The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1904-12-08
SAYS NATION HAS
100000 PAUPERs
Robert Hunter, Philanthrop!st.
Adds That 5000, 900
More Are in Need.
HOLDS RICH UP TO scORh
Cites Many Glasses of Statistics te
Prove His STANDARDIZATION
Out of Work a Considerable
Part of the Year.

New York special: Robert iGnter
who became prominent in charity work
in Chicago and recently married the
daughter of Arson Phelps Stokes or
New York, al heiresS to millions, mas
written a Dol scoring American mil
~lionaires and ~denouncing the economic
conditions of the United States. The
book is entitled Poverty" and in 1t
| aIr. Hunter asserts that 10. 900, 900 per-
sons in this country are in want. he
calls 1000, 900 paupers and the re
mainder wage-earners. The pauper de-
pands on public or private charity for
his s%ustenance. The others work, some
of them night II day. and yet are un-
able to obtain those necessaries which
will permit them to maintain a state Of
physical efficiency.
Great Army in Poverty.
That 10, 900, 900 of the people of the
United States are in poverty, either as
paupers or as laborers pinched by the,
iron wise of necessity, Mr.. Hunter calls
to witness an array of statistics.
The number of evictions in a ON
munity," he continues, lis a fairly good
| measure of the minimum distress. III
the yea 1903 0 1853 families in the
borough Of Manhattan We're evicted
from their homes. That is about IA per
cent. of the total number Of families
In the borough.
LAS another indication the number
of pauper burials should be cited.
Everyone familiar with the poor knows
how desperately they struggle to give
a decent burial to their dead. Even the
poorest people have friends, politicians
or others, who save them, if possible,
from this last disgrace. And yet one
out OF every ten persons who die in
New York city is buried in a p%otter's
field. / should say that the number Of
naylnar flInarol c Ipac not ranrocsnt hole
the actual distress of the community"
Finds Many in Distress.
Mr.. Hunter quotes reports from Off
cial sources to the effect that in 1897
n 1899 Is per cent. of the inhabitants
of New York state were in distress.
He declares this figure represents only
the poor who finally are helped by
charity, and adds that he would not be
surprised If the number OF those in
distress In the metropolis and in other
large industrial %centers rarely fell be-
low 20 per cent. of the people.
Mr.. Hunter finds in the fact that
100000 wage-earners in the United
States are out of employment from
four to six months of the year addi-
tional data for his estimate.
He thinks that an annual income of
$3.50 a year is the average mount on
which a family of father, mother and
three children can live and keep above
the poverty llne.
1T is hardly to be doubted" the So
cial agent continues, that the mass Of
unskllled laborers in the north receive
less than $460 a year, and that the
same class in the south receive less
than $780,"
immigration Makes 1t Worse.
Mr.. Hunter declares that the condi-
tons of want are increased by the ar
rival every year of 500, 600 male immi-
grants, who seek work in the very dis
trict where employment is most scarce.
He declares that LOO, 900 little children
are forced to become ~wage-earners in
this country when they should be in
school, and that about 5000, 900 women
n 1t necessary to work, of whom
1000 900 are employed in factories and
mills.
Probably no less than 1000, 900 work
ers are killed and injured each year
While doing their work" he says. land
about 10000. GOO persons now living, If
the present ratio is kept up, VIII die
of that ~preventable disease, tubercu-
losis.
There must be thousands, very like
ly $4,000 or 10000 children In New York
city alone, who often arrive at school
hungry and untitled to do well the work
required"
Shorter hours and higher wages"
he suggests as a remedy for some of
these conditions. Steadier employment,
improved sanitary conditions in work
hop and protection in dangerous
trades are reforms which in time will
decrease materially the amount of pau
perism."