Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/333

 SOCIAL POLICY TOWARD DEPENDENTS 321

where to apply for help, or because they know that, unless actually ready to perish, they will be treated as able-bodied and "not needing relief," or because they prefer to suffer from hunger and cold and disease rather than ask alms.

I do not claim that charity should attempt to relieve ail dis- tress. No doubt the idleness and vices of men produce much misery which philanthropy cannot reach. No doubt moral refor- mation and schemes of thrift, insurance, education, and general sanitation will in time remove many of the causes of this distress. But what I urge is that we do not now realize the actual enormity of suffering from poverty, that our methods of rinding out are very inadequate, and that our optimism is as cruel as it is unscientific. So long as many influential charity workers are teaching rich and well-to-do people that we are almost at our goal we shall never awaken the public to put forth the necessary effort to cope with the overwhelming evils of extreme need in our industrial centers. 9

The present efforts of the permanent census bureau of the nation, supported by the National Conference of Charities and Correction, by the National Prison Association, and by all experts, to collect continuous and reliable statistics relating to paupers and criminals should be supported by all citizens. It is to be hoped that funds will be furnished to professors and students in univer- sity departments of social science for investigations in this field.

It might be thought that the elements of welfare in the higher regions of intellectual, aesthetic, and moral culture are too refined, indefinite, and ethereal to be standardized. But all countries which have compulsory school attendance, at least up to a certain age, declare thereby that they have adopted a minimum standard of education ; and they compel competitive exploitation of youth

given : " Dr. Frankel, of the United Hebrew Charities of New York, in a study of income and expenditure of a family just above the line of dependency, shows the disbursements for one month to have been about $32, the receipts from all sources (including $5 from lodgers) during the same period were from $33 to $35." SOLOMON C. LOWENSTEIN, in Jewish Chanty, June, 1904, p. aio. See also CHARLES BOOTH, Life and Labour; ROUNTREE, Poverty: a Study of Town Life; E. T. DEVINE, Principles of Relief. Dr. Devine's book was not yet published when this paper was written.
 * One illustration of an attempt to fix a minimum standard may here be