[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 123 (Thursday, July 17, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H3469-H3470]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  0100
                   DON'T GIVE AWAY CHARITY TOO EASILY

  (Mr. GROTHMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, as we leave the Capitol for the weekend, I 
want to leave the body here with a little bit of thought. I am going to 
quote from a book called ``The Tragedy of American Compassion,'' by 
Marvin Olasky. It is now a 30-year-old book.
  It is an interesting book in that it deals with what we have today 
called welfare. At the time that was all privatized. I am going to 
quote from the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism of the City of 
New York on what they felt was the cause of pauperism at the time and 
what had to be done to end it.
  It listed 10 causes of pauperism. People in the 1820s were brighter 
than the people today. They listed ignorance, idleness, intemperance, 
which I take to mean drunkenness, want of economy, imprudent and hasty 
marriages--you don't hear that one anymore, but they

[[Page H3470]]

thought it was one of the top 10--lotteries, pawnbrokers, brothels, 
gambling houses, and the most interesting one, the vice of charities 
that gave away money too freely.
  When we return next week, let's remember the wisdom from the Society 
for the Prevention of Pauperism and not give away charity too easily.

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