The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-08
"HELP THAT HARMS"
some Reflections by Bishop Potter
on the SeamS Side of Modern Phil

The ordinary American community East
or West, had as distinguishing it, how
ever small its numbers and narrow its
means, two characteristics watch our mod
ern systems of institutional charity are
widely conspiring to extinguish and de-
stroy. One of shese was that resolute en-
durance of straitness and poverty of which
there is so fine and true a portraiture in
Miss wilkins remarkable story jerome"
| venture to say that the charm of that
rare book, to great many of the most
intelligent and appreciative of its readers,
lay in the fact that they could match it,
or something like it, in their own expert
ence; that they had known silent and proud
women and brave and proud boys,
whom, whatever the hard pinch of want
that they knew, TO accept a dole was like
accepting a blow, and who covered their
poverty alike from the eye of inquisitiVe
stranger or kin with robe of secrecy that
was al once impenetrable and all-conceal-
ing. Life TO them was a battle, and they
could lose il, as heroes have lost it on the
tented field, without a murmur; but to sue
for bread 10 some other, even if that 9TH
er were of the same blood would have
smitten them as with the stain of personal
dishonor. The Wholesome elements in that
earlier situation were treefold, and in our
modern situation each one of them Is
sorely attenuated, if not wholly absent
In the first place, there was a relative
uniformity of condition. In other words,
at the beginning of the present century, in
almost all communities, whether industrial
or agricultural the dsparites of estate
were inconsiderable. There was perhaps
the rich man of the village or town, or two
or three or nalf dozen of them but they
we're rich only relatively, and they were
marked exceptions. The great majority
Of ar
emplOyments and circumstances. Among
these there We're, indeed. considerable va
rieties of task work but work ard wage
were not far apart; and wnat was of most
consequence. certain large identity of
condition brought into il certain breadth
of sympathy and mutual help out Of
which came the outstretched hand and the
open door for the man who was out of
work and was looking for it.
Yes who was looking for it. For here
again was a distinguishing note of those
earlier days of which l am speaking. Idle
ness VISA a distinct diseredit, if not dis
honor. In communities where every
body had to work, an idler or loafer was
an intolerable impertinence, and was US
ually made TO feel it.
And yet. again, there was the vast differ
ence in those days from ours that the in
dustries of the world had not taken on
their immensely organized ard meehanized
4
a iob-then could turn his hand TO anything
tEat ordinary tools and muscle and intel,i-
gence could do. But an ordinary mechan-
ic now must he a skilled mecnanician in
a highly specialized department, and when
he is out of job there, he is ordinarily
out of it all arong The line.
Completely of Society.
might. as my reader will have antici-
pated me in recognizing. go on almost in
definitely i'll this direction; but L have SAID
enough, I trust 10 prepare him for the
point which l want to make in connection
with our modern charities and their mis-
chief. Our modern social order, in word,
has become more complex, more segregat-
cd, more specialized. \ whole class of peo-
pie in cities-those, l mean, of consider
able wealth-Nith a few noble exceptions
(Which. however, in our greater cities,
thank God! are becoming daily less rarc),
live in profound ignorance of
the condition of their fellow citizens.
Now and then, by some sharp reverse in
the financial world or some national recur-
renee of bad times" they are made aware
that large numbers of their neiShbors are
out of work and starving. And. at all
times. they are no less reminded that there
is considerable class-hoW appalinSly
large il is growing to be in New York Mr..
Coler has told us-who need help, or think
they do. and who, at any rate, more or
less noisily demand it in the street, at the
door. by begging letter, or in dozen other
ways that make the rich man understand
why the prayer of Agur was, Give me
neither poverty nor riches"
Well, sonnet thing must be done, they
agree What shall il be2 Shall the state
do it, or the church, or the individual? If
only they could, as TO that, agree! But it
has been one of the most pathetic notes
of our needless and superficial treatment
of a great problem chat, here, there has
not been from the beginning even the
smallest pretense of a common purpose, or
any moderately rational course of action.
Undoubtedly it is true that there is no
Imaginable mechanism that could relieve
any one of these agencies from response
bflity in the matter of relief TO the unfor
tunate. nor is il desirable that there should
be. Sometimes il has been the church that
has undertaken the relief of the poor and
sick and sometimes it mas ~een largely
left 10 the individual, and sometimes it has
been as largely left 30 the state. But, in
any case. the result has been almost as
often as otherwise mischievous, or cor
rupt and corruptng. For, in fact, the
ideal mode of dealing with the problems
of sickness. destitution and DISAGREEMENT
should be one in which the common en-
deavor of the state, the church and the
individual should be somehow unified and
co-ordinated But Incredible as it ought
10 be the history of the recent endeavors
toward such coordination has been his
tory OF large inadequacy and of meager
results
The Charity Organization society.
As an Illustration of this it is enough to
point 10 the history of the Charity Organ
liza ton Society in New York, which, pre-
sumo. is not greatly different from that of
similar societies elsewhere. Antecedent-
ly il would have seemed probable that
such a society, which aims simply TO dis
courage fraud to relieve genuine want,
and to protect the community from being
preyed upon by the Idle and the vicious,
would have the sympathy of that great
institution some OF whose teachings are,
If any man will not work, neither shall
he eat;" "Stand upright on thy feet
provide things honest in the sight of all
men," mot slothfu Ia business, and the
like But, as a matter of fact, such So
cieties have had no more bitter antag-
onists than the churches, and no more
vehement opponents than ministers of re-