"SCIENTIFIC CHARITY:' 491 



tics already collated by them will best serve to indicate their 

 methods and the value of their work. 



Charity organization societies have been formed in cities 

 embracing about one seventh of the entire population of the 

 United States. Thirty-four of them, representing cities contain- 

 ing one eighth of the population of the country and probably one 

 sixth of its pauperism, reported to the fourteenth National Con- 

 ference of Charities and Correction, which met at Omaha in Sep- 

 tember, 1887. From careful estimates it is supposed that these 

 cities contained about 456,000 paupers. Over 62 per cent of this 

 number actually came under the cognizance of the charity or- 

 ganization societies of the cities indicated — that is, they dealt 

 with 57,000 families, containing about 285,000 persons. Not all of 

 the societies made full reports, or they made them in such a form 

 that the facts contained were not easily comparable with those re- 

 ported by the others. Twenty-five societies, however, agreed in 

 classifying under four heads the cases that came before each. 

 These societies made a careful analysis of nearly 28,000 cases, in- 

 cluding something over 100,000 persons. The result by percent- 

 ages of the classification above referred to was as follows : 



Should have continuous relief 10"3 per cent. 



" temporary " 26*6 " 



Needing work rather than relief .... 40"4 " 



Unworthy of relief 22'7 " 



Charles D. Kellogg, who made the report to the National Con- 

 ference, goes on to say : " For several years there has been a very 

 close correspondence of published experience between Boston and 

 New York, and in these cities the percentage of those needing 

 work rather than relief has been 53*4, and of the unworthy, 15*8. 

 . . . On the other hand, there is a notable unity of opinion that 

 only from 31 to 37 per cent, or, say, one third of the cases actu- 

 ally treated, were in need of that material assistance for which 

 no offices of friendly counsel or restraint could compensate. The 

 logical application of this generalization to the whole country 

 is that two thirds of its real or simulated destitution could be 

 wiped out by a more perfect adjustment of the supply and de- 

 mand for labor and a more vigorous and enlightened police ad- 

 ministration. Subsequent and wider experience may modify 

 this conclusion, but hardly can wholly overturn it ; and, while it 

 stands, it is of the highest significance in the solution of the poor 

 problem/' Not only are these deductions of " the highest signifi- 

 cance in the solution of the poor problem," but they contain im- 

 portant suggestions for the philanthropist's should-be friend, the 

 student of political economy. 



But it was felt by the charity organizationists that a still more 



