The main purpose of the present volume is to aid the citizen who is conscious of a sense of obligation for the relief of poverty, and more especially those who look for ward to active volunteer or professional service in any branch of social work, to recognize the character and extent of such service, to become familiar with its guiding principles, and to apply those principles to such practical tasks as they may encounter. With these objects in view, after a discussion of relief as an incident of progress and as a social policy, and a concrete description of the stand ard of living as a basis from which to estimate what relief is required, two illustrations are presented of the modern conception of preventive and effective relief, in the elimi nation of disease through the cooperation of the medical profession with social workers and others, and the move ment for tenement-house reform. The relief of the poor in their homes, the breaking up of families, and the care of dependent children and of dependent adults outside their own homes, lead naturally to a consideration of four of the more important causes of need : family desertion, intem perance, industrial displacement, and immigration. The relief of the poor in their homes is the natural starting point of all charitable activities, and an account of the sources of such relief is supplemented by the consideration in a separate chapter of the manner in which relief is modified by the constitution of the family. For example, a family of orphans, or a widow with small children, pre sents very different problems from those of single unen cumbered adults or of married couples without children. In the chapter on the breaking-up of families certain prin ciples are enumerated, the neglect of which is responsible for some of the serious aspects of the problems of depend ent children and dependent adults.
Supplementing the statement and application of princi ples in Part I, there is given in Part II a digest of seventy five illustrative cases. The end in view in presenting these summaries of actual case records is similar to that which leads to the preparation of digests of judicial decisions for the use of members of the bar and law students. There
is no desire to demonstrate the success of any particular method of treatment, or to reflect credit upon any particu lar charitable agency, but rather to show in the most help ful and direct way what is the real nature of the problems with which charitable societies and citizens have to deal. In some instances an account is given of the relief afforded and the results which followed ; in others little more than a statement of the situation as it was presented at the time of application. But these very contrasts are typical. There are circumstances in which initial steps must be taken on superficial indications, while in others there is opportunity at the outset for thorough inquiry and de liberation.
The reader who examines all of these records at one time may find them on the whole discouraging rather than otherwise. Selected almost at random and not edited with a view to enlisting sympathy in behalf of the families, they will at least convince the student that for the relief of destitution something more is required than money, groceries, clothing, or fuel. It will become clear that these are not relief but only the instruments through which relief may be effected.
That there are those who are unattractive, unapprecia tive of kindness, and ungrateful for charity is only too apparent from the records, as it is only too obvious to any who come into first-hand contact with the poor. Yet these also may need help and in the long run may well repay effort put forth in their behalf. If, however, in the interests of accuracy and due proportion it had seemed advisable to modify the case records in any particular, I would have desired to do this only in making them bear more frequent and emphatic testimony to the good quali ties of the poor, — to their fortitude, their faithfulness, to their heroism and their charity. It is because of the re ality of these qualities that we are justified in maintaining a hopeful attitude towards our relief problem.