Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/195

 PAUPERISM 185 itants, there were more than 1,000,000 paupers. At Christmas, 1873, there were but 781,470, of whom 106,879 were in London; and at Christmas, 1874, there were but 750,414 pau- pers in a population of more than 23,500,000, and 97,357 of these were in London. In four years, therefore, there was a decrease of more than 25 per cent, in all England and Wales, while in the same period the decrease in Lon- don had been 20 per cent. The cost of pau- perism in the United Kingdom in 1870 was 9,593,000, or 6s. 4d. a head of the whole population. In the United States in the same year, with a population about one fourth greater, the cost of pauperism did not exceed 3,000,000, or less than a third part of what was paid in England, Scotland, and Ireland. It may be noticed also that the number of paupers in the United States is much less in summer than in winter, while in England the season makes little difference in the number. Thus on July 1, 1873, there were supported and aided in England and Wales 822,000 per- sons, of whom 275,838 were children under 16, and 384,468 were aged and infirm adults. On Oct. 1, 1874, there were 721,000 paupers; on Nov. 1, 720,000 ; and on Dec. 25, 750,000. Here we see 100,000 more paupers receiving aid in midsummer of one year than in mid- winter of the next year ; a thing that certain- ly never happened in the United States, and but rarely in England. In ordinary years the number of the poor receiving aid in England is greatest in the latter part of January and early in February, and least in the early part of October. Thus, on Oct. 12, 1870, the num- ber receiving aid in England was 882,660, of whom 134,087 were in workhouses, and 748,- 573 were receiving outdoor relief or supported in lunatic asylums. But on Feb. 28 of the same year 1,092,578 were receiving aid, of whom more than 165,000 were in workhouses; and on Jan. 1, 1871, the whole number was 1,085,963, of whom 168,073 were in work- houses. This would indicate that something less than 20 per cent, of the maximum number of English paupers drop off the list when the number reaches its minimum ; in other words, that more than four fifths of English pauper- ism is permanent, without regard to the sea- son of the year. In America it is probable that no more than three fifths of the pauper- ism is permanent. In most European coun- tries there has been an improvement in the condition of the poor, in consequence mainly of the large emigration to America and Aus- tralia. Thus Ireland and those parts of Ger- many from which there has been the largest emigration are also the regions that exhibit the greatest diminution of pauperism. In Ire- land during the famine of 1846-' 7, and for a few years afterward, the average number of paupers receiving aid ranged from 200,000 to 250,000, while in 1874 the average number re- ceiving aid of all kinds did not exceed 75,000, a decrease of two thirds in a quarter of a cen- tury. The cost of relieving the Irish poor has not much diminished, however, being about 1,100,000 in 1852 and about 1,000,000 in 1874. Of the latter sum, 141,916 was for medical charities, and the number reported as under medical care during the year was 700,000, or an average of about 2,000 a day. The num- ber of Irish paupers admitted to workhouses in 1874 (the year ending Sept. 29) was 252,- 000, against 249,000 in 1873 ; a slight increase for that year, in which the emigration to America fell off in consequence of the Ameri- can panic of 1873. The number of outdoor poor in Ireland during 1874 was 74,000, against 69,500 in 1873; the total of both classes of paupers was 319,242 in 1873 fend 326,618 in 1874. But in 1870 there had been 441,446, including 382,152 indoor and 59,294 outdoor paupers. The English pauper statistics do not give the whole number relieved and supported during the year, but only those at given dates ; a fact which should be borne in mind in ma- king comparisons between the two countries. If the English figures were made up as those of Ireland are, the total would probably ex- ceed 2,500,000 paupers in a year (or more than one in ten of all the inhabitants) who are either occasional or permanent paupers. It is in this sense, probably, that we must understand the percentage of pauperism in Belgium and some other countries, where it seems very large, sometimes one in seven of the population. Belgium, Switzerland, and France, countries from which there is comparatively little emi- gration to America, are precisely those which show but little decrease in pauperism, or even an increase. In 1856 Belgium had a popula- tion not much greater than that of the state of New York in 1870, namely, 4,529,461. Yet while New York in 1870 supported an average of less than 50,000 paupers, Belgium in 1856, according to official figures, supported more than 500,000, and an average probably of more than 100,000 ; and this number has not much diminished since. In France the number aided at home by the bureaux de lienfaisance in 1871 was reported as 1,347,386, in a total popula- tion of 36,500,000. In 1861, when the popu- lation (before the separation of Alsace and Lorraine) was somewhat greater, the number aided was but 1,159,539, showing a considera- ble increase of poverty, in consequence of the Franco-Prussian war and other causes. In Prussia, however, and in Germany generally, and apparently in Austria, pauperism has de- creased, as in England and Ireland. The in- crease in the United States is but slight, and is caused apparently by the emancipation of the slaves in the southern states, and by the finan- cial troubles since the autumn of 1873. Up to that time, in the northern states, pauperism in proportion to the population was decreasing. Proportion of Paupers to Population. The statistics of pauperism are very deceptive for all purposes of comparison, because they are differently made up in different countries. It