Dole Babies

Harry Hopkins, who has to administer Relief; Henry Morgenthau Jr., who has to pay for it; Messrs. Richberg, Roper, Ickes, Wallace and Franklin Roosevelt, who hope that it will stimulate recovery, are all interested in the dole. So, too, last week was the Census Bureau. Its Dr. Samuel A. Stouffer, on leave from the University of Wisconsin, announced the results of a three-year investigation in Milwaukee into the effect of the dole upon the birthrate. He counted the newborn children of 11,400 families, half on relief, half selfsupporting, but both in similar walks of life. Since some families go on relief because a child is expected, he excluded all babies born nine months or less after their parents went on the relief rolls. His count:

Babies by relief families 1.222 Babies by self-supporting families 904

Inference: a family's expectation of having children increases 35%;* when it goes on the dole. If this 35% increase in the birthrate holds good for the U. S. as a whole, the birthrate of nearly 5,000.000 on relief, instead of being around 17 per 1,000 as it is for the rest of the population, is nearer 23 per 1,000.

Result: some 414.000 dole babies will be born in 1935 or 108.000 more than would otherwise be expected.

*The Milbank Memorial Fund made a similar survey, announced the results last spring.

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