Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/604

 590 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

It will depend largely upon the form of government of a community and upon the degree of self-government whether the public charities are to be administered by a system of honor officers or whether salaried officials will be required ; and the quality of these same organs must determine whether the sys- tem of outdoor or indoor relief shall be preferred in public assistance. The mediaeval view, which regarded philanthropy as a mode of penance done for the safety of one's own soul, leads to a relation between the benefactor and the recipient entirely different from charity work directed from the point of view of the police department or that carried on from purely philanthropic motives. The characteristics of a population, the kinds of industry carried on, the geographical position, inland or on the coast, the predominance of rural or urban work, etc., all have a decided influence upon the administration of charities. But it cannot be doubted that each system of poor relief, wher- ever practiced, will produce the same social and economic results. Whenever a workhouse under energetic management has super- seded the system of outdoor relief in consequence of the abuse of outdoor relief, the result has invariably been a decided falling off in the number of paupers. This may be verified by statistics not only from England and America, but from Germany as well. Carelessness in the treatment of deserted children, as we find it in France in the early part of the present century, at the time of the so-called fours, resulted in an incredible increase in the num- ber of desertions and strongly encouraged immorality and thoughtlessness in the matter of reproduction. The same fact was observed in Italy, in Spain, in England, and in Germany under similar institutions. Human nature has shown a decided tendency to accept services and favors rendered gratis, reluc- tantly at first, then more boldly and without any sense of shame. This holds true especially when the service is rendered by the state or the community so that no particular individual can be looked upon as the benefactor. The same fact has been observed in times of great public calamity, distress and need (arising from floods, epidemics, etc.), when a public fund or store has been