10. Why and in what way is it necessary to regulate the housing of the people in large cities?
11. What are the duties of the local board of health in your community? The state department of health?
12. Ought hygiene to be a compulsory study in the public high schools?
Topics for Debate
1. Vaccination should be made compulsory throughout the United States.
2. American cities should construct and maintain municipal tenements.
3. Free medical attendance should be provided at the public expense for all who cannot afford to pay for it.
CHAPTER XXVII
POOR-RELIEF, CORRECTION, AND OTHER
WELFARE PROBLEMS
The purpose of this chapter is to describe the way in which American communities are dealing with the problems of poverty, crime, and delinquency.
Poverty and Pauperism.—Poverty is one of the very oldest among human problems; two thousand years ago, in Biblical times, the world was trying to find a solution for it and it has not ceased to try ever since. In all ages and in all countries there have been groups of unfortunate people who, through their own fault or the fault of others, are not able to provide for their own subsistence. It is to the condition of such people, whose earnings do not enable them to maintain the normal standard of living, that we apply the term poverty. Not all who are poor, therefore, are in poverty, but only those who are so poor that their health and physical efficiency are being impaired by lack of earning power. Some of those who are in poverty become dependent upon private or public charity, and these we call paupers. Pauperism, in other words, is a condition of dependence upon the agencies of poor-relief. Many thousands of persons live in poverty, yet are not paupers. They struggle along, able only to make the barest sort of living, and often suffer great privations rather than apply for any form of charity.