han, that it would be very hard to
imagine a more conservative body, less inoculated with the virus of
Socialism than that. From their report to the Conference I note that
the Committee reported that as a result of their work, after going
carefully into the expenditure of some 322 families, they had come to
the conclusion that the lowest amount upon which a family of five
could be supported in decency and health in New York City was about
eight hundred dollars a year. I am quite sure, Jonathan, that there is
not one of the members of that Committee who would think that even
that sum would be enough to keep _their_ families in health and
decency; not one who would want to see their children living under the
best conditions which that sum made possible. They were
philanthropists you see, Jonathan, "figuring out" how much the "Poor"
ought to be able to live on. And to help them out they got Professor
Chapin, of Beloit College and Professor Underhill, of Yale. Professor
Underhill being an expert physiological chemist, could advise them as
to the sufficiency of the expenditures upon food among the families
reported.

But the total income of thousands of families falls very short of
eight hundred dollars a year. There are many thousands of families in
which the breadwinner does not earn more than ten dollars a week at
best. Making allowance for time lost through sickness, holidays, and
so on, it is evident that the total income of such families would not
exceed four hundred and fifty dollars a year at best. Even the worker
with twenty dollars a week, if there is a brief period of sickness or
unemployment, will find himself, despite his best efforts, on the
wrong side of the line, compelled either to see his family suffer want
or to become dependent on "that cold thing called Charity." And Dr.
Devine, writing in _Charities and the Commons_, admits that the
charitable societies cannot hope to make up the deficit, to add to the
wages of the workers enough to raise their standards of living to the
point of efficiency. He admits that "such a policy would tend to
financial bankruptcy."

Taking the unskilled workers in New York City, the vast army of
laborers, it is certain that they do not average $400 a year, so that
they are, as a class, hopelessly, miserably poor. It is true that many
of them spend part of their miserable wages on drink, but if they did
not, they would still be poor; if every cent went to buy the
necessities