“I have been so long accustomed to see the most arrant deviltry transact itself in the name of benevolence, that the moment I hear a profession of good will from almost any quarter, I instinctively look around for a constable or place my hand within reach of a bell-rope.  My ideal of human intercourse would be a state of things in which no man will ever stand in need of any other man’s help, but will derive all his satisfaction from the great social tides which own no individual names.  I am sure no man can be put in a position of dependence upon another, without the other’s very soon becoming—­if he accepts the duties of the relation—­utterly degraded out of his just human proportions.  No man can play the Deity to his fellow man with impunity—­I mean, spiritual impunity, of course.  For see:  if I am at all satisfied with that relation, if it contents me to be in a position of generosity towards others, I must be remarkably indifferent at bottom to the gross social inequality which permits that position, and, instead of resenting the enforced humiliation of my fellow man to myself in the interests of humanity, I acquiesce in it for the sake of the profit it yields to my own self-complacency.  I do hope the reign of benevolence is over; until that event occurs, I am sure the reign of God will be impossible.”

To-day, we may measure the evil effects of “benevolence” of this type, not merely upon those who have indulged in it, but upon the community at large.  These effects have been reduced to statistics and we cannot, if we would, escape their significance.  Look, for instance (since they are close at hand, and fairly representative of conditions elsewhere) at the total annual expenditures of public and private “charities and corrections” for the State of New York.  For the year ending June 30, 1919, the expenditures of public institutions and agencies amounted to $33, 936,205.88.  The expenditures of privately supported and endowed institutions for the same year, amount to $58,100,530.98.  This makes a total, for public and private charities and corrections of $92,036,736.86.  A conservative estimate of the increase for the year (1920-1921) brings this figure approximately to one-hundred and twenty-five millions.  These figures take on an eloquent significance if we compare them to the comparatively small amounts spent upon education, conservation of health and other constructive efforts.  Thus, while the City of New York spent $7.35 per capita on public education in the year 1918, it spent on public charities no less than $2.66.  Add to this last figure an even larger amount dispensed by private agencies, and we may derive some definite sense of the heavy burden of dependency, pauperism and delinquency upon the normal and healthy sections of the community.