Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/107

 PUBLIC OUTDOOR RELIEF 93

his family a day's food, and the man who, however worthy and suffering, did not earn it, but wants it to be given to him to buy himself and his family a day's food. That the law of the land, by the hand of a public officer, should take the dollar from him who earned it and hand it over to the man who did not earn it, seems to be an act of gross tyranny and injustice. It is granted that it is good for the community that no one be allowed to starve, but where shall be found the proof that starvation is imminent ? Only by putting such conditions upon the giving of public relief that, presumably, persons not in danger of starvation will not consent to receive it. To those who object that, because the community relieves a person, that person should not, therefore, be reduced to pauperism by being placed in an institu- tion, the only answer is that the receiving of relief from the community constitutes pauperism ; and the refuge from pauper- ism is either in self-support or else in the obtaining of help from private sources.

If an income was paid to every member of a community regardless of his own exertions or character, the result would be a diminution in the energy and earning capacity of the recipients. That is exactly the effect on those who receive public relief, except that there is also added a moral degradation, because there is a stigma attached to public relief, arising from the fact that the money received is actually the property of individuals, taken from them against their will and not belonging to the public. If the advocates of public relief contend that there should be no stigma attached to its receipt, the answer is that in that case the tendency would be toward the condition where the whole people would be ready to accept an income from so-called public funds, and that the resulting loss of energy and industry would be sufficient to plunge any nation into a greater poverty than any now suffers. I am persuaded, therefore, that the only safe way to provide public relief is under such stringent conditions that no one shall be tempted to accept it except in an extremity, and under such conditions, also, as will as soon as possible make the recipient of help able to support himself again and do his part in supporting others. I mean that public relief