 |
11. What is the "contributory principle" in social insurance? (Fetter, pages 363-364.)
12. What are the chief objections to social insurance? (Ely, pages 593-594.)
TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT
1. The extent of child labor in your state.
2. Control of child labor by the laws of your state.
3. The difficulties of enacting child labor legislation to cover the employment of children in agriculture. Interview some one familiar with farming conditions for data on this topic.
4. Relation of child labor to the administration of the school attendance laws in your community.
5. Extent to which women are employed in industrial establishments in your community or state.
6. Interview a friendly employer on the relative desirability of men and women employees.
7. The status of the minimum wage in your state.
8. Social insurance in your state.
9. Interview the officials of a trade union concerning the payment of sickness insurance by the union.
10. The emergency treatment of injured workmen in a near-by mill or factory. Compare this treatment with the treatment outlined in the references which are appended to Topic 21.
II.
11. Causes of child labor. (Mangold, Problems of Child Welfare, part iv, chapter i.)
12. Effects of child labor. (Mangold, Problems of Child Welfare, part iv, chapter iii.)
13. Women in industry. (Select some phase of this problem for report. Consult Butler, _Women and the Trades;_ MacLean, _Women _Workers and Society_; Kelley, _Some Ethical Gains through Legislation; Annals,_ vol. lxv; Abbot, _Women in Industry,_ and similar works.)
14. Relation of home conditions to industrial efficiency. (Annals, vol. lxv, pages 277-288.)
15. Industrial efficiency of women compared with that of men. (Lee, The Human Machine and Industrial Efficiency, chapter x.)
16. Housing the unskilled worker. (Wood, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage-earner.)
17. Work of the National Housing Association. (Write to the association office in Washington, D. C., for descriptive literature.)
18. Summary of Irving Fisher's report on national vitality. (Bulletin of the Committee of One Hundred on National Health, etc., prepared for the National Conservation Commission, by Irving Fisher, Washington, 1909.)
19. Preventable diseases. (Hutchinson, Preventable Diseases.)
20. Occupational diseases. (Oliver, Diseases of Occupation.)
21. How to act in case of an accident. (Gulick, Emergencies; Tolman, Hygiene for the Worker, chapter xvi.)
22. The right to leisure time. (Kelley, Some Ethical Gains through Legislation, chapters in and iv.)
23. Legal status of workmen's compensation. (Annals, vol. xxxviii, No. i, pages 117-168.)
24. Health insurance. (Rubinow, Standards of Health Insurance, chapters iii and iv.)
25. The police power. (Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United States, chapter xii.)
FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION
26. The minimum wage for men.
27. Should old age and sickness insurance be made a feature of the social insurance program of your state?
28. Should pensions be paid out of public funds to mothers having dependent children?
29. Should labor legislation be enacted primarily by the Federal or by the state governments?
CHAPTER XX
IMMIGRATION AND ASSIMILATION
215. RACIAL ELEMENTS IN OUR POPULATION.—The Federal census of 1920 gave the population of continental United States as 105,710,620. Approximately nine tenths of this population is white, while about one tenth is negro. Those who are neither white nor negro, namely, American Indians and Asiatics, together constitute less than one half of one per cent of the population.
The great majority of our people are either European immigrants, or the descendants of European immigrants who came to this country within the last century and a half. With reference to European immigration we distinguish three groups: the foreign-born, the native-born children of the foreign-born, and natives. Natives include those whose ancestors have been in this country two or more generations. On the basis of this classification, about one seventh of our population is foreign-born while over one third is either foreign-born or the native-born children of foreign-born parents.
The ease with which immigrants have adapted themselves to American life prevents any accurate classification of nationalities in our population, but probably Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Italy, Russia, (including Poland), and Austria-Hungary have, in the order named, contributed the largest numbers.
216. THE "OLD" IMMIGRATION.—European immigration to the United States may be divided into two groups, the "old" and the "new." The "old" immigration extended from the beginning of our national history to about the year 1880, and was derived chiefly from Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. Between 1820 (the first year for which we have accurate records) and 1880, about nine tenths of our immigrants came from these countries.
The striking features of the "old" immigration should be noted. In comparison with present-day immigration, it was relatively small in volume. In view of the abundance here of free land, and our consequent need for pioneers, the small volume of immigration prevented the rise of any serious problem. Moreover, the "old" immigration was largely made up of individuals who were similar to the original American colonists in political ideals, social training, and economic background. The "old" immigration therefore merged with the native stock fairly easily and rapidly.
217. THE "OLD" GIVES WAY TO THE "NEW" IMMIGRATION.—In the period centering about the year 1880 there was a distinct shift in the immigration movement. Whereas before 1880 most of our immigrants had been Anglo-Saxons and Teutons from northern Europe, after 1880 the majority of our immigrants were members of the Mediterranean and Slavic races from southern and southeastern Europe. Before 1880 about nine tenths of the aliens coming to our shores were from northern Europe and only one tenth were from southern and southeastern Europe. In the period since 1880, less than one fourth of our immigrants have come from northern Europe, while more than three fourths have been derived from southern and southeastern Europe. The bulk of this new immigration has come from Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and the Balkan countries.
218. INCREASING VOLUME OF IMMIGRATION.—Since it is in connection with the "new" immigration that the modern immigration problem arises, it will be profitable to inquire more fully into the character of the movement after about 1880.
Not only has the character of immigration changed since the eighties, but the volume of immigration has steadily increased. Of approximately 35,000,000 immigrants who have come to our shores since 1800, more than half have come within the last thirty-five years. The peak of immigration was reached in the decade preceding the World War, when as many as a million and a quarter of immigrants landed in this country in a single year. This heavy flow was interrupted by the World War, but after the signing of the armistice in the fall of 1918, a heavy immigration again set in. [Footnote: Various classes of immigrants are excluded from the United States by the immigration laws summarized in section 223 of this chapter. In addition to these laws, which may be said to constitute the basis of our permanent immigration policy, President Harding signed, in May, 1921, a bill relative to the temporary exclusion of aliens who would ordinarily be admissible. This temporary exclusion act provided that between July 1, 1921, and June 30, 1922, the number of immigrants entering the United States from any other country might not exceed three per cent of the former immigrants from that country who were within the bounds of the United States at the time of the last census.]
219. DISTRIBUTION OF THE "NEW" IMMIGRATION.—One of the most significant facts in connection with the immigration problem is that our immigrant population is unequally distributed. About two thirds of the immigrants in this country are in the North Atlantic division; about a quarter of them are located in the North Central division; while less than one tenth are located in the western and southern sections of the country combined. Three fourths of our foreign-born live in the cities of the North Atlantic and North Central divisions. Forty per cent of the present population of New York City is foreign born, while in Boston and Chicago more than a third of the population is foreign born. In the smaller manufacturing cities of the North Atlantic division it often happens that from half to four fifths of the population is foreign born.
220. ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION.—In the earlier part of our national history free land was abundant and immigration relatively small in volume; after the eighties free land disappeared and immigration increased rapidly. It was toward the end of the nineteenth century, therefore, that the economic aspect of the immigration problem became acute. In the last decades of that century manufacturing developed rapidly, and American cities became important centers of population. Large numbers of immigrants were attracted by the opportunities for employment in urban centers. An addition to this factor, immigrants continued to concentrate in the cities, partly because of the spirit of clannishness, partly because of the disappearance of free land, and partly because the development of agricultural machinery reduced the demand for agricultural laborers. Still another influence was the fact that the unfamiliar American farm was less attractive to the southern European immigrant than was the opportunity of performing unskilled labor in the city. To-day four fifths of our immigrants are unskilled laborers who are employed chiefly in mining, construction work, transportation, and domestic service.
From the economic standpoint, the chief objection to unrestricted immigration is that it prevents the wages of American workmen from rising as rapidly as would otherwise be the case. The newly arrived immigrant usually has a lower standard of living than has the native American; that is to say, the immigrant is content with less in the way of food, clothing, house room and education than is the native. When newly arrived immigrants come into competition with native workmen, the immigrant generally offers to work for a lower wage than the native. But though relatively low, this wage is so much higher than the newly arrived immigrant has been used to, that he feels justified in marrying early and rearing a large family. This adds to the supply of unskilled labor.
In order to compete with the recent immigrant, the native must accept relatively low wages. In order to get along on these relatively low wages, the native must either lower his standard of living or postpone marriage. Sometimes he has lowered his standard of living; sometimes he has preferred to retain his relatively high standard of living, and to get along on the decreased wage either by postponing marriage, or by permanently abandoning his plans for a normal family life. It is contended, therefore, that an oversupply of unskilled immigrant labor in this country has had at least two injurious results. First, it has kept the standard of living of American workmen from rising as rapidly as would otherwise have been possible. Second, it has caused the birth rate to decline among the native groups.
221. SOCIAL EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION.—The tendency of immigrants to concentrate in American cities gives rise to a number of serious social problems. Urban congestion is unqualifiedly bad. It is difficult or impossible for immigrants living in crowded quarters to maintain proper health standards. Nor does overcrowding conduce to healthy morals. The foreign born do not show an unusual tendency toward crime, which is remarkable when we consider the immigrant's ignorance of our laws, as well as the ease with which unscrupulous persons exploit him. On the other hand, the children of the foreign born often show a strong tendency toward crime and vice, a fact which is attributed to the bad social conditions surrounding their homes. The percentage of dependency among immigrants is rather high. This is not surprising, however, for many immigrants must go through an adjustment period in which lack of financial reserves is likely to force them to call upon charitable agencies for temporary aid.
222. DIFFICULTY OF ASSIMILATING THE "NEW" IMMIGRATION.—Those who made up the "old" immigration assimilated rapidly: they were relatively like the native stock in manners and customs, the volume of immigration was relatively small, and the newcomers spread out into frontier communities where habitual contact with natives was unavoidable.
Those who make up the "new" immigration have assimilated less rapidly: they are relatively unlike the native stock in language, race, and customs; the volume of immigration is very great; and rather than being uniformly distributed, the "new" immigrants tend to concentrate in cities where they are often little subject to contact with natives. Members of foreign "colonies" not only tend to remain ignorant of American life, but unfamiliarity with self-government encourages their exploitation by political "bosses." It is admitted by the most careful students that the lack of proper civic ideals among unassimilated foreigners in American cities is a large element in the corruption of our municipal governments.
223. RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION.—Exclusive control of immigration is vested in the Federal government. During the Civil War Congress actually encouraged immigration, but since 1882 our policy has been one of restriction. In the latter year the first general immigration act was passed, though considerable legislation on the subject was already on the statute books. Supplementary laws were enacted from time to time, the most important piece of legislation since 1900 being the Immigration Act of 1917. A brief summary of this and previous acts will serve to show the nature and extent of Federal control over immigration.
The chief aim of our immigration laws has been so to restrict immigration as to protect us against undesirable persons. In the interest of health, persons afflicted with contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, and trachoma,—a virulent eye disease,—are excluded. Certain persons whose character is clearly immoral are excluded. Polygamists are excluded. The Act of 1917 excludes anarchists, and likewise bars from our shores all criminals, except those who have committed political offenses not recognized by the United States. In order to reduce unnecessary tax burdens, as well as to safeguard community health, we also exclude insane persons, idiots, epileptics, beggars, and other persons likely to become public charges. Contract laborers are specifically excluded, the Act of 1917 using the term "contract labor" to include anyone "induced, assisted, encouraged, or solicited" to come to this country "by any kind of promise or agreement, express or implied, true or false, to find employment." Persons over sixteen years of age are excluded from the United States if they cannot read English or some other language. [Footnote: Certain near relatives of admissible aliens, purely political offenders, and persons seeking refuge from religious persecution, are exempted from this literacy test, however.]
The bars against Asiatics call for a special word.
224. ASIATIC IMMIGRATION.—By Asiatic immigration is here meant Chinese and Japanese immigration, immigrants from other parts of Asia being relatively unimportant.
The discovery of gold in California in 1849 caused a large number of Chinese coolies to migrate to this country. This immigration grew steadily until 1882, in which year the entrance of Chinese laborers into the United States was forbidden. Our exclusion policy has been repeatedly reaffirmed, as the result of which there are to-day fewer than 70,000 Chinese in this country. The majority of these are found on the Pacific Coast, engaged as small tradesmen, truck farmers, or personal servants.
Japanese immigration to this country did not become noticeable until about 1900. After that date, however, the volume of Japanese immigration so alarmed the Pacific Coast states that a Japanese exclusion policy was formulated as early as 1907. At present the only classes of Japanese that are allowed to reside in this country permanently are "former residents," "parents, wives or children of residents," or "settled agriculturists," the latter being Japanese already in possession of land here. There are at present fewer than 120,000 Japanese in this country. Most of them are found on the Pacific Coast, engaged in occupations similar to those of the Chinese in the same area. [Footnote: Chinese and Japanese students desiring to study in this country are allowed to enter the United States by special arrangement.]
Those most familiar with the situation are practically unanimous in declaring for the continued exclusion of Chinese and Japanese immigrants. In the case of both races, the standard of living is so much lower than that of native Americans that open competition between the newly arrived Asiatic and the native American would result in the latter being driven from the labor market. The most important social reason for the exclusion of these two races is that the differences of race and religion existing between Asiatics and native Americans render assimilation of the Chinese and Japanese extremely difficult, if not impossible.
225. THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRATION.—A half century ago the belief was current that an immigration policy was unnecessary, since the sources of immigration would eventually dry up. The sources of the "old" immigration have dried up somewhat, but new sources have been opened up in southern and southeastern Europe. Immigration is a pressing social problem, and it is likely that it will be even more pressing in the future. The American frontier has disappeared and our boundaries are fixed. Urbanization is proceeding at a rapid rate, industry is becoming more complex, public opinion is more insistent that such social problems as immigration shall be solved.
226. WHAT SHALL BE OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD IMMIGRATION?—There is no good reason why immigration should be absolutely prohibited. On the other hand, the most public-spirited students of the question believe that the careful restriction of immigration is imperative. Clearly, it is our duty to accept only such immigrants as show promise of becoming capable and efficient American citizens. It is also clearly our duty to accept even this type of immigrant only in such numbers as we can conveniently assimilate. We must not be selfish with America, but we should not be misled by the statement that anyone in Europe has a "right" to make his home in this country. Those who come to this country are personally benefited, no doubt, but unrestricted immigration may lower the tone of American life and permanently injure our social and political institutions. America is for the present generation, but is also for posterity. The millions of unborn have as much right to be considered as have the millions now clamoring at our gates. For this reason, the "right" of an individual to migrate to America must be interpreted in the light of what he will mean to the future of this country.
227. HELPING THE IMMIGRANT IN HIS NEW HOME.—The readjustment, assimilation, or "Americanization" of the immigrant is a problem of vital importance. The term "Americanization" is variously interpreted, and must be used with care. Americanization ought not to force the immigrant to give up his native tongue, or his old-country customs. It ought to be a mutually helpful process, whereby native Americans would help the immigrant in adjusting himself to his new environment, while, in turn, the immigrant would be permitted and encouraged to make his own contribution to American life. Since the immigrant has little or no opportunity to contribute to American life until he has become adjusted to his new home, it follows that the most fundamental part of an Americanization program is one of helping the immigrant solve his problems.
In carrying out this part of the Americanization program it is essential that the newly arrived alien be protected against unscrupulous persons who seek to exploit him. Adequate laws ought to be supplemented by the work of immigrant aid societies and other private organizations whose duty it would be to protect immigrants against dishonest boarding houses, swindlers, unreliable banks, and other forms of imposition. Friendly help of this type will do much toward encouraging and inspiring the alien in his new life.
Improvement in the immigrant's economic status is an important part of an Americanization program. Not only does the undue concentration of immigrants in cities spell ill-health and a great temptation to crime and vice, but immigrant laborers sometimes secure lower wages in cities than they would receive in the more sparsely settled parts of the country. Of considerable interest, therefore, is the recent development of plans for redistributing immigrants into the rural and sparsely populated districts. [Footnote: The movement to transfer immigrants to the rural districts is not unqualifiedly good; indeed, it may do more harm than good. For the dangers of this movement, see Chapter XXV.] Since 1907 the Division of Information in the Bureau of Labor Statistics has done valuable work in finding employment for immigrants in rural districts. Much remains to be done, however.
The school, of course, is an important agent of Americanization. Whether or not the immigrant retains his old-country language, he ought to learn to speak, read and write English. The school is likewise an important means of instructing the newcomers and their children in the essentials of American history and government. Where the school is being used as a real community center, the institution becomes truly a method of introducing the foreign-born to the everyday activities of American life. The increasing emphasis upon the racial traits of different immigrant groups, with a view to encouraging unique contributions to the culture of the community, deserves special notice.
Americanization measures of the type touched upon in this section help to build the nation on a sound foundation of friendly and intelligent coperation.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
1. What proportion of our population is foreign-born? What proportion is native?
2. Distinguish between the "old" and the "new" immigration.
3. Describe the increasing volume of immigration.
4. Outline the distribution of immigrants in this country.
5. What are the economic effects of immigration?
6. Explain the relation of immigration to the wages and standard of living of American workmen.
7. What are the social effects of immigration?
8. What factors impede the assimilation of the "new" immigrants?
9. What classes of aliens are excluded from this country? What is "contract labor"?
10. What is the nature of Asiatic immigration? Why are Asiatics excluded?
11. Does it seem likely that the immigration problem will be more or less acute in the future? Why?
12. What should be our attitude toward immigration?
13. What is the chief aim of a good Americanization program?
REQUIRED READINGS
1. Williamson, Readings in American Democracy, chapter xx.
Or all of the following:
2. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. xciii, pages 134-138, 156-161.
3. Burch and Patterson, American Social Problems, chapters ix and x.
4. Ellwood, Sociology and Modern Social Problems, chapter x.
5. Roberts, The Problem of Americanization, chapters iii and iv.
QUESTIONS ON THE REQUIRED READINGS
1. Define a foreigner. (Annals, page 135.)
2. What is Professor Walker's theory of immigration? (Burch and Patterson, pages 95-96.)
3. Compare the "old" and the "new" immigration in 1882. (Ellwood, page 217.)
4. Compare the "old" and the "new" immigration in 1907. (Ellwood, page 218.)
5. What are the three most important groups of immigrants at the present time? (Burch and Patterson, pages 108-111.)
6. What is the extent of illiteracy among the immigrant population? (Burch and Patterson, pages 115-116.)
7. Discuss the occupational distribution of immigrants. (Ellwood, pages 223-224.)
8. What is the "racial" argument against unrestricted immigration? (Ellwood, pages 234-235.)
9. How can the average citizen help in the Americanization movement? (Roberts, pages 45-47.)
10. Why should the Americanization worker make himself familiar with the condition under which the immigrant works? (Roberts, pages 48-53.)
11. What is the significance of the club life of immigrant groups? (Roberts, pages 57-61.)
12. What is the importance of the "advisory council" in Americanization work? (Roberts, pages 86-87.)
TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT
1. Classify the residents of your community according as they are (a) Foreign born (b) Native-born children of foreign-born parents, or (c) Natives.
2. Study your community with the aim of determining whether or not the character of its immigrant class has changed within the last twenty- five years.
3. Classify the immigrant groups of your community on the basis of occupation. Notice in particular the proportion of immigrants engaged in agriculture and in the trained professions.
4. Make a visit to a near-by foreign colony, and report to the class upon your observations.
5. Interview the officials of a trade union on the effect of Unrestricted immigration upon wages.
6. Draw up a workable plan for the redistribution of immigrants in your state.
7. Draw up a plan for an Americanization survey in your state. (Write to the Bureau of Education in the U. S. Department of the Interior, for Bulletin, 1919, No. 77, on State Americanization.)
8. Race elements in the population of the American colonies. (Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, chapter ii.)
9. History of immigration to the United States. (Any standard text on immigration.)
10. The journey to America. (Abbot, The Immigrant and the Community, chapter i; Steiner, On the trail of the Immigrant; Antin, They Who Knock at Our Gates. See also Miss Antin's The Promised Land.)
11. Assisted immigration. (R. Mayo Smith, Emigration and Immigration, chapter ix.)
12. Geographical distribution of immigration. (Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, chapter xv.)
13. Economic aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)
14. "Birds of passage." (Consult any standard text on immigration.)
15. Immigration and the trade unions. (Carlton, History and Problems of Organized Labor, chapter xi. See also any standard text on immigration.)
16. Social aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)
17. Political aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)
18. Chinese immigration. (Coolidge, Chinese Immigration; Hall, Immigration, chapter xv; Jenks and Lauck, The Immigration Problem, pages 231-237; Annals, vol. xciii, pages 7-13; Gulick, American Democracy and Asiatic Citizenship.)
19. Japanese immigration. (Annals, vol. xciii, part i; Jenks and Lauck, The Immigration Problem, pages 241-252; Steiner, The Japanese Invasion; Gulick, American Democracy and Asiatic Citizenship.)
20. Americanization. (Annals, vol. xciii, part in; Woods, Americans in Process; Steiner, From Alien to Citizen; Bogardus, Essentials of Americanization; Roberts, The Problem of Americanization)
FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION
21. Is assisted immigration an evil?
22. Can immigrants be redistributed effectively by governmental agencies?
23. Should we retain the literacy test as part of our immigration policy?
24. At the present time many aliens journey across the Atlantic only to find that, for various reasons, they cannot be admitted to this country. How might the resulting disappointment and loss of time and money be avoided?
CHAPTER XXI
CRIME AND CORRECTION
228. THE NATURE OF CRIME.—A crime is an act which is punishable by law because it is considered injurious to the community. If the average man were a hermit, living entirely alone, his actions would affect only himself, and he would be subjected to little or no control by any community. But the average man is a member of a highly civilized community, and what he does, or what he fails to do, often profoundly affects other individuals. Members of the community therefore agree upon standards of conduct, to which individuals must conform. [Footnote: Where democracy does not exist, or is only partially developed, laws may be imposed upon the group from without. In such a country as the United States, however, legal standards of conduct are preeminently the result of mutual agreements, freely entered into.] It is the failure to conform to these standards which constitutes a crime, and which entails punishment by law.
What constitutes a crime depends, of course, upon the level of civilization reached by a community, and upon the interpretation which it places upon right conduct. A deed considered heroic in one age may be considered a crime in a later century. In the days of chivalry, for example, it was sometimes considered heroic to rob or even kill wicked nobles in order to distribute their wealth to the poor. At the present time, of course, such acts would constitute a crime.
229. THE CAUSES OF CRIME.—The causes of crime are so various and so complex that their accurate classification is impossible. But some light may be thrown upon the subject if we think of crime as influenced by economic, social, personal, and political factors.
Looking at crime from an economic point of view, it is obvious that poverty often accompanies crime. In many cases, it is claimed, such crimes as larceny, forgery, and robbery are directly traceable to poverty. Similarly, it is said that unemployment and industrial accidents may incite individuals to crime. Many authorities claim, however, that while bad economic conditions accompany and often encourage crime, such conditions alone are not a direct cause of crime. According to this latter view, poverty, for example, will not cause a person to commit a crime unless he is feeble-minded, depraved in morals, or otherwise defective in character.
While there is a good deal of dispute as to whether or not poverty is a direct cause of crime, it is quite generally agreed that a bad economic situation gives rise to social conditions which can be definitely connected with criminality. The strain and artificiality of urban life, together with the difficulty of obtaining inexpensive and wholesome recreation in the poorer sections of large cities, has a close connection with crime. The overcrowding so common in tenement districts renders difficult or impossible the maintenance of high moral standards. Where mother or children are habitually employed outside the home, the young are often denied proper home training. Divorce, desertion, or the death of the bread-winner may break up the family and indirectly give rise to illiteracy, vice, and crime.
Often indistinguishable from the social causes are the personal causes of crime. Where alcoholism or vicious habits are given as the cause of crime, it may be impossible to say whether social or personal defect is primarily to blame. Illiteracy, superficially a personal cause of crime, may often be traced to a bad social environment. Thus an individual may be illiterate because his parents were unwilling or unable to send him to school, or because evil companions discouraged him from study. Such personal causes as mental defect are extremely important, indeed, many students maintain that bad economic and social conditions are negligible causes of crime, unless found in connection with low mentality and a depraved moral sense.
Last among the causes of crime we may consider defects in government. The laws of a community may be so numerous, or so unwisely worded, that even responsible individuals violate them without understanding the nature of their act. After children have committed petty offenses through carelessness or a sense of mischief, the harshness of the police may so embitter or antagonize the culprits that their criminal tendencies are intensified. An important cause of crime is the custom, still common in many states, of imprisoning young and first offenders in county jails, where they are allowed to mingle with, and learn about crime from, hardened and depraved criminals.
230. THE REMEDIES FOR CRIME.—The causes of crime suggest the nature of its remedies. Wherever bad economic conditions either directly or indirectly encourage crime, the remedy is, of course, the relief or abolition of poverty. This problem has already been discussed.
Since bad social conditions are often the result of poverty, any measures which will lessen poverty will also remove many of the so- called social causes of crime. Education, the safeguarding of the home, constructive charity, and similar measures will also help to remove the social causes of crime. These questions are discussed elsewhere in this text, and need not be gone into here.
The improvement of economic and social conditions will ultimately help to eliminate bad heredity, vice, and other of the personal causes of crime.
With the understanding, then, that the eradication of the economic, social and personal causes of crime is discussed elsewhere, we may here confine ourselves to the question of preventing crime by remedying the defects of government.
231. JUSTICE AS AN IDEAL.—Justice has constituted one of the basic ideals of the English-speaking peoples since the days of Magna Charta. "To no one will we sell, and to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice," declared that great document. This conception was later glorified into an ideal which, after having persisted for four centuries in England, was brought to the New World by the English colonists. The first ten amendments to the Federal Constitution and the Bill of Rights contained in the constitutions of the several states have been called by Lord Bryce "the legitimate children of Magna Charta." Since the beginning of our history, thus, a great cornerstone of American democracy has been the concept of sound and equitable law, impartially and effectively administered.
232. THE DENIAL OF JUSTICE.—Within the last decade we have come to realize that in many of the criminal courts of this country justice is an ideal rather than a fact. "The administration of criminal law in all the states of this Union," said Chief Justice Taft a few years ago, "is a disgrace to civilization."
Our criminal law is administered unjustly in two ways.
First, it sometimes allows the rich, the cunning, and the powerful offenders to escape the penalty for their crimes. In many states the court dockets are so crowded that influential offenders are not convicted for years, if at all. Rich prisoners may be released on bail, and consideration of their case so delayed that the evidence disappears. Public interest is diverted to new cases, and eventually the case may be quietly dismissed. Mr. Taft points out that we lead the world in the number of serious crimes which go unpunished. Appeals are allowed almost as a matter of course, so that in many serious criminal trials the original verdict is only the beginning of the case.
Second, the law which often allows the powerful and crafty to avoid punishment may operate to deny justice to the poor. Ignorant prisoners are in many cases so bewildered by cumbersome and technical court procedure that they allow their cases to be disposed of without adequate protection of their rights. Often they have no one to advise them as to their constitutional rights and privileges. If they are not only ignorant but poor, they find themselves unable to employ proper counsel. The Constitution indeed recognizes the right of an accused person to have counsel, but in many states if a man is too poor or too ignorant to secure a lawyer, he is obliged to stand trial without anyone to represent or advise him. In some states, the court appoints a lawyer to represent such defendants. Sometimes the assigned counsel is dishonest, and too often his primary object is to get a fee rather than to secure justice for his client. Generally the counsel so appointed is inexperienced, and consequently no match for an able and experienced prosecuting attorney, whose reputation may depend upon the number of convictions that he secures.
233. THE REFORM OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.—The reform of criminal procedure is assuming great importance as a problem of American democracy. In many states there is a demand for a wider and more energetic use of the Bertillon and finger print systems for the identification of criminals. Because of the fact that in our large cities a heavy percentage of crimes are committed without the subsequent arrest of the culprit, there is a growing demand for the improvement of our police systems. Our criminal law needs to be simplified, so that justice may not be delayed by technicalities, long arguments on the admissibility of evidence, and the abuse of the right of appeal. Probably a good many of the delays and technicalities of legal procedure could be avoided if at the trial the judge were to exercise a greater amount of control over the proceedings.
The reform of criminal procedure has a double aim. First, it aims to reorganize and perfect criminal procedure so that persons who have committed an offense will be apprehended and always made to pay the penalty for their crimes. Toward the achievement of this ideal we have as yet done very little. We are still woefully behind such a country as England, where justice is administered with relative rapidity and sureness. Second, the reform of criminal procedure aims to prevent the law from bearing with undue weight upon the poor and ignorant. Here we are making greater progress. Let us notice what is being done to guarantee justice to persons who are unable adequately to safeguard their own legal rights.
234. THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY.—A valuable institution is the legal aid society, which originated in New York City in 1876, and which has since spread to other parts of the country. Of the forty legal aid societies now in existence in this country, some of the better known are located in New York City, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Boston, and Chicago. The legal aid society is generally a private organization, created and maintained by public-spirited citizens who believe that the poor and ignorant ought to be given legal advice free of charge, or upon the payment of a nominal fee. These societies extend advice on both civil and criminal matters. The legal aid society helps materially to secure justice by acquainting the individual with his legal rights, and by acting as his counsel in court. Such organizations are especially valuable in safeguarding the rights and privileges of immigrants in large cities. The total number of persons helped annually by legal aid societies in the United States is over 100,000.
235. THE PUBLIC DEFENDER.—The Public Defender movement is an outgrowth of the feeling that it is unfair for the court to assign an inexperienced and sometimes unreliable lawyer to defend a penniless prisoner, while the case is prosecuted by a skilful district attorney. In spite of the presumption that the prisoner is innocent until he is proved guilty, such practices as this have operated as though the prisoner were presumed to be guilty.
In 1912 Oklahoma attempted to remedy this evil by appointing a Public Defender whose duty it should be to aid in the defense of persons unable to employ counsel. The next year the city of Los Angeles appointed a Public Defender who, as a sworn public counsel of experience and integrity, makes it his business to defend poor prisoners without charge. A few years later, Portland, Oregon, and Omaha, Nebraska, appointed similar officers. Since 1916 many other cities, and a few states, have provided for a Public Defender of some kind, although in many cases the provision is as yet inadequate. In all cities in which the plan has been given a trial, the Public Defender has been instrumental in securing justice for the poor, and in raising the moral tone of the criminal trial. By eliminating much unnecessary delay from the criminal trial, the Public Defender has also helped to reduce court expenses.
236. CHANGING IDEALS IN PENOLOGY.—In the early stages of society the spirit of revenge seems to have been a chief motive in the punishment of criminals, although the desire to prevent crime must also have been a factor. With the progress of civilization revenge declined in importance, and the punishment of the criminal seems to have been undertaken chiefly for the purpose of preventing future crimes. Long periods of imprisonment, inhuman punishments, and the frequent use of the death penalty were characteristic of this attitude toward crime. Curiously enough, punishments were imposed according to the seriousness of the crime committed, without regard to the character and needs of the criminal.
Of recent years the theory of punishment has been still further modified. In the first place, we have begun to doubt if punishment always serves a useful purpose. Punishment does not always deter criminals, and for this reason it is likely that the death penalty and other cruel and inhuman methods of punishment may be dispensed with, without a resultant increase in the amount of crime. In the second place, punishment has taken on a new aim. More and more we are coming to believe that it should be imposed, not according to the seriousness of the crime committed, but according as the individual criminal needs to be punished in order to effect his reformation. This new attitude is based upon the assumption that the criminal is a person who is not adapted to the conditions of modern life, and that the chief aim of the authorities should be so to reform him that he will become a useful member of society. In case reform seems impossible, the criminal should be segregated in an institution.
237. INDIVIDUALIZED TREATMENT OF OFFENDERS.—The emphasis now placed upon reformation has made necessary a new point of view on the part of the public. We are beginning to make use of a mass of data furnished by physiology, psychology, and sociology, and on the basis of these data to subject prisoners to individualized treatment. Instead of herding all offenders into a single institution such as the county jail or the penitentiary, we are beginning to inquire, first of all, whether the prisoner might not be treated most effectively outside prison walls. For those offenders who seem to require institutional treatment, we are developing a whole series of institutions, designed to care for special types of abnormality. Industrial and farm colonies for petty offenders and occasional criminals, hospitals and colonies for the mentally defective, industrial schools and reformatories for certain types of juvenile offenders, and penitentiaries for hardened offenders, all these are included in the correctional system of the more progressive states.
238. SUBSTITUTES FOR IMPRISONMENT.—The belief is growing that young offenders, first offenders, and those committing petty crimes, may often be corrected without actual imprisonment. Increasingly common is the probation system, the essence of which is to suspend the sentence of the court upon certain conditions. The offender is placed in charge of a court officer who will stand in the relation of friend and guardian to him, in order to supervise his conduct and to attempt his reformation. The success of the probation system depends largely upon the care and judgment with which probation officers control their charges.
The use of the fine deserves mention. Generally the sentence for a petty offense is a fine, with imprisonment as an alternative in case the prisoner is unable to pay the fine. Realizing the corrupting influence of the jail sentence for first or slight offenders, court officials in many cities are making the payment of the fine less difficult. In Buffalo, Indianapolis, Chicago, and other cities it is customary in some cases to allow the payment of a fine in instalments. This ultimately secures the fine; it has a disciplinary effect upon the offender; and it keeps him out of jail.
239. MENTAL DEFECTIVES.—Recent progress in medicine and psychology has demonstrated that many criminals are mentally defective. Such persons are not fully responsible for their acts, and nothing is to be gained by committing them to prison. They need special treatment in institutions for the insane, the feeble-minded, and the otherwise defective. In recognition of this fact, the criminal courts of our larger cities now make extensive use of psychopathic experts. It is the duty of these experts to determine the mental status of the prisoner, and, in case he is found to be mentally defective, to recommend the type of treatment needed.
This is an admirable development, provided care is taken to prevent the abuse of the insanity plea by influential criminals who, though normal mentally, seek to evade responsibility for their deliberate crimes.
240. THE JUVENILE OFFENDER.—It has been proved that a large percentage of hardened criminals begin their careers by some careless or mischievous act for which they were severely or unwisely punished. Formerly, juvenile offenders were treated much as were adult criminals; more recently we are coming to believe that children ought not to be committed to penal institutions, but rather should be put on probation, or sent to correctional institutions of a special type. Wherever possible, institutional treatment of every kind ought to be avoided, for the crimes of children are clearly in a different class from those of the adult. In New York City a few years ago, for example, half the children brought into court were there because of the lack of recreation facilities. Petty theft and malicious mischief are often traceable to bad home influences and the unnatural surroundings of the city. These circumstances, coupled with the fact that immature children are often unaware of the seriousness of their lawless acts, justify the special treatment of the juvenile offender.
241. THE JUVENILE COURT.—The juvenile court has been created to meet the special needs of the youthful offender. An early institution of this kind was established in Chicago in 1889. Shortly afterward Denver established a juvenile court, and since then many other cities have taken up the idea. In some states county judges are authorized to suspend the ordinary rules of procedure where the defendant is under eighteen years of age.
A typical juvenile court provides separate judges and separate hearings for youthful prisoners. It avoids publicity, investigates the home life of the youthful offender, and attempts by kindly treatment to guide him back into a wholesome, honest life. In some cases delinquent children are sent back to school, in other cases they are placed on probation, in still other cases special institutional treatment is provided. Every effort is made to keep juvenile offenders from associating with habitual criminals. The aim of the court is not to punish the offender for a particular offense, but to weigh all the circumstances which have influenced his life, and to correct his wrong tendencies. Work of this type is preventive in the fullest sense of the word.
242. THE INDETERMINATE SENTENCE.—The realization that punishment ought to fit the criminal rather than the crime has led to the indeterminate sentence. Though not yet widely applied, this reform is attracting more and more attention. A logical application of the indeterminate sentence would require prisoners to be committed to prison, not for a specific term, but for an indefinite period. The actual length of the prison term would depend upon the prison record of the individual, and upon the promise that he showed of becoming a useful and normal citizen if released. According to this plan, occasional criminals, and persons enticed or forced into wrong-doing, would be entitled to release (regardless of the character of the crime) as soon as it became apparent that they would not repeat the offense. Hardened criminals, on the other hand, might remain in prison permanently, even though committed for a trifling offense. Certainly we ought not to continue to commit and to re-commit hardened criminals for short terms, when their past conduct proves that they have neither the intention nor the ability to make proper use of their freedom.
243. THE FUNCTION OF THE MODERN PRISON.—In addition to the principle of the indeterminate sentence, modern penology has approved a whole series of supplementary measures. The ideal prison of to-day is not a gloomy dungeon, but a great plant which attempts to turn criminals into useful citizens through the use of the school, the chapel, the workshop, the gymnasium, the library, and even the theatre. Discipline, the fundamental weakness of offenders against the law, is a cornerstone of prison life. More and more prisons are adopting the merit system, according to which prisoners are graded and promoted to additional privileges on the basis of behavior. In many prisons these privileges may include an "honor system" and "inmate self-government." The prison attempts to supply the deficiencies in the convict's early training. Prisoners are taught to take care of their bodies. They are taught useful trades, according to their abilities. If illiterate they may go to the prison school. Religious exercises and moral instruction are employed to develop a sense of moral values.
When consistent good behavior and earnest endeavor in prison duties indicate that the prisoner is entitled to another chance in the outside world, he may be paroled, that is to say, he may be released on certain conditions. Generally prisoners are not paroled until some person is found who will guarantee them employment. In many states the work of the parole board is ably supplemented by unofficial prisoners' aid societies which help the released man to readjust himself to a free life. After a certain period of satisfactory conduct on parole the prisoner is entitled to a full and unconditional discharge. The whole aim of the parole system is to supervise the actions of the prisoner, without adding to his irritation or humiliation, but with sufficient strictness to guard him against temptation and to replace him in prison if he proves unworthy of the trust bestowed upon him.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
1. What is a crime?
2. In what way may bad economic conditions be connected with crime?
3. What are the social causes of crime? What are the personal causes?
4. In what way are defects of government related to crime?
5. Summarize the remedies for crime.
6. Trace the influence of Magna Charta upon our ideal of justice.
7. How does the administration of our criminal law often result in injustice?
8. Why is it necessary to reform our criminal procedure?
9. What is the nature and function of the legal aid society?
10. What is a Public Defender? How does he help secure justice?
11. Trace the development of the theory of punishment.
12. What is the purpose of the "individualized treatment of offenders"?
13. What is the function of a probation system?
14. How should mentally defective criminals be treated?
15. Describe the work of the Juvenile Court.
16. Outline the purpose of the indeterminate sentence.
17. What are the chief functions of a modern prison?
REQUIRED READINGS
1. Williamson, Readings in American Democracy, chapter xxi.
Or all of the following:
2. Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United States, chapter xiii.
3. Lewis, The Offender, part iii, chapter i.
4. Smith, Justice and the Poor, pages 105-127.
5. Wines, Punishment and Reformation, chapter ii.
QUESTIONS ON THE REQUIRED READINGS
1. Distinguish between crime, vice and sin. (Wines, page 11.)
2. Define criminal law. (Wines, page 12.)
3. What is the distinction between public and private wrongs? (Guitteau, pages 140-141.)
4. What are the first steps in a criminal action? (Guitteau, pages 142-143.)
5. What is an indictment? (Guitteau, page 143.)
6. Outline the steps in a criminal trial. (Guitteau, pages 144-146.)
7. What is a sumptuary law? (Wines, page 7.)
8. What are the eight distinct protections afforded by our criminal law? (Smith, page 108.)
9. What is the great defect of these protections? (Smith, page 111.)
10. What can be said as to the future development of the Public Defender movement? (Smith, page 127.)
11. Is the average age of offenders declining or increasing? (Lewis, page 254.)
12. What is the relation of the school to crime? (Lewis, pages 262- 270.)
13. What is the relation of recreational facilities to crime? (Lewis, pages 276-285.)
TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT
I
1. Make a classification of the criminal courts of your state.
2. The use of psychopathic experts in the criminal courts of your state.
3. Make a study of a near-by county jail. (Compare data gathered with Queen, The Passing of the County Jail.)
4. The legal aid bureau in your state.
5. The parole system in your state.
6. Classify the correctional institutions in your state. What types of offenders are sent to each?
7. Interview, or write to, a prison official in your state regarding the practicability of the indeterminate sentence.
II
8. Criminal law procedure in England. (Annals, vol. lii, pages 200- 207; Kaye, Readings in Civil Government, pages 328-335.)
9. Criminal law procedure in the United States. (Beard, American Government and Politics, pages 568-577.)
10. Defects in the enforcement of the law. (Reinsch, Readings on American State Government, pages 173-181.)
11. The courts and the criminal. (Osborne, Society and Prisons, chapter ii; Lewis, The Offender, part i, chapter iii.)
12. Reform of criminal procedure in the United States. (Annals, vol. lii, pages 102-107.)
13. The county jail. (Queen, The Passing of the County Jail.)
14. Crime prevention from the standpoint of the police. (Woods, Crime Prevention; Lewis, The Offender, part ii, chapter ii; Annals, vol. lii, pages 56-60.)
15. Overcrowding in its relation to crime. (Riis, The Battle with the Slum; Addams, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets.)
16. Juvenile crime. (Mangold, Problems of Child Welfare, Part V.)
17. The Junior Republic. (George, The Junior Republic.)
18. The work of Judge Ben Lindsay of Denver. (Consult an encyclopedia.)
19. The legal aid society. (Smith, Justice and the Poor, part iii.)
20. The Public Defender. (Smith, Justice and the Poor, pages 105- 130.)
21. Probation and parole. (Lewis, The Offender, part i, chapter v.)
22. The Jukes. (Dugdale, The Jukes.)
23. The Kallikak family. (Goddard, The Kallikak Family.)
24. The criminal theories of Lombroso. (Consult an encyclopedia.)
25. Modern prison systems. (Henderson, Modern Prison Systems. Individual students may be assigned to the study of the prison systems of particular countries.)
26. Industrial training in prison. (Lewis, The Offender, part i, chapters x and xii; Annals, vol. xlvi.)
27. The discharged convict. (Booth, After Prison, What?)
FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION
28. Is crime increasing in the United States?
29. The practicability of the indeterminate sentence.
30. Should capital punishment be abolished?
31. Advantages and disadvantages of the "honor system" in prison.
CHAPTER XXII
THE NEGRO
244. ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO.—Early in the seventeenth century the scarcity of labor in the American colonies led to the introduction of African Negroes as slaves. In response to the demand for slave labor on the southern plantations, the importation of Negroes increased steadily during the next century. The slave trade was nominally abolished in 1808, but Negroes continued to be brought in until the Civil War period. In September, 1862, President Lincoln proclaimed abolished both the slave trade and the institution of slavery in the United States. The legality of this act was substantiated in 1865 by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.
245. RISE OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM.—The Emancipation Proclamation, followed by the Thirteenth Amendment, conferred freedom upon four million slaves. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment made the freed Negroes citizens of the United States, and in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment enfranchised them. Largely as the result of these measures, the problem of the slave developed into the present Negro problem. The racial differences between the white and the Negro, as well as the demoralizing effects of slavery, promised to render difficult the adjustment of the Negro to American life. The situation was made more serious by the suddenness of emancipation, and by the fact that the vote was extended the Negroes before most of them were ready for it. The economic, social, and political upheaval effected in the South by the war, together with the bitterness with which many southern white men regarded the newly freed Negroes, also contributed to the difficulty of the situation. Lastly, the Negro became a problem because of the lack of a national program in his behalf.
246. NUMBERS AND DISTRIBUTION.—In 1920 the Federal census gave 10,463,131 as the Negro population of the United States. According to these figures the Negro constitutes slightly less than one tenth of our total population. Eighty-five per cent of the Negroes live in the South. In Mississippi and South Carolina the Negro exceeds the white population, while in several other southern states the Negro constitutes from one fourth to one half of the total population.
About three fourths of our Negroes live in the rural districts. There is, however, an important migratory movement which operates to decrease this percentage. There is a growing tendency for southern Negroes to leave the rural districts and to move cityward. Chiefly because of the economic attractions of urban life, many rural Negroes are moving toward the southern city; in search of social equality as well as greater economic opportunities, many southern Negroes are migrating to the cities of the North.
247. ADAPTABILITY OF THE NEGRO.—From one important angle, civilization is the process of getting along with one's environment, partly by changing that environment, and partly by adapting one's self to external conditions. An important characteristic of the Negro, not usually taken into account, is his adaptability. Ours is predominantly a white man's civilization, and we are accustomed to think of the Negro as an individual who finds it more or less difficult to fit into our way of living. And yet one reason for believing that the Negro has a capacity for modern civilization is that he has survived until the present time. Compare the Negro in this regard with the American Indian, who, despite his many noble traits, has fared poorly under the white man's civilization. The Indians of Cuba, for example, were so proud and unbending that they died out under the slavery which the early Spanish imposed upon them; the Negro, because of his teachableness and his passive strength, not only survived slavery, but has weathered freedom under very disadvantageous circumstances.
248. PROGRESS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR.—The Negro has made considerable progress since the Civil War. Many Negroes have become independent farmers and artisans, owning a considerable amount of property. Despite the backwardness of Negro schools, great progress has been made in the matter of decreasing Negro illiteracy. Whereas at the close of the Civil War some ninety per cent of the Negroes were illiterate, less than a third of our present Negro population is illiterate. In art, literature and science the Negro has already made a tolerable showing. Altogether it is likely that an able and constructive leadership is being developed among the Negroes.
249. PRESENT ECONOMIC CONDITION.—In spite of the substantial progress made since the Civil War, however, the present economic condition of the Negro is unsatisfactory. The great majority of Negroes are unskilled laborers of a shiftless disposition. Because he is frequently neither a dependable nor an efficient worker, the average Negro tends to receive low wages. The Negro is not skilled in manufacturing or mechanical lines, and he is kept out of the higher trades and professions by reason of illiteracy and social barriers. Very often the southern Negro is a tenant farmer, carelessly tilling a small plot of land and mortgaging his crop in order to secure the bare necessities of life. Large families, inadequately supported, and reared under insanitary living conditions, are characteristic of the southern Negro. The failure to save money, and the inability to protect themselves against exploitation by unscrupulous white men, are characteristic weaknesses of many Negroes.
250. PRESENT SOCIAL CONDITION.—Though decreasing steadily, Negro illiteracy is still high. This is a serious evil. Not only does illiteracy bar the Negro from the education and training of which he is in such great need, but it allows unscrupulous persons to swindle and exploit him. The Negro furnishes an abnormally large proportion of our prison population. Whether or not this is partly the result of racial characteristics, it is certain that the bad economic and social conditions surrounding Negro life lead to a high degree of criminality. In justice to the Negro it should be noted that in many communities he is apprehended and convicted more often than is the white culprit. Acts which would go unpunished or even unnoticed if committed by white men often arouse the community and lead to severe punishment when committed by Negroes. Statistics on Negro crime are also influenced by the fact that the poverty of the Negro often causes him to go to jail while the white offender escapes with a fine.
A serious evil is race mixture between Negroes and whites. This has gone on since colonial times, until at the present time probably more than half of the Negroes in the United States have some degree of white blood. Such mixtures, while probably not disastrous from the standpoint of biology, have unfortunate consequences socially. Generally the mulatto offspring are forced to remain members of the Negro group, where they are subjected to social surroundings which too often encourage disease, vice, and degeneracy. The majority of the states now have laws forbidding marriage between Negroes and whites. Both white and Negro leaders agree that race mixture ought to be stopped.
251. PRESENT POLITICAL CONDITION.—The Fifteenth Amendment declared that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Yet in many southern states the Negro is barred from the polls. In many northern cities where the Negro is allowed the ballot, his ignorance and irresponsibility make him the prey of political "bosses" who control his vote. The question of Negro suffrage will be treated later; [Footnote: See Chapter XXXIII.] here we may content ourselves with noting that the Negro's right to vote is often restricted. In the South, at least, it is also true that the Negro has but little share either in making the laws or in administering them.
252. URGENT NATURE OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM.—The Negro problem was never of more pressing importance than it is to-day. Illiteracy is still perilously high, Negro crime is becoming more serious, and the cityward tendency of the Negro is increasing his susceptibility to disease and vice. In spite of prohibitive laws, racial intermixture is continuing, and the problem of the mixed blood is becoming more and more acute. Social unrest among the masses of southern Negroes is increasing. The World War created new aims and aspirations among thousands of Negroes. New leaders are arising to preach racial equality for the Negro; old leaders are in many cases becoming more impatient with the attitude of the white population.
253. HESITANCY IN ATTACKING THE PROBLEM.—The American people have been singularly backward about grappling with the problem of fitting ten million Negro citizens into the fabric of American democracy. One explanation of this backwardness is that until recently many have believed that the Negro would die out under freedom. This expectation has not been realized, for while the Negro population is increasing less rapidly than is the white population, it is nevertheless increasing. The Negro is not dying out. Nor can he be deported to Liberia or other colonies, as was often suggested in the last century. The Negro is here to stay, and his problems must be solved.
254. NEED OF A CONSISTENT PROGRAM.—Many institutions and individuals have attacked various phases of the Negro problem with courage and success, but we are in need of a unified and comprehensive program rather than of a series of unrelated endeavors. Above all what is needed is not impassioned opinion or cure-all schemes, but rather the development of a sound and comprehensive program which shall attack the problem from a number of angles at the same time. Such a program must have a double end in view: First, the immediate needs of the Negro must be met; second, we must permit the Negro to be trained toward a position in which he will be able to play a useful and honorable role in our national life. Thus the great comprehensive purpose of this program is to help the Negro adapt himself to American life, to aid him in fitting in with our economic, social, and political institutions, and to encourage him to contribute to the development of American culture to the best of his ability.
255. EDUCATION.—Education is the most important element of any program designed to help the Negro. Ability to read and write, the habit of study, training in correct thinking, all are of such basic value that it is difficult to understand why we have so long neglected the education of the Negro. We spend three or four times as much for the education of the white child per capita as for the education of the Negro child. Negro schools are sparsely distributed; they are poorly equipped, and they are sadly hampered by lack of competent teachers. Clearly we must spend vast sums on Negro education, if we are to expect marked improvement in the Negro's social and economic condition. We cannot expect the Negro to cease being a problem until he has been trained in the fundamentals of citizenship. "The inadequate provision for the education of the Negro," says the Southern University Race Commission, "is more than an injustice to him; it is an injury to the white man. The South cannot realize its destiny if one third of its population is undeveloped and inefficient."
256. ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT.—The Negro cannot be expected to become a thrifty, responsible citizen until he is rendered capable of earning a decent living at productive work. He must acquire the habit of working steadily and efficiently under a system of free contract. This economic readjustment, many students of the Negro problem believe, will be attained largely through industrial education. We already have several excellent industrial training schools for Negroes, including Hampton and Tuskegee. The latter was made famous by Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave who devoted his life to the economic readjustment of his people.
A great deal more must be done in this direction. In spite of the excellent beginnings made at Hampton and Tuskegee, not more than one per cent of our Negroes have the privilege of industrial education. More adequate instruction is needed in methods of agriculture and stock raising, in the various crafts, and in those professions for which the Negro seems fitted. The South needs labor badly, but she cannot use her millions of Negroes effectively until they are turned into competent and dependable workers. The Negro appears to have little aptitude for mechanical work, or for mill and factory employment. Diversified agriculture on a small scale seems to be the most promising industry for him, and one in which he ought consistently to be encouraged.
257. THE NEED FOR COPERATION.—No permanent solution of the Negro's difficulties can be attained without the friendly coperation of all parties concerned. Most of our Negroes live in the South, but the Negro is no more a purely southern question than Japanese immigration is a purely Californian problem. We are one nation, and the problems of one section are the problems of the whole. The South must not be left alone, either to neglect the Negro, or to struggle with his difficulties as best she can. Generous aid must be extended her by the North, East, and West, before we can expect a solution of the Negro question.
Furthermore, there must be coperation between the leaders of the Negro and white races, otherwise energy will be wasted and inter- racial bitterness created. Very promising beginnings in this direction have recently been made in the South. Nevertheless it is to be regretted that many leaders, both white and Negro, are still prone to propose "remedies" for the Negro problem which serve their own interests, but which show little or no regard for the rights of the other group, or for the welfare of the nation.
Above all, there must be a firm resolve to work toward a fair solution, and an earnest desire to be just and humane. Hard and unpleasant facts cannot be argued away, but at least they can be treated rationally. No solution can be reached except through law and order. Neither violence nor deceit can solve this or any other problem. Race riots and lynchings are proof that those who engage in them are unfit to carry on the work of American democracy.
258. THE PROMISE OF THE NEGRO.—There is a good deal of discussion as to whether or not the Negro race is merely backward, or whether it is an inferior race. Those contending that the Negro is only backward believe that ultimately he can be fitted into the fabric of American life; those insisting that he is inferior declare that all attempts to adapt the Negro to American life will prove unavailing.
Academic discussions of this sort are not to the point. As to whether or not the Negro is backward or inferior, and as to precisely what each of these terms implies, there must always be a good deal of dispute. For practical purposes it is enough to admit that the Negro cannot now do many of the things which the average white man can do, and that in so far as this is true, the Negro is less effective as a citizen.
At the same time, it should be frankly recognized that the Negro has shown himself capable of substantial progress. It will be more appropriate to discuss the inferiority of the Negro when he has failed to react to the most comprehensive, intelligent, and consistent program which we are able to draw up. This we have not yet done, and until it is done, we shall have less cause to deny to the Negro a capacity for civilization than the Negro will have cause to complain of our unhelpful attitude toward him. So far as we now know, there is no scientific justification for believing that the masses of American Negroes cannot ultimately be trained to a useful sphere in American life.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
1. How were Negroes first introduced into this country?
2. When did the modern Negro problem come into existence?
3. What proportion of our population is Negro?
4. Where are most of our Negroes found?
5. What is meant by saying that the Negro is adaptable?
6. In what particulars has the Negro made substantial progress since the Civil War?
7. What is the present economic condition of the Negro?
8. Why is the social condition of the Negro unsatisfactory?
9. What can be said as to the present political condition of the Negro?
10. Why have we delayed the development of a comprehensive plan for meeting the needs of the Negro?
11. What is the importance of Negro education?
12. Why is the economic readjustment of the Negro important?
13. Discuss the need for coperation in meeting the Negro's problems.
14. What is the promise of the American Negro citizen?
REQUIRED READINGS
1. Williamson, Readings in American Democracy, chapter xxii.
Or all of the following:
2. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. xlix, "The Negro's Progress in Fifty Years," pages 47-58.
3. Washington, Tuskegee and its People, chapter i.
4. Williamson, Sociology of the American Negro, chapters xii, xvi, and xxvii.
QUESTIONS ON THE REQUIRED READINGS
1. Discuss the recent decrease in Negro illiteracy. (Williamson, chapter xii.)
2. What difficulty is encountered in applying mental tests to Negroes? (Williamson, chapter xii.)
3. Outline the results of mental tests of the Negro. (Williamson, chapter xii.)
4. Summarize the chief characteristics of the Negro race. (Williamson, chapter xvi.)
5. What Negro faults might be turned into virtues? (Williamson, chapter xvi.)
6. Discuss the role of the mulatto leader. (Williamson, chapter xvi.)
7. What is Tuskegee Institute? (Washington, page 19.)
8. What are the chief aims of Tuskegee Institute? (Washington, page 21.)
9. What was Booker T. Washington's concept of education? (Washington, pages 28-30.)
10. What progress in Negro education has been made since 1880? (Annals, pages 51-52.)
11. What four forces retard the economic development of the Negro in the South? (Annals, page 55.)
TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT
II
1. African background of the American Negro. (Williamson, Sociology of the American Negro, part i.)
2. Slavery. (Hart, Social and Economic Forces in American History, chapter xix; Callender, Selections from the Economic History of the United States, pages 768-793; Williamson, Sociology of the American Negro, chapter v.)
3. Gains and losses under slavery. (Williamson, Sociology of the American Negro, chapter xxiv.)
4. The Negro in business. (Atlanta University Publications, No. 4.)
5. The Negro in professional occupations. (Annals, vol. xlix, pages 10-18.)
6. The Negro as an unskilled laborer. Annals, vol. xlix, pages 19- 28.
7. The Negro as a skilled worker. (Atlanta University Publications, No. 17.)
8. The system of Negro tenancy. (Annals, vol. xlix, pages 38-46.)
9. The Negro in the city. (Wolfe, Readings in Social Problems, chapter xviii; Annals, vol. xlix, pages 105-119.)
10. The Negro family. (Atlanta University Publications, No. 13; Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, part iii, chapter iii; Annals, vol. xlix, pages 147-163.)
11. Negro organizations. (Annals, vol. xlix, pages 129-137.)
12. The Negro church. (Atlanta University Publications, No. 8; Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, part iii, chapter iii; Washington, The Story of the Negro, vol. ii, chapter xiii.)
13. The mulatto. (Williamson, Sociology of the American Negro, chapters xx, xxi, and xxii.)
14. Race relationships in the South. (Annals, vol. xlix, pages 164- 172; Storey, Problems of To-day, chapter iii.)
15. Negro education. (Annals, vol. xlix, part iv; Wolfe, Readings in Social Problems, pages 769-783; Washington, The Story of the Negro, vol. ii, chapter v; Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, part iii, chapter iv.)
16. The work of Booker T. Washington, (Washington, Up from Slavery. See also an encyclopedia.)
17. Tuskegee Institute. (Washington, Tuskegee and its People.)
18. The Negro's part in the development of the South. (Annals, vol. xxxv, pages 124-133; Washington, The Future of the American Negro.)
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FAMILY
259. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FAMILY.—From whatever angle we approach society, the family is the ultimate unit and basis. The whole fabric of civilization, whether considered from an economic, a social, or a political standpoint, depends upon the integrity of the family, and upon the wholesomeness of the home life centering about the father, mother, and children. The home is the nursery of our fundamental institutions: it is the origin of our physical and mental inheritances; it is the center of our training for private and public life; it is the moral and religious fount which nourishes the ideals and beliefs which fashion our lives and mould our character. A nation built upon decaying homes is bound to perish; a nation composed of normal prosperous families is in a good way to perpetuate itself. It is of the very greatest importance, therefore, that we inquire into the character and tendencies of the American family.
260. THE FAMILY IN THE MIDDLE AGES.—Fully to appreciate the nature of the modern family we must know something of the family as it existed in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Unity was the striking characteristic of the medieval family. Economically it was very nearly self-sufficing, that is to say, most of the food, clothing, and other necessities consumed by it were prepared by the family members. Very little in the way of education and recreation existed beyond the family circle. In religious activities the family played an important role, family worship under the leadership of the father being a common domestic function. The medieval family was stable, partly because legal and religious authority was concentrated in the hands of the father, partly because the family members were economically interdependent, and partly because the social and religious interests of the family members tended to coincide. Divorce was uncommon, and the children generally remained in the home until their majority had been attained.
261. THE FAMILY IN MODERN TIMES.—We have already seen that since the close of the Middle Ages, and especially during the last two centuries, important economic, social, and political changes have been going on in civilized society. In common with other social institutions, the family has been greatly influenced by these changes. The family which we have described as the medieval type has been either destroyed or greatly modified, and a new type is being developed. Probably this new type of family will present substantial gains over the family of the Middle Ages, nevertheless the period of transition is fraught with danger. A great problem of American democracy is to aid in the social readjustment of the family. In order that we may be competent to aid in this readjustment, let us discover in what ways the family has been modified by the economic, social, and political changes referred to above.
262. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE FAMILY.—We have examined somewhat in detail the effect of the Industrial Revolution upon our economic life; it remains to be pointed out that the same phenomenon has profoundly affected the character of our most vital social institution, the family.
Directly or indirectly, the Industrial Revolution has affected family life among all classes of the population. To some extent capitalism has given rise to a class of idle rich, living upon the proceeds of permanent investments, and resorting to extravagance and loose methods of living in order to occupy their time. This development is doubly unfortunate. In the first place it renders difficult the maintenance of normal homes among the idle rich. In the second place, the tendency of certain types of individuals to imitate and envy the idle rich encourages false standards and leads to a depraved moral sense.
To those classes which furnish the majority of our professional men, the complex division of labor has brought a serious danger. So great is the need of specialized training among these groups that marriage is often delayed until after the age of thirty. The individual is then in a better position to support a family, but often his habits are so firmly fixed that he finds it difficult to adapt himself to family life.
Even more important, perhaps, have been the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon the masses of wage earners. Men earning low wages are often unable to marry, or, if they assume that responsibility, they are unable properly to support their families. In spite of the fact that capitalism has greatly increased our material welfare, the dependence of large numbers of people upon day wages increases the hazards of family life. Industrial accidents, occupational diseases, or the interruption of earnings by strikes and unemployment,—any one of these mishaps may work a hardship upon the wage-earner's family. Poverty may induce child labor, deprive the family of proper food and other necessities, and retard the education of the children. Finally it may so emphasize the elements of strain and worry that parents are unable to give proper attention to the training of their children.
263. THE FACTORY SYSTEM AND THE HOME.—The Industrial Revolution has lessened the economic importance of the home. The typical modern family is no longer self-sufficing, but is dependent upon the factory system for many commodities formerly prepared within the home circle. Spinning, weaving, tailoring, shoe-making, soap-making, and other industries have moved out of the home and into the factory. Even the preparation of food is increasingly a function of agencies outside the home. Especially in cities there has been a steady development of restaurants, delicatessen shops, and factories engaged in the large- scale preparation of bread, canned soups, and other food products.
There is thus less work to be done in the home than formerly; at the same time the development of our industrial life has notably increased the amount of work to be done outside the home. The outcome of these two complementary forces has been that not only the father, but often the mother and the half-grown children as well, have been drawn into industry. As the result of this development, the economic interdependence of the family has been destroyed, and the way has been opened to the disintegration of the home. Social contacts between family members have decreased, while the specialized character of the individual's daily work has operated to break down the common interests which family members formerly had outside the home.
264. LACK OF PREPARATION FOR HOME-MAKING.—The factory system has rendered more difficult the preparation of our boys and girls for home-making. Where boys go out to work at an early age and are deprived of home training during the adolescent period, neither father nor mother has the opportunity properly to acquaint them with the nature and responsibilities of home-making. Girls very often are reared without adequate knowledge of cooking, sewing, and other household arts. This is due, partly to the transfer of many of the domestic functions to specialists beyond the home, and partly to the fact that where girls go into industry they spend most of their time outside the home. In the case of both boys and girls, the decreased amount of time spent in the home not only prevents proper training by the parents, but it stresses outside interests which are too often opposed to domestic ideals. Many parents either allow or encourage their children to acquire frivolous habits. As the result of all of these factors, both young men and young women frequently marry without having been properly prepared for the responsibilities of home-making.
265. DIFFICULTIES OF HOME-MAKING IN CROWDED CITIES.—With the development of manufacturing, a larger and larger proportion of our people have made their homes in large cities. To many, city life has brought increased opportunities for education and recreation, nevertheless it is difficult to maintain a normal home life in a crowded city. Urban life is highly artificial Simple and wholesome amusements are less common than expensive and injurious forms of recreation. The noise and jar of city life often result in strain and jaded nerves. The scarcity and high cost of house room is, for many city dwellers, an unavoidable evil. The poor are cramped into small, uncomfortable tenements, while even the well-to-do are frequently found in congested apartment houses. Under such circumstances, the home often becomes merely a lodging place. Social life is developed out of, rather than in, the home. For the children of the poor there is often no yard and no adequate provision for recreation. Among the rich, conditions are somewhat better, though in fashionable apartment houses children are frequently objected to by neighboring tenants or banned by landlords.
266. ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE OF WOMEN.—Until very recently a married woman was economically dependent upon her husband. But one of the effects of the Industrial Revolution has been to make many women economically independent. Women are entering the industrial field with great rapidity, and their presence there is now taken as a matter of course. Many women now avoid marriage, partly because domestic interests fail to attract them, and partly because they have become genuinely interested in industry. Where domesticity is the ultimate aim, many women delay marriage because self-support renders them both able and desirous of retaining their independence for a considerable period.
Domestic tranquillity is sometimes disturbed by the fact that wives were formerly self-supporting girls. In most cases wives are dependent upon their husbands in money matters, a situation which is apt to irritate women who were formerly self-supporting. The husband is often inclined to rate the generalized character of housework as being of less importance than his own highly specialized work. The wife's irritation at this may be increased by the fact that often she, too, believes that her domestic duties are less dignified and less valuable than her former work.
Not only has the former independence of the wife made her less tolerant of domestic wrongs and slights, but the realization that she can support herself, frequently encourages her to seek a divorce. The temptation to take this step is increased by the fact that public opinion now rarely frowns upon a divorced woman. This is in striking contrast to the situation two hundred years ago, when most divorced women were not only unable to support themselves, but were socially ostracized.
267. POLITICAL EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN.—Until very recently women have been legally and politically subordinate to men. As recently as a century ago women in the leading countries of the world were allowed neither to vote, nor to contract debts in their own name, nor to hold or will property. |
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