Part 2 (1/2)
”It was quite impossible to make a thorough examination of the physical condition of all the children, but as they came up to be weighed and measured, they were cla.s.sified under the four headings, 'Very Good,' 'Good,' 'Fair,' or 'Bad,' by an investigator whose training and previous experience in similar work enabled her to make a reliable, even if rough, cla.s.sification....
”'Bad' implies that the child bore physical traces of underfeeding and neglect.
”The numbers cla.s.sified under the various heads were as follows:--
BOYS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Good,
Good,
Fair,
Bad,
per cent.
per cent.
per cent.
per cent.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 1 (poorest)
2.8
14.6
31.
51.6 Section 2 (middle)
7.4
20.1
53.7
18.8 Section 3 (highest)
27.4
33.8
27.4
11.4
GIRLS.
Section 1 (poorest)
2.1
14.6
31.
52.3 Section 2 (middle)
7.5
21.2
50.4
20.9 Section 3 (highest)
27.2
38.
23.1
11.7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
”It will be seen that the proportion of children cla.s.sed as 'very good' in Section 3 is about ten times as large as in the poorest section, and that _more than half of the children in the poorest section are cla.s.sed as 'bad.'_
”These 'bad' children presented a pathetic spectacle, all bore some mark of the hard conditions against which they were struggling. Puny and feeble bodies, dirty and often sadly insufficient clothing, sore eyes, in many cases acutely inflamed through continued want of attention, filthy heads, cases of hip disease, swollen glands--all these and other signs told the same tale of privation and neglect. It will be noticed that the condition of the children in Section 2 (middle-cla.s.s labour) comes about half-way between Sections 1 and 3. In considering the above table it must of course be remembered that there was no absolute standard by which each child could be judged, but the broad comparison between the different cla.s.ses is unimpeachable. The table affords further evidence of serious physical deterioration amongst the poorest section of the community.”
And if York and London will not satisfy, let the reader take Edinburgh, whose Charity Organization Society has produced an admirable but infinitely distressing report of the physical conditions of the school children there. It gives a summary account of the homes of fourteen hundred children in one of the Edinburgh Elementary Schools, selected because it represented a fair mixture of prosperous and unprosperous people. I take the first ten entries of this list just as they come, representing thirty-eight children, and they are a fair sample of the whole list. No amount of writing could make these little thumbnail sketches of the reality of domestic life among our population to-day more impressive than they are, thus barrenly given.
”1. A bad home. Woman twice married; second husband deserted her six or seven years ago and she now keeps a bad house in which much drinking and rioting goes on. Daughter on stage sends 10/- a week, son is out of work. A son is in an inst.i.tution. All as filthy as is the house. The food is irregular. Two children have had free dinners from school this and last winter, clothes were also given for one each time.
The boy attends regularly. The woman is a hard drinker, and gets money in undesirable ways. The eldest child has glands, neck; hair not good but clean; fleabitten. The second child, adenoids and tonsils. Housing: five in one room. Evidence from Police, School Charity, Headmistress, School Officers and Doctors.
”2. The drinking capacity of this family cannot be too much emphasized. The parents can't agree, and live apart, the man allowing 7/6 a week when girl is with mother, and 5/- when she comes to him. She is verminous and very badly kept. Mother can't get charing, as she lives in so bad a neighbourhood, so means to move; at present she keeps other women's babies at 6_d._ a day each. Elder boy out of work, a tidy lad, reads in Free Library. One child has died. Housing: three in one room.