PUBLIC CHARITY AND PRIVA TE PHILANTHROPY 601
each individual case, but is merely to give them an opportunity to see, in a general way, that the principles laid down in the poor laws are being carried out. The validity of the decisions of the circuit is not dependent on the approval of the board.
With the single exception of the chairman of the general board, who usually belongs to the higher class of salaried municipal officials, all the offices, those of the board, the super- intendents, and the helpers, are purely honor offices. The members of the general board are chosen by the municipal council, the remaining officials by the board ; and all are obliged to perform the duties of their respective offices without any remuneration. This is in accord with the entire system of German self-government, which makes a large number of offices purely honorary ; especially is this true of their system of poor relief. And the peculiarity of this latter system is that, contrary to the custom of other forms of self-government, the offices are not limited to persons who have already won the greatest respect of their community, or who are made prominent by reason of wealth or social position, or who may have leisure to attend to the duties of an honor office. Here we find, on the contrary, that all classes of citizens are drawn into the ser- vice, and that a special effort is made to enlist the citizens of modest means, the tradesman, the mechanic, and the better class of laborers as helpers. Experience has proved beyond a doubt, that circuits made up entirely of helpers from the upper classes distribute their funds far more lavishly than those com- posed of helpers of all classes, and that helpers drawn from the upper classes too easily lose their sympathy with their wards, from whom they are socially too far removed. Moreover, both at Elberfeld and in other cities, it has become a tacitly accepted custom that the office of a helper in the poor relief is the first round in the ladder of municipal honor offices; and no one can reach the upper, more highly esteemed positions, who does not begin on the bottom round.
The machinery we have thus described is complemented by a thoroughly organized, well-regulated business management.
