Ten Million People in Extreme Poverty
FIGURES which have just been made public by Mr. Robert Hunter, of New York City, formerly head worker of the University Settlement, and chairman of the New York Child Labor Committee, present a picture of American life which may be put in the balance against the oft-made statements about present prosperity and the increase of wealth per capita. After exhaustive research, Mr. Hunter finds that ten million people in this country—one eighth of the entire population—are in extreme poverty; that is, are more or less dependent on charity. Regarding the meaning of this statement Mr. Hunter says:— The fact that ten million people are in this condition now in fairly prosperous times is appalling for the future. Of these, seven million work when they can get it, but they are living on wages which will barely support them when they are at work, and any slight misfortune makes them dependent upon charity. Children to the number of three million three hundred thousand are included in the figures. This class live in tenements which are positively dangerous to life. . . The masses of the poor are getting worse in the country to-day. Special conditions have greatly changed in the past thirty years. A few men are amassing enormous wealth. The middle class is disappearing, and the conditions in the slums are rivaling the worst in the great cities of Europe. This change in American life represents an appalling aspect. Never before in our history have we seen a large proportion of our people condemned to a life of pauperism permanently. One of the worst features of the situation, according to the figures given by this authority, is the number of children in the great cities whose lives are hopelessly blighted at the outset. Of such children there are, Mr. Hunter says, in Boston twenty thousand, and in New York seventy thousand. Of conditions in Chicago he says:— In the Chicago stock-yards are fifty thousand on the verge of pauperism. They are in practical slavery. I have seen children of ten years of age working all day in great vats of blood. Incurable rheumatism before the age of twenty-five is reached as a common result, and tuberculosis even among the children is extremely prevalent. They have nothing to look forward to but death. All this is but one feature of the great world-wide picture of misery which calls loudly to-day for the coming of Him who shall create new heavens and a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness and peace.