funds to support and too valuable to abandon. The voluntary association seems the best form of social organization for research work in science and philosophy. It is free from the obstructive and obscurantist tendencies which seem inherent in all historic bodies. The interests of political and ecclesiastical parties and the prepossessions of officeholders rage around them in vain.
The voluntary association is often able to supply personal service where the mechanical methods of the state or the church are at fault. The Elberfeld system of poor relief is a good illustration. This system was established by the efforts of a representative of political and a representative of ecclesiastical organization, a magistrate and a pastor. It was found that municipal authorities could raise adequate funds and keep accounts and punish vagrants far better than benevolent societies. But when it came to a question of visiting the sick, bringing to them the cheer of friendship and the personal counsel of experience, sharing the riches of the sagacious with the witless and discouraged, the machinery of the state was too coarse and heavy. The army of bureaucrats confessed their defect and called to their assistance the friendly visitors who work for honor and for gratitude. Complete as is the system of communal relief it still leaves room for many forms of benevolence under the leadership of private persons.
There are many groups of voluntary associations more or less closely connected with the churches. The Y. M. C. A., the Christian Endeavor societies and the Christian Citizenship League are examples. It is sometimes said that the existence of these societies is a reproach to the church and an evidence of its failure. The criticism should not be hastily accepted. Such organizations rather imply that a considerable number of the members of the churches are ready to unite in a method of social amelioration for which there exists no suitable machinery. It is unreasonable to expect all the members of a body of four or five million members to rent the use of their vast and costly governmental plant for some local or temporary purpose, however worthy it may be. The voluntary association furnishes exactly the form of cooperation most desirable in these circumstances.
