2 CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON 



men began to mix theory with practice, and bring to bear the 

 lessons of biology on the conduct of poor relief, that actual prog- 

 ress was made toward a rational, humane and effective policy 

 of segregation of the unfit. It was a philosophical state sec- 

 retary, a companion of men of science, who crystallized the 

 working hypothesis of segregation into this statement: 



*'By reason of years of study, we are coming to know what 

 measures are preventive. These are practical and economical. 

 Had they been known and could they have been adopted a 

 generation ago, we should have a much smaller number of 

 dependents to care for now. If, now that we know them, we 

 utilize these preventive measures, there will be a great de- 

 crease of dependents in the next generation." 



The last century ripened the products of growths which 

 root themselves in the period anterior to the Reformation. 

 Poor relief, in the history of Christian peoples, has assumed 

 three types, in response to changing social conditions: the 

 voluntary and congregational charity of the early churches, 

 before Constantine; the medieval ecclesiastical methods of 

 parishes, bishops, monasteries, orders and institutions; and 

 the modem laic and political poor relief, supported by tax- 

 ation and supplemented by individual and voluntary charity. 

 The peoples of northern Europe, largely Teutonic and Prot- 

 estant, have carried the system of public relief much farther 

 than the romance countries of southern Europe; but France 

 and Italy have embarked upon the same voj^age, urged by the 

 same forces. In Germany the national feeling which created 

 a central legislature at Berlin, a supreme court at Leipsic, 

 and an imperial army and navy, could not brook the spectacle 

 of a suffering citizen without right to relief, in whatever state 

 or commune he might fall into destitution, or, neglected by 

 chance individual charity, be driven to steal. The imperial 

 poor law and the workingmen's insurance measures are ex- 

 pressions of a civic conscience as well as of a consciousness of 

 common interest. The creative thought does not seem to be 

 merely to secure better administration, but to fulfill a national 

 obHgation. So long as there is no legal system, with a basis 

 in universal taxation, multitudes of the destitute must be ex- 

 posed to all the uncertain chances of liberality or neglect which 



