As regards infant mortality, there seems to be no doubt that the rate is high for Chile, a fact surprising in view of the healthful climate and abundance of good food produced in the country. Santiago province registered during 1919 a death rate of children under one year of 37 per cent, nine thousand dying out of twenty-four thousand born. Many other towns registered high mortality rates, but inside this figure. Of these same 24,000 babies, 10,000 were born out of wedlock.
The two sets of figures no doubt have relation to each other, but it should be said at once that large numbers of the children officially registered illegitimate are only officially so regarded. Civil marriages only are recognised by Chilean law, and if this ceremony is omitted the couple are officially unmarried although a priest may have united them.
In the country districts, distances are far and marriage fees no light matter to an agricultural population; many stories are told of young couples making a long journey to the nearest office where a wedding may be performed, finding it shut, and returning to set up house without being able to make another attempt at matrimony. The clergy are accused, perhaps without sufficient reason, of setting their faces against the civil marriage, and there was certainly a period in Chile, when the laws were first enforced, when devout children of the Church who refused to go through the official form were forbidden the religious ceremony, and marriages amongst the more obstinate circles practically ceased.
With regard to mortality, no explanation can excuse the loss of so large a part of the precious life blood of the country. One of the reasons is certainly to be looked for in the economic independence of many women in Chile. The woman wage-earner, of whom there is a larger number than in most Latin-American countries, is not always disposed to risk permanent association with an unsatisfactory mate—for divorce is scarcely known in Chile; and where no special social disability results, she prefers freedom. The whole question is one in which the future of Chile is concerned, and attracting the attention of thoughtful Chileans, has called for better housing regulations and schemes for the education of young mothers in infant care. A group of the admirable Club de Señoras, the characteristically Chilean association of wealthy, forceful and intellectual women of Santiago, is working towards the solution of a serious social problem.
Through the force of economic circumstance, the question of the employment of women is not one which is likely to be reconsidered in Chile.
Large groups of men are drawn to isolated camps in the copper and nitrate fields, and there is a resulting tendency for women in the other regions to take up work in factories, public services, etc.
It was the War of the Pacific that brought women into the employ of the street-car companies in Valparaiso and Santiago, for with the men absent in the army there were gaps in the ranks of workers. When the men returned their female supplanters refused to give up their berths, and remained victors. One feels sympathy with their spirited attitude, and, despite the unlovely dress imposed by the German tramway owners in early days (which includes the apron of a hausfrau) they make a generally good impression. It is doubtful whether such work is well suited to women; the hours are long—the old (now altered) time schedule kept certain women at work as conductors for fourteen hours a day—and the strain is plainly great upon feminine endurance.
Employment in the Chilean post-offices is not within the same category, but one becomes in South America so well accustomed to the general and graceful habit of service to women that a certain mental adjustment is required before one becomes inured to receiving service from them. If the far-famed Chilean politeness, a genial flame of nation-wide brightness, suffers an occasional eclipse, it is almost invariably due to the widespread employment of women.
PROVINCES AND POPULATION OF CHILE
| Province | Departments | Area in Sq. Kilometres | Population, Census of December, 1920 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tacna | Tacna, Arica, Tarata | 23,306 | 38,902 |
| Tarapacá | Tarapacá, Pisagua | 43,220 | 100,533 |
| Antofagasta | Antofagasta, Tocopilla, Taltal | 120,183 | 172,330 |
| Atacama | Copiapó, Chañaral, Freirina, Vallenar | 79,531 | 48,413 |
| Coquimbo | La Serena, Elqui, Ovalle, Coquimbo, Combarbalá, Illapel | 36,509 | 160,256 |
| Aconcagua | San Felipe, Petorca, Putaendo, La Ligua, Los Andes | 14,000 | 116,914 |
| Valparaiso | Valparaiso, Quillota, Limache, Casablanca | 4,598 | 320,398 |
| Santiago | Santiago, La Victoria, Melipilla, San Antonio | 15,260 | 685,358 |
| O’Higgins | Rancagua, Cachapoal, Maipo | 5,617 | 118,591 |
| Colchagua | San Fernando, Caupolicán | 9,973 | 166,342 |
| Curicó | Curicó, Santa Cruz, Vichuquén | 7,885 | 108,148 |
| Talca | Talca, Lontué, Curepto | 10,006 | 133,957 |
| Maule | Cauquenes, Constitución, Chanco, Itatá | 7,281 | 113,231 |
| Linares | Linares, Loncomilla, Parral | 10,279 | 119,284 |
| Ñuble | Chillán, San Carlos, Bulnes, Yungay | 9,050 | 170,425 |
| Concepción | Concepción, Coelemu, Talcahuano, Puchacai, Lautaro, Rere | 8,579 | 247,611 |
| Arauco | Lebu, Arauco, Cañete | 5,668 | 60,233 |
| Bio-Bio | La Laja, Nascimiento, Mulchen | 13,863 | 107,072 |
| Malleco | Angol, Collipulli, Traiguen, Mariluán | 8,555 | 121,429 |
| Cautín | Temuco, Imperial, Llaima | 16,524 | 193,628 |
| Valdivia | Valdivia, Villarica, La Unión, Rio Bueno | 23,285 | 175,141 |
| Llanquihue | Llanquihue, Osorno, Carelmapu | 90,066 | 137,206 |
| Chiloé | Ancud, Quinchao, Castro | 18,074 | 110,331 |
| Territory of Magallanes | 169,251 | 28,960 | |
| Total Chilean Territory | 750,572 | 3,754,723 | |