DETAILS OF BABY-WEEK PROGRAMS.

Program of days.

Some communities celebrated the whole week; in others baby week lasted one day or three or five days. The seven-day programs usually ran about as follows: Flag day, Baby Sunday, school day, fathers' day, outing day, visiting day, and birth-registration day. Baby Sabbath was also celebrated in many cities.

This general program was varied in some towns by a tag day; one featured a rural mothers' day, one a merchants' baby booster day, one a recognition day (when business houses put out flags and everyone interested was asked to wear a flower), and one had a baby button day. In North Dakota the general plan was to call flag day advertising day, and concentrate that day on letting everybody know what was coming. The program of a middle western city was: Baby Sunday, daddy's day, mother's day, the baby's day, home day, welfare day, parade day.

The Illinois State program began with inauguration day, on which a mass meeting was held and headquarters opened. Fathers' day there was converted into fathers' and sons' day; there was a mothers' day, little mothers' day, demonstration day, and community day. The most significant variation made in Illinois was the permanentorganization day held the final Saturday. On this day the executive committee and active workers had a meeting to make plans for the future.

FLAG DAY.

Flag day was usually the first day of the celebration, or, in some cases, the day before baby week opened. The object of flag day was to see that every house where a baby lived put out a flag and kept it flying throughout the week. One Missouri town, on the other hand, asked the parents to wear flags instead of flying them from the windows.

The flags adopted by the different towns varied widely. Some were symbolic in color and design, as in an Indiana town, where gold lettering on a white ground signified our most precious asset-the baby. Grand Forks, N. Dak., had pink and blue papermuslin pennants-presumably for girls and boys, respectively-and the slogan "Grand babies for Grand Forks" printed in black letters. An Ohio town had a flag with a blue star; another Ohio town used a white felt pennant with its slogan printed thereon; and Milwaukee had an effective blue felt pennant bearing heavy white stenciled lettering. Many towns did not design a special flag for the occasion, but used small American flags.

Boy Scouts distributed the flags admirably in many towns. In a Missouri city the distribution was facilitated and the expenses shared by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which presented American flags to all school children in whose families there were babies. One Ohio town enlisted the interest of the fire department so that the firemen did the distributing. Since the aim of flag day was to see that every baby had an emblem in his honor flying at his window, it afforded an excellent opportunity to find babies whose births had not been registered.

In many communities leaflets or pamphlets on baby care or programs of the local baby week were distributed with the flags. A letter that went to the mothers in a Texas city, with the flags and the leaflets on baby care, read as follows:

A LETTER TO THE MOTHERS OF BABIES.

The committee on banners for baby week presents you with a pennant and asks you to display it in your window in honor of your baby.

Each home where there is a baby under 1 year old will have this to show that all are thinking and working for the best things for the babies.

Bring your baby in its baby buggy or gocart or in your arms, with this banner, to the park on Saturday afternoon, March 11, and be in the best parade our city has ever had. There will be no horses or automobiles allowed, and all traffic over the line of march, which is not long, will be suspended in honor of our city's children. The parade starts from the park at 2.30 o'clock.

You are also invited to the exhibits and demonstrations March 9 and 10, in the city hall, and to all the special entertainments in the high-school auditorium. On Wednesday, March 8, from 3 to 5 o'clock, the Civic Club will entertain the babies up to the age of 3 years, and their mothers, in the park. Watch the newspaper for announcements of baby week.

BABY SUNDAY.

Baby Sunday was generally observed by an announcement of baby week and its purposes from the pulpits of various religious bodies; frequently by the reading of the governor's or mayor's proclamation. In some cases sermons on baby welfare were preached. Physicians were invited to occupy pulpits on Sunday evening in several Illinois communities.

Sunday-school celebrations proved very popular.

FATHERS' DAY.

In manufacturing towns fathers' day was celebrated by holding shop meetings with good speakers to address fathers on the whole question of what the community owes to its babies, with special reference to local conditions, good and bad. In New York City and in another city in New York State the woman-suffrage organi

zations made their street meetings on that day bear on the obligations of the voting father toward the home. One city had a special baby-week button for fathers.

Several towns were very successful in getting physicians to address fathers' meetings on the social evil and its effect on children.

The press gave invaluable help by printing the message to fathers which was prepared for fathers' day. The State health officer of Rhode Island published a message to fathers in the form of an attractive leaflet with a baby picture at the top of the page and below it the State slogan, "A square deal for Rhode Island babies." A widely popular message to fathers was that adapted from one used originally in Pittsburgh. (See Appendix, p. 138, and illus. No. 9.)

OUTING DAY.

An outing day proved popular in towns which celebrated later in the year than March. The usual plan was for the committee to collect all the automobiles it could borrow and fill them with mothers and babies. One city made a combination of outing day and visiting day; parties of mothers and babies were taken in automobiles to visit the baby camps maintained in one of the suburbs.

The material on this subject is meager, because in 1916 most of the celebrations were held in March and in many parts of the country such expeditions are appropriate only to a later season.

VISITING DAY AND PARADES.

Parades, sometimes combined with visits to infant-welfare stations, were reported from several cities. Boy Scouts and members of Little Mothers' Leagues, trained nurses, and others who were helping in the celebration were among those who marched in parades. Banners and labels voicing local needs were used effectively. In one Massachusetts town a fine looking baby wore a label stating, "I am a milk-station baby."

A Texas town parade which was very well managed led off with the mayor and city council and ended with babies. Here the rulings and order of march were published in the papers in advance. An automobile parade in St. Louis was similarly arranged, and included a tour of inspection of the municipal milk stations. Another Texas town had a parade of automobiles in which each women's club had a car, and these vied with each other in decorations. Small sons and daughters of the members rode in the club cars. One car was decorated in the club colors, green and white. Another was done in red, white, and blue and shaped like a baby carriage. All were gay with flags and slogans. Some parades were much simpler, with babies riding in baby carriages instead of in automobiles. Colorado town there was a squad of older children also, riding on tricycles.

In a

Here is a newspaper report of a successful parade held in

Louisiana:

SPLENDID PARADE SATURDAY CLOSED BABY-WEEK OBSERVANCE.

Babies to right of us,

Babies to left of us,

Babies in front of us,

Babies enough to dazzle us,

God bless 'em,

So say we, all of us.

Saturday afternoon was ideal, when the babies of our city passed in review before as deeply interested a gathering as ever lined both sides of Ryan Street from the city hall to Mill Street.

Headed by the Royal Orchestra, then in turn by a detachment of the city police under the chief, the mayor, the commissioner of finance, and the commissioner of streets, the parade "fell into line" at the city hall, and under the helpful escort of the Boy Scouts wended its way north to Mill Street and countermarched to the city hall.

In beautiful floats, in push carts, in buggies, on tricycle, on bicycle, in toy automobile, and afoot, each individual holding a tiny flag, a thousand hearts beat happily as they passed through a street literally lined with admiring and cheering townfolk.

And the banners they carried were cheered to the echo, while the one at the head of the on-foot division, “Louisiana babies' first plea: Doctor, I want a record for me," seemed to act on the viewers as a plea for protection.

SCHOOL DAY AND SCHOOL COOPERATION.

The 1916 celebration proves that an enthusiastic interest in baby week on the part of school officials is highly important to the best success of a campaign. In many cases where the school officials understood the significance of baby week and cooperated actively an effective program was carried out almost without any other help. A New Mexico town, for example, celebrated only in the schools, bringing in mission schools and schools in the surrounding country, and was very successful.

In many towns the school auditorium was used for meetings. It appears that mothers brought their babies more readily to a school than to any other building for a conference. A Michigan town, for example, held its whole celebration in the school auditorium. The children wrote invitations to their mothers to come to a meeting. Eight hundred mothers came, and at that meeting the invitation was distributed for a fathers' meeting later in the week, which brought out an attendance of 600 to 700.

The school children frequently acted as distributing agents for programs and invitations to special meetings. A Wisconsin town issued a better-babies bookmark, with lists of books on baby care. and gave the bookmarks to the school children to take home. All the books mentioned were obtainable at the town library.

The pupils of both high schools and grammar schools did, in many communities, a large amount of valuable work in aid of the babyweek committee. Thus in a New England city the printing for the baby-week committee was done by the boys of the manual training school and the typewriting at the high school. Of course any assistance given by school children served to arouse their interest in the campaign.

A number of towns held contests in poster making in the schools. In several Illinois towns the school children made the posters and handbills; and the report from one town says that the posters made in the high school "were really works of art." In a Wisconsin city 3,700 handmade programs were printed, painted, and presented by the school pupils, and each program bore the name, grade, and school of its author on the back. These schools also had a poster competition.

Many school-day celebrations were admirably worked out. They varied from a lecture on the care of the baby, read to the class by each teacher, to the giving of a play by the children. (See Appendix, pp. 113 and 134.) Some teachers, especially of younger children, emphasized the care of the teeth. In one New York town the teacher organized a "toothbrush brigade," with prizes for the cleanest teeth. In schools where Little Mothers' Leagues were already formed the program usually consisted of demonstrations on the care of the baby.

If prize essays were read, a play performed, or demonstrations given by the school children, parents were usually invited.

This is the description one little girl wrote of the day's exercises in her school:

Last week we had what you would call a baby week. This was very interesting, as we had a lesson about it in our domestic science. We had charts all around the room about the food for the baby at its different ages; we had some pictures of beautiful children; there was a baby's outfit; there were some books on the care of children; there were also two baby's dresses, one which was very beautiful, made by our domestic-science teacher. We had a table in the center of the room with all the materials needed in giving the baby its bath. On the side of the room was another table with the materials needed in keeping the bottles sterilized, and we were shown the way of keeping them perfectly clean.

In our domestic-science lesson we had our school nurse to show us the proper way of bathing and dressing the baby and all about the correct temperature of the body. The teacher told us about the proper food we should give the baby at different ages. Samples of breakfasts for these children were shown. In the afternoon the mothers came and heard a few remarks made by our dental nurse on the proper care of the children's teeth. There were some little children from the primary department who have a perfect set of teeth. They have been treated by our school dentist. They showed us how they brush their teeth. They had a napkin pinned on them, a paper cup in one hand, and their toothbrush in the other hand. and were scrubbing away when