often results in giving to the undeserving as well as to the deserving.  There are lazy and shiftless individuals who find it easier to live on charity than by honest work, and whose lack of self-respect permits them to do so.  Sometimes they do so by fraudulent methods.  Giving to such persons encourages pauperism and fraud instead of curing it.  Kind-hearted people often say that they would rather be cheated occasionally by dishonest applicants for charity than to fail to help the really needy by too great caution.  The answer to this is that by proper community organization and cooperation the needy will be found with much greater certainty, the fraudulent will be detected, and the aid given to those who should have it will be much more effective.  The citizen who turns an applicant for aid over to an effective organization in a great majority of cases performs a much greater service both to the applicant and to the community than by attempting to give aid directly.  A few pennies or a few dollars given even to a worthy applicant may not reach the root of the trouble at all, and may be the innocent cause of perpetuating the trouble.

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

Many voluntary organizations exist for charitable and philanthropic purposes.  The church has always been one of the chief agencies to care for the poor and unfortunate; but there are many others, especially in our large cities.  Sometimes they maintain hospitals and other institutions for the treatment of those who need indoor relief.  They have done a great deal of good.  But they are subject to the same difficulties that individuals encounter in dealing wisely with particular cases.  They have often devoted themselves too exclusively to giving temporary relief instead of seeking to cure causes and to rehabilitate the unfortunate.  They are frequently deceived by impostors.  Seldom do they have expert investigators to follow up individual cases and to prescribe the most effective remedy.  They frequently duplicate one another’s work in a wasteful manner.

CHARITY ORGANIZATION

This lack of team work has been in large measure remedied, especially in city communities, by the establishment of charity organization societies.  Such societies do not as a rule give direct relief, but act as a “clearing house” for existing charitable agencies in the community.  That is, they organize the effort of the various existing agencies.  They have a corps of trained investigators who look into each case reported by any individual or charitable agency in the community, make a careful record of it, and prescribe the proper treatment.  The case is usually turned over to one of the existing agencies that is properly equipped to handle it.  Philanthropic persons may turn to the charity organization society for advice as to purposes for which money is most needed.  The aim of charity organization is to remedy causes of dependency and to restore dependents to a self-sustaining basis so far as that is possible.