Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-10-01
REPORT ON NEEDS
Of RURAL CHILD
Expert 10 Compiling More Figures TO
Be Used In Welfare Work-childrsn
Under Fifteen Years Comprise Al.
most One third Of the Population.
Pamphlet Of Interesting Facts.


The children's bureau Of the United
States department Of labor. OF which
Miss julia c. Lathrop is chief, has just
issued the first part of handbook OF
federal statistics of children which
shows the number Of children in the
country. with their sex. age. race. ma
tivity. parentage and geographic dis
tr;bution.
The figures have been compiled from
the reports of the 1910 census and pre-
sent in small pamphlet facts regard
ing children which in the census re-
ports are to be found only by search
ing through many long tables where
the data for children are given in COM
bination with those Of adults. The fig
ures are. of course. necessary as a
basis in planning large scale work for
child welfare. and it is the hope of the
bureau that the handbook will be a
convenient book of reference for the
growing number of persons actively
engaged in such work.
Export Compiling Figures.
The future sections Of the handbook
will deal with more specific questions
affecting children-the birth rate and
infant mortality. literacy and school
attendance, child labor and the defec-
tive, dependent and delinquent chill
dren. 1t is being compiled By Lewis
Merriam. the assistant chief OF the
bureau. who was for seven years con-
nected with the United States census
bureau.
According to the figures in part 1, on
April Is. 1910. Uncle Sam had 29.499.
1873 children under fifteen years Of age.
and they made up almost one-third of
his entire family. Almost all these
children were born on his own soil.
The foreign born white children num-
bered only 759,346 and formed only
2.6 per cent Of the total number of
children. Child welfare work is thus
done in the main for children born in
the United States.
Many of the native children are. of
course the children OF immigrants.
The figures show that in 1910 there
were 1928 500 native white children
with one or both parents foreign born.
The native white with both parents
native born numbered 17,731.5SO and
formed COL per cent Of all children in
the country. There were 1855, lot ne
gro children. forming 12.4 per cent Of
the total number.
The negro children are found mainly
in the southern and southwestern
states. whereas the foreign born
whites are located principally in New
England and in the middle Atlantic
and north central states. The native
whites OF native parentage are. OF
course, more evenly distributed and
are present in large numbers in all
sections Of the country.
Many In Small Towns.
The figures show the importance Of
giving thought to the welfare Of the
children in the smaller cities and In
rural communities. Social work for
children has been developed to high
degree in many Of our large cities, but
the figures show that less than one
child in Ave is living in city Of 10O.-
600 inha bitants or over and that three
children in FIVE are living in villages
OF less than $500 inhabitants or in dis
tinctly rural com munities.
In New England and in the middle
Atlantic, north central and Pacific
states the percentage Of children living
in cities Of 100000 Inhabitants or over
IL far greater, reaching as high as
4S.4 in the middle Atlantic group. In
the south Atlantic and south central
states. on the other hand the percent
age living in cities of 100000 or over is
small, the highest being 6.8 IN the
south Atlantic states. but the percent
age In the rural districts is high. being
above 50 In all the southern divisions.
The question of child welfare in the
south Is thus distinctly rural ques-
tion, and even in the north and west
a very considerable part OF It is rnral-