The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-15
ERRORS OF CHARITY.
BY REV. R. A. WHITE.
PASADENA. CAL.

GcOHOmlcdlly cOnSlQereQ, cndr1ty
in any of it's forms is crude and
bungling way of equalizing the un-
equal distribution of the products of
capital and labor. Under the NAL
thusian doctrine poverty was inevita-
BILE, because the population was sup
posed to increase faster than the
means of sustenance. Facts discredit
that theory. This country produces,
for instance, every year enough to
keep every man, woman and child in
it in comfort if such products were
more evenly distributed. At present,
at least, there is no such thing as
overproduction, except SO far as pur-
chasing power is concerned-not in
relation to consuming power. I'm
equal distribution results on the one
hand from unequal advantages, class
legislation and greed; on the other,
from incompetence, Incidence, dissi-
patton. What we need to see is that
existing poverty is not a mere super
fcial element of society, but that it
strikes root in economic and indus
trial conditions. 1t is evident enough
that the final cure for this state of
things is not in any form of charity,
however good. Social reconstruction
in some form or other, and individual
improvement bysome means or other,
can alone solve the vexed problem of
poverty, if indeed there is any final
solution.
This much is certain: certain forms
of charity do more harm than good.
The average charity breeds pauper-
ism instead of decreasing it. The
war cry of the old charity is "Alms."
To give something-money, clothing
or food-constitutes the whole duty
of man toward the poor. Cities and
individuals hasten with the advent of
cold weather to establish soup-houses.
free-bread counters, old clothes dis
pensaries, and what not-all from the
best of motives.
These Aggravate the Trouble.
But there is no longer any doubt in
the minds of those who know any
thing about it that all these forms of
indiscriminate giving deepen the
problem-do not in any degree re-
move it. 1t is an unmitigated evil, SO
far as permanent results are con-
cerned. 1t encourages begging and
puts premium on pauperism. 1t be-
comes more profitable to beg than to
work and safer than to steal. The
unworthy get more than they deserve
and the really worthy, not vet turned
into, brazen beggars, get little or moth
ing. They have too much self-re-
spect to scramble for the first place
in the line for the soup-house. In
consequence they suffer in silence
until starvation forces them to speak.
Then their self-respect soon goes
after the first plunge in the begging
current is taken, and they, too, join
the growing army of professional
mendicants.
Few hands crossed by aims ever
regain their self-dependence. Last
winter, when the free soup and lodg-
ing houses started in Chicago, the
woodyards on the west side, where
men had been obliged to work for
what they got, were at once nearly
deserted. 1t was quite as noticeable
that in the suburbs the usual army
of door beggars and small job seekers
nearly..disappeared, to return again
when the soup and free lodging
houses went out of business. The
whole system of indiscriminate aims
giving is worse than useless. 1t has
filled every city and town in the coun-
try with its army of tramps and pro-
fessional beggars. 1t encourages every
lazy scamp to do as little work as
possible, quite certain that some good
Samaritan will not let his children
freeze or starve and that he will shell
ter his lazy bones under the mantle
of help thrown over them. Every
drunken rascal spends every cent he
gets at the dramshop and depends
upon the public purse to take care of
his family. Indiscriminate almsgiv-
ing is crime against society.
Not Temporary Relief Alone.
On the other hard, the so-called
new charity, or scientific charity, does
not ignore the necessity of substan-
tial relief. 1t has no less sympathy
for suffering, however caused. But
it is we'll enough known that modern