The Measure of Worthiness
The Rev. Oscar McCulloch and the Pauper Problem, 1877–1891

BRENT RUSWICK

No social student will question the existence of such a law of degeneration in society, or has failed to see such degraded forms of life. He sees the social parasite, the pauper in whom the instinct of self-help has disappeared. He sees the children, under the same law, becoming like their parents; and all this he is powerless to help.1 Oscar McCulloch, 1880
I see no terrible army of pauperism, but a sorrowful crowd of men, women and children.... It is not a war against anybody.... It is ... simply a question of organization, of the best method for the restoration of every one.... Therefore, I say, we look upon men, women and children, whom we call paupers, or now distinguish into paupers and poor, pitifully, but hopefully; for not one but may be brought back by persistent effort.2 Oscar McCulloch, 1891
Plymouth Congregational Church (left), Indianapolis, 1880 McCulloch, pastor of the church from 1877 until his death in 1891, regularly preached sermons on social reform from its pulpit Bass Photo Collection, Indiana Historical Society
Hoosiers remember the Reverend Oscar C. McCulloch as the religiously and politically unorthodox minister of Indianapolis's Plymouth Congregational Church who, from 1877 until his death in 1891, founded and ran a dizzying array of charitable programs within the city. Foremost among those programs was the Indianapolis Charity Organization Society, a consortium of aligned charities whose members aspired to investigate the conditions of each poor person in the city, ascertain the true nature of his or her want, and prescribe appropriate remedies. Likewise, historians of Indianapolis typically have emphasized the local and religious contexts of his philanthropic work.3 McCulloch's faith and liberal biblical exegesis indeed motivated his efforts to recreate the practice of charity along bureaucratic and scientific principles, and those efforts made him a highly visible and controversial figure statewide.	1
McCulloch's historical importance, however, does not end at the Indiana state line. Among historians of poverty and of the eugenics movement, McCulloch stands as a prominent figure in the national "scientific charity" movement, a highly influential reform initiative of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era that sought profound changes in how Americans thought about and treated poverty. To these historians, McCulloch is notorious for his enthusiastic promotion of the idea that a distinct subgroup of poor persons—the paupers—were biological degenerates, beyond hope of reformation or partial improvement. McCulloch also became one of the first Gilded Age reformers to implement restrictions on charitable relief and to speculate that forcible restrictions of matrimonial and reproductive rights might be the best method of dealing with the biologically unfit.	. . .