POOR RELIEF IN THE UNITED STATES 175 



poorer classes has almost disappeared. On the contrary, it is 

 now thought that the work can be better accomplished by- 

 means of suitable and comfortable home surroundings. At 

 the same time it is a peculiarity of the more important settle- 

 ments which stand in direct connection with the universities, 

 and therefore are called university settlements, that they be- 

 come schools of social service. The report from New York 

 says: 



''We seek before all to convince the people who come to us 

 that they must first learn the conditions under which the 

 poorer classes live before they attempt to change those condi- 

 tions. So they learn by experience both the major points of 

 the enterprise, the social field on which they labor, and the 

 psychological and ethical purpose which characterizes the 

 midertaking." 



The settlement generally keeps aloof from poor relief and 

 charity, although it hes in the nature of the case that in the at- 

 tempt to give social help many cases are encountered in which 

 a condition of extreme poverty must be relieved. This work 

 is handed over to the public and private organizations which 

 exist for this purpose. The settlement itself wishes to help 

 others who are independent of poor relief, to spur them to self 

 reliance, and to aid them in creating social conditions which 

 will furnish the basis of independence and self support. A 

 characteristic phase of the movement is the predominance of 

 the feminine element in the work, the administrative com- 

 mittee of the settlements association being entirely composed 

 of women, and even in the university settlements the women 

 are in the majority. 



