Introduction 7 



unfortunate in business. In the majority of cases his relatives 

 come to his assistance, and he is helped on to his feet again ; 

 he does not descend into the class below, but remains in 

 his own, though possibly as an inefficient member, and his 

 children do not necessarily suffer. But suppose a member 

 of Class E, who is above the poverty line and in regular 

 work, loses his situation through illness or no fault of his own. 

 His relations who, if they are in the same class as himself, 

 are earning from twenty-two, to thirty shillings a week are 

 not in a position to help him, and he may slip gradually 

 down through the intervening classes into Class B. For 

 this man's children the whole aspect of life is changed, In 

 place of the respectable neighbourhood where they formerly 

 dwelt is substituted a mean street with all its sordid associa- 

 tions and undesirable acquaintances. Food is no longer so 

 plentiful nor probably in course of time so daintily prepared, 

 for the mother of the family in many cases is by now its 

 main support. The boys as they leave school are hustled 

 into the first " blind alley" occupation which presents itself* 

 instead of being apprenticed to their father's trade as would 

 formerly have been the case. For now the family circum- 

 stances are such that forethought in matters of this kind has 

 become impossible ; the claims of the present are too insistent- 

 Then the youth, as he becomes too old for his first job, has 

 a long period of looking for work ; and experts in " boy 

 labour" are continually telling us what will be the probable 

 result of such a course. 



Does it not seem likely that the children of the third 

 generation will have sunk into Class A; and that in course 

 of time, if " degeneracy " and " vice " do indeed arise as spon- 

 taneous (< variations," such an environment as Class B repre- 

 sents, with its ensuing modifications, may have " acted as a 

 screen until variations in the same direction (i.e. in the direction 

 of degeneracy and crime) have had time and opportunity to 

 establish themselves." 



