Questions on the foregoing Readings 1. Name an important influence which has helped to disintegrate the family. 2. Explain what is meant by the statement that formerly family was the economic unit of society." 3 What is the relation of urban development to the family? "the 4. What is the significance of the fact that within recent times household cares have lightened? 5. What is the relation of the house to the home? 6. Outline the Des Moines housing program with respect to standardized housing. 7. What is the advantage of a state housing law, instead of numerous city ordinances on housing? 8. What is meant by center renovation? 9. What is the importance of community coöperation in housing reform? 10. State the family problem with reference to subnormal living II conditions. When and where did the mothers' pension movement begin in the 12. Summarize the mothers' pension laws of the United States with reference to the type of persons who may receive aid. 13. Under what conditions may aid be received? 14. Compare mothers' pension laws in the various states with reference to the age of a child on whose account aid is allowed. 15. Compare the various states legislating on mothers' pensions with regard to the amount of the allowance. 16. By what body was a uniform divorce law proposed in 1906? 17. Summarize the proposed law with reference to the causes for which a marriage might be annulled. 18. What two types of divorce did the law cover? 19. Give some of the important causes which might be grounds for either type of divorce. 20. What did the proposed law have to say concerning evidence? 21. What different types of decrees did the law provide for? 22. What is the fundamental aim of education for home-making? 23. Summarize a state program of education for the home. 24. What factors render important the attitude of young people toward marriage? 25. What, according to Dr. Calkins, is the arch-enemy of the family? CHAPTER XXIV DEPENDENCY: ITS RELIEF AND PREVENTION 1 139. Instability of the urban neighborhood 1 tion to ur ban life. An ever-present problem in American social life is the care and Dependency treatment of those individuals who are dependent for the necessities in its relaof life upon persons or agencies outside their immediate families. The problem of the destitute, the sick, the mentally defective, and the otherwise dependent, is met with in every type of community, but on a particularly large scale in our great cities. The rapid development of industrial cities, and the evils of unregulated neighborhood growth in urban districts, have combined to accentuate the problem of dependency in the city. Dependency is also related to the mobility of the urban neighborhood, as Mr. McKenzie points out in the following selection: of-modern life, That the mobility of modern life is intimately connected with The mobility many of our social problems there is general consensus of opinion. Assuming that a reasonable amount of mobility is both inevitable and desirable, nevertheless it is unquestionably true that the excessive population movements of modern times are fraught with many serious consequences. ous effect. Perhaps the most obvious effect of the mobility of the population and its within a city is the striking instability of local life. Neighborhoods most obviare in a constant process of change; some improving, others deteriorating. Changes in incomes and rents are almost immediately registered in change of family domicile. Strengthened economic status usually implies the movement of a family from a poorer to a better neighborhood, while weakened economic status means that the family must retire to a cheaper district. So in every city we have two general types of neighborhood; the one whose inhabitants have 1 From the American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XXVII, No. 2, September, 1921. (R. D. McKenzie, "The Neighborhood," etc.); pp. 157-159, 161–162, 167. Mobility of population handicaps the social worker. Social causes of intercommunity migration. Chief cause of migration among wageearners. Mobility within the community. located there on the basis of personal choice, and the other whose inhabitants have located there as the result of economic compulsion. The former . . . contains the possibilities for the development of neighborhood sentiment and organization, while the latter lacks the necessary elements for reconstruction. . . . [Mobility of population gives rise to problems which are the concern of social workers.] Organizations dealing with delinquency and dependency are hampered in their efforts by the frequent movements of their "cases." Similarly the church, trade union, and other voluntary forms of association lose in their efficiency through the rapid turnover of the local membership lists. . . . [It is important to notice the social causes of intercommunity migration.] The sudden change from a predominantly agricultural to a predominantly industrial society has occasioned a mobility of life unknown before. As long as the soil furnished the chief basis of economic income man was obliged to live a comparatively stable life in a fixed and definite locality. With the development of the modern capitalistic régime, the presence of the individual is no longer necessary to insure the productivity and security of his property. . . He is thus left free to live, if he so desires, a nomad life. Of course all classes in society are not equally free to move about. The middleclass tradesman and many of the professional groups are more or less tied to definite localities by the very nature of their work. On the other hand, the well-to-do and the day-laborer are free to move almost at will. Our modern factory system is the chief cause of the present migratory tendencies of the wage-earning class. . . . "Seasonal or intermittent occupations, temporary jobs, commercial depressions, occasional unemployment, and a general sense of the lack of permanency in the tenure of their industrial positions, pull settled families up by the roots and seldom leave them long enough in one place to take root again. Our manual workers are more and more transient. Many among them are forced to become tramping families." Moreover, change of residence from one section to another within the community is quite as disturbing to neighborhood assocation as is movement from one community to another. . . . Again, there is a type of mobility that is not indicated by change of residence, but which is almost as significant from the standpoint Another of neighborhood life. This is measured by the ability of the indi- type of mobility. vidual, due to modern methods of communication, to utilize the larger social environment afforded by the community as a whole. The automobile, street car, telephone, and press, together with the increased leisure time, have all contributed greatly to the breakdown of neighborhood ties. 140. The diagnosis of dependency 1 plex nature of dependency ne cessitates careful Social workers who come into intimate contact with the dependent The comclasses are obliged constantly to recognize the fact that in the majority of cases dependency exists, not as the result of a single influence, but because of a number of causes. These causes, sometimes conveniently classified as economic, social, political or personal, generally diagnosis. interlock with one another in a most baffling way. In view of this complexity, a case of dependency demands careful and detailed diagnosis, if the dependent individual or family is to be helped back to normal life. In the following extract from a report of the Detroit Associated Charities are two typical cases, and, in each instance, the diagnosis of the causes of dependency: CASE NO. 376 The family consists of father, age 34; mother, age 30, and five A family is children ranging in ages from 3 to 10 years. The case first became known to the United Jewish Charities in 1910, to whom the family had been sent by . . . an organization which assists immigrant families to move from the congested districts of New York City to the interior of the country. Upon arriving in Detroit the family was given financial aid for a period of one month, and the man was placed in employment. helped to move to Detroit. In November, 1911, the family again applied to the United Jewish New diffiCharities because of economic need. The man was unemployed and culties. the woman ill. Payment of rent and emergency relief was asked for and granted. A stove was also given the family. Failing to find work, the man became dissatisfied, and the family returned of its own accord to New York City. 1 From the Detroit Associated Charities, Trouble Cases. Detroit, Mich., 1919; pp. 18-19, 32-33. Relief again received. Case comment and diagnosis. Another case: Family des- Further trouble. Transporta In May, 1912, the family again returned to Detroit on its own volition. There is no record of aid being given to this family until April, 1913, when the man was sent to the hospital. Relief was given to the family by the United Jewish Charities and the woman was supplied with free medical service during maternity. . . Case Comment: Cases of this type reveal chiefly economic problems that are fairly numerous. . . . The work of the agencies on the case appears to have been helpful and gradually the family seems to have attained self-support. Diagnosis: Attempt to improve condition by removal from congested eastern city, followed by unemployment, and insufficient income for health needs. ... CASE NO. 821 On the last day of 1915 the L. family came to the attention of the Poor Commission. One week previously, this American family, consisting of father, age 35, mother 30, and six children, from 1 to 12 years, had left the farm owned by the man's father because it was too small to furnish adequate support to both families, and had come to this city to live with the woman's mother, a widow, who was herself receiving relief from the Poor Commission. . . . When the investigator for the Poor Commission found the family, ten of them were living in one room, and the father, who had spent his working life on a farm . . . had not as yet been able to find employment. The owner of the house in which they were living was complaining bitterly of the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. The Poor Commission gave emergency relief, provisions and fuel, and obtained employment for the man. Two weeks later the man was again out of work; the family was destitute, and applied to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. This society investigated and found the family destitute and the youngest child ill with diphtheria. The child was sent to the [hospital]. . . Because of the unsanitary conditions of the household, the family were referred to the Visiting Housekeeper Association for instruction. . . . During the second employment period of the man it seemed possible tion refused. that the family might become chronically dependent, and they were |