The mothers of all these babies work away from their homes.
]
In a personal letter to the writer, Mr. Roscoe Doble, Clerk to the
Health Board of Lawrence, Massachusetts, says: “Relative to the high
infantile mortality, I can only say that ignorance in the preparation of
food, illy ventilated tenements, and, in many cases, unavoidable neglect
occasioned by the mothers being obliged to work away from the homes,
often leaving their babies in the care of other children, seem to be the
prime factors in the high mortality among children.” Similar testimony
has been given by physicians and nurses wherever I have made inquiries,
indicating a general consensus of opinion among experts upon the
subject. A striking instance of the ignorance of these little girls to
whom infants are intrusted was observed in Hamilton Fish Park when one
of them gave a baby, apparently not more than four or five months old,
soda water, banana, ice cream, and chewed cracker—all inside of twenty
minutes.
In several factory towns I made careful investigations of the home
conditions of a number of families where the mothers were employed away
from their homes, noting particularly the rates of infantile mortality
among them. The following typical schedule relates to five cases noted
in the course of a single day in one of the small towns of New York:—