JEWISH CHARITIES 73 



remedy is plain and at the same time simple. The unfor- 

 tunates, whom poverty and oppression have thrown together 

 in such close proximity and who are compelled to live under 

 such unnatural conditions, must be given the opportunity to 

 settle in localities where ample room will be given for normal, 

 physical, intellectual and moral growth. In New York, with 

 characteristic insight, many are realizing the impossibility 

 of full development in their present restricted environment 

 and are taking up residence in the less settled outlying section 

 of the city. There is no doubt that the improvement in trans- 

 portation facilities, resulting from subways and tunnels, will 

 considerably diminish the population of the east side. To 

 effect large results, some comprehensive scheme is necessary 

 to reUeve the congestion and to prevent the possibility of a 

 recurrence of this congestion. 



So far as the dependent Jewish classes are concerned, 

 no scheme of philanthropy that can be introduced into the 

 congested Jewish quarter of New York city can be more than 

 palliative, that will permit of a continued increase in the num- 

 ber of residents of that section. More hospitals may be built 

 in the city, more orphan asylums be endowed, settlements and 

 neighborhood work of all kinds be organized, and double and 

 even treble the amount of money be spent in direct relief — all 

 these agencies can be only remedial in nature. They are not 

 distinctly curative. All of them, to use the words of Miss 

 Richmond, merely tide over the sufferer into the miseries of 

 next week. The causes which underlie the Jewish dependency 

 as found in large cities are fundamental, and relief to be per- 

 manent and preventive, must strike deep enough to reach the 

 roots. An increase in institutions and agencies working under 

 the existing conditions may, if any thing, increase the number 

 of applicants for assistance. There is no doubt that the pres- 

 ence of relief organizations, orphanages, etc., in a community, 

 tends to weaken the moral responsibility of many a wage earner 

 through the consciousness that if he shirks his obligations 

 to his family, society will assume them. 



For this reason scientific Jewish philanthropy must de- 

 velop along the lines of placing those who are now dependent 

 and those who may become dependent, in such economic con- 



