EHERQENCY RELIEF IN GREAT DISASTERS. 



BY EDWARD T. DEVINE. 



[Edward T. Dfivino, professor of philanthropy, Clolumbia univorsity ; gonoral secretary 

 of the Charity Organization Society, and editor of Charities; born Union, Hardin 

 countv, la.. May 6, l.Sfl7; graduated from Cornell college, (Iowa) 1887; fellow at the 

 University of Pennsylvania in 1891 and 1893; served as a lecturer at the Oxford Sum- 

 mer school in England. He has also been staff lecturer on economics for the American 

 Society for the Extension of University Teaching.] 



Fortunately, the need for charitable relief in American 

 communities is comparatively rare. It is not, as it has else- 

 where become, a usual feature in the life of the ordinary 

 laborer. Abnormal immigration, industrial crises, a wasteful 

 and unwise relief policy, and such disasters as a great city fire, 

 the overflowing of rivers, or the destructive sweep of the tor- 

 nado, have caused at times acute and even widespread distress, 

 which has led to the adoption of emergency relief measures. 



The questions arising from immigration — like those aris- 

 ing from the presence of a race problem in the southern states 

 — although they are essentially relief questions in a broad 

 sense, are not of an emergency character, and are too complex 

 to be dealt with briefly as a part of the present article. The 

 problem of hard times and the distress caused by industrial 

 displacement must also be set aside for the present ; although 

 it is enumerated as one which is not to be disposed of by a 

 consideration of such national policies as the currency, the 

 tariff or other form of taxation, imperialism, or the manage- 

 ment of trade unions. On the contrary, in every period of 

 depression and unemployment there is likely to arise a need 

 for exceptional relief; and in a progressive society in which 

 mechanical processes are rapidly discarded to make way for 

 better processes, such needs are likely to increase rather than 

 diminish. 



The demand for relief which is created by unwise philan- 

 thropy or lavish expenditure for public relief may likewise be 

 passed over; although there is no doubt that a considerable 

 part of the existing dependency is due directly to such causes. 



Immigration, hard times, industrial displacement^ the 



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