“We want to know ‘how the other half lives.’” This was said fifteen
years ago, and we are saying it today. But it is the _other_ half that
we now have in mind. Library shelves are filled with books about the one
half. Sociologists have studied it; health officers have examined it;
sanitary boards have considered it; laws have been made to regulate it.
Juvenile courts, protective leagues, visiting nurses’ associations,
social settlements, charity organization societies, have been bringing
us day by day information as to how _that_ half lives. Now we want to
know how the _other_ half lives.
Recently there has been a great investigation of one special phase of
the life of the poor. Great business firms have been asked how certain
sums of their earnings were distributed as wages to the poor, and the
wage-earners have been asked what use they made of these wages. How much
do working girls receive and how much does a working girl need to live
decently? These are the questions that have been asked. “We want to know
more of the life of the working people,” has been the cry.
But wait. Now we want to know how the _other_ half lives: Society is a
whole, not a half. These great questions are questions of society, and
they can not be answered by investigating _half_ of society.
Yes, we want to know about the $2,000,000 that was paid in wages; to
whom it went, and how it was spent, but we also want to know about the
$7,000,000 that was paid in dividends. To whom did _it_ go, and how was
_it_ spent? How much did the dividend receivers need a week on which to
live? Were they judicious in their expenditures? These questions also
ought to be investigated by a commission.
What do we know about the occupations, the health, the morality, the
family life of the very rich?
If we are suspicious that the home life of the children of Mrs.
Zambrowski of Mulberry street is not all that could be desired, we send
a juvenile court officer to investigate. If there is evidence that the
father is not honestly employed, if there is disease in the household,
some officer is on hand to see what is the matter. What do we know of
the home life of the Van Astor children? Is Mr. Van Astor an industrious
bread earner? Are the home conditions of the Van Astor children morally
healthful?
We want to know more about these excursions to Europe. Are they always
cultural? We want to know more about the life of Mrs. Astorbilt in her
Paris home. We want to know more about the employment conditions of the
“Four Hundred.” Perhaps a law should be made in the interests of health
limiting the number of continuous hours spent in certain social
activities. We want to know more about the lives of boys and girls in
wealthy boarding-schools. We desire to find out just how a working girl
spends $8 a week, but we also wish to learn just how the dividend
receiver spends $800 a week. The poor need visiting housekeepers to
instruct them, but may not the wealthy need visiting home-keepers?
The unexplored continent of sociology is the life of the wealthy. It is
to the interest of the health and well-being of society that a careful
and dispassionate study be made of this subject.