HONEST CHARITY

The early Church fathers wisely interpreted the nature and function of charity. They believed that charity to the poor should be done in justice rather than in mercy. Property, in their eyes, was of artificial and evil origin but had become necessary to human society. God, therefore, having originally destined to every man a share in the common wealth sufficient for his needs it became the duty of the church to give to those who had less than their share.

The state today had inherited this responsibility. In the United States with its twelve millions of unemployed, however, charity is distributed in the spirit of mercy and not that of justice. Although only a small proportion of the relief administered in this country at the present time is done privately, the theory preached by President Hoover and business leaders is that it is private voluntary charity which is keeping the unemployed from staving. They appeal for help to the generosity and sympathy of ht American people; emotional and undependable resources.

Because the state refuses to consider giving charity to those who need it as a just duty, the relief work, both private an public, which is being done is inefficient and in the long run probably harmful for those who give as well as those who receive. In the distribution of relief there is constant duplication of effort. That which is given is unsystematic and what is most important, it can't go on for much longer.

The current attitude toward charity relief work is a part of the general unwillingness to face the depression honestly in an effort to remedy its underlying causes. The national leaders and the country as a whole prefer to muddle along, cushioning the shock with temporary palliatives, refusing to analyze deeply and comforting themselves instead with noisy assurances that things will get better.

The state is the only agency that can handle relief work adequately. The question whether the state should provide relief directly through a dole or indirectly, in other ways, is less important than that the relief should be constant and guaranteed and undertaken in the interest of social justice. In order to meet the crisis a heroic effort is necessary and if the effort is to be effective it must be guided by a realistic understanding if the situation it is to remedy. The administration of public relief must be undertaken in a professional, thoroughgoing spirit.