POVERTY AND PAUPERISM
While the many social problems arising from the presence in society of
abnormal or socially unadjusted classes, namely, the dependent,
defective, and delinquent classes, cannot be discussed in this book
adequately, yet they must be briefly noticed in order to correlate them
with other social problems, and even more in order to call the attention
of the student to the vast literature which exists concerning these
problems.
Definitions of Poverty and Pauperism.--Poverty is a relative term,
difficult to define, but as generally employed in sociological writings
at the present it means that economic and social state in which persons
have not sufficient income to maintain health and physical efficiency.
All who do not receive a sufficient income to maintain the minimum
standard of living necessary for efficiency are known as the "poor," or
are said to live below the poverty line.
Pauperism, on the other hand, is the state of legal dependence in which
a person who is unable or unwilling to support himself receives relief
from public sources. This is, however, legal pauperism. The word as
popularly used has come to mean a degraded state of willing dependence.
A pauper in this popular sense is a person unwilling to support himself
and who becomes a social parasite.
Poverty is closely related to dependence or pauperism, because it is
frequently the anteroom, so to speak, to pauperism, although only a
small proportion of those who live in poverty actually become dependent
in any one year.
The Extent of Poverty and Pauperism in the United States.--The census
reports showed that in the year 1904 there were about 500,000 dependents
in institutions in the United States. While the number who received
relief outside of institutions from public and private sources is not
known, it is certain that it is many times the total of those in
institutions. It is generally estimated that about five per cent of our
population are recipients of some sort of charitable relief in a single
year. In our large cities the number who receive relief from public and
private sources, even in average years, is very much higher. In New
York apparently the number who receive relief in an average year reaches
fourteen per cent, while in Boston the number who receive relief has
reached as high as twenty per cent in a single year. It seems probable,
therefore, that taking the country as a whole nearly five per cent of
our population have to have some sort of help every year. That would
make the number who received relief in 1904 about 4,000,000, and
probably this is not an excessive estimate. Upon the basis of these and
other known facts Mr. Robert Hunter has estimated that the number of
people in the United States living below the poverty line is about
10,000,000 in years of average prosperity. If negroes are included in
this estimate of those below the poverty line, it is certainly not
excessive. Probably 10,000,000, or fourteen per cent of our population,
understates rather than overstates the number of persons in the United
States who live upon such a low standard that they fail to maintain
physical and mental efficiency.
Moreover, investigations in the countries of Europe show that the
estimate of fourteen per cent of our population living in poverty is far
from excessive. Mr. Charles Booth, in his _Life and Labor of the
People of London_, says that about thirty per cent of the population
of London live below the poverty line, and Mr. B.S. Rowntree found in
the English City of York about the same proportion. While poverty is
more prevalent in the old world than in the United States, it would seem
that in view of our large negro population it is evidently not excessive
to estimate the proportion of our people living in poverty at about
fifteen per cent.
Moreover, when we extend our view in history we find that poverty has
been oftentimes in the past even much more prevalent than it is at
present. This question of poverty is, in other words, a world-old
question and is intimately bound up with the question of material
civilization--that is, man's conquest of nature--and with social
organization,--the relations of men to one another. At certain times in
history certain institutions like slavery have either obviated or
concealed poverty, and particularly its extreme expressions, in
dependence and legal pauperism. Nevertheless we can regard these
questions of poverty and pauperism as practically existing in all
civilizations and in all ages. This is not saying, however, that modern
poverty and pauperism may not have certain peculiar foundations in
modern social and industrial conditions. It is only saying that it is
useless to search wholly for the causes of poverty in conditions that
are peculiar to the modern world, because poverty and pauperism are not
peculiarly modern problems.
The Genesis of the Depressed Classes.--So complex a problem, it might be
said at once, cannot manifestly have a simple explanation, yet this has
been the mistake of many social thinkers of the past. They have sought
some single simple explanation of human misery, and particularly in its
form of economic distress or poverty. Malthus, as we have already seen,
attributed all human misery to the fact that population tends to
increase more rapidly than food supply, and that it is the pressure of
population upon food which sufficiently explains poverty in human
society. Karl Marx offered an equally sweeping explanation when he
attributed all poverty to the fact that labor is not paid a sufficient
wage; that the capitalist appropriates an unjust share of the product of
labor, leaving to the laborer just enough to maintain existence and
reproduce. Henry George in the same spirit, in his _Progress and
Poverty_, attributed all poverty to one cause,--the landlord's
appropriation of the unearned increment in land values. There is, of
course, some truth in all of these sweeping generalizations, but it must
be said that there is not sufficient in any of them to stand the test of
concrete investigation; rather these men have made the mistake of
attempting to explain a very complex social phenomenon in terms of a
single set of causes, which, as we have already seen, has been the bane
of social science in the past. Even the theory of evolution itself
fails to explain, as ordinarily stated, the genesis of the depressed
classes in human society. It may explain it in part, however. As we
have already seen, biological variations are always found in
individuals, making some naturally superior, some naturally inferior,
and in the struggle for existence we know that the inferior are more
liable to go down; they are less apt to maintain a place in society, and
hence more readily fall into the depressed classes. Many well-endowed
persons, however, also fall into the dependent classes through accidents
and causes inherent in our social organization but in no way natural.
Thus, owing to our industrial system and to our laws of property,
inheritance, and the like, it often happens that a superior person
through sickness or other accident gets caught in a mesh of causes which
bring him down to the dependent classes, and on the other hand inferior
individuals, through inheritance or "social pull," oftentimes enjoy a
very large economic surplus all their lives. It may be admitted,
however, that slight defects in personal character or ability enter into
practically all cases of dependence. This is more apt to be the case
also in a progressive society like our own, where rising standards of
efficiency make the economic struggle more severe all the time.
Formerly, for example, any employee could drink and retain his position,
but now the drinker quickly loses his position in many industries and
gives place to the sober man. Oftentimes, however, such defects that
give rise to dependence are not inherent but are produced by social
conditions themselves, like faulty education, bad surroundings, and the
like. Through the improvement of social conditions, therefore, there is
no doubt that much of the present poverty of the civilized world can be
wiped out. This is not saying, however, that poverty and dependence will
ever be wholly eliminated. Probably, no matter how ideal social
conditions might be, even under the most just social organization, there
would be some accidents and variations in individuals which would
produce a condition of dependence. Moreover, the elimination of poverty
and pauperism is not so simple as some suppose. It is not wholly a
question of the improvement of social conditions; it also involves the
control of physical heredity, because many of the principal defects that
give rise to dependence are inherent in heredity. But man can control to
some extent even the birth of the inferior or unfit classes. This may
seem, however, so far in the future that it is idle to discuss it,
although, as we shall see, society is undoubtedly taking steps to
prevent the propagation of the unfit. In the meantime, however, so long
as humanity progresses through natural selection we shall have poverty,
to some extent at least, no matter how much industrial and social
conditions may be improved. Yet without the control of physical heredity
or the substitution of artificial for natural selection, poverty can be
undoubtedly greatly lessened, and it is the rational aim of applied
social science to discover how this may be done. It would seem that the
existence of 10,000,000 persons in the United States living below the
poverty line cannot be justified upon either moral or economic grounds;
that it represents a great waste of human life and human resources, and
that much of the social maladjustment which this poverty is an
expression of might easily yield to wisely instituted remedial measures.
If the social maladjustment which is undoubtedly the cause of the bulk
of modern poverty were done away with, it is safe to say that it would
be reduced to less than one third of its present dimensions.
The Concrete Causes of Poverty.--It is necessary to inquire somewhat
more minutely into the concrete conditions, social and individual, which
give rise to poverty and dependence. Manifestly the poor do not
constitute any single class in society. All classes, in a sense, are
represented among the poor, and the causes of poverty which are manifest
will depend very greatly upon the class of the poor that is studied.
If, for example, we should study the causes of dependence among
defective classes, naturally personal defects of various sorts would be
emphasized. Again, if we should study almshouse paupers, we should
expect to find the causes of their dependence different from the causes
of the temporary dependence of those who are dealt with outside of
institutions and largely by private societies, especially the charity
organization societies of large cities. It is especially, however, this
latter class of temporary dependents that we are most interested in,
because they show most clearly the forces operating to produce the
various classes of permanent dependents.
There are two great classes of causes of poverty: objective causes, or
causes outside of the individual, that is, in the environment; and
subjective causes, or causes within the individual. We shall take up
first the objective causes.
_The Objective Causes of Poverty_. The objective causes of poverty
may be again divided into causes in the physical environment and causes
in the social environment. The causes in the physical environment
should not be overlooked, even though to a great extent they may not be
amenable to social control. Much poverty in certain regions is caused
simply by the unpropitious physical environment, such as unproductive
soil, bad climate, and the like. Added to these unpropitious factors in
the environment we have also great natural calamities, such as
tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Every one is
familiar with the great amount of misery which is caused, temporarily at
least, by such calamities. Again, certain things in the organic
environment, particularly in the way of disease-producing bacteria, are
also productive of much poverty. Certain bacteria exist, we now know,
plentifully in nature, such as the malaria germ, to which rightfully has
been ascribed the physical degeneracy of people living in certain
sections of the earth.
But the most important objective causes of poverty are undoubtedly those
found in the social environment,--those which spring from certain social
conditions or faults in social organization. Among these we may mention:
(1) _Economic Causes_. Defective industrial organization and
economic evils of various sorts are thought by many persons to be the
main productive causes of poverty and dependence in modern society, and
there can be no doubt that a very large per cent of poverty may be
traced directly to economic evils. This is shown by the fact that in the
schedules of all charity organization societies "lack of employment"
figures as the first or second most conspicuous cause of distress in the
cases with which such societies deal. It is usually estimated that from
twenty to forty per cent of all such cases of dependence may be
attributed to lack of employment, not due to the employee. It is well
known that in periods of industrial depression the number of applicants
for aid in our large cities increases enormously, and local strikes and
lockouts frequently have the same effect. Again, changes in methods of
production through the introduction of new machinery frequently displace
large numbers of workingmen, who, on account of age or other reasons,
fail to get employment along new lines. Changes in trade brought about
through changes in fashions have to some extent at least a similar
effect. Again, fluctuations in the value of money may undoubtedly
depress a debtor class to the point of dependence. Unwise methods of
taxation, such as levying heavy taxes on the necessaries of life,
produce a great deal of poverty and economic distress. Systems of land
tenure such as prevail in England and even to some extent in the United
States, may also be another economic cause of poverty. The free land
which has up to the present time existed in this country has been a
great aid against poverty. The employment of women and children in
factories is another cause of poverty which needs to be mentioned under
this head. As we have already seen, this breaks up the home, and in the
case of the employment of children stops the development of the child.
Still another economic cause of poverty is unhealthful and dangerous
occupations. The disease-begetting occupations in modern industry are
very numerous, such as hat making, glass blowing, the grinding of tools,
and the like--any work in which there is a great deal of dust. Among
dangerous occupations must also be included those in which there are
numerous accidents, such as mining and railway occupations. The
accidents in mines and on railways in the United States each year cause
as many deaths and serious injuries as have often resulted in many a
petty war. Thus, on the railways of the United States in 1904 there was
a total of 10,046 persons killed and 84,155 injured, about three fourths
of those injured being employees,--one employee being killed in every
three hundred and fifty-seven and one injured in every seventeen. While
it is improbable that our great industries can be carried on without
some sacrifice of health and life, it seems reasonable to believe that
the number of those who are sacrificed at present is far greater than is
necessary, and that reasonable precautions in industry might greatly
increase the healthfulness of the occupations and diminish the number of
accidents to employees.
On the whole, it is probable that these economic causes of poverty
figure in from 50 to 80 per cent of all cases, not operating alone, to
be sure, but often in connection with faults of character or physical or
mental defects in the individual; for it is always to be remembered in
discussing the causes of poverty that one never finds a case which can
be fairly attributed to a single cause. The complexity of causes
operating in the case of a single dependent family frequently makes it
impossible for any one to say with certainty what is the chief and what
are the contributing causes. Oftentimes what appears to be the chief
cause, such as lack of employment, has back of it defects in individual
character which are not apparent to the investigator. Researches along
this line have shown that the number of cases of distress which may be
attributed to lack of employment, for example, may be very greatly
reduced when all individual defects are taken into consideration. This,
however, is not an argument for regarding the economic causes of poverty
as any less important than has been indicated.
(2) Unsanitary conditions of living are frequent causes of poverty.
Among these unsanitary conditions may be mentioned especially the
housing of the poor. The housing of the poor in badly ventilated, poorly
lighted, and unsanitary dwellings greatly increases sickness and death
and undoubtedly contributes greatly to their economic depression. Thus
in New York city in the first ward, where there is only one house on
each lot, the death rate is 29 per 1000 of the population, but where
rear tenements have been erected it is 62 per 1000 of the population.
The importance of public sanitation, and especially of the prevention of
overcrowding and the securing of properly lighted and ventilated
dwellings for the people, is so great that we need not enlarge upon it.
(3) Defects in our educational system are certainly productive of
poverty. Ignorant and illiterate persons are much more liable to become
dependent. In particular the lack of industrial training in our public
schools is a prolific cause of dependence in our complex industrial
civilization.
(4) Defects in government, permitting corruption on the one hand, or
failing to check economic or sanitary evils on the other hand, are
manifest causes of poverty. Indeed, inasmuch as government exists to
regulate the whole social order, wherever it fails to perform this work
properly some economic distress must ensue.
(5) Corruption in social institutions and customs is certainly a cause
of poverty: such, for example, is the custom of social drinking, and
such also the unwise and indiscriminate charity which has so often
existed in the past.
(6) Unrestricted immigration, especially in our Eastern states and
cities, is, as we have already seen, a prolific cause of dependence.
_The Subjective Causes of Poverty_ are the causes within the
individual. Among these must be enumerated: (1) Physical and mental
defects of all sorts, especially those arising from sickness and
accidents. Sickness causing temporary or permanent disability figures in
from 25 to 40 per cent of all cases applying for relief in our large
cities. Probably it is the most common and most important single cause
of poverty with which charity workers have to deal. Back of sickness,
however, are often remote causes in the environment or in personal
character. We have already spoken of accident as a cause of poverty in
connection with dangerous occupations. It is only necessary to add that
good authorities estimate that there are over 1,000,000 serious
accidents in the United States every year, in order to see that
disabilities resulting from accident are prolific as causes of poverty,
especially in our large industrial centers. The physical and mental
defects which manifest themselves in the defective classes proper, such
as the feeble-minded, the insane, the epileptics, the deaf-mutes, and
the blind, do not need to be dwelt upon as causes of dependence.
(2) Next after sickness in the list of subjective causes of poverty
comes intemperance. While the effect of intemperance in producing
poverty has often been exaggerated, there can be no doubt that
intemperance is one of the most important causes with which we have to
deal. Back of intemperance, of course, may often be again causes in the
social environment, or other remote causes, but these do not detract
from the fact that practically one fourth of all the cases of distress
with which charity organization societies have to deal are attributable,
more or less, to intemperance. The Committee of Fifty who investigated
this subject found that, in thirty-three cities, out of thirty thousand
cases dependence was due to personal intemperance in 18.46 per cent, and
due to the intemperance of others in 9.36 per cent, making a total of
27.82 per cent of cases in which intemperance can be traced as a cause
of poverty. Other investigations conducted in American cities give
substantially the same results, although certain other investigations in
English cities give higher percentages. It is noteworthy also that in
an investigation conducted by the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor 39 per
cent of the cases of poverty were attributed directly or indirectly to
drink. Again the Committee of Fifty found that in the case of
alms-house paupers a considerably higher per cent owed their condition
to the influence of drink either directly or indirectly, the percentage
being 41.55.
(3) Sexual vice is undoubtedly a prolific cause of poverty, although it
is very hard to trace concretely in the study of specific cases. Dr.
Dugdale, however, in his study of the Jukes family places sexual vice
even ahead of intemperance as a cause of their degradation, and other
similar studies of similar families have reached substantially the same
results.
(4) Shiftlessness and laziness are frequently found in the lists of
causes of dependence used by charity organization societies, from 10 to
15 per cent of the cases of distress being attributed more or less to
these causes. It is now generally agreed, however, that in most cases
these causes may be resolved into more remote causes, laziness being
oftentimes attributable to a degenerate or at least undervitalized
physical condition.
(5) Old age, which has not been rendered destitute by vice, drink, or
other faults of character, is frequently in itself a cause of
dependence. Old age seems to figure more largely as a cause of
dependence in the European statistics than in American; nevertheless,
even in America we frequently find old persons who have worked hard all
their lives and yet come to poverty in their old age through no fault of
their own. It is for this reason that many are urging old-age pensions
as a means of preventing dependence among the aged.
(6) Neglect and desertion by relatives, or the disregard of family ties,
in America at least, may be put down as one of the important causes of
dependence. From five to ten per cent of all the cases of distress, for
example, which charity organization societies in our large cities deal
with are those of deserted wives. Again, it is particularly common in
America for children to fail to support aged parents and even the
desertion of children by parents is of frequent occurrence.
(7) Death of main support must also be mentioned as an important cause
of dependence. Widows and their children always figure largely among
those helped by charitable societies and institutions. Probably from 10
to 20 per cent of all cases dealt with by societies for relieving
temporary distress are cases in which the death of the breadwinner has
temporarily rendered the family dependent.
(8) Crime, dishonesty, ignorance, and the like are manifest frequent
causes of dependence, and as such need no discussion.
We have enumerated in detail some of the more important objective and
subjective causes of poverty and dependence in order that the student
may see that such causes are very complex, and, as we have already said,
there rarely exists a dependent family in which three or more of these
causes are not found to be active. Certain questions arise from such a
brief presentation as this which we may mention but cannot hope
adequately to deal with. Such, for example, is the question whether the
subjective causes of poverty can all be reduced to objective causes. In
our opinion this cannot be done, because the subjective causes have
their roots in biological and psychological conditions, which cannot be
attributed directly to causes in the environment. No doubt, however,
many of the subjective causes of poverty are characteristics which have
been acquired by individuals from the influence of their environment.
When we attribute a certain per cent of poverty to intemperance, for
example, it is probable that that particular personal defect may be
ascribed almost wholly to the environment. On the other hand, there are
other personal defects, such as sickness, vice, and mental deficiency,
that cannot always with certainty be traced to environmental factors. It
is safest to conclude that while personality is built up largely out of
social influences, society is, on the other hand, also rooted in human
nature, so that both objective and subjective causes combine to produce
practically all social phenomena, and especially the phenomena of
poverty and dependence. It is unscientific, therefore, to disregard
either the subjective or the objective causes of poverty.
Another question which is frequently raised in connection with poverty
or dependence is, whether it is due to misconduct or misfortune. This
question really has not much meaning in it when it is analyzed. As we
have already seen in practically every case of poverty, personal defects
and bad environment combine. Only a few of these personal defects,
however, can by any proper use of language be regarded as misconduct.
The great mass of poverty, therefore, seems attributable to misfortune
rather than to misconduct,--using these words in their popular sense.
But such a conclusion as this necessarily rests upon a somewhat
superficial examination of the causes of distress which does not enter
into the remote springs of personal character and development. On the
whole, it seems unwise to attempt to divide the poor into the "worthy"
and "unworthy" poor, as has often been done, for no one can say who is
the worthy and who is the unworthy in a moral sense. The only sense in
which these words may be used scientifically in charitable work is to
mean "needy" and "not needy."
_Pauperism and Degeneracy._ In order to see more clearly the
biological roots of dependence we must notice briefly the relation of
habitual pauperism to degeneracy. Studies like that made by Dr. Dugdale
of the Jukes family show that unquestionably there is in many instances
a close relation between habitual pauperism of various types and
degeneracy. Out of 709 in the Jukes family studied by Dugdale 500 had
been aided. Pauperism was 7 1_2 times as common among the Jukes as in
the ordinary population. Along with the pauperism of the Jukes went
prostitution, illegitimacy, crime, and physical disease and defects.
Many other studies have shown the same intimate relation between
physical degeneracy and habitual dependence or pauperism. There can be
no doubt, therefore, that general physical degeneracy, or biological
unfitness, is, as we have already asserted in the beginning, a
conspicuous factor in the worst cases of chronic pauperism.
_The Influence of Heredity upon Pauperism_. Similar studies to
those already mentioned have shown that dependence is often times
hereditary in families from generation to generation. This is doubtless
based upon the inheritance of physical and mental defects. Indirectly,
therefore, there is such a thing as hereditary pauperism. Now we know
from the labors of Weismann that acquired characteristics are not
inherited, but only congenital, or inborn characteristics. It is not
the characteristics, in other words, which are acquired from the
influence of environment that are transmitted to offspring, but the
characteristics that arise through variations in the germ, caused by
forces which are not yet well understood. Defects that are acquired by
the individual in his lifetime, in other words, will not be transmitted;
but the defects that arise through accident or other means in the germ
are transmitted. This being so, it follows that acquired pauperism or
dependence is not transmitted but only the pauperism which rests upon
congenital defects. This is illustrated by the case of the deaf.
Deaf-mutes are of two sorts: persons who are born deaf, or the
congenital deaf-mutes, and persons who become deaf-mutes through
diseases affecting the ear in early childhood. These latter are styled
adventitious deaf-mutes. Now when congenital deaf-mutes marry, they show
a strong tendency to transmit their defect to offspring, but the
children of adventitious deaf-mutes are always normal. Dr. Fay, in his
investigations into the marriages of the deaf in the United States shows
that only 0.3 per cent of the children born from the marriages of
persons adventitiously deaf and having no deaf relatives are born deaf;
while on the other hand, 30.3 per cent of the children born from the
marriages of persons congenitally deaf, both parents having deaf
relatives, are born deaf. In other words, the number of deaf-mutes born
where both parents are congenitally deaf and have deaf relatives is one
hundred times greater than where both parents are adventitiously deaf
and have no deaf relatives. This is pretty conclusive proof that it is
only the congenital defects which are transmissible, but these are so
highly transmissible that they may express themselves in pauperism from
generation to generation.
The marriage of all persons in whom there is an hereditary taint of
feeble-mindedness, insanity, epilepsy, and the like ought, therefore, to
be forbidden by law. But unless these defective classes were segregated
in institutions, the only result of this might be to increase
illegitimacy; therefore, any step in eradicating degeneracy and
pauperism must look to the isolation and custodial care through life of
the hopelessly defective classes. All this gives point to our conclusion
that poverty and pauperism have roots which are quite independent of
defects in economic conditions, and that, until heredity itself can be
controlled, we cannot expect to eliminate poverty entirely.
Proposed Remedies for Poverty and Pauperism.--The scientific remedies
for poverty and pauperism, that is, the scientific methods of dealing
with the various dependent classes and of preventing their existence,
now form the subject-matter of a great independent science, the science
of philanthropy, which, as we have already seen, may be considered a
branch of applied sociology. We have not room in this book to discuss
adequately these remedies, but we may call the attention of the student
again to the vast literature existing upon the subject, and may point
out the trend of modern scientific philanthropy in developing scientific
methods for removing the causes of dependence and of preventing the
existence of the various dependent classes.
As we have already seen, poverty is an economic expression of biological
or psychological defects of the individual on the one hand, and of a
faulty social and industrial organization on the other hand. This
implies that the remedies must be along the lines of the biological and
psychological adjustment of the individual and of the correction of the
faults in social organization.
Where biological defects of the individual are the cause of dependence,
we have just implied that, unless these defects are relatively
superficial, the scientific policy for treating these classes of
defective individuals would be that of segregation in institutions. The
feeble-minded, the chronic insane, the chronic epileptic, and other
hopelessly defective persons, in other words, should be permanently kept
in institutions where tender and humane care should be provided, but in
such a way that they will not reproduce their kind and burden future
generations. The policy of segregating the hopelessly defective is one
of the most scientifically approved policies of modern philanthropy. In
this way, to a certain extent, the reproduction of unfit elements in
society might be lessened, and the spread of degeneracy checked. In the
case of slightly defective adults, such as the congenitally deaf and the
congenitally blind, it is difficult to say exactly what the policy
should be. It would seem that many of these persons may be relatively
adjusted to free social life, although if they marry and have offspring
we know, if their defect is congenital, that a certain proportion of the
offspring, according to Mendel's law, will inherit the defect.
In the case of those individuals whose dependence is due to
psychological defects, or defective character, it is evident that we
have a different problem. Here, in general, the wise policy would seem
to be, not to segregate, but to overcome the defective character.
Psychological defects, we know, are much more frequently acquired than
biological defects and much more easily remedied. The work of scientific
philanthropy in dealing with this class of individuals must be,
therefore, a work of remedying defects in individual character. This is,
perhaps, best done through personal relations between the dependent
person and those who may help him. Defective character is, on the whole,
therefore, best remedied by such means as education, religious
influences, friendly visiting, and the like. The class of dependents
whose condition is due to defective character may be on the whole,
therefore, best treated outside of institutions, and probably better
through voluntary private charity than through public relief systems.
There remains another class of dependents whose condition is not due
either to biological nor to psychological defects in themselves, but to
faulty social and industrial conditions. For these, the best method of
treatment consists in remedying the faulty conditions or in removing
them, if possible, from them. This means that, in many cases, society
must provide pensions, insurance against accident and sickness,
legislation to check social abuses, and, above all, proper facilities
for education. Here comes in the need of child-labor legislation, of
better housing, of industrial insurance, of industrial education, and
the like.
In the light of these principles, let us review very briefly the
different methods of dealing with dependent classes at the present time.
_Public and Private Outdoor Relief_. By outdoor relief we mean
relief given to the poor outside of an institution. Usually, outdoor
relief refers simply to the public relief of dependents outside of
institutions, but we shall use the phrase to cover both public and
private relief. It is evident from what has already been said that the
class of persons to whom this form of relief is appropriate are those in
temporary distress, whose condition of dependence is not a permanent one
and, therefore, usually those whose condition is due either to defective
personal character or to faulty social organization. If the temporary
dependence is due to defective personal character, it is evident that
the aid may be so given, if given wisely, as to stimulate the overcoming
of the moral defect. Hence the need of carefully planned measures of
relief in all such cases. Hence, also, the need of the friendly
visitor, who by personal contact with such a family will help them to
become socially adjusted. If, on the other hand, the temporarily
dependent person is simply a victim of circumstances, there is, then,
also, the need of wise charity in order to overcome those adverse
circumstances without impairing the character of the individual who is
helped by destroying his self-respect and the like.
It is evident that the task of relieving temporarily dependent persons
outside of institutions is a delicate and difficult one, and requires
carefully trained workers to do it successfully. For this reason, many
have argued that outdoor relief should not be undertaken by the state in
any of its branches, such as the city or county. In general, it must be
admitted that the private society is, in many cases, naturally better
fitted to accomplish this delicate and difficult task of restoring the
temporarily dependent person. But, on the other hand, it must be said
that the whole matter is simply a question of administration. Private
societies may be quite as lax and unscientific in their charity as the
state, and it is conceivable that the state can develop a system of
outdoor relief which will be administered by experts quite as carefully
as any private organization could administer it. Indeed, this is what
has been practically done in Germany under the _Elberfeldt System_,
which is a state system for dispensing outdoor relief to the temporarily
indigent. In the United States, however, this work of relieving the
temporarily dependent in their own homes has been, in our large cities,
undertaken with great success by the charity organization societies,
which, in general, do the work with such thoroughness as to obviate the
necessity for public outdoor relief in our large cities.
_State Charitable Institutions._ Indoor relief, or relief within
institutions, for the permanently dependent classes is probably best
undertaken by the state. Originally, the only institution of this sort
was the almshouse or the poor house; but with the development of our
complex civilization many of the permanently dependent have been
provided for in other institutions than the almshouse, and it would seem
that ultimately all the permanently dependent would be cared for in
specialized state institutions. Thus, the permanently dependent,
through various sorts of defects, such as the feeble-minded, chronic
epileptic, chronic insane, and the like, are properly cared for in
institutions especially provided for the purpose by the state and manned
by experts. Into the details of public care of the unfit and defective
of various types it is not necessary to go further than to say that such
public care should be of the most scientific character, and with the
double aim of reclaiming all those that can be reclaimed, and of
providing permanently tender and humane care for those who cannot be
fitted for free social life. State institutions then, should be manned
by experts, and their activities should be coördinated by some central
board. In accordance with this principle, it would seem that the best
state policy would be to provide expert commissions for the care of
different classes, such as the insane, and the like, and a supervisory
board to watch over the work of these commissions and the institutions.
_Dependent Children_. The care of dependent children is manifestly
one of the most important forms of remedial philanthropic work, for it
is manifest that the dependent child will make a dependent adult unless
proper measures are taken to secure his adjustment to the social life.
The dependent child is rarely biologically defective. The problem is,
usually, in his case, the development of character under proper social
conditions. For this reason, both the state and private societies have
claimed the field of care of dependent children. While private
societies have accomplished in this respect some of the most notable
work, it would seem, however, that the work is one which properly
belongs to the state in its capacity of legal guardian of all dependent
children. The state, through a properly organized system of child
helping, could conceivably guarantee that every neglected and dependent
child should have normal opportunities to become adjusted to the social
life. The system in the state of Michigan, with its Public School for
Dependent Children at Coldwater, and its plan of placing these children,
after a few months, in good homes, is a system which cannot receive too
high commendation. In general, it is practically agreed by experts that
the dependent child cannot be well adjusted to the social life by being
reared in an institution, but that the better plan is to find suitable
homes in which these children can be placed and reared under state
supervision. In this way, practically every dependent child can be
guaranteed a good chance in life. In the United States, private
societies called "Childrens' Home Societies" are also doing this work
with great success.
_Public and Private Charity._ As has already been indicated, the
ordinary line to be observed between private charity and public relief
is that to private charity should be given the more delicate and
difficult tasks, such as readjusting the temporarily dependent persons,
the care of, in some cases, dependent children and the like, while to
public charity should be given the cases which need permanent relief in
institutions. This is only a conventional line, however, between private
charity and public relief. As has already been pointed out, the state
can conceivably, also, undertake the more delicate and difficult tasks
of charitable aid, and probably it should do so as rapidly as it
demonstrates its fitness to undertake this work, as the state, when once
it has achieved certain standards, is a more certain and reliable agency
than private institutions or societies. But there is in philanthropic
work, a large place for the private society or institution. There will
probably always be debatable cases which may better be looked after by
private agencies than by public. There is, therefore, in every
well-developed community, room for both public and private agencies,
although there should be close coöperation where both exist one with the
other. The church, through all its history, has undertaken philanthropic
work with notable success, and it would be regrettable if the
philanthropic activities of the church were to cease at this time, when
they are needed as never before, in spite of the large development of
public philanthropy. Church charity should, however, be made as
scientific as any other form of charity, and should be carefully
coördinated with the work of the state and other secular agencies. Among
the secular agencies we have already mentioned the charity organization
society as typifying in many ways the highest type of philanthropic
activity of the present. It would seem that this society, organizing as
it does all the philanthropic forces and agencies of the community,
could scarcely be displaced by state activity; and that there would
remain to this society, as well as many other private philanthropic
societies, a very large field of activity in the future. State activity
in the field of charity is, therefore, to be encouraged, but it must not
be supposed that such activity can take the place of private charity.
_Preventive Agencies_. A very large task for both private societies
and the state is to be found in the field of prevention. This field is
so broad, however, that we cannot attempt to even mention the many
different movements alone which characterize our present social
development. Such are the movements for better housing, for better
sanitation, for purer food, for juster economic conditions, for the
prevention of disease, and the like. The main thing to be said with
respect to these movements is that they need to be guided by the larger
social view, they need synthesis in order that they may work toward a
common goal, and in harmony, also, with the activities of the state. In
the field of prevention the state has much to do, especially in
forwarding education along lines of social need and in creating juster
economic conditions.
We may, perhaps, sum up this chapter by saying that it is evident that
the cure of poverty is not to be sought merely in certain economic
rearrangements, but in scientific control of the whole life process of
human society. This means that, in order to get rid of poverty, the
defects in education, in government, in religion and morality, in
philanthropy, and even in physical heredity, must be got rid of. Of
course, this can only be done when there is a scientific understanding
of the conditions necessary for normal human social life. What some of
these requirements for a normal life are will be seen in a subsequent
chapter, and it is only necessary to say in conclusion that the wisest
measures for removing pauperism will be directed toward the prevention
of its causes rather than toward the reclaiming of those who have
already been caught in its meshes.
SELECT REFERENCES
_For brief reading:_
WARNER, _American Charities,_ Revised Edition.
DEVINE, _Misery and Its Causes._
HUNTER, _Poverty._
_For more extended reading:_
DUGDALE, _The Jukes._
DEVINE, _Principles of Relief._
HENDERSON, _Dependent, Defective and Delinquent Classes._
RUS, _How the Other Half Lives._
ROWNTREE, _Poverty: a Study of Town Life._
_Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction._
_The Survey_ (formerly _Charities and the Commons_).