Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/617

 PUBLIC CHARITY AND PRIVATE PHILANTHROPY 603

munes. To begin with, there is a vast difference between the sizes of the several communes. A measure that would be wise in a city of even 100,000 inhabitants might not be a success in Berlin, with nearly two millions of people in the city and sub- urbs. Hamburg, with its 600,000, occupies a position between the two ; likewise Dresden, Leipsic, Munich and other cities. Besides this the class, the kind of population, makes a very mate- rial difference. While Elberfeld has, on the whole, a settled popu- lation, composed largely of skilled laborers, the surrounding districts, with their mining and manufacturing industries, are inhabited by a very fluctuating population which makes vastly different demands upon relief work. The agricultural East has quite other needs in this line than the industrial West. Where- ever the growth of our modern cities creates special labor dis- tricts, where a single house often shelters a whole population of paupers, the Elberfeld quarter system cannot work ; moreover it would be very difficult to find a sufficient number of helpers in such a district, and the fundamental idea of the Elberfeld system, that of maintaining friendly, neighborly relations between the helper and fellow-men, is almost entirely lost ; for the constantly shifting population renders the establishing of such relations well-nigh impossible. On the other hand the system of administration is of importance. Where all or nearly all the officers are salaried and, as a consequence, the work tends to become formal and methodical, it should be quickened by the institution of honor offices. Where, as in Hamburg and in this respect Hamburg probably comes nearer the Ameri- can form of government than any other German city the local government has for centuries controlled all public offices, and has never paid any of its poor relief officials except the lowest clerks, here it was found necessary to add a num- ber of more highly trained officials. Perhaps it is for this very reason that the Hamburg reforms excited a considerable interest in America, because it not only attempts an appropri- ate reform of the general system of poor relief, but also seeks to harmonize the work of the professional (salaried) officers