Evening star., 1935-12-17

to destitution by war or by famine
or by flood, both at home and abroad.
I gave some years to that service in
the aspiration to save life, to allay
suffering. to restore courage and faith
in humanity.
II also became my duty in 1890
to see that relief was organized for
our unemployed. Organization of re-
lief upon a Nationwide basis was
practically unknown in the world be-
fore those experiences. 1t therefore
fell TO me and my colleagues to
pioneer in methods. We had to learn
what basis would best and most
sympathetically protect those in dis
treSS and still place the least burden
on those who had to pay for it. I
spent long, weary days listening to
arguments whether to have direct
money relief, or relief in kind, or
public works, or made work or boon
doggling," or centralized administra-
ton, or decentralized responsibility.
We tried out these alternatives. Ont
of those poignant experiences We
learned certain fundamentals. We
quickly learned that there were four
types Of persons who rush into relief.
There were the starry-eyed who
periodically discover that relief is
needed and that everything up to date
is wrong There were those whose
major passion was sociological expert
ment upon a mass of distress. There
were those who would make profit
from misery. There were always
those present who do not neglect the
political possibilities of relief. But
there were the sterling, solid men
and women in every city and hamlet
who willingly served and sacrificed.
Discovered Evils
OF Many Systems.
We learned that relief was an
emergency operation, not social
experiment; that the object was to
serve the people IN genuine distress
and nobody else. We learned that
the dreamers canont effectually con-
duct the grinding tasks of relief; that
politics must be Stunned as a plague.
We learned that centralized bureauc.
racy gives the sufferers more red
tape than relief. We learned that
we must mobilize on a voluntary
basis the best hearts and brains in
every community to serve their neigh
bors. We learned that there must
be complete decentralization to them
of both authority and administration
We cid not have to learn that local
self-government and local response
bility was the basis of American life
Heart and Spirit
Mobilized for Task.
In 1880 by cooperation with the
! States, We secured the creation oi
! State committees of leading citizens
With them We secured the creation Of
similar committees in every city, towr
| and county where relief was needed
| These committees had no politics
| They were men and women expe-
rienced in large affairs, sympathetic
understanding Of the needs of theil
neighborS in distress. And they served
without pay. In those days one die
not enter into relief of his country
men through the portals of pay roll
American men and women of such
stature cannot be had as a paid bu-
reaucracy, yet they will serve volun-
tarily all hours of the day and defer
their own affairs to night.
These committees used the existing
officials; they engaged their own test
ed organizations; they employed their
own trusted citizens. They had the
| complete authority to determine the
methods best adapted to their neigh
borhoods. They knew the problems OF
the man next door better than any
body in Washington. They themselves
determined for their locality what
method was to be used. They adapted
those needs to the individual families.
Their stewardship was under the
limelight OF their own community.
They gave spiritual aid and encour-
agement.
At the start the relief in 1880 de-
pended upon private giving. AS times
became more difficult, the committees
co-operated in the use of county and
municipal funds: and as it became
still more difficult many of the State
governments provided them with
funds. Finally. as State resources
weakened, we provided Federal Gov
ernment funds to be distributed to
the State governments and by them
redlstributed to the local organlza-
tions. That we built up no bureau
cracy Is evident from the fact that
although the Government had many
new emergency tasks, yet during the
Hoover administration the total num-
Der of all Government officials de-
creased by 10 thousand. That form of
organization expressed in its noblest
form the whole American ideal of
local Self-government, local RESPONSE
bility, national cooperation and the
voluntary spirit of human service.
No Failure, No Waste,
No Politics or Corruption.
There was no important failure to
provide for those in real need. There
was no substantial complaint or. sug-
gestion Of waste. politics, or corrup-
ton. Neither the Republican party
nor any of its agencies ever asked for
votes or claimed that its adminStra-
ton deserved votes for it. That idea
was repugnant to every decent sense
of Americanism
However, all this was forgotten on
March 8, 1888. We may accept that
the date of creation was moved to
March 4, and we may examine what
sort of a world has been made.
At that moment good men appeared
who were certain that before their
advent everything was done wrong.
Also came the Missionaries, the profit
maker, and above ali, the politician.
They all yearned to serve their fel.
low men.
The whole relief work was prompt