intervals to discuss concrete cases as well as
general methods. These visitors have the advantage of bringing their
spontaneous sympathy to bear upon the specific instances that come to
their personal attention, whereas the officials of the charity
organization society inevitably become more callous to suffering and
tend to look upon each family as a case to be pigeonholed or
scientifically treated, but the conviction is growing, nevertheless,
that the situation can be effectively handled only by men and women
who are genuinely experts, trained in the social settlements or in the
schools of philanthropy. Whether a voluntary church worker or a
charity expert, it is the business of the visitor to make thorough
investigation of conditions, not merely inquiring of landlord or
neighbors, or taking the hurried testimony of the family, but
patiently searching for information from those who have known the case
over a long period, preferably through the charity organization
society. Actual relief may be required temporarily and must be
adequate to the occasion, but the problem of the visitor is to devise
a method of self-help, and to furnish the courage necessary to
undertake and carry it through. It is important to consider in this
connection the character and ancestry of the family, its environment
and the social ideals and expectations of its members, if the steps
taken are to be effective. The two principles that underlie the whole
practice of relief are, first, to restore the individual or family to
a normal place in society from which it has fallen, or to raise it to
a normal standard of living which it has never before reached;
secondly, to make all charity discriminative and co-operative, that it
may accomplish the end sought without pauperizing the recipient.

289. =Public and Private Agencies.=--Institutions and agencies of
relief are of two kinds, public and private. It is one of the
functions of every social group to promote the welfare of its members.
It is to be expected, therefore, that the church and the trade-union
will help their own poor, but it is just as proper to expect that the
whole community, and even the whole state, will take care of its own
needy. The distinction between public and private agencies is not one
of fundamental sociological principle, but one of convenience and
efficiency of administration. Where the state has extended its
activities, as in Germany, relief by such a method as the Elberfe