102 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
name individual cases to represent the different classes, and then proceed to discuss the effect of the system upon each of these cases :
First, a man who is temporarily incapacitated, through sick- ness or other disability, from performing his accustomed work, and who has a family dependent upon his daily labor for sup- port.
Second, a man who is abundantly able to work, but during certain seasons of the year is unable to obtain employment, and all his resources for maintaining his family are, for the time being, cut off.
Third, a woman who by the death or desertion of her hus- band is left with several small children to care for, and is only able by her utmost exertions and strictest economy to partially clothe and feed her children.
Fourth, aged people who have been respectable, sober, and industrious during their early lives, but who, through some unlucky turn of fortune's wheel, have become dependent in their old age.
In the first-mentioned case, if the man previous to that time has been sober and industrious, and his family respectable, it would seem hard and cruel to send them to an almshouse, as by so doing they would be humiliated, their pride crushed, and it would be difficult for them to recover from the shock. A little outdoor relief would seem to be the best adapted to such a case, and yet there is danger in it. When such a family is again thrown upon its own resources, although work may be plenty, and the man abundantly able to perform it, yet that man and his family are apt to think it is not necessary to exert themselves as they have done in former years, that they can take the world easy. If such ideas should be realized and outdoor relief fur- nished them a second time, they will learn to rely upon the same source in every time of need ; such a family is then on the direct road to chronic pauperism.
In the second case we do not think that any gratuitous pub- lic relief should be furnished. The best way to aid such people is to help them to help themselves.
