182 



The Journal of Heredity 



prosperous, old American families, Ijut 

 relativeh' many of these few die in 

 infancy. 



The net increase of Pittsburj^h's 

 population, therefore, is j^jreatest where 

 the ix'rcentaj^e of foreign-born popula- 

 tion is greatest and where the percentage 

 of illiteracy is greatest. 



The nature of Miss Scorer's data 

 makes it impossible to compare the 

 situation in Pittsburgh directh' with 

 that existing elsewhere ; but knowing the 

 relations between the various wards in 

 respect to birth-rate, infant mortality, 

 illiteracy and racial make-up, we are 

 justified in finding how far these factors 

 are associated in other parts of the 

 United States. The Children's Bureau 

 has made some studies of this sort,^ 

 and Mi-ss Ethel M. Elderton of the 

 Uni\-ersity of London has fortunately 

 worked out coefTicients of correlation 

 from thcm.^ 



A STUDY IN MASSACHUSETTS 



Taking thirty-two Massachusetts 

 cities, it was found that infantile mor- 

 tality and illiteracy were associated to 

 the extent of .70 while infantile mortality 

 and the ])ercentage of foreign-born 

 population were associated to the extent 

 of .74. The ])ercentage of women 

 employed was also known, and this 

 was found to be associated (.68) with 

 a high infant mortality. It would of 

 course be an error to assume that this 

 latter correlation proves that employ- 

 ment of women causes all the infant 

 mortality; for it is associated with 

 illiteracy and foreign race, both of 

 them known to be im])ortant factors in 

 infant mortality; and with many similar 

 factors which were not measured — for 

 instance, much employment of women 

 means indu.strial conditions in a town 

 and therefore very likely crowded 

 dwellings and a general bad environment 

 with poverty and drunkenness. Miss 

 IClderton .showed, from the figures of the 

 Children's Bureau, that illiteracy itself 

 had little influence on the rate of 

 infantile mortality, the ])resence of 



foreign-born in a city being much more 

 important. When the correlation (.68) 

 between infant mortality and employ- 

 ment of women was reduced by elim- 

 inating the factors of illiteracy, foreign- 

 born jjoijulation, and bad industrial 

 conditions, 60% of it turned out to 

 have been due to these three factors. 

 In other words, emjiloyment of women 

 is imjjortant more as an index of other 

 bad conditions, than of itself, in affecting 

 infant mortality. 



This digression to the industrial towns 

 of Massachusetts is sufficient to show 

 that Pittsburgh is not alone in having 

 illiteracy and a foreign-born jjopulation 

 associated with a high birth-rate, but 

 that its infant mortality figures arc 

 unusual. Let us now go a little deeper 

 in our studv of the condition of Pitts- 

 Inirgh in 1912. 



Ward seven particularly struck me, 

 as I went over the figures, because it 

 stood so high in nearly everxthing. Of 

 its 5,622 males of voting age, only 

 twenty-four were returned as illiterate. 

 It has the lowest death-rate of any ward 

 in the city, and the lowest number of 

 cases of tuberculosis rci)orted from 

 month to month. It was the only 

 ward in the city where more than half 

 the inhabitants (56.4%, in this case) 

 were native-born of native parents. 

 It is in the "East End" of the city, 

 bounded by Neville, Fifth, Penn and 

 Center Avenues, remote from the fac- 

 tory district, and has many schools and 

 churches. Excc]jt in a few streets, 

 Prof. Johnson tells me, its houses are of 

 fair or large size. It contains many of 

 the large and more exijcnsive apartment 

 houses. It is evidently the residence 

 of many of "our best peo])le." 



In most respects, it may well hv a 

 source of pride to Pittsburgh, but 

 eugenically it must be a source of alarm : 



It has the lowest birth-rate and the 

 lowest rate of net increase (as defined 

 in this ])aper) of all the twenty-seven 

 wards of the cit\'. 



The sixth ward, on the olh.-r hand, 

 runs along the south l)ank of tin- Alle- 



' Report on Condition of Women and Child WaKc-Kamcrs in the United States, Vol. xiii. 

 Infant Mortalitv and Its Relation to the Emplovment of Mothers. Dejiartment of Labor, 

 Washington, I). C.. 1914. 



" Biomelrika, Vol. x, i)|). V).\~V)U, London, 1914. 



