To Miss Carr, 4 January 1919

     digitized, transcribed, encoded, and annotated by Colleen Bailey

Hotel Rutledge,
Cor. Lexington Ave. and 30th St.
New York City,
January 4, 1919.

Miss Ada M. Carr Shepperd Pratt Hospital, Towson, Md. Dear Miss Carr:

Your letter of recent date was forwarded to me at New
York and I have taken several days to consider your attractive suggestion
and to talk over the possibility of writing the book on Child Welfare
for the Public Health Nursing Serivves with Mrs.Haasis and with MacMillan
Company , as represented by Mr. Meyers. But I have regretfully come to
the conclusion that in view of the fact that I have signed a contract
with the American Committee for Devastated France and am sailing
the latter part of this month, that I could not write the book and do
it justice in the limited time I would have before sailing and on board
ship . I am afrrraid that I could not handle the subject either after I get
over because my time would be otherwise engaged to the full, and I ould
not be near libraries or public health nursniining centers whose help I should
need. As I do not know how long I shall be gone I dare not enter into
contracts involving work against my return. So, everything considered
I must decline, but I do so with a high sense of the honor done me in
choosing me for this work and great regret that I cannot do it.

Yours very sincerely,