than others, and maintain an existence on or just above the
poverty line--these are technically the poor. Charles Booth defines
the poor as those "living in a state of struggle to obtain the
necessaries of life." A few cease to struggle at all and, if they
continue to live, manage it only by living on permanent charity--these
are the paupers. This is a distinction that is carefully made by
sociologists and is always convenient.

It is difficult to estimate the extent of poverty with any accuracy,
but a few estimates of skilled observers indicate its wide extent.
Charles Booth thought that thirty per cent of the people of London
were on or below the poverty line. Robert Hunter has declared that in
1899 eighteen per cent of the people in New York State received aid,
and that ten per cent of those who died in Manhattan received pauper
burial. Alongside these statements are the various estimates of 80,000
persons in almshouses in the United States, 3,000,000 receiving public
or private aid, with a total annual expense of $200,000,000. The
number of those who have small resources in reserve are many times as
great, but industrious, frugal, and self-respecting, they manage to
take care of themselves.

281. =Causes of Poverty.=--It is still more difficult to speak exactly
of the relative importance of the causes of poverty. Investigation of
hundreds of cases in certain localities makes it plain that poverty
comes through a combination of several factors, including personal
incompetence or misconduct, misfortune, and the effects of
environment. In Boston out of one thousand cases investigated
twenty-five years ago (1890-91), twenty per cent was due to drink, a
figure nearly twice as much as the average found in other large
cities; nine per cent more was due to such misconduct as
shiftlessness, crime, and vagrancy; while seventy per cent was owing
to misfortune, including defective employment and sickness or death in
the family. Five thousand families investigated at another time in New
York City showed that physical disability was present in three out of
four families, and unemployment was responsible in two out of three
cases. In nearly half the families there was found defect of
character, and in a third of the cases there was widowhood or
desertion or overcrowding. Added to these were old-age incapacity,
large families, and ill adjustment to environment due to recent
arrival in the city.

Taking these as fair samples, it