Library Collections: Document: Full Text

The figures most nearly comparable with those of Bohmert and Booth are those of the New York almshouses in 1874-1875 and 1903-1904. In the earlier study the immediate causes of poverty are given; in that of 1903-1904, merely the classes of almshouse inmates, from which they may be, to some extent, inferred.

TABLE IX.
Paupers in Almshouses in New York in 1874-1875 and 1903-1904.

(42) From V. S. Census, 1904, "Paupers In Almshouses."

(43) Estimated on basis of percentage for whole North Atlantic Division.

(44) Comprises 10,793 enumerated in almshouses, Dec. 81,1903, plus 12,073 admitted in 1904.

Although these figures are not in all respects comparable, they show that the lack of normal support formerly accounted for 18 per cent of the inmates, but since the removal of children to other institutions, the percentage has fallen to 2.5. In 1874-1875 75.4 per cent of the inmates were defective or diseased -- one-third of them being insane, with the removal of the insane from almshouses to hospitals, the percentage of the incapacitated has fallen to 66.9. The table indicates further how widely the causes of dependence among inmates of institutions vary from those who are only applicants for relief.

Of 51,460 paupers admitted to almshouses in the United States in 1904, 67 per cent were "incapacitated." In such institutions "drink," as a direct cause of poverty, is of slight importance, although it may have been the original cause of much of the incapacity. Of those enumerated in almshouses in 1903 only 15.8 per cent were able-bodied, and of those admitted during 1904, 30 per cent; but a very large proportion of these were unquestionably shiftless, inefficient, and vagrant, unemployable rather than the unemployed.

As the first question popularly asked regarding the causes of poverty would probably be whether poverty indicates misconduct or misfortune, so the second would probably be: What are the indications as to the tendency of different nationalities or races to become poor? For the purpose of finding what answer could be obtained to this question, Table X. was prepared, giving the facts regarding 7225 American cases. Of the Americans, Germans, Colored, Irish, and English there were enough cases in each column to make the percentages tolerably trustworthy; while of the French, Polish, Spanish, Italian, Scandinavian, and other nationalities the numbers were too small to make the relative figures of much value.

As to "drink," we find a general average of 15.28 per cent. The Americans are slightly below, and the English slightly above, this average. The Irish have a larger percentage under this head than any other nationality, 23.62. The Germans are far below it, 7.83 per cent, and the Colored still farther, 6.23 per cent. This low percentage has been corroborated by the investigations of John Koren, whose conclusions are: that comparatively few negroes are habitual drunkards; that intemperance is only accountable for a small part of the negro's poverty; and that only in exceptional cases are drinking habits a barrier to steady employment. (45)

TABLE X. (46)

Causes of Poverty: 7225 American Cases, Classified by Causes of Poverty and Nationality.

In "shiftlessness and inefficiency" the Americans lead all other well-represented nationalities, having here a per-centage of 9.19, as against an average of 7.51. The Irish here fall much below the average, 5.78 per cent.