CHARITY ORGANISATION.*

THE condition of the masses has for the moment become a subject of such apparently engrossing interest to their wealthier neighbours, that the remark of an observant butler, that he often wondered what gentlefolk would find to talk about if it were not for the poor, has htimour as well as truth. Yet it may fairly be questioned if one person in fifty who chatters glibly on the subject, and of the benefits derivable from Charity Organisation, could give even the faintest idea of what organised charity should mean. Now, Mr. Loch, the well-known Secretary to the London Charity Organisation Society, has not only found himself called upon to explain the working of the somewhat intricate machinery which passes with us under that familiar name, but to explain it to " persons of other countries not specially acquainted with English life and thought,"—and perhaps nothing promotes • Charity Organisation. By 0. El. Loch, B.A., Secretary to the London Charity Organisation Society. London : Swan Sonnensohein and Co. 1890.

greater accuracy in definition than the necessity to express the familiar idea in a foreign tongue. We learn from the

preface of the valuable little book before us that it is the reprint of a paper, entitled .De rOrganisation de l'Assistance,

written for the Congres International d'Assistance, held in Paris in July and August, 1889. And Mr. Loch has evidently tried to stand off a hand's-breadth from his subject, and view its proportions as far as possible with impartial eyes.

It is a terrible problem with which he deals,—how terrible, they know best who are called upon to face it day by day in the endeavour to find a practical solution. " A man's know- ledge is equal to his works," says Mr. Loch, quoting a Franciscan saying wherein lies a wealth of wisdom. But he wastes no eloquence over his subject ; with the calmness, which is not coldness, of an experienced surgeon, he points out the wounds in the body politic, and the remedies with which we are experimenting. The question of our present Poor-Law comes first, and we suspect that to many, who we hope may be induced to study for themselves the pages of Mr. Loch's little book, the wide range of our Poor-Law will come as a surprise. The extent of the knowledge of many, perhaps of most, people in this direction consists in a certainty that English law does not admit that any one should starve, and that in the last resource it is always possible to find refuge in the workhouse : while, of all the notions born of ignorance, not one more commonly finds expression among kindly people than that it is terribly hard such-and-such an one should be compelled to go into the " house," when a little temporary relief would have kept him out of it. Not only hard, but intolerably hard, is such a case, when genuine ; but it is to be met by friendly, not by State aid. We have not at our com- mand space to deal with such questions as these, but a great deal of valuable light is thrown on them in the pages before us. Mr. Loch, in common with the majority of those who seriously work with the Charity Organisation Society, con- siders what is known as " outdoor relief " to be distinctly mischievous, and tending to that increase of pauperism which it is the duty of the State to resist. So effectually has the Charity Organisation Society insisted on this point, that in some of the poorest districts of the Metropolis which have been most affected by its labours, the system of outdoor relief has been almost abolished. In Stepney and St. George- in-the-East, Mr. A. G. Crowder, a Guardian of the latter Union—one of the poorest in London—thus describes the change :—

" They [the poor] certainly manage to get on just as well without the outdoor relief dole They have accepted the in- evitable, I may almost say contentedly. I should ascribe that in a great measure to the manner in which we have adhered to our decisions. We have unflinchingly adhered to fixed rules, and we have not permitted interest or importunity to affect our action. Firmness and uniformity are essential for producing an effect on the habits of the poor."

In Whitechapel in 1886—not a good year—the weekly ex- penditure in outdoor relief did not amount to more than £2 10s. 11d. But then, the Poor-Law was worked in co- operation with the Charity Organisation Society, and though under the Poor-Law the relieving officer is bound "in every case of sudden and urgent necessity" to afford such relief as may be absolutely requisite, relief cannot be given to establish an applicant in trade or business, to redeem tools, implements, or other articles from pawn, or to purchase or give such articles, except in urgent cases, bedding, clothes, &c. Now, it is just here that organised charity most effectually steps in : it will have nothing to say to the mere doling out of alms, but will, wherever possible, re-establish those who are willing to help themselves, by furnishing them with the means of obtaining an honest and independent livelihood.

The main object of a Charity Organisation Society is briefly indicated by Mr. Loch in an extract from the manual of the London Society :—

" The main object of the Society is the improvement of the con- dition of the poor (1) by bringing about co-operation between the Charities and the Poor-Law, and amongst the Charities ; (2), by securing due investigation and fitting action in all cases ; and (3), by repressing mendicity."

The last clause has come to be regarded by many as the main work of the Society in London. " The Charity Organisation Society is mainly repressive," is a sweeping assertion not un- commonly made ; and were this true, it would by its successful action have rendered no mean service to the public ; but this is, in fact, only the least part of the work. "Never to give to

a beggar," is, indeed, assumed to be in the creed of every one attempting to take part in organised charity ; but that line

has a rider : " Never to give to a beggar without inquiry." There is nothing an indolent almsgiver hates so much as this; but he has his own conscience to settle with if he rejects it, and the worthy unit amid a thousand impostors suffers thereby.

Wherever the Charity Organisation Society is at work, it is always possible to refer the applicant at once to the inquiry office, generally, no doubt, with the result of discovering that he is an arrant impostor ; but if otherwise, of atoning for the delayed sixpence by affording or procuring ampler and more effectual help. Up to this point, however, most of us are now pretty well educated, at least on the repressive side. Mendicity no longer openly flourishes in our midst ; on the helpful, pains- taking side, we fear much remains to learn. Organised charity, in the form in which we now recognise it, has had hardly twenty years of life. And already, in combination with the better administration of the Poor-Law, which it has mainly brought about, able-bodied pauperism in London is reduced one-half,—a fact so startling that we are tempted to quote the figures given by Mr. Loch ; and we find that in 1862—that is, before the combined action of the Poor-Law with Charity

Organisation—the proportion of adult able-bodied paupers, indoor and out, exclusive of vagrants, was 6.7 per 1,000 ; in 1888 it was 3.2.

But if the number of paupers seeking outdoor relief is to be reduced to a minimum, and no one will deny that this at least is desirable, it will often, amid the honourable and worthy poor, and their name is legion, be done at the cost of any possible provision for old age. To take a very common instance, the children who steadily and persistently keep their parents out of the workhouse often do this at the cost of every halfpenny they could otherwise save. Such persons have been largely encouraged to join Friendly Societies—as figures we will give presently will show—but also, wherever strictly deserving yet terribly necessitous, organised charity, as far as its means allow, steps in with adequate aid in the shape of pensions for the old and broken-down who have worked worthily in their time. Charity in this direction should be far larger than it is ; but the ideal of organised charity, as Mr.

Loch ably points out in these pages, is, in London at least, " a far-off vision still." The more affluent among us are but feebly experimenting with the huge mass of disease and poverty and misery which is swelling perceptibly in the midst of our crowded millions. And we cannot but fear our present systems of so-called organised charity, though containing within themselves the seed of endless possibilities, are some- what deficient in that friendliness to the poor which already distinguishes similar organisations in America, and which has its roots deeper than we penetrate, intertwined in the very fibre of Christianity.

In Boston, Mr. Loch informs us, the Associated Charities have organised fourteen districts, each with its Conference,— the object of the Conference being to organise charity "so that the best may be done to ensure the permanent welfare of the poor." In connection with the executive committee of such Conference is a body of visitors whose duty it is to be- friend one or more families. The visitor gives no relief. Though he is the medium through which it is obtained, he is the friend only, a much-tried friend to be available in every case of need. That simple note of friendliness marks a defect which will have to be remedied if we are to attain any adequate result for the efforts made. Mr. Loch is fully aware of this, he would combine if he could the most humane thought which is influencing modern life, with the spirit of a Franciscan, the man who " had the simple rule of the triple vow as the key- note which was to unlock life for him," and the " adaptability " which was essentially a part of him :- " He was no priest, but a layman under a religious vow. He was independent in spirit, and attacked with a cheerful hopeful- ness the social problem of the day—the misery, squalor, and vice of a medieval city, by methods of his own devising. He was original. He thought out the old problem afresh for himself ; and consequently he attacked it with the vigour and directness of originality. Suppose an affiance between this devotion, courage and simplicity, and the spirit of citizenship or associated charity, as, trying to acquire form and organisation, it may now be seen in a modem city, and we have, I think, a vivid picture of what the almoner should be."

And such men are among us, the Father Damiens who live unnoticed in the very heart of misery. We could point to spots in Bethnal Green and elsewhere, where a redemptive

work is going on which is gradually transforming whole com- munities; but Mr. Loch wisely confines himself chiefly to tangible facts and figures, and these, in the midst of so much that is discouraging, furnish pleasant reading. Three facts out of pages of statistics must suffice us. The somewhat stern influence of organised charity has been combined with other educational influences during the last twenty years. And we find " the great mass of the people raising themselves above the pressure of want by means which, directly or indirectly, Charity Organisation is trying to promote. And we find that, whereas in 1872 there were about 7,732,000 members of Friendly Societies, in 1887 that number had nearly doubled. Mr. Giffen is quoted as a reliable authority for the assurance that the wages of the working classes have improved from 50 to 100 per cent., and, best of all, we find committals for trial have fallen from 20,091 in 1868, to 13,292 in 1887. In all this, as in so much else,-

" The little done doth vanish, to the mind That forward sees how much remains to do."

But Mr. Loch's carefully written statements will, we think, do much towards reassuring us that we are at least on the right track.