Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-05
Mr.. LEWIS MAKES REPLY
Superintendent of Charity Comments on
Business Mems Protest.
His Defense of the Associated Chari-
ties-Oncial Report Made to
the Commissioners.

Protest of business men filed with District
Commissioners Monday, protesting against
the proposed discontinuance of relief work
by the police department., today submitted
his report thereon. Mr.. Lewis says of the
protest that there is no argument and no
statement of facts therein which can be of
the slightest value to the Commissioners
when seeking to arrive at a wise deter
mir alton of the question. He also says
that he never read anything on the subject
half SO unfair or which displayed such
want of information. Mr.. Lewis states
that he has made a few inquiries of per-
sons who signed the protest, but has found
more who know what it contains or who
are willing to be held responsible for the
statements and insinuations made there
IN. or who wish to be understood as joining
in condemnation of the work of the Asso-
ciated Charities.
The report of Mr.. Lewis is, in part, as
follows:
Herewith 1 return to you the document
winch you referred to me yesterday, en-
titled a. Business mems protest against
the abandonment of relief by the police de-
partment and with reference thereto /
rave to say hat there is no argument and
no statement of facts therein which can
be OF the slightest value to you when seek
ing to arrive at a wise determination of
the question before you.
IN Assumption.
1T seems to assume that the police de-
partment has been assailed and accused
of bad management of the funds hereto
fore placed at its disposal for the relief Of
the poor; that this work is about to be
taken from it for that reason and that
therefore every friend of the department
should rally to its defense. If any such
thing has happened 1 nave never heard of
it and 1 could only be made to believe any
such accusation by incontrovertible evil
dsnce. Unless l am very much mistaken
the proposition to relieve the police of
such work comes from the major and
superintendent. who urges good ana suffi-
Gent reasons for it.
The opening paragraph of this protest
says that the distribution of relief by the
police has had salutary effects and has
prevented the commission OF crime. In
this connection 1t may not be improper
to say that the protest would have been
more convincing if IT had pointed out the
salutary effects of the giving of relief by
the police which will not be experienced
under another system. and how and by
what means the doing of such work by
the police has prevented the commission
of many crimes 1t is very simple
thing to make such an assertion, but to be
held responsible for it is quite another
matter.
Your protestants say that it cost more
to distribute 5000 in relief through the
Associated Charities than it did to dis
tribute $500 by the police.
THE sufficient answer is that the dis
tribution of relief is not the work which
the Associated Charities sets out to do and
that to say that its total expenses SHOULD
be charged to the small amount of relief
work which it was compelled to do is sim
ply ridiculous.
Statement Untrue.
The statement that the methods adopted
by such organizations, for discovering who
are and who are not proper subjects for
outdoor relief, are looked upon by fair
minded people everywhere unchristian,
cruel, humiliating, mortifying,' etc, and
has, upon investigation, turned out to be
scheme of shrewd men making use of we'll
meaning and prominent citizens to lend
color to pretenSions in working the poor
with one string and philanthropistS with
another is simply untrue.
There are no more inspiring examples
of unselfish devotion to the cause of hui
mainly than will be found among the
friendly visitors affiliated with the societies
for the organization of charities or among
district nurses or workers in social settle
ments. To call their heroic hands the av-
aricious fingers of so-called charity agents
is to exhibit a nature not calculated to be
helpful in the councils of those who strive
for the physical and moral uplifting of the
poor.
Your protestants indulge in a number of
filings at the contention that relief should
be given only after investigation. l reply
that he who is so unwOrldly as to believe
every tale of distress poured into his will
ing ears and who goes pocket deep for
every beggar who crosses his path, without
stopping to consider whether his giving will
help or harm the recipient, will continually
form judgments at which men of the world
are compelled to laugh. The wise handling
of outdoor relief is difficult matter and
he who goes laundering into it without dis
elimination is simply walking through life
with senses stepped in lethal dullness.
An Astonishing Document.
TT is claimed in this astonishing docu-
ment that the 'peeping system which is
its Characterization of discrimination, di-
verts from its proper channel millions of
dollars annually, and it goes on at length
about what could be done with honest ad-
ministration.
Il think 1t was claimed in a magazine
article which appeared about eighteen
months ago that a hundred million dollars
per year Is spent in charity in the United
states; but the writer was giving an esti-
mate which Was intended to include very
much beside the relief Of the poor in their
homes
THE writer of the aforementioned ar
ticle explains that the enormous EXPENSE
of charitable work is one reason why it
should be subjected to rigid supervision
and follows with the statement that there
has been enormous waste through duplica-
tcn OF charitable agencies and the over
growth of public relief yet whoever pre-
pared this protest seizes upon a statement
OF the large sum expended. ignores the ex-
PLANTATION Of 1t given by it's author and
writes into his own Imagination that the
money Is stolen by the agents of the asso-
citation who assume the duty of finding
which applicants for relief are and which
are not proper subjects.
Similarly, he takes statements of per-
sons who are members of charity associa-
tons. regarding applicants for charity at
the doors Of their own private residences,
and makes them appear though they
were reports of the organization of which
these persons are members.
THE insinuation is continually reiterated
that somebody is dishonesty diverting to
their own use funds contributed for the re-
lief of the poor IN the District of Columbia
Whoever publishes such an insinuation
without ability to furnish evidence to SUBJ
stantiate il invites the contempt of every
rightminded person.