end not only precious strength
and time, but more precious independence and self-respect? . . .

"There are many families in every city who get relief (only a little to
be sure, but enough to do harm) who ought never to have one
cent,--families where the man can work, but will not work. The little
given out of pity for his poor wife and children really intensifies and
prolongs their suffering, and only prevents the man from doing his duty
by making him believe that, if he does not take care of them, some one
else will. On the other hand, there are many families who ought to
have their whole support given to them for a few years,--widows, for
instance, who cannot both take care of and support their children, and
yet who ought not to have to give them up into the blighting care of an
institution; and these families get nothing, or get so little that it
does them no good at all, only serving to {159} keep them also in
misery and to raise false hopes, or else to teach them to beg to make
up what they must have.

"Ought not charitable people to manage in some way to remedy these two
opposite evils?--to do more for those who should have more, and to do
nothing for those who should have nothing, saving money by
discriminating, and thus having enough to give adequate relief in all
cases." [5]

By adequate relief charity workers do not mean that all _apparent_
needs should be met. There are often resources that are hidden from
the inexperienced eye, and by ignoring these we destroy them.

_The fourth relief principle is that, instead of trying to give a
little to very many, we should help adequately those that we help at
all._

V. We should make the poor our partners in any effort to improve their
condition, and relief should be made dependent upon their doing what
they can for themselves. Whether we give or do not give, our reasons
should be {160} clearly stated, and we should avoid driving any sordid
bargain with them. For instance, it may be wise sometimes to make
relief conditional, among other things, upon attending church, but to
require attendance upon a church to which they do not belong because it
is our church, or to let them regard relief as in any way associated
with making converts to our way of thinking, is to weaken our influence
and tempt the poor to deceive us.

_The fifth relief principle is that we should help the poor to
understand the right relations of things by stating clearly our reasons
for