A STATISTICAL SURVEY OF INFANT MORTALITY'S 

 URGENT CALL FOR ACTION 



By EDWARD BUNNELL, PHELPS, M. A., F. S. S., New York, Editor, 

 "The American Underwriter" 



The fundamental basis of all rational reform movements 

 being the demonstration of the conditions which demand reform, 

 it would seem to be incumbent on this first annual meeting of 

 the American Association for Study and Prevention of Infant 

 Mortality to establish- the raison detre for the organization of 

 the Association by placing on record, and bringing before the 

 American public in the simplest possible form, a convincing de- 

 monstration of the present appalling rate of Infant Mortality, or, 

 in other words, of the utterly needless waste of infant life. Once 

 the fact is proven, and burned into the public mind, investigation 

 of the why or reason for the fact and the how or means 

 of remedying the fact is an inevitable sequence. This logical 

 order of procedure for this Association is succinctly stated in 

 the provisional program for this meeting, in the first sentence 

 of the outline for this session, which declares that: "Full and 

 accurate information concerning the infant population and in- 

 fant mortality is the indispensable basis of an intelligent effort 

 to check the waste of infant life." Full and accurate informa- 

 tion on these lines is not as yet obtainable, but at least a stat- 

 istical approximation of the facts is attainable, and one which 

 will convince any thinking man of the pressing importance of 

 the movement which this Association is now inaugurating in this 

 country. And, as indicated by its title, the purpose of this 

 paper is to present "A Statistical Survey of Infant Mortality's 

 Urgent Call for Action." 



At the very outset, it should be clearly understood that all 

 authorities on the subject, the world around, long since con- 

 curred in restricting the application of the term "infant mor- 

 tality" to deaths under one year of age, thus indirectly rele- 

 gating to the class of child mortality all deaths of children be- 

 tween one and, say, five years. Consequently, all figures and 

 statements in this paper dealing with infant mortality apply only 

 to deaths under 1 year of age. The world's specialists on vital 

 statistics have also tacitly agreed, for good and sufficient rea- 

 sons which need not here be discussed, that the rate of infant 

 mortality shall be calculated by the division of the number 



165 



