The record-union., 1891-03-11
THE FIELD FOR a STATE BOARD
OF CHARITY AND CORRECTION.

fotS IO4AilD
OF CHARITY AND CORRECTION.
That the greatest of charities is that
which enables the poor to help them
selves, was clearly shown by Miss Lowell
in her notable monograph upon private
charity and public relief. Not long ago
in the East study was made of 2S, 900 cases
of various charity organization societies,
and it was found that from forty to fifty
per cent. of applicants needed work rather
than relief.
Now, it is clear that mere giving of
aims to these would tend the more to
pauperize them, to destroy their self
helpfulness, to educate them to lean upon
alms-giving is, in seven cases out of ten,
ill-giving, because the giver cannot know
that his charity will really be helpful to
its object.
At this point the work of associated
charity organizations begins. By asso-
citation and the establishment of central
OiAhSC ilOAil lLCy 1dOidlc, Lu6y
can ascertain exactly what paupers, if
any, are drawing assistance from more
than one association. They learn also by
such association who are the professional
beggars, who the willfully dependent ones,
who the imposters. For every contribut-
ing association daily learns in just what
direction oil IFS oollaopuaS ora oparot;pr
and just what their experiences are.
William NJ. Salter in his late treatise on
the subject says that the Massachusetts
Labor Bureau reported in 1887 that about
a third of those engaged in remunerative
labor in that State were unemployed at
their principal occupation for about one
third of the time. Now if mere charity
was extended to these in the lapses the
effect would be to weaken the disposition
to seek remunerative labor-in other
words, the effect would be to pauperize.
The effort, therefore, in all such cases
should be to supply the unemployed with
employment of some order, or the means
with which to earn. This is the true di-
rection for true charity. In 1887 an in
vestigation was made into the condition
Of the East London poor. Out of 1000
families of the lowest order. per cent.
were found to be loafers; for these then
compulsory labor should be provided by
society; IA per cent. were brought to
their level by drunkenness; for these
treatment and restoration should be pro-
vided until the objects are able to labor;
q per cent. were found to be destitute be-
cause of illness, large families and mis-
fortune; upon that class charity may
expend aims properly until such
unfortunates are able to earn when
charity should cease; 55 per cent. were
found to be wretchedly poor because of
irregular work and small pay; for these
the labors of economists, philanthropists
and employing capitalists, and even of
may be expended.
The establishment of State Board of
Charities and Correction would tend to
greatly inform us concerning all condi-
tons of the poor in California. We
should, through it, be able to study intel
Hgently the whole subject, and ascertain
just how far the poor compete with each
other and create poverty; just how much
of State charity is misplaced, how much
of private charity really tends to pauper-
ize, how much of suffering is due to mis-
fortune and genuine dependence, and
how much to willful leaning and purpose
full idleness.
Through such board we could ascer-
tain the relations of all the charities to
each other, the cost and causes of crime,
the extent of imposition, and the leaks
through which charity appropriations by
the State go to waste. 1t is significant
that there are charities to-day opposing
the setting up OF any such board as that
to which we refer. Can it be that these
societies are unwilling to have their sys-
TENS inquired into honestly? Have they
reason to fear a fair and impartial exam
ination of their schemes? Are they m
prepared to enter into relations of COM
mon helpfulness with other charity asso-
Citations?
But while the State Board would not
operate directly in all the lines of activity
to which we have referred, it must be
borne in mind that its creation would
ton of charity organizations through