Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1918 — Life of a Baby Depends On Care and Decent Home Conditions Given Mother [ARTICLE]

Life of a Baby Depends On Care and Decent Home Conditions Given Mother

Reports made by the federal children’s bureau show that the chances for life of a baby grow appallingly less as the father’s earnings grow smaller. Some of the figures quoted in the report are pathetically eloquent. The report is made upon studies of infant mortality among 13,000 babies in eight American cities, typical industrial cities of the East and middle West. Here are some of the statistics: One-fourth of all the fathers earned less than $550 a year. It was found that in such families one baby in every six died. Only about one-eighth of the fathers earned $1,050 or more, and it appeared that in'this class only one baby in sixteen died. It is asserted that the rise of prices and the disorganization of social and indusrial life on account of the war accentuate the importance of this persistent relation of income to Infant mortality. The final deduction seems to be embodied in these words: “These studies show that to provide mothers’ care and decent home conditions, the fathers must have adequate incomes. In Manchester, N. H., nearly onefourth of the mothers whose husbands earned less than $450 a year were gainfully employed; only about a tenth when the husband’s wages were sl,050 or over. The babies of mothers who went out to work died at more than twice the rate of more fortunate children.” —Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.