The Jersey City news., 1906-07-09
Department Of Commerce
and Labor Investigating
the Way In Which The
Other Half Lives
.oHELD Rem INSURED
ALnTHBLITTLE ONES OVER ONE
{ YEAR ,ARD oN~THE LIST bad
+ RESULT OF INSTRUMENT PLAN

s. WASHINGTON, Jaly Z, 19o6.-How
EheSsSIhtr half HveSin the District OF
Gslumb ia has been the subject Of an in
SyesfsgHtioR bysthe bureau of labor OF the
FDspartA AentIof Commerce and Labor Tor
several. weeks and the observations which
kthe experts made have just been given to
Fthe public. Nineteen families typical OF
the poor throughout the United States,
were selected, families, not paupers, but
Ito which the loss of days wages woulo
Be a keen embarrassment, formed the
BASIS Of the investigation. One OF the
saost Observation-Disclosures drawn from the
investigation fis that nearly all carry lie
insurance. practically everybody was
insured except infants under one year
of age. and these are uninsurable." says
the report.
1.-The sentiment which prompts the
poor to invest in insurance" the report
continues, Sis akin to piety. If death
should come into the family they want
the heuseholdfto be protected from harsh
and profane influences. and they want
the departed ones to receive a decent
burial.'' 1t is limited that the poor stint
themselves too much to meet insurance
instalments.
Zen one OCCASION" the investigators
say. "it did.sound rather uncanny to hear
a mother say, If anything should happen
to that child pointing to fine little
girl of nine years, we would get $500
You cannot probe deep enough into hu-
man motives to tell whther the neglect
of child is due to the fact that its life
is insured OF whether the neglect is due
to something else"
Whatever the conditions, the demand
for bread and 'breadstuffs remained about
the same, constituting about twenty-five
per cent. of the entire food expenditure,
while that for meat of all kinds constr
futed but thirty per cent. Food is the
Chief item Of expense. In one family the
boys were actually eating the family out
Of house and home; rent was in arrears
in fhe latter part of the investigation,
and to save the situation, two of the boys
were sent to the industrial school, just
because they ate too much.
The report deplores the working of the
dhstalment plan among the poor. Courts
and alleys and little streets TEEN with
'instalment men," it says; some on their
rounds collecting, others soliciting new
business. sometimes carrying into the
house'the very articles to be sold.'' Under
its workings, to be in debt becomes the
normal condition of life, and to buy with
out paying passes from a custom to a
ha bit. The tendency of such a system is
bound to be toward decentralization. A
special study will be madefof the con-
siliVHS VI WING WHICH, pktfdil Ill Tie
diastrict. and the report is seathing ar
ratghment of the fifty concerns licensed
to loan money.
"The bargains which these loan com
panies make with the poor are too hard
to be classed with legitimate business
transactions" reads the report. .'They
are bargains and forced IN times of great
distress and often in times OF great sor-
row, and they are as unbusinesslike as
they are unmerciful and immoral. The
iinstalment man and the insurance man
receive the favor and even the gratitude
of the poor, but one never hears a good
word for the loan company
s