80 INFANTS' MILK DEPOTS 



4. Because modified milk cost more than the average tenement 

 mother could afford to pay, making- her of necessity a recipient 

 of charity. 



5. Because the committee believed that the way to reduce infant 

 mortality was not to help mothers alone by doles of milk, but by 

 gifts of knowledge ; and because of its desire to develop women 

 who would possess initiative and self-reliance instead of help- 

 less women dependent upon four-legged cows and bottling ma- 

 chines for the lives and welfare of their infants. 



What were the results of this experiment ? 



In the committee's four depots in the summer of 1910 an 

 average of 325 babies were cared for. Of these babies only one 

 died from diarrhoea. In this case this death was caused by an 

 obstinate mother, who, becoming impatient at the slow progress 

 of her child, took it off the depot milk and weaned it on con- 

 densed milk. In our depot in Cannon Street, in the heart of the 

 lower East Side, there were no deaths from diarrhoea. One baby 

 died from pneumonia, one from the whooping cough and one as 

 the result of the gross carelessness of an ignorant grandmother. 

 In a depot in Bloomingdale Guild, which the committee in 1909 

 turned over to the Diet Kitchen Association, only one death oc- 

 curred. In another depot in Union Settlement only two deaths 

 occurred. In Henry Street the mortality was practically zero. 

 In all of these depots the same methods prevailed. 



The significance of these figures can be appreciated when one 

 considers that these mothers who were thus educated to self- 

 reliance came from the poorest families in the city; lived in the 

 most congested neighborhoods, and were for the most part so 

 ignorant that they were not only unable to speak English, but 

 in many instances could not read or write their mother tongue. 

 The important facts in the success of this educational work I 

 shall discuss later. The only fact to be considered now is that 

 it was a success. 



From a financial standpoint, the experiment was striking. For 

 100 mothers to whom relief was given the cost of free milk at 

 9 cents a quart was $210, as opposed to $438.75, when modified 

 milk in individual feeding bottles was sold a saving of more 

 than 100 per cent. 



All this is a digression, but a digression very much to the 

 point. And the point which I hope will be clear to everyone is 

 that a cheap whole milk is much more important in reducing 

 infant mortality than an expensive artificially prepared milk. In 

 almost every city or town such a cheap, clean milk can generally 

 be secured from some dealer or producer for distribution at the 

 start in the infants' milk depot. A better way perhaps would 

 be to interest some person or persons in the operation of a 



