“The Almoners request that the facts given below be used, especially if unfavourable, with great care.
In the case of
Abruzzi, Federigo,
No. 10 Mulberry Street.
“Barber. Six children. No work. Gave shoes and stockings.”
These organizations were alike in the business-like quality of their work, in the wary kindliness with which they treated the poor, and in their thirst for accurate information. It occasionally happened that representatives of all three societies met by chance in the one room of a new “case,” and gravely carried on their investigations together.
Perhaps some of the questions that these agents of organized philanthropy were authorized to ask passed the line where friendly interest becomes impertinence. However, they but voiced the popular opinion, that “people of that sort” do not mind intrusion. Of many this was doubtless true, and a great corporation can hardly be expected to engage in character-study.
The intellectual curiosity evinced by these bodies in matters of practical detail was visible also in their theories of work. New charity methods, English, German, and Australian, were carefully discussed. On our boards were men who were familiar with all known schemes of in-door and outdoor relief, and women who were masters of statistics. We knew not only the best ways of carrying on investigation, but also the best ways of co-operating with the Church, with the State, and with one another.
But here theorizing stopped. These students of social disease did not seem to doubt the essential soundness of the social constitution. Criticism of the present industrial system and of the relation between classes did not, apparently, occur to them. The Altruist’s economic ideas would have filled them with surprise.
My misgivings concerning all this work did not come from the usual objections to it, that the proceedings of huge bodies are often too slow to be of use, because of the time wasted in adjusting formalities, and that the energy meant for action is dissipated in argument. I was impressed only by the hopelessness of finding out what to do. After patient inquiry the gulf between misery and the wish to help was nearly as wide as before. Facts may be facts without telling the truth, and with all our knowledge we did not understand.