Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/339

 SOCIAL POLICY TOWARD DEPENDENTS 327

principles of administrative methods are concerned, there are no radical differences; both must aim at the real good of the recipi- ents and of the community. It is also true that the division of labor need not be the same in every state and every county or municipality.

But the necessity of agreement and co-operation is easily illus- trated and demonstrated from examples taken from practice. Thus private charity sometimes supports a feeble alien who has been rejected by the agent of public outdoor relief until he has gained the rights of settlement and becomes henceforth a public charge; and this happens even in states where it is a punishable offense to import a pauper from one county into another. This understanding should go far enough, in cities where there is legal outdoor relief, to secure for the salaried agents the assistance of voluntary, unpaid, friendly visitors. Our public relief in Ameri- can cities sins against the fundamental principle of individual treatment, because it refuses thus far to learn from the German cities which employ unpaid visitors and give to them, within certain regulated limits, the responsibility for the distribution of public funds.

The essential principles of division of labor seem to be : ( I ) the relief which is required by law is only that which is necessary to life and industrial efficiency, while private relief can deal with exceptional cases and provide a measure of comfort; (2) public relief is more suitable where there can be common, general regula- tions; private relief is more adaptable and can act in exceptional ways; (3) public relief may properly provide for permanent and universal demands; private relief, being optional and voluntary, may rise to meet changing situations, and hence can more readily try experiments for which the voting public is not ready to expend money or erect administrative machinery.

But division of labor is only one aspect of social co-operation, and it really implies and demands a conscious and concerted effort to work for the common welfare. This division of labor and this co-operation require organs and agents to make them effective. In German citits the initiative is naturally taken by the munici-