of teachers and investigators by long and thorough training while the school is designed to take the young men and women from the farm after completing work in the rural school and give them a thorough training in rural affairs and in the science and art of farming and home making. The aim is to so impress them with the opportunities of farming and of rural life and to teach them how to realize the most out of these opportunities in pleasure and in profit, that they will have a strong desire to devote their lives to this kind of work. A recent investigation shows that 80 per cent of all the graduates of this school during the past 22 years are now living on farms or engaged in country life work. They are making farming profitable and pleasant. They are the centers of organization, and are having a most beneficial effect upon the communities in which they live. One of the characteristic features of these schools is the fact that the classroom and laboratory work is given during the six winter months, while the summer months are required to be spent upon the home farm putting into practice some special work assigned by the instructors. The students thus continue to help with the farm work and never lose touch with their homes. It is designed that enough of these schools shall be provided to meet the demand as it develops for a more technical agricultural education than can be secured in the agricultural high schools or in the consolidated rural schools and not so extended as the college course. One such school to five or ten counties will doubtless meet all of the requirements. These schools co-operate with the high schools, consolidated secondary and rural schools in short course and demonstration work and thus become an agricultural nucleus for the region in which they are located. All of these agencies are also working in close co-operation with the Extension Division of the Department of Agriculture of the university and this in turn is in close touch with the College of Agriculture, the Experiment Station, the state Department of Public Instruction, the national Department of Agriculture, and numerous other educational agencies. When the co-operation of all of the educational agencies is perfected, the socialization of country life according to the best American ideals can be accomplished. In all of this work the larger community interest must be aroused.

Organized business must acknowledge its dependence in the last analysis on agriculture and must co-operate in securing for the country, good schools, good wagon roads and railroads, honest treatment in the markets and legislatures, to the end that the great basic industry may be profitable and attractive, increasing in efficiency with the increasing demands of population and civilization. So far the trained sociologist has given little attention to the rural field. The time is now at hand when such studies must be made in connection with the soil and agricultural surveys that are forming the basis of the new agriculture.

INFANT WELFARE: METHODS OF ORGANIZATION

AND ADMINISTRATION

CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON
The University of Chicago

III

GERMANY1

Germany is not frightened into interest by anxiety about diminution of birth rate, though this is falling; but thoughtful leaders are scandalized by the annual death roll of 400,000 infants, about one-fifth of all that are born, a condition which they regard as unworthy of a civilized people of the first rank. In the years 1901 to 1904, of 1,000 persons, 197.5 died at the age o to year; 20.5 from one to five years of age; 4.3 from five to ten years; 2.6 from ten to fifteen years. More than one-third of all deaths in the German Empire fell in the first year of life. Here as elsewhere poverty is cause of a high rate of infant mortality. Among 'Bibliographies are found in Würtz and Tugendreich.

The following publications have been consulted for this article: Die Mutter- und Säuglingsfürsorge, von Dr. Gustav Tugendreich, Stuttgart, 1910; Das Vormundschaftsrecht des bürgerlichen Gesetzbuches, Wilhelm von Blume, Berlin, 1904; Enzyklopädisches Handbuch des Kinderschutzes und der Jugendfürsorge, von Dr. phil. Th. Hiller, Dr. jur. Fr. Schiller, Dr. med. M. Taube, Leipsic, 1911; Ergebnisse der Säuglingsfürsorge; Dr. Arthur Keller, Leipsic, 1908; Milchhandel und Milchregulation, von Prof. Dr. Arthur Schlossmann, Wiesbaden, 1909; Säuglingsfürsorge und Kinderschutz in England und Schottland, von Prof. Dr. A. Keller, 1911; Die Milch in Gesetz und Rechtsprechung, von Kremers und Schlossmann, 1909; Die Stillungsnot, von Dr. med. Agnes Blum, 1909; Die Nahrungsmittelkontrolle durch den Polizeibeamten, von Dr. W. Bremer, Berlin, 1910; Die Bedeutung der Berufsvormundschaft für den Schutz der unehelichen Kinder, von Dr. Chr. J. Klumker und Dr. Othmar Spann, Dresden, 1905; Zur Frage der Vormundschaft; Berichte der dritten Tagung deutscher Berufsvormünder, Dresden, 1908; Die Organisation der Jugendfürsorge, Bericht von Dr. Georg Schmidt, 92 Heft, Schriften des deutschen Vereins für Armenpflege und Wohltätigkeit; Leipsic, 1910; Vol. IV, IV Congresso internazionale d'assistenza pubblica e privata, Milan, 1908; Kinderpflege-Lehrbuch, von Dr. med. Arthur Keller und Dr. med. Walther Birk, Berlin, 1911. Veröffentlichungen des Vereins für Säuglingsfürsorge im Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf, herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Schlossmann und Dr. Marie Baum (C. Heymann Verlag, Berlin); Satzung der Zentrale für Säuglingsfürsorge in Bayern, Munich, 1909; Zeitschrift für Säuglingsfürsorge, von Prof. Dr. Bruno Salge, und Prof. Dr. Arthur Schlossmann, Leipsic, Verlag A. Barth. A Study of the Display of the International Hygienic Exposition at Dresden, August, 1911, was helpful. Most of all, many delightful hours, during several weeks, with Dr. Taube and Bürgermeister Dr. Weber at Dresden. The municipal authorities of German cities generously and courteously furnished me the most recent reports and regulations.

the poor the conditions of the dwelling are vicious; the women are worn out by hard toil; nurslings are deprived of mother's breast and care. Illegitimate children suffer most; fortunately their number is gradually decreasing; in 1853-57 it was 11.05 per cent, in 1905 only 8.52 per cent of all births. Natural feeding, however, seems to have diminished. In Berlin in 1885, the infants which had mother milk were 55.2 per cent of all; in 1905 only 31.31 per cent. The diseases of which nurslings die in German-speaking countries are the same as those found elsewhere.

The point of view has radically changed in recent years. Formerly the death of a child was regarded as a merely individual loss and sorrow; now it is seen that the entire nation is concerned, and the problem becomes one of social hygiene, and of politics. The medical men show that a high infant mortality raises the number of births and decreases the intervals between confinements, and this causes physical weakness of the mothers and further defects in offspring. Once it was imagined that a high rate of infant mortality was Nature's method of weeding out the unfit; now it is known that the survivors are not always superior, and that they are injured by the same evil conditions which slew their brothers and sisters. The voice of Nature is raised against a policy of leaving all to mere natural selection.'

Germany has made itself famous for its broad system of amelioration, although still far from its goal. Its cities have developed a vigorous policy in respect to the habitations of working people, provisions for air, light, cleanliness, and abundant supply of good water. Owing to the rapid growth of population and its concentration in cities the difficulties are enormous. Private associations and state authorities have put forth efforts, by education and police control, to reduce the ravages of venereal diseases, which are so dangerous to infancy.

While general improvement in income and in physical conditions is an immense though indirect aid to infant welfare, the nation must also directly protect mothers. From the moment of conception to the time of weaning, the infant is immediately and physiologically dependent on the mother, and whatever injures

'A. Würtz, Säuglingsschutz, Stuttgart, 1910. To this book the writer owes very much.

the mother has some deleterious effect on the child. It has long been known that too prolonged toil exhausts the vitality of girls and adult women so that their children, if not still-born, start life with heavy handicap. Recent legislation has secured for German working women a maximum day of 10 hours. The former weekly maximum of 65 hours is now reduced to 58 hours, with the requirement that on the day before Sundays and festivals the day shall not exceed 8 hours and shall not extend beyond 5 o'clock in the afternoon. This law gives relief to 300,000 of the 1,300,000 factory women. For pregnant women this is an immense gain, and the increased leisure gives a chance for making the little homes more attractive to the men.

The new law secures to all women 11 hours of unbroken rest at night; formerly night work was forbidden only to girls under sixteen years. A girl or woman fully employed in a factory is not permitted to take in additional work to be done at home.

MATERNITY INSURANCE

The loss of customary income, in families where the wages of the wife are necessary to maintain even a low standard of living, brings with it anxiety, distress, depression, and deprivation of necessary food. This loss immediately affects the development of the foetus and the milk supply for the babe. Bachimont found, in the case of women who rested before confinement, an average pregnancy of 269 days, while the period with women who worked up to confinement was only 247 days. Pinard found that the babes of women who left work two or three months before confinement weighed at least 300 grams more at birth than the infants of women who remained at their task to the last hour. When the law prescribes rest before and after confinement it is practically impossible to enforce it when no provision is made for their income during the period of enforced rest. Either savings, charity, or insurance funds must assure support. Savings do not exist, in the case of the very poor families; charity is humiliating and uncertain; only by insurance can working women be made certain of care while they cannot go to the factory. As a matter of fact the pregnant women of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are com