CHAPTER VI

CONDITIONS OF POVERTY AND PAUPERISM: THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND HEREDI

WE

TARY INCAPACITY

E have already called attention to a number of explanations of poverty and pauperism; but we have seen that the search for the causes and conditions of poverty has led away from the adoption of any one theory as all-sufficient to explain these social phenomena. While sin, shiftlessness, drink, licentiousness, poor judgment, lack of thrift, etc., may each account for some of the poverty to be found in the world, no one of them is sufficient to account for all of the poverty.

Attention has been called to the attempt made in the last thirty-five years to ascertain what factors enter into the large numbers of cases that came under the attention of relief agencies. These figures give us an indication of surface causes of poverty. Serious students of the question, however, cannot be content with the case-counting method. For, back of some of these causes, as revealed by the social workers with families, lie deeper causes which perhaps cannot be treated statistically as yet, but nevertheless are important in the explanation of poverty. These causes must be understood before the battle against poverty and pauperism can be won. It is not absolutely necessary to know what part each plays before we endeavor to correct the conditions which lead to poverty, but we should at least understand them.

INFLUENCE OF THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

From the days of man's emergence from the animal world in the prehistoric ages he has been engaged in the task of overcoming Nature and subduing her to his service. That beautiful passage in the first chapter of the Bible describing God's blessing on man, "And God blessed them: and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens and over everything that

moveth upon the earth," reflects the Hebrew's religious conception of the greatness of the conquest already achieved when that passage was written, and his explanation of how it had been accomplished. Out of the ages long before that-the dim, prehistoric ages, restored to us only by the scientific imagination working upon chipped flint and painted cave dwelling, upon ceremonial burial, and the bones of cave bear and wild horses found in the camping places of paleolithic man in Europe-comes to us evidence of the long and painful struggle of man to subject Nature. Man has domesticated some of the animals. He has selected and developed for his use some of the plants. He has spanned the rushing rivers with boats and even bridged the seas with his floating palaces. He has leveled the hills and valleys for his highways. He has ground up the flinty rocks and out of their powder has made buildings for his shelter and use. He has brought fire, that gift of the gods, under his control, and with it has smelted for his purposes the useless ore, and with the product has built his machines and his present material civilization. At last he dominates the air to a degree, and has harnessed as his servant the very lightning of the heavens to turn his wheels and to wing his messages around the earth. Yet, with all these triumphs of his cunning and skill, and in spite of the way in which he has begun to organize mankind so that natural calamity and change of climate shall not fall upon the immediate sufferer therefrom alone, his achievements have not been sufficient to insure that no individual shall suffer from dumb and terrible Nature. He has not yet controlled the rain, the winds and the outburst of volcano and earthquake. The gigantic forces which he has harnessed to his service still often burst forth, like only partially tamed wild animals, to maim and destroy. The sky is still often above him as brass; he cannot make it rain; or when it rains he cannot stop it. Floods and fire, tornado and lightning, earthquake and pestilence still sweep away man and his works like chaff.

No one can tell just what weight to give to the physical environment as a cause of poverty. It is a matter of common observation, however, that some people are poor because of the hostility of the natural circumstances amid which they live.

a. Poor Natural Resources. In the settlement of a country, people often occupied the poorer, rather than the richer, agricultural lands nearby. Sometimes it was the influence of a sheltering forest or a spring of water or a river that led them to such a choice. Moreover, with the development of a country and the appropriation of the best

land, it becomes necessary for new settlers to occupy land that formerly was on the margin of cultivation. In either case the occupant of the land of marginal productivity—that is, land that produces very little more and sometimes less than enough to pay for the labor expended upon it-is poor in comparison with his more fortunate neighbors. He may, by changing the method of cultivation, such as by engaging in truck gardening or dairying rather than extensive farming, be able to make his land produce as much as his more favored neighbors. However, if the man who settled on the poorer land had that much foresight, it might not seriously affect his economic position. Many men, however, settle upon this poor land, who are unable to use it efficiently; consequently they are in poverty. They live on the margin of subsistence as truly as the poorly paid wage worker in a city. If any disaster comes, they drop into the pauper class.

Often this factor of poor land is complicated by poor judgment on the part of the occupant. Sometimes it was poor judgment that led him to choose this land for his home. Sometimes it was merely uninstructed judgment, and he was won by the artifices of the agents for such land. Not understanding the value of land, and sometimes lacking the native ability to learn how to use such land, he goes on from year to year with a precarious existence that may be termed poverty-stricken and in the event of sickness or old age he may land in pauperism.

b. Climate. As influential as the soil on the economic welfare of humanity is the climate. By reason of long-continued cold, too much rain, exceeding drouth, or intense heat, an inhospitable climate may produce sickness in the inhabitants. Or a climate may not provide warmth and moisture enough to mature the crops. It may be so dry, or so cold, as in certain parts of Alaska and Canada, Northern Asia, and Northern Europe, as to interfere with the successful practice of certain occupations such as farming. In such countries hunting, fishing and mining must take the place of industries suited only to a temperate climate. Certain people cannot stand such a climate, sickness ensues, sometimes death. In either case, the family is often reduced to poverty. if not to pauperism.

On the other hand, the climate may be so warm and moist as to enervate the inhabitants and cause them to lose their habits of industry, if they ever had such, and to live from hand to mouth without proper regard for times of need. In various parts of the earth where Nature has been very prolific with her gifts, we find some of the most

poverty-stricken people in the world, due to the enervating influences of the climate which inhibits the practice of thrifty, industrial habits. c. Sudden Changes in Climate. Often sudden changes in the climate have an adverse influence upon the economic status of the inhabitants of a country. These sudden changes sometimes destroy the prospect of a crop. In the arid region of the Central West of the United States, for example, many times a fine prospect for a crop is blasted by two or three days of hot winds which dry out the ground and shrivel the corn and the wheat so that it is valueless. In other places a frost destroys a crop which promised thousands of dollars to the producers. These crop failures, due to sudden changes of climate, characterize every agricultural country on earth. It is no less true of India and China than of the agricultural sections of the United States. These sudden changes in climate not only destroy the prospects of the farmer and often reduce him to poverty, but they have an indirect effect upon those who are dependent upon the farmer's crops for their livelihood, such as the merchants who handle his grain and those who sell him his goods. Very familiar in the United States was once the sight of the settler returning to his old home with all that he had in a covered wagon, because of a crop failure due to the exigencies of the season. In spite of dry farming methods and insurance, this phenomenon to some extent is still to be seen.

Over long periods of time these sudden changes in climate have affected whole peoples. Ellsworth Huntington, in his book on Civilization and Climate, has endeavored to explain the decay of important civilizations in Western Asia by reason of the gradual desiccation of those regions.1 Whole populations were forced gradually to leave their homes and migrate into other parts of the earth. These changes, he believes, gave rise to the great historic migrations from Central and Western Asia into Europe. In any event, they often produce serious destitution.

d. Natural Pests. Another factor in the natural environment, destructive of economic independence, is the natural pests which destroy crops or other natural resources. For example, the cotton boll weevil has forced some cotton-raisers into bankruptcy. The army worm, on occasion, has caused the destruction of the farmers' crops. For years the settlers in Kansas and Nebraska were brought to poverty

'Huntington, Civilization and Climate, New Haven, 1915.

It is possible that they also account for the migration of prehistoric man from Asia into Europe.

by reason of the grasshoppers. The wheat smut and rust, the Hessian fly, and other natural enemies of the farmers' crops, have brought many a poor man who was struggling to make a living, to dependency. The fish diseases have much the same effect upon the lot of fishermen. Animal diseases affect very appreciably the economic welfare of the farmer in the dairy and stock business. Many young farmers have had not only their homes, but what little capital they had, wiped out by an epidemic of hog cholera. Tuberculosis in a dairy herd, until the State came to insure against tuberculosis in cattle, brought some dairymen to bankruptcy. It is unnecessary to give more than these examples to illustrate how natural pests, destroying the crops or other natural resources, may have the effect of producing poverty.

e. Natural Cataclysms. Everyone is familiar with the disasters due to floods, fires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tornadoes, ocean and lake storms, etc. From time immemorial those who have gone down into the sea in ships have had their families made dependent upon neighbors and friends by the storm that wrecked the vessel, and oftentimes drowned the supporter of the family. Floods like those which occur in the Yangtse Valley of China, the Mississippi Valley, and the valleys of its tributaries, in this country, cause the loss of enormous amounts of property and necessitate relief measures not only for the supply of immediate necessities, but often also for the continued relief of those who have lost their property by the flood. In all wooded countries, forest fires have destroyed homes and entire cities and villages. A volcanic eruption overwhelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii; more recently Mt. Pelee overwhelmed the city of Martinique, killing thousands of people and rendering homeless and property-less thousands of others. Every summer in the Mississippi Valley of the United States, tornadoes sweep away millions of dollars' worth of property. Every year crafts on the Great Lakes and ocean-going vessels are destroyed by storms. Those who lose their lives oftentimes leave utterly helpless and dependent families. It is apparent that in these natural disasters we have a cause of poverty and pauperism the extent of which has not yet been carefully estimated.

f. Diseases. Another adverse factor in the natural environment is the diseases, chiefly bacterial in origin, to which mankind is subject. These produce sickness, unemployment, incapacity and often the death of the worker, entailing large expenses for doctor bills and burials. An investigation of 5,000 cases by the Charity Organization Society of New York City showed that 75 per cent came to the organization