The material for this work is taken from the social histories of 10,000 families which we have gathered in the course of ten years. The social status represented is that usually seen in a large city such as New York, in families in which the earning capacity in prewar times was from ten to eighteen dollars a week, a bare living wage. The nationalities included are approximately:
We were fortunate in having, during the period covered, the same social worker, a woman versed in the various languages, so that the data may be considered fairly even and accurate. The social histories were obtained on special cards,1 on which were noted income, nationality, pregnancies, miscarriages, etc. Of the 10,000 charts of social histories thus obtained, we have analyzed only the first 7,000, partly on account of the stupendous amount of work involved, and also because we believe that the present