Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-05-05
A STIRLING ADDRKss.

The Ethics of Organized Chartfy-Ah
Address Delivered Before the Charity .
Organization Society of New Haven,
Sunday. april 80, 1898, by Charles
J. Bonaparte. !
In selecting mans for the subject of !
my remarks this evsning, may have been |
unlucky. 1t Ia not my purpose to discuss !
why or how far a man is morally bound to |
be charitable. but to lay before you briefly
some of the more obvious reasons why, If,
and to the extent that, he is charitable, he
is 30 bound to accept and pply In practice
the principles of charity organization. l
am led to believe that the topic may not be
wholly out of place, evsn in meeting of
professed charity organizers, from little
experience which I had some years since in
the board of managers OF our Baltimore
society. A lady who had served tor two
years on that board told me- that only this
service had removed her previous impress
sion that charity organization was device
of rich people to save themselves trouble.
It has been suggested that a librarian enjoys
unusual facilities for learning to read, and
If all intelligent and benevolent persons
would and could be for reasonable time
managers of some charity organization 80
ciety, the principles of charity orgsniza-
ton might, in time, be very we'll under
stood; unfortunately there are many cases
IN Wnlca q snorter rOau u tue eauo Soai
muet perforce be sought.
LIST me say, first, that l think the mis-
take of this lady and that Of the many
worthy people who still share it, is in no
small measure due to the prominence too
often given by those interested in charity
organization to one feature of their work;
feature which, to my mind, is neither the
most interesting nor the most important.
We talk great deal about the depreda-
lions of imposters and the gulibility of
those who give alns without inquiry, and
l believe that most persons who hear much
and know little about this society, and
those formed ia other cities for the same
end believe that end to bs principally, If
not altogether, the detection and exposure
of frauds on the benevolent This work
has It's place in our system and its value,
but if we dwell on its merits nearly or
quite to the exclusion of other considera-
lions we lose sight of half, and perhaps
''the bigger half" of the problem before
us. When one gives aims to beggar,
there is, at least, en- even chance that the
beggar may be the worse for it, but even If
he is the giver may sometimes be the bet
ter; the dime or quarter may go promptly
across the nearest bar, and Yet the man
whose pocket has been lixhtened feels fifty
cents worth to the good for the LOGS 1t
is not enough to show him that his money,
so far as this is meant to help the recipi-
ent is wasted or worse than wasted; this
may be true and yet the effects of giving
1t on himself may make 1t far from wasted
And if We tell him al nauseum that gener
oeity and compassion must wait until the
''csse'' has been daily indexed and the
forms have been duly filled and the first
visit and the second visit and the preiimi-
nary report and the inal report have all
II Ioa IL ~ oh nf
| be altogether surprised when he pro-
| nounces our whole system a scheme to put
q nickel, or much more as
l one wishes, in tho eliot and see
| 80 many yards pounds bushels of relief
/ come out automatically ut the other end Of the
machine; if we think and talk so much about
organization, this may seem to smother charity
l lido not mean that the error is really excuse
BILE or even that it is usually an honest error.
very lit time and trouble, very little OF the
l personal experience which sat Alright the lady
whom have quoted, will suffice to teach anyone
i willing to learn the truth that this picture oil
charity orr aniZation is not even u good carica
| verse of what is true. Having been ones in
Il vited to address an annual meeting of our Balti
Condition of the Poor, body whose ielation;;
i with the Charity Organization society (now,
ann happy to say very cordial s,,U were at one
as text for my little clay Sermon" the motto OF
1 that association, namely: THE Lord Loveth q
| Cheerful Giyer," with the result CT convincing
! myself, q do not answer for the rest Of my
| hearer-), that cheerful giver" is the biblica
name for q charity organizer. This is in nc
4 wise paradox the principles OF Intelligent
L aims giving, which seem to some new, are al
old as the sympathy which first prompted the
/ giving or the need which first awakened the
l sympathy; as old human nature itself. One
i who believes that. il the bible says a Cheerful
loved, and that Il he is SO beloved then he is
/ good man, at least, in his way OF giving, mus
/ also believe, II he also accept the principles o.
/ charity organization as sound, that the cheer
L full giver" referred to in the text gave when il
| was written and gives now according to taos
l principles Nor doss it seem to me difficult Il
/ develop this meaning from the text itself.
Note first that what 1.-The Lord love;h' is
"giver," not g payer of debts or taxes. There
tenth or more or less of their fncome to be giver
in charity. am not here as critic of any one
/ of charity are not satisfied b. ten or ninety o.
ninety nine per centum of what We have; the
l stance, but the whole; nothing that We can d.
/ with any portion will give US the right to d.
what We please with the rest. Every dolla
Il spent or boarded or given is spent or boarded o.
/ given at the holders Immediate personal, terri
ole risk; he will be no more justified for wnat h'
/ wastes on others than for what he wastes on him
| self And if he would show that what he gives i
not wasted, that he has sought by his aims, as b,
sHery other thing or word or act OF his to DO al
| he applies the principles of organized charity.
But it is not enough that we give we must ais,
ferng, contact with human misery and the crav
/ ing to Danish the memory of that contact, thu
II
/ home to us may compel seeming gift but, l
| this be a gift it comes not from cheerful giver
No one can feel the true pleasure Of giving unles
| he sees in his gift means to redeem, to glorif,
its squalid, repulsve recipient, unless his pur
| pose be to SO aid that he who is aided will b
| giving he may over look the sordid aspect, tn
/ ignorance even the vice of its object; indeed T
those inspired by the hsroism Of charity, tn
l meaneF, the viler this be, the more he is priced
"And as feeble babes that suffer,
Toss and cry and will not rest,
Are the ones q tender mother,
Holds the closest, loves the best"
| so the very hideous, loathsome maladies Of hi
| cause they can do him so much good. Such,
| believe, are the cheerful givers" whom 18th
| Lord loveth," and such only do can apply fu
| ly, consistently, practically, the principles o
| charity organization.
may here pause to recommend a seemingl
small change in termnology. Cases are ofte
man be unworthy of real help from other men
| He may indeed require help in an unusual form
o;cnine tails would be- to my mind, tie most sa
| utary "relief." But there is for me much smu
self;fighteousness suggested by this phtaseology
| case of mothers meetings and other churc
and charitable societies leaves an impression o
| obtrusive respectability and piety serving a
stock in trade for chronic helplessness and vo
| untary pauperism
1t is, however, most important Of all to consd
the text w s0qsv have ss give and civ
money will buy. The enlightened benevoenc
OF the present age but voices the instructive phi
rather for both: Aims are needed; but aims
| to do real and lasting good, must come
Now, a friend must be given. A man may sell hi
| time, his skill, his labor; he cannot, if he would
| sell his heart. Money may hire servants for tn
poor, for the rich; faithful Jealous, useful ser
| wants often, but neither for a king nor for a beg
| gar can you buy or lease friend. And as Ii is
| friends service that counts beyond price o
| measure, it is such service and no other which
| "the Lord loveth" He who in his country
| peril sends a substitute to the field may satisf,
| the law. but to him and those like him that coun
| try will not owe its deliverance. A bank note anC
hirelng do not really fill his place in the ran ks
| laurels worth the wearing are not for the HON,
| gOard. So we cannot commute for a money pay
| ment, matter how liberal, our obligation t.
| give and give cheerfully to the work of charity
| the most precious of our possessions, what, in
deed alone is really ours to give or to withhold
| ourselves; and whoever thus gives, again adopt.
practically and consistently the vital principle Of
Charity organization.
| This principle underiies and inspires all the
rules it advises, all the customs 1t would create
| IL diScourages indscriminate nlmsgiving, mo-
| because even this were not better than stony
hearted or n1ggardly Indifference to distress bu
| because man has the right to give aims un
less he is sure, or at least has done all he II
| reason to assure himself, that his aims wilt dc
| good, and the most good that IL well given, these
| might do. 1t were better that he gain this assur
by himself applying his gtst t to the true
done, charity organic alton would have 1t done
| But, il all gave their time to intelli
| gently dispensing relief, all would soon come
to need relief and here, as in every other field OF
thought and action, common sense dictates a di
vision OF labor. Experts are needed In charity as
| elsewhere, and charity organization employs ex
perts but to supplement, not to suppiant, indvid
| to make everyone work the more, since each
| knows that he works to good purpose.