Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/343

 SOCIAL POLICY TOWARD DEPENDENTS 331

for contact with fellow-citizens in competitive industry. Many of the children of criminals may be so nourished and taught in a new domestic environment as to become valuable citizens. But society cannot afford to play the nurse and teacher for a very large horde of incapables and criminals. The cost would be too great and the sacrifice would fall on the wrong parties. It is in the improvements and reforms which promise the elevation of the group not yet either pauper or criminal that we may most reason- ably hope to secure the best returns for our efforts. Something may be done to compel parents now negligent to perform their duties as parents and make better use of their wasted resources. The extension of probation work to parents, already begun in some of our juvenile courts, is a hint of what may be done.

5. Not even a brief outline of a social policy relating to the Dependent Group can omit reference to the agencies of "pre- ventive and constructive" philanthropy. Omitting details, yet bearing in mind the impressive array of inventions in this line, let us seek to define the essential regulative principles which at once inspire and direct these methods.

Pauperism is, in great part, the effect of known and removable causes. These causes are not obscure, concealed, or beyond our grasp. They are consequences of human choices which may be reversed. The reception of alms, even in cases of innocent mis- fortune, is a social injury; it lowers self-respect, weakens energy, produces humiliation and mental suffering, diminishes productive efficiency, tends to the increase of pauperism. Hence those who know most of relief are most desirous of reducing the necessity for it to the lowest possible terms.

The National Consumers' League and the recently organized National Child Labor Committee represent a policy of prevention which is full of promise. It is perfectly clear to all competent observers, who are not blinded by some false conceptions of per- sonal financial interest, that the vitality, industrial efficiency, fit- ness for parenthood, and intelligent social co-operation of the rising generation are profoundly affected by neglect of the chil- dren of the poor. In order to prevent juvenile pauperism and youthful vice and crime, the entire nation must work steadily to