The mortality rate among the 1,564 live-born babies studied in Manchester was 165 per 1,000 births, which is considerably higher than the estimated rate for the whole country. Manchester is primarily a textile town, and the textile mills employed 36.3 per cent. of all the fathers of babies born in Manchester during the 12 months covered by the study. Of the fathers, 13.7 per cent. were earning less than $450 per year; 48.5 per cent. less than $650; 22.9 per cent. $850 or more; 6.4 per cent. $1,250 or more. Of the babies with fathers earning less than $450, about 1 in 4 died before it was 12 months old. The great majority of the babies had fathers in the wage group from $450 to $849, and of these about 1 in 6 died. Of the babies whose fathers earned $850 but less than $1,050, 1 in 8 failed to survive. Where the fathers earned $1,050 or more, 1 baby in 16 died in the first year. Where families lived two or more persons per room, the infant death rate was twice as high as where they lived less than one person per room. The babies living in houses occupied by a single family died at the rate of 86.1 per 1,000, but those in tenements occupied by more than six families died at the rate of 236.6 per 1,000. When the mother was a wage earner the baby’s chances of living were less than when she was not. Babies of mothers who had worked at some time during the year before the baby’s birth died at the rate of 199.2 per 1,000, while babies of nonworking mothers died at the rate of 133.9. Babies of mothers employed away from home some time during the year after childbirth while the baby was still alive and under four months old had a rate of 277.3, while babies of mothers not employed during that time had a rate of 122. Babies of foreign-born mothers did not fare so well as babies of native mothers. The differences of rates, however, are only partly accounted for by their lower earnings. The largest foreign element in Manchester is Canadian French, and among them the infant mortality rate, 224 per 1,000 live births, is greater than that among any other group of the population, although their earnings are in general higher than those of other foreigners. Sheer size of family appears to be one factor in this high Canadian-French rate, one-third of their babies being sixth or later in order of birth, while over one-sixth of these mothers had had from 9 to 18 children. These Canadian-French babies in families of 6 or more children died at the rate of 246.2 per 1,000 and the rate rises to 277.2 per 1,000 when only babies ninth or later in order of birth are considered. CHAPTER V MATERNAL MORTALITY AND DISEASES AFFECTED BY PREGNANCY