SooVV\ Tv\ cV, e nt. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY Class 'S'bt) Book Volume 2) W < -C/ PAUPER POLICY. 0 CHAPTER 1 ^ INTRODUCTORY REMARKS It is with no desire to dogmatize or dictate regard- No desire ing the difficult and important question that to is before us for consideration that I stand dogma- among yon to-day. It is rather as a fellow- tize. student in the school of practical sociology , that I would speak, [as one who has had, perhaps, ; exceptional opportunities for studying the problem under widely different circumstances and from -r;widely varying points of view. I am still a learner and expect to be right on to the end, and welcome the opportunity of finding myself among so many prac ^?tical professors of sociology, in order to obtain from them all the information and correction that may be possible. \ '•*>'• It would be too much to expect that the views of evervone should absolutely coincide in regard to the best methods to be pursued. Nor does it seem to me to be necessary. Perhaps 1 may even go so far as to say that if it were possible, it would not be desirable. May not the pursuit of different methods, Room for v Divergent * Views. £ the introduction of new machinery, the elaboration of novel plans and the multiplication of efforts, which Cultivate the spirit of energy, independence and enterprise, prove as valuable in the social as it has in the commercial field? True, it may tend to some undesirable overlap- Overlap- ping and consequent waste of strength, ping of which it is wisely the object of the United Competi- Charities of New York to correct and tion. minimize. But it is, if I mistake not, rather unity of purpose than uniformity of method which we desire, and there seems little reason to doubt that aggressive rivalry, amounting even to competition, is as healthy a sign in-the social and religious world as it is in the commercial. A monopoly of methods seems neither possible Better nor desirable. The overlapping of shingles on than the roof of a house may be and is, in a sense, Monopoly, undesirable, but if the time, trouble and expense of securing an absolute fitting together edge to. edge with such closeness as would exclude every raindrop means double or treble the expense of the other method, the former will after all be the most desirable. I am sure, therefore, that we need not make ourselves feel unhappy if either now or hereafter we fail to secure on each other’s part an absolute coincidence of views and methods. Nature’s 4 prodigality of gifts, the profuse overlapping of her charities to the human, animal and vegetable crea¬ tion, remind us, that we need not be over-careful in this respect. On behalf of the Salvation Army, at any rate, I should like to say that our sociology is of a No desire constructive.rather than of a destructive to decry character. We have no heart to decry or others’ pull down the works of others, nor would work. we fail to afford them the fullest acknowledgment for all the good they may have done, however fundamentally we may differ either from their methods or the line of policy they pursue. We crave for ourselves a similar indulgence. I think that the measure of success so far attained is at least sufficient to justify the continuation on an enlarged scale of our experimental sociology. For while we may not have been able to bring to bear upon the question the same amount Practical of theoretical and literary study as have Sociology, been within the reach of others, and have certainly not had at our disposal as large a supply of funds, it will be conceded, I think, that few students of this vast and intricate problem have had so exceptional an opportunity of studying it from a world-wide , a national and a 'people's point of view. p 2.1H0 5 I have tnyself visited in turn the principal cities of Europe, including Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, European Christiania, Copenhagen, Amsterdam^ t Expert Brussels, Zurich and Turin. It 'has been ence. my privilege to study the pauper problem on the spot, to face some of the largest audiences, to converse with some of the most thoughtful men, to exchange views with the editorial staff of some of tlie leading newspapers, to read their criticisms of our plans, and to submit the various theories of many opposite schools of sociologists to the practical com* mon sense tests of experience. Here in America I am obliged to confess that limited time has meant limited opportuni- American ties for gaining knowledge. Nevertheless, L Views, the views I hold have been submitted in one form or another to some of the ablest thinkers and sociologists of the day, and I am not aware of any serious objection having been raised to them. In Chicago a special meeting for the con¬ sideration of the question was arranged by the Civic Federation. In San Francisco we had on our plat¬ form some of the leading citizens and most prom¬ inent business gentlemen of the city. In Minnea¬ polis, although on the eve of the election, the Mayor presided at our meeting and the newspapers reported on it most favorably. In Philadelphia Judge 6 Ashman took the chair, and our meeting was of a most enthusiastic character. At the same time from a people’s point of view I have made opportunities for studying the Internal question from an inside position, visiting Evidence, saloons and barrel houses, sleeping in low lodging-houses and gathering detailed in formation from our slum officers, who spend their lives in perpetual contact with the poorest of our p oor. CHAPTER II. THE CHARACTER AND EXTENT OF THE EVIL. About the existence of the evil there can be no The doubt, though opinions differ in regard to Sub- its actual extent. It can, however, be no merged longer doubted that the problem has now Tenth, reached in America an aggravated state which calls for prompt and united action. In regard to the general figures of the world it is commonly conceded that there is in most countries a “sub¬ merged tenth,” who live if not all of them in the actual region , at least on the dismal borderland of starvation. It is a melancholy fact, claiming the sympa- 150 thetic and thoughtful study of every Million humanitarian and the increasing and Paupers, prayerful effort of every Christian, that out of the estimated 1,500,000,000 of the world’s population, no less than 150,000,000 pass their lives n this desolate condition of despair. And even if we 8 liad no similar problem of our own to face, it would be incumbent on us and We should be the first to desire to mitigate this almost inconceivable mass of human woe. But we can no longer afford to view the question The Gaul with indifference, even had we the desire, is at our The “Gaul” of poverty is thundering at gates our gates. The echoes of his “Vie Victis” ring already in our ears. His sword is likely soon to be thrown into the scale. And it be¬ hooves us to strain every nerve to meet the emer¬ gency. We may congratulate ourselves that as yet the Our Sub- problem has not assumed in our case the merged gigantic and almost hopeless proportions Twentieth, of older civilizations. We may fairly estimate that our submerged do not average at present more than a twentieth, rather than a tenth of the population, and that not more than five per cent, may fairly be classified as paupers, whereas elsewhere they reach twice that number. Never¬ theless, this is serious enough. It means that we have to devise means for finding work and food for some four millions of Not less our fellow-citizens. Possibly the numbt r than Three may not exceed three or even two millions. Million. It necessarily fluctuates with the ebb and flow of national prosperity or depression. In New York it has been recently asserted that there are no less than 100,000 out-of works. This estimate is probably excessive, but even if the number be halved and if to that sad catalogue of workless would-be workers we add those dependent on them for support, we are face to face with an appalling amount of human woe, which is difficult to conceive. That the above estimate of national poverty is Our not too large is, I think, confirmed by the 80,000 statistical returns of our criminal and Criminals, pauper population. In our prisons there are upward . of 80,000 criminals confined at one time, while at least five times that number pass through in the course of the year, givingus a floating criminal population of at least half a million. In our institutions for thq poor it is estimated Our that there is an average population of about 330,000 85,000, with 250,000 more in the receipt of Actual outdoor relief. It would be fair to estimate. Paupers. I believe, that at least ten times this num¬ ber are in and out of our pauper institu¬ tions or dependent for their support more or less on various forms of charity, either from their relatives gud friends or from the public. Therefore, the prob¬ lem to be faced deals in all probability with no less than three orjour millions of our fellow citizens. 10 And here I would appeal to our sense of patriot- National ism to look at the question rather through Interests national than local interests. Indeed, I Para- believe the time has come when we must mount, be prepared at least in a measure if needs be to sacrifice the latter to the former so far as may be possible. I do not ask that we should exclude local interests, or even that we should contemplate any 'undue sacrifices on their behalf. Bat I do think that it is of vital importance that as American citizens, federal and national interests should be allowed their fullest weight, and it will be found, I believe, by no means impossible to reconcile the two, even at the point where they may seem the most likely to collide. 11 CHAPTER III. THE FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES OF A SOUND PAUPER POLICY. It is obvious that in attempting to erect what must need be so vast a structure our success Rock- will depend largely on the care with which bottom we lay our foundations. Any amount ol Principles, trouble will be abundantly repaid which enables us to reach those solid rock-bottom principles on whiph the superstructure may safely rest. Without this, the more magnificent the edifice the more certain will be its ultimate downfall. In endeavoring to ‘ascertain and formulate these, I trust that. I may not appear in any sense to fail to appreciate the vast and superb efforts which have Vast already been put forth. The fact that in and this city alone some five million dollars are increasing annually expended in dealing with the needs efforts, of these classes proves how much has been ahd is being done, and this on a magnificent scale, to grapple with the problem. But I think I am justified in asking whether this lavish and Do they generous expenditure of money isdiminish- diminish ing in any degree the evil, and if not, why the Evil ? not? I think that face to face with the talent and experience which confront me in this room I am justified in asking, without appearing to be in any sense critical, whether there may not be some radical defects in our criminal and pauper machinery, the remedying of which would enable us without an extra expenditure of money Is our to gradually drain the morass of poverty machinery and cut off the source of its supplies. Why defective should we, gifted by Grod with brains and hearts and land and capital, sit down help¬ lessly and hopelessly to contemplate with despair this continually rising tide of pauperdom? Ought we not to ask ourselves whether there may Heavy not be some better way out of our diffi- drain on culties than constantly increasing appeals the Tax- to the pocketbooks of the taxpayer, till the payer cost of being governed makes one question whether it is worth while being governed at all ? I believe the solution of the problem lies in a Define careful definition of the principles that your underlie a sound pauper policy, and I Principles, venture to say that the discovery and patient prosecution of these will not inter¬ fere one iota with our individual independence and opportunities for dealing with the problem, but will rather magnify them. For I must Encourage confess that to me the individual liberty of organized each organization to do the best it can and effort, the most it can in its own way is very nearly as valuable as the liberty of the individual citizen to do the same. The following, then, appear to me to be the foundation principles which should underlie a sound pauper policy: 1. The main cause of pauperism and crime being Must be the strong centripetal forces of the city, Centri- which lead to an excessive inflow of popu- fugal. lation beyond the needs of the labor market, the object of every effort to deal with the difficulty must be to establish or create as far as possible centrifugal forces of equal power. The action of the heart in drawing to itself the The life-blood from the body would be fatal to Social its own existence, were it not that with Heart and each pulsation the circulation of those Lungs blood drops is maintained, and that through each artery and vein the equilibrium of inflow and outflow is perpetually preserved. Similarly with the lungs, each act of inhalation is followed by a corres- 14 ponding act of exhalation. Indeed, so jealously is the body guarded against the dangerous accumula¬ tion of matter that countless pores dot its surface and insure the steady liberation of superfluous material. 2. The various trades and manufactures being as 1 Put a rule overstocked with workmen, the land them is the only natural remedy for the surplus on the population of the cities, and every criminal * Land, and pauper institution should therefore be as far as possible either itself a farm colony or directly connected with such. Every voluntary charitable association should likewise be assisted or * at least encouraged to run along similar lines. 3. The Gospel of Hope should take the place of The the Gospel of Despair in the treatment of Gospel both criminals and paupers. Even the of worst classes of society should not be treated Hope, as hopeless, but should have inducements placed before them to return to a life of honesty, sobriety and hard work. 4. Their employment should be such as will in Non-injury the least possible degree conflict with out- * to outside side labor, while fitting them to earn their labor, own independent living. 5. The question should be dealt with from a * national rather than from a local stand¬ point. The interest of the country at large 15 / A National must be considered as well as those of each Policy, individual city—those of the farmer as well as of the townsman. Any policy, which, while bene¬ ficial to one, is distinctly injurious to other por¬ tions of the commonwealth, must be avoided even at a sacrifice, otherwise a policy of reprisals is likely to ensue, which will be detrimental to all. 6. The policy must be consistent with the Consist- dictates of mercy, humanity, morality and ent with Christianity. While firm, it must not be Humanity, brutal. Poverty must not be nailed to a cross of shame or treated as a crime. The sense of self-respect must be cultivated rather than destroyed. What is needed is to put more backbone into the pauper ra ther than to take out of him what little may still be left. 7. The classification of willingness or unwilling¬ ness to work must be substituted as far as Willing- possible for that of the deserving and the ness to undeserving. Inquiry into previous char- Work. acter as a condition of assistance should be avoided, or at least restricted to the nar¬ rowest possible limits, especially in the case of the non-criminal poor. 8. The policy should be such as will tend to Change change the man himself as well as his cir- the Man. cumstances. ] 6 The policy should further aim at cutting off the supply of criminals and paupers and at Cut off anticipating as far as possible the fluctu- the ations of trade and commerce, by giving Supply, the workingman a second string to his bow, such as the potato patch, as well as by inculcating habits of thrift. 10. Self-support should be steadily kept in view Self- and the poor man and criminal should be Support, helped to work out their own regeneration. 11. To deal successfully with them they must be Classify classified, the hardened criminal, the first the offender, the vicious and the simply poor Poor, being separately handled. 12. To lessen the financial burden for the tax- Voluntary payer, as much as possible of the work Agencies should be done through voluntary agencies, prefer- on condition of their supplementing any able. State aid which they may receive by a fixed proportion of work produced and of vol¬ untary subscriptions. For instance the former might be fixed at one dollar for every dollar raised outside or produced by the non-competitive labor of the inmates. Thus a prison might be surrounded by a group of farm colonies run by independent agencies and partially supported by outside gifts, partly by the work of its inmates and partly by subsidies. 17 Chapter IV. MISTAKEN POLICIES TO BE AVOIDED. Having pointed out what appear to me to be the essentials of a wise pauper policy, I would now proceed to deal with some mistaken policies, which ought, in my opinion, to be avoided. 1. One of the most foolish of these seems to me The to be what I would call the Ostrich Policy Ostrich which ignores or makes little- of the evil, Policy, burying its head in the sands of forgetful¬ ness, while the lion of poverty fills the world with his maddened hunger-roars. 2. Again, the Football Policy of kicking the The pauper from city to city, or from city to Football farm, appears to me to be a mean and Policy, brutal policy, which quickly reacts upon itself. Tramps, “like birds, come home to roost,” and if they go out from us blackbirds they come back crows. If they go out sparrows they come back harpies—Socialists, Anarchists, Dynamit- ards of the most dangerous and desperate character, the manufacture of our own cold-blooded brutality. 3. The Tin-Pot Policy of a remedy utterly The inadequate to the vastness of the needs is Tin-pot equally to be deprecated. The machinery Policy, must be equal to the need. To bridge 18 Niagara we must calculate the distance from bank to bank. 4. Worst of all, perhaps, is the Crucifixion The Policy , which nails poverty to a cross of Cruci' shame of’ treats it as a crime. This has fixion resulted in Europe in the wholesale manu- Policy, facture of criminals and Anarchists. It has "equired enormous military, naval and police arm a nents’to render it at all possible, and even under ffiese'most favorable (?) circumstances is being rapidly abandoned as impracticable in favor of the more humane methods advocated by General Booth's ‘Darkest England” scheme. 5. The Inquisitorial Policy of making help con- The In- ditional on a strict inquiry into character. )uisitorial (a) A man may starve while he is being Policy, inquired about. (b) The plan is very expensive where the number of the poor is great, as in our large cities. Ordinarily it will cost 75 cents to get 25 down a man’s throat, and even then the money will often go down the wrong throat. Any magistrate or lawyer will bear witness to the extreme difficulty of ascertaining a man’s character, even under the search light of judicial investigation. But in the cases under contemplation it must either be super- 19 ficial, when it is worthless, or minute, when it becomes vexatious and inquisitorial. (c) It is very painful and humiliating to the honest poor, who are the ones whom it is really desired to help. (d) It is contrary to the spirit of our American institutions. (e) It is unnecessary, since the automatic test of willingness to work will usually be found sufficient. Practically the only ones who are “ undeserving ” of the help of society are those who are unwilling to work. 6. The Monopoly Policy as opposed to the com¬ petitive. While overlapping is an evil it is Monopoly a lesser one than is generally supposed, v. and in avoiding it we must beware of falling Compete into far greater dangers. Healthy eompe- tion. tition in doing good should be encouraged, and the utmost latitude should be allowed for the introduction of novel methods and efforts, with a view to combat the inevitable tendency to crystallize and stagnate. New and increasing evils demand new remedies, suited to the ever-varying needs of the hour. 7. For Government to monopolize the field or Private enter into needless competition with charit- Enter- able agencies is also unwise and involves an prise. unnecessary outlay of public.money. The 20 same principle that makes it undesirable for Govern¬ ments to compete with private enterprise in business applies with even greater force to the charitable field, since here there is ready to hand a great legion of disinterested workers, whose services may be obtained for little or nothing, who are unaffected by party politics, who are willing to work on lines laid down for them'and who are to a large extent skilled in such work. 8. The scattering of tramps over the country is like the spreading of a disease. Why should Scattering a great city and country like ours be ner- Tramps. vous of the gathering together of a few hundred tramps, even supposing such a thing were to happen ? It would be far better than the driving of them to desperation or the scattering of them broadcast over the country, maddened by the seeming injustice and cruelty with which they have been treated. Get them together and you can handle them much more easily and effectively. 21 CHAPTER V. THE SALVATION ARMY PLAN for dealing with the problem is based on the above principles. Adapted to America it consists briefly ol the following branches: I. The settleinent’of large tracts of 100,000 acres The of land and upwards in the Far WestI Western This, though mentioned first, must be Canaan, necessarily the last portion of the scheme to come into actual operation. II. The establishment of Farm Colonies of 200 to 1,000 or more acres, as land may be avail- Farm able, in the neighborhood of the principal Colonies, cities suffering from a congested population. Already in different countries such colonies have been commenced. The principal one consists of 1,500 acres of land near the mouth of the Thames. The gross produce from the labor of the colonists amounted last year to upwards of §100,000, and although there was a small loss on their work, owing largely to the labor being unskilled, the value of most of the land has increased from $100 an acre to §500 and even^lLOOO. 22 tit City Garden Allotments or Potato Patched on the plan introduced so successfully by City Allot- Governor Pingree in Detroit. This serves ments. to form a stepping-stone between the city and the farm, creating a love of the land and a knowledge of how to handle it and providing the working classes with a second resource in the case of trade depression, besides enabling them to eke out their wages with the vegetables they are enabled to grow. IV. The City Colony . This has been carefully The City departmentalized into the following sec- Colony. tions: (a) Food and Shelter Depots for providing cheap food and lodgings for the poor without actually Cheap pauperizing them. To supply cheap food Food and has prevented in many cases the breaking Shelter, up of homes which would otherwise have been necessary. In London alone 3,500,000 meals from half a cent upwards were furnished in one year. The cheap lodgings from 2 cents upwards similarly prevented thousands from drifting into the prisons and workhouses. “Now we shall not have to steal! Any of us can pick up sufficient to pay a few sous for our lodging!” an old man was heard to exclaim when we opened our first Shelter in Brussels. 23 It has been supposed that this would tend to An Objection draw an increasing number of young men Answered, from the country to the city. But to this we reply: (1) We have established such Shelters in scores of the principal cities of the world Not SO, and in no case are we aware of this having been the case. (2) If here it should be otherwise it would be easy to take precautions to refuse to Avoidable. accept such, or to get them sent back to their homes. (3) As a rule there are Salvation Army bar¬ racks and officers in the localities where Likely to these young men live, and they would inquire. naturally go there to inquire whether any suitable openings existed and to get a letter of introduction before coming to the city. (4) The great majority of the people frc« Our quenting our New York Shelters are experience regular New Yorkers. This we have in ascertained from careful inquiry, and New York. we can easily take further precautions in this direction. In the course of about six months only three such applied at our Women’s Shelter. 24 ( b ) Work Yards and Factories for the tern- Temporary porary employment of those who are Work. out of work. (c) Labor Bureaux. In London alone 19,000 Labor persons were found temporary or per- Bureaux. manent employment last year. (d) Rescue Homes for fallen women. We have sixty-eight such (eight in America) Homes with accommodation for about 1,700 for the girls, nearly 4,000 of whom pass through Fallen. annually, eighty-five per cent, being restoi ed to lives of virtue. (e) Prison Gate Homes for ex-criminals. We Homes for have twenty such, more than 1,000 Ex-Convicts, criminals passing through them yearly and eighty per cent, turning out well. (/) /Slum Posts. These to the number of eighty-six have been established in the Our Slum worst quarters of many large cities. It Angels. is the duty of the officers to live among the poor and minister to their wants in every way. The City Colonies of the Salvation Army as above 500 described now number about 500 institutions City under the charge of about 2,000 officers. In fnstitu- the United States we have thirty-two insti- tions. tutions and 100 officers. 2b There is one feature of the City Colony to'which Their I would venture to call special attention Self- and that is its self-supporting aspect. The support, total number of persons sheltered in our various institutions throughout the world is more than 10,000. Of these about 5,000 are in London, which has been made by force of circum¬ stances the natural center of the experiment. The total cost of the City Colony there amounted during the year to $365,000, and of this amount no less than $350,000 were contributed by the persons helped leaving only a balance of $15,000 to be raised Saving from the charitable public. Had they been the dealt with in the ordinary manner they Taxpayer, would have cost the taxpayer at least $500,000, or if they had partially raised the cost for their support it would only have been by displacing outside labor. 26 CHAPTER Vi. REVIEWING* THE QUESTION. ' Finally, I would only repeat that vast and diffi^ cult as the problem is, we have no reason The Rock to view it with despair. You will remember in the the story of the German grand duke who. Road, wishing to test the industry and stimulate the energy of his dependents, caused a large rock to be placed in the middle of the main village thoroughfare. The people drove and rode and walked to the right of the rock and to its left, but no one attempted to remove the obstruction. Finally the grand duke summoned his followers to he spot and with one united effort the rock was removed,when behold, beneath it was found a bag of The gold. “This,” said the grand duke, “was Golden to be the reward of the man who had the Guerdon, energy to remove the rock, but since none of you have attempted it, the bag of gold will return to its donor.” May we not say that this rock of poverty, of pauperism, of crime, which 27 obstructs the pathway of civilization, of our national prosperity and of our national honor, awaits simi¬ larly the energetic -and united effort of those who shall face the problem, and that those who succeed iu removing it will discover that laid by the hand of Providence under the seeming obstacle is a mine of wealth for the hearts that will have the sympathy, the brains that will have the inventiveness and the hands that will have the energy to remove this stumbling-block. 28 OUR FUTURE) Pauper Policy IN 3.ME)RIGA. Being a paper read at the monthly meeting of the United Charities of New York, and published by special request. BY COMMANDER BOOTH-TUCKER. PRICE ZFTV'IE CJEIsTTS- NEW YORK: Salvation Army Publishing House 120, 123, 134 W. 14tu Street, ILUN0I9-URBANA UNIVER9ITY OF 3 0112 047776692