The progressive march of modern civilization increases gradually, and in proportion, more or less as quickly, the number of those who are driven to resort to charity.
What remedy would work for such problems?
At first, the idea of public almsgiving occurs to the mind, public almsgiving in all its forms, sometimes as free money, sometimes hidden in the form of a salary, sometimes accidental and temporary, for certain situations, permanent and regular for other situations. But a deeper examination will soon demonstrate that this remedy, which seems so natural and effective, is very dangerous; it only offers deceptive short term relief to individual suffering, and it poisons the wounds of society in whatever way it is administered.
Only private charity remains; this only produces useful effects. Its weakness itself guarantees it from danger; it gives comfort to much misery without causing any. But in the presence of the progressive development of industrial classes and all evils civilization mixes in with the inestimable good to which it leads, private charity seems very weak. It was sufficient in the Middle Ages, when religious ardor gave it immense energy, and when its task was easier to fulfill; what would happen in our own day when the burden it must carry is heavy, and its energy has been reduced? Individual charity is a powerful agent that society must not distrust, but to which it would be imprudent to confide itself. It is one of the means and cannot be the only one.
What remains to be done? Where should we turn? How can we lighten the suffering, that one can predict, but not cure?
Until now, I have examined financial means to alleviate misery. But are these the only means? After reflecting on relieving misfortune, would it not be useful to find ways to prevent it? Can one not slow down rapid displacement of the population, such that men do not quit the land in favor of industrial work until the latter can provide for their needs? Can the sum of national wealth not continue to grow unless a part of those who produce it come to curse the prosperity they helped bring about? Is it impossible to establish a more regular and fixed relationship between production and consumption of manufactured goods? Can one not facilitate the accumulation of savings among the working class, which permits them to wait for better times without dying during economic crises?
Here the horizon stretches in all directions in front of me. My subject grows larger; I see a career opening before me, but at this time I cannot follow it. The present memoir, too short for the subject I address, already exceeds the limits I believed I should set. The measures with which one can hope to fight poverty in a preventive way will be the subject of a second work, with which I plan to pay tribute next year to the Academic Society of Cherbourg.
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End of the second part of the first memoir
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