FOREWORD
There are three popular beliefs which rise like mountain chains across the trail of progress. The first is the belief that things are sacred because they are old, or, conversely, that things are dangerous because they are new. The second is the belief that the submerged class wants to be submerged; that it enjoys dark rooms and revels in filthy alleys; that it gloats over insanitary plumbing and thrives upon malnutrition. The third, no less preposterous, is the belief that the submerged class is poverty-stricken because it is degenerate; that those who wish can rise; and that the fact of their remaining submerged is proof conclusive that they are innately incapable of improvement.
This book marks, I hope, one step in the advance of scientific truth that is being directed against these mountain chains of misbelief. In the course of the work I have attempted to make seven points:—
- That maladjustment exists in numerous virulent forms, in many parts of the United States.
- That maladjustment is (1) due to economic causes, (2) involving social cost, and (3) remediable through social action.
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