830 THE DEPENDENT GROUP 



lives and of others with feeble constitutions will be increasingly 

 diminished under pressure of enlightened public opinion. 



But the policy of segregation is applicable only within rigid 

 limitations. Only those members can be cut off from family life 

 and social freedom who are manifestly unfit for parenthood and 

 for contact with fellow citizens in competitive industry. Many of 

 the children of criminals may be so nourished and taught in a new 

 domestic environment as to become valuable citizens. But society 

 cannot afford to play the nurse and teacher for a very large horde of 

 incapables and criminals. The cost would be too great and the sacri- 

 fice would fall on the wrong parties. It is in the improvements and 

 reforms which promise the elevation of the group not yet either 

 pauper or criminal that we may most reasonably hope to secure 

 the best returns for our efforts. Something may be done to compel 

 parents now negligent to perform their duties as parents and make 

 better use of their wasted resources. The extension of probation 

 work to parents, already begun in some of our juvenile courts, is 

 a hint of what may be done. 



(5) Not even a brief outline of a social policy relating to the 

 dependent group can omit reference to the agencies of " preventive 

 and constructive " philanthropy. Omitting details, yet bearing in 

 mind the impressive array of inventions in this line, let us seek to 

 define the essential regulative principles which at once inspire and 

 direct these methods. 



Pauperism is, in great part, the effect of known and removable 

 causes. These causes are not obscure, concealed, or beyond our 

 grasp. They are consequences of human choices which may be 

 reversed. The reception of alms even in cases of innocent mis- 

 fortune, is a social injury; it lowers self-respect, weakens energy, 

 produces humiliation and mental suffering, diminishes productive 

 efficiency, tends to the increase of pauperism. Hence those who 

 know most of relief are most desirous of reducing the necessity for it 

 to the lowest possible terms. 



The National Consumers' League and the recently organized 

 National Child Labor Committee represent a policy of prevention 

 which is full of promise. It is perfectly clear to all competent ob- 

 servers, who are not blinded by some false conceptions of personal 

 financial interest, that the vitality, industrial efficiency, fitness for 

 parenthood, and intelligent social cooperation of the rising genera- 

 tion are profoundly affected by neglect of the children of the poor. 

 In order to prevent juvenile pauperism and youthful vice and crime, the 

 entire nation must work steadily to introduce and make operative some- 

 thing like the following programme of legislation and administration: * 



1 Suggested by the paper of Mrs. Florence Kelley, published in the American 

 Journal of Sociology. 



