The Arizona sentinel., 1886-07-24
CONSOLIDATED CHARITY.
How to Systematize Benevolence and Dis.
 courage Pauperism.

How to Systematize Benevolence and Dis
 courage Pauperism.
 Legal provision for devolving the charge of dependent persons upon the town or community where they had res idence was one of the early features of the English poor laws. Thence it was Incorporated into the statutes of nearly all our own States. Practically this law of settlement. as it is called, is not enforced in the large cities of Great Britain and America. It is vigorously in operation in Germany, and wherever a German mendicant obtains asylum in the Empire the community where he last had legal res dence becomes re- sponsible for the charges of his support Under the energetic operation of such law vagrancy becomes a difficult anC hazardous vocation. Moreover, the destitute are compelled to seek aiC where they are well known, and where they have ties of kindred or of service and, therefore, where it is hardest fol them to practice deception. The prin. ciple also calls into activity the sentI. ments of personal duty growing out oi kinship and neighbOrhood, sentiments which Dr. Chalmers declared to te suffi. cient to meet every demand of want in the community, where they were left without interference from public char ity.
 In the absence of any real enforce ment of the law, in our cities, where the need for it is greatest it is highly satis- factory to see associations springing up spontaneously to perform this function. There are over fifty charity organization societies now in America, extending from Portland, Me, to Denver, and from Montreal to New Orleans They cover all the denseSt centers of popula- ton in the country, and are avowedly in correspondence with each other. They accept each others commissions of investigation, and take charge of cases referred from one to the other. Nor is this relationship confined to America, but the British organizations cheerfully cooperate in the same scheme. It is now possible to enter the office of any one of the associations and set on foot inquiries concerning a mendicant which may be pursued in Chicago, Cincinnati, Glasgow, Birming- ham, London, or even in Melbourne and Sydney.
 By the community this wide recipro. city of services is hardly understood, but in practical work the societies them selves are constantly aiding each other as occasion arises. As each one has record of nearly all the mendicants in the city where it is located, with district agents familiar with every precinct, a great part of these exchanged services are accomplished with rapidity and economy. The apparatus is capable of doing without additional expense many times as much duty as has yet been re- quired of it. It presents the means oi quickly arresting the Receptions of pro- fessed strangers, although thus far ith has more often been the means of restoring stranded men and women to their old homes and friends. The advantages oi this comparatively recent convenience arc too obvious to need rehearsal. It is q new feature of voluntary benevolent organization, and assim lates the ad- ministration of charity to the great busi- ness exchanges which the mail, the tele- graph and the telephone have consoli- dated. BrGdStreets.