The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-12-19

Lord Mayors fund of S350.OOO. which was !
Hung out, by a charitable impulse, TO the
poor o. East London a few winters ago, caused /
lar more poverty than il cured. Many who !
We're getting on fairly well without 1t lett /
Ter work 70 depend upon this fund and not I
only forfeited their selErespect, but sadly de- /
ilofahzed themselves by the deceit which I
tney practiced in getting it. 1.-THE tendency OF
Inc Iund, wrote Mr.. Barnett shortly after It's
uistrlouton. "has been 10 create trust IN
Ies, It's organization of visitors and com
Inlttee offered a show of resistance to lies, but
over such resistance lies easily triumphed,
anu many notorious eyll-llvers got by a gOOd
story the relief denied to others. Anecdotes
are common as 10 the way in wnicn visitors
were deceived, committees hoodwinked. and
money wrongly gained.n The effect of this
distribution upon the applicants AT large, as
one visitor sums Ii up. this: 1.-THE fOunda-
Lloh OF such Independence OF character as they
possessed has been shaken, and some OF them
nave taken the first step in mendicancy.
when is too often never retraced." Poverty
which must be relieved is always with us; the
problem is to administer the relief in ways
lent.
This is perfectly sound doctrine, and
there can be no gansaying it. 1t applies
equally to indiscriminate alms-giving by
individuals, or by communities. even if
it be but few dimes or many dollars.
But Mr.. GLADDEN. will nota claim that his
''"AANa'CA4AC HICSGt4ldLlOIl VI Ills SUbJCCG IL
original, for the matter has been treated
over and over again, but by none so ex-
haustively, so conclusively, so elabo-
rately. rs by Josephine Shaw Lowell,
who published a book on the subject in
! 1884, entitled, "Public Relief and Private
Charity" 1t was issued by Putnam's
Sons, New York, as one of Questions of
the Day" series. We recall no work on
charity and relief that at all compares
with this simple but elaborate treatise, in
interest, in the marshaled proofs of the
truth of the position taken, or in the
/ striking clearness with which such truth
/ is presented.
/ The lady was, we believe, at the time
Secretary for the Board of Charities of
New York, position she held many
years. She did not claim that there was
an original thought or suggestion
in her work, but that all she
set forth was the written and unwritten
verdict Of experience in public relief and
/ private charity, both of which she terms
Sciences"
Not only did she make it clear that in
/ discriminate almsgiving is. as rule,
harmful, alike to recipient and to giver,
and stimulative of unthrift, mendicancy
and fraud, but she held that private
charity. with rare exceptions, ought to be
dispensed through well-organized bodies,
created out of philanthropy and love for
| humanity. Moreover, she followed up
this doctrine by proof that public relief
should be given, outside OF assistance to
/ the feeble, and ministrations to the sick,
only through aids to selt-helpfulness.
The recipient should be helped to help
himself, or if given relief work direct,
should find it distasteful because of its
| character 1t must be a labor test with
the able-bodied, and that only prelimi-
nary to finding regular employment.
To create artificial work for relief of
poverty is only to continue it, and to put
/ permanent benefit out of the case. To
help the family ofan immoral or drunken
man, who will not support them, is held
to be a positive and great wrong, except
it is to remove the family from the in
duence Of the man.
Almsgiving and dolegiving are hurt
full, not charitable; hurtful to giver and
to recipient, because they help to keep
down wages, by enabling those who re-
ceive them to work for less than fair pay.
Thus it has been found in England that
aims distribution among the able bodied
actually resulted in the reduction of
wages and in the stimulation of aims
asking. Moreover, almsgiving and dole
giving break down independence Of char
acter, destroy energy and undermine
strength Of will. So it is, that in cities it
is found that the larger the funds given in
relief the more pressing is the demand
for them.
But the poor are to be helped, the dis
tressed relieved and the worthy unfor-
tunate saved from misery; but it is to be
done by charity that raises character, is
discriminating, elevating to the moral
character, and that tends to the removal of
the cause of the suffering, however pain
ful such removal may be.