The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

BETTER BABIES IN NORTH CAROLINA.Each Year the Old North State Raises Better Cotton, Better Tobacco, BetterHorses, and Better Cattle—and Why Not Better Babies?Warren H. Booker, C.E., Assistant Secretary.Koi-th Carolina neglects her bestcrop. Yes, just that. Every year wehave our county and state fairs; wehave our Agricultural Department withscores of experts, test farms and experimentstations, and our agriculturalcolleges filled to overflowing; we haveour farmers' institutes, and the bestfarm paper in the United States. Wehave all these, and why? In order tomake two bales of cotton grow on anacre that formerly produced but one;in order to produce good cattle insteadof scalawags, and thoroughbred Berkshiresand Poland-Chinas instead ofrazorbacks and elm peelers.But North Carolina's best crop isnever mentioned. No one ever dreamedof holding institutes to teach fathersand mothers how to raise better,healthier babies. We have no schoolsWeor colleges teaching such subjects.have no papers or magazines on thissubject. In fact, all we have ever donewas to have an occasional beauty showat the fair. That was a joke. No oneever knew a thing more about how toraise a better, healthier baby, or howto improve those they already had.A Sound Chest is a Valuable Asset.after attending such a beauty .show,than they did before.Now, all this is going to be changed.The North Carolina mothers have saidso ; the State Fair Association has saidBroad, Deep Chests Are Fine, Butso; and the State Board of Health isgoing to back them up and cooperatewith the mothers of the State and withthe State Fair Association, and holdNorth Carolina's first great BetterBabies Contest at the State Fair inOctober.OVER $300 IN CASH PRIZES.The contest will be under the directmanagement and control of the StateBoard of Health. It will not be abeauty show in any sense of the word.It will be a health contest, out andout. Neither grandfathers nor grandmothers,town mayors, congressmennor politicians will be allowed to patbabies' dimples, kiss them on the mouth,or vote for the prettiest child. On theother hand, a corps of the best doctorsand children's specialists in the Statewill be on hand to score the babies ona score-card in much the same way asthe horsemen and cattle judges will