Charity and Social Reform

Where it surfaces

• II: The Awakening

  The chapter details the citizens' movement, Board of Health actions, and legislative efforts to improve tenement housing.

• Waifs of the City’s Slums

  The chapter highlights the work of the Foundling Asylum, Sister Irene's Asylum, and the Five Points institutions as efforts to combat child suffering.

• The Street Arab

  The Children's Aid Society and philanthropists like Mrs. Astor are central, providing lodging, education, and opportunities for self-help, emphasizing reform over pauperizing charity.

• XX: The Working Girls of New York

  Working girls' clubs, unions, and societies are forming; unselfish women advocate for justice and better conditions.

• XXI: Pauperism in the Tenements

  The chapter critiques indiscriminate charity and advocates for work-based relief, citing the Charity Organization Society's classification of cases and the need for stricter enforcement against fraud.

• XXII: The Wrecks and the Waste

  The chapter criticizes the municipal system that yokes charity with correction, and calls for a ministry that is 'prophylactic, nutritive, educational' rather than punitive.

• The Man with the Knife

  The chapter presents 'Philanthropy and five percent' as a reformist solution, arguing that justice, not charity alone, is the alternative to the man with the knife.

• XXIV: What Has Been Done

  Discusses philanthropic efforts such as the College Settlement, Neighborhood Guilds, and the King's Daughters, and emphasizes that reform must be practical and business-oriented rather than charitable.

• XXV: How the Case Stands

  Miss Ellen Collins's model tenements exemplify reform through private enterprise and conscientious investment.