100 
Indiana University Studies 
classes of the community by teaching them thrift, better meth- 
ods of work, sanitation, housekeeping, gardening, and buying. 
In a few cases this work has been highly successful, particu- 
larly in those families where the condition is of a temporary 
nature and due to misfortune. However, in the majority of 
the families with whom this agency has to deal, re-educa- 
tion of the poor seems to be a hopeless task. Reference is 
here made to the large number of those continually need- 
ing aid who are not only poor and sick but who are mentally 
defective. 
With a few exceptions all the names appearing on the 
books of the Charity Organization Society are also on the 
list of the mental defectives of County H. or are members of 
some county degenerate family group. It seems impossible 
to instil the idea of thrift into the mind of this group. It 
has been tried in many ways. 
There has been a constant effort to teach more economical 
buying than is commonly practiced by the more improvident 
classes. It has been the experience of the secretary that if 
given money, the majority of people who come for aid will 
spend it injudiciously for such things as bacon at 50 cents 
a pound, cranberries, bananas, canned salmon, and plum pud- 
ding. They do not know that there is nourishment in the 
cheaper cuts of meat if properly cooked and that well-to-do 
people do not hesitate to buy them. It is now the rule of the 
Charity Organization Society that no money be given out, but 
that the food be selected according to the needs of the indi- 
vidual family. This method is not always a popular one with 
those who are to be benefited. To them the Charity Organ- 
ization Society is a place where there is money to be spent 
for them, and if they are not allowed to buy in the amount 
and quality wanted their individual rights are being infringed 
upon. Bacon they want and bacon they should have. Some 
of them even go so far as to believe that all which does not 
go to them is kept by the secretary for her own personal use. 
A friendly visitor accompanies the basket of groceries in m.any 
cases, and detailed instructions are given as to how the food 
is to be cooked. This plan has been successful only in those 
cases where the housewife has not been of too low a mental 
level to profit by the instruction. In the majority of the 
cases, however, very little good seems to have come from 
these lessons. 
