g6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
of right. On the other hand, private and church charities have their perils. In abolishing outdoor official relief and permitting freedom for private charity in this field, the state dares not relinquish the right to inspect and control all charities, where there is danger of increasing the evils of pauperism. 1
NOTE. Professor Henderson states that he has somewhat modified his opinion since the above was written. He would not now condemn public out- door relief as such, although, he says, the perils of the system demand utmost vigilance and care, and the abolition of outdoor official relief should be sought as an ideal. In his work on Dependents, Defectives, and Delinquents (1893), p. 44, Professor Henderson says: "We are obliged to deal with a relatively permanent fact, that outdoor official relief is a part of our social custom, side by side with voluntary beneficence. Both forms of relief are liable to abuses. Church and private charity in Italy and France produced increasing beggary, and the same evils grew to unbearable proportions under the poor law of England. The worst evils are due more to the character of the people, and to existing social forces and opportunities, than to any peculiar system of relief. At present it is a question of administration, and practical measures must be directed to the improvement of methods of administration. With a reformed poor law England was able to diminish its pauperism while continuing outdoor official relief."
ROBERT D. M'GONNIGLE.
The more I study outdoor relief, the more I am convinced that it should be placed in the hands of organized charitable societies. I am in sympathy with anything in the way of out- door relief as handled by charitable societies. The only good that can come from outdoor relief is in what is granted through such channels. The examination of the poor-law officials becomes mechanical, and there is not the thorough investiga- tion into cases there should be ; and the result is that relief is granted finally without proper examination. Every time the applicant receives relief, the bolder and more impudent he becomes. He begins to think he has a right to it, that there is no disgrace attached to receiving it, and that any examination on the part of the poor-law officials is impudence.
If the same amount of outdoor relief was granted through organized societies, it would do a greater amount of good. The recipient would not feel that the relief was granted by taxation,
'"Symposium on Public Outdoor Relief," TV. C. C., 1891, pp. 28-49.
