New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-03
DR.. Vile Calls Statistical
View of Infants and IN
valids Sound Economics.
SOCIAL VALUE SEEN
IN MOLLIE FANCHER
Children and Cripples Often
Have Other than Monetary
Worth, Educator Says.

Professor Irving T. Fisher, the Yale
stGtistic.an, estimates the value OF a
healthy normal baby at 800. Though
parents. mothers especially, may make
a higher appraisal Of their offspring,
Professor Fisher stands firmly on his
valuation, basing his calculations not
on sentiment, but on the baby's
economic worth in the light OF its
cost to a community and its potential
earning possibility.
Professor Fisher POUNDS his figures
a. the statistics published in 1881 by
William Farr, an Englishman. lie
says the economic value of human
beng is the difference between ats
potential earning power and the cost
OF its maintenance cOmpoundiy dls-
counted, usually az 3l2 per cent. The
best average earning power OF man
nc places at 500 a year. From TINS
] rofessor Fisher says must be deducted
years in which a child earns nothing
7 he highes- earning power OF man
has been put at thirty years, after
which this earning power decreases.
In computing the value OF human
life. Professor Fisher includes the cost
Of raising the child, clothing II, edu-
eating 1T and housing II. lie says II
costs more TO bury Il baby than 20 keep
H. alive for one year.
A secretary Of the Charity Organiza-
ton Society, supervising population
O.. 10000 in the district south OF
Houston Street and east OF Broadway,
SAYS it is not uncommon for man
who is earning 81 or So week to
have a family OF four TO six children.
In a district further uptown Sl2
week is an average wage.
This secl etary asserts that each
child means an expenditure or from
SO 10 SID at birth and al least 80 "A
+. onth for milk or extra nourishment
for the mother. The next year clothes
and a bed raise the expense 20 50 a
month, and when the child goes to
school il is costing at least $40 "A
month. A. the father gets no more
wages, the mother must SO out TO work
20 Increase the income. The children
must do the same.
Howard d. Woolston, assistant pro
fcssor of sociology at the College OF
the City of New York, commenting on
the secretary's statement, SAID: chi
dren Of such families are usually
poorly nourished. They have to go to
work at the first opportunity and they
have TO take the first available JOB.
They are never able TO get better
one. Nurseries and institutions that
care for babies and teach mothers how
20 rear them are steadily increasing
the economic value Of babies by IN
cicasing their chance 20 live and their
right TO rise above their environment
DR.. Ira s. Vile, a member of the
Board 81 Education, says that PROBES
sor Fishers valuation Of baby at
$50 is just. 1000
when you consider that out Of 900
babies born a possible 600 live to reach
q wage earning age, it is not difficult
10 see why the estimate is not great
en-" he argues. at has been said that
a person dependent on the state, as a
blind man or a cripple, means dead
loss Of $4,000 20 a community. ms
u hard reasoning on the basis or
economies. Such valuation is sharply
distinct from the social value OF a
HELPLESS adult or a young child. From
the economic standpoint, Nolhe ran
cher. who died recently after having
been bed-ridden for half century
was a negative quantity. judged by
the great number Of her friends and
the tremendous amount OF happiness
she brought into hundreds Of lives she
was Of enormous social value. II IS
for statisticians TO place the value OF
a baby at $50. To the rest OF us
baby is beyond valuation