sometimes retained them in the statement of their methods usually printed on the first page of their annual report. It is true that in the last few years there have been striking examples of reform and new life in some of them which have felt the influence of the C. O. S. movement.
The way in which the declination of so many once excellent societies to a lower plane has occurred will be seen on a little consideration. In a mixed society it is a natural and almost inevitable result of circumstances and character. Agents and committees are human. They usually have more work on their hands than they can do their very best with. They feel their responsibility to do something for every case. Of course, since C.O.S. principles have been adopted, we rarely say to ourselves concerning any given case that we will give, or secure, the needed relief and then drop it, but this is what we often do. Some relief in a given case is, or appears to be, necessary. We administer the relief, usually as a strictly temporary action, and pass the case for the present, intending, at least. hoping, to take it up for careful, wise, and permanent treatment later. Practically it is not thought of again until a renewed application shows a renewed need of relief. Again the temporary aid is given and the case is passed. Each time this is done the case is made a harder one for true C. O. S. work. Each time the consciences of the agent and committee are less sensitive, not only as regards this case, but all cases. After a few repetitions of this process the consciousness comes that "this is a case for relief," principally, if not entirely. This occurs at first with a few cases, then with many, then with a majority of those treated. The district committee, which finds its chief business to have descended from the beautiful ideal of uplifting the poor by personal devotion and service to the sordid plane of deciding whether a poor Irish or negro washerwoman is to have a 75-cent or a 50-cent grocery order this week, loses interest, and leaves the work chiefly, or solely, to the agent. The agent, usually overworked at seasons of the year, does ever hastier and poorer work, and presently finds herself the almoner of what is really a dole-relief society, salving her conscience by operating a feeble, free employment
