THE URBAN COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 765 



institution (in Switzerland, and in Norway) or in connection with 

 charitable societies, as is preferred in Germany. This development 

 is spreading fast. Now the needs of life urge to proceed from 

 feeding of children also to clothing them (to furnish shoes in 

 mountainous regions) ; now the apparently useless recreations which 

 make life more enjoyable cause play and sport to be added to 

 instruction; they open an infinite space for the extension of the 

 school to activities which had formerly belonged to the family. In 

 no country of the world is this more evident than in America. 



But also in other respects the activity of the urban community 

 of the public school draws its objects from the family. Formerly the 

 family itself had been the school for the education of the girls; 

 the daughters received their education for their duties as mother 

 and wife by their activity in the family. The more the family is 

 dissolved by the drift of the women to the trades, and the more the 

 home education is impaired, the more the family is in danger of 

 losing that important historical connection which is founded upon 

 the tradition of the mother to her daughter. Here the school appears 

 as a remedy, as it offers instruction to girls in domestic science for 

 their future activity in the family. 



The familiar origin of urban activity shows itself also in charity, 

 in a different way but not less clearly, either in public institutions for 

 the poor or in the care for the poor in their homes. In either case 

 urban charity has the same object as the care of the family for its 

 members. Only in one instance the activity of the family is entirely 

 replaced; in the other it is supplemented; this difference determines 

 the two systems of the charity administration. English charity, a 

 large indoor relief system, gives every one who does not find in the 

 family what life demands, a compensation, but it demands (at least 

 according to the rules) that the poor give up his family and move 

 into the urban poorhouse; only exceptionally he is supported while 

 living within the family. The opposite system is followed in Ger- 

 many: as long as it is possible, the poor is permitted to remain in his 

 abode, and urban charity furnishes only the necessary additional 

 support; only in exceptional instances, if no other way is possible, 

 is the poor separated from his family and sent to the poorhouse. 

 But in either system familiar duties are transferred to the city. 

 It would be a mistake to believe that this development is confined 

 to those countries in which legislation recognizes the obligation of 

 charity. There are no longer any large cities without public charity, 

 whether legislation urges it or not. France is considered the 

 classical country of exclusively voluntary charity. But while 

 French legislation has not mentioned expressly the obligation to 

 establish administrations of charity, it has instituted obligatory 

 branches of charity for a great many special cases, so that France 



