Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/630

 6l6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Stock Yards dist. Englewood.

Death of breadwinner, - 33 29

Pauper association, 17 o

Insanity, 4 o

Making a still broader and more dangerous generalization, by dividing these units into those ascribable to those causes most dependent upon the fault of the individual, and those rather belonging to a defective society, we have in the Englewood table 690 and in the Stock Yards 731 units ascribable to social causes, and 301 and 269, respectively, due more to the fault of the individual. Such a generality, however, can scarcely fail to be misleading if used alone, and can only be looked upon as one of many things to be considered in determining the responsi- bility for human misery.

A study of the interdependence of causes as shown by the table gives some interesting results. Taking the statistics from the Stock Yards neighborhood, in the 92 cases where lack of employment is the main cause, intemperance is a contributing factor in n instances, incompetence in 17, and sickness in 22. In the 84 cases from the Englewood district giving lack of employment as a main cause, incompetence enters 10 times, laziness 9, sickness 6, and intemperance only 4 times.

In the Stock Yards district the burden of sickness upon the poor is seen to be extremely heavy. Although when the cases are known through a long period of time its importance as a prime cause lessens, it is shown to be a contributing factor in a large number of cases. While only ten times does it become a dominant cause, it is present in 53 instances in a sufficient degree tft entitle it to be considered among the contributing causes of distress. This raises it in the final totals from a little over 10 per cent., according to "case counting" methods, to 15. 4 per cent. That this cause does not attain the same prominence in the Englewood tables is undoubtedly due in some degree to the more healthy locality, the Stock Yards neighborhood being notoriously unsanitary, and the employment injurious to health.

All other factors, however, seem to sink into insignificance