State Control of Charities and Corrections 39 



XIII 



f 



LIJillTS TO STATE CONTROL AND SUPERVISION OF CHARITIES 

 AND CORRECTION 



There are, however, hmits to the extension of the control of 

 the state over these matters. 



FINANCIAL LIMITS 



Even on the financial side the state can not make sufficient 

 appropriations to meet the necessities. Taxpayers would not sub- 

 mit to it. Public opinion would not favor it. Private charities 

 must bear the burdens in many lines of effort. This has always 

 been true in the past and will be true in all future time. It is 

 just as it should be. The state is always behind. Private char- 

 ities go in advance, explore new fields, make experiments, expend 

 large sums of money, demonstrate and prove the value of well 

 worked out systems ; then the state takes control and supervision. 

 Private workers have other fields to explore, and these fields 

 are boundless. 



LIMITS ARISING FROM LACK OF SYMPATHY 



Many have believed that the state is cold and unsympathetic 

 and that in the nature of the case it must forever leave certain 

 kinds of relief w^ork to private charities. Mr. Earnest P. Bick- 

 nell of Chicago writes : 'T believe it is the universal opinion of 

 those who have given the subject thought that the administra- 

 tion of official or public relief in the homes of the poor fails to 

 provide those sympathetic and stimulating influences necessary to 

 neutralize the disintegrating effects of the relief itself. The gift 

 must have in it something of the personality and sympathy of the 

 giver. It must mean something of sacrifice on the part of the 

 giver. In the very nature of the situation these finer require- 

 ments and accompaniments of the giving can not attach to the 

 gift from public funds by a public official."^ The conclusion is 

 that all relief work for the poor in their homes must be done by 



'Special Paper at Bureau of Cluirities, Chicago, November, 1903, p. 5. 



395 



