ABSTRACT
The Welfare Department automatically frustrated paradoxical desire, because the taxpayer could neither see nor control the way in which his contributions alleviated the suffering of the poor. The Onondaga County Welfare Department was financed partly through local taxation and partly through capitation payments from the New York State Department of Social Welfare and the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The Adult Division of the Welfare Department was housed in a handsome modern building in the center of Syracuse. The core service of the Adult Division of the Department of Social Welfare was material assistance in the form of food, money, residence in the County Home, or clothes and books for school children. The Adult Division made arrangements with outside agencies on behalf of its clients when it was absolutely necessary. The Adult Division of the Welfare Department could be considered the opposite of a recruiting agency, offering as it did the least service to the fewest people.
