reached a degree of excellence all out of comparison with that of any previous period. How much also poor-relief has extended its scope, increased its means, and improved its methods! The method of poor-relief in itself, however, can boast of no progress. It was and continues to be an indispensable, but always crude, means of contending against poverty. So far as we can speak here of progress at all, it is not to be found within, but rather without, the proper compass of poor-relief. It begins at the moment when poverty is no longer reckoned with as a condition established by the will of God, or as a necessary fact of human existence; and the question is thus raised whether poor-relief itself cannot be absolutely banished from the world by the absolute abolition of poverty itself and, without prejudice to the physical and mental inequalities in natural gifts which divide men, by the removal of that monstrous inequality which exists in the things of this life. From this point of view the problem of poverty is a problem of economics and sociology which investigates the whole relationship of man to man and to nature about him, and whose final aim must be to render to all an equitable share in the treasures that are to be wrung from nature through work, and also, by the creation of universal prosperity, to banish poverty from the world as the very contradiction of such prosperity.

With an insight into this connection of the matter there begins a new conception of social and economic events. We hear at the close of the eighteenth century of the great doctrine of individual freedom. All legal obstacles which set bounds to this movement must fall. It is taught that, as soon as everyone has liberty to unfold his own powers, the greatest possible guarantee of universal prosperity is attained. But the new economic development which, under the banner of steam and electricity, leads the way to a new era of discovery and invention, in reality created colossal riches on the one hand, and appalling poverty on the other. Poverty is not removed, but increased, and in its opposition to riches appears still sharper and more pressing. Man's ability to work has become an article of sale which, according to the law of supply and demand, displays a tendency toward continuous depreciation as population increases. So economic free

dom becomes the freedom of "sweating," which receives only the slightest check from the good-will of philanthropists. The immense pressure from above calls forth the counter-pressure from below. As their feeling of self-consciousness develops, the laboring classes seek to realize themselves as a unity, and in their wishes, needs, and point of view to oppose themselves to the employing class. One can speak of this movement among the laboring classes as something quite new in the history of sociology and of the world. This does not mean that there ever was a time when the struggle of the impoverished classes to improve their social and economic condition had no existence. But no movement has seized hold of such great masses of people. First of all, the modern means of communication and the press, together with a universal political freedom which has, in spite of every obstacle, made great advances, have been the powers which have given that solidarity to modern labor which is its peculiar characteristic. This movement of labor to realize itself as a great unity gives rise to the modern social problem of which the problem of poverty forms a part. As a part of the social problem it assumes a new aspect. The conception of poor-relief, in the old sense of the term, is entirely foreign to the labor program, the first principle of which is self-help; not pity, but justice; not a prayer, but a claim.

This social conception of the problem increases the difficulty of treating it, because the attention is now directed away from the outer appearance of poverty to its deep-lying cause, and the trouble now is to find those measures through which the cause of poverty may be counteracted. We are accustomed to classify the causes of poverty as "general" and "particular." The former comprise events over which the individual has no influence, such as the whole organization of state and society, business crises, wars, discoveries and inventions which revolutionize a whole branch of industry, such as especially the replacing of hand by machine labor; further, destructive events of nature, such as earthquakes, conflagrations, inundations, epidemics, etc. Through all these causes numberless individuals are simultaneously rendered penniless and countless families deprived of their bread

winners. The particular causes of poverty are disease, infirmity, old age, etc., which are again to be distinguished as those for which the individual is responsible and those for which he is not responsible. For idleness, prodigality, drink mania and unchastity he is responsible; for youth, old age, sickness, and infirmity, and death of the bread-winner he is not responsible. Yet a sharp line of distinction is not to be drawn here. A bad course of life, for which a vicious bringing up is to blame, is something for which, in a higher sense, the individual is not responsible. Moreover, a similar consideration will show us how the individual case broadens into the general. Take, for example, the problem of criminality among the young-a problem which has lately been the subject of especially earnest consideration, and which is bound up with domestic conditions. In like manner, the sickness of the individual assumes a general importance when the condition of dwellings, the general diet, etc., deteriorate the health of the population. And if the state of dwellings and food have such a result, there forces itself to the front the question of wage and labor conditions which do not allow a sufficient expenditure for food and dwelling. And from this wage and labor question we are immediately led back to the question of economic and social conditions. In short, we have an immense variety of circumstances produced through causes the ultimate source of which is hidden in almost impenetrable obscurity. Personal, physical, intellectual, and mental qualities exercise a contributive, but not decisive influence, where the determining circumstances are more powerful than the will of the individual.

However difficult it may be in particular cases to press back to the ultimate cause, yet the knowledge of the connection between the individual case and circumstances in general affords us points of view for the measures that are to be taken to counteract poverty. Indeed, it is this insight into the indissoluble connection of the single case with the general which gives its decisive character to the efforts of today to solve the problem of poverty. The well-worn comparison between poverty and disease here obtrudes itself. It is not a piece of court plaster fastened over a wound which heals a disease whose causes lie within, but only the treat

ment of the whole bodily condition, the improvement of the vital forces, the restoration of regular circulation of the blood, the stimulation of the activity of the heart. Thus poor-relief, as a means of protecting the poor from direct want, is only the court plaster which serves as a temporary relief, but does not produce a real cure. The farther the measures taken to counteract poverty are removed from this most external measure of poor-relief, the more effective are they. In the first rank stand all those measures which are fitted to elevate the general condition of prosperity. Here belong all those measures which concern public and economic life, commerce, the labor market, the administration of justice, etc., and also the question of protection and free trade, the conclusion of commercial treaties, the extension of the means of communication by land and water. In a similar position stand those measures for the elevation of the public weal through regulations promoting health and education, such as the fundamental demand of universal free elementary schools and of night schools, the equipment of technical, business, and higher educational institutions, the procuring of a good water supply, the removal of garbage, the supervision of slaughter-houses, a good milk supply, the promotion of physical training in the schools and homes, the furtherance of the building of sanitary dwellings-in short, those measures which are fitted to improve the mental and physical condition of all the various classes of population.

The second division is formed by those regulations which have to do with single occupations and classes, especially the agricultural, artisan, and industrial wage-earning classes. Of first importance here is the regulation of the labor conditions, the legal protection of labor, labor coalition, and labor employment bureaus. Side by side with legal regulations, the claim to the highest importance lies with the activity of the independent organizations, of the artisan associations and trade unions, of producers' and consumers' leagues, of building societies-in short, of all those associations of laborers in a common field which are built upon self-help as their basal principle, and whose object is the regulation of the conditions of labor and mutual encouragement and support.

The third division has so far to do with the causes of individual poverty as certain circumstances can be foreseen which render the individual, either for a time or permanently, incapable of earning his bread. Such especially are disease, accident, disability, age, widowhood, and orphanage. The most important measures in this division are those comprised under the different forms of labor insurance, divided into sick, disability, old-age, accident, out-of-work, and survivors' insurance. Such insurance may rest chiefly on the basis of legal compulsion, as in Germany and Austria, or on the basis of friendly societies, as in England and America; which, however, are to be found in the firstmentioned countries also. Labor insurance stands in its effects next to poor-relief, in that in single cases it removes or mitigates the consequences of penury. It has this difference, however, from poor-relief that here the claim is based on the ground of an acquired right. On a similar basis rest the claims on the state, church, and corporations for pensions, retiring allowances, or maintenance of widows and orphans.

Sharply divided from these measures for the advance of general prosperity, of self-help, and of social prophylaxis, there exist, in the last place, the measures against poverty which constitute poor-relief proper. The man whom these general measures for the public good have not been able to prevent from falling into poverty; who, in the case of lost capacity to earn his living, or want of work, cannot fall back on the help of those upon whom he has some special claim, nor has the right to claim help from insurance such a man has no other resource than to accept outside help, which is offered by poor-relief and charity-a help which has this peculiarity that it stands outside the compass of that reciprocal service which determines and sets definite bounds to all other economic relations. The results of this peculiar relationship are plainly recognizable on the side of both giver and receiver. The giver is inclined to limit his gifts to what is only absolutely necessary, because he gives without return; the receiver is humiliated by the gift, because he can do nothing in return. Hardness on the one side, bitterness on the other, are consequently in great measure bound up with the exercise of poor