re public relief, of "being
on the town"; whereas the habitual dependents have frequently lost all
pride in their social status and are quite willing to continue to
receive all the help they can secure. In both cases, if assistance is to
be of permanent value, the problem is not only that of furnishing
immediate relief in the form of food, clothing, or shelter, but of
ascertaining the causes of the dependency and giving such assistance and
sympathetic encouragement as will enable the family or individual to
again become self-supporting and regain a normal status in the
community. Obviously this is a delicate task which requires the best
knowledge of human nature as well as genuine sympathy which will inspire
confidence and faith, and in so far as possible is likely to be more
effective if it can be done privately. On the other hand, a large
proportion of the chronic dependency also involves mental or physical
defectiveness or moral delinquency which cannot be remedied by the mere
giving of alms. Much of the poor relief given by rural communities is
practically wasted because of a failure to ascertain the real cause of
poverty or by lack of knowledge or means for its treatment.

_Defectives._--In most cases the care of "defectives" cannot be
undertaken by the rural community itself, because they usually require
the care of institutions which can only be supported by the county or
state. Furthermore, a family is usually able to take care of one of its
members who is so afflicted or will assume the burden of sending him to
an institution, so that only in the case of dependent families does the
responsibility rest on the community. There is, however, a duty on the
part of the community to see that the afflicted are given necessary
care, so that they may not have to go through life so handicapped that
they are unable to be self-supporting and thus may become wholly
dependent.

The physically defective are largely cared for by state and county
institutions. We have learned that the deaf and blind may become largely
self-supporting if given the advantages of a specific type of education,
for which the state maintains special schools. County and state
hospitals provide for the care of those afflicted with tuberculosis and
a beginning is being made in the provision of state hospitals for
crippled children where they may receive necessary surgical and
orthopedic treatment. Likewise the more helpless mental defectives, the
insan