These Societies claimed the altruistic goals of lifting the poor out of poverty through the means of education and employment, and did make some strides to help young children involved in immoral underaged labor practices.
However, when it came to the COS's treatment of the "defective class" as they were labeled (insane, feeble-minded, blind, crippled, maimed, deaf and dumb, epileptic, criminal types, prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics), the Scientific Charity Movement's other goals based in the popular post civil war social scientific theories of eugenics and social Darwinism came to light.
As time went on the safety net provided by Progressive Era reforms (many of which were supported by the Charity organization societies), helped to keep more people out of the poorhouses and eventually they were phased out or converted into nursing homes for the elderly or disabled.
Using the ideas of eugenics and the new technique of in-depth investigation and interviews as a means of social control, caseworkers were tasked with sorting through and categorizing impoverished people into two separate classes.
[1] The Scientific Charity Movement is often seen as a dark spot in the history of American welfare reform due to their creation of asylums, classification of defectives, and social Darwinist views.
On the other hand, the Scientific Charity Movement improved on many of the previous welfare systems in place, including their work against the poorhouses which were eventually abolished in 1935, and their involvement in rights of workers and removing young children from the workforce.