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VOL UML ONE.
NO. TH IET Y-F OU E .
The 'Beauty and Duty of Organized C 1 arity.
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By S. T. DALSHEIMER.
0 fully compass the scope of co-opera
tive charitable work as compared with
that accomplished by a single person
we must first of all pre-suppose that
the average individual desires to aid in
his own way and as far as his means
allow those of his fellow men who con
stitute that great and growing class
which we call “the poor”; but that he
T
is at all times oppressed
with a sense of his per
sonal powerlessness to
give adequate aid even
though he devote his en
tire life to the effort.
Like all large social
questions this one of wise
and well directed charity
has ever assumed the pro
portion of a genuine
problem. We must real
ize that no civilization is
complete and no social
system beneficent, which
does not include some
well organized working
plan designed especially
to bring “the greatest
good to the greatest num
ber.” The very seal of
our country, the spirit of
our National life is sup
posed to be attuned to
some such concerted ef
fort. But there are “de
vious and winding ways”
to the path of practical
philanthropy, and each
year new ideas are held,
new principles outlined
and new practices begun,
all designed, however, to
(bring the wisest aid to
the unfortunate poor of
the country. Naturally,
this problem is more com
plex in large cities than
Jin towns or rural com
munities, yet there are
few places free from its
quota of poor people, and
it does seem that any
plan which succeeds in
bringing help to thous-
ands would be, in proportion, equally effective in
offering it to fewer numbers. Union and co-op
erative effort is the keynote to the present age,
and just as surely as all great financial enterprises
have found it advantageous to combine in the form
of companies or trusts, so philanthropic organiza
tions are learning similar truths. The people of
America have grown almost unconsciously to re-
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SNOW BABIES IN FECRUARY :’ *. “ ' ; . ;
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The "Baby ‘Brother. ” Sunshine and Sea Air. The Glorious fourth at Sea Breeze. Snolv Babies in February.
ATLANTA, GA., OCTOBER 11, 1906.
gard the systems in use in the great metropolis
of New York as representative in their achieve
ments and in their usefulness, so, in considering
the broad question of practical philanthropy we
naturally turn to the greatest Organization of the
sort in the country and perhaps one of the great
est in the world—The United Charities of New
York City. In a city of nearly 4,000,000 inhabi
tants, it is imperative that some system for reach-
ing its poor should be wisely and broadly handled;
that it should have rules as fixed as any laws of
civic justice, yet so flexible that they may be
made to extend to the “uttermost ends of the
earth” on occasion, and it is in the wise adminis
tration of just such paradoxical laws that the
great work of the New York Association for the
Improvement of the Poor is most plainly seen.
To quote irom a recent pamphlet of this Associa
tion, where it is stated that the total number of
persons aided during a single year was 19,826,
some idea of the extent and of the diverse char
acter of this work can be had from the following:
“During the fiscal year, 4,625 homeless persons
were aided b.y advice and direction only, of whom
1.351 were non-residents, 1,315 were sent to the
-Municipal Lodging House, and 374 to the Bureau
sociation is to insure the
interest of the general public, and as a unique
means to that end there was inserted in various
prominent publications of the country, an ad
vertisement in the form of an appeal for aid which
brought wonderful results. This appeal was de
signed, first of all, as a sort of educational method
by which the public was taught to know the need
and the human heart’s best impulses sprung to
TWO DOLL AES A YEAE.
FIVE CENTS A COPY.
of Dependent Adults. Be
sides these, 2,009 homeless
men and 371 homeless wo
men received material re
lief to the extent of $2,-
134.14. Light hundred and
eighty-eight homeless men
were given wood-yard
tickets, 156 homeless per
sons were placed in hospi
tals, etc., 80 wore put in
charge of other societies,
74 were furnished trans
portation, and 33 secured
permanent employment.
Since January Ist, 2,729
visits were made in behalf
of homeless eases.” From
this resume it will be
gathered that this Asso
ciation has many avenues
for the exercise of its
philanthropies avenues
which, in the very nature
of things, are barred from
individual workers be they
ever so zealous, and yet
the financial support given
by the charitably inclin
ed has been in very truth
“the sinews of war”
with which the stern bat
tle against poverty is be
, ing fought. Municipal
support is, of course, giv
en, but this is by no means
adequate, and contribu
tions of money, of food
and many other necessities
are constantly being re
ceived, and just as con
stantly there is need for
yet further aid. One of
the chief aims of the As-