The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-02-04
INSTITUTION OF CHARITIES
DISCUSSED BY DR. HODGES BE-
 TORE MEMS CLUB.

Says Plutocrats Lack Sense in Bestow
 ing AIms-Charities of the Churche
 Put Under Control of Politician Cause Corruption-Prafses Organize,
 Charities.
 The Mems club of the United church
 was addressed last evening by Rev 1 George Hodges, D. D., dean of the
 Episcopal Divinity school, of Cambridge | Mass. His subject was Aims and the l Man. and discussed thoroughly the
 question of charities, public and pri- | vate.
 Speaking of his rather fanciful sub- | ject, taken from Virgil's Arms and the | Man." Dr. Hodges said: l The two themes are occupied with people who are wandering over the 1 face of this earth, in one case of a
 prince and in the other of paupers and tramps.
 The subject is serious. VirgiPs poem is the story of the waging of war
 and the founding of a kingdom. We
 are now in this case warning against poverty and founding the l1indgdom of
 heaven.
 The story in the Bible of the feeding
 of the 10000 is the story of miracle.
 The problem that came to the twelve
 disciples under those circumstances is
 the problem with us now, We have
 but little to give and a multitude to
 feed. Let us suppose the disciples to
 have sat down on the green grass and eaten this food, congratulating them selves on their superior foresight; or perhaps because they might have thought they had nothing else to do, being appalled, by the immensity of the problem and hence do nothing It would have been simply the case of many of us now.
 There is great difference in these two cases, for in the miracle the mul- titude were all present. They were bid systematically to sit down in compa- nies and each disciple to minister to them personally. With us the multi tude are not present but hidden in the slums. But the two elements of per- sonal sympathy and sense must mingle in our treatment of the poor Now, the plutoerat doesn't lack in sympat thy but he lacks the sense of putting his money in the right place.
 There are two kinds of charity, public and private. Public charity is of three kinds-of the church, the city, and the philanthropic society.
 With regard to the charities of the churches they are largely misappro- priated They are given out of good ness of heart, but by the preacher whose sense of responsibility is not strong enough in giving away other peoples money.
 In many public institutions people are gathered together without discrim- nation, hence these become places for breeding pauperism and mendacity. As for outdoor relief, outside of asylums and almshouses, 1t is inefficient. Money is put in the hands of politicians for distribution and becomes a corruption fund. In the large communities who have had strength of mind to abolish it things have gone on as well as be- fore. Brooklyn has made the experi- ment and successfully Public parks and conservatories and art museums would better receive these moneys than the present outside relief.
 The trouble with all public relief is that it is in a state of confusion. Churches and institutions do not exer- else discrimination. Each assumes re- sponsibiity for the entire community. This unbounded sense of responsibility makes the whole charity null. It re- suits in no systematic abiding service. In the case of fires the whole neigh borhood used to turn out and put out the fire or else they did not, just as 1t happened. To-day our fire companies are surer because they go to work sys- 
 In regard to the men who beg from door to door, if you feed them you teach hem it is easier to beg than to dig. As they pass by the fields of workers with their fulfilled faces tbey set sig lificant example. Now what we want 70 do is to work so as to make the man The stranger who comes 0 your door and is stranger is never His story is always false. No worthy person ever comes to the door md asks for aims
 Probably you believe in the myth of he hundredth man. You are willing O feed the ninety mine in order not | o turn away the honest, worthy hum lredth man. But the truth is the hun- lredth man does not exist. I had a | riends who said he had found him and | lad him in the house with him earn ng his living with odd jobs about the ouse. This man came to my house in bout a week bearing a letter of recAom- 1 nendation from my friend I gave him 1
 small job to do and when he left my ouse my watch left with him. The ext day when the hundredth man was yere a most respectable lot of people yith complaints against him. There ere Professor and Mrs. Palmer, MT. nd Mrs, Schaler, Miss Iongfelow-it ,as like an afternoon tea.
 But in one sense all these men are ,orthy of help, the more owdoWn and ,norant they are. But don't give any f them anything at the door. You are ot the physician for their maiadies, There is the doctors office )r their economic maladies. They will ct expert advice there by men who ave the results of the best study and Sperience in just such cases.
 But don't stop with simply turning lem into the hands of the Associated harities. You must find out some ,r,oiIy that really needs hp1p and give