TABLE VII. Per Cent. of Women 16 Years of Age and Over Earning Under $6 and Under $8 in a Representative Week.

Per cent. earning Industry

Total

Under Under Number

$6

$8 Canning and preserving, fruits and vegetables

449
59.2

93.5 Canning and preserving, oysters

155
99.4

100.0 Cans and boxes, tin

225
50.2

79.5 Cigar boxes

335
61.8

84.5 Cigarettes

1,071
33.1

75.4 Cigars

5,994
39.3

71.3 Clocks and watches

696
33.5

72.3 Confectionery

1,948
55.6

81.3 Core making

307
22.1

61.9 Corsets

2,789
29.7

58.9 Crackers and biscuits

1,273
54.0

82.0 Hardware, etc.

803
57.9

88.2 Hosiery and knit goods

7,251
31.7

64.0 Jewelry

129
31.8

67.4 Needles and pins

427
27.2

61.6 Nuts, bolts and screws

433
61.7

92.1 Paper boxes

2,213
40.1

74.5 Pottery

503
45.5

65.8 Rubber and elastic goods

233
28.8

56.7 Shirts, overalls, etc.

2,371
55.5

89.9 Stamped and enameled ware

992
45.0

72.7 Tobacco and snuff

3.670
55.6

79.7 Woolen and worsted goods

3,915
29.7

68.9 Total

38,182 41.1

72.7 Summary of the Report on Conditions of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United States, U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 175, p. 22.

TABLE VIII.
Distribution of Children in Gainful Occupations,

TABLE IX. Distribution of Children Employed in Agriculture.

INFANT MORTALITY.

By HELEN L. SUMNER. The influence of economic and industrial conditions on infant mortality is marked. Though the available evidence indicates that the death rate of young babies is declining throughout the civilized world, it also shows clearly that this rate is uniformly highest in industrial districts. Thus in 1910, according to the United States Census (Bulletin 112, p. 24), the death rate per 1,000 population under one year of age in the registration states was as follows: Utah .82.3 Ohio

115.9 Washington

.84.3 Michigan Kentucky 87.9 Maine

. 140.4 Montana 90.4 New York

143.6 California 92.2 Connecticut

.143.7 Minnesota .92.4 New Jersey

..148.8 The high infant death rate in the industrial states is sometimes attributed to the employment of women, but the evidence to this effect is not entirely conclusive. For as a rule the mother works because the family is poor and the dominating factor in infant mortality is poverty, with all the conditions of over-crowding, insufficient or improper food, bad sanitation, ignorance, illiteracy and low standards of life which inadequate earnings bring in their train. The re

.127.5 sults of the investigations of Booth in London and of Rowntree in York, England, upon this point are confirmed by those of the study of infant mortality in Johnstown, Pa., made by the U. S. Children's Bureau (Infant Mortality Series, No. 3; Bureau Publication No. 9), which show that the number of babies born in the selected year who died before their first birthdays varied with the amount of their fathers' earnings. The following table shows the number of births and the mortality rate per 1,000 births included in the Johnstown investigation classified according to the annual earnings of the father:

The conclusions reached by Mr. Henry H. Hibbs, Jr., in his study, Infant Mortality: Its Relation to Social and Industrial Conditions, published in 1916 by the Russell Sage Foundation, are:

“It appears, then, that the fundamental cause of the excessive rate of infant mortality in industrial communities is poverty, inadequate incomes, and low standards of living with their attendant evils, including the gainful employment of mothers. The employment of the mother in gainful occupations is simply the remedy for these evils or adverse conditions which the working people in industrial communities have adopted. Undoubtedly, this recourse has had an important effect on the problem, in many cases actually tending to reduce the rate of infant mortality, while in others having just the opposite effect. The primary question in considering the social causes of infant mortality is whether the employment of mothers and married women in extradomestic occupations is, from the viewpoint of society as a whole, a good remedy for poverty and an acceptable means of mitigating its influence on the health and mortality of babies and young children. From the point of view of the individual poor or poverty stricken family, the fact cannot be escaped that this effect may be both good and bad; bad, in that it causes the baby to be artificially fed, forces the mother to be absent from home, and in other ways lowers her efficiency as a mother; good, in that it increases the family income and decreases the influence of poverty. We are, thus, forced to conclude that the fundamental economic and industrial factor of infant mortality is low wages. The fundamental remedy is obviously higher wages. Other remedies, such as legislation restricting or regulating the employment of mothers before and after confinement, day nurseries, the instruction of mothers and school girls in domestic economy, and the like, all have their place; but the chief thing remains the provision of an adequate family income.”

THE COMMISSION ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS.

A congressional commission that received the widest publicity for its work was the Commission on Industrial Relations created by act of Congress, dated August 23rd, 1912. It is generally understood that the one great fact that animated Congress in its desire to provide an agency to "inquire into the general condition of labor in the principal industries of the United States," and to do other related things, was the confession of the MacNamara brothers in December, 1911. There was a general feeling that all was not well. The resolution of Congress was an indirect result of that feeling, and the desire to diagnose it.

Section 4 of the Act defined with great clearness what the Commission was to investigate. It read:

That the commission shall inquire into the general condition of labor in the principal industries of the United States, including agriculture, and especially in those which are carried on in corporate forms; into existing relations between employers and employees; into the effect of industrial conditions on public welfare and into the rights and powers of the community to deal therewith; into the conditions of sanitation and safety of employees and the provisions for protecting the life, limb, and health of the employees; into the growth of associations of employers and of wage earners and the effect of such associations upon the relations between employers and employees; into the extent and results of methods of collective bargaining; into any methods, which have been tried in any State or in foreign countries for maintaining mutually satisfactory relations between employees and employers; into methods for avoiding or adjusting labor disputes through peaceful and conciliatory, mediation and negotiations; into the scope, methods, and resources of existing bureaus of labor and into possible ways of increasing their usefulness; into the question of smuggling or other illegal entry of Asiatics into the United States or its insular possessions, and of the methods by which such Asiatics have gained and are, gaining such admission, and shall report to Congress as speedily as possible, with such recommendation as said commission may think proper to prevent such smuggling and illegal entry, The commission shall seek to discover the underlying causes of dissatisfaction in the industrial situation and report its conclusions thereon.

The Commission, as appointed by the President, was designed to include three Labor men, three employers of labor, and three members representing the general public. The chairman was Frank P. Walsh, a noted attorney of Kansas City, who had taken a deep interest in civic affairs, and had served on various civic bodies. Representing the