been secured, it is willing to take action and institute reforms at whatever cost, provided the result is for the distinct and unquestionable benefit of the mass of mankind.

There is an essential difference which marks and limits the field of social statistics, and that is that the most important data have to be secured by private enterprise for a large variety of purposes, while economic statistics are properly a matter of government concern. There is a natural and proper limit upon government inquiries into the facts of every-day life and labor, as made evident by the great difficulty of the Census Office to secure data as to sickness and infirmity among different classes, while still more delicate investigations, such as, for illustration, the sanitary condition of homes, the physical condition of children, the degree of frequency of periodical savings, and the expenditures for drink, are evidence that private enterprise can do the most efficient work in this field of scientific research. But another difficulty in such investigations is that the trained investigator is rare, and it is only too often an amateur who takes up such work as a sort of plaything for an idle hour. Yet of all the delicate tasks to which the human mind may apply itself the collection of social facts and the study of collective social phenomena are the most difficult, but at the same time the most valuable.

Social research, in a limited sense, has for its chief concern a qualified inquiry into the underlying causes of poverty and economic dependence on the part of a disproportionately large number of wage-earners and others constituting the mass of mankind in all civilized countries. Since the beginning of time the weak and dependent have been compelled to rely upon the strong and more fortunate, and to the end of time, in the nature of things, this must needs be so. But in a free democracy it is a political as well as a social duty, by majority rule, to bring about, through an intelligent co-operation in State and associated effort, a condition of things most favorable to the highest development of social units and efficiency in citizenship and social relations. Blind faith is often placed in law and legislation to bring about reforms which, in too many cases, can only

result from slow changes in human character, in economic conditions and industrial methods, and, the more clearly this is understood, the better for those whose interests are at stake. As an aid in the solution of social problems, human benevolence is called into action as a Christian charity and duty, but in its aims and purposes it stands in much the same relation to human society as the medical man does to the patient suffering from incurable ills,-it may relieve, and does relieve, much suffering and hardship, but it no more removes the cause of social ill-health than the physician removes the cause of disease by the more or less effective cure of the suffering patient. Many years ago the result of this theory of social reform through the efforts of benevolence alone was summed up in the following brief statement, which is well deserving of being repeated on this occasion:

On every hand he [the tender-hearted man of good means and substance sees the most glaring anomalies in society; immense wealth and gigantic poverty; the highest points of civilization and the lowest depths of barbarism; men and women living in possession of an overflowing abundance of the elegancies and comforts of existence, while in the same city those of like passions with themselves, members of the same great human family, are herding together not so much like savages as like wild beasts,-in short, a state of things rising on one side as near to heaven as on the other it sinks near to hell. His conscience gives him no rest till he has done something by way of remedy; so he subscribes to some charitable institution, writes a pamphlet, or forms a philanthropic society. He labors for a time: tries various schemes for man's regeneration; opens a school perhaps, or a soup-kitchen, or promotes emigration; and ultimately finds himself so much imposed on and deluded by the very people whom he is laboring to serve, that he gives up the profession of philanthropy, and returns to enjoy the good things of this life without feeling as previously that "the trail of the serpent is over them all."

And in continuation, speaking of this class of persons,

Seeing nothing but distress, their relief of it is direct and prompt, and necessarily temporary. The causes of distress are left untouched, and constantly reproduce cases of the same kind; and these benevolent gentlemen cannot be induced to adopt the slow and apparently harsher, but in

reality more merciful plan, of patiently investigating causes and removing them if they are removable.*

In this same sense I would define the objects of social research; that is, to ascertain with absolute impartiality the causes conducive to social ill-health, chiefly poverty and economic dependence, and, after having ascertained the true and real causes, to suggest a rational and practical method of social reform, in conformity to the same exact scientific principles which govern in investigations in applied chemistry or economic geology. Poverty and want are such closely related terms that every age attaches to them new and different meanings, but it may safely be asserted that needless poverty at any time is that which inflicts upon the many such burdens as substantially hinder them in the struggle for the maintenance of the highest possible rational standard of life. It is not so much a question of suffering as of a needless struggle against removable odds that concerns the social legislator and the rational philanthropist, who by their aid and co-operation would materially assist in the social amelioration of the present age.

It is difficult in a brief outline to present a working plan of social research, applicable alike to the many and widely different problems which require consideration. Every such investigation should of necessity be preceded by a preliminary research into the available literature of the subject, from which such extracts should be made as afford an intelligent historical retrospect of what has been done or accomplished in the same direction in the past. Such preliminary research would bring out the fundamental essentials of the subject and emphasize the direction which an original inquiry should take and the scope of the same in the light of a past experience. The second requirement is a complete statistical abstract of all the existing statistical material relating to the subject under consideration, critically reviewed and subjected to a qualified analysis to determine the statistical scope of the proposed inquiry and to emphasize the elements of most determining and practical impor

* Chambers's "Papers for the People," vol. ix, art. Industrial Investments and Associations. Philadelphia, 1854.

tance. Upon such a basis of descriptive and statistical information a working plan can be formulated for the third step of an original personal inquiry into the actual conditions and facts of the question and problem under investigation. The personal inquiry should be made by the very best obtainable talent, thoroughly familiar with the technical elements of the problem, to secure an absolutely trustworthy basis for subsequent conclusions. The results of personal investigation should be recorded in full detail from day to day as the investigation proceeds, to eliminate as far as possible errors resulting from defects of memory or the accidental omission of minor details which by accumulation might assume considerable importance. It cannot be too much emphasized that for such an investigation the best possible talent should be secured, upon exactly the same principle as expert chemists of the highest grade are employed in commercial enterprises to carry on original research for the purpose of introducing far-reaching changes in commercial practice. The method followed in the original inquiry should be fully described, so that every fact of possible importance should be fully known and every observation of value made by the investigator should be made a matter of permanent record.

The fourth step in the investigation should be the tabulation of new statistical material obtained by personal effort and its co-ordination to data previously collected or otherwise secured. The fifth and last step should be the final analysis of all the material brought together in the form of a convenient report, thoroughly indexed, with the conclusions set forth in the form of a broad generalization, precisely emphasizing the essential points demanding consideration, with the recommendations warranted in the light of the facts secured. There is nothing new in this method, which has been followed in many social and economic investigations, except the order of the arrangement and the definite connection between the investigation, the conclusions, and the ultimate recommendations. In other words, it is of the utmost importance that the responsibility of the investigator should be absolutely fixed by the final suggestions for specific action warranted in the light of indisputable truths.

When this method is followed, it will be found that the conclusions speak so emphatically for themselves that the recommendation for specific action remains an unquestionable argument in favor of a rational and practical theory of social reform.

Having briefly outlined the utility of social statistics and a practical method of social research, I would briefly call attention to a number of the more important problems which require to be investigated and reported upon along the lines previously indicated. It will be impossible for me to enlarge beyond the mere mention of the specific subjects, except to indicate similar lines of inquiry or the urgent necessity of a better knowledge of the facts than is at present extant. All of these problems bear immediately upon the question of poverty and pauperism and to a considerable extent upon dependence in old age, resulting from social inefficiency or ill-adjustment of existing social conditions.

THE PROBLEM OF WAGE-EARNERS' EXPENDITURES.

(1) I would suggest a really conclusive inquiry into the subject of income expenditures among wage-earners and others for the essentials of life, and the relation of such expenditures to savings, investments, and accumulations for self-support in old age. Such investigations have frequently been made, but as a rule under serious limitations. It would be desirable to very materially enlarge the scope of such an inquiry, although possibly reducing the number of items of expenditures to be considered. Of recent investigations in this direction the most useful and suggestive are "The Wage-earners' Budgets" in Rountree's "Study of Poverty in York," the investigation of the Economic Club of London, the Family Monographs by Elsa G. Herzfeld, Wage-earners' Budgets by Mrs. L. B. More, published in 1907; also, the various investigations by Federal and State governments; and, finally, the rather extended investigation by the British Board of Trade, published as a memorandum of the consumption and cost of food in workmen's families, in 1904. (See Statistical Appendix No. I.)