Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-10-28
CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS
CONVENTION AT WATERv|LLE
CONTINUED from Page Two.)

"Thirty Years of Organized Charity in
,be United States. He spoke rs fol
lows:
"Just about 30 years ago the first
charity organization society in the
Initcd States was begun in the city
of Buffalo. Since that date the move
ment has spread both East and West,
until today there is hardly a considera-
ble city in the union, without a society
of the kind.
"With extension has come evolution.
THE earlier societies were chiefly pro-
test and safeguard against the rock
,oes and hurtful waste of indiscrimin-
ate relief hurtful as waste of money
hut ten times more hurtful in promot-
ing pauperism. Never forget that ev-
or,, community can have just as many
hampers as it chooses to make and sup
mort The method Of manufacture is as
we'll known as the way to make shoes,
and while hy no means 50 profitable IT
is is a much easier task. Do not for
oct also that the comparative ratios
~ the amounts of poverty and paurer-
ism. in any city. have little to do with
each otter; while the relations between
tho amount of pauperism and the meth
ods Of relief are close and intimate
"Rut as the evolution of organized
coaritv has gone on, especially during
tho last ten or twelve years its aspect
and chief emphasis have wonderfully
changed That reckless aims works
desperate i'll: that it is possible to ap-
nlv modern science to the work of char
itv aud to make it thereby much more
beneficent as we'll as increasingly be-
ncvolent that expert knowledge and
instructed experience, must be joined
to native ability and humanitarian I'M
pulses, before we can expect Satisfac-
torv results in that most difficult and
delicate of social work, the relief of the
moor; that trained expert ability must
he paid for approximately what it is
worth; that the work needs the coop
eraticn of those who study it and make
it their vocation. and those who are
busy elSWhcrc during most Of their
davs and SO can only have it as an
avocation, the cherished and most soul
satisfying employment of leisur" hours;
that the work can only be well done
when every agency public and private,
coopcrate with and understand and
appreciate each other; all these and
many others of the first principles for
which we struggled 50 hard in the
early SOS ana even the 90's are now
conmonplace-W all accept them,
verbally, although we do not all liv"
lp to them as thoroughly as we should.
"Incid"ntal to the spread Of popular
Knowledge and the advance Of public
interest which have marked the growth
and Development Of city charities. has
ylyn Oh To- In
form in the official work of the towns.
the counties and the states. Possibly
this has been more marked in some Of
the middle and western states than IL
the East.
81 think, in fact, that extension ot
m1b,ic spirit. that most valuable asset
to the state Of her citizens qualities,
has been and is. promoted and cultivat-
ed by Charity organizations as by few
other social movements. To know ac-
tual conditions in our state. especially
those which concern others than our
comfortable selves, means to take an
interest in the States affairs and to
earnestly desire their bcttcrmcnt. 1t
is the humanitarian impulse which
lends the greatest impetus to reform
work The passion to save men and
women ana littI" children from suffer
iEg and degradation. is a far more Of
fcicnt spur to the civic rcformcr, than
a msrc desire to reduce taxation. or
even than that most commenda bic am
bltion to make our city place of
beauty and order.
"Of all the causes of poverty the four
greatest are sickness. dissipation. low
wages and Unemployment. But what