Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-19

"A committee on the prevention OF tuber-
culosis, which has been the center or an
educa tional paganda on this important
subject for nearly two years l.
"A training school for philanthropic work,
which held last summer its seventh summer
course and is conducting this winter Its
second winter S course.
Your Washington society, like our New
York society, has taken up your particular
housing problem, the war against tubercu-
losis the promotion of parks ana play
grounds and other activities of like CHAR
acter with which you are all more familiar
than myself.
Comparison Made.
eff you stop to think, you will note that
none of these later forms of activity are
directed, as was the case with the carrier
forms, to the alienation of particular
kinds of individual suffering or want They
are all intended to remove causes of SUI
fering and want before the actual suffer-
ing or want occurs.
''Indiscriminate, individual, temporary re-
lief marks the childhood of most charitable
effort To that period belong the Good
Monks and the Ladies BountifuF of me-
dieaval times, who passed around the loaVes
each day at the castle gate.
Many people. even in this enlightened
time, and in this our own enlightened
country are still in their childhood pc
Rod Such miscalled charity brings no
shame to children. The impulse Is right
Children are not expected to reason pc
yond 1t. But such charity does bring
shame to mature men and women who
are expected to regulate their impulses by
reason.
Investigation. which alone can give
knowledge, the assembling together OF DIFF
ferent charitable persons and agencies to-
ward a comIlon end, that is, cooperation,
marked what may be called the youth OF
charitable effort. That period found its
expression in the charity organization
movement, with its revulsion against IN
discriminate almsgiving, it's emphasis on
aid of personal service, it's insistence upon
ascertainment of fact before action, and
upon action being directed toward per-
/ manent change in the condition of the
individual or family.
AS Old as Holy Writ.
I do not mean that the world waited
to be wise in charitable ways until charity
organization societies were formed to in
struct it. The fundamental principles OF
charity organization are as old as holy
writ itself and have been repeatedly acted
upon. But the charity organization move
ment first marked broader knowledge and
concentration of effort upon anything like
a national scale. These societies were an
effect, not cause, but cause and effect
have been working together. ever since
they were established TO merge and 10
broaden their sphere of influence.
The emphasis in the early stage of the
charity organization movement was laid
upon helping the individual or ifamly-case
work, as 1t is technically called. Perma-
nent self-dependence of the Individual or
family. or If age or disability made self
dependence impossible, then permanent
support somewhere and from some source,
were the end which it sought to attain.
And In attaining these ends 1T used the
friendly visitor in preference to any mere
dole glver, and sought oecombine and CO.
ordinate the charitable resources of the
community -
at is maturity which, the charity or
ganization movement has attained, even II
1t only counts twenty-five years of exist
ence. 1t Is maturity which leads inevita-
bly, to those lines of action which our New
York society and your Washington society
are following in dealing with the housing
problem, the tuberculosis problem, the in
culcation of provident habits and the like.
These lines of effort are known as prevent
i've work.
Maturity of Philanthropic Effort.
II need not multiply Illustrations to point
out that preventive work marks the ma
turity of phlanthropic effort. To remove
the cause of social disease is tenfold-no, a
hundredfold-more effective than to remove
the disease when 1t has begun to show
itself. Its removal not only relieves the
suffering of the one who is stricken. but
saves from 1t many others who would 9TH
erwise inevitably become its victims.
preventive work may lack the feminine
attraction tthe personal touch, but 1t has
the masculine attraction Of q new and