The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-09-26
Continued from Page ~
THE SOCIAL SIDE OF CHARITY.

| TIE oOGIAL SIDE OF CHARITY.
| they were in a large proportion OF
instances, probably in majority OF
instances, social rather than indi.
Vldual factors. In most cases they
were no doubt ultimately due to in.
| SUFFICIENT wages and insufficient EN-.
ployment. For example, 'lack of male
support denoted not merely culpable
wife abandonment, but inability to
provide for dependents through income
or through savings and insurance.
Sickness and funeral expenses are fire.
quently responsible for distress be-
cause the income of the individual or
family had been inadequate to pre-
vent or to provide for these natural
contingencies. And the old age which
induces want is in very large pro-
portion of cases only an instrumental
cause which is itself caused by wages
insufficient for normal saving. Com
bining all the figures considered in
this paragraph, we find that in 20 per
cent of the $4,000 cases examined by
Professor Warner, the causes seem to
have been predominantly, or for the
most part, social.
In his work entitled, Misery and
It's Causes DR.. E. T. Devine analyses
and interprets the causes of dependcn-
cy in five thousand families recorded
by the New York Charity Organization
Society. The most striking facts dis
closed by this study are the following:
Unemployment was a cause of dis
tress in SO per cent of the families;
overcroWding, in As per cent; widow
hood, in 20 per cent; five varieties of
sickness or disability, in "a per cent;
more than three children under four
teen years Of age in the family, in 10
per cent; and old age in head of
family, in IL per cent. 1t will be OBJ
served that this table is arranged on
a different basis from Professor War
ner's presentation of causes. The
latter gives only one cause, the i'm
mediate cause, of each case of dis
tress, while DR.. Devine enumerates all
the factors that were operative. AS
rule, there were three or four of these
in each family. Consequently the sum
total of the percentages of influence"
is much above one hundred. 1t is
about $40. Of this total the six per-
centages above enumerated constitute
nearly $50. In other words, the six
causes specified are active or prev
alent in three times as many in.
stances as all the other factors Us
in number) combined. A careful
examination of these six factors will
show that they are predominantly So
cial rather than Individual
Moreover, some of the specifically
individual factors, such as, intemper.
ance and immortality, are ultimately
traceable in part to social forces
immortality is due in some measure to
bad home conditions and bad neigh
borhood, which are in turn occasioned
by lack of income, and want of proper
police regulations. Intemperance is
likewise caused to some extent by an
ill-regulated liquor traffic.
Industrial Social Factors.
Another indication of the part
played by social forces in making pow.
erty and distress, is to be found in the
history and the conclusions of the
Committee on Standards of Living and
Labor established by the National Con
ference of Charities and Corrections
in 1909. This committee was formed
in recognition of the fact that large
and continuously increasing share Of
distress is due to those social factors
which we call Industrial. In their in
vestigations and programs it's mem.
bers proceeded on the theory that the
impoverishing influence of socio-indus
trial forces will not be eliminated I'M
til all our people are provided with
certain minimum requirements of well
being At the end Of three years
the Committee formulated pro
gram or platform Of living and
working conditions defining this
minimum. Under the heads of
Wages, Safety and Health, Housing,
Hours of Labor, Term of Working Life
and Compensation or Insurance, the
Committee undertook to describe the
lowest standards of life and labor
compatible with human welfare, and
capable of abolishing industrially
caused distress. These standards and
foundations are in fairly close con
formity with the requirements of de-
cent living laid down by Pope Leo XIII
in his encyclical con the Conditions
of Labor" No intelligent and humane
person will contend that they are too
high. Every well informed charity
worker, every enlightened student of
social conditions, will admit that until
these standards are universally
realized in actual life greater or
less degree of distress will be specif
ically traceable to socio-economic
causes.
And yet very large proportion,
possibly majority, of the persons to
whom these standards are respectively
applicable, are at present living below
them. For example, the majority of
our wage earning population are not
receiving living wages; the majority
of women and minor employees do not
enjoy the eight hour day; and a very
large section of the laboring class is
without sanitary and decent housing
The amount of misery which is
palpably traceable to socio-industrial
conditions is of itself more than suffi-