IAL WORK 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LIGHT OF HISTORY 
 
 STUART ALFRED QUEEN, (Vi
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 LIPPINCOTTS SOCIOLOGICAL SERIES 
 
 EDITED BY EDWARD GARY HAYES. PH.D.. LL.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 SOCIAL WORK IN THE 
 LIGHT OF HISTORY 
 
 BY 
 
 STUART ALFRED QUEEN, PH.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR Or SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 
 
 PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 1922
 
 COPYRIGHT 1922. BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.
 
 Colleg* 
 Library 
 
 HV 
 
 Q3ls 
 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 ALTHOUGH much has been written upon the subject 
 of social work, until now there has been in English no 
 adequate presentation of the subject in the light of history. 
 Nothing available takes the place filled by the present book 
 of Professor Queen. It places the subject of social service 
 in the perspective of historical development, sets forth the 
 practical lessons of experience which the long past has 
 enforced, and reveals the tendencies which must be under- 
 stood by those who wish to participate in the next steps of 
 progress in this department of human endeavor. 
 
 This is the first volume to appear in the Lippincott 
 sociological series. This series is designed to present a sys- 
 tematic summary of the most substantial results that have 
 been achieved in the different subdivisions of sociology. 
 The volumes fall naturally into two divisions. The books 
 included in the first group will be devoted to pure science, 
 that is to the endeavor to know and understand the facts 
 of social life, undiverted by any other aim. The books 
 of the second group will be devoted to practical sociology, 
 and will deal with topics which have obvious relation to 
 welfare and progress. However, the books of the first 
 group will set forth teachings that, in many instances, 
 have quite as far-reaching practical importance as any 
 which will be contained in volumes that have an obviously 
 practical aim. And the books of the second group, though 
 dealing with subjects which compel a practical interest, 
 will be written in a thoroughly scientific spirit. 
 
 It is planned to include in the first group volumes upon 
 "Social Evolution," 'The Biological Factors in Social 
 Causation," "Social Psychology," "Groups and Group 
 
 5 
 
 2072699
 
 6 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 Contacts," and "Social Values and Valuations." Inter- 
 mediate between the two groups will be a volume on 
 "Social Progress" intended to set forth the more general 
 applications of sociological knowledge. In addition to the 
 present volume on Social Work in the Light of History, 
 books that will fall in the second group are being prepared 
 on important subjects, including " Sociology and Edu- 
 cation," " Problems of Population," and " Criminology." 
 While the series when completed will present the logi- 
 cal and systematic character just described, the order of 
 publication will depend upon the time when the different 
 volumes are brought to completion by their authors. It is 
 the intention to preserve the freedom of the writers to work 
 under the conditions by which they can achieve the best 
 results. Each book will be complete in itself, but planned 
 with reference to all the others, so that the series as a 
 whole will fulfill as nearly as possible the ideal of a logical 
 summary of the product of the intellectual movement 
 which goes by the name of sociology. 
 
 EDWARD CARY HAYES. 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IN preparing the following pages for the press I have 
 had several groups of readers in mind, especially college 
 students and interested citizens who wish, without delv- 
 ing deeply into the subject, to have some definite notion 
 as to the significance of social work. I hope to put them 
 on the track of answers to the questions which I know 
 they are asking, questions such as these: Just what is 
 meant by the current phrase " social work " ? Is it the 
 same as philanthropy, charity, welfare work or uplift? 
 Why do we have so many social agencies with their numer- 
 ous employes and their constant appeals for funds? Are 
 they really needed? What do they accomplish? Whither 
 is all this stir about social service leading us ? 
 
 It has become my conviction that the most valuable 
 contribution toward answering these very pertinent ques- 
 tions could be made by an historical review. No attempt 
 has been made to produce an original contribution to 
 knowledge of any subdivision of history, and there 
 has been relatively little use of original documents. 
 Instead I have chiefly aimed to coordinate and to make 
 available the fruits of research which are contained in 
 such works as Lallemand, Histoire de ta Charitc; Uhlhorn, 
 Die Christliche Liebestdtigkeit ; Clay, Medieval Hospitals 
 of England; Bosanquet, Social Work in London; Webb, 
 Poor Law Policy; Ashley, Introduction to English Eco- 
 nomic History; Hayes, Political and Social History of 
 Modern Europe, Proceedings of the National Confer- 
 ence of Social Work. At the end of each chapter will be 
 found some of the more important sources of information. 
 Through these the careful student can check the accuracy 
 
 T
 
 8 PREFACE 
 
 of most of the statements made. These short bibliogra- 
 phies will furnish satisfactory supplementary reading. 
 
 A distinctive feature which differs from traditional 
 usage is the working back from the present instead of 
 presenting a chronological narrative. In taking this course 
 I have thought to make the historical account better serve 
 the purpose of helping to understand contemporary social 
 work. I hope that the book will show the possibility of 
 relating social work to general social and economic de- 
 velopment, illustrating the unity of the social process. 'It 
 should emphasize the usefulness of history as a technique 
 for interpreting the present and anticipating the future. 
 And it should test the wisdom of studying history back- 
 ward in the service of a particular purpose. 
 
 I am happy to state that the manuscript has been care- 
 fully reviewed by a number of representative persons who 
 have offered valuable suggestions. I wish especially to 
 acknowledge the advice and assistance of my present and 
 former colleagues, Edwin H. Sutherland, Jesse F. Steiner, 
 Harry M. Varrell and Mary P. Wheeler. 
 
 BOSTON, APRIL, 1922. STUART A. QUEEN.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Social work has never been a static thing. It has 
 always been growing, developing, changing; sometimes 
 for better, sometimes for worse. But probably never be- 
 fore have those engaged in this field of service been so 
 keenly aware of the fact that changes are taking place. 
 Whether, even now, they are able to interpret the signs of 
 the times is, of course, an open question. But surely it is 
 worth while to try to understand what is going on, for 
 only thus can the future be planned with intelligence. 
 
 It should be obvious that in order to understand the 
 present and to anticipate the future we must examine the 
 past. But before turning back into our yesterdays, it will 
 be profitable to look about and form a tentative estimate of 
 today. Then while studying the developments of earlier 
 generations we shall know what to look for. Having a 
 preliminary idea of our present status and trend, we can 
 ask of the past these questions : Are these things new or 
 have they been experienced before? Are they part of a 
 movement toward some definite goal, or do they indicate 
 a groping in the dark, or possibly mere drifting? Are 
 the changes that have occurred such as we would denom- 
 inate " progress " or are they rather retrogression? 
 
 This manner of studying history backward may seem 
 a little unusual to some readers, but it appears to be in 
 harmony with the spirit of the best modern historians. 
 Indeed, an examination of their viewpoint will constitute 
 a helpful approach to our own study. 
 
 James Harvey Robinson says of history, " The one 
 thing that it ought to do, but has not yet effectively done, 
 is to help us understand ourselves, and our fellows, 
 
 9
 
 xo INTRODUCTION 
 
 and the problems and prospects of mankind." If we had 
 an adequate understanding of the past, we should be able to 
 interpret our present and to anticipate our future, " not 
 because the past would furnish precedents of conduct, but 
 because our conduct would be based upon a perfect com- 
 prehension of existing conditions, founded on a perfect 
 knowledge of the past." 
 
 Charles Seignobos urges the cultivation of more inti- 
 mate relations between the historians and the social 
 scientists. Already they have much in common both as 
 to subject matter and method. History that is a bare 
 recital of " facts " is limited in value as in interest. Social 
 science that ignores the historical background of present 
 problems can never offer effective solutions. 
 
 Karl Lamprecht emphasizes the importance of study- 
 ing the experiences of large groups of people instead of 
 centering our attention on a relatively small number of 
 " great men." He would give a minimum of attention 
 to incidents that are more spectacular than influential. 
 The mere chronology of disparate events would disappear 
 in the effort to trace a single, coherent process, in which 
 economic, political, religious and ethical elements are 
 inextricably interwoven. 
 
 In the spirit of these three representative historians 
 we shall undertake to trace the developments which are 
 taking place in social work. Among the developments to 
 be traced are the following : ( I ) increasing emphasis upon 
 prevention of social ills, with relatively less concern about 
 cure; (2) increasing correlation of social agencies, with 
 the community rather than the individual, as the object 
 of attention; (3) a movement toward more and more 
 governmental support and administration of agencies 
 previously maintained by private philanthropists; (4) the 
 growth of more intelligent standards by which social
 
 INTRODUCTION u 
 
 workers and their organizations are being put to the test 
 to see precisely what they are doing, to measure their 
 effectiveness, and to evaluate their achievements; (5) the 
 provision of special training for social work so that it 
 may become a profession, resting upon a scientific basis, 
 requiring thorough preparation, offering opportunity for 
 specialization, and substituting dignified professional 
 services for charity; (6) the demonstration by events that 
 the future of social work depends more on general eco- 
 nomic and social developments than on the social work 
 of the past. 
 
 An effort will be made to relate social work in its 
 development to other aspects of the social process. We 
 shall start from the present and reach further and further 
 into the past instead of starting at the beginning. We do 
 not aspire to the exhaustiveness of an all-inclusive nar- 
 rative. We are simply endeavoring to understand and 
 present so much of the past of social work as may be 
 needed to evaluate its present and to direct its future. 
 If we have included some items of minor significance and 
 omitted others of greater importance, we have erred in 
 judgment. But as to the basis of selection, there should 
 be no doubt. 
 
 Throughout the narrative we shall devote more atten- 
 tion to changing attitudes toward the problems of human 
 maladjustment than to the details of social work pro- 
 grams. In so far as we do discuss policies and methods 
 it will be for the purpose of discovering the points of view 
 that lay back of them. The justification of this emphasis 
 lies in the fact that it is in the attitude of the public, the 
 Zeitgeist, that we shall find our best clue to the future of 
 social work.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PREFACE 7 
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 PART I 
 
 PRESENT TENDENCIES IN SOCIAL WORK 
 
 ourra PAGE 
 
 I. PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK 15 
 
 II. CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 31 
 
 III. PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 50 
 
 PART II 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY HUMANITARIANISM 
 
 IV. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND SOCIAL WORK 73 
 
 V. INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 90 
 
 VI. THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 103 
 
 VII. HOUSING REFORM 119 
 
 VIII. THE SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 130 
 
 IX. THE CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 145 
 
 PART III 
 THE ENGLISH POOR LAW 
 
 X. THE BACKGROUND OF THE ENGLISH POOR LAW 163 
 
 XI. THE DEVELOFMENT OF THE ENGLISH Poo* LAW 183 
 
 XII. TRANSCENDING THE POOR LAW 200 
 
 13
 
 I 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 PART IF 
 THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH AND PHILANTHROPY 
 
 XIII. THE RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 213 
 
 XIV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 230 
 
 XV. THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 249 
 
 PART V 
 MUTUAL AID IN MEDIEVAL COMMUNITIES ] 
 
 XVI. MANOR AND PARISH 265 
 
 XVII. THE MEDIEVAL GILDS 281 
 
 XVIII. THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 292 
 
 XIX. SUMMARY AND' CONCLUSION 307 
 
 INDEX 3*3
 
 PART I 
 PRESENT TENDENCIES IN SOCIAL WORK
 
 CHAPTER I 
 PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK 
 
 WHAT is social work? To give a simple definition 
 ought to be easy for one who claims this as his profession. 
 But, as a matter of fact, the field of social service includes 
 so many and so varied activities that the question is very 
 difficult to answer. Caring for needy children in institu- 
 tions or placing them in foster homes, investigating cases 
 of neglect, abuse or cruelty, supervising delinquents who 
 are placed on probation or parole, untangling family diffi- 
 culties, providing financial assistance, securing and ex- 
 plaining necessary medical care, finding jobs, inspecting 
 houses and factories, directing leisure time activities, 
 teaching and advising immigrants, promoting public in- 
 terest in health, thrift and law enforcement these are a 
 few of the tasks that are performed by people known as 
 social workers. 
 
 What puzzles the inquirer most is the fact that even 
 social workers seem to be in confusion as to where their 
 work ends and that of other vocations begins. Some- 
 times it appears as though every public-spirited citizen 
 would have to be called a social worker. As a matter of 
 fact, some phases of social work are very much like those 
 simple acts of neighborliness whereby people living near 
 together help one another in time of need. Again, it is as- 
 sociated with the giving of casual alms, tossing a coin to 
 the beggar or feeding a tramp at the door. Nearly every- 
 one does these things whether he should or not yet 
 without any thought of calling himself a social worker. 
 
 Not only has social work been relatively undiffer- 
 
 2 17
 
 i8 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 entiated from the things that everybody does; it overlaps 
 the fields of the recognized professions, particularly medi- 
 cine, law, teaching and the ministry. To be sure, dis- 
 tinctions can be drawn. Thus, while medicine has to do 
 with physical conditions, social work is concerned with 
 relations to other people. As contrasted with law, it 
 stands for the adjustment of attitudes, rather than those 
 formal relationships prescribed in the statute books. It 
 differs from teaching in that the social worker rarely has 
 the opportunity to conduct his " client " through such 
 formal training as the schools provide. It is usually with- 
 out the theological and metaphysical implications of re- 
 ligious work. Nevertheless, it is a fact that social work 
 overlaps all of these other professions. 
 
 Perhaps the nearest we can come to a definition is to 
 say that social work is the art of adjusting personal rela- 
 tionships, of helping to overcome the difficulties which 
 may arise, for example, between native and foreign born, 
 between employers and employes, between school and 
 home. These are just the things that each of us tries to 
 do for himself and that we frequently try to do for our 
 friends and neighbors. Most of us have not made a special 
 study of such problems, of their causes or of the scientific 
 basis for their solution. There would be much less con- 
 fusion if the term social worker were reserved for people 
 who have made such special studies and are trained in 
 scientific methods of dealing with difficult problems of 
 human relationships. 
 
 To many people social work is merely another name 
 for charity, that is, any kind of service rendered or goods 
 provided without compensation. If this is correct, then 
 there is justification for the assertion that social work is 
 not a profession, but " an aspect of many professions." 
 Indeed, there has been no little debate as to whether or no
 
 PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK 19 
 
 social work should be accorded professional rating. Part 
 of the difficulty has undoubtedly come from the loose use 
 of terms, and it is possible that the issue will be clarified if 
 we agree that certain activities, commonly known as 
 charity, evidently do not constitute the work of a single 
 vocational group; and that many of these activities are 
 not at all professional in character, but are apt to be an 
 incidental part of anyone's life. There are, however, 
 other activities, such, for example, as the services of a 
 probation officer or vocational counsellor, which are 
 specialized and require definite training. It is in this last 
 group, if at all, that a profession of social work is to 
 be found. 
 
 Whether or not our first question can be satisfactorily 
 answered, it will be profitable for us to consider another, 
 namely: Is social work passing through a develop- 
 mental stage very similar to that experienced earlier by the 
 recognized professions, and is it on the way to becoming a 
 profession? The hypothesis which we shall examine is an 
 affirmative answer to this question. 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 
 
 In order to have a perspective from which to view 
 the process now going on in the field of social work, it will 
 be well for us to review briefly the series of events 
 through which some other professions have attained their 
 present status. 
 
 A hundred years ago the teaching of medical students 
 was carried on by physicians who took apprentices. These 
 students went about with the older men, watched them 
 treat their patients and helped to dispense medicines. After 
 a time there began to grow up a number of private medical 
 schools, operated frequently as commercial enterprises, but 
 possessing many advantages over the apprenticeship sys-
 
 to SOCIAL WORK 
 
 tern. They offered fairly definite courses of study, and 
 required more or less laboratory work and observation in 
 clinics before beginning to practise. Later some of the 
 universities established medical schools, and most of the 
 private schools either became affiliated with universities or 
 went out of existence. This meant the more careful 
 organization of curricula and the raising of standards for 
 admission. At the present time the usual preparation of 
 a physician includes a high school education emphasizing 
 the physical sciences, two years of what is usually called 
 pre-medical work in a college or university with a large 
 share of the time spent in laboratories, four years of pro- 
 fessional study with further laboratory work and observa- 
 tion in clinics, and finally a year of supervised practise as 
 interne in some hospital. 
 
 The developments in engineering, law and the ministry 
 have been similar. Only recently has the apprenticeship 
 system in engineering given way to university pro- 
 fessional schools resting on a foundation of general edu- 
 cation and specific scientific training. It is still possible to 
 become a lawyer by " reading " in some attorney's office, 
 but the best law schools now require at least three years of 
 college work, emphasizing history, political science and 
 economics, before a student is admitted to the professional 
 courses. Many a man has left the furrow for the ministry 
 with no other preparation than the " call to preach," but 
 today the professional training of a clergyman includes 
 a full college course followed by two or three years in a 
 theological seminary which is frequently one of the gradu- 
 ate departments of a university. 
 
 With these developments in mind, let us see what has 
 been happening in the field of social work. For centuries 
 the care of the needy was almost exclusively a function of 
 ,the church, performed for the most part by persons who
 
 PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK 21 
 
 had other duties and who lacked specific training for this 
 work. With the rise of public relief systems charity 
 " got into politics " and was again attended to by people 
 with other duties and lacking in specific training for social 
 work. The nineteenth century movements which we asso- 
 ciate with charity organization, social settlements, hous- 
 ing reform and industrial welfare work, were largely 
 pioneering and offered at first little on which professional 
 training could be based. 
 
 Happily, however, these agencies did make use of the 
 facilities which were at their disposal and developed an 
 informal sort of apprenticeship. On the whole, it was net 
 wisely planned and succeeded primarily in passing on a 
 few " tricks of the trade." [But more recently social 
 agencies have arranged to employ " workers-in-training " 
 who receive their instruction through supervised practise, 
 assigned reading and conferences with superiors. This 
 is probably the apprentice system at its bestTJ The begin- 
 ners letirn a definite technique and are prepared for the 
 tasks of some particular organization or type of work. 
 However, it is safe to say that they do not get a well- 
 rounded view of the field of social work ; they do not see 
 it in its relation to the community life as a whole; they 
 are not prepared to apply functional tests to their work and 
 adapt it to new social needs. 
 
 The first appearance of something more systematic 
 was the six weeks' course arranged by the New York 
 Charity Organization Society in the summer of 1898. 
 Twenty-seven students were brought together for lectures, 
 visits to institutions and conferences. In 1904 a full year's 
 course was undertaken, being called the New York School 
 of Philanthropy, and operated under the direction of the 
 Committee on Philanthropic Education of the Charity 
 Organization Society. Later a second year was added,
 
 22 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 the scope of training was widened and the name was 
 changed to the New York School of Social Work. 
 
 In the same year a similar school was established in 
 Boston under the title " School for Social Workers, 
 maintained by Simmons College and Harvard University." 
 Harvard has since withdrawn from participation in its 
 support and the School of Social Work, as it is now called, 
 is operated as a department of Simmons College. Pro- 
 grammes are offered leading to the degree of Bachelor of 
 Science and for college graduates to the degree of Master 
 of Science, and to certificates for persons with irregu- 
 lar education. 
 
 In 1903 there was organized the Institute of Social 
 Science, planned as a part of the Extension Division of the 
 University of Chicago. Presently this affiliation was 
 changed for one with the settlement known as Chicago 
 Commons, and later the work was maintained indepen- 
 dently as the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. 
 In 1920 this institution went out of existence and its activ- 
 ities were taken over again by the University of Chicago 
 to be carried on as a graduate school of social ser- 
 vice administration. 
 
 There are a number of other schools with similar his- 
 tories. But a somewhat different development has ap- 
 peared within certain universities, usually in close relation 
 to their departments of sociology. Until recently this 
 work was largely, if not strictly, academic in character, 
 while that of the so-called " independent " schools was 
 quite the opposite. But during the past few years there 
 have appeared university courses thoroughly " practical " 
 in character and correlated with field work in various social 
 agencies. Among the universities and colleges which have 
 thus provided definite training for social work are : West-
 
 PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK 23 
 
 ern Reserve, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio State, 
 Toronto, Carnegie Institute, Bryn Mawr and Smith, 
 
 During the recent war interest in training for social 
 work was further stimulated by the Red Cross Home 
 Service Institutes. These consisted of short courses, 
 sometimes offered in cooperation with universities, but 
 more often independently, for the purpose of giving such 
 preparation as could be condensed into six or twelve weeks. 
 While these were necessitated by the war emergency, the 
 net result still remains in doubt, for they awarded certifi- 
 cates to a large number of women who imagine them- 
 selves to be professional folk, and who have been described, 
 perhaps with unnecessary harshness, as " half-baked social 
 reformers." Similar short courses were arranged by the 
 War Camp Community Service and the National Catholic 
 War Council. The latter has now concentrated upon 
 Clifton, a training school affiliated with the Catholic 
 University of America. 
 
 Because of the newness of all this and because of the 
 varied conditions under which training schools have been 
 started, it is but natural that we should find no general 
 agreement as to what should be required for admission 
 and what is the proper content of a professional curricu- 
 lum. One of the older schools sets forth the following 
 alternative conditions of admission : ( I ) completion of a 
 college course, (2) graduation from a recognized second- 
 ary school, (3) definite social service experience. That 
 these three conditions should be regarded as in any sense 
 equivalents is one reason why the schools of social work 
 are viewed askance by many intelligent people. 
 
 There is somewhat more definite understanding as to 
 the courses of study. However, the " independent " 
 schools stress the techniques of particular tasks, while the 
 university schools lay more emphasis upon " theory." In
 
 24 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 general, they all include some training in family "case 
 work/' neighborhood and community work and social re- 
 search. Several of the schools have worked out courses in 
 medical-social service, work with delinquents and the care 
 of children. Somewhat newer and less developed is the 
 training of people for service in small towns and rural sec- 
 tions. All the schools set aside a certain portion of the 
 time for supervised field work, but for the most part 
 there is no attempt to distinguish what might be called 
 laboratory work and clinic observation on the one hand 
 from practise on the other. Students are usually plunged 
 immediately into the mazes of diagnosis and treatment, 
 which in the medical schools are withheld until the very 
 end of the training period. All of this presents a striking 
 parallel to the earlier history of professional education in 
 other fields. 
 
 FACTORS AFFECTING THE STATUS OF SOCIAL WORK 
 
 So far the evidence seems to bear out our hypothesis 
 that social work is not yet a profession, but is in the process 
 of becoming one. The correctness of this judgment may 
 be further determined by the adequacy of the reasons 
 which may be found for the failure of social work to 
 achieve professional standing in the past and for the 
 probability of such achievement in the future. 
 
 First, then, what are the factors which have hindered 
 social work hitherto from becoming a profession? We 
 have already noted three : ( I ) Social work has represented 
 activities not sufficiently differentiated from those of the 
 general public. (2) It overlaps the fields of the recognized 
 professions, notably medicine, law, teaching and the min- 
 istry. (3) It includes a wide variety of services, from 
 house-work in an orphanage to administering a federal
 
 PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK 25 
 
 bureau, from giving information to travelers to super- 
 vising paroled prisoners. 
 
 j^One of the traits that distinguish a profession from 
 other vocations is usually held to be that the former is 
 preeminently an intellectual pursuit with large oppor- 
 tunity for exercising individual initiative?/ Now these 
 qualities have always been found in some social work, but 
 it is easy to point out many persons calling themselves 
 social workers who are engaged in applying "cut and dried" 
 techniques rather than exercising initiative. The work 
 of many a relief agent, probation officer, institution at- 
 tendant and employment manager is, after all, pretty much 
 a matter of mechanical routine. This is not because it 
 lacks the possibilities of original work, but rather because 
 of the limited vision and inadequate training of those who 
 do it. This inadequate training is responsible for methods 
 which are the product of a crude trial and error process. 
 Samples of the " rules of thumb " which have stood in the 
 place of scientific methods are the historic " workhouse 
 test," and habitual reliance upon material relief, institu- 
 tional care, Binet tests, etc. 
 
 [Perhaps the most important reason why social work 
 has not yet become a profession is the persistence of the 
 apprenticeship system already described^ The result is 
 that many social workers are ignorant of the relations be- 
 tween different types of work and still more ignorant of 
 the relation of social work in general to the community 
 life as a whole. The apprenticeship system involves almost 
 automatically the dominance of " rules of thumb " and 
 " tricks of the trade " over scientific principles. It pro- 
 duces social workers whose self-importance ill comports 
 with their narrow vision and limited ability. 
 
 But the persistence of the apprenticeship system is in 
 turn due, in part at least, to the late development of social
 
 26 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 science. While political science made its appearance long 
 before the nineteenth century, the development of eco- 
 nomics is recent, and sociology belongs almost wholly to 
 the last few decades. Even yet social science is in a forma- 
 tive stage. But on the other hand, the social workers 
 have not always been ready to avail themselves of the con- 
 tributions which the social scientists might have made to 
 theirjx>licies and methods. 
 
 Finally, among the causes of failure to attain profes- 
 sional standing, we must note the undemocratic character 
 of social work as implied in the word charity. The physi- 
 cian, lawyer, minister and teacher are supported by their 
 clients or by the community as a whole, while the social 
 worker has usually been the emissary of one social class 
 to another. The recognized professional folk deal with 
 problems which may appear in any social or economic 
 group, while the social workers have restricted themselves 
 largely to the so-called " working-classes." The profes- 
 sional folk are engaged in doing things which people need 
 to have done and which in this era of specialization they 
 are not able to do for themselves. There is no assumption 
 of social or economic superiority. There is simply a task 
 to be performed which requires a special kind of ability 
 and training. The social worker, on the other hand, has 
 not yet escaped the stigma of doing things that "normal" 
 people ought to do for themselves. He is looked upon as 
 handing down to the inferior classes some of the surplus 
 of the superior. 
 
 Now it is a revulsion against just this sort of thing 
 that is providing one of the most powerful impulses for 
 the professionalizing of social work. Charity has some- 
 times been presented as a device for quieting unrest and 
 avoiding important social or economic readjustments. 
 But the scorn of the socialist, the trade-unionist and often
 
 PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK 27 
 
 the moderate liberal for charity is being felt. The most 
 obvious response is the changing of names. Charity or- 
 ganization societies are becoming family welfare associa- 
 tions; boards of charity are becoming boards of public 
 welfare; conferences of charities are becoming confer- 
 ences of social agencies; schools of philanthropy are be- 
 coming schools of social work. There is a marked effort 
 to shake off the past and make a new start, not only in 
 name, but in character and scope of work as well. Addi- 
 tional impetus is given to this transition by the gradually 
 increasing use of social agencies by the well-to-do, some- 
 times with the payment of a fee for the service, and 
 by the extension of governmental participation in social 
 work. Just as there need be no humiliation in consulta- 
 tion with a physician, attorney, architect or engineer, so it 
 may be that the social worker will presently be looked to by 
 all of us for the rendering of certain specialized services. 
 The demand for the professionalizing of social work 
 is bound up with the democratic movement. But it is the 
 rise of social science that is making possible the equip- 
 ment of workers able to render the technical services re- 
 quired. Already social science, particularly sociology, 
 has established the fact of the relativity of moral codes 
 and the general manner in which social institutions grow 
 and decay. It has demonstrated the intimate relations of 
 government, industry, religion, family in other words, 
 the unity of the social process. It has shown the import- 
 ance and some methods of applying functional tests to 
 social agencies. It has made clear the possibility of con- 
 trolling many of the conditions of our common life. 
 True, much that passes as social science is unscientific 
 both in spirit and method, but in spite of this there are 
 growing up techniques, funds of information and gen-
 
 28 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 eral principles quite as worthy of confidence as many of 
 those of physical science. 
 
 With the development of social science, it is becoming 
 more and more possible to build up schools for the train- 
 ing of social workers on a basis that may properly be 
 called professional. The "institutes", the "independent" 
 schools and the university departments all are making 
 increasing iise of the results of scientific research in the 
 realm of social problems. More and more a knowledge 
 of these results and a specialized training based on them 
 are being demanded of candidates for positions in social 
 work. 
 
 Further evidences of the evolution of a profession are 
 to be seen in the esprit de corps cultivated by conferences, 
 federations and publications. They appear in the efforts 
 to establish common standards and to outline "profes- 
 sional ethics". Finally, we are defining more clearly the 
 tasks which we expect social workers to perform. In 
 general, these tasks involve the adjustment of personal 
 relations. Specifically, they include the securing of in- 
 formation which makes possible programs for the meet- 
 ing of emergencies, the correction of dangerous habits 
 and protection of incompetents. Very often they consist in 
 making plans and giving advice concerning family rela- 
 tions, education, employment and community organi- 
 zation. They usually involve the clearing up of mis- 
 understandings, the relieving of worries and removing 
 the sources of personal friction. 
 
 But what of the rapid " socialization "of the other 
 professions? The question has been asked, if the com- 
 munity is served to the utmost by the teachers, doctors, 
 lawyers, ministers, etc., what will remain for the social 
 workers? It is probably true that many of the services 
 now performed by social workers will be gradually turned
 
 PROFESSIONALIZING SOCIAL WORK 29 
 
 over to members of other professions, and that others 
 will be eliminated as unnecessary. But it seems quite 
 certain that there will be a residium centering about the 
 service to persons seriously out of adjustment with their 
 surroundings and to groups badly disorganized. Wheth- 
 er the term social work be attached to the civic respon- 
 sibilities of everyone or to the specialized services just 
 indicated matters little. The probabilities are that the lat- 
 ter will become the function of a definite professional 
 group ; while the former, under a different name, or per- 
 haps bearing no specific label, will be frankly unprofes- 
 sional. The signs point to a minimizing in the twentieth 
 century of charity, philanthropy, uplift, etc., with the 
 development on the one hand of professional service, and 
 on the other the expansion of civic responsibilities of the 
 common man. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 Is Social Work a Profession? 
 
 The Profession of Social Work. Published by the National Social 
 
 Workers' Exchange. New York, 1921. 
 
 Nat Conf. Social Work, 1917, 112-115, 37O-37I; 1915, 575-^06. 
 Survey, 35, 386-389, 408-410; 40, 125-126. 
 
 Science and Social Work 
 
 Todd, Arthur J. : The Scientific Spirit and Social Work. New 
 York: Macmillan, 1919. 
 
 Queen, Stuart A,: Social Science in the Colleges. Baltimore: 
 Gouchcr College Bulletin, 1920. 
 
 Nat Conf. Social Work, 1919, 358-365 (sociology) ; 1918, 329-340 
 (psychology), 683-693 (sociology) ; 1917, 101-112 (medicine and 
 psychology) ; 1916, 495-501 (medicine) ; 1915, 307-339 (abnor- 
 mal psychology and psychiatry). 
 
 Amer. Jour. Soc. t 18, 215-221 (social technology) ; 21, 721-864 
 (sociology).
 
 30 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Training for Social Work 
 
 Stciner, Jesse F. : Training for Social Work. Chicago: University 
 of Chicago Press, 1921. Also Amcr. Jour. Soc., Jan., Mar. and 
 May, 1921. 
 
 Brackett, Jeffrey R. : Supervision and Education in Charity. New 
 York: Macmillan, 1903, Chap. 7 and 8. 
 
 U. S. Bur. Educ., 1915, 345~359- 
 
 Nat. Conf. Social Work, 1919, 593-611 ; 1915, 606-626. 
 
 Nat Conf. Char, and Char., 1913, 376-379; 1911, 365-400. 
 
 School and Society, 7, 271-277. 
 
 London Char. Org. Soc. Occasional Papers, 1900, No. u, pp. 129-138; 
 1905, No. 3, PP. 39-45- 
 
 See bulletins and catalogs of various schools of social work, e.g., 
 New York School of Social Work, Simmons College School of 
 Social Work, University of Chicago School of Social Service 
 Administration, Missouri School of Social Economy, Smith Col- 
 lege Training School for Social Work.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 
 
 OF tremendous significance for its future are the 
 various movements which aim at bringing together the 
 host of individuals and organizations engaged in social 
 work. Much is being said and done today concerning 
 federation, unification, standardization and other phases 
 of correlation. As other aspects of this same tendency 
 we may regard governmental participation and supervi- 
 sion and a challenging of social work by the public in 
 general. In it all, there is a diminution of the promi- 
 nence frequently given to particular organizations and 
 individual workers, with an increasing emphasis upon 
 the community as a whole and its needs. 
 
 The correlation of social agencies is by no means a 
 new thing. Indeed, the philanthropies of the middle ages 
 were correlated to a certain extent, because practically all 
 of them were administered by the great ecclesiastical sys- 
 tem which had its center at Rome. Nevertheless, in its 
 practical working out, the relief work of each monastery, 
 hospital and parish was relatively independent. When 
 we come down to the modern period, we find the English 
 system of poor relief organized on a local basis and the 
 American scheme of public charities followed closely the 
 English plan. When we get into the nineteenth century, 
 the number of private organizations without official rela- 
 tions to one another becomes enormous. Even at the 
 present day many serious workers are disturbed at the 
 multitude of agencies operating along similar lines. 
 
 As evidence of the need for correlation, two or three 
 
 31
 
 32 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 instances may be cited. When Dr. Richard A. Bolt be- 
 came National Director of the American Child Hygiene 
 Association, he sent out letters to all national organi- 
 zations which he had reason to believe were working 
 in the field of child hygiene. The replies to his inquiries 
 revealed the fact that there are today some eighty differ- 
 ent national societies at work in this field. Another 
 instance appears in the public school system of the state 
 of Virginia. Here there are at least seven separate 
 groups undertaking to organize the school children for 
 various civic purposes. First, there is the Cooperative 
 Educational Association, organizing its Junior Com- 
 munity Leagues. Then comes the National Tuberculosis 
 Association, with its Modern Health Crusaders. The 
 American Red Cross appears with a program no less am- 
 bitious for its Junior membership. The Extension De- 
 partment of Virginia Polytechnic Institute is organizing 
 boys' and girls' clubs, especially in the rural districts. 
 The Federation of Women's Clubs is promoting a thrift 
 campaign. And finally, the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation and the Young Women's Christian Association 
 are planning to extend the work of their boys' and girls' 
 departments. 
 
 There are many different types of correlation and 
 integration of social agencies, to five outstanding forms 
 of which we shall give our attention. They are, respec- 
 tively, correlation through state and national societies, 
 through supervision, councils of social agencies, financial 
 federations and actual amalgamation. 
 
 NATIONAL AND STATE ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 The national and state societies are of three general 
 types those whose chief function is the~ho1ding of an 
 annual conference, those that are actually carrying on
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 33 
 a definite program of social work, and those that are 
 
 4 p^MtiMMq^^^^^M^MMHpNMBMitoVHfl"'llB^M^^BMH^^^^^^^^^B 
 
 primarily religious. 
 
 Of the .najt^aJ^confereTices, the best known is the 
 National Conference of Social work, which was organized , 
 in the early seventies as the National Conference of Char- / 
 ities and Correction. The purpose of this society was to 
 bring together those engaged in the administration of 
 various philanthropic and correctional agencies, and other 
 public-spirited citizens interested in improved facilities 
 for the care of dependents, defectives and delinquents. 
 For a long time, the attention of the Conference centered 
 largely upon problems of providing for the "disadvan- 
 taged classes". But even at the beginning, there were 
 some who saw the inadequacy of mere palliative measures, 
 and as the years went by there was more and more em- 
 phasis upon preventive and constructive work. This 
 broadening interest finally received recognition in the 
 change of name in 1916. The present scope of the Con- 
 ference may be suggested by enumerating the committees 
 which prepared the program of the 1920 meeting. There 
 were committees on children, delinquents and correction, 
 health, public agencies and institutions, the family, indus- 
 trial and economic problems, the local community, men- 
 tal hygiene, organization of social forces and the uniting 
 of native and foreign-born in America. 
 
 Another national organization of historical interest, 
 which also dates from the seventies, is the American 
 Prison Association. This is, as its name signifies, much 
 more specialized than the National Conference of Social 
 work, but it too nas gone through a transition from atten- 
 tion primarily to details of administration and treatment 
 to a consideration of means of preventing delinquency. 
 
 Time and space forbid that we do more than enumer- 
 ate a few of the many other national organizations which 
 3
 
 34 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 hold annual conferences and which bring together social 
 workers for a better understanding and closer coordi- 
 nation of effort. Just as samples, we mention the Ameri- 
 can Association for Organizing Family Social Work, 
 the National Federation of Settlements, the National 
 Children's Home Society, National Conference on the 
 Education of Backward, Truant and Delinquent Children, 
 National Probation Association, National Organization 
 for Public Health Nursing, American Association of Hos- 
 pital Social Workers, Playground and Recreation Asso- 
 ciation of America, Association of Training Schools for 
 Professional Social Work. 
 
 Many of these national organizations are also organ- 
 ized on a state-wide basis, the state societies frequently 
 being branches of the national associations. Among the 
 earliest of these state organizations to develop were the 
 State Conferences of Charities and Corrections, now for 
 the most part known by names similar to the new title 
 of the National Conference. These State Conferences 
 were stimulated by the national organization, but until 
 recently have had no official relation to it, and even now, 
 the majority of them are quite independent. 
 
 So far, we have discussed organizations whose prin- 
 cipal function, or at least, whose original purpose was 
 the holding of an annual meeting. Many of them, of 
 course, carry on publicity or research work throughout the 
 year. However, they differ fundamentally from another 
 group of nation- and state-wide agencies, which are ad- 
 ministering more or less definite programs. Among these 
 are the American Red Cross, Community Service, Inc., 
 the National Desertion Bureau, American Association for 
 Labor Legislation and some of the public health agencies 
 discussed in another chapter. 
 
 The Red Cross was started originally for purely
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 35 
 
 military relief, and the supplementing of medical service 
 in the army. Later, it added as a peace time activity the 
 administration of relief in times of disaster, such as fire, 
 flood and earth-quake. During the great War, it assumed 
 responsibilty for looking after the families of men who 
 entered upon military or naval service. In addition, it 
 undertook to adjust many matters for the enlisted men 
 themselves. 
 
 Chapters of the Red Cross were organized in every 
 city and in almost every county of the United States. 
 Each chapter had committees to handle various aspects of 
 its work. Some of these have completed their task, but 
 in many communities Home Service is being continued, 
 not merely to adjust various matters for disabled and dis- 
 charged soldiers but also to carry on peace time activities. 
 Especially in the South and West, where there are few 
 organized social agencies, does it seem likely that Home 
 Service will continue and expand its activities. Another 
 phase of Red Cross work that is spreading is its health 
 service. Many chapters are employing public health 
 nurses and some are organizing health centers. 
 
 Being organized on a nation-wide scale, it has been 
 necessary for the Red Cross to develop and maintain a 
 somewhat elaborate administrative machine. At the top 
 is National Headquarters which maps out general poli- 
 cies and helps the divisions to put them into effect. 
 These divisions comprise groups of contiguous states. 
 There were until recently fourteen divisions with field 
 staffs which visit the local chapters to assist and stimulate 
 them in a variety of ways. Each chapter usually covers 
 a county or city and is further subdivided into branches 
 and auxiliaries. 
 
 We shall not take the time to describe others of the 
 national organizations, but instead will outline the work-
 
 36 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 ing agreement entered into by the American Red Cross, 
 the National Tuberculosis Association, and the National 
 Organization for Public Health Nursing early in 1920. 
 The cooperative plan covers education, recruiting and 
 employment of public health nurses, assigning to each 
 organization certain specific functions, and providing 
 definite machinery for coordination. This last consists 
 of a joint consultation committee made up of the Secre- 
 tary of the National Organization for Public Health 
 Nursing, the Director of the Bureau of Public Health 
 Nursing of the Red Cross, and Secretary for Nursing of 
 the National Tuberculosis Association. This committee 
 meets frequently for conferences relative to problems and 
 projects confronting or contemplated by any one of the 
 three. In addition, there are state committees on Public 
 Health Nursing, which usually represent these three or- 
 ganizations and the State Departments of Health. These 
 committees, without assuming administrative responsi- 
 bility, devote themselves to the advancement of public 
 health nursing through the stimulation of public opinion, 
 through interpretation and advice, and through the pro- 
 motion of coordination. Finally, there are exchanges of 
 memoranda regarding new programs or changes in poli- 
 cies before these are put into operation. 
 
 CORRELATION THROUGH SUPERVISION 
 
 A very different sort of correlation has come about 
 through the supervision of social agencies by various pub- 
 lic and private bodies. Largely under the influence of the 
 National and State Conferences of Charities and Correc- 
 tion, many states have established departments bearing such 
 names as Board of Charities and Correction, Board of 
 Control, Commissioners of Public Welfare or Board of 
 Administration. In the main, their duties are super-
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 37 
 
 visory and their powers are limited to inspection and 
 recommendation. Some of them, however, have been 
 given very large administrative powers, especially over 
 state institutions for the insane, feeble-minded, epileptic 
 and delinquent. A very few have limited administrative 
 authority over county jails, alms-houses and hospitals, 
 and over municipal institutions of a similar nature. 
 
 More recently, the State Boards have been given 
 responsibility for the care of dependent children. Fre- 
 quently, they are authorized to license and regulate or- 
 phanages and other children's homes, child-placing so- 
 cieties and maternity hospitals. Usually the State Board 
 has a certain amount of police power to enforce its re- 
 quirements. But ordinarily, great caution has been exer- 
 cised to avoid setting arbitrary standards which were not 
 understood nor desired, at least by the better private 
 agencies. In some states, the Boards have called together 
 representatives of the various organizations affected to 
 talk over with them just what should be required in order 
 that their work might justify itself before the public. 
 By this cooperative plan of arriving at standards, the 
 Boards have been much more successful in improving 
 the character of institutions and societies than they could 
 possibly have been had their methods been more auto- 
 cratic. Because the staff of the average State Board is 
 utterly inadequate to perform the task assigned, it has 
 sometimes been the practice to delegate part of the work 
 to local authorities and sometimes to private agencies. 
 Thus the California State Board of Charities and Correc- 
 tions has endeavored to bring private boarding homes 
 for children under the supervison of the licensed child- 
 placing societies. In cities in which the local Health 
 Departments or Charities Commissions are regarded as 
 having satisfactory standards and the means for enforcing
 
 38 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 them, licenses are issued by the State Board upon recom- 
 mendation of the local authority. 
 
 Another phase of the correlation developed by the 
 State Departments has been the holding of frequent con- 
 ferences of people engaged or interested in the care of 
 needy children. Usually these meetings are held at some 
 institution, or the office of some other agency, in order 
 that the discussions may be supplemented by personal in- 
 spection of equipment and observation of methods. 
 
 In the West and South, a number of cities have under- 
 taken to adapt the State Board of Charities plan to the 
 municipality. In 1913, the Los Angeles City Council 
 passed an ordinance creating a Municipal Charities Com- 
 mission, empowering it to: 
 
 (1) Investigate all charities dependent upon public 
 appeal, or general solicitation of funds, for their support, 
 
 , and to endorse such of them as meet the actual needs of the 
 community, and attain a reasonable standard of efficiency, 
 and are so conducted as to insure the public of a wise 
 use of funds ; 
 
 (2) To encourage the formation of new private chari- 
 "V ties to meet the needs not already provided for ; 
 
 (3 ) To collect and preserve statistics relating to chari- 
 ties, conditions of life, unemployment and delinquency; 
 and maintain a constant survey of the field of charity; 
 
 (4) To disburse all funds apportioned by the city for 
 charitable purposes; 
 
 (5) To receive donations, gifts, or bequests, to be used 
 for charitable purposes, and administer the same ; 
 
 (6) To establish and maintain free employment bu- 
 reaus, et cetera. 
 
 At the same time, the City Council passed a Penal 
 Ordinance which provided for the regulation of the solicit- 
 ing of alms and contributions for charitable purposes,
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 39 
 
 and prohibited begging. In carrying out the provisions of 
 these acts, the Commisson incurred the bitter enmity of 
 the Salvation Army, which carried its case finally to the 
 Supreme Court of California. The decision handed down 
 was to the effect that certain parts of the ordinance 
 were unconstitutional, because in them the City Council 
 had undertaken to delegate to the Commission powers 
 which the city itself did not possess. 
 
 Because of personal jealousy and animosity rather 
 than because of this decision, both of the ordinances were 
 repealed and new ones put in their place, establishing a 
 Social Service Commission with decidedly limited power. 
 The spirit of the new ordinances is indicated by certain 
 phrases which appear in them. Thus the Commission is 
 authorized to investigate charitable or philanthropic or- 
 ganizations vyhen req^gsted or permkted bv fre officers / 
 thereof. The Commission now endorses instead otTi- 
 censing such organizations, and is thus practically on a 
 par with the Charities Endorsement Committees of vari- 
 ous Chambers of Commerce. 
 
 In a number of cities such as Cleveland, Chicago, St. 
 Louis and San Francisco, the Chambers of Commerce, 
 Merchants Associations, or similar bodies have appointed 
 Charities Endorsement Committees. Their purpose has 
 been primarily to protect their members from the appeals 
 of fraudulent solicitors, but they have frequently gone 
 beyond this merely negative and prohibitive program. 
 Following the lead of the State Boards, they have some- 
 times undertaken to bring together the officers of various 
 agencies in order that there might be a better mutual un- 
 derstanding and a closer coordination of effort. Probably 
 their chief value has been the collection of more or less 
 comprehensive information about the social agencies of 
 the city.
 
 40 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 In St. Louis, the Chamber of Commerce Endorsement 
 Committee now requires membership in the Council of 
 Social Agencies before placing its stamp of approval upon 
 any organization. Any group of people desiring to se- 
 cure general support for a new social activity, or the exten- 
 sion of an old one, will almost certainly come to the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce. In each case, the Chamber asks for 
 a report from the central council. A special committee 
 of the council is then appointed, and its reports are pre- 
 sented first to the council and then to the Charities En- 
 dorsement Committee. 
 
 Similar to this sort of supervision is the work of the 
 National Investigation Bureau. This grew out of the 
 many inquiries brought to the Bureau of Advice and In- 
 formation of the Charity Organization Society of New 
 York, concerning various war charities. The committee 
 requested the Council of National Defense to assume the 
 responsibility for endorsing war charities, but nothing 
 was done by the council, and the Charity Organization 
 Society itself began to issue bulletins of approved war 
 activities. These were continued until October, 1918, 
 when eight of the leading " war chests " joined in organ- 
 izing the National Investigation Bureau. The movement 
 spread rapidly, and as a result many ill-considered efforts 
 were eliminated, or kept from coming into existence. 
 
 COUNCILS OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 
 
 We turn now to what are called Councils of Social 
 Agencies. The general idea of the central council seems 
 to have grown out of the field work inaugurated by the 
 Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage 
 Foundation, and later transferred to the American Asso- 
 ciation for Organizing Family Social Work. As distin- 
 guished from a City Conference on Social Work, or a
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 41 
 
 Social Workers' Club, a Central Council is essentially 
 a body composed of official delegates from various agen- 
 cies. Some of the councils have started somewhat after 
 the fashion of an exclusive club, admitting only recog- 
 nized and approved organizations, while others undertook 
 to bring in as many as possible at the very start. In gen- 
 eral, however, opportunist policies have been followed, 
 and a variety of local and temporary circumstances have 
 determined what groups should be included. Such cen- 
 tral councils have been established in a number of the 
 larger cities and are now being introduced into smaller 
 communities Among the better known Councils are 
 those of St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, 
 and Cincinnati. 
 
 The methods by which a Central Council may make 
 contributions to the social life of a community are thus de- 
 scribed by Francis H. McLean. 
 
 1 i ) By bringing about the improvement of methods, 
 policies and ideals in the work of individual social agencies. 
 
 (2) By developing a better inter-play between the 
 work of different agencies, resulting in greater economy 
 and efficiency of effort on the part of all of them. 
 
 (3) By demonstrating to their respective communi- 
 ties the need for the establishment of new social agencies, 
 either public or private, or the extension of the work of 
 old ones. 
 
 (5) By developing joint action for the advancement 
 of reforms in public administrative departments or for 
 the passage of new social legislation. 
 
 (6) By developing a program of social development 
 which may look many years into the future, but which 
 will make clear just what new activities in the social 
 field should next be undertaken by the community. That
 
 42 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 is, councils should always have formulated plans for pro- 
 gressive and logical development in the social field. 
 
 (7) By holding conferences and printing material 
 on subjects of general interest to the social agencies; as, 
 for instance, on right methods of publicity for different 
 kinds of agency. This may include joint schemes for edu- 
 cating the community as to the methods and ends of so- 
 cial work. 
 
 (8) By inaugurating and carrying on joint activities 
 for the benefit of all the agencies. Thus the central coun- 
 cils have in a number of places become responsible for the 
 social service exchange. In Chicago, Milwaukee and Min- 
 neapolis they have established bureaus for the enrollment 
 and assignment of volunteer service. In Chicago and Mil- 
 waukee the council is considering the question of joint pur- 
 chase of supplies. 
 
 There are other sorts of community councils which 
 include agencies not ordinarily regarded as belonging 
 in the field of social work. Their activities, however, 
 are frequently so similar in character that it is worth while 
 to call attention to their existence. Such organizations 
 are the County Councils, promoted by the State Colleges 
 of Agriculture and the Inter-Church World Movement. 
 In this same category might be listed the Community 
 Leagues organized by the Cooperative Education Asso- 
 ciation of Virginia. 
 
 FINANCIAL FEDERATIONS 
 
 Similar in many respects to the Councils of Social 
 Agencies are the so-called Financial Federations. As a 
 matter of fact, some of the federations have exactly the 
 same functions as the central councils, with the added 
 work of cooperative budget making and money raising. 
 In exactly the same manner as the central councils, the
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 43 
 
 federations undertake to standardize salaries and methods 
 of work, conduct surveys and continuous research, carry 
 on educational and publicity work, and bring together 
 members of constituent agencies for frequent conference. 
 
 The need for financial federation was most urgently 
 felt by those who saw trained social workers compelled 
 to devote an exorbitant part of their time to money rais- 
 ing. They saw also the waste and friction involved in 
 repeated appeals, frequently to precisely the same people. 
 Some of the promoters of these federations, indeed, were 
 among the generous givers to whom a multitude of agen- 
 cies sent a continual stream of requests for money. 
 
 The federation idea seems to have started in Denver, 
 back in the eighties. For a time no other city followed 
 this lead. About a decade later, it was taken up by the 
 Jews with the result that there is now in almost every 
 city of importance a Federation of Jewish Charities. Fi- 
 nally, the idea reappeared in Cleveland in 1913 on a com- 
 munity basis. 
 
 In that year, the Federation for Charity and Philan- 
 thropy was started with a Board of thirty prominent 
 citizens representing donors, institutions and general 
 public. The following year, the Cleveland Welfare Coun- 
 cil was started, to act as an advisory body to the new City 
 Department of Public Welfare, and to provide a city-wide 
 clearing house for surveys and other welfare activities 
 and plans. In 1917, the Welfare Council and the Federa- 
 tion for Charity and Philanthropy were merged under 
 the new name of the Welfare Federation of Cleveland. 
 In this organization over sixty agencies are allied in 
 money-raising activities, and some twenty others arc 
 cooperating members. 
 
 The result of this movement in Cleveland has been 
 a tremendous increase in the number of persons giving to
 
 44 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 social work, and in the amount of money raised. It has 
 brought about much closer cooperation among the various 
 agencies of the city, and a larger appreciation of the needs 
 of the community as a whole. 
 
 As a matter of fact, it is a bit misleading to describe 
 these organizations as financial federations, but the finan- 
 cial aspect of their work is the key to many of their other 
 activities. Roscoe C. Edlund has pointed out clearly the 
 way in which cooperative budget making and money 
 raising contributes toward the development of com- 
 munity planning. 
 
 " If the representatives of all agencies that are mem- 
 bers of a community-wide federation come together to 
 put on the table before them the plans which are to cost 
 money, and if these representatives go into the details as to 
 what each expenditure means, they are by that very act 
 beginning to understand their united program for the 
 community as they never understood it before. In the 
 doing of it, they are bound to weigh one need against 
 another; they are bound to see where are the gaps; and 
 they are bound to see where there is overlapping. Co- 
 operative budget making, then, is the beginning of co- 
 operative social service planning of a different sort from 
 that where each agency simply asks the community for the 
 amount of funds which in its own judgment is necessary 
 for its work, that judgment not being checked up by 
 comparison with the plans of other social agencies in the 
 same city." 
 
 At least passing mention should be made of the " war 
 chests" of 1917-18, and the great Seven-fold Drive of 
 1918. The principles underlying both of these movements 
 were identical with those which lie back of the more per- 
 manent federations. They took their cue from the centrali- 
 zation of the business world and large scale production
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 45 
 
 in industry. In spite of their many faults, they unques- 
 tionably resulted in tremendous saving of energy and time, 
 and greatly increased the money which was raised. 
 
 AMALGAMATION 
 
 Finally, we may observe some cases of complete amal- 
 gamation of previously independent social agencies. 
 Sometimes this fusion comes about under private aus- 
 pices, as in the case of the older charity organization 
 societies, and sometimes under government auspices. 
 
 An example of the first type of amalgamation is the 
 Social Service Bureau of Houston, Texas. The Social 
 Service Bureau took over the activities previously carried 
 on by the Houston Settlement Association, the Anti-Tu- 
 berculosis League, the Harris County Humane Society, 
 the Houston Kindergarten Association, and the Play- 
 ground Association. This consolidation was brought 
 about under more or less external pressure. A consider- 
 able sum of money in the form of a municipal subsidy 
 was also held out as an inducement for coming together. 
 But the Social Service Bureau is still a private agency, 
 and in no sense a part of the city government. 
 
 Fresno County, California, is a good example of amal- 
 gamation under public auspices. There was created in 
 1916 a County Relief and Employment Commission, 
 appointed by the Board of Supervisors, to take over the 
 work of the county outdoor relief department, the munic- 
 ipal employment bureau and a citizens' relief commit- 
 tee. The commission itself consisted of seven unpaid 
 members who were authorized by ordinance to employ 
 certain paid workers. After a year's trial it was decided 
 to carry the plan of consolidation still farther. Under the 
 head of a new Commission of Public Welfare there were 
 brought together the work of the Relief and Employment
 
 46 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Commission, the administration of the county hospital, 
 almshouse, orphanage and dispensary and a private organi- 
 zation known as the Fresno County Humane Society. 
 
 After watching the growth of the Fresno County plan, 
 the California State Board of Charities and Corrections 
 undertook to organize similar commissions in other coun- 
 ties. In each instance the local situation was carefully 
 studied and a special ordinance was drafted. Something 
 like ten other counties have since adopted such plans for 
 correlation of their social agencies. 
 
 Similar schemes are being worked out in Iowa and 
 North Carolina. The so-called Iowa plan, briefly, in- 
 volves the creation of a central organization variously 
 known as social welfare bureau, social welfare league, 
 or social service league. This board is composed of rep- 
 resentative men and women who serve without pay; the 
 members of the county board of supervisors are included 
 as members ex-offkio. Under the control of this board 
 is centered all of the private charity of the community 
 and the handling of the county poor fund. The latter is 
 secured by utilizing the same worker for the two offices of 
 secretary of the central bureau and of that of overseer of 
 the poor. Private and county funds are kept distinct. 
 Salaries of the trained workers and other administrative 
 expenses are divided by mutual agreement between the 
 central board and the county board. The plan is a purely 
 voluntary one and has been adopted following local agita- 
 tion, and in several instances was preceded by a brief sur- 
 vey of the field 
 
 The North Carolina scheme differs from those of 
 Iowa and California in that the state law now compels 
 every county to have a Superintendent of Public Welfare, 
 responsible directly to a County Board of Public Welfare 
 and indirectly to the corresponding state department. The
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 47 
 
 plan is somewhat less flexible than the others, but the 
 chief difficulty has been that of finding persons qualified 
 to assume the duties of Superintendent of Public Welfare. 
 
 Just where the Board of Public Welfare idea origi- 
 nated is hard to say, but one of the first departments of 
 this sort was organized in Kansas City in 1910. The Kan- 
 sas City Board brought together under a single superin- 
 tendent the following varied but related departments. 
 It has first of all a research department which has made 
 studies of employment, housing conditions, industrial ac- 
 cidents, child labor and other social problems. The Board 
 also carries on the work of charities' endorsement. It 
 has a Social Service Department correlated with the Kan- 
 sas City Provident Association to carry on relief work. It 
 maintains a Charities' Registration Bureau, a Free Legal 
 Aid Bureau, Welfare Loan Agency, and Free Employment 
 Bureau for men and women who are temporarily stranded 
 or unable to work. It provides meals and lodging at the 
 Helping Hand Institute. It maintains departments of 
 factory and housing inspection. It administers a munic- 
 ipal farm for male misdemeanants, women's reformatory 
 and parole department, and provides relief to prisoners' 
 families while the men are in prison. It supervises the 
 commercial recreation of the city, dance halls, skating 
 rinks and moving pictures. Since the organization of the 
 Kansas City Board of Public Welfare in 1910, similar de- 
 partments have been established in Cleveland, Dayton, 
 Chicago, St. Joseph, St. Louis, Denver, Duluth, Omaha, 
 and various other places. 
 
 We have seen how the multiplication of social agen- 
 cies, particularly during the nineteenth century, gave rise 
 to an enormous amount of overlapping, neglect, friction, 
 misunderstanding and general waste of effort. We have 
 seen that there is still very great need for further coor-
 
 48 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 dination of our many organizations. We are led to sus- 
 pect that not a few could well be dispensed with. But at 
 the same time, we have noted the growing tendency to 
 bring independent organizations together, and to coordi- 
 nate their activities. 
 
 This movement toward correlation has aroused no lit- 
 tle hostility among some of the older social agencies. They 
 fear that there is danger that their own work may be swal- 
 lowed up in a great impersonal federation which will force 
 all of its constituent members into a " drab unindividual- 
 ized uniformity." No doubt, there is in some cases the 
 risk that the central council or the federation may become 
 autocratic and result in more harm than good. No doubt, 
 for some people, interest in amalgamation and consoli- 
 dation has become a sort of fad or craze. But for all 
 that, no one can deny the very great need for correlation, 
 and no careful observer would be likely to deny that it 
 is actually coming to pass, whether he desires it or not. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 National and State Organizations 
 
 See the " Survey " for directories of social agencies and announce- 
 ments of meetings. 
 
 See Bulletins of the National Conference of Social Work for infor- 
 mation about state conferences. 
 
 Hendricks, Genevieve P. : Handbook of Social Resources of the 
 United States. Washington: Amer. Red Cross, 1921. 
 
 Supervision 
 
 Warner, A. G. : American Charities. Third Ed., Chap. 21. 
 Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work (formerly 
 National Conference of Charities and Correction), especially 
 
 1893, 33-SU 1909, 397-413, 526- 
 
 See reports of various State Boards of Charities, e.g., Indiana Board 
 of State Charities, California State Board of Charities and Cor- 
 rections, Georgia State Board of Public Welfare, New York 
 State Board of Charities.
 
 CORRELATION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES 49 
 
 See reports of various Municipal Charities Commissions, e.g., Los 
 Angeles Social Service Commission, Houston Foundation. 
 
 See reports of various Charities Endorsement Committee, e.g., Chi- 
 cago Association of Commerce, Columbus Chamber of Com- 
 merce, Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Association, St. Louis 
 Business Men's League. 
 
 Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work, especially 
 1913, 84-92, i oo-ii i ; 1916, 329-336; 1919, 703-709. 
 Councils of Social Agencies 
 
 McLean, Francis H. : The Central Council of Social Agencies. New 
 York, Amer. Ass'n. for Org. Fam. Soc. Work, 1919. 
 
 See reports of various councils, e. g., Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneap- 
 olis, St. Louis. 
 
 Financial Federations 
 
 Financial Federations. Report of Special Committee of Amer. Assn. 
 for Org. Charity. New York, 1917. 
 
 Proceedings Nat. Conf. Soc Work, especially 1913, 111-115 ; 1917, 503- 
 521; 1918, 589-595, 605-614; 1919, 670-679, 697-703, 710-724. 
 
 Jacobs, Joseph: The Federation Movement in American Jewish 
 Philanthropy. Amer. Jewish Year-Book, 1915-16, 159-198. 
 
 See reports of various financial federations, e.g., Baltimore Alliance 
 of Charitable and Social Agencies, Cleveland Welfare Federation, 
 Milwaukee Centralized Budget of Philanthropies. 
 
 Amalgamation 
 See reports of State Boards of Administration or Control, e.g., 
 
 Illinois Department of Public Welfare, Iowa State Board of 
 
 Control, Ohio State Board of Administration, Rhode Island 
 
 Board of State Charities and Corrections. 
 McClenahan, Bessie A.: Iowa Plan for the Combination of Public 
 
 and Private Relief, University of Iowa Studies in Social Science. 
 
 Vol. 5, No. 3, 1918. 
 County Outdoor Relief in California. Bulletin of the State Board 
 
 of Charities and Corrections, 1918. 
 
 Proceedings, Nat. Conf. Soc. Work, 1918, 595-604; 1919, 546-549. 
 Survey, 41, 872; 43, 140-143. 
 See reports of various municipal Boards of Public Welfare, e.g., 
 
 Chicago, Dayton, Kansas City, Omaha. 
 Proceedings, Nat. Conf. Soc. Work, 1916, 306-316, 387-418. 
 See reports of Houston, Texas, Social Service Bureau.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 
 
 As we look over the field of social work, we find three 
 fairly distinct, though not incompatible purposes mani- 
 fested. The first is naturally the curative, the effort to 
 care for those who are now sick, hungry, or otherwise 
 in need. The second is the preventive. Its program is that 
 of guarding against the recurrence of sickness, unemploy- 
 ment, delinquency, etc. This is a newer idea, but it seems 
 to be the dominant motif in social work today. The third 
 purpose is the constructive, not merely seeking to ward off 
 evils that beset us, but looking forward to the positive 
 achievement of health and happiness. So far as social 
 work is concerned, this idea is the newest of all and may 
 belong to the future rather than to the past. Of course, 
 none of these purposes has ever been wholly absent, and 
 any given program of work may embody all three. But 
 there is this difference of emphasis which it seems 
 important to examine rather carefully. 
 
 THE PUBLIC HEALTH MOVEMENT 
 
 The organized avoidance of human ills seems to have 
 made its first appearance in the field of preventive medi- 
 cine and public health. We will note later the way in 
 which modern science has made possible the control of cer- 
 tain communicable diseases. But first we will consider 
 some of those agences which have utilized this growing 
 scientific knowledge and made it contribute directly to the 
 public health movement. 
 
 One of the most notable organizations is the National 
 50
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 51 
 
 Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, 
 now known as the National Tuberculosis Association, 
 which was founded in 1905. The motive of this society is 
 not that of providing care for the indigent sick, but a direct 
 endeavor to combat disease and promote public health. The 
 clinics which have been started and supported by the Asso- 
 ciation are regarded as partly educational and partly for 
 the purpose of diagnosing and treating cases of tubercu- 
 losis. A large part of the work has been the spreading of 
 educational propaganda, from lectures and moving picture 
 shows, to advertising leaflets and Red Cross seals. The 
 visiting nurse, also, has had an important part in the edu- 
 cational work of this organization. But perhaps the most 
 significant feature of its activities has been the stimulation 
 of interest in health matters among school children, 
 through the organization of the Modern Health Crusaders. 
 
 Another phase of the public health movement has been 
 the campaign to " Save the Babies ". Starting with some 
 local efforts, this developed, in 1909, into the National As- 
 sociation for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortal- 
 ity, now known as the American Child Hygiene Asso- 
 ciation. The work of this Society, like that of the one 
 just named, is largely educational, through the holding 
 of conferences, distribution of literature, lectures and the 
 publication of a magazine. The purpose is to acquaint the 
 general public with means of preventing infant mortality 
 and sickness. At the same time, a marked influence is be- 
 ing exercised upon the medical profession, 
 
 A large part in this movement has also been taken by 
 the Federal Children's Bureau, which has conducted 
 numerous investigations into the causes and means of pre- 
 venting infant mortality. The Children's Bureau has also 
 utilized lectures, conferences, exhibits, leaflets and other 
 forms of publicity.
 
 52 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Under the stimulus of these and other agencies, dis- 
 pensaries and out-patient departments for the treatment 
 of crippled children and sick babies have been established 
 in large numbers. But most significant of all, a great many 
 new clinics, or rather advisory conferences, have been 
 founded for " well babies." 
 
 A third phase of the public health movement is fre- 
 quently 'referred to as school hygiene. By this is meant 
 medical inspection of school children, school clinics, school 
 nurses and special instruction in personal hygiene. Medical 
 inspection of schools at first was practically restricted to the 
 detection of contagious diseases, but from this its scope 
 has been extended in many communities to the discovery 
 of diseases of every description, and of various physical 
 and mental defects. In spite of oppositon on the ground 
 that this was interfering with personal liberty, the practice 
 has spread to almost every city in America and to a great 
 many rural communities. Of course the mere detection of 
 defects is of little consequence unless something is done for 
 their removal. So in addition to advising school children 
 and their parents about their eyes, teeth, throats, etc., many 
 school departments have established clinics, and have added 
 visiting nurses to their staff. 
 
 A fourth phase of the public health movement is illus- 
 trated by the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. 
 This organization came into existence in 1909 in response 
 to a wide-spread belief that some national agency should be 
 created to help protect the mental health of the public, to 
 work for the prevention of nervous and mental disorders, 
 and to help to raise the standards of care and treatment of 
 the insane throughout the United States. This agency, like 
 the others we have noted, devotes itself largely to investi- 
 gation and educational propaganda. It has stimulated the 
 establishment of psychopathic clinics and hospitals such as
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 53 
 
 the Phipps Clinic in Baltimore, and the Boston Psycho- 
 pathic Hospital. In Massachusetts, a chain of such clinics 
 has been established all over the state for the purpose of 
 doing preventive and follow-up work. 
 
 A similar activity is that of the American Social Hy- 
 giene Association, which announces that it stands for the 
 conservation of the family, the repression of prostitution, 
 the reduction of venereal diseases, and the promotion of 
 sound sex education. In numerous cities, clinics have been 
 established for the treatment and control of venereal dis- 
 ease; and 'during the recent war, the United States Public 
 Health Service and the War Department established a 
 large number of such clinics especially for the protection 
 of the soldiers. 
 
 Finally, we may note the health center which is being 
 promoted especially By the American Red Cross. A health 
 center is described as the physical headquarters of the 
 public health work of the community. It constitutes a 
 business-like way of putting health activities both public 
 and private under one roof in daily touch and in complete 
 mutual understanding. The health center thus represents 
 one of the latest steps in the evolution of public health 
 work and serves to bring together important but usually 
 independent health campaigns, such as those mentioned 
 above. 
 
 LABOR LEGISLATION 
 
 Another phase of the preventive movement is to 
 be seen in the field of labor legislation. This may be 
 considered as having been begun with the English law of 
 1802, which had as its principal object the protection of 
 health and morals of pauper children employed in cotton 
 factories. From this legislation has gone on to include
 
 54 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 other groups of working people, and many aspects of their 
 working conditions. 
 
 The hours of labor were first restricted for children, 
 and later limitations were placed upon the hours that wom- 
 en might spend in factories. Most of the American states 
 now place maximum limits of varying amounts for both 
 of these groups, but there has been relatively little legisla- 
 tion to regulate the hours that men may work. Limits 
 have been placed upon the working day for federal and 
 many state employes. Also the time that railway workers 
 may spend on duty is an object of regulation in numerous 
 states. But practically the only group of grown men 
 affected by such laws is that engaged in underground 
 mining. 
 
 In addition to undertaking the control of hours of 
 labor, most modern states also regulate the manner of 
 paying wages. Frequently they require that payments 
 must be made weekly or bi-weekly. Often they forbid 
 payment in the form of script or store orders, and under- 
 take to prevent compulsory dealing at company stores. 
 But more important than these have been the minimum 
 wage laws, the first of which was passed by the Parliament 
 of Victoria, Australia, in 1896. Since that time, numerous 
 American states have passed similar laws, and their con- 
 stitutionality has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the 
 United States in the famous Oregon case. The usual plan 
 has been not to fix a minimum wage directly by law, but 
 to create boards or commissions with the authority to 
 hold hearings, conduct investigations, and make orders 
 for specified industries and covering specified periods 
 of time. 
 
 Another group of labor laws has had to do with health 
 and safety of the working people. They cover such mat- 
 ters as light, air, seats, lavatories, rest rooms, first aid
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 55 
 
 equipment, enclosure of dangerous machinery, warning 
 signs, etc. 
 
 Still another group of laws has modified the Common 
 Law affecting responsibility for accidents. Under the 
 Common Law, the employer is obliged to provide his 
 workmen with a reasonably safe place in which to work, 
 and is liable for any accident resulting from failure to 
 display this ordinary prudence and care. These precau- 
 tions having been taken, the employe assumes all the risks 
 and hazards incident to the employment, or arising out of 
 negligence and carelessness of fellow servants. 
 
 In what are known as Employers' Liability Acts, the 
 duties of employers have been more definitely described; 
 the fellow servant and contributory negligence doctrines 
 have been modified or set aside, and employers have been 
 made liable for injuries occurring under specified circum- 
 stances. The Employers' Liability Acts have rested on the 
 assumption that it is possible to fix responsibility for acci- 
 dents definitely upon individuals and that the best way to 
 prevent accidents is to make the blameworthy parties bear 
 the consequences of their negligence. But because acci- 
 dents arise largely from the necessities of modern indus- 
 try rather than from individual fault, it has come to be 
 felt quite generally that the cost of protection should be a 
 charge upon the industry. 
 
 This opinion has been fully accepted in most countries 
 of the civilized world, and the law of Employers' Liability 
 has usually been superseded by Workmen's Compensation 
 Acts, which compel the employer to indemnify his work- 
 man for every injury not caused by the misconduct of the 
 victim himself. The compensation is usually fixed and 
 definite, though ordinarily adjusted to the seriousness of 
 the accident, the period of incapacity, and the number of 
 persons dependent upon the victim. In order to insure the
 
 S 6 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 payment of the compensation, employers in many states 
 are compelled to take out accident insurance for their work- 
 men, either with private companies or with the state itself. 
 Thus protection against industrial accidents has progressed 
 from the old common law basis of assumption of risk, con- 
 tributory negligence, and^the fellow servant doctrine, 
 through Employers' Liability and Workmen's Compensa- 
 tion to Compulsory Accident Insurance. 
 
 SOCIAL INSURANCE 
 
 Accidents, however, represent only one group of the 
 incidents of life against which provision may be made by 
 insurance. Some of the others are sickness, old age, in- 
 validity, unemployment, maternity and death. In a num- 
 ber of countries, such insurance has been made compulsory 
 for all people with incomes under a certain amount. 
 Among these countries are Germany, Austria, Hungary, 
 Great Britain, Russia, Norway and The Netherlands. 
 Some other countries such as Denmark, Switzerland and 
 France have established voluntary, subsidized systems. 
 
 In about fifteen states, commissions have been ap- 
 pointed to investigate one or more phases of social insur- 
 ance and report to the Governor and Legislature. Of 
 these, the California, New York and Ohio commissions 
 rendered favorable reports; while those of Illinois, Con- 
 necticut and Wisconsin brought in adverse reports. So 
 far, no American state seems to have got beyond the com- 
 mission stage of Social Insurance. 
 
 The question may fairly be raised Is compulsory in- 
 surance democratic? The active opposition of many trade 
 unions, employers and physicians at least accounts for the 
 . failure to develop such a scheme in the United States. But 
 in each instance, there seems to be a special reason for the 
 hostility, and a selfish interest that is responsible. At all 
 events, no one would be likely to deny that social insurance
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 57 
 
 is very much more democratic than charity, and that it is 
 infinitely more useful for the prevention of poverty 
 and misfortune. 
 
 Perhaps the best known step in this direction which 
 has been taken in America is the Soldiers' and Sailors' 
 Insurance Act of 1917. This took the place of the time- 
 honored pension system as a means of protecting the fam- 
 ilies of men who offered their lives for their country. The 
 pensions of earlier times, like the bonuses of today, were 
 degrading and disgraceful. The War Risk Insurance is a 
 straightforward business proposition that inspires self- 
 respect, develops thrift and protects against the proverbial 
 rainy day. 
 
 Unfortunately, the administration of the War Risk 
 Insurance has been far from perfect. The commercial 
 Insurance companies have developed gradually and accu- 
 mulated an invaluable fund of experience. But the Gov- 
 ernment was faced with the necessity for quickly setting up 
 the complicated machinery to handle an enormous business 
 enterprise. It was inevitable that there should have been 
 delay and confusion. Hence, there has been considerable 
 dissatisfaction especially among those least able to appre- 
 ciate the difficulties under which the Bureau was working. 
 Nevertheless, it seems likely that the United States Gov- 
 ernment is in the insurance busness to stay. 
 
 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT 
 
 Another movement which is contributing to the solu- 
 ton of the economic problems with which social workers 
 have to deal is the growth of cooperation, especially among 
 consumers. Potentially Jt, js a powerful enemy of the 
 high cost of living and a preventive of poverty, but to the 
 present time it does not seem to have made much progress 
 in the United States.
 
 $8 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 The initiation of the cooperative movement is usually 
 credited to the beginning made about a hundred 
 years ago under the guidance of Robert Owen in England. 
 But it is probably best known in the form of the retail 
 stores of the Rochdale system. This scheme of 
 consumers' cooperation has been eminently successful in 
 England, and similar associations have had noteworthy 
 growth on the Continent. In the United States, however, 
 it has made much less headway. Probably the reasons are 
 the greater mobility of our population, and national habits 
 of wastefulness and inattention to small economies, the 
 consequent lack of savings from which to provide capital, 
 and the opposition of both retail and wholesale merchants. 
 
 Cooperation has been by no means limited to the retail 
 business. In Great Britain, in particular, there have been 
 developed wholesale societies, and the consumers' organi- 
 zations have entered upon cooperative production. These 
 likewise have been exceedingly successful in Great Britain, 
 but have had very little development in America. One 
 recent example which has aroused considerable attention 
 has been the effort of railway train-men to purchase co- 
 8peratively or manufacture such things as overalls 
 and gloves. 
 
 Producers' cooperation seems to date back to the time 
 of the American Revolution. It, too, like the organiza- 
 tion of the consumers, had its origin in Great Britain and 
 seems to have been most successful in that country, though 
 it has made definite progress in France as well. Many ex- 
 periments have been made, and a relatively small number 
 of successes have been bought at the expense of numerous 
 failures. Nevertheless, the movement seems to have made 
 substantial though slow progress in the two countries 
 named. This plan for the management of industry 
 entirely by the workmen has made very little headway 
 in the United States, doubtless for reasons similar to
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 59 
 
 those which have obstructed the development of con- 
 sumers' cooperation. 
 
 Other forms of cooperation are Discount Societies and 
 Credit Unions. The Discount Societies do not sell on their 
 own account, but obtain reductions from traders in con- 
 sideration of the steady custom of their members. This 
 plan has frequently been adopted by Mutual Aid Societies 
 and by farmers' organizations. The Credit Unions seem 
 to have attained their largest development in the European 
 countries, particularly among the smaller peasant farmers. 
 Roughly, the plan is that of a group of men joining to- 
 gether for the purpose of borrowing a considerable sum on 
 their joint security, each one securing his share of the sum 
 borrowed and assuming his responsibility for the pay- 
 ment of the whole sum. 
 
 Similar to the Credit Unions are the Building and Loan 
 Associations, which are used almost exclusively to enable 
 members to acquire homes. These organizations have so 
 far achieved greater results in the United States than all 
 the other forms of cooperation named. But while they 
 have doubtless aided many of the so-called "working class" 
 to obtain homes, they seem to be patronized more often by 
 small business and professional men and salaried folk. 
 Moreover, the chief commercial profit appears to go to out- 
 side investors who do not intend to borrow from the asso- 
 ciations. Also, there is ground for belief that in some 
 cities these organizations have been manipulated by real 
 estate dealers and building contractors. 
 
 " SOCIALIZED " EDUCATION 
 
 Another type of preventive activity has been develop- 
 ing the last few years within the field of formal education. 
 For lack of a more specific term it may be called 
 "socialized" education. By this we have in mind 
 compulsory attendance, vocational guidance and train-
 
 60 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 ing including instruction in domestic arts, part-time 
 and continuation classes, school hygiene, the teaching 
 of civics, wider use of the school plant for recre- 
 ation, community organization, and adult instruction, and 
 finally the new viewpoint represented by such advocates 
 as John Dewey. 
 
 It certainly would be erroneous to say that all these in- 
 novations are being made for the purpose of preventing 
 poverty and other forms of maladjustment. The motive 
 back of them is quite as much constructive as preventive, 
 in the sense in which we are using these terms. In fact, 
 definite results have been accomplished in both directions. 
 
 Social workers have always been finding people whose 
 income is inadequate or who are subject to exploitation be- 
 cause of ignorance, which in turn may be traced to inade- 
 quate schooling. This represents one of the difficulties at 
 which the compulsory attendance laws have been aimed. 
 But it has been found that it is not enough to keep children 
 in school. They must have the sort of education that meets 
 their particular needs. Many of them must be ready by the 
 time they are fourteen or fifteen to take their places as 
 wage-earners. So the rise of vocational guidance and vo- 
 cational education has been natural and necessary. Again, 
 some children seem unable to make progress in the ordi- 
 nary classes and others are found to be definitely sub- 
 normal. The identification of these individuals during the 
 school years is important both for them and for society. 
 
 All these things contribute directly toward the adjust- 
 ment of the individual to his social environment, which is 
 after all the very heart of the social worker's task. Other 
 aspects of the " socialization " of the curriculum are 
 working toward the same end. Instead of teaching as 
 civics merely the anatomy of American government, many 
 schools are introducing concrete discussions of live com-
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 61 
 
 munity problems. Instead of working exclusively at sep- 
 arate tasks, pupils are being taught to cooperate in their 
 studies. Student self-government and organized recre- 
 ation also contribute to the social education of the young. 
 Taken together, these help the individual to find his place 
 in the community and develop a sense of team-play and 
 civic responsibility. 
 
 Finally we should note the wider use of school plants 
 through the introduction of night schools, classes for 
 adults, supervised playgrounds, dances, entertainments, 
 dramatic clubs and libraries. The school is coming to take 
 a larger part in the community life. Such activities as 
 these not only help to prevent illiteracy and ignorance, but 
 are instrumental in providing healthy interests and culti- 
 vating a desire for things worth while. 
 
 It must be clear to every thinking person that the social- 
 ization of education in the directions suggested above must 
 have a very large part in preventing those many ills with 
 which the social worker is asked to cope. If only people 
 knew how to take care of their bodies, how to choose an 
 occupation and prepare themselves for it, and how to play 
 their part as citizens, many of the difficulties of the prac- 
 tical social worker would be greatly reduced. 
 
 CAUSES OF INTEREST IN PREVENTION 
 THE FAILURE OF CHARITY 
 
 One of the fundamental reasons for increasing atten- 
 tion to the prevention of social maladjustment has been a 
 growing recognition of the inadequacy of the old-fash- 
 ioned charity. Without question, indiscriminate alms- 
 giving has pauperized many and has frequently created a 
 veritable profession of begging. To be sure, the civilized 
 world had pretty generally eliminated large scale doles like 
 those which disgraced Greece and Rome, and which ap-
 
 62 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 peared at many a monastery during the middle ages, but the 
 ravages of war have brought back something which may 
 easily degenerate into just such promiscuous largesses as 
 those of bygone centuries. Moreover, we have had for 
 many years in America that distinctive figure, the " hobo," 
 and surely the back door " hand-outs " have not contrib- 1 
 uted anything toward the rehabilitation of this care-free 
 wanderer. Furthermore, it is obvious to all thinking people 
 that the habits of feeding the tramp, of dropping quarters 
 in the blind man's hat, and similar indiscriminate alms, are 
 a curse rather than a blessing. 
 
 In the second place, the old-fashioned charity has 
 failed in that it gave attention only to those who were 
 already in trouble, and usually overlooked the sources 
 from which the trouble came and from which similar 
 trouble was sure to continue to come unless those sources 
 were discovered and eliminated. The attitude appar- 
 ently was that of assuming " the poor ye have 
 always with you." Providence was held responsible 
 for sending the poor, and it was not for mere man to 
 inquire into the reason for their distress. Even in our 
 own day, corporations have established welfare depart- 
 ments to disburse medicine to the sick and comfort to the 
 bereaved, and have simultaneously fought legislative 
 measures designed to prevent occupational diseases and 
 accidents. We Americans have not thought this matter 
 through very carefully, but others have reasoned that the 
 most perfect system of poor relief that might ever be de- 
 vised would not eliminate poverty. They have come to 
 suspect that it might not even reduce it to any great extent. 
 
 A third reason for the failure of the traditional phil- 
 anthropy has been the general limitation of its attention to 
 individual problems. This narrowness is less true of 
 modern " case work " than of medieval almsgiving, but it
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 63 
 
 still restricts the usefulness of many charity organization 
 societies. Indeed, it seems to be the attitude of many case 
 workers that the way of salvation lies chiefly through the 
 rehabilitation of individual families, and that programs of 
 community work and of national reorganization are of 
 secondary importance. Fortunately, this one-sidedness is 
 being overcome, and it is being recognized that correlated 
 with case work there must be movements whose objects 
 of attention are not the individual nor the family, but the 
 community, the state, or the nation, or even a league 
 of nations. 
 
 Very often charity as such has failed because it is un- 
 democratic and implies a caste order of society. In an 
 earlier day, it regarded the presence of poor people not 
 merely as unavoidable, but as a public asset. Their ex- 
 istence made possible the practice by the well-to-do of the 
 Christian virtue of charity. The giving of alms increased 
 one's pride and self-respect. Sometimes, it helped one to 
 achieve social or political preferment. Not infrequently 
 the gifts of the wealthy were offered with the hope of 
 silencing the demands for thoroughgoing reforms of 
 fundamental wrongs. Not infrequently the motive was 
 merely a cowardly desire to escape the repulsive presence 
 of misery, or a sentimental self-indulgence in so-called 
 " doing good." 
 
 On the other hand, it is only fair to recognize that even 
 the crudest charity has relieved much suffering, and that 
 modern organized charity has succeeded in helping a mul- 
 titude of needy persons to positions of self-support and 
 self-respect. But even granting this, it is clear to every 
 thinking social worker that charity alone is inadequate, 
 particularly from the viewpoint of preventive and con- 
 structive effort. 
 
 The traditional charity, therefore, has failed. It has
 
 64 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 failed because its indiscriminate alms have encouraged 
 beggars and produced paupers. Its limited vision, which 
 saw only those who were already in trouble, has failed to 
 stop the source of supply. By attending only to individual 
 problems, and by magnifying case work, it has overlooked 
 opportunities for community organization and construct- 
 ive legislation. By accepting " the poor " as a separate 
 grade in the social hierarchy, it has obstructed the demo- 
 cratic movement. 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT 
 
 Now if the first cause for a transition from cure to 
 
 * 
 
 prevention has been the failure of ,the traditional phil- 
 anthropy, the second cause has been the growing impetus 
 of the democratic movement. This has emphasised itself in 
 a great variety of ways. In the early part of the nineteenth 
 century it appeared in the agitation of the abolitionists, and 
 finally succeeded in sweeping away the institution of 
 human slavery. A little later, it showed itself in the wide- 
 spread effort to provide universal, free education. The 
 public school system of the United States is one of the 
 most potent factors both as cause and as result of the demo- 
 cratic movement. A third aspect of this development has 
 been the extension of the franchise. When our Constitu- 
 tion was adopted, a rather small number of men had the 
 right to participate in our government. Gradually, the 
 franchise was extended to all adult white men later to the 
 negroes ; and now it has been granted to women. 
 
 But still more striking has been the growth of trade 
 
 I unionism, both in Europe and in America. Undemocratic 
 though they may be in many respects, the unions have con- 
 f tributed powerfully toward the forcing of recognition for 
 \ those who previously had been ignored and exploited. Ex- 
 elusive and narrow though they frequently are, the unions
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 65 
 
 have done much to provide wider opportunities for those 
 who have constituted our " disadvantaged classes." But 
 more than that, the trade unions are resentful toward phil- 
 anthropy and extremely suspicious of social workers. They 
 feel keenly the undemocratic character of charity. They 
 have learned to fight the employer who robs them with one 
 hand and doles out alms with the other. They will have 
 nothing of the philanthropy which is a mere sop to keep 
 them from asking for something more significant. 
 
 But even more vigorously opposed to the old-fashioned 
 charity are the sociaj!jst and kindred groups. Too often 
 have they seen palliative measures introduced as a means of 
 thwarting efforts for fundamental reform of serious evils. 
 So wrought up have they frequently been under such ex- 
 periences as these that they not merely are suspicious of 
 the Ladies Bountiful and employers' welfare workers, they 
 frequently resent and despise all sorts of social workers. 
 
 Our purpose here is not to justify nor to condemn the 
 socialists or the trade unionists. It is simply to call atten- 
 tion to their resentment and to the inflence which they have 
 unquestionably had in changing the spirit and purpose of 
 social work. By refusing the " hand-me-downs " of the 
 rich, and spitting upon the condescending humanitarian, 
 they are unconsciously helping to make social work a pro- 
 fession devoted not only to the alleviation but even more to 
 the elimination of social ills. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SCIENCE 
 
 We have seen that the old-fashioned charity has failed 
 largely because it is not preventive, and often is not even 
 curative but only palliative. The democratic movement is 
 demanding something more fundamental. It is calling for 
 radical reform of social evils, i.e., a going to the very roots 
 of the matter and sparing nothing which may be involved in 
 5
 
 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 ie difficulty. It is modern science that provides the means 
 of doing the preventive work in which charity has failed, 
 and for which democracy is calling. No matter how clearly 
 men have seen the inadequacy of philanthropy, no matter 
 how keenly they may have desired to remove the sources 
 of difficulty, they could not make much progress without 
 the aid of science. How could they have prevented typhoid 
 fever without the germ theory of disease? How could 
 they have prevented recurrent famines without scien- 
 tific agriculture ? 
 
 Chemistry, bacteriology, neurology and the other 
 physical sciences have furnished us with information and 
 >with specific means whereby we are enabled to prevent 
 numerous diseases. These sciences have given us vaccina- 
 tion, which has almost wiped out small-pox from the midst 
 of civilized people. They have given us inoculation against 
 typhoid fever, which was responsible for the great differ- 
 ence between the health of army camps in 1917-18 and 
 those of the Spanish- American War. Science has fur- 
 's nished us with prophylactics against venereal diseases, and 
 1 indirectly the means of checking paresis. By establishing 
 the connection between mosquitoes and malaria and yellow 
 fever, it has enabled us to control these dreaded diseases. 
 Through the study of heredity and the development of 
 vasectomy and tubectomy, we have been provided with 
 means of sterilizing the unfit and checking in part the 
 supply of mental defects. 
 
 But not less important than the special measures placed 
 at our disposal by physical science, has been the attitude 
 which it has developed. In so far as men are imbued with 
 the scientific spirit, they are free from prejudice and super- 
 stition. They face their difficulties frankly, seek remedies 
 for them, and test these proposed remedies ruthlessly by 
 observation and experiment. As scientists, they are dis- 
 interested. They are as ready to discard a theory of their
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 67 
 
 own as that of some rival school. Theirs is a pragmatic 
 philosophy in the best sense of the word. 
 
 Now these attitudes developed first in the realm of 
 physical science. Perhaps this was because man's atten- 
 tion was on the conquering of new continents and the im- 
 provement of industrial processes before it was centered 
 upon human relations. But there is little question that the 
 control of nature and solution of problems in the physical 
 environment encouraged belief in the possibility of con- 
 trolling human relations and solving problems of the social 
 environment. If disease could be cured and even pre- 
 vented, why not poverty or delinquency? Thus the suc- 
 cesses of physical science stimulated the development of 
 social science. 
 
 The theory of evolution likewise played a part in the 
 rise of social science, the extent of which is not likely to be 
 overestimated. The knowledge that men's bodies had de- 
 veloped out of previous forms suggested that perhaps their 
 institutions were similarly the product of a long process of 
 evolution. Once it became clear that government, in- 
 dustry, religion, morals, family relations and social 
 organization in general had not always been what they are 
 today, it was but natural to raise the question : Why not 
 make them something different tomorrow? 
 
 Just as the physical sciences have developed techniques 
 of observation and experiment for going to the root of 
 their various problems, so have the social sciences under- 
 taken to study the underlying causes of social maladjust- 
 ment and disorganization. From the studies of Charles 
 Booth, in London, to the latest report of some social in- 
 surance commission, there has been a seeking after the 
 causes of poverty and means of their elimination. The 
 Children's Bureau, the Russell Sage Foundation, and many 
 lesser groups, have been studying those factors in our 
 common life which cast a blight upon childhood, and pos-
 
 68 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 sible measures for their removal. In fact, there is no end 
 today of investigating, surveying and otherwise seeking 
 after the source of difficulties in the relations be- 
 tween people. 
 
 Less immediately practical, but perhaps more im- 
 portant in the long run, have been the studies of such men 
 as Cooley, Thomas, Mead and others, relating to the basis 
 of social organization and the causes of its disruption. 
 After all, social work is fundamentally a dealing with the 
 attitudes and relations of people. And because this is so, 
 the contribution of the social psychologist to practical 
 social work is proving unexpectedly valuable. In another 
 way is social science laying a foundation for more ade- 
 quate social work. In pointing out and describing the 
 unity of the social process, such men as Dewey, Small and 
 Marshall have shown the impossibility of dealing with one 
 social problem without affecting many phases of the com- 
 mon life. They are teaching the social workers that they 
 cannot meet the needs of an individual or family without 
 considering the neighborhood, the community, or the state. 
 
 Thus in manifold ways modern science, both physical 
 and social, is making it possible for social work to answer 
 the challenge of the democratic movement that phil- 
 anthropy is a failure. The outstanding causes, therefore, 
 of the present tendency to emphasize prevention rather 
 than cure are the failure of the old-fashioned charity, the 
 growing impetus of democracy, and the techniques and 
 viewpoints of modern science. 
 
 CONSTRUCTIVE POSSIBILITIES 
 
 But all the time we have been discussing the various 
 preventive methods and agencies, the reader must have felt 
 that they involve something more than the negative pro-
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 69 
 
 gram of prevention. As a matter of fact, many of them 
 do have a positive aspect and a forward look, which is only 
 faintly implied in the terminology that we have been 
 using. The public health movement, for example, seems 
 gradually to be outgrowing the stage of preventive medi- 
 cine and expanding into a plan for increasing people's 
 vitality and efficiency, prolonging life, and enlarging the 
 capacity to enjoy those things which it has to offer. 
 
 Public education has gone much farther than the health 
 movement in seeking to build up and construct definite 
 values rather than content itself with the mere prevention 
 of illiteracy, superstition and bigotry. Even vocational 
 education is not thought of primarily as a means of pre- 
 venting poverty, but as a means of increasing the economic 
 value of people's working power. Recreation is indeed a 
 means of preventing delinquency and other sorts of social 
 disorganization, but its claim upon us is more than this, it 
 supplies something which all of us want. It gives us re- 
 laxation; the joy of associating with other people, and 
 competing with them upon a friendly basis, and merges by 
 imperceptible degrees into the noblest forms of art. 
 
 Similarly, in the case of labor legislation, social in- 
 surance, and the cooperative movement, attention is by no 
 means limited to the things we desire to prevent. It cen- 
 ters equally if not chiefly upon an improved standard 
 of living. 
 
 All the way along, it is not the things we want to pre- 
 vent which seem most important, but the things which we 
 wish to achieve. Frankly, social work in the commonly 
 accepted sense has not got beyond the preventive stage, 
 but there is beginning to be a vision of positive values and 
 the possibilities of constructive effort, which bids fair to 
 revolutionize social work of the future.
 
 70 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 The Idea of Prevention 
 
 Hollander, Jacob H. : The Abolition of Poverty. Boston : Houghton 
 Mifflin, 1914. 
 
 Webb, Sidney and Beatrice : The Prevention of Destitution. Lon- 
 don: Longmans Green, 1912. 
 
 The Democratic Movement 
 Croly, Herbert D. : Progressive Democracy. New York : Macmillan, 
 
 1914- 
 
 McLaughlin, Andrew C. : Steps in the Development of American 
 Democracy. New York: Abingdon Press, 1920. 
 
 Kirkup, Thomas : A History of Socialism. London : Black, 1900. 
 
 Tufts, James H. : The Real Business of Living (especially Part IV). 
 New York : Holt, 1918. 
 
 Webb, Sidney and Beatrice : Industrial Democracy. London : Long- 
 mans Green, 1902. 
 
 The Development of Modern Science 
 
 Dewe, J. A. : History of Economics. Cincinnati : Benziger, 1908. 
 Small, A. W.: "Fifty Years of Sociology in the United States." 
 
 Amer. four. Soc., 21, 721-864 (May, 1916). 
 Sedgwick, W. T., and Tyler, H. W.: A Short History of Science. 
 
 New York: Macmillan, 1917. 
 Todd, Arthur J. : The Scientific Spirit and Social Work. New York : 
 
 Macmillan, 1919. 
 Williams, Henry S. : The Story of Nineteenth-Century Science. New 
 
 York : Harper, 1900. 
 
 The Public Health Movement 
 Davis, Michael M., and Warner, Andrew R. : Dispensaries, Their 
 
 Management and Development. New York: Macmillan, 1918. 
 Hill, Hibbert W.: The New Public Health. New York: Macmillan, 
 
 1916. 
 Mangold, Geo. B. : Problems of Child Welfare (especially pp. 19-204). 
 
 New York: Macmillan, 1914. 
 
 " Socialised " Education 
 
 Dewey, John and Evelyn : Schools of Tomorrow. New York : Dut- 
 ton, 1915.
 
 PREVENTIVE AND, CONSTRUCTIVE WORK 71 
 
 Flexner, Abraham and Bachman, F. P. : The Gary Schools, a General 
 
 Account. New York : General Education Board, 1918. 
 King, Irving: Social Aspects of Education. New York: Macmillan, 
 
 1913- 
 Mangold, Geo. B. : Op. cit., pp. 205-270. 
 
 Labor Legislation 
 Adams, T. S., and Sumner, Helen L. : Labor Problems. New York : 
 
 Macmillan, 1905 (Chap. 12). 
 Hutchins, B. L., and Harrison, A. : A History of Factory Legislation. 
 
 London: King, 1907. 
 Kelley, Florence : Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation. New 
 
 York: Macmillan, 1905. 
 
 Social Insurance 
 Frankel, Lee K., and Dawson, Miles M. : Workingmen's Insurance in 
 
 Europe. New York : Charities Publication Committee, 1910. 
 Illinois Health Insurance Commission Report. Springfield, 1919. 
 Seager, Henry R. : Social Insurance. New York: Macmillan, 1910. 
 
 The Cooperative Movement 
 
 Adams, T. S., and Sumner, Helen, L. : Op. cit., Chap. 10. 
 Fay, Chas. R. : Cooperation at Home and Abroad. London : King, 
 
 1908. 
 Ford, James: Cooperation in New England. New York: Survey 
 
 Associates, 1913.
 
 PART II 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY HUMANITARIANISM
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND 
 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 So far our study has been of the present and the recent 
 past with an effort to .anticipate the future. Throughout 
 the discussion we have been dealing with phases of a 
 transition from humanitarianism to democracy, from 
 philanthropy to professional service. We shall undertake 
 now to clarify, and, indeed, to test our interpretation in 
 the light of that humjanitarianism and philanthropy which 
 characterized social work of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Briefly and simply put, our thesis is that the distinctive 
 features of nineteenth century social work were a part of 
 the response to needs which appeared in the Industrial 
 Revolution; that its distinctive spirit and methods are 
 also traceable to that series of economic and social changes. 
 To describe and account for the Industrial Revolution here 
 would carry us beyond our present purpose, but it does 
 seem important to review rapidly some of its outstanding 
 features, in order that we may appreciate somewhat the 
 tasks and the motives lying back of industrial welfare 
 work, charity organization, social settlements and 
 housing reform. 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 
 
 Two hundred years ago industry was characterized by 
 the " domestic system." That is, manufacturing was for 
 the most part carried on in the homes of workmen or in 
 small shops near by, where almost all the processes were per- 
 formed by hand. In spite of these limitations, production 
 was on the increase, particularly in the woolen industry of 
 
 75
 
 76 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 England, where the Industrial Revolution first appeared. 
 This was in part at least a response to the demand for some- 
 thing to exchange for the goods of the Orient. 
 
 Presently the importation of cotton goods from India 
 became a matter of serious competition with the woolens. 
 People were using cotton more and more in place of wool. 
 Hence a barrier was set up in the form of a protective tariff 
 against the competing cloth from India. But an unexpected 
 outcome of this move was the development of a domestic 
 cotton industry. 
 
 From our present point of view, the most important 
 aspect of the new manufacture of cotton was its relative 
 freedom from the restrictions of gild rules and merchantil- 
 istic legislation. The older trades and industries were 
 minutely regulated either by the craftsmen themselves or by 
 governments eagerly seeking a " favorable balance of 
 trade." Being new, the cotton industry was much freer 
 to develop in accordance with changing needs. Hence we 
 find that remarkable series of inventions: the fly-shuttle, 
 spinning jenny, water frame, Crompton's " mule," power 
 loom and cotton gin. All these came out of the efforts of 
 countless workmen to improve and adjust the various proc- 
 esses involved in the manufacture of cotton goods, and 
 made their appearance during the latter part of the eigh- 
 teenth century in England. 
 
 At the same time the metal trades were undergoing an 
 equally important transformation. Previously the smelt- 
 ing of iron ore and the manufacture of its products were 
 carried on with charcoal. But the forests of England were 
 being depleted and it became necessary to make use of a 
 new fuel, coal. Now the use of coal compelled the manu- 
 facturerers to alter their equipment and their processes. 
 The manufacture of machinery itself and the use of coal for 
 other purposes followed. Presently there appeared the
 
 HUMANITARIANISM 77 
 
 steam engine, steam hammer, the Bessemer process, steam- 
 boat, locomotive, steam press, etc. 
 
 It was largely through these series of inventions that the 
 making of goods by hand in the home gave way to large- 
 scale manufacture in factories. The new machines were so 
 heavy and so complicated that special buildings had to be 
 erected for them. Moreover, the economical use of power 
 required that it be applied to many machines at once. Now 
 factories were not absolutely new, but until the development 
 of power machinery there was not sufficient advantage in 
 the factory to overcome the opposition of the workmen, 
 who naturally preferred the independence of home industry. 
 But through the eighteenth century inventions the factory 
 system rapidly gained the ascendency, though not without 
 strenuous opposition from the hand spinners and weavers. 
 
 In order that the new factories might be properly 
 manned, it was necessary to bring together large numbers 
 of workers. Under the domestic system manufacturing 
 could be carried on in the open country and in small villages. 
 But the existence of a factory had as its corollary a town or 
 a city, and the growth of these industrial centers was one of 
 the marked features of the nineteenth century. In 1800 
 London was the only city in England with a population 
 of 100,000, and including London only 17 per cent, of the 
 population lived in places of 20,000 and over. But by the 
 middle of the century this proportion had jumped to 35 
 per cent., and by its close to nearly 60 per cent. In 1800 
 the largest city of the United States was Philadelphia with a 
 population of about 70,000, and there were only five cities 
 with more than 10,000 inhabitants. But today there are 
 about ten metropolitan areas with over one million inhab- 
 itants each, and one fourth of the entire population of the 
 United States lives in cities of more than 100,000 in-
 
 78 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 habitants. Similar developments are to be traced in France, 
 Germany, Italy and the other great industrial countries. 
 
 Where then did the new manufacturers secure their 
 workmen ? In England there were three important sources 
 of supply. One was the rural folk who were crowded off 
 the great estates in the course of what are known as the 
 "enclosures." These were the consolidation of small hold- 
 ings either to substitute the pasturing of sheep for the 
 raising of crops or, more frequently in the eighteenth 
 century to make possible improved methods of agriculture. 
 In either case, many farm laborers and renters were dis- 
 possessed and forced to look elsewhere for a living. The 
 second source was the laborers left stranded by the break- 
 down of the gilds. The third important source of labor 
 was the charities. In almshouses and orphanages there 
 were thousands of " pauper " children and adults whom 
 those in control were only too glad to dispose of. 
 
 What made the work of these " paupers " and other 
 unskilled folk more valuable than ever before was the 
 division of labor and simplification of tasks in the fac- 
 tories. Whereas before, every workman had a variety of 
 duties, under the new conditions he was likely to be as- 
 signed to one single step in the process. This made it pos- 
 sible and profitable to utilize the labor of little children and 
 unskilled adults. Of course, such a change meant that the 
 day's work was more monotonous and that " real wages " 
 as distinguished from cash wages were often de- 
 creased. It meant also that workers could be moved 
 readily from factory to factory, because processes were 
 more and more standardized. With the increase of work- 
 ing forces it meant the substitution of numbers for names 
 and the loss of personal contact between employers and 
 employes, the depersonalizing of industry. 
 
 The displacement of domestic industries by factories
 
 HUMANITARIANISM 79 
 
 meant that it was less and less possible for individual 
 workmen to own the means of production. Even under 
 the domestic system many weavers used looms which were 
 owned by someone else. They frequently worked up 
 wool for a merchant-middleman who owned the raw ma- 
 terial and disposed of the finished product. But in the 
 factory the workman was essentially part of the plant. He 
 did not supply the raw material or the tools to work with. 
 The place in which he worked belonged to others and 
 others sold the finished product. The workman was thor- 
 oughly dependent upon the employer for the means of 
 making a living. 
 
 Now the obvious reason for this was the very great 
 expense involved in building, equipping and operating a 
 factory. No ordinary workman could provide the neces- 
 sary capital. Hence the factories were built by those indi- 
 viduals who already had means or by corporations. Thus 
 capitalism was given a tremendous stimulus. This again 
 was not new, but it was only through the Industrial Revo- 
 lution that it came to dominate the economic system. 
 
 Capitalism meant preeminently three things. It meant 
 that people who themselves had nothing to do with the 
 processes of production could invest their money through 
 the impersonal corporation. It meant the substitution of 
 gain for enjoyment as the purpose of industry, for the 
 only object of the corporation is to earn dividends for its 
 stockholders. It meant the piling up of wealth in the 
 hands of a few and the much slower advancement, if not 
 the actual impoverishment of the many. 
 
 Along with this went the development of two classes in 
 society, the industrial bourgeoisie and the proletariat. 
 Previously the important social classes had been the 
 nobility, clergy and peasantry, with a growing number of 
 merchants and artizans. Power had been vested chiefly
 
 80 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 in the nobility. But now the " middle class " came more 
 and more to the front in business, and through its economic 
 strength gradually achieved political ascendency. De- 
 pendent upon it, and later in powerful opposition to it, 
 appeared the " working class." 
 
 THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS 
 
 The terms " middle class " and " bourgeoisie " are 
 used with varying connotation and hence do not have any 
 very exact meaning. However, they represent, in gen- 
 eral, city folk as contrasted with the landed gentry, em- 
 ployers as contrasted with employes, people whose incomes 
 are derived from investments as contrasted with wage- 
 earners. These classifications overlap, but do not coincide ; 
 neither do they make clear the inclusion of the professional 
 folk who are usually grouped with the bourgeoisie. 
 Nevertheless, the terms bourgeoisie and middle class do 
 have a significance, recognized in common parlance, which 
 is sufficient to justify their use here. 
 
 Just as the whole Industrial Revolution was a gradual 
 transition, so the rise of the middle class was not sudden or 
 spectacular. With the substitution of buying and selling 
 for barter, and the appearance of middlemen doing busi- 
 ness definitely for profits, the thirteenth century presented 
 the beginnings of a bourgeoisie. But it remained for the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth to make the bourgeiosie not 
 merely important but dominant in the economic order. 
 
 The achievements of the middle class in politics were 
 only a little less striking than those in the realm of busi- 
 ness. Having won a place in the industrial world through 
 energy and determination, the merchants and manufac- 
 turers naturally felt themselves to be more important to 
 the nation than the old-fashioned feudal nobles. But over 
 and above this natural ambition for political power, there
 
 HUMANITARIANISM 81 
 
 were economic motives. The " captains of industry " 
 were anxious to be rid of the merchantilist regulations 
 which proved quite burdensome to the new methods of 
 manufacture. In the second place, the factory owners 
 wanted political power in order to control the working 
 people. They wanted everything to be in their own hands. 
 Hence they emphasized the economic doctrine of " laissez- 
 faire " or non-interference in business. 
 
 American politics have been essentially middle class 
 from the start, but particularly so since the Civil War, for 
 it is only in the last half century that the United States has 
 come to be characteristically a manufacturing country. 
 One of the most striking achievements of the American 
 commercial and industrial folk has been the creation and 
 maintenance of high tariff walls " for the protection of in- 
 fant industries." More recently their influence has mani- 
 fested itself in the war-time legislation, under which 
 freedom of speech, freedom of the press and even freedom 
 of opinion and political affiliation have been interfered 
 with, when not actually suppressed. The wholesale arrests 
 and deportations, the expulsion of socialists from legis- 
 latures, and attempts to prevent the founding of a " third 
 party " are extreme efforts of the bourgeoisie to con- 
 trol government. 
 
 Having thus attained political power directly or indi- 
 rectly the middle class has utilized this power to bring 
 about numerous results. In the first place, it has secured 
 legislation directly favorable to private industry and com- 
 merce. This has included the maintenance of " law and 
 order," advantageous corporation laws, the granting of 
 franchises and even public subsidies to private business. 
 It has sought the readjustment of taxation systems so as 
 to remove the burden so far as possible from the shoulders 
 of business. 
 6
 
 82 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Along with these achievements of business in politics 
 has come a new era of imperialism, in which business men 
 have succeeded in identifying their desire for new markets 
 and for new fields for investment of their surplus capital 
 with very real national longings to have particular flags 
 wave over as large expanses of the world's surface as pos- 
 sible. This imperialism which has been assiduously culti- 
 vated by the business interests on the assumption that 
 " trade follows the flag," was probably an important cause 
 of the recent war. Of course, an inevitable accompani- 
 ment of this new imperialism was the development 
 of militarism. 
 
 During the last fifty years there have been built up in 
 Europe and America the greatest armies and navies that 
 the world has ever seen. While the demand for them 
 may have arisen out of a more or less genuine patriotism, 
 this demand has been actively stimulated by a great num- 
 ber of the middle class who regard militarism not only as 
 a kind of public insurance against the attacks of other 
 nations upon their colonies, commerce and industry, but 
 also as a guarantee of the maintenance of the capitalistic 
 system. Indeed, they have counted largely upon military 
 training to breed a servile spirit. They have utilized the 
 militia and other armed forces to suppress strikes and 
 various radical demonstrations. They have depended upon 
 the military band and flag-waving so to stir the emotions 
 of the populace that differences of opinion concerning im- 
 portant domestic policies might be forgotten amid the ex- 
 citement over some real or fancied external aggression. 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF CLASSES 
 
 Over against the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie 
 has arisen a proletariat, more and more organized to de- 
 mand a share in the control and the proceeds of industry.
 
 HUMANITARIANISM 83 
 
 The workers' mobilization for this class conflict has in 
 general taken two forms, trade unionism and socialism. 
 These have been essentially fighting 1 doctrines. They have 
 emphasized the divergence of interests between the cap- 
 italists and the workers. 
 
 The trade unions have on the whole accepted the ex- 
 isting system of industry, and have devoted themselves to 
 securing a larger share of its returns. They represent the 
 principle of collective bargaining, and have used their 
 combined strength to secure shorter hours, higher wages 
 and other conditions which they regard as desirable. In 
 England the trade unions have come of late to include the 
 vast majority of people who work for wages, but in the 
 United States they represent a small minority drawn 
 chiefly from the more skilled trades. Through the use of 
 their most powerful weapons, the strike and the boy- 
 cott, they have compelled employers to accede to many of 
 their demands. 
 
 The socialists, in contrast to the trade unionists, do not 
 accept the capitalistic system of industry, but desire to see 
 it displaced as rapidly as possible by something more demo- 
 cratic. They deny the axiom of the orthodox economists 
 of the nineteenth century that private profit coincides with 
 social gain. They maintain that capitalism is inefficient in 
 the production of material goods and is still more destruc- 
 tive of human values. While socialists demand collective 
 ownership of the great bodies of capital they usually ap- 
 prove of the private ownership of homes, and the 
 contents of homes. The communists go further. In 
 1847 the Communist League was organized in London. 
 The first article of its constitution stated that " The aim 
 of the League is the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the rule 
 of the proletariat, the abolition of the old society resting 
 on class antagonisms, and the founding of a new society
 
 84 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 without classes and without private property." The specific 
 aims of socialists have differed widely in different times 
 and places. But they stand for a fundamental reorganiza- 
 tion of the economic system, either by evolution or revolu- 
 tion, which will introduce into industry at least as much 
 democracy as has been achieved in the political system. 
 
 THE TASKS OF SOCIAL WORK 
 
 The Industrial Revolution brought in its train a host of 
 new problems pressing for solution. The insanitary fac- 
 tories, crowded houses, long hours, low wages, employ- 
 ment of women and young children, periods of industrial 
 depression accompanied by unemployment and monoton- 
 ous existence broken by periodical " sprees " presented a 
 real challenge to those interested in the welfare of their 
 fellow men. But these were not all. Along with them 
 came the break-down of customs, habits and morals. 
 There was a general social disorganization. 
 
 On the rural estates and in the domestic industries 
 families lived and worked as units. The members worked 
 together, played together, in fact, lived together in the 
 most complete way possible. But in the factory towns, 
 they had different tasks, different pleasures, different asso- 
 ciates. Home became mainly a place in which to eat and 
 sleep. The absence of the mother or the presence of 
 boarders further destroyed the unity of family life. 
 
 Community life, too, suffered disorganization. Before 
 the growth of cities most people lived in genuine com- 
 munities wherein personal relations were only a little less 
 intimate than within the family. Everyone knew every- 
 one else, his business and his family history. But in the 
 new towns and cities people lived next door to each other 
 without being neighbors. They came together from places 
 widely separated and moved about so much that no neigh- 
 borhood or community life could well develop.
 
 HUMANITARIANISM 85 
 
 Under the simpler conditions there was a single moral 
 code which was generally accepted as " the right." But 
 in the more complex agglomerations people were continu- 
 ally coming in contact with new " mores." They had to 
 learn to get along with people whose ethical principles were 
 very different from their own. Some came to question 
 not merely their own code, but the possibility of there being 
 any absolute distinction between right and wrong. Some 
 doubtless thought their way through to the " relativity of 
 moral judgments," but the majority either clung to their 
 old ways or simply drifted. 
 
 The mobility of the population meant inevitably the 
 necessity for constant adjustment to new sets of people and 
 new conditions of living. The standardization of indus- 
 trial processes, the improved means of transportation, 
 periods of industrial depression and unemployment and a 
 growing spirit of unrest set the population in motion, in- 
 creased friction and necessitated continuous readjustment. 
 The loss of personal relations in industry and the separate 
 residence sections for bourgeoisie and proletariat have 
 widened the gulf of misunderstanding. Finally the organ- 
 ized class conflict has made the problems of adjusting per- 
 sonal relations in modern society well-nigh insoluble. 
 
 The recognized tasks then which the Industrial Revo- 
 lution set for nineteenth century social work included : the 
 protection of health through sanitation of factories, hous- 
 ing and medical service ; provision of regular employment 
 with adequate remuneration; provision for disability and 
 old age ; protection of children ; education ; recreation. But 
 all these were in fact subsidiary to the finding of a new 
 basis for social organization. The old order had disap- 
 peared. Before a new one could come into being there 
 was an inevitable period of disorganization and confusion. 
 To make the most obviously necessary adjustments
 
 86 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 was the task set before the social workers of the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY HUMANITARIANISM 
 
 The responses to this new situation were varied. One 
 of the first was the revolt of the exploited victims of the 
 new factory system. The working people began to organ- 
 ize, as we have seen, for the removal of their own dis- 
 abilities. Another response consisted in the enactment of 
 " social legislation," laws for the protection of the " dis- 
 advantaged classes." This legislation was the result of 
 agitation partly by the workers themselves, partly by their 
 philanthropic friends. Finally there was the organization 
 of social work by middle class " uplifters." 
 
 Ecclesiastical and public poor relief had been long in 
 existence. Now they were continued and extended. But 
 in the course of the nineteenth century there arose a group 
 of private, non-sectarian charities supported and admin- 
 istered by bourgeois philanthropists. The industrial wel- 
 fare work, charity organization societies, settlements and 
 housing reform that appeared in the nineteenth century 
 were essentially the contribution of the bourgeoisie to 
 social work. Others of their contributions were the new 
 interest in foreign missions, abolition of human slavery, 
 non-sectarian education and prison reform. 
 
 Not only did the middle class develop these new phil- 
 anthropies; they came to dominate many of the older 
 charities as well. Indeed, it was only natural that the class 
 which had newly come to power in business and politics 
 should presently exercise a determining influence in the 
 field of social work. The middle class folk had the money 
 and the leisure. 
 
 The motives which led them to participate in humani- 
 tarian movements were varied. Perhaps most often it
 
 HUMANITARIANISM 87 
 
 was a genuine desire to help, frequently coupled, however, 
 with an unwillingness to " mix philanthropy and busi- 
 ness." That is, the merchants and manufacturers were 
 willing to make donations to hospitals, libraries, schools, 
 playgrounds and charitable societies, so long as there was 
 no attempt to disturb business relations. They were willing 
 out of the abundance of their own wealth to m<ake gifts 
 to their less fortunate fellows, but were not willing to yield 
 any part of the control to those who wished to help them- 
 selves. This motive was one of philanthropy, in contrast 
 to democracy. The product was "uplift" work in the 
 most exact sense of the term. 
 
 Another, and less honorable, motive was the desire to 
 " keep the workers contented." Many a business man has 
 offered his employes a clubhouse, moderate-priced dwell- 
 ings, a bonus, or a share in the profits, with the hope of 
 forestalling union organization, a minimum wage or a 
 shorter working day. Not a few gifts to charity have been 
 part of an effort to make the feudalism of industry benev- 
 olent and therefore acceptable, but at the same time to 
 preserve its feudal status. The ideal of these pseudo- 
 philanthropists has been a benevolent despotism as a means 
 of preventing the growth of democracy. 
 
 Perhaps the forcing of charity outside the ordinary 
 relationships of the business world was one cause of the 
 sentimentalism which has been characteristic of much phil- 
 anthropic work. This spirit has l>evn particularly niarkrd 
 among the women folk of the bourgeoisie, who have been 
 even farther removed from the vital relations of the eco- 
 nomic system. Hence we have Lady Bountiful going 
 down with her basket of groceries or visiting the poor in 
 her limousine. It is this sentimentalism that marks the 
 immediate emotional response to the appeal of the beggar. 
 It appears in tag-days, Christmas dinners for the poor, and
 
 88 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 newspaper appeals for the " hundred neediest families." 
 The new philanthropies of the nineteenth century af- 
 forded unlimited opportunities for social climbers and 
 political opportunists. To be chairman of some commit- 
 tee, to have one's name on a letter-head, to get one's picture 
 in the daily paper these have all too often been the pur- 
 poses of ostensibly charitable individuals. For those who 
 have already " arrived " socially, it has been a matter of 
 following the fashions of the smart set. If the medieval 
 folk who kissed the feet of lepers were performing a relig- 
 ious rite, these nineteenth century sponsors of charity balls 
 were performing a " social rite." 
 
 But after we have eliminated the social climbers, the 
 cheap politicians, the " sob sisters," the Ladies Bountiful, 
 the poseurs, and given recognition to the truly benevolent 
 bourgeoisie, there remains a small body of earnest, honest 
 democrats, making it their chief business to seek solu- 
 tions for problems of the common welfare. In social work 
 of the nineteenth century these were probably in the 
 minority. Perhaps they still are. For them social work 
 was not charity, but public service; not an interesting 
 diversion for spare time, but a profession, a " man's job." 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Allsopp, Henry: An Introduction to English Industrial History. 
 
 London: Bell, 1913. 
 Ashley, W. J. : The Economic Organisation of England. London: 
 
 Longmans Green, 1914. Lectures 7 and 8. 
 Beard, Chas. : The Industrial Revolution. London: Swan Sonnen- 
 
 schein, 1901. 
 Bogart, Ernest L. : Economic History of the United States. New 
 
 York: Longmans Green, 1007. Chapters II and 12. 
 Chapin, F. Stuart: An Historical Introduction to Social Economy. 
 
 New York: Century, 1917, Part 4. 
 Engels, Frederick: The Condition of the Working-Class in England 
 
 in 1844. London, 1892.
 
 HUMANITARIANISM 89 
 
 Gretton, R. H. : The English Middle Class. London : Bell, 1917. 
 Hammond, J. L., and Barbara: The Village Labourer, 1760-1832. 
 
 London: Longmans Green, 1911. 
 Hayes, Carlton, J. H. : A Political and Social History of Modern 
 
 Europe. New York : Macmillan, 1916, Chap. 18. See also index 
 
 under " Bourgeoisie." 
 MacGregor, D. H. : The Evolution of Industry. Home University 
 
 Library, 1912. 
 Ferris, Geo. H. : Industrial History of Modern England. New 
 
 York, 1914. 
 Rosenblatt, Frank F. : Social and Economic Aspects of the Chartist 
 
 Movement. New York : Columbia University, 1916. 
 Somhart, Werner : Socialism and the Social Movement. New York : 
 
 1898. 
 Toynbee, Arnold: Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of tht 
 
 Eighteenth Century in England. London : Longmans Green, 
 
 1884. 
 Veblen, Thorstein: The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: 
 
 Macmillan, 1899. 
 Weber, A. F. : The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century, 
 
 New York: Columbia University, 1899.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 
 
 THE physical and social problems which arose out of 
 the Industrial Revolution impressed themselves first upon 
 the new manufacturers, for the welfare of the workers 
 was closely bound up with discipline and efficiency in the 
 factory. Very often, to be sure, it was a narrow and short- 
 sighted interest in the workers, but there were from the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century genuine philan- 
 thropists who, not having, seen the vision of industrial 
 democracy, honestly devoted themselves to the uplift of 
 their workmen. 
 
 At its best, industrial welfare work is something done 
 by employers for their employes because of a real humani- 
 tarian interest in the workmen for their own sake, phil- 
 anthropic in spirit, though undemocratic in method. At 
 its worst, it is a scheme for -more complete control of the 
 working people by the owners of industry, a mere camou- 
 flage for exploitation. 
 
 As we hurriedly review the course of industrial wel- 
 fare work in the nineteenth century we shall find all sorts 
 of variations, but in general we shall see a gradual in- 
 crease in the degree of participation by employes in the 
 planning and administering of schemes for the promotion 
 of their welfare. We shall find industrial welfare work, 
 in the sense of " anything for the comfort and improve- 
 ment of the employes, which is not a necessity of the 
 industry nor required by law," giving way to (i) mana- 
 gerial attention to safety, health, education, etc., for the 
 frankly avowed purpose of business success, (2) govern- 
 90
 
 INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 91 
 
 mental regulation of factories and administration of in- 
 surance funds, etc., (3) independent organization of work- 
 ing people for self-advancement. 
 
 EARLY DEVELOPMENT 
 GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 It was natural that industrial welfare work should 
 first appear in England, for it was in that country that 
 the factory system first developed. What we call the 
 Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early 
 nineteenth century took place in England fully fifty years 
 before it got under way in any other country. It is really 
 since the Civil War that the United States has become an 
 industrial nation. 
 
 After the invention of the spinning jenny, the " mule," 
 the cotton gin, the steam engine, and the other machines 
 that made possible large-scale production of cloth, factories 
 grew up like mushrooms in England. The people swarmed 
 into the new industrial towns' more rapidly than provision 
 could be made for their living accommodations. Hence, 
 they had to live in fearfully crowded quarters, without 
 sanitary facilities or privacy. Many of the new factory 
 operatives came from small villages or the open country 
 where habits of unhygienic and insanitary living did not 
 threaten the lives and health of others, as was bound to 
 be the case in the crowded towns. 
 
 The factories themselves were thrown up hastily with- 
 out adequate provision for light and air. The heat, 
 moisture and dust-laden air occasioned a vast amount of 
 sickness and an unduly high death rate. Then with the 
 division of labor and simplification of individual tasks it 
 became possible and profitable to employ women and
 
 92 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 young 1 children in place of men. They were frequently 
 more deft with their fingers and were willing to work for 
 lower wages. The work was strenuous, for " speeding- 
 up " early appeared on the scene, and the hours were long. 
 This meant that boys and girls went early to the human 
 " junk heap," broken in body, mind and spirit. 
 
 It was such a situation as this that started Robert 
 Owen on his career as a social reformer. Owen became 
 manager and part owner of the New Lanark mills in Scot- 
 land in 1800. Connected with the mills were about two 
 thousand employes, five hundred of whom were children 
 who had been brought at the age of five or six from the 
 poor-houses and charities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. The 
 general condition of the people was very unsatisfactory. 
 Theft, drunkenness and other vices were common; edu- 
 cation and sanitation were alike neglected; and most 
 families lived in a single room. 
 
 Owen's first efforts were directed toward improving 
 the houses, opening a store where goods of sound quality 
 could be purchased at a little more than cost, supervising 
 the sale of liquor, and teaching habits of thrift, cleanliness 
 and order. He also opened schools for the young children. 
 Though at first regarded with suspicion by the work 
 people, Owen presently won their confidence. But it was 
 his business associates who interfered most with the plans. 
 Although the mills prospered financially, the partners were 
 displeased with the expenditures on behalf of the em- 
 ployes, and entered much complaint. 
 
 Wearied at last by their restrictions, Owen formed a 
 new company in 1813. The members of the firm were 
 content with a return of five per cent, on their capital and 
 were ready to give special attention to the welfare of their 
 workmen. Under this regime New Lanark became widely 
 known, and was much visited by social reformers and
 
 INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 93 
 
 statesmen. According to the testimony of all, the results 
 were most gratifying. 
 
 It would be quite impossible to trace in detail the growth 
 of this idea. Instead, we shall cite a few instances and 
 show the character of the welfare work undertaken by 
 different corporations. 
 
 The reports of the factory inspectors for 1845 tell of 
 a corporation described as the " N.S.M. Co.," which em- 
 ployed 854 persons. Each employe receiving more than 
 45. per week contributed id. which was used to pay a 
 surgeon who visited the factory daily and also attended 
 the sick in their homes. Two hundred factory children 
 and children of employes attended school daily, and 40 to 
 50 attended night school. In addition, there was religious 
 instruction, a library of 300 volumes, a brass band, a 
 savings bank and a fire brigade. All who " give satisfac- 
 tory proof of being in the habit of attending some place of 
 instruction, or of public worship on the Sunday," received 
 free tickets for an annual picnic. 
 
 The " Quarterly Review " for December, 1852, de- 
 scribes the welfare work undertaken by another company 
 whose managing director " thought it possible, without 
 
 loss or hurt to the texture to humanise and 
 
 Christianise the hands." A school was opened in 1848, 
 later there were tea-parties, cricket, gardening, excursions 
 and religious instruction. In 1852 a chaplain was ap- 
 pointed to take charge of these varied activities. 
 
 Another company is described in the words of one of 
 its members as beginning its welfare work after the fol- 
 lowing fashion : " My Grandmother, too, is said by many 
 of the Workpeople to have been very sympathetic with 
 them in times of trouble or illness. She managed a Goth- 
 ing Club for them, and added a bonus to the money they 
 paid in." This company organized a reading dub in 1850,
 
 94 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 established a small library, organized a school for the chil- 
 dren, arranged outings, started a brass band, singing class, 
 " pantomimes," and fairs, annual teas, and made Christ- 
 mas gifts. In 1855 a man was appointed " partly to look 
 after the welfare of the workmen and their families." A 
 doctor and nurse were introduced in 1868. In 1874 a 
 woman was added to the staff to work among the girls 
 and women. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 As we have already indicated, employers' welfare work 
 appeared somewhat later in the United States than in Eng- 
 land and Scotland. One of the earliest activities of this 
 sort was the provision of suitable housing facilities. Very 
 often there were no houses at all on the site of a proposed 
 establishment and something had to be done. In other 
 cases the dwellings were insufficient in number or unsatis- 
 factory in character. 
 
 One of the first American firms to undertake the hous- 
 ing of its employes seems to have been the Peacedale 
 Manufacturing Company of Rhode Island. It erected in 
 1848 a number of seven- and eight-room cottages and sev- 
 eral two- and three-family dwellings with three to eight 
 rooms for each family. These were plain, well-built, com- 
 fortable and kept in good repair. The rent was very 
 modest, being as recently as 1907 only $3.50 to $12.50 
 per month. 
 
 The Waltham Watch Company early constructed 
 houses to rent or sell to its employes. In 1865 it estab- 
 lished a boarding house, known as " Adams Hall," for 
 female employes. This is still in use. It has double rooms 
 furnished with double bed, table, washstand, chest of 
 drawers and three chairs. 
 
 In 1890 the N. O. Nelson Company founded the village
 
 INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 95 
 
 of Leclaire near St. Louis. Employes were encouraged, 
 but not compelled, to purchase homes here. Lots were 
 sold at $2 to $2.50 a front foot, and 6 per cent, interest 
 was charged. The houses were built on plans mutually 
 agreed upon, the employe being charged for raw material, 
 labor and the " average profit " of the company. Monthly 
 payments were from $12 to $20. Five dollars per year 
 was charged for water, and twenty-five cents per month 
 for electric lights. 
 
 " The winding cinder roads, bordered with spreading 
 shade trees, the groups of ornamental shrubbery and plants 
 and the carefully cultivated flower beds in and about the 
 factory grounds and parks give the place an attractiveness 
 rarely to be found in a manufacturing community. Em- 
 ployes may here enjoy the advantages of a city with the 
 freedom and economy of country life. All who wish can 
 keep their own poultry and cow, grow their own vegetables 
 and fruits and yet live within easy reach of their place 
 of employment." 
 
 In 1878 the Ludlow Manufacturing Associates of 
 Massachusetts began to take an active part in the education 
 of the children of their employes. The village had a one- 
 room, ungraded school, but the increased number of oper- 
 atives compelled the addition of two teachers, whose 
 classes met in the vestry of the church. The company 
 then built a schoolhouse with six class-rooms, a lecture hall 
 and parlor, which it rented to the town at the nominal 
 figure of $100 per year. There was considerable friction 
 between the town and the company about the management 
 of the school, but the arrangement was continued until 
 about 1905. Later, the Associates started the Ludlow 
 Textile School to train apprentices. Each boy spent five 
 hours each day in the mill. One class went to school in the 
 morning, the other in the afternoon. The company also
 
 96 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 arranged three months' courses in cooking for the women 
 and girls. In 1878 it started a library, and in 1888 erected 
 a special building to house it. In this same year it fur- 
 nished a room and paid the salary of a treasurer for a 
 savings bank. 
 
 The first instance we have found recorded of recrea- 
 tion provided by employers is that of the Conant Thread 
 Company, of Rhode Island, which furnished transporta- 
 tion one day in 1870 for its employes to a shore resort on 
 Narragansett Bay. No wages were paid for this day, and 
 the employes were not consulted as to the nature or the 
 place of the excursion. 
 
 The Ludlow Associates, mentioned above, in 1878 fit- 
 ted up a game and smoking room. But it became so 
 disorderly that it was soon closed. In 1895 a new attempt 
 was much more successful. In this case, the employes 
 were given an active share in the planning and adminis- 
 tration. A men's dub was organized. In 1898 a building 
 was provided and furnished with bowling alleys, pool 
 tables, etc. Later an athletic field was added to 
 the equipment. 
 
 The Illinois Steel Company, in 1889, opened at Joliet 
 the " Steel Works Club " for the benefit of its employes. 
 Any workman in the plant was eligible to membership upon 
 payment of the annual dues of $2.00. The building was 
 leased to the club at the nominal rental of $1.00 per year. 
 It has a reading room, billiard room, gymnasium, bowl- 
 ing alleys, hand-ball court, tennis court, etc. 
 
 In addition to housing, education and recreation, in- 
 dustrial welfare work early included a miscellaneous lot of 
 activities, some of which have already been suggested. At 
 Peacedale, R. I., in 1854, one of the mill owners and his 
 wife taught children singing on week-days and Bible on 
 Sundays. In 1856 the company set aside a building with
 
 INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 97 
 
 library, reading room and hall. In 1891 it put up a new 
 building with gymnasium, club rooms, hall, library, etc. 
 
 In 1886 the Solvay Process Company started a sewing 
 class for girls. Later, it erected a guild house, which had 
 an assembly hall for concerts, entertainments and lectures, 
 billiard and pool rooms, class rooms, library and kitchen. 
 The company also built a club house for use of the office 
 force, and laid out an athletic field. 
 
 PRESENT SCOPE OF INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 
 
 In 1919 the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics 
 reported the results of its investigation of over 400 estab- 
 lishments which had welfare departments. Three hun- 
 dred and seventy-five of these had some provision for 
 medical treatment. Some had first-aid equipment only, 
 others had hospital or emergency rooms, about one-third 
 had a doctor and an equal number a nurse. In some cases, 
 definite instruction was being given in first-aid. One very 
 large firm received reports every twelve days about 
 absences. These were then followed up in order that the 
 needed medical attention or other service might be ren- 
 dered. Physical examinations at the time of employment 
 and periodically thereafter were found in numerous plants. 
 
 These health measures have on the whole redounded to 
 the benefit of the employes and the credit of their em- 
 ployers. But it is only fair to remember that the company 
 doctor and the company hospital are frequently devices for 
 defeating workmen's compensation laws and industrial 
 accident insurance. Moreover, they are not always above 
 suspicion as actual sources of income, because of the medi- 
 cal fees which are charged. 
 
 The Bureau of Labor Statistics also classes under the 
 head of welfare work, the provision of drinking water 
 7
 
 98 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 systems, wash-rooms, lockers, hot water, soap and towels, 
 lunch room, milk stations, etc. 
 
 Over two hundred establishments were reported as 
 providing rest and recreation rooms. Over one hundred 
 had club houses, or at least club rooms. These were vari- 
 ously equipped with gymnasia, game rooms, athletic 
 grounds, bowling alleys, pool and billiard tables, swim- 
 ming pools, musical instruments, moving pictures, etc. A 
 few firms had country clubs and camps where employes 
 might spend week-ends and vacations at a minimum of 
 expense. Roof gardens and recreation parks were 
 found occasionally. 
 
 The educational opportunities provided by employers 
 took the forms of libraries, reading rooms, classes and 
 lectures. One hundred establishments were found by the 
 Bureau to have libraries, with space, books and attendants 
 provided by the firms. These were in addition to the 
 purely technical libraries which were used almost ex- 
 clusively for reference purposes as a part of the business. 
 Technical schools, continuation schools, English for 
 foreigners, and all sorts of evening classes were found. 
 
 "One company with about 14,000 employes main- 
 tains, with the cooperation of the local school board, a 
 technical night school for its employes, in which about 
 looo students are enrolled. There are several depart- 
 ments. In the foreign department, classes are held in 
 arithmetic, and also in the reading, speaking and writing 
 of English. The prqraratory department has classes in 
 mental arithmetic, shop problems, composition, commercial 
 geography and mechanical drawing. In the engineering 
 department, instruction is given in theoretical and applied 
 electricity, pattern, foundry and machine shop practise, 
 sciences, higher mathematics, etc. There is also a woman's 
 department, giving a commercial course, domestic science,
 
 INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 99 
 
 and music. A moderate tuition fee is charged ; the high- 
 school building is used, and the costs above the tuition paid 
 by students are met by the company and the school district, 
 the former paying about three-fourths of the deficit." 
 
 Not merely the employes themselves, but their fami- 
 lies as well, are frequently included within the scope of 
 industrial welfare work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics 
 found 1 58 firms " doing more or less social betterment 
 work among their employes' families, generally along the 
 following lines: (i) Improving the dwellings and the 
 streets, installing sewerage, lighting and water systems, 
 and assisting in gardening. (2) Providing educational and 
 recreational facilities. (3) Introducing into the com- 
 munity a nurse or other capable visitor to advise in the 
 care of the sick and the children, to instruct in American 
 methods of home-making, to develop the community spirit 
 by organizing and fostering clubs, and to be the sympa- 
 thetic friend in time of trouble." 
 
 Other forms of welfare work include disability funds, 
 group insurance and pensions. Eighty establishments 
 were found by the Bureau to have benefit associations, to 
 which the firms made substantial contributions. In the 
 majority, the employes were found to have at least a part 
 in the management. In some, membership was a condi- 
 tion of employment, but the majority were voluntary, in 
 theory at least. In nearly all cases membership was for- 
 feited on leaving the employ of the company. 
 
 " The establishment of a definite pension system has 
 been a comparatively recent manifestation among em- 
 ployers of the belief that the worker has a just claim on 
 those for whom he works for some provision for his de- 
 clining years. It is probably true, however, that while the 
 majority of the plans state that the pensions are granted 
 for ' loyal and efficient ' service, still the fact that the pro-
 
 ioo SOCIAL WORK 
 
 vision of these funds tends toward a more stable force, 
 toward keeping the services of the more experienced and 
 skilful workmen who might be able to command higher 
 wages elsewhere, and toward moderating industrial unrest 
 generally, has its weight also in determining firms or cor- 
 porations to establish such funds." It is interesting to note 
 that in contrast to this moderate statement of the Bureau 
 of Labor Statistics, a member of the United States 
 Supreme Court described these pensions as " the 
 new peonage." 
 
 The very essence of employers' welfare work is con- 
 tained in the definition used by the Bureau of Labor Sta- 
 tistics, viz., " Anything for the comfort and improvement, 
 intellectual or social, of the employes, over and above 
 wages paid, which is not a necessity of the industry nor re- 
 quired by law." In other words, it is regarded essentially 
 as a gratuity. It represents patronage rather than coopera- 
 tion and benevolence rather than justice. However, so 
 long as industry is continued on a feudal basis and legis- 
 lation is inadequate, this humanitarianism of the employ- 
 ers must be regarded as praiseworthy, unless, of course, 
 it be used as a means of exploitation. 
 
 The opinions of working men in regard to welfare 
 work are divided as is evident from the following state- 
 ments of two labor leaders, Samuel Gompers and John 
 P. Frey. 
 
 The opinion of Samuel Gompers is this : " It should 
 be clearly understood that an employer who employs num- 
 bers of workers in his establishments places them under 
 an organization where they individually have no control 
 over environment, and are unable to furnish for them- 
 selves even the most necessary things, such as water, 
 toilet provisions, and things of like nature. Any person 
 who is in any degree responsible for the well-being of 
 human beings, cannot with good conscience disregard the
 
 INDUSTRIAL WELFARE WORK 101 
 
 obligation. If he has intelligent imagination and foresight 
 he will refuse to poison the bodies and lungs of the 
 workers, or to permit them to render their product unfit 
 for consumption, to ruin their eyesight or to mutilate their 
 bodies. He will do these things to satisfy his own sense of 
 decency and justice, and anything less would do violence 
 to his conscience and cause him discomfort. Such deeds 
 are not favors, but only a decent respect for humanity. 
 The spurious kind of welfare work, intended only to rob 
 the workers of independence of action and of just com- 
 pensation, has met with deserved discredit and disrepute. 
 Justice, not charity, is the right of all the workers. Let 
 welfare work become what it should be conscience work." 
 
 According to John P. Frey : " Welfare work chloro- 
 forms the worker and gets the better of him. The union- 
 ists want to help themselves. They do not want to be the 
 objects of patronage. It is a noticeable thing that welfare 
 work stops when shops become unionized. Shops which 
 give turkeys at Thanksgiving stop giving turkeys after 
 the men form unions, but the men can buy turkeys several 
 times a year, if they care to do so, with the increase in 
 wages. This seems to be evidence that welfare work is 
 used to keep the men from organizing." 
 
 Thus it is clear that as bourgeois benevolence indus- 
 trial welfare work has definite limitations. But it involves 
 many activities that in themselves are desirable and in no 
 wise incompatible with self-respect and democracy. Sup- 
 pose there were an industrial democracy in the best sense, 
 there would still be need for attention to health, safety, 
 education, recreation, thrift, etc. Only under these condi- 
 tions the administration of the welfare work would become 
 a specialized service rendered to the group at its own re- 
 quest and paid for by the group. The democratic move- 
 ment which is unquestionably under way leaves little room
 
 102 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 for philanthropy, but makes a large place for profes- 
 sional service. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Bloomfield, Daniel: Selected Articles on Employment Management. 
 
 New York: Wilson, 1919, especially pp. 435-483. 
 Bloomfield, Meyer: Management and Men. London: Unwin, T. 
 
 Fisher, 1919. 
 Brandeis, Louis D. : Business A Profession. Boston: Small May- 
 
 nard, 1914, especially pp. 65-81. 
 Cadbury, Edward: Experiments in Industrial Organisation. New 
 
 York: Longmans Green, 1912. 
 
 Feld, R. C. : Humanizing Industry. New York : Dutton, 1919. 
 Frankel, Lee K. and Fleisher, Alex. : The Human Factor in Industry. 
 
 New York: Macmillan, 1920. 
 Oilman, N. P. : A Dividend to Labor. A Study of Employers' Wel- 
 
 fare Institutions. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899. 
 Henderson, Chas. R.: Citizens in Industry. New York: Appleton, 
 
 Kellor, Francis A. : " Industrial Americanization and National De- 
 
 fense." North American Review, May, 1917. 
 Meakin, Budgett: Model Factories and Villages. Philadelphia: 
 
 Jacobs, 1905. 
 Proud, Emily Dorothea : Welfare Work. London : G. Bell & Sons, 
 
 1916. 
 Tarbell, Ida M. : New Ideals in Business. New York: Macmillan, 
 
 1916. 
 Tead, Ordway and Metcalf, H. C : Personnel Administration. New 
 
 York : McGraw Hill, 1920. 
 
 Tolman, Wm. H. : Social Engineering. New York: McGraw, 1909. 
 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bulletin No. 250. " Welfare 
 
 Work for Employees in Industrial Establishments in the United 
 
 States," 1919. 
 Ibid.: Bui. No. 222, 1917, " Welfare Work in British Munition 
 
 Factories." 
 Ibid.: Monthly Review, vol. 5, (1917) No. 4, pp. 154-6; No. 5, pp. 
 
 201-212; No. 6, pp. 207-215; vol. 6, (1918) No. i, pp. 195-205; 
 
 No. 3, PP- 199-206.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 
 
 WE have seen how employers' welfare work arose out 
 of the Industrial Revolution, and how in response to the 
 democratic movement it is giving way to other activities. 
 In place of "uplift" work performed by employers for 
 their employes, we are finding three lines of effort that 
 redound to the advantage of people who work for wages : 
 (i) service departments which attend to health, for ex- 
 ample, as a part of the business, without pretense of phil- 
 anthropy, (2) public regulation of working conditions 
 and administration of insurance funds, (3) organization 
 of working people to solve their own problems. 
 
 Similarly we shall find the charity organization move- 
 ment arising out of the Industrial Revolution and 
 gradually giving way before the growing impetus of dem- 
 ocracy. In this instance, however, we are dealing with a 
 " second growth." The first response of philanthropists 
 who were unwilling to leave the care of the needy to pub- 
 lic relief or ecclesiastical charities was a host of small, 
 uncorrelated societies. The resultant chaos with its alter- 
 nating neglect and overindulgence set the stage for the 
 charity organization movement. We have already seen 
 how the twentieth century is displacing charity organiza- 
 tion societies with family welfare associations on the one 
 hand and community councils on the other. 
 
 THE HAMBURG-ELBERFELD SYSTEM 
 
 The sort of thing that we have come to recognize as 
 the charity organization movement seems to have begun in 
 Germany and in England at about the same time. More- 
 
 103
 
 io 4 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 over, it appears that the German and English pioneers in 
 this field were in contact with each other and exchanged 
 numerous ideas. The German development is ordinarily 
 traced to the reorganization of relief work in the city of 
 Hamburg in 1788. The plan which was there put into 
 effect was adopted with some modifications at Elberfeld, 
 in 1852. 
 
 The plan of organization involved the division of the 
 city into " quarters," each of which was supposed to con- 
 tain not more than four dependent individuals or heads of 
 families. Each quarter was placed under the supervision 
 of a visitor, known as the Armenpfleger, whose duty it was 
 to visit the poor of his quarter at regular intervals, keep 
 himself informed as to their circumstances, and use his 
 influence to improve their manner of living. The quarters 
 were grouped into districts, at the head of each of which 
 there was a superintendent, or Vorsteher. His duties were 
 to direct the work of the various quarters in his district. 
 He was to arrange meetings of his visitors for the purpose 
 of discussing the work and deciding upon the amount, 
 kind and duration of aid to be given. Over all the dis- 
 tricts there was a central administrative board, or 
 Hauptverwaltung, composed of a special municipal officer 
 and certain members of the city council. The duties of this 
 central board were to supervise the relief work of the 
 entire city, make regulations, review decisions of the 
 districts, and to supervise institutional relief. They were 
 also supposed to devote some time to studying the causes 
 of poverty. 
 
 With the exception of the chairman of the central 
 board, all the offices were filled by citizens who served 
 without pay. The voluntary visitors were given a voice 
 in the decisions as to what should be done for their fam- 
 ilies ; and the actions of the districts, while reviewed by the
 
 CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 105 
 
 general board, were not dependent on its approval for 
 their validity. 
 
 The principal advantage of this system was that each 
 dependent person or family had fairly intimate relations 
 with the visitor in whose quarter he lived. But there was a 
 corresponding disadvantage that a given case had to re- 
 main continuously under the same visitor, even though 
 these relations might become strained, and though the 
 visitor might be incompetent to handle the problems of the 
 family in question. 
 
 Moreover, it presently came about that certain quar- 
 ters, indeed, certain single houses contained a considerable 
 number of needy families. Some visitors were responsible 
 for tenement houses containing from fifty to sixty de- 
 pendents. Because of this fact, when the so-called Ham- 
 burg-Elberfeld system was reorganized in the last decade 
 of the nineteenth century, the " quarters " gave way to a 
 district system. 
 
 Under this new scheme, the territorial units were 
 larger, and any visitor assigned to the district might be 
 given the duty of investigating or supervising any family 
 within that part of the city. Every applicant for aid was 
 required to present himself to the district superintendent, 
 who referred him to one of the visitors. This made it pos- 
 sible to guard against overburdening particular workers 
 and also to change visitors in case some good reason 
 should arise. 
 
 The idea of individualization was pretty clearly 
 developed by the administrators of this scheme of relief. 
 Individualization to them had reference both to investiga- 
 tion and to treatment. But apparently, it was the investi- 
 gational side of the work that was most emphasised. Cer- 
 tainly, it was this that particularly impressed some of the 
 English students and Poor Law officials who looked into
 
 io6 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 the German system. This is made clear by the following 
 paragraph from a pamphlet written by one of the English 
 Poor Law inspectors fifty years ago: " In the first place, 
 the applicant for relief is subjected to an examination so 
 close and searching, so absolutely inquisitorial, that no man 
 who could possibly escape from it would submit to it. He 
 is not one of several hundreds who can tell his own story 
 to an overworked relieving officer, but one of a very few, 
 never exceeding four frequently the single applicant 
 who is bound by law to answer every one of that long string 
 of questions that his interrogator is bound by law to put 
 to him. One of the peculiar merits claimed, and I believe 
 rightly claimed, for this system is that before a man 
 can obtain relief it must be shown that he cannot exist 
 without it." 
 
 This indicates what was probably true both in Germany 
 and in England, that very little attention was given to any 
 except the economic aspects of a family's life, and that 
 investigation looked to the repression of unnecessary 
 demands for 1 assistance rather than to the building up of 
 the physical and moral resources of the family. 
 
 THE LONDON CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 
 
 The first charity organization society to bear that name 
 was founded in London in 1869. Back of it there lay just 
 the sort of circumstances that we have already described. 
 The Poor Law administered rigidly in some communities 
 and laxly in others failed to meet the needs of a very large 
 number of people. In spite of the " workhouse test " 
 (which we shall study more fully in a later chapter) and 
 possibly because of it, there were thousands of beggars 
 in the English cities. Their existence meant, of course, 
 that there was a vast amount of indiscriminate almsgiving 
 by charitable individuals and by philanthropic societies. 
 These various organizations and individuals worked quite
 
 CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 107 
 
 independently of one another, with the result that there 
 was an enormous amount of overlapping on the one hand, 
 and neglect on the other. Astute beggars were receiving 
 assistance from several different sources, while more 
 modest and perhaps more needy people were overlooked 
 by all the charities. We are told of various free refuges, 
 of suppers, relief associations, coal and bread clubs, soup 
 kitchens, visiting and Bible societies, and many others. 
 
 One of those who appreciated this situation was the 
 Rev. Henry Solly, a Unitarian minister, who in 1868 read 
 before the Society of Arts a paper entitled, " How to deal 
 with the unemployed poor in London and with its roughs 
 and criminal classes." The reading of this paper seems to 
 have produced quite a stir, and resulted almost immedi- 
 ately in the formation of a committee which called itself, 
 at first, the " Society for the Prevention of Pauperism and 
 Crime." It issued a series of prospectuses, which out- 
 lined a number of plans for dealing with the problems of 
 poverty in London. Somewhat later in the same year, a 
 Doctor Hawksley proposed a scheme for organizing all 
 the charities and administering them through district 
 offices. These were to be in constant touch with each 
 other and under the general direction of a central office. 
 This overhead administration was to be financed by a tax 
 of one per cent, of their annual incomes, to be paid by all 
 the charities into a common fund. Following this sug- 
 gestion, a conference was called to which all the charities 
 of London were invited to send representatives. It seems 
 that a good many of them responded, but did not consent 
 readily to the plan of centralization. However, a start was 
 made in 1869 under the title of the " Society for Organ- 
 izing Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity." This 
 was changed in 1870 to the "Charity Organization 
 Society." 
 
 At the outset the secretaries of the society gave their
 
 io8 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 services without compensation, as did the members of the 
 district committees. But after a time, the volume of work 
 was found to be so great that the full time of paid secre- 
 taries was essential. One of the early general secretaries 
 was Charles S. Loch, who served the society for some 
 forty years. However, the work in the districts continued 
 to be done for some time by volunteers. A few of the dis- 
 trict committees had experienced members, such as Miss 
 Octavia Hill, but, the most of them apparently did not. 
 
 The original idea of the society does not seem to have 
 involved the giving of relief, but rather the correlation of 
 existing charities. It was thought that the central organ- 
 ization might subsidize some of the constituent societies, 
 but it was not long before the direct giving of relief was 
 made a part of the work of the charity organization society. 
 In addition to bringing the many independent organiza- 
 tions together, the charity organization society was looked 
 to as an example which should educate the other organiza- 
 tions, showing them; how to do their work most effectively. 
 Also, it undertook to bring about a central registration of 
 all persons receiving assistance from any of the charities. 
 The purpose was not merely the elimination of fraud, but 
 the making possible of a coherent plan of treatment 
 by guarding against overlapping and working at 
 cross purposes. 
 
 As in the case of the German reformers, the early mem- 
 bers of the London Charity Organization Society sought 
 to bring about thorough investigation of all applicants for 
 aid and systematic visitation of poor families. The Ger- 
 mans undertook to accomplish this by compelling citizens 
 to give their services without pay to the administration 
 of municipal relief. In England it was a private agency, 
 the London Charity Organization Society, which made 
 
 earnest appeals for volunteer visitors who should not 
 
 \
 
 CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 109 
 
 merely learn the facts that needed to be known about appli- 
 cants for relief, but also follow them up with supervision 
 and advice, which it was hoped might serve to put the 
 families on their own feet. 
 
 SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT IN AMERICA 
 
 The general situation which gave rise to the Hamburg- 
 Elberfeld system in Germany and the first Charity 
 Organization Society in England was responsible for a 
 similar movement in the United States. About the middle 
 of the last century, there were organized in most of our 
 large cities relief societies which bore some such title as 
 " Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the 
 Poor." It was their express purpose to find work for all 
 who were willing to accept it, to investigate all cases thor- 
 oughly, and to bring the needy to a point where they would 
 no longer require assistance. But being dispensers of 
 material aid, they soon, as one writer puts it, " sank into 
 the sea of almsgiving." As early as the year 1840, there 
 were over thirty relief societies in the city of New York. 
 
 An informally constituted committee in 1843 made a 
 report somewhat to the following effect : ( I ) that the want 
 of discrimination in giving relief was a fundamental and 
 very prevalent defect in most of these schemes of charity; 
 (2) that the societies were acting independently of each 
 other, with the result that artful mendicants were receiving 
 assistance from many of the societies at the same time, 
 while the better class of the needy were frequently going 
 unaided; (3) that there was not adequate provision for 
 personal relations between those who gave and those who 
 received the alms, as a consequence of which, the societies 
 failed to provide for the permanent physical and moral 
 improvement of those whom they relieved; (4) that it was 
 apparent that no form of charity which did not have special
 
 no SOCIAL WORK 
 
 reference to the removal of the causes of pauperism could 
 fail to increase its amount. 
 
 Thus there was a situation in America which was 
 almost identical with that which in England called the 
 charity organization movement into being. But there were 
 two other factors which affected its beginnings in this 
 country. One was the industrial depression which fol- 
 lowed the commercial crisis of 1873 and which threw 
 multitudes out of work. The other was the coming to 
 America of some English clergymen who had been active 
 in the London Charity Organization Society. The forma- 
 tion of the early societies in the United States is so well 
 described in the report of a committee of the National 
 Conference of Charities and Correction in 1893 that we 
 shall borrow rather liberally from it- 
 
 " In 1874 Rev. Charles G. Ames led in the formation, 
 upon London models, in Germantown, a suburban ward 
 of Philadelphia, of an association which employed house- 
 hold visitors to investigate applicants for aid, availed 
 itself of the soup-house, fuel societies, churches, and 
 especially of the outdoor municipal relief in procuring the 
 requisite assistance, and supplemented it as need indicated 
 from its own resources." 
 
 In the autumn of 1875 tne Cooperative Society of 
 Visitors Among the Poor was formed in Boston, its plan 
 being a modification of the Elberfeld system. But Buffalo 
 " has the honor of being the first city in the United States 
 to produce a complete Charity Organization Society of the 
 London type." The immediate and most active promoter 
 was the Rev. S. H. Gurteen, an English clergyman. He 
 organized the work of his parish guild so that the case of 
 every applicant for aid was promptly investigated. He 
 lectured on " Phases of Charity," and proposed a central 
 clearing-house for the charities of the city. As a result of
 
 CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT in 
 
 these and similar activities the Buffalo Charity Organiza- 
 tion Society was organized in 1877, and it "adhered to 
 the principle of coordinating existing relief agencies 
 and giving no relief from its own funds except in 
 rare emergencies." 
 
 The Philadelphia society seems to have started with 
 " the officers of several soup societies." The plan of 
 organization was that of " ward associations " correlated 
 through a central board. In commenting on this the com- 
 mittee of 1893 says that " the work often fell into wrong 
 hands, and the Ward Associations were so many new 
 almsgiving societies. By their attitude they were virtu- 
 ally saying to all the older charitable societies that there 
 was no need of them, and they, as a rule, refused coopera- 
 tion, and still withhold it." There are enough evidences 
 of this " holier than thou " attitude in other cities to 
 justify us in saying that it has been a rather frequent 
 failing of the charity organization societies. 
 
 By 1893 there were reported to be fifty-five such 
 organizations in the United States, and the present num- 
 ber is probably not far from four hundred. In order to 
 stimulate this development, the Russell Sage Foundation 
 established a charity organization department in charge of 
 Miss Mary Richmond. More recently there has been 
 organized a more or less independent society known at first 
 as the American Association of Societies for Organizing 
 Charity and now called the American Association for 
 Organizing Family Social Work. These two agencies 
 have through community studies, the distribution of litera- 
 ture and other publicity greatly increased the number of 
 societies and have also developed an tsprit de corps among 
 the secretaries and other workers.
 
 ii2 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 POLICIES OF THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 
 
 We have already noted how the early charity organi- 
 zation folk set themselves against the giving of material 
 relief. Very soon, however, they found themselves com- 
 pelled to distribute groceries, cash, etc., but wherever pos- 
 sible they get some other agency or some individual to do 
 this. The Charity Organization Society therefore medi- 
 ates between its " client " and the sources of relief. The 
 virtue of this has lain in calling attention to the more 
 important aspects of social work, the diagnosis and adjust- 
 ment of personal difficulties. But its vice has been the 
 development of an attitude verging on stinginess where 
 material aid is really necessary, and the inefficient ex- 
 penditure of effort in assembling a few dollars here, a 
 basket of groceries there, a bag of coal yonder and a pair 
 of blankets somewhere else. 
 
 Another policy of the C. O. S. has been the correlation 
 of other agencies. In this it has never been entirely suc- 
 cessful, perhaps for reasons suggested in the report on the 
 Philadelphia society. The idea of one private organization 
 saying to the others, " Here, do your work through us, 
 and make us the center of social work in this city " has 
 never appealed strongly to those in other societies. What 
 is happening today is the development of correlation, to 
 which the C. O. S. had pointed the way, through more or 
 less democratically organized "councils of social agencies" 
 in which the C. O. S. takes its place as one of the group, 
 instead of as a somewhat dictatorial outsider. 
 
 The development of clearing houses or central regis- 
 tration bureaus has been a third policy of the C. O. S. This 
 has been really a phase of the policy of correlation and 
 seems to be going through a similar transition. That is, 
 the idea of registration is good and will be retained 
 and extended, but it will doubtless be more and
 
 CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 113 
 
 more administered by cooperative effort instead of by one 
 single agency. 
 
 Friendly visiting has been a fourth policy, and it still 
 occupies a large part of the C. O. S. program. The 1893 
 report speaks of friendly visiting as " the soul of the move- 
 ment." The plan is that of " inducing men and women 
 having strength of character to go to the homes of the 
 needy, each taking the chief responsibility for the proper 
 development, material and moral, of a few families." 
 While it has been often " the means by which the higher 
 resources of society, its hope, discipline, thrift and kind- 
 ness of heart, are diffused among the depressed and those 
 who have fallen by the way," it has also often been the 
 occasion for " emotional sprees " indulged in by " Ladies 
 Bountiful." Probably most friendly visiting has not really 
 been friendly, in the sense of involving a mutual relation- 
 ship; it has more likely been " uplift," which is something 
 very different from friendship. 
 
 District conferences represent a fifth policy of the 
 C. O. S. These include not only social workers, but people 
 of various other occupations as well. Their purposes are 
 four : ( i ) to " thresh out " difficult problems, (2) to train 
 volunteers and new workers, (3) to retain the interest of 
 good contributors, (4) to use individual problems as a 
 basis for planning community programs. 
 
 " Provident schemes " which interested the early C. O. 
 S. included : day nurseries, kindergartens, classes in cook- 
 ing, manual training, stamp books and fuel funds. Much 
 attention was also given to the repression of street begging 
 and vagrancy. The C. O. S. workers interested themselves 
 in better housing and in various sorts of remedial legisla- 
 tion, such as the " separation of paupers from criminals in 
 public institutions," amendment of poor relief laws, estab- 
 
 8
 
 ii 4 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 lishment of municipal lodging-houses and the regulation 
 of immigration. 
 
 A more recent development is the Transportation 
 Agreement, first drawn up under the auspices of the 
 National Conference of Charities and Correction, and now 
 having nearly 800 signers. Its most important provisions 
 are these: (i) No charitable transportation is to be 
 granted without reliable evidence that the applicant is un- 
 able to pay his fare, that his condition and prospects will be 
 improved by going to the new place, and that he will have 
 resources for his maintenance at the destination or that he 
 has a legal residence there. (2) The applicant is to be taken 
 care of until the necessary evidence can be obtained. 
 (3) The charitable organization or official at the destina- 
 tion is to be advised that transportation is being considered 
 or has been determined upon. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest contribution of the charity organ- 
 ization movement has been the development of what has 
 come to be known as the " case method " of analysing and 
 treating human problems. By this is meant essentially the 
 study and treatment of each individual and family as a 
 unique problem. The effort is made to secure such sig- 
 nificant information about family histories, physical and 
 mental condition, habits, education, occupation, attitudes 
 and relations to other people as will make possible a clear 
 definition of the problem to be solved. On the side of 
 treatment it means the utilization of the particular re- 
 sources available to the individual or family in question in 
 such manner that the difficulty may be removed. 
 
 WIDER APPLICATION OF THE CASE METHOD 
 
 It is obviously impossible in this brief discussion to 
 present anything like an adequate account of the technique 
 of case work. But some further understanding of it may
 
 CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 115 
 
 be gathered from noting the wide range of agencies in 
 which it is being found serviceable. Among these are 
 organizations which work with children, such as societies 
 for the prevention of cruelty to children, children's home 
 societies, juvenile courts, children's institutions, etc. All 
 of the best of these agencies do careful case work and 
 cooperate closely with other social agencies. Not only have 
 the children's agencies adopted many case work principles ; 
 they have added to them, their particular contribution 
 being the use of applied psychology. Especially note- 
 worthy has been the work done in the juvenile courts of 
 Chicago and Boston, and in the Ohio Bureau of 
 Juvenile Research. 
 
 A similar development has taken place in the handling 
 of adult delinquents. Here, however, it has been the 
 psychiatrists rather than the psychologists who have been 
 most active and have added most to the technique of case 
 work. Some of the most significant work along this line 
 has been done in the municipal courts of Chicago, Boston, 
 Philadelphia, and in such institutions as Sing Sing, West- 
 chester County Penitentiary, Indiana State Prison, and the 
 reformatories for women at Bedford Hills, New York, 
 and South Framingham, Massachusetts. 
 
 A third field for the application of C. O. S methods is 
 medical social work. By this, we mean assistance to the 
 physicians of a hospital or dispensary in the education of 
 patients and in the control of their environment. The first 
 social service department of this type was founded in 1906 
 at the Massachusetts General Hospital by Dr. Richard C. 
 Cabot. Among the services most frequently rendered by 
 such departments are arranging for convalescent care, aid 
 in diagnosis by investigating post history, supervising 
 hygiene, arranging for examination of persons exposed 
 to contagious diseases, securing and supervising the wear-
 
 n6 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 ing of apparatus, and assuring advised hospital care. It has 
 been pointed out by those engaged in this work that the 
 presence of acute poverty is not the most frequent cause 
 for taking up a social service case in a hospital or dis- 
 pensary, and that education rather than relief is the domi- 
 nating activity. 
 
 Vocational guidance and labor management provide 
 unlimited opportunities for applying and still further 
 developing the techniques originally developed by the 
 charity organization societies. In both these newer lines 
 of work, it is found necessary to make a careful study of 
 the individual's personal traits. Wise action can not be 
 taken without adequate information concerning the per- 
 son's physical and mental condition, his character, his 
 physical environment and his associates. 
 
 Other uses for this technique are to be found in the 
 public schools, in religious work, in courts of domestic 
 relations, and in the diagnosis of feeblemindedness 
 and insanity. 
 
 But perhaps the most important application of the case 
 method has been in the field of social science. That is, it is 
 coming to be used not merely with reference to particular 
 cases which it is desired to help, but also as a means of 
 working at scientific problems of a more general character. 
 This appears, as might be anticipated, in books dealing 
 with delinquents such as those of Healy and Kammerer, 
 and in such magazines as the Journal of Criminal Law and 
 the Journal of Delinquency. It also appears in studies like 
 Miss Brandt's " 574 Deserters and Their Families," and 
 Mrs. Solenberger*s " One Thousand Homeless Men." The 
 case method has been definitely employed in the training 
 of social workers, and teaching records have been prepared 
 by the Russell Sage Foundation and the American Red 
 Cross. Even more significant is the adoption of the case
 
 CHARITY ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT 117 
 
 method by the students of Social Psychology and Race 
 Problems. This, for example, underlies such works as 
 Thomas' " Polish Peasant." 
 
 Indeed, the social scientists owe a peculiar debt of 
 gratitude to the charity organization movement for giving 
 them the case method. Had the C. O. S. movement failed 
 utterly as a scheme of relief which, of course, it has not 
 it would still have made an invaluable contribution in 
 this method of studying social problems. To have de- 
 veloped out of indiscriminate almsgiving and perfunctory 
 investigation a genuine technology is no mean achievement. 
 
 In this development of the charity organization move- 
 ment, it is interesting to see how out of a bourgeois phil- 
 anthropy there has been gradually growing up the idea of 
 professional service, utilizing scientific principles and 
 methods. The recent eagerness to displace the name 
 " charity organization society " with that of "family wel- 
 fare association " suggests the spirit of this change. Also, 
 there has been a growing emphasis upon preventive and 
 constructive work. Social legislation and educational ef- 
 forts to raise the standards of living have more and more 
 interested those whose primary activities have been in the 
 charity organization societies or their successors. In 
 England these folk were particularly strong advocates of 
 old age pensions, and in America of the health insurance 
 schemes, which so far have failed of adoption. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Bosanquet, Helen : Social Work m London, 1869 to 1912. A History 
 of thf Chanty Organisation Socifty. London: John Murray, 
 1914. 
 
 Loch, C. S.: Chanty Organisation. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 
 1892. 
 
 London Charity Organization Society. Occasional Papers. 
 
 Gurteen, S. H. : A Handbook of Chanty Organisation. Buffalo, 1882.
 
 u8 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Nat. Conf . Char. & Corr., 1881, 100-195 ; 1893, 52-93. 
 
 Brandt, Lilian: The Charity Organisation Society of the City of 
 
 New York, 1882-1907. New York : United Charities Bldg., 1907. 
 Warner, Amos G. : American Charities. New York: Crowell, third 
 
 edition, 1919. Chap. 22 (second edition, Chap 19). 
 Devine, Edward T.: The Principles of Relief. New York: Mac- 
 
 millan, 1905, Part 3, Chap. 3. 
 Richmond, Mary E. : Social Diagnosis. New York : Russell Sage 
 
 Foundation, 1917. 
 Richmond, Mary E. : What Is Social Case Work? New Yoik: 
 
 Russell Sage Foundation, 1922. 
 Periodicals: Charity Organisation Review (London), Charities and 
 
 Commons (New York and Chicago), Survey (New York), 
 
 Family (New York).
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 HOUSING REFORM 
 
 CLOSELY related to the charity organization movement 
 is the effort to better housing conditions. The modern 
 problems of housing grew up with those of poverty and 
 anonymity during and after the Industrial Revolution. 
 The rapid building of factories and the extension of 
 commerce drew into the towns and cities crowds of people 
 whom they were not at all ready to accommodate. This 
 meant inevitably overcrowding and soaring rents. The 
 crowding and poverty of the new city-dwellers combined 
 with their ignorance of sanitation to destroy health and 
 breed disease. 
 
 How bad conditions really were may be gathered from 
 Lord Shaftesbury's description of a part of London in the 
 sixties. " There was a famous place called Bermondsey 
 
 Island. It was a large swamp; a number of 
 
 people lived there, as they do in Holland, in houses built 
 
 upon piles So bad was the supply of water 
 
 there that I have positively seen the women drop their 
 buckets into the water over which they were living, and in 
 which was deposited all the filth of the place, that being the 
 only water that they had for every purpose washing, 
 drinking and so on." 
 
 In 1853 the Association for Improving the Condition 
 of the Poor in New York presented to the public a startling 
 picture of dilapidation and filth. In the course of the re- 
 port it described a notorious tenement known as " Gotham 
 Court," which housed over 500 people. Although described 
 as " one of the better class," its apartments or tenements 
 
 119
 
 120 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 consisted of two rooms each which housed at the time of 
 the investigation an average of seven persons. In place 
 of a private toilet for each family, there were a number of 
 privies in the basement of this five-story building. These 
 were so insanitary as to produce a distinct odor as high 
 as the third floor. Of the 504 tenants, 146 were found 
 to be suffering from serious diseases, including small- 
 pox, typhus, scarletina and measles. The annual death rate 
 in the building was nearly twenty per cent. 
 
 Some attention was, as we have already seen, given to 
 the problems of housing their employes by the early fac- 
 tory owners. But the special interest in housing seems to 
 have developed most rapidly in cities where there were 
 charity organization societies. Moreover, the very same 
 people were frequently interested in both projects. 
 
 THE BOURGEOIS REFORMERS 
 
 The essentially bourgeois character of the movement 
 for housing reform appears in the following names and 
 titles : Society for Improving the Condition of the Labor- 
 ing Classes, Bill for Facilitating the Improvement of the 
 Dwellings oi the Working Classes in Large Towns, Com- 
 mission on the Housing of the Working Classes, etc. As 
 late as 1894 a Federal report bore this title : The Slums of 
 Baltimore, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. In this 
 report " slums " were defined as " dirty, back streets, 
 especially such streets as are inhabited by a squalid and 
 criminal population." And then, comments Mrs. Wood, 
 " they are surprised by the lack of cordiality with which 
 their investigators are received by those whom they have 
 just labeled ' a squalid and criminal population! ' 
 
 The housing reform movement in London seems to 
 have started with the Society for Improving the Condition 
 of the Laboring Classes in 1844. Within a dozen years
 
 HOUSING REFORM 121 
 
 there were eight associations of a similar character. From 
 the very beginning the Charity Organization Society inter- 
 ested itself in housing. One of those whose names are 
 prominently associated with both movements was Miss 
 Octavia Hill. In 1865 she raised enough money to buy 
 three dilapidated houses and begin her experiment of rent 
 collecting through friendly visitors. She undertook to 
 prove " that the most unpromising old tenements could be 
 put in a fairly sanitary condition by judicious repairs, and 
 that through devoted personal service and the establish- 
 ment of friendly relations with the tenants, the houses 
 could be kept clean and decent and a great improvement 
 effected in the health and habits of the people living in 
 them." In 1822 the London Charity Organization Society 
 formed a number of Sanitary Aid Committees, which were 
 to invite complaints of insanitary conditions, investigate 
 these, and in their discretion bring them to the attention 
 of the local sanitary authorities, the owner, water company 
 or the police. 
 
 In 1884 a Unitarian clergyman who was one of the 
 original promoters of the Charity Organization Society, 
 started a campaign for the building of industrial villages. 
 As a result a number of companies were organized to 
 build houses just outside of London. Among these were 
 the Cottage Homes Company, the People's Homes, Ltd., 
 and the East End Dwellings Company. About 1890 
 Ebenezer Howard published his book, " Garden Cities of 
 Tomorrow," and in 1899 the Garden City Association was 
 formed to carry out his ideas. In 1903 First Garden City, 
 Ltd., was organized and Letchworth was built. 
 
 A similar series of events may be traced in New York. 
 In 1846 the Association for Improving the Condition of 
 the Poor began a vigorous agitation for better housing. In 
 1853 it appointed a special committee " to inquire into the
 
 122 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 sanitary condition of the laboring classes and the practi- 
 cability of devising measures for improving the comfort 
 and healthiness of their habitations." This committee 
 made an elaborate statistical investigation which has been 
 described as " the first sociological study of tene- 
 ment conditions." 
 
 The story of the first legislative committee appointed 
 in 1857 to examine into the condition of " tenant houses " 
 in New York and Brooklyn is thus told by Mrs. Wood. 
 They decided " ' to proceed to a thorough personal inspec- 
 tion of tenant houses in every ward of the city.' Safe- 
 guarded by a detail of police, guided by the chief of the 
 sanitary bureau, and accompanied by reporters, they ' pene- 
 trated to localities and witnessed scenes which in frightful 
 novelty far exceeded the limit of their previously con- 
 ceived ideas of human degredation and suffering,' The 
 committee felt that they were indeed exploring a strange 
 and hostile land in performing what they described as their 
 'arduous, painful, and as may be conjectured hazard- 
 ous duty.' " 
 
 Following the "draft riots" of 1863 a number of 
 prominent people organized the Citizen's Association, 
 which created a sub-committee known as the Council of 
 Hygiene and Public Health. The Council at once planned 
 a thorough sanitary investigation of the city, and presented 
 a valuable report including maps and diagrams. In the 
 seventies the State Charities Aid Association assumed a 
 prominent place in the housing movement. In the eighties 
 Jacob Riis contributed his newspaper technique to the 
 cause. During these years numbers of " model tene- 
 ments " were erected ; of these we shall speak later. 
 
 In 1898 the New York Charity Organization Society 
 assumed an active part in the agitation. It appointed a 
 tenement house committee which spent six months framing
 
 HOUSING REFORM 123 
 
 a series of proposed ordinances which were given wide 
 publicity through a pamphlet of the society and through 
 newspaper comments. However, none of the recom- 
 mendations were adopted by the municipal authorities. 
 The Society then planned and carried through a tenement 
 house exposition, with models, photographs, maps, charts 
 and statistics. In connection with this, the committee held 
 a competition to arouse interest among architects. The 
 outcome of this series of efforts was the establishment of 
 a Tenement House Commission for the City of New York. 
 
 MODEL HOUSING UNDER PRIVATE INITIATIVE 
 
 Along with all this agitation and in part resulting from 
 it have come four types of results : ( i ) " model housing " 
 under private initiative, (2) restrictive legislation per- 
 taining to light, air, fire protection, etc., (3) construction 
 of new houses by the government or with government aid, 
 (4) city planning and zoning. 
 
 The privately initiated schemes may be classed under 
 five heads: (a) philanthropic trust funds, (b) limited divi- 
 dend housing companies, (c) Octavia Hill enterprises, 
 (d) industrial housing by employers, (e) chamber of com- 
 merce enterprises. Of the philanthropic trust funds there 
 are numerous examples in England and Germany, but only 
 two of importance in the United States. One is the 
 Charlesbank Homes of Boston, founded in 1911 by Edwin 
 Ginn, the publisher. The physical equipment consists in a 
 five-story building with 103 apartments. The descriptive 
 booklet states that " no profits or income derived in any 
 way from the building will at any time be divided among 
 
 the incorporators but all such profits and net 
 
 income will be applied to the purchase of land and the 
 erection of other buildings to extend the blessings and 
 benefits of good homes to needy and deserving people."
 
 I2 4 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 The limited dividend housing companies represent 
 what is sometimes referred to as " philanthropy at five per 
 cent." They have produced "model tenements," two-flat 
 houses and a few single family dwellings. Among the 
 companies which have erected " model tenements " are the 
 Workman's Home Association (New York, 1854), Co- 
 operative Building Company (Boston, 1871), Alfred T. 
 White Tenements (New York, 1878-1890), City and 
 Suburban Homes Company (New York, 1896). The 
 Boston Cooperative Building Company limited its divi- 
 dends to seven per cent., and of late years has been earning 
 only four or five per cent. It has built five groups of tene- 
 ment houses, with every room opening to the outer air, 
 running water in every apartment, but not fireproof and 
 without separate toilet facilities. A committee of ladies 
 was in charge of each estate, and in the main women agents 
 have been employed. 
 
 The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company has 
 built 310 two-flat houses with separate entrances and sep- 
 arate back yards for the two families sharing each house. 
 Each flat has toilet, bath, gas and other improvements. 
 Dividends of five per cent, are paid to the stockholders. 
 Single family houses built by limited dividend companies 
 are much more numerous in England than in America. 
 In this country a few houses have been so provided at 
 Billerica, Mass.; Westerly Gardens, N. J.; Titus Town, 
 Va., and Torrance, Cal. 
 
 The Octavia Hill idea to which we referred above has 
 been applied in a number of different cities, but apparently 
 the only organization to bear her name is the Octavia Hill 
 Association of Philadelphia. This was organized in 1896 
 as a joint stock company for " holding, selling and leasing 
 real estate." The articles of incorporation state that its 
 aim is " to improve the living conditions of the poorer
 
 HOUSING REFORM 125 
 
 residence districts of the City of Philadelphia .... It 
 offers its services also to other owners of like properties. 
 In this capacity it attends to collection, alteration, repairs, 
 clerical and special work, general oversight, etc., and makes 
 a fair charge for such services." While the articles of in- 
 corporation do not limit the dividends, the directors have 
 restricted them to four per cent. The 1917 report of the 
 Association stated that it owned 179 houses with 244 fam- 
 ilies and was agent for 224 houses and 460 families. 
 
 The efforts of employers to provide housing for their 
 workmen have been described in the chapter on Industrial 
 Welfare Work. Closely related to them are the more 
 recent chamber of commerce enterprises. Under the 
 auspices of chambers of commerce building companies 
 have been formed since 1910 in Albany, N. Y. ; Elmira, 
 N. Y. ; Kenosha, Wis. ; Bridgeport, Conn, and Flint, Mich. 
 
 HOUSING LEGISLATION 
 
 Legislation in the United States has dealt almost ex- 
 clusively with the negative or restrictive aspect of housing 
 problems. It has been largely of the "thou-shalt-not" vari- 
 ety, and has rarely provided for the construction of houses 
 to meet the shortage or to displace those which needed 
 to be torn down. The earliest legislation of this sort in 
 America resulted from the work of the Council of Hygiene 
 and Public Health in New York. The first steps were the 
 establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Health in 
 1866, and in 1867 the enactment of a tenement house law. 
 This and all subsequent legislation in New York has 
 stressed the negative, and out of it has come a " model 
 housing law " worked out largely by Mr.Veiller. The New 
 York development has influenced the rest of the country, 
 and the National Housing Association has a list of over
 
 126 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 forty cities far too few which are supposed to have 
 housing or tenement house codes. 
 
 The pioneers in constructive housing legislation are 
 Great Britain, Belgium and Germany. Following them, 
 France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and numerous other 
 countries have offered government aid in the construction 
 of new houses. The four leading types of government 
 aid to be found in foreign countries are: (i) state or 
 municipal construction, (2) loans to non-commercial 
 housing companies, (3) loans to individuals, (4) exemp- 
 tion from taxation. 
 
 Under the first plan, the state or the city buys land, 
 builds houses and then rents them, turns them over to the 
 housing companies to manage, or sells them on easy terms 
 to the tenants. This direct governmental participation is 
 most developed in Germany, although it has also become 
 very important in England. The only important instance 
 of the kind in the United States has been the work of the 
 Federal Government in providing houses for " war 
 workers." However, a small start has been made by the 
 Massachusetts Homestead Commission. 
 
 The second plan is for the state to lend money at a low 
 rate of interest to non-commercial housing companies, 
 whether philanthropic in character or cooperative societies. 
 This seems to be the characteristic method in Italy, but has 
 received its widest development in England and Germany. 
 
 The third scheme is to loan money on favorable terms 
 to the individual who wishes to buy or build his own home. 
 In Belgium and France the loans are negotiated through 
 non-commercial loan companies, in New Zealand they are 
 made directly. This plan has produced fewer results than 
 either of the others, and has particularly failed to reach the 
 unskilled wage-earners.
 
 HOUSING REFORM 12? 
 
 As compared with the preceding types of government 
 aid, the exemption from taxation is relatively unim- 
 portant and need not detain us here. 
 
 CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 
 
 Qosely connected with the housing movement and in 
 part an outgrowth of it is the more recent development of 
 city planning and zoning. Washington and Philadelphia 
 were planned from the beginning. The city council of 
 New York in 1807 appointed a commission to prepare a 
 plan for the city. In 1843 Robert Gourley made " Plans 
 for Enlarging and Improving the City of Boston." But 
 the modern city planning movement dates from the nine- 
 ties. Influenced by the French and English, American 
 architects interested themselves in the "city beautiful." 
 The series of fairs and expositions beginning with the 
 World's Fair at Chicago in 1893 also seems to have 
 furnished an example and incentive to the real planning 
 of cities. Immediately after the World's Fair, Chicago 
 began to elevate its railway tracks and to expand its park 
 system. Presently the Commercial Club took up the idea 
 and put forth a very elaborate plan intended to cost the city 
 some $200,000,000. 
 
 As in Chicago a great deal has been accomplished by 
 privately organized city planning commissions. But more 
 and more this function is being taken over by city govern- 
 ments. The first Municipal Plan Commission seems to 
 have been appointed in Hartford, Conn., in 1907, but so 
 rapidly has the idea spread that by 1914 nearly one hun- 
 dred cities had such commissions. There are now five 
 states which have laws permitting cities to appoint official 
 planning boards New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 Ohio and California besides Massachusetts, which re- 
 quires them to do so.
 
 128 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Zoning developed first in Germany. This involved 
 the districting of a city for residential, commercial and 
 industrial purposes. It usually included the regulation of 
 heights of buildings and the percentage of a lot which 
 might be built upon. Boston and Baltimore were the first 
 American cities to regulate the height of buildings, and 
 Los Angeles was the first to create residence districts in 
 which certain occupations could not be carried on. 
 
 In the movement for housing reform we see much the 
 same trend that we recognized in the charity organization 
 movement. Both started as the philanthropic enterprises 
 of private individuals, most of whom belong to the middle 
 and upper classes. Both are coming to be more and more 
 recognized as public functions carried on by the com- 
 munity as a whole. In neither case are we ready to dis- 
 pense with charity, for democracy has not yet been 
 achieved. But all signs point to a transition from benevo- 
 lent uplift work to professional public service. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 DeForest, Robt. W., and Veiller, Lawrence: The Tenement House 
 
 Problem. New York: Macmillan, 1903. 
 Wood, Edith E. : The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner. 
 
 New York : Macmillan, 1919. 
 
 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bulletin No. 158, 1915. " Gov- 
 ernment Aid to Home-owning and Housing of Working People 
 
 in Foreign Countries." 
 London County Council. The Housing Question in London 1855- 
 
 /ooo. London: P. S. King, 1901. 
 Bosanquet, Helen D. : Social Work in London. New York: Dut- 
 
 ton, 1914. 
 Bowmaker, Edw. : The Housing of the Working Classes. London : 
 
 Methuen, 1895. 
 Parsons, Jas. : Housing by Voluntary Enterprise. London : King, 
 
 1903- 
 
 Clarke, J. J. : The Housing Problem, Its History, Growth, Legisla- 
 tion and Procedure. London : Pitman.
 
 HOUSING REFORM 129 
 
 Reports of State Departments, e.g., California Commission of Im- 
 migration and Housing, Massachusetts Homestead Commission, 
 Michigan Housing Commission, New Jersey Board of Tenement 
 House Supervision. 
 
 Reports of Municipal Departments, e.g., New York Tenement House 
 Department, Louisville Tenement House Commission, Los 
 Angeles Housing Commission, Kansas City Board of Public Wel- 
 fare (special report 1912). 
 
 Reports of Housing Associations: Cambridge Housing Association, 
 San Francisco Housing Association, Philadelphia Housing 
 Commission. 
 
 Housing Problems in America. Proceedings of the National Hous- 
 ing Conference, 1912
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 
 
 " A SETTLEMENT is a colony of members of the upper 
 classes, formed in a poor neighborhood, with the double 
 purpose of getting to know the local conditions of life 
 from personal observation, and of helping where help is 
 needed. The settler gives up the comfort of a West End 
 home, and becomes a friend of the poor. He sacrifices to 
 them his hours of leisure, and fills his imagination with 
 pictures of misery and crime, instead of with impressions 
 of beauty and happiness. For a shorter or longer time the 
 slum becomes his home. Only seldom does he show him- 
 self at his Club, at the theatre, in Society. This means 
 the loosening of social and personal ties, in many cases 
 the foregoing of the prospect of an early marriage, and 
 neglect of favorite pursuits. It means a sacrifice of life 
 
 The settler comes to the poor as man to man, 
 
 in the conviction that it means a misfortune for all parties 
 and a danger for the nation, if the different classes live 
 in complete isolation of thought and environment. He 
 comes to bridge the gulf between the classes. He has lost 
 confidence in legislative and administrative measures 
 which would solve the social problem academically, and he 
 hates the established forms of a charity which humbles 
 instead of elevating, and demoralizes instead of improving. 
 He mistrusts dead organizations, and would replace them 
 by personal relationships. Not as an official but as a friend 
 does he approach the poor, and he knows that he is thereby 
 not only the giver but the receiver. Life instead of ma- 
 chinery, exact knowledge of the conditions to be improved, 
 in the midst of which he must place himself instead of 
 trusting to an unreliable judgment from a bird's-eye view 
 this is his motto." 
 130
 
 SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 131 
 
 In these words are the original spirit and methods of 
 the social settlements summarized by one of their his- 
 torians. These few sentences indicate at the same time the 
 essentially bourgeois character of the settlements and their 
 possibilities as the agents of democracy. They are shown 
 to spring from sentimental motives, but at the same time, 
 they are the expression of some of the finest idealism the 
 world has ever seen. 
 
 The situation which called the settlements into being 
 was substantially that which underlay the other humani- 
 tarian movements. In a sense this was merely one more 
 effort to overcome the poverty, ignorance and exploitation 
 of the commercial and industrial centers. But more spe- 
 cifically it was an attempt to bridge the gulf that separated 
 social classes. In previous centuries caste lines had been 
 even more sharply drawn, but because everyone's horizon 
 was limited geographically he had an acquaintance with 
 nearly everyone within its limits. The relations between 
 nobles and peasants were much like those between white 
 and black in the South " separate as the fingers and one 
 as the hand." But with the development of large-scale 
 industry personal relations were rapidly lost. In the new 
 cities rich and poor occupied different sections. The 
 middle and upper classes had little to do with the wage- 
 earners. In America this situation was intensified by the 
 establishment of immigrant colonies in the midst of our 
 cities. Although economically absorbed, they tended to 
 remain culturally apart. One function of the settlement 
 has been to bring these varied elements into closer touch 
 with each other. 
 
 ENGLISH ORIGINS 
 
 The social settlements assume, therefore, the existence 
 of a city " slum " on the one hand and a missionary spirit
 
 132 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 on the other. The initiative for this new movement came 
 quite directly from the intellectual idealists, men like 
 Ruskin and Carlyle, and from the Christian socialists led 
 by Maurice and Kingsley. But while the misery of English 
 cities provided the occasion and the teachings of such men 
 as Ruskin and Kingsley the inspiration, it was the students 
 of Oxford and Cambridge who provided the working 
 force and really set the settlements going. Maurice had 
 tried to arouse interest among the University students in 
 the Workingmen's College which was founded in London 
 in 1854. As a result of his efforts many a man went on 
 his own account to spend his vacation in a poor quarter of 
 London to study conditions at first hand, and to help where 
 he could. 
 
 One of the first of these was Edward Denison, who 
 went to London in 1867 and founded a school in which he 
 himself gave religious instruction and lectures. Another 
 and even more famous member of this student group was 
 Arnold Toynbee, who put himself in touch with the Rev- 
 erend Mr. Barnett's parish in Whitechapel during the 
 vacation of 1875. He visited the schools, made investiga- 
 tions for the Charity Organization Society, and joined a 
 Workingmen's Club as means of acquainting himself 
 more intimately with the misery which had been described 
 to him at the University. 
 
 As we have already intimated, there was a strong 
 religious element back of the settlement movement. There 
 were numbers of missions maintained in the poorer part 
 of London by the Anglican Church, in which some of the 
 University men took an active part. The most famous of 
 all the religious workers who had a share in starting the 
 settlement movement was the Reverend Mr. Barnett, later 
 Canon of Westminster, whose name has already been 
 mentioned. He himself was an Oxford graduate, but
 
 SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 133 
 
 seems to have acquired his interest in social questions not 
 so much through his University experience as through 
 personal acquaintance with two social workers, one of 
 whom later became his wife. In 1883, Mr. Barnett 
 received a letter saying that two men at St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, were ready to do something for the poor, but 
 did not wish to start an ordinary mission. They wanted 
 to put themselves into the work rather than simply making 
 an annual subscription to the work of some clergyman in 
 a poor parish. 
 
 Mr. Barnett replied with the suggestion that they 
 should rent a house somewhere in the poorer part of the 
 city and go there to live. In a sense, it may be said that 
 this letter brought about the founding of the first settle- 
 ment, Toynbee Hall. The same ideas were elaborated and 
 further explained in a lecture that Mr. Barnett gave at 
 Oxford later in the same year. He seems to have made a 
 marked impression upon the students, for immediately 
 after the lecture a committee of graduates and under- 
 graduates was appointed to study and report on means 
 for founding a University Colony in East London. The 
 findings of this committee were laid before a gathering of 
 interested people at Oxford early in 1884, as a result of 
 which a society was formed for the purpose of founding 
 a University Settlement in East London, to be managed 
 by the Reverend Mr. Barnett. Because of the great interest 
 which had been shown by Arnold Toynbee, and because 
 of his premature death shortly before, it was decided to 
 name the new institution in his memory Toynbee Hall. 
 
 In the course of the eighties, ten more settlements were 
 established in Great Britain ; and twenty-two were opened 
 during the nineties. Since that time the numbers have not 
 increased rapidly.
 
 134 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 
 
 In the United States, the settlement seems to have had 
 its beginning in the founding of the Neighborhood Guild 
 in 1887 by Doctor Stanton Coit. Stimulated by a short 
 residence at Toynbee Hall, Doctor Coit went to live in a 
 tenement on the lower East Side of New York. After four 
 years' existence as the Neighborhood Guild, this enter- 
 prise was reorganized in 1891 as the University Settlement 
 Society. The constitution outlines as the aims of the 
 Society " to bring men and women of education into closer 
 relations with the laboring classes in this city for their 
 mutual benefit. The Society shall establish and maintain 
 in the tenement house districts places of residence for 
 college men, and others desirous of aiding in the work, 
 with rooms in the neighborhood where people may meet 
 for social and educational purposes." 
 
 The second American settlement was Hull House, 
 which was established in Chicago in 1889 by Jane Addams 
 and Ellen Gates Starr. The founding of Hull House 
 rested upon the belief "that the mere foothold of a house 
 easily accessible, ample in space, hospitable, and tolerant 
 in spirit, situated in the middle of large foreign colonies, 
 which so easily isolated themselves in American cities, 
 would be in itself a serviceable thing for Chicago." The 
 Hull House charter states as its object " to provide a 
 center for the higher civic and social life, to institute and 
 maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to 
 investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial 
 district of Chicago." 
 
 The third American settlement, known as the College 
 Settlement and located in New York, was due to the efforts 
 of women rather than men. Its beginnings reach back to 
 the interest of some Smith College alumniE in the new
 
 SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 135 
 
 philanthropic work in England, and especially in Toynbee 
 Hall. A house was taken on Rivington Street, New York, 
 in 1889, with Jean G. Fine as head worker. In the spring 
 of 1890, the College Settlements Association was organ- 
 ized, with chapters in Wellesley, Smith, Vassar and Bryn 
 Mawr. This Association made, for a time, annual appro- 
 priations to the College Settlement of New York, the 
 College Settlement of Philadelphia, Denison House of 
 Boston, and Locust Point Settlement of Baltimore. Later, 
 it established fellowships for women desiring to study 
 social problems in the settlements. In 1917, the widening 
 interests of the Association were indicated in a change of 
 name. It then became the Intercollegiate Community 
 Service Association. It now has chapters in twenty 
 women's colleges, and sub-chapters in over forty girls' 
 schools. In addition to the activities previously enumer- 
 ated, the Association conducts semi-annual conferences at 
 the various colleges, arranges observation trips and visits 
 to social agencies for undergraduates, and advises students 
 in developing community work in the summer in their 
 home towns. 
 
 The fourth of the American settlements was established 
 in Boston in 1891 by Professor William J. Tucker of 
 Andover Theological Seminary. It was known as Andover 
 House until 1895, at which time it was given the name 
 South End House. Robert A. Woods, who has been from 
 the beginning the head of the House, was another of those 
 who received his inspiration from a brief residence in 
 Toynbee Hall. A circular, issued in 1891, stated the pur- 
 poses of South End House in these words : " The House 
 is designed to stand for the single idea of resident study 
 and work in the neighborhood where it may be located. 
 ...... The whole aim and motive is religious, but the 
 
 method is educational rather than evangelistic. A second,
 
 136 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 though hardly secondary object. ..... will be to 
 
 create a center, for those within reach, of social study, 
 discussion and organization." 
 
 Somewhat different was the history of the Henry 
 Street Settlement established in 1893 on the East Side of 
 New York City. Miss Lillian D. Wald, moved by the 
 conditions surrounding a sick woman upon whom she had 
 called, proposed with Miss Mary M. Brewster " to move 
 into the neighborhood to carry on voluntary nursing and 
 to contribute our citizenship to what seemed to be an alien 
 group in a so-called democratic country." For a time these 
 two nurses lived at the College Settlement. Later they 
 rented the top floor of a tenement house and finally took 
 the house at 265 Henry Street. In addition to the usual 
 settlement activities, the Henry Street Settlement main- 
 tains a District Nursing Service in Manhattan and the 
 Bronx, with several First Aid rooms, a number of Con- 
 valescent and Fresh Air Homes in the country, a Milk 
 Dispensary, and follow-up work from school, hospital, 
 asylum and dispensary. 
 
 Our story would be incomplete without at least men- 
 tion of the many institutional churches and other religious 
 centers such as Chicago Commons, Morgan Memorial in 
 Boston and Salvation Army citadels in many cities. Since 
 most of these have definite denominational affiliation, it is 
 natural that their work should be colored by the sectarian 
 connection These centers represent at their best an effort 
 to socialize religion. At their worst they are an effort 
 to attach this form of social work to the church simply to 
 strengthen it as an institution.
 
 SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 137 
 
 THE SCOPE OF WORK 
 
 We have already indicated in a scattered way many of 
 the activities of the social settlements. Perhaps it 
 will be well at this point to bring them together in a 
 summary fashion, so that the scope of their work may be 
 more evident. 
 
 Perhaps the most important function of the settlements 
 has been educational. There have been classes in English 
 and civics for foreigners, classes in child hygiene for 
 mothers, in home economics for young girls, in manual 
 training for boys, and in art and music for those with these 
 special interests. Second only to educational work has 
 been the recreational. Usually there is a gymnasium, and 
 frequently outdoor playgrounds as well. Provisiort is 
 made for clubs, both for adults and children. There are 
 boy scout troops and girls' camp-fires. There are dances, 
 entertainments, pageants and picnics. 
 
 A somewhat different service has been the housing and 
 correlating of various social agencies operating in the 
 neighborhood of a given settlement. Often the settlement 
 house is the district office of a Charity Organization 
 Society or a Visiting Nurses' Association. Frequently 
 it furnishes a room for the holding of clinics, and acts as a 
 branch of the city library. In other ways it usually under- 
 takes to make itself a genuine center of neighborhood life. 
 It is frequently the headquarters of Neighborhood Im- 
 provement Associations, and the place for the holding of 
 political meetings. All this is based upon the theory that 
 people, even in great cities, live for the most part in neigh- 
 borhood groups, and that these neighborhoods need some 
 definite center for their common activities. 
 
 Still another function has been the carrying on of 
 investigations. Closely related to this has been the political
 
 138 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 activity of the settlements, directed toward the securing of 
 reform legislation in city councils and State legislatures. 
 Along with these has gone the training of social workers, 
 some to be voluntary helpers, others to take up their resi- 
 dence at the settlement and devote their entire time to it 
 and its administration. But not only has the settlement 
 been a training ground for future social workers, it has 
 been an educational institution in a much broader sense. 
 It has been a means of bringing knowledge about "how the 
 other half lives " to the well-to-do. In turn, it has doubt- 
 less brought to the " submerged tenth " a more adequate 
 appreciation of their fellow citizens of the middle class, so 
 that even though it originated as a manifestation of bour- 
 geois benevolence, it has made a definite contribution to the 
 democratic movement. 
 
 OUTGROWTHS AND ALLIES OF THE SETTLEMENTS 
 
 There have been numerous outgrowths of the settle- 
 ment movement, only a few of which can be mentioned here. 
 First of all, as a definite part of the movement, came the 
 organization of the National Federation of Settlements. 
 Influenced at least in part by this, there followed the Play- 
 ground and Recreation Association of America, War 
 Camp Community Service, and Community Service Incor- 
 porated. Less definitely connected with the settlements, 
 but undoubtedly influenced by them, has been the growth 
 of University Extension, both in England and America. 
 Indeed, many of the activities of the settlements have been 
 taken over or displaced by this " carrying the University 
 to the people " through short courses, lectures, corre- 
 spondence instruction, boys' and girls' clubs, etc., etc. 
 Somewhat akin to University Extension, but professedly
 
 SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 139 
 
 more democratic, are the Workers' Educational Associa- 
 tion of Great Britain and the Labor Colleges established 
 in Boston, New York, Baltimore, and other Ameri- 
 can cities. 
 
 Even more definitely growing out of the settlements 
 has been the development of the public school as a social 
 center. This appears to have had its beginning in Roches- 
 ter, New York, in 1907. In that year, one school was 
 especially equipped for the various activities of the social 
 center. This was so successful that the following year six- 
 teen schools were used as Neighborhood Club Houses, 
 open not only evenings, but Sunday afternoons as well. 
 These centers have carried on almost every activity that 
 is to be found in the social settlements. They have even- 
 ing classes, all sorts of recreational activities, art exhibits, 
 lectures, entertainments, gymnasiums, playgrounds. In 
 Rochester, they have the cooperation of the Dental Asso- 
 ciation, Health Department and Art Gub. 
 
 The most rapid development of social centers in the 
 public schools seems to have taken place in Wisconsin and 
 California, where provision has been made for this purpose 
 by state law. Clarence Arthur Perry reported in 1913 that 
 the movement had spread definitely to one hundred and 
 twenty-six cities, and that seventy-one of them reported 
 nearly twenty-one thousand paid workers; over five 
 hundred school-houses were used for polling places, nearly 
 five hundred for political meetings, over three hundred for 
 exhibits, and over six hundred for motion pictures. 
 
 A development very much like the wider use of the 
 school plant is illustrated by the small parks and field 
 houses established by the various Park Commissions in 
 Chicago. But still more interesting has been the develop- 
 ment of community buildings in rural districts. In many
 
 i 4 o SOCIAL WORK 
 
 agricultural communities, the school house has long been 
 the center of whatever activities were carried on in com- 
 mon, but relatively little use was made of it, and no special 
 provision was made for any but the routine pedagogical 
 work. But within the last few years, a large number of 
 rural schools have been equipped to serve the various 
 purposes of a community center. 
 
 In addition to using the school as a social center, there 
 has been a growing interest in separate community build- 
 ings in small towns and country districts. In 1919, the 
 office of Farm Management, of the United States Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture, made a study of two hundred and 
 fifty-six such buildings scattered over forty states. 
 
 The latest outgrowth of the movement, which was long 
 represented by the settlements alone, is the social unit 
 experiment in Cincinnati. In 1916, there was founded the 
 National Social Unit Organization, whose purpose was 
 stated to be this : " To promote a type of democratic com- 
 munity organization through which the citizenship as a 
 whole can participate directly in the control of community 
 affairs, while at the same time making constant use of the 
 highest technical skill available." 
 
 For the purpose of making a three-year experiment and 
 demonstration, the organization selected the Mohawk- 
 Brighton District in Cincinnati. The four features of the 
 Social Unit Organization as it was finally developed in 
 the Mohawk-Brighton District are enumerated as follows : 
 
 I. The Citizens Council of thirty-one members, chosen 
 by local Block Councils, which are in turn elected by 
 residents of the blocks, every one of either sex over eigh- 
 teen years of age residing in the block having the right to 
 vote for the Block Councils. It is estimated that each of 
 the thirty-one blocks includes a population of approxi- 
 mately one hundred families or five hundred people.
 
 SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 141 
 
 2. The Occupational Council, composed at present of 
 the elected representatives of seven skilled groups serving, 
 although not necessarily resident, in the district. The 
 Occupational Council is elected by group councils organized 
 in the following skilled groups: physicians, nurses, recre- 
 ational workers, teachers, social workers, ministers and 
 trade unionists. 
 
 3. The General Council, which has full control over all 
 neighborhood programs, made up of the members of the 
 Citizens Council and the Occupational Council sit- 
 ting together. 
 
 4. The Council of Executives, consisting of the three 
 executives of the three councils above named. 
 
 This whole movement is so very new that it is difficult 
 to tell precisely what it has accomplished. Neverthe- 
 less, in the report of the evaluating committee, Edward T. 
 Devine expresses the following opinion : " I have no 
 doubt, from my observations and from the interviews 
 which I have had with workers, residents, outside friends 
 and critics, that the Social Unit has added substantially to 
 the physical and moral well-being of the residents of the 
 district ; that it has led to more efficient and discriminating 
 relief, to more thorough and constructive diagnosis of the 
 needs of families in trouble; that it has prompted neigh- 
 borliness and sociability; that it has made the ordinary 
 family residing in the district more hospitable to visitors 
 who come with a helpful purpose, and more discriminating 
 as to the probable effect of sanitary and social measures 
 brought forward for their benefit I cannot discover that 
 these results have been secured at a disproportionate cost. 
 
 There is no doubt that members of the staff have 
 
 worked with enthusiasm and unflagging energy to promote 
 a democratic working organization, and that they have
 
 H2 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 obtained a gratifying response. Whether the new habits 
 are sufficiently ingrained and the new associations are suffi- 
 ciently well grounded to be permanent can be ascertained 
 only as external support is diminished or v/ithdrawn." 
 
 There has been a good deal of bourgeois opposition to 
 the Social Unit scheme on the ground of its socialistic 
 tendencies and its similarity to the much berated Soviets. 
 It is feared that there is here a potential substitute for 
 existing political government, and for existing voluntary 
 social agencies. 
 
 Whatever else may be true, the Social Unit has a funda- 
 mentally democratic character, which is well described in 
 the same report to which reference has just been made. 
 " The unique feature of the plan seems to be that its 
 founders and supporters are not trying to ' put over ' any- 
 thing except what they announce. They are interested in 
 health, education, religion, morals, good citizenship and 
 other concrete aims, but only secondarily. They are 
 primarily and persistently interested in developing a plan by 
 which people may understand, as the result of their own 
 experience, thinking, and exchange of views, what degree 
 and kind of health, education, recreation, etc., are desirable ; 
 and through which they can put into operation means of 
 securing these desirable ends for themselves. They recog- 
 nize that in order to secure such results, skilled expert 
 service is essential, and that when the people decide what 
 they want, the experts must be called in to decide on the 
 basis of their own knowledge and experience how to secure 
 those results; that, on the other hand, the measures and 
 instruments proposed by the experts must be so far in- 
 telligible to and acceptable by the citizens as to win 
 their approval." 
 
 Throughout the course of the development of neigh-
 
 SETTLEMENT MOVEMENT 143 
 
 borhood and community work, from the founding of 
 Toynbee Hall in London to the Social Unit in Cincinnati, 
 there have been manifest certain pretty definite tendencies. 
 There has been a gradual decrease of benevolent uplift and 
 a gradual increase of neighborhood organization for self- 
 expression. There is less philanthropy to disadvantaged 
 neighborhoods and more arousal of whole communities 
 to their common tasks. Through it all we see the slow 
 growth of professional service in the employ of demo- 
 cratically organized groups. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 The Settlements 
 
 Addams, Jane : Twenty Years at Hull House. New York : Mac- 
 
 millan, 1914. 
 Henderson, Chas. R. : Social Settlements. New York: Lentilhon, 
 
 1899- 
 
 Knapp, John M. : The Universities and the Social Problem. Lon- 
 don: Rivington Percival, 1895. 
 
 Picht, Werner: Toynbee Holland the English Settlement Movement. 
 London : G. Bell, 1914. 
 
 Reason, W. : University and Social Settlements. London : Me- 
 thuen, 1898. 
 
 Wald, Lillian D. : The House on Henry Street. New York : Holt, 
 
 I9I5- 
 
 Woods, Robert A., and Kennedy, Albert J.: Handbook of Settle- 
 ments. New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1911. 
 National Federation of Settlements. Proceedings, 1911 
 Reports of various settlements, e.g., South End House, Boston ; Chi- 
 cago Commons, Chicago; Greenwich House, New York; Hiram 
 House, Geveland ; Neighborhood House, Louisville ; Irene Kauff- 
 man Settlement, Pittsburgh. 
 
 Allies and Outgrowths of the Settlements 
 
 Amos, A., and Hough. W. W.: The Cambridge Mission to South 
 London. Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes, 1904.
 
 144 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Coit, Stanton: Neighbourhood Guilds. London: Swan Sonnen- 
 schein, 1891. 
 
 Manson, John : The Salvation Army and the Public. London : Rut- 
 ledge, 1906. 
 
 Perry, Clarence Arthur: Wider Use of the School Plant. New 
 York: Survey Associates, 1913. 
 
 Ward, Edward J. : The Social Center. New York : Appleton, 1913. 
 
 U. S. Bureau of Education. Bulletin No. 84, 1919. " The Univer- 
 sity Extension Movement." 
 
 U. S. Department of Agriculture. Bulletin No. 825, 1920. "Rural 
 Community Buildings in the United States." 
 
 National Social Unit: 1919 Conference Proceedings (pamphlets); 
 Survey, Nov. 15, 1919, Sept. I, 1920; National Municipal Review, 
 Sept, 1920. 
 
 Dinwiddie, Courtenay : Community Responsibility. A Review of the 
 Cincinnati Social Unit Experiment. New York: School of 
 Social Work, 1922.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 
 
 IN all the phases of nineteenth century humanitarian- 
 ism emphasis was laid on the importance of dealing 
 effectively with the children. Charity organization 
 societies, settlements and most other agencies saw in the 
 children the possibilities of "constructive philanthropy." 
 And there was also a group of societies which were devoted 
 primarily, if not exclusively, to the protection, care and 
 training of children. 
 
 The need of social work for children lay in the same 
 social disorganization that gave rise to the other nineteenth 
 century movements. The casualties of industry deprived 
 children earlier and more frequently of their parents. The 
 mobility and anonymity of industrial society meant that 
 orphans were frequently left among strangers. Low 
 wages and simplification of processes drew children into 
 the factories. The employment of mothers was followed by 
 improper feeding and lack of moral supervision. 
 
 CARE OF SPECIALLY NEEDY CHILDREN 
 
 A few orphan asylums were established by the early 
 Christian Church. The number grew after the commercial 
 revolution of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; it 
 was further augmented after the reformation, and 
 increased rapidly after the industrial revolution. Most of 
 the early modern institutions were maintained by the 
 Catholic Church, but the Protestants too had a consid- 
 erable number, and in both cases one of the dominant 
 motives was the desire to have children brought up in the 
 particular faith of the founders. This religious motive 
 
 10 145
 
 146 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 has continued to the present day, but it has been yielding 
 in relative emphasis first to the middle-class humanitarian- 
 ism, and more recently to an interest in the child for his 
 own sake as a present and prospective member of 
 the community. 
 
 The first children's institution in America was con- 
 nected with the Ursuline convent in New Orleans. The 
 immediate occasion for its opening was a massacre by the 
 Natchez Indians in 1729, which left many orphans in 
 Louisiana. In 1738 the celebrated preacher, George 
 Whitefield, established the Bethesda Orphan House in 
 Savannah. These appear to have been the only pre- 
 revolutionary children's agencies in this Country. But 
 after 1800 the number of orphanages increased rapidly, 
 reaching 75 by 1850 and 600 by 1890. In 1910 Dr. 
 Hastings H. Hart estimated that there were 100,000 
 children in such institutions. 
 
 Naturally there has been great variation in the equip- 
 ment and management of these orphanages and " children's 
 homes." Especially during the first half or three-quarters 
 of the century were they of the type described as " congre- 
 gate." That is, a considerable number of children, from 
 50 to 2000, were brought together in a single institution, 
 frequently under a single roof. They commonly slept in 
 great dormitories or barracks and ate in immense dining 
 rooms. Their lives were governed by rather rigid 
 schedules; individuality was suppressed, and the whole 
 atmosphere tended to be one of monotonous routine. Such 
 institutions were rather properly named " asylums." 
 
 But in the last quarter of the century and since 1900 
 there has been a growing number of institutions on the 
 "cottage plan." The children live in relatively small 
 groups and experience something approximating normal 
 family life. Attention is given to their individual needs
 
 CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 147 
 
 and capacities. Diets are more varied. Education and 
 recreation occupy most of the children's time, while 
 institution housekeeping is left largely to paid helpers. 
 Privacy is made possible by single rooms or very 
 small dormitories. 
 
 One of the most notorious of the older institutions is 
 Girard College in Philadelphia. In 1831 Stephen Girard 
 left $6,000,000 under conditions which have not only made 
 the institution self-sufficient but have caused the endow- 
 ment to increase to something like $30,000,000. This will 
 specified that " as many poor, white, male orphans, be- 
 tween the ages of six and ten years, as the said income shall 
 be adequate to maintain, shall be introduced into the college 
 as soon as possible." Such orphans were required to be 
 legally surrendered to the " college " before they could 
 be admitted. They were to be kept until the age of fourteen 
 or not later than eighteen and then indentured. By 1890 
 the number of boys in the institution had grown to 
 about 1500. 
 
 At the opposite pole of institutional planning is the 
 New York Orphanage at Hastings-on-Hudson. Here 200 
 children are divided into small groups, each living in a 
 separate cottage. Around the different cottages will be 
 found flower beds, chicken coops and pets. Nearby will be 
 found vegetable gardens, beehives, rabbit hutches, stables, 
 etc. The children are encouraged to carry on such enter- 
 prises according to their individuality. The institution 
 lacks the painful orderliness indoors and out which is 
 visible in many institutions, yet it is well organized and 
 efficiently managed. 
 
 After 1850 an increasing number of people began to 
 have serious doubts as to the wisdom of bringing large 
 bodies of children together in orphan asylums or children's 
 homes, and there gradually grew up systems of placing
 
 i 4 8 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 needy children in private homes. The first organization 
 in America to adopt "placing-out " as a definite policy 
 was the New York Children's Aid Society, which was 
 founded in 1853. Its first circular sets forth both the pur- 
 poses and the methods of work : 
 
 " This society has taken its origin in the deeply settled 
 feeling of our citizens that something must be done to meet 
 the increasing crime and poverty among the destitute 
 children of New York. Its objects are to help this class 
 by opening Sunday meetings and industrial schools, and 
 gradually, as means shall be furnished, by forming lodging 
 houses and reading rooms for children and by employing 
 paid agents, whose sole business shall be to care for them. 
 ..... We hope, too, especially, to be the means of 
 draining the city of these children, by communicating with 
 farmers, manufacturers, or families in the country, who 
 may need such employment. When homeless boys are 
 found by our agents, we mean to get them homes in the 
 families of respectable persons, and to put them in the way 
 of an honest living." 
 
 Again and again reports of the society speak of " emi- 
 gration " as " the best remedy for juvenile pauperism." 
 The first " emigrant party " consisted of forty-six boys 
 and girls who were taken to a small town in Michigan and 
 distributed by methods suggested in the following excerpts 
 from the journal of the society. 
 
 " At the close of the sermon the people were informed 
 of the object of the Children's Aid Society. It met with 
 the cordial approbation of all present, and several promised 
 
 to take children Monday morning the boys held 
 
 themselves in readiness to receive applications from the 
 
 farmers There was a rivalry among the boys 
 
 to see which first could get a home in the country, and 
 before Saturday they were all gone."
 
 CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 149 
 
 In 1883 there was organized in Illinois a Children's 
 Home Society with the following simple plan : " A central 
 office at Chicago, with a state superintendent ; districts in- 
 cluding 6 to 25 counties, with district superintendents; 
 local advisory boards in important towns throughout the 
 state to report needy children and to assist in finding homes 
 and supervising children ; a small receiving home for the 
 brief temporary care of children awaiting placement" This 
 plan of organization has been copied in 28 other states. 
 
 Since then the child-placing idea has spread. In some 
 places like Boston it has almost displaced the institutional 
 care of needy children. But the present methods of this 
 work are very different from the " emigrant parties "of 
 the fifties; today the children are handled as individuals. 
 Not every child for whom application is made is received ; 
 instead, their own home ties are preserved wherever pos- 
 sible. After acceptance, each child is studied by physician, 
 psychologist or psychiatrist and social worker. Pros- 
 pective homes are studied carefully, and children are placed 
 " on probation " until it can be seen whether or not they 
 and the foster homes are mutually adapted. Adoption takes 
 place rather rarely and only after a considerable waiting 
 period. Children in foster homes are carefully super- 
 vised, and to make this possible they are placed within 
 limited areas. 
 
 A somewhat different type of agency is represented 
 by the societies for prevention of cruelty to children and 
 humane societies. These grew out of organizations which 
 began with the effort to prevent cruelty to animals. Some 
 of the societies still do both kinds of work, but in the main 
 the children's work has broken off from the older organi- 
 zations. The first of these strictly children's agencies was 
 the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
 Children, founded in 1874.
 
 ISO SOCIAL WORK 
 
 " The society was formed to rescue children from 
 vicious and immoral surroundings and to prosecute 
 offenders, to prevent the cruel neglect, beating or other 
 abuse of children, to prevent the employment of children 
 for mendicant purposes or in theatrical or acrobatic per- 
 formances, and for the enforcement of all laws for the pro- 
 tection of minors from abuse." 
 
 Parallel with the growth of these private organizations 
 has been the development of public child-caring agencies. 
 Before the nineteenth century the only public provision for 
 needy children was in almshouses and through the out- 
 door relief system which was brought over from England. 
 There was also some supervision of indenture, but for the 
 most part specialized work for children under public 
 authority was entirely lacking. 
 
 The public care of children in the United States seems 
 to have begun with the establishment of municipal orphan 
 asylums; one was opened at Charleston, S. C, in 1794, 
 and one in Philadelphia in 1820. After the middle of the 
 century a number of states authorized the establishment 
 of county children's homes. This movement begam in 
 Ohio in 1866, where the system grew rapidly until in 1901 
 there were 51 county homes sheltering 2250 children. The 
 law intended the uee of a placing-out system in connection 
 with these institutions, but this seems to have been ignored 
 for the most part. The example of Ohio was soon fol- 
 lowed by Indiana and Connecticut, and to a lesser degree 
 by other states. 
 
 In marked contrast to the county homes are the state 
 schools established in Michigan, in 1873, and subsequently 
 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and several other 
 states. The plan was to assemble all destitute children 
 who became public charges in a central institution from 
 which, as soon as possible, they should be placed out into
 
 CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 151 
 
 families. On the whole, these state school systems, which 
 Homer Folks has described as " the distinctively American 
 contribution to public systems of child saving," have 
 functioned successfully. 
 
 It was really in Massachusetts that the first state school 
 for destitute children was established, through the transfer 
 to Monson in 1866 of " pauper children " in the other two 
 state almshouses. In 1867 the State Board of Charity 
 employed an agent to visit the children who had been in- 
 dentured from the state almshouses and reform schools. 
 From this has grown the Division of Child Guardianship 
 of the Department of Public Welfare, through which the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts does a regular child- 
 placing work. Similar development has subsequently 
 taken place in New Jersey, West Virginia and other states. 
 
 Another and much more recent form of state aid to 
 needy children has been the so-called " mother's pension." 
 The first scheme of this sort was developed in Missouri in 
 1911, and so rapidly did the idea spread that by 1919 
 similar laws had been enacted in 39 states. The purpose 
 and nature of these " mothers' pensions " are indicated 
 by the Illinois " funds to parents act," adopted in 191 1. 
 
 "If the parent or parents of such dependent or neg- 
 lected child are poor and unable to properly care for the 
 said child, but are otherwise proper guardians and if it is 
 for the welfare of such child to remain at home, the court 
 may enter an order finding such facts and fixing the 
 amount of money necessary " 
 
 CARE OF WAYWARD CHILDREN 
 
 A hundred years ago children caught violating the law 
 were treated much as their elders. They were tried in the 
 ordinary courts, and if found guilty were sentenced to jail 
 or workhouse. In many of these prisons conditions were
 
 152 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 fearfully bad even for adults; for children they were 
 almost certain to do harm rather than good. Agitation 
 started by John Howard and other prison reformers led 
 not only to improvement of the correctional institutions for 
 adults, but to the founding by philanthropists of private 
 institutions for delinquent boys and girls. 
 
 Among the earliest of these " juvenile reformatories " 
 in America were the New York House of Refuge, founded 
 in 1824, the Boston House of Reformation dating from 
 1826, and the Philadelphia House of Refuge founded in 
 the same year. The New York House of Refuge grew out 
 of the efforts of the Society for the Prevention of Pauper- 
 ism, which reported in 1819 concerning the Belle vue 
 prison, " Here is one great school of vice and desperation; 
 with confirmed and unrepentant criminals we place these 
 novices in guilt these unfortunate children from ten to 
 fourteen years of age, who from neglect of parents, from 
 idleness or misfortune, have been doomed to the peniten- 
 tiary by condemnation of law." The first step, then, was 
 the removal of youthful offenders to special institutions 
 maintained by private charity. 
 
 The largest institution of this class is the New York 
 Catholic Protectory, founded in 1863. It has always 
 been administered on the congregate plan, with as high as 
 200 children in a single dormitory, but withal its wards 
 appear to be well cared for. The teaching of trades has 
 always been stressed, and in recent years the Protectory 
 has established a placing-out agency. 
 
 Perhaps the most famous of these private, or semi- 
 public, institutions for wayward children is the George 
 Junior Republic, established at Freeville, New York, in 
 1894. The innovation of a large measure of self-govern- 
 ment, while startlingly radical to the " old school " of 
 reformatory officials, has justified itself in practise here
 
 CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 153 
 
 and lias been imitated in numerous other institutions both 
 public and private. 
 
 The first state institution for delinquent children was 
 the Lyman School at Westboro, Massachusetts, which was 
 opened in 1848. This was followed by similar state 
 institutions in New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Connecti- 
 cut, and ultimately in nearly every state in the Union. The 
 character of these early reform schools is thus described 
 by Dr. Hastings H. Hart. 
 
 " Many of the juvenile reformatories were at first, in 
 reality, juvenile prisons, with prison bars, prison cells, 
 prison garb, prison labor, prison punishments and prison 
 discipline generally. It was recognized as a legitimate part 
 of the purpose of the institution to inflict upon the child 
 punishment for his wrong-doing, adjusted according to the 
 supposed ill desert of the culprit, and this idea was 
 considered to be not inconsistent with the effort 
 at reformation." 
 
 The school opened at Lancaster, Ohio, in 1856, intro- 
 duced a different type which has since been copied in many 
 states. It was " on the cottage plan," the object being to 
 inject more of the features of family life, to encourage 
 self-control in the boys and to separate them into grades. 
 In the later schools for delinquent boys and girls complete 
 elementary and secondary school systems, industrial 
 training, organized recreation and sometimes a measure of 
 self-government have come to occupy a large place in the 
 reformation of wayward youth. 
 
 A later development in correctional work for children 
 has been the introduction of parole or conditional release. 
 In most cases children are committed to correctional insti- 
 tutions for the remainder of their minority, but instead of 
 being turned suddenly back into the outside world, they 
 are more frequently sent out on parole before attaining
 
 154 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 majority. The granting of parole depends on progress 
 made in the institution and on the existence of conditions 
 outside job, place to live, etc. which indicate that the 
 boy or girl is likely to " get along." During the period of 
 parole certain conditions as to conduct are imposed and 
 supervision is maintained either from the institution or 
 through some state office through correspondence and the 
 visits of a parole officer. 
 
 Still more recent is the development of probation and 
 the juvenile court. The first probation law was enacted in 
 Massachusetts in 1878, but the first separate juvenile court 
 was established in Chicago in 1899, As distinguished from 
 parole, probation means the care of the child otherwise 
 than in an institution, and in lieu of being confined at all. 
 The machinery of supervision is, however, much the same, 
 except that it usually operates directly from the court. In 
 the beginning most of the probation work was done by 
 private agencies and individuals, but more and more it has 
 been given over to public officers, especially since the de- 
 velopment of "the juvenile court" 
 
 Among the main features of the juvenile court system 
 as it has developed in the United States may be noted the 
 following: (i) Separate hearings for children's cases, 
 very often before a judge chosen for this specific purpose. 
 (2) Informal or chancery proceedings, growing out of the 
 fact that the child is no longer regarded as one who has 
 committed a crime for which he must be punished. Instead 
 of prosecution, the purpose of the juvenile court procedure 
 is to determine whether the child is in need of the special 
 care and guardianship of the state and to apply the remedies 
 best calculated to remedy his condition. (3) Regular pro- 
 bation service both for investigation as an aid to the court 
 and for supervision after a child has been declared a ward 
 of the state. (4) Detention separate from adults, either
 
 CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 155 
 
 t 
 
 in jivenile detention homes or with private families. (5) 
 Special court and probation records, both legal and social. 
 (6) Provision for mental and physical examinations. 
 
 CARE OF HANDICAPPED CHILDREN 
 
 Until fairly recent times the blind, deaf-mutes, feeble- 
 minded and epileptic were either neglected or treated indis- 
 criminately along with all sorts of other needy folk. The 
 education of the blind was first put on a solid basis by 
 Valentin Haiiy, an eighteenth century Frenchman. In 
 the course of the nineteenth century numerous private 
 institutions were established, and now nearly every 
 American state makes public provision for the education of 
 blind children either in special classes or in separate insti- 
 tutions. From being beggars and almshouse inmates for 
 life, the blind have been gradually enabled to take their part 
 in the community life along with the rest of us. 
 
 As early as 1570 Pedro de Ponce, a Spanish monk, 
 taught four deaf and dumb pupils to speak, thus demon- 
 strating that these handicapped folk had capacities beyond 
 those of the idiots with whom they had often been classed. 
 From Spain the idea of educating deaf-mutes spread to 
 France and England whence it was brought to America. 
 As in the case of the blind, we have some private institu- 
 tions, and nearly every state provides for deaf-mutes 
 either in special classes of the public school system or in 
 separate institutions. Thus they too are enabled to share 
 our common life. 
 
 Perhaps most striking of all has been the change of atti- 
 tude toward the mentally deficient. Barr, in his " Mental 
 Defectives," tells us of their exposure as infants at Sparta, 
 their employment as jesters in medieval courts, the super- 
 stitious reverence which gave them in the middle ages the 
 name " les enfants du bon Dieu," and a very different
 
 156 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 attitude in Luther and Calvin, who denounced them as 
 " Filled with Satan." In many cases they were not dis- 
 tinguished from the insane, and were treated as danger- 
 ous criminals. 
 
 The notion of educating the feeble-minded may be said 
 to date from the effort of Itard in Paris to train the " wild 
 boy of Aveyron." This boy was described as " unac- 
 customed to our food, and as selecting his aliment by the 
 sense of smell; lying flat on the ground, and immersing 
 his chin in the water to drink ; tearing all sorts of garments, 
 and trying constantly to escape ; walking often on all fours ; 
 fighting with his teeth; giving few marks of intelligence; 
 having no articulate language, and even appearing devoid 
 of natural speech; complaisant and pleased at receiving 
 caresses." Itard was greatly disappointed at his inability 
 after five years to educate this boy, but he did discover and 
 publish valuable data. 
 
 During the early part of the nineteenth century a num- 
 ber of private institutions were opened in France, Switzer- 
 land, Germany and England. Not distinguishing between 
 different grades of mental deficiency, many of the pioneers 
 were oversanguine as to the possibility of training their 
 charges. Thus Saegert's school in Berlin was called an 
 " Institution for the Cure and Education of Idiots." How- 
 ever, this was a valuable reaction against previous attitudes 
 toward the feeble-minded, because it has since been found 
 that some of these unfortunates can profit from a measure 
 of education. 
 
 The pioneer in America seems to have been Samuel G. 
 Howe, Director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind at 
 Watertown, Massachusetts. His interest having been 
 aroused through three blind children who were also feeble- 
 minded, Dr. Howe got the matter before the legislature, 
 which appointed an investigating committee in 1846. This
 
 CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 157 
 
 committee's report " showed a thorough investigation into 
 the nature, causes and various forms of idiocy, and gave 
 a full statement of conditions and treatment of 514 idiots 
 in various almshouses and private families in Massachu- 
 setts." The result was an appropriation for an experi- 
 mental school to be conducted by Dr. Howe, and in 1850 
 the incorporation of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic 
 and Feeble-minded Children. 
 
 Numerous private institutions followed, but the most 
 important development in America has been the gradual 
 assumption by our state Governments of responsibility for 
 the care and training of the feeble-minded. The public 
 provision has included not only " asylums " and state train- 
 ing schools, but also special classes in the public schools and 
 supervision of mental defectives who are capable of being 
 employed in agriculture or industry. 
 
 The scientific study of the feeble-minded received what 
 is probably its greatest stimulus at the very end of the last 
 century in the elaboration by Binet and Simon in France 
 of a scale for measuring intelligence. This scale has since 
 been revised by its authors and by several others, notably 
 Goddard in New Jersey and Terman in Cali f ornia. While 
 no scheme of rating the mental capacity of human beings 
 is wholly satisfactory even to those who have devised and 
 used it, enough has been learned through the use of these 
 tests to justify the classification of the feeble-minded into 
 several grades. An idiot is defined as " a person so deeply 
 defective in mind from birth, or from an early age, that 
 he is unable to guard himself against common physical 
 dangers." His " mental age " is two years or less. The 
 middle grade or imbecile is " one who, by reason of mental 
 defect existing from birth, or from an early age, is unable 
 to earn his own living, but is capable of guarding himself 
 against common physical dangers." His " mental age " is
 
 158 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 from three to seven. The highest grade, known in 
 America as the " moron," is defined as " one who is capable 
 of earning a living under favorable circumstances, but is 
 incapable from mental defect, existing from birth, or from 
 an early age, (a) of competing on equal terms with his 
 normal fellows; or (b) of managing himself and his 
 affairs with ordinary prudence." His " mental age " is 
 eight to twelve. 
 
 Public attention to the mentally and physically handi- 
 capped has passed beyond the stage of superstition and 
 neglect. Custodial care in institutions is the second stage, 
 and beyond this the treatment of the most helpless cannot 
 go. Others whom it seems unwise to leave " at large " 
 lest they fall into pauperism or crime or bring into the 
 world defective offspring may be happy and useful in 
 institutional colonies. But through specialized treatment 
 more and more of these unfortunates are being enabled to 
 participate in our common life. Special education, voca- 
 tional training and guidance enable most of the blind and 
 the deaf-mutes to become successful and respected members 
 of the community. Registration and supervision render 
 it not only safe but wise for certain mental defectives to 
 mingle with " normal " folk. 
 
 CONTROL OF CHILD LABOR 
 
 "The beginning of the present (nineteenth) century 
 found children of five, and even three years of age, in 
 England, working in factories and brickyards; women 
 working underground in mines harnessed with mules to 
 carts, drawing heavy loads ; found the hours of labor what- 
 ever the avarice of individual mill-owners might exact, 
 were it thirteen, or fourteen, or fifteen; found no guards 
 about machinery to protect life and limb; found the air of
 
 CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 159 
 
 the factory fouler than language can describe, even could 
 human ears bear to hear the story." 
 
 In these words Francis Walker described a condition 
 which was never quite so bad in America, but which has 
 commanded the attention of philanthropists and public 
 spirited citizens on both sides of the Atlantic down to the 
 present time. 
 
 Most active in the agitation concerning child labor in 
 the United States have been the child labor committees, 
 labor unions, women's trade union leagues, consumers' 
 leagues, women's dubs of various kinds and state labor 
 bureaus. The National Child Labor Committee was 
 organized in 1904 and has carried its investigations and 
 propaganda into almost every state of the Union. It makes 
 studies of conditions affecting the employment of children, 
 undertakes to educate the public through pamphlets, public 
 addresses and exhibits, and tries to secure legislation. In 
 many states there are local child labor committees asso- 
 ciated with the national organization; to them much of the 
 success in controlling child labor is due. Next to the child 
 labor committees in influence and effectiveness should 
 probably be placed the consumers' leagues. Here the 
 method has been that of organizing consumers in order 
 through their united efforts to insist upon the manufacture 
 and sale of products under satisfactory conditions. 
 
 In response to such agitation there grew up during the 
 nineteenth century in Great Britain a code of factory laws 
 regulating, among other things, the labor of children. In 
 the United States most of the child labor laws have been 
 enacted since 1895. At the present time every state regu- 
 lates in some way the employment of minors, and several 
 states have child labor laws that seem fairly complete and 
 rather well enforced. These laws in general deal with (a) 
 the age below which employment is forbidden, this age
 
 160 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 being fourteen in a growing number of states; (b) ages 
 between which employment can be secured only under cer- 
 tain conditions including frequently the securing of a cer- 
 tificate, these ages being commonly fourteen to sixteen; 
 
 (c) the hours of labor of children, frequently forbidding 
 night work and often limiting the hours to eight per day ; 
 
 (d) the requirement of a minimum attendance at school 
 and sometimes educational tests. Such laws vary greatly 
 from state to state; hence the efforts to standardize them. 
 Twice the Congress of the United States has enacted a 
 Federal child labor law, but each time the courts have 
 declared it to be unconstitutional on the ground of being an 
 unwarranted invasion of states' rights. 
 
 OTHER PHASES OF THE CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 
 
 There are many other phases of the child welfare 
 movement of the nineteenth century; to most of them 
 space forbids more than passing reference. Among the 
 most important are the developments in the field of educa- 
 tion. Starting often under private auspices, new schools 
 and new methods have in general after the experimental 
 and demonstration stages been taken over by the public. 
 Thus Jefferson's " free schools for pauper children " have 
 become the public elementary schools of Virginia; the 
 denominational academies scattered over the country a 
 generation ago have become or given way to the public high 
 schools. Private initiative has produced school lunches, 
 clothing for poor children, school nursing and often the 
 much-needed improvements in physical equipment. 
 Among the more important organizations to be considered 
 in this connection are the parent-teachers' associations, 
 mothers' clubs, cooperative educational associations, child 
 study clubs, etc. 
 
 Another group of efforts might be classed together
 
 CHILD WELFARE MOVEMENT 161 
 
 under the head of "child hygiene." Here we have in 
 mind milk funds, baby-saving campaigns, baby clinics, 
 compulsory vaccination, medical and dental examinations, 
 instruction in hygiene in the schools, organized and 
 supervised recreation, the physical examination of school 
 children, etc. As noted in the chapter on correlation of 
 social agencies, there is a host of organizations at work in 
 this field, but more and more the functions involved are 
 being performed by nation, state and municipality. 
 
 One of the most interesting of recent developments has 
 been the effort to unify or at least to correlate legislation 
 and public agencies dealing with children. This began 
 officially with the appointment in 1911 of the Commission 
 to Codify and Revise the Laws of Ohio Relative to 
 Children, which was followed in 1913 by the enactment of 
 a so-called children's code. Since that time definite action 
 toward the comprehensive study of legislation affecting 
 children has been made in thirty other states. In all this 
 movement the most potent single factor has probably been 
 the Federal Children's Bureau exercising its influence 
 especially through investigations and various kinds of 
 publicity. 
 
 Throughout the last hundred years of child welfare 
 work two tendencies seem to stand out above all others. 
 One is the giving way of a more or less sentimental interest 
 in " child-saving " before the gradual rise of scientific 
 study and provision for all children. The other is the 
 gradual taking over by the public service of methods and 
 agencies which were experimentally developed and demon- 
 strated under private auspices. Here as in other fields of 
 social work, we seem to see the passing of charity and the 
 growth of professional public service. 
 ii
 
 162 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Payne, George Henry : The Child in Human Progress. New York : 
 Putnam, 1916. 
 
 History of Child-Saving in the United States. Report of the com- 
 mittee on the history of child-saving work to the National Con- 
 ference of Charities and Corrections, 1893. Boston: G. H. 
 Ellis, 1893. 
 
 Folks, Homer: The Care of Destitute, Neglected and Delinquent 
 Children. New York: Macmillan, 1902. 
 
 Hart, Hastings H. : Preventive Treatment of Neglected Children. 
 New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1910. 
 
 Mangold, George B. : Problems of Child Welfare. New York : Mac- 
 millan, 1914. 
 
 Brace, Charles L. : The Dangerous Classes of New York and Twenty 
 Years' Work Among Them. New York: Wynkoop & Hallen- 
 beck, 1880. 
 
 Adams, T. S., and Sumner, Helen L. : Labor Problems. New York : 
 Macmillan, 1905. (Chap. 2 deals with child labor.) 
 
 Barr, Martin W. : Mental Defectives, Their History, Treatment and 
 Training. Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1910, Chap. 2. 
 
 Wiltse, Sarah E. : " Preliminary SI etch of the History of Child-study 
 in America." Pedagog. Seminary, 3, 189-212 (1894). 
 
 White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children. Wash- 
 ington: Gov't Printing Office, 1909. 
 
 Annotated Subject Index and Order List of Books and Pamphlets, 
 including Government Reports, on Maternity and Child Welfare 
 in England and Scotland. A. R. C. ion. Aug., 1920. Wash- 
 ington : Amer. Red Cross, 1920. 
 
 Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. 
 Various publications. 
 
 See reports of various children's agencies, e.g., New York Children's 
 Aid Society, Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty 
 to Children, Illinois Children's Home Society, New England 
 Home for Little Wanderers, New York Catholic Protectory, 
 New Jersey State Board of Children's Guardians, National Child 
 Labor Committee, National Society for the Study and Preven- 
 tion of Infant Mortality (now American Child Hygiene Associa- 
 tion), Cooperative Education Association of Virginia.
 
 PART III 
 THE ENGLISH POOR LAW
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE BACKGROUND OF THE ENGLISH POOR 
 
 LAW 
 
 THE modern development of public relief of the poor 
 seems to have taken place at about the same time in several 
 countries of northern Europe. In France, Germany, 
 Switzerland and England systems for the care of the poor 
 either by the state or under its direction were initiated 
 early in the sixteenth century, during or immediately fol- 
 lowing the Protestant Reformation. We shall, here, devote 
 our attention largely to the development of the English 
 Poor Law, partly because it has had a more steady growth 
 and partly because it has influenced social work in America 
 much more than have the Continental systems. 
 
 The contributions of the English Poor Law to modern 
 social work may be summarized under three heads. First, 
 it represents the development of a technique of relief- 
 giving, including organization and administration and 
 methods of dealing with those in need. To be sure, the 
 techniques of today alre by no means exclusively drawn 
 from the English Poor Law, nor have the experiments of 
 the English officials been uniformly successful. Neverthe- 
 less, a very real and important contribution has been made 
 here toward the development of a technique. 
 
 Second, the English Poor Law represents the develop- 
 ment of a consciousness of national responsibility for deal- 
 ing with the problems of poverty. This began with the 
 
 165
 
 166 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 effort of the state to attach the individual to the local parish, 
 and to repress begging. From these it went on to 
 define and regulate the relief which was actually ad- 
 ministered by the units of local government. Later, it 
 organized a national system of relief. Finally, it led to old 
 age pensions, and health and unemployment insurance as 
 parts of a national program to diminish the amount of 
 poverty and misery. 
 
 The third contribution of the English Poor Law 
 system, as we interpret it, is the development of a con- 
 sciousness of the futility of mere relief. There is some 
 disagreement as to whether the English system has actually 
 worked out to this conclusion. But the Poor Law report 
 of 1909 and the passing of such laws as those just men- 
 tioned seem to be pretty clear evidence that out of the 
 four hundred years of the English Poor Law, there has 
 actually come a recognition of the inadequacy of charity 
 and the necessity for devising preventive and construct- 
 ive measures. 
 
 MEDIEVAL FIXITY 
 
 In order to understand the origin of the English Poor 
 Law, it is necessary to anticipate briefly the discussion of 
 medieval charities which is to follow. Speaking in very 
 general terms, people in the middle ages were pretty 
 definitely fixed as to geographical situation, occupation 
 and social status. They lived for the most part in little 
 neighborhood groups where everyone knew everyone else, 
 and where in time of accident or other misfortune there 
 was no need for organized charity because neighborliness 
 manifested itself in the form of mutual aid. 
 
 Not only did people actually live in a state of fixity 
 and relative isolation, but it was generally assumed that 
 this was the only proper way to do. The laws of the early 
 kings of England throw interesting light on this notion
 
 BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 167 
 
 that everyone belonged in a definite place and should " stay 
 put." Our Saxon ancestors required every peasant who 
 had no home of his own to find some householder who 
 should be responsible for him. Without such surety, he 
 would not be regarded as a member of the community nor 
 entitled to its protection. Similar laws appeared in the 
 tenth century in the time of King Aethelstan, and in the 
 eleventh century in the reign of King Canute. 
 
 These laws seem to give expression to a popular feeling 
 that the normal thing was for each individual to have a 
 definite place in some primary group, a manor, parish, 
 guild, or religious community. As a matter of fact, in the 
 earlier middle ages the numbers of detached persons re- 
 mained relatively small, and it was perfectly natural that 
 there should be a continual effort to preserve the status 
 quo. But as the middle ages advanced the wanderers 
 multiplied and it was necessalry to provide measures for 
 their care in time of misfortune. 
 
 ROYAL ALMS 
 
 The first attention of the Anglo-Saxon kings to the 
 poor was not public relief as we use that term, but rather 
 the, casual alms of a great overlord. For example, Bede 
 tells the following story of King Oswald. He was about 
 to dine sumptuously from a silver dish of dainties one 
 Sunday, when the servant who attended to relief of the 
 poor told him that there were many persons outside the 
 gate who were begging alms. Thereupon the king ordered 
 the contents to be carried to the beggars. King Aethelstan 
 ordered the distribution of much alms to the poor. He 
 ordered each of his Reeves every year to redeem one penal 
 slave, and to furnish the necessary food for one poor 
 Englishman. King Alfred, we are also told, bestowed 
 alms in largesses on both natives and foreigners of all
 
 168 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 countries. In making these gifts to the poor, the kings 
 of England were acting as individuals rather than as rep- 
 resentatives of the state. They were doing just exactly 
 the sort of thing that nobles and prelates were all in- 
 dulging in. 
 
 REPRESSIVE MEASURES 
 
 Among the earliest official acts with reference to the 
 poor, and logically antecedent to the poor laws, were the 
 repressive measures affecting labor. As a result of the 
 Black Death about 1347, the number of laborers was con- 
 siderably decreased, and the survivors demanded higher 
 wages. Hence, Parliament, being composed largely of 
 landlords, was interested in restoring the old status in 
 which they had the laborers under their fhumb. They were 
 face to face with a novel problem in which they had to take 
 some definite account of the landless class. They met the 
 situation with the Statute of Laborers, 23 Edward III, 
 1349. The asking of alms by " valiant beggars " and the 
 giving of alms to them were forbidden. Also, " every man 
 and woman, of whatsoever condition, free or bond, able 
 in body, and within the age of three score years, not living 
 in merchandise, nor exercising any craft, nor having of his 
 own whereof he may live, nor proper land about whose 
 tillage he may himself occupy, and not serving any other, 
 shall be bound to serve him which shall him require, and 
 take only the wages, livery, meed or salary which were 
 accustomed to be given in the places where he oweth to 
 serve." This put the laborer who stood out for higher 
 wages in the same class with the professional beggar. 
 
 This law was very difficult to enforce, and it was 
 followed by other and still harsher measures : 25 Edward 
 III, 1350-1 ; 34 Edward III, 1360. Still many refused to 
 work; vagrancy and crime increased, and in 1381 Wat
 
 BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 169 
 
 Tyler's rebellion broke out. In the Statute of 1388 (12 
 Richard II ), the attempt was made to bind the poor to the 
 place of their birth. After providing for persons able to 
 work, it was directed " that beggars impotent to serve 
 shall abide in the cities and towns where they be dwelling 
 at the time of the proclamation of this statute." This is 
 the first legislative mention of the " impotent poor " as a 
 distinct class; but no provision was made for their relief; 
 they were left to chance alms for their support. 
 
 There is quite a series of similar enactments : 7 Henry 
 V; ii Henry VII, 1495; J 9 Henry VII, cap. 12, 1503; 
 22 Henry VIII, 1531. These measures mark a sharp 
 cleavage between the landowning and the landless classes. 
 The propertied caste was compelled by the scarcity of labor 
 and by the demonstrations of the unpropertied to take 
 some notice of the latter. The first attitude was that of 
 hostility, but for economic reasons the rich could not get 
 along without the laborers, hence some technique had to 
 be found for dealing with them, since the old one had 
 broken down. It was a very acute problem. These 
 " vagabonds " were going about through the country in 
 troops, begging, or rather demanding and stealing. "In the 
 sixteenth century the beggars became a positive terror to 
 quiet folk." The old technique of winning salvation through 
 alms might do for the " impotent poor," but it was of little 
 value in handling the " valiant beggars." The new tech- 
 nique involved a relationship closely akin to that of slavery, 
 that is, it was an effort to return to serfdom. An effort 
 was made to treat the laborers as property, but in the six- 
 teenth century this was doomed to at least partial failure. 
 The landless class was too strong. 
 
 Such repressive measures as these were by no means 
 peculiar to England. Don Ferdinand IV, of Spain, 
 ordered, in 1308, that vagrants were to be driven from all
 
 170 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 his cities, and if they returned they were to be flogged. 
 Don Pedro I published a similar ordinance in 1351 against 
 all able-bodied beggars and professional criminals. Don 
 Juan I gave anyone the right to compel a vagabond to 
 work for him a month, giving him in return only enough 
 to eat and drink. Later ordinances were still more severe. 
 Cutting off of ears and even death were prescribed for 
 able-bodied beggars in 1400 by Enrique III. The actual 
 practice, however, was not so severe, for largesses and 
 begging continued because public opinion supported them. 
 
 France also undertook to meet the problem presented 
 by hordes of insistent beggars by methods almost identical 
 to those utilized in England and Spain. In 1350, King 
 John ordered that all idlers, gamblers, fortune tellers and 
 beggars should leave the city of Paris and the surrounding 
 region within three days. Failure to comply with this 
 order was to be punished by imprisonment and corporal 
 punishment. In the case of recidivism, the offenders were 
 sentenced to the pillory, branded on the forehead and 
 permanently banished. 
 
 The interesting thing is that these repressive measures 
 of the kings occurred at about the same time in those 
 countries of western Europe which were beginning 
 to develop strong central governments. In addition to 
 endeavoring to repress begging, the royal power also 
 undertook the regulation of ecclesiastical and private 
 charities. Thus, a statute of Richard II in 1388 regulated 
 the revenues of the Church in the interests of the poor. " A 
 portion of the tithe had been commonly distributed by the 
 resident rector to the poor, but, when a living became part 
 of the possessions of a monastery, a portion of the revenue 
 should be assigned to the poor, so that they might not lose 
 the alms formerly distributed by the rectors." 
 
 A statute of Henry V, enacted in 1414, recites numbers
 
 BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 171 
 
 of abuses in the hospitals of that day and required that the 
 " ordinaries should enquire of the manner of the founda- 
 tion of the estate and governance of the same 
 
 and upon that make correction and reformation." 
 
 Another activity of the king in his capacity as repre- 
 sentative of the nation, which lasted into the fourteenth 
 century, was the guardianship of the insane. This seems to 
 have been essentially feudal in character, and may have 
 been persisted in because the king enjoyed the revenue 
 from his wards' lands. Sometimes the king would exempt 
 a hospital from taxation ; sometimes he would grant special 
 privileges. As an example of these last, we find that King 
 John, in 1204, conferred upon the lepers of Shrewsbury 
 the privilege of taking hand fulls of corn and flour from 
 sacks exposed in the market. 
 
 BREAK-UP OF FEUDALISM 
 
 These various activities of the early kings and parlia- 
 ments are interesting and worthy of our attention because 
 they must have influenced later efforts to deal with the 
 problems of poverty. But it seems hardly likely that they 
 would of their own accord have developed into a national 
 system of poor relief. The Poor Law came into existence 
 for a number of reasons, chief among which, apparently, 
 was the economic disorganization attendant upon the 
 growth of the domestic system of industry, the enclosures 
 of small land holdings and the general breaking up of 
 feudalism. The economic changes which were taking j>lace 
 created social disorganization, broke up the old, relatively 
 fixed order of things, increased mobility, and set many 
 individuals adrift. Second among the important causes of 
 poverty, at the opening of the sixteenth century, was the 
 failure of the established charities. Third, we may note 
 the series of disturbances connected with the Protestant
 
 172 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Reformation, including in England the dissolution of the 
 monasteries. Finally, the growing spirit of nationalism, 
 and, for a time, the great power of the English sovereign 
 contributed largely toward making poor relief a function 
 of the state. 
 
 RISE OF THE DOMESTIC SYSTEM OF INDUSTRY 
 
 The domestic system, to which reference has just been 
 made, can be more adequately understood after studying 
 the medieval gilds which preceded it. However, it is 
 enough at this point simply to say that previously manu- 
 facturing had been almost entirely done by members of 
 craft gilds who were very much under the control of their 
 organizations. The most important manufacture for 
 England seems to have been cloth. English merchants 
 were successful in their foreign trade largely by the export 
 of woolen cloth ; and because of their success, accumulated 
 a fund of capital which they turned back into the industry. 
 In order to secure more cloth and to control for their own 
 purposes the methods of manufacture, the " merchant- 
 clothiers" developed what has come to be called the 
 " domestic system." They purchased the wool and gave it 
 out to carders or combers, spinners, weavers, fullers and 
 others, who worked in their home shops in rural hamlets. 
 Apparently, it was necessary for the " merchant -clothiers " 
 to have this work done outside the larger towns, where the 
 gild regulations were generally very irksome. They seem 
 to have secured the labor largely from the unemployed of 
 the agricultural districts, and obtained the necessary tech- 
 nical teaching from the journeymen, whom the restriction 
 of gild privileges within the towns had rendered dissatisfied 
 with their prospects. The important thing, however, is 
 that the people who were secured occupied an intermediate 
 position in the process of cloth making. They received
 
 BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 173 
 
 the raw material from the " merchant-clothiers," and after 
 working it up, returned it to them for marketing. Fre- 
 quently, if not generally, the artisans lived in their own 
 homes in what would now be called garden cities. They 
 usually owned their own looms and had their plots of 
 ground, on which they cultivated small gardens and raised 
 poultry and cows. 
 
 But evidently this situation was by no means universal, 
 for as time went on, some of the " merchant-clothiers " 
 went so far as to own and provide the artisan's tools. 
 Others set up in their own houses a considerable number of 
 looms, and seemed to be well on the way toward a factory 
 system of production. It is possible that the Industrial 
 Revolution of the late eighteenth century might have been 
 advanced two hundred years, but for legislative action such 
 as the Weavers' Act of 1555. This same Act was also 
 directed against some definite abuses on the part of " mer- 
 chant-clothiers," such as acquiring possession of the looms 
 and letting them out at unreasonable rents, or reducing the 
 rate of pay for working up the cloth. 
 
 So far, it would seem that the establishment of the 
 domestic system must have been advantageous to the 
 people whom it affected, rather than otherwise. As a 
 matter of fact, it did help to absorb the surplus labor which 
 was being discharged from the agricultural estates, but at 
 the same time, it gave rise to a new sort of problem in the 
 form of unemployment. 
 
 With the widening of the market, there came an ex- 
 tension and an intensification of all the evils, due to the 
 imperfect coincidence of supply and demand. Sometimes 
 these were due to economic and sometimes to political 
 causes. An example of the latter appeared in 1527-28. 
 Wolsey, in order to gain a political end, prohibited trade 
 with The Netherlands. There immediately arose a com-
 
 i 7 4 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 plaint from the merchants that they could find no sale for 
 their wares. At the same time, the clothiers were no longer 
 able to employ the craftsmen, and great numbers of men 
 were thrown out of work. The people began to rise in 
 rebellion, especially in the South and West. Wolsey saw 
 himself compelled to yield, but not before much suffering 
 was caused. 
 
 ENCLOSURES OF FARM LAND 
 
 Directly correlated with the industrial change from the 
 gild to the domestic system, there was another economic 
 change from a feudal system of agriculture to a com- 
 mercialized type of stock raising. The great demand for 
 wool and the high prices offered by the clothiers made it 
 very profitable for the English landowners to turn their 
 fields into pastures and to raise sheep instead of grain. 
 Now, in order to accomplish this purpose, they had to upset 
 the entire feudal system of tillage, and in fact, the whole 
 round of life of those people who lived on the great rural 
 estates. In an earlier time, the landlords had lived upon 
 their estates, parcelling them out in many small tracts to 
 what were known as " customary tenants." These tenants 
 each tilled a number of narrow strips in the various com- 
 mon fields, and grazed their flocks on the common 
 meadows, in return for which they rendered specified 
 services on that part of the estate which the landlord re- 
 served for himself. 
 
 In the later middle ages, money payments came to be 
 substituted for labor performed on the demesne, or the 
 lord's own part of the estate. In turn the lord paid money 
 wages for the work which he required, and these wages 
 supplemented the income of small tenants. Now it seems 
 to have been the demesne that the owners first turned into 
 pasture. As a consequence, the small tenants lost a por- 
 

 
 BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 175 
 
 tion of their income and were sometimes forced to look 
 elsewhere for a living. Moreover, the enclosures threw 
 out of employment a considerable number of agricultural 
 laborers. The second step seems usually to have been the 
 enclosure of the common meadows. The monopolization 
 by the lord's flocks of the common pasture furnished an 
 important cause of popular discontent. 
 
 But that which most disturbed the habits of working 
 and of living was the enclosure of the common fields. 
 Where each man worked a number of narrow strips in the 
 various fields of the estate, subject to a common rotation 
 of crops, there was little opportunity for individual initia- 
 tive or for the improvement of agricultural methods. The 
 arrangement now came to be that each tenant occupied a 
 smaller number of fields, or perhaps even a single plot of 
 ground, and some of these plots were taken over by the 
 landlord for use as pasture. This meant an almost violent 
 upsetting of all the habits of life, as well as the economic 
 displacement of an increasing number of tenants. 
 
 This displacement came about in a variety of ways. 
 Sometimes it took the form of the violent ousting of the 
 occupant, sometimes it was the substitution of a short-time 
 lease for the customary holding, and sometimes it was a 
 refusal on the death of one tenant to admit his son, 
 who in earlier centuries would have been treated as the 
 natural successor. 
 
 Ashley takes pains to point out that for the most part 
 these enclosures were entirely legal and a perfectly natural 
 procedure; albeit, they did produce a great deal of mal- 
 adjustment and suffering. According to Ashley, the land- 
 lords were usually entirely within their legal rights when 
 they forced out the tenants. The cultivators of the soil 
 had always been dependents and held their lands by the 
 will of the lords. For centuries the lords knew no other
 
 176 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 way of cultivating their land and had no wish to get rid of 
 their tenants. Probably the " customary " manner of 
 holding land was on the point of becoming law when a 
 change in the economic situation, that is, the increasing 
 advantage of pasture over tillage, prompted the lords to 
 fall back on their old rights. At all events, these important 
 displacements did take place from about 1470 to 1530, and 
 contributed largely to the group of problems which the 
 English Poor Law was designed to solve. 
 
 DISMISSAL AND ESCAPE OF RETAINERS 
 
 It seems, moreover, that others than the tenants were 
 ejected and driven into the groups of detached and unem- 
 ployed persons. Sir Thomas More mentions the dismissal 
 of retainers by nobles who were no longer able to support 
 them. He speaks of great trains of " idle and loitering 
 serving men," whom wealthy gentlemen " carried about 
 with them at their tails." " They never learned any craft 
 whereby to get their livings. These men, as soon as their 
 master is dead or be sick themselves, be incontinent thrust 
 
 out of doors Many times the dead man's heir is 
 
 not able to maintain so great a house and keep so many 
 serving men as his father did. Then in the mean season, 
 they that be thus destitute of service either starve of hunger 
 or manfully play the thieves." The vigorous action of 
 Henry VII and the Star Chamber in enforcing the law 
 against " livery " must have thrown many men of this sort 
 out of service to prey upon the public. 
 
 Finally, we should not fail to take account of one other 
 aspect of the breaking up of feudalism. The freedom and 
 many comforts enjoyed by the persons residing in a town, 
 would naturally excite a desire for similar enjoyments in 
 the rural population, then in state of servile dependence, 
 and possessing scarcely any of the comforts and few of
 
 BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 177 
 
 the conveniences of life. If a villein succeeded in acquiring 
 a little property, he was driven to conceal it, as, if discov- 
 ered, it would belong to his master; and in order to pre- 
 serve it he would probably take the first opportunity of 
 escaping to a town, where if he could conceal himself from 
 the pursuit of his lord for a year and a day, he would be 
 free forever. But emancipation removed the lord's respon- 
 sibility for the laborer, and cut the freedman loose from 
 his neighbors on the manor, and often from his family. 
 Hence poverty was likely to become real and relief neces- 
 sary. Many of those who had struggled for and asserted 
 their own freedom, resorted to begging and vagabondism, 
 and not infrequently to violence, whenever employment or 
 the means of honest livelihood was not readily obtainable, 
 and sometimes, perhaps, when it was. 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES 
 
 Some historians, anxious to condemn public relief 
 systems and to defend ecclesiastical charities, have main- 
 tained that the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry 
 VIII was the chief cause of distress at the time of the 
 enactment of the first Poor Law. Other churchmen, how- 
 ever, who appear to be more candid, if not better informed, 
 admit that the almsgiving of the monasteries and similar 
 medieval institutions had failed utterly as a means of 
 caring for the poor, and contributed largely to the pro- 
 fessionalizing of beggary. 
 
 Fuller, in his " Church History," printed in 1656, after 
 lauding the hospitality of abbeys as " beyond compare," 
 thus speaks of these institutions : " Some," he says, " will 
 object that this their hospitality was but charity mistaken, 
 promiscuously entertaining some who did not need and 
 more who did not deserve it. Yea, these abbeys did but 
 maintain poor which they made. For some vagrants, 
 ii
 
 i?8 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 accounting abbey alms their own inheritance, served an 
 apprenticeship, and afterwards wrought journeywork, to 
 no other trade than begging; all whose children were, by 
 their father's copie, made free of the same company. Yea, 
 we may observe that generally such places wherein the 
 great abbeys were seated swarm most with poor people at 
 this day, as if beggary were entailed upon them, and that 
 laziness not as yet got out of their flesh, which so long 
 since was bred in their bones." 
 
 As we shall see further on, not only the monasteries 
 but the hospitals and the parochial relief had broken down 
 before the passage of the Poor Law. In the meantime, 
 Henry VIII, envious of the abbeys' wealth and at outs 
 with the Pope, undertook to destroy the monasteries. 
 What came to pass through the dissolution was that the 
 volume of poverty and vagrancy was rendered more ap- 
 parent. Moreover, the burden of pauperism was in a sense 
 increased, for the beggars and loafers who had previously 
 managed to get a livelihood by going about from monas- 
 tery to monastery, had become more than ever troublesome 
 to quiet folk. 
 
 When it is said that the dissolution made the Poor Law 
 necessary, what is usually meant is that the monasteries 
 had previously furnished an adequate organization for the 
 relief of all such distress as misfortune brought upon the 
 laboring population, but there seems to be exceedingly 
 little evidence of this. No matter how strongly we may 
 condemn the motives and methods of the dissolution, it at 
 least had this good result that it abolished a number of 
 centers of pauperization. 
 
 We have seen how the economic changes, the religious 
 disturbances and the failure of established charities cre- 
 ated a very difficult situation. But these alone do not 
 account for the rise of a Poor Law and a national system
 
 BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 179 
 
 of relief. We have accounted for the need of something 
 new ; let us see if we can find a reason for the state becoming 
 the agent for its administration. 
 
 GROWTH OF NATIONALISM 
 
 Our clue to the explanation of this last fact is that the 
 Poor Law was simply one aspect of the growing nation- 
 alism. Before the sixteenth century, England was much 
 less a nation than from that time on. Economically, she 
 was a group of more or less independent and self-sufficing 
 local units. Politically, there was relatively Irttle unity. 
 The national government was not so strong nor did it 
 occupy so much of men's attention as later came to be 
 the case. 
 
 However, from the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century, there had been developed a " national economy " 
 as distinguished from a merely " town economy." But the 
 parliamentary movement of the fourteenth century was 
 premature. The increase in the quantity of legislation was 
 not accompanied by an equal increase in the control of local 
 by central authorities, while the weak rule of the Lan- 
 castrians and the dynastic feuds of the fifteenth century 
 left the towns pretty free to pursue their own interests. In 
 fact, economic development had hardly reached the point 
 at which there was urgent need for an organization wider 
 than that of the town. 
 
 But in the sixteenth century, the medieval town system 
 gave way in every direction, and its place was gradually 
 occupied by an organization of trade and industry which 
 rested on the wider basis of a national state. The con- 
 stantly increasing activity of parliament in enacting laws 
 prescribing the methods of industry, and applicable to the 
 whole kingdom, is evident on every side. Frequently, this
 
 i8o SOCIAL WORK 
 
 legislation was passed in the interest of the towns them- 
 selves, as over against the new domestic system which was 
 developing in the rural villages. But often, it seems to 
 have been primarily the result of having a stronger central 
 government, conscious of its own sphere of action. More- 
 over, the constant interference by and appeal to an 
 authority outside the town must have drawn men's 
 thoughts away from the latter and toward the nation as an 
 object of attention. 
 
 Some of the other factors in the development of 
 nationalism were the outcome of the Hundred Years' War 
 with France, the destruction of many noble families in 
 the Wars of the Roses, and the appeal which Henry VII's 
 regime of " law and order " made to the new commercial 
 and manufacturing classes. 
 
 There were, at this time, three other countries of 
 western Europe in which a national spirit and a strong 
 central government had been developed. These were 
 France, Spain and Portugal. The causes which lay behind 
 nationalism in these countries were very similar to those 
 which operated in the case of England. But of the three, 
 France was the only one which, in this period, introduced 
 a system of compulsory assessment for the relief of 
 the poor. 
 
 THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 
 
 The French effort in this direction seems not to have 
 lasted long. But in Germany, where a national conscious- 
 ness was less definitely organized, there was a rapid 
 development of public relief administered by local units of 
 government. This fact suggests that in England the 
 religious change was no less important than the political. 
 In fact, the Reformation meant an important change in
 
 BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 181 
 
 policy for all the Protestant countries. Previously almost 
 all charity had rested on the doctrine of the religious merit 
 of almsgiving carefully and continually taught by the 
 Catholic Church. Philanthropy was held to be strictly an 
 ecclesiastical function. But amid the religious upheavals 
 of northern Europe, it gradually became a secular and a 
 civil affair. To be sure, the state made use of the ecclesi- 
 astical machinery for the administration of relief, but with 
 the separation from Rome and a lessened emphasis on alms 
 as a means of salvation, the machinery slowly lost its 
 relation to the church. The parish became a unit of civil 
 government, and in general the state assumed the position 
 formerly held by the Pope. Hospitals that had been relig- 
 ious establishments were taken over by the towns or by 
 other secular agencies. 
 
 The background, then, of the English Poor Law 
 consists first in the important economic and social changes, 
 producing disorganization to an extent previously un- 
 known in that country. In the second place, it involves 
 the failure of the ecclesiastical system of charity, which 
 will be more adequately described in subsequent chapters. 
 Finally, it includes the growing spirit of nationalism, 
 which marks the sixteenth century in western Europe. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Ashley, W. J. : An Introduction to English Economic History. Lon- 
 don : Longmans Green, 1893, 2 vols. 
 
 Chapin, F. Stuart: An Historical Introduction to Social Economy. 
 New York: Century, 1917, Chapters 12, 13, 17. 
 
 Cheyney Edward P. : An Introduction to the Industrial and Social 
 History of England. New York: Macmillan, 1020. 
 
 Cunningham, William : The Growth of English Industry and Com- 
 merce. Cambridge: University Press, 1890-1903. 3 vols. 
 
 Eden, Frederick M. : The State of the Poor; or an History of the 
 Labouring Classes in England from the Conquest to the Present 
 Period. London, 1797.
 
 182 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Hayes, Carlton J. IL: A Political and Social History of Modern 
 
 Europe. New York: Macmillan, 1916, vol. I. 
 More, Sir Thomas : Utopia. New York : Macmillan, 1895. 
 Powers, G. W. : England and the Reformation. New York: 
 
 Scribners, 1905. 
 Ribton-Turner, C. J. : A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy and 
 
 Beggars and Begging. London : Chapman & Hall, 1887. 
 Slater, Gilbert : The Making of Modem England. Boston, 1913. 
 Usher, A. P.: Industrial History of England. Boston: Houghton 
 
 Mifilin. 1920.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH 
 POOR LAW 
 
 THE FIRST POOR LAW 
 
 Professor Ashley regards the Act of 1536 as the 
 beginning of the English Poor Laws. Its object, as 
 expressed again and again, was that none should " go 
 openly begging." To this end, the local authorities were 
 charitably to receive, and then to " succor, find and keep " 
 all the " jmpotent poor " belonging to their district. The 
 necessary means were to be provided by the collection of 
 alms in church on every Sunday, holiday, or festival, in 
 " common boxes " provided for the purpose. The clergy 
 were bidden, " as well in their sermons, collations, biddings 
 of the beads as in time of confessions," and at the making 
 of wills or testaments of any persons, to exhort their flocks 
 to show charity. 
 
 The Act altogether forbade " common and open doles " 
 on the two grounds that the gathering together of the 
 recipients led to the spread of infectious diseases, and 
 " that most commonly unto such doles many persons resort 
 who have no need of the same." " No person shall 
 make any common dole or shall give any ready money 
 in alms otherwise than to the common boxes and com- 
 mon gatherings." 
 
 In dealing with the " valiant beggars," the Act was less 
 complete. In the repressive laws, which had previously 
 been passed, it had been ordered that if found begging they 
 should be whipped and ordered off to their own parishes. 
 There was now added a provision for their benefit, to the 
 
 183
 
 184 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 effect that on producing a testimonial of having been thus 
 whipped and sent on, they should be given food and 
 lodging every ten miles. If they loitered on the way, a 
 part of the right ear was to be cut off ; and if they offended 
 again, they were to suffer death as felons. If they did 
 finally get home, there was only the vague direction that 
 the alms of the parish collected in the " common box " were 
 also to be used " for setting and keeping to work the 
 able poor." 
 
 There are several important features of this Act of 
 1536 which left Henry VIII with a somewhat better repu- 
 tation than might otherwise be the case. First of all, it 
 adds to the merely repressive measurescin^ attempt to do 
 something positive for the relief of the poor. Secondly, 
 instead of merely confining begging to the " impotent 
 poor," it lays down the general principle that no one shall 
 be permitted to beg/ The care of the destitute was 
 definitely required, and when this was once understood, 
 it was a natural corollary to introduce a compulsory assess- 
 ment if voluntary contributions were not sufficient. 
 Finally, as there was a perception of the fact that the able- 
 bodied may not always be able to find employment, there 
 was added the requirement that the parish should furnish 
 work to the able-bodied persons who might be in need. 
 This Act lays down the general principles which governed 
 the subsequent development of the Poor Law, and may, 
 therefore, be regarded as the foundation of the national 
 system of relief in England. 
 
 There must have been a housing problem in the six- 
 teenth century, with which we of the twentieth century 
 can well sympathize. Curiously enough, this seems to 
 have arisen in part from a law which provided that every 
 cottage must have four acres of land attached to it. The 
 assumption, apparently, was that this plot of ground would
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 185 
 
 provide the food required by one family. But it seems 
 that one result of this law was that the supply of cottages, 
 especially in the villages, was never sufficient because the 
 yeomen and farmers were unwilling to lose the four acres 
 of land which must be provided with each new cottage. 
 
 Therefore, in 1547, it was enacted that the local 
 authorities should provide " tenantries, cottages and other 
 convenient houses " for the lodging of the " impotent." 
 These cottages were to be built on the common or waste 
 ground of the community, provided the officers gained the 
 consent of the lord of the manor. 
 
 But apparently, there was much difficulty in obtaining 
 funds adequate for these purposes, and in 1555, it was felt 
 necessary to enact " that if any person being able to further 
 this charitable work do obstinately and frowardly refuse to 
 give help to the poor, the parson, vicar or curate, or church 
 wardens of the parish shall gently admonish him." If 
 they failed, the bishop was to try his persuasive powers. 
 If he was unsuccessful, it was added in 1563 that the 
 " obstinate person " was to be bound over to the Justices 
 of the Peace in rural districts, and to the mayors in towns 
 who should have authority " to sesse, taxe, and lymit upon 
 
 every such obstinate person according to their 
 
 good discretions, what sum (he) shall pay weekly towards 
 the relief of the poor within the parish where he 
 shall inhabit." 
 
 ELIZABETHAN LEGISLATION 
 
 It seems that in spite of all these efforts to compel pay- 
 ment to the parish officials for the relief of the poor 
 the funds remained inadequate. The church collectors, in 
 other words, were unsuccessful and probably resented. 
 Possibly it had not been easy to procure men willing to 
 undertake the collection and distribution of poor relief, so
 
 i86 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 in 1572 the second of the Elizabethan Poor Laws pro- 
 vided for the appointment of collectors and overseers as 
 civil officers with power to compel men to serve in these 
 positions for one year, or to forfeit the sum of ten shillings. 
 
 None of the laws previously passed had succeeded 
 in preventing fraud and imposition by persons able to sup- 
 port themselves. As an effort to meet this situation, the 
 Act of 1576 empowered the Justices in every county to 
 purchase or hire buildings to be converted into houses of 
 correction. They were to provide a stock of wool, hemp, 
 flax, iron, or other stuff for the unemployed, " to the intent 
 that they might be accustomed and brought up in labour 
 and then not like to grow to be idle rogues; and that 
 such as be already grown up in idleness and so rogues at 
 this present may not have any just excuse in saying that 
 they can not get any service or work." 
 
 Already there had come to be so many different laws 
 relating to poverty and vagrancy that there was more or 
 less confusion as to just what the administrative officers 
 were supposed to do. Consequently, there was passed in 
 1598, and revised in 1601, an organic act which brought 
 together the various provisions relating to the poor. First 
 of all, these acts divided the recipients of relief into three 
 classes the able-bodied poor, those unable to work, and 
 children. For the first class, work was to be furnished as 
 under the law of 1576, and refusal was to be punished by 
 stocks or imprisonment. For the " impotent poor," main- 
 tenance was provided in almshouses. Unless they were 
 children whose parents or grandparents might be com- 
 pelled to support them, dependent children were to be 
 cared for by apprenticing them the boys until they were 
 twenty-four, and the girls until they were twenty-one 
 or married. 
 
 The source of income was a tax to be levied and col-
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 187 
 
 lectecl weekly by overseers of the poor from every possessor 
 of lands, houses, or tithes in the parish " in such competent 
 sums as they shall think fit." If one parish were over- 
 burdened by its poor rate, the other parishes of the same 
 hundred or county were to " rate in aid." It seems that the 
 overseers could also draw upon two other sources of 
 income : lands or money left by charitable people for use 
 by the poor, and fines for the breaking of certain laws. 
 
 As to administration, the office of collector was com- 
 bined with that of overseer. For each parish there were 
 a number of overseers, to which group the church wardens 
 belonged ex officio, the remaining three or four being 
 nominated at the vestry meeting. However, the overseers, 
 as such, had no ecclesiastical duties, and the fact that their 
 office was coming to be regarded as civil is shown by their 
 appointment by the Justices of the Peace, even though their 
 nomination was made at the vestry meeting. 
 
 This law was the core of English poor relief until 1834. 
 By some, it seems to have been regarded as " a model for 
 all time." But there were those even in the seventeenth 
 century who criticized it severely. Thus complained Ralph 
 Dunning, who was an overseer of a parish in Devon: 
 *' Loose, idle persons clamour for relief when they need 
 none, and if their demands be not satisfied complain to the 
 J.P's, who never do, nor can do less than order the Over- 
 seers to come before them to answer and shew cause, etc., 
 and such Overseers as live far from the J.P. will often give 
 the clamourers relief merely to save themselves a journey, 
 especially when they have the wit to complain in a 
 busy time." 
 
 The difficulty seems to have lain, at least partly, in the 
 fact that the overseer was unpaid and had to make his 
 living as a farmer or tradesman. His duties were alto- 
 gether too extensive for an ordinary layman, and needed
 
 188 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 the detailed attention of a permanent official. As a result, 
 
 Dunning found that " the charge of the poor is 
 
 nearly double what it was thirty years since." 
 
 In 1630, an interesting step was taken in the direction 
 of unifying the relief system. A Royal Commission for 
 the Poor was appointed, and in the following year, this 
 Commission issued a book of orders and directions to the 
 Justices to insure the better administration of the Poor 
 Law. The Justices were to report every three months to 
 the Sheriff, who sent these reports through the Justices of 
 Assize to the Lords Commissioners. If the Justices of the 
 Peace were found negligent, this was to be reported to 
 the King. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT ACT 
 
 The first important alteration of the Law of 1601 came 
 in 1662 in what is known as the Settlement Act of 
 Charles II. It seems that poor people were crowding into 
 parishes where relief was plentiful and easily secured. 
 Moreover, it was true that outsiders who chanced to suffer 
 misfortune in a given community were regarded as con- 
 suming the means of caring for the poor who lived in the 
 parish. Also, there probably survived much of that 
 medieval feeling that every man belonged in some par- 
 ticular place, and should remain there. At all events, the 
 mobility of the poor created a problem which the Settle- 
 ment Act undertook to solve. 
 
 By this law, the parish became responsible only for 
 those who had legal domicile within its limits. Practically, 
 this legal residence was restricted to those who were born 
 or apprenticed in the parish, although in the first statement 
 of the law, domicile might be acquired by proprietorship, 
 sojourn, or service. Those who did not have legal residence 
 could be removed to the parish to which they belonged,
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 189 
 
 within forty days of their coming to the new community. 
 This action was taken by the Justice of the Peace, if, 
 in his opinion, the new-comer was dependent or likely 
 to become dependent. Moreover, any new arrival might be 
 required to give surety that he would not become a charge 
 upon the parish. 
 
 In one of its aspects, this law seems to have been an at- 
 tempt to bind the laboring classes to the soil. At all events, 
 it did restrict the mobility of labor and thereby hindered 
 the growth of industry, caused unemployment, and 
 probably increased the number of dependents. Not until 
 1795 was there any substantial change in the rigidity of 
 the Settlement Law. In that year, expulsion from the 
 parish was made permissible only when the person was 
 actually dependent, and not then if the Justice of the 
 Peace held the person unfit to travel. Lallemand, and other 
 Catholic historians, make much of the hardships imposed 
 by the Settlement Act, in support of their case that all 
 relief work should be done by the Church, rather than by 
 the State. They call attention to the terrible sufferings 
 of the sick and aged who were driven from parish to 
 parish, not only in England, but in Switzerland, Germany, 
 and the other Protestant countries as well. Without neces- 
 sarily accepting Lallemand's conclusions, we may properly 
 accept his report of these evils as thoroughly in accord 
 with the facts. 
 
 THE WORK-HOUSE TEST 
 
 The next step in the development of the English Poor 
 Law may be described as the rise of the work-house. As 
 we ha v e already seen, there was careless parish adminis- 
 tration of the funds, which produced increasingly heavy 
 expense for the care of the poor. In 1691, an effort was 
 made to meet this situation by requiring a register of
 
 190 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 paupers and the amount of relief granted to them. This 
 last was to be publicly examined at the annual vestry 
 meeting, and no name was to be added during the year 
 except by the authority of one or more Justices. However, 
 very little advantage, if any, seems to have accrued from 
 this piece of legislation, and the number of paupers kept 
 on growing. 
 
 In 1697 a special Act of Parliament authorized the 
 erection of a work-house in Bristol, where the local poor 
 could be put at remunerative labor. This seems to have 
 been sufficiently successful in reducing expenses to lead 
 other communities to imitate the Bristol experiment. 
 Because, however, some of the parishes were too small 
 to maintain separate work-houses, it was provided, in 
 1723, that parishes might unite for this purpose, and " that 
 no poor who refused to be lodged and kept in such houses 
 should be entitled to ask for parochial relief." This pro- 
 vision acquired fame as the " Work-house Test." So far, 
 the act might be held to have provided wisely. 
 
 But in another respect, it initiated a very serious evil. 
 It permitted parishes to " farm out " the poor on contract. 
 This simply meant in practise that the care of many 
 indigents was let by contract to the lowest bidder. It meant, 
 as a consequence, almost criminal exploitation and neglect, 
 particularly of young children and very old people. 
 
 In 1782, what is known as Gilberts's Act abolished the 
 " farming out " of the poor, and at the same time, initiated 
 certain other reforms. In order further to reduce the 
 expense of administering relief in small units, parishes 
 were permitted to unite, not merely for the establishment 
 and maintenance of work-houses, but also for the pro- 
 vision of out-relief (care of the poor in private homes). 
 This Act also provided, for the first time, paid officials, 
 known as " guardians," appointed by the Justices of the
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 191 
 
 Peace to administer both indoor (institutional) and out- 
 door relief. The assessment and collection of poor rates 
 was left to the overseers. The whole procedure was to be 
 supervised by the Justices, with the aid of visitors, whom 
 they appointed. Unfortunately, this law was permissive 
 rather than compulsory, and its provisions could be 
 adopted only upon their acceptance by a two-thirds vote 
 of the property owners in parishes which it was proposed 
 to unite. As a result, the system never became wide- 
 spread, although sixty-seven such unions were formed. 
 
 THE ALLOWANCE SYSTEM 
 
 Along with the reforms of Gilbert's Act, there went 
 the establishment of what is commonly known as the 
 " allowance system." It was an effort to mitigate the 
 cruelties connected with the enforcement of the Settlement 
 Act, and at the same time, to provide for those who were 
 able to earn a part of their support. This law expressly 
 stipulated that none but the old and infirm poor, the 
 mothers of illegitimates, and children not yet able to work 
 should be sent to the poorhouse. For the able-bodied poor 
 work was to be found near their own homes by the 
 " guardians," who were also to collect their wages for 
 them and apply the same toward their support, supple- 
 menting any deficiency by a grant from the relief funds. 
 This was the beginning of a system of wage subsidies, 
 which, for a time, threatened to pauperize the entire wage- 
 earning population of England. 
 
 This system of " allowances " seems to have reached 
 its culmination in the so-called Berkshire plan of 1795. 
 This scheme, which was not at first sanctioned by specific 
 legislation, but was widely used, provided for the relief 
 of all poor and industrious families whose income was 
 charged to be insufficient. The amount of the " allow-
 
 192 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 ance " was based on the price of wheat and the size of the 
 family. In 1796, Parliament legalized the aid of able- 
 bodied poor as a supplement to inadequate wages, and also 
 rescinded the " Work-house Test." 
 
 The results were such as might be expected: (i) a 
 tremendous increase in the amount expended for relief 
 from $10,000,000 in 1783 to $21,000,000 in 1803, and 
 $39,000,000 in 1818; (2) a marked decrease in wages; 
 and (3) evidence of a serious loss of independence, 
 self-respect, self-control and efficiency in the laboring 
 population. It was this situation which inspired the well- 
 known essays of Malthus and popularized his theory 
 of population. 
 
 But it would be a mistake to suppose that an unwise 
 Poor Law unwisely administered was the sole cause of the 
 evils indicated above. It should be remembered that this 
 was the period of the Industrial Revolution and of the 
 Napoleonic Wars. The latter meant the breaking up of 
 many families, a heavy burden of taxes and high prices. 
 The former meant a fairly complete economic and social 
 disorganization, which we have discussed in Chapter V. 
 The " enclosures," the factory system driving out the 
 domestic system of manufacture, the rapid growth of 
 towns and cities and the consequent changes in habits 
 of living and working would of themselves have broken 
 the morale of a large part of the population. 
 
 THE POOR LAW OF 1834 
 
 Whatever may have been the relative influence of 
 these several factors, Parliament was moved to appoint 
 an investigating committee in 1817. For some reason, all 
 that came of it was the change of a few details in the Poor 
 Law administration. But a second commission was 
 appointed in 1832, which worked for, two years and
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 193 
 
 brought in a report whose startling disclosures succeeded 
 in stirring Parliament to action. 
 
 After presenting its findings, together with a large 
 body of supporting evidence, the Commission offered three 
 important recommendations which were the basis of the 
 Law of 1834. It was proposed as a fundamental principle 
 " that the condition of the paupers shall in no case be so 
 eligible as the condition of persons of the lowest class 
 subsisting on the fruits of their own industry." The 
 re-establishment of the Work-house Test was recom- 
 mended as the only means by which the principle of less 
 eligibility could be practically enforced. Finally, in order 
 that the relief afforded to each class of paupers might be 
 uniform throughout the kingdom, the Commission recom- 
 mended the establishment of a central board of control. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the new law did create a central 
 authority consisting of three Poor Law Commissioners, 
 who were given extensive power over local authorities 
 to give orders and enforce regulations with minute 
 supervision through inspectors and auditors. The Com- 
 missioners were authorized to divide the country into 
 districts, which were called Poor Law Unions, to take 
 the place of the parishes as units of administration. Each 
 union was to have an unpaid Board of Guardians, which 
 was to appoint paid executive officers. 
 
 But not even at th* outset was the principle of national 
 uniformity put into effect. The local authorities were often 
 loathe to yield to the Commissioners, and the latter on 
 their part seem to have been somewhat uncertain as to how 
 far they should go in enforcing the " Principles of 1834." 
 In 1842 they issued what was known as the Outdoor 
 Labour Test Order, which permitted certain Poor Law 
 Unions to give outdoor relief to able-bodied persons on 
 condition of requiring a labor test. In 1844 they issued 
 13
 
 194 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 an almost contradictory set of instructions known as the 
 Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order. This forbade out- 
 door relief to able-bodied persons except under very 
 unusual circumstances. The General Consolidated Order 
 of 1847 provided among other things for a single work- 
 house in each union, to house all kinds and conditions of 
 paupers. This, too, was a deviation from the recommenda- 
 tions of the report of 1834, which had urged a number of 
 institutions for each union, making it possible to separate 
 different groups of needy people aged and infirm, 
 children, sick, etc. This work-house was not intended 
 to be used for the curative treatment of anyone. 
 " It was to be a place which, whilst it provided the full 
 requirements of physical health, starved both the will and 
 the intelligence, and forced the pauper into a condition of 
 blank-mindedness." Thus the principle of less eligibility 
 was carried out, not by less food, inferior clothing, worse 
 accommodations, etc., than were enjoyed by independent 
 laborers, but by monotonous toil, lack of recreation, and 
 absence of any mental stimulus. 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 The law of 1834 was the basis of the English public 
 relief system until very recently. To be sure, it was 
 modified, from time to time, and what is more important, 
 the administrative policies showed throughout the re- 
 mainder of the century a steady, though unplanned drift 
 away from the " Principles of 1834." In 1847 the Poor 
 Law Commissioners were abolished and their duties 
 transferred to the Poor Law Board under a minister 
 responsible to Parliament. In 1871, these activities 
 together with those pertaining to sanitation and public 
 works were transferred to the new Local Government 
 Board. The purpose of this consolidation was to overcome
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 195 
 
 the confusion arising out of the fact that several divisions 
 of the national government were dealing with the 
 local authorities. 
 
 Two important supplementary pieces of legislation 
 dealt with the law of " settlement " and the unit of 
 taxation. The Act of 1795 had not succeeded in elim- 
 inating the evils attendant upon the transportation of the 
 poor from parish to parish, so that there was passed in 
 1 846 a new law known as the Irremovable Poor Act. This 
 law forbade the removal of a dependent person who had 
 lived in a parish for five years. A later amendment reduced 
 this time to one year. The unequal burden on the various 
 parishes was supposed to be met by requiring the wealthier 
 parishes to " rate in aid." But this provision had never 
 been easy to enforce, and in 1865 the Union Chargeability 
 Act made the Poor Law Union instead of the parish the 
 bearer of the poor rate. 
 
 Perhaps the most significant changes during the second 
 half of the nineteenth century center around the develop- 
 ment of specialized care for various groups of needy people 
 sick, children, aged and infirm, insane, feeble-minded, 
 blind, etc. The Webbs point out that "this supple- 
 mentary policy was avowedly based, not on the principle 
 of a minimum of relief of destitution with deterrent 
 conditions, but on that of supplying whatever was neces- 
 sary for adequate training or treatment, without objecting 
 to the incidental result that this meant placing out in the 
 competitive world the persons thus dealt with in a position 
 of positive advantage as compared with the lowest class of 
 independent labourers, who plainly could get no such 
 training or treatment." 
 
 For dependent children there were provided " district 
 schools," and foster homes. The first district schools were 
 little more than enormous orphanages, but the system of
 
 196 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 " boarding-out " which was developed by the Local Gov- 
 ernment Board was much like the programs of the best 
 child-placing agencies of the present day. 
 
 For the sick there were established hospitals, dis- 
 pensaries, asylums and infirmaries. As early as 1853 the 
 Poor Law Board considered that the qualifications of its 
 medical officers " ought to be such as to ensure for the poor 
 a degree of skill in their medical attendants equal to that 
 which can be commanded by the more fortunate classes of 
 the community." 
 
 More and more the insane and feeble-minded were 
 gathered into specialized institutions where they might 
 receive the kind of care and treatment they particularly 
 needed. The blind and the deaf were afforded oppor- 
 tunities for an education in special schools. Thus the 
 work-houses, which in the first half of the century were 
 " catch-alls," came to be chiefly homes for the aged 
 and infirm. 
 
 By the time of the 1909 report of the Royal Commis- 
 sion on the Poor Law there had been a pretty complete 
 shift from the position of 1834. The principles of national 
 uniformity, less eligibility and the workhouse test had all 
 been practically discarded except in the case of " way- 
 farers and vagrants." For these, relief was offered only 
 in " casual wards " where food and accommodations were 
 distinctly inferior to those in the rest of the work-house, 
 and where there was, moreover, compulsory detention and 
 a task of disagreeable and monotonous labor. 
 
 In place of the discarded principles there had appeared 
 three which were practically unknown in 1834. The first 
 was that of curative treatment or rehabilitation, that is, 
 actually bringing about physical, mental or moral improve- 
 ment. This was unquestionably influenced by the humani- 
 tarian movements of which we have already spoken,
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 197 
 
 particularly by charity organization. But behind and 
 impelling both the public and the private agencies was the 
 growth of democracy and of modern science. 
 
 The second principle which had been emerging during 
 the latter part of the nineteenth century is described by 
 some as the " principle of universal provision." By this is 
 meant that the government is more and more doing certain 
 things for the whole body of citizens without reference to 
 destitution. Most immediately affecting the Poor Law 
 have been the development of education, sanitation, vacci- 
 nation, public hospitals, parks, museums, etc. These are 
 offered to all who care to make use of them, regardless of 
 their economic or social status. Again we feel the influence 
 of the growth of democracy. 
 
 Third is the principle of compulsion, that is, treating 
 the individual in the way that the community deems best, 
 with relative disregard of his opinion and feeling in the 
 matter. This is apparent in the restraint of vagrants in the 
 casual wards, the compulsory detention of able-bodied men 
 in work-houses under certain conditions, isolation of the 
 " mentally unsound," and of persons with infectious dis- 
 eases, removal of children from unfit parents, compulsory 
 vaccination, regulation of child labor and compulsory 
 schooling. This is, on the surface, an arbitrariness which 
 seems not to comport with our ideas of democracy. But 
 it has in mind the welfare of the individual immediately 
 concerned only a little less than that of the community as 
 a whole. It is entirely in harmony with a democracy which 
 stands far " the greatest good of the greatest number." 
 
 The contrast between 1834 and 1907 is so well stated 
 by Mr. and Mrs. Webb that we quote from their " English 
 Poor Law Policy." 
 
 " The ' principles of 1834 ' plainly embody the doctrine 
 of laisser faire. They assume the non-responsibility of
 
 198 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 the community for anything beyond keeping the destitute 
 applicant alive. They rely, for inducing the indivkiual to 
 support himself independently, on the pressure that results 
 from his being, in the competitive struggle, simply ' let 
 alone.' As the only alternative to self-support, there is to 
 be presented to him, uniformly throughout the country, 
 the undeviating regimen of the work-house, with condi- 
 tions ' less eligible ' than those of the lowest grade of 
 independent labourer. 
 
 " The ' principles of 1907 ' embody the doctrine of a 
 mutual obligation between the individual and the com- 
 munity. The universal maintenance of a definite minimum 
 of civilized life seen to be in the interest of the com- 
 munity no less than that of the individual becomes the 
 joint responsibility of an indissoluble partnership. The 
 community recognizes a duty in the curative treatment of 
 all who are in need of it; a duty most clearly seen in the 
 medical treatment of the sick and the education of the 
 children. Once this corporate responsibility is accepted, 
 it becomes a question whether the universal provision of 
 any necessary common service is not tl^e most advantageous 
 method of fulfilling such responsibility!" 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Aschrott, Paul: The English Poor Law System, Past and Present. 
 Translated from the German by H. P. Thomas. London, 1888. 
 
 Leonard, E. M. : The Early History of English Poor Relief. Cam- 
 bridge, 1900. 
 
 Gray, B. Kirkman: A History of English Philanthropy from the 
 Dissolution of the Monasteries to the Taking of the First Census. 
 London: P. S. King, 1905. 
 
 Nicholls, Sir George : A History of the English Poor Law, in connec- 
 tion with the legislation and other circumstances affecting the 
 condition of the people. London, 1854, 2 vols.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POOR LAW 199 
 
 Mackay, Thomas : A History of the English Poor Law. London, 
 
 1899. A continuation of Nicholls' two-volume work. 
 Ruggles, Thomas. History of the Poor; Their Rights, Duties and 
 
 the Laws Respecting Them. London, 1797. 
 Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring into the Administration 
 
 and Practical Operation of the Poor Laws, 1834. London: 
 
 Darling & Son, 1905. 
 Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: English Poor Law Policy. London: 
 
 Longmans Green, 1910. 
 Bosanquet, Helen D. : The Poor Law Report of 1009 : a Summary. 
 
 London : Macmillan, 1909. 
 
 Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission. Edited with Intro- 
 duction by Sidney and Beatrice Webb. London : Longmans 
 
 Green, 1909. 2 vols. 
 Ministry of Health. First Annual Report, 1919-1920, Part III. 
 
 Administration of the Poor Law, Unemployed Workman Act, 
 
 Old Age Pensions Acts.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 TRANSCENDING THE POOR LAW 
 
 THE high points in the development of a public policy 
 toward the problems of poverty in England are 1601, 1834 
 and 1909. The first date marks the culmination of the 
 Elizabethan efforts to fix responsibility for the poor upon 
 the various local communities. The law of 1834 con- 
 centrated the authority in the hands of a National 
 Department. The early years of the twentieth century saw 
 the introduction of two important measures which go far 
 beyond mere poor relief. By these, were established a 
 system of old age pensions and national insurance against 
 sickness, invalidity and unemployment. 
 
 The Poor Law had never succeeded in solving the 
 problems of poverty. It was always breaking down at 
 some point or other. But this fact alone did not give rise 
 to the changes which have been made from time to time. 
 Back of the first Poor Law lay the breaking up of feudalism 
 and the gild system, the Protestant Reformation and the 
 rise of Nationalism. Between that and the 'reforms of 
 1834 came still further strengthening of the central 
 government, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Industrial 
 Revolution. In the nineteenth century came the tremendous 
 growth of cities and the Democratic Movement. 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT 
 
 The Democratic Movement of the nineteenth century 
 
 inherited from the French Revolution its slogan " liberty, 
 
 equality and fraternity." In spite of the repressive 
 
 measures adopted by England, as well as by the more 
 
 200
 
 TRANSCENDING THE POOR LAW 201 
 
 reactionary monarchies on the Continent, these ideas made 
 steady gain and presently took tangible form both in the 
 political and economic fields. In politics this movement 
 was heartily espoused by the commercial and industrial 
 bourgeoisie. These new "captains of industry" were 
 seeking privileges for themselves in opposition to the 
 older classes, the nobility and the clergy. Moreover, they 
 were willing to share political privileges so long as their 
 economic position was not hurt. Therefore, we find them 
 standing strongly behind the movements to extend the 
 franchise, which resulted finally in giving practically every 
 Britisher the ballot. 
 
 But in the economic field, the democratic movement 
 was characterized chiefly by a struggle of the proletariat, 
 the new working class, not only against the nobility and 
 the clergy, but primarily against the new bourgeoisie. 
 Those phases of the movement for industrial democracy 
 which are usually called socialism or trade unionism we 
 have already discussed briefly in preceding chapters. 
 
 The number of persons who call themselves socialists 
 has never been very large in England, but the influence of 
 these people and of their spiritual kinsmen in other groups 
 has been very great. The Association of All Classes and 
 All Nations, the Christian Socialists, the Communist 
 League, the Social Democratic Federation and the Fabian 
 Society, all have made their contributions to this effort to 
 secure economic justice. 
 
 The trade unions, in spite of vigorous opposition 
 throughout the past century, have won a much larger fol- 
 lowing, until to-day an overwhelming majority of English 
 wage-earners are members of some union or other. 
 Through the Independent Labour Party, the Labour Rep- 
 resentative Committee and now the Labour Party, these 
 folk have been able to exert a powerful influence upon
 
 202 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 legislation, even though their representatives constitute a 
 relatively small group in Parliament. 
 
 In response to the democratic urge, there had grown 
 up branches of the national and local governments which 
 provided various services for the general population, 
 services which, moreover, definitely overlapped the work 
 of the Poor Law Authority. Among these were the 
 Education Authority, Health Authority, Lunacy Author- 
 ity, Unemployment Authority and Pension Authority. 
 Their existence suggested to many liberal-minded folk the 
 possibility of dispensing entirely with the Poor Law. 
 All along, the trade unionists, and still more the socialists, 
 had been calling for fundamental reforms which they 
 believed would make both the public relief system and the 
 private charities unnecessary. 
 
 THE POOR LAW REPORT OF 1909 
 
 It was in large part the influence of these liberal groups 
 that brought about the appointment in 1905 of a Royal 
 Commission on the Poor Laws and Unemployed. Other 
 forces which contributed to the demand for an investiga- 
 tion of the Poor Law were the ideas of business efficiency 
 which had developed in commerce and industry, and the 
 methods of case work developed by the charity organiza- 
 tion societies. Whatever the relative influence of these 
 various factors, a commission of eighteen members was 
 appointed and spent between three and four years assem- 
 bling evidence and drawing up its conclusions. 
 
 There were really two reports published by this Com- 
 mission, one, the official majority report, and another 
 presented by a dissenting minority. The majority repre- 
 sented the charity organization viewpoint and sought to 
 " widen, strengthen and humanise the Poor Law." The 
 minority report, which was signed by a member of the
 
 TRANSCENDING THE POOR LAW 103 
 
 Trade Union Congress, a member of the Independent 
 Labour Party, the chairman of the Central Unemployed 
 Body and a member of the Fabian Society, had as its 
 slogans, " Break Up the Poor Law " and " Abolish the 
 Work-house." The commission, however, agreed with 
 remarkable unanimity upon the failure of the existing 
 Poor Law and the necessity for something new. The 
 members united in condemning the Work-house, the 
 Union and the Board of Guardians as a system. They 
 admitted that the existing 'relief administration was 
 pauperizing, and that it encouraged low wages, under- 
 employment and " sweated " industries. 
 
 Primarily the majority report was devoted to the 
 relief system as such, and its purpose as expressed by Mrs. 
 Bosanquet was " to substitute a vital and organic system of 
 combined voluntary and public assistance for the mechani- 
 cal routine of the Poor Law on the one hand, and the 
 confused chaos of charity on the other." It recommended, 
 therefore, a reorganization under what it proposed to call 
 the Public Assistance Authority, subject to the general 
 control and supervision of the Local Government Board. 
 The local committees were to be appointed by the county 
 councils, " after appointment acting independently." 
 Correlated with them were to be Voluntary Aid Commit- 
 tees, each of which was to be " a recognized link between 
 public assistance and charity." It was intended that 
 " hopeful cases " should be dealt with by the private 
 agencies, leaving " State action for that section of the 
 community which needed the bridle, the curb and the spurs 
 to be disciplined." 
 
 The minority felt that "What is proposed by the 
 majority, in substitution for the relief afforded by the Dis- 
 tress Committees of the Unemployed, and for the meals 
 supplied to the hungry children by the Education Authori-
 
 204 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 ties, as well as for the work of the Boards of Guardians, 
 is, for all the novel terminology, essentially the present 
 Poor Law under non-elective administration." Indeed, it 
 looks to the outsider as though the majority was 
 seeking to glorify charity and to place the public 
 welfare work under the control of established private 
 philanthropic agencies. 
 
 At the same time, it is significant that in their discus- 
 sions and recommendations, the majority recognized that 
 relief giving alone was inadequate. Therefore, they 
 proceeded to recommend, as means of reducing unemploy- 
 ment, labor bureaus, unemployment insurance, conscious 
 efforts to decasualize labor, and compulsory school 
 attendance. To meet the needs created by sickness and 
 invalidity, they recommended a form of health insurance. 
 These compulsory insurance schemes were opposed by the 
 minority " in view of its probable adverse effect on Trade 
 Union membership and organization." 
 
 The main issue between the two groups of commis- 
 sioners is thus put by Professor Bosanquet, one of the 
 ablest advocates of the majority position: 
 
 "The antagonism cannot be put too strongly. The 
 Majority proceed upon the principle that where there is 
 a failure of social self-maintenance in the sense above 
 defined, there is a defect in the citizen character, or at least 
 a grave danger to its integrity; and that, therefore, every 
 case of this kind raises a problem which is ' moral ' in 
 the sense of affecting the whole capacity of self -manage- 
 ment, to begin with in the person who has failed, and 
 secondarily in the whole community so far as influenced 
 by expectation and example." 
 
 On which the Webbs, leaders of the minority group, 
 comment as follows : 
 
 " We have first the suggestion that, in all cases of
 
 TRANSCENDING THE POOR LAW 205 
 
 persons who need maintenance at the hands of the state, 
 there is, as a matter of fact, a moral defect, common to 
 the whole class and requiring specific treatment. Secondly, 
 we see creeping out from behind this suggestion a further 
 assumption as to the policy which ought to be pursued by 
 the Poor Law Authority. This authority, which is to 
 have in its charge all the heterogeneous population of 
 infants, children, sick and mentally defective persons, the 
 aged and infirm, the widows, the vagrants and the unem- 
 ployed, is to treat them, not with a single eye to what is 
 best calculated to turn them, or any of them into efficient 
 citizens, not even with a single eye to what will most 
 successfully remedy the ' moral defect ' which they are 
 assumed all to possess, but with the quite different object 
 or warning off or deterring ' by expectation and example,' 
 other persons from applying for like treatment." 
 
 The principle underlying the recommendations of the 
 minority is thus set forth in its report : 
 
 " When a Destitution Authority departs from the 
 simple function of providing bare maintenance under 
 deterrent conditions, it finds it quite impossible to mark off 
 or delimit its services from those which are required by 
 and provided for, the population at large. The function 
 of preventing and treating disease among destitute persons 
 cannot in practise, be distinguished from the prevention 
 and treatment of disease in other persons. The rearing of 
 infants and the education of children whose parents are 
 destitute does not differ from the rearing of infants and 
 the education of children whose parents are not destitute. 
 The liability of persons to be compulsorily removed from 
 their homes, because they have become a public nuisance or 
 a source of danger, must surely be the same whether 
 
 or not they are technically ' destitute.' What is 
 
 demanded by the conditions is not a division according to
 
 2o6 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 the presence or absence of destitution, but a division 
 according to the services to be provided." 
 
 The distinctive recommendations of the minority 
 report were that practically all the Poor Laws, including 
 the Settlement Acts, be repealed, that the Boards of 
 Guardians be abolished and their duties, property, etc., be 
 transferred to the County Councils. They proposed that 
 provision for children of school age be assumed by the Edu- 
 cation Comtmittee; provision for the sick and permanently 
 incapacitated, infants under school age, and aged needing 
 institutional care by the Health Committee; provision 
 for the mentally defective of all grades and ages by 
 the Asylums Committee; the aged to whom pensions are 
 awarded by the Pension Committee. In order to corre- 
 late the efforts which might be expended on behalf of a 
 single family, they urged the creation of the office of 
 Registrar of Public Assistance. 
 
 To meet the needs of the able-bodied, the minority 
 report recommended the establishment of a Ministry of 
 Labour to include six divisions: National Labour 
 Exchange, Trade Insurance Division, Maintenance and 
 Training Division, Industrial Regulation Division, Emi- 
 gration and Immigration Division and Statistical Division. 
 They urged further restriction of child labor, and the 
 requirement that young people under eighteen should 
 attend trade schools a certain portion of each week. In 
 order to help regularize the national demand for labor, 
 they recommended the planning of public work on the basis 
 of a ten years' program, so that in lean years the gov- 
 ernment might absorb the surplus labor, without having 
 to provide " busy work." For the ultimate residuum 
 of men out of employment, they proposed labor colonies 
 both voluntary and compulsory like those already 
 established on the Continent. This meant a serious effort
 
 TRANSCENDING THE POOR LAW. 207 
 
 to get away from the stigma of charity and pauperism 
 and put all, rich and poor, so far as possible on the same 
 basis before the law. Nevertheless, even the minority 
 saw that the measures proposed would not likely eliminate 
 the need of relief. Therefore, they proposed that there 
 should be certain provision for care in their homes of 
 widows with children, and a limited number of other 
 needy folk. 
 
 OLD AGE PENSIONS 
 
 As we noted before, the important feature of these 
 1909 reports is their common recognition of the inade- 
 quacy and the undemocratic nature of charity, and their 
 effort to provide something that would strike closer to 
 the roots of poverty and minimize the necessity 
 for relief. 
 
 During the course of the investigation and a year 
 before the report was made public, there was established a 
 system of Old Age Pensions. In this, England apparently 
 was influenced by the Danish pension system, and by 
 the German and French old age insurance acts. Under the 
 Act of 1908, nearly all persons over seventy years of age 
 are entitled to a pension of five shillings a week, or a 
 smaller amount if less is needed to bring the total income 
 up to thirteen shillings. There are certain qualifications 
 for the recipient of a pension. He must have resided in 
 Great Britain for twenty-five years and be a citizen. The 
 serving of a prison sentence, or indulgence in habitual 
 inebriety may disqualify him for a period of ten years. 
 On the economic side, he must be poor, but must not have 
 been a pauper. 
 
 In spite of the very high age limit, and other restric- 
 tions, the number of pensions was 667,000 in the first 
 year, and by 1912 practically seventy-five per cent of the
 
 208 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 population over seventy years of age was receiving old 
 age pensions. 
 
 There has been a feeling on the part of some that the 
 prospect of an old age pension would decrease habits of 
 thrift, would exercise a disintegrating effect on family life, 
 depress wages, and would impose an enormous cost upon 
 the nation. The experience of England does not seem to 
 have substantiated the first three fears, and the significance 
 of the reality of the fourth is not that the pensions are 
 objectionable, but that the extent of old age distress and 
 the need for support is much greater than most people are 
 willing to believe. Whatever arguments may be sustained 
 in regard to -the undemocratic character of the old age 
 pensions, it is clear that they are much more dignified, 
 business-like, and conducive to self-respect, than is the 
 usual charity. The amount of the pension is admittedly 
 too small, but in so far as it does suffice, it has the 
 advantage over poor relief that it does not wait until 
 the aged person is reduced to abject poverty. 
 
 THE NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT 
 
 In 1911, two years after the reports of the Poor Law 
 Commission, there was passed the National Insurance Act, 
 providing against sickness, invalidity and unemployment. 
 Like the Old Age Pension Law, this was influenced 
 largely by similar schemes already adopted in other 
 countries. In fact, Germany had initiated a national com- 
 pulsory system of health insurance as early as 1883, and 
 unemployment insurance had been introduced on a volun- 
 tary basis in 1905 by France and Norway. 
 
 The British Act of 1911 requires that all manual 
 laborers between sixteen and seventy years of age, and 
 all other employed persons with an annual income of less 
 than one hundred and sixty pounds, carry health insurance. 
 Voluntary insurance is open to persons not covered by
 
 TRANSCENDING THE POOR LAW 209 
 
 the compulsory system, whose earned income is less than 
 one hundred and sixty pounds. The benefits granted by 
 the Act are a cash benefit for disability, medical aid, a 
 maternity benefit both in money and in obstetrical aid, 
 and a funeral benefit. The maternity benefit, it should be 
 stated, applies both to insured women and the wives of 
 insured men. 
 
 The cost is divided among employers, employes and 
 the state, according to a sliding scale which adjusts the 
 distribution of the premium according to sex and rate of 
 wage. Technically, the British system imposes the com- 
 pulsion to insurance, but leaves the choice of carrier to the 
 individual insured person. The local administration is 
 in the hands of so-called Insurance Committees, which 
 consist of representatives of the insured, of the Physicians 
 and also of the local council and general administration. 
 
 The insurance against unemployment was at first 
 much more limited in its scope. It was compulsory only 
 in a limited number of trades representing construction and 
 engineering. It was planned to include not more than 
 one-fifth of the wage earners of Great Britain. As in the 
 case of the health insurance, the expense is divided among 
 employers, employes and the state. But instead of allowing 
 options as to the carrier, there is a single national 
 unemployment fund, into which all dues flow, and from 
 which all benefits are paid. 
 
 As we have repeatedly insisted, the old age pensions 
 and social insurance are of importance in the history of 
 social work, because they have developed as protests 
 against poor relief; against its insufficiency, against its 
 degrading character, and against its social injustice. The 
 ideal purpose of social insurance is to prevent, and finally 
 to eradicate poverty and the consequent need of relief by
 
 210 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 meeting the problem at its origin rather than waiting until 
 the effects of destitution have begun to be felt. 
 
 We have long been accustomed to protect ourselves 
 against one source of poverty by carrying fire insurance. 
 By this means, we meet in a business-like fashion the 
 calamities, which, in a country like Russia, give rise to an 
 enormous amount of suffering. Similarly, we have 
 developed commercial schemes of life insurance which, so 
 far as they can, prevent widows and orphans from 
 suddenly becoming destitute upon the death of a husband 
 and father. 
 
 Of course, fire insurance and life insurance do not by 
 themselves prevent fire or death, although the efforts of 
 the best companies are directed along preventive lines. 
 But, at least, they do prevent much poverty which would 
 otherwise arise from these incidents. Similarly, it is 
 pointed out by the Webbs that social insurance alone will 
 not prevent sickness, accidents and unemployment ; that it 
 will provide, after all, not a radical cure but primarily a 
 treatment of symptoms. Nevertheless, accident insurance 
 has greatly stimulated the invention and employment of 
 preventive measures, and so has had a real influence 
 in reducing the number of casualties. And there seems no 
 reason to doubt that the newer forms of insurance will 
 operate in a similar direction. 
 
 We have now traced the development of the English 
 Poor Law from its beginnings in the repression of beg- 
 ging, the regulation of individual alms, and the fixing of 
 public responsibility upon local communities, through the 
 development of a national system of relief, to the recent 
 efforts to supplant charity by such measures as those we 
 have just been discussing. We have seen the development 
 in England of a technique for organizing and adminis- 
 tering aid to the poor. We have followed the rise of
 
 TRANSCENDING THE POOR LAW 211 
 
 national responsibility for the problems of poverty. 
 Finally, we have recognized a growing consciousness of 
 the inadequacy, if not the futility, of all charity. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Reports of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Unem- 
 ployment. 3 vols. London : Wyman & Sons, 1909. 
 
 House of Commons Session Papers of 1909, Vol. 37. 
 
 Bosanquet, Helen D. : The Poor Law Report of 1909, London : 
 Macmillan, 1909. 
 
 Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: English Poor Law Policy. London: 
 Longmans Green, 1910. 
 
 Ministry of Health. First Annual Report, 1919-1920. Part III. 
 Administration of the Poor Law, Unemployed Workman Act, 
 Old Age Pensions Acts. 
 
 Chance, Sir Wm. : Poor Law Reform. The Case for the Guardians. 
 London: P. S. King, 1910. 
 
 Muirhead, John H. : By What Authority f The principles in com- 
 mon and at issue in the reports of the poor law commission. 
 London: P. S. King, 1009. 
 
 Lubbock, Gertrude : Some Poor Relief Questions; with the argu- 
 ments on both sides, together with the summary of the reports 
 of the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor. London : Mur- 
 ray, 1895. 
 
 Sutherland, W. : Old Age Pensions. London: Methuen, 1907. 
 
 Hoare, Henry J. : Old Age Pensions; their actual working and ascer- 
 tained results in the United Kingdom. London : King, 1915. 
 
 Hoffman, F. L. : Methods and Results of National Health Insurance 
 in Great Britain. Nat Civic Fed., 1920. 
 
 Halsey, Olga S., and Lasker, Bruno: The British System of Unem- 
 ployment Insurance. U. S. Bur. Lab. Stat. Bui. No. 212, 1917. 
 
 Alden, Percy : Democratic England. New York : Macmillan, 1912, 
 
 Rose, John H. : The Rise and Growth of Democracy in Great Britain. 
 
 Hayes, Carlton J. H.: British Social Politics. Boston: Ginn, 1913.
 
 PART IV 
 
 THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH AND 
 PHILANTHROPY
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 THE RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 
 
 To the present point we have, in addition to describing 
 what seem to be the outstanding features of present-day 
 social work, studied two of its forebears: nineteenth 
 century humanitarianism and the English Poor Law. 
 Back of these lie the ecclesiastical charitMl of the middle 
 ages and the mutual aid of medieval communities. When 
 we have examined all four, we shall have accounted in a 
 general way for the rise of social work as a profession, 
 with its numerous but more or less correlated remedial, 
 preventive and constructive agencies. 
 
 Each of these developments has brought a real contri- 
 bution of permanent value even though it might be bound 
 up with some very undesirable features. The great 
 contribution of the nineteenth century humanitarians was 
 the doctrine of " business efficiency." The English, in 
 working out their Poor Law, achieved the ideas of national 
 resjKmsibility for the problems of poverty and of the 
 inadequacy of all charity. The Church, as we shall 
 presently see, stimulated and cultivated a spirit of help- 
 fulness to all men, which first manifested itself in forms 
 devised for the mutual assistance of the members of simple 
 neighborhood groups. 
 
 RISE OF THE DOCTRINE 
 
 The charities of the Christian Church rested so 
 largely on the doctrine of the religious merit of almsgiving 
 that it is worth our while to examine this in some detail. 
 
 "5
 
 216 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Just when this doctrine first appeared is hard to say, but 
 there is pretty clear evidence of its existence among the 
 Hebrew people long before the founding of Christianity. 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT ORIGINS 
 
 One of the earliest suggestions of the idea that religious 
 merit is to be obtained through rendering assistance to the 
 needy appears in the Mosaic Law. " At the end of every 
 three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine 
 increase in the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy 
 gates: and the Levite, because he hath no portion nor 
 inheritance with thee, and the sojourner, and the father- 
 less, and the widow, that are within thy gates, shall come 
 and shall eat and be satisfied ; that Jehovah thy God may 
 bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest." 
 (Deut. xiv 128-29.) However, the rewards here sug- 
 gested appear to have no reference to another life 
 after death. 
 
 It has been suggested that the formulation of the 
 doctrine of the religious merit of almsgiving occurred 
 during the Babylonian captivity, when some of the Jews 
 were currying the favor of their masters for the sake of 
 personal advantage. Then it was that their leaders 
 appealed to them to be loyal to their own people, in spite 
 of temporal discomfort, because of the religious benefits 
 involved. However this may have been, we do find 
 through the Old Testament many intimations that one 
 might " break off his iniquities " by " showing mercy to 
 the poor." 
 
 After the establishment of the Christian Church, and 
 especially after its recognition by Constantine, this idea 
 began to assume prominence. Then the church fathers 
 went back and gathered up excerpts from the Bible and
 
 RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 217 
 
 read into them, very likely, many things which they did 
 not originally signify. 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS 
 
 They found in the New Testament as well as the Old 
 many verses which taught this doctrine, or into which it 
 could be read. Some of the best known passages are 
 these: "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one 
 of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of 
 a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose 
 his reward." (Matt. x:42.) " But when thou makest a 
 feast, bid the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind : and 
 thou shalt be blessed ; because they have not wherewith to 
 recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed in the 
 resurrection of the just." (Luke xiv: 13-14.) See also 
 Jesus' description of the Day of Judgment (Matt. 
 xxv : 31-46) and the story of Zaccheus (Mark x: 17-22). 
 
 TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH FATHERS 
 
 The idea that the giving of alms constituted a sacrifice 
 in the sense of a religious ceremony seems first to have 
 appeared in the teachings of the church fathers. Thus 
 Cyprian said, " He who will at the Day of Judgment 
 reward alms and good works listens more graciously even 
 today to a prayer if it is accompanied by alms." This 
 same notion was expressed by Origen in these words: 
 " Happy is he who fasts for the purpose of feeding the 
 poor." The Apostolic Constitutions also gave the express 
 injunction: " If anyone has nothing to give, let him fast 
 and apply the day's share to the saints." 
 
 Referring to the association of almsgiving with 
 fasting, Uhlhorn says : " However admirable may be the 
 strength of the love which thus imposed sacrifices 
 on itself that it might be able to give to others, we must
 
 218 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 not on the other hand ignore the fact that this combination 
 of almsgiving and fasting already announced a corrup- 
 tion of almsgiving by secondary motives of an ascetic 
 character. Emphasis was at least laid on the renunciation 
 therein shown, as well as on the love of the brethren. And 
 it was just this notion that there was some independent 
 moral value in self-deprivation of a portion of earthly 
 possessions which became, as we shall see, extremely 
 dangerous to charity ; nay, destroyed its inmost core." 
 
 So long as the Church was small and members for the 
 most part acquainted with one another, there was little 
 need for formal relief work. But with the increase in 
 numbers, and especially with the increase in wealth, after 
 the recognition of Christianity by Constantine, the church 
 fathers found it more and more necessary to present the 
 claims of the needy. One of the most ardent advocates of 
 almsgiving was Chrysostom, who was Archbishop of Con- 
 stantinople in the fourth century. In one of his homilies, 
 we find these words : " With whatsoever sins then thou 
 mayest be burdened, thy charity outweighs them all." And 
 in another homily, the following significant passage 
 appears : "To-day begins a trade in alms, for we see 
 the prisoners and the poor; we see those who wander 
 about the market; we hear how they cry, and weep, and 
 mourn; we have a wonderful fair before our eyes." At a 
 fair, however, there is but one object ; the man of business 
 has no other aim than to buy goods cheaply and to sell 
 them dearly. Such a fair has God opened to us : " Buy 
 the works of righteousness cheaply, to realize in the future 
 a higher price, if indeed it is allowable to call requital 
 realization. Here righteousness is sold cheap, sold for an 
 insignificant piece of bread, for a miserable garment, for 
 a cup of cold water. As long as the market lasts, let us 
 buy alms, or rather let us purchase salvation through alms."
 
 RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 219 
 
 In his homilies on St. John and the Hebrews, 
 Chrysostom outlined five ways of absolution of sins: 
 (i) confession, (2) forgiveness of others, (3) alms- 
 giving, (4) prayers, (5) fasting. " Let us then use every 
 means to wipe off filthiness. But first, the font cleanseth, 
 then other ways also, many and of all kinds. For God 
 being merciful hath even after this given us various 
 means of reconciliation, of all which the first is that by 
 almsdoing. ' By almsdeeds,' it saith, ' and deeds of faith 
 sins are cleansed away.' By almsdoing, I do not mean 
 that which is maintained by injustice, for this is not alms- 
 doing, but savageness and inhumanity. What profits it 
 to strip one man and clothe another? For we ought to 
 begin action with mercy, but this is inhumanity. If we 
 give away everything that we have got from other people, 
 it is no gain to us. And this Zaccheus shows, who on that 
 occasion said that he propitiated God by giving four times 
 as much as he had taken. (Luke xix: 8.) But we, when 
 we plunder unboundedly, and give but little, think that we 
 make God propitious, whereas we do rather exasperate 
 Him. For tell me if thou shouldst drag a dead and rotten 
 ass from waysides and lanes and bring it to the altar would 
 not all stone thee as accursed and polluted? Well then, if I 
 prove that a sacrifice polluted by plunder is more polluted 
 
 than this, what defense shall we obtain? And 
 
 dost thou in words entreat God to forget thy misdeeds, 
 and doest thou by what thou thyself doest, robbing and 
 grasping, and placing thy sin upon altar, cause him to 
 
 remember them continually? ' No,' saith one, * not 
 
 the same money, but other.' Mockery this, and trifling. 
 Knowest thou not that if one drop of injustice 
 fall on a great quantity of wealth, the whole is defiled? 
 First get free from rapine, and then show forth
 
 220 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 < 
 
 almsdeeds Now if he who brought too little 
 
 angered God, when one gives what is another's, how shall 
 he not anger Him?" 
 
 PAPAL INDULGENCES 
 
 Perhaps the clearest expression of the doctrine of the 
 religious merit of almsgiving is to be found in the indulg- 
 ences authorized by the popes and church councils. Thus 
 the Council of Ravenna, in 1286, accorded a year of 
 indulgences to bishops who served four indigents a meal 
 on each day of the week; to abbots who received two; and 
 to other prelates, deacons and archdeacons who performed 
 the same service for at least one unfortunate person. The 
 form of a papal brief of 1392 was as follows : 
 
 " Relaxation of seven years and seven quadragene to 
 penitents who on the principal feasts of th^ year and those 
 of St. James in the month of July and the dedication, the 
 usual octaves and six days; and of a hundred days to 
 those who during the said octaves and days visit and give 
 alms for the sustentation and recreation of the chapel of 
 St. James' poor hospital without the walls, London." 
 
 William, Lord Berkeley directed the executors of his 
 will in 1492: 
 
 " to purchase a pardon from the court of Rome, as 
 large as may be had, for this Chappie (Longbridge), from 
 evensonge to evensonge, in the feast of Trinity for ever, 
 for pleyne remission to them that will be confessed 
 and contrite." 
 
 Hospital proctors practically became peddlars of divine 
 favor, selling the forgiveness of sins for donations to their 
 respective institutions. Thus those who bought pardon 
 from the proctor of St. James at Canterbury were 
 informed that the benefit of thirty thousand Paternosters 
 and Ave Marias were freely imparted to them.
 
 RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 221 
 
 This doctrine, valuable though it unquestionably was 
 as a means of stimulating a spirit of self-sacrifice and of 
 helpfulness, nevertheless, seems very frequently to have 
 degenerated into what was essentially a commercial propo- 
 sition. There were, on the one hand, professional 
 almsgivers. Very often, neither they nor the original 
 donors appear to have been very much interested in the 
 effects of their alms on the recipients. They seem to have 
 been chiefly concerned about the profits in the form of 
 the salvation of their souls. On the other hand, there 
 grew up a profession of begging. The asking of alms 
 was the beggars' means of getting a living. Their 
 business was asking alms and praying for the souls of the 
 givers. But it must have been little indeed that they cared 
 about the donors' salvation. What they wanted was to get 
 all they could out of them. How similar to the ordinary 
 business transaction of to-day ! 
 
 It is quite possible to overdo this materialistic 
 interpretation. The Church with its doctrine of the 
 religious merit of almsgiving had provided a form which 
 practically all charity had to take. Even a man who put 
 himself fairly completely into the place of the beggar 
 would very likely, nay quite certainly, make his gift in the 
 established form. So, it is conceivable that a man might 
 have a genuine sympathy for the beggars, but offer his 
 assistance in the stereotyped manner laid down by 
 ecclesiastical dogma and common practice. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE DOCTRINE 
 INDIVIDUAL ALMSGIVING 
 
 The influence of this preaching by the Church will 
 appear more clearly if we examine some specific instances 
 of individual almsgiving. Aside from the dropping of
 
 222 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 money in the box at church and payments to collectors 
 who might come to the house, the most common forms 
 of individual alms were the endowment of hospitals and 
 the provision for distribution of food or clothing at one's 
 funeral service and its anniversaries. 
 
 As an example of the former, we find that in 1375 
 Barthelomeus Boudart restored Vaucouleurs, an institu- 
 tion destroyed by the enemy. He did this in a spirit of 
 piety and anxiety for the salvation of his soul : " pietate 
 motus, ac suae salutis non immemor." A citizen of Pistoja 
 expressed the same thought in his last will and testament, 
 in 1330. " The said testator leaves of his goods for the 
 healing and saving of his soul and those of his parents a 
 thousand and seventy Florentine denarii " for a hospital 
 which he goes on to describe. An English statute of 1414 
 speaks of " many hospitals founded as well by the noble 
 kings of this realm, and lords and ladies, both spiritual 
 and temporal, as well as by others of divers estates, to the 
 honor of God and of His glorious Mother in aid and merit 
 of the souls of the said founders." 
 
 In Paris, Denis de Mauroy, procurer-general, 
 expressed himself thus: (1411) "I will that from the 
 day of my death until eight days thereafter there be dis- 
 tributed daily three alms for God in honor of the blessed 
 Trinity of Paradise, to three poor people, furnishing to 
 each one a pint of wine, a three-gram loaf of bread and a 
 little white wine, and that they be charged to pray God for 
 me and for my said company." 
 
 Sir John Fastolf, whose will is dated 1459, established, 
 " within the great mansion at Castre by him lately edified, 
 a college of vi religious men, monks or secular priests, and 
 vi poor folk," for purposes which were essentially those of 
 a chantry, "to pray for his soul, and the souls of his 
 wife, his father and mother and others that he was
 
 RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 223 
 
 beholden to in perpetuity." Many a testator would have 
 echoed the request of Fastolf that his goods might be so 
 faithfully distributed in "almsful deeds and charitable 
 works " that he might obtain " the more hasty deliverance 
 of his soul from the painful flames of Purgatory." 
 A testator at Bury, in 1463, thought it worth while to 
 mention that he would " no common dole have;" what he 
 desired was that every poor man and woman should have 
 a penny, and two children a penny, but only on condition 
 that they were present at his solemn dirge, " to pray for " 
 him, and this " at the discretion of his executors." 
 
 Matthew Ernest, of London, in 1506, provided that 
 the church wardens of the parish of St. Dunstan should on 
 every Saturday give a penny apiece to five poor people, 
 alternately men and women. At the same time, the 
 recipients were to be enjoined to pray for the soul of their 
 benefactors. The same motive is clearly expressed by 
 Henry de Blois, bishop of Winchester, in his reference to 
 a hospital, " which I for the health of my soul and the 
 souls of my predecessors and of the kings of England 
 have founded." 
 
 The devotion of Queen Maud to the service of the 
 lepers, about noo, is of particular interest in this con- 
 nection. Aelred of Rievaulx relates how Prince David 
 visited her and found the house full of lepers, in the midst 
 of whom stood the queen. She washed, dried and even 
 kissed their feet, telling her brother that in so doing 
 she was kissing the feet of the Eternal King. When she 
 begged him to follow her example, he withdrew smiling, 
 afterwards confessing to Aelred: "I was sore afraid 
 and answered that I could on no account endure it, for as 
 yet I did not know the Lord, nor had His spirit been 
 revealed to me."
 
 224 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Of Walter de Lucy, the chronicler of Battle 
 Abbey writes : 
 
 " He especially compassionated the forlorn condition 
 of those afflicted with leprosy and elephantiasis, whom he 
 was so far from shunning, that he frequently waited upon 
 them in person, washing their hands and feet, and, with 
 the utmost cordiality, imprinting upon them the soothing 
 kisses of love and piety." 
 
 In the cases just cited, it is the practise of washing and 
 kissing the feet of pilgrims and lepers and the conspicuous 
 type of self-deprivation that indicate where the interest 
 was centered. The fact that these things, rather than the 
 rehabilitation of needy families, were recorded and 
 approved shows how thoroughly medieval philanthropy 
 was permeated with the idea that religious merit is 
 acquired through alms. It is also only fair to add that the 
 instances to which we have referred are typical of 
 thousands of records to which any student of history has 
 ready access. 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE DOCTRINE 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENT OF BEGGING AND IDLENESS 
 
 With this continued emphasis upon the spiritual 
 welfare of the givers, it was inevitable that the particular 
 need of the recipients should often be overlooked. Conse- 
 quently, there not only was failure to provide the things 
 most needed, but there was encouragement of begging 
 and idleness. This is clearly indicated by Fuller in his 
 "Church History " in the paragraph which we quoted in 
 a previous chapter. 1 
 
 The shortcomings of indiscriminate almsgiving are 
 recognized by the Catholic kistorians as well as by the 
 
 1 See page 177
 
 RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 225 
 
 Protestants and those without special interest in the 
 Church. Thus Lallemand says, " We cannot deceive our- 
 selves. These liberalities necessitated by the misfortunes 
 of the times favored idleness." Again, " These largesses, 
 these general alms, these allowances, which followed 
 funerals without possible distinction between the real poor 
 and the incorrigibly idle, gave rise to many abuses." 
 
 The same admission is made by another Catholic 
 historian, Georg Ratzinger. His conclusions are sum- 
 marized by Ashley in the following words : " In the 
 fifteenth century, and too often in the fourteenth, 
 the monks yielded to idleness and luxury, and love 
 for the poor grew cold ; the careful investigation and relief 
 of distress among the laboring population of the 
 neighborhood was given up; and nothing remained but 
 indiscriminate almsgiving at the convent gate. And 
 Ratzinger points out that even with the best intentions, 
 the distribution of alms at a number of centres scattered 
 very unevenly over the country, and without any system of 
 joint action, could not but be inadequate and hurtful. 'The 
 monasteries, hospitals, etc., were without what is the first 
 requisite for an orderly relief of the poor unity, concen- 
 tration, organization. Every hospital, each convent gave 
 alms, not only to the people of the district, but also to all 
 strangers who chose to apply, without having any power of 
 control over them ; ' and he adds, as the natural conse- 
 quence, that ' professional beggary, even with the harshest 
 laws, could not be overcome.' ' 
 
 If further evidence were needed of the utter failure of 
 the charities of the medieval church to solve the problems 
 of poverty, it could be found in the dozens of laws passed 
 in every European country for the repression of begging. 
 Some of these we have already cited in our study of the 
 English Poor Law. Surely, the nations of western
 
 226 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Europe would not have resorted to whipping, branding, 
 galleys, deportation and even slavery and death, as 
 punishments for begging, unless this had been a very 
 serious evil. 
 
 IGNORING OF FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS 
 
 But an even more serious effect of the philanthropy 
 which was based on the religious merit of almsgiving was 
 the ignoring of fundamental social problems. From the 
 very beginning of the Christian Church, there was an 
 acceptance of the established order. This was doubtless 
 due to the hope for an early return of the Lord and a 
 feeling that injustice in this world mattered little because 
 it would so soon be rectified in the next. Therefore, the 
 Church did not undertake to destroy the institution of 
 human slavery. It advised the slaves instead of caring for 
 freedom, rather to make good use of their calling as slaves. 
 Indeed, the Church itself became in the fourth and fifth 
 centuries the owner of a large number of slaves. From 
 the passing of the Apostles to the end of the Crusades the 
 expectation of an early return of the Lord was gradually 
 given up, but the notion that the social order was subject 
 to change did not enter men's minds for many centuries. 
 The unequal distribution of property, the social distinc- 
 tions between rich and poor, the subjection of women, and 
 other injustices which have by no means entirely vanished, 
 were long accepted as a matter of course, and no efforts 
 were put forth for their elimination. 
 
 For further evidence that the teachings of the Church 
 meant the ignoring of certain fundamental problems and, 
 indirectly at least, obstructed social justice, we quote the 
 following passage from Lallemand, who, it should be 
 remembered, takes the orthodox Catholic position that
 
 RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 227 
 
 all charity is a function of the Church alone, and should be 
 administered in accordance with its teachings. 
 
 "It is customary in some circles to quote isolated 
 phrases of St. John Chrysostom, of St. Basil, or other 
 Christian orators of that period, with the following com- 
 ment : ' See, these men are contemptuous of private 
 property. They are enemies of wealth, democrats stirring 
 up the crowd to take by main force that which is denied 
 them, veritable precursors of our modern socialists.' 
 
 " Nothing is farther from the truth. The fathers of 
 the Church take pains to preach resignation and patience 
 to the poor, showing them the future reward that will be 
 theirs if they bear their misfortunes in a Christian manner. 
 They oppose enviousness and revolution, declaring that 
 the rich man is accountable only to God for the use of his 
 wealth. The conclusion of their most passionate sermons 
 on behalf of the oppressed always includes an ardent appeal 
 for charity, not a provocation to spoliation. 
 
 " ' I have warned the rich,' cries St. Augustine. ' Now 
 it is for you poor people to listen to me. Give, but be wary 
 of taking anything. Stifle covetousness within you. You 
 have the entire world in common with the rich man, but 
 you do not have his house and estate in common with him. 
 You possess in common with him the sun by day to give 
 you light and make your work fruitful. Seek to gain that 
 which should suffice for your nourishment, but beware of 
 demanding more.' ' 
 
 In such words as these has the church often sought to 
 make the poor contented with their lot, and look to the life 
 after death for the good things which are denied them in 
 this world. Moreover, it seems to have been because of the 
 philosophy back of these words that the Church often 
 has not been the leader in social reform, but has rather
 
 228 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 been found on the side of conservatism and reaction. This, 
 of course, has not been universally true, but it has been 
 so generally so that it seems a just characterization of the 
 ecclesiastical position. 
 
 AN INCENTIVE TO PHILANTHROPY 
 
 The teaching of the religious merit of almsgiving has 
 unquestionably encouraged kindly feeling and sympathy. 
 It assuredly led to the relief of much suffering in a day 
 when everyone lived in a little neighborhood group and 
 regarded all outsiders with suspicion. It provided a tech- 
 nique for the extending of social relations. These were 
 the contributions of this doctrine. But at the same time, 
 it is clear that its application encouraged pauperism 
 and obstructed the solution of fundamental economic and 
 social problems. It seems fair to say that the doctrine of 
 the religious merit of almsgiving has served a valuable 
 purpose in the development of philanthropy, but that its 
 usefulness is long since outworn. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 I 
 General 
 
 Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Appleton, 1907-1912. 
 Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. New York: 
 
 Funk and Wagnalls, 1908. 
 Lea, H. C. : A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in 
 
 the Latin Church. Philadelphia, 1896. 
 
 Church History 
 
 Walker, W.: A History of the Christian Church. New York: 
 
 Scribners, 1918. 
 Ayer, Jos. C. : A Source Book for Ancient Church History, from the 
 
 apostolic age to the close of the conciliar period. New York: 
 
 Scribners, 1913.
 
 RELIGIOUS MERIT OF ALMSGIVING 229 
 
 Canfield, L. H. : The Early Persecutions of the Christians. New 
 
 York: Columbia University, 1913. 
 
 Bigg, Chas. : The Church's Task Under the Roman Empire. Ox- 
 ford: Clarendon Press, 1905. 
 Archer, T. A., and Kingsford, C. L. : The Crusades; the story of the 
 
 Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. New York: Putnams, 1895. 
 Brehier, Louis: L'glise et f Orient au Moyen Age: les Croisades. 
 
 Paris: Lecoffre, Gabalda, 1907. 
 l^arde, Andre: The Latin Church in the Middle Ages. Trans, by 
 
 Archibald Alexander. New York: Scribners, 1915. 
 Barry, Wm. F. : The Papal Monarchy from St. Gregory the Great 
 
 to Boniface VIII (590-1303). New York: Putnams, 1902. 
 Smith, A. L.: Church and State in the Middle Ages. Oxford: 
 
 Clarendon Press, 1913. 
 Ageorges, Joseph: La Vie et ^Organisation du Clerge sous I'ancicn 
 
 Regime. Paris, 1905. 
 
 Baur, F. C. : Die christliche Kirche des Mittelalters. Tubingen, 1861. 
 Fisher, Geo. P.: The Reformation. New York, Scribners, 1906. 
 Lindsay, Thos. M. : A History of the Reformation. New York: 
 
 Scribners, 1906-07.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL 
 CHARITIES 
 
 IT would be possible, if we were so inclined, to trace 
 the origins of ecclesiastical charities back to the tithes 
 imposed by the ancient Hebrews before the Babylonian 
 Captivity, but for our purposes it is sufficient to see how 
 mutual aid in the simple groups of early Christians 
 gradually developed into the very elaborate system of 
 ecclesiastical charities which was characteristic of the 
 middle ages. 
 
 THE EARLY CHURCH 
 THE ERA OF PERSECUTIONS 
 
 The descriptions which we have of the early Christian 
 Church indicate that it bore very much the character of a 
 big family. The numbers were relatively small, and they 
 were united on the one hand by the enthusiasm of a 
 new-found faith, and on the other by the persecutions 
 from without. The second chapter of the Book of Acts 
 pictures to us the custom of eating together. These com- 
 mon meals were doubtless primarily a religious observance, 
 but being daily participated in they constituted a powerful 
 bond of union among the early Christians. 
 
 In still another way was the unity of this simple group 
 manifested. The Church was open to all people of all 
 social classes and all races. Slaves, bondservants, and free 
 Roman citizens were taken in on equal terms. Greeks, 
 Romans and Jews sat down to the love- feasts together. 
 This did not mean, however, that the Church ignored the 
 230
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 231 
 
 existence of social classes. The Epistles of Paul show 
 clearly that the Christians accepted the institution of 
 slavery, and made little if any effort to overthrow it. The 
 position apparently was that this was a thing of the flesh, 
 and it was only spiritual relations that counted. More- 
 over, they doubtless looked to the world-to-come for the 
 alteration of social and economic inequalities of this world. 
 The belief in the early return of the Lord made this 
 postponement of social justice much easier to endure. 
 
 Another bond which held the early Christians together 
 as a simple community was the holding of goods in com- 
 mon. Thus we read in the fourth chapter of Acts that 
 " the multitude of them who believed were of one heart 
 and soul ; and not one of them said that aught of the things 
 which he possessed was his own; but they had all things 
 common." However, it seems that communism was not 
 obligatory nor long continued, but it does seem to have 
 had sufficient vogue to help bind the Christians together in 
 a simple family group. 
 
 Correlated with the more or less common holding of 
 property was the idea that everyone should support 
 himself, or that each should contribute in proportion 
 to his ability to the support of the group. Thus, we find 
 Paul writing to the Thessalonians : "If any will not 
 work neither let him eat." However, with the growth of 
 the Church, there appear to have been some who were 
 ready to impose upon their neighbors and to take unfair 
 advantage of the community. Paul was doubtless 
 referring to these when he continued in the sajne Epistle: 
 " For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, 
 that work not at all, but are busy-bodies. Now them that 
 are such, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ that in quietness they work and eat their bread." 
 
 The persecutions of the first three centuries not only
 
 232 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 united the Christians very closely, but also forced the 
 Church to be fairly exclusive. The espionage of 
 the authorities made it positively dangerous to take in 
 the stranger unless he could show credentials. Because 
 of the persecutions, it became necessary for the churches 
 to assist one another in times of special need. The New 
 Testament refers to a number of collections taken for the 
 benefit of the Jerusalem Church. 
 
 The first formal action for the care of unfortunate 
 Christians may be indicated in the sixth chapter of Acts: 
 " Now in these days when the number of disciples was 
 multiplying, there arose a (murmuring of the Grecian 
 Jews against the Hebrews because their widows were 
 neglected in the daily administration; and the twelve 
 called the multitude of disciples unto them and said : ' It 
 is not fit that we should forsake the Word of God and serve 
 the tables. Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among 
 you seven men of good report, full of the spirit and of 
 wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.' ' 
 This practise of appointing deacons, which was begun in 
 Jerusalem, seems to have spread to all of the churches. 
 It is indicated, moreover, in the letters to Timothy that 
 some women were given a share in relief work and that 
 widows were sometimes employed by the church for 
 this purpose. 
 
 The entertainment of strangers is very frequently 
 spoken of in the New Testament, and it is quite natural that 
 much stress should have been laid upon the practise of 
 hospitality, because the church had a strong missionary 
 character, and every member probably regarded it as his 
 duty to spread the Gospel. The command, " Go ye into 
 all the world and teach all nations " was taken quite 
 literally. Hence, it should not astonish us to find much 
 moving from place to place among the Christians of the
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 233 
 
 earliest times. The hospitality of the Church came after 
 a time to be abused by idlers, as well as by spies. There- 
 fore, it was necessary to take precautions for keeping these 
 undesirable and dangerous persons away. It became 
 customary not to receive a brother unless he could 
 authenticate himself to the church by a letter 
 of introduction. 
 
 An important phase of early Christian charity was the 
 visiting of Christians in prisons and ransoming those who 
 were made captives. In the course of the persecutions many 
 of them were condemned to the galleys, to quarries or to 
 mines, where they had to perform very hard labor under 
 exceedingly difficult conditions. The purpose of the 
 visitation was partly to provide for their physical needs, 
 partly to cheer them up, but particularly to encourage them 
 to persevere in Christian faith. 
 
 The Agape, or love- feast began, as we have seen, 
 simply as the common meal of a group of people who were 
 sharing their all. After a time the ceremonial aspect of 
 this came to be more emphasized, and it became principally 
 a celebration of the Lord's Supper. At the same time, it 
 was made a means of feeding the poor. But in many of 
 the churches, it seems to have become a fashionable 
 banquet for the bishops and other prominent persons in 
 which the poor had little or nothing to eat. 
 
 Some special attention was given to the care of 
 orphans and foundlings, largely no doubt as a humani- 
 tarian effort, and partly as a means of saving them to the 
 Church. The bishop was usually responsible for seeing 
 that dependent children were brought up at the expense of 
 the Church. The girls were to be given, when of mar- 
 riageable age, to Christian husbands, and the boys were 
 supposed to learn some trade and then be provided with 
 tools and placed in a position to earn their own living.
 
 234 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 As we have already suggested, the charity of the early 
 Christian Church began simply as a form of mutual aid 
 among the members of a simple group. As their numbers 
 grew the methods of giving relief became more formal. 
 But throughout the era of the persecutions, that is, the 
 first three centuries, relief was practically restricted to 
 members of the Church. Still there are instances of its 
 extension to outsiders. Thus, when there was a pestilence 
 at Carthage, Cyprian preached: "If we only do good to 
 those who do good to us, what do we more than the 
 heathens and publicans? If we are the children of God 
 who makes the sun to shine upon the good and bad and 
 sends rain on the just and the unjust, let us prove it by our 
 actions by blessing those who curse us and doing good to 
 those who persecute us." According to Eusebius, similar 
 aid to outsiders in time of an epidemic occurred at 
 Alexandria and at Rome. 
 
 FROM CONSTANTINE TO GREGORY 
 
 With the conversion of Constantine, Christianity 
 ceased to be a persecuted religion. The Edict of Milan in 
 313 granted freedom of religion to all faiths, but in the 
 course of time Christianity became practically the state 
 church. This laid the foundation for later religious wars, 
 and for persecutions by the Christians. Thus the demo- 
 cratic principle of Christianity did not come to immediate 
 fruition. Society was divided into Christians and pagans, 
 so far as the ruling view-point was concerned. 
 
 The Volkerwanderung, the wars between the Romans 
 and Teutons, meant the overrunning of all of civilized 
 Europe, devastations, confiscation, captivity, poverty and 
 misery of all kinds. The establishment of the Teutonic 
 kingdoms restored a measure of order, but there was a 
 clash of the old mores with the new. Serfdom was
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 235 
 
 growing very rapidly. The poor sought the protection 
 of the wealthy and strong. The wealthy needed men to 
 work their estates, and retainers to fight the invader. 
 The Church began to hold and to acquire property. It 
 soon owned many estates on which were many church 
 serfs and even slaves. Some of the bishops became very 
 wealthy and haughty. Democratic relations disappeared, 
 not only as between Christians and others, but even within 
 the Church. 
 
 During the three hundred years between the recogni- 
 tion of Christianity by Constantine and the development 
 of the Papacy under Gregory, the methods and agencies of 
 relief were survivals of those already described. There 
 was, however, one important innovation; namely, the 
 establishment of the xenodochia. These were institutions 
 for all sorts of persons who needed relief; orphans, 
 widows, the aged, sick, poverty stricken and travellers. 
 They were usually attached to some church, or later to a 
 monastery, and located along a main route of travel. They 
 were made necessary by the increase in the numbers of 
 Christians to a point where neither travellers nor the 
 various needy folk could be taken care of in private homes, 
 however hospitable. 
 
 During all this time the power of the Bishops at Rome 
 was increasing and, as Popes, they were able to a certain 
 extent to regulate and standardize the charities of the 
 various churches and religious orders. It was during 
 this period that monasticism developed to a position of 
 importance. St. Benedict, one of its conspicuous founders, 
 belonged to the sixth century. The spirit of this new 
 movement is thus described by Uhlhorn : " Men despaired 
 of pervading the whole mass with the leaven of the gospel, 
 and were contented that there should be individual saints 
 and perfect Christians. The genuinely ancient notion, the
 
 236 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 distinction between philosophers and the common people, 
 the aristocratic feature by which ancient ethic is perme- 
 ated, again found acceptance in Christianity and in entire 
 correspondence with ancient ethics, the contemplative life 
 of the Christian philosophers, of the monks, was esteemed 
 as higher and better than the life of ordinary Christians, 
 living and working in the world." 
 
 FROM GREGORY TO CHARLEMAGNE 
 
 During the two centuries between the elevation of 
 Gregory to the papacy and the crowning of Charlemagne, 
 feudalism became quite general and made European 
 society a hierarchy of castes. This economic and political 
 development reflected itself in the Church, whose demo- 
 cratic principle was more and mbre lost sight of. 
 
 The mutual aid of the simple neighborhood groups, 
 such as comprised the membership of the early churches, 
 was not organized charity in the exact sense. Neither was 
 the care which the bishops as feudal over-lords, gave to 
 their serfs. Organized charities generally have been called 
 into being by the breakdown of such primary social rela- 
 tionships. Charity, as such, was the aid given to persons 
 who did not have those intimate relations with the donor. 
 It was given primarily to detached individuals. 
 
 Now the occasions of detachment were pilgrimages to 
 holy shrines, the running away of serfs, and wars which 
 accompanied the Volkerwanderung, and the rise of 
 Mohammedanism. Other causes of poverty and distress 
 were the frequent famines, due to crop failures, bad 
 winters, and inadequate means of transportation. There 
 were also frequent epidemics caused by insanitary living 
 conditions and lack of medical science. 
 
 During these centuries, there was nothing that could 
 properly be called public relief. The Church in its various
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 237 
 
 aspects was almost the sole agency for the care of the 
 needy. The parish was especially responsible for its own 
 poor. The money was usually obtained from tithes, which 
 were divided into four parts : one each for the bishop, the 
 clergy, the church repairs and the poor. The relief might 
 be administered by distributions from the church, or by 
 care in a xenodochium. 
 
 Even more important as an agency of relief was the 
 monastery. Among the rules of some of the monastic 
 orders were a requirement of poverty and devotion to the 
 relief of distress. The monasteries found the source of 
 their distributions in the income from their estates, dona- 
 tions, legacies and collections. Sometimes they gave 
 indiscriminately to all who came to the abbey door; 
 sometimes they carried food to the poor in their homes ; 
 and sometimes they provided maintenance in the xenodo- 
 chium or hospital, as it was frequently called. 
 
 As we have already seen, the popes, bishops and lesser 
 clergy gave as individuals for the support of people on 
 indigent lists, and established foundations for institutional 
 care. These lists of the poor, called matricula, were also 
 kept by some of the monasteries and parish churches. 
 They were supposed to show who were eligible 
 for assistance. 
 
 Begging had become quite general, in spite of efforts 
 of the Church to discourage it. Sometimes beggars were 
 given permission to beg at church doors. The continued 
 practice of hospitality to pilgrims, the preaching of the 
 religious merit of almsgiving, and the indiscriminate 
 doles from monastery gates were chiefly responsible for 
 encouraging beggary. 
 
 Medical relief was usually given in the xenodochia. 
 Some of the nobles retained physicians in their house- 
 holds, but their skill was very limited. Bleeding was a
 
 238 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 common practice. The bulk of the populace depended 
 upon magic, sorcery, incantations, talismans, charms and 
 enchanted herbs, or took long pilgrimages to pray at the 
 tombs of the saints for bodily healing. 
 
 In western Europe the xenodochium continued as a 
 catch-all. But in the East abundant resources and 
 comparative peace until the rise of Mohammedanism in 
 the seventh century, made it possible to develop separate 
 institutions for the varied groups of needy persons. The 
 xenodochia became institutions chiefly for travellers and 
 strangers without means. In addition, there were institu- 
 tions known as nosochomia for the care of the sick, 
 brephotrophia for the care of dependent children, and 
 gerontochia for the aged. In the West, this development 
 of specialized institutions was retarded by the invasions 
 and wars of various sorts. However, we have record of a 
 foundling asylum opened by a priest named Dathus, in 
 Milan, in 795, in which infants were to be kept until the 
 age of seven, when they were to be apprenticed. 
 
 The results of the indiscriminate charities of this 
 period are thus described by the Catholic historian, 
 Lallemand : " We cannot deceive ourselves. These liber- 
 alities necessitated by the misfortunes of the times favored 
 idleness. With meritorious persons there mingled slaves, 
 fugitive clergy, debauched men and enemies of work. In 
 order to make, so far as possible, a sort of selection it was 
 advised to require from those who were unknown a letter 
 of recommendation. The Council of Tours in 567 
 attempted to remedy these numerous abuses by deciding 
 that each commune should be required to relieve its own 
 inhabitants in order to prevent begging and vagabondage." 
 Lallemand goes on to tell us that the efforts to correct this 
 evil were unsuccessful, and speaking of one of the capitu- 
 laries of Charlemagne, says : " It is needless to add that
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 239 
 
 this capitulary obtained no more results than its prede- 
 cessors The ninth century ended in the midst 
 
 of internal wars and Norman invasions. Christian charity 
 overrun could do no more than apply palliatives to such a 
 state of things." 
 
 THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 The break-up of Charlemagne's empire in 843 resulted 
 in a decentralization of political power, which lasted until 
 the modern period. Feudalism characterized the life of the 
 centuries that followed, with the relations of lord and 
 vassal, chivalry, petty warfare and the " hokus-pokus " of 
 medieval " justice." 
 
 MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Scholasticism was the dominant philosophy of the 
 middle ages. This meant that the great minds of the 
 time were devoted to theology instead of scientific 
 questions, and to problems of gaining heaven rather than 
 making the world here a better place in which to live. The 
 dominant and accepted philosophy was one of the fixity of 
 things. It presented in the intellectual world just such a 
 hierarchy as existed in the Church, in the feudal order and 
 even in the towns which presently grew up. It started 
 out with the assumption that the Church possessed all 
 truth by an infallible revelation. 
 
 The futility of scholastic thought is illustrated by 
 Anselm's argument for the existence of God. This argu- 
 ment is summarized by Rogers as follows : " We define 
 God as a being than which nothing greater can be thought. 
 Now there is in the mind the idea of such a being. But 
 also, such a being means existence outside the mind, for if 
 it did not, it would fail to be a being than which nothing 
 greater can be thought. A being with the added attribute
 
 240 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 of existence is greater than one merely in idea. Therefore, 
 God exists not merely in mind, but also as a real existence 
 outside the mind." 
 
 Contact with the Saracens and with the Jews brought 
 medieval Europe again into touch with the Greek philos- 
 ophers, whom for several centuries they had known only 
 through commentators, if at all. At first, the Church was 
 afraid and proceeded to frown upon Aristotle. But as it 
 perceived the popularity of interpreting and using him for 
 its own purposes, he was taken over in such a way as 
 almost to make him a saint. The following illustration 
 shows the way in which the dictatorship of Aristotle set 
 bounds to the intellect quite as effectually as the Church 
 had previously done through its own dogmas. The story 
 goes that a certain man thought he had discovered spots 
 in the sun. In reply to his claim, one of the schoolmen 
 replied, " My son, I have read Aristotle many times, and 
 I assure you that there is nothing of the kind mentioned by 
 him. Be certain, therefore, that the spots which you have 
 seen are in your eyes and not in the sun." 
 
 In the face of such a philosophy as this, it should not 
 surprise us to find that medieval philanthropy never 
 involved the idea of stopping the sources of poverty by 
 .removing injustice from the social order. Moreover, 
 we find here simply one more expression of the idea of 
 fixity which we have already seen to have had influence 
 in the statutes of laborers and in the early English 
 Poor Law. 
 
 THE CRUSADES 
 
 But quite without foreseeing its disorganizing and 
 disruptive consequences, the Church fostered a movement 
 which was destined to break up the rigid medieval system. 
 This movement was the effort of the Church to recover
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 241 
 
 control of the Holy Land. Now on the surface there was 
 nothing about the Crusades that was inconsistent with the 
 medieval scheme of things. But the setting in motion 
 of large numbers of people meant the break-up of many of 
 the little groups in which the majority lived. It called 
 forth also a volume of commerce which Europe had never 
 before witnessed, and thereby stimulated the growth of 
 the towns with their industry. It was the Crusades, 
 therefore, with their unexpected consequences which we 
 shall study in a later chapter, that provided the occasion 
 for a great deal of medieval philanthropy. 
 
 The principal agencies of relief during the later middle 
 ages were the monasteries, the hospital orders, the hos- 
 pitals which grew out of the earlier xenodochia, the 
 religious fraternities, the alms of individuals and the 
 monts-de-piete or religious loan banks. 
 
 THE MONASTERIES 
 
 In each abbey of the Benedictines there was a brother 
 called the porter, who regularly distributed money, 
 clothing and provisions. On the eve of great festivals, 
 especially large distributions were made. At Cluny, a 
 special dignitary, called the eleemosinarius, had as his duty 
 the care of the poor. He went to visit the sick in their 
 homes, once a week going into the house himself if it 
 were a man and sending aid by his domestic if it were a 
 woman. Toward the end of the middle ages, the monas- 
 teries suffered many abuses. We are told that " in the 
 fifteenth century, and too often in the fourteenth, the 
 monks yielded to idleness and luxury and love for the 
 poor grew cold. The careful investigation and relief of dis- 
 tress among the laboring population in the neighborhood 
 was given up, and nothing remained but indiscriminate 
 almsgiving at the gate." Hence, there was a movement 
 16
 
 242 
 
 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 to regulate the monasteries, both on the part of the Church 
 and of the civil authority. We have already seen how 
 they were completely abolished in England. 
 
 HOSPITAL ORDERS 
 
 Similar to the philanthropic work of the monasteries 
 was that of the military orders founded in connection with 
 the Crusades. One of the earliest was the order of St. 
 John, whose rule was recognized by Paschalis II in 1113. 
 Raymond de Puy divided the body into three sections: 
 (i) knights who were sworn to eternal warfare against 
 the infidels, (2) clergy who were to attend to the necessary 
 religious ceremonies and distribute alms to the poor, 
 (3) " serventi " who were to care for the poor and the 
 sick. In general, they seem to have set aside a part of each 
 commandery as a hospital, or else to have established a 
 hospital in connection with it. In addition, they main- 
 tained a number of separate institutions. There was one 
 in Toulouse, there were three in Florence and one in Posen. 
 
 Another of the hospital orders which arose out of the 
 Crusades was the Teutonic Order. This was authorized 
 by Pope Celestin II, in 1142, and developed in Germany 
 especially at the beginning of the thirteenth century. 
 Besides the three ordinary vows of poverty, obedience and 
 chastity, each member was required to consecrate himself 
 particularly to the care of the poor and the sick. Every 
 commandery was expected to have a hospital as an annex. 
 The first one established in northern Europe was the one 
 founded at Halle in 1200. This Order seems to have been 
 well organized and administered, but as time went on its 
 primitive zeal weakened, and in the course of the fifteenth 
 century most of the commanderies disappeared. 
 
 Other orders were the Cruciferi, which had fifty-seven 
 establishments in the thirteenth century, chiefly in Italy
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 243 
 
 and Germany; the Knights of St. James of the Swords 
 placed under the rule of St. Augustine in 1175, which 
 established shelters in Spain for pilgrims; the Order of 
 St. Elizabeth, whose work was principally in Germany. 
 In addition, there were the regular Canons of Penitence 
 established in Italy and afterwards carried to Prague and 
 Cracow. Their function was to provide for the needs 
 of the sick and the burial of the dead. 
 
 MONTS-DE-PIETE 
 
 Perhaps the most discriminating and the most 
 constructive of medieval philanthropy was the work of the 
 Monts-de-Piete, or religious loan banks. In spite of 
 the teaching of the Church condemning the taking of usury, 
 very high rates of interest were often charged. Perhaps the 
 general prohibition, and the fear of the lender that 
 his claim would not be supported was one cause of the high 
 rates. In any event we find cases in which the interest 
 would amount in six months to the principal and then be 
 compounded. Lallemand cites various rates from twenty 
 per cent, to fifty per cent, as being common in the fifteenth 
 century. Some attempts had been made to remedy this 
 evil ; one establishment for making pledge loans at reason- 
 able rates having been founded in Freisingen in 1198. 
 But these earlier attempts were temporary and disappeared. 
 
 The fifteenth century saw the founding of a great 
 many monts-de-piete in Italy. Sometimes they were 
 backed by citizens, very often they were the result of the 
 preaching of some monk or priest. The Franciscans, the 
 real founders of the Monts-de-Piete, followed two aims: 
 to relieve the small people borne down by usury, and to 
 prevent those who possess a bit of property from ruin by 
 borrowing foolishly for frivolous or immoral purposes.
 
 244 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Bernardin de Feltre proposed three principles which 
 he considered the basis of these institutions ; deposit of a 
 pledge worth more than the sum loaned, sale of the 
 unclaimed pledge after a definite period and return of 
 the balance to the depositor, and a low rate of interest 
 to cover the cost of administration. These fundamental 
 propositions were generally adopted, and experience con- 
 firmed their wisdom. 
 
 The statutes of the Monts-de-Piete of Parma (1488) 
 and those of La Mirandola ( 1495 ) , which with a few vari- 
 ations were merely a reproduction of the rules of Parma, 
 give us an exact idea of the administration of these 
 establishments at the end of the fifteenth century. 
 
 The governing board was made up of four ecclesi- 
 astics, three doctors, three merchants, and three other 
 laymen. The Depositario, chief receiver of pledges, must 
 be a capable and good man, fearing God. He kept track 
 of everything deposited and wrote everything carefully 
 on the registers. The Capserio or Fattore, the cashier, 
 handled the money. Like the receiver he was chosen for 
 one, two or more years; he might choose one or two 
 employes to help him in his work ; and he was responsible 
 for them. As to the place serving as a pawnshop it must 
 be spacious and guarantee safe-keeping. Two controllers, 
 Rasonati-Raxonati, named each year, related neither by 
 blood nor marriage to the receiver or cashier, audited the 
 accounts and registers kept by these functionaries one 
 month after they turned over their office. They received 
 a small compensation for this work. The interest charged 
 at the beginning of this work was naturally modest; at 
 Mirandola it was only five per cent. Nothing was charged 
 small borrowers. Money could be loaned only to citizens 
 who had real need, and not to persons disposed to employ 
 these sums for vain or unworthy purposes.
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 245 
 
 THE REFORMATION 
 
 We have described the development of ecclesiastical 
 charities up to the great division in the Church which took 
 place in the sixteenth century. After the Reformation, 
 the importance of the Church in the field of social work 
 gradually diminished in the Protestant countries, but 
 remained as great as ever in those lands which continued 
 Catholic. In the north of Europe many functions pre- 
 viously administered by the Church were taken over by 
 the civil authorities, and it was quite natural that poor 
 relief should follow this general course. But perhaps the 
 most important reason for the difference in the subsequent 
 development had to do with the doctrine of religious 
 merit of almsgiving. The " indulgences " which were one 
 of the chief bones of contention in the Reformation were 
 quite intimately associated with the idea of securing 
 salvation through alms. It was natural that the 
 Protestants should experience revulsion against this sort 
 of thing, for the time being at least ; and as a matter of 
 fact, it never recovered its former influence over the minds 
 and habits of the peoples of northern Europe. 
 
 The retention of this doctrine by the Catholic Church 
 was entirely in line with the reactionary position which 
 it assumed after the Reformation. It abandoned the 
 intellectual achievements of the Renaissance, turned its 
 back on humanism and returned to the sterile scholasticism 
 of the middle ages. It set itself against modern science, 
 denied Copernicanism, made Galileo retract his belief 
 tliat the earth goes round the sun, and burned Giordano 
 Bruno at the stake for similar teachings. It put its iron 
 heel on freedom of speech, and through the Inquisition 
 opposed progress of every sort and retarded the develop- 
 ment of Catholic countries.
 
 246 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 At the same time the Church instituted many internal 
 reforms, and corrected many of the evils against which 
 Luther and the other Protestants inveighed so strongly. 
 Beginning with Paul III, a series of reforms quite 
 changed the general character of the clergy. But on the 
 whole the position of the Church with respect to charities 
 was that which we have just noted. The Council of 
 Trent (1545-65), which started as an effort to reunite 
 the Christian world, ended, because of the deliberate 
 absence of the Protestants, in a restatement of the old 
 dogmas of the Catholic Church, and a return to the theol- 
 ogy and philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. From this time 
 on charity was urged as a means of defending the 
 Church and strengthening its position. It was insisted 
 that charity is a function of the Church exclusively. 
 Hence it was that the modern development of relief by 
 civic agencies came first in northern Europe, and has not 
 even yet really established itself in the Catholic countries. 
 
 As exceptions to the statement just made, we may 
 cite a few instances of public relief in countries which 
 remained faithful to Rome. Lille, in 1506, tried to bring 
 the charitable funds of the city together under the super- 
 vision of the municipality. Antwerp, in 1521, seems to 
 have had a well-organized bureau. The reforms of Ypres 
 will be discussed more fully in a later chapter. Madrid, in 
 1544, undertook to work out an elaborate system of 
 public relief. Toulouse, in 1538, levied a tax for the relief 
 of the poor. Paris, in 1582, had a commission to collect 
 alms and visit the poor. Lyons had, in the sixteenth 
 century, a municipal bureau of charity under the direction 
 of laymen. But these were exceptions, and most of these 
 developments were soon suppressed. The vast majority of 
 relief work in France, Spain, Italy and Austria continued
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CHARITIES 247 
 
 to be done under the direct supervision of the Church, and 
 by agencies founded and approved by the Church. 
 
 After the bitterness of the Reformation had somewhat 
 passed away, the Catholic charities began not only to adopt 
 some of the principles worked out by the Protestant, 
 Jewish and secular agencies, but also made their own 
 contributions to the modern techniques of social work. 
 Particularly through the great society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul, founded in 1833, with chapters in almost every 
 country, have the Catholics put into effect most of the 
 principles of the charity organization movement. They 
 have adopted the " case method " of work with individuals 
 and families. They have come to provide excellent 
 institutional care for children and old people, and they 
 have trained specialists in the various fields of social 
 work. One of the most recent efforts in America to train 
 professional workers for the Catholic agencies is the 
 National Service School for Women at Washington, D. C. 
 
 It is necessary to note these more recent developments 
 in order that it may be clear that ecclesiastical charities in 
 the twentieth century are by no means what they were 
 in the middle ages; that with relatively few exceptions 
 they follow the same principles and methods as do other 
 organizations. But the time when the Church was the 
 dominant factor in social work has definitely passed. That 
 time was the middle ages. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 General 
 
 Lallemand, Leon: Histoire de la Charitc. Paris: Picard, 1902-12. 
 
 4 vols. in 5. 
 Ratzinger, Georg: Geschichte der kirchlichen Armenfleyc. Freiburg 
 
 L Br., 1884. 
 Uhlhorn, G.: Die christliche Ltebesthiitigkfit. 3 Bde. Stuttgart, 
 
 1884-1890.
 
 248 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 Monks and Friars 
 
 Montalembert, Charles : Monks of the West; from St. Benedict to St. 
 Bernard. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1861-79. 7 vols. 
 
 Wishart, A. W. : Short History of Monks and Monasteries. Tren- 
 ton, N. J., 1900. 
 
 Palmer, Fr. C. F. : Life of P. T. Howard, Grand Almoner of Cathe- 
 rine of Bragama. (Sketch of the rise, mission and influence of 
 the Dominican Order.) London, 1867. 
 
 Pouille General des Abbayes de France et Benefices qui en dependent. 
 Paris: Alliot, 1626. 
 
 Military and Hospital Orders. 
 
 Bristed, Chas. A. : Military Orders of the Middle Ages. Cambridge, 
 
 1843- 
 Helyot: Histoire des Ordres Monastigues, Religeuses et Militaires. 
 
 Paris, 1715-1721. 8 vols. 
 Bedford, W. K., and Holbeche, Richard : The Order of the Hospital 
 
 of St. John of Jerusalem. London : Robinson, 1902. 
 Kingsley, Rose G. : The Order of St. John of Jerusalem. London : 
 
 Skeffington, 1918. 
 Taafe, Sir John : History of the Holy, Military, Sovereign Order of 
 
 St. John of Jerusalem. (Appendix of priginal material.) Lon- 
 don: Hope, 1852. 
 Oehler, Max : Geschichte des deutschen Ritterordens. Elbing : Wer- 
 
 nich, 1908-12. 
 Rink, Joseph Paul: Die christliche Liebesth'dtigkeit i Ordensl'dndcr 
 
 Preussen bis 1525. Breslau, 1911. 
 Perlbach, Max : Die Statuten des deutschen Ordens nach den altesten 
 
 Handschriften. Halle, 1890. 
 Wernher, Adolf: Die Armen- und Krankenpfiege der geistlichen 
 
 Ritterorden in friiherer Zeit. Berlin, 1874.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 
 
 THE philanthropy of the medieval Church was of two 
 general types; indiscriminate almsgiving and congregate 
 institutions for all sorts of people. The first, we have 
 already discussed. It is to the second that we shall now 
 devote our attention. 
 
 RISE OF THE HOSPITALS 
 
 As was indicated in the preceding chapter, the hos- 
 pital as a type of institution, had its beginning in 
 the xenodochium, which was at the outset a place for the 
 entertainment of travellers but presently came to serve quite 
 a variety of purposes ; furnishing shelter for the aged and 
 infirm, the sick and injured, widows, young children and 
 any others who might be in need of assistance. 
 
 These xenodochia were usually connected with a 
 parish church. As time went on and their functions 
 multiplied, such institutions were established under 
 a variety of auspices. Sometimes they were attached to a 
 monastery; sometimes to a commandery of one of the 
 military orders ; some were founded by bishops and other 
 high Church officials ; many others by kings and nobles. 
 Not a few owed their origin to some religious fra- 
 ternity, and later to a merchant or craft gild. Finally, the 
 new towns took over the management of existing institu- 
 tions, or founded new ones for the care of their citizens. 
 
 In the course of this medieval development we find 
 relatively little differentiation of function, nearly all of the 
 institutions being congregate in character and receiving 
 
 49
 
 250 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 the greatest possible variety of needy folk. But there was 
 considerable variation in the names applied. Some were 
 known as hospital or spital; a great many bore the name 
 Maison-Dieu or Domus-Deus. In England we find the 
 name almshouse, and in France Aumonerie. The character 
 of these institutions is not at all that which we have come 
 to associate with the word hospital. Miss Clay has made 
 this very clear. " It was an ecclesiastical, not a medical 
 institution. It was for care rather than for cure : for the 
 relief of the body when possible, but preeminently 
 for the refreshment of the soul. By manifold religious 
 observances, the! staff sought to elevate and discipline 
 character. They endeavored, as the body decayed, to 
 strengthen the soul and prepare it for the future life. 
 Faith and love were more predominant features in hospital 
 life than were skill and science." 
 
 The surprising thing to the modern student is the very 
 large number of these institutions which were scattered 
 all over medieval Europe. Ashley estimates that there 
 were over 450 in England alone at the time of the 
 Reformation. There were sixteen in the one city of York t 
 
 ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 
 
 RULES AND REGULATIONS 
 
 Admission to one of these institutions was sometimes 
 at the discretion of the warden, but very frequently at 
 the will of the patron. The founder, or other benefactor 
 of a hospital, frequently reserved for himself the right to 
 say by whom one or more of the beds should be occupied. 
 In some of the hospitals it appears that the candidate 
 had also to be approved by his future companions. 
 
 The appointment of the staff members was usually in 
 the hands of the patron who, as we have already seen,
 
 THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 251 
 
 might be a noble, a bishop, a wealthy burgess, or the 
 representative of some organization like the gilds. In a 
 few privileged houses, the staff brothers were permitted 
 to select a superior from their own midst and nominate 
 him to the patron. 
 
 The rules concerning payment and property were 
 often very much like those in modern homes for the 
 aged. In some cases the candidate for admission was 
 required to make a payment ; for example, at Dover loos. 
 Other hospitals had ordinances forbidding this practise, 
 but evidently this prohibition was easily got around, for 
 at St. Nicholas Hospital in York it was provided that 
 " without the fear of simony, the property of an incoming 
 brother might be received if given spontaneously and 
 absolutely." Both staff and inmates were frequently 
 under the threefold vow of chastity, obedience and 
 poverty. In early days a total renunciation of personal 
 goods was required of the inmates of many leper hospitals. 
 But in others this rule was never made or else was later 
 relaxed. The goods of a deceased member were ordinarily 
 distributed among the surviving inmates. 
 
 The rules of conduct generally required that the 
 brothers and sisters of the hospital staff be rigidly 
 separated, except at worship or at work. But in the case 
 of inmates who were not "professed," the men and women 
 seem to have lived a common life. From the modern 
 point of view there was a curious mixture of strictness 
 and laxity, particularly with reference to the lepers. This 
 was probably due to the fact that the rules were a matter 
 of discipline rather than of health. 
 
 For violation of rules, various punishments were 
 inflicted by the warden; among them, flogging, fasting, 
 fines, the stocks, suspension and expulsion.
 
 252 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 THE STAFF 
 
 The internal authority was usually vested in the 
 warden, whose power was frequently very great. But he 
 was subject to supervision from without on the part of 
 the patron or his agents. If an institution were main- 
 tained by a town or by a gild, its representatives would act 
 as visitors. 
 
 The staff of a medieval hospital was in charge of a 
 warden, who was also known as master, prior, custos, 
 keeper or rector. He was usually a priest, but occasion- 
 ally a layman, and in a few instances was described as a 
 physician. Under the warden were a number of brothers 
 who might be priests, monks or lay-brethren. One of 
 them, known as the proctor, was the financial agent. His 
 duties were " to preach and collect alms." Women were 
 frequently employed for bedside care of the sick and 
 various domestic duties. Some of the staff were merely 
 pensioners or beneficiaries who turned their property over 
 to the hospital and in return received their living. In addi- 
 tion to the regular staff, there were sometimes paid 
 servants who acted as cooks, bakers, brewers, smiths, 
 carters, laundresses, etc. Finally, there were the inmates, 
 the sick, the lame, the blind, the poor and passing pilgrims. 
 These, too, were a part of the working force, for even if 
 they could do nothing else, they were employed at praying 
 for their benefactors. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 
 
 As we observed before, the daily life in the hospital 
 was essentially religious. Both staff and inmates were 
 required to attend mass and keep the canonical hours. All 
 who were able to be up had to attend chapel, and the bed- 
 ridden patients worshipped at the same time. In many 
 cases a knowledge of the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin,
 
 THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 253 
 
 which was the standard form of worship for the illiterate, 
 was required as a condition of admission to the hospital. 
 It is said of some of the lazar-houses that admission to 
 them was equivalent to taking up the life of a " religious." 
 The lepers at Dover were required to say two hundred 
 Paternosters and Ave Marias by day and as many by 
 night. One member of the staff roused them from their 
 sleep by ringing the dormitory bell and the prayers were 
 repeated by the inmates sitting erect in bed. Each inmate 
 of St. Bartholomew's at Sandwich was required to take 
 a solemn vow binding himself to 
 
 " be obedient w 1 hooly deuocyon prayyng for the 
 
 founder of this place and in especiall I shall 
 
 be at the bedys (bedes) in the churche, and at matynys, 
 and atte messe, and euensong and complyne, as the 
 custome of maner is and usage so help me God, and all 
 holy dome, and all seints of heuen." 
 
 The almsmen of Ewelme said the following prayer 
 each night at the founders' tombs : 
 
 " God have mercy on the sowle of the noble prince 
 Kyng Harry the Sext and of the sowles of my Lord 
 William sum tyme Duke of Suffolke, and my lady Alice 
 Duchesse of Suffolke his wyfe, oure fyrst fownders, and 
 of theyr fadyr and modyr sowles & all cristen sowles." 
 
 William Wynard, recorder of the town of Exeter, 
 built a hospital and drew up the following prayer for the 
 use of inmates: 
 
 " O Lord Jesu Christ, Son of the Living God, have 
 mercy upon Thy servant William founder of this place, 
 as Thou wilt and as Thou knowest best ; bestow upon him 
 strong hope, right faith and unshadowed love, and grant 
 to him a good end, which is a gift above all others. Amen." 
 
 A similar prayer was used by the inmates of an alms- 
 house at Lichfield :
 
 254 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 " O God, who by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the 
 Comforter, pourest the gifts of charity into the hearts of 
 the faithful, grant to thy servant William the bishop, our 
 founder, and grant to Thy servants and to Thy handmaids, 
 for whom we implore Thy clemency, health of mind and 
 body; that they may love Thee with all their strength, 
 and with all joyfulness perforni such things as please 
 thee ; through Christ our Lord. Amen.'" 
 
 In the large hospitals founded by the Order of St. 
 John of Jerusalem, special litanies were recited at nightfall. 
 The inmates prayed for the advancement of Christianity, 
 the welfare of the Pope, the kings and princes, pilgrims, 
 prisoners in the hands of the Saracens and for those 
 whose alms supported the hospital. 
 
 PHYSICAL CARE 
 
 The fact that emphasis was put chiefly on the care of the 
 soul did not mean necessarily that the body was neglected. 
 However, the provision for physical comfort was very 
 different from, that to be found in modern institutions. 
 As to food, there were three classes of menus; one for 
 the regular inmates from day to day, another for religious 
 festivals, and another for casual sojourners. Just what 
 the food was we are not told. Lighting was, of course, 
 by candles, and heating was from wood collected in the 
 vicinity by the permission of the manorial lord. 
 
 In the early middle ages the sick and the poor slept on 
 pallets of straw, but wooden bedsteads seem to have been 
 introduced about the twelfth century. For a long time 
 real beds were so scarce that it was regarded as a matter 
 of some importance for a dying patron or pensioner to 
 leave his bed to the hospital. We are told also that there 
 was great difficulty in keeping the beds clean, and it is 
 regarded as quite noteworthy that in one hospital the
 
 THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 255 
 
 sum of 465. 8d. was set aside annually for washing the 
 bedclothes. We learn that bathing, washing of the head, 
 shaving, and changes of clothing were provided for in the 
 better hospitals. This suggests that none too much 
 attention was given to them in a great many instances. As 
 to clothing, there was usually a special habit for the staff, 
 another for the almsmen and a third for lepers. An inter- 
 esting sidelight on the attitude toward the lepers appears 
 in the statutes of S. Julian's. They ought " as well in their 
 conduct as in their garb to bear themselves as men despised, 
 and as more humble than the rest of their fellowmen," 
 
 FINANCIAL SUPPORT 
 
 The funds for maintaining these hospitals came from 
 endowments, bequests, fairs, admission fees, contributions 
 both voluntary and involuntary, and the alms of pilgrims. 
 
 In England the sheriff of the county was sometimes 
 responsible for turning over to a hospital the profits from 
 crown lands ; sometimes there were <rents from real estate, 
 and sometimes grants were made on account of a vacant 
 bishopric. In addition there were endowments in kind, 
 the kings, for instance, making grants from royal forests. 
 Men of humble circumstances, as well as kings and nobles, 
 sometimes left money to the hospitals. But in general they 
 seem to have depended upon the nobility and the clergy. 
 
 The funds of privileged charities were often assisted 
 by fairs. These were gala occasions, usually held at the 
 festival of the patron saint of the hospital. Ordinarily, 
 they lasted two or three days, but sometimes they were so 
 profitable that they were continued for as much as a fort- 
 night. Another important source of revenue was the 
 admission fee to which we have already referred. 
 
 Theoretically, the contributions made to hospitals 
 were voluntary. An interesting example, however, of
 
 256 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 involuntary contributions is involved in the privilege 
 which King- John of England conferred upon the lepers 
 of Shrewsbury. He gave them authority to dip their 
 hands into sacks in the market-place and take out 
 hand fills of corn and flour. Most of the contributions 
 were gifts of food, clothing, etc., rather than money. 
 Sometimes they were brought in by the donors, but 
 usually collectors went after them. Sometimes the inmates 
 themselves went about begging. If the proctor or other 
 collector went beyond his own neighborhood, he had to 
 secure a " protection," or warrant, from a king or bishop. 
 Thud, Henry III endorsed the cause of St. Giles at 
 Shrewsbury in these words : " That when the brethren 
 come to you to beg alms, you will favorably admit them 
 and mercifully impart to them your alms of the goods 
 conferred by God upon you." In addition, there were 
 appeals authorized by the Church, frequently in the form 
 of indulgences. Some of these documents we have already 
 examined in our discussion of the religious merit 
 of almsgiving. 
 
 Finally, the alms of passing pilgrims constituted fre- 
 quently an important source of income. Especially if a 
 hospital possessed some well-known relic would gifts 
 be made by those who sought healing in its presence. We 
 are told that the Maison-Dieu at Dunwich possessed a 
 cross of great reputation " whither many resorted to adore 
 it, who bestowed much alms." When this relic was taken 
 away, the inmates were greatly impoverished. 
 
 DECLINE OF THE HOSPITALS 
 
 It can be readily seen from this brief account that even 
 at the best the medieval hospital was ill equipped to care 
 for those who sought shelter at its door. But unfor-
 
 THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 257 
 
 tunately, it was not always at its best and abuses 
 appeared which still further reduced the usefulness of 
 these institutions. 
 
 Frequently the patrons demanded in return for their 
 benevolence, maintenance free of charge whenever they 
 desired it. Sometimes, official visitors used these insti- 
 tutions as hostelries for themselves and their friends. 
 Frequently the privilege of board and lodging was given 
 away by patrons as a reward for service, and sometimes 
 the " corrodies," as they were called, were sold outright 
 by greedy officials. So serious did this evil become in 
 England that a statute of 1315 provided that " there shall 
 be no more grants of ' corrodies ' at the king's requests." 
 
 There seems to have been much litigation about 
 patronage. Representatives of the first founder and those 
 of later benefactors quarrelled over their respective claims. 
 Another abuse was the practise of keeping important posts 
 unfilled. The same Parliament which checked Edward III 
 by the statute just mentioned received a petition stating 
 that hospitals were impoverished and destroyed by tem- 
 porary guardians during the vacancy of the warden's 
 position. Frequently the patrons neglected personal 
 supervision of the hospitals and as a consequence there 
 were many abuses by the wardens and the staff. It was 
 reported of one warden, about the year 1300, that "he 
 defrauded the poor of their alms, locked up the rooms 
 where strangers and sick should have been accommodated 
 and neglected the chapel." Occasionally investigations 
 by parliamentary authority, or by the towns, brought out 
 evidence that in many hospitals the members of the staff 
 were living about as they pleased, carrying on outside 
 business and neglecting their duties in the institution. 
 Not a few of the wardens were non-residents, and some 
 of them had charge of several institutions. A youth of 
 
 17
 
 258 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 eighteen was appointed warden at Portsmouth, and the 
 master of Newton Garth, 1427, was a boy of sixteen. 
 
 The decline of the hospitals in the later middle ages is 
 well described in Ashley's summary of Ratzinger's con- 
 clusions. " In Germany, he tells us, the usual course 
 of events, long before the end of the Middle Ages, was 
 as follows : the hospital, intended originally for the poor, 
 came to be looked upon by its clerical administrators as a 
 source of income, and at last was regarded very much in 
 the same light as a rich benefice. The descent was the 
 more facile because from the twelfth century onward most 
 of the hospitals were exempted from the control of their 
 diocesan. Those hospitals which were subject to the 
 General of the Order of the Holy Ghost were regularly 
 bestowed upon Roman prelates, to be held in commendam. 
 In France things were even worse. ' The whole history of 
 the French hospitals in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries is one of constant abuse. In some cases this was 
 due to the usurpation of the heads of the houses, who 
 dissipated the property of the hospitals, or used them for 
 their own advantage; who left the attendants without 
 means of support and refused to admit the sick and 
 hungry.' It was, therefore, ' fortunate for suffering 
 humanity, and the best thing that could happen for the 
 institutions,' that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
 such of them as still survived fell into the hands of the 
 burgesses of the several towns, and usually under the direc- 
 tion of the magistrates; an arrangement which was 
 confirmed by an ordinance of Louis XI in 1463." 
 
 The condition of things in England is thus described 
 by a statute of 1414 : " Many hospitals, founded as well by 
 the noble kings of this realm, and lords and ladies, both 
 spiritual and temporal, as well as by others of divers estates 
 to the honour of God and of His glorious Mother, in aid
 
 THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 259 
 
 and merit of the souls of the said founders, to the which 
 hospitals the same founders have given largely of their 
 moveable goods for the buildings of the same, and largely 
 also of their lands and tenements wherewith to sustain old 
 men and women, lazars, men and women out of their 
 senses and memories, poor women with child, and other 
 poor persons, and there to relieve, nourish and refresh them 
 (many such hospitals) are now in most part decayed, and 
 the goods and profits of the same by divers persons, both 
 spiritual and temporal, withdrawn and spent in other uses, 
 whereby many men and women have died in great misery, 
 for default of aid, living and succour." 
 
 Further evidence appears in a pamphlet called a 
 " Supplication for the Beggars," written about 1529. It 
 says, " What remedy to relieve us your poor, sick, lame 
 and sore bedmen ? To make many hospitals for the relief 
 of the poor people? Nay, truly, the more the worse, for 
 ever the fat of the whole foundation hangeth on the 
 priests' beards." 
 
 Finally, the failure of the hospitals to meet the needs 
 of the poor appears in the encouragement which they gave 
 to the practice of begging. The proctors whom they sent 
 about to beg for contributions were frequently described 
 as " sturdy lubbers " who lived on the fat of the land 
 and scandalized decent people by their behavior. They 
 were so numerous and their credentials so easily forged 
 that there grew up a whole swarm of fraudulent imitators. 
 Then again, the larger hospitals particularly offered food 
 and lodging to all who applied, providing they had the 
 superficial appearance of need. While they may have 
 made some attempt to distinguish vagrants from other 
 applicants, it was not possible for them to make any careful 
 inquiry. Hence it was easy for vagabonds to go " from 
 spital to spital, prowling and poaching for lumps of bread
 
 2 6o SOCIAL WORK 
 
 and meat." Thus, while the hospitals did relatively little 
 good, on the one hand, they were responsible for much 
 harm on the other. 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF SPECIALIZED INSTITUTIONS 
 
 In contrast to the usual congregate institution, such as 
 we have described, there was slowly developing specialized 
 care for different groups of needy people. 
 
 During the middle ages, the insane, feeble-minded and 
 epileptic were often regarded as possessed of devils or 
 bewitched. Outside of accusations of sorcery, they were 
 generally regarded as harmless and allowed to wander 
 about subject to public derision. If they became dangerous 
 they were shut up in common prisons. There was no 
 thought of cure, but only of public safety. Even in the 
 French law of 1791, the mentally abnormal were dealt 
 with as animals, and persons who had assumed their care 
 were held responsible for any danger they might do. 
 
 But a change began slowly to be made. The various 
 types of mental deviates were not yet differentiated, but 
 at least they were gradually separated from persons of 
 normal mentality. Bedlam Hospital in London is said 
 to have received such patients before 1400. Originally, 
 Bedlam seems to have been a priory, but Henry VIII 
 turned it into a hospital especially for the mentally abnor- 
 mal. An asylum was founded at Valencia, Spain, in 1409, 
 by Fray Gofre Gilberto, who had seen similar establish- 
 ments among the Moors. He started a society for their 
 care, which was called Association de los Innocentos. A 
 religious fraternity authorized in 1561 by Pope Pius IV 
 had charge of what seems to have been the first asylum 
 in Italy. At Modena, in 1654, there was an institution for 
 observation of persons suspected of being mentally 
 unsound. In Germany, The Netherlands, France and
 
 THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 261 
 
 even in Russia, there was a similar movement. Lazar- 
 houses were now scarcely needed; and in Germany, 
 convents were sometimes turned into lunatic asylums. Of 
 course, as yet, there was no notion of curing people 
 suffering from the various diseases which are included in 
 the term insanity, but even to provide separate custodial 
 care was a step in advance of the medieval system. 
 
 Special institutions for the blind seem to have come 
 still later. Just when they first appeared, we do not 
 know. But down to the eighteenth century the blind seem 
 almost everywhere to have been left to the chance alms of 
 charitable individuals. Sometimes, it is interesting to 
 note, they formed fraternities of their own in order 
 to beg to better advantage. The education of the blind 
 seems first to have been put on a solid basis by Valentin 
 Haiiy, who was born in 1745 in Picardy. He first edu- 
 cated a lad named Francois Le Sueur, and used him to 
 demonstrate the possibilities. In 1785, the Societe 
 Philanthropique allowed twelve pounds a month for the 
 benefit of twelve blind youths. From this an institution 
 grew. Raised letters enabled the blind to read. They 
 were also taught spinning, knitting, making thread, cord, 
 lace, upholstering, printing, music, etc. 
 
 It was in Spain, the land of notable exceptions, that 
 the first systematic attempt to consider the deaf and dumb 
 as rational beings, and to show that they were capable of 
 articulate speech, was made by Pedro de Ponce, a Spanish 
 monk, at Sahagun, and confessor to the King. This 
 benevolent ecclesiastic in 1570 instructed four deaf and 
 dumb pupils in speech. In 1620 Juan Pablo Bonet wrote 
 a book called " Reduccion de las letras y arte para ensenara 
 hablar los mudos." He presented the following methods : 
 pantomime, written alphabet, sign language, gutteral 
 alphabet. His students were few in number and belonged,
 
 262 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 as did those of Ponce, to noble and wealthy families. John 
 Wallis, an Oxford professor, succeeded in making some 
 deaf mutes talk in 1660. A Swiss, Jean Conrad Amman 
 (d. 1724), pretented to teach lip-reading in two months, 
 but he was a pure fake. Charles Michel de 1'Epee 
 (b. 1712) developed a method of mimicry, and also em- 
 ployed lip-reading. He received rich children only by 
 special arrangement. It was the poor deaf mutes in whom 
 he was most interested. 
 
 At the opening of the modern period there were 
 already foundjing asylums in Italy and Spain. Elsewhere 
 these infants were usually taken into the hospitals. 
 Illegitimate and some legitimate children were frequently 
 left at the doors of churches, monasteries and hospitals. 
 During the early modern period foundling asylums appear 
 all over Europe. 
 
 The religious purpose of many is illustrated by the 
 Work-house and Foundling Asylum established in 
 Dublin by the English government (1702-1704). Its pur- 
 pose was to save the lives of foundlings " and secondly 
 to educate and rear children taken charge of by the Insti- 
 tution in the Reformed or Protestant Faith and thereby to 
 strengthen and promote the Protestant Interest in Ireland." 
 
 The ease with which a mother could dispose of her 
 child, and the awful mortality among these infants are sug- 
 gested by Dudley Wodworth's account of this Dublin 
 institution in 1730. "A cradle, or turning wheel, for 
 taking the infants in, and a bell were provided at the 
 
 gate for use by day or night and this cradle 
 
 was but too often only the preliminary coffin of thousands 
 of wretched little beings who were consigned to its 
 cold clasp." 
 
 In contrast to the medieval hospital and the slow 
 beginnings of specialized care, consider the multiplication
 
 THE MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL 263 
 
 of highly specialized institutions in our modern com- 
 munities. First, the hospital is a place for the care of sick 
 people. But not only do we have general hospitals; we 
 have others specially devoted to children, to maternity 
 cases, to people suffering from communicable diseases, and 
 to psycopathic patients. Our institutions for mental 
 deviates are of several different types. There are custodial 
 institutions for chronic cases of insanity, low grade imbe- 
 ciles and idiots. There are institutions of the colony type 
 for convalescents and for higher grade feeble minded per- 
 sons. There are semi-educational institutions for morons. 
 Similiarly, our homes for the blind, the deaf and the dumb 
 are custodial only for the infirm, are educational for the 
 young and industrial for able-bodied adults. Our children's 
 institutions, while often of the congregate orphanage type, 
 are more and more specialized as hospitals, schools, and 
 receiving stations. Our almshouses are more and more 
 becoming homes for the aged and infirm. There are still 
 many relics of the middle ages with us, but this simple 
 enumeration is sufficient to indicate the long steps forward 
 which have already been taken. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Clay, Rotha Mary: The Medieval Hospitals of England. London: 
 
 Methuen, 1909. 
 Bedford, W. K. : Notes on Old Hospitals of the Order. (St. John of 
 
 Jerusalem.) London: Harrison, 1881. 
 Bedford, W. K. (translator) : Regulations of the Old Hospital of the 
 
 Knights of St. John at Valetto, from a copy printed at Rome and 
 
 preserved in the Archives of Malta. 
 Nutting, M. A., and Dock, L. L. : History of Nursing. New York : 
 
 Putnams, 1907-12. 4 vols. 
 Haesar, F. : Ceschichte christlither Krankenpflege und Pftcgerschaf- 
 
 ten. Berlin. 1857. 
 Julius, Nicolaus Heinrich : An Essay on the Public Care for the Sick 
 
 as Produced by Christianism. Hamburg, 1825. 
 See also list of readings for Chapter XIV.
 
 % PART V 
 
 MUTUAL AID IN MEDIEVAL COMMUNITIES
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 MANOR AND PARISH 
 
 WHENEVER we find members of the same family, 
 intimate neighborhood or club helping one another, we 
 are not accustomed to describe this as charity or phil- 
 anthropy or social work. These words do not seem to fit. 
 Charity, as such, appears to have arisen out of the necessity 
 of doing something for those who did not belong to the 
 same " primary " group with the benefactor. It was their 
 detachment, coupled with their distress, that furnished the 
 occasion for what we call welfare work. 
 
 But even these would hardly have called forth organ- 
 ized philanthropy had there not been some powerful 
 incentive. Now the medieval world did have such an 
 incentive in the doctrine of the religious merit of alms- 
 giving. Ordinarily, the outsider, the foreigner, the 
 stranger, was viewed with suspicion. He was a potential, 
 if not an actual, enemy. But if he were suffering or in 
 distress, he was a potential asset, for he provided an oppor- 
 tunity to exercise the Christian virtue of charity. All this 
 we have discussed in a previous chapter. 
 
 It is our purpose here to study the transition from the 
 simple situation in which practically everyone belonged to 
 some simple group and stayed pretty closely at home to the 
 more complex life of a mobile population with many 
 detached individuals. We shall examine the parallel 
 development of mutual aid and neighborliness into rela- 
 tively formal and organized relief-giving.
 
 268 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 PRIMARY GROUP LIFE 
 FIXITY AND ISOLATION 
 
 After the break-up of Charlemagne's Empire in the 
 ninth century, the political life of western Europe was 
 pretty thoroughly decentralized. The same disorganiza- 
 tion seems to have occurred in the economic realm as well. 
 This meant that through the middle ages most people lived 
 in small groups and had exceedingly little to do 
 with outsiders. 
 
 To be sure, there were feudal relations, whereby the 
 lord of a manor was bound to some great overlord, king 
 or emperor. But even down into the modern period this 
 had relatively little effect upon the lives of the people who 
 made up the average medieval community. 
 
 The social structure of the middle ages may be 
 described as an enormous number of small and practically 
 independent units. Within one of these local groups, be 
 it manor, parish, gild or religious community everybody 
 was intimately acquainted with everybody else. As a gen- 
 eral thing there was blood kinship between the members of 
 such a group. Moreover, they carried on whatever 
 activities were necessary for their existence, raising their 
 own food, making their own clothing and otherwise sup- 
 plying their various wants. Whatever they produced was 
 for home consumption, and trade with other communities 
 was so slight as to be well-nigh negligible. 
 
 The relation with outsiders and the members of other 
 communities was usually one of hostility, which meant 
 that there was almost no social contact in a real sense of 
 the term. Wars between the various nobles involved the 
 population in an almost continual state of belligerence. 
 These petty wars consisted in a sudden invasion of neigh- 
 boring territory, devastation of the fields, perhaps a laying
 
 MEDIEVAL COMMUNITIES 269 
 
 siege to the castle, a bit of open fighting, perhaps the 
 capture of some nobleman and the payment of a ransom 
 by his retainers. Against this continuous fighting the 
 Church set itself, though with rather limited success. 
 However, it did secure more or less recognition for the 
 " Peace of God," whereby women, clergymen and mer- 
 chants were exempted from the fighting, and for the 
 " Truce of God," which was an attempt to restrict fighting 
 so as to have none on Sundays, Feast Days, etc. At one 
 time the " Truce of God " covered the period from 
 Wednesday night to Monday morning. 
 
 Other factors which contributed to the isolation of 
 the little communities in which medieval folk lived were the 
 very great difficulties of travel. The roads were exceedingly 
 bad, and because of the decentralization of government, 
 every few miles the traveller had to pass through the ter- 
 ritory of a new 'ruler. This meant the payment of frequent 
 tolls and customs duties, especially at bridges and ferries. 
 Besides, the bridges often were not kept up. And then 
 there were the "Robber Barons," impoverished noblemen 
 who had their retainers lie in wait for passing merchants 
 and others who might be forced to contribute to the lord's 
 treasury. All these things are bound up with the fact that 
 until the later middle ages there was exceedingly little com- 
 merce, although this was never wholly absent from the 
 countries of western Europe. Moreover, there were 
 occasional travellers going on pilgrimages or participating 
 in the crusades. 
 
 Perhaps the difficulties of travel and the extreme isola- 
 tion will be more fully appreciated if stated negatively in 
 terms of facilities which the twentieth century possesses but 
 which were altogether lacking in the tenth century. There 
 were no railroads, no electric lines, no automobiles or air- 
 planes, no telephones, no telegraph or wireless. There were
 
 270 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 practically no hotels, almost no books and absolutely no 
 newspapers or magazines. As a matter of fact, there were 
 exceedingly few people who were even able to read and 
 write. Thus there were practically none of those things 
 which make it possible for us to associate directly and 
 indirectly with people of every race and nation. It was 
 practically impossible for medieval folk to have any contact 
 with people beyond the local group in which they lived, 
 worked, played and worshipped. 
 
 LAWS AGAINST DETACHMENT FROM THE GROUP 
 
 Not only do we find a very high degree of isolation and 
 fixity, both geographical and social, but we find also a 
 strong feeling against any deviation from this manner of 
 living. Whenever anyone undertook to break away from 
 the community in which he had been born and reared, he 
 was faced with well-nigh insurmountable difficulties. The 
 majority of the people were serfs, bound to the soil even 
 more firmly than the Mississippi negroes are bound to the 
 sugar and cotton plantations. Travelling ecclesiastics 
 had to have special credentials from a bishop or the Pope. 
 Itinerate merchants were viewed with suspicion and were 
 controlled by strict regulations. A few quotations from 
 early English laws may serve to illustrate the fixity of 
 status and geographical location which seems to have 
 been general throughout medieval Europe. A law of Ine, 
 King of Wessex from 688 to 725, provided thus to pre- 
 vent the itinerate merchant from handling stolen property : 
 
 " If a chapman traffic up among the people, let him do 
 it before witnesses. If stolen property be attached with 
 a chapman, and he have not bought it before good wit- 
 nesses, let him prove, according to the wite (fine), that he 
 was neither privy (to the theft) nor thief ; or pay as wite 
 xxxvi shillings."
 
 MEDIEVAL COMMUNITIES 271 
 
 King Alfred (871-901) restricted those whom the 
 chapman took in his train. " It is also directed to chap- 
 men, that they bring the men whom they take up with 
 them before the king's reeve at the folk-mote, and let 
 it be stated how many of them there are ; and let them take 
 such men with them as they may be able afterwards to 
 present for justice at the folk-mote." 
 
 King Ine also tried to prevent the harboring of fugi- 
 tive theows (slaves) and ceorls (lowest freedmen). "If 
 a man accuse a ' ceorlish ' man of harboring a fugitive, 
 let him clear himself according to his own ' wer/ If he 
 can not, let him pay for him according to his own ' wer ' ; 
 (compensation) and the geithsman (military follower of 
 king or lord) in like manner according to his ' wer.' ' 
 
 Again : If " anyone go from his lord without leave, or 
 steal himself away into another shire, and he be dis- 
 covered, let him go where he was before, and pay to his 
 lord Ix shillings." 
 
 Finally, we may quote a paragraph from one of the 
 laws of King Aethelstan.who reigned in the tenth century- 
 " And we have ordained : respecting those lordless men of 
 whom no law can be got, that the kindred be commanded 
 that they domicile him to folk-right, and find him a lord 
 in the folk-mote ; and if they then will not or can not pro- 
 duce him at the term, then be he thenceforth a ' flyma ' 
 (runaway), and let him slay him for a thief who can come 
 at him : and whoever after that shall harbor him, let him 
 pay for him according to his ' wer ' or by it clear himself." 
 
 Thus it seems clearly to have been felt that the normal 
 thing was for everyone to belong to some local group and 
 to remain there throughout his life. In so far as there 
 was recognition of social problems, they were felt to have 
 arisen in connection with those who wandered away from 
 home, and their solution was sought in the preservation
 
 272 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 of an immobile population. This idea of fixity continued 
 for many centuries, attaining renewed prominence in the 
 Statutes of Laborers, which we have already discussed in 
 connection with the early English Poor Law, and persist- 
 ing later in the " Settlement Acts." 
 
 During the middle ages such legislation was directed 
 against a relatively small number of detached individuals, 
 but as time went on and the population became more mobile 
 increasing numbers of people were conscious of restriction 
 of their activity. The " Settlement Acts " in England and 
 corresponding laws on the Continent made a man's village 
 almost a prison. Some vestiges of the notion that fixity 
 is the normal thing still appear. There is still popular sus- 
 picion of the itinerant merchant, and the immigrant, and 
 the colored people who go from Southern plantations 
 to the North. The registration for military service assumes 
 a measure of permanence, and it was strongly urged by 
 many influential persons after the armistice that all 
 soldiers should be returned to the place of their induction 
 or enlistment. The fact that these ideas persist suggests 
 how very powerful they must have been in the middle ages 
 when the incentives and facilities for travel were infinites- 
 imal compared with those of to-day. 
 
 THE MANOR 
 
 We come now to a more detailed discussion of life in 
 some of the simple communities of the middle ages. The 
 simplest unit was known in England as a " manor " and 
 on the Continent as a "fief " or " beneficium." This 
 consisted usually of a few hundred acres which were tech- 
 nically the possession of a lord, who, however, owed more 
 or less definite fealty to some over-lord or king. Under 
 him there were sometimes "free " tenants, with relatively 
 modern relations to the lord. But for the most part, the
 
 MEDIEVAL COMMUNITIES 273 
 
 occupants of the land were "tenants in common," They 
 did not pay rent in the modern sense, but owed the lord 
 certain services, such as working on that part of the estate 
 reserved by the lord for his own use, carting, etc. In addi- 
 tion, there were dues in money, or in kind. Sometimes a 
 poll tax was imposed. Often there were fees for the use 
 of the lord's grist mill, wine press, etc. 
 
 The usual " fief " or " manor " consisted of a village 
 with several hundred acres of arable land surrounding it. 
 The cultivators of the soil lived in this village rather than 
 in isolated farm houses, as do the agricultural folk in 
 America to-day. Beyond the fields, there were stretches 
 of pasture and waste land and of woodland, where the pigs 
 might forage for food The arable area was divided up 
 into two portions. A considerable part was kept in the 
 hands of the lord, and cultivated under his direction, or 
 that of his representative, for his own personal benefit. 
 This was known as the " demesne." The rest was par- 
 celled out among the tenants. Now the holdings of the 
 several tenants or villeins, as they frequently were called, 
 were not compact fields but a number of acre or half -acre 
 strips scattered over the whole of the tillable area. Each 
 man had several separate strips in each of the three fields, 
 which were not separated by fences or hedges, but simply 
 by " balks " of unplowed turf. 
 
 The significant thing about the intermixed holdings 
 in the open fields was that each man was bound to cultivate 
 his strips in accordance with the rotation of crops observed 
 by his neighbors. There were also other forms of 
 common action and cooperation. The cattle of all the 
 tenants were turned out to graze over the stubble after the 
 grain was cut, as well as over the one great field whose 
 turn it was to lie fallow in that particular year. They 
 18
 
 274 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 turned their cattle out upon the common pasture or 
 waste, sometimes in proportion to the size of their 
 holdings, and sometimes " without stint." They seem in 
 many cases to have employed a village herdsman, shepherd 
 or swineherd. Thus the whole land of the manor seems 
 to have been cultivated on an elaborate system of joint 
 labor, and even the raising of stock seems to have been 
 generally a cooperative enterprise. These common activ- 
 ities bound the people together in a manner far more 
 effective than anything we know in the modern world. 
 Everyone's work was so bound up with that of the entire 
 community that he had exceedingly little opportunity for 
 individuality or to use any initiative, and custom ruled 
 supreme. But not only was the economic life a community 
 rather than an individual affair; the same thing was true 
 of the legal, religious and the general social life. 
 
 As a usual thing, each manor had its own law courts 
 for the maintenance of order. At frequent intervals court 
 was held at the manor house or the castle, attended by all 
 the villagers, for the punishment of petty offenses and the 
 transfer of holdings. All the villagers attended the same 
 church. Very often so large a portion of the tithes was 
 taken by the bishop or other high ecclesiastical official 
 that the priest had to be content with the altar dues, and 
 was glad enough to get a few acres of land, and add to his 
 income by joining in the common agriculture. 
 
 In general, the only important social distinction was 
 between the family of the lord, on the one hand, and the 
 villagers on the other. The latter formed a very simple 
 and relatively undifferentiated social organization. But 
 even among them, there appear to have been some distinc- 
 tions which increased as the middle ages advanced. There 
 were frequently some whose holdings were unusually small 
 and who did not possess any oxen or plow. There were
 
 MEDIEVAL COMMUNITIES 275 
 
 frequently some laborers whose status differed little, if 
 at all, from that of slaves. But these distinctions were as 
 nothing when contrasted with the gulf that separated 
 the peasants from the nobility. The villagers all worked 
 in the same way and their manner of life was the same. 
 The system of joint cultivation and the life of the village 
 street made them feel their common interests. The 
 absence of money also contributed to the personal nature 
 of relations between the inhabitants of the manor. 
 
 As we have already intimated, the great majority were 
 bound to the soil, at least in the sense that the lord would 
 demand a heavy fine before he would give one of his 
 vassals permission to leave the estate. A father might buy 
 permission for his son to become a rnonk, and younger 
 sons might go off to one of the towns to seek their fortune 
 in one of the craft gilds. But ordinarily a tenant would 
 not be likely to leave unless he could get some land on 
 some other estate. This he could not gain if he went 
 empty-handed, and he was pretty certain to have to go 
 empty-handed, because of the general rule that villeins 
 should not sell their live stock without permission. 
 
 MUTUAL AID 
 
 It is interesting to observe that there is no historical 
 mention of charity within the manor or fief. When any- 
 one suffered misfortune, he was among friends and 
 relatives who were accustomed to share all the experiences 
 of life and who would, therefore, attend to his need. Now 
 distress and poverty were surely no less frequent in the 
 middle ages than to-day, but the difference is that whereas 
 now we usually face misfortune as individuals, then the 
 burden was assumed by these little compact neighborhood 
 groups. If there were a crop failure it affected the entire 
 estate. If there were an epidemic, the absence of sanitary
 
 276 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 conveniences and medical knowledge meant that it would 
 sweep through the entire village. If there was a fire, 
 an accident, or a death, the burden was not allowed to rest 
 upon an individual or his immediate family, but was 
 shared by all his neighbors. There were plenty of causes of 
 distress, but there was no occasion for organized charity. 
 
 THE PARISH 
 
 THE RISE OF PAROCHIAL RELIEF 
 
 Very similar to the manor, and sometimes identical 
 with it, was the parish. Originally, of course, the parish 
 consisted in the members of a church in the midst of a non- 
 Christian community. But with the spread of Christianity 
 and its recognition as the state religion, the parish and the 
 community came more and more to be identified. Prob- 
 ably it often included a number of small manors, but in the 
 nature of the case, it was a very restricted area. In the 
 beginning the parish was a mutual aid group, the members 
 of which looked out for each other, especially during the 
 era of persecutions. Moreover, during the early centuries 
 of the Christian Era, the number of people who travelled 
 from place to place was large enough so that it became 
 necessary to make some definite provision for them. 
 Hence arose the xenodochia, which we have previously 
 discussed, and other provisions for strangers, the sick, 
 the aged and orphans. Even as late as Charlemagne's 
 time, we find the order going forth that the tithes of each 
 parish must be divided into three or four parts, one of 
 which was to be allotted to the care of the poor. 
 
 The English law-givers seem to have followed the 
 Continental precedent very closely. An ordinance ascribed 
 to Egbert, Archbishop of York, ran as follows: "The 
 priests are to take tithes of the people, and to make a
 
 MEDIEVAL COMMUNITIES 277 
 
 written receipt of the names of the givers, and according 
 to the authority of the canons, they are to divide them in 
 the presence of men that fear God." The first part they 
 were to take for the adornment of the church, but the 
 second they were " in all humanity mercifully to distribute 
 with their own hands for the use of the poor and 
 strangers." The third part, however, the priests were to 
 reserve for themselves. 
 
 DECLINE 
 
 With the decentralization after the break-up of 
 Charlemagne's empire, and perhaps before that, the 
 parochial system of relief gave way. Probably the fact 
 that local needs were met by simple neighborliness 
 and mutual aid, together with the diminished number of 
 travellers, made the formal charity of the parish priest 
 unnecessary. At all events, the historians recognize a 
 decline of relief-giving in the parish. " The old rules 
 as to the employment of tithes, even as soon as the 
 twelfth century, were in many places " so we are told by 
 a contemporary " not only little regarded but well- 
 nigh forgotten." 
 
 REVIVAL 
 
 In the late middle ages, there seems, however, to have 
 been something of a revival of parish philanthropy. It is 
 quite natural that such should have been the case, for this 
 was a period of revival of commence, of the break-up of 
 feudalism, and the detaching of individuals from their 
 various primary groups. 
 
 " We can trace in many places the gradual growth in 
 the fifteenth century of a small capital, known as the 
 Church stock or store, a fund which was managed by 
 wardens, who lent it to trustworthy persons on good 
 security at a high rate of interest, and from the proceeds
 
 278- SOCIAL WORK, 
 
 met the cost of repairs to the church fabric, and gave 
 assistance to poor parishioners. The stock was sometimes 
 live stock, a form in which its employment did not come 
 into conflict, as the granting of loans might do, with the 
 popular prejudice against usury. ' There were,' says one 
 of the English reformers, ' in some towns (i.e., townships 
 or villages) six, some eight, and some a dozen kyne, gyven 
 unto a stocke, for the reliefe of the poore, and used in such 
 wyse that the poore cotingers, which coulde make any 
 provision for fodder, had the milk for a very small hyre ; 
 and then, the number of the stocke reserved, all maner of 
 vailes besydes both the hyre of the mylke, and the pryces 
 of the yonge veales, and olde fat wares was disposed to 
 the reliefe of the poore.' ' 
 
 " Where there was no permanent stock the same two 
 purposes, the repairs of the church and the relief of the 
 poor, were often provided for from the proceeds of 
 Church Ales at Whitsuntide, festive gathering usually in 
 the Church House or Church Tavern, where the ale which 
 had been brewed from the gifts of corn was paid for by 
 the drinkers ; so that, as a bitter Puritan put it, ' he that 
 sat the closest to it was accounted the godliest man of all.' ' 
 
 In the sixteenth century the parish was adopted in the 
 Protestant countries as a civil unit, primarily for the 
 purpose of administering poor relief. This development 
 we have already traced in England, and we may fairly 
 assume that it was not greatly different in the other 
 countries that broke away from the Church of Rome. 
 
 MODERN PARALLELS 
 
 In conclusion, it is interesting to note the similarity 
 between the simple neighborhood life of the medieval 
 manor and parish with certain isolated communities of 
 modern America. In the back country of the Appalachian
 
 MEDIEVAL COMMUNITIES 279 
 
 Mountains, there can still be found districts in which 
 everyone is more or less related to all the rest, where 
 everyone has intimate knowledge of all his neighbors, and 
 where there is, in spite of an individualism that was absent 
 from the medieval world, a certain community spirit. 
 At least as over against outsiders, all the members 
 of such a community share the same religious experiences, 
 the same amusements, and cooperate in certain parts of 
 their work, as in barn-raisings and corn-huskings. There 
 is poverty, but not pauperism; there is mutual aid, but 
 not charity. 
 
 The absence of any indigenous charities in such com- 
 munities is evidence of the correctness of our thesis that 
 organized philanthropy arose as a means of dealing with 
 people who were detached from their primary group. 
 Many a Red Cross field representative can testify to the 
 difficulty of creating an interest in social work, not only 
 among these most isolated communities, but in the rural 
 districts generally. The need is not felt because the mem- 
 bers of these more or less self-sufficing groups help each 
 other in time of need without any formality. In case of a 
 fire, sickness, accident, death, or other misfortune, the 
 neighbors turn in and help, offering food and clothing, 
 nursing the sick and comforting the bereaved. 
 
 The one important difference between the medieval 
 situation and the modern isolated community is that the 
 latter can, if it wishes, avail itself of professional services 
 which will meet these same needs in a more effective 
 manner than will neighborliness alone. But in the middle 
 ages there were no public health nurses and no trained 
 social workers. The members of any local group possessed 
 practically as great knowledge and skill as did any outsider. 
 In other words, there was not yet differentiated any pro- 
 fessional class or classes.
 
 280 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Andrews, Chas. M. : The Old English Manor. Baltimore : Johns Hop- 
 kins, 1892. 
 
 Davies, Maude F. : Life in an English Village. London : Unwin, 1909. 
 Gomme, Geo L. : The Village Community. London, 1890. 
 
 Hone, N. J. 
 ton, 1906 
 Seebohm, F. 
 Sims, N. L. 
 
 The Manor and Manorial Records. New York : Dut- 
 
 The English Village Community. London, 1005. 
 The Rural Community. New York. Scribners, 1920. 
 
 Ashley, W. J. : An Introduction to English Economic History. 
 London : Longmans Green, 1893, 2 vols. 
 
 Trotter, Eleanor: Seventeenth Century Life in the Country Parish. 
 Cambridge : University Press, 1919. 
 
 Cambridge Medieval History. New York: Macmillan, 1911-13, 2 vols. 
 
 Munro, D. C, and Sellery, G. C. : Medieval Civilisation. New York : 
 Century, 1904. 
 
 Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints. IV, 3. Documents Illus- 
 trative of Feudalism. 1898, III, 5. English Manorial Documents. 
 Philadelphia, 1896.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 THE MEDIEVAL GILDS 
 
 THROUGHOUT the middle ages the vast majority of 
 people lived under conditions very similar to those 
 described in the preceding chapter. In other words, society 
 as controlled by the Church and nobility was almost entirely 
 agricultural. But there were always a few persons moving 
 about from place to place, usually going on some pil- 
 grimage, crusade or war. Out of the movements of the 
 roving Normans, the general spirit of knight-errantry, 
 the pilgrimages and crusades, there came a movement 
 of goods which was the beginning of modern European 
 commerce. It was the Italians who first appeared in this 
 new activity, for they provided transports and furnished 
 supplies for the crusaders. On their return voyages they 
 began to bring back Oriental cargoes. Thus a taste for 
 foreign goods was cultivated and industry was stimulated 
 to produce goods for exchange with the East. 
 
 MERCHANT GILDS 
 
 Presently there grew up organizations remotely similar 
 to our Chambers of Commerce. These were known as 
 " merchant gilds," and were formed primarily for the 
 purpose of obtaining and maintaining the privilege of 
 carrying on trade. Because their privileges were often very 
 dearly bought from the nobility and the royal power, 
 they were jealously guarded by the members of the gild, 
 who frequently acquired monopolies of the trade in their 
 home towns, and also liberty to trade in other towns. 
 
 The " merchant gilds " seem to have made their 
 
 281
 
 282 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 appearance in the course of the eleventh century. During 
 the next hundred years or so, they came to be a recognized 
 part of the town constitution, and performed numerous 
 governmental functions. They were from the outset com- 
 posed of the most influential citizens, and hence early 
 succeeded in identifying the trade monopoly with the 
 welfare of the town. After the thirteenth century the 
 merchant gilds were gradually transformed, sometimes 
 merging their individuality in that of the municipal gov- 
 ernment, sometimes becoming religious fraternities, or 
 otherwise losing their original character. 
 
 MUTUAL AID AND FORMAL RELIEF 
 
 These organizations were practically closed corpora- 
 tions. They maintained their trade monopoly to the 
 exclusion of their fellow townsmen, and made admission 
 to the gild exceedingly difficult. But for those who 
 belonged to this inner circle, there was a close community 
 of interest and a sharing of the daily experiences of life. 
 The gild itself was just such a primary group, with 
 intimate personal relations, as was the manor, which was 
 discussed in the preceding chapter. This being the case, 
 it is quite natural that we should find that the gilds 
 assumed responsibility for the bereaved widows and 
 orphans of their members, educated the latter, and if they 
 were girls provided them with dowries. For the sick 
 members they established special beds in the hospitals. 
 Sometimes this was done in that simple unaffected way 
 which we have described as mutual aid or neighborliness ; 
 sometimes when the group was larger and personal con- 
 tacts less direct, somewhat more formal means we're 
 provided for the care of unfortunate members. For ex- 
 ample, if a gildsman of Southampton were put into prison 
 in any part of England, the alderman or steward
 
 THE MEDIEVAL GILDS 283 
 
 and others were required to go at the expense of the gild 
 to procure his release. At Berwick " two or three of the 
 gild were bound to labour on behalf of any other in danger 
 of losing life or limb, though for only two days, at the 
 gild's expense." 
 
 A society of merchants at Bristol, England, in 1445, 
 provided for poor seamen within the old hospital of St. 
 Bartholomew. Upon arrival in port, masters and 
 mariners alike contributed to this institution, because 
 " the wheche prest and pore peple may nott be founden ne 
 sustayned withoute grete cost." The supporters of this 
 institution really constituted a sort of benefit club, for 
 members became eligible for admission only after paying 
 their dues for seven years. In general, the relief work of 
 the merchant gilds seems, like their other activities, to have 
 been almost exclusively for the benefit of members. In the 
 institution just cited the sailors were apparently regarded 
 as a port of the gild system. 
 
 CRAFT GILDS 
 EXCLUSIVENESS AND COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS 
 
 This exclusiveness is still more apparent in the case of 
 the " craft gilds," which had their rise during the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries. The craft gild, instead of being 
 a merchants' organization, was an association of all the 
 artisans engaged in a particular industry in a particular 
 town. The primary purpose seems to have been such 
 supervision of the simple manufacturing as would secure 
 the observance of generally accepted standards of good 
 work. The artisans seem to have taken the initiative them- 
 selves, but were presently recognized by the towns and by 
 the royal governments as the proper agency for controlling 
 the making of goods. By the fifteenth century practically
 
 284 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 every occupation that engaged a score of men came to have 
 an organization of its own with regular meetings, elected 
 officers, prescribed payments for common purposes, the 
 right of search, certain powers of jurisdiction, common 
 religious interests or practises, and a definite position in 
 the civic constitution. 
 
 A number of things contributed to the development 
 and preservation of a community spirit among the mem- 
 bers of a craft gild. Ea'rly in the fourteenth century some 
 of the English and German crafts had modest meeting 
 places ; and toward the end of that century they began to 
 erect buildings for themselves, to which were sometimes 
 added chapels and almshouses. The members of each 
 craft usually lived on the same street, or at least in the 
 same neighborhood, as is indicated by the street names 
 of some of the older towns. They naturally attended the 
 same parish church. They frequently organized religious 
 fraternities. Also, the gilds exercised certain legal juris- 
 diction over their members, being frequently empowered 
 to deal with petty disputes or breaches of craft 
 regulations. All these things served to bind the members 
 together into a well-knit community. 
 
 In the beginning the gilds were apparently quite demo- 
 cratic. Where a man employed others to work with him 
 in his shop or house, their relations were of a family or 
 patriarchal character. The workman usually lived with 
 his employer, and shared in nearly all of his daily activities. 
 Moreover, the hard working journeyman expected to be 
 able in a few years to become an independent master, so 
 that there was no social gulf between employer 
 and employe. 
 
 But as time went on, this situation changed. Gild 
 regulations made it increasingly difficult for journeymen 
 to become masters. Indeed, any admission to the craft was
 
 THE MEDIEVAL GILDS 285 
 
 closely regulated by restriction upon apprenticeship. The 
 various ordinances usually insisted upon an apprentice- 
 ship of at least seven years, and sometimes this was 
 extended to eight, ten or twelve years. There was a limit 
 upon the number of apprentices who might be taken by 
 any one master, and large fees were charged for admission 
 to apprenticeship, and later to the " fellowship of the 
 mistery." In the course of the fourteenth century there 
 began to appear a " laboring class " in the sense of men 
 who were neither apprentices nor masters and who found 
 it exceedingly difficult to set up in business for themselves. 
 
 In the beginning all members of the craft had been 
 accustomed to wear some common token or costume, but 
 before the end of the fifteenth century the " liveries " had 
 become so expensive that only the wealthier members could 
 afford them. Presently the "livery" became a superior grade 
 to which the more substantial members were admitted as 
 an honor, and upon the payment of heavy fees. In general 
 the " livery " included most if not all of the employers. 
 But there was an even more select body, known in England 
 as the Court of Assistance, which, beginning as a sort of 
 informal committee composed of the wealthier brethren 
 in the " livery," became presently a limited and self- 
 continuing council which was well-nigh absolute in the 
 affairs of the society. 
 
 Over against the masters there grew up organizations 
 of the journeymen, especially in Germany and France. 
 They seem to have begun in the form of religious fra- 
 ternities, and to have had at the outset the bitter opposition 
 of the master craftsmen, who regarded it as an encroach- 
 ment upon their position and an instrument for securing 
 higher wages. The masters with the aid of civic 
 authorities do not seem to have been able to suppress this 
 movement, so after a time they changed their policy and
 
 286 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 eventually managed to bring it under their own super- 
 vision. The journeymen they conciliated by permission 
 to hold their own meetings, and the masters on their side 
 were able to relieve themselves to some extent of the duty 
 of providing for sick journeymen. These workingmen's 
 organizations can hardly be regarded as the forerunners of 
 of modern trade unions, because they were so completely 
 overshadowed by the wealthier companies to which they 
 were attached that they gradually lost all initiative and 
 became a bit of mere formalism, which was finally 
 abolished without any real loss to the journeymen. 
 
 On the whole, and particularly during their early 
 history, the craft gilds constituted simple neighborhood 
 organizations of people who shared their work, their 
 living and their religious activities. And even in spite of 
 the class divisions, which grew up in their midst, they 
 retained a sense of solidarity over against members of 
 other crafts and outsiders. Many municipal ordinances 
 and royal orders were issued for the purpose of restricting 
 people to the trade in which they had been apprenticed, 
 and preventing the practise of any craft except by those 
 who were duly authorized by the appropriate gild. This 
 exclusiveness shows itself in the general limitation of 
 relief-giving to the members of a given gild. 
 
 MUTUAL AID AND FORMAL RELIEF 
 
 As in the case of the merchant gilds, the care of the 
 unfortunate seems to have gone forward very largely as a 
 matter of simple neighborhood assistance. But with the 
 growth in numbers and particularly with the division into 
 the three social classes, it became a more formal matter. 
 Thus we learn from the ordinances of a gild of white- 
 tawyers, or leather dressers, in 1346, that they had a 
 common box for subscriptions, out of which seven pence
 
 THE MEDIEVAL GILDS 287 
 
 a week were paid to any man of the trade who had fallen 
 into poverty through old age or inability to work, and 
 seven pence a week likewise to a poor man's widow so 
 long as she remained unmarried. "If anyone of the said 
 craft shall depart this life and have not wherewithal to be 
 buried, he shall be buried at the expense of the common 
 box, and when anyone of the said trade shall die, all those 
 of the same trade shall go to the vigil and make offering on 
 the morrow." Another clause orders that " those of the 
 trade " shall aid a member who can not finish the work 
 he has undertaken " so that the said work be not 
 lost." At first there were no permanent funds for relief 
 work, and when bequests were made, they were usually to 
 be distributed at the funeral or upon the anniversary of the 
 testator's death. But with the increase of the industrial 
 and trading population, various gilds began to provide 
 lodging for destitute members. Later with the help of 
 legacies for that purpose, they erected almshouses or hos- 
 pitals. Sometimes they would purchase the lands or 
 buildings of some existing institution and use it for the 
 care of their own members. 
 
 Thus, at Lynn, one of the ordinances of the town gild 
 provided that relief should be given to any brother in 
 poverty, either from the common fund or from the private 
 purses of the gild brothers. A piece of land was bequeathed 
 to the gild partly for the purpose of relieving the poor, 
 and we are told thirty pounds a year was distributed to 
 the poor brethren, to blind, lame and sick persons, and for 
 other charitable purposes. We learn that the merchant 
 tailors of Bristol secured permission " to purchase lands 
 and tenements towards the maintenance of a chaplain to 
 sing forever at the altar of Saint John Baptist, within the 
 parish church of Saint Ewens," and that they had adopted 
 the same plan " for the relief, succor and comfort of the
 
 288 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 poor brethren and sistern of the same fraternity fallen 
 in decay," who were assisted from the revenues of the 
 lands and possessions " given by sundry persons " for that 
 purpose. Thus the craft gilds made provision for their own 
 unfortunate members. But there is exceedingly little 
 evidence that they extended their philanthropy to out- 
 siders. In other words, we have here primarily a case of 
 mutual aid among those who belonged to these relatively 
 simple groups, rather than charitable organizations. 
 However, we have already observed the way in which the 
 almost spontaneous neighborliness proved insufficient and 
 came more and more to be supplemented by some formal 
 and systematic means. 
 
 RELIGIOUS GILDS 
 
 A similar development may be traced in the religious 
 fraternities with which the term gild came to be associated 
 before the Reformation. Some of these were started as 
 organizations of the journeymen, and quite as much for 
 economic as for religious purposes. In France many of 
 them were made up of peasants. But whatever other 
 interests they may have had, these fraternities were 
 primarily cooperative soul-saving associations. Their 
 definite and avowed purpose seems to have been the 
 securing of religious merit for their members ; at first by 
 candles and masses, then through mutual aid, and finally 
 by alms to outsiders. Even their charitable activities were 
 regarded as a definite part of the religious enterprise. The 
 alms were given not merely for the purpose of relieving 
 distress, but quite as much for the acquisition of spiritual 
 benefits to the donors. 
 
 This emphasis upon the religious merit of almsgiving 
 becomes still more apparent when we note the relation 
 between the religious gilds and the chantries. Now the
 
 THE MEDIEVAL GILDS 289 
 
 chantry was usually established by the legacy of some 
 person anxious to provide for his eternal welfare. Thus 
 Sir John Fastolf, whose will is dated 1459, established 
 " within the great mission at Castre, by him lately edified, 
 a college of six religious men, monks, or secular priests, 
 and six poor folk to pray for his soul and the souls of his 
 wife, his father and mother, and others that he was 
 beholden to in perpetuity." 
 
 To these chantries a small endowment was often 
 attached for the provision of alms. Thus out of some 
 twenty-five chantries in Bristol, the commissioners of 
 Edward VI found that fourteen were spending a portion 
 of their funds " in relief of the poor people yearly." It is 
 interesting to note that about seven-eighths of the funds 
 were paid to the " incumbent for his living in the service " 
 and only one-eighth to the poor. The primary object of 
 this endowed almsgiving was, of course, the same as that 
 of the chantry. It was, namely, the good of the founder's 
 soul. This is indicated in the regulations of Fastolf that 
 his goods might be so faithfully distributed in " almsful 
 deeds and charitable works that he might obtain the more 
 hasty deliverance of his soul from the painful flames of 
 the fire of Purgatory." 
 
 MUTUAL AID 
 
 Because of such facts as these Ashley has described 
 these religious fraternities as " cooperative chantries." 
 They were organizations to secure exactly the same ends as 
 the chantries, but were created for the most part by people 
 not sufficiently wealthy to establish foundations for their 
 individual benefit. 
 
 Many of these brotherhoods did not profess to give 
 any material relief at all. They limited their activities to 
 the provision of altar lights, funeral masses, the services 
 
 19
 
 290 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 of priests or pageants. But very frequently contributions 
 were levied for particular cases of need, and in some 
 instances poverty-stricken members were assigned a 
 weekly pension. In a few isolated cases members were 
 allowed to borrow from the common box enough to give 
 them a fresh start in business. 
 
 Lallemand tells us that in almost all of the little cities 
 and in the majority of the villages of southwestern 
 France, there existed confreries and associations of mutual 
 charity among the cultivators. These organizations seem 
 to have included, along with the laborers and tenants, a 
 certain number of bourgeois and ecclesiastics. The 
 organization comprised two or three officers known as 
 majoraux, one or two members charged with the convoca- 
 tions and visitors and caretakers for the sick. 
 
 It is worth while to observe that in the religious 
 fraternity, as well as in the merchant and craft gilds, relief 
 was given almost exclusively to members. In the 
 beginning this was informal and unorganized, but later it 
 took definite shape under the influence of the doctrine of 
 the religious merit of almsgiving. Very slowly there was 
 an expansion of this mutual aid into charities which bene- 
 fited outsiders as well as those who belonged to the gilds. 
 But in general, aid of detached individuals was provided 
 either by the ecclesiastical institutions or govern- 
 mental agencies. 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 d'A venal, George : Histoire economique de la propriete, des salaires, 
 
 etc., 1200-1800. Paris, 1894-1919, 6 vols. 
 Brentano, Lujo: On the History and Development of Gilds and 
 
 Origin of Trade Unions. In Smith, J. T., English Gilds. 
 Ditchfield, P. H. : The City Companies of London and Their Good 
 
 Works; a record of their history, charity and treasure. London: 
 
 Dent, 1904.
 
 THE MEDIEVAL GILDS 291 
 
 Dorcn, Alfred: Untersuchungcn sur Geschichte dcr Kaufmanns- 
 
 yilden dcs Mittealters. Leipzig : Duncker u. Humblot, 1893. 
 Gilbert, William: The City: An Inquiry into the Corporation, its 
 
 Livery Companies, and the Administration of Their Charities and 
 
 Endowments. London : Daldy Isbister, 1877. 
 Gross, Charles : The Gild Merchant. Oxford, 1890, 2 vols. 
 von Hegel, Karl : Stadte und Gilden dcr germanischen Volker im 
 
 Mittelalter. Leipzig: Duncker u. Humblot, 1891, 2 vols. 
 Hibbert, F. A.: The Influence and Development of English Gilds. 
 
 Cambridge: University Press, 1891. 
 Levasseur, Emile: Histoire dcs Classes Ouvriercs et de I' Industrie 
 
 en Prance avant 1789. Vol. 2, Bk. 5. 
 Millctt, F. B.: Craft-Guilds of the Thirteenth Century in Paris. 
 
 Kingston: Jackson Press, 1915. 
 Renard, G. F. : Guilds in the Middle Ages. Trans, by D. Terry. 
 
 London: Bell, 1919. 
 Umvin, Geo. : The Gilds and Companies of London. London : 
 
 Methuen, 1909. 
 Waltzing, J. P. : Lcs Corporations Romaines et la Charitc. Louvain, 
 
 1895-
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 
 RISE OF THE TOWNS 
 
 IT is hard for us of the twentieth century to realize how 
 completely rural was the life of the middle ages. The old 
 Roman towns had gradually decayed. The barbarians over- 
 ran them and discouraged arts and crafts. The population 
 that was not destroyed drifted away. In the age of 
 feudalism there was little reason for the existence of towns. 
 But with the increase of commerce, which as we have seen 
 especially marked the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth 
 centuries, more merchants travelled through the country. 
 Frequently a town would spring up through the gathering 
 of people for a market held by some noble who wanted to 
 improve his estate. Very often this market or fair was 
 held at some ford or crossroad. At first the merchants sold 
 salt, fish and iron to the peasants. Or more likely they 
 bartered them for the agricultural products. But as time 
 went on, the variety of goods increased, foreign trade was 
 developed, and small manufactures sprang up. 
 
 The towns developed first in Italy, which was probably 
 least affected by the Germanic invasions. Moreover, Italy 
 was conveniently located for the new trade which sprang 
 up in connection with the Crusades. The Italian nobles 
 were less interested in war than those of northern Europe 
 and were more ready to put their surplus wealth into the 
 new trading companies. 
 
 Originally, many of the towns had belonged to some 
 nobleman's fief or manor and its inhabitants had been under 
 much the same servile obligations to the lord as were the 
 292
 
 THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 293 
 
 rural serfs. But as the towns grew and increased in wealth 
 they gradually secured privileges for themselves. They 
 started off with a few necessary activities, such as main- 
 taining the water supply, building a wall or keeping a river 
 channel clear. Additional rights they bought from the 
 nobles, kings or emperors, or secured them by fighting. 
 
 The French kings sporadically used the towns to offset 
 the nobles. The nobles, in their turn, needed money and 
 they, too, sold privileges to the towns. In Germany the 
 towns were likewise a sort of foot-ball kicked back 
 and forth between the emperor, on the one hand, and the 
 nobility on the other. In England the central power, 
 which had never broken down to the extent it had 
 on the Continent, quite regularly favored the towns for 
 financial reasons. 
 
 Many of these new towns were ruled by oligarchies of 
 merchant princes. In fact, this seems to have been quite 
 general in all of the countries of western Europe. In many 
 places the members of the merchant gilds were the citizens 
 of the towns. The machinery of the gild and of the 
 municipal government frequently coalesced. In other cases 
 the craft gilds were the more influential. But whichever 
 it might be, it was only persons properly admitted to one 
 of these bodies that could carry on any occupation within 
 the city limits, or enjoy any of the rights and privileges 
 of burghership. In many instances the town council itself 
 was wholly, or partly, composed of the elected represent- 
 atives of the gilds or companies. 
 
 With the further increase in wealth the " greater " 
 companies came to exercise preponderating influence. For 
 example, in London the mayor was exclusively chosen 
 from one of the twelve " greater " companies, and many 
 other privileges were enjoyed by these wealthy groups to 
 the exclusion of some fifty " lesser " companies. Now
 
 294 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 this preeminence in London was closely paralleled by the 
 position of the Arti Maggiori in Florence, of the six Corps 
 de Metiers in Paris, and of the Herrenziinfte in Basel. 
 
 Although less isolated than the manors, the earlier 
 towns had a very limited range of contacts and were 
 trading centers for very restricted areas. In England this 
 was markedly true as late as the fifteenth century. As a 
 consequence we find that the towns were in their way just 
 as exclusive as were the gilds. However many distinctions 
 there might be between the inhabitants of the town, they 
 all were united in opposition to outsiders. Thus, in 
 England, we find a petition from the merchants of South- 
 ampton that certain restrictions be placed upon merchants 
 coming to the town from Winchester or Salisbury. The 
 word foreigner was applied not only to those of other 
 countries, but indeed to anyone who did not belong in 
 the town. 
 
 Not only did the opposition to the outsiders serve to 
 bind the townsmen together, but certain common activities 
 contributed to the development of a community spirit. 
 The towns frequently maintained market houses and 
 market stalls. Some of them had acquired control of the 
 manorial mills ; in some places there were municipal ovens 
 or bake-houses; and quite generally there were common 
 pastures for the cattle of the citizens. Admittedly these 
 new medieval towns were far from democratic, but they 
 did create a frame-work for a larger social organization 
 than would ever have been possible under feudalism. The 
 manors, and even the gilds, were practically limited in 
 scope to groups of people who came daily face to face with 
 one another. But the town was a more complex and 
 a larger unit. It brought together for business purposes 
 groups of people who otherwise might have exceedingly 
 little to do with one another. Nevertheless, the early
 
 THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 295 
 
 towns were themselves small enough so that there could 
 grow up a certain community of interest and a group life, 
 less intimate and personal than in the manors and within 
 the individual gilds of the town, but on the other hand 
 more comprehensive and extensive. 
 
 REPRESSION OF BEGGING 
 
 As in the case of the nation, so with the towns, one of 
 the earliest official activities with reference to the poor was 
 the attempt to repress begging. 
 
 A London Proclamation of 1359 declared that vaga- 
 bonds " do waste divers alms which would otherwise be 
 given to many poor folks, such as lepers, blind, halt and 
 persons oppressed with old age and divers other maladies." 
 This Proclamation ordered them to leave the city at once 
 on pain of being put into the stocks. In 1375 it was 
 ordered that " no one who by handicraft or the labor of his 
 body can earn his living shall counterfeit the begging 
 poor," that is, the impotent. 
 
 In Geneva false poor abounded. So in 1458 the 
 " chapitre," during a vacancy of the episcopal chair, at 
 the request of the trustees (syndics) and councillors of the 
 city, addressed to the people a most judicious charge, 
 which said in effect : 
 
 " Among the works which divine precepts impose upon 
 all of the faithful, helping the poor and meeting their 
 needs with the goods which you have received is by no 
 means the least. Unhappily there are in the crowd of 
 beggars which pour into Geneva from all Christendom 
 some who feign various diseases, and others who claim to 
 be without resources when they are not. They carry with 
 them the seeds of contagious diseases. 
 
 " Our intention is not to turn people from giving
 
 296 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 alms. But it is not enough simply to do this good deed ; it 
 must be done advisedly (a propos). 
 
 " This multitude of the poor and their frequent con- 
 course must be restrained in order that no harm may result. 
 We exhort everyboody to practise a discrete piety, and we 
 order that none of the indigent who encumber the city, 
 whether really unfortunate or rogues, shall receive any 
 hospitality ^except in one of the seven hospitals of Geneva. 
 We forbid any citizen to take them in. We charge all the 
 rectors and governors of these asylums, under penalty of 
 excommunication and fine of sixty shillings, to see to it 
 that these false poor who present themselves do not hide 
 any evil practises under the appearance of poverty and 
 misery. The really needy must be cared for with mercy. 
 
 " The rectors have the duty of informing the various 
 civil authorities of mendicants who lead a disreputable 
 life, especially if they are ribald fellows, gamblers, spies 
 or sturdy rogues." 
 
 In the reform measures introduced by the city council 
 in 1525, at Zurich, under the advice of Zwingli we trace 
 the influence both of the new ecclesiastical movement and 
 of the tendency of the civil governments to extend their 
 functions. Every kind of begging was strictly prohibited. 
 Poor strangers might pass through the town, ^but they 
 must nowhere beg. They would be given a bowl of soup 
 and a piece of bread, and must then pass on. Only the sick 
 and enfeebled should receive permanent support, either in 
 special institutions or by food given in their own homes, 
 and their cases should be investigated by the pastor and a 
 pious layman. 
 
 So also in the regulation of a " common chest " which 
 was drawn up by Luther in 1523, it was set forth that 
 " begging" is to be rigidly prohibited. All who are not old 
 and weak shall work. No beggars are to be permitted
 
 THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 297 
 
 to stay who do not belong to the parish." This seems to 
 have influenced many of the German cities. Augsburg had 
 already begun with the prohibition of street begging. It 
 was followed by Nurnberg and Breslau in 1523, Ratisbon 
 and Magdeburg in 1524. 
 
 The people of Southampton, England, hit upon the 
 novel device of employing the barbers to frighten away 
 the beggars, and in 1527 paid four pence to four barbers 
 " for cuttyng of vacabundes here short." 
 
 In full accord with their economic exclusiveness, most 
 of the towns not only sought to be rid of vagabonds from 
 other places, but accorded special privileges to their own 
 citizens. In some cases these took the form of licensing 
 certain people to beg. Thus Southampton had, in 1529, 
 as many as sixty-four liveries for its beggars. About 
 1540 a "comptroller" or "master of beggars" is men- 
 tioned with a silver gilt badge instead of a tin one, and a 
 small annual fee. That a similar arrangement existed in 
 York appears in an ordinance in 1583 that "from hence- 
 forth no head beggars shall be chosen," and that " from 
 Christmas the four present head beggars shall not have 
 any wages or clothing of the common chamber, but only 
 their weekly stipends gathered of the many assistants for 
 the relief of the poor." 
 
 Certain charitable establishments in Lille had resi- 
 dents who from time immemorial had enjoyed the right to 
 beg within the city limits. They were required to wear on 
 their breast a white cross " two fingers wide and a foot 
 long." This regulation was renewed by the echevins or 
 aldermen as late as 1411. 
 
 Similar to the repression of begging was the legisla- 
 tion directed toward the control of lepers. The Assizes of 
 London had proclaimed, in 1276, that " no leper shall be 
 in the city, nor come and make any stay there." The
 
 298 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 "Customs of Bristol," written down by the recorder in 
 1344 declare " that no leper reside within the precincts of 
 the town." So far we have mere exclusion, without 
 definite efforts to provide, for the lepers. But that 
 constructive philanthropy was not always lacking is 
 indicated by the measures of the burgesses of Berwick-on- 
 Tweed. " No leper shall come within the gates of the 
 borough; and if one gets in by chance, the sergeant shall 
 put him out at once. If one wilfully forces his way in, his 
 clothes shall be taken off him and burnt, and he shall be 
 turned out naked. For we have aready taken care that a 
 proper place for lepers shall be kept up outside the town, 
 and that alms shall be there given to them." Similar regula- 
 tions were adopted by the various towns on the Continent. 
 
 POSITIVE RELIEF MEASURES 
 PROVISION OF GRAIN DURING FAMINE 
 
 A different sort of activity for the control of poverty 
 and misery was the supplying of grain in time of famine. 
 Adam Bamme, Lord Mayor of London in 1391, "in a 
 great dearth procured corn from parts beyond the seas to 
 be brought hither in such abundance as sufBced to serve 
 the city and the counties near adjoining; to the furtherance 
 of which good work he took out of the orphans' chest in 
 the guildhall two thousand marks to buy the said corn, 
 and each alderman laid out twenty pounds to the like 
 purpose." This same expedient was adopted again in 
 London in 1438 by the mayor of that time, Sir Stephen 
 Brown, who " charitably relieved the oldest of poor 
 citizens by sending ships at his own expense to Danzig, 
 which returned: laden with rye, and which seasonable 
 supply soon sank grain to reasonable rates." Somewhat 
 later, an ex-mayor built a municipal granary, which was 
 maintained by voluntary contributions. Until nearly the
 
 THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 299 
 
 middle of the sixteenth century purchases seem to have 
 been made only in years of exceptional dearness. But in 
 1 565 annual purchases were ordered. A similar provision 
 was made in many other English towns. 
 
 This same step was taken by all the more populous 
 towns of Germany ; for example, by Niirnberg, Augsburg, 
 Breslau, Strassburg and Frankfurt. The emperor, 
 Charles V, when he visited Niirnberg in 1540, is said to 
 have tasted bread made of wheat which had been preserved 
 in the municipal granary one hundred and eighteen years. 
 
 TAKING OVER HOSPITALS 
 
 The manner in which the gilds paved the way for 
 municipal charities appears in the taking over by the 
 towns of the administration of hospitals and almshouses. 
 Sometimes this appears to have been at the invitation of 
 the management and sometimes it was done more or 
 less arbitrarily. 
 
 One of the first steps toward municipal control of 
 charities was the making burgesses trustees of private 
 hospitals. This happened in Exeter, Northampton, Not- 
 tingham, Wallingford, Rochester, Croydon and other 
 towns in England. 
 
 "At Bridgeport (1265) the town administered the 
 endowment of the manorial lord; the provosts conducted a 
 yearly investigation whether the brethren and lepers were 
 well treated and the chaplains lived honestly. In London 
 there were officials who daily inspected the lazar houses ; 
 these ' overseers ' and ' foremen ' seem to have been busy 
 citizens who undertook this work on behalf of the 
 corporation. ( 1 389 ) ." 
 
 At Sandwich the burgesses controlled the two hospitals 
 dedicated respectively to St. Bartholomew and St. John. 
 Both were virtually almshouses providing for a certain
 
 300 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 number of old people. The mayor and jurats of 
 Sandwich not only appointed the governors of St. 
 Bartholomew's but audited the accounts, controlled the 
 management and appointed new recipients of the charity. 
 The whole was connected with an annual festal procession 
 to the hospital in which many of the townsfolk took part. 
 
 "At Scarborough Henry de Bulmer gave a site for St. 
 Thomas' hospital which was furnished and endowed by 
 the burgesses. (The burgesses of Scarborough are said 
 to have founded and maintained another hospital, dedi- 
 cated to St. Nicholas, and in which both poor men and 
 women were maintained. ) At Chester the town gave land 
 on condition that certain almshouses were built, and 
 Ipswich in 1469 granted the profits of St. James' fair to 
 the lazars." 
 
 The same process went on in France, Italy and Ger- 
 many. The governors of the Hospital of Mirecourt were 
 named by the General Assembly of the community in the 
 fifteenth century. The Hospital of St. Eleuthere, at 
 Tournai, was placed under the direction of a master 
 appointed by the City Council. At Lille the magistrate 
 chose the overseers of certain charitable institutions and 
 the aldermen at Ypres had almost complete power over the 
 various asylums. 
 
 On the Continent we find evidence not only of the 
 municipalities taking over hospitals and almshouses but 
 actually founding them. Thus Venice in 1474 established 
 an institution known as the " Spedale di Messer Gesu 
 Christo " to celebrate a victory over the Turks. As early 
 as the twelfth century the Asylum of Saints Peter and 
 Paul devoted to the care of Pilgrims to the Holy Land, 
 was ruled by a committee of the Council of Ten under the 
 supervision of the Doge. The principal hospital of 
 Cremona, Italy, was from its founding under the direction
 
 THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 301 
 
 of six citizens, known as Regents. The City Council of 
 Augsburg named three curators for the Hospital of St. 
 James in the fourteenth century. 
 
 In addition to taking over more or less complete control 
 of existing institutions, the cities undertook the manage- 
 ment of new institutions, founded by philanthropic citizens. 
 Thus a hospital in La Rochelle was, by the will of its 
 founder, managed by a layman, who was appointed by a 
 council composed of the mayor and ten prud-hommes. 
 Two brothers established a charitable institution at 
 Romans. They provided that it should be under the direc- 
 tion of their heirs, but that at the extinction of their 
 family it should be taken in charge by two consuls of the 
 city. A citizen of Tournai and his wife founded the 
 Asylum of St. John the Baptist in 1493, and administered 
 it themselves. Their son was to take their place, and 
 after him the control passed to the provost and mayor. 
 In Ypres, Margarite Voet managed a hospital during her 
 life, and at her death left it in charge of the aldermen. 
 
 A case of forceable assumption of the responsibility 
 for hospitals occurred in Venice in 1450 when the Duke 
 Alexander de Medici insisted that the welfare of the Re- 
 public required that important establishments like Lo 
 Spedale Di Santa Maria Nuova should be taken over 
 by the state. He therefore appointed certain noblemen as 
 inspectors to investigate the conduct of these institutions 
 and audit their accounts. 
 
 OUTDOOR RELIEF 
 
 Along with hospital care the towns came also to pro- 
 vide for various sorts of outrelief . Sometimes it was given 
 for a definite purpose and sometimes it was the same old 
 indiscriminate almsgiving. Progress is marked by increase 
 in the former, and gradual elimination of the latter.
 
 302 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 At Lydd sums were given for " Goderynges 
 dowghetyr, pour mayde, for hosyne, shoys and other 
 thyngses." On several occasions payments were made for 
 her clothes and keep. In 1482-3, 35. 4d. was paid to 
 Thomas Maykyne " to kepe Goderyng's doughtyr," and in 
 1485 there is another entry of the same kind: "Paid 
 for a kertylcloth for Herry Goderyng's doughtyr and for 
 making thereof, 35. id." In this town, also, gifts of corn 
 were regularly distributed at Easter and Christmas from 
 1439 onwards. 
 
 As early as the fourteenth century in Southampton 
 forfeits and alms were awarded to the poor. In 'the 
 fifteenth century "the towyns almys were settled on a 
 plan " and lists were kept of the weekly payments. The 
 steward's book of 1441 states that the town gave weekly 
 to the poor 4 pounds 2s. id., which according to the value 
 of money at that time might have furnished relief for 
 about a hundred and fifty people. 
 
 In France the communes did rather little for the poor 
 before the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, we find 
 accounts of some allowances to the poor and some endow- 
 ments administered by the municipalities. Thus at 
 Limoges a charitable fund provided from very old ground 
 rents was handled by the city. Moreover, the consuls of 
 Limoges had the right to maintain a charity box or treas- 
 ury which was kept by voluntary gifts, legacies and even 
 a tax upon the citizens. At Niort distributions of bread on 
 the third of May, known as charite de la blee, were admin- 
 istered by the Mayor and the magistrates in the fourteenth 
 century. The magistrates of Douai instituted a community 
 alms in 1317, and named five citizens to receive and dis- 
 tribute gifts for the unfortunate. Municipal outrelief 
 also appears in Italy. Thus the city officials of Genoa in 
 1413 appointed some " upright citizens," known as
 
 THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 303 
 
 officiates misericordiae, on whom they laid the duty 
 of appealing for and distributing offerings for 
 the indigent. 
 
 One of the most interesting of all the systems of 
 municipal charities developed at the beginning of the 
 modern era was that established at Ypres, in Flanders, 
 about 1525, under the influence of a Spaniard, Juan Louis 
 Vives. It seems that the magistrates of Bruges had 
 applied to Vives for advice about the care of their poor. 
 In response he wrote a treatise on the Relief of the Poor 
 (de subventione pauperum). He began by impressing the 
 public authorities that it was their duty to see that the 
 destitute were properly provided for. He then proceeded 
 to sketch a new poor law, taking as its basis a division of 
 the destitute into three classes: (i) those sheltered in 
 hospitals and almshouses; (2) homeless beggars and (3) 
 the honest and shame- faced poor abiding in their own 
 houses. He went on to insist on the importance of an 
 accurate census of the needy. He insisted upon two 
 guiding principles ; all who were able should be counseled 
 to work, and begging should be absolutely forbidden. For 
 those who were unable to work a refuge should be pro- 
 vided in hospitals and almshouses. 
 
 Whether Bruges adopted Vives' scheme or not, we are 
 not told, but the city of Ypres did undertake to put the 
 plan into operation. Begging was absolutely forbidden 
 and efforts were made to find work for all who were 
 capable of it. The administration of relief was centralized 
 and placed under four superintendents who were assisted 
 in each parish by four persons specially assigned to this 
 work. A census of the destitute was taken and an effort 
 made to reform the hospitals. For financial support, Vives' 
 suggestion was followed and the city depended on volun-
 
 304 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 tary donations, stimulated by the exhortations of 
 the clergy. 
 
 News of this innovation seems to have spread quite 
 rapidly, and applications began to pour in upon the Ypres 
 authorities for copies of their regulations. Vives' little 
 book was soon translated into Spanish, Italian and 
 French. However, not everyone received it favorably. 
 The four mendicant orders and some of the clergy attacked 
 the rules adopted by Ypres on the ground that they inter- 
 fered with the practise of the Christian virtue of charity. 
 In 1531 a copy of the rules was sent to the Sorbonne for 
 judgment, and while the decision was mainly on the side 
 of the reform, a proviso was added which encouraged 
 private almsgiving, and thus weakened the whole thing. 
 Charles V secured a copy of the rules and tried to put 
 them into effect in Spain, but his power was inadequate 
 to enforce the regulation. Moreover, he authorized the 
 local officials to give a selected number of the impotent 
 poor badges authorizing them to beg. 
 
 LIMITATIONS OF MUNICIPAL CHARITIES 
 
 We have seen that the charities of the manor, the 
 parish and the gild grew out of simple neighborhood 
 assistance and never entirely expanded beyond a form of 
 mutual aid. The growth of the towns provided a frame- 
 work within which social relations could be extended, and 
 which consequently provided relief for a more hetero- 
 geneous lot of needy folk. But the towns, like the smaller 
 groups, were pretty exclusive during the middle ages. 
 
 In her account of medieval hospitals in England Miss 
 Gay tells us that " Freemen had an advantage, if not a 
 monopoly, when seeking entrance into houses under
 
 THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS 305 
 
 municipal supervision. The ' Customals ' of Rye and 
 Winchelsea show that men and women, ' who have been in 
 good love and fame all their time, and have neither goods 
 nor chattels whereof to live,' were received without pay- 
 ment into the hospitals of the town. Bubwith's almshouse, 
 Wells, was to receive men so poor that they could not live 
 except by begging, and so decrepit that they were unable 
 to beg from door to door. Reduced burgesses were 
 assigned ' the more honorable places and beds.' At St. 
 Ursula's, Chester, candidates were preferred who had been 
 one of the ' twenty-four,' or the widows of aldermen and 
 
 common councilmen St. John's Bedford, was 
 
 intended only for townsmen; all such applying to the 
 master for relief were to be received; but all ' poore folkes 
 dwelling without the same town to be expulsed and put 
 
 out/ Davy of Croydon put his almshouse under 
 
 the vicar and other townsmen, answerable ultimately to 
 the Mercers' company, and provided that his pensioners 
 should be ' householders or trewe labourers ' from within 
 four miles, preference being given to residents of long 
 standing, if of good character and destitute." 
 
 This exclusiveness rested upon a limitation which is 
 peculiar to any local body. No town could accept the task 
 of caring for all needy persons who happened within its 
 borders. It would soon be overrun by applicants for help. 
 So long as the population was attached to the soil, as 
 was usual in the early middle ages, the local community was 
 able to handle the situation. But with the increasing 
 mobility of the population which went hand in hand with 
 the growth of the towns, it became more and more neces- 
 sary that the state should take some action, and we have 
 already seen how the English Poor Law developed out of 
 just this situation. 
 
 20
 
 306 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS 
 
 Ashley, W. J. : An Introduction to English Economic History. Lon- 
 don : Longmans Green, 1893, 2 vols. 
 
 Abram, A. : Social England in the Fifteenth Century. London : Rout- 
 ledge, 1909. 
 
 Green, Mrs. J. R. : Town Life in the Fifteenth Century. London : 
 Mac mil Ian, 1894. 
 
 von Hegel, Karl : Die Entstehung des deutschen Stddtewesens. Leip- 
 zig: Hirzel, 1898. 
 
 von Hegel, Karl: Geschichte der Stddteverfassung von Italien seit 
 der Zeit der romischen Herrschaft bis zum Ausgang des zwblf- 
 ten Jahrhunderts. Leipzig: Weidmann, 1847. 
 
 Unwin, Geo. : Industrial Organisation in the Sixteenth and Seven- 
 teenth Centuries. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1004. 
 
 Vives, Juan Louis: De Subventione Pauperum. Translation pub- 
 lished by the New York School of Social Work. 
 
 English Towns and Gilds. University of Pennsylvania Translations 
 and Reprints. Vol. 2, No. I. 
 
 Medieval Towns; a series of books published by J. M. Dent & Co., 
 London, including the stories of Avignon, Bruges, Canterbury, 
 Chartres, Dublin, Edinburgh, Florence, Lucca, Niirnberg, Prague, 
 Seville, Toledo and others. Various authors. 
 
 See also readings for Chapter XVII.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 WE have about reached the end of our story. Beginning 
 with the social work as we see it to-day, we have attempted 
 to trace its origins back through the nineteenth century 
 humanitarianism and the public relief systems, ecclesiasti- 
 cal charities and the mutual aid of medieval groups. We 
 have endeavored to find the causes for the changing forms 
 of social work, together with the achievements and the 
 mistakes of each age. 
 
 Social work of the present seems to be in the process 
 of becoming a profession, resting more and more on a 
 scientific basis, giving increased attention to preventive 
 and constructive work, and gradually welding scattered 
 activities into a coherent system of public service. From 
 the middle class humanitarians of the nineteenth century it 
 has received financial backing for making experiments; 
 it has learned principles of organization and administra- 
 tion ; it has acquired techniques for dealing with a variety 
 of practical problems. From the development of the 
 English Poor Law it has inherited the idea of national 
 responsibility for the problems of poverty and the notion 
 that charity as such will never solve them. The teachings 
 of the Church, exemplified in its myriads of charities, 
 have given the greatest single stimulus to attend to the 
 needs of one's fellow men. The mutual aid of simple 
 neighborhood groups in the middle ages is a standing 
 challenge to make social work more personal and human. 
 
 But the mutual aid of the medieval manor and gild 
 
 307
 
 3 o8 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 rested upon isolation and fixity, both geographical 
 and social. Its relative sufficiency was due to the absence of 
 specialized occupations. It could never meet the needs 
 of a mobile population nor take the place of modern pro- 
 fessional service. The Church's doctrine of the religious 
 merit of almsgiving was fundamentally selfish and drew 
 attention away from the needs of the unfortunate to the 
 spiritual hopes of the favored. It dealt almost exclusively 
 with the suffering that was obvious and made little effort 
 to find and eliminate the causes. The public relief systems 
 have tended to fall into routine and formality, due very 
 often to the injection of partisan politics. The nineteenth 
 century humanitarianism has been a curious mixture 
 of maudlin sentimentality, business methods and efforts to 
 keep the laboring people contented with their lot. On the 
 whole, it has stood for patronage rather than justice, 
 for " charity " rather than democracy. Social work of the 
 twentieth century has inherited all these handicaps along 
 with the positive achievements of the past. 
 
 A BASIS OF INTERPRETATION 
 
 Rather than merely repeat what has gone before, we 
 are going to undertake an interpretation, using the lan- 
 guage of the social psychologists, particularly Professor 
 Mead and Professor Cooley. The following summary of 
 this point of view may at first seem to be an unwarranted 
 digression, but its pertinence will presently appear. 
 
 We have been studying the sort of behavior that is 
 usually described as social work, philanthropy, charity, 
 welfare work, etc. The acts involved in solving problems 
 of social and economic maladjustment offer no evidence of 
 being fundamentally different from other activities of 
 normal human beings. We shall therefore make our
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 309 
 
 approach through a (we hope not very inaccurate) descrip- 
 tion of any act. 
 
 The act, as such, involves stimulation and response. 
 But that is not all. There is something in us which pre- 
 disposes us to respond to certain stimuli at certain times. 
 For example, the sight of food does not of itself create 
 the response involved in going after it and eating it. But 
 if we are hungry, we are predisposed to see food objects 
 and in a way prepared to perform the movements neces- 
 sary to secure them. To use the words of some of the 
 psychologists, visual, olfactory and other sense imagery 
 find us sensitive to this particular kind of stimulus and 
 motor imagery facilitates the response. 
 
 But there is something back of the fact of being 
 hungry. Our basic predispositions we call instincts. 
 There is a good deal of debate about the nature of instincts, 
 but whatever they are, they make possible the experiences 
 characteristic of our species. And among our various 
 actions the most successful ones tend to be selected and 
 become established more or less permanently as habits. 
 When any activity becomes habitual we cease to notice it, 
 we say that it takes care of itself. But if it should be dis- 
 turbed, we would have to give it our attention. If the 
 new factors persist, we have to reorganize our habit. 
 
 Now it is the interference with OUT instinctive, 
 habitual or reflex activities that creates our problems and 
 makes us think. Because the situation is new, we are at 
 a loss as to how to proceed. We start to do this, that and 
 the other thing, that seems as though it might do. But 
 these conflicting tendencies may appear simultaneously or 
 in such rapid succession as to inhibit each other and keep us 
 for the moment from doing anything. It is this check- 
 ing of our response that compels and makes possible 
 reflective thinking.
 
 310 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 So far as physical objects are concerned, we can 
 usually go ahead without thinking. We are not aware of 
 the various processes involved in walking, unless some- 
 thing unusual occurs. The reason for this is the fact that 
 physical objects concerned in our walking are relatively 
 stable; ordinarily they do not change in any way that 
 affects our conduct. But social objects are continually 
 changing. People do not stay put, nor can we always 
 count on their behaving in definite fixed ways. Moreover, 
 they change in response to what we do. We cannot as 
 social scientists study people in the way that biologists 
 study bugs. The insect can be examined without being 
 aware of the presence of the student. But the man changes 
 while the investigation is going on, and because it is 
 going on. 
 
 Hence it seems fair to make a distinction between 
 what we may call physical. acts and social acts. When two 
 animals or persons approach each other, each is on the 
 alert for signs of what the other is going to do. Suppose 
 that A's attitude indicates that he is dangerous. B may 
 respond with a show of fight or with flight. Whichever 
 it is, A's attitude toward B will change, because B himself 
 has changed ; whereupon B will make a different response 
 to the altered A, and so the parrying will go on. One of 
 the most characteristic examples of this, which Professor 
 Mead calls a "conversation of gestures," is the box- 
 ing match. 
 
 In social conduct, as we have described it, attention may 
 be centered upon the incipient acts of the other, without 
 our being definitely aware of their significance. Con- 
 sciousness of meaning seems to come only from awareness 
 of our own response. Now such gestures as are involved in 
 bodily attitudes or expressions of the countenance we are
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 311 
 
 not ordinarily aware of in ourselves. But we are aware 
 of pantomimic and especially of " vocal gestures." If 
 we shake our fist, we see ourselves do it; if we speak, we 
 hear ourselves. Thus we become aware of what we 
 are doing. 
 
 In using gestures or words and in being aware of them 
 we in a sense respond to them. Being conscious of what 
 we are doing or saying to some one else, we are in the 
 position of the other person watching or listening to 
 us. We are putting ourselves in his place. We are aware 
 of the effect of OUT act upon him, and see ourselves from 
 his point of view. It is thus that we " see ourselves as 
 others see us." 
 
 Of course, the extent to which we can really take the 
 role of another depends upon the extent to which there are 
 similar or identical impulses in both parties. But appar- 
 ently there are a good many impulses common to most 
 human beings. Hence it seems to be through the play 
 back and forth, the parrying, the " conversation of 
 gestures," that we acquire the imagery whereby we can 
 assume the roles which others are taking or have taken in 
 the past. We are not confined to the present, for we have 
 something that we call memory. 
 
 But memory is not all. We not only recall past 
 experiences, but carry the process farther, on the basis of 
 present stimulations, and wonder how the other person 
 would act or what he would say under given conditions. 
 We find ourselves carrying on an imaginary conversation, 
 taking now the part associated with " I " and now the part 
 of the other, (imaginatively) standing in his shoes, 
 assuming his attitude and speaking for him. 
 
 It seems to be in some such manner as this that we
 
 312 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 get acquainted with people, and, moreover, that we get 
 acquainted with ourselves; that is, become self-conscious. 
 It is in taking the role of another that we set ourselves up 
 as an object. It is thus that we enter into the life of 
 our community. Now there is nothing mysterious or 
 esoteric about this. We have only to watch a child at 
 his play to hea'r him carrying on imaginary conversations, 
 taking now one part and now another, playing a variety 
 of parts. 
 
 In what the social psychologists call a " primary 
 group," every member enters more or less completely into 
 the life of every other member. Having constant dealings 
 with one another in all the activities of life, they acquire 
 the imagery to assume each other's roles. Tkey can put 
 themselves into each other's places, and this makes pos- 
 sible real sympathy. That does not mean that all the 
 members of the group must be alike. In fact the opposite 
 seems to be nearer the truth, for if all individuals were 
 alike, the distinction between me and thee might never 
 come to consciousness. On the other hand, if differences 
 were too great, these intimate relations would be impos- 
 sible. Within the primary group differences are sufficient 
 to attract attention, but not so great as to prevent 
 mutual understanding. 
 
 It is in these primary groups where everybody knows 
 everybody else intimately that " social control " develops. 
 Putting himself now in the place of this one, now of that 
 one, and finding everywhere an essential agreement of 
 attitude toward himself, he is very likely to do and become 
 that which is expected of him. Primitive society, in par- 
 ticular, seems to be marked by the fixity of belief and 
 custom, so that there is little opportunity for the exercise 
 of individual initiative. One striking out along a new line
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 313 
 
 would promptly feel the censure of the entire group, and 
 being unsupported in his opposition would normally 
 return to the established ways. If he could appeal to 
 some outsider for justification and support he might 
 become an innovator, but the exclusiveness and isolation 
 of the primitive group prevented this. The people whose 
 opinion and attitude one regarded were none others than 
 the people who made up his group. 
 
 What then of the outsider, the barbarian, the gentile, 
 the foreigner, the " unwashed?" In the first instance the 
 primary group has no dealings with him except as an 
 enemy. He is different. He has been brought up in a 
 different environment, and has formed different habits. 
 The members of our group have not the imagery with 
 which to put themselves in his place. Hence impulses 
 of fear or hostility are not inhibited by other impulses, as 
 within the group. Social control is removed, and action 
 is immediate and hostile. This warlike attitude is 
 strengthened and perpetuated by perception of the fact 
 that the other members of our group are acting in a 
 similar manner. We find self -approval in group approval. 
 We identify ourselves with the group, and thereby greatly 
 enhance our feeling of self-importance. This enlarged 
 self- feeling together with " taking off the lid " produces 
 an exhilaration which carries this hostility along in an 
 invincible manner. 
 
 How then does a group ever enlarge itself? How do 
 we ever come to have any attitude other than unrestrained 
 hostility toward the outsider. The first means seems to 
 have been created by the institution of slavery, through 
 a combination of the ideas and impulses connected with 
 property and belligerency. In the primitive group prop- 
 erty did not involve exclusiveness except in such articles as
 
 3 H SOCIAL WORK 
 
 the spear or club; nearly everything was the property of the 
 group. Or, perhaps we should say, there was property 
 only in things under immediate personal control (depend- 
 ing upon the definition of property). But when a 
 community developed an economic process (herding of 
 flocks or crude agriculture) in which there was a possible 
 function for a slave, they stopped killing all their enemies 
 and put some of them to work. Thus the limited ex- 
 clusiveness involved in property was extended from 
 weapons to human beings, and the hostile attitude was 
 inhibited by economic impulses. 
 
 A new relationship had been brought into existence. 
 By means of it the group could be enlarged indefinitely 
 and anyone could be brought in. But the slave was not 
 a full member of the group. The attitude of hostility had 
 been mitigated, not abolished. The warlike and the 
 acquisitive impulses had combined to produce what we call 
 " an abstract relation." It was abstract because one 
 aspect of life had been taken out of its setting, abstracted 
 from all the rest. Master and slave did not have to con- 
 sider any except the property relation. That the slave was 
 a husband, father, brother, neighbor, etc., meant nothing 
 at all to his master. To the slave the master was merely a 
 wielder of the whip, the one who fed him and used him 
 as a domestic animal. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL WORK 
 
 All this may seem a far cry from the history of social 
 work, but its significance will presently appear. In the 
 middle ages nearly everybody lived in a small, isolated, 
 exclusive, self-sufficient group, often at war with 
 its neighbors, but otherwise ignoring the existence of a
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 315 
 
 world beyond. Within the manor, parish, merchant or 
 craft gild, or religious fraternity, everybody knew every- 
 body else, or at least readily understood all those with 
 whom he had dealings. The intimate personal relations 
 made these veritable primary groups. As we have 
 seen, there was not always unity and harmony, but in gen- 
 eral there tended to be inner solidarity. In cases of 
 misfortune due to illness, flood, fire, famine, etc., they 
 helped one another as sympathy directed and without 
 formality. But with the increase in numbers, the division 
 into cliques and other aspects of the break-down of con- 
 crete personal relations, it became necessary to organize 
 definite means for meeting the various exigencies of life. 
 And poverty, disease and death were regarded and treated 
 in the main as group calamities, not as individ- 
 ual misfortunes. 
 
 On the other hand, there were always individuals who 
 had lost their immediate connection with the home com- 
 munity. They went on pilgrimages, ran away from their 
 lords, or became traveling merchants. These detached 
 individuals were looked upon with suspicion, and there 
 was a constant effort to attach them to some local group. 
 But during the Crusades their numbers became so 
 great that this effort was bound to be unsuccessful. From 
 that time on to the final break-up of feudalism the numbers 
 of pilgrims, beggars, thieves, merchants and other wan- 
 derers increased with great rapidity. 
 
 What then was the attitude of those who " stayed 
 put " toward the detached folk ? In the first place, it was 
 still one of exclusiveness and hostility and manifested 
 itself in the many attempts to repress begging. But the 
 numbers and the persistence of the " vagabonds " and
 
 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 beggars were so great that failure was a foregone con- 
 clusion. Something else had to be done. 
 
 One of the most interesting stages of the entire 
 history of social work is that in which the aid given to 
 members of primary groups was gradually extended to 
 outsiders. How was this done? What was the tech- 
 nique ? What was the function which the strangers might 
 perform so as to secure at least partial admission to the 
 group life? It was all involved in the doctrine of the 
 religious merit of almsgiving. By giving alms to the poor, 
 helpless and wandering folk the donors hoped to secure 
 eternal salvation. Not only did the beggars help to make 
 eternal bliss certain by accepting the gifts of respectable 
 folk, they also offered prayers for their benefactors which 
 were supposed to be efficacious in saving the soul from 
 Hell and shortening its stay in Purgatory. Hence medie- 
 val almsgiving was not merely charity ; it was an exchange 
 of services. Bread, clothing and shelter were traded for 
 prayers and credits in the heavenly ledger. The whole 
 thing was very much like a commercial transaction. It 
 was an economic function that made possible the extension 
 of relief to those who did not belong to one's own group. 
 This doctrine of the religious merit of almsgiving was 
 not a new thing. Just when it first appeared is not certain, 
 but there is some reason to believe that it took shape 
 during the Babylonian captivity of the ancient Hebrews. 
 It seems that some of the Jews showed a tendency to seek 
 favor among their masters, neglecting their fellow coun- 
 trymen. The appeal to the fear of Jehovah was part of a 
 program to preserve the national pride and group spirit 
 of the transported people. This doctrine which almost 
 certainly grew out of the break-down of primary group 
 relations was perpetuated by the Christian Church for
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 317 
 
 similar reasons. So long as the Church consisted of a 
 relatively small number of people who had a great deal 
 in common, little was said about divine favor as a reward 
 of charity. The early Church was essentially a primary 
 group. But dissensions between those who spoke Aramaic 
 and those whose language was Greek gave rise to the 
 appointment of deacons to look out for those in need. 
 With the further growth in numbers and heterogeneity, it 
 was found desirable to emphasize the idea that God 
 rewards the benevolent, and this teaching appears over and 
 over again in the writings of the Church Fathers. 
 
 With the "Fall of Rome" and still more with the 
 break-up of Charlemagne's Empire, European society 
 became decentralized and came to consist, as we have 
 already seen, of many small, (and independent except for 
 feudal formalities) groups. It was the influence of the 
 Church that was largely responsible for changing this 
 situation. The belief that bodily healing and religious 
 merit were to be gained through visiting holy shrines and 
 through helping to rescue the Holy Land from the infidels 
 set large bodies of men in motion and detached thousands 
 from their primary groups. It was from this time on to the 
 Reformation that the doctrine of the religious merit of 
 almsgiving attained greatest prominence. 
 
 The abstractness of the relations between the givers 
 and the recipients of alms must be apparent. The central 
 problem was not even the relief of the indigent, much less 
 enabling them to assume a normal position in society, but 
 the salvation of the donors. The established folk saw in the 
 wanderers means of divine grace for themselves. The 
 unfortunate and the needy were regarded as an asset! 
 It was not necessary to put themselves in the places of the 
 poor, unless to see how many Paternosters and Avfe Marias
 
 318 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 they would offer in return for a given donation. On the 
 other hand, the beggars saw in the rich simply possible 
 sources of food and clothing. On neither side was there 
 recognition of human personality in its richness and 
 fullness. The mental image was a highly refined abstrac- 
 tion rather than a recognition of man as man. 
 
 Even more important than the abstractness of the 
 relations is the fact that social relations were being 
 extended. In this development the religious merit of 
 almsgiving was only one of several factors. Probably 
 far more important was the growth of commerce which 
 was stimulated by the crusades. The exchange of goods 
 required trips by land and sea and the establishment of 
 trading centres. So towns, which had been well-nigh 
 non-existent during the earlier middle ages began to spring 
 up. With increased commerce came the manufacture of 
 goods for exchange. As a consequence the towns became 
 larger and acquired a more heterogeneous population. 
 Thus there was being built up a new social framework, 
 much more extensive than any medieval group, but with 
 social relations more attenuated and abstract. The towns- 
 people had certain things in common, but many aspects of 
 life they did not share. It was primarily business rela- 
 tions with which they were concerned. 
 
 But they did take some account of each other as human 
 beings and undertook to look out for each other by means 
 that became more and more organized. The early munici- 
 pal charities were more personal than the indiscriminate 
 almsgiving that preceded and accompanied them; at the 
 same time they were less personal than the mutual aid of 
 simpler groups. This is what we might expect, for the 
 whole life of these new social structures was made up of 
 more intimate relations than those between members of a
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 319 
 
 group and outsiders, but it was less personal than the rela- 
 tions between members of smaller groups where there was 
 much greater community of interest. 
 
 But the towns themselves were exclusive and looked 
 out for their own citizens chiefly, if not solely. It was the 
 development of the modern nations from the sixteenth 
 century onward that created a still more extensive, even if 
 more attenuated social order. Just as the towns could not 
 long be sufficient unto themselves commercially and 
 industrially, neither could they alone solve the problems 
 of poverty. It remained for the nations to undertake 
 those measures made necessary by increasing mobility. 
 
 This same process has been carried still farther by the 
 Industrial Revolution. The development of large-scale 
 industry, the division of labor and the simplification of 
 individual tasks have made it possible for the worker to 
 find a place in almost any industrial community. The size 
 of the establishments, the lack of personal contacts 
 between employers and employes, the displacement of 
 names by numbers, and the impersonal character of the 
 pay envelope mean still further removal from the situation 
 in which relations between men are intimate and concrete. 
 
 The tremendous growth of cities in the nineteenth and 
 twentieth centuries and the improved means of transpor- 
 tation have also contributed greatly to the mobility and 
 anonymity of modern life. Concrete relations may be 
 preserved, but they constitute a smaller and smaller pro- 
 portion of those in which our life consists. Hence we 
 seem to be getting farther and farther away from the 
 simple group organization of the middle ages where there 
 was poverty but not pauperism, mutual aid but not charity. 
 
 The humanitarian movements of the nineteenth century 
 represent in one aspect an attempt to overcome the growing
 
 320 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 abstractness of social relations, but in their original form 
 they were bound to fail, for charity as such always 
 involves an abstraction. The poor cannot enter completely 
 into the group life, because the best of relief does not re- 
 move the causes of destitution. Moreover, there is the 
 consciousness of a gift from the successful and the 
 provident to those unable to care for themselves. 
 Whether the gift be from an individual or from the com- 
 munity and the latter is certainly more democratic than 
 the former it implies a distinction between the capable 
 and the inferior. Not charity, but social insurance, free 
 compulsory education, and all those things that will go to 
 make complete political and industrial democracy, can 
 break down class lines and give everyone an equal part in 
 our common life. 
 
 Charity thus means a second sort of abstraction. It 
 implies that something is wrong with the political and 
 industrial system. It indicates the recognition of the lack 
 of a completely human situation. But it means an accept- 
 ance of the existing economic arrangements, with an effort 
 to attain more intimate relations outside of the economic 
 phase of activity. The employer, charity organization 
 society, or nation which strives to relieve poverty and 
 misery without going into the economic and other causes is 
 unconsciously or deliberately separating one aspect of life 
 from another. He or it is literally performing an 
 abstraction. He is considering one phase of the social 
 process without reference to the whole of which it is a part. 
 
 Some social workers are trying to revive simple group 
 life by organizing city blocks, neighborhoods, commun- 
 ities, etc. But it is clear that we can never go back to 
 anything like the simplicity, intimacy and local solidarity 
 of the medieval world. Even if we could, we should
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 321 
 
 probably lose more than we should gain. By its mobility, 
 anonymity and individualism the modern world has 
 divided up its work so that each of us is dependent upon 
 the specialized services of a multitude of trades and pro- 
 fessions. Through these we have achieved higher 
 standards of living and we would not lightly cast 
 them aside. 
 
 But an acceptance of larger and larger groups with 
 their necessarily attenuated and more or less abstract 
 relations as circles of truly human cooperation ; with each 
 one's primary group a unique but not exclusive thing; 
 and with every member of the larger group a potential 
 member of the primary group involves the establishment 
 of a profession to render specific services without ref- 
 erence to the division of men into little groups. Social 
 work to-day cannot be mutual aid within primary groups, 
 for such groups in the sense of limited, isolated and 
 exclusive communities have ceased to bound our essential 
 relationships. As the charity of one group extended 
 to another, or of a group to detached individuals, it is 
 out of harmony with the democratic spirit of the age, 
 and seems certain to fail because of the reaction against 
 it. As professional public service available to everybody 
 it will have an important place in the twentieth century. 
 
 Just because of the complexity of modern civilization, 
 we are not likely to see the day when everyone will be 
 completely and harmoniously adjusted in his social rela- 
 tions. As far ahead as we can see there will be people 
 whose family relations will break down, people who do not 
 get on with their fellow workmen, people who misunder- 
 stand and are misunderstood by their neighbors, people 
 who need to break with old associates and to form new 
 friends, and others who too greatly subordinate the com- 
 
 21
 
 322 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 mon welfare to the gain of themselves, their families or 
 cliques. To help such folk find, revise, or restore their 
 place in society is the distinctive task of the social worker. 
 It is just as dignified and just as important as the work of 
 the lawyer whose function is the adjustment of formal, 
 legal relations, or of the physician who attends to our 
 physical needs. It is not merely, nor chiefly, the failure of 
 charity that calls for this new type of social work. It is 
 the demands of democracy and of science that make it 
 imperative that social work achieve professional standing. 
 And social work, as distinguished from general civic 
 activity, will become a profession, worthy of a place in 
 the twentieth century, when it is performed by democrati- 
 cally organized groups of scientifically trained specialists 
 whose skilled services are at the disposal of democratically 
 organized communities and states.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Addams, Jane, 134 
 
 Almsgiving, 167-8, 215, 221 ff. f 
 
 237 
 Amalgamation of social agencies, 
 
 45-8 
 
 American Association for Organ- 
 izing Family Social Work, 34, 
 40, in 
 
 American Child Hygiene Associ- 
 ation, 32, 51 
 
 American Prison Association, 33 
 
 American Red Cross, 23, 32, 34-6, 
 
 53, 6 
 
 Apprenticeship, 21, 25, 138 
 Ashley, W. J., 183 
 
 Barnett, Canon, 132-3 
 
 Begging, 168-171, 183, 221-6, 237, 
 
 259 
 
 Benedict, 235 
 Binet-Simon tests, 157-8 
 Blind, 155, 261 
 Bolt, Dr. Richard A., 32 
 Bosanquet, Bernard, 204 
 Boston, 22, 53, no, 115, 135, 152 
 Bourgeoisie, 79-82, 101, 120-123, 
 
 130-1, 201 
 Buffalo, i lo-ii i 
 
 Cabot, Dr. R. C, 115 
 
 California, 37, 45-6, 56 
 
 Case conference, 113 
 
 Case method, 114-7 
 
 Catholic Church, 23, 152, 177, 
 215 ff., 230 ff., see also National 
 Catholic Welfare Council 
 
 Catholic Protectory, 153 
 Central registration, 112 
 Chambers of Commerce, 39, 125, 
 
 281 
 
 Charities endorsement commit- 
 tees, 39-40 
 
 /'Charity, 61-4, 226-8, 320 
 Charity organization movement, 
 
 103 ff. 
 
 Charlemagne, 238, 239 
 Child Labor, 158-160 
 Child-placing, 148-150, 196 
 Child Welfare, 37, 51-2, 53-4, 
 
 145 ff., 195-6, 233, 238, 262 
 Children's Bureau, 51, 67, 161 
 Chrysostom, 218-220 
 Church Fathers, 217-220 
 Chicago, 22, 39, 115, 134 
 Chicago, University of, 23 
 Cities, growth of, 77 
 City planning, 127 
 Cleveland, 43-44 
 Coit, Stanton, 134 
 College settlement, 134-5 
 Conant Thread Co., 96 
 Confidential exchange, 112 
 Confraternities, 288-290 
 Constantine, 234 
 Constructive work, 68-9 
 Cooley, Chas. H., 68, 308 
 Cooperative Education Associa- 
 tion of Virginia, 32 
 Cooperative movement, 57-9, 69 
 Correlation of social agencies, 
 
 31 ff., 112, 161 
 
 Councils of social agencies, 40- 
 42 
 
 S23
 
 324 
 
 INDEX 
 
 County children's homes, 150 
 Craft gilds, 283-288 
 Credit, 59, 243~4 
 Crusades, 240 
 
 Deaf, 155, 261 
 
 Definition of social work, 17-9, 
 
 28 
 Delinquents, work with, 115, 154- 
 
 155 
 Democracy, 26-7, 56, 63, 64-5, 
 
 88, QO, 101, 142, 196-7, 200-2, 
 
 226-8, 321-2 
 
 Denison, Edward, 132 
 
 Domestic system of industry, 75, 
 78-9, 172-4 
 
 Disorganization, see Social dis- 
 organization 
 
 Dunning, Ralph, 187 
 
 Education, 52, 59-6i, 69, 98-9, 
 
 137, 160, see also Training for 
 
 social work 
 Elberfeld, 103-6 
 Employers' liability, 55 
 Employers' welfare work, see 
 
 Industrial welfare work 
 Enclosures of farm land, I74-6* 
 Endorsement of charities, 38-40 
 England, 76-7, 131-3, 158, 165 ff., 
 
 220, 222-4, 250 ff., 297, 299, 
 
 302 
 
 Farming-out the poor, 190 
 Federal departments, 51, 53, 97 
 Federation of woman's clubs, 
 
 32 
 Federations of social agencies, 
 
 42-5 
 Feebleminded, 155-8, 195-6 
 
 Feudalism, 171-7, 234-5, 236 
 Financial federations, 42-5 
 France, 155-6, 170, 222, 260, 300 
 
 -I, 302 
 
 Fresno County, California, 45-6 
 Frey, John P., 101 
 Friendly visitors, 113 
 
 George Junior Republic, 152-3 
 
 Germany, 103-6, 293, 296-7 
 
 Gilds, 281 ff., 293-5 
 
 Girard College, 147 
 
 Gompers, Samuel, 100 
 
 Great Britain, 56, 58, 91-4, 159, 
 
 165 ff., see also England 
 Gregory the Great, 235-6 
 
 Hamburg-Elberfeld system, 103-6 
 Handicapped children, 155-8 
 Hart, Hastings H., 146, 153 
 Health, 97, 237-8, see also Public 
 
 health work 
 
 Henry Street Settlement, 136 
 Hill, Octavia, 121, 123, 124-5 
 Home-finding, 148-150 
 Hospitality, 232-3 
 Hospital orders, 242-3 
 Hospital social work, 115-6 
 Hospitals, medieval, 249 ff., 299 ' 
 
 -301 
 
 Housing reform, 119 ff., 184-5 
 Houston, Texas, 45 
 Howe, Samuel G., 156-7 
 Hull House, 134 
 Humane societies, 149 
 Humanitarianism, 75, 86-8, 120- 
 
 3, I30-I 
 
 Illinois Children's Home and 
 Aid Society, 149
 
 INDEX 
 
 325 
 
 Illinois Steel Co., 96 
 Industrial Revolution, 75 ff. 
 Industrial schools for wayward 
 
 children, 152, 153 
 Industrial welfare work, 90 ff. 
 Insane, 171, 195-6, 260-1 
 Institutions, see Hospitals, Or- 
 phanages, Industrial schools, 
 Workhouses, Xenodochia, etc. 
 Institutional churches, 136 
 Insurance, see Social insurance 
 Intercollegiate Community Ser- 
 vice Association, 135 
 Iowa, 46 
 Italy, 292, 300-1 
 
 Jewish social work, 43 
 Juvenile courts, I54r5 
 
 Kansas Gty Board of Public 
 Welfare, 47 
 
 Labor colleges, 139 
 
 Labor legislation, 53-6, 69 
 
 Laissez-faire, 81 
 
 Lamprecht, Karl, 10 
 
 Legislation, 38-9, 53-6, 56-7, 125 
 ~7, 154-5. 150-160, 161, 183 ff. 
 
 Limited dividend housing com- 
 panies, 124 
 
 London, 106-9, "9. 120-1 
 
 Los Angeles, 38-9 
 
 Ludlow Manufacturing Associ- 
 ates, 95-6 
 
 McLean, Francis H., 41 
 Manor, 272-276 
 Massachusetts, 151, 153, 154 
 Mead, Geo. H., 68, 308 
 Medical social work, 115-6 
 
 Medieval philosophy, 
 
 Mental defectives, 155-8 
 
 Merchant gilds, 281-3 
 
 Michigan, 150 
 
 Middle class, see Bourgeoisie 
 
 Ministry of Labour, 206-7 
 
 Mobility, 85, 166, 188-9, 195, 268 
 
 -272 
 
 Modern Health Crusaders, 32, 51 
 Monasteries, 177-9, 235, 237, 241 
 
 242 
 
 Mont-de-Piete, 243-4 
 More, Sir Thomas, 176 
 Mothers' pensions, 151 
 Motives, 50, 86-8, 113, 120-3, 130 
 
 -I, 136, 145, 189, 215 ff., 235 
 
 -6, 239-240, 245-7, 252-6, 258- 
 
 9 275-6, 288-9 
 
 Municipal departments, 38-9, 47 
 Municipal granaries, 298-9 
 Mutual aid, 275-9, 282, 286-200 
 
 National Catholic Welfare Coun- 
 cil, 33 
 
 National Child Labor Committee, 
 159 
 
 National Committee for Mental 
 Hygiene, 52-3 
 
 National Conference of Social 
 Work, 33, 114 
 
 National Investigation Bureau, 40 
 
 National Organization for Public 
 Health Nursing, 36 
 
 National organizations, 32 ff. 
 
 National Service School for 
 Women, 247 
 
 National Tuberculosis Associ- 
 ation, 32, 36, 51 
 
 Nationalism, 170, 179-180 
 
 Neighbourhood Guild, 134 
 
 New Testament, 217
 
 INDEX 
 
 New York Children's Aid Soci- 
 ety, 148 
 
 New York City, 21, log, 119, 121 
 -3, 125, 134, 135, 136, 152 
 
 New York Orphanage, 147 
 
 New York School of Social 
 Work, 21 
 
 New York Society for the Pre- 
 vention of cruelty to children, 
 149-150 
 
 N. O. Nelson Co., 94-5 
 
 North Carolina, 46-7 
 
 Ohio, 115, 150, 153 
 Old Age Pensions, 207-8 
 Old Testament, 216 
 Oregon, 54 
 
 Orphanages, 145-7, 15 
 Owen, Robert, 58, 92 
 
 Papal indulgences, 220-1 
 
 Parish, 183 ff., 276-8 
 
 Parole, 153-4 
 
 Peacedale Mfg. Co., 94, 96-7 
 
 Pensions, 99-100, 151, 207-8 
 
 Persecutions, 230-4 
 
 Philadelphia, no, in, 115, 147, 
 
 152 
 
 Philanthropic Trust Funds, 123 
 Primary group life, 230-4, 267, 
 
 268 ff., 278-9, 283-6, 312-5 
 Probation, 154 
 Professional training, 10-24 
 Proletariat, 79-80, 82-4 
 Protestant Reformation, 180-1, 
 
 245-7 
 Public health work, 36, 50-3, 
 
 161 
 Public welfare, Boards of, 47 
 
 Recreation, 98, 137 
 
 Red Cross, see American Red 
 
 Cross 
 Relation of Social work to other 
 
 vocations, 17-8, 19-20, 24, 28-9 
 Religious gilds, 288-290 
 Religious merit of almsgiving, 215 
 
 ff., 252-4, 288-290, 316-7 
 Repressive measures, 168-170, 
 
 183-4, 295-8 
 
 Richmond, Mary E., in 
 Robinson, James Harvey, 9 
 Russell Sage Foundation, 40, in, 
 
 116 
 
 St. Louis, 40, 41 
 
 School hygiene, 52 
 
 Science, 65-8, see also Social 
 science 
 
 Seignobos, Charles, 10 
 
 Serfdom, 234-5 
 
 Settlement Acts, 188, 195 
 
 Settlements, 130 ff. 
 
 Simmons College School of So- 
 cial Work, 22 
 
 Social centres, 139-140 
 
 Social disorganization the occa- 
 sion for social work, 18, 28, 
 84-6, 131, 145, 165-181, 200, 232, 
 236, 240-1, 315-320 
 
 Social insurance, 56-7, 208-211 
 
 Social science, 25-8, 67-8, 116-7 
 
 Social unit, 140-2 
 
 Socialism, 65, 83-4, 132, 201 
 
 Societies for prevention of cruelty 
 to children, 149-150 
 
 South End House, 135 
 
 Spain, 155, 160-170, 260, 261 
 
 State conferences, 34 
 
 State departments, 32, 36-8
 
 INDEX 
 
 337 
 
 State schools for needy children, 
 
 150-1 
 Supervision of private agencies, 
 
 257 
 Switzerland, 295-6 
 
 Tasks of social work, 84-6 
 
 Tendencies in social work sum- 
 marized, 10, 29, 31, 48, 50, 68- 
 9, oo-i, 103, 117, 128, 143, 158, 
 161, 165-6, 197-8, 262-3, 307-8, 
 321-2 
 
 Thomas, W. I., 68, 117 
 
 Towns, medieval, 292 ff. 
 
 Trade unionism, 64-5, 83, 100-1, 
 201-2 
 
 Training for social work, 20-4, 
 138, 247 
 
 Transportation agreement, 114 
 
 Toynbee, Arnold, 133 
 
 University extension, 138 
 University Settlement, 134 
 
 Vagrants, 196 
 Vincent de Paul, 247 
 
 Virginia, 32, 42 
 Vives, Juan Louis, 303-4 
 Vocational guidance, 59, 116 
 Volkerwanderung, 234, 236 
 
 Wage subsidies, 191-2 
 Wald, Lilian D., 136 
 Waltham Watch Co., 94 
 War chests, 44-5 
 War Risk Insurance, 57 
 Wayward children, 151-5 
 Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 195, 
 
 197-8, 204-5, 210 
 Widows' pensions, 151 
 Woods, Robert A., 135 
 Workers in training, 21 
 Workhouse, 189 
 
 Xenodochium, 235, 238, 249 
 
 Young Men's Oiristian Associ- 
 ation, 32 
 
 Young Women's Christian Asso- 
 ciation, 32 
 
 Ypres, 303-4 
 
 Zoning, 128
 
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