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...As a charity organization extending its records of activities over a period of more than forty years it seems to me not enough that we help the helpless or temporarily incapacitated to help themselves. While their physical, moral, and finacial needs must be met, it is most important that we also inquire into the causes of poverty and dependence. When our records show three generations of the same family among our clients we are forced to question whether our methods have been effectual in solving our problem. How can we solve the problem of poverty, how can we prevent it, until we have found its causes and eliminated them? When Jesus said many years ago, “The poor ye have always with you”, it was said as a simple statement of actual fact, not as a mandate of what must ever be. One of our ideals is to make it less and less a fact as the world goes on and as social consciousness developes among us. It is not enough to eliminate one case of poverty after another but to eliminate poverty itself. My point is that this Bureau of Social Service must look beyond the immediate problem of the special case to the underlying physical and social conditions that lead to dependence and maladjustment...

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...In reviewing the work of the year it seems to me that perhaps the most notable feature has been the extension and strengthening of the work among the colored people. This work, begun last year, has been ably continued under the direction of Col. John D. Langston, chairman of the committee on Colored Work, and by the case worker, Marian Nicholas. It has reached more of the people than before, both as clients and supporters. Last year … of the negro people raised $631.34 for the support of the work; this year … have contributed $ . This shows an increasing interest and sense of responsibility in carrying their own burdens. The time is past when any one believes that when two races live side by side the welfare of one is not affected by the welfare of the other. Any help given the colored people to help themselves is not only an act of justice to the negroes but of benefit to the whites as well. It is this attitude of mind and its resulting policies that must create an interracial relation of friendliness and co-operation...