Furthermore the army of professional beggars is chiefly recruited from the class of single, homeless men, and of these a large proportion are not really able-bodied, al though their own account of the origin of their afflictions is of course never to be relied upon. This is not the place to discuss vagrancy, which is essentially a police, rather than a relief, problem. The pseudo-charity which creates and supports vagrancy is entitled neither to respect nor to defence. Demonstrations that not more than one in ten of those that ask for help on the street at the door is "deserving," have little weight with those who readily respond that they would rather aid nine undeserving per sons, than allow one who is deserving to suffer. Those who give habitually to beggars should, however, learn that giving to the tenth, if indeed one in ten is " deserving " in the sense in which that term is thus used, is more injurious than giving to the other nine. The gift without the giver is not only bare, it is an active agent of injury. The con science which is relieved by giving to ten beggars in the chance that one may be in need, is a naive and unenlight ened conscience. The possibility of securing the necessi ties of life by this means, thwarts remedial measures. To give money or its equivalent on easy terms to able-bodied, homeless men, is not a neutral act, but one by which serious, direct responsibility is incurred.
It is by no means the case, however, that there is no field for charitable endeavor among the unattached, home less men, and even among those who have become profes sional mendicants. There are few of them to whom, at one time or another, there does not come a desire to break loose from his associations, from the deceit and from the unmanly dependence, and to take an honorable place in the industry and the social life of the community. A helping hand in finding employment, or it may be in supplying tools, suitable clothing, or even transportation at the oppor tune moment, may be so clearly justified that its omission would be little less than criminal. The reality, however, must be distinguished from an attempt at imposition. It is precisely in the plea for money for such purposes as this that experienced mendicants are most successful. It is essential, therefore, that the donor, or some one who can act in his stead, shall keep an eye on the beneficiary, shall see that he goes to work and remains at work, or shall take such other reasonable precautions as will bring the greatest chance of success. There is no reason for discouragement in occasional failures, or in the fact that improvement may be slow ; but sincerity of purpose may rightly be insisted upon, and so far as the more intelligent and capable men who form a considerable element in the mendicant class are concerned, it may be anticipated that, given a start in the right direction, they will speedily make their own way.
It is in dealing with applications from single, homeless men, more perhaps than in any other branch of philan thropic work, that discrimination and experienced judgment are essential. There must be a quick and sympathetic
appreciation for the tale of a boy who is really desirous of returning to his home after his first experience in feeding upon the husks of the swine. There must be a long memory for faces and voices, and characteristic inci dents or expression in the narrative of the applicant, even when all have been more or less disguised by the mere lapse of time, or by dissipation or other cause. There must be an impartial fairness in considering whether there may be an element of justice even in a palpably absurd story, or at least of some unexpressed need which can be met. There must also be firmness and courage in applying appropriate remedies when discipline rather than relief is required, and withal a capacity for developing ever increased sympa thy, and consideration, and patience, and hope, however large the number of irreclaimable human beings one has met. For it must not be forgotten that none is irreclaim able except relatively, that until one has infinite resources at his command he is not justified in assuming that any particular individual could not have been saved by other and different means than those which had been tried in vain. It is the part of wisdom to recognize the point beyond which, with the resources at hand and with a given attitude on the part of an applicant, nothing whatever of good can be accomplished, and to leave further dealings with those who are in position to apply other remedies ; but this is far from forming or expressing any final judg ment upon the ultimate outcome, even in those cases.
So far as applications from homeless men are concerned, then, the task is to single out those who have family ties, and to attempt, if possible, to restore them ; and to rescue from a life of unworthy dependence those who by reason able encouragement can be fitted into their natural places as self-supporting wage-earners ; to secure for such as need it hospital and custodial care, and to give direction and counsel in regard to employment to such as can become self-supporting only through this form of aid. It is true that the responsibility for finding employment rests prima rily upon the individual himself, quite as much as the doing of work after being employed. In the rapid shifting of opportunities for employment, however, from one place to another, and the numerous artificial disturbances of the nor mal course of industry, it is not strange that many who are able to work satisfactorily are without the initiative essen tial to the finding of work. The free state employment bureaus, and, to a still greater extent, the development of employment exchange advertisements in the daily press, meet this need, and sometimes a simple direction to one of these sources of information is all that is requisite.