492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



carried on by means of relief, and the cessation of the spectacle of hundreds of 

 people with baskets of provisions furnished by the public, it would have been 

 impossible to discover that relief had been stopped. (See pages 8 and 9 of re- 

 port for 1884.) 



The Poor-Law Commission of 1834 * demonstrated beyond contro- 

 versy the pernicious effects of out-door relief, and it has never been 

 satisfactorily ascertained why the system that was half a century ago 

 condemned and abandoned in England should work with beneficial 

 results in this country. It was with the express purpose of correcting 

 these well-known abuses that the Charity Organization Society was 

 established last year in New York city. Its purpose is, as set forth in 

 the official circular, to enlist the co-operation of the charitable societies 

 of the city in establishing a central exchange ; to aid the deserving 

 poor in securing employment ; and to relieve actual want. Secondly, 

 it will disburse the funds of the giver in a systematic manner so as 

 to prevent imposture. In the past, fraudulent begging was as well 

 organized as the relief sought, and it was often found that the same 

 person was getting aid from half a dozen different societies at one 

 time.f 



From the statements already mentioned, it follows that modern 

 Philanthropy has been a great waste of money, effort, and sympathy — 

 has been the means of diffusing habits of improvidence, idleness, and 

 servility in the poorer classes. To aid the good-for-nothings to mul- 

 tiply, says Mr. Spencer, is the same as maliciously providing for our 

 descendants a multitude of enemies. There is, however, a peculiar 

 tendency among certain sociologists to exaggerate the present evils of 

 society, either overlooking or neglecting those of the past and future. 

 The novelist, the litterateur, and the doctrinaire find plenty of facts 

 at hand to prove the enormous increase of human wretchedness. 

 When social evils are prominently before the people, these persons 

 either rush off to the Legislature to have a new law passed, or they 

 get together a score of individuals and form a new charitable Associa- 

 tion. There is a blind and unthinking faith in the paternal functions of 

 the State ; as if the social structure was founded upon the regime of 

 status, instead of contract, express or implied. All modern relief has 

 proceeded upon the ground that it is the duty of those who have sup- 

 ported themselves to support others, and the good citizen is obliged to 

 shoulder the burdens of the good-for-nothing in addition to his own. 

 If Quashie is idle or incapable of work, the State may say, on the basis 

 of status, " I will feed and clothe you until you find work." Still better 



* Poor-Law Commissioners' Report, p. 280. 



f Reference is here made to the circular lately issued. The society intends to 

 study the advisability of a system of loans, a bureau of legal relief, the formation of 

 wood-yards to encourage the able-bodied, the labor markets of the United States, and the 

 cost of transportation. The regret expressed on page 322, State Charities Report, is now, 

 in a measure, met. 



