3 02 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



poor-relief is one of the heaviest items of expense. How to render this 

 assistance so as to secure the greatest good, and to do the least harm 

 to those who are aided, is a question very difficult of solution. Pub- 

 lic institutions, such as almshouses, hospitals, and infirmaries of vari- 

 ous kinds, must of necessity be provided. In no other form can we 

 meet the demands which we have neither the right nor the disposition 

 to ignore. These benevolences, however, are not always managed in 

 the interests of either the inmates or of the municipality. Officers 

 are appointed and dismissed according to their subserviency to the 

 appointing power. Employes who are not utterly incompetent to 

 discharge tbe duties devolving upon their positions, and others who 

 are not expected to perform any duties, are carried on the pay-roll, 

 and the semi-seclusion and retirement which seems to invest such in- 

 stitutions, to a certain extent protects the details of their operations 

 from public scrutiny. Complaints seldom receive attention, or are 

 regarded as the querulous vagaries of an impaired intellect, and it is 

 only in some of those spasmodic convulsions which occasionally rock 

 to the very center some city government that we obtain an inside 

 view of these affairs. At such times the public sensibility is apt to 

 be shocked at the revelations which are brought to light, and the peo- 

 ple wonder that evils of 6uch magnitude could have existed undiscov- 

 ered in their very midst. 



There is another form of public charity which in the West we 

 call "outside relief" — i.e., temporary aid in necessitous cases, which 

 in the aggregate constitutes a very large expense, and the effect of 

 which is not easily ascertained. Charitable aid in substantially this 

 form seems to be a necessity in every community. Just how far it 

 ought to be a gratuity is a matter deserving careful consideration. I 

 am quite sure that this form of poor-relief is frequently so administered 

 as to encourage pauperism. It creates a class of dependents who be- 

 come imbued with the idea that such support is an inalienable right ; 

 all stimulus to industry and thrift is lost, and "pauperism becomes a 

 profession." 



I have a friend who, at a time when there was great want and 

 suffering among the poor of Chicago, established a free Kindergarten 

 where, during the day, little children could be left by their mothers, 

 who thus had freedom for any employment which they could secure. 

 This was continued until a change in business affairs seemed to obvi- 

 ate any further necessity for such a charity. The school was then 

 closed, and its patrons became indignant. There seemed to be no 

 gratitude for favors received, but rather a sense of personal wrong in 

 the withdrawal of what had come to be looked upon as a permanent 

 arrangement for their benefit. The effect of this charity was in the 

 direction I have indicated. It begat a spirit of dependence on the 

 part of its beneficiaries, and relaxed their sense of obligation to pro- 

 vide for their own necessities. I believe it to be a typical illustration. 



