We shall take up
first the objective causes.
_The Objective Causes of Poverty_. The objective causes of poverty
may be again divided into causes in the physical environment and causes
in the social environment. The causes in the physical environment
should not be overlooked, even though to a great extent they may not be
amenable to social control. Much poverty in certain regions is caused
simply by the unpropitious physical environment, such as unproductive
soil, bad climate, and the like. Added to these unpropitious factors in
the environment we have also great natural calamities, such as
tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Every one is
familiar with the great amount of misery which is caused, temporarily at
least, by such calamities. Again, certain things in the organic
environment, particularly in the way of disease-producing bacteria, are
also productive of much poverty. Certain bacteria exist, we now know,
plentifully in nature, such as the malaria germ, to which rightfully has
been ascribed the physical degeneracy of people living in certain
sections of the earth.
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