Since 1900, the leaders in social technology, such as C. R. Henderson,[XXIV-1] Sidney and Beatrice Webb,[XXIV-2] and E. T. Devine,[XXIV-3] have made clear the specific conditions under which the poor may be permanently aided.[XXIV-4] Remedial care will always be necessary, but it must be offered in ways that will not encourage anyone to make a living by begging. The prevailing thought today regarding poverty is in preventive terms. The individual should be shown how to help himself up the economic pathway. Education will make the individual efficient and safeguard him against falling into a chronic state of pauperism. Above all else, social technology urges the establishment of justice in economic conditions. As shown in Chapter XIV, Henry George, in his _Progress and Poverty_, made a fundamental analysis of one set of causes of poverty, which he found in the unjust factors in the economic system. He showed how ownership in land may be traced back to force. Shall the first person who acquires a section of land be allowed to fence it in and to keep out all other persons unless they pay him a price that rises rapidly as the number of other persons increases?[XXIV-5] Why is there increasing misery amid advancing wealth? The larger the city the greater the degree of squalor--this was George’s perplexing observation. Material progress does not improve the condition of the lowest classes. Prosperity under the present economic system appears to be a heavy wedge driven into society. The individuals who are below the line of cleavage are crushed down; those who are above this line are hoisted upward into positions of luxury and affluence. Henry George, despite the large number of followers which his ideas have today, was probably in error in believing that to take the ownership of land out of the hands of individuals, through the method of the single tax, would prevent poverty. However, no one should be blind to the fact that increasing land values result from mere increase in population. Either the birth rate or immigration increases population and sends up land values, which in turn is accompanied by a rising scale of rents with an elevated cost of living and increased poverty. The history of human thought concerning crime has run a vicissitudinous career. It was not until the days of John Howard and Beccaria that a truly scientific approach was made to the problem. John Howard (1726–1790), sheriff of Bedford, became interested in criminals. He visited jails throughout England. He traveled widely in Europe, usually at his own expense, studying the causes of typhus fever and endeavoring to effect a more humane treatment of offenders.