THE PROBLEM OF PAUPERISM 163 



no serious encroachment on the rights of the indi- 

 vidual if general laws to this effect were enacted. 



What can churches do toward the creation of 

 conditions which shall do away with pauperism ? 

 They can utterly refuse aid to any but those who 

 on full investigation are proved to be deserving. 

 This would cut off the support of thousands who 

 find it easy to impose on the kind-hearted, and 

 whose sole ground of confidence is that their 

 statements will never be investigated. So far as 

 practicable, churches should work through charity 

 organization societies, to which all cases requiring 

 help should be referred for investigation. But 

 churches are jealous, and object to intrusion. A 

 Church Exchange has been suggested in which, 

 on stated occasions, the officers having charge of 

 the beneficence of the churches, Roman Catholic 

 and Protestant, should meet and compare notes, 

 and thus learn whether they have not members 

 in common who in one ward believe in Apostolic 

 Succession, in Close Communion in another, in 

 High Calvinism in a third, their chameleon creeds 

 being due entirely to their insatiable appetite for 

 doles. A Church Exchange would be feasible 

 in villages and small cities, but perhaps the char- 

 ity organization plan is better for large cities. 



But, more than all else, churches can effect 



