every city
in which the work was started, rented property soon gives place to
property owned by the Army and poor ill-suited buildings, to up-to-date
structures built for the purpose. An example of this is to be found in
the history of the 48th Street Industrial Home in New York City which is
briefly described, in the examples given at the end of this chapter.[27]
That the entire work has grown self-supporting in the United States is
shown by the fact that last year, 1907, there was a net gain of $21,000,
after the interest on the loans and investments had been paid. If a home
does not show signs of being successful financially, its location will
be changed or it will be discontinued.[28]

Another advantage lies in the fact that men who were socially dependent
are made self-supporting. We should place emphasis on the effect on the
man himself as well as on the community. We saw how these men were given
to understand that they were earning their own livelihood and were not
recipients of charity, and how they were encouraged by the receipt of
wages, to be increased as their productiveness increased. The relief
given is true relief in that the man earns it himself and realizes this
fact, and because, along with this realization, comes a return of
manhood and independence. Of course if men have lost all manhood and
have no desire to be independent, but simply to live as easily as
possible on what may be given them, the above is not the result; but few
such get into the industrial homes, as they know better and have no wish
to work as these men do, and if they get in temporarily, they are soon
sorted out. Thus it cannot be said of these homes as is said of many
institutions, that they pauperize men in place of helping them. The
institution that makes men work for everything they get and provides
some sort of channel for their ambition, maintaining itself meanwhile as
a paying concern, is not pauperizing in its tendency.

Still another advantage of this work is found in the saving of the
community's funds. Of late years, more and more, the principle has been
advanced and brought before the public, that the starving and unemployed
are to be cared for in some way, and we are willing to tax ourselves to
provide for this. As far back as the census of 1890, we find that the
United States spent annually $40,000,000 in charities and over
$12,000,000 in penal and reformatory institutions. Probably the total
expenditure for these two