It was first the outgrowth of humanitarian and altruistic
idealism, perhaps not devoid of a strain of sentimentalism, of an
idealism that was aroused by a desperate picture of human misery
intensified by the industrial revolution. It has developed in later
years into a program not so much aiming to succor the unfortunate
victims of circumstances, as to effect what we may term social
sanitation. Primarily, it is a program of self-protection. Contemporary
philanthropy, I believe, recognizes that extreme poverty and overcrowded
slums are veritable breeding-grounds of epidemics, disease, delinquency
and dependency. Its aim, therefore, is to prevent the individual family
from sinking to that abject condition in which it will become a much
heavier burden upon society.
There is no need here to criticize the obvious limitations of organized
charities in meeting the desperate problem of destitution. We are all
familiar with these criticisms: the common indictment of "inefficiency"
so often brought against public and privately endowed agencies. The
charges include the high cost of administration; the pauperization
of deserving poor, and the encouragement and fostering of the
"undeserving"; the progressive destruction of self-respect and
self-reliance by the paternalistic interference of social agencies; the
impossibility of keeping pace with the ever-increasing multiplication of
factors and influences responsible for the perpetuation of human misery;
the misdirection and misappropriation of endowments; the absence of
interorganization and coordination of the various agencies of church,
state, and privately endowed institutions; the "crimes of charity"
that are occasionally exposed in newspaper scandals.
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