Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/194

 1 7 8 THE AMERICAN JO URNAL Of SOCIOLOGY

upon the cases of those having settlement in the departments, and who sends to the minister the names of those who, having no domicile, are state charges. The departmental commission decides provisionally as to the relief of the aged, infirm, and incurable, although the conseil general may reverse their action later. The rejected applicant or the prefect may take an appeal to the minister of the interior. All these provisions for appeal show the tendency, evident in all recent administrative legislation, to enlarge central control.

Relief is to cease when the reasons which prompted it have ceased to have force ; and suspension of allowance is declared by the municipal council, the departmental commission, or by the minister, in accordance with principles already recited.

TITLE III. MODES OF RELIEF

It is provided that relief may be given in the home or in an asylum. The law does not attempt to fix this matter, but leaves administrators free to employ the method best suited to the indi- vidual case. The plan of boarding dependents in families at public cost is admissible under this article. The two bills agree in pro- viding that relief at home shall be in the form of a monthly allowance ; the rate to be fixed by the municipal council, with the approval of the general council. The minimum and maximum rates are different in the proposed laws. The Chamber of Deputies placed the minimum at 8 francs and the maximum at 30 francs; in the Senate bill the rates proposed are 5 and 20 francs, save in exceptional circumstances. At this point two considerations enter to complicate the problem of a proper rate: the relation of relief to habits of thrift and the factor of private charity. The discussions and the drafts of law show that the lawmakers are seeking, though thus far by somewhat different devices, to encourage thrift, in the form of savings-bank deposits, societies of mutual benefit, etc.; and also to leave a legitimate field for individual and associated charity wherever it is able and willing to carry a share of the burden. It has already been found in the working of the law of obligatory medical relief that these objects can be fostered.