POVERTY A STUDY OF TOWN LIFE BY B. SEEBOHM ROWNTREE London NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY All rights reserved INTRODUCTION My object in undertaking the investigation detailed in this volume was, if possible, to throw some light upon the conditions which govern the life of the wage-earning classes in provincial towns, and especially upon the problem of poverty. At the outset I had to decide whether to collect information on the "extensive" method or on the "intensive." In other words, the choice lay between gathering together and analysing such statistics regarding towns in the United Kingdom as were to be found in Government Returns, Reports of Medical Officers of Health, the records of the various branches of the Charity Organisation Society, etc., etc., or studying in detail the conditions of a single typical town. A very little inquiry sufficed to show that any picture of the condition of the working classes of provincial England based on the former method would be very incomplete and of doubtful service. On the other hand, the great value of Mr. Charles Booth's invaluable work on The Life and Labour of the People of London led me to hope that a similar investigation made for a provincial town might be of use, as it was impossible to judge how far the general conclusions arrived at by Mr. Booth in respect of the metropolis would be found applicable to smaller urban populations. Having satisfied myself that the conditions of life obtaining in my native city of York were not exceptional, and that they might be taken as fairly representative of the conditions existing in many, if not most, of our provincial towns,' I decided to undertake a detailed investigation into the social and economic conditions of the wage-earning classes in that city. Amongst other questions upon which I desired to obtain information were the following:-What was the true measure of the poverty in the city, both in extent and depth? How much of it was due to insufficiency of income and how much to improvidence? How many families were sunk in a poverty so acute that its members suffered from a chronic insufficiency of food and clothing? If physical deterioration combined with a high deathrate ensued, was it possible to estimate such results with approximate accuracy? 1 A large amount of evidence upon this point will be found throughout the volume. |