Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/800

 786 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Of those societies that state that they give relief from their own funds thirty-nine are in cities that have no general relief societies and include most of the smaller cities. The remainder of this class, twelve in number, restrict their relief, for the most part, to emergencies and to those cases for which appropriate relief cannot, except with great difficulty, be procured from any other source. The statements upon this point are clearly borne out by the records of their expenditures.

The conclusions to be derived from the inquiry concerning the practice of charity-organization societies in giving relief are :

1. With the exception of possibly half a dozen societies, all but one of which are in the small cities, charity-organization societies provide immediate relief in urgent cases from funds in the hands of their agents. These funds are, first, "interim aid," "special relief," "emergency relief," "golden book," or other special funds maintained for that purpose ; or, secondly, the general funds of the societies; or, thirdly, the money of the agents, which they advance with the knowledge that they will be reimbursed.

2. The reliance of many charity-organization societies upon their own general or special funds for relief is due, first, to the absence of relief societies ; secondly, to the failure to secure cooperation with existing relief societies ; thirdly, to the diffi- culty and delay of complying with the conditions upon which relief may be had from relief societies with which cooperation is incomplete.

Relief-giving was omitted from the work of the first charity- organization society for special reasons, but the conditions do not seem to have made it possible for the societies in the United States to follow the original plan with success. The effort to do so has undoubtedly led to some confusion of thought and waste of energy. As the prevailing methods are so widely at variance with what has generally been considered the stand- ard, it would be wise to revise the principles of charity-organiza- tion societies upon this point to suit local conditions and prevent harmful misunderstanding.