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1286 An American Dilemma
was positively correlated with the number of children in the family, which means that
the sample of larger families had fewer poor cases. {Ibid.y p. 82.)
Alva Myrdal, Nation and Family (1941), pp. 61-76*
Large families do not benefit from subsidized housing in proportion to their
greater sufferings from bad housing conditions. (See Chapter 15, Section 6.) The
whole program is designated primarily for low income families; family size, at best,
is given secondary consideration only. The new social welfare system includes a special
program for broken families (Aid to Dependent Children) ;
but there are no corres-
ponding special provisions for large families. While urban relief authorities generally
give assistance to a greater proportion of the large than of the small families, it has
sometimes happened that welfare agencies in the farm areas of the South have failed to
consider the special plight of the large families, particularly in the case of Negroes.
(See data from the Consumer Purchases Study cited in Sterner and Associates, of, cit,^
p. 81.)
In 1930, 59 per cent of all Negro children under 21 years of age in private
families belonged to households which had at least four children, whereas the corres-
ponding proportion for native white families was 44 per cent. (See Sterner and
Associates, of, cit,^ p. 49.) The figures would be still higher if one added families
having four or more children, of which some were over 21 or had already left home.
The Consumer Purchases Study shows that, for instance, in Atlanta, white
husbands, 50 to 59 years of age, in “normal” nonrelief families, earned over one-half
more than did husbands 20 to 29 years of age. The corresponding difference for Negro
families was only about one-third. The absolute amount of difference was over $700
for white families and $190 for Negro families. {lbid,y p, 83. U.S. Department of
Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, ^tudy of Consumer Purchasesy Urban Seriesy Family
Income in the Southeastern Region Bulletin No. 647, Vol. i, Family Income
[1939], Tabular Summary, Section B, Tables 8 and 18.)
In Atlanta, Mobile, and Columbia, for instance, there were about twice as many
supplementary earners in “normal” nonrelief Negro households as there were in
corresponding white families. But each one of them did not earn more than one-fourth
or one-third as much as did the supplementary earners in white families, and their
total earnings per family, therefore, were only one-half or two-thirds of those of the
fewer white supplementary earners. Even so, their contributions made up a larger
percentage of the total family income than was the case in white families. (Sterner and
Associates, of, cit,y pp. 57 and 77-79.)
In the urban North, where 40 to 50 per cent of the Negro families were on relief
at that time, and in addition, a great number were broken families, the study repre-
sented less than half the Negro population. Groups covered by the study were, on the
average, better off than those excluded. The exclusions were somewhat less important
in the urban South; still they were considerable. In the rural farm South, the exclusion of
relief families meant comparatively little; but in view of the exclusion of wage laborers,
and of farmers and tenants who had stayed less than one year on the farm, and of
broken families, this rural sample was, at least, just as much too “high” as was that for
the urban North.
Sterner and Associates, of, cit,y p. 95. Basic data available in U.S. Department of
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