io 4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



try offers such an excellent field for the study of charitable institu- 

 tions. The Dutch are eminently practical; they made an early be- 

 ginning in the work of alleviating distress, and this relief, from the 

 nature of things, as pointed out, is not spasmodic as in other countries 

 where nothing short of famine, earthquakes, or floods can awaken 

 the people to a realization of the duty they owe to mankind. Here 

 the call for aid may come at any time, so that those charitably in- 

 clined must be ever ready to respond, and the organizations for re- 

 lief can never become lax or inefficient. 



Then, too, the population of the Netherlands is very homogene- 

 ous, and the leaders in all good works are not only administering to 

 their own people, but are unbiased by prior experiences under other 

 auspices. Consequently, this country furnishes institutions organized 

 under normal conditions, with an entire absence of external influ- 

 ences, and where the helped and the helpers are of the same race. 



England, France, and Germany have sent commissions to Hol- 

 land to study its organized charity, its school system, workingmen's 

 societies, and like institutions. These countries have but little in 

 common, even though their forms of government are, or have been, 

 outwardly similar, while on the other hand we have always found in 

 the Dutchman " a friend and a brother," and an example well worthy 

 of following. And since it is only after examining remedies for evils 

 found without complications, that we can prescribe for abnormal con- 

 ditions, the study of Dutch institutions is the best possible prepara- 

 tion for arriving at the means for meeting the necessities in our own 

 country. 



In Holland the general awakening to the demands of the people 

 came in the eighteenth century, when the social life was lacking in 

 strength, when the rich were largely given over to extravagance, 

 while the poor were neglected, uneducated, and exposed to want. 

 Everything seemed to separate the two classes — nothing emphasized 

 their interdependence. The citizen class was restive under these op- 

 pressive conditions, and needed only the successful example of some 

 neighboring people to start the revolution within their own country. 



There was in the Netherlands at this time at least one thought- 

 ful man who foresaw the approaching social revolution and realized 

 the danger which threatened his native land if unaccustomed rights 

 and powers should become the possession of those who heretofore 

 had felt the power of others. This man was Jan Nieuwenhuizen, the 

 founder of the Society of General Welfare. It is impossible to esti- 

 mate the good which has been accomplished by this organization. It 

 instituted free schools, and gave to the state the scheme on which 

 the present public-school system rests; it established savings banks, 

 and the Postal Savings Bank — now the model of the world — was 



