d. Mr. Riis has shown that about one
third of the people of New York City were dependent upon charity at
some time during the eight years previous to 1890. The report of the
United Hebrew Charities for 1901 shows similar conditions existing among
the Jewish population of New York. Pauperism is a peril, and poverty is
a source of apathy and despair. The unskilled immigrant tends to
increase the poverty by creating a surplus of cheap labor, and also
falls under the blight of the evil he increases.

[Sidenote: Pauperism and Immigration]

Treating of this subject, the Charities Association of Boston reports
that it is hopeless to attempt to relieve pauperism so long as its ranks
are increased by the great hosts coming into the country, with only a
few dollars to depend upon, and no certain work. The statistics of the
public almshouses show that the proportion of foreign-born is greatly in
excess of the native-born. The pathetic feature of this condition is
that what is wanted is not charity but employment at living wages.
Greatly is it to the credit of the immigrants from southeastern Europe
that they are eager for work and reluctant to accept charity. The danger
is that, if allowed to come and then left without opportunity to work,
they will of necessity fall into the careless, shiftless, vicious class,
already so large and dangerous.

[Sidenote: Peril of the "Great White Plague"]

The immigrants in the city tenements are especially exposed to
consumption, that "Great White Plague" which yearly kills its tens of
thousands. In New York City alone ten thousand die annually of
tuberculosis; and this is the result largely of tenement conditions.
Statisticians estimate that the annual money loss in the United States
from tuberculosis, counting the cost of nursing, food, medicines, and
attendance, as well as the loss of productive labor, is $330,000,000.
Mr. Hunter instances a case where an entire family was wiped out by this
disease within two years and a half. In spite of his efforts to get the
father, who was the first one infected with the disease, to go to a
hospital, he refused, saying that as he had to die, he was going to die
with his family. The Health Board said it had no authority forcibly to
compel the man to go to a hospital; and the result was that the whole
family died with him. This plague "is the result of our weakness, our
ignorance, our selfishness, and our vices; there is no need of its
existence, and it