APPALLING COST
OF CRIME, VICE
AND PAUPERISM
Six Billions of Dollars a Year,
According to Prof. Bush
nell, While Our Annual In
crease of Wealth Aggre
gates Only Five Billions—
And He Gives the Figures.
INSANITY EVER
ON THE INCREASE
Five Million Paupers and De
pendent Afflicted-Crooks
of Various Kinds, Not In
cluding Political Grafters,
Cost Us $200,000,000
Annually.
Washington.—When Prof. Charles
3. Bushnell, Ph. D., of this city, made
his recent statement that the Ameri
can public was on the verge of bank
ruptcy because it expended $G,000,000,
000 a year on the criminal, pauper and
vicious classes, while the annual in
crease of wealth aggregated only
15,000,000,000, he called down upon
his head a storm of adverse criti
cism. But Prof. Bushnell is not to be
frightened from his line of attack on
what he calls the social ills of the
country through adverse criticism, and
he reiterates the accuracy of his fig
ures and the logic of his conclusions.
“It was to be expected,’’ he said,
“that some of my statements would
arouse incredulity in the minds of
those who do not realize the public
ignorance and widespread unfortunate
concealment of facts vital to the wel
fare and happiness of the whole peo
ple. Any honest, faithful study of the
authorities and sources to which I re
fer will convince the most skeptical
that my statements are surely in the
main sound and even conservative.”
Lose More Than We Gain.
Dr. Bushnell submitted a set of
tables upon which his arguments are !
based. These are the figures, he says,
which show positively that the nation
is drifting into bankruptcy:
“If,” said Dr. Bushnell. “we com- !
pare Table B with Table A it appears
that as a nation we are losing more
wealth every year through distress- j
lng conditions of social disorder than
we are annually saving. This is the
main conspicuous fact of the situation.
By unscientifically disjoined and bel
ligerent methods of business and at
tendant vicious social habits we are
producing as a nation less than half
of what we ought now to be producing i
with our present methods of scientific j
technology. Surely this is too great
a price to pay for our vaunted com
mercial supremacy.
Poverty on the Increase.
“Ten millions of our people, one
eighth of the population, are now con
stantly in such poverty that they are
unable to maintain themselves in
physical efficiency; and 4,000,000 of
them are public paupers. In 1S99. one
cf our prosperous years, 18 per cent., j
or nearly one-fifth of all the people
of New York state, had to apply for
charitable relief; in 1903 14 per cent,
of all the families of Manhattan were
evicted, and every year about ten per
cent, of all who die there have pauper
burials. The average wage of un
skilled workmen throughout the coun
try is less than the scientific,minimum
necessary for maintaining the average
workingman’s family in physical ef
ficiency.
The last three tinted States cen-1
suses, also, show that the insane in 1
this country have increased faster f
than the population. We now have in
the United States in continuous char
itable care probably 5,000,000 abnor
mal dependents, including paupers, in
sane, blind, deaf and dumb, indigent
and discouraged—representing a dead
loss to the nation every year equal to
the total wealth we have invested in
all the colleges, universities and tech
nological schools of the whole country.
If we could abolish this one item of
abnormal expense we could double
the facilities of all our institutions of
higher education every year, and do it
with no extra effort at all.
Industrial Accidents.
'•One large source of this abnormal
dependence is our vact aggregate of j
unnecessary industrial accidents. Few
people begin to realize our annual na
tional loss from this source. At a con
servative figure 1,000.000 workers in
the United States every year are killed
or injured in industry by accidents, of
which three-quarters are proven by
European experience to be wholly un
necessary. and which cost the nation
annually in lost earning capacity and
damage suits at the lowest estimate
an amount equal to the whole wage
income of all the mine workers or all
the farm laborers of the entire cotin
thy. Joslah Strong says the least pos
sible estimate of our annual industrial
casualties is about 650,000.
“Taking the fact at this lowest fig
ure it appears that in our present in
dustrial warfare we are killing and
injuring more people every year than
all the average annual casualties of
our civil war, our Philippine war and
the Rtisslan-Japanese war combined.
Think of our carrying on three such
tm
wars at the same time and all the
time against innocent humanity. If
all these casualties were every year
condensed into one day, or even into a
week, we would soon put a stop to
them, but because they are diffused
in time and spaed' we stupidly and
criminally allow them to go on.
“The vast majority of these acci
dents occur among the working
classes, and European statistics show
that among these classes 90 per cent,
of all accidents cause the families of
the injured to be thrown upon public
charity. Soldiers suffer because they
are professional destroyers, but the
members of this great industrial army
are struck down every year in this
country because they are producers.
This is the price they have to pay for
the privilege of earning their bread
and serving civilization.
Crime and Vice.
“With the growing industrial disor
der is associated a startling recent in
crease in crime and vice. Suicides
have increased in the 19 years from
1885 to 1908 more than five times as
fast as the population. Murders and
homicides in the 20 years between
1885 and 190-1 have increased more
than three times as fast as the popu
lation. Even making allowance for the
greater fulness of recent records,
nearly 9,000 suicides and 900 murders
occurring in 1901, and 10,000 in 1906
is not a good record. Their growth
has been almost steady, showing it is
not the resultant of accidental causes,
but of some sinister evil in the nation,
which is steadily working increasing
wrong.
“Of professional criminals, such as
burglars, footpads, gamblers and other
crooks, there are now known and es
limated to be some 300,000 in the
country, getting an average income
each of perhaps $1,500 a year, and
causing an additional national expense
'or police protection, to say nothing of
extra expense for locks, safes, alarms,
etc., of $2,000,000 more, making a
cotal annual loss to the nation from
:his source, more than counterbalanc
ng the value of all our annual ex
ports of manufactures, or nearly equal
o the annual running expenses of all
cur churches, benevolent institutions,
niblic schools, institutions of higher
education and home missions of every
mid.
Political Grafters.
“Of unprofessional crime in busi
less and politics, in the form of
graft,- it is impossible to make an
of the strike than in former years.
Last year the unions met with un
usual defeat in the case of many of
their larger strikes. This is due to
three causes—growing organization of
the employers in opposition to the
unions, the use of the injunction and
union liability rulings by the courts,
and the disapproval of open violence
and industrial disorder by the public.
By these means some foolishly think
the unions are now finished. But the
end is not yet. Defeated by financial
means, they are turning rapidly into
politics, mainly toward the radical
party, where their numbers ultimately
must cause their voice to be heeded
and their righteous demands to be
granted.”
Churcifts Criticised.
After proving by statistics that re
ligious conditions in the country are
not so good as formerly Dr. Bushnell
said:
“'The reason of the present failure
of the churches is twofold—their
methods are antiquated and their
spirit is commercialized. The world
has become collective and longs for
true comradeship, while the churches
have remained individualistic and
have become timid and calculating.
The world needs not prayers and
profits so much as justice and devoted
service. The tragic lack of security and
the community of life characteristic of
our times is reflected not only in the
infidelity of the churches but in the
growing infidelity in the homes of the
land. Fifty years ago, taking • the
country as a whole, there was not an
average of one divorce in 50 mar
riages. To-day there is an average of
one divorce in abcut every ten mar
riages. During the ten years from
1S95 to 1905 the number of absolute
divorces granted more than quad
rupled in Manhattan and the Bronx, in
New York city; and pearly or more
than doubled in Cbiicago, Philadel
phia, Boston, Detroit and Omaha, ag
gregating in those six cities alone
more than 36,000. Cleveland, O., has
one divorce in evert five marriages,
and there are many other sections of
the country in as bad condition.
Situation Summed Up.
“To sum it all up. the wealth repre
sented in two-thirds of our total an
nual loss from abnormal conditions
would pay off all our federal, state,
county, municipal and public school
debts, the running expenses of all our
railroads, the annual Income of all the
PROF. EUSHNELL'S TABLE SHOWING THAT MORE IS GOING OUT
THAN IS COMING IN.
Table A.—Gains and Assets of Facts of Prosperity in 1906.
I. ITEMS OF CAPITAL.
1. Total National wealth.
2. Total Increase In national wealth.
3. Wealth in ail farm property.
4. Wealth in all manufacturing establishments.
5. Wealth in all railroads.
8. Wealth in all mines...
7. Wealth in all public schools.
S. Wealth In all universities, colleges and technologit
II. VALUE OF PRODUCTS
9. Value of farm products.
10. Value tif factory products..
11. Value of mine products..
13. Value of agricultural exports.
13. Value of manufactured exports.
III. OPERATING EXPENDITURES.
14 The Federal Government.
15. Farms .
16. Factories .
17. Railroads .
is. Mines .
19. Public schools .
30. Universities, colleges, technological schools.
31. Churches ...
■22. Home missions. Y. M. C. A. and Salvation Army.
23. Benevolent institutions .
IV. INCOMES OF NORMAL CLASSES.
24. Wages of factory employes and operatives.
25. Wages of railroad employes (not salaried men).
26. Wages of farm laborers.
27. Wages of mine workers..
2S. Salaries of public school teachers...
29. Average annual wage of factory operatives.
30. Average annual salary of public school teachers.
31. Average annual salary of college teachers..:.
Table B.— Losses and Liabilities of Facts of Adversity in 1906.
I. ADVERSE CONDITIONS OF WEALTH.
1. Total wealth of one per cent, of families of U. S. $70,000,000,000
3. Average wealth of one per cent, of families of IT. S. 450,000
3. Total wealth of 0.3 per cent, of families of 1". S. 2S.OOO.OOO,(too
4. Average wealth of 0.3 pe r cent, of families of U. S. 600,000
5. Ave rage wealth of S7Vi per cent, of families of S. 1,000
Average wealth of 50 per cent, of families of It S.. 175
7. Mortgaged inelebtedness of farms c>f U. S. 1.000,000,000
8. Total public indebtedness of the U. S.^... 3,000,000,000
II. LOSSES OF SOCIAL CONFLICTS.
9. Iniuries in industry. 400,000,000
10. Strike's and lockouts. 100,000.000
11. Slack employment . 400,000,000
12. Excessive, competition . 1,000,009,000
13. Divorce, suicide, child labor, under nutrition, harmful drugs and
adulterated food . 1.100,006,000
14. Preventable illness .:. 1,000,000,000
III. INCOMES OF ABNORMAL CLASSES.
15. Abnormal dependents . 500.000.000
1(1. Prostitution iboth professional and otherwise). 700,000,000
17. Intoxicating li<iuor business. 1,500.000.000
18. Professional crime . 850,000.000
19. Unprofesional crime (graft). 1.200,000,000
Total of tables TI. anil III. $S,550,000.000
20. Average annual income of professional criminals. 1.500
21. Average annual income of professional prostitutes. 1,200
22. Average annual income of saloonkeepeTS. 2.000
T \r onntiul notle-.no! (UW,
5G9.000.000
1.500, IKK), 000
14,000,000,000
1.500.000.000
800,000,000
300.000. 000
50.000. 000
224.000. 000
15.000. 000
00,000,000
2,700.000,000
700.000. 000
400.000. 000
400.000. 000
175.000. 000
440
400
1,2C0
.$114,000,000,000
. 5,000.000.000
. 28,000.000,000
. 14.000.000.000
. 14.000,000,000
. 5,000.000,000
. 750,000.000
schools. 500,000,000
.. 7,000,000.000
. 17.000,000,000
. 1,400,000,000
969.000. 000
603.000. 000
accurate estimate, but the annual na
tional loss from that source must be at
least twice that from professional
crime. This class consists of an
oligarchy composed of three classes—
saloonkeepers, gamblers and others
who engage in business that degrades;
contractors, capitalists, bankers and
others who can make money by get
ting franchises and other property of
the community cheaper -by bribery
than by paying the community; poli
ticians who are willing to seek and ac
cept ofKce with the aid and indorse
ment of the classes already mentioned.
These three classes combine and get
control of the party machine, nomi
nate and elect men whd will agree to
help them rob the city and state for
the benefit of themselves, and who
will agree, also, not to enforce fthe
laws in regard to the various busi
nesses that degrade a community.”
Strike Weapon Ineffective.
After reviewing the labor conditions
of the country and their resultant
strikes and lockouts, costing in 1903,
Ilr. Bushnell says. $55,000,000 in loss
of wages and profits, he continues:
“Heroic, though often misguided, as
have been the industrial struggles of
the labor unions for better wages and
living conditions, they are beginning
to be less successful with the methods
------!
benevolent, religious and educational
institutions in the country.
"This enormous annual loss we are
sustaining and maintaining by a lack
of national foresight and of conscious
collective supervision that fosters the
grossest and most serious public in
jury by the unjust distribution of in
comes among the different social
classes—the average income, for ex
ample. of professional criminals being
more than three times that of honest
factory wagSb earners; the average in
come of prostitutes three times that
of public school teachers, and the
average income of saloonkeepers more
than 50 per cent, greater than that of
college teachers."
Tn addition to his own researches
Prof. Bushnell cites 67 different pri
vate and government publications as
authorities for the figures he gives
and the conclusions reached. He chal
lenges anyone to disprove a statemen'
he has made regarding the subject of
the cost of pauperism, vice and jiime,
or the causes producing the strrUinJ!
array of facts he displays.
Humanity’s Ingratitude.
Life gives us so many beautiful,
wonderful joys and , rewards, it’s
strange we cannot more bravely bear
the little ills and burdens.
MAN AND THE BETTING GAME.
He Who “Plays a System” at the Race
Track Certain to Quit Loser.
Here Is an interesting letter:
“I play the nags once In awhile. I
think I have a pretty fair system and
was just thinking of trying it when
I ran across an article which caused
me to hesitate. If a man sticks to his
system, has control of himself and is
not a hog, but satisfied with a modest
wager, is there ho chance of success?
Do you think it impossible to win by
a system? Is there any reason why
a man cannot keep decent and still
play the game?”
Ever since Diomed won the first
derby in England system after sys
tem has been devised for “beating the
races.” No system—not a single one
—has ever succeeded in the long run.
It has been figured out that there are
27 chances to one against you always
in a field of ten horses. The best sys
tem ever known is at the mercy of the
betting ring. There are not bookmak
ers enough in the United States to lay
against a system. Several years ago
a man started with a five-doilar bet,
doubled it after each loss and re
turned to the original five dollars after
each winning. For awhile he pros
pered amazingly, playing nothing but
the favorite, but in the end he went
broke.
If a man with a system could bet
against the United States treasury he
could win. At Sheepshead Bay 14
favorites lost in succession. The fif
teenth started at odds of three to one
and was an easy winner. Now, fig
ure out the predicament of the man
with the system. Starting with five
dollars and doubling after each loss
he found it necessary to go into the
ring and bet the sum of $81,920. He
stood then a loser of $81,945. If he
could have Ijet on the fifteenth favor
ite he would have had at issue over
$163,000. Now, anybody who know's
the betting ring knows that it would
be utterly impossible for a dozen Joe
Vendigs to place practically $82,000 at
three to one. But—if it could have
been placed the system man would
have won^5246,000.
* Callousness to Soldiers.
A painful case of what looks almost
like needless hardship inflicted by a
French colonel of cavalry on the men
under his command is reported from
Melan. The Eighteenth dragoons
from Melan had been ordered to join
the Seventh dragoons from Fontaine
bleau by a night march, and left at
2:30 a. m. Both regiments arrived
about four a. m., but in a very dif
ferent condition. The Seventh dra
goons had ridden in their great cloaks,
and were comfortable enough; but
the Eighteenth, by the colonel's or
ders, had ridden without their cloaks,
and three men fell from their horses
struck by congestion; two others, too
benumbed to stand, after dismount
ing, leaned against their horses and
received kicks which fractured limbs,
whille quite a considerable number of
men had to be sent to the hospital in
a condition which, without being seri
ous, necessitated rest and treatment.
Baby Rules a Street.
One of the curiosities of downtown
streets is a baby in swaddling clothes,
says the New York Times. An infant
of tender age appeared on Nassau
street the other day in the arms of its
nurse. It attracted no end of atten
tion, men and women of all ages and
all conditions of life turning to look
at it. In the opinion of everybody, ex
cept the immediate relatives, it was a
very ordinary baby; it was the mere
fact that it was a baby and was tak
ing an airing in business streets that
made it an object of general interest.
Babies, no doubt, are so thick in the
home neighborhoods of some of those
people who turned to stare that it is
hard to walk without falling over one
or more of them; yet so seldom is a
baby seen in downtown streets that
its occasional presence there is cause
for general wonderment.
One Advantage of a Club.
"They told me it would be a great
advantage to join this club,” he said,
as he tore open an envelope. "This
is- the advantage it has been to me:
It has circulated my name among all
the grafters in the city, printed as it
is in the year book among the mem
bers. My mail is flooded with letters
from some institution or other, beg
ging for funds. I wish I never had
heard of the old club," he said, as he
flung the shreds into the wastepaper
basket.
"But," she objected, “when you kick
the bucket, won't your name be encir
cled by a nice black line among the
list of the deceased members in the
year book? That’s why I belong to
my club and pay my dues.”
The Greatest of All Joys.
The serene days pass by and leave
little mark on mind and character,
but the days of storm and struggle
mold a man's life alike in the artificial
combats of sport and' in the actual
strife of living. Conquest over diffi
culty and danger is the greatest of all
Joys. A man does not need to be a
mountain-climber to learn the lesson.
It is the lesson of life.—Sir Martin
Conway, in the Strand Magazine.
Hint to Mother Nature.
“Natuah is a good Mothah,” said
the Kentucky colonel. “She supplies
eve'y deficiency that is lackin' in the
human frame. ’S soon as enything is
needed she's right theah with it ready
in her ban'. It won't be long now,
I'm thinkin', befor' she'l be supplyin'
of us with eyes in the backs of ouah
haids. so's we kin see when these
beak automobiles is cornin'.”
I
c
'
Ho Doubt About It.
Kind Father—My dear, if you want
a good husband, you just marry Mr.
Goodboy. I am quite sure 'that he is
really devoted to you.
The Girl—I am truly glad to hear
you say so, papa. But are you quite,
quite sure?
Kind Father—Positive, my love, pos
itive. I've been borrowing money of
him for six months, and he still keeps
coming here, so it’s all right, it’s all
right. He loves you!
The Size of Him.
“Yes,” snarled the eminent Octo
pus who had just had returned to him
what Shakespeare sarcastically called
“trash.” “This is my purse, and the
contents, $1,143.09, are intact; but it
is three days, seven hours and nine
teen minutes since I lost it. Where
is my interest, young man; where is
my interest?”—Puck.
Try It Once.
There is more actual misery and
less real danger in a case of itching,
skin disease, than any other ailment.
Hunt’s Cure is manufactured especial
ly for these cases. It relieves instant
ly and cures promptly. Absolutely
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An Early Discovery.
“Your epigrams and adages show
great wisdom,” said the dependent.
“Yes,” answered Marcus Aurelius.
“I can’s deny that I regard them as
something very wise indeed. There
is nothing like them for popularizing
an administration.”
Lucky, Then.
Mrs. Benham—I got it for 13
cents a yard.
Benham—Isn't 13 an unlucky num
ber?
Mrs. Benham—Not when it is
marked down from 14.
Father’s Way.
“What’s Jim crying about?”
“He got a licking.”
"But I thought he padded himself
with straw.”
“He did, but his father beat about
the bush.”
A Wife’s Letter.
“My darling George, I have received
your nice letter, and I hope you will
send me a check by return. You
wouldn’t believe it, dearie, but for the
life of me I can't think of anything
else to write about!”
He that well and rightly consider
Dth his own works will find little cause
to judge harshly of another.—Thomas
k. Kempis.
_
Most of our sweetest comforts grow
up between crosses.—Young.
Nothing to Wear.
Bonham—He is a very Rpnpr^
fellow. Every time he meets am nf
the boys he says: “Come and have
something; everything is on me"
Mrs. Benham—That’s the
there’s nothing on his wife.
reason
MALARIA
is I1M
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We cannot educate them fast enough.
LET US TEACH YOU STENOGRAPHY AND BOOKKEEPING
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amounts to. Can you afford to deny yourself this chance at success?
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