giving or withholding relief, and by requiring their hearty
cooperation in all efforts for their improvement._

VI. The form of relief must vary with individual circumstances and
needs. Work that is real work is better, of course, than any relief;
but there should be a prejudice among charity workers against sham
work, for which there is no demand in the market. Unless such work is
educational, or is used to test the applicant's willingness to work, it
is often better to give material relief.

{161}

A charitable superstition that we should outgrow is the notion that it
saves us from pauperizing the poor to call our gifts loans. We may
know that they cannot repay, and they may know that we know it, but
this juggling with words is still undeservedly popular. When the
chances of their being able to repay are reasonably good, and a loan is
made, we should be as careful to collect the debt as in any business
transaction.

Another charitable superstition is the prejudice in favor of relief in
kind rather than in money. We think that bundles of groceries and
clothes, and small allowances of fuel, can do no harm, but the fact is
that, where it would be unsafe to give money, it is usually unsafe to
give money's equivalent. Large relief societies find it more
economical to buy commodities in quantities, and so get the advantage
of wholesale prices; but, so far as the poor themselves are concerned,
there is no reason for giving goods rather than cash. On the contrary,
many poor people can make the money go farther than we can. Money
intended for temporary relief should not be used {162} for rent,
however, except in cases where ejectment would seriously endanger the
welfare of the family. Back rent is like any other back debt;
landlords should take their chances of loss with other creditors. Nor
should charitable relief be used to enable people to move from place to
place in order to avoid the payment of rent.[6]

When institutional care is clearly not only the most economical but the
most adequate form of relief, we are sometimes justified in refusing
all other forms.

In cases where institutional care is not practicable, and relief will
be needed for a long period, it is best to organize a private pension,
letting all the natural sources of relief combine and give through one
medium an adequate amount.

_The sixth relief principle is that we must find that form of relief
which will best fit the particular ne