MOST

CHAPTER X

ARE THE CONDITIONS REMOVABLE?

OST of the conditions of poverty and pauperism named in the previous chapters are subject, more or less, to human control. Some are less amenable to human effort than others. All are modifiable to a certain degree. More and more, man, in coöperation with his fellows, is the master of his fate.

PHYSICAL CONDITIONS

The physical conditions discussed in a previous chapter are brought into subjection to the human will increasingly with the development of science and its practical application.

Modification of Physical Conditions. At one time in the United States there were millions of acres of swamp land unsuitable for cultivation. As the country became populated and the demand for arable land increased, these swamp lands were taken up by settlers and have since been drained. Now great areas once unsuitable for the raising of crops are cultivated. Centuries ago the so-called fens of England were useful only for raising wild fowl. Says Cheney concerning the period of England's expansion from 1603 to 1760, "Much new land came into cultivation or into use for pasture through the draining of marshes and fens and the clearing of forests. This work had been begun for the extensive swampy tracts in the east of England in the latter years of Elizabeth's reign by private purchasers assisted by an Act of Parliament passed in 1601, intended to remove egal difficulties. It proceeded slowly, partly because of the expense and difficulties of putting up lasting embankments, and partly because of the opposition of the fenmen or dwellers in the marshy districts, whose livelihood was obtained by catching the fish and waterfowl that the improvements would drive away. With the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, however, largely through the skill of Dutch engineers and laborers, many thousands of acres of fertile land were reclaimed and devoted to grazing and even grain raising." 1

Cheney, Industrial and Social History of England, New York, 1906, p. 184.

Arid districts are irrigated or cultivated by dry farming, and thus production is increased. In the last quarter of a century great areas have been brought under cultivation in arid and semi-arid districts of our own West. However, there remain vast arid areas which are so situated that water cannot be diverted to them either because of their height above the water supply or because the supply of water is insufficient. However, in the last few years large areas formerly devoted only to grazing have been plowed up and cultivated by "dry farming." By summer fallowing and cultivating the soil for two years, and sowing a crop only every alternate year, sufficient moisture is conserved to produce a crop. In this way large areas have been converted to raising foodstuffs in a more effective way than by grazing. Natural calamities cannot be directly controlled, but through insurance their loss is distributed over large numbers, or, through mutual aid, the results of disaster are shared by others than the immediate sufferers.

The pests which interfere with the farmer's crops and with stored goods are gradually coming under the control of science. Modern agriculture is giving increasing attention to economic entomology. Fruit trees are now sprayed for the control of insects and diseases which destroy the trees and injure the fruit. Various other agricultural pests, such as the boll weevil in cotton and some of the plant diseases, are being studied with the hope that they also may be brought under control.

Many of the agricultural experiment stations of the world are searching the whole earth for new varieties of plants and animals. adapted to local conditions which now render impossible or difficult the production of food. The diseases of men and of animals are one by one yielding to scientific research. Hence, in all these ways the physical conditions which produce poverty and pauperism are being modified by man to his advantage.

Hereditary Defects. Hereditary defects that incapacitate man for self-support can be eliminated. This can be accomplished partly through the segregation of the defectives or their sterilization. By careful supervision and direction such defectives can be made comfortable while protected from social and economic conditions with. which they are not fitted to cope, and can be made nearly self-supporting. Other incapables who are educable can be trained for a more or less useful life by well-directed efforts on the part of society. A campaign of education will fix in the public mind such conceptions

of the menace of the defective as will support a policy which in the course of a generation or two will eliminate much of the defective stock now contributing so many paupers.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Those conditions productive of poverty and pauperism, socio-economic in their origin, can be modified by social action in many cases. They are the result of our economic and social arrangements. These arrangements have been made by man and therefore can be altered by man.

1. Death or Disability of the Bread-earner. Untimely death or disability of the bread-earner can be averted in part by attention to the prevention of accidents and by education in community and personal hygiene. What cannot be prevented can be relieved by health, accident and life insurance. While nothing can wholly repair the family results of death or disability, their importance for poverty and pauperism can be very materially lessened.'

2. Adverse Industrial Conditions. Adverse industrial conditions are not irremediable. These evils can be lessened if not entirely removed, while the burden of the obdurate evils by compensation and insurance can be shifted from the unfortunate individual to the industry as a whole.

3. Unemployment. Such devices as widespread employment agencies, such changes in industry as will spread out the productive load over all seasons to a degree, and unemployment insurance, will materially lessen the volume and the results of unemployment as a cause of poverty and pauperism. No scheme of society yet suggested could utterly do away with unemployment at all times. As a factor in our problem, however, such devices would very materially lessen its importance.

4. Factors Affecting Childhood. The factors which affect childhood adversely rendering the adults so affected in childhood incapable of self-support, can be altered by the dissemination of information among parents concerning pre-natal, natal, and post-natal care of mothers and proper care of infants and children. Public health information, widely disseminated, teaching in the public schools, visiting nurses, health clinics, exhibits, and health instructors will do much. to lessen the evil results of neglect of children through ignorance.

5. Income and Expenditures. The factors affecting both income and expenditures, such as the congestion of population in restricted

areas, bad housing, insanitary conditions in community, home and factory, the labor of women and children, the faulty education can be changed for the better to some extent by legislation and information widely disseminated. A sound social policy which would address. itself to curing the ignorance largely accountable for these conditions would very materially decrease the part that these conditions play in the causation of poverty and dependency.

6. Factors Affecting Expenditures. The poverty and pauperism caused by unwise expenditure due to national traditions, a poorly balanced budget, poor household management, and lack of thrift are modifiable by education of the children in the schools, by classes for mothers, publicity in the newspapers, visiting housekeepers, and other methods of publicity, and by devising plans which will enlist the active sympathy of the classes affected. While entire removal of these causes is not to be hoped for in the immediate future, a beginning should be made and a program earnestly pursued.

7. The Maladjustments in the Production and Distribution of Wealth and Income. Serious as these factors are, and difficult as is the remedy they are subject to modification. Many of them did not exist 150 years ago, and probably many of them will not remain. 100 years hence. They are the products of social organization, consciously evolved with reference only to their bearing upon economic efficiency and with very little regard to social results. While they are not so easy to deal with as some just mentioned, they are difficulties which are not insuperable as shown by what has already been accomplished. Through the regulation of immigration, careful dissemination of information on the relation of population to natural resources and economic development, through inculcation of moral restraints on the size of the family, and the education of the lower economic classes, pressure of population can be somewhat reduced. By the regulation of industry and commerce, the inculcation of a sense of responsibility for the use of wealth and of a sense of social responsibility for one's labor, some of the inequitable distribution of wealth and income can be adjusted and the tendency to control the output in the interest of either producer or laborer can be limited. Sudden fluctuation in prices with their resulting hardships on individuals and classes, can be modified partly by government regulation, and partly by international provisions for promoting freedom of trade and the prevention of war, one of the greatest causes of price fluctua

8. Lack of Adequate Machinery for the Adjustment of Economic and Social Relations. So far as this condition affects the problem of poverty and pauperism, their correction waits on the development of a social consciousness of society's responsibility for these maladjustments. Society has not yet appreciated its responsibility for the welfare of the family. It has not educated men and women for family life. It has left the preparation for family life to chance. The results are even less disastrous than we might have expected. Legislation and education in the broader sense are needed to develop an appreciation of our mutual interrelationships and a conscience as to the duty of the individual to ct'.er individuals and to society at large. This same consciousness of social responsibility will displace unwise philanthropy with wiser methods, will improve our political machinery, and will adjust our educational system to our needs. When the mass of our people once comes to understand the wastefulness of our present methods of settling industrial disputes, and their attendant strikes and lockouts, they will demand that the warfare at the expense ultimately of society shall cease.

I do not blink the fact that society has a long way to go before such ideal arrangements will be actually realized, but I believe that such methods mark the way which we must travel. Only as society becomes rational, rather than instinctive or merely sympathetic, in its reactions to its situations, only as the development of a sense of responsibility for each other and for the other classes in society takes the place of a selfish struggle for rights alone, will justice come for all. Only as a passion for social righteousness takes the place of an imperative desire for selfish advantage, either in the individual or in the nation, will society do away with the conditions that now depress some classes of the population and exalt others. Only thus shall we cure poverty entirely, but step by step as we proceed along that road, we may eliminate some of the present causes of misery and by degrees we shall raise the level of life for an increasing number. The change will come by no one method, but by attention to all of our social machinery-industrial, political, educational, religious, and ethical. All the social agencies must coöperate in the struggle for the final goal, if it is to be reached. In order to reach it, an increasing. number of individuals must thrill with such a passion for justice that they shall be willing to curb the evil propensities not only of others, but of themselves as well.