ABSTRACT
The familiar question whether poverty is due to personal or social causes is in itself somewhat fallacious, as smacking of a philosophy that does not see that the personal and social are inseparable. Everything in personality has roots in social conditions, past or present. The main blame for poverty must rest upon the prosperous, because they have, on the whole, far more power in the premises. All parts of society being interdependent, the evils of poverty are not confined to one class, but spread throughout the whole; and the influence of a low standard of living is felt in the corruption of politics, the prevalence of vice and the inefficiency of labor. In a truly organic society the struggles and suffering of a poor class would arouse the affectionate and helping solicitude as is felt when one member of a family falls ill.
