ing, furniture and utensils cannot be replenished when
they wear out. Many suffer seriously from inappropriate
or insufficient clothing during the winter season. In cit-
ies their homes generally consist of one, two, or three
rooms, of which only one is heated even in the winter
months, in the oldest and least sanitary tenements or
shacks of their community. Life ordinarily lacks com-
fort and even privacy; for among the chronic poor sev-
eral persons must often sleep in the same room or even
in one bed. Life is lived in constant fear of hunger, of
eviction, of the almshouse and a pauper's grave. In rural
regions many of these dangers may be accentuated be-
cause of the unavailability of organized relief. In both
city and country years of poverty may break health and
spirits, and so handicap the growing child in physique,
training and attitude that normal life and happiness may
be rendered unattainable.

The actual volume of dependency is not known.
Many families and individuals are aided, and sometimes
entirely supported, by relatives whose gifts are not re-
corded. Much help is received from neighbors, for the
poor understand distress and often share the little they
have. Fraternal organizations do not publish particulars
of the aid which they give to members in straitened
circumstances. Many church organizations render no
public account of their assistance to distressed parish-
ioners. Employers, trade unions, immigrant societies,
and casual givers each make unrecorded contributions.

There remain therefore as sources of information on
the volume of dependency only the reports of public
welfare departments and organized private welfare serv-
ice. Since the same individual may apply to more than one
of these agencies in any given year, or to the same

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