Excerpt from Study of Social Statistics in the City of Baltimore for the Years 1916-1917
Those who urged the inquiry into the causes and conditions of poverty, the results of which are here set forth, believe in the possibility, if not probability, that scientific and thorough studies in our cities into the life and work of the people who suffer from poverty, will in the long run yield results comparable to those already achieved in the field of medicine. It should be possible at least to discover with some degree of accuracy the extent and character of extreme poverty, and probably its main causes, however complex and difficult of classification they may at first seem. With the causes known, means of prevention may be discovered and applied.
In medical research, the first steps are usually the compilation, tabulation and study of existing data relating to the disease under investigation. It was thought that like methods could be wisely applied to the study of the causes of poverty. It was fully recognized that much of the initial work could have none other than a negative result. Those who study disease, make up many tables, most of which arc without interest, and the majority of them in the long run turn out to be valueless, or at best of little worth. In the investigation of typhoid, how much data was toilsomely gathered, and in the end found useless! Nevertheless, bounds have been set to that centuries old scourge of mankind, and its power to exact tribute of lives is fast passing away. Such a victory could not have been won had not hundreds of investigators in medicine and other sciences, given minute examination to all the statistical and other data that seemed to have even the most remote connection with it.
Application for City Appropriation
Inspired by such hopes, in the Fall of 1916, application* was made to Mayor James H. Preston, and through him to the-Board of Estimates of Baltimore, for an appropriation of Five Thousand Dollars, to be expended under the direction of the Board of Supervisors of City Charities, in compiling, tabulating and studying the. data existing in the records of the societies comprising the Alliance and of other charitable organizations in Baltimore that might be induced to cooperate.
No one could say with certainty that such an inquiry would result in anything of real value.
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