POOR-RELIEF, CORRECTION, AND OTHER
WELFARE PROBLEMS
_The purpose of this chapter is to describe the way in which
American communities are dealing with the problems of poverty,
crime, and delinquency._
=Poverty and Pauperism.=—Poverty is one of the very oldest among human
problems; two thousand years ago, in Biblical times, the world was
trying to find a solution for it and it has not ceased to try ever
since. In all ages and in all countries there have been groups of
unfortunate people who, through their own fault or the fault of others,
are not able to provide for their own subsistence. It is to the
condition of such people, whose earnings do not enable them to maintain
the normal standard of living, that we apply the term poverty. Not all
who are poor, therefore, are in poverty, but only those who are so poor
that their health and physical efficiency are being impaired by lack of
earning power. Some of those who are in poverty become dependent upon
private or public charity, and these we call paupers. Pauperism, in
other words, is a condition of dependence upon the agencies of
poor-relief. Many thousands of persons live in poverty, yet are not
paupers. They struggle along, able only to make the barest sort of
living, and often suffer great privations rather than apply for any form
of charity.
=The Extent of Poverty and Pauperism in the United States.=—There are no
accurate figures showing the extent of poverty in the United States.
[Sidenote: The number of paupers in public institutions.] The census of
1920 listed nearly a million persons in charitable institutions of one
sort or another, of whom about one hundred thousand were paupers in
public almshouses. But this census made no computation of the number
receiving poor-relief in their own homes, which must be several times as
large as that in institutions. It would probably be within bounds to say
that five persons out of every hundred in the United States are partly
or wholly dependent upon private or public aid. Probably as many more
are in a condition of poverty, but continue to struggle along without
assistance from others. We may say, therefore, that poverty holds about
ten per cent of the whole population in its iron grip; hence it is no
exaggeration to speak, as social-workers often do, of the “submerged
tenth”.
[Sidenote: Comparison with Europe.]
Compared with other countries, however, this is not an excessive
proportion. In the countries of Europe the percentage of paupers is much
larger. Poverty is usually more widespread in thickly-populated regions
where there are large groups of industrial workers. In London it has
been estimated that at least thirty per cent of the people are below the
poverty line; in New York City the estimate is twenty-five per cent. The
cities everywhere contribute far more than their due proportion to the
impoverished classes. Poverty is least prevalent, as a rule, in the
agricultural districts.[260]
=The Causes of Poverty.=—The causes of poverty are numerous and
complicated but they can all be grouped into two general classes: First,
those which are traceable to the individual, and second, those which are
attributable to the environment in which he lives. These we may
distinguish by calling them _individual_ and _social_ causes.
[Sidenote: 1. Individual causes of poverty.]
Among the individual causes of poverty the most common are illness,
accident, old age, degeneracy, bereavement, intemperance, shiftlessness,
and ignorance. Illness is probably the most important single cause. The
figures compiled by poor-relief organizations show that it is the
immediate reason for at least one-quarter of all the applications which
come to them for assistance, and is a contributory reason in the case of
many more. Accidents which result in either temporary or permanent
incapacity to do full work have also been an important cause of poverty
in the past, but they are no longer so to the same extent in those
states which have made provision for workmen’s insurance (see p. 411).
Old age comes to all in time and there are many thousands who make no
provision for its coming. This class includes many who have worked hard
all their lives, have reared families, and have been useful citizens,
but who have been either unable or unwilling to save. In some European
countries, as has been pointed out, provision is made for them by means
of old age pension systems. Bereavement, particularly the loss by death
of the family’s main support, has been a frequent cause of poverty among
women and children. To some extent this has been alleviated by the
practice of making provision for mothers’ pensions and by the increasing
extent to which men who have dependents are now securing life insurance.
[Sidenote: Mental and moral degeneracy.]
Degeneracy, which is also an important cause of poverty, may be defined
as inherited mental or moral weakness. Feeble-minded parents often
transmit this defect to their children, who start life with a handicap
which they are not usually able to overcome. It has been estimated that
nearly one-half of all the inmates of public institutions are below the
normal standard of mentality. Many years ago a careful study was made of
a certain family—the Jukes—through four generations, great-grandparents,
grandparents, parents, and children. Among seven hundred persons in this
family, beginning with degenerate great-grandparents, no fewer than five
hundred became at some time or other recipients of public poor-relief.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that they also contributed far more
than their due proportion to the prisons and insane asylums.
[Sidenote: Physical handicaps.]
Then, again, some people who are neither mentally nor morally
degenerate, are born with physical handicaps or acquire these handicaps
early in life; such, for instance, are the deaf-mutes, the blind, and
the crippled. They are the ones whom we most commonly meet on the public
streets begging or selling trinkets, or playing some sort of instrument
as an excuse for what is really begging. Intemperance, too, has figured
largely among the causes of poverty during many centuries, but so far as
the United States is concerned it is not likely to do so in the future.
Alcohol is one of the important factors in the problem of poverty which
can be placed under control by the action of society. Shiftlessness,
ignorance, bad habits, and vice are all causes of varying importance,
but in the main they are only immediate causes; the underlying causes
are usually to be found in some mental, moral, or physical defect of the
individual, or they arise from a poor environment.
[Sidenote: 2. The social causes of poverty.]
The social causes of poverty are also numerous. Unemployment is one of
them, and it is in many cases due to no fault of the individual worker.
More often it is the outcome of a serious imperfection in our industrial
organization (see p. 417). The underpayment of the worker, particularly
the underpayment of women and children in industry, has also contributed
to the problem of poverty. It means that the workers are under-nourished
and therefore unable to maintain their normal strength; they are unable
to save anything for use in case of sickness or old age, and hence have
to fall back upon the agencies of private or public assistance whenever
misfortune comes. Minimum wage laws (see p. 416) aim to protect society
from having to pay the penalty which results, both directly and
indirectly, from the underpayment of labor. Unsanitary conditions of
living, bad housing, and overcrowding are causes of poverty—they are
social causes because society creates such conditions and permits them
to continue. Unsanitary conditions lead to illness, and illness results
in unemployment. But they are also, in a sense, the effects of poverty;
they are conditions of life to which, under our present social and
economic organization, the poor are compelled to submit by reason of
their poverty.
Defects in our educational system have been productive of more poverty
than people commonly imagine. It is not without significance that
poverty is always widespread in those countries and those regions where
illiteracy and ignorance are prevalent. Compulsory public education is
one of the greatest measures for the prevention of poverty that the
world has ever devised. [Sidenote: Relation of the school system to
poverty.] While the system of public education in the United States is
exceedingly efficient on the whole, it is nevertheless true that many
thousands of children are growing up without enough education to ensure
them a fair chance of success in life.
Some would also include our immigration policy among the social causes
of poverty. Until recent years these immigrants were permitted to come
in almost unrestricted numbers; they concentrated, for the most part, in
large cities; they contributed to overcrowding and by their competition
for labor forced down the level of wages in unskilled employments. The
causes of poverty, in short, are not all traceable to the faults or
misfortunes of the individual. Society as a whole is responsible for
some of them.[261]
=How We Deal with the Problem of Poverty.=—The public attitude in regard
to the problem of poverty has undergone a marked change during the past
fifty years. For many centuries poverty was looked upon as the result of
human perverseness, the outcome of purely individual causes which were
likely to endure as long as human nature remained the same. [Sidenote:
Older methods of dealing with the poor.] It was taken for granted that
the poor would be with us always; that poverty could not be prevented by
any action on the part of society, and that the only thing to do was to
punish the shiftless while helping the worthy poor by giving them public
and private aid. The measures for the relief of the poor taken by the
governments of various European countries and by most American
communities until comparatively recent years were based upon this
attitude. Those who could work and would not were branded as vagrants
and put in jail. Those who were in poverty through sickness, accident,
old age, degeneracy, intemperance, or other individual causes were taken
into such institutions as hospitals, infirmaries, almshouses, homes for
inebriates, and the like. The people were everywhere encouraged to give
alms to the poor, but the prevention of poverty by organized social
action received little or no attention.
[Sidenote: The modern attitude.]
The public attitude, especially the attitude of the more enlightened
part of the public, has now changed or is changing. We know from a
careful study of the problem that poverty is no more an essential
concomitant of civilized life than were piracy, slavery, bubonic plague,
or universal drunkenness in years now long gone by. Poverty can be
eradicated as these things have been, although not by any means so
easily. The individual causes of poverty, of course, will always be at
work. Old age will continue to come upon mankind, and we can hardly hope
under any circumstances to get rid of sickness and accidents entirely.
But society can at least bring it about that old age, illness, and
accident, not to speak of unemployment and other social causes, will no
longer bring inevitable poverty in their train. Attention is now being
given, therefore, to measures of prevention; and almsgiving has come to
be recognized as a mere makeshift way of dealing with the problem. It is
like trying to put an end to all diseases and to wipe illness off the
face of the earth by merely giving people medicine after they become
sick.
=The Temporary Remedies.=—The only permanent solution for the problem of
poverty is the removal of the underlying causes. This, however, cannot
be accomplished in a day, and in the meantime various measures of
temporary alleviation must be provided by the public authorities and by
private organizations.
[Sidenote: Indoor relief.]
Public provision for the care of the poor takes two forms known
respectively as indoor and outdoor relief. By indoor relief is meant the
care of the poor in institutions maintained by the state, county, or
city. There was a time when paupers of all types were herded together
into the same poorhouse, but it is now the policy to provide, so far as
practicable, different public institutions for the sick, the mentally
defective, the aged, and the young. Hence, in many states we have
hospitals for chronic cases, institutions for the feeble-minded, homes
for the aged, institutions for the care of orphans, schools for the
blind, and so on.
[Sidenote: Outdoor relief.]
By outdoor relief is meant the giving of assistance to the poor in their
own homes. Many years ago this was the more common plan of dealing with
the problem; it still exists in many American communities. People who
are in need apply to the overseers of the poor or to some other public
authority from whom they receive, after proper investigation, such
assistance in the form of food, clothing, fuel, or medicine as they may
urgently require. Some of the larger cities have abandoned altogether
the giving of outdoor relief at the public expense because they have
found this system open to grave abuses. Unless administered with great
care, it encourages shiftlessness and results in the expenditure of
large amounts from the public funds. The tendency nowadays is to leave
outdoor relief to be provided by private organizations although some
communities still take care of the most urgent cases from the public
funds. These private organizations are sometimes connected with the
churches but more often they are entirely non-sectarian, made up of
generous men and women who give both time and money to the work.
Private outdoor relief often leads to indiscriminate almsgiving, thus
lending encouragement to wastefulness and imposture. People who are too
lazy to earn an honest living apply to various organizations for help
and sometimes obtain it from several of them. [Sidenote: The
organization of relief agencies.] To eliminate this overlapping central
bodies known as Charity Organization Societies, or Associated Charities,
or Family Welfare Societies have been formed in many of the larger
American communities. Their function is to serve as a clearing house of
information concerning all applicants for assistance and in other ways
to make the work of the individual organizations more efficient.
=The Permanent Remedies.=—The permanent solution of the problem of
poverty must be sought in comprehensive measures of prevention. Some of
these measures are already being taken in the more progressive states;
others have been proposed and are steadily gaining public support.
[Sidenote: Social insurance.] Insurance against sickness and accident,
minimum wage laws, mothers’ pensions, are already doing their share in
the prevention of poverty. Old age pensions have been established abroad
and in time will doubtless be provided for the American worker.
Insurance against unemployment may be inadvisable (see p. 418) but the
organization of industry can be so improved as to reduce the amount of
unemployment now existing. [Sidenote: Other remedies.] The prohibition
of the liquor traffic has marked an important step in the direction of
reducing poverty. Vocational schools for the deaf, the blind, and the
crippled, are now training these unfortunates in the art of earning
their own living. The enforcement of laws relating to compulsory
education will reduce illiteracy and thus decrease the class from which
poverty secures most of its recruits. Present restrictions upon
immigration, if they are continued, will render more easy the
maintenance of American standards of living among those who toil with
their hands. By the segregation of degenerates in public institutions,
moreover, we can prevent the propagation of degeneracy.[262]
Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions of living are being prevented by
modern city planning and good housing laws.
Now it is doubtful whether all of these measures put together will avail
to wipe out poverty entirely, but if they are vigorously applied the
amount of poverty in the United States will certainly be much reduced.
[Sidenote: The danger of too many remedies.] There is always a danger,
of course, that laws and regulations designed to promote the well-being
of the poor may over-reach themselves, and may result in placing
additional burdens upon the wage-earning classes. Attempts to narrow the
gulf between the rich and the poor by the levying of discriminatory
taxes do not usually succeed; in the end they merely augment the
hardships of the poor. It is customary for sociologists to speak of
poverty as a “social disease” and to assure us that like any other
disease it can be eradicated. That is all very true. But diseases are
not eradicated by striking at the heads of healthy people in order that
they may have a smaller advantage over the sick. Neither will the plague
of poverty be cured by measures which strike at the well-to-do for the
mere reason that they are so much better off than the poor. The poor can
never be made rich by the simple expedient of making the rich poorer.
=The Problem of the Mentally Defective.=—There are various forms of
mental defectiveness, ranging from feeble-mindedness to violent
insanity. The total number of mentally defective persons in the United
States is estimated to exceed half a million. Until relatively recent
years no careful distinction was made between persons afflicted with
different forms of mental trouble; all were treated in much the same
way. [Sidenote: Old and new methods of dealing with the insane.] The
usual plan was to bring them together in large asylums where the
violently insane were kept under close restraint while the “harmless”
inmates were given somewhat greater freedom. This crude method of
dealing with unfortunates who needed medical treatment far more than
they needed restraint and confinement has now been almost everywhere
abandoned, and the treatment of mental defectiveness is being carried on
in accordance with more scientific methods. These scientific methods
involve the careful study and diagnosis of each particular case and the
substitution of medical care for mechanical restraint. In response to
this treatment a considerable proportion of the cases have proved
capable of marked improvement, and sometimes entire recovery. It should
be mentioned, however, that some forms of insanity are not curable by
any known form of scientific treatment. A permanent reduction in the
number of mentally-defective persons can best be achieved by preventing
the transmission of hereditary defects, by the proper treatment of
mental ailments as soon as the first symptoms appear, and by the removal
of two things which have contributed greatly to the spread of insanity
in the past, namely, alcoholism and the drug habit.
=The Problem of Crime.=—A crime is an offence against society. In early
days all offences were regarded as having been committed against
individuals. The person who stole something was looked upon as having
wronged the owner, and the owner was entitled to secure his own redress.
But with the development of organized society there grew up the idea
that the whole community had an interest in the prevention of
wrong-doing, and that wrongs which were ostensibly directed against
single individuals were in reality committed against the whole people.
[Sidenote: Evolution of the criminal law.] So society took upon itself
the responsibility for making laws to protect the rights of individuals,
and for the imposition of punishment whenever these laws are violated. A
crime is an offence against society because it involves some violation
of a law which has been made in the interest of all. An act may
constitute a crime, therefore, without being morally wrong. It is not
morally wrong to park an automobile alongside a hydrant, but it is in
most cities a violation of the law to do so, and punishable in the
courts. The courts enforce the law whatever it is.
=The Classification of Crimes.=—It was formerly the custom to classify
all crimes as treasons, felonies, or misdemeanors. A treason was an
attempt to overthrow the state by rebellion or otherwise; a felony was a
serious offence against persons or property, such as murder or burglary;
while the term misdemeanor was used to include all the less serious
violations of the law, such as selling milk without a license or
disregarding a sign to keep off the grass in the public parks. Nowadays,
however, a more elaborate grouping of crimes is usually made. [Sidenote:
The various types of offences.] This grouping usually includes (_a_)
offences against the public peace and order, such as treason, rioting,
and any obstruction of the officers of the law; (_b_) offences against
the public health and morals, such as bigamy, gambling, the sale of
intoxicants, or the pollution of public water supplies; (_c_) offences
against the person, such as murder, manslaughter, or assault; and (_d_)
offences against property, including burglary, theft, fraud, and so on.
This list of offences does not include such things as breaches of
contract, libel, and failure to pay debts, for these are not crimes but
torts or civil wrongs. They are still regarded as offences against
individuals and not against society. The aggrieved individual brings his
own suit in the courts, and the courts merely act as arbiters to see
that justice is done between man and man.
=The Causes of Crime.=—The causes of crime, like those of poverty, are
both individual and social. [Sidenote: 1. Individual causes of crime.]
Men sometimes take to wrongdoing because they are mentally or morally
defective, having inherited traits of degeneracy. Handicapped by these
defects in making an honest living they often resort to crime at an
early age. Bad training in the home, habits of truancy acquired during
school age, and aversion to work are all individual causes which promote
criminality. [Sidenote: 2. Social causes of crime.] The social causes
include poverty, the influence of bad companions, the lack of efficiency
on the part of police in cities, the undue leniency of the courts in
some cases, and the difficulty which even honest men sometimes encounter
in obeying the host of laws which our lawmakers are turning out every
year. It is significant that crimes against property, such as burglary
and theft become less frequent when the country is prosperous and more
numerous in times of depression when so many persons are out of
employment. Among illiterates the proportion of offenders against the
law is very high, so that the failure to enforce rigidly the laws
relating to school attendance must also be set down as one of the social
causes of criminality.
=The Extent of Crime in the United States.=—More than half a million
persons are sent to jails or reformatories in the United States every
year. The number of those who are let off with the payment of fines is
much larger. Even these two figures put together do not give us the
number of crimes committed, however, for it is probable that the
majority of crimes do not result in the detection of the guilty person,
and many minor crimes are not reported to the police at all. The cost of
maintaining police systems for the prevention of crime, courts for the
trial of accused persons, and prisons for the incarceration of the
convicted, is about a billion dollars per year, or about as much as the
country spends upon education.
[Sidenote: Are crimes on the increase?]
Whether the number of crimes, taking the country as a whole, is
increasing more rapidly than the growth of population we do not know.
This is because the figures in some states are not carefully or
uniformly kept. But crime has been increasing in the large cities during
the past few decades. This is partly because the crowded cities afford
unusual opportunities to escape detection and partly because police
inefficiency or corruption has encouraged the commission of crimes with
impunity. The number of crimes committed in the United States is much
greater, in proportion to population, than in any of the chief European
countries.[263]
=The Theory of Punishment.=—Among primitive people punishment was
regarded as a retaliation or vengeance, but as civilization developed
this notion gave way to one in which punishment was looked upon as a
means of warning other people from committing similar crimes. In either
case the feeling was that punishment ought to be severe. [Sidenote: The
old severity.] Severity, rather than certainty of punishment was
depended upon to deter people from committing crimes. A century ago in
England, for example, men were put to death for stealing small sums of
money and were sent to jail for long terms when they failed to pay their
debts. But even this severity of punishment did not achieve the desired
end, for crimes were relatively more numerous in England a century ago
than they are today.
[Sidenote: What is the purpose of punishment?]
In due course the public intelligence was led to the conclusion that
_certainty_ of detection and punishment, rather than severity, was the
best way of securing the observance of the laws.[264] Since the prime
object of punishment is neither to visit the wrath of society upon the
offender, nor yet to reform him (although this is an incidental object),
but to protect the people against the commission of crimes, it follows
that the penalty should be no more severe than is necessary to achieve
this object. Hence there are gradations of punishment, each adjusted to
the degree in which the offence constitutes a challenge to the
well-being of society. If murder is more severely penalized than
manslaughter, it is not because the victim suffers more in one case than
in the other. He has lost his life in either case, and no penalty can
restore it. It is not the atrociousness of a crime that makes it
serious, but the degree of danger to the whole community involved.
=Prisons and Prison Reform.=—Until a generation ago the treatment of
prisoners in all parts of the country was inhuman. Offenders of all
types, old and young, were thrown together into the same institutions.
They were brutally treated by those in charge, confined in narrow, damp
cells, given poor food to eat and rarely set to work at any useful
employment. Even yet these conditions have not wholly disappeared from
every part of the United States. But the movement for the reform of
prisons and prison methods has made notable progress during the past
twenty years.
[Sidenote: The main features of prison reform:]
The main features in prison reform may be briefly stated. [Sidenote: 1.
Classification of prisoners.] First, in point of importance, is the
classifying of prisoners and the sending of each class to a special
institution instead of herding them all together in one county jail.
Some prisoners are hardened criminals and not easy to reform. Others are
first offenders, persons who have never been previously convicted. With
humane treatment and the opportunity to learn a trade these prisoners
can often be sent out into the world, when their terms expire, with the
likelihood of their becoming good citizens. There are others who also
need to be segregated, such as juvenile offenders and those who are
mentally defective. Prison reform involves the separation and special
treatment of each class.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
JUSTICE AND MERCY. By A. R. Willett
_Copyright by A. R. Willett. Reproduced by permission of the County
Commissioners, Mahoning County, Ohio, from a photograph by the
Youngstown Art Engraving Company._
]
JUSTICE AND MERCY
By A. R. Willett
From a mural decoration in the Mahoning County Court
House, Youngstown, Ohio.
There is enough realism in this picture to obviate
the need of much interpretation. The prosecuting
attorney, with the book of the law in his hand, asks
that judgment be given. He is in no angry mood, but
is merely performing a stern duty. To the right, a
wife and mother pleads that justice be tempered with
mercy.
“And earthly power doth then show likest God’s,
When mercy seasons justice.”
—The Merchant of Venice.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Sidenote: 2. The new discipline.]
Another feature of prison reform is the humanizing of discipline. It has
been the general custom in prisons to punish any serious breach of the
rules by placing the offender in solitary confinement for days or even
weeks. Better results are now being obtained by giving privileges to
those prisoners who behave properly and taking these privileges away
from all who do not. This plan involves the grading of prisoners
according to their conduct, the best-behaved men being placed in the
first class and allowed various privileges. A system of marks and
demerits is used to determine the grade of each prisoner. Solitary
confinement is reserved for the incorrigibles only.[265]
[Sidenote: 3. Internal reforms.]
Along with the system of classifying and grading prisoners, a general
betterment of internal prison conditions has been taking place. It is
now generally recognized that all prisoners should be kept employed at
useful labor, that wherever practicable those who have not already
learned a trade should be taught one during their prison terms, that
those who are illiterate should learn to read and write, that the labor
of prisoners should not be farmed out to employers as has so often been
the case in the past, that prisoners should not be subjected to
unnecessary humiliation, and that they should be given such measure of
self-government as can be safely entrusted to them. Outdoor employment
on state farms and state roads is replacing, to a considerable extent,
the activities of the prison workshop.
=Indeterminate Sentences and the Parole System.=—Two marked improvements
in correctional methods have been introduced by the use of indeterminate
sentences and releases on parole. The old plan was to sentence every
prisoner for a fixed term, two years, ten years, or some such period.
The convict then served out his full term, no more and no less,
irrespective of his behavior. This plan is now being abolished. Instead
it is becoming the general practice to make the sentences indeterminate,
as for example, not less than two nor more than five years. By good
behavior the prisoner is then enabled to secure his release when the
minimum period has expired. This method is particularly desirable in the
case of young offenders who are sent to reformatories. The parole system
is also used as a means of encouraging good behavior and reformation on
the part of prisoners. Where this system is in operation the prison
officials are permitted to release prisoners, even before their minimum
terms have expired, upon promise to give society no further trouble. If
the paroled prisoner should violate this promise, he is brought back to
finish his term. It has been found that very few paroled prisoners fail
to keep their promises.
=The Probation System.=—The number of persons committed to prison has
been considerably reduced by the use of probation. In the case of first
offences, where the crime is not serious, it is now the usual practice
in many courts to place the offender on probation for a given period.
This means that instead of being taken to jail he is placed under the
surveillance of a probation officer. These probation officers are
attached to the courts; their duty is to help probationers, keep a
watchful eye on them, and report from time to time how they are getting
along.[266]
=The Problem of Juvenile Delinquency.=—Great progress has been made
during the past twenty-five years in the treatment of juvenile
offenders. Persons under eighteen years of age were formerly dealt with
by the regular criminal tribunals; in many of the larger cities they are
now brought before a special Juvenile Court. Where such courts do not
exist it is the usual practice to have juvenile cases brought before the
regular court at a special session. The offenders, in serious cases, are
usually sent to reform schools or other institutions where vocational
instruction is given. For minor offences, particularly where there is no
previous record of appearance in the juvenile court, the offender is
placed in charge of a probation officer. The purpose of the probation
system is to secure the reformation of the offenders, not to enforce
punishment.[267]
[Sidenote: Why divorces are becoming more common.]
=The Divorce Problem.=—The steady increase in the number of divorces has
tended to make juvenile delinquency more difficult to handle; in other
respects also it constitutes a social problem of the first
magnitude.[268] Several economic and social changes have tended to make
divorces more common. The development of industry is one of them. Before
modern industry afforded employment for women, the household was almost
the sole center of feminine activity. But under present economic
conditions most women find no great difficulty in earning their own
living and this has engendered a feeling of self-reliance. Mention may
likewise be made of the fact that the rights and privileges of women
have been more strongly stressed by law and custom during recent years.
Women have been given the legal right to own property, to vote, and to
hold office. These things have helped to develop a spirit of
independence. Social conditions have also changed. In the old days men
who divorced their wives and women who divorced their husbands were
frowned upon by their neighbors, but this weapon of social ostracism has
been gradually losing its power because society has come to recognize
the justice of granting divorces for adequate reasons.
[Sidenote: Can the causes of divorces be reduced?]
=How May the Situation be Remedied?=—In seeking a remedy for any
political, social, or economic evil we must first turn to the causes.
The increase in the number of divorces has been due in considerable
measure, as already pointed out, to the growth of industrial
opportunities for women and to the readiness with which society
tolerates the granting of divorces. It is also due, in some degree, to
the conditions of life in large cities where the nervous strain caused
by over-crowding makes it more difficult to meet the complex domestic
problems patiently. It is significant that divorces are much more common
in the large cities than in the rural districts. In part it is due also
to the lax divorce laws of some states, where the courts are permitted
to grant divorces on the flimsiest pretexts, and to the absence of
sufficiently strict regulations designed to prevent hasty marriages.
[Sidenote: Some specific remedies.]
Some of these causes are hard to remedy. The economic independence of
women is a new condition which cannot be changed. Some progress has been
made in various cities of the country by the establishment of special
tribunals known as Courts of Domestic Relations whose function it is to
adjust family quarrels. These courts have proved their value by keeping
many cases out of the divorce courts. It has been suggested that we
ought to amend the national constitution so as to provide that no
divorces shall be granted except by the federal courts. This would make
the rules uniform throughout the United States and prevent the securing
of divorces on trivial grounds. A proposal for such an amendment is now
being considered by Congress. Meanwhile some of the states have come to
the conclusion that a check should be placed upon hasty marriages and
have consequently made laws requiring that persons intending to be
married shall file notice of their intention a certain number of days
before the marriage takes place. These various remedies are good enough
so far as they go, but the only permanent and effective remedy is the
education of public opinion to a point where it will use its influence
to check the stream of divorces. Social ostracism is a powerful weapon
in the hands of any community that wishes to use it. The immediate need
is to educate the American people in the homes, in the schools, and in
the churches, so that they may appreciate the gravity of the problem and
insist upon its being properly solved.
General References
E. T. TOWNE, _Social Problems_, pp. 285-307 (Poor Relief); pp. 184-207
(Mental Defectives); pp. 208-234 (Crime and Correction);
H. R. BURCH and S. H. PATTERSON, _American Social Problems_, pp. 200-250
(Poor Relief); pp. 271-288 (Mental Defectives); pp. 237-270 (Crime and
Correction);
CHARLES A. ELLWOOD, _Sociology and Modern Social Problems_, pp. 299-325
(Poor Relief); pp. 326-353 (Crime and Correction);
A. G. WARNER, _American Charities_, especially pp. 36-63;
C. R. HENDERSON, _Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Classes_,
especially pp. 1-39;
F. H. WINES, _Punishment and Reformation_, especially pp. 121-132 (The
Reformation of the Criminal);
MAURICE PARMELEE, _Poverty and Social Progress_, pp. 168-187.
Group Problems
=1. The causes of poverty and how we may get rid of them.= Relative
importance of the various causes in your own state and community.
Analyze each of these causes and ascertain what measures have been taken
to deal with each. Study the experience of foreign countries with
old-age pensions and unemployment allowances. Note the effect, if any,
of workmen’s insurance, mothers’ pensions, and minimum wage laws in
various American states. Suggest further steps for removing the
fundamental causes of poverty. =References=: E. T. TOWNE, _Social
Problems_, pp. 290-301; H. R. BURCH and S. H. PATTERSON, _American
Social Problems_, pp. 205-216; E. T. DEVINE, _Misery and its Causes_,
pp. 1-50; ROBERT HUNTER, _Poverty_, pp. 1-65; W. H. DAWSON, _Social
Insurance_, _passim_.
=2. The care of dependent children.= =References=: A. G. WARNER,
_American Charities_, pp. 220-228; C. R. HENDERSON, _Dependent,
Defective, and Delinquent Classes_, pp. 98-120; G. B. MANGOLD, _Child
Problems_, pp. 293-345.
=3. Prison reform: how far should it be carried?= =References=: E. H.
WINES, _Punishment and Reformation_, pp. 312-363; T. M. OSBORNE, _Within
Prison Walls_, pp. 24-58; _Ibid._, _Society and Prisons_, pp. 185-235;
C. R. HENDERSON, _The Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Classes_, pp.
276-307.
=4. The divorce problem in its social and economic aspects.= Early
history of the problem. The spread of divorce in the United States.
Comparison with other countries. Causes of divorce. Relative importance
of these causes. Effects on family organization. Effects upon the
children concerned. Economic results of divorce. The possible remedies.
Probable effectiveness of these remedies. Conclusions. =References=: C.
A. ELLWOOD, _Sociology and Modern Social Problems_, pp. 147-166; W. F.
WILLCOX, _The Divorce Problem_, _passim_; J. P. LICHTENBERGER, _Divorce;
A study in social causation_ (Columbia University Studies in History,
Economics, and Public Law, Vol. XXXV, No. 3, pp. 52-96, 151-171); J. Q.
DEALEY, _The Family in its Sociological Aspects_, pp. 73-108; United
States Bureau of the Census, _Report for 1910_ (See _Abstract_,
_Sections on Marital Conditions_); H. BOSANQUET, _The Family_, pp.
260-314; W. GOODSELL, _The Family as a Social and Educational
Institution_, pp. 456-496.
Short Studies
1. =The treatment of the poor in earlier days.= THOMAS MACKAY, _Public
Relief of the Poor_, pp. 35-68.
2. =Unemployment as a cause of poverty.= E. T. DEVINE, _Misery and its
Causes_, pp. 113-146.
3. =Old-age pensions abroad.= W. H. DAWSON, _Social Insurance in
Germany_, pp. 1-21.
4. =The problem of the deaf and the blind.= E. T. TOWNE, _Social
Problems_, pp. 161-181.
5. =Poor relief organizations in the United States.= C. R. HENDERSON,
_Modern Methods of Charity_, pp. 380-451.
6. =The problem of the mental defectives.= H. R. BURCH and S. H.
PATTERSON, _American Social Problems_, pp. 271-288.
7. =Theories of crime and punishment.= T. N. CARVER, _Sociology and
Social Progress_, pp. 654-673.
8. =The work of Jeremy Bentham.= A. V. DICEY, _The Relation Between Law
and Public Opinion in England_, pp. 167-209.
9. =Prison self-government.= F. H. WINES, _Punishment and Reformation_,
pp. 364-412.
10. =Fundamental factors in the prevention of crime.= F. H. WINES,
_Punishment and Reformation_, pp. 413-461.
11. =Juvenile courts.= BERNARD FLEXNER and R. N. BALDWIN, _Juvenile
Courts and Probation_, pp. 12-78; T. D. ELIOT, _The Juvenile Court and
the Community_, pp. 1-41.
Questions
1. What is the difference between poverty and pauperism? Has the
distinction any importance?
2. Place the individual causes of poverty in what seems to you to be
their order of consequence and give your reasons for so placing them.
3. What is meant by the minimum standard of living? Make an estimate of
what it costs to maintain this minimum standard in your own community at
the present time.
4. To what extent are overcrowding and unsanitary conditions the _cause_
of poverty and to what extent are they the effect?
5. What are the advantages and the disadvantages of private poor relief
organizations? In what way may the disadvantages be overcome?
6. In what ways are poverty and a poor educational system related?
7. Why is it desirable to separate the different types of mental
defectives?
8. What is the difference between crimes and torts? Which of the
following are crimes and which are not: telling a falsehood; blasphemy;
throwing rubbish in the streets; refusing to obey the orders of a
policeman; building a house on another man’s land; ringing in a false
alarm; telling false stories about a neighbor; playing ball on Sunday?
Can you make a classification of crimes apart from that given in the
text?
9. Place the causes of crime in what seems to you to be their order of
importance. Compare this with the answer to Question 2.
10. Explain the difference between indeterminate sentence, parole, and
probation.
11. Make a list of prison reforms which meet your approval. What could
you do, as a citizen, to secure the adoption of these reforms.
12. Why are juvenile courts desirable? What disposition do they make of
cases which come before them? What are the duties of a probation
officer?
Topics for Debate
1. The public authorities should assume all responsibility for poor
relief and do away with private charity organizations altogether.
2. County jails should be abolished and all prisoners sent to state or
federal institutions.
3. The Osborne plan of prison self-government should be adopted
throughout the country.
-----
Footnote 260:
An exception to this must be made in the case of the negro population
of the South. The amount of poverty among the Southern negroes is
large, although most of them live in rural communities.
Footnote 261:
Poverty, in a way, reproduces itself. Some years ago a New York social
worker gave the following rather cogent description of the way in
which one generation passes its poverty on to the next. “A child,
reared in a poor home, is taken out of school and sent to work at an
early age. He drudges away, brings home every cent of his pay, is
allowed to keep little or none of it, and gets no fun out of life.
After a while he gets tired of this; he meets some girl who has been
brought up in the same way; they get married; but neither of them has
saved any money nor has the slightest idea of how to manage a home.
They rent a small flat, buy some furniture on the installment plan,
and then find that they are not able to pay for it. They get into debt
and when either falls sick or the husband is out of work there is
nothing to eat. When children come they grow up on improper
nourishment; they are slapped in the face and scolded at all hours;
they get no home training and very little schooling; as soon as they
are able to earn a few dollars a week they are hauled out of school
and put to work—and so history just repeats itself.”
Footnote 262:
The marriage of feeble-minded or other mentally defective persons
ought to be prevented, for the results of such marriages are bad for
the whole community. They help to fill the poorhouses, the asylums,
and the jails. There are some who believe that the government ought to
go further and lend its influence towards the promotion of greater
care in determining the marriage of persons who are not mentally
defective. Marriage, as has been shown in an earlier chapter, is the
basis of the home and hence the foundation of the whole social order.
It is an institution of exceedingly great importance to the well-being
of society. Yet we leave the whole thing to the caprice of
individuals, or their passing fancy, or to the accidents of chance
friendships. Whatever may be the inspiration to marriage it can truly
be said that many unions of man and woman contribute nothing to the
well-being of present or future society. Is it right that an
institution of such importance to the human race, both present and
future, should be so little controlled by law, by custom, or by public
opinion and so largely left to the discretion of individuals? Can the
race be improved in that way? Beyond preventing the marriage of
mentally degenerate persons is there any further action that society
ought to take?
Footnote 263:
Many explanations are offered for this. We are a relatively new
country, with a population made up of many races. Court procedure is
slow and cumbrous; it takes a long time to punish offenders, and they
have a fair chance of escaping punishment altogether. Police have been
under the control of politicians and have been lax in enforcing the
laws. We have emphasized the idea of liberty so strongly that it has
benefited even the criminal. We have not made punishment certain
enough or severe enough to deter people from evil-doing. All these
excuses have some force, no doubt, but do they fully account for our
poor showing in comparison with other countries?
Footnote 264:
The reformer who first educated the public to this doctrine was Jeremy
Bentham, an English writer on social topics who lived in the early
years of the nineteenth century.
Footnote 265:
The most conspicuous figure in this branch of prison reform during
recent years is Mr. Thomas Mott Osborne, who was for a time in charge
of the state prison at Auburn, N. Y. Mr. Osborne entirely abolished
the old system of discipline and established a scheme of
self-government among the prisoners. But public opinion was not quite
ready for such a radical experiment as Mr. Osborne inaugurated, and
his work was bitterly criticised in many quarters, although it was
commended in others. In the midst of the controversy he gave up his
post and his successor did not continue his policy.
Footnote 266:
A good many people are beginning to wonder whether the reaction
against the old-fashioned methods of dealing with offenders has not
been carried too far. Persons charged with crime are now given a fair
trial with liberal opportunities for appeal. When convicted they are
frequently given indeterminate sentences and then, after a short term
of confinement, are released on parole. In prison they are well
housed, properly fed, given various privileges, provided with motion
picture entertainments, and given other forms of recreation. The
complaint is made that we have made the path of the transgressor
altogether too easy and that the sort of punishment which is now meted
out to offenders is inadequate to serve as a deterrent to crime. The
increase in crime, particularly in the larger American cities, is by
some attributed to this leniency of treatment.
Footnote 267:
One of the first of these courts, and the best known of them all, is
the Juvenile Court of Denver, Colorado, which was for some years
presided over by Judge Ben B. Lindsey. For a time the success of this
court seemed to be remarkable, for Judge Lindsey possessed the knack
of getting wayward boys to tell him the truth; but in his zeal for
giving them a chance to reform he appeared to many citizens of Denver
to be unduly lenient. The Juvenile Court was retained, but another
judge was put in charge of it.
Footnote 268:
In number of divorces the United States, unhappily, leads the world.
More divorces are granted each year in this country than in all other
civilized countries put together. This is one of the things which
gives us no occasion for boasting, because it points to a serious
weakening in the stability and strength of the family as a social
unit. Not only is the number of divorces very large, but it is rapidly
increasing year by year. Fifty years ago the number per annum in the
United States was only about twenty thousand; now it is over one
hundred and twenty thousand. On the average there was one divorce for
every thirty marriages in 1870; today the ratio is one in ten. At the
present rate of increase it has been estimated that by 1950 no fewer
than one-fourth of all marriages will be terminated by divorce, and if
the same condition of affairs should continue until the end of the
twentieth century, one-half of all the marriages would eventuate in
that way. This would indeed be an ominous outlook were it not that
conditions are likely, sooner or later, to undergo a change. When a
social problem becomes very serious, as this one is now becoming, it
is the habit of society to seek out and apply appropriate remedies.