Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/609

 PUBLIC CHARITY AND PRIVATE PHILANTHROPY 595

needs, and but for the assistance of the public authorities in poor relief actual loss of life, physical destruction of the inhabi- tants, must result, a condition which the state could never tol- erate. In France the departments, together with the state on the one hand, and with the commune on the other, are legally responsible for the care of the infirm, the feeble-minded, and the children.

In America the expenditure of the states for public relief exceeds a hundred million dollars, a sum so vast that one would be led to suppose that public charities were predominant. In states like Germany, on the other hand, where the law requires public relief, the financial condition of a great many communi- ties is such that they cannot begin to fulfill this legal require- ment ; they can meet it only in the most inadequate manner. In such cases the principle of the workhouse is naturally employed without any further consideration, and everyone who is dependent on the community for housing is packed, entirely regardless of age or sex, into a rural poorhouse which fre- quently falls very far short of even the most modest demands. Here the poorhouse is certainly a most severe test ; for surely no human being would enter it unless forced by the direst dis- tress. The great difference between the poor relief of rural districts and that of the city leads to the same results as in all other countries ; the poor and the aged, as well as vagrants and beggars, tend to concentrate in large cities, where the resources at the command of charity are incomparably greater and much more freely distributed. Where public relief is wanting, as in the Latin countries, the deficiency is generally balanced by ecclesiastical orders and societies. It is extremely difficult to get a financial estimate of the work of such organizations, but no doubt it is very considerable. Wherever the civil commune has succeeded to the church in the matter of poor relief, as in Ger- many, the efforts of the church in this direction have fallen off very markedly, except where special u nts were available.

Our discussion thus far shows that we may justly speak of fixed laws and principles in poor i< d philanthropy, and