NDENT

The neighborliness and hospitality of farmers is proverbial in every
land and clime. Throughout much of the old world where farmers still
live in village communities the poverty or distress of any family is at
once apparent and the more fortunate members of the village in one way
or another give such assistance as is possible. The more primitive the
people the more binding is this obligation for mutual aid, and one
cannot but feel that our so-called advanced civilization has failed to
develop as keen a sense of responsibility for the unfortunate. In rural
America this is possibly due to the fact that our farms are scattered
and the condition of needy families may not be noticed. The average
rural community will usually inform an inquirer that it has practically
no poverty and no need of a social worker. Yet investigation will almost
always show that tucked away in some hollow, back on some hill, or even
huddled near the outskirts of the village are a few unfortunate
families, of whose needs the community is unaware. These families, for
one reason or another are "disadvantaged," they do not commonly
associate with others, they may be foreigners, or in some way they are
"queer" and are more or less avoided, or possibly they are merely
isolated and so are unknown. From the standpoint of the social welfare
of the community such families, or individuals, have been called the
"unadjusted"; they do not mix freely and are not up to the local
standards of life. In short, such families or individuals are abnormal,
and are a social liability of the community.

These "disadvantaged" or "unadjusted" people may be roughly grouped into
four classes: the dependent, the defective, the delinquent, and the
neglected. In one sense they may all be called the "community's
dependent," for they all require some sort of assistance from the
community if their relationship to it is to be satisfactorily adjusted.

_Poverty._--In a narrower sense the "dependent" are the poor; those who
are unable to support themselves and who must be aided by the community
if they are to exist. If this condition becomes chronic they are
paupers; but in most cases their dependency is temporary and has been
due to some unusual drain on the family's resources, such as, sickness,
fire, crop failure, or inability to secure employment. There is a very
natural aversion on the part of the latter class against becoming
stigmatized as paupers and of having to secu