ABSTRACT
The practice of outdoor relief took a new turn in 1795 that eventually led to enormous dissatisfaction with it and, finally, to decisive repudiation of it in the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (the New Poor Law). Indoor relief began to grow in importance in the United States early in the nineteenth century. Later in that century, it became the dominant method of relief, and it was still the basic legal method of providing for paupers at the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929. Apart from war, the Great Depression that began in 1929 and continued, with only moderate alleviation, for ten years, was the most catastrophic event ever to befall the country. During the 1960s and 1970s, two major ideas for replacing welfare received attention. One was known as family allowances (or children's allowances); the other was a guaranteed minimum income.
