The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-04-16
SAVING BABIES LIVES
Hot Summer Months Mean Growing Death Rates for the Children of Tenements How New York Is Try
 iug to Meet the Problem
Wilbur c. Phillips

Wilbur c. Phillips.
 Secretary of New York Milk Committee
 Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau0
 That a tremendous difference in the
 birth rate and infant mortality rate exists among the wealthy and the ex-
 treme poor; that a great number of
 the thousands of needless infants deaths which occur annually take
 place in the congested quarters of N. Y. City; and that these conditions
 spring from sheer ignorance, (easHy preventab1e) on the mothers part
 these are the significant results of an
 investigation made recently by the
 New York Milk Committee. The com
 naittees investigation grew out or
 a desire to ascertain what percentage
 of the 16,o00 deaths which occur an-
 nually in New York City are found
 respectively among the rich, the mid
 dle class and the poor.
 Three sections of the city were in
 cluded-one of 28 blocks. comprising
 a fashionable residential district in
 the neigh borhood of Fifth avenue
 Madison avenue and Central Park; the
 second of five blocks comprising
 middle class residential district in the
 neighborhood of 134 tn Street and
 Lenox avenue, third of three densely
 populated blocks comprising a typical
 tenement house district bounded by
 Avenue A. East 74th Street, First ave
 nue and East 72nd Street. In 1907 the
 estimated population of these various
 areas was approximately the same. In
 the 29 fashionable blocks there were
 7561 residents, in the five middle class
 blocks there 7,696. and in the three
 tenement blocks there were 1856 The
 blocks in 1907, however, varied very
 widely. In the 28 fashionable blocks only 37 little ones were born. where as in the five middle class blocks 160
 ba bies were born, and in the three tenement block 434 babies were born. In other words, eleven times as many tenement blocks among the poor as were born in 2s fashionable uptown blocks.
 Knowing that the greatest danger to infants exists at the time of greatest heat. the Milk Committee, at the sug- gestion of pr. L. Emmett Holt, se- which the first seven comprised the hottest week of 1907. In this way not {; only the immediate but the after eff feet of period of excessive heat was done. The average mean tempera- ture of the first week from July 18th to July A was 7S.6 degrees. In the three tenement house blocks sixteen i deaths, or per cent of the total of | infants known to have been born dur l ing the year died during the two | during the second: Had similar death rate prevailed throughout the 1 rest of the year the mortality would 1 have been more than 100 per cent. In the four middle class blocks and in the 28 wealthy residential blocks of approximately the same population no tell their own story. The probable absence for the summer of most of the wealthy mothers and many of the mid He class mothers cannot be consid- -he ability to leave a hot city and .hus avoid a principal cause of in- ants deaths-Qike the ability to ern- 1loy- infant specialists, trained nurses. etc)-is a purely economic advantage. $ Light, air sanitary surroundings and proper nourishment, are all factors The lack of the means to purchase hese commodities spells misery. dis Lbility and death.
 For the wealthy mother expert on all matters affecting he life of her little one is available. infant specialists prescribe an exact jet; trained nurses administer and upervise; in all details of the baby's rowth she is supported by the best ounsel and advice If the child of he wealthy mother does poorly or ies, it is because scientific knowledge as failed. not beee use that Knowledge as been unavailable. Tn the case of middle class mothers, he ha ndicaps are perhaps greater. as nese mothers. lacking the means to l - vail themselves of expert knowledge, re obliged to rely upon less trained -om sources that often prove untrust- -orthy. But because. these mothers ave as rule, more children than the q ealthy, and because. being free from ] eavy social demands. they can give p 1e children more personal care and S they acquire a certain ex- erience and knowledge which is hand 1 ] down from generation to genera fl on and which, to large degree, u ,nds to offset the advantage of pur- 1 t 1ased knowledge of an expensive II 
 It is among the mothers of the lower ls rata of society that the need for W creased knowledge on infant feed it g, infant hygiene and matters per- c lining to infancy. is most keenly felt. f; -ep by step one descends from the ltrerne rich to the extreme poor. he q te against the lives of little ones. q There people are poorest, and where q le scantiest means are found to T.. ,mbat evils which threaten, there fn- ents, the narrowest and most foul " me streets, the lowest standard of sl nseouence of all this. the death rate gp1 nong infants. as all persons know " ho work in these localities. is appal- 1g. Espeeially in the summer time W Id down the hot streets white hearses W lss fr~-1uently. The fear of some W ing terrible hangs like the sword of SC amocies over the frightened, ignor- ST It, and too often superstitfous n1 other. Why do the babies die? The 5oWa tha3 d fer nGa babx nG" % voitie e only ing Iffeless in her arms. and that at a, " moment it may follow where if any others have gone. A timely tf ord. telling them to do or not to do T. e thing in which their ignorance is " urderous, in many instances would we their baby. When they begin to ,,, alize this their eagerness to learn f lif cir hunger for instruction-is pit oo oo H. more pitiful than physical hum n r, or it's twin-spectre undernourisIl- ii ii, ant. stamped on the faces of so many, IF any women and children of our tene- ei an ts. fa This is the real tragedy of infant 'e unsatisfed desire of TT, uls for knowledge. the permission of I'll; lrltuai SuHerlhg ana death. dr 10 prevent the needless sacrifice of ha e innocents. the New York Nfflk m mmittee since, June 1. 1908, has tn alntalned number Of infants milk is pots in congeSted quarters of New pi rk City. These depots. in a sense, tn