G. Charity and Reforms. We begin our survey with the lowest form of charity, that of direct material relief to the feeble and defeated class. True to its principle that life is organic and that the Settlement must leaven the whole lump, the workers have from the beginning taken their share of the load of the dependent poor, of the vicious and criminal. The House is often a depot of supplies, and its hospitable door reminds us of the mediæval monastery where gathered the crippled, lame, halt and wanderer to receive their doles. So long as social injustice remains, so long as defectives are born, so long as there are drunken, shiftless and vagabond men, so long will there be a necessity for the various works of relief. Even while we are. toiling at higher ends some mitigation of pressing misery must be applied.

Many relief societies are composed of a few rich persons who live at a distance from the distressed and know nothing about them. They have their pets and parasites whom they pauperise to the third generation. They are teased by beggars from all quarters. Then in sheer despair and disgust they farm out their charity to expert agents and rest comfortably in the pious reflection that their duty is done. These salaried agents investigate cases which afflict the wealthy patrons and subscribers, and become skilful in detecting impostors. They also may be very useful in wise relief of deserving poor.

But such charity, beautiful and necessary as it is, is a mere scratch upon the surface ng short

of actual residence among the poor can discover the struggles of those who only in extremity appeal for help. The Settlement becomes a station of observation, a center of local organization of relief. It finds out the reticent and modest poor and brings them into kindly personal relations with those who can assist them.

The clergyman may give to the poor of his own parish, but a Settlement touches many who never go to church. "Living continually among the people, and being admitted into their confidence as no official or semi-official visitor from the outside can be, we have brought to our notice many of those sensitive and reticent men and women who prefer to suffer the greatest privations rather than apply to the parish or any other relief agency." (Mansfield House Magazine.)

The following paragraph will illustrate what goes on at many Houses, and how actual residents can adapt their methods of relief to the people who need help: "In trying to relieve the chronic poverty of Walworth which the severe winter made unusually acute, the Staff have sought whenever possible to give help in the shape of wages for work done, eschewing, so far as they could, the easy but perilous giving of charity. Men from the ranks of the unemployed were employed in cleaning the class-rooms, in tidying up the graveyard at the rear of the Halls, and in other useful jobs. One of the Clubrooms was entirely cleaned, repaired and decorated by unemployed members of the P. S. A. Trade union rate of wages was paid

throughout; yet the room was done at once more completely and less expensively than the local contractors had offered to do it, and the men were proud of their handiwork."

Occasionally it is found wise to establish a dispensary at the House, with a small charge for mediIcines and attendance where the parties are able to pay something. But these dispensaries are exposed to all the abuses known to others, except that the residents are usually better acquainted with the visitors and can detect imposture.

The Hull House established a model lodging house for women, where the homeless and friendless might secure bed and breakfast and obtain direction in the perplexities and perils of a great city.

RELATION OF THE SETTLEMENT TO THE POOR LAW AND PUBLIC RELIEF.-The consistent and natural, as well as the usual attitude of residents to public relief, is that of friendly coöperation. Having acquired an intimate knowledge of the home life of their dependent neighbors they hold this knowledge at the service of the almoners of charity. As they become still better acquainted with the district and gain influence they often seek appointment on local boards, in order to make their experience effective in administration.

RELATION TO THE SOCIETY FOR ORGANIZING CHARITY. The attitude of the Settlement to the C. O. S. will depend very much on local policies on both sides. The "friendly visitor" is seeking to do just what the resident does, to come into vital

and sympathetic relations with the dependent poor. Frequently visitors go out from the House and make visiting for the Associated Charities the errand of the day. It is not seldom a natural method of finding an introduction to the actual life of the people. If the relations are not always cordial that is the fault of limitations in the agents of both institutions, for there is no real reason why they should not work in entire harmony. Indeed the Associated Charities, as in Buffalo, have sought to fix the permanent centers of their work in some kind of Settlement. Both organizations seek to study causes and set in motion preventive agencies. The Settlement, so far as it deals with the indigent and defective, is seeking to popularize the higher principles of modern charity. "The distinction is now recognized, though not very clearly defined in the public mind, between what is known as the lower and the higher philanthropy. The lower philanthropy meant the attempt to 'put right what social conditions had put wrong.' higher philanthropy means the attempt to 'put right the social conditions themselves.'" (President W. J. Tucker.) Charity Organization is an intermediate step from the old to the new philanthropy since it led to the study of conditions. The Settlement is far within the sphere of the new philanthropy because it seeks as its chief purpose the amelioration of conditions. So far as relates to the efforts to assist the wage-earning classes to better terms we have already touched that point under the appropriate head. The char

The

acteristic work of the Settlement is not with alms-seekers, but with people to whom the very words charity and philanthropy are detestable, that is a great majority of self-supporting working people.

Miss Jane Addams has placed this idea in perfectly clear light: "I am always sorry to have Hull House regarded as philanthropy, although it doubtless has strong philanthropic tendencies, and has several distinct charitable departments which are conscientiously carried on. It is unfair, however, to apply the word philanthropic to the activities of the House as a whole. Charles Booth, in his brilliant chapter on "The Unemployed," expresses regret that the problems of the working class are so often confounded with the problems of the inefficient, the idle and distressed. To confound these two problems is to render the solution of both impossible. Hull House, while endeavoring to fulfil its obligations to neighbors of varying needs, will do great harm if it confounds distinct problems. Working people live in the same streets with those in need of charity, but they themselves, so long as they have health and good wages, require and want none of it. As one of their number has said, they require only that their aspirations be recognized and stimulated, and the means of attaining them put at their disposal. Hull House makes a constant effort to secure these means for its neighbors, but to call that effort philanthropy is to use the word unfairly and to underestimate the duties of good citizenship."