Community Civics and Rural Life Part 50

There are lazy and shiftless individuals who find it easier to live on charity than by honest work, and whose lack of self- respect permits them to do so. Sometimes they do so by fraudulent methods. Giving to such persons encourages pauperism and fraud instead of curing it. Kind-hearted people often say that they would rather be cheated occasionally by dishonest applicants for charity than to fail to help the really needy by too great caution. The answer to this is that by proper community organization and cooperation the needy will be found with much greater certainty, the fraudulent will be detected, and the aid given to those who should have it will be much more effective. The citizen who turns an applicant for aid over to an effective organization in a great majority of cases performs a much greater service both to the applicant and to the community than by attempting to give aid directly. A few pennies or a few dollars given even to a worthy applicant may not reach the root of the trouble at all, and may be the innocent cause of perpetuating the trouble.

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

Many voluntary organizations exist for charitable and philanthropic purposes. The church has always been one of the chief agencies to care for the poor and unfortunate; but there are many others, especially in our large cities. Sometimes they maintain hospitals and other inst.i.tutions for the treatment of those who need indoor relief. They have done a great deal of good.

But they are subject to the same difficulties that individuals encounter in dealing wisely with particular cases. They have often devoted themselves too exclusively to giving temporary relief instead of seeking to cure causes and to rehabilitate the unfortunate. They are frequently deceived by impostors. Seldom do they have expert investigators to follow up individual cases and to prescribe the most effective remedy. They frequently duplicate one another's work in a wasteful manner.

CHARITY ORGANIZATION

This lack of team work has been in large measure remedied, especially in city communities, by the establishment of CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETIES. Such societies do not as a rule give direct relief, but act as a "clearing house" for existing charitable agencies in the community. That is, they organize the effort of the various existing agencies. They have a corps of trained investigators who look into each case reported by any individual or charitable agency in the community, make a careful record of it, and prescribe the proper treatment. The case is usually turned over to one of the existing agencies that is properly equipped to handle it. Philanthropic persons may turn to the charity organization society for advice as to purposes for which money is most needed. The aim of charity organization is to remedy causes of dependency and to restore dependents to a self- sustaining basis so far as that is possible.

GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION FOR POOR RELIEF

Charity organization societies are wholly voluntary organizations; and there is need for such voluntary cooperation to care for the community's unfortunate and to root out the causes of dependency.

Such organizations should, however, work in cooperation with governmental agencies. There are state boards of charities which usually have supervision over the various state inst.i.tutions for dependents and defectives. Every large city government has its department of charities, sometimes combined with the department of health. The "overseer of the poor" is one of the oldest of town officers. The care of dependents and defectives in small, or rural, communities has, however, been very poorly organized.

RELATION BETWEEN STATE AND LOCAL ORGANIZATION

An effective attack upon the public welfare problems of a state is twofold: (1) by a state welfare board and state welfare inst.i.tutions, and (2) by town and county welfare boards and inst.i.tutions... .

Public welfare work calls for a state board of public welfare, statewide in authority ... and for state inst.i.tutions that are large enough to care for the delinquents, the dependents, the defectives, and the neglected who cannot be better cared for by local authority and inst.i.tutions. ...

But, on the other hand, it calls for county boards of public welfare with county-wide authority and trained executive secretaries. ... Many of our ills bulk up so big that they can be successfully attacked only in detail by local interest, local effort, and local inst.i.tutions. Tuberculosis and poverty are capital instances of social problems that are beyond the possibilities of state inst.i.tutions, and that necessarily wait upon organized county efforts of effective sort. ... We do not know the deaf, the blind, the feeble-minded, the epileptic, the crippled, and the neglected or wayward boys and girls--their number, their names, and their residences in any county of the state ... because there is at present no local organization charged with the responsibility of accounting for such unfortunates. ...

[Footnote: E. C. Branson, "County responsibility for public welfare," in the North Carolina Club YEAR BOOK, 1917-1918, pp.

161, 162 (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.).]

CAUSES OF DEPENDENCY MUST BE REMOVED

There will doubtless always be some dependent and defective members of the community for whom the community must care. Their number, however, may be greatly reduced by creating conditions that will remove their causes. It has been reported from many localities, for example, that the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors has resulted in the emptying of the "work houses" which communities have sustained for the confinement of vagrants and persons convicted of petty misdemeanors. Much dependency has resulted from the crippling of wage earners by industrial accidents and from "industrial diseases" arising from work in unwholesome conditions. These causes may be removed by the maintenance of wholesome working conditions, by the installation of safety devices, and by the exercise of greater care by workers and employers. The "safety first" movement strikes at the root of much dependency. Inability to read signs and to understand instructions on the part of illiterate and foreign workers is the cause of many accidents.

SOCIAL INSURANCE

Some states have pa.s.sed "employers' liability laws," designed to hold employers responsible for accidents resulting from failure to provide safe working conditions. Others have "workmen's compensation laws" which provide that an injured workman shall receive a portion of his wages during incapacity from accident or illness. In some countries various forms of COMPULSORY STATE INSURANCE have been adopted. Germany, for example, has long had laws requiring employees to take out accident insurance and insurance against sickness, both employees and employers contributing to the insurance fund. Pensions for the aged and for widows are also provided for, the government itself contributing to the fund for this purpose. At the close of the year 1919, 39 of our 48 states had laws providing for aid by the state to mothers who were unable to provide properly for their children.

The aim in our community life should be as far as possible to PREVENT dependency and not merely to relieve suffering after it occurs. We shall find that the problem will tend to disappear in proportion as we develop in our communities adequate provision for health protection and physical development (Chapter XX), for vocational and general education (Chapter XIX), for wholesome recreation (Chapter XXI), for the cultivation of habits of thrift (Chapter XIII); and as we are successful in producing a right att.i.tude toward the problem of earning a living and wholesome relations between employer and employee (Chapter XI).

Investigate and report on:

The rehabilitation of crippled soldiers after the war.

Your county or town almshouse or poor farm: The kinds of cases sheltered there; its cost to the community; the methods of treatment employed.

Other local inst.i.tutions for indoor relief in your community.

State inst.i.tutions for the care of dependents and defectives in your state. Their kinds and location.

The difference between "poverty" and "pauperism."

The extent and kind of "charity work" done by the church which you attend (get accurate information).

The voluntary organizations of your community that give "poor relief." The kind of charitable work done by each.

Charity organization in your community. Its results and the need for it.

The causes of dependence in your community.

The extent to which voluntary charitable work in your community is directed to removing the causes of dependency.

The organization of your county or town government for the care of dependents and defectives.

Employers' liability laws, workmen's compensation laws, mothers'

pension laws, in your state.

THE CRIMINAL CLa.s.s

It is said that there are at least 250,000 people in the United States who make their living by crime, and there are many more who commit crime on occasion. It is said, also, that to support and control this criminal cla.s.s costs the people of the United States not less than $600,000,000 per annum, or as much as is expended for the entire educational system of the country.

WHAT CRIME IS

Crime is the violation of law. The criminal is a member of the community who refuses to cooperate with others in accordance with the law. The conduct of an individual may be wrong and harmful to the community without being criminal; it becomes criminal only when the law actually forbids it. A given act may be a crime in one state and not in another state, because the laws of the states differ in their definition of crimes. They also differ in the penalties imposed for the same crime.

EARLY METHODS OF TREATING CRIMINALS

The methods of dealing with criminals have changed greatly with the progress of civilization, and especially in recent years since the causes of crime have become better understood. In the earlier methods two ideas were prominent: the infliction of punishment, and the deterrence of others from committing the same offense. The penalties inflicted were therefore very severe. The death penalty was inflicted not only for taking human life but also for minor offenses, such as stealing. Even in our own country in colonial times bodily mutilation was not uncommon, such as branding with a hot iron, or cutting off the ears. Prisons were vile and loathsome places.

REHABILITATION OF CRIMINALS

Humane feelings have caused the abandonment of such treatment. The death penalty still remains for the worst of crimes; but even it has become more humane in its methods. Many believe that it should be entirely abandoned. The eighth amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States says that "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Moreover, a new idea has entered into the matter. It is the same idea that controls the modern treatment of dependents, namely, that of REHABILITATING the criminal. It is now recognized that crime results in most cases from diseased conditions either in the individual or in the community. Some individuals commit crime merely because it seems to them the easiest way to make a living or to gain some other end; but even such individuals are MORALLY diseased. Much crime is due to temporary mental disturbance, as from the use of intoxicants or other drugs.

Sometimes it is the act of persons who are actually insane or feeble-minded. Very often it is committed under pressure of poverty.

In view of these facts, while the deliberate violator of law should doubtless be punished, it is even more important that the causes of crime should be removed, and that the criminal should, in as many cases as possible, be restored to a useful and an honest manner of life. The proper treatment of dependents and defectives, and the removal of causes of dependency and defectiveness, are essential steps toward the lessening of crime.

THE LOCAL JAIL

The county jail and the town "lock-up" are the usual local inst.i.tutions where persons suspected of having violated the law are detained while awaiting trial in the courts, and also where those convicted of petty misdemeanors are imprisoned for punishment. The jail and the "lock-up" are as notorious as the almshouse for unwholesome conditions and mismanagement, though conditions have greatly improved under the influence of an awakened public opinion. They have often, been unsanitary in the extreme. Prisoners have often been treated more like cattle than like human beings. Young and old are thrown together, the hardened criminal with the youthful "first offender," and with those merely suspected of crime, many of whom will be proved to be innocent.

The result is demoralizing. Our jails have sometimes been said to be "schools of vice and crime."

NEEDED REFORM OF THE JAIL

Two reforms, at least, are needed in local jails. First, they should be made as wholesome as possible, both physically and morally. They should be perfectly sanitary, and the food should at least be clean and nourishing. Arrangements should be made to keep the different cla.s.ses of inmates separate, especially the hardened and vicious criminals from youthful transgressors and suspects. In the second place, the local jail should be merely a place of detention for those awaiting trial or, after trial, transfer to other inst.i.tutions. Those found guilty by the courts should be transferred as quickly as possible to inst.i.tutions where they may receive treatment fitted to their needs.

FITTING THE TREATMENT TO THE OFFENDER

Of three persons who steal ten dollars, one may be a deliberate thief who prefers to make his living this way; another may be driven by hunger; and the third may be mentally unbalanced. It is obvious that the treatment accorded to each should be determined by these facts rather than by the mere amount of the theft. The first doubtless needs punishment; but he should also have treatment designed to change his att.i.tude toward the community and to fit him to make an honest living. The second needs to be relieved of his want and to be given an opportunity for self- support. The third needs hospital treatment. We are only beginning to see that punishment is only a part of the treatment necessary, and that the treatment should be made to fit the criminal fully as much as to fit the crime.

STATE INSt.i.tUTIONS FOR DELINQUENTS

Proper treatment for all the various cla.s.ses of cases cannot well be given in the county jail; nor can the local community as a rule afford to maintain separate inst.i.tutions for them, as the number in each cla.s.s is very small in a given community. Hence the necessity for state inst.i.tutions to which those convicted in the local courts may be sent. Such inst.i.tutions exist, although not always adequate to the needs of the state. They include state penitentiaries, reform and industrial schools, hospitals for the insane, special schools for the feeble-minded, and others. These inst.i.tutions have been steadily improving in their efficiency. The greater difficulty seems to be in the local communities, in securing the a.s.signment of offenders to the proper inst.i.tutions.