New York State College of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y. The Professor Dwight Sanderson Rural Sociology Library Cornell University Library HV 33.H45 Introduction to the study of the depende 3 1924 013 793 918 Pi Cornell University 3 Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013793918 c o J-J u ID O o O o _ M a wi .a < o -3 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OP THE DEPENDENT, DEFECTIVE, AND DELINQUENT CLASSES <&xiO of tfjeir Social treatment BY CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON, Ph.D. PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED AND REWRITTEN BOSTON, U.S.A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1908 0. Copyright, 1893 and 1901, By CHARLES R. HENDERSON. PREFACE. This book is an elementary introduction to the systematic study of the nature, condition, and social relations of dependents, defectives, and delinquents. The theoretical discussion describes, defines, and explains the facts in a certain group of phenomena, in associated life. Its purpose is to promote an understanding of the reality under consideration, and its goal is knowledge. The later parts of the treatise are chiefly practical. They deal with social conduct, with institutions and organizations for better- ment, alleviation, and correction. We seek the ethical basis of charity, the ideals of philanthropy, and the social mechanism for- attaining in larger measure what ought to be. Social institutions are described ; their adaptation to ends is judged and valued ; better methods are proposed according to the teachings of experience. In the text the aim has been to state the essential factors, laws, : tendencies, forces, or methods. Statistical data are used very sparingly. In the appendix will be found some brief summaries of measurements believed to be reliable within the limits defined, and full references to the sources and authorities. Where recom- mendations of practical measures are made, the purpose has been to give both reasons and authorities. There is a common saying among practical workers that " there are no two cases alike ; each must be treated on its own merits." This maxim contains a very important truth, but it may be used in a very dangerous and misleading way. In the living objects of nature and among the members of the human race there is, indeed, great variety. Variation from type is a fact, and the beginning of new developments, good and evil. There is so iv Preface. great difference between individuals that the practical workei must constantly use discretion, tact, judgment, common sense ; and for these qualities there is no substitute in knowledge of science. But variety is not the whole truth ; there is likeness, similarity. The child resembles the parents ; there is a family look ; there are common features in a class ; there are race characters. On the basis of likenesses we found laws and principles. The business man discriminates classes of employees and of customers. There are such general laws of life that very much of relief work and penal administration can be directed by statutes and rules. Even in a particular office of charity, cases are classified for conven- ience, and the classification would be impossible if there were no likenesses. The main governing and guiding principles of philanthropy are the same in all countries having the same conditions and ideals. The methods in Germany and England are studied by us because we can learn what is common to us with them. We transfer a suc- cessful administrator of charity organization or prison or school from one city or state to another, and confidently expect similar success in the new location. Why? Because there are principles of success, and when these are discovered a man, with suitable personal tact, can apply them anywhere. It is not true that every case is absolutely new, that we must begin without stored intel- lectual capital with each fresh problem. Life is no such gambling with chance and luck as this would imply. The practical worker who acts without principles and who never discovers any general laws remains a hopeless floater all his life. All the real leaders in our field of philanthropy were men and women of mental power and comprehension, capable of detecting the wide law in the single fact or situation. John Howard, S. G. Howe, E. C. Wines, were illustrations, and others could be named among the living. " All theoretical investigations based on a large practical expe- rience must lead to the same conclusions, at least in all essential points, and it is a matter of indifference whether this experience Preface. v is gained in England or in America, in Germany or in France. We are not dealing with an empty phrase when we speak of uni- versal principles, founded, not upon territorial and local customs and conditions, but on human nature ; though a considerable im- portance does, of course, attach to these customs and conditions." 1 This volume is nominally the second edition of a book some time out of print, and it is almost entirely a new book. Since the first edition, a pioneer in this field, the matter and form have been tested and sifted by criticism, by wider reading and further practical experience in charity organization work, and by class- room instruction. It is hoped that the corrections and additions will increase the usefulness of the volume. To all who have assisted in the preparation of this volume the writer offers his thanks. They have been many and they have been kind. 1 E. Muensterberg, American Journal Sociology, January, 1897. Cf. same Journal, January, 1901, article " Social Technology," by C. R. Henderson. CONTENTS. Preface PART I. THE PHENOMENA OF DEPENDENCE AND THEIR EXPLANATION. CHAPTER I. The Problem Stated I II. The Evolution of Inferior and Antisocial Elements . . .12 III. Explanation of Dependency by Nature and Situation ... 23 IV. Inheritance, Education, and General Conditions ... 32 PART II. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE RELIEF AND CARE OF DEPENDENTS. I. Directive Aims of Philanthropy 40 II. The Public Budget and Poor Relief 48 III. Outdoor Legal Relief 52 IV. Principles of Administration of Poor Relief in Families . . 62 V. Public Indoor Relief: the Poorhouse 71 VI. The Unemployed and the Homeless Dependents ... 83 VII. The Relief and Care of Dependent Children .... 98 VIII. Medical Charities 121 IX. Voluntary Charity of Individuals and of Associations . . .138 X. The Charity Organization Society 151 vii viii Contents. PART III. SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE EDUCATION, RELIEF, CARE, AND CUSTODY OF DEFECTIVES. CHAPTER FACE I. Education and Care of the Blind and of Deaf Mutes . . . 169 II. Education and Custody of the Feeble-minded . III. Social Treatment of the Insane IV. Further Specialization of Institutions for Defectives V. State Boards and Federal Functions . 174 183 I9S 202 PART IV. AN INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY. I. Data of Criminal Anthropology . . ... . . .215 II. Causes of Crime .......... 237 III. The Criminal before the Law 262 IV. Elements of Prison Science 276 V. Preventive Measures = . . . . 308 VI. Social Treatment of Juvenile Offenders ..... 322 Survey and Outlook 339 Appendix 349 Index ...... 395 PART I. Theoretical : The Phenomena of Dependence and Their Explanation. CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM STATED. 1. The Attitude of the Student. — Even for the bare under- standing of the phenomena a certain measure of human sympathy is essential to insight and to patience. True benevolence is not inconsistent with steady nerves, clear vision, sound judgment, as we see in the case of many surgeons. John Howard measured the dimensions of prison cells as accurately as an architect, even while he was laying down his life for prisoners and infected invalids. The dry light of science is focused in the lens of affection. Feeling may disturb, blind sentiment may lead astray, and passion may urge rash measures; but the unfeeling are dead to the revealing touch. Progress will be promoted by asking ourselves : Why should I take up this difficult and somewhat repulsive theme? What are the sustaining motives of interest in this mournful subject? Let no one enter this field who is not prepared to encounter obstacles. A sustaining purpose of high order is required for the study of dependency, because it is a condition of thorough knowledge that we submit our senses of sight, hearing, and smell to very disagreeable facts. Investigation cannot be made by proxy. Sympathy is a personal experience' of fellow-feeling with pain; it is suffering. Indignation, disgust, and pity follow each 2 The Phenomena of Dependence. other in rapid succession. The subject is full of intellectual difficulties. There are frequent disappointments in the quests of science. There is no ready-made solution of social problems. If careful thinking and boundless self-denial and sacrifice could remove pauperism, the world ere this time would have been clear of beggars. Yet if one is fond of knotty questions that put thought to strain; if horrors fascinate the philanthropic disposition; if there is much of " the mind that was in Christ Jesus, " — then the study of dependency will arouse curiosity and will sustain an eager interest. "During twenty odd years of eventful toil if the great city, I never found a depth of misery so deep, a pov- erty so rank, a crime so atrocious, a despair so black, that some humble follower of Christ did not find it out " (A. C. Wheeler, "Nym Crinkle"). Only as we visualize misery in concrete, sentient persons can we measure the data of our problem. Masses must be analyzed into their human units. "Masses indeed; and yet, singular to say, if, with an effort of imagination, thou follow them, over broad France, into their clay hovels, into their garrets and hutches, the masses consist all of units. Every unit of whom has his own heart and sorrows, stands covered with his own skin, and if you prick him, he will bleed. Dreary, languid do these struggle in their obscure remoteness, their hearth cheerless, their diet thin. For them in this world rises no Era of Hope. Untaught, uncomforted, unfed" (Carlyle). 2. Paths of Interest and Knowledge. — Personal experience is one path to personal interest in the abject poor. King Lear, in his prosperous days, forgot the poor; but when he was cast out from his palace and left shelterless in the cold, beating rain, with a fool for his sole companion, images of those who ever bide the pelting of pitiless storms came to his recollection, and there on the barren heath he thought of " looped and windowed raggedness," and urged the rich to "shake the superflux to them, and show the heavens more just." The Problem Stated. 3 The spectacle of suffering is a guide to intimate knowledge. "Josiah Flynt" equips himself for the study of tramps by asso- ciating with them. Wyckoff's "The Workers" came from a period of thorough identification of the author with the fortunes of wandering men. Paul Goehre's "Three Months in a Ger- man Workshop " supplied pictures of real scenes, and gave the authority of an eye-witness. Residence in a settlement trans- figures the dead pages of description and statistics into living forms. The biologist, studying the phenomena of life, development, heredity, filiation, degeneration, atrophy, crossing, environment, habitat, comes upon various aspects of pauperism and crime. The psychologist, pursuing his laboratory methods with the normal and abnormal manifestations of mental life, becomes acquainted with the feeble and perverted. The economist finds his calculations disturbed by the facts of industrial inefficiency, observes and explains the remote effects of commercial disasters, notices the item for public relief or prisons in the budgets of the commonwealth. The lawyer and legislator are compelled to consider dependence, insanity, and crime in the formation and the administration of statutes. And the sociologist, simply as theorist, cannot ignore the existence of the defectives and the institutions which society has provided for them. In his view of society and in his coordination of all the factors of ameliora- tion he must conjoin the varied elements of knowledge in a con- sistent and practical scheme of social conduct. All the religious beliefs which are within the range of our experience include a demand for charity. Observation is the prime source of real knowledge. He who would have genuine impressions, the percepts and concepts corresponding to reality, out of which valid reasoning grows, must go into the homes of the extremely poor and have actual dealings with them as a friend. One may go with visitors of relief societies and almoners of public relief in town or city; or with a physician called to treat a "county case " ; or resort to 4 The Phenomena of Dependence. free hospitals, dispensaries, and poorhouses; or walk in forlorn regions with mission workers who know the haunts and ways of the destitute. Personal observation is necessarily restricted to a narrow field of vision and must be supplemented by the records of multitudes of observations. Science is a social work, and its structure is built by the associated labors of the entire fraternity of theorists and practical workers. The general government has long been collecting and arranging statistics through the census bureau, the consular reports, and other agencies. The states have printed for the information of the tax paying public the records of the service rendered by charitable institutions. The Charity Organ- ization Society in many cities has steadily developed and improved the modes of gathering and tabulating the results of experience in dealing with urban destitution. Interviews with experts and practical administrators must always be a large part of the education of the student of charities and correction. To deepen, widen, and refresh the fading impressions of observation the representations of art are valuable. Painters and sculptors stir jaded spirits to feel the reality of poverty. Writers of fiction suggest new fields of research and intensify the moral reaction against morbid social conditions. "Ginx's Baby" stings us with satire; Dickens attracts us to descend with him into the Inferno and Purgatory of human sorrows; Bellamy's " Looking Backward " has at least the merit of arousing the selfish from dreams of luxury; Mrs. Browning's "Cry of the Children" thrills the sensitive heart, and her "Aurora Leigh" opens all philosophies, all wounds, all modes of cure; Hood's "Song of the Shirt " does not become antiquated so long as sweaters toil in noisome tenements. Hugo's "Les Misdrables" still creep along the alleys of our huge towns to unhealthy dens; still the "Children of Gibeon" appeal to us as if they were crouching at our doors; and "All Sorts and Conditions of Men " are our con- temporaries. Such is the power of strong imagination that we can go with Meriwether or Josiah Flynt or Wyckoff and learn the The Problem Stated. 5 mysteries of tramp life. Mr. J. A. Riis, in "How the Other Half Live," "Children of the Poor," "Out of Mulberry Street," leads us by pictures, though reluctant, to converse with the wretched denizens of the metropolis. It is true that such works of art have their limitations. They may describe scenes which no longer exist. The artist seldom offers scientific analyses of causes or provides adequate remedies. The novelist is free to fly in air, while the statistician, economist, and sociologist must walk on solid earth, close to facts, and the successful reformer is limited by the conditions of actual life. 3. Limits of this Discussion. — It is impossible to give techni- cal instruction for administrative officers in lectures and books. Nurses of the sick, physicians to the insane, secretaries of charity organizations, may be aided to theory, but must gain discipline and technical training in the actual daily work of their offices. It is our effort here to aid educated social leaders to enter upon a method of study which will conduct them to codified results of wide experience and investigation, so that they may think more effectively, observe more shrewdly, and cooperate in the wisest methods of action. Those who shape and direct public opinion, and who are inspired to zeal by philanthropic motives, need the sociological outlook upon complicated problems. While experts are not equipped by mere reading, yet they may receive a more scientific direction than if they confined themselves to the narrow field of a single institution and its traditions. Professionals in many departments of relief and corrective work should consider the common aims and relating principles revealed by social science, which give unity and dignity to isolated branches of humane service. We are studying a science, and not practising an art, although, these are closely related. Between the mechanic who rivets the bridge and the physicist who experiments with the strength of steel, mediates the mechanical engineer and architect who con- struct a plan. The merely "practical worker" who affects to despise history and theory becomes obstinate, inflexible, and a 6 The Phenomena of Dependence. slave of his own little past; while the student of historical methods is more apt to be fresh, inventive, and open to new ideas. But there is no academic substitute for institutional experience under successful managers. Theoretical social science attempts to ascertain and present the phenomena of a group in completeness, and to account for them by tracing their causes. Practical social science aims to ascertain and present in systematic form ari adequate account of the social ends which govern the dealings 6f society with defec- tives, and with the organized means for realizing these purposes. Theory leads to truth, to knowledge; practical science leads to conduct in accordance with truth. But beyond both are the arts, trades, special callings, the business of administration, the tasks of the warden, superintendent, and assistants. 4. Theoretical and Practical Aims. — Complete theory, in rela- tion to a concrete group of phenomena, demands a knowledge of the facts in their relations of co-existence in space. For example, we must discover and chart the geographical distribu- tion of crime or insanity. The national census gives us figures by districts, divisions, states, counties, and cities. The same facts must be studied and presented in the order of their succession in time. Thus we may compare the statistics of insanity at intervals of ten years, and judge whether the evil is increasing or decreasing, in the several localities. The tendency to uniformity, or the empirical law of the phe- nomena, is an object of scientific examination. If we arrange our data in their space and time relations, a certain uniform order and degree will be observed. The '• law " thus discovered is not something like the decalogue, a decree of the Almighty; nor a legislative statute, binding on all citizens and sanctioned by penalties; but simply an order which is true of a set of con- ditions and forces, and liable to change to some other order with change of causes and forces. Scientific method calls for classification by distinctive marks or characteristics, and appropriate naming of each class. Thus The Problem Stated. 7 the feeble-minded are distinguished by certain physical and psychical traits from all others, and the institutional arrange- ments for their care are made with reference to their number and their peculiarities. The culmination of theoretical science is explanation, ration- ale, or the discovery of efficient causes. By a cause we mean the sum of all the forces and conditions of an act or state within the cosmic order. We are not discussing the First Cause, a topic of theology; nor "final causes," the purposes of the Author of nature; but natural or efficient causes, whether in physical or social science. Beyond theory is practical science, whose method is to proceed through what is to what ought to be. This part of our discipline involves standards of judgment, criticism of actual social con- ditions and arrangements in the light of these standards, and a system of correlated means for making conditions and forces work toward our ideals of what ought to be. The actual treatment of dependents, defectives, and delin- quents is a social task. The existence and activities of paupers and criminals affect the physical and spiritual welfare of every member of the entire people; they influence every institution of the community, industrial, political, educational, and ecclesi- astical. The burden of support and punishment must be borne by all. Therefore, the subject must be considered from the standpoint of the whole community, and in full view of all its interests. The interests involved are economical, industrial, educational, religious, aesthetic, political. The problems considered cannot be studied without information from all the sciences which deal with health, with industry, with commerce, with education, with law, with religion. A merely economical discussion is mani- festly inadequate, although the economic factor is essential, and the science of economics must yield its verdict in every dis- cussion. A merely legal consideration is inadequate, although in the poor laws and labor laws we have a part of the social 8 The Phenomena of Dependence. machinery of relief and control. Sanitary Science and medical science are tributary to our study, yet each covers only a section of the field. Without boasting that the name of science can yet be fairly claimed for sociology, we may safely affirm: that such a subject as ours cannot logically be treated elsewhere, and that, if success has not yet crowned their hopes, the sociologists are sincerely working at the foundations of a method which is essential to any satisfactory solution of every single problem which engages the interest of every community. 5. Definitions and Classification. — "Dependents" are those who, from any cause, exist by means supplied by the voluntary acts of the community, by gifts from public funds or private sources. We shall discuss " defectives " so far as their infirmi- ties make them dependent on the community. " Delinquents " are persons who derive their support, at least in part, by imposing an involuntary burden or sacrifice upon the community, and whose hurtful acts are forbidden by law. We adhere to this grouping, in the face of adverse criticism, for practical reasons. It is made the basis of actual social arrangements, as census reports, and the divisions of functions of charities and correction in public administration. It is admitted that these groups are secondary formations and very complex in composition, and that other methods of classification are better for some purposes. But they are actual and definable groups, recognized by common observation and fixed in habits of thought and speech. The group of dependents, as defined, is composed of mingled elements, and its members stand in varied relations to society, as they differ in nature, disposition, and ability. Some are unfor- tunate, and their dependence is accidental; as, for example, old persons who have been industrious and frugal but late in life have lost friends and means. Others bear the marks of the pauper spirit, the willingly dependent. The epithet "pauper" has several meanings, and may imply The Problem Stated. 9 mere legal dependence, without regard to character, or it may signify degradation and mendicancy. Very worthy persons occa- sionally are compelled to accept public relief, and thus come to be on the lists of paupers. The point at which dependence is recognized by the commu- nity varies with conditions. Climate, stage of culture, local customs of nourishment and dress, class standards, wealth of the prosperous citizens, are factors which enter the problem. Where all are poor, very few can be supported by neighbors, and that only when want touches suffering. Where the climate is warm pauperism is a lighter burden, because the demand for clothing, housing, and food is less pressing. Where the standard of com- fort is high, on the contrary, and wealth is diffused, and charity is popular, the signs of misery which elicit help need not be so tragical and sensational, for even discomfort excites pity. Dependence on the community is determined largely by the stage of social organization. Under the ancient conditions of slavery and serfdom the laborer was cared for by his owner and the serf by his lord. It is sometimes said, with truth and bitter- ness, that the capitalist cares for his machines and his horses, but not for his human agents of production, the wage-earners. There is occasional justice in the taunt and complaint. The rich man's stables are frequently finer than the dwellings of his employees. But part of this misery of the poor is an accompani- ment of the modern regime of personal freedom; we live under a system of nominal free contracts, and are On the way upward to a condition of entirely free contracts. This new and higher position brings new perils, and the sufferings which attend re- adjustments. But freedom is an advance on slavery and serfdom, as manhood, with all its cares, is above infancy and youth. In Scotland, so long as there was a clan organization, a national poor law had but limited value and application. But when the clan dissolved and strangers became citizens, and there was no sense of obligation of relatives to support them, the need of legal provision came to be felt, and the poor law was introduced. io The Phenomena of Dependence. In all parts of the world, from early ages,- there has been some social provision ior the weak and dependent, if ever so meagre and inadequate. But community responsibility, in the political sense, is a comparatively late phase of civilization. In tribal organization only the members of the tribe feel under obligation to help; but under modern political organization each member of the state is under obligations of law to all others, and the state recognizes the claim of each citizen to protection, help, and support. In a period of transition, the readjustment causes much suffering and loss, as we see among the negroes of the South. The old forms of control and assistance are dead, and the new forms are not yet born. But the higher will come in due time. All human beings are dependent on parents in infancy, and helplessness is natural to the babe. But the children of self- supporting families are not wards of the community. In a cer- tain sense, the inhabitants of a modern commonwealth are so related as to need each other far more than men at barbarian levels of culture. Increased unlikeness of parts implies great de- pendence of parts. The savage makes all the coarse articles his few and simple wants require, but the civilized artisan makes one article, and looks to all the world for the other objects of satis- faction. Not all the poor are dependents, and poverty is a merely relative matter. A poor Irishman would be counted rich in Patagonia. Dependence admits degrees and shades off upward into simple misfortune and downward into abject beggary or crime. In its extreme form we have pauperism, a word which carries with it a suggestion of weakness, inferiority, and reproach. The typical "pauper" is a social parasite, who attaches himself to others, and, by living at their expense, suffers loss of energy and ability by disease and atrophy: Pauperism at this stage is a loathsome moral disease, more difficult to cure than crime. There is solidarity, organic connection, between dependents and delinquents. They cannot be studied or treated as if they belonged in compartments separated by impervious walls. Very The Problem Stated. n often a single family will impose on society the burden of ill- born and badly trained children, who will be dispersed in later years among dependents, defectives, and delinquents. The most feeble members will drift into asylums for incurables; the women will recruit the army of outcasts; the men will swell the ranks of vagabonds and thieves. Those who reach old age will hide in the shelter of the county poorhouse. CHAPTER II. THE EVOLUTION OF INFERIOR AND ANTISOCIAL ELEMENTS. Defect is an incident of evolution. Assuming, at least hypo- thetically, that all life is continuous in one system of related beings, we may reason from the phenomena of plant and animal life to the life of human beings, so far as they have vital quali- ties in common. Having to account for inherited and acquired defect in the physical and psychical natures of men, we may learn much to the purpose from a study of injury, defective nutrition, transmission of qualities, variation and selection in the science of biology. The biologist prepares part of the data for sociology. We may make painless experiments with all kinds of plants and animals to discover the effects of changes in light, temperature, position, chemical reactions, electricity, and food on the indi- vidual in its development from the germ. The general laws of heredity and nurture move upward through all strata of living creatures to the highest. Even where a degree of pain is neces- sarily inflicted, if the experiments are regulated by intelligence and humanity, the results justify the cost, since not only men, but also lower animals, share in the advantages of advancing science. The veterinary surgeon is as dependent on the revela- tions of vivisection as the family physician and teacher. Hun- dreds of thousands of horses, cattle, and pets are saved from pain and disease in consequence of the vicarious sufferings endured by a few sentient creatures in the laboratories of competent experimenters. There is no excuse for tyros and bunglers who hack at random, without guidance or purpose, into quivering flesh. It is in the laboratory that we discover the conditions which cause arrested development of the central nervous system, Inferior and Antisocial Elements. 13 deformity, disease, and the ways of transmitting characters to posterity. Comte has shown how closely biology and sociology are related in this enterprise. , " But we saw, in our survey of biology, that pathological cases are the true scientific equivalents of pure experimentation. The same reasons apply, with even more force, to sociological researches. In them, pathological analysis consists in the examination of cases, unhappily too common, in which the natural laws, either of harmony or succession, are disturbed by any causes, special or general, accidental or transient. These disturbances are, in the social body, exactly analogous to diseases in the individual organism. In both cases it is a noble use of our reason to discover the real laws of our nature, individual or social, by the analysis of its sufferings." The range of experiment is much wider than is sometimes represented. It might be possible to determine something of the relative importance of heredity and culture by studying a series of infants whose parentage is known to be defective, but who have been transplanted to good family surroundings. But it is very difficult to follow such adopted children, because it is ordinarily best for all parties to hide the past and give the child the advantage of the new start and name. And furthermore, defective children owe part of their inferiority to early influence as well as to inherited qualities. Galton and others have studied a large number of successful and of inferior individuals with a view to discovering the causes which led to their marked characteristics. Here, again, it is extremely difficult to isolate the causes and to determine which are most significant. Dugdale and McCulloch followed down the line of degraded families, in all their intermarriages, for several generations, and sought to define the part played by heredity and education. Even here the results are confused. But when we turn to the studies of biologists the conditions are far more favorable to definite conclusions, because they have before them all the field of plant and animal life ; they can vary conditions at will; and they can submit each object to experi- 14 The Phenomena of Dependence. ment under control. Social experience can never be quite equal to scientific experiment, because we are ordinarily prohibited by humane sentiments and interests from subjecting human beings to any conditions which must inevitably injure them in health or character. All men are living beings, and so far come under the laws of life in general. We here call attention to some of the results of biology so far as they illuminate our problem, and help us account for defect and criminal disposition. 1. Variation. — The defects of inferior individuals are explained by all the facts which account for variation, since defectives are departures from a normal type. From the moment of conception to the end of life there is a play of millions of forces acting upon the growing and living creature, and tending to produce great variety of form, degrees of energy, power of resistance, and faculty for adaptation. All differences from parents are due to variation, and from this origin spring all that is new, and not due to ancestors, whether better or worse. Here lies the possibility of advance and also of degeneration. The causes of variation may be internal and spontaneous, without any known external explanation of the difference. But external conditions are also at work, as parasites, microbes, cli- mate, food, heat, light. The new elements are combined in the offspring of parents, and the result is a new structure. In this process of variation it will be found that some indi- viduals are superior, and others inferior, to the average. This is the beginning of the abnormal, the monstrous, the undeveloped, the feeble, the perverted. It is in this investigation of the causes of variation that we must seek for the physical factors which influence or determine the traits which are handed down, and either reduced or aggravated in the process of transmission, 2. Transmission. — Common and scientific observation reveal a tendency to transmit the defects of parents to their offspring, and this helps to explain the nature of paupers and criminals. One of the most conspicuous illustrations of certain transmis- sion of traits is seen in the likeness of members of races. The Inferior and Antisocial Elements. 15 pictures and statues and carved figures of ancient Chaldea, Egypt, and Assyria, on monuments and in graves, show how persistent are race types. Plants, animals, and men are so alike that descendants resemble their progenitors of five thousand years ago. In the study of inferior types, allowance must be made for race traits. The pointed head, heavy jaw, thick lips, and woolly hair of a negro are normal with him ; but these features if seen in any high degree in an Aryan would be monstrous. In investi- gations this must be borne in mind, and the normal type of each race must be the standard. Innate characteristics are those which inhere from conception in the fecundated ovum and its products. Such characteristics are, in general, transmissible, but their actual transmission depends on many factors, as crossing and external conditions. Structure is thus handed down from father to sqn, as stature, form, color of skin and hair. The functions of the body are inherited, as timbre of voice, manner of walking, gestures, longevity, feebleness. The physical basis influences psychical manifestations, and so there is an inheritance of tastes, habits, and disposition. But as to these latter it is difficult to dis- tinguish between heredity and imitation of parents. Diseases and monstrosities are directly transmitted, but again we must seek to distinguish from inheritance the effects of out- ward conditions, infection, and contagion subsequent to con- ception. Mental diseases are frequently the direct result of an inherited defect in nervous structure, while syphilis seems to be due to the transmission of specific microbes. These examples will illustrate the two different modes of transmission. It is questioned among medical men whether the bacillus of tuberculosis is, in the biological sense, transmitted. Passing to the inheritance of acquired characteristics, we enter a controversy whose determination lies with biologists. Lamarckism is the theory that traits acquired are inherited by offspring, so that each new generation starts with the results of past experience and training, or of vice and ignorance, organized 1 6 The Phenomena of Dependence. in the physical structure of infants. Nee-Darwinians claim that the effects of acquired traits disappear with the individual, and that natural selection must be taken to explain adaptation, evo- lution, and regression; and that improvements must be gained only by selection, never by education. If acquired characters are transmitted, then we may hopefully employ education, not only to influence the individual, but also to improve his progeny and descendants. Practically, our methods are not essentially determined by this controverted doctrine. We may employ time and energy on either theory in the use of both education and selection. The trait generally appears at about the same age in offspring and parent. For example, a nervous disease or an affection of the alimentary canal which attacked a parent at the fortieth year, is likely to trouble the child at the same period of life. In the adoption of foundlings or other children of unknown parentage, we cannot foretell whether a disease or defect which is masked in youth may not break forth at a later stage of development. Traits are not always inherited under the exact form shown by parents, and there is a transformation of defects. An epileptic may become parent of a maniac; an insane mother may have a hysterical daughter; simple nervousness and excessive irritability in the parent appears as chorea or insanity in the offspring; the inebriate's child becomes an idiot, dies of consumption, or at puberty is abandoned to unbridled lust. Toxic substances introduced into the organism of parents influence the child. This is especially true of alcohol. The offspring of alcoholics are often maniacs or epileptics. The drunkard himself may cease to sow his wild oats and reform, and afterward enjoy a long and comfortable life; and yet some of his children may reap of his sowing in lingering disease or vicious character. Transitory states of intoxication do not seem so important as continual subjection to the influence of poisonous liquors, and consequent chronic deterioration of nervous tissues. Inferior and Antisocial Elements. 17 The doctrine of atavism plays a part in the discussion of defect and criminality. Traits of body and mind appear in a contemporary family which did not manifest themselves in the parents. Characteristics may lie hidden for two or more genera- tions and then suddenly come to light, as if a river should dis- appear in the sand, flow a long distance under the surface, and emerge at a lower level with great force and volume. It may be that the development of the individual is arrested in the embryo, at a stage somewhat corresponding to the form of an inferior animal, so that the mental processes exhibit some of the marks of an inferior race of remote ancestors, or even of irrational animals. In such cases the person fails to make his adjustment to the social life of this advanced age. It is commonly believed by stock breeders and gardeners that " close breeding " gradually tends to the production of inferior animals or plants, so that frequent crossing with new blood, or change of seed, is advised. The biological problem is involved in the question of the effect of marriage of near relations. It is doubtful whether the marriage of healthy cousins is unfavorable to offspring, but there is a general agreement that diseases and weaknesses are intensified by such marriages. Thus deaf mutism, consumption, and feeble-mindedness are aggravated when per- sons near of kin, and burdened with : the same defects, are married. 3. The Struggle for Life. — This subject must be studied in connection with variation and heredity. The inferior variant enters by the gate of birth into a scene of conflict and effort where power is tested, weakness discovered, and the adapted survive. The botanist and zoologist discover this law of life running upward through all orders of existence, and affirm that humanity is not exempt. Urged by the two primitive impulses of hunger and love, men, like all living beings, seek nature's ends of self-preservation and propagation. Nature does not yield the means of existence without toils and pains. If any protected lives are supported without labor of their own, it is as parasites 1 8 The Phenomena of Dependence. who feed upon the fruits of the labor of others, or as minors who will some day do their part. There are many destructive natural agencies, as malaria, intense cold or heat, fire, flood, and tempest, which make life difficult. Poisonous and bloodthirsty beasts compete with man. As population multiplies on certain desirable areas of the limited earth surface, the groups and nations of men come into conflict over the possession of pasturage, tillable lands, or markets for manufactured goods. Laborers compete with each other for the opportunity to earn wages, the means of satisfying the demands of hunger, love, and higher wants. Artisan bids against artisan, manager against manager, salesman against salesman, physician against physician. The human struggle has human characteristics. It is not merely for subsistence, but for distinction, honor, rank, control, power, elegance, comfort, knowledge, Man has attained keener and larger intellectual powers, fights with more powerful weapons. Civilization modifies the agencies and methods of conflict, but does not bring it to an end. The form of this struggle for life is modified by improvements, inventions, and industrial organization. The taste of men becomes more severe, and coarse textiles, which were satisfactory to barbarous peoples or to the untaught, are refused by fashion. In many occupations more swift, accurate, and sustained work is demanded. The engineer and conductor who succeed the cart driver and coachman require "• higher form of training. Complicated machinery displaces sim^e tools, and asks more thought power. While some processes have been simplified, on the whole inferiority is put to greater strain. Fewer places are left for the half capable. 4. The Issue of this Struggle. — This, age-long contest for food and honor has compelled invention, produced the arts, and trained selected men. But there is a nether aspect which con- cerns us here, the production and fate of the inferior variant, sometimes called the degenerate. With arrest of development Inferior and Antisocial Elements. 19 and increased liability to disease, with a nervous system which has not attained normal power of functioning, go corresponding defects of mental and moral life. What is the fate of these defective persons? Millions of them perish in infancy or at the first stress of life. The tendency of the unfit is toward extinction. Some crowd inferior places, do menial and unpleasant work at low wages, as the price of existence. Others are parasitic and are supported by their fami- lies or at public expense. The employer of labor rejects many as unemployable. The teachers in public schools find them slow, stupid, feeble-minded in all degrees. The legislator confronts them with poor laws and with criminal statutes or prisons. But this same social evolution has produced sympathy or altruism. The origin of a disposition to care for the weak is ancient and deep as parenthood. In human life its beginning was in the maternal instinct, without which the race would perish in the helplessness of infancy. The struggle for self-preservation is modified by race feelings. In all nations these race-preserv- ing sympathies have found expression, at first in the clan or tribe, later in the state, finally in a philanthropy which overleaps the narrow limits of caste and sect, and regards man as man. These sympathies have created institutions, customs of mercy, having for their purpose the general welfare, the correction of evil, the relief of misery, the good of the degraded, the progress of mankind. 5. The Spiritual Environment. — To prevent misunderstanding we must distinctly bear in mind that the external world of nature and material human works is not the entire environment of each man, nor the most important part of it. The ideas, beliefs, hopes, and fears which rule the psychical life are in the air, and all about us. Beliefs are as real as habitat and climate, food and housing. There will be few paupers, beggars, and criminals in proportion as the beliefs of the people are favorable to social morality. Thomas Chalmers proudly used the poor Scotch peas- ants as illustrations of the triumph of self-control among humble 20 The Phenomena of Dependence. people who had pure ideals, thrift, and independence of spirit. The standard of life is a social psychical fact. It works by suggestion, imitation, fashion, and custom. How far these influences of culture affect the race physically, and thus form the material conditions of higher psychical activities, will depend on the truth or error of the doctrine of the heritability of acquired characteristics. But that they affect all members of society directly there can be no question, and there is no controversy. The psychical 1 tradition, in books, pictures, laws, customs, institutions, is handed down as really as physical traits are transmitted by generation; and this spiritual tradition acts educationally on communities most powerfully, constantly, and with increasing momentum. It may be a meta- phor to speak of a "spiritual inheritance," but the phrase tells a vital truth. There are two directions given by this spiritual tra- dition, one toward progress, and the other toward debasement and ruin, "the environment of neglect." 6. Selection. — Our study of biological laws is not complete without indicating the significance of selection in relation to our subject. In the lower and earlier stages of the struggle for life, the process of selection is purely natural, without plan or design on the part of the participants. Without entering upon a full description of this age-long process we may sum it up in the sentence : At awful cost of suffering and life, there has been a gradual elimination of the races not suited to life on this planet, a gradual introduction of higher and nobler forms of life, and an approximate adaptation of inferior forms to lowlier tasks. But while this same process is carried forward in human society, an element of prevision and provision mingles with the struggle. Before the advent of man there was an animal instinct, shared now by human beings, to choose the best mates and reject the imperfect. This race-preserving and race-improving sexual selection has played a large part in the history of our species. The individuals which have not this instinct tend to perish with- Inferior and Antisocial Elements. 21 out offspring, and leave those better endowed to continue the species. But all this is at terrible cost, with many blunders. The highest stage of selection is rational and purposeful. Men select the finest stallions and mares, the best specimens of bulls for breeding, the most perfect wheat grains for seed in fields devoted to grain. More slowly and hesitatingly they have begun to apply the same principle to marriage and the propagation of the human species. Plato gave the hint ages ago in a Utopian and immoral scheme; but ignorance and appetite, prejudice and superstition, have been obstacles in the way of working out and applying his idea in a form acceptable to Christian morality. Purposeful selection, however, is not always made in view of social advantage. A man may prefer a rich and neurotic wife to a poorer woman who is strong and capable. Among ignorant and animal-like human beings marriage is chiefly a matter of proximity and the accident of contact; and with the very lowest classes sexual union is blind and heedless of results. In connection with the subject of selection must be consid- ered the effects of methods of relief and correction. Indis- criminate charity encourages the practices of begging. Outdoor relief in support of degraded families, without returns in work, tends to increase the number of those who-would perish if left to their own resources. Many examples could easily be given in all communities of debased stocks breeding and continuing to live at the expense of public and private charity. It is claimed by friends of deaf mutes that the modern method of educating persons of this class in separate institutions tends to create a stock of families in whom the defect is hereditary and accompanied with other grave deformities. It is true that in some institutions, as crowded infant asylums, charity has found a way of effectually exterminating imperfect and illegitimate children. Hospitals founded with pious intent, but managed -by the incompetent, become plague-smitten, and increase mortality. But such results are not sought, the sincere purpose of philanthropy being to prolong the individual life. 11 The Phenomena of Dependence. These illustrations do not prove that charity is necessarily cruel, but that in effect it may be, and that it is under obligation not to promote a selection of the unfit if it is possible to avoid it. Hereafter we shall point out methods by which the sufferer may be mercifully cared for without being permitted to injure the quality of the race. It is enough at this point to show with emphasis how charity may be an accomplice of vice, ignorance, and brutality. CHAPTER III. EXPLANATION OF DEPENDENCY BY NATURE AND SITUATION. At this point we pass from consideration of general laws of causation, biological and historical, to a" direct study of indi- viduals. The primary data are furnished by observation of individual cases. All further steps depend on the insight and accuracy of the first impressions. Tables of statistics have no higher value than the original entries out of which they are com- posed; and the original entries are the particular judgments of individuals who are in contact with the dependent persons. 1 . The Problem. — Our problem is to account for dependence on the community. While most dependents are weak and in- ferior in body and mind, they are by no means all degenerate or abnormal. Our problem is far wider than a study of defect. Multitudes of people become dependent, at least temporarily, by fire, flood, or epidemics. Old people and little children may require support, although they are entirely normal. The expla- nation, therefore, must proceed from the study of the nature of the individual outward to his situation, and still farther, to his heredity and culture, and to the general social conditions which have affected all these factors. The intelligent worker is very likely to carry on his study in this order, from the particular case to the wide sweep of law. If independent observers, in various cities and states, reach approximately the same judgment as to the value of causes, this correspondence commands a high degree of confidence. 2. Value of Statistics. — ■ The tabulation of a multitude of separate cases actually adds to the kind of knowledge derived from local and isolated observations. By reaching an average 24 The Phenomena of Dependence. from a large number of cases, the mind is protected from taking a striking and theatrical exception for the rule. A general law, or uniform process of events, is discovered by recording the data in their time and space relations of succession and co- existence. The vague guess of the individual student is changed into the more exact measurement of the mathematician, wherever measurement is possible. The individual case reveals a fact, but statistics exhibit the extent and degree of the fact. The geographical boundaries of a social plague are revealed by the statistical devices of charts and maps. The breaks and varia- tions in the regular lines of figures suggest new forces causally at work. 3. Grades of Statistical Groups. — Different observers deal with varying kinds of dependents, and their records will vary with the conditions which fall under their notice. Four fairly distinct levels may be defined: (i) Dependent children are registered and described in the records of orphanages, children's aid societies, and reform schools. (2) Partially dependent per- sons come under the notice of public and private agencies for outdoor relief. Families, aided by churches and other voluntary associations are generally of a higher type than those who become public paupers. (3) Entirely dependent persons are studied in institutions of indoor relief, and there we must expect to find lower degrees of weakness, and advanced dissolu- tion of powers. Those who are aided by private charity will usually give evidence of a better past history than those who drift to public almshouses. (4) Finally, the records of institutions for the abnormal, as feeble-minded, insane, epileptic, will yield a series of life histories very different from all the others. A general average of the grand totals of causes noticed under such varying conditions would have no value and would be positively misleading. Those figures which relate to limited groups will be more nearly correct and significant. 4. Personal Helplessness may arise from the physical and mental conditions due to weakness of age, sex, disease, ignorance, Explanation of Dependency. 25 and lack of industrial training. All these factors vary in endless complexity, react upon each other, and give rise to other effects. Age. — If we make age the central point of attention we shall find the widest differences according to the group studied. In the records of orphanages the helplessness of childhood is the chief cause of dependence, while in a poorhouse old age is most important. To personal feebleness from immaturity or decay of powers must be joined absence of natural support to account for pauperism. In an old country, from which many youthful emi- grants have gone to seek better fortunes, there will be relatively many aged dependents, while in a new colony dependence will affect children in a most marked way. Sex. — Personal helplessness may result from conditions of sex and marital relations. In a community where the men move much from place to place, seeking occupation, where all are restless, and where there are many young people, widows will be found requiring help to care for children, and in cities deserted wives must be aided. The cowardice or despair of hus- bands and the cruelty of death make a demand upon charitable aid. In a coast town the widows of fishermen drowned at sea struggle for existence, and in mining regions the accidents of dark tunnels leave mourners and helpless infants dependent on benevolence. Disease and Injury. — Physical defect prepares the way for dependence on the community, and sickness is a constantly re- curring plea of the needy. The breadwinner is incapacitated for earning support, the spirit and hope of the family are broken down, and solicitation of help grows into a parasitic habit. The almshouses, asylums, hospitals, are crowded with evidences of the close connection between physical infirmity and dependence. Adaptation to the economic environment demands knowledge, training, and technical skill; ignorance and awkwardness are a burden and obstacle. Original incapacity, dulness, or family and community neglect may be to blame for this condition. The immigrant who has just been transplanted from a familiar situa- 16 The Phenomena of Dependence. tion to a social state which confuses and troubles him, unac- quainted with the language of street and shop, surrounded by unscrupulous sharpers, and jostled aside by competitors for em- ployment, has a difficult task. The old vagabond, pictured by Beranger, sought instruction of artisans in his youth, and they told him there were too many workmen already; he must go beg. Thus he became an "insect made to injure man," instead of a producer for the good of all. 5. Unsocial Habits. — If we move backward from a condition of helplessness to such causes of that condition as are due to unsocial habits, we shall come upon a new range of forces. Alcoholism, licentiousness, and roving maybe selected as typical examples of the most important elements in' this class. Drink and Drug Habits. — There is no better place than this to illustrate the effect of a personal or partisan bias in the field of pure theory. The estimates of the responsibility of drink for pauperism vary with country, party, and occupation. The original schedules and records of cases were filled up by persons of all shades of opinion. The radical prohibitionist finds drink in almost every case of pauperism and crime; others, with a different bias, seldom discover it. But this very fact makes the statistics, when reduced to averages, all the more worthy of confidence. They come to us from all civilized lands; and everywhere in Europe and America most observers agree to assign a large place to alcoholism as a cause. It is not difficult to account for this judgment. Money ex- pended on stimulants is taken from food and other necessary articles and bestowed upon a substance which is rarely useful, perhaps never necessary, and in multitudes of instances ruinous. The breadwinner who puts an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains is incapacitated for industry and responsibility. The steady drinker is personally exposed to more frequent sickness and accident, and his offspring are liable to be idiotic, feeble, or insane. Boys imitate the example of their seniors, and thus a social custom gains a mastery of entire groups and generations Explanation of Dependency. 27 of men. Strong men become feeble and destitute through the drink habit, and are recorded as abstainers at a later period of life in prisons and poorhouses, because they are too poor to purchase liquor and are, perhaps, too lifeless and apathetic to crave excitement. The enfeebled children of drinking men may crave stimulants for this very reason, that vitality in them runs so low. Intemperance is partly an effect, even where it acts as cause. The crowded living rooms, the hot sleeping chambers, the ill- cooked and indigestible food, the irksome and exhausting labor, induce men to drink. Licentiousness and kindred evils, according to the testimony of many physicians and observers, induce weakness of body and will, the rot>t of that economic dependence which leads to pau- perism. The excesses, abuses, and perversion of the sexual func- tion rank with drink among the chief causes of social parasitism. These abuses do not attract so much public notice as intemper- ance in drink, because they cannot be discussed so plainly in mixed companies. But society should be taught in suitable ways that these excesses and abuses of the natural function induce feebleness, rob men of the will to live and the joy of struggle, and the power to take the initiative or to persevere in industry. From the same vicious indulgence arise specific contagious and hereditary diseases which deplete the vital forces and continue their fearful ravages with innocent persons, wives and children, even to the third and fourth generation. Nervous maladies fol- low, insanity, idiocy, and epilepsy. Liability to ordinary dis- eases is increased because the power of resistance is undermined. These perversions are intensified by the trade of prostitution, for the women who seek support by this calling are a constant incitement to lust, and are compelled to invent attractions to prevent their own starvation. The social environment of street, playground, shop, and home are debased =by the conversation, gestures, and conduct of the depraved; and then the customs react on individuals to their own undoing. Illegitimate children are 28 The Phenomena of Dependence. exposed to higher mortality because of the fear and shame of the mother previous to birth, and to the desertion or neglect which ordinarily follow birth. The infamous theory, born of lust, that these " children of love " are superior to children born in wedlock, has no general ground in reason or experience, and is made plausible only by citation of exceptional instances. Sexual licentiousness is itself an effect which requires explana- tion. Its basis is in a physical appetite, which has its natural and appropriate function in the perpetuation of the race and the affection and culture of the family. Its excesses and abuses are due to local irritation, local or affecting certain nervous centres. They are aggravated by neglect of exercise in the open air and physical training, by sedentary habits and nervous excitements. Suggestion, imitation, and precocious instruction of thoughtless, ignorant, and unprincipled persons are influential. Crowded sleeping rooms, unscrupulous overseers in shops and stores, neglect of modesty in dress and play, salacious pictures and books, base advertisements of quack doctors, are foes of purity and self-control. Even some physicians have been known to flatter vice by advising mere boys that precocious indulgence is good for health and growth. The public and permitted solicita- tion of harlots on the streets or at windows in cities is evil. The want of high spiritual, religious, intellectual, and aesthetic inter- ests offers an empty soul for the incoming of unclean demons. The tables of causes furnished by charity societies naturally give no adequate notion of the extent of this evil, since it is a cause which will not be voluntarily suggested or discovered by direct questions. Shiftlessness and Roving. — Closely related to the want of skill which we have already noted is the absence of industrial habits, steadiness, persistence, honesty, love of struggle, ambition. Laziness, shiftlessness, and irregularity are fatal qualities in our rigorous climate. As the normal home is the conservator of morality, the stimu- lus to industry, the garden of virtues, so the abandonment of Explanation of Dependency. 29 family obligations, the nomadic impulse= to wander aimlessly, the contempt for the obligations of marriage and parenthood, are springs of misery and poverty. The tramp manifests this trait in exaggerated degree, but the wife-deserter is only too common. Race Traits. — The inherited characteristics of race belong to the nature of persons. Physical and psychical traits are very persistent, and in the conglomerate population of the United States deserve careful study. The records of public and private agencies of relief note the habits and disposition of dependents of various races, and their tendencies toward drunkenness, licen- tiousness, shiftlessness, crime, and dishonesty. But these statis- tics must be used with extreme caution. Inherited race traits must be viewed in connection with social opportunities. The negro in a northern city is urged downward toward pauperism, and especially toward crime, not alone by his racial defects, but also by the social prejudices which close against him the doors of remunerative employment even in occupations for which he is adapted. The statistics which seem to show that the Irish furnish more than their quota of pauperism from alcohol, as compared with the Germans, must be explained in part by the kinds of beverages to which they have been accustomed. 6. The External Conditions must be regarded in connection with the state of helplessness and the inner nature of the dependents observed. Weakness, even when extreme, does not become the occasion of resort to public help, if the person owns property or is supported by relatives or friends. There are three situations, external to the person, which determine the form and degree of dependence : lack of normal support, deficient income from employment, and undue burdens and obligations of family. Lack of Normal Support. — Imprisonment of the breadwinner stops the natural source of supply for children and wife. The number of offences for which men are confined in jails and prisons has increased greatly since the abolition of hanging and 3