324 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
was given as a supplement to wages, with the consequence that all common, unskilled laborers were fast becoming paupers as a con- dition of mere existence ; and pauper labor proved to be incapable of producing wealth enough to support the nation.
But we do not have to go so far to discover flagrant illustra- tions of the same tendency, even in the fortunate economic condi- tions of the United States. There has not been an important strike in the past decennium, involving large numbers of low- skilled laborers, when charity-supported or charity-assisted per- sons or semi-criminals did not offer themselves in crowds to com- pete with the strikers. 10 The "parasitic industries" are found in all cities, that is, industries in which the income which supports the family comes partly from wages, partly from charity, partly from vice, and partly from the physical and moral capital of the next generation.
Under a previous head the minimum standard of human exist- ence has been defined as closely as the nature of the subject and our present knowledge permit. The critical test lies here : those who can earn the minimum in competitive society belong to the Industrial Group; those who cannot earn this minimum belong to the Dependent Group. This is a rough measure, but it is far better than no standard, and it is practically correct. In fact, it is already more or less consciously applied in every instance when public poor relief is given. Of course, no thoughtful person will take us to mean that there is an impassable barrier between the two classes, so that dependents cannot be helped to ascend into and remain in the Industrial Group; and there will always be some difficulty to decide the status of those on the border line.
The members of the Dependent Group, who cannot earn even the minimum wage necessary to a human existence, are now actually supported by society; but frequently, and on a large scale, in such a way and by such methods as to keep them down and drag others to their level. For example, the products of charitable and correctional institutions are sometimes put upon the market in such quantities and massed at such points as to
10 It is notorious that many of the professional " strike-breakers " are of the vagrant class, on the borderland between vice, pauperism, and crime.
