"I Must Speak."

Levin Daily Chronicle, 15 December 1917, Page 1

"I Must Speak."

A PLEA TO THE AMERICAN WOMAN. (By Helen Keller.) A year ago I wrote in the ' Ladies' Home Journal' about the prevention of blindness. I wrote guardedly and with hesitation; for the subject was new to me, and I shrank from discussing before the general public a problem which hitherto had- been confined to the conferences of specialists. Moreover, the subject was one of which a young woman might be supposed to be ignorant, and upon which, certainly, she would not be expected to speak with authority. It is always painful to set oneself against tradition, especially against the conventions and prejudices that hedge about womanhood; But continuous study of blindness has forced upon me the knowledge of this subject, if I am to stand as an advocate of the work for the sightless I cannot, without accusing myself of cowardice, gloss over or ignore the fundamental evil.

Once I believed that blindness, deafness, tuberculosis, and other causes of suffering were necessary, unpreventable. I believed that we must accept blind eyes, deaf ears, diseased lungs as we accept the havoc of tornadoes and deluges, and that we must bear them with as much fortitude as we could gather from religion and philosophy. But gradually my reading extended and I found that those evils are to be laid at the door of mankind; that they are, in large measure, duo to ignorance, stupidity and sin.

The most common cause of blindness is ophthalmia of the newborn. One pupil in every three at the institution for the blind in New York City was blinded in infancy by this disease. Nearly all of the 16 babies in the Sunshine Home in Brooklyn, one-fourth of the inmates of the New York State Home for the Blind, 600 sightless persons in the State of New York, between 6,000 and 7,000 persons in the United States were plunged into darkness by ophthalmia of the newborn. The symptoms of the disease appear in the infant's eyes soon after birth. The eyelids swell and become red, and about the second day they discharge whitish pus. At this stage the eyes can be saved by the simplest prophylactic care. That sueh care is not always exercised is due to the fact that one-half of the cases of childbirth in America are attended by midwives, many of whom are ignorant and incompetent. In this country very little has been done to secure the proper education and examination of midwives; and they and the equally ignor ant parents resort to poultices, nostrums and domestic remedies.

There is a remedy for ophthalmia ne* onatorum. Thiß is an instillation of nitrate of silver solution into the eyes of the child. It is efficacious if promptly and skilfully applied. It is not, however, infallible, and in unskilful hands it may do great harm. The mother who sees in the eyes of her baby the symptoms which I have described should lose no time in summoning the assistance of an intelligent physician.

Let no one suppose that this is idle advice. In France and Germany the laws require that the eyes of every child shall be treated with nitrate of silver solution as soon as it is born, and in those countries there has been a considerable decrease in blindness from the scourge of ophthalmia neonatorum. And what do the wise lawmakers of America do J A Bill for tho prevention of blindness introduced recently in the Illinois Legislature failed to pass because it was argued that this was only another scheme of doctors to provide fees for themselves! But, at best, the law is concerned only with the remedy. The people themselves, and only they, can wipe out the cause.

What is the cause of ophthalmia neonatorum. It is a specific germ communicated by the mother to the child at birth. Previous to the child's birth she has unconsciously received it through infection from her husband. He has contracted the infection in licentious relations before or since marriage. ".The cruelest link in the chain of consequences," says Dr Prince Morrow, "is the mother's innocent agency. She is made a passive, unconscious medium of instilling into the eyes of her newborn babe a virulent poison which extinguishes its sight." In mercy let "it be remembered the father docs not know that he has so foully destroyed the eyes of his child and handicapped him for life. It is part of the bitter harvest of the wild oats he has sown.' Society has smiled upon his "youthful recklessness" because society does not Know that.

They enslave their children's children Who make compromise with sin. Society has yet to learn that the blind beggar at the street corner, the epileptic child, and woman on the operating, tabic aro the wages of "youthful indiscretion." To-day science is verifying what the Old Testament taught 3,000 years ago, and the time has come when there is no longer the excuse of ignorance. Knowledge has been given us; it is our part to apply it.

Of the consequences of social sin, blindness is by no means the most terrible. The same infection which blots out the eyes of the baby is responsible for many childless homes; for thousands of cases of lifelong invalidism, for 80 per cent, of all operations performed on mothers to save their lives.

The day has come when women must face the truth. They cannot escape the consequences of the evil unless they have the knowledge that saves. Must we leave young girls to meet the danger in the dark because we dare not turn the light upon our social wickcdnesa 1 False delicacy and prudery must give place to precise information and com mon sense. It is high time to abolish falsehood and let the plain truth come in. Out with the cowardicc which shuts its eyes to the immorality thai causes disease and human misery. lam confident that when the people know the truth the day of deliverance for mother and child will be at hand.