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The society reported that in at least two out of three of these families distress was due to preventable causes, of which moral delinquency was the chief.

Table XII. gives a classification of applicants for relief by marital condition and nationality.

Of those applying to the charity organization societies more than half are married people living together, about one-half the remainder, or one-quarter of the whole, are widows, and nearly one-tenth are deserted wives. In recent years much attention has been given to family desertion, and it is believed that it is increasing. Several studies of such families have been made, notably one in 1905 by Lilian Brandt, in which the typical male deserter is described as "young, able-bodied, more or less dissipated, capable of earning good wages, but rarely in the mood for making the exertion, and above all, he is lacking in the quality which makes an obligation to others outweigh considerations of personal comfort or preference." As to the consequence of desertion in these 574 families, "259 received relief amount-ing to nearly $9000 and this was a mere fraction of the total; 90 of the families were broken up temporarily or permanently; 132 children were introduced to institution life or boarded out. Other children were deprived of a fair start in life." (49)

TABLE XII.
Cases by Marital Condition and Cities.
Charity Organization Society Reports. 5529 Cases.

The small percentage of single men in later years, as shown in Table XII., is due to the differentiation of charities, this class being treated by other agencies than the charity organization societies.

A matter which is not brought out by the tables thus far given, but which is well shown by the collateral investigations of the different agencies, is the large number of children either dragged into pauperism by the destitution of their parents or entirely abandoned by them. In the investigation of almshouse pauperism, of course, this is not brought out, as the children have been put in other institutions, and are beyond the view of the investigator. But where the cases are studied as they cross the pauper line, the large number of children is striking. Of 8638 persons dealt with by the New York Charity Organization Society in 1896-1900, 48 per cent were under fourteen; and in Boston from 1899-1905, of 5529 cases coming under the care of the Associated Charities, 46 per cent were under fourteen. On the whole, it may be concluded that, while the leading cause of confirmed pauperism, as investigated by Mr. Booth in England, is the weakness of old age, the leading cause of incipient pauperism, as investigated by the American Charity Organization Societies, is the weakness of childhood.

Taking this in connection with the large percentage of pauperism which is constantly and everywhere attributed to sickness and physical defect, we have a striking confirmation of the conclusion reached by Dugdale in his study of the Jukes. He says: --

"1. Pauperism is an indication of weakness of some kind, either youth, disease, old age, injury, or, for women, childbirth.

"2. Hereditary pauperism rests chiefly upon disease in some form, tends to terminate in extinction, and may be called the sociological aspect of physical degeneration."

We find, phrasing our conclusions in medical terms, that the commonest exciting cause of the poverty that approaches pauperism is incapacity, resulting in most chronic cases from sickness or other degenerate and degenerating conditions. Weakness of some sort is the most typical characteristic of the destitute classes. The predisposing causes of this degeneration and weakness are next to be sought for. A physician turns from diagnosing a case to inquire for pre-disposing causes, first in the habits and heredity of the individual, and secondly in the nature of his occupation, or other conditions of life. In Chapter III. we will consider some of the predisposing causes of degeneration which pertain to the individual, and in the succeeding chapter some of those which pertain to environment.

CHAPTER III.
SYMPTOMATIC CAUSES OF DEGENERATION.

In the preceding chapter we have dealt with the principal causes of poverty and their relative proportions as ascertained by the case-counting method. In order to gather up the results of this method still more completely we shall now consider personal habits and characteristics, and the influence of stock and family through heredity; that is, the characteristics and habits of the individual himself which render him incapable or likely to become so, first, as to their nature, and, finally, as to their origin. For it is to bad habits that the ordinary observer attributes a large part of the misery of the world; and as immediate causes of degeneration, they undoubtedly have great influence. Intemperance, that is, the abuse of alcoholic drinks, has long been held to be a principal cause -- by many the cause -- of crime, pauperism, and poverty. The earlier American observers attributed from 50 to 75 per cent of misery to it, but these were estimates merely, not based on statistics. (51) During the last decade of the nineteenth century a number of careful statistical inquiries were made which reduced the factor of drink to surprisingly low percentages. In Table VI. (pp. 50, 51) the figures range from 20.5 per cent to 8 per cent -- an average for five cities of 11.8 per cent; in Professor Lindsay's table (p. 53) the average for New York, Boston, and Baltimore is 13.7 per cent. The figures of foreign tables go as low or lower. Bohmert's tables of 77 cities of Germany (1888) give drink as chief cause in only 1.3 per cent of 90,000 cases. Charles Booth concluded that 14 per cent of primary poverty, 13 per cent of secondary poverty, and 15 per cent of pauperism in workhouses was due to intemperance, Rowntree omits drink altogether as an immediate cause of primary poverty; but says that it is a predominant one of secondary poverty. "Without attempting for the present to account for the apparent decline of the percentages of drink as a cause of poverty, we may turn to a very thorough study of intemperance as related to crime, pauperism, and poverty made in 1896-1898 for the Committee of Fifty by John Koren. (52) The statistics for the section on the liquor problem in its relation to poverty were secured by 33 Charity Organization Societies representing the same number of cities in 18 states and the District of Columbia.

(52) Koren, "Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem," 1899. The Committee of Fifty is an organization of distinguished private persons, of varied religious and social views, who have supplied the money, engaged expert service, and published the results of a comprehensive research into the liquor question. See Bibliography for the four publications already issued.