There are
more orphan children being cared for in the private homes of people who
love them than in the institutions. There are more old people being
sheltered by friends than you can find in the old people's homes. There
is more aid by loans from family to family than by the loan societies.
That is, human society on a humane basis looks out for itself. It is a
grave question how far we ought to countenance the commercialization of
the natural instinct of charity.
Professional charity is not only cold but it hurts more than it helps.
It degrades the recipients and drugs their self-respect. Akin to it is
sentimental idealism. The idea went abroad not so many years ago that
"service" was something that we should expect to have done for us.
Untold numbers of people became the recipients of well-meant "social
service." Whole sections of our population were coddled into a state of
expectant, child-like helplessness. There grew up a regular profession
of doing things for people, which gave an outlet for a laudable desire
for service, but which contributed nothing whatever to the self-reliance
of the people nor to the correction of the conditions out of which the
supposed need for such service grew.
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