14 CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON 



turo which comes with a taste of culture. If the pauper spirit 

 were not detested by the multitude, we might easily return 

 to a lax administration of poor laws, such as brought Eng- 

 land to the verge of bankruptcy before the reforms of 1834. 

 Scientiiic charity arrives at the same conclusion by another 

 route. If a very large body of the population were trained by 

 necessity to live upon alms, the taint of degeneration would 

 poison national life. Parasitism breeds moral deca^^ . 



Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy is the signifi- 

 cant title of a recent book, by Joseph Lee. which gives numer- 

 ous and interesting illustrations of measures which show the 

 influence of modern science on benevolent enterprises : savings 

 banks, playgrounds, baths, gymnasiums, outings to the coun- 

 try, clubs, industrial training. But the author of this book 

 opens a small window into a future of preventive agencies 

 which at present scarcely rise above the horizon^the insur- 

 ance of workingmen against economic ruin from accidents, 

 sickness, and the feebleness of old age. He speaks with nat- 

 ural and proper hopefulness of those rare and suggestive ex- 

 periments made by some of our great corporations, and he 

 adds: ''It is said that one seventh of the railroad employes of 

 the country are members of the insurance departments." But 

 why only one seventh? Since it is unquestionably good for 

 them, why not all employes, in all occupations where income 

 is close upon the margin of need, as in Germany? So impor- 

 tant has this subject of preventive methods seemed to many 

 active workers among the poor, that the National Conference 

 of Charities and Correction took the follo\\ing action : 



"The executive conmiittee recommends to the National 

 Conference of Charities and Correction, without committing 

 the conference to any particular system, in advance of investi- 

 gation, to provide for the appointment of a commission of 

 seven persons to consider plans of so called insurance for wage 

 earnei's in case of accident, sickness, invahdism and old age, 

 with special reference to their etlects on dependence and crime, 

 the commission to be continued for at least three years before 

 making its final report." 



The president of the conference appointed on this com- 

 mission. F. L. Hoffman, S. G. Smith, John Graham Brooks, 



