LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are of ten more read, and therefore more effective,- than those which fill treble the space.]
TEM CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY AS AN
• INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT. • (To THE EDITOR or THit " SPECTATOR."]
Sra,-1 think the following example of the intelligence work whisk the C.O.S. is able to put at the disposal of bonli-fide inquirers, and so enable them to help honest people and prevent them wasting money on the dishonest and the fraudulent, will interest your readers. It affords a positive proof of how abso- lutely necessary the C.O.S. is in our social system. If it ceased to exist wo should very soon have to reorganize it or else be at the mercy of impostors.
Not very long ago I received a call from a lady who repre- sented herself in a state of destitution through a mixture of ill- health and ill-luck. Her manner was excellent, her appeal plausible and without exaggeration. She made no actual demand for money, but her story was so piteous as almost to compel assistance. However, I stuck to my principle of never giving casual help without endorsement by the C.O.S., and so my wife and I contented ourselves by giving her a little food and telling her that if she could get endorsement by the C.O.S. we would do our best to help her. She did not exactly refuse the help of the C.O.S., though she seemed, as is natural in such cases, a little shy about it, but not more than one might have expected. In fact, she dealt with me here with an admirable diplomacy. The result was that I was very nearly taken in. I wrote, however, to headquarters to try to make an appointment, so that they might investigate her case.
Very properly they at once said that they would look into the case and see whether she had had any previous dealings with them. A day or two afterwards I got the following letter, which I have only altered in particulars as to name, place, and date, as my object hero is not to deal with an individual case, but to illustrate the system under which the C.O.S. works. Here is the report:— " Re Miss Ellen Z.
Data Sts,—Mies Z. is a woman of about 45, clever and well educated. She once informed us that she was a daughter of a Colonel Z., who died in 1900 leaving her penniless, but she was able to support herself as a hospital nurse. At one time she had a situation in Inverness as housekeeper and cook. She made free use of the housekeeping money and forged her mistress's name to a cheque for £50. For this she was con- victed and sentenced to six months' hard labour. She after- wards, I believe, went to reside in a convent in the North, and remained there until she was requested to leave for non-pay- ment. She first came under the notice of the C.O.S. when she was writing begging letters asking for help until she could complete her next book. She refused to allow the C.O.S. to make any inquiries about her. We heard of her again in the following year, when she was staying at a convent in one of the Western Counties. She had gone there for a fortnight in order to complete a novel, but had stayed three months in one of their best rooms at 30s. a week, and had paid them nothing for two months.
In March, 1914, she applied personally to one of our com- mittees for a loan of £10, which she proposed to repay six months later out of the royalty of a book she was publishing. She was then planning a series of books of religious meditation, of which she gave us the titles, but I doubt whether they ever got beyond that. When the War broke out she seized her chance, and raised a fund to establish a hospital abroad. She went herself to the Front with fully equipped ambulance. Her associates afterwards forced her to leave on account of her unsatisfactory dealings with the cash. She shortly afterwards started with influential support another war institution. Here again she got into trouble over the cash, and on learning that the police were taking an interest in her she decamped without leaving an address. In 1916 we heard of her carrying on a special industry in a Northern village and using a nom de plume. I know that she received during the War a substantial grant from two societies before they had looked into her record. In 1917 she was back again in London raising money in the name of a well-known local lady on behalf of a scheme connected with the War. Later in the year she organized a communal kitchen in and approached the Mayor and the Ministry of Food with a view to obtaining a subsidy for it. This undertaking dwindled to a small soup kitchen, which was actually opened for a few months. At that time the police fully intended to prosecute her for an infringe- ment of the War Charities Act, as she had not registered her communal kitchen. We heard nothing more of her for seine time. Ultimately, however, a lady who, of course, was quite unaware of our previous dealings with her wrote to warn us against Miss Z. It appears that this lady had first seen her. at an exhibition, where she had a stall, and had been very kind to her. Our correspondent wrote that Miss Z. " could have made a success if she had been honest," and she gave me her address. We had inquiries as to her about a year ago, but have heard nothing since.—Yours truly, X."
I venture to say that this is a very remarkable performance. A woman drops virtually from the clouds into my house—a woman who is not a notorious impostor of any kind, but, as it will be seen, a person with a bad record. I applied to the C.O.S., and almost by return of post I get this statement, which gives me the whole of the facts and prevents me from wasting my money on an undeserving object. A sentimental- opponent of the C.O.S. may perhaps say, " Ah, yes, just as I supposed! The real thing that he is thankful for is that be saved in money and was prevented from doing what would, at any rate, have been in intention a humane act." I don't think that is quite a fair way of putting it. Of course, I was glad to save my money, but my chief reason for being so was that I, like most people, do not possess a Fortunatus's purse, and in the long run what I give to undeserving people I in effect take from the worthy. What the impostor is economically doing is to steal money due to the deserving, and so to seal up one of the fountains of relief. One of the marvels of the intelligence work done by the C.O.S. is that it is done, not like the intel- ligence work of the police or some secret service force, by the expenditure of thousands of pounds a year, but on an exiguous staff and with a very small expenditure.—I am, Sir, &c., S.
[We sincerely hope that those of our readers who feel that the impostor is the worst of all the enemies of the men and women who need and deserve help, and adequate help, will draw from this record these four conclusions :—(1) Impostors .must be exposed. (2) The best available instrument is the Charity Organization Society. (3) The C.O.S. cannot do intel- ligence work without pecuniary support. (4) They, our readers, must spare something for the Spectator's fund in aid of the C.O.S. (see page 428).—En. Spectator.]
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