The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-20


 that personal service is indispensable to even the successful giving of goods and money. .sReIief'' has been inn mensely widened so that it now covers all that one may think of as wise friendnness.s, and tn e, wisest friend is. an adviser, an encourager. an inspirer. He will aid in the removal. of personal barriers to recovery and in the use of the strengthening resources of the" community. Is there any folly so gross as that which leads a man to be lieve that the sorrowing. the baffIe6, the brook. need no advisers. no en couragers. no inspirers2
 q The trouble with the critic of sal aries in the charity field very often | is that he has never tried to work out an actual case of distress, does not realize it's difncuities- Without systematic and carefully directed or eanizatIon in a city like Chicago. for example, where the United Charities alone annually has to deal with about 15 Ooosoases. what would happen I'm. Iag1nation can supply the answer. He would have free service. this critic, but it would be service to hand out. aims. wetoo would have free service but 1t would be the service of wise lfriendliness and what would be train plies the provision of trainers and di 2 rectors kept at their tasks all Of the 1 time and thus we get back to paia force. The Part of Government
 When we are told that government tai agenciss should assume a large part Of the work now being done by private charity, we say yes and no. Yes. if conditions in the community are such as to give reasonable war Irant that all the hard-won experience in the charity organization field is to
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 vice VIII obtain. that there is com nnunity pride and community. stAbi1- lity Of purpose. a genuine sense of stat te..' as H 6. Wells calls 1t, of suffi- eient strength to stand by the effort i through thick and thin. But no. ever mo, if shallow, vtsionless. job-hunung. social grab-baggers are to be in the lsaddle. Our patriotism. our human lfty. would provoke us to strain every Inerve to prevent that. Certain it is that no mothers pension legislation can be efrectively administered unless the Ideals of organized charity are persistentIy applied.
 l Our English colleagues are telling
 us that wherever in the execution of the new governmental social meas
 ures, workers are being used who have had careful training in private phil anthropy, just there are the best re- Isults obtained. and vice versa This lis no surprise. Even though organ1z-
 ed charity under proper conditions
 should turn over some of its present tasks to governmental agencies. let ii not be forgotten that there will yet
 remain to it a large province for ex-
 perrin effort, for wholesome con
 structive= suggestion and criticism.
 Turning to the function of organiz- es charity as a unifying and co-ordin. < ating force. it has insisted in it's every
 day work that the welfare of the fam.
 fly as a whole was to be striven for;
 that the responsibilities of it's various clements should be conserved and il
 doing this it has helped to stem tn.
 tide of disintegrating influences in oul ! present day social life. Further. i ; has always aimed consciously to bring 2 together the helpful agencies dealing with family problems for the working out of rehabilitation programs.
 Charity and Social Justice. , Organized charity has been a re straining. a wholesome. tempertn, force amid the clamor for e.hustle-up. revolutionary methods which mari many present day social tendencies On the other hand it has with increas ling realization of duty. and indeed a , a direct consequence. of its careful
 ness of method, proclaimed the caus H es of better housing, large health an
 recreation provisions, antt-tuberculo ; Isis work. infant welfare conservation