Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-12

Conditions Of this sort might be RENE
| died 70 sorns extent by the establishment
Of moderately priced confinement services
Hundreds Of infants would be saved N a
community IN n year, and q material re-
duction would be made In the enormous
amount of suffering which makes so many
women dread 20 face the task Of maternity.
Essentially manufacturing town
Waterbury has for It's chief industries
the production of bronze and brass manu-
iacturies This, Of course, has been con
siderably extended by tho war program,
and several new industries hav been
developed as 3 result of tho war More
than one-third of the factory operatives
supporting families we're found by tho
investigators 10 be earning lees than $40
wear This included the fathers Of 2 1877
infants Very often this scant sum had to
be supplemented by the earnings Of the
mother, who bv unduly exerting herself
during the critical stages Of pregnancy and
post maternity, brought harmful conse-
quences on herself and her children.
The Importance of sanitation tO any
sort Of health program j. we'll known, but
its relation 10 the health Of infants s
much greater than to the health Of older
children or adults Baby saving involves
much more than the mere prevention Of
death If the babies are 10 be developed
into intelligent and capable citizens. City
laws should provide that all urban dwci-
lincs be equipped with such sanitary
necessities as running water, indoor bath
tubs and sewer connections. IL is like
wise the duty Of cities 10 provide for the
education Of tenants IN matters Of hygiene, I
Inasmuch as the wisest OF laws can be /
rendered ineffective by ignorance or dis /
interestedness on the part of those for 4
whose benefit il is designed.
RAILROAD HILL. WATERBURY,.
Railroad Hill is long narrow section
Of Waterbury, running between the
Naugatuck river and the tracks Of the
New FORK, New Haven and Hartford
railroad. The city sewer is lald along the
nlil for about one-ouarter of the length
The greater number OF houses on the nil
were not connected with the sewer and
waste pipes from the sinks poured greasy
water INTO the yards whence II ran down
hill INTO the swampy land about the river.
There were six basement dwellings in
his district, all of them made unfit for
Dabltation by this condition. The rest
)f the houses in Railroad Hill were Of
rame. small, old and IN very poor repair.
In one of these houses, occupied by a Wi
low with fOur small children, every
itep on the stairway was broken. The roofs
ioors and ceilings were sagging, covered
With mildew, and threatening instant
collapse. The door OF a two-room hut in
he same nelghborhoOd had been blown
way and was replaced by a curtain.
In third floor apartment Of one Water
'ury tenement building lived a nine-vear-
Id boy in the incipient stages of tubercu-
osls, and a l7year-old girl diving Of
bronchial asthma. In an apartment ad-
dining, baby had recently died Of con-
umptloD, and another member OF the
amlly was IN the advanced stages OF the !
anne disease. He slept in a small bedroom
nth his wife. In another bedroom Of the !
anne size were crowded the rest of the {
amlly, father, mother and two children
his room contained $50 cubic feet Of air |
pace. In another section OF Waterbury, 7
nown a. Wards Flats. go persons were
rowded into four small and dilapidated 7
l'ldings. The walls Of these buildings
ere dark and filthy, the halls dark and \
arrow, and the stairs generally broken. +
he waste pipes of this section drained into T
river which flowed along the SIDE. Y
Amid such conditions aS these il IS Y