Library Collections: Document: Full Text


American Charities

Creator: Amos G. Warner (author)
Date: 1908
Publisher: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York
Source: Straight Ahead Pictures Collection

Previous Page   Next Page   All Pages 


Page 17:

117  

The unsatisfactoriness of the table arises in part from the fact that the groups of cases are not fairly comparable. The American cases were applicants for relief, the English were inmates of institutions for the chronic and aged poor, and the German comprised all cases of public relief. The trained charity worker would expect, therefore, that drink and matters of employment would rise high in American cases and fall among inmates of European institutions, and the expectation is to a certain extent fulfilled. The very low per cent for drink in Germany (1.3) is balanced partly by the high per cent for sickness (45.8), for Böhmert explains that intemperance was a predisposing cause in many cases where the immediate cause set down was lack of work, accident, imprisonment, sickness, or abandonment. The wide variation in the totals for misconduct and misfortune -- from 12 per cent to 42 per cent -- indicates the extreme differences of judgment among charity agents as to the responsibility of the individual for his own dependence.

118  

This is only another phase of the difficulty of deciding between principal and contributory causes. For instance, back of sickness may be either misconduct or misfortune, the imprisonment of the breadwinner indicates misconduct on his part, but may be only misfortune on the part of his wife and children who apply for relief; similar confusion arises in cases of children abandoned and old persons neglected by relatives. Professor Warner stated that the table was compiled only "in deference to popular inquiry," and declared his own opinion that its value consisted chiefly "in showing how little it was worth." It has, however, a certain historical importance as showing the decline of a tendency which was once very strong among charity workers to try to apportion carefully the degree of moral blame of the individual applicant for relief.

119  

Although the results of the table are wholly negative as regards the determination of misconduct or misfortune, when stripped of unessential details and insignificant variations, it shows clearly that in a large body of applicants for relief in American cities, certain immediate causes of poverty tend to recur in very nearly the same order and proportion for a term of years. Among such dependents from 25 to 35 per cent will ask for relief because of physical and mental incapacity, 20 to 30 per cent because of lack of or unsatisfactory employment, and 20 to 25 per cent because of defects of character. The fact that certain specific causes, especially drink, vary widely in the different cities does not invalidate this deduction. Intemperance, of all the list of causes, is the one most likely to be affected by the personal bias of the relief agent, and about which there is a wide difference of opinion as to whether it is a true cause -- in the sense of moral responsibility -- or merely a symptom. It exhibits more than any other cause the limitations of the case-counting method.

120  

TABLE VI. (38) CAUSES OF POVERTY. --
Misconduct vs. Misfortune.


(38) Condensed from Table IT., p. 86, 1st ed. of Warner's "American Charities."

121  

Locality Baltimore Boston Buffalo Cincinnati New York Stepney St. Pancras 76 German Cities Total
Report of C.O.S. A.C. C.O.S. A.C. C.O.S. Booth Booth Bohmert
Number of Cases 1385 2083 8235 4844 1412 634 736 95,845
Year 1890-2 1890-2 1878-92 1890-92 1891 1892 1892 1886 Average
CAUSES. PER CENT. PER CENT. PER CENT. PER CENT. PER CENT. PER CENT. PER CENT. PER CENT. PER CENT.
Drink8.0 20.5 7.8 11.1 10.7 12.6 21.9 1.3 11.6
Immorality ... ... ... ... ... 2.5 6.9 ... ...
Shiftlessness and Inefficiency 13.0 7.2 4.3 12.9 7.2 7.0 13.4 ... 9.2
Crime and Dishonesty .8 1.4 ... 1.9 1.4 ... ... ... ...
Roving Disposition 1.4 .8 ... 5.3 3.3 ... ... 1.4 ...
Total Misconduct 23.2 29.9 12.1 31.2 22.6 22.1 42.2 2.7 23.2
Imprisonment of Breadwinner .4 1.6 2.0 .7 .6 ... ... 1.7 ...
Orphans and Abandoned Children .9 .7 ... 1.0 .1 ... .... 5.6 ...
Neglect by Relatives 1.7 .9 ... .8 .5 ... ... .6 ...
No Male Support 4.5 6.0 13.8 7.1 7.2 4.6 2.8 2.5 ...
Total -- No Normal Support 7.5 9.2 15.8 9.6 8.4 4.6 2.8 10.4 8.5
Lack of Employment 12.5 14.2 27.5 10.5 29.0 4.4 2.2 12.5 ...
Insufficient Employment 8.5 5.5 1.7 7.2 6.1 ... ... ... ...
Poorly Paid Employment 8.5 5.5 1.7 7.2 6.1 ... ... ... ...
Unhealthy and Dangerous Employment .3 .4 ... .5 ... ... ... ... ...
Total -- Employment 26.321.0 35.2 22.4 37.6 4.4 2.2 12.5 20.8
Ignorance of English .4 .8 ... .8 .4 ... ... ... ...
Accident 4.0 2.9 4.6 2.3 3.3 4.7 2.6 1.1 ...
Sickness or Death in Family 20.2 24.0 24.6 15.0 18.5 26.7 20.7 45.8 24.4
Physical Defects 6.0 2.4 5.3 2.5 2.7 .... ... 2.4 ...
Insanity .8 .6 .9 .6 .7 1.7 4.3 3.4 ...
Old Age 6.0 4.1 ... 3.0 3.3 32.8 23.4 15.8 ...
Total -- Personal Capacity 37.4 34.8 35.4 24.2 28.9 64.9 51.0 68.5 43.1
Total Misfortune 71.2 65.0 86.4 56.2 74.9 74.0 56.0 91.4 71.0
Unclassified or Unknown 5.6 5.1 1.5 12.6 2.5 4.0 1.8 5.9 ...

Previous Page   Next Page

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  57  58  59  60  61  62    All Pages