The Human Rubbish-Heap

1899

The publication of General Booth's "Through Darkest England," several years ago, gave currency to the striking phrase, "the submerged tenth." It will not do to construe the phrase too strictly, but certainly it expresses a gruesome and ominous fact.

At the bottom of our social structure there is a stratum of "the bad." This term is used here not in the sense of moral reprobation, but in the sense in which it is used, for example, of castings that come from the molds defective. In this sense no one will question the statement that a certain stratum of humanity is bad. It is composed of the imbecile, the incompetent, the vicious and the criminal. It is found in all our great cities, but it is found also in the smaller towns, and even in the country. It is a sort of human rubbish-heap; and is the perpetual accompaniment and foil of our fair civilization. Perhaps we ought to say that it is a constant feature or element of our civilization. Every community has its "rubbish-heap," large or small.

But the phrase, "the submerged tenth," covers a larger fact than is indicated above. For despite all the efforts of society to reduce it, through the work of churches, Sunday-school missions, reform organizations and a multitude of other agencies, the stratum of human waste is only slightly diminished. There is a constant production of "the bad." They are recruited from the cradle. Besides, they are scarcely more than touched by most of the reformative and moralizing enterprises that have been mentioned.

Here is the great sociological problem that confronts us: How shall we effectively deal-with "the submerged tenth?" How shall we reduce the "human rubbish—heap?" How shall we check the production of "the bad?" These are questions to make boys and girls and men and women — think. —Youth's Companion.