Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-11
LABOR FOR POVERTY
Associated Charities Reviews
Its Work of Year.
FIGHT AGAINST PAUPERISM
Police Relief and Free Soup Kitchen
Abandoned.
$4,000 IN STAMP SAVINGS
Material Aid Given Dependent
Class-Improved Conditions to
Promote Welfare.
FIGHT AGAINST PAUPERISM
$4,000 IN STAMP SAVINGS

Promote Welfare.
"A Review and an Interpretation is
the title given to the account of their
stewardship rendered by the Associated
Charities and the Citizens Relief Associs-
ton for the past year in the annual re-
port just issued.
Summarized the report shows:
Families dealt with. white, 2,341: col
ored, 2,512: number OF individuals in these
families, 1907: total number OF visits by
agents Of the association or volunteers,
60, 456: employment secured or given 1,16s
times: applications passed upon for dis
pensary treatment, 1,S41; individuals for
whom transportation was secured, So;
correctional and legal aid obtained, 400
times; medical aid procured for Gill; sale
of provident savings stamps. $12,145. 40;
summer outings-sent to Camp Goodwill,
go; to Camp Pleasant, leo; selected for
days outings, 1880.
Material Reief.-Through source of Citi-
zens' Relief Association, 1914 families:
Golden Book. 565 families; other sources.
$50 families: number of families, ex-
Guiding duplicates, for whom material aid
was secured from one or more Of the
foregoing sources, $50
Review of Energies.
This report is really a study of the
campaign for the prevention, relief and
cure of poverty and distress, being waged
month in and month out, summer and
winter. by these two organizations. Not
only does the document concern itself
with the statistics for the past year. but
it also gives a bird's-eye view of the
d0 in
ingtOn during the last fifteen years
1t is shown that organized charity in
washington. as elsewhere. is dealing not
with submerged class, but with groups
Of people, the individual membership Of
which is kaleidoscope in it's character
Its units are never the same from day
| to day.
Herein, the report says. Lies the
hopeful feature of the situation
For example, the Associated Charities
has registration of some 5000 families
who have been dealt with since 1895.
Two thousand three hundred and seventy
four of these asked for assistance last
year. Going back six years, the society
has dealt with 1900 people, yet but one
In six of these returned for assistance In
1909.
Such figures as these support the con-
tention that poverty conditions in our
American cities are BY no means fixed
and immuta ble
Theory of Correcting Misery.
Under the heading Doing the Right
Thing at the Right Time the board of
managers In the report says:
Poverty, like germ disease il let alone
grows on what it feeds. 1t is contagious
and communicable. It needs therefore
to be isolated. lest whole neighborhoods
become infected
Its specific cause In each instance
discovered
Its results be perpetuated from generation
to generation. Under system of some
thing for nothing. any community may
have as many applicants for aims as II
chooses to feed. clothe and shelter.
For thus the germ of poverty behaves
when fostered by indiscriminate giving
and allowed to spread; while under the
saving principles of thorough diagnosis
substitutes for relief and self-help wher-
ever possible, poverty Is kept from becom-
ing chronic and thus from perpetuating
itself In pauperism and degenerating into
crime
Things That Have Been Done.
The report goes on to show what has
been done in Washington during the last
few years to strike at some of the cofldi-
lions which produce misery. For exam
pie, speaking of its own share in this So
cial progress. the fact is noted that in
1896 the society introduced a stamp saw
ings system by which, since that time
more than $4,000 has been collected in
small sums. Much Of 1t has come from
people who must otherwise have been de-
pendent upon charity. The amount thus
saved now exceeds annually the entire
sum expended by the Citizens Relief As
ISOLATION for food, fuel and other forms Of
material aid.
The abandonment OF police relief and
free soup kitchens and the substitution
therefor Of discriminating and more per-
sonal methods In the distribution of relief
against pauperism. The coming of the
social settlement and the use of the
friendly visitor are noted as attempts to
bridge the gulf between lie better-to-dO
and the less favored.
Much is made also of the attempt to
improve living conditions Such an effort
is that for better housing the destruction
of insanitary dwellings and the elimina-
ton of the alley from the residential map
Of the National Capital.
The fight against tuberculosis and the
provision for summer outings for mothers
with small children and sick babies are
cited as instances of striking at some of
the immediate causes Of suffering.
Penalizing non-support by compelling
the Sinking husband to contribute some
share toward the maintenance of his wife
and children is an important effort to
maintain the responsibility of family life.
Social legislation in the interest of the
child is regarded as the most important
means to attack some of the causes Of
poverty at their fountain head. The school
attendance law, the child labor law. the
organization of the juvenile court, the es-
tablishment of public Fairgrounds, are IL
Illustrations Of the sort of social legislation
referred to.
The report shows that the cost Of con-
Quoting the work of the organization
last year was less than cents per
capita of the population of the District.
tuberculosis Campaign Separate.
The report acknowledges all contribu-
tons received by the joint finance COM
nittee for the year ended September 80,
1909 including those for the Association
for the Prevention Of tuberculosis. Note,