Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/356

 344 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

these evils. But in the Middle Ages the church, now become a public power, encouraged and increased poverty to an appalling extent, without being able in a corresponding degree to meet the problem of helping the indigent. The state authorities during the latter part of the Middle Ages, and especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in spite of their stringent laws against begging, remained powerless to contend with beggary and vagrancy. The other course which, with overflowing love and compassion, sought to mitigate the lot of the poor, which finds expression in the Gilbert's Act of England with its system of allowances, or the French law of 1811 concerning the anonymous reception of children, plainly showed, in the appalling increase of the number of able-bodied persons demanding support and of deserted children, where a too charitable conception of the admin- istration of poor-relief must lead. Today we stand face to face with the same problem. Public poor-relief and private charity wage the thousand-year-old battle over the successful administration of poor-relief and the prevention of its abuses, and reap today precisely the same experience as was reaped in times past that human nature, in spite of all economic and technical advance, in this respect has undergone no change. Hence also arises the very noteworthy fact that the most modern poor-relief directs its attention more than ever to the simple administration of poor-relief in the early Christian church, and that the much- talked-about "Elberfeld system" is nothing else at bottom than an attempt to revive that old form of administration on systematic lines. Thus there stands in the foreground of all discussion con- cerning the proper form of poor-relief the question of organiza- tion. If poor-relief is to help the needy according to his need, and have a reason for rejecting the undeserving, it must have for this purpose a thorough knowledge of the circumstances of those who apply for help. This knowledge can be obtained only through direct examination in the home of the indigent, through observ- ing his mode of life, his household management, the conduct of his family, etc.; and must be supplemented by inquiry in other directions, of the employer, neighbors, fellow-tenants, etc.,,- This makes necessary a special equipment for examination which shall