaughter of the innocents" must be stopped.

Careful investigation is convincing to anyone that a large percentage of the infant mortality everywhere could be prevented by more adequate knowledge, more adequate attention to the problems of the morning of life. A high infant mortality rate means to the State and to the Nation pain and sorrow and economic waste that we can and must to a larger degree prevent. Every family, every community, every subdivision of the State, and the State itself is vitally concerned in any movement looking toward the improvement of conditions affecting child life.

It is therefore with a special interest and in hearty cooperation with the Federal Children's Bureau, the Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs, and the Ohio State Board of Health that, as governor of the State of Ohio, I designate the week beginning on March 4, 1916, as baby week, and the date of Friday, March 10, as a special school day in which the consideration of child welfare shall be uppermost in our schools, and I commend to the citizens of Ohio careful consideration of this important problem.

What State federations of women's clubs did.

To the women's organizations of the country belongs the chief credit for the widespread popularity of baby week. In some States a special baby-week chairman was appointed by the State Federation of Women's Clubs. Elsewhere the president of the federation undertook the work, or the State chairman of civics, home economics, or public health was assigned to the baby-week campaign. A valuable service was performed by these State chairmen in gathering information from the Federal Children's Bureau, the State boards of health, and the extension divisions of State universities and agricultural colleges; in giving publicity to the kinds of assistance that were available from the various State agencies; and in writing to individual clubs in different parts of the State and offering suggestions and model programs suited to local conditions.

STATE-WIDE PUBLICITY.

The following letter, circulated in Missouri, illustrates the type of letter sent out by State chairmen to each federated club in a State:

JANUARY 18, 1916.

DEAR MADAM: For the first time in the history of our country the women of the United States are asked by the Government to do a definite thing. The Children's Bureau, Washington, D. C., asks every community in our land to set aside some week this spring for baby week. The week chosen is March 4 to 11. If that week does not suit your local conditions, any other week may be chosen.

In cooperation with the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the American Medical Association this week is to be made national. One hundred million people are to be made to give some thought to the importance of babies. We hope that every house in all our country that can boast a baby under 3 years of age will signify this fact by placing on "the lintel and the two side posts" an American flag. This will say to the world, We have a baby, and we are trying to give it the best we can.

We must not stop with that. It must be made a week of community education on baby welfare. Every phase of baby care and culture must be illustrated and discussed.

Each club willing to devote this week or part of a week to work for the babies of its community should send a letter or postal addressed to the Children's Bureau, Washington, D. C., asking for directions and assistance, which will be sent you free of charge. While you are waiting for this bulletin to come, appoint the following committees: 1, General management; 2, Program; 3, Advertising and publicity; 4, Exhibits; 5, Medical examinations; 6, Window displays of all firms-drugs, groceries, clothing, books, amusements, furniture, etc.

This should be made a community affair, with the club women as leaders. Enlist the cooperation of every club woman in your town. Assign definite things to each organization, and the result will be an educational movement that shall bring much good to the whole community and in particular to the babies.

In New York State, with its many crowded centers of population, this letter of specific suggestions was used:

The following are some suggestions as to the special way that clubs can carry out the baby-week program:

1. Begin at once to secure the interest and cooperation of the public. Make a health survey of conditions in your community (have it ready to report in baby week) in regard to the following points: (a) Birth registration in 1915; were all the babies registered? (b) How many births were attended by midwives? (c) Mortality rate under 1 year; under 5 years? (d) Kind of milk used? Number of breast-fed babies? Any cases of ophthalmia neonatorum or tuberculosis among infants? Any poor health conditions in your city or village?

2. Have a baby exhibit. Secure one from the State if possible. This will not be possible in all places; but in every community a room can be secured and a nurse or intelligent mother put in charge. Into this room put a crib with a big doll in it, dressed as a baby should be. Secure charts and literature-as much as you can. Ask the State department of health for leaflets on prenatal care of mothers, proper care of infants, food, etc. Write to the Children's Bureau, Washington, D. C., and ask it to send helpful literature.

3. Sunday, March 5, have prepared a concise statement of the object of baby week with the location of your baby exhibit, stating what there is for mothers to see and learn. Ask each clergyman in your community to read this to his congregation, and urge the mothers to visit the exhibit.

4. Arrange to have as many lectures given during the week as possible. Start a crusade for a pasteurized milk supply (if you do not have it). Dr. Herman M. Biggs, State health commissioner, approves and strongly recommends the use of pasteurized milk in order to prevent deaths of infants as well as epidemics of typhoid, scarlet fever, and diphtheria.

5. Have a demonstration day. Demonstrate how to prepare foods for babies; how to wash, dress, and care for them in the best way.

6. Have a baby-clinic day. Secure the cooperation of physicians and nurses and give free examinations and advice to all mothers who will bring their babies to the baby exhibit.

7. Study and conference day. Study carefully the results of your health survey and the results of baby week. Confer with all organizations interested in a better community life. By carefully looking over the results, the weakest spots in local health work will become apparent, and by conference with all interested you can plan an effective remedy.

It is the earnest wish of the chairman of the public-health committee that every club in the State should observe baby week. If you can not carry out the entire plan, do as much as possible.

Another State chairman in Missouri sent an attractively printed card to the newspaper editors of the State, which served at once as an announcement and as an effective appeal for help: