Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-08-07
HOTEL APARTMENTS.
The Menace Of Poverty
Copyright. 1917
BY a. ADDINGToN BRUCE.

The childrens bureau of the United
States Department of Labor has recently
completed statistical survey of infant
mortality in the New Hampshire city of
Manchester. The results of this survey
do not make pleasant reading.
But they embody facts that ought to be
known-and prayerfully pondered-by all
persons really interested in the welfare
of their cou ~.
The survey was based primarily on in
terviews with the babies mothers. 1t is
described as being absolutely demo-
cratic" in scope. 1t included a study of
all babies whose births were registered in
a single year and whose families could
be found.
OF these babies. it appears one out of
every SIX tl65 per 10000 died during the
first year of life.
This certainly is startlingly high NOR
tally Its significance increases when
viewed in the light of the bureaus analy-
sis of the economic status OF the parents
OF the babies surveyed. Thus we are
told:
Nearly half of the 1643 babies had
/ fathers whose earnings were less than
$3.50 year. and more than one-eighth of
the babies had fathers earning less than
$3.50 year Only one in sixteen GA per
cent? had fathers earning as much as
S1.250.
The death rate among the babies in
the poorest families was more than four
times as high as among those in the
highest wage group"
And again:
THE death rate for babies whose homes
| were in one-family houses was SCI per
/ 900. In houses containing seven or more
families. 1856 per 1000.
similarly the rate showed steady in
crease. according to the number of per-
sons per room. 1t was 1888 per 1000
where the family had more rooms than
persons; and 1853 where there were two
or more persons per room
Also:
1.-The mothers of 267 babies went out to
work during the first year of the baby's
life. and these babies had a death rate
considerably higher than those whose
mothers worked at home or were not
gainfully employed
THE rate is especially high-277.3 per
1,000-among the ll9 babies whose moth
ers went out to work before the babies
were four months old.
No more convincing demonstration of
the relation between poverty and infant
mortality could be asked.
Nor, in face of statistics like these. can
| it be doubted that the one thing indis-
pensable to reducing the infant death rate
is to grapple successfully with the prob
lem of poverty.
We boast of American standards of liv-
ing. But Clearly. in industrial cities like
Manchester at all events, these standards
are not yet high enough.
change must come. Better conditions
must be secured for workers in the mass.
There is no alternative.
Remember. the statistics jus quoted
deal only with infant mortality in the first
year of life. OF the five infants surviving
out of every six by no means all reach
manhood and womanhood.
There is a further drain by death dur
ing childhood and adolescence. And. be
sure. the drain is greatest among the
children of the very poor.
National security requires that this
drain be checked Common sense insists
that to check 1t poverty must be made an
object of national attack.
Poverty Is not a mere incident in civ
ilization. as many people seem to think.
1t is a real menace to civilization.