[Illustration: ADEQUATE RELIEF RECOGNIZES THE FAMILY AS THE UNIT] It seems easier for a teacher to give twenty-five cents to a child in distress than to see that the cause of the misery is removed. In New York City there are over five hundred school principals, under them are over fifteen thousand teachers, and the average attendance of children is about six hundred thousand, representing one hundred and fifty thousand homes. If teachers give only to those children who ask for help, many will be neglected. In certain sections of the city principals have combined to establish a relief fund to be given out to children who need food, clothes, shoes, etc. One principal had to stop replacing stolen overcoats because, when it was known that he had a fund, an astonishingly large number of overcoats disappeared. At Poughkeepsie school children get up parties, amateur vaudeville, minstrel shows, basket picnics, to obtain food and clothing for children in distress. They are, of course, unable to help parents or children not in school. Of this method a district superintendent in New York said to his teachers and principals: "For thirty-two years I have been working in the schools of this district. I have given food and shoes to thousands of children. I know that however great our interest in a particular child when it comes to us with trouble at home, our duty as teachers prevents us from following our gift into the home and learning the cause of the child's trouble. This last winter we have made an experiment in using a central society, which makes it a business to find out what the family needs, to supply necessaries, country board, medicine, etc. We now know that we can put a slip of paper with the name and address of the child into a general hopper and it will come out eyeglasses, food, rent, vacation parties, as the need may be." Relief at home through existing agencies was brought about by the distribution of cards like those on opposite page, which offer winter and summer cooeperation. [Illustration: FRESH-AIR AGENCIES LIKE SEA BREEZE PREFER TO AID CHILDREN IN ORDER OF NEED] [Illustration: (Facsimile of flyer for the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.)]