A Series of Manuals - Destitution and Suggested Remedies #250833

No State can ever suppress the right of an individual to relieve his fellows. No Legislature has been so fool ish as to make the attempt. In particular cases relief might be unwise and at times even criminal. In either alternative such relief would not be an act of Christian charity. No State has the right to prevent its members from associating themselves for the more efficient exer cise of civic or specifically Christian virtue. It may not therefore suppress or interfere with any voluntary agency of charity. This does not imply that all such agencies are prudently administered, or that they would not be the better for judicious reforms and periodical visitation. Suitable reforms and visitations, however, may be provided for by trustees, governors, or the proper ecclesiastical authority. It is conceivable that weighty interests such as these might be imperilled by a too eager and academic advocacy of a particular view.