Grant-in-aid

“ Be that as it may, if you are invested with authority to grant aid in the present instance, or if in the alternative you should deem it prudent to assume in a measure the responsibility of rendering aid and protection to the incoming immigration, I am confident that a great saving of life and property will be the happy result ”

“ The United States should not loan their credit in aid of any enterprise undertaken by States or corporations, nor grant lands in any instance, unless the projected work is of acknowledged national importance. I am strongly inclined to the opinion that it is inexpedient and unnecessary to bestow subsidies of either description; but should Congress determine otherwise I earnestly recommend that the right of settlers and of the public be more effectually secured and protected by appropriate legislation. ”

“ With a little stifled cry that broke from her quivering lips, Dulcie rushed down the steps of the terrace and fled through the shrubberies like a hunted animal, looking neither to the right nor left, till she reached the sequestered spot where stood Queen Mary's Thorn, and, flinging herself face downwards in the grass, she uttered again and again her father's name, as if she would summon him to her protection and aid, amid a flood of passionate tears—tears from the depths of her despair and intense humiliation. ”

“ It authorizes grants of money by the United States to States for old age assistance, for administration of unemployment compensation, for aid to dependent children, for maternal and child welfare and for public health. ”

“ War at all times, whether a civil war between sections of a common country or between nations, ought to be avoided, if possible with honor. But, once entered into, it is too much for human nature to tolerate an enemy within their ranks to give aid and comfort to the armies of the opposing section or nation. ”

“ Money expended in a fine navy, not only adds to our security and tends to prevent war in the future, but is very material aid to our commerce with foreign nations in the meantime. Money spent upon sea-coast defences is spent among our own people, and all goes back again among the people. ”

“ Many of the men who would be included in this form of relief are now dependent upon public aid, and it does not, in my judgment, consist with the national honor that they shall continue to subsist upon the local relief given indiscriminately to paupers instead of upon the special and generous provision of the nation they served so gallantly and unselfishly. Our people will, I am sure, very generally approve such legislation. ”

“ Under this régime the diocese of Sydney continued more and more to prosper, and when state aid to religion was abolished in the colony, it was ordained by the legislature that Barker should continue to receive his government salary of 2,000l. a year. Funds were forthcoming for the building of churches and the maintenance of the clergy; a noble cathedral was erected and paid for, and the requisite buildings, endowments, and staff were provided for a college for the education of young men for the ministry. Barker's work was arduous ”

“ To the Majority what seems desirable is that the army of destitute persons needing assistance should be divided into two classes—those who can best be helped by private charity, and those for whom public assistance is most appropriate. These two classes should, it is asserted, be kept, from the outset, wholly separate, to be dealt with by two vertically co-ordinate authorities—the Public Assistance Committee, an official body, dispensing public funds, and the Voluntary Aid Committee, made up of voluntary charitable workers, dispensing private funds. ”

“ In all these cases the ideal thing is to arrange for repayment in small instalments. Failing this we try to think out a plan such that after the original expenditure the sufferer will be able to go on independently.
(d) Aid in illness. A fourth example of temporary interference in the form of financial aid, is a gift or loan of money to tide a person over an illness, to make his convalescence complete or to rest him when he is dangerously tired. Usually such aid can be rendered through services or institutions (nurses, hospitals, convalescent homes) which do not involve giving money outright. ”

“ I am told by a Caucasian friend that in Georgia, when the poor man wants an "aid," he borrows from the rich man a sheep or two to prepare the meal, and the community bring, in addition to their work, so many provisions that he may repay the debt. ”

“ The grants act as a bounty on the establishment and continuance of charitable institutions, homes for children, hospitals, &c., but not on the expansion of the voluntary charitable funds and efforts that should maintain them; and thus charitable homes exist in which charity in its truer sense may have little part, but in which the chief motive of the administration may be to support sectarian interests by public subsidies. Claimants for relief have little scruple in turning such institutions to their own account ”

“ One who dispenses purely private charity naturally has an interest in and expects to know how his charitable funds are utilized and put to work. The public, when it is the provider, rightly expects the same. It might well expect more, because of the trust aspect of public funds, and the recipient, as well as the caseworker, has not only an interest but an obligation.
4. The emphasis of the New York statutes and regulations is upon the home, upon 'close contact' with the beneficiary, upon restoring the aid recipient 'to a condition of self-support,' and upon the relief of his distress. ”

“ Standards for adjusting special furniture grants. No grants should be made unless it were evident that it would be difficult for the family to secure furniture within a reasonable time without incurring heavy debt.
4. Standards for adjusting grants in Sub-committees I, II, and III. All applications should be considered on a strictly relief basis; no grant should be made unless it would enable a family to become self-supporting. ”

“ The States, aided by Federal grants, now assist some 6 million needy people through the programs of Old Age Assistance, Aid to Dependent Children, Aid to the Blind, and Aid to the Totally and Permanently Disabled. ”

“ It deprecates, accordingly, the supplementation of Poor Law relief by charity, and recommends that charity should confine itself to such cases, and such forms of relief, as cannot properly be given by the Poor Law, each agency assuming the whole responsibility for its own department of the work. As a practical suggestion, it advocates co-operation between Guardians and charitable agencies with a view to the co-ordination of relief work together with the registration of relief in every district, the interchange of lists of those helped, and other means of attaining the objects aimed at. ”

“ Provided, That the Administrator may certify out of the funds made available by this subsection additional grants to States applying therefor to aid needy persons who have no legal settlement in any one State or community, and to aid in assisting cooperative and self-help associations for the barter of goods and services. ”

“ Two problems confront the department of public charities: (1) How can it distinguish between those who actually need assistance and those who do not? (2) How can it help those who need assistance temporarily, without weakening their desire to become self-supporting? The same problems must be solved by the citizen in connection with his private charities. In general, it may be said that charitable work is best managed by private organizations, in charge of trained workers, who can investigate all cases of application for aid. ”

“ Arguments for and Against Private Agencies of Relief.—Some argue that private agencies should do it all. In spite of the large resources at the command of the state and the frequent necessity of legislation to handle the problem, they claim that public aid humiliates and degrades the recipient, while private assistance may put him on his feet without destroying his self-respect; and that public charity is too often unfeeling and tends to become a routine affair, while private aid can deal better with specific cases, show real interest and try experiments in the improvement of methods. ”

“ The funds for relief should be gathered by assessment or taxation, thus making the burden equal among rich and poor. Private relief should not be given. Whenever anyone applies to a private citizen for aid, he should be sent to the one place where, after his case has been thoroughly investi- gated, proper action would be taken. Thus there can be no such thing as imposing upon charitably disposed persons, as is often the case. Public aid cannot be refused in cases of sick- ness, where all means of the family are exhausted, and the children left to suffer the pangs of hunger. ”

“ After the first gasp of horror the rush of help followed. Women ransacked their homes to send clothing, linen, blankets; children gave their toys for the children who had lost their all: the tide of money poured into the coffers of the relief funds until it mounted day by day in a wave of gold. Men who were slow to give in ordinary circumstances gave gladly now. ”

“ On the one hand it is said that the relief department is in the control of the corporation; that by reason of their exigency the employees may readily be constrained to become members; that the relief fund consists in larger part of contributions made from wages; that the acceptance of benefits takes place at a time when the employee is suffering from the consequences of his injury, and, being seriously in need of aid, he may easily be induced to accept payment from the fund in which, by reason of his contributions, he feels that he is entitled to share ”

“ Aids for advanced research, whether from the government or private foundations, are of the same nature. To be selected for such aid is a high honor, justified, however, only by the receiver’s proving himself a good transmitter. He should regard the money as given not67 to him but through him and be sure that ultimately it reaches some mark other than himself. This may be accomplished by returning an equal sum to the source from which the aid came, by helping some other person equally needy, or by dedicating to public service powers raised by such aid from ordinary to superior rank. ”

“ Unless the agency coming in contact with it digs below the apparent poverty and finds the real income, it will be tempted to give pecuniary aid rather than the personal service the family is in need of. ”

“ The first relief principle is that relief should be given individually and privately in the home, and that the head of the family should be conferred with on all questions of relief.
II. A due regard for the self-respect of the poor prompts us, when relief is needed, to secure it from the most natural source or sources. A family that still has credit does not need relief at all, and it is better for them to run in debt to those who still consider them a fair business risk than to receive charity instead. ”

“ The assistance granted to the poor by the Ladies' Association is done in a way which spares the feelings of the recipients. At the same time every care is taken that applications for aid are deserving, and unworthy cases are rejected as far as possible. ”

“ In making grants to charitable organizations, the Board of Trustees may prescribe conditions which will safeguard the fund and assure its careful and proper expenditure. Every organization to which a grant is made, shall be required to submit vouchers to the Board of Trustees for all money expended. ”

“ Their community being too poor to afford them adequate relief, they have resorted to the expedient of lending them small sums of money at interest, to trade upon, which is required to be repaid monthly or weekly, as the case may be, otherwise they forfeit all claim to this aid. ”

“ The formation of insurance funds which will secure aid to every worker in sickness or old age. Thrift, self-control, and an honourable sense of independence are the results of such provision, which would be the greatest possible aid to the noble temperance movement. ”

“ New applications involving urgent need for relief in kind should be referred direct to the Bureau of Special Relief. Applications on file requiring an immediate money grant should be referred to a sub-committee consisting of the chairmen of Sub-committees I, IV, and VI. Applications for emergency checks should be made in writing by the chairman of the committee in which the application was filed.
2. Necessity for economy. Close economy should be urged on the ground that there would be no money to expend in excess of the amounts actually required. ”

“ May not the want in most instances be inferred from the demand when the service can be proved, and may not the last days of human infirmity be spared the mortification of purchasing a pittance of relief only by the exposure of its own necessities? I submit to Congress the expediency of providing for individual cases of this description by special enactment, or of revising the act of May 1st, 1820, with a view to mitigate the rigor of its exclusions in favor of persons to whom charity now bestowed can scarcely discharge the debt of justice. ”

“ These 'family services' provisions are helpful in interpreting the words 'all eligible individuals' in § 402 (a) (10) of the Act for they reveal Congress' overriding concern with meeting the needs of each eligible recipient of aid under the AFDC program. The resources commanded to meet those needs, as well as the definition of those individuals eligible to receive this aid, have expanded over the years. At first, only financial assistance was available. Now 'family services' programs have been added. ”

“ The difficulties and dangers which inhere in any form of financial payment to parents, either fathers or mothers, in aid of their parental tasks, are not so clearly present, if present at all, in special aids given to all the population in matters of public sanitation, personal hygiene and the care of the sick. If we make our public aid topical rather than by classes, and to all citizens alike in definite aid, we avoid much of the taint of charity. Few, if any, propose, for example, to give maternity aid to the rich. ”