ity may be found wherever the police are allowed to
become distributors of alms. In Baltimore the police have been allowed
to distribute relief intrusted to them by private citizens, and have
been in the habit of making public appeals for such contributions to
aid the poor {20} in cold weather. One policeman, who had a difficult
beat, where there were many toughs and criminals, said that the
distribution of police relief made his work easier, as toughs whose
families had been relieved did not trouble him so much. It is an
interesting fact that, during the hard times of 1893-94, political
clubs vied with each other the country over in distributing aid.
Leaders of Tammany Hall were shrewd enough to urge their followers to
organize relief distributions in every district of New York.

It is well to realize that much of the political corruption of our
large cities may be traced to the simple fact that the poor man is like
ourselves: he follows the leaders personally known to him, and to whom
he is personally known. He is sometimes a venal voter, but more often
he is only an ignorant voter, who, while innocently following the man
that has taken the trouble to do him a favor or to be socially
agreeable to him, is handicapping himself and his children with dirty
streets, an unsanitary home, an overcrowded school, an insufficient
water supply, {21} blackmailing officials, and all those other abuses
of city government which press with peculiar hardship upon the poor.
The question of municipal reform is inextricably connected with any
effort to improve the condition of the poor in their homes, and no
charity worker can afford to ignore this connection.

In "Problems of Modern Democracy," Mr. E. L. Godkin says: "Nothing is
more surprising in the attempt to deal with the problems of urban life
than the way in which religious and philanthropic people ignore the
close connection between municipal politics and the various evils about
which they are most concerned. All the churches occupy themselves, in
a greater or less degree, with the moral condition of the poor.
Charitable associations spend hundreds of thousands every year in
trying to improve their physical condition. A conference of Protestant
ministers met in this city two years ago to consider the best means of
reviving religious interest among the working classes and inducing a
larger number of them to attend church on Sundays. Of course these
gentlemen did not {22} se