THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 841 



employer, neighbors, fellow-tenants, etc. This makes necessary 

 a special equipment for examination which shall stand in fitting 

 relation to the number of those seeking help. In this regard, the 

 greatest success is displayed by the communities which are able to 

 raise a sufficient number of volunteer helpers who enter into inter- 

 course with the indigent in the spirit of brotherly love. Herein lie 

 the roots and the power of the Elberfeld system, already referred to. 

 The paid helper is perhaps better trained, but he lacks that vital 

 element of love which distinguishes the voluntary helper. It is true 

 that the voluntary-assistance office must have rooted itself in law 

 and custom, as has been predominantly the case in German com- 

 munities. This custom hardly exists in England and America. 

 Hence the predominance of indoor over outdoor poor-relief in both 

 these countries. In its place, however, America and England can 

 point to a very great development in the sphere of private charity, 

 which centres in the charitable organizations and societies, and offer 

 here wider opportunities not only to volunteer helpers but also to 

 paid workers who are trained by various plans and now by highly 

 developed schools of philanthropy. The most valuable assistance 

 rendered by woman makes itself conspicuous in the sphere of private 

 charity, and leads to the demand, now advanced alike in all civilized 

 states, that in public poor-relief woman shall have equal rights and 

 duties with man. 



The method of rendering assistance is closely bound up with the 

 question of the organization of poor-relief. The German preference 

 for outdoor relief is, without doubt, a result of the old custom of 

 employing the help of volunteer assistants. In England the great 

 reform of 1834 established as the very test of indigency the readiness 

 of the applicant for help to enter an institution in which he had to 

 forego his freedom of movement and many of his accustomed enjoy- 

 ments of life. Whether this demand is expedient or not is to-day 

 a matter of much dispute. The transactions of the National Con- 

 ference of Charities, and the reports of state boards and of the 

 English Central Poor Board, contain numerous discussions of the 

 matter. That the number of those receiving assistance is lessened by 

 a stringent application of the principle is without doubt. But, on 

 the other hand, it remains doubtful whether in this way adequate 

 relief is in all cases afforded, and whether it is not much more true 

 that the rendering of money assistance to the indigent restores him 

 more quickly to a condition of independence, and that the pool-house 

 tends to make him a permanent subject of poor-relief. Moreover, it 

 has often been observed that a strict application of the principle of 

 indoor relief leads to an increase of those two evils already mentioned 

 the want of those who are in real need, but whose pride is too 

 great to allow them to enter the poorhouse; and the resort of the 



