The Charity Bureau’s War on ‘Strawberry Jam’ Relief
A newly formed Associated Charities bureau boasts of cutting poor relief costs by policing the 'worthiness' of recipients and weeding out fraud.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At a meeting of those interested in organized charity at the Chamber of Commerce, Maj. V. Rinehart, of the board of public works, remarked, 'The best investment I ever made was the $3 I spent in becoming a member of the Associated Charities.' He noted that the city's bills for poor relief had been cut down about three-fourths. Fred Gauch, chairman of the board of county commissioners, added, 'When we used to get applications for relief... we were sometimes compelled to give people orders for such things as they needed. When the bills came in we found that these poor people called for such necessaries of life as strawberry jam, popcorn and peaches. You may be sure that with a corps of friendly visitors to call on, we are not tricked that way now.' The bureau reported they investigated 210 cases in August and September and found many unworthy of anything but police attention.
“When the bills came in we found that these poor people called for such necessaries of life as strawberry jam, popcorn and peaches.”
The rhetoric of the 'undeserving poor'—policing the nutritional choices of those seeking relief—remains a pervasive, recurring theme in American social welfare debates, where efficiency and austerity often supersede the actual mitigation of poverty.
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