PRIVATE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 309 



Not even now have we reached the end of the evils. There is 

 the insincerity of those who furnish the funds distributed : fiun- 

 kyism and the desire to display being often larger motives than 

 beneficent feeling. These swindling promoters when writing to 

 wealthy men for contributions, take care to request the honor of 

 their names as vice-presidents. Even where the institutions are 

 genuine, the giving of handsome subscriptions or donations, is 

 largely prompted by the wish to figure before the world as gen- 

 erous, and as filling posts of distinction and authority. A still 

 meaner motive co-operates. One of the nouveaux riches, or even 

 one whose business is tolerably prosperous, takes an active part 

 in getting up, or in carrying on, one of these societies supposed to 

 be originated purely by benevolence, because he likes the pros- 

 pect of sitting on a committee presided over by a peer, and per- 

 haps side by side with the son of one. He and his wife and his 

 daughters enjoy the thought of seeing his name annually thus 

 associated in the list of officers ; and they contemplate this result 

 more than the benefits to be given. 



There are kindred vitiations of other organizations having 

 beneficent aims — orphanages, provisions for unfortunate and aged 

 tradesmen, etc. Here again, the least necessitous, who have many 

 friends, are usually those to benefit, and the most necessitous, who 

 have no friends, are neglected. Then there is the costliness and 

 corruption of the selecting process — expensive and laborious can- 

 vassing, exchange of votes, philanthropic log-rolling. Evidently 

 the outlay for working the system, in money and effort, is such as 

 would be equivalent to a maintenance for many more beneficiaries, 

 were it not thus wasted in machinery. 



Nor is it otherwise with institutions thought by most people 

 to be indisputably beneficial — hospitals and dispensaries. The 

 first significant fact is that thirty per cent of the people of London 

 are frequenters of them; and the largeness of this proportion 

 makes it clear that most of them, not to be ranked as indigent, are 

 able to pay their doctors. Gratis medical relief tends to pauperize 

 in more definite ways. The out-patients begin by getting physic 

 and presently get food ; and the system " leads them afterward 

 openly to solicit pecuniary aid." This vitiating effect is proved 

 by the fact that during the forty years from 1830 to 1869, the in- 

 crease in the number of hospital patients has been five times 

 greater than the increase of population ; and as there has not been 

 more disease, the implication is obvious. Moreover, the promise 

 of advice for nothing attracts the mean-spirited to the extent that 

 " the poor are now being gradually ousted out of the consulting 

 room by well-to-do persons." People of several hundreds a year, 

 even up to a thousand, apply as out-patients, going in disguise : 

 twenty per cent of the out-patients in one large hospital having 



