The 'ractice of Charity Individual, Associated and Organized BY DWARD THOMAS DEVINE, PH.D. (PENNA.) . GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1904 *- COPYRIGHT, 1904 BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY COPYRIGHT, igoi Bv LENTILHON & COMPANY Reissued June, 1904 BURR PRINTING HOUSE NEW YORK To my fellow workers in the paid corps of the Charity Organisation Society of the City of New York who, in the discharge of their daily duties t add to sympathy knowledge; to zeal common sense; and to humility courage. 1.66481. Contents PAGE I. Introduction: Charity Defined i II. In Defense of Charity . . ' . . . . 5 III. Those Who Need Help 15 IV. Substitutes for Charity 32 V. Organized Charity 43 VI. Volunteer Service 66 VII. The Church and Charity 84 VIII. Professional Service 104 IX. Some Elementary Principles . . . .121 X. Some Elementary Definitions . . . .140 XI. The Test of a Good Society . 161 Some Illustrative Problems . 168 Appendix : Constitution for a Charity Organization Society 192 Preface For the present edition of the Practice of Charity, the text has been revised throughout ; and there have been added two entirely new chapters, those entitled "Some Elementary Definitions" and the "Test of a Good Society." The draft of a constitution for a charity organization society is also entirely new, dif- fering in many radical particulars from the draft which appeared in the earlier edition. Attention is especially invited to the statement of Purposes and Objects, in which an attempt has been made to sub- stitute a more positive form of statement than that which is in general use in societies of this kind, and one which more completely represents their real spirit. . E T D NEW YORK CITY, June, 1904. Brief Bibliography REPORTS OF CHARITY ORGANIZATION SO- CIETIES. [A list of such societies is published in the annual re- ports of the New York Charity Organization Society.] REPORTS OF RELIEF SOCIETIES AND CHARITA- BLE INSTITUTIONS. CHARITIES DIRECTORIES. [That for New York is published by the Charity Or- ganization Society; for Boston by the Associated Charities of that city ; for Philadelphia by the Civic Club; for London by Longmans, Green & Co., for the London Charity Organization Society.] CHARITIES: A weekly periodical of local and general philanthropy. New York. [The Charities Review, formerly published independ- ently, now appears as a monthly number of Charities; see also, the Charities Record, Baltimore; Co-opera- tion, Chicago; the ten volumes of The Charities Re- view, 1891-1901 (New York) ; and the Charity Or- ganization Review (London), published by the Lon- don society.] DEVINE, EDWARD T. Principles of Relief. Macmillan Co. New York. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL CONFER- ENCE OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. [The volume for 1893 contains index to the volumes from 1874 to 1893.] PROCEEDINGS OF STATE CONFERENCES of Charities and Correction, Conventions of Superin- tendents of the Poor, and Reports of State Boards of Charities. ix X BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY WARNER, A. G. American Charities. T. Y. Crowell & Co. New York. RICHMOND, MARY E. Friendly Visiting Among the Poor. Macmillan Co. New York. SPECIAL ARTICLES in such periodicals as The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia ; The Journal of Sociology, Chicago; The Forum, and The Atlantic Monthly. [The first named publication has a department of Notes on Philanthropy, Charities and Social Prob- lems.] CASE RECORDS of Charity Organization Societies and similar agencies. [When proper records are kept, these are the best of all sources of information for the student who has access to them and knows how to use them.] [Any of the above or other books, pamphlets or peri- odicals may be obtained through Charities, 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York.] The Practice of Charity I. INTRODUCTION ' THE practice of charity concerns the citizen in his individual relations with his poorer neighbors. It concerns the church and the multitudinous forms of religious activity within or supplementary to the church. Sunday schools, young peoples' societies and guilds, relief agencies and societies whose pri- mary objects are fraternal, have all their charitable tasks, which, whether they be serious or com- paratively slight, should be discharged intelligently and conscientiously. The interdenominational or secular relief societies, the associated charities of the larger cities, "and the small groups of persons, not always organized into formal societies, upon whom the burden of relieving distress falls in the smaller towns and in the country, are compelled to face practical questions upon which the light of wider experience would often be welcome. Still more keenly should a similar need be felt by overseers, commissioners of charities, and other pub- lic officials who, sometimes without previous ex- perience, are called upon for a longer or shorter i 2 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY time to disburse public moneys in the relief of desti- tution. X A valid distinction is sometimes made be- tween private charity and public relief, but official relief from the public treasury cannot be disbursed rightly in any community save by one who knows the probable extent and the limitations of private charity, and the concrete questions of administration are to a large extent common to the two fields. This little book then is intended for public officials re- sponsible for the relief of the poor ; for active church workers who touch upon any aspect of poverty and its remedy; for charity workers whether they are professionally employed by some organized agency or are volunteers enlisted in the struggle against pauperism and distress; for individual citizens who feel any responsibility for their unfortunate neigh- bors; and for students who desire in compact form a statement of some of the elementary conclusions of modern organized charity. There is no dearth of material upon which to base such conclusions. For example the registrar of a charity organization society may be responsible for the safe custody of several thousand family records, many of them covering periods of fifteen or twenty years and in some instances reaching backwards through two or three generations. To the society may come every year thousands of persons with either new or renewed applications for assistance. Under the care of the district committees of such a society at any one time, in the winter months, there may be some hundreds of families visited by the THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 3 agents of the society, whose duty it is to obtain relief when it is needed, but who also devote their energies to the permanent elevation of the character and cir- cumstances of the families committed to them. The applications come in a variety of ways. Many make direct personal application by letter or by a call at one of the offices of the society. Others are recommended by friends who may themselves have received aid. Some have asked for alms on the street and have been referred to the society. Others are discovered to be in need by physicians, nurses, clergymen or neighbors. Every conceivable variety of affliction has befallen them. Every degree of courage, endurance and ingenuity has been ex- hibited. The true pauper type is there and so like- wise is the poor man whose poverty is in no sense discreditable, and whose present need gives an eagerly embmced opportunity to the charitable. These confidential records show also the most di- verse results of the attempts to help. Some of them are complete failures; some are partial successes. Upon the happy results in still other cases there seems to rest no stain or trace of disappointment. Various too are the agencies used in relief and re- generation. Religious, social and educational forces are employed. The church, the relief society and the individual are all called into service. Public relief supplements private charity. Whether on the whole headway is made by these allied forces against the disorganizing results of human weakness and vice, may be disputed; but here at least are the 4 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY available data for such generalizations as it is now safe to make. The writer may claim acquaintance with a very considerable amount of such material, and this ac- quaintance with families is not solely theoretical or documentary. Many of them he has known per- sonally. Conferences are held with applicants both at the office of the society and in their own homes. The necessity for aiding agents and visitors to reach practical conclusions on the more serious questions arising in their treatment of families, such as the initiation of proceedings on grounds of insanity, the commitment of children to institutions because of the destitution of parents, or the provision of a pension for aged persons, have given a familiarity with details which will often correct or modify con- clusions based upon written records and statistics of a general nature. Frequent visits to other cities and conferences with those who are engaged in similar work in New York and elsewhere will per- haps prevent the views expressed from reflecting merely local or exceptional conditions. The practice of charity is prompted by one of the most universal impulses of the human heart. It is enjoined by religion and by all ethical systems. If these pages promote this virtue by laying bare some of the principles upon which its practice may be most effectively based, the author's aim will have been happily attained. II. IN DEFENSE OF CHARITY Two distinct symptoms of the disfavor into which the term charity has fallen may be observed. One is the cry of the radical reformers who con- stantly reiterate that they want " not charity, but justice." The other is the claim advanced by the managers of certain modern schemes for social bet- terment, that they are conducting " not a charity, but a business." There is a ready rejoinder to both of these phrases. It is easy to point out that many of those who are most vociferous in their insistence upon " not charity but justice " are in fact doing noth- ing at all to promote either. It is equally obvious that a charitable enterprise does not change its es- sential character by calling itself a business enter- prise. There is a necessity, however, for more careful analysis of the public sentiment which lies behind the desire to escape from the associations suggested by the word charity. Is it wide-spread and increasing? What is its origin? Is it well founded? If not should it be directly combatted, or should those who are engaged in what has hereto- fore been known as charitable work, so far yield to the prejudice as to change the name under which their work is carried on? 6 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY There can be no doubt of the existence of a cer- tain hostile feeling towards the idea of charity. This feeling is exhibited not only by the embittered unfortunates, who feel that individually they have not had a fair chance under existing social condi- tions, and by revolutionists who have become con- vinced on more general grounds that the present social order is to be condemned, but also by many of the more conservative classes who accept tfye con- ditions of industrial competition and are struggling to improve their economic position. It may be that great changes have already been made in their fa- vor, but of course these are not accepted by them as final. They are promptly utilized as stepping- stones to still further advances. Strenuous in their struggle for as large a share as possible in the j product of industry, these classes often adopt the *" impatient language of the radical and the sub-?'' merged, although for them it really has a different . ; meaning. The " justice " which they demand is not' to be gained by revolution, or by playing upon the feelings of the benevolent, but by the steady pres- sure of their own economic advantages. They may suffer temporarily in times of labor disputes or in- J dustrial crises, but as a rule they stand upon a^ perfectly sure footing. Such is the general attitude . of the average workingman. His prejudice against charity is not serious, or deep seated. He himself, has no need for it, but he realizes vaguely that others have and he would be the last to do anything se-, riously to discourage it. He may applaud public THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 7 orators who declaim against it, and if a real leader of ability, honesty and courage arises to picture an ideal .community, he may, for the time being, follow that leader's standard with enthusiasm, but he is apt to demand before long practical results in the im- provement of his own position, and to realize that the framing of Utopian schemes will not of itself be of much value to him. He will continue to relieve distress when it con- fronts him. He will remain appreciative of the liber- ality displayed by others, and he will recognize the necessity of relief agencies. The idea of charity in his nind is bounded on the one hand by obvious and iig destitution, and on the other by the giving money or its equivalent for the relief of such istress. He may attribute the destitution in part id social conditions, although he is far more apt seek its explanation in the faults and the weak- es of the individual. The prosperous working "on the whole is not, therefore, hostile either ' idea or to the manifestation of charity except icident of his own struggle to improve his or when, under the stress of emotional in- . the exceptional victim of social injustice as the normal representative of the existing ec : and social order. 'erent with those who wish to see a com- -evolution, and to whom charity appears >f .checking the natural resentment and indignation which the excluded classes should feel at the injustice of the present distribution of wealth. 8 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY To them charity appears as a palliative, modify- ing in some degree the hardships of the process and so reconciling the elements which would otherwise be in revolt, and postponing the day of final reckon- ing. It is charged that what is disbursed in charity is but arc infinitesimal part of the sums obtained by the successful exploiters of human labor. Char- ity is represented as the amusement of the wealthy, or as a sop thrown by the favored to those whom they have defrauded. Such assertions may have an element of truth in them. When funds are secured for any charitable purpose by general subscription it is always possible that some contributions may be received from per- sons whose motives are questionable. A direct in- vestigation of the reasons for responding to char- itable appeals is, in the nature of the case, imprac- ticable. Some may give because they wish to rrrke partial restitution for ill-gotten wealth. Others '* ly feel that the charitable institutions which they p- port are a bulwark against revolution, and tha ? ir own position is made more secure by the ex cc of such institutions. \Still others may giv( re- lessly, merely because their means are large, ,1 it is easier to respond .favorably than to taxc the trouble and the possibly disagreeable consequences of declining. When due allowance has been Vnade for all these motives, the candid student of the con- tributions made in such enormous sums each year for charity must recognize that not even a beginning has been made in the explanation of such gifts. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 9 Money is given in charity chiefly from a sincere desire to help those who are in trouble. This is equally true of the money given directly to individ- uals whose distress is seen personally by the donor, and of the larger sums given indirectly to care for the sick and the afflicted, to aid the widow and the fatherless, and to care for and train those who must soon be dependent upon their own efforts. While it is impossible to ascertain motives directly, there are numerous indications of the nature of the interest felt by contributors, which are entirely in- consistent with any such interpretation as the enemies of charity allege. Men and women of large means not infrequently devote nearly the whole of their leisure time to the personal direction of the charitable enterprises to which they have given financial support, bringing to such service oftentimes high business capacity, sound judgment, and in- valuable experience. The contributions made to charitable societies are in a very large number of instances not from superfluous means at all, but are serious deductions from income which might other- wise be devoted to personal comforts or conve- niences. The greatest care is often displayed in se- lecting from the lists of charitable enterprises that demand financial support. If the work of a particu- lar society to which such contributor has given shows diminishing efficiency, the contribution is quickly withdrawn and placed elsewhere. Annual reports and other indications of the society's activity are scrutinized, visits are made to the institutions 10 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY in order that the contributor may ascertain by per- sonal inquiry what amount and what kind of serv- ice is performed. It is true that in the pressure of modern life many contributors do not take the personal trouble to make such inquiries, and that in some quarters there is too great a readiness to put the whole respon- sibility upon officials or committees; but in every community there are enough who take the opposite course and who give expression to the' motives which are undoubtedly shared by many of their fellow contributors, to indicate that there is little foundation for the charge that charitable donations are unaccompanied by genuine charitable motive, ^fcharity is far more than a palliative. It is the means by which a countless number of individuals are rescued from ignorance, destitution and crime. It is the means by which an insupportable burden is lifted from the shoulders of the weak and in- capable. It is the means by which education and in- dustrial training are put within the reach of many who would otherwise miss them. It literally clothes \ the naked, feeds the hungry and cures the sick. All this it may do wisely and without injury. The charitable impulse, however, does not make the human being whom it inoculates immune against human stupidity. Desirous of being charitable one may therefore do for others that which they should do for themselves, just as the teacher may un- wisely perform tasks which should be performed by the pupil. That which is given away in ignorance THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 1 1 or in disregard of the past history and present character of the beneficiary, may be in effect a reward for wrong-doing, and may operate to discourage the development of character. All this is true likewise of that which is done in the name of education or of religion. The gist of the matter is that there is no magic in charity to obviate or modify in any way the normal results of human action. Bearing this in mind those who feel sympa- thy for persons who are in distresj will not feel any hesitation in yielding to their* charitable impulses. They will consider, however, with the greatest care what course of action should be pursued to relieve the distress and if possible to prevent its recurrence. Giving may appear less frequently the proper course, and personal service of some kind may be more frequently of advantage. After experience has shown where the dangers lie and where lie the causes of the distress which is encountered, there will be no longer hesitation upon theoretical grounds, and there will arise implicit confidence in the utility of considerate and wisely directed charity. In a larger social sense chanty also finds justifica- tion, provided it is made an educational agency, as it always can be. and not a demoralizing in- fluence. When a family which has been dependent upon others becomes self-supporting the entire com- munity is benefited. The family now contributes to the social product instead of being a drain upon it. When an individual who has been a social debtor is transformed into an active self-dependent member I 2 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY of society it is of advantage not only to himself but to his fellows. In a very limited view he might appear to be taking work from others and so de- priving them of employment, but the work which he takes is wholly unremunerated work and he now gives an equivalent to the community for that which he obtained before as truly without compensation as if it had been taken by theft. Social progress would be enormously advanced by the transformation of all of the improvident and inefficient members of society into persons who provide for their own future and share in a product which they have helped to create. Without charity, competition and natural selec- tion might eliminate the unfit, but it would be with enormous waste of human life and energy which through intelligent charity may be saved and util- ized. Charity reasonably bestowed does not per- petuate the unfit but transforms the unfit into that which may profitably survive. The absence of charity, which is brutality, perpetuates not only the unfit but the environment in which the unfit flour- ishes. When charity is absent the family of the de- generate is not smaller, but merely has a chance to develop its vicious qualities and to perpetuate the misery and the vice which it naturally creates. There is no evidence that the abolition of charity would lessen the birth rate or increase the death rate of the dependent and the criminal, but it is certain that if charity were to disappear the de- generate and the criminal would have less chance for reformation and improvement. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 13 Here and there, without charity, helpless children would perish, but many more, for whom charitable assistance means the difference between a good chance in life and a chance under the worst of con- ditions, would, without -such assistance, live to create a new generation of degenerates instead of contributing to the increase of the number of use- ful citizens. It is quite true that charity leaves many tasks of this kind unfulfilled; that the un- favorable environment of the tenement house is still allowed to put its blight upon many who, under enlightened public policy, might be rescued from it; that physical infirmities curable in childhood are not detected ; that the discipline, care and training given to dependent children are not always such as would fit them best for active life; that charity is sometimes mechanical and ineffective for its avowed purpose. Charity in its noblest conception makes large de- mands upon its adherents and they may fail re- peatedly to meet them. Through such failures, however, if they remain faithful adherents, they will rise to great achievements which will be thrice blessed to the individuals who receive, to those who give, and to the community of which they both form parts. Charity has some enemies, many admirers, but comparatively few constant friends. The enemies of charity cannot make good their attack. They may misrepresent and malign it, but the only real danger in which charity stands is not from its avowed ene- 14 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY mies but from others who may formally acknowl- edge its claims, but who from absorption in selfish ends refuse to charity its natural and proper place in their lives. There will be no need of a defence of charity if those who feel its importance will even at personal inconvenience engage in its practice. III. THOSE WHO NEED HELP IN the broadest sense every one needs and re- ceives help from his fellows. Mutual interchange of services lies at the basis of our economic life and has a large place in other human relations as well. Protection in infancy, training in childhood, oppor- tunity in youth, and, for multitudes, direction and encouragement, even through maturity, are necessi- ties of existence. There are few who have not even more than this general acknowledgment to make. Once or oftener to nearly all of us have come experiences in which our welfare seemed . to require some definite con- tribution from the outside. A helping hand has been given to us by some one who was under no obligation to extend it. The opportunity of a life- time has been placed before us; and we have not known how to make use of it. The mistake of a lifetime threatens us; but an unexpected succor from some one who might have held aloof enables us to avert its expected consequences. Our individ- ual or family affairs have become entangled be- yond our power to unravel them ; but a friend has shown us the right way and at some expense, it may be of time and money, has put us into that way. 15 1 6 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY A readjustment for which we may not even have recognized the necessity is brought about by the as- sistance of one who has acted with our good in view. If we are ever able to reciprocate such action it will be in all probability through kindness to others who need assistance, not by payment in kind to our own benefactors. Charity is nothing else than this same kind of assistance given by one human being to another. We are all in varying degrees beneficiaries. We may all be benefactors. Displayed in a small scale in the ordinary relations of life, we think of such helpful actions as have been described as courtesies. They are an indication of good breeding, of native kindliness, rather than evidence of a conscious de- sire to help others, but their root is sympathy, and courtesy is only charity which has become habitual and unconscious. As all our instincts are only habitual judgments formulated many times in succession by ourselves or our ancestors, so good manners are the crystallized results of our repeated attempts to be serviceable to others. The first and most obvious answer then to the inquiry which is suggested by the subject of this chapter is that our help is needed by all human beings with whom we come into intimate contact. The majority, however, will require of us only the ordinary social amenities. To be on the lookout not to cause them annoyance or unnecessary trouble, to give full measure of goods or service when they buy of us, to carry on our social intercourse with THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY IJ good temper and cheerfulness, to contribute what- ever we have of wisdom, philosophy, and poetry in our conversation, and to do our work skilfully, earnestly, ungrudgingly with these obligations honorably discharged we shall have done well. And yet we may be all these things and not be generally regarded as charitable. It is true that our lives will necessarily have been permeated by the spirit of charity, but the expressions of that spirit thus far outlined, because they have become so generally instinctive, are not recognized in their true character. We do these things, at least when we do them best, merely because they are the things which we do naturally as a matter of course not at all with a conscious purpose of making life pleasanter for others. There remain, however, other services which are not so much a matter of course. We have to think about them with considerable care, simply for the reason that human beings have not for generations done the right thing in regard to them as a matter of course. It is indeed difficult to decide what the right thing is. We are still forming our original judgments about them. They are, however, within the range of things done for the sake of helping others. Because these services are more consciously performed; because we have the needs of the ones for whom they are performed more clearly before us; because we recognize that there is a duty de- volving upon us, we differentiate these services from the others of the same kind, and think of them as 18 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY charitable. They seem to us more serious, possibly more virtuous, certainly more vital to the individ- uals on whose behalf they are undertaken. / Who then are the proper objects of charity? Who need help of the kind distinctly called charitable? Again the answer might be that except for the good fortune which disguises for some of us the form in which help comes to us, it would be obvious that all are or have been at some time objects of charity. We seek now, however, to distinguish those whom fortune has not thus favored, and whose needs the community must discover and meet, by methods consciously adapted to the purpose who need help by what are recognized to be charitable means. The destitute sick furnish us the largest number of the legitimate objects of charity, and the problem of aiding them, while by no means simple, is less baffling and perplexing than those arising in con- nection with many other classes of dependents. Ill- ness may be the result of contagion for which the community at large and not the individual who is stricken down is responsible. Inability to meet the financial burden of medical care and incidental expenses of illness and to provide a substitute for the income which is reduced or cut off by illness, may not be at all surprising if all the facts of in- dividual cases are taken into account. Disease or accident may afflict the young man before there has been any opportunity for saving. The breadwinner of a large family whose margin of saving is narrow may see it disappear entirely when illness possibly THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 19 long continued and expensive visits some member of his family, and even the income with which or- dinary living expenses are to be met may be cut off, if it is the breadwinner himself who succumbs. Still more obvious is the necessity for caring for aged persons who are afflicted by chronic illness and who for any reason are homeless and friendless ex- cept for the ministrations of strangers. Crippled children may be in need of surgical treatment, which would be too expensive for their parents to give, even if they are in position to provide for the or- dinary necessities of life. A consumptive may be a menace in his own family and may require a dif- ferent climate for restoration to health. Both for the chance of recovery for the patient and for the sake of preventing the infection of others it may be wise to enable the consumptive to be removed from his family through charitable assistance, even though there is ample income for usual living ex- penses. A widow may be incapacitated physically from earning a living for herself or her children, but perfectly capable of making a home for them and giving them all necessary maternal care. Such women may often be aided to the full extent of their household expenses without injury or danger. The mentally deficient whether insane, feeble-minded, or only extremely eccentric may need restraint or sup- port. Such are some of the most frequent recurring types of cases in which charitable help is to be given because of need caused or aggravated by illness. It 20 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY is not necessary that assistance be given by strangers in all such instances. Whenever possible a tem- porary loan from some personal friend, a weekly benefit paid by some society, or club to which the beneficiary has belonged and into whose treasury he has paid regular dues, or if downright assistance is needed, then assistance from near relatives or neighbors who are intimately acquainted with all the circumstances may obviate the need for any more formal arrangement. The writer remembers to have driven past a western farm house in which the head of the family, who had recently purchased the farm of one hundred and sixty acres, was lying in bed with a broken leg. A force of six or eight men were hard at work putting the finishing touches on a wire fence, built to protect a growing crop of grain. It turned out that just before the accident he had dug the post holes for the fence and had brought the wire to the place where it was to be used. Realizing that the safety of the crop would not permit the fence to await the farmer's recovery, the neighbors had turned out in a body to set the posts and string the wire. They did this without consulting the owner or stopping to inquire whether he could not have hired men to do it. Inquiry as to how general such indications of neighborly serv- ice still were in that county in the year of grace 1900, brought out the fact that the illness of an old resident, whose farm was directly across the road from that of the man with the broken leg, had led in the preceding year to the husking of an entire field THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 21 of corn, the only return for which was that the farmer's wife was expected to provide a generous dinner for the huskers, and the man himself to fur- nish one of the eight or ten teams necessary to haul in the corn. Neither of these acts can be called charitable. Neither of the families approached destitution by a long way. The spirit which prompted the farmers however is one which should be kept alive in every community however great its wealth or its poverty. 1 After leaving out of account all of the cases in which, through provident foresight, or through neighborly assistance, the need for charity has been eliminated, there will still remain some in which because of illness the community must aid. Some patients may best be cared for in suitable hospitals, some may be visited in their homes by physicians and nurses, some boarded in the country, in the mountains or at the seashore, as their particular wi br = ! The following report of a conversation between a man and wife in a tenement house while a fire was in progress affords an interesting contrast. The story is told by the wife to a newspaper reporter. The man was born and brought up in a New York tenement house and has the reputation among his fellow tenants of being " a decent .ough sort of man." Ten persons were burned to death their beds in this fire. " I seen the fire and woke my husband up," she said. " He says: ' Wot's the matter with you? It ain't goin' to burn over here is it.' ' No,' I says, ' but think of the poor people asleep in there.' ' Ah, go wan,' he says. ' As long as you're safe, you mind your own business and let them mind theirs.' ' Tim,' I says to him, ' them people ain't 22 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY disease may require. If the family is so situated that the entire financial burden must fall upon charity, or if the disease is such that quiet and a method of treatment not practicable at home aqs prescribed, removal to a hospital is necessary. This- may often be decided only upon the advice of a competent physician, which advice should be influ- enced by many other than the merely professional aspects of the case. Among the ^hospitals of a great city there is a certain degree of differentiation which should be understood by those who are frequently 4 called upon to apply to them on behalf of the sick.^ There are reception hospitals for emergency cases; maternity hospitals; hospitals for the diseases of women and children ; isolation hospitals for con- tagious diseases; hospitals for ruptured and crip-, pled ; homes for chronic and incurable patients, and convalescent homes. There are also less obvious awake. They'll be burnt to death. You go over and walfe them up.' ' Ah, let 'em find it out themselves,' says hei^. ' Then if you won't go, I will/ I says, and I started to get up, and the baby began to cry. ' You lie down,' he says. ( ' D'you think I'm goin' to stay here an' mind the kids while you're meddlin' in what don't concern you? Lie down,' he says, an' with that he give me a crack on the jor, an' I was afraid to get up again. And, oh my God. I heard 'em cry- ing out after that and seen that man jump from the top window and kill himself, and they might have been saved if he'd let me go and call 'em, for the fire was only^ just startin' when I seep it. After it was over an' I told him, he says, ' Well, them people ain't nothin' to you or me, are they?' and he started to hit me again. I'll have the law on him, I will, if he lays his hand to me again." THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 3 distinctions. Among the hospitals for consump- tives, for example, one may make a specialty of treating incipient cases, in the hope of bringing about an arrest of the disease and possibly com- plete recovery. Another will admit patients in the last stages chiefly irt order to make more tolerable the few remaining days or weeks of life and to lessen the chances of contagion. One maternity hospital may expect to keep the patient during confinement only, and another may have facilities permitting her to become a resident three or four months before the date of confinement and an equal or longer time afterwards. There is further the division of work between public and private hospitals, and between those which are connected with medical schools and those which are supported purely as charities. In most hospitals provision is made for free treatment, but in many, patients are expected to meet such portion of the expense as they can. All of these conditions vary in different communities and can best be studied with reference to the locality in which one lives. The problem of the charitable is to consider with due care the extent and character of the real need, to encourage all reasonable substitutes for charity before resorting to it, but when it is needed in cases of illness to see that it acts promptly, efficiently and judiciously. In cases which are curable, the object is speedy recovery, and expense and trouble to this end should be taken unsparingly. In contagion, the protection of the community is of prime im- portance, but this does not excuse brutality or lack I 24 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY of charitable consideration for the patient. In chronic cases, besides the provision of any neces- sary medical care, there must be consideration of the burden imposed on the family, the possibility of partial self-support in some instances, and all the other complicating and unique features which each separate case will surely develop if fully understood. Still another duty remains. It is that of checking any undue development of free or partially free treatment in hospitals or dispensaries. There are many motives which may lead to such over develop- ment. The desire to secure material for clinical study, and for purposes of instruction, the desire to increase the private practice of physicians who work in the dispensaries, the possibility of securing liberal contributions from the charitable public on a mis- understanding of the need, are among them. There is much to be said on both sides of this question but on the whole the demand for a thoughtful considera- tion as to whether in some communities we have not made access to free medical treatment too easy is fully justified. Orphans, neglected children, and the children of those who are entirely destitute, bring to the char- itably disposed their most welcome and yet most difficult tasks. The asylums, and the agencies for finding foster homes are not its full measure. Much of the ordinary relief work carried on by churches, societies and individuals is inspired by a concern for the welfare of children. Parents are often aided solely because children would otherwise suffer. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY *5 Clothing and food are often given by those who be- come acquainted with the children in day school or in Sunday school. Kindergartens and day nur- series are established for their benefit while they still remain under the care of their parents. Special hos- pitals, fresh air enterprises, lending Tibraries and countless other uplifting and ameliorating influences are devised, because of a desire to give the children a better chance in life than their environment seems likely to offer. The Settlements find one of their most fruitful fields of labor in the study of new forms of helpfulness calculated to improve the sur- roundings of the children. Clubs, classes, parties, and personal attention to individual children spring from such inquiries. Teachers become aware that their backward pupils are sometimes mentally, and sometimes physically deficient, and specialized schools for the instruction of those who are sufficiently ab- normal to require them are founded. Medical in- spectors are even appointed under public authority for the official inspection of public school children to prevent contagion, to discover defective eyesight, and in general to promote the conditions of sound health. Besides these multiform agencies which are brought to bear upon children in their own families, it is found necessary to devise others to care for children who by death or otherwise are deprived of their natural protectors. The foundling is the first of these to attract attention. The helpless in- fant left upon the door-step or in the ash barrel, 26 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY makes pathetic, but, as experience shows, generally unavailing appeal to the community at large for the parental care which its unnatural parents have with- drawn. Unavailing because the death rate of all foundling asylums is very high sometimes reach- ing one hundred per centum within the year. If a good foster-nurse can be found quickly the child's life may be saved. An institution which receives both mother and child, or which acts chiefly as an in- termediary between the door-step and a qualified nurse, whether within the same house or in another, may have a comparatively low death rate and may be of great usefulness. That foundlings should be cared for, and in the way best approved as the re- sult of experience admits of no question. Closely allied to this charitable duty is that of preventing the abandonment if possible; the duty of aiding the mother, if the child is born out of wedlock, to sup- port herself and child as nearly as possible by her own efforts; and the duty of compelling the puta- tive father, if he can be found, to contribute his due share of this support. Orphan children of tender years may be cared for by relatives, or quietly taken into the homes of those who stand in some close natural relation to the children or to their parents. In these ways the fact of their dependency may be prevented from disclosing itself. There are many, however, for whom such private and inconspicuous care does not offer. The generosity of strangers must then come into play, or ths community through public agencies THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 27 must assume the burden. The two remedies are in fact found side by side. Private benevolence founds infant, orphan and half-orphan asylums. Religious zeal builds sheltering folds and protec- tories. Societies are formed to place children in free homes in the country, to secure the adoption of the young, to find employment for those who are old enough to work, and to pay board for those who cannot be placed in any other way. There is at the present time a most interesting competition among the various methods of child saving, but no one doubts that it offers an almost unlimited opportunity for private charity, or that when our charitable efforts are multiplied many fold there will still remain for the state an impor- tant duty in caring for those who are still in need of shelter, and sustenance, and of physical, mental and spiritual training. Widows with small children are often in need of outside help. As in all other cases this help may be supplied by relatives or by others who hold some such natural relation to the beneficiary as to preclude the idea of charity in its ordinary sense, but It is obvious that it is an unnatural burden for mothers to be obliged at the same time to earn the financial support and to attend to their home duties. Either the income earned will necessarily be inade- quate or the children personally neglected. Numer- ous devices are resorted to in order to prevent the necessity for charitable assistance, and women who are in good health and who have exceptional energy 28 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY and capacity often succeed. The day nursery may relieve the mother of the oversight of her children during working hours, or, if they are of suitable age, they may be left with neighbors, relatives or friends. In some instances two women upon whom the double responsibility rests have combined forces and established a division of work by which one earns an income while the other looks after the chil- dren of both at home. Again the policy has been pursued of relieving the mother of the care of a sufficient number of her children to make the re- maining family self-supporting. Those who are re- moved may become public charges or may be adopted into private homes, or they may be sup- ported in asylums at private expense. * After all such expedients have been tried and rejected as for some reason inapplicable, there will remain many cases in which the wisest and most charitable course is to supply, either from a relief fund or from special funds raised for the purpose, a definite weekly or monthly allowance to supple- ment what the mother can reasonably be expected to earn, or even to avoid the necessity for any re- munerative employment on her part. The mother may sometimes be in delicate health which would prevent her earning a living for herself and children but not her giving to the children suitable care if the financial income is provided. Others will be able to earn a portion of the living expenses with or without friendly assistance in securing suitable em- ployment, and it will be necessary to make up only THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 39 the remainder. If the mother is of good character and a suitable guardian for her children, assistance should be given in her home in preference to the removal of any of the children,, although there will be instances in which the welfare of the child will be promoted by a removal from the home. 1 More difficult but still within the field of charity is the case of destitute families, in which the man is in prison or in which he is incapable of support- ing his family, or in which he has deserted them. If the incapacity is due to illness, accident or in- \ firmity, help will often be required as in the case of widows with children. If it is due to inefficiency or the lack of moral qualities, charity will have an educational as well as a palliative task, and the former is none the less a duty because it may some- times seem wellnigh hopeless. Single men or single women who are homeless and friendless offer peculiar problems which are more often in the correctional or educational than in the charitable field, although the desire to reclaim and efficiently help those who have thus lost con- nection with the social and industrial world should inspire the community rather than a desire merely for self-protection. The provision of temporary shelters which receive homeless persons free or for nominal charge is al- ways dangerous. Even a work test attached to such shelters does not solve the problem. Intelligent dis- 1 See Eighteenth Annual Report of the New York Char- ity Organization Society (1899-1900). 30 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY crimination as to the length of time for which in- mates are permitted to remain, and a personal in- terest in individuals, extending wherever possible to a personal acquaintance with their former lives, will alone give the information upon which effi- cient assistance can be based. A farm colony is often advocated as a means of training those who are unable after a reasonable trial to find regular employment. It is probable that in this direction lies the ultimate solution. Accompanying such a farm colony, however, the chief purpose of which should be educational rather than correctional, there should be shops for instruction in other occupa- tions. It is a fallacy to suppose that the broken- down and unsuccessful resident of the city can easily be made into a successful farmer, and while suitable occupation in the country can be found for a large proportion of those who are compelled to develop regular habits of industry, there will remain a cer- tain proportion that will succeed better in trades and occupations peculiar to the city. Such are some of the most frequent types of need which are called to the attention of charitable individuals and relief agencies. The field of charity is, however, comprehensive and extends to unex- pected nooks and corners. There is scarcely any profession or calling from which there do not come occasional applicants for assistance. Clergymen, physicians, merchants, politicians, army officers are found in the long line of dependents almost as fre- quently as mechanics, waiters or laborers. Married THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 3! couples with and without children, widows, wid- owers, unmarried persons, and children are all rep- resented by large classes. There are those also of every age who require assistance and every nation- ality, race and religion contributes its quota. The relief of distress, the education and training of those who are capable of such aid, the removal of those causes of distress which lie in the environment these are the field of charity. IV. SUBSTITUTES FOR CHARITY CHARITY does not embody itself completely in private societies and public relief systems. While organized agencies necessarily attract attention in any formal study, since it is easier to discover them, it must not be forgotten that the aid extended by private individuals to those in distress is of vast amount in the aggregate, although usually unre- corded. Says Mr. George Silsbee Hale in the " Me- morial History of Boston " : " There is, there can be, no record of the work and gifts of generous stewards of the abundance which has rewarded lives of labor ; of the men whom the living recall, the steady stream of whose annual beneficence was a king's ransom ; of those whom the living know, whose annual gifts are an ample for- tune, or of the ' honorable women ' whose lives are full of good deeds and almsgiving." It is a question whether the unmeasured, but certainly large, amount of neighborly assistance given in the tenement houses of the city, precisely as in a New England village or in a frontier settle- ment, does not rank first of all among the means for the alleviation of distress. The proverbial kindness of the poor to the poor finds ample illustration in the 32 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 33 congested quarters of the city, even though physical proximity there counts least in the feeling of re- sponsibility for neighbors. One of the most inter- esting generalizations made by Mr. Charles Booth is that, while all classes in London give largely in charity, the poorest people give the most in propor- tion to what they have. This is equally true in American communities. What the housekeeper and the fellow-tenants do for the temporary relief of those whose income is cut off by accident, sickness, or misfortune must be given a large place in any statement of relief systems. Such assistance as this has many advantages over that given by organized societies. There is little probability of imposition, of excessive relief, or of relief that is ill-adapted to its purpose, such as is common in the wholesale distribution often made by public officials, and sometimes shows itself in the work of private agencies. We have no method com- parable to that advocated by Rev. Dr. Thomas Chal- mers for Glasgow, 1 i. e., throwing the responsibility for relief entirely upon the private resources of im- mediate neighbors ; and such a plan might prove in- adequate, but as an element in the instinctive and unorganized methods by which the community dis- tributes among its members the shock of unexpected want, informal neighborly assistance is always to be given a liberal recognition. 1 Thomas Chalmers : The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns. Abridged by Charles R. Henderson. New York, 1900. 34 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY Allied with this, although upon a somewhat dif- ferent basis, may be placed the professional services of physicians in their gratuitous practice, of which some falls to the share of every physician; the in- formation and advice given by lawyers, who un- tangle many a snarl, and protect from many a villainy without compensation; assistance given by church members and pastors individually to their own poor, no mention of which appears upon the official rec- ords of the church ; credit extended with little or no hope of payment by retail dealers, who may be nearly as poor as their customers; forbearance of landlords in the matter of rents; the advance of wages, before they are earned, by employers; and the various other kinds of assistance analogous to these. They are but one step removed from that neighborly charity which gives because of personal acquaintance. It may be said that these are pro- fessional or business relations, rather than personal, yet the underlying motive is similar. The impulse is a charitable one, and if in some instances it is a professional rather than a charitable spirit, it is a magnanimous, altruistic professional spirit, spring- ing from the same qualities that give rise to neigh- borliness, friendship, and charity. It is wholly unmeasured and immeasurable in amount. It is not to be denied that it is sometimes ill-advised and un- fortunate in its results and that it often needs direction and training. It is, however, fundamentally sound and sensible as a feature in the relief of distress. It is one of THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 35 those elastic and illusive but necessary social forces which supplement organized schemes and insure needed assistance where, from ignorance of the necessity, or from a failure on the part of those who are in trouble, to act in what might be consid- ered the rational manner, the more systematic plans might miscarry. It is, therefore, a creditable as well as a considerable element in the relief system, and it is not the least of its advantages that it gives peculiar scope for the development of those quali- ties in the individual which eventually provide organized charity as well as individual assistance. Such charity as this is spontaneous in all professions and callings and among persons of all grades of in- come. It might not seem amiss to enumerate in this con- nection, as an agency for the relief of needy families, those means of self-protection from the evil results of sickness, accident, and death which rest upon a business basis, such as benefit societies, benefit feat- ures of labor organizations, fraternal associations, insurance societies, and clubs of various kinds. 1 They are not, of course, charities, although they are of the greatest possible service in making charity in its lower forms unnecessary. If such preventive organizations covered the whole field of industry, and if personal thrift were developed to the point at which laborers did their own saving instead of paying large sums to others to do their saving for 'Mary Willcox Brown: The Development of Thrift New York, 1898. 36 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY them, the need for providing relief would almost disappear, as the number of needy families would be so small that relatives or neighbors would easily be found to care for them. There would still be room for both the kinds of charity to which reference has last been made, but they could be exercised to a considerable extent in higher spheres. Instead of providing fuel, clothing, and shelter, they would give increased opportunities for social, educational, and industrial advancement, and would only in rare instances need to provide the necessaries of life for those who are unable to supply their own wants. Plans of insurance and self-help are not a part of a system of relief, but they are not to be overlooked as welcome alternatives. There remains a class of special agencies which have a part in the relief of needy families but which do not administer material relief in the ordinary sense. Illustrations of these are: First, the free employment agencies, and others which, while mak- ing a reasonable charge for the services rendered, do this in such a way as to make it possible for one who is without means to take advantage of their facilities, making payment after employment has been secured and wages received. Second, day nurseries, kindergartens and manual training or in- dustrial schools, which, either without compensation, or at moderate prices, relieve working women of the care of their children during the hours when they are employed. Third, agencies for the promotion of thrift, which provide easy means of saving small THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 37 amounts, thus lessening the temptation to extrava- gance and making the way easy for the safe invest- ment of small sums. The free employment agencies have sprung in part from the desire to substitute normal employ- ment both for relief and for artificially created work, and in part from the discovery of abuses practiced upon those needing employment by some of the ordinary commercial agencies, which take advantage of the necessity of the poor to compel them to ac- cept exorbitant terms. So far as the first of these two objects is concerned, the free bureaus have had very limited success. In order to win the confidence of employers, they are under the necessity of recom- mending only competent persons who can provide satisfactory references, but such persons can ordi- narily find employment themselves. The natural result is that the lists of persons who are really placed in positions do not, to any very great ex- tent, overlap the lists of the beneficiaries of relief societies. The natural beneficiary of the free em- ployment agencies is in a slightly higher class in- dustrially than the beneficiary of public or private agencies. Nevertheless both the free employment agency and those which aid with the understanding that payment be made after employment is secured, render an important service, and constitute an ele- ment in the general system of aiding those who are in distress which cannot be neglected. Some states among which are New York and Illinois, now main- tain free public employment bureaus. f 38 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY The day nursery in its simplest form is a home where the children may be left during the day in order to relieve the mother. 1 This is a compara- tively new form of assistance, but it has speedily become popular, and its usefulness is unquestion- able. Two objects have been kept in view by the managers of day nurseries: First, to provide care for children who would otherwise be homeless or without proper care through the day, because the mother is necessarily employed. Second, to enable those mothers who otherwise must stay at home to accept employment, thus obviating the necessity for relief. It has already become reasonably clear that indiscriminate aid in the form of care for children in day nurseries is nearly as objectionable as any other indiscriminate relief. To enable the mother to work when the father is lazy or shiftless or in- competent is sometimes to incur direct responsibility for perpetuating bad family conditions. To receive children whose mothers are not employed -but who can scarcely otherwise keep their children from the street, seems like a natural and praiseworthy course ; but experienced workers come to refuse to do this, on the ground that it removes the chief incentive for better accommodations at home. To receive children whose mother works from a mere whim or from the desire to have a little more in the way of dress or furniture is a doubtful policy, as it may x The Scope of Day Nursery Work: Mary H. Dewey. Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and Cor- rection, 1897, p. 105. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 39 4 become an inducement to neglect home duties. 1 The somewhat striking discovery was made by the managers of one day nursery that by providing practically free care for the children of certain col- ored waiters they were enabling them to work at rather less than market wages for the well-to-do students of a great university. Such are the economic and social problems which are beginning to complicate the day nursery, as in- deed they affect all charitable work. They are not incapable of solution. Here as in other forms of child-saving work a snare lies before those who hope " to save the child ", disregarding the other members of the family. The family must be con- sidered as a whole. Neither the child nor the adult can be dealt with separately. The managers of the day nursery who are actuated by a desire to be of real service to the families whose children are re- ceived, must in each instance face the question as to whether the family is a proper one to receive this particular form of assistance, whether the re- sult in this particular instance is likely on the whole to be beneficial. It will often happen, as in the case of needy widows with small children, homeless children, children of sick mothers or of mothers who are obliged to work because of sick fathers, that the day nursery is a distinct blessing, offering self-help which is always, when practicable, the best kind of help. *Day Nursery Work, Miss M. H. Burgess, National Conference of Charities, and Correction, 1894, p. 424. 40 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY The introduction to the family which is given by caring for the children in a day nursery can nearly always be followed up with advantage by the matron or the managers. By suggestion and en- couragement the attempt may be made to increase the sense of responsibility on the part of parents and aid may be given in building up a healthy, prudent family life. 1 The kindergarten and the manual training or in- dustrial school as educational agencies are im- portant parts of the system of public education. They are referred to here incidentally, because to some extent they perform a service similar to that of the day nurseries, caring for children who would otherwise demand the time of the mother who has had to become the bread winner. The Child-Saving Committee of the Twenty-fourth National Con- ference of Charities and Correction 2 took the ground that the day nursery, kindergarten, and manual training school are aids to child-saving which ought not to be dependent upon fitful benevolence; but that they should be placed in alignment with com- mon schools, for the protection and culture of child life and the aid of those who toil for the support of humble homes. Public sentiment would gen- erally support this proposition so far as it relates to the second and third of these classes, but the day nursery would still be held in all parts of the coun- 1 Boston Charities Directory. 1899, p. 68. Description ol Free Day Nurseries supported by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw. 1 Held in Toronto : 1897. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 41 try to be a suitable object of private benevolence, rather than an institution for public maintenance and control. The day nursery is frequently as- sociated with a social settlement, a church, or a charitable society, but it is as frequently established independently and there is now a Federation of Day Nurseries which is national in its scope. The earliest organized effort to promote small savings was that inaugurated by the Charity Or- ganization Society of Newport in the year 1880. Discovering that many of the poor who applied to them for relief during the winter had exactly the same income as others who lived comfortably throughout the year, through better management and greater providence, the Society secured the services of four women who volunteered to call every week from house to house to collect the small sums that these people could afford to lay by. 1 In estimating the value of this work a recent report of the Society 2 says, " There is the encouragement of habits of economy, foresight, and thrift among the small wage-earners of our community; there is the prevention of hardship and partial dependence on charity which would be consequent upon a winter of enforced idleness or uncertain employment; for the most of the saving is done in the summer months when the facilities for money-making are increased, and the most of the withdrawals of sav- Saving Society; Mrs. John H. Scribner, National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1887, p. 143. 'Newport, 1899. 42 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY ings come in the winter when those who secure labor during our season are thrown out of work at its finish. There is the personal contact of our poor with the savings collectors, a contact which almost always ripens into a friendship affording oppor- tunities for advice, comfort, and helpful suggestions in household administration." From this beginning the system of small savings has extended throughout the country. The Penny Provident Fund of the Charity Organization So- ciety of the City of New York was organized in 1888 and now collects annually about $90,000 from over 57,000 depositors. The Committee of the Fund announces distinctly that it is not a savings bank, but aims to do what savings banks do not do to invite savings of small sums, less than one dollar, from adults as well as children. Deposits of one cent and upward are receipted for by stamps attached to a stamp card given to each depositor, analogous to the postal savings system of Englanc When a sufficient sum has thus been saved, de- positors are encouraged to open an account in savings bank, where interest can be earned. V. ORGANIZED CHARITY THERE have been three distinctly progressive movements in the organization of private relief. One of these dates from the beginning of the present century, or earlier. This was the establish- ment of /reliejjspcieties, which were to take the place of indiscriminate alms-giving by individuals and which were to increase the funds available for sup- plying the needs of particular classes which were thought to have been neglected. This movement has continued intermittently to the present time, and every year sees the formation of new societies and funds. The second was the formation oil associations for improving the condition of the poor, whose func- tions were not to be confined to relief, although they absorbed in many instances older and smaller so- cieties. As the name indicates, their founders ex- pected that these associations would promote benev- olent enterprises of various kinds, and they were not to deal in relief at all except in so far as this could be made a lever for the permanent elevation of those to whom it is given. They were to im- prove the condition of the poor. The particular busi- ness and objects of these associations, as is stated in the incorporation of the one first formed, are the ele- 43 44 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY vation of the physical and moral condition of the in- digent, and, so far as is compatible with these ob- jects, the relief of their necessities. Unfortunately these objects were seldom kept as clearly in view as trfey were at the time when the first societies were founded. At the 'end of the seventies, they had become for the most part simply relief societies, and often their administration of re- lief had fallen into routine methods and was far from contributing as much as it should to the eleva- tion of the physical and moral condition of the in- digent. There were then in many cities, under various names, voluntary general relief societies, professedly ready to undertake any sort of humane task within their ability. 1 Little use was made of voluntary friendly visitors, and consequently or- ganized relief, if it accomplished its purpose of aid- ing the destitute, did not educate the charitable public in intelligent and discriminating relief meth- ods. Public out-door relief was in many places lavish and its administration careless, extravagant, and, in some instances, corrupt. There were no adequate safeguards against deception, no common registration of relief to prevent duplication, and private almsgiving while it was profuse in meeting the obvious distress, was admittedly and wholly in- adequate in meeting situations which require gen- erous financial contributions and long-continued and 'Report of the Committee on History of Charity Organization: Charles D. Kellogg, Twentieth Nation- al Conference of Charities and Correction, 1893. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 45 persistent personal attention. To meet these recog- nized evils and the lack of co-operation the charity organization societies, one of which had been suc- cessfully in operation in London, were proposed by those who were considering possible remedies. The essential features of this third movement,* which distinguished it, not because they were novel ideas, but because they were worked out for the first time consistently, and because the societies have clung to them with steadily increasing faith in their t potency, are as follows: First: Investigation. In ^modern organized charity this has come to mean something more than it had meant for those who had proclaimed the necessity for discriminating be- tween the deserving and the undeserving. Inves- tigation is not solely or even primarily for the pur- pose of thwarting the expectations of imposters. It is not even merely a device for preventing the waste of charity upon unworthy objects, in order that it may be used for those who are really in need. In- vestigation is rather an instrument for the intelli- gent treatment of distress. It is analogous to the diagnosis of the physician, who does not attempt to treat a serious malady from a glance at its super- ficial indications, but who carefully inquires into hidden and early manifestations of the disease, and seeks to know as much as possible of the compli- cating influences with which he must reckon in ef- fecting a cure. Investigation, therefore, while it should never be inconsiderate, or blundering, or heartless, must be painstaking, conscientious, and 46 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY honest. It will exclude irrelevant gossip, but will embrace a close scrutiny of the actual facts, its aim being not to enable the investigating agent to affix a label of worthy or unworthy, but to de- termine what help can be given, from what source *t should come, and how these agencies may be brought into definite and hearty co-operation. This kind of investigation has been developed as one feature of organized charity. Its possibilities have been only gradually unfolded. They are realized only gradually in the experience of individ- ual workers. Investigations made at the outset,* even by one who has thoroughly grasped the prin- ciples involved, are certain to appear to himself, in the light of later experience, to be either superficial and inadequate, or crude, mechanical, and unneces- sarily elaborate. A bad investigation may be either too full or too meagre, or it may be neither. The investigation is made not for its own sake, but as a necessary step in the careful and adequate remedy of the defects or misfortunes that have brought the applicant to seek relief. In the ma- jority of cases, however, if the investigation is wise and complete it will reveal personal sources and facts which will enable the situation to be met with- out calling in outside aid, and in this way, in a large proportion of instances, investigation might be said to become a substitute for relief. The second fundamental characteristic of orga- nized charity is its insistence upon co-operation. By this is meant not merely agreement among various THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 47 societies and organized agencies upon general plans of co-operation, but rather co-operation in dealing with individual cases of distress upon the basis of the facts ascertained by investigation. It involves, in other words, acceptance of the plan of relief which is calculated to remgdy the defects or to sup-* ply the deficiencies that have been discovered. This may mean that each of the co-operating individuals or societies shall supplement the efforts of the others by contributing a part of the money or work needed ; or it may mean that they will agree to a division of work, each leaving to the other a part for which its facilities are adapted ; or it may mean a division of the cases to be dealt with, each agree- ing to leave entirely to the other certain classes of individuals or families whose needs are to be studied and adequately met By the agency to which they are assigned. One of the simplest forms of co-operation is that between the church and the relief agency, secured by ^either directly frorn the other in the case of a given family, or secured by the agent of the charity organization society from both. In this co-opera- tion material needs-should be supplied by the relief agency, and the church should provide the necessary spiritual oversight and the necessary formative in- fluences for the children, and, if necessary, reforma- tive influences for older members of the family. It sometimes happens that the family has no need of reformation, that it contains within itself all the necessary resources for education and training, 4 8 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY while the financial income alone is lacking or insuf- ficient. Even under such circumstances the com- panionship of new friends may not be amiss ; conso- lation in sickness or trouble, encouragement in periods of unusual difficulties, enlargement of social opportunities, may all be entirely appropriate. But in most cases besides this agreeable and com- paratively easy form of friendly visiting, there will be a need for the performance of sterner tasks. Habits of intemperance, shiftlessness, and foolish expenditure will need to be broken up. Downright ignorance and stupidity will need to be overcome. It is necessary to give wise counsel concerning em- ployment and to suggest readjustment of domestic arrangements. Such suggestion and instruction from one who has succeeded in life proffered to those who are less successful might easily become an impertinence and would ordinarily be resented, except from those who are already on an intimate footing. Application for assistance, however, when made either to an individual stranger, or at the bureau of a relief agency, is in itself a confession of complete or partial failure in the industrial struggle, and, although it may be accompanied by no personal fault, it opens the door for demanding complete confidence as to all the circumstances which have caused the partial or complete failure. Such application is ordinarily made for the first time only at some crisis in life which makes con- fidence easy, sweeping away the ordinary barriers of reserve. The friendly visitor, whether supplied THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 49 by the church or directly by the charity organiza- tion society, must appreciate the value of such op- portunities and utilize them to gain an insight into the source of the new neighbor's troubles, laying here the foundation for helpful personal relations which are to be continued until the causes of the de- pendence have been removed, if they are removable, or until the plan for supplying any necessary de- ficiency of income shall have been thoroughly worked out and put into successful operation. The working out of such a plan involving, as we < have seen, investigation and co-operation of which one element should always be friendly personal in- terest, and another oftentimes temporary or con- tinuous material relief the working out of such a plan and carrying it through, with the aid of the friendly visitor, of the relief agency, and, not least, of the family or individual to be helped the work- ing out of a definite plan for meeting the precise difficulties to be overcome, and the long-continued personal oversight which such a plan involves, is what is meant by the organization of charity, and it is the peculiar task of the charity organization societies, or of the relief societies and individuals that do their work on behalf of the needy in ac- cordance with the principles of organized charity. A special service rendered by the charity organi- zation societies, so important that it may be de- scribed as the third essential feature of the move- ment, is the provision of a" central registration of the relief work of such societies, churches and in- 50 THE PRACTICE O.^ CHARITY dividuals as voluntarily make use of the bureau es- tablished for this purpose. No community has suc- ceeded in obtaining a complete registration of what is done for the destitute but in many instances all the important organized charities regularly report to the bureau and receive in return information as to what is done by other agencies for families in whom they are interested. Even if there are not formal reports from the re- lief societies, the registration bureau of an active \ charity organization society gradually accumu- lates the information that is of value concerning nearly all of the families asking for relief and alms, certainly concerning those who are known to two or more relief agencies. This information is ob- tained in the course of the investigations made by the society when application is made at its own office or to individuals, churches, and societies who request an investigation by the society. The ideal plan, however, is undoubtedly for the registration bureau to receive this information directly from the relief agencies with the understanding that it is confidential and is to be imparted only to those having a legitimate interest. One axiom upon which it has been necessary to ^'insist, obvious as it seems, is that relief must be efficient and adequate. Indiscriminate almsgiving practiced through the centuries seems to have ob- scured certain elementary and extremely obvious truths. That giving money or the necessities of life without return to persons who are leading THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 51 vicious and useless lives is in effect manufacturing vice and degradation ; that it is a travesty upon the name of charity to give a dollar which by barely sus- taining life for a short time outside a suitable in- stitution will frustrate the efforts which friends already interested in the beneficiary are making to induce him to accept decent shelter and provision of the necessaries of life within such an institution; that the giving or withholding of relief should be decided primarily with reference to its probable effect upon the one to whom it is given, and that re- lief should not be given which is directly harmful, in the vain hope that it will in some way promote the personal salvation of the one who gives; and finally that charity remains a duty even though one may have made many mistakes in its ministrations, are among these elementary truths. It is far easier to drop into slipshod methods of administration than to maintain a high standard of real efficiency. It is easier to decide to give half a ton of coal to all of the " deserving " families making application for it than to deal intelligently with each family, giving in some instances, when it is right to do so, several tons of coal, and in other instances merely a bucketful until other and really adequate means are found of relieving the real or apparent distress, and in still others, where it may be done without too much danger, leaving the applicants to learn by personal privation the necessity for saving from even a meagre income sufficient for the purchase of fuel and of other necessaries. When the city gives 5 2 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY a pension of fifty dollars a year to all of the indigent blind who have resided in it for two years, it affords a shining example of inadequate relief. The in- digent blind can no more be thrown into a general class and treated in a wholesale manner than can the indigent who have lost one eye or those who have failed in the management of fruit stands. The prin- ciple upon which organized charity insists is that relief must be adequate in amount, however large the number of persons or agencies that must unite to provide it ; that it must be adapted to its purpose, for example, not consisting of broken food if the need is for a shovel to enable one to take work ; that the miserable habit of finding petty excuses for ac- ceding to the wishes of the applicant against the real judgment of the one who makes the decision must be absolutely abandoned. A case record which fell into the hands of the writer recently tells the story of four generations of dependency caused di- rectly by the character of the persons constituting the three generations which had reached maturity. An agent, to whom these facts were or should have been known, calling at the request of some citizen who had referred the case, gave groceries upon the first visit, entering upon the record : " Family seems unworthy. Gave groceries because family lives in basement and father attempts to provide otherwise." There was no explanation of what " otherwise " meant, but it could truthfully mean only otherwise than by honest labor, and the action of the visitor is another instance of inadequate relief. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 53 Organized charity in the larger towns is usually, but not necessarily, represented by a society known by some such name as the charity organization society, or the associated charities. It may be rep- resented only by individuals who accept its prin- ciples, or by a relief society, or an association for improving the condition of the poor. Organized charity has been defined by the General Agent of one of the latter agencies as " the association of individ- uals seeking in an enlightened way, through an ex- perience gained in common, to encourage, develop, and control that impulse of the human heart which impels the individual to aid those whom he believes to be in distress." x In a few instances the lethargy and inefficiency which twenty years ago characterized the relief societies and the associations for improving the con- dition of the poor have been entirely shaken off, and their administration is now characterized by energy and a progressive spirit. In general, however, during the past quarter of a century, it is the charity organization societies that have most strenuously advocated and most consist- ently practiced the principles of organized charity. These societies are themselves not exempt from the danger of demoralization. They are liable to pre- cisely the same danger as relief societies, associa- tions for improving the condition of the poor, and individual citizens who desire to be charitable. In- lr The Uses and Limitations of Material Relief: Frank Tucker. The Charities Review for August, 1900. 54 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY vestigation may become with them as with others a perfunctory and meaningless thing. For co-opera- tion in its proper sense there may be substituted an easy acquiescence in suggestions made by other so- cieties or agencies whether they are sensible or not. Relief for which they are responsible may become routine, inadequate and inefficient. If the best so- cieties have kept free to a considerable extent from these dangers, and have constantly renewed the high standards and the intelligent methods which, as we have seen, have characterized other movements for the better organization of charity as well as their own, this happy result is due in a very large measure to the single fact that they have not themselves directly disbursed relief. As an investigating and relief obtaining agency, it is constantly necessary for the charity organization society to justify its decisions to others to secure their assent and to win their approval. As an agency for promoting co- operation, it is necessary for the society to appeal strongly and convincingly to all branches of the charitable public. It has little temptation to become sentimental and its work can be kept upon a basis of broad common sense, honest dealing with facts at first hand, maintaining a due proportion between various kinds of charitable needs, and shunning those forms of charitable activity which win easy but fleeting popularity. Even those who are noti attracted by the ideal of charity organization so| cieties because they do not fully understand iU nevertheless pay a tribute to their insistence upoflj THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 55 high standards, to their thoroughness of method and their uncompromising refusal to applaud enterprises which are called charitable and in which the pro- moters have great faith, unless they are really of advantage to the poor. Of course such a position as this in the community is not in the long run an unenviable or even an un- popular one. In some of the older cities it is no- ticeable that many who were once hostile to the I charity organization societies have become cordial, 5 and that attacks upon them have been less frequent ; while in many of the cities in which societies have I more recently been formed they have escaped the misunderstandings and controversies which had seemed inevitable. The controversies, however, ; have not always arisen from a misapprehension of the objects and methods of the societies. Pursuant to their aim of bringing about better organization of the charitable work of the community, they have I often encountered antiquated, mismanaged and in some instances wholly dishonest so-called charities, and it has been a part of their duty to expose these false claimants upon the generosity of the public. Unfortunately very respectable citizens who have carelessly allowed their names to be used in connec- tion with enterprises about which they knew little or nothing have sometimes been affected by these ex- posures, and while there are instances in which they have immediately joined in the attempt to correct abuses and punish serious offenders, there are other instances in which they have been led by personal 56 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY resentment to attack the agency which is respon- sible for allowing the facts to be known, rather than the evils in question. Besides the enemies which have arisen in this manner, there are many excellent people who are unable to agree with the decision reached by the societies in regard to the treatment of particular cases of destitution in which they are per- sonally interested. They are disappointed that some other course has not been followed, and they refuse to credit the sincerity of the society in its different view, or even neglect to ascertain what the divergent view really is. In any given case the representatives of the society may form a mistaken judgment and the one who feels that he has a grievance against the society may be entirely in the right as to the course which should have been taken. It is, how- ever, probable that the number of persons who from disappointment or resentment at the action taken, or the failure to act, may finally become consider- ably greater than the number of mistakes made by the society would warrant, and a few discontented citizens may easily establish a general public opinion unfavorable to the methods and practice of the so- ciety. All this is to be obviated only by tact in ex- plaining the reasons for the particular decision made, and a perfect readiness to discuss the ques- tions involved with any who have a legitimate in- terest in them. Coupled with this, however, there should be, and to an increasing extent there is in fact, a persistent and reiterated emphasis upon the constructive and positive sides of the work of the THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 57 charity organization societies, and repeated dem- onstration of the actual value of the results obtained in individual instances. Attention may be called finally to a very important distinction between the charity organization so- cieties and other organized relief agencies, and in this connection the experience of the Boston Provi- dent Association, the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and the Chicago Relief and Aid Society in the matter of volunteer visitors is of interest. In each case volun- teer visitors were formerly employed, and in each case as a means of promoting efficiency in the dis- bursement of relief such volunteer service was dis- continued. The charity organization societies, however, have increased rather than diminished the proportion of their work that is done by unpaid vol- unteer workers. It is difficult to conceive a success- ful charity organization society working on any other plan. This is precisely because their object is the organization of charity, in other words the edu- cation and training of the charitably disposed indi- viduals, the men and women who are willing to give either time or money, or both, for the relief of dis- tress. The charity organization society undertakes a more difficult task than the direct relief of distress. It is to insure that the limited amount of charitable work which any one society may perform shall be done in such a way as to train the volunteer who co-operates in doing it. It is not too much to say 58 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY that the chief aim of the charity organization so- ciety is to improve the charitable method of the gen- eral public. Its aim is to help the poor, but to do this by persuasive teaching, and, so far as public opinion can accomplish the result, by compelling the pastor, the church worker, the business and profes- sional man, the volunteer of every description, to help the poor in wiser and more effective ways. This is fundamentally for the sake of the poor and not for the sake of adding to the comfort or well- being of the well-to-do. It does the latter inciden- tally by making their charitable donations accom- plish more real good and adding the satisfaction which always accompanies work intelligently per- formed. The distinction made by Mr. Edward Frothingham is, therefore entirely sound. 1 / A provi- dent association whose sole aim is to help the poor directly should rely upon professional agents. An associated charities whose chief aim is educational must have its corps of friendly visitors 2 and must win the co-operation of those who do not in any formal way enrol themselves as workers of the so- ciety. Whether it does this or not is one of the tests of its success. There are many different kinds of work which friendly visitors may do in all of which the training that is desired may be secured. What has been said will indicate the natural divis- '"One of Boston's Great Charities," in the Prospect Union Review for March 6, 1895. 'What is Charity Organization? Miss Mary E. Rich- mond. The Charities Review for January, 1900, p. 496. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 59 ion of work between an association for improving the condition of the poor and a charity organiza- tion society if both exist in the same city. To the former will naturally belong the relief of the neces- sities of the poor so far as is consistent with the improvement of their condition, and within its scope will also lie numerous forms of beneficent activity, determined by the social needs of the time, and lim- ited only by the financial resources entrusted to the association by the community and by the capacity for management shown by those who direct its policy. Such an association may properly investi- gate its own applications for relief, or may adopt some method of co-operation with the clfarity or- ganization society by which the latter will do this work. The charity organization society, however, should seek no monopoly of investigations, and if the decision as to treatment rests upon the associa- tion for improving the condition of the poor there are distinct advantages in having its investigations made by its own agents. The task of the charity organization society will be that of maintaining; a registration bureau, investigating all applications for assistance made at its office or referred to it by others, forming a plan for the adequate treatment of each case, securing the necessary co-operation, ' moral, educational and financial, in carrying this plan into operation, organizing relief in individual cases when relief should come from various sources personal to the applicant or otherwise, and finally by the employment of the spare hours of all who -are 60 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY willing to do any amount of charitable work, grad- ually improving the character of all charitable work done in the community. This is more difficult and in many instances far more discouraging work than that of disbursing relief. It is for this reason that a wise worker has said that " charity organization is not a work to which any man should put his hand unless he is prepared to give to it some measure of devotion." It is hard work, requiring time and thought and patience and judgment. It is abso- lutely necessary work, and the merit of the charity organization societies is that they have not merely talked about it but have provided a practical and definite plan by which it can be, and which in a large number of communities has been in a very notable degree performed. It will not be necessary to describe the form of government and of organization prevailing in the various societies, 1 but there is one feature character- istic of all except the smaller societies. This is the district committee, through which the constructive work of the society on behalf of needy families is done. In the smaller societies where it is not necessary to divide the territory to be covered into districts there is nevertheless usually a committee whose functions are identical with the district com- mittee of the larger societies. The functions of the district committee cannot be better described than in the following paragraphs from the pen of Mrs. *See Appendix I for model constitution of a charity organization society. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 6 1 Charles Russell Lowell upon whose initiative the New York society was founded and who has con- tributed more to the theory and to the practice of organized charity than any one else in America. " The reason for the formation of ' district com- mittees ' is to arouse a local interest in the work, and to break up the great city into what Dr. Chal- mers calls ' manageable portions of the civic terri- tory ', because these smaller divTsions appeal more strongly to the imagination of the worker than the whole can possibly do. To quote Dr. Chalmers again : ' There is a very great difference in respect to its practical influence between a task that is in- definite and a task that is clearly seen to be over- takable. The one has the effect to paralyze, the other to quicken exertion. " The first condition of an ideal district commit- tee is, then, that it should have a domain not too large in which to work. Further, that it should be composed of residents in that domain who unite together to take charge of its public interest and to help such poor persons as are found, after inquiry, to need help. Its special functions are, to destroy pauperism within the boundaries of the district, and also to concern itself with all measures that will make the life of persons, not paupers, but suf- fering from poverty, more bearable. " In dealing with individual cases of pauperism and of poverty the main characteristic of its work is that it endeavors to find adequate relief for each 62 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY person that is, it seeks to cure and not to alleviate distress that appeals to it for aid, and as almost all distress of the kind that does appeal to strangers for aid is of a kind that has its cause in some defect of character, the building up of character is (or ought to be) one of the first objects of a district committee in all its relations with individuals. It is because this character-building is the distinctive feature of the committee's dealings with individuals that what are called ' Friendly Visitors ' are of such tremendous importance, for it is only individuals who can influence individuals. There cannot be the slightest taint of mechanism or officialism in this work and for every miserable, weak, hopeless per- son or family there ought to be a helping, strong, wise person to undertake their education. " The object of the district committee is to make itself a meeting place for all workers from churches and charitable societies in its district in order that co-operation among them may be a living reality. There are weekly meetings to consider the best way of helping those needing help, and at these the ' Friendly Visitors ' are advised and it is decided where and from whom any ' temporary relief ' needed in each individual case is to be obtained, whether from a society,^rom an individual, or from the employers and relations of the person in distress, for the district committee has no relief funds of its own, and is forbidden to have them. 1 1 This is the rule of the New York and Baltimore Charity Organization Societies and of the Boston Associated Chari- THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 63 " In order to accomplish its objects the district committee must ' point to higher paths and lead the way ' in charity, and constantly seek to influence more people to work with it. In all parts of all cities in these modern days there are plenty of peo- ple who are trying to do good to the poor, mem- bers of churches or societies of various kinds, who are full of sympathy with suffering and who desire to relieve the sufferers. Unfortunately, however, they are often too ignorant to know that they are ig- norant they think that what appears on the surface is all that exists, and it seems to them sheer folly and hard-heartedness for any one to say that there is any harm or any danger of harm in giving food to people who say they are hungry, in supplying clothes to children who come begging to them in scanty garments, in giving money to women with wailing babies in their arms. They know nothing, it would seem, of human nature, or of experience, and they cannot imagine that children should be sent out naked and hungry into the cold streets for the purpose of gathering in money from the pity of the passers-by, and that this very giving is the cause of the misery the giving vainly tries to cure, and that the way to cure is much more difficult. Therefore it is the office of the charity organization society and of its district committees to instruct all such well- meaning persons, who long to do good, but do not know how, to beg and beseech them to come together ties. The London Society also obtains relief on the "case- by-case" plan. 64 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY and listen to facts, and learn how to do the work they have undertaken. There is plenty of experi- ence to appeal to. Every one, all over the civilized world, who has given earnest thought and effort to the study of how to help poor people, how to cure pauperism, and how to lift the degraded out of their degradation is absolutely agreed as to methods. " It is a most encouraging and inspiring fact that there is no diversity of opinion among those who have experience and who have accepted their experi- ence with open minds. The universal conclusion is that the only way to lift the body is to lift the soul first ; ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you/ " * The advantages of organization in charitable work are as apparent in the smaller cities and towns as in large cities. Some of the most progressive and useful societies in America are to be found in cities with a population of less than 50,000. Glasgow in Scotland and Elberfeld in Germany while still cities of very moderate size became pioneers in important reform movements. There is much to be said in support of the proposition that a small city offers the best opportunity for testing new ideas, and realiz- ing an approach to ideal social conditions. Whether this be so or not, certainly no one need hesitate to 1 Report of the Committee on District Work. Seven- teenth Annual Report of the New York Charity Organiza' tion Society, pp. 32-34, New York : 1899. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 65 apply the principles of organized charity to the com- munity in which he may reside, whether it be urban, suburban, or rural. In an appendix to this volume the draft of a suggested constitution is given for a society such as should be formed in every town and city. If greater informality is desired the plan may be modified by the omission of such features as are not considered applicable ; but each section should be considered with due care since difficulties may be averted by reaching a tentative decision in ad- vance upon all such questions, subject of course to modification in the light of experience. VI. VOLUNTEER SERVICE IN discussing the place of volunteer service "in the practice of charity, we may profitably begin by con- sidering what needs are really greatest in the de- pendent members of society, that we may thus form some idea of the relative social values of the various forces at work for their benefit. Is the problem of destitution chiefly economic, or religious, or social? If it is chiefly economic what is its exact character as an economic problem, and what part, if any, may social and religious influences play in its solution? * There are those who assert roundly that the sole need of the poor is that the well-to-do should get off their backs and give them a chance. There is no need to be frightened at, or to criticize this position merely because it is radical. It does not matter how radical a remedy is so that it is sound. A remedy that is radical, i. e., one which goes to the root of the matter, is always to be pre- ferred. What is objectionable in this revolutionary doctrine is that it is not sound or accurate as an analysis of the trouble. There are spots here and there in which those who have great privileges es- cape a just accounting for them, to the injury of the poor and of the community as a whole, but this is 66 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 67 no explanation of pauperism or poverty, and throws very little light indeed upon the individual failures and the unfortunate accidents which give to the charitable their gigantic tasks. In the eighteenth century, and well on into our own, there was a prevailing school of thought that found all the explanation for misery and social in- equality in the oppressive burden of government and its accompanying social institutions. Take off the burdens, was their urgent cry. Man by nature is progressive, intelligent and good. He has been held down. Remove all these artificial restrictions. Let human society be left free to work out its own sal- vation, and all the woes we deplore will silently dis- appear. Laissez faire, laissez passer. Let every- thing alone, and there will be no trouble. This, too, is fallacious and in practice of no value to those who care about the outcome. The best thought of those who desire social re- form and improvement is now crystallizing in the idea that liberty social freedom is not a state of nature, but a positively created condition in which the most active vigilance on the part of the com- munity is needed to destroy new, dangerous growths, and to keep the field constantly clear for the natural and fruitful plants of enterprise, industry and honor- able toil. ' The economists have led us to expect much from mechanical invention, progress in the arts, improve- ments in production, cheapening of gobds, cheapen- ing of transportation enabling the things we need 68 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY to be carried from a distance and ourselves to live at a distance from our work, or to change our loca- tion when our work requires it. It is well not to undervalue the contribution to human welfare made by industrial progress. Such progress has helped the poor more than the rich, and the great body of the people who are neither rich nor poor, but who live on weekly wages, more than either. But it would seem that a point has been reached at which increased prosperity and welfare will in the future rest largely upon changes in another field. It is not the amount of wealth we produce but the use we make of it that is of the greatest consequence. It is our standard of living, rather than our mental or muscular power, that determines whether or not we are to be prosperous. It is not the factorv that is of the very greatest importance but the home. It is not our productive efficiency but our intelligence as consumers that decides for us whether we shall live and prosper, or lose ground and perish. If a community suddenly comes into new posses- sions, gets control of gold mines, builds a railroad, invents a new machine, or moves into more fertile territory, it is by no means certain that it will be better off as a result. Whether it will or not de- pends upon whether its standard of living is high and improving or low and stationary. The new wealth may mean temptation, debauchery and loss of vitality, and so loss of real wealth ; or it may mean better schools, more libraries, more beautiful homes, more comforts an increase of real wealth. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 69 A similar diversity of experience may befall dif- ferent families in the same community. Those families which have a high standard will profit by increased opportunities, while those who have not will find that they have lost ground and that the gulf between themselves and their more fortunate neigh- bors is wider than ever. There are then two distinct ways in which we may increase prosperity. We may make goods more cheaply by improving our productive processes, or we may make better use of what we have pro- duced, which will involve our making an ever better selection among the things which we are able to buy. Speaking generally and with many reservations and exceptions the first is man's work the second is wo- man's work. The mill, the factory, the railway, the mine and the farm are man's domain. But the home, where all the fruits of human toil are at last enjoyed, is woman's realm. The great opportun- ities for advance and improvement in the immediate future are in the field of wealth consumption, or use, rather than in the rougher and better known field of work and industry. What shall we eat, how shall we select and prepare it? What shall we wear? With what furniture and decorations shall we sur- round ourselves ? ' Shall we live in flats or houses in the center of the city or in the suburbs? Health, sanitation and the water supply, kinder- gartens, schools, books, newspapers, music, travel, these are, strictly speaking, the important matters, rather than wages, strikes, stocks, franchises, 70 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY money, foreign possessions important as these also arej If this is so for the community as a whole, it is pre-eminently true of our poorest brethren. By so long a route but no longer than was necessary to^ make the point clear we come back to our peculiar problem. We labor for the real good, the permanent and lasting good of those who falter in life's keen" struggle and fall behind. What then shall we doJ for them? Find work, has perhaps been the most < confident and most persistent answer. Give relief in work, not in alms. Excellent so far as it goes, but the other half of a really radical answer is: Help them to create better home environment. On this side lies the difficulty in the great number of cases. Whittier's description of a home among the New Hampshire hills may be recalled. Although he sings of a country mountain home the city also may' appropriate his lines, for a girl from the town was its creator: On either hand I saw the signs Of fancy and of shrewdness, Where taste had wound its arms of vines Round thrift's uncomely rudeness. Taste and thrift are the essentials of a home whether in a compact city flat or on the wind-swept, sunlit hillside. How shall they be developed where they are not? There is but one way: by the all-compelling and THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 71 God-given power of personal friendship. In the schools we may teach something of color and form and neatness, but there is need for an influence that will reach adults also. It is a deceptive philosophy that turns the back upon parents as hopeless and pro- poses to save the children. We can not save chil- dren separately. We must reach and save the family as a whole, and we must do what we do in undis- guised and unaffected friendship for the family as a whole. The friendly visitor, the visiting friend, whether she have any technical designation or not, and whether she be formally enrolled anywhere as a part of a corps of friendly visitors or not, is unquestion- ably the most essential element in social amelioration. Let Whittier again in the same poem from which we have quoted, describe her: \ Flowers spring to blossom where she walks The careful ways of duty; Our hard, stiff lines of life with her Are flowing curves of beauty. Our homes are cheerier for her sake, Our door yard brighter blooming, And all about the social air Is sweeter for her coming. Unspoken homilies of peace Her daily life is preaching; The still refreshment of the dew Is her unconscious teaching. 72 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY And never tenderer hand than hers Unknits the brow of ailing; Her garments to the sick man's ear Have music in their trailing. Her presence lends its warmth and health To all who come before it. If woman lost us Eden, such As she alone restore it. Friendship in the sense in which it has social value, is an outgoing affection, wholly and entirely disin- terested. It consists, as Henry Clay Trumbull says, 1 in loving rather than being loved; in being a friend rather than in having a friend; in giving one's affection unselfishly and unswervingly to an- other not in being the object of another's affection. Where there is such friendship, coupled with an in- telligent consideration of what the welfare of the family which one befriends most requires, there is the beginning of hope and prosperity. It becomes possible to give good advice and to get it accepted. There is a Sanscrit proverb : * The words which from a stranger's lips offend Are honey sweet if spoken by a friend. As when the smoke of common wood we spurn, But call it perfume sweet with fragrant aloes burn. 1 Friendship The Master Passion. Philadelphia, 1894. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 73 We are speaking of the plain, common sense prac- tical value of friendship, not of some ethereal and impossible quality. As Emerson says: 1 1" I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with roughest courage. When they are real they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we know.'J Such friendship as this, that will seize upon a family when an opportunity offers, either because the children are in one's kindergarten, or because the father or mother has appealed for help, and so given an opening, or because one has business or social or religious relations that justify it friend- ship that persists through discouragement is the strongest social agency at work in society. It may spring from a social settlement or a church, or a business house, but also from any home in which there is a man, woman or child capable of friend- ship. It is sometimes said by those who are not in sym- pathy with the system of friendly visiting as a feature of organized charity that such relations as these cannot be deliberately inaugurated, but can only arise when there is a natural social or industrial tie. It is pointed out that an employer may, under favor- able circumstances, become acquainted in this way with the families of his employees and may exercise a beneficial influence over them. Women who em- ploy a laundress or seamstress may, it is alleged, 1 Essay on Friendship. 74 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY legitimately interest themselves in the domestic af- fairs of those with whom they thus have earlier re- lations, 4 but it is not conceivable that such relations should be deliberately created with strangers. The answer to this criticism is that the facts do not justify it. Hundreds of instances may be cited in which a friendly visitor whose introduction came through a charitable interest has stood loyally by the family or individual whom he has befriended through many years of intimate and mutually profit- able acquaintance. It is by no means true that friendships are possible only among those of pre- cisely the same walks in life. Hear Emerson again : " I much prefer the company of plow boys and tin peddlers to the silken and perfumed amity which celebrates its days of encounter by frivolous dis- play, by rides in a curricle and dinners at the best taverns. The end of friendship is a commerce more strict and homely than any of which we have ex- perience. It is for aid and comfort through all the relations and passages of life and death. It is fit for serene days and graceful gifts and country ram- bles, but also for rough roads and hard fare, ship- wreck, poverty and persecution. We are to dignify to each other the daily needs and offices of man's life and embellish it by courage, wisdom and unity. It should never fall into something usual and settled, but should be alert and inventive and add rhyme and reason to what was drudgery," x * Essay on Friendship. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 75 The relation must be sane, sensible and unpreten- tious. It must take account of such homely facts as that which came from a butcher, whose trade is almost entirely among weekly wage-earners, that he had noticed a regular cycle among them, com- pleted each time within the week. On Saturday night and Sunday and Monday the expensive cuts that were .to be had were wanted by everybody. Their ideas kept going down steadily during the week, until on Thursday and Friday the house- keepers, whose stock of money was near exhaus- tion, satisfied themselves with anything that would make up into a stew. This is not so extreme as the case of a starving family that was relieved during a snowstorm with the munificent cash sum of four dollars, whereupon they spent one dollar for food, another for drink and the remaining two dol- lars, as the father said, in buying " a pup for de kids to play wid." This illustrates in a crude but con- crete way what the task is that lies before the candi- date for a friend's laurels. The friendly visitor who has had experience and training is of course much more useful than one who has no capital except charitable interest and zeal for personal service. The district committee or the visitors' conference of a charity organization so- ciety or associated charities is the best of all places to gain the training necessary to useful service. In such a conference the inexperienced may seek ad- vice and all who are puzzled may present their dif- ficulties for the counsel of their associates. The col- 7 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY lective wisdom of even a small group of earnest workers is likely to exceed that of any of its individ- ual members. This is more certain to be true when, as usually happens, the visitors approach their work from somewhat different points of view and have had varied experiences. It has been suggested that volunteer charity workers should always put them- selves under the guidance and do their work in sub- ordination to a professionally trained and experi- enced expert. This, however, is to reverse the nat- ural order. The professional expert should rather be the agent of the group of volunteer workers, sup- plementing their efforts, gaining information which it may be impossible for them to secure, but not necessarily directing or supervising their activities. The spirit of charity is inconsistent with a practice by which paid agents usurp the place of the chari- table individual. It is not an unreasonable test of the success of the agent whether he increases or dimin- ishes the amount of fruitful volunteer work done in the community. Organized schemes of relief, investigation, and interchange of information are all excellent in their place but they do not perform the educational work which belongs to the individual worker and which will come from the results of his effort or not at all. If this seems discouraging or difficult there is the solid fact to stand upon that the work must be done and that there is no short cut to it. We can not substitute any big social scheme for the necessary educational work which a higher standard requires. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 77 If it were a question of production we might invent a machine for it, but since it is a question of con- sumption, it involves careful training and the open- ing of the eyes to a thousand little things, one after another. 1 It is a problem of gradually substituting thrift, taste, a good use of income for carelessness, shiftlessness and ignorance. Not the lack of in- come, but the foolish use of income is the trouble. It is true that there are places where the trouble is lack of income, that there are exceptional families in which there is not sufficient wage-earning power, and that the income of such families must be sup- plemented, but that is not the trouble with any very large proportion of our very poor. Trace it back to its source in the years before the crisis which makes the family actually dependent has come, and we shall find it in the failure to make sensible use of the income which was enjoyed, a failure to hold the balances between the actual needs of the present and the probable needs of the future, between the need of the children for clothes and their need of indus- trial training, between the demands of the appetite and the demands of the higher nature. The errors of the poor as a class are not more serious in these respects than those of the rich. It is simply that the consequences are more serious. The interesting discovery has been made that the poorest classes in London spend relatively more of their income for reading matter than do the wealthy classes, and also that they spend more in charitable relief. A true friend of a wealthy family will work 78 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY as zealously to give them a higher standard as a friend of the poor will labor for the same end with them. The social value of such friendship as we have been trying to describe lies in the fact that one who knows and has helped in such ways one or more in- dividual families is of some real social service when questions arise in which the welfare of the poor is at stake. He can speak intelligently, because he knows where the real difficulties lie. Inspection of food, protection of life and decency by good building laws, the cleaning of the streets, protection from disease, the building of school houses, the opening of parks and playgrounds all these have a new significance for him who, in his own family and in the families of his personal friends, has discovered by an attempt to improve their habits of life what obstacles are en- countered in existing conditions. One man who has been made indignant by the neglect of the com- munity to provide protection for the little ones of a family which he has befriended may be worth more to the community than ten abstract philanthropists. One word may be added as to the effect upon those who share such friendships in their relations to each other. Co-operation is another name for this mutual relation. The Memorabilia of Xenophon represent Socrates as making this statement : The sayings of the wise men of old we unroll and con together, culling out what good we may, but counting it the great gain if meantime we grow dear one to another. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 79 There is an advantage of a similar sort in com- mon social aims and in common work for the un- fortunate. We accomplish what good we may, but we count it also a great gain that meantime we grow dear one to another. The spirit of co-operation is an active spirit. It implies that both of those who share it are actively at work. It is difficult to co- operate with an inanimate, unprogressive concern. It is a pleasure to associate with those who are doing something. Earnest, intelligent, well-directed ac- tivity for some desirable social end, such as the rescue of children, the preservation of the family, the reformation of the wayward, is the first essen- tial of co-operation. There must also be a capacity for taking a genuine interest in work in which one can not, for one reason or another, personally engage. Here, again, an edu- cational analogy may help us. A university- trained specialist may become so absorbed in his own specialty that he knows and cares about little be- side, but the idea of the American college is that its graduate, if he become a specialist, shall have an outlook broad enough to enable him to sympathize in the fullest measure with the achievements of men of science in every other field. An eminent natural- ist goes so far as to insist that the genuine scholar will welcome any new discovery made by others, even though in a field of science distant from his own, as gladly as if made in his own laboratory. He can not work everywhere, but his spirit can re- joice in every extension of the boundaries of truth. 8o THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY So it should be pre-eminently in charitable work. If our specialty be crippled children, it will be of course a joy to make the lame ones stand upright, to straighten the deformed limbs and make the frail body strong and sound, but those who in a home for the aged are soothing the last years of those who but for them, would be friendless and homeless, or others who scour the farming communities for good homes for the city's waifs, or those who work in any other nook or corner of the world's charitable work, are our brethren, and it is for us to sound no uncertain note of appreciation and encouragement when they succeed in their effort. We need, then, to study intelligently what others are doing, not in the exhaustive way that would be necessary if we were to do it ourselves, but sufficiently to enable us to know whether it is a necessary or useful work, and if so and it is being well done, to be able to say so heartily and with generous praise. So also there should be equal readiness to condemn if condemna- tion is just. If we find that the fair name of charity is exploited for private gain, if there is trading on the needs of the poor for the sake of personal profit, if measures are taken which experience shows to be productive of pauperism and injurious to character, there should be no hesitation on the part of those who are doing charitable work to attempt to prevent it, preferably, of course, by remonstrance with those who are responsible for the mistaken or the vicious measures, but also by public denunciation where the case demands it and by educating the public in the THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 8 1 distinction between sound and unsound methods of work. Backbone in disavowing that which pretends to be charitable, or thinks that it is charitable but is not, is in order quite as much as the discovery and encouragement of genuine charitable endeavor. Co-operation, however, means not only work and intelligent sympathy. It means something still more difficult, when it becomes necessary for different agencies or persons to work together to accomplish a given result for a particular family or class. Something more is then necessary than an agreement not to quarrel. It is necessary for all to get the same grip on the essential facts, for them to adopt a definite plan which will accomplish the result, and to carry out its separate parts in good faith. Con- fidence in the good intentions of the other parties in the transaction is pre-supposed and ungrudging ap- preciation of the part they have taken should be a matter of course. These may seem like the ordinary social amenities which it is gratuitous to point out. But it is true that our ethical development as workers in chari- table, or religious, or social agencies is at many points behind that which characterizes our individ- ual relations. Official co-operation lags behind the need for it. There is still another word which should be added foi the benefit of friendly visitors in their relations with their poor. It is to have faith in them. Pro- fessor F. G. Peabody, of Harvard University, in an address delivered in college chapel, which might 82 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY have been intended for visitors, declares that there is such a thing as a recoil of judgment. l " One man goes through the world and finds it suspicious, inclined to wrong-doing, full of capacity for evil, and he judges it with his ready gossip of depreciation. He may be in all this reporting what is true, or he may be stating what is untrue; but one truth he is reporting with entire precision the fact that he is himself a suspicious and ungenerous man. . . . The cynic looks over the world and finds it hopelessly bad, but the one obvious fact is, not that the world is all bad, but that the man is a cynic. The snob looks over the world and finds it hopelessly vulgar, but the fact is, not that the world is all vulgar, but that the man is a snob. The gentleman walks his way through the world, anticipating just dealing, believing in his neighbor, expecting responsiveness to honor, considerateness, high-mindedness, and he is often deceived and finds his confidence misplaced, and sometimes discovers ruffians where he thought there were gentlemen; but this, at least, he has proved that he himself is a gentleman." The cynic and the snob, and no less the suspicious and ungenerous man or woman, is ludicrously out of place as a friendly visitor. Miss Jane Addams has warned us that if we show that we attach special im- portance to thrift, cleanliness, and other similar virtues, our poor will surely simulate those virtues, 1 Mornings in the College Chapel, p. 32. Boston, 1896. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 83 to the neglect, perhaps, of others more fundamental. Let us, then, compel the simulation of the most fundamental virtues by expecting them ; and let us compel the real growth of all good qualities by look- ing for them in sincerity, reserving our astonishment for those rare instances of ingratitude and hopeless depravity that faith cannot conquer. There are few to whom, at one time or another, there does not come a stirring call to some form of social service which will demand great personal sac- rifice. Fortunately many forms of that social serv- ice which, in spite of the greater apparent attractive- ness of such special work as the settlement, the re- ligious order, the foreign mission, is really the high- est and the most widely useful, viz., friendly serv- ice for families that are not fully self-dependent, are entirely compatible with ordinary business or house- hold duties. The sole requisite of such service is the capacity for disinterested friendship. Its sole re- ward is the deep, immeasurable satisfaction of hav- ing ministered to one of the least. Its social value is that it raises the standard of living and so lays the basis for an increase of income, and enables him who has been the real friend of one, without conscious effort, to become a public benefactor and a good citi- zen. VII. THE CHURCH AND CHARITY THE purpose of this chapter is not to trace the honorable history of the Jewish and the Christian religion in their relation to charity, nor yet to offer speculative theories as to the future. It is sufficient for our purpose to consider some very elementary questions as to the existing relation between the church and the charitable work of the communities in which they exist, and these questions we may profit- ably consider chiefly from the charitable rather than the religious point of view. The difference between these two points of view may best be expressed in the form of two series of questions which would naturally suggest themselves respectively to a clergy- man and to a charity worker. The first will prop- erly, and as a part of his professional duty inquire. How far may the church in the performance of its great spiritual mission in the world engage in the work of relieving distress ? How far shall it devote its energies to the building of hospitals, the rescue of neglected and ill-treated children, the distribution of food to the hungry and clothing to the naked ? And 84 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 85 if these things are to be undertaken what mechanism for these purposes shall it devise and put into oper- ation? The charity worker on the other hand, as one familiar with the charitable needs of his com- munity, finding various resources more or less definite at hand for meeting them asks, how far is the church a natural source of relief? Some of these families who are in distress are already con- nected with one or another church. Shall we expect this church to supply their needs, or to aid in supplying them, or is the problem, in the individual case, to be regarded as an economic and secular prob- lem which interests the community at large, and in the working out of which the religious affiliation of the family may be ignored? If the best agencies for the relief of their own poor, are the churches also fitted to cope with the destitution of those who have no church connection? Again, the charity worker finds that there is need of a new hospital, or a home for aged persons, or a crusade in behalf of better dwellings. Shall he there- upon call upon the churches to take the lead in sup- plying the need, or is this a civic duty for which secular agencies are better fitted and in the discharge of which the churches will take a subordinate place if they appear at all ? The mere fact that individual clergymen or laymen who are conspicuous in some form of religious activity respond readily to such a summons would not of itself be a demonstration that the churches are entitled to credit as having partici- pated in the movement. On the other hand if the 86 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY response is largely from the ranks of the clergy and from those whose inspiration for humanitarian work comes from the church, it may be that the church will be entitled to more credit than will appear from an inspection of the formal action of the churches as organized bodies. Rev. Edward Everett Hale, in an address before his associates in the Unitarian church, stated the issues very clearly by declaring that the community in which there is but one church is most fortunate in its charitable relations, because here the church can co-operate directly with the public officials for the relief of all the destitution that might exist. There would be no need for specific societies of any kind. The church would assume full responsibility for everything which did not properly belong to the public officials and would take from the latter every case of want in which humanity suggests that private charity should intervene to prevent the necessity for public relief. Where this desirable situation does not obtain, and there are many churches instead of one, Dr. Hale would have a confederation of churches for the purpose. This is the clearest and most radical modern expression of the view that the whole responsibility for private charity should be borne by the church. 1 It is a view which few who 1 Dr. Chalmers in Glasgow, where the church at the time he began his labors was a state church, would have gone farther and abolished all public provision for the relief of the poor, leaving to the voluntary provision of the church parish the whole responsibility. See Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns. New York, 1900. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 87 consider the actual situation in most communities, and the tendencies towards a differentiation of func- tions, will be able to share. Even the most devout and earnest Christian may well hesitate to place him- self in an attitude of opposition to the apparent tendency toward secularizing the work of charitable relief. In some communities the hospitals, asylums, relief funds, are, like the schools, in the hands of the church. In others the schools are divorced from the church, and private societies, in which religious lines are ignored, are founded for the express purpose of caring for the destitute sick and aged, and for home- less children. Already there is a professional group in every large community, whose duty it is to ad- minister and serve such societies. They are agents of relief societies, of associations for improving the condition of the poor, or of charity organization so- cieties; or they are superintendents or matrons of hospitals, or other charitable institutions ; or they are engaged in child saving; or they are residents in social settlements ; or they may even be engaged in the social work of a church. They may or may not be zealous Christians, or devout Jews. In either case their conception of their professional duties will not differ materially as far as its relation to religion is concerned from that of a physician, a lawyer, or a teacher. That is, whatever his religious faith, he will recognize that there is a distinct place, independent of religious sanctions, for his vocation; that he must study its principles, familiarize himself with its literature, learn from the experiences of his 88 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY fellow workers, and in all suitable ways dignify his calling. Since the number of such workers in non-sectarian agencies is now large and since it is certainly increas- ing, it is well to consider what attitude they should take towards religious agencies, and to consider whether religious instruction should as a rule be a part of their task. A useful analogy may be found in the relation between the public school system of America and religion. The public school is sup- ported and controlled by the state. The same people who, politically organized, constitute the state may also organize in various other ways. They may have convictions, instincts and aspirations which do not show themselves in any degree in the political organization. They may have common commercial interests, or social peculiarities ; they may have na- tional hatreds or affinities which could never be dis- covered by any study of their political constitutions or laws, or state papers, or official acts. We have tacitly agreed in the United States that our religion shall forever be kept thus apart from the state. The time may come when we all believe in punishment for sin, in redemption, in the incarna- tion, the resurrection, in heaven and hell. There have been times in the remote past when there was prac- tical unanimity about all these Christian doctrines among our ancestors, and we know not what powers of persuasion and of conviction the prophets of the future may develop. But there is no such unanimity now. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 89 Even if the disappearance of sects and the rise of an all-embracing and all-powerful religious faith should sometime be accomplished, so that every knee should bow before the object of a common faith, it would not necessarily it would not probably af- fect our feeling that its expression should be apart from the state. Such a revival would inevitably in- fluence the individual character of citizens and of- ficials. It might elevate the standard of public serv- ice. It might transform eventually the national conceptions of duty and responsibility ; but its or- ganized expression, its machinery of propaganda, the forms of its worship might remain as distinct from the political government as are the literature, the music, the domestic life, the private charity, or the ordinary business enterprise which characterize the nation upon its various sides. And yet it is the same people that for certain purposes organize po- litically and for other purposes into religious bodies. The citizen is not divisible, although the forms of his outward activities are. The individual citizen is concerned with all aspects of his social organiza- tion but he creates institutions which have their specific character and their definite place. One of these institutions provided with us as a part of the governmental machinery is the public school. This is not, under our system, an agency which is expected to accomplish the entire education- al process. That task it shares with the family and the church, neither of which are governmental agencies, and with what we sometimes call practical 90 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY life, or in the cities, by a grim figure of speech, the street which is not an institution at all, or if it is, not one that has been, as a natural scientist might say, isolated and described. The school is, how- ever, the definite contribution and it is a very large one made by the state to the education of its future citizens. Religion we have kept apart from the state. We are not, therefore, to rely upon the school for religious instruction or for the encouragement of distinctly religious practices. If religion be only the expression of the relation between the individual and the universe, then the school also concerns itself in many ways with re- ligion, but in the narrower sense in which it means the inculcation of particular doctrines, instruction in particular forms of worship, reception into a par- ticular body of believers, intimate association with those of a particular household of faith, it is beyond the legitimate scope of the public school. The right action may be taught but it will be done without emphasis upon the religious sanction for it. The Bible may be read as literature, and as literature will have an exalted place a place altogether apart be- cause of its influence in the development of later lit- erature, but prayer, and hymns which inculcate spe- cial religious doctrines are logically excluded al- though because of our appreciation of the need for music in education the latter will go more slowly and, as it were, with reluctance. The teacher, however, and the boards of educa- tion, and the citizens, who finally shape the policy THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 91 of the schools, are not by this division of work made indifferent to religious truth, or to the value of reli- gious ideals. The school is entrusted with the duty of mental training and to some extent with the duty of physical, aesthetic and moral training. Great bodies of common knowledge are to be passed on from one generation to the next, national ideals and conceptions are to be kept alive, workers are to be fitted to play their part in the economic and so- cial order, and for these tasks the school is pre-emi- nently fitted. But the liberty of our diverse reli- gious faiths is not to be infringed, and the solemn responsibility of religious instruction is to be left unimpaired upon the family, or upon the religious organizations to which the family has in part en- trusted it. This, then, is a division of work adopted at first unconsciously and gradually then deliber- ately and positively, as the best means of getting both parts of the work done. It is not the only con- ceivable plan. There are comparatively few coun- tries in which it is found. It is not beyond criticism, but it is with us established beyond successful at- tack and it may, therefore, serve as the best analogy for the special secular agencies which we are con- sidering. The point then which I wish to emphasize is that the heartiest friend of the Sunday school, the most earnest advocate of the necessity for careful religious teaching of the young at home, the most generous defender of one's religious faith, whatever it may be, is almost sure to be the teacher, or the parent who is in close touch with the school and who 92 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY knows just what is done in the school room. There the complexities and the difficulties of the education- al process are fully revealed, and the need for co- operation among all the agencies which act for good upon the growing mind is established. Passing directly from the school to the private re- lief agencies and especially to those which have to do with the poor in their homes, we find that there are similar reasons for a division of work. The attitude towards religion of the worker in a relief society, or a charity organization society or any other secular agency which deals with the poor of many faiths is to appreciate its necessity and to leave it strictly alone. This is not to say that the charity worker can be indifferent to the value of spiritual influence in the reconstructive work which he has undertaken. He simply consents to a division of work under which the giving of religious instruction and counsel de- volves upon others, as the giving of employment also usually will, and as, in the case of the charity organi- zation society at least, the giving of material relief may also be relinquished to others. How could we be indifferent to the value of religion? Whether we interpret it as the gradual unfolding of religious conceptions, which finds, not its culmination, but its most conspicuous landmark, in the ceremonial con- firmation of the liturgical churches, or as a force which in maturity converts the individual, as evan- gelical churches more distinctly teach, leading sin- ners earnestly to desire to repent of their sins and THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 93 flee from the wrath to come whichever its method religion is a constructive and reconstructive force in our human lives. Those are entirely right who refuse to regard the church as solely or chiefly for the poor, and even if it were our work is not among the poor as such. It is among the unfortunate, the unsuccessful, the destitute, the so- cial debtors. The problem is to start their social ledgers anew, to make them independent, success- ful, fortunate. If, when it is character that is abnormal, religion has power to induce conversion, to change the desires of men and create in them a new heart ; if religion has power to confirm them, after education and faithful counsel, in a new manner of life, then by all means let an appeal be made to religion. But let it be made under conditions which give religion a fair chance. Let neither the almoner nor the investigator as such hope to play successfully the role of religious counsellor. There may be emergent cases in which the obvious necessity of saying a word in season may surmount all general rules, as a similar emergency may justify relief where it would not otherwise be given. But to be effective the call to repentance, the helpful counsel, the stern rebuke should come from one who stands in a different relation from that of the char- ity worker. It should come from parent, or pastor, or friend; or if it come from a stranger then in such a way that there is no suspicion of ulterior motive. The character of adviser on religious mat- ters is not theoretically incompatible with that of 94 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY agent or visitor of a charitable society, but in prac- tice they do not work harmoniously together. The more keenly the chanty worker realizes the need for religious work, and the greater his appreciation of the value and fruitfulness of that work, the more ready will he be to leave it for those who are quali- fied to perform it and who are free from the handi- cap under which he would labor. Two special conditions of successful religious in- fluence must be borne in mind by the secular visitor. The religious appeal is made directly to the judgment and the conscience, it is true, but it takes for granted a host of associations, emotions and instincts, which none understand except those who share them. A St. Vincent de Paul visitor tells of his successful at- tempt at the reclamation of an erring and unfortu- nate brother whom he found in a hospital and from whom apparently every shred of his earlier faith had departed except the practice of not eating meat on Friday. But there was a beginning point. Native missionaries and native assistants are indispensable in the conversion of new countries because, unless with the very exceptional individual, any appeal from the stranger falls upon deaf ears. The difficul- ty of language is not the only one. There are more fundamental differences in all that goes to determine mental attitude. Since then the visitor must have to do, in our American cities, with the poor of all nationalities and faiths, with various classes even in our native born population whose ideas and training differ radically, THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 95 he will have additional reason for placing the re- sponsibility for the religious appeal upon those who are in closest spiritual and intellectual sympathy with the particular applicant. The second condition is that, to be effective, the religious appeal should be made at an opportune at a seasonable time. Now the crisis, whatever it may be, that has brought the family to the attention of a charitable society may indeed be an opportune time for arresting attention, for giving a warning, for extending an invitation. But it is not usually the best time for instruction, for advice as to any im- portant step in forming or changing the religious affiliation. Then if ever old religious ties should be restored, counsel should come from one who under- stands. As far as possible what is said should be intelligible and familiar. If the old anchorage is to be forsaken and the sails set towards a new har- bor, this should be done when the mariner is in full possession of his powers and when the conditions are reasonably favorable for calm consideration and wise decision. It is not the best time to ask an ap- plicant to consider his spiritual welfare when there is need of food for his present sustenance, or to re- quire him to decide between the claims of rival re- ligious bodies when his immediate and urgent task is to get his economic affairs readjusted so that his humiliating dependence upon others may be shaken off. In so far as the religious problem is to be urged upon the individual from the outside, and its solution aided by others, a choice of times and seas- 96 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY ons must be made, and there are usually better times and more propitious seasons than the period of what may be called active treatment by a charitable agency. The friendly visitor who forms a permanent rela- tion with the family is of course in a different po- sition, and, subject to the condition already specified, viz., the necessity of starting if possible from a com- mon standpoint, the friendly visitor will naturally take an active interest in the spiritual welfare of both parents and children. Here, however, another con- sideration arises. A society which includes friendly visiting as a part of its work, or a society which places children in foster homes, will find it advisable, in assigning visitors and selecting homes, to regard the religious faith of the beneficiaries, securing its friendly visitor or its home from the same faith if possible. This is only a further application of the principles already developed. It avoids confusion and the danger of mixing the religious with the charitable task. There are some difficulties in carrying out this policy in both instances. We may find ourselves short of vis- itors and homes of the faiths which furnish the largest number of families to be visited and children to be placed. And so we shall have to add the clause " when practicable," as the statutes prescribing the duties of public officials in the placing out of chil- dren sometimes do. To recapitulate, the policy of the secular agency will be, when there are already religious affiliations, to THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 97 secure spiritual oversight from those who are already in some degree responsible for it; to awaken earlier influences and adapt them to present needs rather than to establish new ones ; to place our friends under the religious care of those who are efficient and zealous, but who also understand what there is al- ready present to work upon, and what kind of appeal will be likely to call forth response. And this we do not because it is easiest but because both the re- ligious and the charitable work are so difficult and so important that we must consider how to get them best done and because this is, in the long run the best way to get done both our own work and that which we thus leave to others. It develops a feel- ing of responsibility on the part of the church work- ers, it sharpens our own sense of our immediate tasks, and creates the strongest presumption in fav- or of good results for the applicant. Still another question arises when religious bodies assume also responsibility for relief work and friend- ly visiting among those who are not of their own membership. The extent to which we may profit- ably use the churches and religious bodies for as- sistance to others than their own poor, is one which is quite undetermined. The Buffalo plan of district- ing the city, assigning each district to a particular church or mission or religious settlement, and refer- ring to that mission or church all the cases of need arising within it so that the charity organization society becomes strictly a clearing house has not as yet sufficient trial or sufficient success to place it 98 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY beyond question. The 2ist annual report of that society says: The church district plan has now been in oper- ation three years and its value when fully used is thoroughly established. The difficulty is that by some of the district com- mittees the plan has been to a considerable extent ignored. By a rule adopted in November 1899, no discretion is left to the district committee, and it was then announced that every poor family living with- in a church district would thereafter be referred to the church which has taken the district, unless it is referred to some other church of its own faith. The defense urged by the agents and committees who had but partly used the plan was the apathy or the unwise charity of some churches, which made them fear sometimes to surrender a family to such care. The responsible heads of the society do not consider this objection valid and they quote against it Miss Richmond's dictum from the Chanties Re- view * that it is important that relief work should be well done; but it is more important that charitable people should themselves learn to do charitable work in a truly charitable way. This reply does not seem entirely satisfactory. It is important that charitable people should learn to do charitable work in a truly) charitable way, but it does not follow that the churches are ordained to do charitable work, or that they will necessarily learn to do it in a charitable! 1 January, 1900. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 99 way. This is a policy which is still distinctly in an experimental stage. We are warranted in scrutiniz- ing very closely the kind of work actually done and the results obtained by the plan. If a relief fund is a detriment to the spiritual work of a church, as pastors have often found that it is, 1 and if friendly visiting should be done strictly for the sake of the family rather than as a means of winning converts, however desirable that also may be, then our general attitude should be at present merely that of the ob- servant and sympathetic student of this interesting scheme. If it works well it will sustain Dr. Hale's opinion already quoted, but it will be a reversal of the general tendency towards differentiation and division of work. It seems more probable that prog- ress lies in the direction of inducing the churches to give up their relief work, or to organize special agencies for this purpose, rather than in an attempt to place again upon their shoulders responsibilities of this kind which they have gradually to some ex- tent relinquished. It has been suggested that it is wise for us to watch the results when we refer families to the churches for relief or for friendly visiting. Is it expedient for us to go further and watch the results when we refer them only for spiritual oversight, or when we refer families directly to the churches to which they belong, in whose territory they reside, or on which they have some sort of claim, such as that 1 Friendly Visiting Among the Poor. Miss Mary E. Richmond. Ch. X. The Church. 100 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY the children attend the Sunday school? If our ob- ject is only peace and quietness and an easy solution of our problems, obviously not. If, however, it is our aim to increase the probabilities that charitable people are to do their charitable work well, and if we desire gradually to acquire solid information and experience on which we can safely base further general conclusions in regard to these matters, then we must answer this question also in a limited affirm- ative. The agents of a secular society may not keep strict and impertinent watch upon those with whom it co- operates, but incidentally they may find many oppor- tunities of gaining information which will throw light upon the outcome of the relation which they have been instrumental in establishing. If there is mutual courtesy and good will as there should be, it will be possible to make inquiries after a reason- able time which will not be resented or regarded as impertinent. In the Catholic Charities Association forme< recently in the City of New York there is a Com- mittee on Representation, the express object of which is to aid secular agencies to find competent am satisfactory Catholic representatives for their vari- ous boards or committees. There was no doubt a double motive underlying the creation of this com- mittee. There was a belief that co-operation in such movements as that of charity organization society would be of advantage to the poor. There was also a feeling that it would do no harm to be closely in- THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY IOI formed as to what goes on in these societies in order that Catholic interests might not suffer. We should not quarrel with either of these motives. The faith of their fathers is to Catholics, as to others, a price- less heritage and they would not willingly have any family and especially any child lose it because of destitution alone. And in this they are entirely right. This point of view is tersely expressed by Mr. Thomas M. Mulry in an address before the Catholic Social Union. Urging the members to be- come active workers in the charity organization society, he made it plain that where non-Catholics were favorably disposed it would increase the good that could be done ; where they were unfavorably dis- posed it would lessen the evil likely to be done, for it would enable them to care for the interests of their own. 1 This may be an example of enlightened selfishness from the denominational point of view, but it cer- tainly is enlightened and no objection to it can be urged from any secular agency which courts in- vestigation of its work. Objection would arise only if this were to go so far that the representatives of the religious bodies were to devote themselves ex- clusively to espionage, and to the attempt to dis- cover evidences of an unfavorable disposition, and if as a result they were to neglect the charitable, or the spiritual work which devolves upon them. Charity rightly understood is not so much secular as it is interdenominational. It is not unsectarian 1 St. Vincent de Paul Quarterly, May, 1900, p. 129. 102 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY so much as it is all-inclusive. A public speaker once pointed out that between nations there are some- times, bonds, affinities, and affections which are not international, but supernational, just as certain phe- nomena are supernatural as transcending the ordi- nary processes of nature. There is a sense in which charity is superdenominational and not merely inter- denominational. Its interests reach far down to a foundation on which all faiths may unite. Its sym- pathies and bonds of union transcend sectarian jeal- ousies and misunderstandings and controversies. Its principles and its claims are recognized not because they are so unimportant as not to run counter to the sects, but because they are positive and imperative and fundamental. It is the common platform for all who believe in the power of conversion to lead to a new life, and for all who believe in the power of religious instruction in the upbuilding of character. Here we may join hands and reason together, divide and subdivide our field until each spot is small enough for profitable cultivation. The churches are powerless to supply the mechan- ism for a co-operative effort, if for no other reason because no one of them is universal or even co-exten- sive with the spirit of charity. But the churches may keep alive that impulse of the human heart which prompts to acts of charity and justice. It may generate the power which drives the wheels of the complex mechanism needed in our complex society for the efficient relief of distress. It may educate and inspire human beings, and from that in- THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 103 spiration and guidance greater deeds of charity may spring. It may bring to the individual who is in dire distress consolation, or strength for endurance, or awakening to the higher things of life. The burden of the churches is heavy and many, alas, bear it but falteringly. They have often in the past made the mistake of allowing their interest to become ab- sorbed in enterprises for which other agencies were better equipped. They have a contribution to make to the great task of abolishing pauperism, relieving destitution, and improving the social conditions un- der which men live, but it does not appear that that contribution lies in the organization of relief agen- cies under church control. VIII. PROFESSIONAL SERVICE ONE of the newest callings to demand public recognition, and still too young to require profes- sional training generally as an indispensable con- dition for entrance upon it, the service of charity has nevertheless certain branches of great antiquity, and many individual posts for which long experience and exceptional professional qualities are essential. The apostolic period of the Christian church saw the set- ting apart of deacons whose duty was the adminis- tration of relief funds. Their successors are in some instances administering similar funds as if there had been no intervening experience to guide them. Others, however, who are wiser in their generation having been chosen because they have special fitness for this task are willing to learn how to perform it to the advantage of the church and its beneficiaries. Religious orders, both of women and of men. have for centuries consecrated their members to the serv- ice of the unfortunate. The lessons gained in such service have been passed on, sometimes in books, oftener in verbal instructions and by force of person- al example. Writers of general history have some- times dwelt upon the larger and more obvious les- sons to be learned from the administration of public 104 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 105 relief systems, church charities, and private endow- ments, and have described the means by which com- munities have met the general distress caused by un- expected or widespread disaster, by flood, famine or plague. ' It is, however, a comparatively recent discovery that applied philanthropy is a distinct vocation, al- ready embracing thousands of very active and ca- pable workers in every country who, although sub- divided into distinct groups, are still in a common field, which is as easily distinguished from all others as that of the law or medicine or engineering, or to select a calling of about its own age as that of the librarian. The term applied philanthropy is far from satisfactory; but it must serve at present for lack of a oetter. Its use may be understood to imply that those who practice in this field are individually more philanthropic than those who engage in busi- ness or any other occupation. Of course this is not the case. The most that may be assumed is that those who engage in this work bring to it a sincere interest in the relief of distress, just as physicians are supposed to be interested in the prevention of disease, and clergymen in the spread of the gospel.J[ The character of the professional service in ques- tion is indicated in a general way by the outline of the field of charity given in an earlier chapter. The destitute sick are to be cared for, and if possible re- .stored to health. This requires on the one hand the services of physicians and nurses in order to diagnose and treat the disease. It also requires the services 106 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY of some one competent to diagnose and treat the destitution. The physician may be competent to do this, but he may not, and even if he is he is not very likely to take a keen professional interest in it. The superintendent or manager of a free hospital should be capable of directing its medical policy in such a way as to bring the maximum curative and prevent- ive result. He should be able to conduct his chari- table policy in such a way as not to create pauperism, and to insure that resources placed at his disposal shall be utilized for the benefit of those who really need aid. Still more important is it, that those who direct asylums for homeless children, shall be not only able to solve the administrative and educational prob- lems directly involved, but also capable of forming just conclusions as to the effect of their work upon the families to which the children belong, and of choosing intelligently among the various methods of caring for such children. Agents, visitors, almon- ers, investigators, superintendents and secretaries of societies for giving relief, for improving social con- ditions, for organizing charity, for preventing cruel- ty to children and to animals, and for other kinds of charitable work are now generally known to need special qualifications, and if possible professional training. Often very complicated questions, involving far- reaching effects upon the destinies of the persons con- cerned, must be decided by these agents without very much data and without delay for consideration. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 107 Keenness of insight, considerateness, despatch, a judicial temperament, acquaintance with what has been done in similar situations, an independent judg- ment which when necessary will enable one to ignore precedents and to reach a sound conclusion on the spot are all required. Physical endurance is often put to a severe test. In the hardest snow storm and in the most sweltering summer heat the demands up- on the visitor will suddenly increase and will be- come most imperative. Upon the advice of the visitor and the information which he brings, may de- pend the decision as to whether relief is to be given, whether a criminal prosecution is to be commenced, whether a patient is to be removed to a hospital, whether a begging letter writer is to be exposed, whether a mother is to be enabled to keep her chil- dren, whether a good home is to be found for a child which is ready to be placed with foster-parents. The questions are often complicated and difficult. To de- cide them correctly requires a judicial temperament. To carry the decision into effect requires executive ability. To correlate the various experiences and render them available for forming conclusions as to the general principles of relief often demands rare constructive talent. There is no human endowment which cannot be utilized by the professional worker in the field of philanthropy. It is the natural result of the public recognition of the new profession that there should be increased appreciation of the necessity for professional train- ing. In the so-called learned professions it is the pro- 108 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY fessional schools that have maintained and advanced professional standards. They have stood for learn- ing, for the classification and arrangement of scien- tific knowledge in such a way as to make it practic- ally available. In the less developed profession of the librarian, special schools have likewise proved useful. Certain preliminary steps have already been taken in the field of charities and correction to- wards the same end. The first step is naturally a conference for workers for discussion and inter- change of experience. For twenty-five years the Na- tional Conference of Charities and Correction has offered such opportunities on a large scale. The Prison Congress is of equal importance for wardens and managers of prisons and penitentiaries. Such special fields as that offered by the Day Nurseries are also occupied by national organiza- tions. More strictly scientific bodies like the Social Science Association, the American Acad- emy of Political and Social Science, and the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science, give considerable and increasing attention to philan- thropic education. There are now many state and local conferences or conventions, which differ from the National Conference in giving a better opportu- nity for full and thorough consideration of prob- lems of great local interest. The Universities have in many instances provided special courses in social work and there are indica- tions that, by the offer of Fellowships in this subject, and by placing courses of lectures at hours when they THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 109 may be attended by those who are busy during work- ing hours, the Universities will still further increase their contribution to the academic preparation of charity workers. There is a tendency on the part of boards of directors of the societies to give prefer- ence in filling important positions to candidates with university training. The most important single agency which has thus far been active in adding to the strictly professional equipment of charity workers is a monthly maga- zine the Charities Review, 1 founded by the New York Charity Organization Society and edited suc- cessively by Professor John H. Finley, Rev. Frede- rick H. Wines, and Mr. Herbert S. Brown. The ten volumes of this periodical have contained articles, discussions, and news of current work, some of which have been of the greatest practical service, while others embody in permanent form the experi- ences to which there will long be occasion for both students and workers to refer. Of special service is a series of eight comprehensive studies tracing the history in many departments of American philan- thropy in the nineteenth century. The Charities Re- view has been supplemented by several more local periodicals which although of modest pretensions are still useful for the information which they give regarding the charitable work of the communities in which they are published. The quarterly Record of Baltimore, and Co-operation of Chicago are ex- amples. Published since February, 1901, as the monthly maga- zine number of Charities. 110 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY In the opinion of more than one competent ob- server the time has come for the establishment of a training school for professional workers in charities and in correctional institutions. Miss M. E. Rich- mond, when General Secretary of the Baltimore Charity Organization Society, 1 first definitely formu- lated the demand which has been vaguely felt both by the workers themselves and by boards of managers who have encountered difficulties in securing satis- factory applications. At the National Conference of Charities and Correction in Toronto in 1897, and again at the annual meeting of the American Acad- emy of Political and Social Science in Philadel- phia in April 1898, Miss Richmond stated and de- fended her proposition that the absence of a profes- sional standard, of a common language, and es- pecially of an adequate training among paid charity workers, can be remedied only by the opening of a " training school in applied philanthropy," where teaching and training would go hand in hand. The suggestions were made that the school be located in a large city where practical work is plentiful; that its teachers be university graduates who have had adequate training in the social sciences, but who at the same time have had practical work in charities; and that the school be properly endowed, but prefer- ably not closely affiliated with any academic institu- tion. Before settling anything about the training school save the bare fact that such a school is need- ed, Miss Richmond would have us search the coun- 1 Now General Secretary of the Philadelphia Society. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY III try over for the right man to organize it. Having found this man it would become immediately neces- sary to find another to furnish the money for the experiment. The chief aim of the school would be to give our professional charity workers better habits of thought and higher ideals. Its basis would be broad and its training would apply to relief agents, child-saving agents, church visitors, institution officers, and all other charitable specialists. The great majority of the workers in question receive salaries ranging from $35 to $75 per month. The number of positions of this kind is increasing steadily, but as has been pointed out there is still a lack of any definite or- ganization of the calling, of common standards, and of any large body of professional knowledge avail- able for practical use. Such knowledge at present must be slowly and expensively gathered in the per- sonal experience of each worker. This is somewhat to the disadvantage of the in- dividual worker, but after all it is not chiefly in his interest that progress in these respects is needed. The interest which is paramount and which is at stake is that of the community. From a narrowly selfish standpoint the physician or the lawyer has no interest in the maintenance of a high professional standard. It is essential only that his knowledge and skill surpass those of his rivals. If the general level is low, all the rewards of the profession may be gained by the quack or the charlatan who is a little more clever than his neighbors. But to the general 112 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY public the thing of prime importance is not individ- ual superiority, but the general plane of skill, efficien- cy, knowledge and sense of honor in the whole body of the medical and the legal profession. It is this which secures the preservation of life and the lessening of suffering on the one hand, and the main- tenance of justice and of public order on the other. When, therefore, lawyers and physicians labor, as they do constantly, for the elevation of the standard of their respective professions, it indicates a breadth of view and a public spirit which are none the less praiseworthy because the same course is really dic- tated by what some choose to call enlightened selfish- ness. The situation is precisely similar in applied philan- thropy. Agitation for an elevation of the standard of work and professional training will not come from those who cling jealously to personal advantages, gained less by merit than by the absence of respect- able competition; but it springs as in other profes- sions from the widespread determination to be satis- fied only with a progressive and in every respect en- lightened body of fellow- workers .J In the interest of the community it is desirable that organized re- lief work, the care of prisoners and paupers, the re- form of social conditions, the encouragement of thrift, the rescue of children, so far as these are en- trusted to professional paid workers, should be recognized as a distinct profession, requiring some training for successful work even in its least re- munerative positions. Moreover, as in other more THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 113 highly organized vocations, the standard of entrance should be expected to become steadily higher as our knowledge of social science advances, and as oppor- tunities for higher training become more widely dif- fused. The very modest claim now put forward is that such an opportunity should be given to the large number of persons who desire to labor in the field of charities and correction, leaving to the future the question as to whether such a training may eventually finally be regarded as an indispensable condition of appointment. The number of positions affected is certainly greater than the number of librarians with their clerks and assistants, and yet a library school has amply justified its existence. If the public is more alive to the need for competent librarians than to the need for trained workers in applied philan- thropy, this is in large part the effect rather than the cause of the professional school. We may seek an illustration of the need in prison administration, quite as well as in relief agencies. Guards and at- tendants in charge of prisoners require instruction in certain matters on which instruction can be given only within the walls of the particular prison in which their duty is to be performed. But the funda- mental principles of justice, the reasons for longer and shorter sentences, the effect of imprisonment up- on character, the results of criminal association, the treatment of ex-convicts, the theory of indeterminate sentences, the difference between the treatment of convicted and unconvicted prisoners, the care of prison hospital patients, of insane prisoners, and of 114 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY juvenile offenders, offer interesting and profitable fields of study, in which those who are preparing to enter prison administration might work side by side with charity organization and child-saving agents. In England there are already four schools, two each for men and for women, for the training of prison wardens. Granted the necessity for a special training for workers in charities and correctional institutions it may be questioned whether the. existing departments of sociology in the universities are not the best means of providing it. Still another alternative has been suggested by Miss Frances R. Morse, of Boston, viz., that a sort of co-operative normal training plan be established by the larger charity organization cen- tres. 1 An expensive university training is probably out of the question except for the relatively few who occupy responsible executive positions. It is de- sirable, of course, and it may well be that the over- flow of university graduates from the teaching pro- fession, already somewhat overcrowded in these de- partments, will bring an increasing number of ap- plications from that quarter. For a generation, however, this will not fully meet the need. The suggestion made by Miss Morse next requires examination. What she proposes is that one who wishes to enter this service should be able to con- 1 Twenty-fourth National Conference of Charities and Correction, held in Toronto, 1897, p. 186. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 115 suit in one of the nearest centres some person a part of whose business it would be to keep the whole field in mind. Besides the general secretary, a committee of one, two or three of the directors of a charity or- ganization society might be appointed for this pur- pose. The applicant would be advised to go first to the city in which the best charity organization work is done. This would be for general preparation and for the kind of work now given in several societies to agents in training. After six months of such preparation the student would be given three months in the bureau of information of a children's aid so- ciety, to learn in how many ways a child may be helped without removal from his own home, and if the removal has to be made, what care has to be taken in investigating homes, and how unceasing must be the vigilance and faithfulness of agent or visitor when the child is placed. \ Something would then be learned of the working of public indoor and outdoor relief and of other subjects as time might permit. The distinguishing feature of the plan is the substitution of an associated responsible group of advisers for an academic or normal training under the direction of regularly appointed instructors. That many would-be workers could not spend even one year in such training is an objection which ap- plies equally to the proposed training school and to the plan which Miss Morse suggests. It is not, however, a serious objection to either, since it is probable that already a considerable number of such Il6 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY persons can be found, and the benefit to the service would be very great, even if the actual number who obtained the training were small. The real objection to the plan proposed by Miss Morse is that it looks solely to the interests of the individual applicant, and does not accomplish for the profession, as a whole, the beneficial results which we might expect from a properly conducted training school. General secretaries and directors of char- ity organization societies are absorbed in their im- mediate tasks, and could hardly be expected to sub- ordinate the interests of their own society to the ad- vancement of the general work of applied philan- thropy throughout the country. In short after a careful examination of all the objections and alter- natives it would seem that the endowment for which Miss Richmond asks should be provided and that the man (or woman) for whom she is in search should be discovered. At the same time her avoid- ance of the " clamorous solicitude about it of a hen who has only one chick " may be commended, as also her advice, even if we are not yet quite ready for the school, " to move without delay in the direction of some definite system of training." In the six years immediately following the Na- tional Conference in Toronto, there has been held in New York City, during a period of six weeks in each summer, a school in philanthropic work which may be regarded as the beginning of such a pro- fessional school, and from which it is hoped that a fully endowed and equipped course may arise. The THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 1 1/ Summer School has been held under the auspices of the New York Charity Organization Society and its immediate direction has been in the hands of Mr. Philip W. Ayres, aided by a standing committee of the Central Council consisting of Mr. Robert W. de Forest, Chairman, Mr. Otto T. Bannard, Mr. Jeffrey R. Brackett, of Boston, Mr. C. F. Cox, Mrs. Glendower Evans, of Boston, Mr. Homer Folks, Dr. E. R. L. Gould, of New York, Dr. S. F. Hallock, of New York, Professor Samuel M. Lindsay, of the University of Pennsylvania, Mrs. C. R. Lowell, of New York, Miss Zilpha D. Smith, of Boston, and Mr. Wm. R. Stewart, of New York. In the sixth session there were students repre- senting twelve states, twenty-two universities, and twenty-seven charitable agencies. Notwithstanding the varied sources from which the members of the class were drawn it was remarkably homogeneous and in the short period of six weeks there was developed a creditable esprit de corps. So much as this at least has been fully demon- strated: that professional work in the field of ap- plied philanthropy is amply worthy of the most ear- nest, careful and extensive preparation on the part of its neophytes. We may be almoners of relief, we may work in childrens' institutions or at finding new homes for children, we may engage in constructive social work, we may devote our energies chiefly to the education of the community, or we may labor for Il8 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY individuals and families in the organization of relief, and of new opportunities for those who have failed but in all these and in other fields allied to these, we have an outlook which we could not afford to exchange for that of any other profession. We may ask the most searching and the most sweeping of questions without impertinence and without of- fense. " You are in trouble. Well, what is the difficulty? Just tell me all about it." Family rela- tionships and family tragedies, it is our province and our duty to investigate. Weaknesses of human character and heroic human qualities are alike laid bare before us. We are at the focal point in the converging rays of social interests. Occupations, re- ligions, social customs, national characteristics, per- sonal incomes, family budgets of expenditures all pass in constant procession before our too often un- observant eyes. The psychologist studies the mind, the physiologist the body, the sociologist social rela- tions ; but to us it is given to know on the one hand the woes and failures of men, and on the other the regenerating and curative forces at work in the com- munity all of them, religious, educational, indus- trial, social, personal. We may not directly wield all or many of them, but we must know them and sum- mon them in individual instances to their task. What more inspiring outlook is there than this, and just because as we look at it from one point of view it is so depressing? The writer once took a visitor into the registration bureau of a charity organization society. He has taken many into that room. Near- THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 119 ly all give some exclamation of surprise at the elaborateness of the wonderful system of family rec- ords and at the interesting revelations of the street register. But this was an unconventional man and a man of quick insight, and his exclamation when he had taken it all in was, " What a dreadful waste and wreckage of human lives all this represents ! " One who comprehends it may well be depressed, but this means only that he is getting under the cruel burden. It is the wisest prayer to be permitted to get under, so far as our strength permits, the burden of the world's misery. There is only One who has been able to bear it in its entirety, but in some measure we may all share it. If, then, underneath that burden, we can get as a necessary result of our daily occupa- tion, a clarifying vision of the redemptive social forces available for the cure of individuals in trouble, we can ask no greater blessing from the work of our hands. In the largest sense it becomes religious, educational, constructive. It is worth doing. It calls literally for the best. It is not sentimental or stultifying or disappointing. It satisfies while it grows constantly in magnitude and in urgency. It is no makeshift or hybrid vocation. Precisely be- cause it emphasizes its subordination and its serv- ice to other forms of social service, it rises to the high dignity which is always inherent in real service. Its command to recruits is Learn just what belongs to your particular service, place responsibility for other things when opportunity offers upon those to whom they rightly belong, give generous credit and 120 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY sympathetic praise when they do their part well, specialize and study and improve, and study harder and improve still further your own part, and that not in order that you may become a shining example, but in order that you may do faithfully what is justly expected of you. Your work is worth while. IX. SOME ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES THERE has been no authoritative formulation of the principles upon which relief should be extended to needy families, either for the guidance of over- seers of the poor, or for agents of voluntary agen- cies. At the same time there has been slowly gather- ing a body of experience, and to some extent a uni- formity of practice, in regard to many of the points upon which it is most frequently necessary to reach a decision. There is no lack of discussion upon con- crete questions. The pages of the printed proceed- ings of conferences and conventions teem with the presentation of opinions and arguments in support of this or that policy. The State Boards of Char- ities and other public officials have usually been ready to give publicity to any experiments likely to be of service to others. The Charities Review has had many valuable articles and the more local period- icals have played their part in presenting the data for the generalization which can not be much longer delayed. For practical purposes local societies have gener- ally been compelled to draw up definite instructions to visitors and agents but these generally give wide latitude in individual cases and there is no set of 122 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY such instructions which has gained anything ap- proaching general acceptance. At the same time it is increasingly common for relief agencies, public officials, and church visitors to claim that their relief is extended upon what they understand to be charity organization principles, and it is usually assumed at conferences in which repre- sentatives of organized charity confer that they rep- resent a particular method of dealing with destitute families if not a particular method of promoting the welfare, or, as the titles of some of the societies express it, of improving the condition of the poor. The representatives of organized charity have not adopted any special system of political economy or social philosophy. They do not aim to present a common front of support or antagonism to the di- verse schemes of social reform and improvement. They are not as a body free traders, or protection- ists, single taxers or socialists, prohibitionists, trade unionists, populists or expansionists. Are they, on the other hand, in substantial agree ment upon a body of principles which they woul< have adopted in the charitable relations of the need; and the well-to-do? This inquiry can scarcely answered by gathering individual opinions. It will do no harm, however, to present a few broad general principles upon which the writer believes that there is most general agreement, claiming no greater va- lidity for them than naturally attaches to an intimate personal acquaintance with the actual work of many of the larger and the smaller societies, the churches THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 123 and special relief agencies, and not least some of the individual efforts to relieve distress. I 1 Those who deliberately choose to live by begging, who, having no visible means of support, live with- out regular employment : pan-handlers, hoboes, and tramps, whether homeless wanderers or residents with the semblance of family ties, are not properly to be treated by any relief methods whether individ- ual or organized. The primary duty of the chari- table is to remove the possibility of their securing an income by the practice of their chosen calling. / It does not follow that there are no positive steps that can be taken to aid in the reformation of va- grants and rescuing those who are homeless and unemployed because of misfortune rather than from choice. The offer of regular employment in some simple but laborious occupation, with compensation at less than market rates has been widely and to a considerable extent successfully relied upon as a means of lessening their numbers. Detention in a house of correction at hard labor on a plan of cumu- lative, or progressively lengthened sentences is a more adequate measure. Best of all, though not yet adopted anywhere in America, would be a farm school or colony to which vagrants who are not too old to be taught could be committed for an indeter- minate period depending upon the length of time necessary to inculcate habits of steady industry., 124 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY The family whose head is chronically unemployed should receive assistance at home only when simul- taneous steps are taken to compel the natural bread- winner to support them. t One of the most interest- ing problems awaiting solution is the determination of the extent to which industrial displacement and psychological defects respectively are the real causes of homelessness and lack of regular employment. That changes in machinery and in methods of in- dustry, seasonal occupations and other economic in- fluences are partly responsible, few will deny. It is equally obvious that there are many who are so con- stituted that if left to their own resources, they can scarcely contribute to society one year with another the value of what they consume. Shiftlessness, lack of any feeling of responsibility for the family and the wandering impulse are responsible for the failure. Self-dependent workingmen and their fam- ilies would gain by eliminating such persons from ordinary competition, and would doubly gain if al of them could receive efficient training and if the labor of those who have been dependent could be so organized and directed as to make their social con- tribution of value. Investigation and the study of individual cases, to determine whether aid by transportation to other places, loan of money to purchase tools, the taking of a personal interest in finding employment, and finally, a series of industrial schools in which various trades are taught, and a farm colony for training in agriculture, would all be essential parts of a plan THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 125 for dealing comprehensively with the problem of vagrancy. We may now ask what should be done in a certain limited number of constantly recurring cases in which not the stranded individual but the family as a whole must be considered. First among these comes naturally toxmind that of the destitute but reasonably capable widow with a number of small children. It is clear that such families as these should receive assistance, if assistance is necessary, from private rather than from public sources. For. the sake of both mother and children they should be spared the necessity of application at the office of a public department. Private relief may be given in such a way that the children need not know its source or incur any permanent stigma. If it can be given secretly so much the better. A friendly visitor should be obtained and adequate relief should be provided, enough to prevent all begging and enough to prevent undue anxiety. There should be a regu- lar allowance or pension if none of the children are old enough either to contribute to the family earn- ings or to take care of younger children, in order that the mother may be employed. The amount should not be large enough to interfere with any proper efforts on the part of the family to be self- supporting. The mother should by all means be en- couraged to keep her children. If she has to go out to work, care should be provided for the children in her absence, although this can often be done by rela- tives or neighbors. It is sometimes practicable for 126 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY two widows to live together, one going out to work, the other caring for rooms and children. In cities where it is necessary for the mother to work, office cleaning is the most convenient occupation for able- bodied women who must rely upon work of this kind in that it does not occupy the entire day, but leaves a part for home and children. If, however, the chil- dren are small, or if it is necessary to prepare them for school, it may be impossible for a woman to leave her home at the time of day when this work has to be done. The only course may then be to take work at home such as washing or sewing. There should, however, be no hesitation in giving liberal assistance, since the double burden of making a home and earn- ing the means of livelihood is heavier than can be borne successfully by any except the most capable. It involves a heroic struggle in which it is true that many have succeeded unaided, but in which many who have made the bravest attempt have realized that it meant deprivation of the care and personal attention which is the birthright of every child whose mother is living. A mother should ordinarily be encouraged to keep her chil- dren rather than to have them placed in an asy- lum or adopted into other families, although there are exceptional instances in which either of these two courses will be advisable for some members of a large family of children. Close study of any such case as this will almost certainly suggest special devices adapted to the cir- cumstances of the family in question. For example, THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 127 work has been found for one such woman in a day nursery where she can have her baby with her dur- ing the working hours, and other children of suita- ble age may be cared for in the same nursery. An apartment somewhat larger than is required for the family can be taken and one or more rooms sub-let as a means of helping to pay the rent for the whole. One experienced worker has expressed the opinion to the writer that any able-bodied and intelligent wo- man, who has natural affection for her children, will be able after temporary assistance and encour- agement to find means of supporting them and that aid will be necessary only during the period of read- justment and of recovery, it may be, from a shock of bereavement. This, however, is probably too op- timistic. Many will succeed, but to fall short of suc- cess in so stupendous an undertaking is no disgrace. Friendly visitors have confessed that in some such cases they quickly find that there is nothing further for them to do and that the women whom they visit quickly begin to give them more points than they get in return. Assuming that assistance is necessary and that it should be from a private source rather than a pub- lic source, the question arises whether it should pref- erably come from a relief society, from the church with which the family is associated, or from private individuals. This question is to be determined by the conditions of charitable relief commonly prevail- ing in the community. Relief societies usually hes- itate to burden themselves with a regular pension 128 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY which may need to be continued for several years, although there are societies for the special purpose of providing such allowances. All would agree that the immediate relatives and others who stand in some close personal relation to the family should first do all that they can. It is well to look carefully into these possibilities before considering either a relief society or other sources. Even though the amount which each can give may be very small it will be a gain to systematize it and to have it understood that what is obtained from outsiders will supplement this aid from personal sources, and in most instances the outside aid should be conditional upon regular contributions from relatives able to assist. It may then be advisable to call upon individuals either per- sonally, or through suitable public appeals, conceal- ing, however, in all actions requiring publicity the individuality of the family to be aided, for a sum which will provide the remainder of the necessary amount for the necessary period, say one year, or, if it is obvious that it will be two years before a child is old enough to begin to earn something, then for that length of time. Supplementary to ihe relief there is needed the continued, faithful attention and personal interest of a friendly visitor whose energies will not be divided among too large a number of families but who will study closely and will help in- telligently one or two families. If relief societies are to be employed special re- lief agencies such as the Hebrew Charities for He- brews, the German Society for Germans,. the Soci- THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY I2Q ety of St. Vincent de Paul for Roman Catholics liv- ing in parishes in which Conferences of this So- ciety exist, etc., should generally be utilized before general societies, and if there is a reasonably close church connection of any kind the pastor or those in charge of the relief work should be consulted before outsiders are solicited to help. A widow with one small child or an unmarried woman with one child (the latter a not infrequent applicant for charitable aid) should be helped to find employment where the child will be permitted to remain with the mother in consideration if neces- sary of smaller wages. If nothing else is possible a woman in this situation can often get a place either in a private family or in a foundling asylum to nurse her own child with another. No pains should be spared to enable a mother under such circum- stances to keep with her a single young child. More frequently it becomes necessary to decide what to do for a destitute but incapable widow with small children. Take first the case of a woman of this description of good moral character but ineffi- cient. Where public out-door relief is given such cases as this appear upon the books in large num- ber. An officer of the Overseers of the Poor of Boston states that the larger number of widows that he has to deal with are of this class. Many of them are in immediate need of training of some kind. The difficulty is that they have depended on their husband for support, have not needed to do anything but household work even that may have been done bad- 130 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY ly and they have no knowledge of any money-earn- ing occupation. Under the pressure of necessity such women will sometimes learn quickly and, after a time, if temporary help is given, they will be able to get along by themselves taking care of their own children. Others who have had much experience from the standpoint of private charity with fami- lies who are also in receipt of public relief doubt whether women of this type who once receive public aid ever get over the necessity for it. Certain it is, however, that private charity is often easily dis- couraged with such cases and readily leaves them, if there is public relief, to that resource. When this is done the public officials feel obliged to give assistance and the only thing they can do is to keep their wants barely supplied, bringing pressure to bear upon them to make more serious efforts at self- support. The public official just quoted insists that many of these families after temporary assistance do succeed in getting on their own feet, but that many others continue as public charges until the children are old enough to take care of the family. Children thus brought up are themselves not very likely to be- come self-supporting. More fortunate is the family of this type in a city which has no public out-door re- lief or the family that does not learn the way of ac- cess to it where it exists. The friendly visitor is here indispensable. Assistance must sometimes be given but it must be accompanied by constant instruc- tion and encouragement to take proper care of the children. The relief should be an instrument for THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 131 the steady improvement of the condition of the fam- ily and when it ceases to accomplish this purpose it should be increased, diminished, or withdrawn as circumstances require, until it can accomplish its purpose. Again a close study of the personal char- acteristics should be made and advantage taken of every favorable circumstance. The education and amusement of the children, protection from physical and moral dangers, the development of sound bod- ies and the awakening of intellectual interest must always be kept constantly in mind. Too much must not be expected of a woman who is unexpectedly compelled to earn a living for herself and children, and if she is well disposed and does reasonably well so much of her duty toward the children as she could have been expected to do if the natural bread-win- ner had survived, private generosity may well be content for a time to make up all of the remainder. Still more difficult becomes the task of dealing with a destitute widow of immoral, intemperate or vicious character with small children. Where there is neglect or immorality that can be proven in court the children may properly be removed from the mother's influence. A friendly visitor fitted to grap- ple with so difficult a problem should be secured if possible, and an energetic attempt at reform should be undertaken. The children may be watched over and helped in any way that will not result in con- tributing to the support of the mother's vices. In some states the laws permit the appointment of a guardian for the children under such circumstances, 13* THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY and the threat of removal will sometimes be suffi- cient to induce an orderly and decent life on the mother's part. Relief may be given in such a case only with the greatest caution and in such a way as to make it certain that there is proper care for the children and abstinence from drink and immorality while assistance is given. If the children are re- moved in such a case as this it should be permanent- ly. The unnatural mother should not have the right to reclaim the children as soon as they are old enough to work. A friendly visitor in such a family as this must be one who is willing to deal with all kinds of discouraging circumstances and to watch hopefully, for several years it may be, for signs of improve- ment, having always in mind the interests of the children as well as the reformation of the mother, and watching opportunities to introduce them to higher and better things than those to which they have been accustomed. Applications are often received from families in which one or both parents are living but destitute temporarily because of accident to or illness of the bread-winner. Carefully administered relief from a private source until the emergency is over will meet this situation, but those who believe most strongly in the potency of friendly visiting would in- sist that even here continued visiting after the emer- gency is over is necessary, to get the family back on a thoroughly self-supporting basis, and to aid them to begin saving for the next emergency. It is ta- ken for granted that relief, as in other cases, would THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 133 come from sources personal to the applicant before calling in outside agencies. Those who believe in public outdoor relief would ordinarily say that public and private charity should work together in a case of this kind, neither being able to do alone what is necessary. If the application comes from a family where there is a lazy or shiftless father, there should be no re- lief, but there should be the influence of a friend- ly visitor. The man should be compelled by law to support his family. If unable to provide a bond when required by the court, and if, as a consequence, the bread-winner is imprisoned, there is still danger of providing too much relief, as is also the case with families who have been deserted by the bread-win- ner. To supply relief may be necessary, and the character of the mother may be such as to justify ample assistance during the period in which the hus- band cannot derive any personal advantage from it. If a deserted wife cannot support herself and her children and if assistance seems to be necessary, measures should be taken to deal by law with the husband, if he can be found or if he reappears. Pub- lic charity will almost invariably treat deserted fami- lies identically as it would treat widows and children. This is an indication of the less elastic and efficient character of public relief since the social effects of equal treatment are obviously bad. A public official cites a case in which the husband deserted in order that the family might be better cared for without him, and another in which the man disappears re- 134 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY peatedly before the birth of each child. These cases are indeed not uncommon. The friendly visitor by which is meant, of course, both the one who is technically so-called and any other person whether a public official, or the paid agent of a private society, or a volunteer, who can establish a personal interest in the family which is to be assisted such a visitor may often accomplish excellent results in a family made destitute by the bad conduct of the head of the family, if able to real- ize what the temptations are which the man encount- ers and if with genuine sympathy and persistent zeal the visitor labors at creating a favorable environ- ment. It has been suggested that shiftlessness and continued inability to retain or to secure employ- ment are often due merely to a lack of effective im- agination. After many discouragements it becomes difficult for one to realize that success is at all pos- sible. Under such circumstances friendly encour- agement may work a revolution in character and may restore the family to self-dependence by the best of all methods. An agent cites a case in which the visitor took charge of a family consisting of a man, his wife and six children. The visitor when a young man was himself in danger of becoming in- temperate but had given up the drinking habit en- tirely. His own difficulties in doing this made him realize that when a person is asked to break off such a habit he must be surrounded by conditions that will be helpful to this end. The visitor in the case in question determined therefore to do two THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 135 things, first to surround the man at home with things that would interest him. In this instance the man was fond of music and the visitor purchased an ac- cordion for his friend's use. The second thing was to bring the man into the society of others who were temperate and to lead him to become sufficiently well acquainted so that if absent from customary gather- ings he was missed. In these ways the man was helped over his difficulties and his drinking habits were entirely broken up. Chief reliance is to be placed on educational work, not on money or other gifts. Widowers with young children often have great difficulty in providing suitable care for them. If the man has no mother or sister who is free to care for them, efforts should be made to induce relatives to give them a home, or where there are asylums the father may pay for their board in one of them. They should never be accepted as public charges if the man is able-bodied and in position to pay for their support. If there is a girl old enough to care for the family a friendly visitor may be of the great- est possible assistance in advising and helping her. Still more necessary is such friendly counsel and as- sistance if the family is without either father or mother and a home is to be provided by other chil- dren. Such liberality as was suggested for widows with small children would here as a rule be even more imperatively required. Single women and widows without children should not be encouraged to live alone and pay rent. They 136 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY should seek places as servants or at other work. If aged or disabled they should be provided for in the almshouse or in the hospital, or in exceptional cir- cumstances, where the dependence is one which could not easily have been obviated, a private pension may be provided. Old men and women should be cared for by children or other relatives if possible, although not necessarily taken into their homes. If admission can be secured to a home for aged persons on pay- ment of a reasonable fee and if there are adequate reasons for their not having saved such a fee, it may properly be supplied by special contributions from the charitable, unless there are near relatives who should pay it, in which case the almshouse should ordinarily be insisted upon as the only alternative. The money required for the admission fee to a home may sometimes be applied to better advantage in paying board in some private family where there would be less of the institutional atmosphere, and there are even instances in which financial assistance may properly be given to a relative or near friend on condition that the homeless aged or disabled person is given a home. Orphans not old enough to establish a home should be provided for if possible by finding private foster- families into which they may eventually be adopted. Placing out work of this kind requires the greatest discretion, but its peculiar problems need not be considered here. It will sometimes be possible to provide temporarily for children in the expectation that they will be reunited as soon as there is some THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 137 earning capacity, at which stage assistance carefully given may be of the greatest usefulness. An in- teresting question arises as to how far poor relatives should be asked to assume the care of dependent children. The most general answer is just so far as they are able to do it without harm to the children. If a child is forced into a family where the feeling is strongly against it, the child will frequently receive less benefit than injury. The general principle, how- ever, is that relatives should be made to do all that they possibly can. A special pitfall lies in the path of those who think that temporary relief can safely be given in violation of the ordinary principles which should govern the relief of destitution. Such a distinction implies that there is a difference between tempo- rary and permanent aid in the effect on the creation of pauperism and that the former is exempt from such a tendency. It will be apparent on consideration, however, that if indiscriminate almsgiving does cre- ate pauperism at all it is universally temporary aid that causes the mischief. Pennies or dimes given way to the beggar on the street, food given at the [basement door, money handed out in response to a :hetic appeal for aid in payment of rent because of ic affliction, all these are, of course, intended as iporary aid and are everywhere defended on the iund that the giver prefers to be imposed upon :her than to turn away any case which may per- ince be one of genuine distress. The objection to this policy is that it takes no real 138 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY account of the positive injury done in such cases. Unless investigation can be made before the giving of temporary aid there is no effective precaution against such injury or against any of the clearly recognized evils of indiscriminate almsgiving. The danger does not arise in any appreciable degree from permanent aid. No one is likely to assume the burden of permanent support of a family whether by pension, by paying admission fees to private homes, or by taking the trouble necessary to find homes for children, unless he knows the family and is reasonably well satisfied that the circumstances! warrant such a step. All of us are more or less subject to the temptation of aiding " temporarily | those who appear to be in need. The suggestions that have been made are by nc means exhaustive but in so far as they have validity they apply to temporary as well as to permai nent relief. Finally they are not directions whidl may be followed blindly in any case. Wisdom ii| dealing with distress, it cannot be too often repeate comes only after a close and sympathetic study o| the special problems presented by the partici family to be aided. No two cases are alike; noi is easy. The practice of charity cannot be reduc to ready-made rules for the inexperienced and tl amateur. Quite as much as in the practice of la'j or of medicine, principles must be applied by th( who are trained in their application, but such trail ing may be to a large extent the possession of thai who care for the poor even though occupied also wi'l THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 139 other things. Although it is not the duty of all to be scientifically trained in science or medicine, it is the duty of all to be charitable, and no one is charitable whose attempts at relief result only in the help that hurts. X. SOME ELEMENTARY DEFINITIONS. In undertaking the definition of the technical terms which the lecturers, the writers of books, and the practical workers in charity have occasion to use, a little reflection makes it apparent that diction- ary definitions, dogmatically laid down and accepted on faith, are not what is desired. It is more useful to define our terms after we have become more familiar with them and after they have for us a more certain content a significance gained by actual use. If, therefore, we are able to make the discussion any more logical and interesting than the columns of a dictionary taken in their somewhat arbitrary and disconnected arrangement, it will be because the words and the expressions that are to be defined are already familiar, and because we have a mental background upon which these fragmentary sketches will take their natural place. Let us begin in a more elementary way than with j certain technical phrases which belong to our special vocabulary, such as organised charity, inde- terminate sentence, board of control, district nurse. These are all nouns, and nouns are the least inter- esting and most artificially civilized parts of our I language. The verbs are the real thing. It is by THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 14! means of verbs that we express both action and condition, and before considering, therefore, the more highly polished, well-rounded, completely formulated, and all but mummified names of things, I wish to return to some of the more primi- tive, the more live, the more fundamental words which we use in common with the rest of the world, and which, alas, like others, we use often so loosely and so carelessly when, with a clear grasp of their meaning we might discriminate more nicely we might spare so many unnecessary, useless words we might convey an accurate and definite impres- sion. There are five of these verbs which I may first name together, and which together cover the whole field of charity : To need, to suffer, to feel, to give, to help. They scarcely need definition, but will, perhaps, bear a few words of exposition. It is be- cause there are those who need that is to say, are without the things which nourish and clothe and shelter, and because it comes to be regarded as unnatural and unendurable that any should really need nourishment and protection that charity is practised. To need, however, is not merely to be without. It is also to suffer. To suffer from cold and hunger and disease arouses directly the impulse on the part of the neighbor to sympathize. But sympathize is only a Greek word that means to suffer with, and our simpler English word for that is to feel. To feel and to share the feelings of those who suffer and are in need, is to lay the foundation 142 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY for the practice of charity, and to give from that which one has whether it be food, or clothing or shelter, or service is to begin to rear the super- structure. To give means to hand over, without reservation and without price, a part or all of that which one has to the one who needs and suffers. To give is not to invest, or to lend, or to make con- ditions it is simply and absolutely to transfer the ownership and use of that which is needed by the one and is in the possession of the other, whether it be needed by him or not. But to need and to suffer, on the one hand, and to feel and to give, on the other, are not yet charity, though they are the four strong pillars of the struc- ture. There is a fifth strong, nervy, necessary little verb, which I may call the walls and the finish, inside and out, above and beneath, for it is the whole of charity, and without it there is no charity, and that verb is, as you will have seen, to help. Unless that which passes from one to the other, whether it be goods or service, helps, it does not make a genu- inely charitable bond between them. For one to help another there must be feeling, and there must be giving, but the giving must be so well chosen, so timely, so generous, and so intelligent, that it helps, that it mitigates or removes the suffering and meets the need. The nature of the one must be so attuned to that of the other that there is harmony and accord. With a firm grasp upon these five simple verbs: To need, to suffer, to feel, to give, to help, the whole THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 143 philosophy of relief and the practice of charity are mastered, and the study of the longer and more technical verbs and nouns is but a development and application of what one already knows. But who can grasp the meaning of these simple verbs unless he has himself suffered ; unless he has himself felt ; and who can undertake to say that he is prepared to give even that which is his own, much less that which he gives on behalf of another in such a way that his giving will really help those who need unless he has, with an open mind, studied the attempts which others have made through the cen- turies, and unless, with an appreciative understand- ing, he familiarizes himself with the methods which the best who are at work for those who need, are thinking out and putting into practice ? There is a second class of these verbs, which we may likewise consider together. To relieve, to pre- vent, to eliminate, to reconstruct, to co-operate, to organize. To relieve, in a very common, but to my mind very objectionable use of the word, means to give so much of food, or shelter, or clothing, or money, as will satisfy immediate physical needs. To give relief in this acceptation of the term, is to hand over a minimum supply of the necessities of life, in order that one may not at the moment suffer from hunger or cold. As I have already defined the word, this is, properly speaking, to give; but it is Inot to give relief, as the workers in the field of char- ity should come to understand the word relief. To \relieve is rather to effect a change, to give so much, 144 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY and in such a way as to completely remove the necessity from which the one who thus obtains relief had been suffering. To relieve, then, is to give that which meets the need, and to give it in such amounts, and with such careful adaptation of means to ends, as will tend to remove the cause of the suffering. A helpless, aged person, who is homeless and friendless, is relieved when he is placed in a suitable home for the aged, or placed at board in a private family or a boarding house, and the means provided to pay indefinitely for his board. The family of a widow with small children is relieved when a pension is provided sufficient in amount adequately to supplement the possible earn- ings of the mother or the wage-earning children. A sick patient, who cannot be properly cared for at home, is relieved when removed to a hospital, or more completely when cured and restored to his home ; but to give once, in amounts which have no relation to the need, and in things that have no cura- tive quality, is not relief. I do not know what to call it alms, perhaps since that is a word that we appear to have the least use for, and it does seem necessary to have some word for the giving which has no defense. To prevent, in the field of charity, is better than to relieve. It means to go before, to anticipate, to take effective measures in anticipation. Preventive work in charity usually begins after there has at least once been necessity for relief, and it is better that it should begin then, than not at all. In an THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 145 ideal state of society, the potentially charitable neighbor will be so close to the potentially needy neighbor that preventive work may begin before there is extreme need; before there is great suffer- ing; before there is an opportunity to relieve, save as it is a relief from danger. Preventive social work has, in some fields, reached this stage alread}?. Playgrounds, recreation centers, clubs, kindergar- tens, schools and libraries take the place of asylums and reformatories and distributions of fuel, cloth- ing and money. To prevent, in child saving, is to provide better parental care ; to remove undue temp- tations ; to deal wisely with those who are showing their first inclinations to become wayward, after reaching the age of responsibility. To prevent, in the conduct of institutions for children, is so to organize the entire life of the child within the insti- tution study, work, play as to accomplish in the shortest possible period the task of discipline for which the institution is intended, and to fit the child into a normal place in the community whether with kindred or with strangers and so to influence those outside the institution, as to keep within reasonable limits the number for whom insti- tutional care must be provided. It is not the insti- tution that we are to prevent, for the institution also has its place in a rational preventive social scheme, but superfluous population in institutions, and an undue length of residence in institutions, and reten- tion in an institution, either without real benefit, or with positive injury these things we are to pre- 146 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY vent, and it is upon the managers of institutions and the workers in them that the responsibility for this prevention primarily rests. To prevent, in dealing with families in their homes, is to war against intemperance, disease, unsanitary conditions ; to work for a wholesome family life; for thrift and industry and sane living. To prevent, in the care of the criminal, is to estab- lish reformatories for early offenders; to introduce classification and sound discipline; to abolish the jail, and reform the prison, and to do away with the attempt to adjust fixed term sentences to particular crimes. I have said that to prevent is better than to relieve, but there is a word that I like better than either and that is to eliminate. I wish there were a single Saxon word for it, but there is not, possibly because when our Saxon forefathers were shaping their lan- guage the things which we need to eliminate were unknown. It is exactly the kind of an idea which, if they had had necessity for the thing itself, they would have had to describe it a vigorous, brief, expressive and convincing word. It means to get rid of ; to root out ; to put beyond our threshold or limits as injurious, undesirable, and unnecessary. We have, for example, eliminated small-pox from among our prevalent diseases, and are in the process of eliminating diphtheria, and shall shortly eliminate tuberculosis. We are eliminating street begging, for which professional essayists like Charles Lamb and Agnes Repplier find something to say in THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 147 defense, but which others know to be hideous, and injurious, and in every way undesirable. To set our faces towards the helpful tasks of eliminat- ing the things which undermine the health of the people, and the things which undermine the char- acter of the people, is as much an advance upon pre- ventive work, as ordinarily interpreted, as this, in turn, is an advance upon relief work, as it has been ordinarily understood. But that is not to disparage either relief or prevention. To Relieve, in the real sense, is an inspiring and satisfying task. To prevent is equally so, and it has the advantage that in some of its aspects it may be j undertaken by those to whom actual relief may be \ so painful, or so difficult, as to be impossible. To \ eliminate the evils in which need and suffering have their roots is, in its broadest aspects, a task for , statesmen, but in many of its minor applications there are possibilities for every worker who, in an institution or in the homes of the poor, comes into contact either with need, or with its by-products. Akin to this good Latin word to eliminate, there is another to reconstruct. This word stands for an equally thoroughgoing and radical idea. The re means "over again," and that may suggest some- thing only half satisfactory, an undertaking upon which one enters too late; but in this instance it is the remainder of the word that counts. What we are to do over again is to construct, to build to build again from the beginning, to put into orderly arrangement that which has been disarranged or 148 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY badly arranged ; to bring together again the various elements of good which, it may be, have been broken up or destroyed by some outside influences. There is something about the word which suggests thor- oughness and the doing successfully of that which has previously been botched and badly done. To reconstruct means often to introduce some new and desirable element. When, for example, we recon- struct a house, it gives the opportunity for the intro- duction of electric lights ; for a better drainage sys- tem ; for safer chimney flues ; for a better outlook. To reconstruct the character of a child; to recon- struct the shattered home ; to reconstruct an institu- tion which has fallen short of its object; to recon- struct a municipal department which has been ineffi- cient and corrupt; to reconstruct the state, here a little, there a little, by reconstructing the particular thing in which we are engaged can there be a more inspiring program than that ? There is another toothsome word, with sugges- tions similar to that of reconstruction, and that is regeneration. It is a word which we have left too much to theologians and to missionaries, but they are no longer to have the word in undisputed posses- sion. In biology, where it is now being used, and in the social field, regeneration may not mean precisely a new birth, as it does in the religious field; but it means the replacement of some vital organ, or of some vital quality; of some essential feature of the physical or the spiritual nature. The mere fact that among the lower forms of life an organ which is THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 149 torn away may be replaced, is of significance to us for our present purposes, since there appears to be a tendency in the higher forms of life to replace that which is torn away by something which is better. Regeneration, then, means the replacement or sub- stitution of some characteristic or quality the capacity for self-support it may be ; the capacity for being law-abiding; for being useful to others for characteristics of an opposite kind. Regeneration of the physical and the spiritual nature is the primary task of education, of religion, and of charity. It would be well if the word reform were ordinarily, like reconstruct or regenerate, pronounced in such a way re-form as to give it a similar touch of its real meaning, or of its possible meaning. To reform a criminal or a drunkard ordinarily, unfortunately, suggests to us temporary improvement something at which the sneer is often leveled a pretense or a feeble attempt, rather than a genuine reconstruction. At best it is a technical expression on which people may range themselves as in civil service reform, housing reform, ballot reform, municipal reform on either side, and may cast their votes against that which is described as reform, without feeling that they have particularly compromised themselves except in the eyes of the "reformers" that is to say, merely of those who have voted only on the other side ; and so, although reform undoubtedly signifies to amend what is vicious or defective or corrupt, although it means to go from worse to better, it will be safer if we do use the word to use it with 150 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY such emphasis and with such context as will indicate whether we mean something radical and something worth while, or merely a change on the surface or in minor particulars. Two other words of this class of which we are speaking require brief explanation : to co-operate and to organise. It appears that public sentiment, in the charitable field in general, is more favorable to the first of these words than to the second. It sounds more friendly-like and neighborly. To co-operate means, in this acceptation of the term, to attend each other's meetings ; to speak when you meet on the street; to adopt joint resolutions, and occasionally to sign together statements for the press, or for use 4 elsewhere; not to cut each other's throats or stab each other in the back ; but, on the contrary, to say pleasant things about each other. I am in favor of this kind of co-operation, and am quite as ready as anyone to work for it when it has not been secured. It is elementary by which it is not meant that it exists in a primitive state of society, or that it comes of itself inevitably but rather that in our commu- nities in the enlightened twentieth century, it ought now to be taken for granted. To co-operate, in the sense of working together amicably as indi- viduals and as societies or institutions, clearly ought to be assumed as a matter of course. The society or the individual who refuses to co-operate in this sense simply puts himself in the position of a boor in polite society, or an outlaw on the borders of civilization. Polite society and civilization manage respectively THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY to get along without the boor and the outlaw, and the disagreeable consequences fall not chiefly upon civilization and society. To co-operate, however, may be given a more positive meaning. As we become more civilized, and more charitable, more keenly alive to the opportunities of the hour we dis- cover that there is something more in co-operation than formal relations ; that it means a mutual under- standing of the point of view of each other, achieved through struggle and discusssion and possible mis- understanding that it means a common program ; the awakening to a new, more democratic, more fra- ternal, more just ideal by which even reasonably co- operative societies must, in the new day, be judged, so that if they are not striving to attain it, they shall be reformed, reconstructed, or, if necessary, elim- inated. Our own feeling about the word co-operate depends, therefore, upon the content which we give it. If it suggests merely superficial and polite con- ventions, we shall give it our languid and unenthu- siastic enforcement. If, on the contrary, it means a permeating and directing influence, leavening our whole attitude toward others and determining our action at vital points, we shall, according to our natures, either fight shy of it, and pursue our indi- vidual and selfish ways, or accept it as zealous dis- ciples, as a thing worth making sacrifices for, as a program demanding good faith and candor and good will. The final word in this group which we are now considering is one which has caused many heartburn- 152 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY ings and many misunderstandings, and one which, used baldly and inaccurately, rouses instinctively a touch of resentment. This is the verb to organize. The Evening Post, in an able and extended review of the Handbook on the Prevention of Tuberculosis* pointed out that there is still a widespread idea that charity, when organized, becomes the activity of busybodies longing to improve others, seekers of motes while forgetful of their own beams. The writer blames the workers themselves for this in a measure, saying that their attitude is too often one of superiority, and that their very language tends to develop phrases which, to the unregenerate outsider, have a taint of cant./ The reviewer believes that the book under consideration, dealing with "what is per- haps the most beneficent and promising charitable work ever undertaken," should do much to lessen or remove this prejudice. We are not now dealing with popular prejudices, but rather with the actual mean- ing of terms, the meaning which they have and should have in our daily speech. If we are reason- able and consistent in our use of words and phrases, unregenerate outsiders, so far as they have occasion to notice them, will have respect for them, and will not discover in them any taint of cant. To organize felief; to organize charity; to organ- ize a social movement does not imply superiority, although it does imply capacity for doing the partic- 'Published by the New York Charity Organization So- ciety. THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 153 ular thing that is to be done. To give relief implies that one is in a superior, or at least a more fortunate position, than the one who is in need of the relief. To organize relief that is supplied from various sources, to decide how much is needed, and in what forms, and at what times and then to give it implies that one is in a different position from the one who gives relief alone. It is, in a sense, a superior position, in that it implies professional capacity which may or may not be present when one merely himself gives relief, although if the giver really gives relief, in the sense in which I have already described it, he has, at least, a latent capacity for professional service. To organize a charity also implies something more than to contribute subsequently to its support, or even to direct its activities. It implies a knowledge as to whether there is a need for the charity ; of the form that it should take ; of the manner in which it should appeal for its support ; of the kind of workers that are required, and a score of other things which may or may not be needed at a later stage. To organize a social movement implies a high order of executive capacity, a knowledge of affairs, a social sympathy, an intelligent grasp of problems often complicated and perplexing. It is no task for a crank, or, on the other hand, for a man without imagination. When relief, or charities, or social movements, therefore, are organized, something is accomplished which, when understood by the pub- lic, will be respected and approved, unless there 154 THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY creeps in some unnecessary absurdity or inconsist- ency or accidental characteristic. Organization is not mechanicalization. It is not hardness of heart. It does not lead to the discour- agement of the charity which feels and gives and helps. On the contrary, to organize is to bring some order into what is chaos and confusion. It is to pro- mote mutual understanding, personal sympathy, effective help. In order to organize, it is necessary to get to the bottom. It is necessary to know. It is often necessary to reconstruct and to regenerate. It is necessary to eliminate that which is vicious and corrupt. It is necessary to reform that which is bad and inefficient. It is necessary to relieve on a con- sistent and intelligent plan. To organize the dis- ordered affairs of a family which has been an eco- nomic failure requires brains and experience and skill. It is a task in which there is a place for sym- pathy, and for faith, and for hope, and for love. When to these are added a knowledge of resources and the fruits of experience, all of which may be summed up in professional skill, it is fortunate for the one for whom relief is required. There is no cant, and nothing for which it is necessary to apolo- gize in the work of organizing relief, as it is thus conceived. To give relief stupidly, without any per- sonal concern for the mind and the character, is not to earn the blessing promised to him that "considereth I the poor." To organize relief, which includes the final act by which alone the organization is justified, viz., the giving of the relief, is, therefore, the most j THE PRACTICE OF CHARITY 155 complete and accurate expression for that which relief agencies and charitable individuals are under- taking. *