Page [unnumbered] BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD TARGET Graduate Library University of Michigan Preservation Office ACH8650 010: la 08035377//r543 035/1:: a (RLIN)MIUG82-S8581 035/2:: a (CaOTULAS)160674766 040:: c MUL I d OCL d NIC d CStRLIN I d MiU 050/1:0: a HV88 Ib.A3 110:2: a National Conference on Social Welfare. 245:14: 1 a The social welfare forum. I b Official proceedings [of the] annual meeting. 247/1:00: 1 a Proceedings. I b Selected papers [of the] annual meeting I g (varies slightly) I f 1874-1948 260:: | a New York [etc.]. 300/1:: a v. b ill., ports. |c 22-24 cm. 362/1:0: a lst- 1874 -500/1:: | a Volume for 1874 (originally published in the Journal of social science, no. 6) was issued without title by the American Social Science Association; reprinted in 1885 under title Proceedings of the first Conference of Charities and Correction. 515/2:: | a Volumes for 1875-1881 are regarded as extra numbers of the Journal of social science, though only the issue for 1875 was so designated on the title-page. 550/3:: | a Issued under earlier names of the Conference as follows: 1874, Conference of Boards of Public Charities; 1875-1879, Conference of Charities; 1880-1881, Conference of Charities and Correction; 1882-1916, National Conference of Charities and Correction; 1917-1956, National Conference of Social Work; 1957-, National Conference on Social Welfare. 650/1: 0: a Public welfare I z United States I x Congresses. 650/2: 0: | a Charities I z United States | x Congresses. 710/1:22: a Amrican Social Science Association Scanned For: Preservation Division University of Michigan Libraries Date Scanning Began: Camera Operator:
Page [unnumbered] B 1,139,819 -IM KV
Page [unnumbered] GENE[IAL LIBRA\RY -OFUNIVERSITY OF MIOHIGN, "N. PREj7 NTEDBY + ' ' ~ t —f-ccc~e -89
Page [unnumbered] 11 -3 I % k"A 11 4!" 3 1 %, -1 j 0
Page [unnumbered] I I I
Page I PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION AT THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL SESSION HELD IN DENVER, COL., JUNE 23-29, 1892. EDITED BY ISABEL C. BARROWS, Official Reporter of the Conference. BOSTON PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS, I4I FRANKLIN STREET 1892
Page II I
Page III PREFACE. THE nineteenth annual session of the National Conference of Charities and Correction was held at Denver, Col., in June, 1892, with a very large attendance of delegates. This volume contains not only the papers which were read in the general sessions, including the Conference Sermon and the Minutes and Discussions in full, but also an incomplete report of special sessions. This year for the first time it was attempted to include reports of sectional meetings conducted by several of the standing committees, and designed to attract the attendance of delegates actively engaged in these special departments rather than the general public. Similar meetings have been held for several years past, beginning with the Twelfth Conference; but until the Nineteenth they have been hastily arranged after the Conference has assembled, and but little time has been set apart for them. By a resolution of the Eighteenth Conference the sectional meetings were to be given a place upon the printed programme and in the Proceedings, and ample time allotted them without conflicting with the general meetings. The results more than justified the expectations of those who urged this course, the attendance at the special or sectional meetings varying from fifty to nearly two hundred and fifty, and this notwithstanding that there were usually three sectional meetings in progress at the same time. Among the contents of this volume attention may be directed to the reports, papers, and discussions on State Boards of Charity, the Commitment of the Insane, the Care of
Page IV iv PREFACE. Dependent Children, Interstate Migration, the Organization of Charities, the Colony System for the Feeble-minded, and the two forms of State Care of the Insane, illustrated by the system of New York and that of Wisconsin. The memorial service in remembrance of Oscar McCulloch does not need to be specially mentioned, since every reader will turn to those pages. Unfortunately, the discussions of the sectional meetings were not stenographically reported. The committee having charge of each section appointed its own chairman and secretary, and the reports were furnished by them to the official reporter. The success of these meetings and the value of their discussions would probably justify full stenographic reports in future, unless these should swell our annual volume to a size too large for convenient use. The present volume is the largest we have ever issued, although several of the reports and other documents and many of the speeches in debate have been materially abridged by their authors or by the editor. The Reports from States are made up differently from the usual form, and, although incomplete, give more information about the charities of the whole country than can be elsewhere found. Portions of the volume can be obtained separately by application to the printer, George H. Ellis, I4I Franklin Street, Boston. The absence of the reporter and editor, Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows, in Europe, has prevented that speed and method in editing the volume which have been seen in former years; and she will not be able as heretofore to attend to its distribution among the subscribers and purchasers. The price of the volume is, as usual, in cloth $I.50, with discounts as follows: ten copies and less than fifty, ten per cent.; fifty copies and less than two hundred, twenty-five per cent.; two hundred copies or over, forty per cent. Orders for copies, with the money, should be sent to the Treasurer, John M. Glenn, Esq., Baltimore; but orders for the Proceedings of former years (the volumes from 1874 to 1883 and also for I886 are
Page V PREFACE. V out of print) may be sent to George H. Ellis, I4I-Franklin Street, Boston. The Twentieth session of our Conference will be held at Chicago, June 8-II, I893, and will be immediately followed by an International Conference of Charities and Correction, at which ex-President Hayes of Ohio will preside. Our President for the coming year is Mr. Hastings H. Hart, of St. Paul, Minn. The names of the other officers and committees, which are more numerous than usual, on account of the exceptional character of next year's Conferences, will be found on pages xi-xiv. BOSTON, Nov. I, 1892.
Page VI I
Page VII TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE PORTRAIT OF REV. MYRON W. REED, PRESIDENT FERENCE. PREFACE,........ TABLE OF CONTENTS,..... OFFICERS OF THE CONFERENCE FOR I893,. COMMITTEES FOR I893..... OF NINETEENTH CON-......... iii 111..................vii..................xxi.................. xiii I. OPENING ADDRESSES: J. S. Appel, Chairman of Local Committee, Hon. John L. Routt, Governor of Colorado.... Hon. Platt Rogers, Mayor of Denver, Aaron Gove,......... Hon. Oscar Craig,........ Rev. H. H. Hart......... Gen. R. Brinkerhoff......... Rev. J. H. Nutting.......... Hon. A. E. Elmore.......... President Myron W. Reed........ I 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 IO II II II. STATE BOARDS OF CHARITIES: The Organization, Powers, and Duties of iam P. Letchworth.... State Boards, by Will-......... I3 III. THE INDIAN POLICY: The Indian Policy in its Relations to Crime and Pauperism, by Philip C. Garrett, Chairman,...... Indian Citizenship, by Rev. Robert W. Hill, D.D.,.... The Advantages of Mingling Indians with Whites, by Capt. R. H. Pratt,.......... The Preparation of the Indian for Citizenship, by Alice C. Fletcher, An Indian's View of the Difficulties besetting him, by James M. Stuart,.......... The Education of the Indians, by President William F. Slocum, Jr., IV. IMMIGRATION: Immigration and Interstate Migration, Report of Standing Committee,.......... The Migration of Invalids, by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot,.. 23 34 45 59 66 70 76 90
Page VIII viii CONTENTS. V. THE INSANE: PAGE Report of the Committee on the Commitment and Detention of the Insane, by Stephen Smith, M.D., Chairman....... Some Outlines of State Policy in the Care of the Insane, by Richard Dewey, M.D.,............... Insanity following the Keely Treatment for Inebriety, by Richard Dewey, M.D.,.............. 94 125 142 VI. THE FEEBLE-MINDED: The Colony Plan for All Grades of Feeble-minded, by George H. Knight, M.D.,............... 55 The Colony Plan, by William B. Fish, M.D.,....... 66 VII. REFORM SCHOOLS: General Features of Reform School Work, by Ira D. Otterson,. 166 The Reform School Chaplain, by Rev. J. H. Nutting,...... o 75 Reform Work for Girls, by Miss Sarah F. Keely,...... r79 VIII. THE CHILD PROBLEM: The Problem Educational, by President Joseph Carhart,... 183 The Economic Aspect of the Child Problem, by Hastings H. Hart,. I19 IX. CHARITY ORGANIZATION: Report of the Committee, by George B. Buzelle, Chairman,.. 204 The Practical Side of Charity Organization, by President William F. Slocum, Jr.,................ 211 X. WOMEN IN PHILANTHROPY: The Co-operation of Women in Philanthropy, by Mrs. Anne B. Richardson, Chairman,................216 XI. CONFERENCE SERMON: Divine Human Life, by President George A. Gates, D.D.,... 223 XII. IN MEMORTAM: TRIBUTES TO OSCAR C. MCCULLOCH: Address of Isabel C. Barrows, " of Alexander Johnson,. of Rabbi Henry Berkowitz, " of Rev, Myron W. Reed,... XIII. REPORTS FROM STATES: Report of the Committee, by Alexander Johnson,. XIV. MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS: SECRETARY'S REPORT: First Session, Thursday Night, June 23.. Second Session, Friday Morning, Third Session, Friday Night,...... Fourth Session, Saturday Morning,... Fifth Session, Saturday Night,.......... 230.... 239.... - 245.... 247.. 251.... 317 318.... 331.*.*. 337.... 350
Page IX CONTENTS. ix PAGE Sixth Session, Sunday Morning.......... 359 Seventh Session, Sunday Night........... 359 Eighth Session, Monday Night............... 362 Ninth Session, Tuesday Morning............. 375 Tenth Session, Tuesday Night,....,.... 388 Eleventh Session, Wednesday Night,............ 391 SECTIONAL MEETINGS: XV. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS: Public Institutions: Past, Present, and Future, by George F, Hammond,..................... 400 XVI. REFORMATORY WORK: Aims, Methods, and Results of Reform-school Training, by John T. Mallalieu,.................. 410 XVII. THE CARE OF CHILDREN: Placing out Children, by F. M. Gregg, D.D.,......... 415 The Child and the Family, by Homer Folks,....... 419 Day Nursery Work, by Miss M. H. Burgess,......... 424 XVIII. CHARITY ORGANIZATION: Co-operation in the Work of Charity,,........ 428 Relief in Work,................. 436 The Education of the Friendly Visitor, by Miss Zilpha D. Smith,. 445 Charity Organization as an Educating Force, by Mr. Charles D. Kellogg,.................... 449 Address of P. W. Ayers, Ph.D............... 451 The Class for Study of the Friendly Visitor's Work, by Mrs. S. E. Tenney...................... 452 Letter from C. S. Loch,.............. 453 The Friendly Visitor's Opportunity, by Brainard Raeb,..... 457 The Obligations of Personal Work an Aid to Right Structure of Character, by W. J. Breed,.............. 459 How can I, as a Friendly Visitor, best apply Effort to aid in improving the Home and Home Influences?......... 466 FINANCIAL STATEMENT,.............. 472 LIST OF DELEGATES,................... 475 LIST OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES FOR 1892,........ 481 MEMBERS OF STATE BOARDS OF THE UNITED STATES,...... 485 INDEX OF SPEAKERS AND WRITERS,............. 488 INDEX OF SUBJECTS,.....................489
Page X I
Page XI ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFERENCE OF 1893. President. HASTINGS II. HART, Minnesota. Vice-Presidents. ALEXANDER JOHNSON, Indiana. J. S. APPEL, Colorado. MRS. J. S. SPEAR, JR., California. RABBI J. L. LEUCHT, Louisiana. A. L. WELCH, Colorado. MRS. A. B. RICHARDSON, Massachusetts. PETER WALRATH, New York. Secretaries. L. C. STORRS, Michigan. REV. W. H. BRODHEAD, Colorado. WALTER LINDLEY, M.D., California. Treasurer. JOHN M. GLENN, Baltimore, Md. Official Reporter and Editor. ISABEL C. BARROWS, Boston, Mass. Executive Committee. PRESIDENT H. H. HART, Chairman. MRS. J. M. FLOWER, Chicago, Ill. LABAN PRATT, Boston, Mass. LEVI L. BARBOUR, Detroit, Mich. JOHN M. GLENN, Baltimore, Md. L. C. STORRS, Lansing, Mich., Secretary, ex oficio. GEORGE S. ROBINSON, Illinois. W. P. LETCHWORTH, New York. ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF, Ohio. WM. HOWARD NEFF, Ohio. F. B. SANBORN, Massachusetts. H. H. GILES, Wisconsin. ANDREW E. ELMORE, Wisconsin. CHAS. S. HOYT, New York. FREDERICK H. WINES, Illinois. RT. REV. GEO. D. GILLESPIE, Michigan. PHILIP C. GARRETT, Pennsylvania. REV. MYRON W. REED, Colorado.
Page XII Xii NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. State Corresponding Secretaries. Alabama...................... Alaska........................Rev. Sheldon Jackson, Sitka. Arkansas..................... Arizona.......................George W. Cheyney, Tombstone. California.................... W. E. Hale, San Quentin. Colorado..................... Rev. Thomas Uzzell, Denver. Connecticut.................. Prof. J. J. McCook, Hartford. Delaware.....................Mrs. A. D. Warner, Wilmington. District of Columbia..........A. G. Warner, Washington. Florida....................... H. S. Elliott, Tallahassee. Georgia......................Col. George H. Jones, Atlanta. Idaho......................... Illinois....................... John W. Whipp, Springfield. Indian Territory...............Rev. R. W. Hill, D.D., Muskogee. Indiana................... Alexander Johnson, Indianapolis. Iowa................... Miss M. E. Starr, Burlington. Kansas...................... F. A. Betton, Topeka. Kentucky................. B. B. Huntoon, Louisville. Louisiana.................. Charles H. Shute, New Orleans. Maine........................Mrs. L. M. N. Stevens, Portland. Maryland...................Jeffrey R. Brackett, Io West Madison Street, Baltimore. Massachusetts......'.........Col. Henry Stone, Boston. Michigan.................. L. C. Storrs, Lansing. Minnesota................... John W. Willis, St. Paul. Mississippi.................... Missouri....................Miss Mary E. Perry, i8 Vandeventer Place, St. Louis. Montana......................Mrs. E. D. W. Hatch, Big Timber. Nebraska....................Rev. A. W. Clark, Omaha. Nevada.....................Hon. E. D. Van Der Leith, Carson. New Hampshire............. Dr. Irving A. Watson, Concord. New Jersey................... Dr. Ezra N. Hunt, Trenton. New Mexico.................. New York.................. Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, Albany. North Carolina................Rev. W. C. Wilson, Mocksville. North Dakota.................Rev. J. R. McConnehy, Fargo. Ohio.........................Joseph P. Byers, Columbus. Oklahoma.................... Oregon...................... Thomas M. Strong, Portland. Pennsylvania.................. Cadwalader Biddle, Philadelphia. Rhode Island..................Rev. James H. Nutting, Providence. South Carolina................Edward N. Fuller, Charleston. South Dakota................Z. Richey, Sioux Falls. Tennessee....................Hon. R. R. Caldwell, Nashville. Texas.........................Benjamin E. McCulloch, Austin. Utah.........................Mrs. Cornelia G. Paddock, Salt Lake City. Vermont.................... Rev. J. E. Wright, Montpelier. Virginia...................... Washington................. West Virginia................Rev. S. H. Day, Morgantown. Wisconsin............... Gustav Frelson, 416 Milwaukee Street, Milwaukee. Wyoming..................... S. T. Farwell, Cheyenne. Manitoba and West Canada....Hon. John W. Sifton, Winnipeg. Ontario.......................Dr. A. M. Rosebrugh, Toronto. Quebec.....................George Hague, Esq., Montreal.
Page XIII STANDING COMMITTEES. xiii STANDING COMMITTEES. On History of Reformatories. Rev. J. II. Nutting................Howard, R.I. Levi S. Fulton.................. Cincinnati, Ohio Dr. Walter Lindley...............Whittier, Cal. Richard H. Clark...............New York, N.Y. J. T. Mallalieu................. Kearney, Neb. Charles Richardson............. Philadelphia, Pa. W. C. Kilvington............... Nashville, Tenn. History of Treatment of Feeble-minded. Dr. W. E. Fernald............. Waltham, Mass. George W. Gibbs..........San Francisco, Cal. Dr. George H. Knight.......... Lakeville, Conn. John G. Blake................ Fort Wayne, Ind. Dr. William B. Fish................. Lincoln, Ill. History of State Boards. Hon. Oscar Craig............... Rochester, N.Y. Herbert A. Forrest.............. Saginaw, Mich. Wm. F. Slocum, Jr, D.D..Colorado Springs, Col. Rev. S. G. Smith, D.D...........St. Paul, Minn. Charles F. Donnelly............... Boston, Mass. Hon. M. D Follett............... Marietta, Ohio Thomas M. Strong............... Portland, Ore. History of Public and Private Indoor and Outdoor Relief of Poor. Rev. C. G. Trusdell................. Chicago, Ill. Mrs. John Barkley.............New Orleans, La. Geo. E. McGonegal............. Rochester, N.Y. Smith King................... Indianapolis, Ind. Geo. A. Brackett............. Minneapolis, Minn. Joseph S. Spear, Jr...........San Francisco, Cal. Prof. J. J. McCook..............Hartford, Conn Henry N. Raymond............. Cleveland, Ohio A. G. Warner................. Washington, D.C. History of Child-saving Work. Hon. C. D. Randall.................. Michigan C. L. Brace....................... New York Charles W. Birtwell................ Boston, Mass. Mrs. M. R. W. Wallace............. Chicago, Ill. Homer C. Folks................ Philadelphia, Pa. Hon. Francis Wayland.......New Haven, Conn. Mrs. C. E. Dickinson...............Denver, Col. Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper........San Francisco, Cal. S. J. Hathaway................. Marietta, Ohio Mrs. Samuel Cushman......Deadwood, So. Dak. D. Solis Cohen....................Portland, Ore. Charles H. Martindale................. Indiana Mrs. Virginia T. Smith..............Connecticut H. W. Lewis................. Owatonna, Minn. History of Treatment of Insane. C. E. Riggs, M.D................St. Paul, Minn. Richard Dewey, M.D............. Kankakee, Ill. Hon. Wm. P. Letchworth............ New York H. P. Stearns, M.D............ Hartford, Conn. Joseph G. Rogers, M D....... Logansport, Ind. C. B. Burr, M.D................. Pontiac, Mich. * Peter Bryce, M.D............. Tuskaloosa, Ala. W. W. Godding, M. ).........Washington, D.C. A. B. Richardson, Ml.D......... Columbus, Ohio Alice Bennett, M.D...........Norristown, Pa. History of Prisons. Gen. R. Brinkerhoff............. Mansfield, Ohio Rev. John L. Milligan............ Allegheny, Pa. E. C. Foster................. Washington, D.C. Dr. P. D. Sims............. Chattanooga, Tenn. W. M. F. Round..................... New York Rev. James Woodworth......San Francisco, Cal. Warren F. Spaulding.......... Cambridge, Mass. Mrs. Agnes D'Arcambal.......... Detroit, Mich. Rev. T. L. Eliot.................. Portland, Ore. *Deceased.
Page XIV Xiv NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. History of Charity Organization. C. D. Kellogg................ New York, N.Y. John Glenn.....................Baltimore, Md. P. W. Ayers...................Cincinnati, Ohio. T. Guilford Smith.................. Buffalo, N.Y. C. P. Putnam, M.D............... Boston, Mass. J. W. Walk, M.D............Philadelphia, Pa. Arthur G. Smiley............ San Francisco, Cal. * Mrs. A. Jacobs................... Denver, Col. Mrs. Jesse Macy............. Grinnell, Ia. W. R. Walpole.................. Portland, Ore. History of Immigration. Dr. Chas. S. Hoyt.................. Albany, N.Y. Dr. George Koeppen............ Milwaukee, Wis. F. B. Sanborn................... Concord, Mass. George S. Moorman...........New Orleans, La. Rev. Chas. W. Wendte............ Oakland, Cal. Louis R. Ehrich.......... Colorado Springs, Col. Rev. Emil Hirsch...................Chicago, Ill. History of Reports from States. A. 0. Wright...................... Madison, Wis. Alexander Johnson............. Indianapolis, Ind. Joseph P. Byers................ Columbus, Ohio History of Public Buildings for Charitable Purposes, Past and Present. Hon. W. P. Letchworth, Buffalo, N.Y. *Deceased.
Page 1 I. Epening Slu ws'e~ ABSTRACTS OF SPEECHES AT FIRST SESSION. OPENING ADDRESS., BY J. S. APPEL, CHAIRMAN OF LOCAL COMMITTEE. Ladies and Gentlemen,- Denver is proud of the privilege of having so distinguished a body as yours assemble within its limits and partake of the hospitality of its citizens. Our people have been anticipating your coming, and your deliberations will be watched with eager interest by our community. It is our hope that we may gain much by your coming. This Queen City of the Plains is the youngest of all the cities which have had the honor of entertaining the National Conference of Charities and Correction. It is, therefore, with pardonable pride that we place the charity and reform work of our city in review before you, that you may judge if our young but vigorous metropolis does not present a creditable showing in this department. We are glad to acknowledge that we owe most of our kindergartens, charity organizations, orphanages, and hospitals to the influence of the National Conference, and to reports therefrom brought by our local delegates who have attended the meetings. We want you to see what we have done in this work in Denver and Colorado, and your judgment and criticism are earnestly and ardently desired. The nineteenth meeting of this National Conference has been excellently arranged. The Secretary, Mr. Alexander Johnson, the Executive Committee, and the Local Board have been untiring in their efforts; and the large attendance this evening, representing every section of our beloved country, is sufficient testimony to the growing interest in the great questions you have undertaken to solve. Public orators like to dwell on the great progress which has been made in material things during this generation. Cannot this National
Page 2 2 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Conference also present a record of work of which it may justly be proud? Selfishness, greed, hatred, revenge, prejudice, inhumanity, are still too common; while love, patience, sympathy, mercy, and forgiveness are still the rare virtues. The poor and suffering, the erring and straying, the vicious and criminal, receive too little pity or sympathy. To put an end to the wrongs and cruelties that still exist towards our fellow-men, and to let love supplant the brutal instinct that places punishment and revenge above reformation and forgiveness, is the obligation which this " Church of the Divine Fragments " has accepted as its mission, that it may thereby teach the true significance of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. " The truths you urge are borne abroad By every wind and tide; The voice of Nature and of God Speaks out upon your side. " The weapons which our hands have found Are those which Heaven has wrought,Light, truth, and love; Your battle-ground,The free, broad field of thought." The influence of this Conference has been great in the past. The future is full of larger hope for the faithful hosts who are battling to make the world a better place. To the sorrowing comfort can be brought, to the sufferers relief, to the despairing hope, to the straying forgiveness, to the hungry food, to the homeless shelter, to the outcast a brotherly hand. Nothing is more evident than the progressive movement going on everywhere to stem the tide of crime, misery, and ignorance. It is a movement that is manifest and positive all through the civilized world. Municipal, State, and national legislatures are constantly striving to uplift, reclaim, and protect the people. We see everywhere society stretching forth its arm to save little children, and laboring for the rescue of those who, it is hoped, may be restored to honest manhood and womanhood. Public opinion is the great force that is pushing forward this noble work. It is a potent power indeed, when once aroused; and a wrong is quickly righted, when its mighty anger is stirred. It was impossible for that formidable fountain of crime and corruption in the State of Louisiana to continue its career, when public opinion had determined to crush the octopus which had wound its poisoned arms around every community in the land. The once
Page 3 OPENING ADDRESSES. '3 seeming all-powerful monopoly was compelled to abdicate its imperious position, and acknowledge its unconditional surrender. In the agitation and discussion for the correction and prevention of wrongs towards the delinquent and dependent, it is desired that public opinion shall sustain you and your colaborers. To the educational efforts of your former gatherings is mainly due the better knowledge of the objects and purposes of this Conference. This is best expressed in the words of that bright mind that shone so brilliantly as your presiding officer at your last meeting, but who, alas! has been called from among us. How full of love and compassion was his heart when he wrote!"We have come to see what men and women can do and ought to do to make life easier for our brethren, to remove some obstructions from the ways of little children, to bring soothing to the mind that wanders, and thus by the service of love win for this noble cause the lowly and suffering as well as the great and powerful." It is in this spirit that we greet you, and extend to you a fraternal welcome with a warm hand of sympathy and encouragement. Our city, always hospitable, recognizes the importance of this Conference. Our local press can be relied upon for faithful support; and in the discussion of topics where East or West, North or South, may hold different views, we offer a neutral battlefield, where the opinions of all will command attention. It is now my pleasant duty to introduce to you his Excellency, Governor Routt, who will extend to you the welcome of the State of Colorado. WELCOME OF HON. JOHN L. ROUTT, GOVERNOR OF COLORADO. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,- It affords me great pleasure to meet this body of national representatives who are associated together for the purpose of assisting to reform those whose condition seems to demand it. I esteem it an especial honor to extend to you, on behalf of the citizens of Colorado, a hearty welcome. The very name of your organization is sufficient to insure for it the best wishes of all good people living in our civilized and intelligent country; for it brings to mind the fact that in the midst of our pushing and selfish life, under the modern order of things, there are people who are willing to forego their pleasure to assist in the amelioration and the elevation of our common brotherhood whose misfortunes require it. Your distinguished body, composed of men and women who are
Page 4 4 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. willing to sacrifice time and expense to come together in a National Conference to consult and determine upon the most intelligent, the most humane, the better plan to give operation to your endeavors, is certainly a most welcome visitor to our State. While you are with us, I trust that you may find the opportunity to see something of our mountains and beautiful scenery, of which we are all justly proud; to visit such of our State institutions as your time will permit, and your visits will be kindly appreciated by our people. I again extend to you a hearty welcome. WELCOME OF PLATT ROGERS, ESQ., MAYOR OF DENVER. Ladies and Gentlemen,- The welcome guest does not find in mere words the evidence of a generous welcome. Nothing that I can say as the representative of this city can better express the feeling of the people here than this magnificent gathering. it is the heartiest expression of hospitality to mingle with those who have come here upon so glorious an errand. It is always a matter of pride to Denver to receive those who have distinguished themselves in the affairs of life, but more especially those who have devoted themselves to the amelioration of the condition of mankind. Life, as we know it, is a continuous battle, but not properly among ourselves. We do not contend with each other, but with the forces of nature. I owe no man a living, but I do owe him the sustaining power of my kindly offices and of deeds of generosity when his situation may require it. Our battles are with the forces of nature. Our battles are to secure for ourselves, without injustice to each other, the kindly fruits of the earth. But, if it be that by the way some may fall, it is our duty to give them a helping hand. We may find in the course of mutual warfare something by which to determine what should govern us in the affairs of peace. I take it that it is not the recollection of men killed, of the ensanguined battlefield, of the delights of victories over their enemies, that keeps alive the Grand Army of the Republic, that makes tingle with enthusiasm the blood of the veteran, It is the recollection of mutual sacrifices, of mutual efforts in the behalf of one's fellows in camp and on the field, the sharing of the crust of bread or the cup of water, the recollection that, while engaged in warfare, they had a common interest, and that that common interest called for the common dictates of humanity. And to-day, when they meet in their camp-fires, it is not of victories won, it is not
Page 5 OPENING ADDRESSES. 5 of the foe that they talk, but of the trials that they have mutually undergone, of the assistance that they have rendered to each other, of those kindly acts which always bring to the heart of the generous man a tingling of the warmest satisfaction. We find under other circumstances that there is provided for those who fall by the wayside, those who are wounded, those who are unfortunate, a place for care, an opportunity to return. And we may say that what they receive from their more fortunate fellows is not a boon, is not by way of alms, but it comes to them by right and by the justice of humanity. It is, therefore, with the foreknowledge that this sentiment actuates this assembly that the citizens of Denver greet you with a warm and hearty greeting. WELCOME OF MR. AARON GOVE, OF DENVER. Ladies and Gentlemen,-One Sunday afternoon in August last, in a London hotel, I noticed a man who, by his coat and slouch hat, I saw was a pronounced American. He addressed me promptly and shook hands, although neither of us had known of the other's presence in the country until that moment. I invited him to accompany me to the East End to inspect the quarters of the Salvation Army, and to visit St. Jude's Church. We spent that night together, and at that time I learned from Oscar McCulloch about this gathering of the National Conference of Charities and Correction; and I am complimented by being asked to assist in welcoming this gathering now. The night spent in the company of that charming man, the open doors of his heart through which I was permitted to enter, the memory of that occasion, will remain with me always. With his latter days and his death you are all familiar. One can hardly stand in this,presence without believing that the spirit of him who was so earnestly engaged in this work, one year ago, is still with us and about us. You do well to come to Colorado. Liberality and charity have their birthplace in the mountains. Bigotry and cant cannot long survive here. The early settlers and pioneers, whose cabins were left with unlocked doors and with utensils and rations free for the passing traveller, still live. They are our contemporaries. Colorado then gives this organization a special welcome, without regard to religious distinction or discrimination. It welcomes all that this organization represents with a hearty sentiment that is not exceeded by
Page 6 6 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the many welcomes that are annually extended to the great national organizations which meet here. You will meet here men of the sort represented by the President of this association and by the Executive of our State Board of Charities,-men representing the faith of the Christian religion and practising the Christian virtues, without anything of denominational bounds or limitations; men who work heartily in this great business of charity as well with the Jew, with the Mohammedan, with the Greek, with the Roman Catholic, the Protestant, as with that innumerable throng of noble men and women who have no identification with any distinctive religious denomination. It is a rare opportunity when one is permitted to address a society the object of which is like this. He may be considered fortunate who is identified with such men as its members. When I remember the daily work of one man of them,-as I am occasionally allowed to know it,- consisting, for example, in the attendance at the funeral of a dead soldier, the presence at the death-bed of a pauper, the nursing of a wounded man, the making arrangements for the establishment of a public wood-yard, the contriving for the care of fatherless and motherless children, the conducting of a prayer-meeting,-all this in one day; and when I remember that all his days are but the repetitions of this one, —I conclude that the life of the average professional or business man lacks much of the stimulus and satisfaction which belong to those of you who are heartily interested in the kind of work in which you are engaged. 1 count on great results in the improvement of methods and in the administration of the lines of this work as the outcome of this meeting. The contact of our people with you, and the relation of the doings of the Conference in the daily press, will be helpful to the State and to the country. We who live at an altitude are accustomed to look down and out upon the lives of our countrymen, and in some measure to profit by their experience, and so avoid their errors and emulate their successes. With a hearty hand-shake we speed you in all proposals for good which you may choose to make. And when, after your deliberations and discussions and comparisons, you are ready to announce your conclusions, we shall be glad to assist you, work with you and for you, in every movement which concerns the great activities of the life in which you are engaged, and which concerns the attention that is hereafter to be given, as we trust, not only to the poor, but as well to the criminal classes.
Page 7 OPENING ADDRESSES. 7 RESPONSE OF HON. OSCAR CRAIG. Ladies and Gentlemen,-In behalf of the State of New York, I wish to extend the acknowledgments and the thanks of the National Conference of Charities and Correction for this welcome. I truly feel that, if we were not responsive to it, we should be unworthy of the cause which we represent. I trust that the response of this organization to the environment here will secure a higher development of sentiment and of thought than has ever characterized this association. The more responsive we are to the material development which we have seen here to-day in the happy homes of Denver, the better it will be for us as a Conference. For we never should forget that, in dealing with the evils of society, with pauperism and crime, we are dealing with that which is abnormal, not with the normal condition of humanity. We sometimes must forget the things which we have to handle, and think about other matters. We must be in full sympathy with the happy development, material and moral, of the people. One of the pleasantest things in our drive this afternoon was to see these homes and the absence of the signs of pauperism. I think we should be responsive also to the excellent address of his Excellency the Governor, who has welcomed us with a largeminded welcome. We should be responsive to the sympathetic chord reminding us of the spiritual presence of Oscar C. McCulloch, now deceased, who often inspired us in person, and who inspires us to-night with the thought of what he was as well as what he did. I hope we shall be responsive to the very thoughts which have been suggested to us in the invocation of the blessing of the almighty God, that we may be sympathetic with all our afflicted brethren of the human race. This includes not only the worthy poor, but the pauper, the vicious, the criminal classes. We go out to them in sympathy and in help, not with sentimentalism, but with Christian sentiment. We would help the poor without making them paupers,-we would help them to help themselves; and we would not forget the criminal. We believe that criminal character, not confirmed in crime by heredity or environment, is entitled to our sympathy and help. We would reform men for the protection of society. If we cannot reform them, we would keep them sequestered from society. We are often called sentimentalists by the unthinking, but I undertake to say that there is no body of persons anywhere that is more free from sentimentalism in a bad sense than is this National Conference of Charities and Correction.
Page 8 8 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. There was a thoughtful editorial in one of the newspapers of Denver this morning, which speaks of the mistakes which those who go out in sympathy to the weak and the fallen are apt to make in indulging too much hope. It is said that they are apt to be too optimistic, but that is better than to be too pessimistic. I want to go one step farther. I believe that in the practical matters which are brought before this Conference very little is thought about abstract theory, whether pessimistic or optimistic. This body knows no distinction or preference on account of religious conviction. It knows none on account of or lack of religious conviction. I speak from the standpoint of the Christian believer. I believe in the life and the death, the resurrection and the ascension, of Jesus Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit. But how foolish it would be in this body of men and women to have the least suggestion of a thought that this speaker or that believes or disbelieves any of these facts or truths or assumptions! The Christian with his simple faith and earnest conviction, the rationalist with his intuitions, and the agnostic with his hopes is not known here in this body on account of the views which he presents on any of the practical matters which come before us. I go a step farther yet. Not only is this body free from sectarianism respecting religion, it is free from sectarianism respecting science. This Conference would not judge a man with reference to any of the sectarian views of science which he might hold, any more than it would with reference to sectarian views in religion or theology. We know nothing of sects: we are catholic, and we judge the matters presented to us with reference to their verification by experience. The response which each individual mind will make depends on experience as it is unfolded to him. We go away, therefore, from one of these gatherings feeling that our consciences have been informed, our intellects have been instructed, and our hearts have been inspired to try to do better work in the future. RESPONSE OF REV. H. H. HART. Ladies and Gentlemen,- I bring to you the greetings of the neighboring State of Minnesota. We are not very far away. One of the missions of this body is to bring the people who compose it into touch, and to annihilate distance as far as the work is concerned; to make us feel that, though throughout the year we are working by ways
Page 9 OPENING ADDRESSES. 9 and means of our own, once a year we are to come together and compare notes, have the edges rubbed off, and become enthusiastic for the work of the coming year. We have to acknowledge to-night a debt to the State of Colorado. We have in the past seen something of the inspiration of this mountain atmosphere as represented by those who have gone as delegates to this Conference from Colorado. We have learned something of the tremendous power of co-operation which has made a success of this wonderful city, that has made a success of your charitable enterprises; and we are glad to acknowledge that debt. The success of such meetings depends much on the atmosphere of the cities where they are held. I remember one that lacked much in enthusiasm, and it was due to the fact that there was no local interest. The people did not care about it. So we are dependent on you for the success of this meeting. And, if your experience is like ours in Minnesota,-we had this Conference there in I886,-you will find lingering behind influences which will bless your State for years to come. I wish to thank you in the name of the Conference for your greeting, which has in it all the ring of cordiality and sincerity. RESPONSE OF GENERAL R. BRINKERHOFF. Ladies and Gentlemen,- We have been meeting in this way for many years. We know each other, and we know very well what are the sentiments and feelings of the Conference; and, when I tender to you the acknowledgments of this body for your welcome, I know that I express the sentiments of all of us. It did not need the assurance of his Excellency the Governor, nor of these other gentlemen, that we were welcome. The noblest welcome that has been extended to us is not from these gentlemen: it is from this magnificent audience. You probably do not appreciate that: but those of us who have been attending these Conferences, from Boston to San Francisco, year after year, do appreciate it. I want to say to the citizens of Denver that this is the greatest audience, I think, that has ever met in the history of the National Conference of Charities and Correction. We do not expect much appreciation from the masses of men. The subjects which we have to present to you are uncanny. They are not subjects that attract the multitude. But we do not come to attract the multitude. We come to confer together, to compare experiences
Page 10 10 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. one with the other upon some of the profoundest subjects that can interest the mind of man. We believe that the questions that we are trying to solve are graver and more important to the American people than any questions that have been before the conventions at Chicago and Minneapolis. When we remember the fact,- for it is a fact,that one-half of the taxes levied on the people of the United States year by year are collected for charitable, correctional, and punitive purposes; when we remember that crime has been steadily increasing year by year and decade by decade, that it has been rising like a flood in one of our Western rivers,- you will appreciate the importance of the subjects that we meet to discuss. Organizations like this, and like the Prison Congress, are trying to deal with these subjects scientifically and intelligently. If any of you have expected to find sentimentalism in this Conference, you will have expected in vain. We have no cranks here. From an experience of twenty years with these men and women, I want to say that there is not a graver, a more conservative, a more intelligent body of men and women working in any line. And now a word about the State where we meet. I have been something of a traveller; and I want to say to the delegates, if you can spend three days among the mountains of Colorado, you will see the noblest scenery upon this American continent. Colorado is a new State. It is already a leading State. It will be a model for the other mountain States. Let Colorado avoid the errors that have been made in the older States. You have a Board of State Charities formed upon the model of that of Ohio. Its members are intelligent men who travel about and visit other institutions in various parts of the country, gathering in experience. I hope his Excellency the Governor and the people will stand by that State Board, and accept its ideas. I hope there will be nothing to undo in the work of that Board, and that this State will set an example which will be followed by the surrounding galaxy of States. We are delighted to be here, and to look into the faces of this wonderful audience. We hope you will attend the sessions day by day, and take part in the discussions. RESPONSE OF REV. J. H. NUTTING. Ladies and Gentlemen,-As I have listened to the hearty words of welcome this evening, I have rejoiced. And I have rejoiced the more
Page 11 OPENING ADDRESSES. II because I believe they represent the interest that is taken in the subjects that we come to discuss. This audience shows that the citizens of Colorado are wide-awake to the fact that there is work to be done for the criminal, the needy, the unfortunate, and the distressed. I assure you that you will find this is a very broad body. Some of us are orthodox of the orthodox, some of us do not know whether we have any religion; but this organization is broad enough to include us all and every man who acts or desires to act in the spirit of him who said, "The whole need not a physician, but they that be sick." We believe in working in the spirit of him who said, "Whosoever receiveth one little child in my name receiveth me." RESPONSE OF HON. A. E. ELMORE. Ladies and Gentlemen,-My friend General Brinkerhoff did not look my way when he said there were no cranks in this Conference. I am one, and I am glad of it. There is no good work accomplished without having some crank to start it. I could name half a dozen good cranks right here. Nineteen years ago Dr. Hoyt and myself attended the first meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Correction in New York City, and fifteen persons would include the whole number that attended that meeting. Look at the contrast here in Denver to-night! I tell you the great West is the place of push. I am not going to tell you that you are any better than anybody else, because you aren't; but you are as good. Denver is as nice a city as there is in America save one, and that is Milwaukee. I am not going back on my own State, anyway. But, if I did not live there, as I have done for fifty-six years, I would come to Colorado. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. BY REV. MYRON W. REED. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Delegates and Citizens,-I am going to be merciful. I have an exhaustive speech in my mind; but I am just going to give it to you in a few rapid sentences, because I know you have travelled far. I have it from old and high authority that "blessed is he who considers the poor." To consider the poor, this Nineteenth Conference of Charities and Correction meet. There is no politics in this Conference except that which is carefully concealed, and no religion to speak of. There is no party or sect in
Page 12 12 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. charity or correction. Our last President called the Conference "the Church of the Divine Fragments." We are met in the diffident city of Denver. We rely on the pilgrims who visit us to speak our praise. We who live here simply say nothing. In the phrase of the day, we "saw wood." In this thin air we cannot do that well and blow our bugle at the same time. In England I noticed the same good grain, except corn, that I was familiar with in New England,- the same fruits, the same flowers, the same kind of folk. From our old home in England, Ireland, Scotland, and the continent, every good thing has crossed the ocean - except Gladstone. He has not crossed. He does not wish to lose the use of his right arm. He rightfully shrinks from the hand-shake of sixty-five millions of muscular Americans, who shake hands with the grip of a stump-puller. The cold, clammy, one-finger business will not do in Leadville. A man who shakes hands in Colorado averts or invites his death. But I noticed in England the weeds that I was familiar with in New England. They have also crossed the sea. The only contribution of a bad thing from the West to the East has been the Colorado beetle, known to the boys as the "potato bug." He did not sing any swan song when he died, but he died. As to his future I am utterly agnostic. The beginnings of every good thing you will find in Colorado, and the beginnings of every bad thing. Where the immigrant fed his horses, there is the Canada thistle. There were thistle seeds in the oats. We have no pauperism in Colorado,-we have not had time. We have the beginnings of pauperism. Our poverty is of the unreconciled kind. It kicks. We have a vigorous discontent with any low kind of life. Every year there is less cactus and more wheat. We are a hopeful people,-we believe in God and the days to come. A speaker was once bewailing the degeneracy of the day,- the lack of good and great men. An old lady listened impatiently, and then said, "Thank God, you are a liar." So, when I hear that poverty must be and pauperism must be, and the whole creation must groan together forever, I repeat the remark of the old lady. Ladies and gentlemen of the Conference, if anything in your reception pleases you, the credit is due to my efficient aids,- the credit is largely due to the citizens of Denver and the people of Colorado. If you find any fault in your reception, the fault is that of the President: roast him.
Page 13 II. State Boarisa of C-jaritit, THE ORGANIZATION, POWERS, AND DUTIES OF STATE BOARDS. BY WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON STATE BOARDS OF CHARITIES. Some thirty years ago, on a cold, raw day, a sad-faced woman left the door of the Albany City Almshouse. As she directed her steps toward the city, and drew her fluttering garments more closely about her, she thought that the piercing winds from the Helderberg Mountains were not more chilling than the administration of public charity. This woman was not a pauper, but was of a good family and possessed of some means with which she freely aided others. For years her energies had been specially directed to saving and comforting the sinful and sorrowing that had drifted into the forlorn places of this world. In pursuing her benevolent work she visited the Albany Almshouse, and was shocked at the state of things she found there. It was the old story,- utter indifference to sanitary laws, promiscuous association of the young and old of both sexes, disregard of the rules of common decency, brutal treatment, dirt, cold, foul air, putrid meat, insufficient clothing, etc. Miss Elizabeth Knapp (for that was the visitor's name) remonstrated earnestly with the keeper against these abuses. He responded by shutting the door in her face and forbidding her ever to enter the place again. She appealed for aid to her friend, Miss Anna Parker, an accomplished young lady and a favorite of Albany society. Miss Parker carried the complaint to a leading magistrate of the city, and implored his interposition. To her astonishment and chagrin, instead of taking some considerate action in the matter, he rebuked her for interfering with county officials and for listening to telltale busybodies. He directly intimated that a young lady of wealth, occupying a high social position, could better employ her time than by meddling with the administration of public relief to
Page 14 14 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. paupers. In spite of every discouragement, Miss Knapp continued firm in her determination to protect the poor creatures at the almshouse; and, as she could gain admission there in no other way, she formed the heroic resolution of entering the place as a pauper, which she soon did under commitment obtained on her own application. A sharp controversy followed. Miss Knapp was upheld by Miss Parker, who enlisted other friends in the cause; and a reformation was soon begun at the county-house, which was followed, at the next election, by the choice of officials favorable to reform. Among the gentlemen who had taken part in this struggle was the Hon. John V. L. Pruyn, a prominent lawyer of Albany, who was convinced by this circumstance of the necessity of a system of State supervision over public charities, and at once set about making a framework of law for this object. This was before any State Board of Charities was established in this country. The time had not come, however, for the acceptance of so novel a proposition. It was not until I866 that an incident occurred which ripened public sentiment and opened the way for favorable legislation. At a late hour of the night in the year named there was taken to the door of one of the great hospitals in New York City a poor man whose critical condition required immediate hospital aid. The hour for admission of patients had passed; and he could not be received without an order from one of the governors of the institution, which could not then be obtained. In consequence, the man died in great suffering and under sorrowful circumstances. Mr. Pruyn, who was acquainted with some of the hospital managers, petitioned the Board of Management for a change of rules; but red-tapeism and official importance were impregnable, and the petition was treated with contempt. Mr. Pruyn then laid his proposition for a State Supervising Board before Governor Fenton, who indorsed it and recommended it in his annual message to the legislature in I867. It was taken up by the Chairman of the Committee on State Charitable Institutions, Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, who introduced a bill for the organization of a State Board of Charities, as recommended by Governor Fenton, which became a law during that session. Mr. Pruyn, whose zeal and philanthropy contributed in so large a measure to the establishment of this supervising agency in New York State, at the urgent request of the Governor consented to act as President of the Board. He occupied the position upwards of ten years, and was its President at the time of his death in I877.
Page 15 STATE BOARDS OF CHARITIES. 15 I have dwelt at some length on these incidents, as showing the causes that led to the foundation of a State Board of Charities in New York. I doubt not similar incidents have had something to do with the establishment of Boards in other States. While there is practical unanimity of opinion regarding the usefulness of State Boards of Charities, there are still some mooted questions as to their organization and the principles that should govern them.* A State Board of Charities is doubtless best formed when the Governor of the State appoints its members. Their terms of office should not be less than eight years. The advantage of long terms is that, in this way, a continuous policy can be carried out, new members can avail themselves of the knowledge and experience of those who have been long engaged in the work, and the insidious influence of politics is less likely to be felt. There should not be more than nine nor less than five members. If it be practicable to include, the Governor of the State as ex-officio President of the Board, it appears desirable to do so, because of the greater usefulness likely to be exercised by the Board when the chief executive is a member, and because its recommendations will have greater weight with the legislature. Commissioners should receive no compensation for their time or services except for their actual travelling expenses while engaged in the performance of the duties of their office. The compensation of the Secretary should be fully commensurate with the ability required, the arduous service rendered, and the responsibility of the position. The commissioners should be persons of high character, of keen observation, of good judgment, with large and successful experience in their professions and in business affairs, and such as have the esteem and confidence of the communities in which they reside. Professor Chace has well said, "They should be such men as are willing to spend and be spent in the service, with no other reward than the good they may hope to accomplish,- men who are sought for the service on account of their fitness for it, and not those who seek it for personal ends or are appointed to it as a reward for * References to valuable papers embodying the opinions of various writers upon this subject will be found in a paper by Mr. Hart of Minnesota, published in the -Proceedings of the Sixteenth Con. ference of Charities and Correction, 1889, page 89. Further light is thrown upon the subject in a paper by Mr. Wines of Illinois, published in the Proceedings of the Seventeenth National Conference, i89o, page 63, and in papers by Judge Follett of Ohio and Commissioner Elder of Indiana, published in the Proceedings of the Eighteenth National Conference, I89r, pages 154 and 162. The Proceedings containing the papers also embody the discussions upon them.
Page 16 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. political service or through favoritism." If selected from among charity workers, they will be more likely to find their duties congenial and to take up and pursue their work intelligently. One of the commissioners of every Board should be a physician, and one a lawyer. As to women being represented on State Boards of Charities, my own opinion is in favor of their appointment. There are certain lines of inquiry which they can conduct with more propriety than men, and they are able to exchange confidences with those of their own sex whose troubles might otherwise be unrevealed. In the case of children under public care, it seems peculiarly fitting that motherly instincts should be permitted to reach the many that are orphaned and deserted. The knowledge of women in domestic affairs and their experience in the care of the sick give value to their inspections and weight to their advice. The fears entertained by some that women would not be able to cope with the sometimes revolting tasks that fall to the members of a State Board of Charities have not been realized in New York. On the contrary, the New York Board has to confess its indebtedness to women commissioners for most valuable services. The appointment of women was regarded at the outset as a great innovation in New York State. I well remember the look of dismay depicted on the countenances of some of the graver members of the Board when an earnest, able, and accomplished woman entered the Board room at Albany with a pleasant greeting, and took her seat among us for the first time with as much complacency and selfpossession as though she had been a commissioner for years. When Governor Tilden was asked at an after-dinner table talk how he came to appoint a woman on a State commission, he replied that he did so "in order to plant a sprig of grace in the barren wastes of the State Board of Charities." Those who know the estimable lady whom he appointed and the dry and commonplace nature of our Board work will realize the appropriateness of the figure. I imagine that the members generally of those Boards in which women hold membership approve of their appointment. Whether State Boards should be purely advisory or both advisory and administrative depends upon the conditions to be met. A Board adapted to a small State like Rhode Island would not answer for a large and populous commonwealth like New York or Pennsylvania. It seems best in most cases that these Boards should be organized as purely advisory bodies, and should not seek to assume administra
Page 17 STATE BOARDS OF CHARITIES. I7 tive functions. If a Board is prudent and does good work, there will be a disposition on the part of the legislature to give it administrative duties which it will be difficult to decline. These duties will in all probability increase, the older the Board grows. With enlarged responsibilities there will be an increase of patronage, and consequently greater danger. Among the powers conferred and the duties which should be imposed upon a properly organized Board may be mentioned the following: - The power to appoint such officers and agents as the Board may deem necessary; also, discretionary power to appoint local visitors to county institutions. A Board should be authorized to investigate the whole charitable and correctional system of a State. It should be empowered to inquire and examine into the condition, government, and management of all the corporate charitable, correctional, and penal institutions in the State, and the care of their inmates. One or more of the commissioners should be required to visit all the State-supported institutions not less frequently than once a year, and one of the commissioners or the Secretary should be required to visit all the county and municipal institutions, including jails and poorhouses, at least once each year. The Board should make a report on all the institutions under its supervision at the opening of each annual or biennial session of the legislature. It should be made the duty of the Board to ascertain whether the public money appropriated for the aid of these institutions is judiciously expended, whether the objects of the several institutions are accomplished, and whether the laws in relation to them are complied with. All plans for the construction or enlargement of State, county, and municipal charitable, correctional, and penal institutions should, before their adoption, be approved by the Board. Commissioners should not be permitted, either directly or indirectly, to be interested in any contract for building, repairing, or furnishing any of the institutions which it is their duty to visit and inspect; nor should trustees or other officers of the institutions mentioned be eligible to the office of commissioner. The commissioners should have power to administer oaths and affirmations and to issue compulsory processes for the attendance of witnesses upon investigations made necessary in the discharge of their duties as defined by the statutes. Visitations.- Because a person is appointed by the Governor as a commissioner of charities or is a legally constituted visitor of chari
Page 18 I8 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. table institutions it does not follow that such person is wiser than the trustees or those in charge of the institutions to be visited. On the contrary, he may have had no experience whatever with the peculiar work coming within his province to criticise, and, instead of being in a position to instruct, may, at least for a time, find he can be instructed by those having had long practical experience in their work. It therefore behooves the visitor to enter upon his duties modestly, and, before making recommendations, to be sure that they are based on sound principles already adopted by organized charity. Great delicacy is required in exercising visitorial powers, and the dignity attached to - institutional officers, however humble, should be respectfully recognized. It is not well to begin an inspection before applying to the officer in immediate charge. Legalized visitors are not expected to act as detectives, but to obtain the information they desire in such a manner as to show that they come to the institution as friends, and not as enemies. This may be done and not interfere with the thoroughness of an inspection or the reaching of bottom truths. Private conferences with inmates are proper, but they should not be had without the knowledge of resident officials. Everything should be done openly and courteously. In reporting upon institutions, we should be quite as ready to commend the good as to condemn the bad. A report that shows only the faults of an institution is unfair. There is doubtless more good accomplished by directing public attention to what is praiseworthy, thereby awakening a spirit of emulation in other institutions, than in writing sensational descriptions of evils which belong to systems and for which the public is responsible, and not individuals. Whatever abuses may be found, discriminate closely; and make individuals or systems responsible, as the facts may warrant. Criminal charges, if found to rest on reliable testimony, should be promptly reported to the Attorney-General for prosecution. Reforms are often more expeditiously effected by giving local authorities an opportunity to correct them before reporting them to the legislature. If evils are not corrected with reasonable promptness, then it is due the public that the whole truth should be known. There are oftentimes unsatisfactory conditions about an institution which faithful officers and managers are striving to remedy. When such is the case, we should forbear humiliating them before the public, and aim, by kindly conference and careful suggestion, to help them out of their difficulty, and so come into closer relations, through which much good may eventually come.
Page 19 STATE BOARDS OF CHARITIES. 19 It should be borne in mind that few things in this world are perfect; and, even in a charitable institution, we must look for the maximum of excellence instead of perfection, or an ideal in our own mind which has never had a practical illustration. I imagine that there are few large household establishments with their indoor and outdoor service which, if subjected from cellar to garret, from laundry to stables, to the close scrutiny of a charity inspector, would not be found deficient in some important respects,- deficiencies or evils of which the good housewife was already cognizant, but which, through inefficient service or failure on the part of others or a combination of causes, it was impossible to prevent. 'Suggestions. —Before closing this paper, it may not be out of place to submit the following points or suggestions for the consideration of State supervising agencies:First. The number of dependants under public care should be reduced to the minimum by refusing free support to the able-bodied, by enforcing the legal obligations of relatives, and by returning paupers to their places of legal settlement, where, by the aid of their friends, they frequently become self-supporting, and are saved from the enervating influences of poorhouse residence. Second. The United States should return to the countries whence they came all paupers and criminals, and require from incoming foreigners a certificate from the American consul at the port from which they sailed, to the effect that the person to whom such certificate is granted is, in the judgment of the consul, self-supporting, noncriminal, and will prove a desirable citizen. Third. Private charities should be encouraged in their benevolent efforts, upon the principle that the dispensation of private charity is better than that of public charity. The recipient is benefited with less loss of self-respect, and society is made better by the sacrifice necessary to carry on benevolent work. Fourth. State Boards should co-operate with and encourage Charity Organization Societies in their attempts to prevent begging and expose imposture, to help the unfortunate to help themselves, and to stimulate pride of self-support, respect for honest labor, love of thrift, and otherwise diminish pauperism. Fifth. It is well to aid in the organization in each county of a society for the prevention of cruelty to children, and endeavor to secure laws for the better protection of neglected and abused children who, but for such protection, are sure to swell the ranks of the dependent and criminal classes.
Page 20 20 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Sixth. An important part of the work of State Boards is the improvement of poorhouses by planning buildings on advanced principles, securing a bountiful supply of water, good sewerage, and other sanitary essentials, also by providing special hospital accommodations with competent nurses for the sick, effecting a separation of the sexes, proper classification of the inmates, removing the children, and improving the administration of these institutions generally. The planning of better constructed jails and improving their administration should also receive careful attention. Seventh. In providing sites for public charitable institutions, State Boards should recommend that ample acreage, according to the objects of the institution, should be secured at the outset; that the buildings should be plain and inexpensive, and constructed in accordance with recognized sanitary and hygienic laws, with means to effect proper classification of the inmates and convenient and economic administration. The building of palatial edifices for the dependent classes, to gratify local and architectural pride, should be condemned, as the expenditure for such decreases legislative appropriations for needful charitable objects; and the consequence is that, while some are extravagantly provided for, many remain to suffer under very unsatisfactory conditions. Eighth. All adult inmates of institutions maintained at the public expense should, as an offset to their support and for their moral improvement and for better discipline, be employed at useful and remunerative labor to the extent of their ability as judged by a medical standard. Ninth. Boards should recommend that the supplies for State institutions be purchased at stated periods, after competition has been invited by public advertisement. Samples of the articles required, with prices, should, so far as practicable, be submitted for inspection, and agreements and purchases made in the best interest of the State and its beneficiaries, without reference to the interests of any particular locality. Tenth. Records should be kept in every public charitable and correctional institution, showing, as far as practicable, the mental and physical condition, habits, education, antecedent history, previous environmeq], and cause of dependency or criminality of each person under care. Such records are necessary as a basis for charity organization work, and are highly valuable in studying the causes of pauperism and crime and in determining the relation and extent of heredity to these conditions.
Page 21 STATE BOARDS OF CHARITIES. 21 Eleventh. In rescuing dependent children, the aim should be to restore them as early as practicable to that God-ordained institution, the family. This may best be done through organized charitable societies and institutions directed by benevolent men and women, or by State agencies, where such exist. To children coming under public care, domestic and industrial training and kindergarten instruction should be given to the utmost extent practicable. Twelfth. For better classification and for other reasons, children in juvenile reformatories should be cared for in cottages on the family plan. All should have the advantages of thorough industrial training; and the older ones should have the benefit of technologic training, or instruction in mechanic arts, as is well illustrated in the State Industrial School at Rochester, N.Y. Absolute separation should be maintained between the innocent and the guilty and between the pure and the morally depraved, by means of separate institutions. Juvenile offenders should never be placed in jails either before or after trial. They should have a separate hearing before the court, and should be there represented by a State Agent, whose duty it should be to protect the interests of the child during the trial and afterwards, in the manner exemplified by the Michigan laws of 1873 and I875. Thirteenth. The effort should be made to provide proper care and treatment for all the insane of a State, preferably by means of State care. The tendency should be firmly resisted to enlarge, beyond a moderate size, institutions in which the acute insane are treated. As numbers increase, the chronic insane should be colonized in cottage buildings containing not over forty patients each, situated on farms having not less than one acre to each insane person provided for. These colonies should be widely separated from the parent institution and under a subordinate but distinct administration. Whenever, by increase in the number of the acute insane, the curative functions of a hospital are weakened or an individualized system of treatment is rendered impracticable, a new institution should be projected. It has been demonstrated in New York, Massachusetts, and elsewhere that the chronic insane can be humanely and very economically cared for, and the maximum percentage of cures reached in special inexpensive asylums, on large farms, under independent boards of management. In large mixed asylums the percentage of cures is not so great as the combined average of cures in separate hospitals for
Page 22 22 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the acute and well-conducted asylums for the chronic insane. The dominant idea should be the cure of the insane in the acute period; and our hospitals for this purpose should be small, and in every way constructed, supplied, and administered on the highest therapeutic principles. Expenditures here should be made a secondary consideration, with a view to securing real economy by curing the patient while there is the greatest possibility that he may be cured. We must boldly protest against the seemingly irresistible tendency to build up enormous mixed asylums out of what were originally designed for moderate-sized curative hospitals. Nor must we delude ourselves with the expectation that by simply changing the name of an institution from an asylum to a hospital we thereby alter its real character. If, in the way indicated, the ever rapidly increasing burden of chronic insanity cannot be prevented from lessening a high standard of curative treatment in our hospitals for the insane, it is incumbent upon us to consider whether it would not be desirable to establish local asylums for the chronic insane, to be built by a single county or a number of counties uniting, the local authorities providing the buildings and the State paying for the support of the inmates on a standard of care approved by State authorities, the institutions to be managed, as are State asylums, by non-partisan, non-salaried boards of trustees, appointed by the Governor or by justices of the Supreme Court. Looking back to the time when our Boards were first established, or even to a later period, when these Conferences were first formed, and to what has been accomplished since, we may fairly congratulate society on the dawn of a brighter and better era in the administration of public charity. Earnest men and women are to be found in every State working in the spirit of true philanthropy, seeking to heal, relieve, and elevate the unfortunate, to reduce the volume of pauperism and crime, and to see that the bounty of the people is prudently dispensed. In the performance of our work we have found that States have sometimes erred, not alone from neglect, but from ignorance; and only by the severest and most expensive teachings have they been brought to observe the golden mean between foolish extravagance on the one hand and false economy on the other. Let us offer to these new empires rising in the West the benefit of our costly experience, and, hand in hand with them, seek to advance the highest interests of humanity and to attain a social condition in harmony with divine and natural laws.
Page 23 III. Ae b3ntian policy THE INDIAN POLICY IN ITS RELATIONS TO CRIME AND PAUPERISM. BY PHILIP C. GARRETT, CHAIRMAN. There is a vagueness about the phrase " The Indian Policy," which invites discussion of the whole question of the relation of Indians to whites. It might even be instructive, in our assumed superiority, to consider the policy of the Indians. The policy of either Mexico or Canada, as to the North American Indians within their borders, would also, with shame be it spoken, be worthy of study. Because in Mexico the Europeans, far from assuming a hostile attitude toward the natives, recognized them as citizens, intermarried, and merged the Spanish in the native population; and in Canada they have at least known how to treat their darker-skinned brethren with justice and humanity. Limiting the subject, however, to the policy pursued toward the Indians on United States soil, it may still comprise three distinct divisions: (i) The course pursued toward the Aborigines by the people of this country with whom they have come in contact; (2) the policy pursued by the national government during the past two hundred years, as indicated in the various treaties with Indian tribes, the theories and decisions of the Supreme Court as to the relation of this country to its ancient inhabitants, and the legislation about them by Congress from colonial times until now; or (3) the policy of the present day and of the present administration. The first of these includes the policy of William Penn; but, almost with that single exception, the history of white settlers' dealings with the Indian tribes in the colonies, and later in the Territories, may be written in characters of blood, and may fitly be described as the
Page 24 24 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. border-ruffian policy. The course of William Penn and his colonists for seventy years toward the Iroquois was so uniformly humane and unselfish that absolute peace and safety reigned within the borders of Pennsylvania. And there is not the slightest reason to doubt that, if precisely the same course had been pursued everywhere and at all times, there would never have been an Indian war or an Indian massacre within the length and breadth of this land. Failure to recognize rights which belong to the Indians, and white rapacity and villany, are largely responsible both for pauperism and crime among the Indians. Here in Colorado, with the eloquent grave of the author of "Ramona," so near to the place where we meet, it can hardly be necessary to revive the incidents recited in her remarkable book entitled "The Century of Dishonor," some of them incidents of which this very State has been a witness. Nor should it be needful to condemn in a more enlightened day the barbarisms of which white men have been found capable in the past. And yet what will not avarice do in the way of stifling the sentiments of Christian humanity? The depravity of the human heart is unfathomable. Many, perhaps most, of the barbarities and wars and massacres lie at the doors of white reprobates, whose responsibility is heightened by the Christian lessons of their childhood. The most barbarous of the Indians have not been more savagely cruel than some men of our own race. If not first treated ill by others, the Aborigines have been tractable, mild, and hospitable, although ferocious when wronged. They have been thus wronged; and, therefore, for the degradation which has followed the border-ruffian policy is largely responsible. Humiliated, robbed of their spirit and manhood, filled with loathsome disease, degraded by love of whiskey, and lost to all pride of self-dependence, and then pauperized, abandoned and wretched, lazy, dirty, and repulsive, they are made to feel the twofold hatred causing their wrongs and engendered by them. Pauperism is one manifest sequel. Crime, in the form of drunkenness and resultant violence and murder, is another. And any one can lengthen the catalogue by his own intuition. There is also another aspect of the subject, that of the evil effect on our own people. We may be wrong in supposing- General Merrill, an old Indian fighter, says we are, and General Merrill, like the late General Crook, is one of the Indian's best friends- that few lives are lazier or more injurious to morals than that of a private soldier on the border,- lazier in time of peace or more demoralizing in time of
Page 25 THE INDIAN POLICY. 25 war. For those who have not read Mrs. Jackson's book, we will give one illustration of the latter fact from its pages. It was after the massacre at Sand Creek, and is related by one who sympathized with the infernal policy of extermination. The few surviving Indians were leaving the awful scene. A little child, three years old, toddled after them, at a short distance through the sand. One of the soldiers, catching sight of him, raised a rifle to his shoulder and took a shot at him, but missed. Another, observing this, said: " Let me try. I can hit him," applying a profane epithet which we need not quote. He also missed, when a third, dropping on one knee, took deliberate aim, and the little fellow fell. Could any most ferocious savage be more of a devil in human shape? These are the men; these, and too often settlers equally bad, desperadoes who have been the offscouring of cities, fugitives from justice, men who prefer to live where there is little restraint of law, men the incarnation of selfish purposes, lost to all sense of humanity,- such are the men who have served too often as models of civilization to the Indian. What can be expected under such tuition? And can it for a moment be defended in a country professing to be Christian? There is not a trace of the spirit of Christ in it from beginning to end. Has not God made of one blood all nations of the earth to dwell on the face thereof? and is it not out of all kindreds, nations, tongues, and people that the sanctified throng proceed, who in the Apocalypse are represented as worshipping around the great white throne? There is every probability, from a scientific point of view, that we are of one blood. And yet aversion, hatred, utter and inconceivable selfishness on our part, reckless disregard of the rights of others, are the motives that have guided the course of this nation too often in dealing with a weaker people. Where has been our manliness, where our fair play and our sense of honor? We praise patriotism, and then we recognize the Indian tribes as separate nationalities, and abuse and destroy them because they defend their customs and their hunting grounds. We give them land to be theirs forever; but no sooner does a railroad company want to run through it than we yield to the pressure, rob the Indians of it again, and send them to the desert. And now the question arises, What is crime in an Indian, and what is pauperism? People often confuse pauperism with poverty.
Page 26 26 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The Indians are always poor, at least have been since the days of Montezuma. They are not avaricious. They are content with little. That is one thing that retards their civilization, because civilization has been defined to be a multiplication of wants. When an Indian dies, they burn his wealth to ashes. How would some of our white will-contestants squirm under that mode of extinguishing avarice! But pauperism is wilful poverty and dependence on others' support, and under Caucasian influence. Many Indians have reached this state. Then, again, what is the standard for crime? " Where there is no law, there is no transgression "; and Professor Thayer has described the Indians as "a people without law." An Indian may be most correct and laudable in his conduct in the eyes of his tribe, and yet, when the aegis of United States law extends its protecting shadow over him, find himself guilty at once of a dozen crimes. For crime is not synonymous with sin. It is not offence against God, but offence against human law. An Indian policy is not necessary, to put the Indians in an attitude of criminality; but our Indian policy ought to be so shaped as to lift them out of this attitude without necessary condemnation, by training them to better standards of life and conduct. This is what the philanthropists, so often referred to as sentimentalists, are seeking to bring about; and, in deference to a demand of humane public sentiment, a great revolution has taken place in the whole relation of our people to the Indians. In the past that relation was far from human, and was destructive of the Indians' humanity. Everything which has tended to discourage and degrade the Indian has also tended to make a pauper of him. Every failure to recognize his manhood, every ignoring of noble traits and keen perceptions, every cruel act, and every act of injustice (to which he is acutely sensitive),- all such treatment has contributed to reduce him from a condition of dignity and pride to one of ignoble dependence and beggary. Now, it is not only the barbarity of white ruffians on the frontier, therefore, which has brought about this lamentable result, but the entire position assumed by our government during the past century. Much of this was due to the assumption that the Indian tribes were independent nations. It is difficult, we admit, indeed, to see how at the outset the European, setting foot upon occupied soil, could do less than recognize the independent nationality of the occupants. But
Page 27 THE INDIAN POLICY. 27 this ought long since to have ceased. However, it is not this of itself which has almost led to their ruin. But even the treaties made with them as sovereignties have been filled with the seeds of degradation and destruction. They have, too many of them, been conceived in unwisdom and brought forth in iniquity. The theory, therefore, of our relation to the Indian is partly responsible for the shame that has followed. If the government of the United States had, in good faith, recognized the Indian tribes as nationalities, and dealt with them in that spirit of comity shown to European nations and shown to the Indian tribes by the founder of Pennsylvania, the practice of the nation would have been an honorable sequel to the theory. In that case, the same disastrous results to the morals of the Indians would not, perhaps, have followed, or at least the theory of separate nationality would not have been responsible for it if they did. This hypothesis had to be abandoned, sooner or later; and it has been abandoned in large measure already in favor of one not much more available, —that they are wards of the nation. But the right of separate tribal government, the right of declaring and waging war, and a certain anomalous autonomy are recognized to this day. In our estimation, the government is too slow in abandoning these antiquated and injurious positions; for the only sound, rational, and durable policy is that of recognizing the whole of the Indians simply as men, preparing them rapidly for citizenship, making them amenable to American law, compelling the recognition of their equal rights before the law, and denying them the jus belli of belligerents. It is only by such means that the vexing Indian problem can be laid to rest. When the red race is absorbed and assimilated by the white, and millions of our population have a slight tinge of Indian blood, then at last there will be no longer a separate problem for the Indians. The reason that the policy of dealing with the tribes as with sovereignties is liable for much of the dispirited degradation of the Indians is that it was a half-hearted policy, that it was insincere and dishonest. Professing a recognition of nationality, it really cajoled, deceived, cheated, and robbed them, and substituted the pauperizing ration and annuity systems for independence, honest pride, and selfreliance. It seized their hunting grounds, drove them before the advance of white settlement, gave them little education and less Christianity, and left them to perish in indolence and disease.
Page 28 28 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The theory of guardianship is little better, as it has been administered. For, while gratuitous food and annuities without work have fostered laziness, the tyranny of the agency system has taken away from many of them the last spark of manhood. The Indians of most of the tribes are not people to treat with simply despotic power. It has the worst possible effect upon them, and is, moreover, most inconsistent with the genius of those republican institutions with which they should be familiarized. They fully understand the inconsistency. The Indians are proud, reserved, sensitive to wrong and affront, and not without capacity for self-government. And, after all the experience of their docility under education and their aptness to learn, it is amazing to find so many people, in and out of Congress, who declare that the money spent on their education is worse than wasted. It is far from this. On the contrary, Congress has rather erred in not expending more money to follow up the education by providing on the reservation the means of living in a rational and civilized way,-thoroughly competent farmers to train them in practical agriculture and field matrons to instruct the women. If the educated young Indians are allowed to return and live in the midst of heathen customs, how can they resist the pressure to return to the ways of their fathers, with no opportunity for work to utilize their industrial education? The blanket Indians cannot furnish this. Better would it be to sacrifice the instincts of home and family, and scatter young Indians among industrious whites, effacing, if need be, their Indian identity forever, unless after the return to their tribes they are placed in a position to hold fast to the civilization they have attained. The education is right: it is indispensable. But what, again, is the use of teaching them history, and illustrating thereby the value of republican government, if they are immediately placed under the autocratic rule of the agent, who is judge, jury, and sheriff, and not allowed to turn a finger without consulting him? As a system of preparation for the duties of American citizenship, the folly of the system is inconceivable. What we need for the Indian, to get him back to the self-respect of the age of the Montezumas, is to cultivate his manhood, trust him, throw responsibility upon him, let him trade as freely as his Caucasian neighbor, teach him law, and give him the power of an equal ballot. Pay him well for his services, treat him with consideration,
Page 29 THE INDIAN POLICY. 29 never lie to him, and never defraud him. And, when there comes to be between him and the white man that mutual confidence that should exist between men of one blood, then at last, and not until then, the sword and conflagration shall cease, and lasting peace shall be within all our borders. There are at least three characteristics of the attitude of this government to the Indians in the past which we may fairly mark as follies. These are: (i) the recognition of the tribes as independent sovereignties, which suggested war, and therefore crime: (2) the creation by treaty of perpetual annuities and rations, which invited pauperism; and (3) the grant to them of land, while denying the privilege of selling it: this again tempted them to lease it, and live off it without labor. All of these prolong a state of barbarism by the direct act of the United States government, and all involve inconsistencies unworthy of good statesmanship. The recognition of sovereignty involved belligerency and territorial rights, according to the law of nations, if the North American Indians are in any sense and to any extent to be brought under that law; and, if not, it is difficult to see the obligation to admit their sovereignty at all. But they do not claim territorial rights. They were all Henry George men, and did not recognize land ownership nor territorial limitations. And, if their belligerent inclinations are indulged, they will be after savage methods, and not in accordance with European custom; and they should not be held to account for that, so long as their national character is admitted and recognized. The establishment of rations and annuities in perpetuity is just as inconsistent with the efforts to civilize the Indians, and in large measure renders those efforts futile. And so, again, with their land tenure. As we have said, the Indians were forerunners of Henry George, and had no land laws. But we force land upon them, and then take it from them at will, so that they feel they have no certain tenure nor dwelling-place. And, when we give it to them severally, like white men, we still withhold the right to sell it. We nail them to the spot, and then give them very little and very poor agricultural teaching, and slender means to till the soil. What white man could you save from pauperism and crime under these conditions? Truly, the past does include a century of dishonor and folly. But there is a bright picture yet in the good time coming.
Page 30 30 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The present administration of Indian affairs deserves commendation for its forward movement. And even the present system, for which. General Morgan is not responsible, with all its defects, is far in advance of that in the past. Legislation moves slowly. A certain recognition of tribal autonomy remains, the undemocratic agency system remains, a defective system for the appointment of agents remains, the Indians are inadequately provided with justice and with the means of civilization. But these clouds are breaking; and the Indian Bureau, under its present head, distinctly recognizes the policy of educating all the Indians, of Christianizing them, of civilizing them, breaking up the tribes, and converting every Indian into a citizen of the United States. This is the only true and radical solution of the Indian problem; and it is the only just one. The Indian, when his fine traits of character are developed in the sun of popular approval, and under the blessings of a Christian education, is every way worthy of citizenship. In the great Indian schools, such as that at Carlisle, this character unfolds wonderfully; and no one who has seen only the lazy, ration-fed, reservation Indian has a right to a judgment as to his capacity. The common denunciation of the Indian's friends as sentimentalists and doctrinaires is not in order on the ground that they are ignorant of his character. They are those who do know the possibility- nay, the certainty - that he can be converted into the better type of man and citizen. They are free from adverse prejudice. They have seen enough of his good qualities to be willing to give him a chance along with Italians, Hungarians, and Bohemians. The citizenship policy is the only just policy: it is also the only one which will free this country from the incubus of waste on Indian wars, Indian land purchases, Indian claims, annuities, rations, and clothing, because, when you make a man and an American of him, he becomes a producer, and he pays his share of taxes, he fights on the side of the United States, and he pays his own expenses. The present Indian policy, therefore, carried out to all its legitimate sequences, is going to save him from the almshouse and jail, at least as much as the average of the population; and he will soon be lost and merged in the volume of American humanity. We are disposed to clinch this very imperfect presentation of the case with the following extract from the last annual report of Commissioner Morgan. He says: —
Page 31 THE INDIAN POLICY. 31 The great forces now at work -land in severalty, with its accompanying dissolution of the tribal relation and breaking up of the reservation; the destruction of the agency system; citizenship and all that belongs thereto of manhood, independence, privilege, and duty; education, which seeks to bring the young Indians into right relationship with the age in which they live, and to put into their hands the tools by which they may gain for themselves food and clothing, and build for themselves homes - will, if allowed to continue undisturbed a reasonable length of time, accomplish their beneficent ends. They should be fostered, strengthened, maintained, and allowed to operate. Other forces scarcely less powerful than these —namely, the progress of our own civilization, which is invading the reservations and surrounding the Indians on every side; the progress of Christianity through the active missionary efforts of the churches; the changed conditions which have forced upon the Indians themselves the necessity of greater efforts toward self-help and improvement -combine and co-operate with the organized efforts of the government to bring about their uplifting. How long it will take for the work to be completed depends partly upon the wisdom of Congress when making necessary laws, partly upon the will of the executive in making appointments and giving direction to Indian affairs, partly upon the fidelity and intelligence of agents and others chosen to superintend the work, partly upon the vigor and efficiency of the schools and those employed to teach industries, partly upon the zeal of Christian churches and humanitarians, and largely upon the spirit of those of our people who find themselves in face to face relationship with Indian families and individuals, on the reservations and elsewhere. I will venture to say that it is possible before the close of the present century to carry this matter so far toward its final consummation as to put it beyond the range of anxiety. Such are the views or the present Commissioner; and here we would rest the case, were it not for the importance of laying a little further stress on the serious evils —legacies from former errorwhich still remain engrafted on the system, being difficult of removal. We have referred to the agency system as one of these evils, but do not wish to be understood as asserting that under no circumstances are United States agents necessary. The agency is even yet to be regarded as a necessary evil on some of the reservations. But there has been so much iniquity practised under this system, and there yet remains about the appointment of agents so much of the odium of a political favoritism which is destructive of economy and efficiency in accomplishing the purpose of the United States to civilize the Indians, that the sooner these
Page 32 32 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. agencies can be dispensed with, the better, unless important modifications can be made in the agent's powers and relations to his wards. At best, the agency is an autocracy: the agent's wards are almost serfs; and it is therefore, we say, unavoidably an evil, if unmodified, when these Indians are in training for civilized life. To exercise his unlimited power wisely and beneficently requires an incumbent nearer perfect than any method of appointment is likely to produce. As for the recent enactment providing for the selection of agents from officers of the army, it would be a shade better than their choice from among political henchmen of politicians but for one thing. Army government is also autocratic, and the new method of appointment may only delay the time when progressive tribes can throw off every yoke and make of themselves self-governing communities of intelligent men. However, the agency system, as at present constituted, never will and never can fit the Indian to become a duly qualified citizen of the United States. It should be replaced by a democratic system of local government for the Indian, the simplest possible, but containing the germs and elements of our form of government. As to the education of the Indians, Congress has done well, but ought to do better. If education is necessary to fit the Indians for citizenship,- and nothing is clearer,- then is it not false economy to half educate them, and to educate half of them? Could logic make anything plainer than that, if this is a good thing, in the interest of America, it is good to do it for all of them, and to do it all for them? And that without unnecessary delay. The people of the United States, therefore, through their representatives at Washington, are mainly responsible for prolonging this obstructive problem in the path of national progress, if they fail to appropriate all the money necessary to effectuate the wise conclusions of this generation. Hitherto Congress has stopped short of that point. They maintain a certain number of schools to educate Indian children, and then turn the latter loose on wild reservations, and complain if they lapse into barbarism. They give them few and incompetent instructors in farming, furnish them with no mechanics' tools, few implements of farming, but little stock and seed, and expect them, out of nothing but an education, to materialize all these, and resist derision and family influence besides. Is it to be wondered at that the government furnishes 4,001,260 pounds of beef in I890 against 2,260,032 in 1878 at one agency, if no effort is made to teach them wise farming and grazing?
Page 33 THE INDIAN POLICY. 33 We have stated a strong case; but, if we mistake not, the aggregate delivery of beef this year is some 34,000,000 pounds against 33,ooo,ooo about 1877,- an increase in fifteen years of about I,ooo,ooo pounds instead of a large reduction, as there should be. Much of this is issued to satisfy treaty stipulations, it is true; and this constitutes the pauperizing ration system. Now, we must fulfil the obligations of treaties, and comply with their spirit to the fullest extent. But an early stop should be put to their fulfilment in this form, because it is cruel and beggaring to the Indian. Each reservation should be helped and taught to raise its own subsistence, and whatever money is necessary to help the Indians to help themselves should be ungrudgingly spent by the government, on the wise principle of organized charity. It appears to us that the government should offer inducements to the Indians to accept, in lieu of these annuities in food, clothing, and money, a capitalized sum, to be given them in industrial schools, farming implements, tools of various kinds, seeds, live stock, and whatever would enable them to support themselves, with a sum left in trust at interest, the income to be applied to the payment of salaries to farmers and industrial teachers. If a tribe is now furnished 4,000,000 pounds of gross beef, under treaty obligation, annually, and that beef costs the United States three cents per pound on an average, or $120,000 annually, it would not be out of the way to capitalize this at $2,400,000, and get rid of the annual expenditure and of the pauperism at the same time. It would be cheap for the United States. Few people have any conception of the extent of the burden which these legacies of statesmanship have entailed on our country. At the opening of bids May 3 of this year there were 543 competitors to furnish almost every conceivable thing, including the 34,000,00o0 pounds of beef and 9,500,000 of flour; and all these things are given to the Indians. About $2,000,o000 were deposited by these bidders, merely as guarantees for faithful performance of their contracts. A large warehouse on Wooster Street, New York, is occupied by the United States government, with a considerable force of men engaged the year round in receiving, examining, packing, and shipping goods to the various agencies and schools; and 5,187,150 pounds of freight were shipped thence in I891, besides the enormous supplies of beef, flour, etc., delivered directly from Western points. If the policy of feeding and clothing the Indians gratuitously were
Page 34 34 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. ended in the way we have suggested, all this machinery and outlay would be saved to the country, and the Indians would become producers, and doubtless in some instances raise a surplus of produce for the general market. In brief, then, our conclusions are these. It is demonstrated that Indians are capable of education and civilization. The way to correct their present state of dependence on others is to teach them self-reliance. The way to perpetuate this state is to continue to feed and clothe them. They should be trusted and thrown on their own resources, but assisted with implements and instructors to help themselves. All tribal conditions should be terminated. Communal tenure of land should be broken dp. They should be mingled with and surrounded by the best white civilization. Isolation and reservation will not accomplish this. They should be placed under the same laws as whites as soon as capable of it, and should be helped to this capability, and allowed to buy, sell, and find their own natural level; and at the earliest possible day every line of demarcation between Indians and whites, politically, should be obliterated. INDIAN CITIZENSHIP. BY REV. ROBERT W. HILL, D.D., INDIAN TERRITORY. Indian citizenship represents the latest development in our efforts to civilize the Indian race. From the earliest years the American people have had the Indian question before them. When the Pilgrim Fathers began the settlement of this country, they found themselves confronted with it. To properly deal with the natives was a burning question; and from that day to the present, in all the States and Territories, the people have been compelled to face the same problem. As the Indian race was crowded and pushed westward from the Atlantic coast by the settlers, the problem assumed greater importance. So long as the Indians were allowed to rove at will over vast tracts of country, using the land as great game preserves and seldom coming into prolonged contact with the settlers, they were content with the conditions surrounding them, and were but
Page 35 THE INDIAN POLICY. 35 little affected by white civilization; but, when the needs of the white settlers required that the great game preserves of the Indians should be broken up and the land made use of to furnish food and homesteads for the rapidly increasing population, then the Indian question engaged serious attention, for it became necessary to dispose of the Indian in some way. THE TREATY PERIOD. Hence came the many treaties, under which the Indians ceded lands to the government and secured, in return, promise of protection from further encroachment on the part of the whites, as well as the assurance from the government that they would be secured in their ancient tribal rights and privileges. These treaties with the Indians were all based upon the proposition that the Indian tribes are "dependent domestic nations," and should be permitted to enjoy all the privileges flowing from such a relation. Under such treaties Indians were not recognized as entitled to citizenship nor as competent for the responsibilities of citizenship so long as they retained tribal relations. They were allowed to have a certain measure of law-making power independent of the State or nation, and the treaties seemed to recognize this measure of autonomy as dependent upon the principle of tribal independence. So long as Indian tribes were vested with such a measure of independence, they retained the ancient habits and clung tenaciously to the tribal traditions. Hence the efforts to civilize them, to bring them to a full comprehension of the spirit of our own age, and to a participation in the responsibilities which civilization imposes, largely failed. Here and there, it is true, certain tribes or remnants of tribes approached quite closely in their habits to the type of civilization which was around them. Some of the Eastern tribes, like those in Western New York, having no longer hunting grounds, were compelled to use the land left to them by the settlers for farming purposes; and they have made homes which are more or less filled with the comforts characterizing the homes of their white neighbors. But, taken as a whole, however, civilization made little progress until the early policy of the government underwent a radical change. THE RESERVATION SYSTEM. The first change brought about was the organization of what we call the reservation system. Under this system the Indians were
Page 36 36 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. no longer recognized as having the rights of "dependent domestic nations." Henceforth they were "wards of the government," under the absolute control of agents appointed by the government, and with no power to determine for themselves those things which were best for their happiness or progress. Congress became the sole law-making power. This reservation system, with greater or lesser deviation from the central idea, has prevailed in the treatment of the Indians for many years; and under it the Indian has been degraded rather than lifted up. He has been taught to look to the government for food and clothing, and has become a dependant on public bounty. While the Indian was free, and could follow the game up and down the land, he was independent so far as food and clothing were concerned; but, under the influence of the government policy upon the reservations, he learned to believe that his needs would all be supplied at call from government bounty, and to be insolent in his demands. The self-supporting red men of former days were degraded into the listless reservation Indians, whose appearance upon the platforms of Western railroad stations is familiar to all. It is fortunately true that in certain parts of the country, and among certain of the tribes, the reservation principle in its entirety has never been enforced; and where concessions have obtained, relieving the Indian of many of the restrictions of the reservation system, there the Indian'has been enabled to make more or less progress. The reservation is opposed to civilization. It continued tribal methods. It meant pauperism. Under its influence there always has been community of property. The reservation land has been held in common as the property of the tribe, and no individual had title to any portion of the tribal domain. He could not inherit nor leave it to his children. The government would neither recognize nor protect individual rights. There was no inducement for an Indian to plant trees, or build houses, or erect fences, because others were sure to reap the fruit of his labor. There was no encouragement to settled habits of life. No wonder that, so long as this system obtained, it engendered general thriftlessness, or that crime could flourish, and that true ideals of life had little effect. No wonder, also, that under these circumstances we were compelled not only to feed the Indian pauper, but to fight him. Whenever he believed that he had a sufficient stock of rations on hand to enable him to subsist independently, he was ready for the war-path. The blankets and food were supplied by
Page 37 THE INDIAN POLICY. 37 the government, and with money obtained by a lease of his land for grazing purposes, he could buy arms and ammunition, and then defy for a time all the forces we could bring against him. Then, too, what little of association reservation life permitted with our border people, generally taught the Indian the worst side of our civilization; and it is not surprising that to him "the white man's way" always appeared inferior to the " Indian's road." He could not comprehend how any benefits would be secured to him through such a life as he saw on the border. Therefore, he preferred the life which meant ultimate destruction. The reservation system was a costly failure, and another change in the government's policy was made. SEVERALTY AND CITIZENSHIP. The third method of dealing with the Indian was the severalty plan, under which we give the individual a separate tract of land, expecting him to cultivate the same, conferring upon him the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and breaking up as far as possible the tribal spirit, with all that it implies. Since its adoption there has not been time enough to carry out this plan of Indian citizenship with land in severalty, so as to be able to include under its operations all the Indians in the country; but there has been so much of a trial as to enable some of its effects to become manifest. We had already learned that there is a wide difference between the character of the white man and the Indian, and that this difference is due as much to a natural inclination as to education. The forms of law and all the restraints which are imposed by citizenship are congenial to the white man: he has learned the great lesson of individual responsibility; but the Indian, while he has always had a political organization more or less compact and suited to his conditions, has always been a stranger to the restraints of law and to the responsibilities of individuality, and has chafed under them. When the Indian is vested, under the new system, with the large responsibilities of citizenship, the first lessons he is compelled to learn are those of self-restraint, obedience, and prudent forethought. He finds that he can no longer be a law to himself, nor has he the power to take law into his own hands. He must respect the rights of others, and has no personal power to protect his own. He is compelled to trust his welfare and the protection of his rights to his fellow-citizens, and to depend upon their sense of right for that recog
Page 38 38 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. nition of his personal privileges which will secure to him the personal advantages to which he is entitled by law. As he cannot always follow his inclination, and as he finds himself checked and restrained, he learns the lesson, so necessary to citizenship, of self-restraint. And, in proportion as he learns this lesson, he prepares himself to become a proper citizen. And, while he is learning the lesson of self-restraint, he is also acquiring the habit of obedience to law, and learns to recognize the fact that there must be authority empowered to command, and that the first duty upon his part is obedience to such legal authority. When this has been well learned, he has made great progress; but, if he learns no more than this, he will probably become in the end a public charge. Up to this time the Indian has taken no thought of the morrow, for the government has made full provision for his wants. Now, as the government supply of food and clothing is to be cut off, he must consider the future, and make such provision to-day as will secure to him comfort and plenty on the morrow. In all his past the Indian has lived up to the principles of "eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die "; but now he finds it necessary, while eating and drinking to-day, to save a portion of his supplies, in order that he may live to-morrow. His supplies depend on his labor. He can no longer be a careless child of the hour. He must carefully study for the future, and prudently make provision for the wants of the days to come. Thus citizenship ought to teach prudence and forethought. Whenever these lessons have been well learned, the Indian will become a good citizen indeed. We ask then, Will he ever learn these great lessons? Left to himself, the Indian will make but feeble efforts to imitate the habits of the white man; but under the spur and push of our civilization, and the constraining influence of law, the Indian is compelled, even against his will, to conform to many of the outward habits of his neighbor. His inclination and training prevent his imitation of the white man in the exercise of those habits which require hard labor and self-denial. Natural characteristics make the Indians easily subject to a stronger will. If left alone, they never would lift themselves above their present condition. It is doubtful whether they possess that individuality and determination which would promise such development as has been achieved by many other races. But, while they do not and have not possessed propelling power, they have possessed always an imitative faculty; and, in proportion as this faculty has been exercised, they have been brought somewhat under the control of the principles which govern civilized society.
Page 39 THE INDIAN POLICY. 39 When the reservation Indian erects by the side of his tepee a frame house, even though he does not live very much in the frame house, or uses it as a stable, the construction of the house is a sign that he has been influenced by his association with his white neighbors, and that beneficially. He has been stimulated to depart from old habits. So, too, when the Indian plants a field of wheat, potatoes, corn, although he may never go into the field after the planting to hoe or cultivate, and although the produce of the planting, owing to the unchecked growth of weeds, may be but small, still the planting is an indication of the desire to secure independence and of willingness to conform to some of the conditions which modify the life of his neighbors. All of these things indicate a possibility of advancement; but, unless there be a compelling force, stimulating to prolonged and regular activity, the progressive movement dependent solely upon imitation will produce but spasmodic and insufficient results. Until the Indian learns to labor regularly and steadily, there is but little chance for such citizenship as will be healthful to the commonwealth. EDUCATION. We must not look upon Indian citizenship as a panacea for all of the ills of the border. Nor must we expect that dividing land in severalty by itself will secure such final solution of the Indian problem as will be satisfactory to the thoughtful student of sociology. It has been said, however, that under the spur of recent laws the education of the younger Indians will eventually solve the Indian problem. This takes too hopeful a view of present methods of Indian education. The education which the Indians now receive, while largely unfitting them for the former life, does not place within their reach the comforts to which they have become accustomed while in school. The system is not yet a perfect system. From personal observation it seems that a large number of those who stand foremost in the Indian training schools fail to maintain themselves when they return to their people. The reason for this is to be looked for either in the system under which they receive education or else in a weakness of character which will be found difficult to remedy. The trouble may be ascribed by some to a combination of these causes. Certainly, the education which has not in contemplation the conditions of life which surround and control the Indian after school years is defective while there can be no doubt that the Indian character is not usually strong enough to
Page 40 40 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. stand against the ridicule of camp associates, and requires some stimulus if it does not degenerate. It is unfortunate that our educational system, and the laws at present enacted for the government of the Indians, do not fully consider the environments of the Indians. Take, for example, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes who live in the western portion of the new Territory of Oklahoma. The boys and girls are either educated at schools upon the reservation or are taken to others remote from the home of the tribes. The government law which has given to these Indians land in severalty has permitted them to make selection of the choice land in the old reservation, and the remaining portion has been opened to white settlement, so that the whites are all around the Indians, and mingled with them to some extent. They are face to face with the civilization of the West. The Indian boys and girls on leaving school and returning to their homes have found new and strange conditions awaiting them. They no longer have a vast country to roam over, but have a small tract of land on which to make a permanent home. At the school they were taught arts or trades of some kind, and to some extent acquired habits of application and the power to execute. Upon their return to their homes they have been ready to work at a trade, but have found no opportunity. The Indian blacksmith cannot compete with his white neighbor whose smithy rings cheerfully from morning till night to the sound of hammer, because the white man will not patronize the Indian blacksmith; and up to the present time the Indians have had little need for blacksmiths, the government heretofore giving to them help in this direction free of cost. If the Indian boy has learned at the Indian school the trades of tinsmith, tailor, wagon-maker or shoemaker, he finds, when he has returned to his home, that manufactories in the East and West are able to turn out supplies so cheaply that he cannot compete. To depend upon his trade means starvation. The Indian carpenter and the Indian painter secure some work; but they are almost entirely dependent for employment upon white neighbors, and white neighbors have little confidence in Indian skill. In the case of the women the conditions are substantially the same where they depend upon employment outside their own home, while in the average Indian home they find no opportunity to put in practice the lessons which they have been taught. They have neither the furniture nor the material which will enable the Indian girls to cook and prepare as they were taught to cook and prepare in the school. And, as for sewing, dresses are usually purchased more cheaply at the store than they can possibly be made by Indian sewing women.
Page 41 THE INDIAN POLICY. 4I THE INDIAN IN RELATION TO PUBLIC BURDENS. These tribes have been paid vast sums of money for their lands, and are squandering that money as rapidly as possible. They have not learned economy or prudence. They cannot dispose of their homestead severalty lands, and therefore will have for years to come control of a portion of the soil; yet it is doubtful if they do not find themselves dependent upon the charity of their neighbors in a very short time. The policy of the government which permits them to squander their land money for useless trinkets and gaudy adornments will promote an increase of crime and pauperism; for these Indians are now citizens, and have been invested with all the privileges and responsibilities pertaining to citizenship. They are not prepared for such responsibilities. They cannot appreciate the new privileges, and must still, to some extent, remain under the care of agents. They, however, are citizens of Oklahoma, owning property and sharing public privileges. But the streams must be bridged, roads must be made, public buildings erected, and general expenses met. Either the Indian property must bear its proportion of public burdens or the necessary improvements cannot be made in counties where the Indians have title to'much land. But, if taxed, the land cannot be held for taxes; and hence taxes will prove hard to collect, and lead to trouble. This question of taxation, then, is one of importance; and the relations of the Indian citizens to their neighbors will largely depend upon the manner in which it is settled. The white people will not be content to pay for all the public improvements necessary in the community, and permit Indian property to be exempt from its proportion of taxation; and, as the Indians have not been accustomed to taxation in any form, they will view any effort in this direction with great distrust. If the government insists that Indian property remain exempt from taxation, it is possible for a serious conflict to arise between the State authorities and the government. Each State has the right to determine the qualification of its own voters; and, as that qualification is usually based upon the two conditions of citizenship and residence, the State will find itself in somewhat of a quandary in the matter of the newly made citizens, as the State has no control over the steps leading to citizenship, neither has it apparently entire control over the exercise of the functions of citizenship. The State has a right to demand that every citizen, as compensation for the privileges he enjoys, participate in sharing public expenses. If citi
Page 42 42 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. zenship confers privileges, it also imposes responsibilities; and these responsibilities are generally more important to the State than the privileges. But in the case of these newly made Indian citizens we are to have a class entitled to all privileges and relieved from all responsibilities. Such a condition of affairs cannot long continue, and is certain to produce friction in the commonwealth. Another question at this point is, How far shall a State be responsible for Indian education? Under the present control of Indian affairs by the general government, Indian education is entirely vested in the general government. But public education, its methods, and the provision to sustain the same is one of the prerogatives of the State itself; and its duty towards its citizens is not completely performed until it has placed within the reach of every child the opportunity to secure such an education as will prepare it for the duties of life. Nay, some are willing to go even further, and are prepared to say that, in order to promote the interests of the State, every child should be compelled to attend school until it has acquired enough information and until its character has been sufficiently trained to fit it for citizenship. But, with a large percentage of the citizens of the State under the management of the general government, the State will be asked how it can possibly supervise and control public education in the proper way. Then, also, it is highly probable that in a short time the government, having invested the Indians with citizenship, will declare itself relieved from further responsibility for their education, and will thrust upon the State the entire burden of educating a large portion of the community which is entirely exempt from the provision by which the funds to maintain educational institutions are secured. THE OUTLOOK. If we may reason for the future from the past, the outlook for Indian citizens among the wilder tribes is not very hopeful. The Mission Indians of California, who were made citizens, had arrived at a self-supporting condition before citizenship was conferred upon them. Under the lead of the Fathers of the California Missions these Indians had developed into a quiet, industrious, and happy people, with sufficient stock and enough land to enable them to live in comfort. As soon, however, as the changes in their political condition placed them entirely at the mercy of their white neighbors, they were reduced to a condition of indigence. They lost their
Page 43 THE INDIAN POLICY. 43 homes and lands, and were speedily made paupers and a public burden. If such a disastrous outcome followed a change where the Indians had made a large measure of progress in civilization, can we reasonably hope for a better outcome where the wild Indians have their condition suddenly changed? It seems unreasonable to expect that an Indian like the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, or Apache, who has never had settled habits of life, who has never received any industrial training, who is not sufficiently familiar with the methods of agriculture to enable him to obtain a subsistence from the soil, and who has neither stock nor money sufficient to enable him to live independently on a farm, will be in a position to train himself into good citizenship simply by vesting in him the title to one hundred and sixty acres or more of land. He is placed, as it were, naked in the centre of a homestead tract, and he is asked to live upon the fruits of the ground. Surely, if it were unreasonable to expect a white man to succeed under such disadvantages, it is also unreasonable to expect an Indian to succeed. And yet in many cases this is the exact condition of the Indian after allotment. The land question among the civilized tribes is also a complicated one. As long as these tribes hold land in common, they will not accept citizenship. They prefer their present independence, and, left to themselves, will not surrender the privileges granted under the treaties of I866 in exchange for the uncertain powers of Territorial government. But the white people resident in the Indian Territory will succeed in changing the present form of government. The settlement of the land question is already mooted; and after that? For the whites and many of the Indians, prosperity and gradual racial absorption; but, for the other Indians among these tribes, a gradual degeneration, resulting in final and irremedial pauperism. There is time at present only to sum up. From past experience in dealing with the Indian it seems that there are certain preliminaries which should be fully accomplished before Indian citizenship becomes the rule: — First.- To provide such a form of education as will have in contemplation the exact conditions of life which will surround Indian boys and girls when their school education is finished. Second.- To provide such help for the adult Indians as will secure to each a sufficient knowledge of productive agriculture or merchantable industry to enable him to support his family and himself upon such allotment as is finally secured to him.
Page 44 44 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Third. —To make such provision for public burdens as shall equalize such burdens upon whites and Indians resident in the same county, so that, instead of the whites being burdened through the non-taxation of Indian citizens, they shall not suffer in any way by the presence of Indian citizens in the community. Fourth.- Provision on the part of the general government, which is responsible for Indian citizenship, which will secure to the Indians a continuance of necessary help until such time as the Indians are able to fully provide for themselves, if during a period of twenty-five years. That the Indians be still regarded in a measure as wards of the government during the entire term of probation, and during that time the government to be responsible for the protection of the Indians in their relation to the State. Fifth.- Some Congressional action by which the rights of the Indians shall be secured from the jealousy of neighbors, and under the operations of which citizenship shall be conferred only where tribes have made a measurable advance in civilization. It is true that at the present time this is left to the discretion of the President; but the interests of the Indians should not be left entirely at the mercy of any one person, no matter how good a man he may be. Sixth.- An entire change in the intercourse laws, where the same prevail, is desirable. If the people are allowed to mingle freely with Indians, and if Indians are permitted to trade wherever they can obtain their supplies at most favorable rates, mutual good feeling will soon result; and the Indians will gradually be educated to look with greater favor upon the white people with whom they come in contact. Now their views are largely colored by the agency traders, whose in terest is in opposition to any change from present conditions. Lastly.- Industrial education in useful work for all Indian children, compulsory and continuous during nonage, disarmament of the adults, and encouragement of all efforts to bring them to productive labor and self-support.
Page 45 THE INDIAN POLICY. 45 THE ADVANTAGES OF MINGLING INDIANS WITH WHITES. BY CAPTAIN R. H. PRATT. "The contact of peoples is the best of all education." My invitation to present a paper before this Conference suggested that the theme be "The Advantages of mingling Indians with Whites." An old and famous member of Congress from the South, noted for dignity and social qualities, once told me that the most polite man he ever knew was " a darky black as your hat," born in Africa, brought to America in a slave-ship, and sold at auction in the market of a Southern city. He said that a very amiable and polite gentleman took a fancy to the young negro, bought him, and finally made use of him as a body servant, which position he held for many years. During this time the example of his master and his master's associates developed the character and quality which gained for him this high praise. In the sixties, when serving among the Comanches, I frequently met one of their leading men who, always dressed in civilized garb, could speak a little English, was more progressive and full of business activity than any of his tribe, and who was a gentleman and a general favorite with the whites. He was the first Comanche to live in a house and to make a success of farming. I asked an old interpreter how he accounted for the difference between this man and the others of his tribe. The interpreter said that years before, while living in Texas, the tribe had an excellent agent, who took a special fancy to Essatoyet, and used him as a helper about his house and the agency for two or three years. An old Cheyenne chief, named Minimic, nearly sixty years of age, who had been the head of the war forces of his people for many years, led them in their fights against the government and had been leader in their savage rites and ceremonies, was among the prisoners under my care in the old fort at St. Augustine, Fla., from I875 to 1878. While there, he became a favorite among the gentlemen of the yachting club; and from time to time I permitted him to go to the club-room and out sailing with different gentlemen. He soon learned
Page 46 46 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. to express himself a little in English; and no gentleman ever paid more attention to his toilet than Minimic did, when he was permitted to accept one of these invitations. He learned to imitate, so far as he was able, the dress of the gentlemen he associated with; and his manner became wonderfully improved and civilized. His regular duty at the old fort was to be captain of the wood squad, and it was his delight to keep a large stock of wood ready cut and nicely piled ahead. After his release in 1878, and his return to his home, he gathered about him the men that he had led in battle before, and the first year undertook and filled contracts for the cutting and the delivery of fifteen hundred cords of wood to the military post near and to the Indian agent. Howling Wolf, another of the prisoners, was threatened with blindness. Mrs. Senator Pendleton, who visited St. Augustine, became interested in him, got the consent of the authorities in Washington, and sent him to Boston, where he was placed under treatment in an eye hospital. He was gone about five months. My house fronted the bay, and persons going to and from the fort generally passed along the sea wall in front of us. We saw a dapper gentleman, with hand satchel, Derby hat, and cane, pass up the sea wall into the fort with quick step; and I went to the fort to see who it was, and found that Howling Wolf had returned unannounced, his eyes greatly benefitted, and in addition, in his dress, manner, and conduct, he had imbibed a large stock of Boston qualities. In fact, I was not long in finding out that, in some respects, he had taken on altogether too much Boston for his resources and future good. He became insubordinate and insurrectionary, and I was forced to discipline him. Since his return home he has been persistently demanding that he be considered a great man, and has pestered the situation not a little by his assumed superiority. I might consume all my time in giving like illustrations,-and even stronger ones,-showing where mere association of Indians with whites has brought about entire change in them, but perhaps no one will dispute the potency of these influences. A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man. We are just now making a great pretence of anxiety to civilize the
Page 47 .THE INDIAN POLICY. 47 Indians. I use the word "pretence " purposely, and mean it to have all the significance it can possibly carry. Washington believed that commerce freely entered into between us and the Indians would bring about their civilization, and Washington was right. He was followed by Jefferson, who inaugurated the reservation plan. Jefferson's reservation was to be the country west of the Mississippi; and he issued instructions to those controlling Indian matters to get the Indians there, and let the Great River be the line between them and the whites. Any method of securing removal -persuasion, purchase, or force- was authorized. Jefferson's plan became the permanent policy. The removals have generally been accomplished by purchase, and the evils of this are greater than those of all the others combined. Washington's policy was one of association, equality, amalgamation,-killing the Indian and saving the man. Jefferson's plan was segregation, degradation, destruction. Washington's plan meant health, self-help, economy, hope, increase in every way. Jefferson's plan meant and has proven destructive to the Indians, vastly expensive, hopeless, and productive of inertia, disease, and death. At no period in the history of the country and in no case has Washington's plan been honestly tried. At every period we have blindly and remorselessly followed Jefferson. We have bought the Indians into moving; we have harassed them into moving; we have fought them into moving; and we have imprisoned them upon reservations, and then most carefully guarded and hindered their intercourse in any way, shape, or manner with us and our best civilization. " A Century of Dishonor " has been written against us, but far less than half of the real fact has been laid before the public. Greater than all others combined in cruelty, in destruction, in inhumanity, is the one particular feature of purchase in our Indian management; and this feature is of such a character as to be hidden from public notice and public criticism, and to be even paraded as a great benefit. Tacitus says, "The human mind is so constituted as to make us hate those whom we have wronged"; and having wronged the Indian by our driving out and segregating methods, denied that he is human and capable of development, we have little compunction at his death in any form, and the man who will lead battalions against him and destroy him, either in fair fight or shoot him down when he is a prisoner and helpless, we publicly applaud, and reward with the gift of every
Page 48 48 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. office from President down. Governors, senators, representatives, generals,-all have reached place and fame through destroying Indians. I wish, if I can, to make you see the purchase system as I see it,to have you understand the enormous crime we have committed and are committing against the Indians through this system. Samuel Milroy, agent for the Miami Indians, making his report to, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, from Delphi, Ind., on Sept. I9, 1839, accounting for the loss in numbers in that once powerful and most warlike tribe, stated: " The large amount of their annuities compared with their numbers is the leading cause of their rapid decline. One of their principal chiefs indicated the fact to me, through the interpreter, Captain Andre, that in his knowledge in eighteen years 450~ men and 36 women had perished by the knife. Perhaps in the whole history of man, savage and civilized, there is not an instance of a nation being exterminated by assassination, or as nearly so, as in the case of the Miamis; and this national suicidal propensity is wholly occasioned by intemperance, and there is, perhaps, no instance of killing amongst them except when intoxicated." Mr. Milroy, in the same report, gives a description of the satisfaction of the Indians with the promptness of the government in making payment of large money annuities which he had just disbursed. At that time Mr. Milroy reported that they numbered 700. They now (I892) number only 75. A few weeks ago I asked one of my young graduates of the Osage tribe how he accounted for the great decrease among the Osages, from 3,490 in i868 to about 1,500 at the present time. He at once and promptly replied, "Whiskey and idleness"; and he was right. The Osages receive about $250 per annum from the United States government for every man, woman, and child in the tribe. They have a home in the north-eastern part of the Indian Territory, of nearly fifteen hundred thousand acres of excellent land. They are bordered on all sides by an aggressive, scheming, money-making population, which in a very large portion of its elements is destitute of any human principle towards the Indians, and ready to resort to any debauching means to enrich itself. Having a border of about two hundred miles, the best of laws and the most ample policing care cannot possibly protect them from the surrounding influences. I asked one of my Osage girls if her people got drunk. "Oh, yes," she said. "Do they ever kill each other when they are drunk?"
Page 49 THE INDIAN POLICY. 49 "Oh, yes: often the men kill each other, and the women, too, sometimes." Being carefully segregated, away from the observation of the almost omnipresent newspaper correspondent, and being only Indians, these facts never get before the public. Not less destructive, but more potent and far-reaching, is the destruction caused by the debasing influences of idleness. Immorality and disease which passes to the children are doing their deadly work; and the once powerful tribe, originally as magnificent specimens of manhood as I ever looked upon, is becoming extinct through influences and forces thrust upon it by a so-called humane and Christian government. The worst of it all is that this is being done under the pretext of justice and righteousness, and now more largely than ever. It is a sad day for the Indians when they fall under the assaults of our troops, as in the Piegan massacre, the massacre of Old Black Kettle and his Cheyennes at what is termed "the battle of the Washita," and hundreds of other like places in the history of our dealings with them; but a far sadder day is it for them when they fall under the baneful influences of a treaty agreement with the United States whereby they are to receive large annuities, and to be protected on reservations, and held apart from all association with the best of our civilization. The destruction is not so speedy, but it is far more general. The history of the Miamis and Osages is only the true picture of all other tribes. One of the most ingenious arguments that has been presented to warrant this course by the government, and one which has had perhaps the most weight with many Congressmen, especially from the West, has been that it was an offset for the River and Harbor Bill, and that it distributed public moneys inland; and latterly we find the whole current of administration of Indian affairs, in the school department, turned into the same channel, large sums secured in school appropriations on these grounds and spent for the erection of school-houses on reservations and in the vicinity of reservations. One of the arguments the Commissioner of Indian Affairs makes in favor of his solicited increase of money for schools is this: - It should be borne in mind that the money expended at these Indian schools is put at once into circulation in their immediate vicinity,- and the employees are mostly white people, men and women carefully chosen; that the money they receive for this work enters largely into the financial growth of their respective communities, and
Page 50 50 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. becomes a part of the general prosperity of the country. A great burden rests upon the Western States and Territories which embrace Indian reservations; for Indian lands are not taxed, and Indians not only do not contribute to the advancement of these growing communities, but the progress of the State or Territory is often, and sometimes necessarily, hindered to a greater or lesser extent by their presence. It would therefore seem only a matter of equity that the burden of these Western States and Territories should be lightened by the distribution among them of such money as may be necessary for the education of the Indians. Unfortunately for both the Indians and the government, this has been the plan of management all the time. The "equity" has all been purely and solely for the white man. Nothing could be better calculated to secure failure in uplifting the Indians and to prolong an unnecessary and expensive management. The real good of the Indian has little or no weight in such argument. Every appropriation, every movement, must be based on its probable pecuniary advantage to the white race. "Put yourself in his place" is as good a guide to a proper conception of the Indian and his cause as it is to help us to right conclusions in our relations with other men. For many years we greatly oppressed the black man, but the germ of human liberty remained among us and grew, until, in spite of our irregularities, there came from the lowest savagery into intelligent manhood and freedom among us more than seven millions of our population, who are to-day an element of industrial value with which we could not well dispense. However great this victory has been for us, we have not yet fully learned our lesson nor completed our work; nor will we have done so until there is throughout all of our communities the most unequivocal and complete acceptance of our own doctrines, both national and religious. Not until there shall be in every locality throughout the nation a supremacy of the Bible principle of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, and full obedience to the doctrine of our Declaration that "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created free and equal, with certain inalienable rights," and of the clause in our Constitution which forbids that there shall be "' any abridgment of the rights of citizens on account of race, color, or previous condition." I leave off the last two words "of servitude," because I want to be entirely and consistently American. Inscrutable are the ways of Providence. Horrible as were the experiences of its introduction, and of slavery itself, there was con
Page 51 THE INDIAN POLICY. 51 cealed in them the greatest blessing that ever came to the Negro race,- seven millions of blacks from cannibalism in darkest Africa to citizenship in free and enlightened America; not full, not complete citizenship, but possible - probable - citizenship, and on the highway and near to it. There is a great lesson in this. The schools did not make them citizens, the schools did not teach them the language, nor make them industrious and self-supporting. Denied the right of schools, they became English-speaking and industrious through the influences of association. Scattered here and there, under the care and authority of individuals of the higher race, they learned selfsupport and something of citizenship, and so reached their present place. No other influence or force would have so speedily accomplished such a result. Left in Africa, surrounded by their fellowsavages, our seven millions of industrious black fellow-citizens would still be savages. Transferred into these new surroundings and experiences, behold the result. They became English-speaking and civilized, because forced into association with English-speaking and civilized people; became healthy and multiplied, because they were property; and industrious, because industry, which brings contentment and health, was a necessary quality to increase their value. The Indians under our care remained savage, because forced back upon themselves and away from association with English-speaking and civilized people, and because of our savage example and treatment of them. We think the Indian's habit of scalping his enemy sure evidence of his inhumanity. But in an early day the Governor of Pennsylvania, by proclamation, offered bounties for the scalps of Indians, as follows: For every male above ten captured.............. $I50 For every male above ten scalped, being killed........... I30 For every female or male under ten captured.......... I30 For every female under ten scalped, being killed.......... 50 In I760 South Carolina, by an act of its governing body, appropriated the sum of thirty-five hundred pounds to pay for the scalps of Cherokee Indians. North Carolina in I760 passed an act of giving ten pounds for each and every Indian killed by any man or woman of that commonwealth; and, if the person was in the actual pay of the province at the time, he or she was to receive only five pounds. All plunder
Page 52 52 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. that such persons could capture from the Indians was to be their own property. Virginia in 1755 enacted a law giving ten pounds out of the pub-' lic money to any person or parties, whether in the pay of the colony or not, for every male Indian above the age of twelve years taken prisoner, killed, or destroyed within the limits of the colony. In 1708 Carolina gave a gun to every Indian who would kill another Indian. I could fill all the time allowed me giving like accounts of these early attempts at civilizing and Christianizing the Indians. This ponderous Indian question relates to less than two hundred and fifty thousand people, numerically less than double the population of this city. They are divided into about seventy tribes and languages. Their plane of life has always been above that of the African in his native state. That they have not become civilized and incorporated in the nation is entirely our fault. We have never made any attempt to civilize them with the idea of takingthem into the nation, and all of our policies have been against citizenizing and absorbing them. Although some of the policies now prominent are advertised to carry them into citizenship and consequent association and competition with other masses of the nation, they are not, in reality, calculated to do this. We are after the facts. Let us take the Land in Severalty Bill. Land in severalty, as administered, is in the way of the individualizing and civilization of the Indians, and is a means of holding the tribes together. Land in severalty is given to individuals adjoining each other on their present reservations. And experience shows that in some cases, after the allotments have been made, the Indians have entered into a compact among themselves to continue to hold their lands in common as a reservation. The inducement of the bill is in this direction. The Indians are not only invited to remain separate tribes and communities, but are practically compelled to, remain so. The Indian must either cling to his tribe and its locality, or take great chances of losing his rights and property. The day on which the Land in Severalty Bill was signed was announced to be the emancipation day for the Indians. The fallacy of that idea is so entirely demonstrated that the emancipation assumption is now withdrawn. We shall have to go elsewhere, and seek for other means besides land in severalty to release these people from their tribal relations
Page 53 THE INDIAN POLICY. 53 and to bring them individually into the capacity and freedom of citizens. Just now that land in severalty is being retired as the one all-powerful leverage that is going to emancipate and bring about Indian civilization and citizenship, we have another plan thrust upon us which has received great encomium from its authors, and has secured the favor of Congress to the extent of vastly increasing appropriations. This plan is calculated to arrest public attention, and to temporarily gain concurrence from everybody that it is really the panacea for securing citizenship and equality in the nation for the Indians. In its execution this means purely tribal schools among the Indians; that is, Indian youth must continue to grow up under the pressure of home surroundings. Individuals are not to be encouraged to get out and see and learn and join the nation. They are not to measure their strength with the other inhabitants of the land, and find out what they do not know, and thus be led to aspire to gain in education, experience, and skill,-those things that they must know in order to become equal to the rest of us. A public school system especially for the Indians is a tribal system; and this very fact says to them that we believe them to be incompetent, that they must not attempt to cope with us. Such schools build up tribal pride, tribal purposes, and tribal demands upon the government. They formulate the notion that the government owes them a living and vast sums of money; and by improving their education on these lines, but giving no other experience and leading to no aspirations beyond the tribe, leaves them in their chronic condition of helplessness, so far as reaching the ability to compete with the white race is concerned. It is like attempting to make a man well by always telling him he is sick. We have only to look at the tribes who have been subject to this influence to establish this fact, and it makes no difference where they are located. All the tribes in the State of New York have been trained in tribal schools; and they are still tribes and Indians, with no desire among the masses to be anything else but separate tribes. The five civilized tribes of the Indian Territory- Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles-have had tribal schools until it is asserted that they are civilized; yet they have no notion of joining us and becoming a part of the United States. Their whole disposition is to prey upon and hatch up claims against the government, and have the same lands purchased and repurchased and purchased again, to meet the recurring wants growing out of their
Page 54 54 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. neglect and inability to make use of, their large and rich estate. It was asserted.on the floor of the House of Representatives, and not contradicted, that some time in the fifties we paid one of these tribes $300,000 for a certain tract of land, and again in the sixties we paid $800,000 more for the same land, and a recent session of Congress passed a law giving them nearly $3,000,000 for the same property. What else but demoralization and destruction of principle and manhood could follow in the train of such a course of action towards any people? Yet they were educated in home schools, and have a certain sort of civilization, if we keep along the lines of travel and away from the back woods. Indian schools are just as well calculated to keep the Indians intact as Indians as Catholic schools are to keep the Catholics intact. Under our principles we have established the public school system, where people of all races may become unified in every way, and loyal to the government; but we do not gather the people of one nation into schools by themselves, and the people of another nation into schools by themselves, but we invite the youth of all peoples into all schools. We shall not succeed in Americanizing the Indian unless we take him in in exactly the same way. I do not care if abundant schools on the plan of Carlisle are established, If the principle we have always had at Carlisle - of sending them out into families and into the public schools -were left out, the result would be the same, even though such schools were established, as Carlisle is, in the centre of an intelligent and industrious population, and though such schools were, as Carlisle always has been, filled with students from many tribes. Purely Indian schools say to the Indians: "You are Indians, and must remain Indians. You are not of the nation, and cannot become of the nation. We do not want you to become of the nation." Before I leave this part of my subject I feel impelled to lay before you the facts, as I have come to look at them, of another influence that has claimed credit, and always has been and is now very dictatorial, in Indian matters; and that is the missionary as a citizenizing influence upon the Indians. The missionary goes to the Indian; he learns the language; he associates with him; he makes the Indian feel he is friendly, and has great desire to help him; he even teaches the Indian English. But the fruits of his labor, by all the examples that I know, have been to strengthen and encourage him to remain separate and apart from the rest of us. Of course, the more ad
Page 55 THE INDIAN POLICY. vanced, those who have a desire to become civilized, and to live like white men, who would with little encouragement go out into our communities, are the first to join the missionary's forces. They become his lieutenants to gather in others. The missionary must necessarily hold on to every help he can get to push forward his schemes and plans, so that he may make a good report to his Church; and, in order to enlarge his work and make it a success, he must keep his community together. Consequently, any who care to get out into the nation, and learn from actual experience what it is to be civilized, what is the full length and breadth and height and depth of our civilization, must stay and help the missionary. The operation of this has been disastrous to any individual escape from the tribe, has vastly and unnecessarily prolonged the solution of the question, and has needlessly cost the charitable people of this country large sums of money, to say nothing of the added cost to the government, the delay in accomplishing their civilization, and their destruction caused by such delay. If, as sometimes happens, the missionary kindly consents to let or helps one go out and get these experiences, it is only for the purpose of making him a preacher or a teacher or help of some kind; and such a one must, as soon as he is fitted, and much sooner in most cases, return to the tribe and help the missionary to save his people. The Indian who goes out has public charitable aid through his school course, forfeits his liberty, and is owned by the missionary. In all my experience of twenty-five years I have known scarcely a single missionary to heartily aid or advocate the disintegration of the tribes and the giving of individual Indians rights and opportunities among civilized people. There is this in addition: that the missionaries have largely assumed to dictate to the government its policy with tribes, and their dictations have always been along the lines of their colonies and church interests, and the government must gauge its actions to suit the purposes of the missionary, or else the missionary influences are at once exerted to defeat the purposes of the government. The government, by paying large sums of money to churches to carry on schools among Indians, only builds for itself opposition to its own interests. Years ago, under the orders of the Department, I went to New Mexico after children for Carlisle. I found there communities aggregating eleven thousand Indians. They were not nomads: they were village dwellers, agriculturists, stock-raisers, and their communities were the oldest within the limits of the United
Page 56 56 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. States. They had been under the influence of a church for two hundred and fifty or more years, and at this time the power of that church over them in all their affairs was absolute. They paid taxes and tithes to it alone, and yet there was not one single Indian in the whole eleven thousand that could either read or write in English or in any other language. When I brought up the subject of education, I was met at once with the strongest possible opposition, and confronted with the fact that the Indians had been commanded by the officials of that church not to send their children to school, not to allow them to learn the language of the country. Every step that has been taken towards getting the youth of these Indians into schools, and every attempt that has been made to Americanize them, has met with opposition from this church of the most insidious and imperious kind. We make our greatest mistake in feeding our civilization to the Indians instead of feeding the Indians to our civilization. America has different customs and civilizations from Germany. What would be the result of an attempt to plant American customs and civilization among the Germans in Germany, demanding that they shall become thoroughly American before we admit them to the country? Now, what we have all along attempted to do for and with the Indians is just exactly that, and nothing else. We invite the Germans to come into our country and communities, and share our customs, our civilization, to be of it; and the result is immediate success. Why not try it on the Indians? Why not invite them into experiences in our communities? Why always invite and compel them to remain a people unto themselves? It is a great mistake to think that the Indian is born an inevitable savage. He is born a blank, like all the rest of us. Left in the surroundings of savagery, he grows to possess a savage language, superstition, and life. We, left in the surroundings of civilization, grow to possess a civilized language, life, and purpose. Transfer the infant white to the savage surroundings, he will grow to possess a savage language, superstition, and habit. Transfer the savage-born infant to the surroundings of civilization, and he will grow to possess a civilized language and habit. These results have been established over and over again beyond all question; and it is also well established that those advanced in life, even to maturity, of either class, lose the already acquired qualities belonging to the side of their birth, and gradually take on those of the side to which they have been transferred.
Page 57 THE INDIAN POLICY. 57 As we have taken into our national family seven millions of Negroes, and as we receive foreigners at the rate of more than five hundred thousand a year, and assimilate them, it would seem that the time may have arrived when we can very properly make at least the attempt to assimilate our two hundred and fifty thousand Indians, using this proven potent line, and see if that will not end this vexed question and remove them from public attention, where they occupy so much more space than they are entitled to either by numbers or worth The school at Carlisle is an attempt on the part of the government to do this. Carlisle has always planted treason to the tribe and loyalty to the nation at large. It has preached against colonizing Indians, and in favor of individualizing them. It has demanded for them the same multiplicity of chances which all others in the country enjoy. Carlisle fills young Indians with the spirit of loyalty to the stars and stripes, and then moves them out into our communities to show by their conduct and ability that the Indian is no different from the white or the colored, that he has the inalienable right to liberty and opportunity that the white and the negro have. Carlisle does not dictate to him what line of life he should fill, so it is an honest one. It says to him that, if he gets his living by the sweat of his brow, and demonstrates to the nation that he is a man, he does more good for his race than hundreds of his fellows who cling to their tribal communistic surroundings. The result of the Carlisle system is that we have the most economical Indian school in the country, East or West, because large numbers of our pupils go into the public schools, live in families, work for their own support and schooling, become really independent of government support, and join the productive forces of the country. What they earn is theirs. Their earnings for the past year aggregate $21,603.79. They are taught to save. Over seven hundred have bank accounts, and their total credits from these earnings at the close of May was $15,980.69. They work principally on farms and as house-helps. Very many have become first-class workmen and workwomen, and get first-class pay. There is a great demand for them. More than double the number we could supply were asked for this year. The testimony as to qualification and character is "good " or " excellent " in nineteen cases out of twenty. No evidence is wanting to show that, in our industries, the Indian can become a capable and willing factor if he has the chance.
Page 58 58 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. What we need is an Administration which will give him the chance. The Land in Severalty Bill can be made far more useful than it is, but it can be made so only by assigning the land so as to intersperse good, civilized people among them. If, in the distribution, it is so arranged that two or three white families come between two Indian families, then there would necessarily grow up a community of fellowship along all the lines of our American civilization that would help the Indian at once to his feet. Indian schools must, of necessity, be for a time, because the Indian cannot speak the language, and he knows nothing of the habits and forces he has to contend with; but the highest purpose of all Indian schools ought to be only to prepare the young Indian to enter the public and other schools of the country. And immediately he is so prepared, for his own good and the good of the country, he should be forwarded into these other schools, there to temper, test, and stimulate his brain and muscle into the capacity he needs for his struggle for life, in competition with us. The missionary can, if he will, do far greater service in helping the Indians than he has done; but it will only be by practising the doctrine he preaches. As his work is to lift into higher life the people whom he serves, he must not, under any pretence whatsoever, give the lie to what he preaches by discountenancing the right of any individual Indian to go into higher and better surroundings, but, on the contrary, he should help the Indian to do that. If he fails in thus helping and encouraging the Indian, he is false to his own teaching. An examination shows that no Indians within the limits of the United States have acquired any sort of capacity to meet and cope with the whites in civilized pursuits who did not gain that ability by going among the whites and out from the reservations, and that many have gained this ability by so going out. Theorizing citizenship into people is a slow operation. What a farce it would be to attempt teaching American citizenship to the negroes in Africa. They could not understand it; and, if they did, in the midst of such contrary influences, they could never use it. Neither can the Indians understand or use American citizenship theoretically taught to them on Indian reservations. They must get into the swim of American citizenship. They must feel the touch of it day after day, until they become saturated with the spirit of it, and thus become equal to it. When we cease to teach the Indian that he is less than a man; when we recognize fully that he is capable in all respects as we are,
Page 59 THE INDIAN POLICY. 59 and that he only needs the opportunities and privileges which we possess to enable him tq assert his humanity and manhood; when we act consistently towards him in accordance with that recognition; when we cease to fetter him to conditions which keep him in bondage, surrounded by retrogressive influences; when we allow him the freedom of association and the developing influences of social contact,then the Indian will quickly demonstrate that he can be truly civilized, and he himself will solve the question of what to do with the Indian. THE PREPARATION OF THE INDIAN FOR CITIZENSHIP. BY ALICE C. FLETCHER. The Indians in the United States hardly exceed two hundred and fifty thousand,- a small group compared with each year's foreign immigration. These two hundred and fifty thousand Indians are so scattered that no one State or Territory will have a large number added to its citizen population; nor is it likely that the enfranchisement of the Indians will be felt nationally. Some States may be affected through counties where a present political preponderance may be increased or lost by the new voters. Others may find the red men something of a burden to a pioneer community. Nevertheless, the change which citizenship will bring to the Indian, and indirectly to his white neighbors, will be considerable, and properly demands attention. Through the history of our country the Indian as a man has occupied a very small place in public affairs. Such importance as he has obtained has been due to his large landed possessions and his property held in the Treasury of the United States. Were it not for this wealth, the Indian would hardly figure outside the records of philanthropic societies. It is through the influence of the philanthropic spirit of the country that the man himself has come to be cared for by the government, and the forces held in check that would otherwise crush him out of sight. " The Indian Problem " is not a
Page 60 60 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. problem of the Indian man, but of the Indian's property. This may seem a harsh or strained statement, but a moment's glance at facts will attest its truth. From the time the first colony planted itself on this side of the Atlantic to the latest rush to secure land on a reservation thrown open to settlement, the land of the Indian has been the object of our treaties as well as our wars with the natives of this country. When his "right of occupancy" has been purchased, the expenditure of the accruing funds, either the principal or the interest, has been the especial charge of officials; and the management of his remaining real estate has occupied agents and other officers. In the administration of the Indian's property, the business interests of our race have been always considered and conserved; while vigilant care has been exercised that the Indian should have as little as possible to do in the management or expenditure of his own property. There has been no practical attempt to fit the Indian to become the manager of his own affairs; and the Indian as a man has been a sufferer because of his possessions, as he would not have been, had he been without property and forced to make or earn his own way. This cause of the Indian's misery, his property, has also been the means of directing toward him an amount of political and warlike attention quite out of proportion to his personal or numerical importance; and, as a result, agencies are now in operation that in a few years will change his future career. Prominent among these is the present educational work of the government, which is twofold: first, the providing of facilities for the education of all Indian children either on or off the reservation; second, tribal lands apportioned to each man, woman, and child in the tribe. This new departure will prepare the rising generation to meet the conditions of citizenship which are rapidly advancing upon the people. There is a large number of men and women too old to be reached by the school, before whom there lies an almost immediate struggle with the new condition. The very old will pass away before they can know anything of the new day so near at hand. It is to the class beyond school age upon whom the brunt of the coming change will fall, and one naturally thinks of these men and women when considering the question of citizenship. One of the primal requisites of a citizen would seem to be that a man shall understand something of the laws under which he lives, the mode of their execution, and his responsibility as a part of a co-ordinated society. As far as the reservation Indian is concerned, his
Page 61 THE INDIAN POLICY. 6r circumstances have been such as to afford him the minimum chance for gaining such knowledge. It is not my purpose to arraign the agency system, if system it can be called. Reservations and agencies have grown up as makeshifts, to meet exigencies in our country that were strange, pressing, and without historical precedent. Bad as in some cases they have proved to be, they were a great advance on earlier methods in dealing with an alien and untutored people. The agency system is to-day on trial before an enlightened public opinion as to the rights of men irrespective of race, and practical questions are being pressed as to its past benefits and present efficiency in preparing the Indian for his inevitable destiny as a citizen of this republic. Let any one read the duties of an Indian agent, and he will see that administrative ability, business sagacity, and untiring philanthropy are required. In fact, a rarely gifted person is demanded for the office. For such a person's unstinted services there is a salary of from 1r,ooo to 2,000oo offered and a residence in an isolated region, necessitating a withdrawal from all the delights and stimulus of society. The years have demonstrated that save in rare instances it has been impossible to secure men possessed of the requirements to fill the place of Indian agent. On the other hand, what has the agency system taught the Indian? The Indian has learned that he and his tribe are controlled by the will and dictate of one man for a term of years, to be followed by a different man's will and dictate for the next term, and so on. There has been no continuity of policy or law, one fact only remaining,that through all terms one-man power has held almost absolute control of life and property on a reservation. The Indian has also observed that only those persons in the tribe who could make themselves useful or pliant to the purposes of the agent received benefits from him, As a result, there has grown up in every tribe a set of petty politicians, who form a sort of agency ring, and these largely administer tribal affairs through the interpreters and employees, each new agent falling, often unconsciously, into the groove of his predecessor. The Indian living under this regime could not gain any knowledge of the laws or of the forms of government in our country. The tribe knew only the agent, or " Father," the President, or " Great Father," with sometimes a "Little Father" between these two, who may be either the Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The Indian, owing to ancient tribal training, accepts these terms for the
Page 62 62 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. agent and President as something more than mere names: he believes that these titles literally represent our forms of government. The treaties were made with the "Great Father." If they have not been carried out, it is because he was not true to his word. The complicated machinery of legislation needful for every executive act is not known or recognized. Congress is spoken of as a great council, but the " Great Father" is the only real power. The outcome is that the belief still obtains with the reservation Indian that a personal government is the law of the land, and his daily experience confirms him in it; for on a reservation a man may do a thing, not because the law allows, but because the agent consents, or a man may not do a thing, not because the law forbids, but because the agent prohibits. To the Indian the agent has never stood as an officer of the law, but as a ruler by his own will or that of the Great Father. I speak from many years of close observation of the Indian's interpretation of what he has seen and felt, and not from our standpoint of knowledge or from official observation. The real question to ask concerning the agency system is, What has it really taught the Indian? and not what it might have done. What is the effect on the Indian's mind and life as revealed in his ideas of our laws? His explanation of his acts and his present conditions are the only true sources of information as to what this teaching has actually accomplished. The establishment of Courts of Indian Offences, presided over by "Indian judges," has been a step forward; but these courts are not often trained as to what constitutes evidence or to serve impartially. They are better at some agencies than at others, and there are places where the agents have striven to instruct these courts and the tribe in a knowledge of our laws and government. While such agents are not yet common, the time was when they did not exist anywhere. I know of an ex-agent, who was not very long ago removed from his position, who on one occasion sent for a Christian Indian, who had read something of our history and in whose heart had lodged the Declaration of Independence. He told his friends and neighbors that white people were not governed by an agent, but by laws, and that they believed that all men were born free and equal before the law. For telling this bit of history the Indian was brought over fifty miles in a broiling sun to the agency, cast into jail without knowing why, and after a day or two of solitary confinement released and sent back, his ears tingling with the agent's reproof for teaching such seditious doctrine, which would " subvert his," the agent's, " authority."
Page 63 THE INDIAN POLICY. 63 This picture is a dark one, but it is not unfair, on the whole. All agents have not been as outspoken. Had an honest canvass been made not many years ago, but few men would have been found in the office of agent who would not have scoffed at the proposition that an Indian should be equal with him before the law. The better sentiment of the country is making itself felt in Indian policy and management, and the schools have done much and are doing more and more each year to strengthen the change. The training schools off the reservations have let in a light concerning Indian capabilities and desires upon outside communities and within the reservations that can never be extinguished. I have been a witness on many reservations to the faithfulness of the returned Indian students under difficulties it would be hard to overdraw,- a faithfulness far deeper than the style of their garments or cut of their hair, a faithfulness that God has seen and openly rewarded. The schools on the reservations are feeling the invigorating breath of the outside world, and are increasing in efficiency under the able and courageous administration of General Morgan. Where I write [Idaho], the conflict is going on between a people awake to the belief that there is a law above the traditional agency mandate and those in the tribe whose sole importance lies in the continuance of agency favors. Under the stimulus of the allotment and its prospective citizenship, and last, but not least, through the influence of the young people who have been educated off the reservation, there was a clamor raised that the people should have a voice in the selection of their judges, and finally they were allowed to elect two out of the three. One of the judges elected was the choice of the progressive party, and this man at once determined to study the laws of the State and administer his office as though he were indeed a justice of the peace. He became possessed of a copy of the Revised Statutes of Idaho, and during the past year has rendered excellent service. While yet the agency system remains, the interests of both white men and Indians in the near future demand that agents should at once begin to train the Indians in the forms of self-government, and in a knowledge of the laws and the mode of their execution. The Indians should learn, practically, what aprecinct is, and what it means to the individual and the country; what are the duties of each person living within a precinct toward the repairing of roads and bridges, and the protection and care of property; and that each man should
Page 64 64 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. be willing to contribute to the welfare of his neighborhood. This and kindred teaching is now the one thing agents can and ought to give, to repair past errors; and it is by all odds their most important duty in preventing future trouble. Public opinion should sustain the Indian Commissioner in making this radical executive change upon Indian reservations. And it should also rally to the Commissioner's support to further his efforts to make the schools on a reservation the centres of helpfulness, of industry, of guidance and instruction to the people. In many places the school can, with advantage to the people, supplant the agency which has outlived its functions. The school can thus serve as an intermediary between the agency rule and the self-government of citizens. It may be asked, Are the Indians, who have so long been bred in dependence, prepared for the relinquishment of agency control? Yes and no. Many persons in the various tribes of the country are capable and ready to meet the change. Other persons, scattered among those who are ready, are not prepared, and it is doubtful if they can ever become fitted for full responsibility of government.. But their incapacity should not hang as a weight about the necks of those who are impatient to advance. Unfortunately, it has been our custom to contemplate the weak and ignorant of the tribe to the exclusion of the strong and willing members, and to act solely in the interest of the lower classes, as we should call similar groups of persons in our own towns or cities. The result has been unfortunate for every member, progressive and non-progressive. Experience is what is needed for growth; and experience is what the Indian has never been allowed to gain. He has not been permitted, generally speaking, to spend his own money: it is spent for him by the officials. He has not been permitted to make his own bargains: they also are made for him. Of business affairs he knows little or nothing, having never been permitted to reap the fruits of his own good or poor judgment. Agency shops, agency employees, agency issues, and the like,. all well-meant devices to protect the ignorant Indian, have left the entire people destitute of self-reliance now, when they need it so much. The Indian needs to feel the pressure of his own responsibility: he has long felt the pressure of our responsibility. The time has come when he must stand upon his own feet, and rely upon them to carry him forward. He will stumble and fall, but he will' gather himself up again. And it is only by experience and struggle that he can fit himself for the serious work of self-dependence.
Page 65 THE INDIAN POLICY. 65 There are many practical points touching the allotment of lands, the character of the soil on different reservations, and the modifying influences arising from the natural resources and conditions of reservations and their surroundings which I should be glad to bring to your notice, and to speak of the ameliorating work of the missions, of the helpful hands held out by the Woman's National Indian Association, of the courage given to the striving Indians by the Indian Rights Association, and the numberless private means which all tend to uplift the Indian and make him conscious that there are friends awaiting him in our own race who will welcome him as a fellow-citizen. There are, however, two points to which I desire to direct your attention: First.- We must endeavor to overcome the old-time notion of thinking of all Indians as alike in progress, attainment, and capacity. They are as varied as we are. There are Indian men and women who have mastered our language and something of our learning whom it would be hard to detect, save by some physical traces, from the mass of our citizens,- self-supporting, self-respecting, thoughtful men and women. They are more typical than those whose gifts or whose opportunities have been less. It is our manner of looking at the race or at a tribe as a unit that has helped to obscure the rights of the individual Indian, and to crowd back the thrifty and progressive ones. If in a tribe a few drink, do not say, "The tribe has succumbed to liquor." If a few commit crimes, do not say, "That is just like Indians." Such judgment would destroy us if meted out and acted upon by a powerful race with whom our lot had been cast. The Indians are men and women like ourselves, subject to like noble and ignoble passions; and, if greater gifts are ours, our obligations are commensurate. Second.- Education is the key to the Indian's future success, and his ability to become self-supporting and a helpful member of society. Let the work in this behalf already so well begun be supported with heartiness. Let the thanks of an enlightened public be cordially given to President Harrison, who has piloted the Indian schools out of the troubled sea of politics into the quiet haven of civil service. And may General Morgan receive his full meed of praise for the unsparing labor he has bestowed upon Indian education, not only in its specific sense, but upon its broadest lines, recognizing the rights and capacities of the individual Indian and his need of training and of opportunity! The limitations of the office have been such as to
Page 66 66 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. hamper many plans; but, as far as the Indian Commissioner's power has permitted, he has worked for the substantial advancement of every Indian man, woman, and child in the country. If we have faith in the fundamental principles of our government, let us do our utmost to wipe from this land the bureaucracy of the agency system, and to merge those human corrals called Indian reservations, as rapidly as may be, into homes for free and happy Indian citizens. AN INDIAN'S VIEW OF THE DIFFICULTIES BESETTING HIM. BY JAMES M. STUART. The history of Indian legislation shows that the supreme object of the United States government in dealing with the Indians has ever been to make them men capable of self-support, and finally to bring the Indianism out of them. Hence laws have been passed, appropriations made, each one more or less having that end in view. Back of this legislation was the supposition that by their operation much of the problem would be settled; but the question is, Do the laws to-day make the Indian a self-supporting man? Facts go to show that they do not. Why this is the case is more or less directly owing to the general character and provisions of the laws which have governed the Indians. These laws in many instances are to the disadvantage of the Indians upon whom they were enforced. While the motives which induced the enactment of them may have been nothing less than kindly interest for the Indians; yet, when the results of the working of these laws have been considered, many of the whites are forced to pronounce them failures. These laws have placed the Indian on a footing of total helplessness and dependence, not being even a protection to them, and making it a difficult matter to have justice and order preserved. It might be stated that the prime object of the severalty law is to bring the Indians out of the entanglement into which they have been brought, inasmuch as it attempts to give an Indian a chance at independence. But, with reference to this important law, it is of advantage to consider, first, what it does for the Indians who, as tribes and
Page 67 THE INDIAN POLICY. 67 as individuals, are ignorant of everything that goes to make up civilization. I think the one special advantage which it bestows upon them is the placing of them under the protection of the United States laws. The years that have passed over the reservation of the red men are mute witnesses of the fact that the Indians have suffered injustice to an enormous degree. By not being under the laws, the thief has gone unpunished, the murderer to boast of his deeds, while others have taken pains to capture any loose horse, cow, or calf that sets its foot off the reservation, knowing that the Indians could never legally recover it. Aside from this great remedy which this law makes, the advantages derived from the change of the general conduct of Indian affairs are also of great importance and benefit to the Indians. The step which it takes toward the final solution of the questions brings to the Indian not only new ideas and new objects, but a realization of a strong wish in the minds of the American people to give him not only sympathy in time of necessity, but genuine help. The abolishing of the American reservation system brings the realities of civilization to their door, sets aside the authority of the chiefs, and individualizes each member of the tribe. Living upon land which is secure to a man induces him to improve and beautify it as a home, while his manhood receives an impulse from the knowledge of being free. By this law the land is secured for twenty-five years; and the importance of it to the Indians, who are not educated, and have no one to look after their personal interest, is very clear. But, while these are bright presentations of the front, a look at what is behind may be interesting. Looking into a community of Indians whose lands have been allotted, I find that the government still assumes to control their land, and the manner of earning their support. This probably has more weight against the success of this law than anything else. The Indian starts business on his land by hiring a white man who has heavy teams to break land for him, which he cannot do himself with small horses; and he has to pay the white man in stock or in crops, or whatever he can, in order to get his land improved. Then down comes the Indian agent, with a few of his agency pets, who are lazy, worthless fellows, and tells the industrious Indian that he has no right to bring a white man on the reservation to help him. They make a false report to the Department. At the same time there are white intruders who have lived for many years on the reservation, raising stock and making their fortunes.
Page 68 68 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Still, the working Indian is kept from doing anything on his land by an order, coming from the Department, forbidding him to carry out his plans, declaring that, since the land is held in trust by the government for twenty-five years, he is not to. be allowed to have a white man to help him. Surely, then, the Indians must be expected to establish some kind of factory as a starting point toward making money, so that they can purchase heavy teams, ploughs, and open farms, etc. This is an awful explosion of common sense. Even a dream could not surpass its lack of sound judgment. We say to the white men, Do you ever expect us to continue in the determination with which we have started out? Do you expect to see within twenty-five years of protection grist-mills, saw-mills, sash and door factories, and other industries, booming among us, when the government itself hinders our first efforts to obtain a living by farming? While these are the advantages and disadvantages of Indians, who, begin right from the bottom, the advantages and disadvantages of the more advanced are as many. By this severalty law the Indians are made citizens of the United States, therefore subject to its laws, and the laws of the State or Territory in which they may reside. By being subject to the laws, it is then to be understood that, whatever the States require of its citizens, the Indians are hereafter to answer those requirements. Among other duties and responsibilities which devolve upon them are those which arise from the county government. This government must be to a degree in their own hands. How far they are capable of conducting this with success remains to be seen; but it seems to me that, even if they were all college graduates, their chances would be poor. Their citizenship allows them to elect their county officers by ballot; but their land, being under government control, is exempt from taxation, thus leaving the payment of county expenses, such as building roads and bridges, school-houses and jails, all of which are needful, to be met by taxation upon personal property. What this taxation will amount to needs no high mathematical calculations, considering the average valuation of their property and their chances for increasing it. That the taxation will fall far short of county requirements is evident. Thus the care to preserve the Indian's land for him is made to become the source of another problem. You have expected to see the Indians rising rapidly to the standard of other communities; but, if the government assumes control of their land in every respect, both as to improvements and revenues, is it reasonable to suppose that the
Page 69 THE INDIAN POLICY. 69 Indians will ever be able to make any marked progress beyond what is found to-day? This, then, is the condition of affairs imposed by the law and the Department's decision in a country partially populated by Indians. This is the chance given them to improve and make themselves equal with the whites. While the law is a step in the right direction, yet it fails to provide for all the duties of an American citizen. The greater the civilization of the Indian, the more does it become an obstruction to his progress. If the government proposes to supply deficiencies by continued appropriations, then what has been true for the last forty years will be true for the next twenty-five. While the white man is happy in the knowledge of property wholly in his own possession, while enjoying the receipt of prizes and awards for his best productions, the Indian, in an effort of the same character and in the same direction, is not only bothered with the protection of his land, and in the receiving of no prizes or awards or any inducements whatever, but is handicapped in the extreme by the knowledge that, try as he will to help himself, the government takes from him the power. It is a question with me, how many of the white people, in the face of difficulties of the same character, would be willing to work or be satisfied with existing conditions. I doubt whether many would be inclined to labor under such circumstances. What better, then, could you expect of the Indians? If these rulings are to be continued, what different results can you expect? If the Indians have failed to become what you would have them during the fifty years that this protective plan has been pursued, it ought to be plain, when you know what this plan does, that no progress can be made until it is taken away. In conclusion, then, I want to say, for the more civilized Indians, Give them citizenship,- American citizenship; no longer disregard their attainments by subjecting them to the regulations which are only advantageous to savages; allow them to contend with the realities of independence and freedom; let them improve their lands in any way they can, and provide a way to meet taxation. Then you can expect to see them enthusiastic in progress, battling freely with the reservation system, and imbued with the spirit of patriotism and devotion to country. Then you can truly say that the Indians have been admitted into the republic to enjoy the freedom fought for by the noble American citizen.
Page 70 70 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. THE EDUCATION OF THE INDIANS. BY WILLIAM F. SLOCUM, PRESIDENT OF COLORADO COLLEGE. In discussing this problem of the education of our American Indians, we may take it for granted that all thoughtful people are agreed that our Indians ought to receive some kind of an education. The question merely is, Of what kind shall it be? We may differ in our opinions in regard to the amount of training they are capable of receiving, or in regard to the direction that training should take; but we are agreed that the national policy of pauperizing the Indian, and keeping him as near to the brute life as possible, is a mistake, and a national disgrace to us. That the beginning of better times for him has come, no one can doubt. One difficulty in discussing this problem is that, when the idea of educating an Indian is brought forward, it suggests to many an education for the Indians for which a large majority of them are not, at present, ready; and, therefore, the whole subject is dropped with a helpless, pessimistic feeling. The best friend of the Indians does not wish to send them all to Harvard University, although the recent honors won there by one of them indicates that they, too, must have their representatives, fitting for intellectual leadership in the best institutions of higher learning. Neither do we believe that they are all to find their way to an agricultural college, or that all are to enter an industrial school. We have become so accustomed to thinking of them as a mass of poor, ignorant people, herded together in the national pastures, that it is not easy to study them as individuals, and to discuss their needs and their possibilities with anything like wise differentiation. There has been so much violation of the most simple and commonly accepted principles of all education in our Indian policy that the only wonder is that our problem is not more difficult than it is. If there can be a more unscientific, uncivilizing, brutalizing plan devised than that of driving them into these national pastures, keeping them in idleness, feeding them without any compensation in labor on their part, pursuing a plan that has everything in it to develop the worst in their nature, and nothing to develop the best in them, I do not know of
Page 71 THE INDIAN POLICY. 7I it. In work in our civilized communities, we are surprised to see the demoralizing effects of dole-giving upon the best of those who need help. What results ought we to expect from these poor people who have suffered for generations from this stultifying policy? I am sure that a policy ought to be adopted that should lead to the education of all the children of our American Indians. But there may be as much stupidity shown in the development of this idea as there has been in the pauperizing policy of the reservation plan. We can maintain, on general principles, that the tribes should be educated. To conform with our national policy of education, these wards of the nation should be educated with the others. If it is worth while to train the intellectual and moral natures of all in one section of the country, why not all in another section of the country? Certainly, the idea of education can have no geographical limitations. What is good for men and women in Massachusetts is also good for men and women in Dakota and Colorado. The argument that Indians are not citizens does not settle the question; for the franchise of American citizenship should belong to them just as much as to the Africans in the Southern States, and we should fit them for it as we work to secure it' for them. The lack of fitness on their part applies to thousands of others; and, as the national policy - whether wise or not, I am not now discussing- is to make the franchise as large as possible, and then educate the citizen to his privileges, it should apply to the earliest inhabitants of the country as well as to the latest arrivals at Castle Garden. If we really believe that ignorance is a menace to our national life, the application of this truth touches this question as well as that of the slums of our great cities. It is a good thing to lift any question like this away from the petty discussions of temporizing expediency, and there is no reason why the decision in regard to the education of our Indian population should not be reached in the light of those same great principles that we apply to the uplifting of the other inhabitants of the country. The solution of our emigration problem lies in universal education; the solution of the problem of the slums is found in training children away from the influence of the slums; the solution of the danger of our unusual franchise is in educating our voters; the solution of our Indian problem lies in a reasonable education of the children of the Indians. The question which presents itself then is, What constitutes a reasonable education of the Indians? I shall not undertake, in a short paper like this, to answer this question in detail. My knowledge of
Page 72 72 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the problem is too theoretical for me to presume to do more than make a number of suggestions that may, I trust, be helpful. While advocating the general education of the Indian, it must be recognized that there are all kinds of Indians, and that no two are exactly alike, any more than any two white men are. There are good Indians and bad Indians. There are lazy ones and industrious ones, noble Indians and ignoble ones, bright and dull specimens among them, - in fact, the same general traits that one finds among white men. To undertake, therefore, to treat all of them alike is as foolish and unscientific as to drive all the children of any other nation through exactly the same process and expect equal results from all. The destruction of individuality leads to barbarism, and the development of individual traits to civilization and enlightenment. An education which ignores this lacks an essential element. The Indians, as well as other people, should have whatever possibilities for good there are in them developed; and they should be helped in overcoming whatever in them is destructive of good citizenship. Inasmuch as we have, in our general policy, done so much to degrade them; pauperize them, when we should have made them selfrespecting individuals; kept them in herds, when they should have been segregated into families; destroyed sense of citizenship, when we should have sought by every means to develop a knowledge of true citizenship and a sense of loyalty to government; and, inasmuch as this policy has signally failed,- a failure made all the more conspicuous by the success of efforts in the opposite direction,should we not do everything in our power to bring them into right relations with those institutions which have played such an important part in the enlightenment of the world? Education for the Indians should be of such a kind that it will bring them into right and true relations with the institutions of civilized peoples. This certainly has not been the distinct and definite policy which our government has adopted up to this time. At the same time we must not forget that they are Indians, and will, in certain important respects, remain Indians. Our problem is not to transform them into Anglo-Saxon or Puritan Christians. Let us bear a Christian civilization to them, but remember that they are Indians, and should preserve those national peculiarities and ideas which have always attracted the interest and admiration of all. It is true that there are certain fundamental principles that are common to all educational movements, but to ignore individual or
Page 73 THE INDIAN POLICY. 73 national traits of character in the development or any people is contrary to one of the most fundamental principles of education. The evidences I have been able to secure from those who understand the practical side of this problem better than I do leads me to say that a considerable number of our Indians should receive the training that the life of a soldier will give them. The general testimony is that they soon love the national uniform, and that this army life calls into activity certain excellent traits many of them possess. Then the fact that some of them are in the United States Army leads them to feel that not only are they part of the government, but that they have special duties to it. This, together with the order and discipline of a soldier's life, has been of great educational value to those who have already become soldiers. Not every Indian is fitted to become a good soldier, any more than all white men are; but that a large number of them would gain much from this occupation there can be no doubt. The trouble has been that those who have advocated this disposition of the Indian seem to think that the whole Indian problem can be solved in this manner, when it is only a partial solution, and can never be more. Another way in which the Indian may be educated is by means of the ownership of property in severalty. In considering this plan, which I am advocating from an educational point of view, I am not forgetful of all that has been said against it, or the failures that have been made in the attempt to develop it. I believe, however, that the success that has attended it in a large number of cases proves its feasibility and practicability for our Indian population; and the failures that have been made with it have arisen from losing sight of its educational value, and also from ignoring conditions that are requisite to its success. There are certain elementary things that are necessary to an intelligent ownership of land. A simple knowledge of numbers and mensuration, ability to read and write, are essential to an intelligent ownership of property, and especially to the ownership of land, and all it involves. Those who understand our Indians say there is no trouble in educating them, if they are led to see that there is some useful end to be reached by the training given them. But I wish to go farther than this, and insist that the ownership of property is in itself an education that is essential to the development of the red man. No one can be with those of them who have already become
Page 74 74 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. farmers, and so small landed proprietors, in reality and not in name merely, and not recognize the self-respect, the mental and moral improvement, that have come to them from such ownership. I may illustrate my meaning by describing the results of an experiment I examined some years ago, when studying this same problem of education in its bearing upon the negroes in the South. At that time Dr. Pope was president of the Tougaloo University, near Jackson, Miss. He was a man of ability and good sense. Believing that one of the essential elements in the character of the colored people is the private ownership of land, he bought three thousand acres, and divided it into small farms of twenty and thirty acres each. These farms he sold to the more intelligent colored men, taking back, in most cases,. a mortgage for the full value, with the understanding that this should be paid month by month, in as large payments as possible. The result of this sociological experiment, under his careful and constant supervision, was exceedingly interesting. The ownership of land taught this small landed proprietor the meaning of rights of property. It made him feel the importance of paying debts, inasmuch as his own property was liable to seizure in case of non-payment of his liabilities. It taught him his true relation to the State by the necessity of meeting his taxes when they were due. All this produced a helpful self-respect and a marvellous improvement in the moral and intellectual conditions of these people. May not the same experiment with the Indian be the same success? The process may take much time; but no one can study, with seriousness and without prejudice, the development of semi-civilized peoples, and not discover that the segregate ownership of property has played a most important part in the intellectual evolution of nations. The same end may be obtained by the wise encouragement of their native manufactures. There are certain things that some of the Indian tribes produce with skill, and for which they have peculiar adaptability. The development of every tendency toward self-support is helpful in itself, in producing character; and the intelligent placing of the products of their industry upon the markets of the country will bring them into touch with the great economic and industrial order. This makes another of the great forces of civilization real to them and also a part of their own life. I am saying all this from an educational standpoint, because I think the educational value of these occupations may become great to them, as a people, as they have to others.
Page 75 THE INDIAN POLICY. 75 Everything should be done to bring our Indians into the closest possible contact with the forces that have made civilization. I have referred to the army, because it may represent to them obedience and patriotism; to the private ownership of property, because this makes real to them the idea of law and a self-respecting individualism, which is to be sought for them, as the destruction of individualism always leads to barbarism. Manufactures, on the other hand, represent the place that industry and thrift play in the development of men and women.
Page 76 IV. 3mmigration. IMMIGRATION AND INTERSTATE MIGRATION. REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE. Of the two subjects assigned to our committee, the first named has received attention from this Conference nearly every year since i880, and occasionally before that time. Within the period since we met at Detroit in 1875 a considerable change has taken place in public sentiment in many parts of the United States respecting the advantages, the inconveniences, and the proper restriction of immigration. Our country being inhabited almost wholly by immigrants and their descendants, and the national policy having been for centuries to encourage emigrants to leave Europe and settle here, it required much experience to shake the faith of our people in the wisdom of this policy. Nor can it be said even now that the majority of American citizens, or even a respectable minority, desire to exclude immigrants entirely. Most of the opponents of our present practice, which is rather indiscriminate admission, only desire so to restrict the entrance of undesirable persons into the country that we may obtain the acknowledged benefits of increased population without incurring the contagion, physical, economical, or moral, which results from unrestricted deportation of all classes from other shores to our own. The question now is, therefore, what new laws are requisite, if any, to exclude human contagion and infirmity, and at the same time to admit, or even to invite, the desirable elements of population into our national area, still so capable of receiving and providing for uncounted millions. The existing Federal statutes upon the subject of immigration seem to impose nearly all those restrictions which can well be enforced at the ports of debarkation against the landing of paupers, lunatics, and other disturbing classes from foreign countries. But,
Page 77 IMMIGRATION. 77 as a further protection against this undesirable immigration, your committee believe, as has long been held by this Conference, that a system of consular inspection of intending immigrants should be initiated, developed, and strictly enforced at the various ports of embarkation, so that no alien immigrant would land at any of our ports, or enter the country across our inland borders, without some consular certificate setting forth that he is of proper character, and does not come within any of the classes prohibited. This phase of the subject is now receiving the earnest attention of Congress, and many bills have been introduced during the present session (some in both Houses) nearly all of which contain provisions more or less practicable for the consular examination and certification of persons intending to emigrate to the United States before they take passage from Europe. It might be well also to require in regard to such emigrants certificates of their good character from the local authorities of the countries whence they come, duly authenticated by some court or other officer of public record. This would hardly ever debar proper persons from emigrating unless it stimulated the government of their country to check emigration in general by refusing certificates; for an immigrant such as we should wish to receive would find no other difficulty in obtaining these certificates, while this provision would serve to check the shipment to this country of those undesirable or troublesome classes which has been so long promoted and is still much practised by cities, cantons, towns, or the authorities of local districts or benevolent associations in Europe. At the same time the local certificates now suggested would be of great aid to our consuls in their inspections and determinations concerning emigrants, and would also enable them at once to detect and make public any attempt to impose the interdicted classes upon the United States. Some of the bills before Congress appear to your committee to prescribe too minutely the course to be taken by consuls at the European ports; and there is great difference among these bills as to the amount of capitation tax which they impose. The present tax being only fifty cents for each immigrant landing, the bills before Congress vary in the tax proposed from one dollar to five dollars, and perhaps even a higher rate. This and the other questions affecting immigra-. tion are continually raised and discussed in Congress, and they excite great interest throughout the country. It is therefore probable that some practical agreement will be had as to the provisions of law I
Page 78 78 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. which can be readily enforced, and will be found effective; and your committee hope that such amendments of our present system will be adopted before this Congress adjourns. Hardly less important than immigration itself, and likely to be more important as time passes, is the closely allied subject of Interstate Migration; that is, the passage by myriads, even by millions in the aggregate, of newly arrived or long resident persons from one State to another of our great federation of local governments. In respect to any single State, this movement is immigration; but, as many of these persons pass through several States before reaching their place of alleged destination, the same evils may attend this transit of migrating persons within the country, as we now find resulting to the seaboard States from the ill-regulated admission of foreigners, many of whom are unable or unwilling to earn their own living in conformity with our laws and social requirements. Thus the State of New York, which now suffers so much from a sediment of bad immigration deposited at its great seaport, may also, and does in fact, suffer from a like deposit left by the stream of interstate migration constantly coursing through it, east and west, north and south. Other States, more central in location, which may not feel the mischiefs of immigration at all, or else very slightly, may and do experience evil from this migration to a considerable extent. And there can be very few States, however small or wherever located, which have not suffered harm or inconvenience from these currents of migration which pass in all directions within our borders. The most common form of harm received is through vagrancy; and the tramp has long been recognized as a dangerous element in our population, requiring everywhere strict laws and severe penalties to hold him in check. Along with the tramp the professed and habitual criminal passes from State to State, escaping notice, as he desires, in the crowd which moves in all directions along the roads of interstate migration. Besides these classes, there are also the insane, the invalid, the blind, the deserted, the shiftless, the misdirected, etc.,- mostly poor persons who go voluntarily, or are (frequently) sent or carried by local authorities from one State to another, or from one place to another within the same State. The number of all these classes is steadily increasing, and at times increases very much in consequence of particular circumstances affecting the general or the local conditions of labor, business, or health in different parts of the country.
Page 79 IMMIGRATION. 79 It is impossible even to estimate the aggregate of such migrating persons who now come, or should come, under official oversight; but they must number hundreds of thousands in the whole country during the period of a twelvemonth. In Massachusetts alone they are estimated at not less than 5,ooo a year. In the State of New York they must exceed 25,000. Your committee have made certain inquiries by correspondence concerning this matter in different parts of the United States, and will here submit some of the replies and statements we have received. Mr. Charles F. Donnelly, representing the Massachusetts State Board of Lunacy and Charity, of which he is the most experienced member, and was for some years the chairman, has lately drawn and submitted to the Massachusetts legislature a resolve r in regard to immigration and interstate migration, in the preamble of which he says, " That the growing density of our population, the extent of the country, and the changed and complex conditions now existing, when compared with the earlier conditions in the history of our whole people, demand that measures should be taken to adopt a uniform policy on the part of all the States of dealing with and disposing of the migrating classes who are dependants upon public charity, and who are of idle, vicious, or criminal habits, imposing themselves on communities where they have no acquired or natural right of support, and continuing to avail themselves of the great extent of territory of our country, and the facilities afforded for travel and change, to pass their lives in pauperism and crime." Mr. Alexander Johnson, a Secretary of this Conference, and also Secretary of the Indiana Board of State Charities, after citing an instance of pauper migration from Boone to Clinton County in his State, adds: - The interesting feature here is the deliberately planned migration. I have heard of some cases in which families having a blind or mute child, living in States having but poor provision for the instruction of defectives, have moved to one where the educational facilities of the kind are more liberal. Pauper families move from country to city in the hope of better and more abundant supplies of charity, public and private. After the great fire of Chicago scores of families came from all parts of the West and South-west for a share in the lavish fire relief, and the subsequent lavish charity dispensed there. *This resolve was passed, and was read to the Conference at Denver in the debate following -this report.
Page 80 80 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Mr. Johnson further says, speaking in behalf of the Indiana State Board:No serious evils arising from immigration' have so far been felt by the citizens of Indiana. Therefore, no steps, legislative or other, have been taken to meet such evils. But evils of interstate migration are felt, especially in the border counties; and the township trustees, who act as overseers of the poor in this State, usually try to return interstate migrants. Insane persons who are not legal residents of the State are frequently sent to our State hospitals from such counties. This matter is mentioned and some illustrative cases given in our first annual report. An attempt to regulate the tramp nuisance by concerted action of the township trustees was favored by our Board. I think nothing short of federal action will be effective in dealing with these evils. I have long held this belief, and expressed it in the debate on immigration of the Thirteenth Conference. One of the chief obstacles to be overcome before any effective action can be had is the absence of precise knowledge as to the extent of the evils complained of. I regret to say that we have no such information, nor have we at present the means of procuring any. The theory of the State pauper, as held in Massachusetts and New York (if I understand it), would be an important step for States like Indiana to take as a preliminary. Here our pauper methods all relate to the town and the county. Each county, and often each town, has its own method, or want of method, of dealing with its paupers. The pernicious theory that it is cheaper to " send a pauper on " than to hold him and investigate, discourages any proper action with wanderers. Had the county a recourse to the State treasury in cases of non-residents, under certain circumstances, this fact alone would compel some investigation. A gentleman writing from New Orleans, La., says: — I fully agree with the laws forcing restriction of immigration; but I cannot close my eyes to the injustice it would work, as far as the Russian Jews are concerned. These unfortunate people are not paupers. They are driven from their homes by the mediaeval lash in the hands of the Czar, and have no place of refuge except the United States. Does it harmonize with the fundamental principle underlying our statutes to shut down the gates of our country against these victims of intolerance and cruelty? No State in the Union suffers more from interstate migration of weak and insane persons than Louisiana,- I mean the city of New Orleans,- and still we have been unable to find a remedy. The one you propose, federal action, has certainly the advantage of being original and novel, and strikes me at first as being feasible. It is not clear to me how you intend to guard against the so-called State Rights theory, of which the different members of
Page 81 IMMIGRATION. 8i the grand family are so jealously proud when it comes to the slightest infringement of their individual rights. The very words "national tribunal," I think, will work like a red flag, etc., as far as the Southern States in particular are concerned. As for me, I would hail any legislation with delight which would compel every community in the land to care for its own sick and destitute. Dr. E. M. Hunt, Secretary of the State Board of Health of New Jersey, writes - We have no statistics as to the tramping of the unbalanced or indolent classes, but are very glad that this subject has been taken up. This State greatly suffers from an army of tramps, especially in winter, when they crowd our jails and station houses, and appear as beggars on the streets. They have no objection to the jail, if the weather is very cold; and they manage to get committed so as to be out in the spring. The only remedy is somehow to make them work; and some of our counties have shown much ingenuity in plans, but cannot succeed in making them pay. The whole subject is one of great import, and I am glad that your committee are engaged upon it. I cannot suggest any better plan than the one hinted at, federal legislation. Mr. H. H. Hart, Secretary of the Minnesota State Board of Charities, writes thus — This State suffers very materially from the evil referred to, being on the line of through travel from the East to the West. Many persons migrating in search of friends or other persons are stranded here; and our public authorities are then forced to return them to the point from which they came, forward them to their destination, or provide for them here. We suffer also from the tendency of the States west of us, which are not provided with suitable public institutions, who send invalids and paupers into our large cities. In some cases these individuals suffer hardships. If our city authorities care for them indiscriminately, it simply invites repetition of the same thing. They are therefore forced to refuse relief, except in urgent cases. We have suffered in some degree from the importation of insane persons from other States. I have in mind a woman who came into this State from Illinois, where she had, as was reported, sufficient property to maintain her. She had been in Minnesota but a short time when she became insane, and became a permanent charge on this State, from which, under existing statutes, we were unable to escape, while her friends and relatives enjoyed the use of her property. I know of but two ways in which this growing evil could be reached. One is by concert of action between the States, of which, I fear, there is no hope: the other is by action of Congress.
Page 82 82 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Mr. L. L. Kirk, of Kansas, writes as follows:Kansas is between oceans, interior and agricultural, touched only incidentally by ocean and water traffic; hence does not see so urgently the necessity of restricting immigration as to the Ocean States, yet Kansas has felt the importation of foreign children, homeless and orphaned, from beyond the seas. Trial has shown that our orphaned and needy children are sufficient for our care, and the number large enough for our generosity. It seems to me that seaboard States and cities, knowing the ills, are thus better prepared to suggest remedies, and should take the lead in regard to legislation, whether State or national, as to the foreign immigrant whose presence is undesirable in our country. Kansas has no law regulating the coming within her borders of insane or other defective or indigent people. The attention of our legislature has been called to this want many times. In the crowded condition of our insane hospitals, under the direction of the Board of Trustees, the superintendents refuse admission to such persons as are known to have been sent into the State or who are here simply to relieve another State of the burden of their care. That, however, leaves their disposal to the counties, which care for them in jail or poorhouse or send them, at the county's expense, whence they came. The report from Illinois is somewhat different. Mr. F. H. Wines says:We have never been able to discover much evidence of immigration of paupers, outside of Chicago, and we doubt whether the records there will furnish much information on the subject. We have heard more complaint in the West of the assisted emigration of bad boys and girls from the slums of New York and other cities than of any other feature of the whole question. Mr. Whipp, our Inspector of Almshouses, says that in fourteen years' experience he has heard of but one case of non-resident pauperism, which was in Coles County, and of which mention is made in our report for I888, page 93. He says that tramps bother the county and town authorities very little. Occasionally one may get a meal at a poorhouse if it is near the town; but they usually apply for food at private houses, and steer clear of the almshouse. More of them are found in county jails in the winter than anywhere else, and very few there. Our law contains no provision for removing paupers from the State; and no attempt has ever been made so to amend it, from which I infer that the town and county authorities have never been burdened with paupers not entitled to support at their hands. The authorities of Wisconsin, lying directly north of Illinois, take a very different view of the facts concerning this matter. Mr. A. 0.
Page 83 IMMIGRATION. 83 Wright, for many ye.ars Secretary of the State Board of Charities and Reform in Wisconsin, writes to your Committee as follows: - In Wisconsin we have not suffered very seriously from the importation of paupers, criminals, and insane persons from foreign countries. The cities on the Atlantic naturally suffer most from this cause. But the evil of interstate migration is for us a greater one. It is not possible to secure any very correct statistics of the migration of paupers, insane persons, and idiots; but, from my inquiries for a series of years, I am satisfied that this migration between States, while not enormous in extent, is great enough to be a source of constant irritation between our local authorities and those of neighboring States, and I assume that the case is the same elsewhere, for the same causes will produce like effects. The extradition of paupers, idiots, and insane persons between different States has led to many serious abuses and much needless expense. Each county, city, and town which is prevented by our laws from shifting the care of its own poor upon any other locality in the same State is strongly tempted to shift their care upon the people of neighboring States. The great cities, especially, suffer from this cause, because paupers are more apt to ask to be sent to some great city; and the local authorities are very willing to comply, only to get rid of the expense of caring for them. The fact that all the interior States, as far as I know, have been imposing penalties for bringing non-resident paupers into the State, is evidence that this practice prevails. I have had complaints from the authorities of nearly all the border counties of Wisconsin, especially from Milwaukee, that paupers and insane persons were sent in to them; and in a number of cases I have had local authorities in our own State admit to me that they had shipped paupers and insane persons out of Wisconsin,-more frequently to Chicago and St. Paul than anywhere else, because these are great railroad centres. In Wisconsin we make a distinction between the State insane and the county insane,- all those who have a residence in any county being charged thereto for a part of their support. This county residence is not the same as a pauper settlement, but can be acquired simply by removing to a county with the intention of remaining there. The State insane are all those who have no local residence in Wisconsin, and are therefore wanderers who have drifted into the State of their own accord, or who have been allowed to come in, or who have been sent in by some of the local authorities in some neighboring State. The number of insane in Wisconsin a year ago was 164 out of the total insane population under the public care of 3,I39. This furnishes perhaps a fair index of the interstate migration of the insane in the interior States. Mr. A. G. Warner, Superintendent of Charities in the District of Columbia, whose situation is somewhat peculiar, writes as follows: -
Page 84 84 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. As to interstate migration, one who works among the poor of Washington is forced to appreciate the fact that there is a great deal of it. Neither the well-to-do nor the dependent classes have any real " settlement " in the district; and we have no law defining the term or providing for sending back to the proper homes the destitute that drift in here, seeking pensions or places, or what-not. We have the usual appropriation for assisting paupers to the next large city, but that merely facilitates trampery. These citations from letters of careful observers, in different parts of the country, are sufficient to show how extensive is the condition of things for which some remedy is now to be sought. What this remedy should be is a question of some difficulty; but the preponderance of opinion, so far as we have learned, is in favor of action by Congress. The alternative is an extremely difficult one to obtain in a practical form,-concurrent legislation by the different States of the Union. Such legislation has been sought for twenty-five years by the Board of Charities of Massachusetts, the other New England States being principally had in view. But no real approach to concurrence of laws in New England has been made, unless it be a sort of negative concurrence unanimously to forbid the removal of paupers from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, Vermont, etc., and vice versa. Not - only do such prohibitive laws exist, but they have been in Vermont and New Hampshire enforced by considerable penalties, and sustained after appeal to the highest court in the two States. The cases leading to these judicial decisions were such as to show that even the State authorities have not been sufficiently careful in attempting to rid themselves of the support of poor persons by shifting the burden upon a neighboring State. And the effect of these adjudicated cases has been to render more difficult, in Vermont and New Hampshire, the procurement of mutual and co-operative legislation. In the mean time, however, the national government has in two directions entered upon a policy which only requires to be carried one step further, in order to provide a general system for the regulation of this migration from one State to another. We allude to the immigration laws passed in 1882 and subsequent years, by which the Secretary of the Treasury now takes charge of all immigrants arriving in the country, and follows them, in some degree, to the different States, where they may be found in poverty a few months after landing; and to the Interstate Commerce Acts, by which a commission supervises railroad transportation in all parts of the country. If now Congress will enact a law concerning the inter
Page 85 IM MIGRATION. state transportation of persons, and will place the enforcement of such an act in the hands of competent federal officers, a tribunal will be created before which the authorities of different States, and the poor persons themselves, who are so frequently the subjects of arbitrary removal, may present the facts of all disputed cases. Moreover, such an act of Congress, if properly drawn, would serve as a model for similar legislation in the States themselves; and a system of concurrent law would thus be created much sooner than could otherwise be expected. This is but, the outline - yet a suggestive ontline - of what we would recommend for the investigation and remedy of the now existing and fast increasing evils of interstate migration, so far as this affects the poor. Mr. Eliot of our committee will present a special paper on that phase of migration which shows itself particularly in Colorado; namely, the presence of a large floating population, characteristic of a frontier, and the introduction in great numbers of acknowledged invalids into some State where recovery or mitigation of their diseases is hoped for. This migratory movement also has become considerable in several regions of our country; and it leads more or less to pauperism, at a distance from friends, among this invalid class or their families. In support of our general recommendation, we will quote from our correspondence, but without indorsing, in all cases, the views presented by persons in different parts of the United States. Bishop Gillespie, of Michigan, a former President of the Conference, writes: - Your propositions strike me as all admirable. I think that the law in the matter must come from Congress. Another gentleman of Michigan, formerly a member of the State Board of Charities, enters more fully into the matter thus: - I fully realize the necessity of some further Congressional action on the subject of immigration, and that some system must be inaugurated to put an end to the tramp nuisance. I do not see how the latter can be accomplished outside of Congressional action. Even the several counties in many of the States- especially the Western States - seem unable to protect themselves from imposition from each other. I am very favorably impressed with the suggestion of an Interstate Migration Commission. Aside from the benefit which would arise from the simple performance of the duties of the office, and the powers which would be delegated to such a commission if it were composed of industrious and broad-minded men, it would naturally magnify its office to exert a very extensive and wholesome
Page 86 86 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. influence with respect to all the reforms which the National Prison Association, the State Boards of Charities and Corrections, and political reformers generally, have so much at heart. It would, in a measure, materialize, centralize, focus, these various reforms, as the Civil Service Commission has done with the ideas and efforts of civil service reformers. Such a commission, too, might exert a great influence in the several States toward unifying the laws relative to the confinement of the insane, the divorce laws, and the preparation of certain statistics in a uniform manner, so that they may be much more reliable and available than they are now. Mr. Charles Duffy, Chairman of the Board of Public Charities of North Carolina, writes as follows: - I am in favor of some decided legislation to restrict immigration and to regulate the citizenship of immigrants on general principles; but feel that the various committees now at work on this line, both Congressional and other, will work out the problem. I enclose herewith a copy of our laws relating to tramps and vagrants, from which you can see what we are doing to shield our communities from these people; though, it must be confessed, these laws are seldom enforced to the letter, and, where a tramp offers no show of violence or indecency, he is, as a rule, allowed to proceed, and seldom refused food and raiment. A gentleman in Colorado, who does not incline to much amendment of the existing immigration laws, but favors their strict enforcement by State officials rather than by federal officers alone, writes: - Your proposition in regard to an Interstate Commission is certainly. novel, and at first sight seems a very cumbrous machinery, requiring no inconsiderable effort to start, and a good deal of red tape after organization. In the absence of detail in regard to the plan, I am not disposed to criticise it; and, as I have nothing better to suggest, my present view cannot be anything but favorable. The situation requires some intelligent action; and, in the absence of any reasonable solution of my own, I am ready to support what your experience and judgment suggest. Mr. Thomas Coggeshall, Chairman of the Board of State Charities in Rhode Island, writes: - After nearly twenty-one years' experience on our Board of State Charities, my judgment is that the national government should be responsible for returning every tramp and insane person to the country they belong to, unless residence has been gained by State or national law.
Page 87 IMMIGRATION. 87 This last citation relates wholly to recent immigration; but whoever has much examined the individual tramp - at least in the Eastern States -must see a close connection, as of cause and effect, between immigration and tramping. Two-thirds of the New England wayfarers of this sort are either foreigners or the children of foreigners. Very often they are recent comers themselves. In our agricultural communities, especially in the West, the newly arrived immigrant may be fortunate enough to find a place at once, as do the Scandinavian peasants who have settled the North-western States in such numbers. But if he goes to town or city, as an artisan or operative or unskilled laborer, he is apt to become migratory; and one large element in our present immigration-the French Canadians —often go and come between their old country and their new one, according to the season of the year. Out of every thousand immigrants thus moving from place to place, a few tramps are furnished; while of the children of the immigrants thrown upon the public for support by the death, desertion, intemperance, or imprisonment of their parents, the army of street Arabs and roadside beggars is largely recruited. Mr. Hart, of Minnesota, already cited as favoring Congressional action, also writes: The question arises in my mind whether, in case your plan should be carried out, the United States would not be forced into the same position which has come about in Massachusetts and New York. As these States have had to recognize and care for State paupers, will not the United States be forced to recognize and care for a limited number of the United States paupers, who cannot be located anywhere? I had a case a few weeks ago of a " man without a country," who apparently had no legal residence anywhere. Undoubtedly, our present immigration laws, even if not extended by the establishment of an interstate migration system, will lead to the formation of a class of national paupers, dependent upon the United States government for support. Such a class, in fact, already exists in the District of Columbia, not only under Mr. Warner's supervision, but in the Government Hospital for the Insane under Dr. Godding, who provides for hundreds of persons, as insane poor, that could not now be properly assigned to any State. And it might happen that each State would find it more convenient, as Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin, and some other States have done, to provide for a special class of the State poor, at least comprising the insane, who now in certain States seem to hold an inter
Page 88 88 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. mediate position, being supported wholly by the State, but not considered as paupers. Yet, since insanity is one of the main causes of pauperism in a large part of the United States, it would seem to be proper to recognize the insane everywhere, if really supported by the public, as belonging to the pauper class, though not to be called by that offensive name, since that has a tendency to degrade their treatment below what good sense and humanity both require. The State everywhere seems inclined to take the direction of the insane, and oftentimes to make them its special charge. In such cases they really form a class of State poor. Mr. A. O. Wright, of Wisconsin, alluding to the subject last named, says: - The suggestion that there should be legislation creating a class of State paupers is a good one; and this class should include all persons who have not acquired a pauper settlement in any town or county, and should be under the direct care of the State Boards of Charities, where such are in existence. In most of our Western States the New York plan of boarding such State paupers in select county poorhouses is better than the Massachusetts plan of State almshouses especially for this class. Our pauper settlement laws are modelled on the New York law, and not the Massachusetts law, so that the number of transient poor who have not the proper settlement in town or county is very much less with us than in Massachusetts. In Wisconsin all persons having a pauper settlement in a town, having need of relief, must be relieved by the town; and all other persons needing relief must be cared for at the expense of the town to which they belong. But, if there is no town in Wisconsin to which they properly belong, then the cost of their care is charged to the county,- thus making them county paupers. In quite a number of counties the distinction between town and county poor is abolished, and all are cared for by the county. If we carry this system one step further, we can easily create a class of State paupers, having no settlement anywhere in Wisconsin. But we need for this class, if under State care, a State Board of Charities or some similar body to deal with them, and send them where they belong, if their residence can be ascertained; for counties and towns cannot do this work properly. The suggestion that Congress has power to control the interstate migration of the poor and insane, under its powers over interstate commerce, is a novel one; but I believe it is correct, and that herein has been found the solution of a difficulty. Your proposal to have a Commission on Interstate Migration I think a very valuable one. It has been proposed to your Committee that a draft of a law for such a commission as Mr. Wright mentions should be submitted to
Page 89 IMMIGRATION. 89 the Conference at its present session. But this would seem to be going too far. We recommend, however, that some such Congressional statute be enacted, after consideration and discussion, as shall serve to regulate the inconsistent and conflicting practices now going on under the laws of different States; that these State laws should be brought into concurrence and harmony as soon and as far as practicable; and that for this purpose the States having Boards of State Charities, or similar authorities, now in existence, or hereafter established, shall confer together, and agree, if possible, upon some system which shall be just to the different States, and shall not press too harshly upon the honest, helpless, and suffering poor. In framing such a system, there will be found, in our opinion, more and more need of a central national tribunal, more prompt in its action than the State and federal courts now are, while yet there will be access and appeal to these courts, as at present. Upon the organization of our committee, it was found that Mr. N. JO Batchelder, of New Hampshire, upon whom we had relied to present the case of States which desire to encourage immigration by State action, was unable to serve, and we have therefore unwillingly omitted this branch of our subject from consideration. It will however be proper for presentation to the next Conference, in connection with a further discussion of Interstate Migration, since the States above mentioned attract immigrants from our own country as well as from abroad. It was at first proposed that Dr. Hoyt of our committee, from his special familiarity with immigration, should make a separate report on that subject; but he has chosen to incorporate his remarks with the early portion of this general report. It is therefore signed by all the members of our committee except Mr. B. P. Flint, of California, from whom we have received no communication whatever. All of which is respectfully submitted by F. B. SANBORN, Massachusetts. LEVI L. BARBOUR, Michigan. CHARLES S. HOYT, New York. SAMUEL A. ELIOT, Colorado. I. L. LEUCHT, Louisiana.
Page 90 9~ NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. THE MIGRATION OF INVALIDS. BY REV. SAMUEL A. ELIOT, DENVER. I have been asked to add to the report of the committee a few words in regard to the problem which especially perplexes us in Colorado,- the migration of invalids. This is the first time that the question has been presented to the consideration of the Conference. The whole problem is of modern origin. It is only within recent times that there has been any scientific acquaintance with the effects of different climates upon certain common diseases of the throat and lungs. A generation ago physicians were generally ignorant of climatology. I lately read the biographies of three Boston ministers who some forty years ago developed, nearly simultaneously, pulmonary trouble. Each commanded ample means and the best professional advice. The residences chosen for them as affording the best chances for recovery were, respectively, Framingham, Milton, and Swampscott, Mass. New regions, then inaccessible, have since been opened to travel and residence. But the progress of medical knowledge of climatic conditions has been extraordinarily slow. There is not yet a medical school in the country which supplies to its students adequate instruction in climatology. Very few schools give any attention to this branch of science. Physicians are obliged to pick up - through the hard experience of their patients-the knowledge that ought to be acquired as a part of their professional education. They are too often guided in their advice to consumptive patients by changing fashion, by hearsay, by the reports of returned travellers, or even by the advertisements of real estate speculators. Advice given under such conditions is very likely to prove a condemnation to quick and lonely death. The first thing that needs to be done in order to diminish the evils of invalid migration is to enlarge the facilities for training physicians in the knowledge of climatic conditions. The second embarrassing element in our problem is misapplied charity. The difficulty that confronts us in Colorado, and in the other States of reputation as health resorts, is the assisted migration of dependent invalids. There are no accurate statistics whereby we can measure the extent of this migration. The records of death from phthisis contracted elsewhere, together with the evidence of the Charity
Page 91 IMMIGRATION. 91 Organization Societies, make it probable that the annual migration of dependent invalids to Colorado alone is to be measured by thousands. This little army of invalids is composed almost entirely of men. Out of every one hundred consumptives who apply for aid at the Denver Charity Office, ninety-five are young single men. Benevolent people in the East often believe that it is a genuine kindness to assist a young man who has developed pulmonary trouble to reach Colorado. If the disease is in its early stages, the change of climate often results in permanent benefit, but too often the well-meant charity is in reality a cruelty. Women are not encouraged to migrate, unless they can be accompanied by their families and properly cared for; but it is supposed that a young man can easily find in Colorado employment which will support him and yet not overtax his feeble strength. This is a delusion. There is little or no light labor attainable in Colorado. Frontier communities demand strong men. I might set before you 'a long array of examples of ill-advised philanthropy. Let me take but one typical illustration. A young man in a small town in Western New York begins to cough, and finally has a hemorrhage. His physician tells him that he cannot live in the East, and advises him to move to Colorado. He dislikes to leave his comfortable and familiar surroundings, and lingers until the disease has got a fatal grip upon him. At last he decides to migrate. He applies to his friends and neighbors for help. They make up a purse for him, and start him on his way. At Chicago his money gives out, and he applies to some church or benevolent society to provide him with means to continue his journey. Rather than have him on their hands for months, they forward him to Omaha or Kansas City. There the same process is repeated, and so by stages, long or short, he reaches his Mecca,- Denver. He goes to some cheap lodging-house, where the surroundings are anything but healthy, and then begins the hopeless search for light employment. In a few days the poor fellow is at the door of the Charity Organization Society,- sick, hungry, shelterless. That is the story of scores of young men in this city to-day. The kindest thing that we can do is to send them back whence they came, that they may die with friends about them. But in many cases even that is impossible. The approach of death is in many cases accelerated by the hardships of the journey and the transfer to this altitude. The saddest thing about the life of a Denver minister is the number of lonely funerals that he is called upon to attend. Often I have been hastily summoned to say a prayer over some poor body at the under
Page 92 92 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. taker's shop, where there would be present just the undertaker and the minister, with perhaps the keeper of the boarding-house where the lad died or an officer of the Charity Organization Society. I look at the youthful victim of ignorant good will borne to his neglected grave, I imagine the mother and sisters in the farm-house on the New England hillside, whose tenderness might have soothed his last hours, and I think with bitterness of the well-meant but misdirected charity which condemned him to a miserable exile and a forlorn death. Not long ago a marked increase in the number of consumptives seeking assistance at the office of the Denver Charity Organization Society called attention to the fact that there had been formed in an Eastern city a society whose special function it was to send dependent invalids to Denver, The secretary of the Charity Organization Society remonstrated against this organized system of transferring to the charge of another community a very expensive class of dependants, and suggested that, if the Eastern society desired to do a real charity, it should furnish its beneficiaries with means for their maintenance in Denver. The reply to this communication stated that, where there existed in the case of a dependent invalid one chance in a hundred of recovery by transfer to a more favorable climate, it was not only the right, but the duty of charitable people to make the most of that one chance, and that it was further the duty of the people of Denver to see that the assisted invalid received every opportunity to profit by his change of residence. I do not wish to discuss the ethics of that proposition; but I want to point out that in advanced cases of phthisis for one chance of recovery there are many chances of peculiarly unhappy death, if the sufferer is sent away from home without any means of support. Let charitably disposed societies and individuals weigh these chances, and consider what constitutes the truest kindness. Colorado is neither inhospitable nor uncharitable. It is from consideration of what I deem the welfare of the dependent invalids that I urge you to instruct your charity that it is not kind, but cruel, to send invalids to Colorado, unless provided with means sufficient to command the lodging, diet, and leisure that their condition requires. The last element in our problem is the lack of adequate provision for the proper care of invalids in the newly settled parts of the country. There is great need in Colorado of a properly constructed and well-conducted sanitarium. Such an institution should be placed in
Page 93 IMMIGRATION. 93 the country, and should be built upon the cottage plan. It should not, in my opinion, be a home for incurables. It should be conducted by a double Board of Physicians,- one Board having local direction, and the other consisting of representative physicians in Eastern cities who have a thorough understanding of curable cases and of the influence of the Colorado climate. Patients should be received only upon the certificate of one of these physicians. It has been suggested that a home for consumptives on a scale much larger than that which I have in mind should be established by the national government, and a bill has been introduced into the United States Senate providing for the appointment of a commission to locate and establish a national home. It is to be hoped that this bill will not pass. The interference of the national government will tend to destroy local independent action. It will make charity a matter of legislation rather than of intelligent sympathy, and in some respects it will foster and increase the evils which it seeks to remedy. The State of Colorado has been largely developed by men who came hither primarily for their own health or for that of some member of their families. I believe that the generosity and public spirit of the citizens of Colorado can be relied upon to establish the proposed sanitarium. It should be remembered, however, that we do not make consumptives in Colorado. As it will be the function of the home to care for invalids who have contracted disease in the East, the cost of the maintenance of the institution may well be shared by friends in the Eastern States. I trust that the members of this Conference will do everything in their power to encourage the establishment and maintenance in Colorado of a privately endowed, co-operative cottage home for consumptives.
Page 94 V. 3Ce I 3noane. THE COMMITMENT OF THE INSANE. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE COMMITMENT AND DETENTION OF THE INSANE. BY STEPHEN SMITH, M.D., OF NEW YORK, CHAIRMAN. In a former report to the Conference by a committee of which the writer was chairman, the subject of the commitment and detention of the insane was considered at length'in its general aspects. The present report will be devoted to a consideration of the various methods of commitment in the several States (the subject of detention being deferred), with a view to secure practical uniformity in the method of procedure. Widely as the present methods apparently differ in forms and requirements, there are still certain elements of uniformity which, when properly understood and harmonized, would seem to be susceptible of establishing a basis for a common formula, applicable to each State, and thus to all of the States. The question as to the importance of uniformity in the process of commitment may be raised at the outset. It might perhaps be a sufficient answer to this question to reply that there is now a recognized necessity, on the part of legislators and jurists, for uniformity of laws of the States on very many subjects. So much importance is attached to this reform that many associations, and even legislatures, are endeavoring to secure this result. It must be conceded that, so far as laws are uniform in the States, legal processes under them are simplified. In the case of the commitment of the insane, uniformity of procedure would render a recommitment unnecessary when the patient passed from one State into another. There are many business relations of the insane which would not be affected by a change of State residence if uniformity existed. But perhaps the most important consideration which should have influence with this Conference is the fact that the methods of commitment in many States, now
Page 95 THE INSANE. 95 so defective and so devoid of accuracy, and, in some instances, of humanity, would be greatly improved, and brought more in harmony with the present state of knowledge of the insane and their proper care. Another and scarcely less important fact is found in the formation of new States and the legislation which they are to create for the insane. Here is a virgin soil in which to plant true principles of government and to establish wise legislation. Hence it becomes the duty of this representative body to adopt and promulgate the most liberal and enlightened views in regard to the obligations of the State to this class of dependants, in order that new States may not err in the creation of a system of laws relating to the insane. We can, therefore, but regard an effort to secure uniformity in the laws relating to the commitment of the insane as a subject worthy of the attention, if not of the hearty co-operation, of this Conference. Legislation for the insane in this country shows a gradual advance of public opinion towards a higher and better conception of the nature of insanity and of the wants of the insane. This fact is made evident by a review of the various methods employed from time to time, during the century of the existence of the republic, in the commitment and detention of the insane. The first methods of taking care of the insane in the colonies were very naturally derived from England. It was not until I744 that the mother country provided by statute for the special arrest and custody of the insane. In that year we find among the vagrant laws of England "An Act for apprehending and punishing of disorderly persons." It reads as follows:Whereas there are sometimes persons who, by lunacy or otherwise, are furiously mad, or are so far disordered in their senses that they may be dangerous to be permitted to go abroad, therefore, be it enacted that it shall and may be lawful for any two or more justices of the peace to cause to be apprehended and kept safely locked up in some secure place, and, if such justices shall find it necessary, to be there chained, if the last place of legal settlement be in such city or in any town within such county. This short but expressive act stands as the embodiment of the highest and best sentiment of the people of England regarding the insane at that date. It was the popular opinion that only those insane who were "furiously mad," or so far "disordered in their senses" as to be "dangerous to be permitted to go abroad," needed public care. And these poor wretches were to be taken
Page 96 96 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. into custody, not to benefit them by the ministrations of benevolence and humanity, but to protect society from their acts of violence. The quality and the grade of care which they were to receive were well defined in the act; namely, they were to be "kept safely locked up in some secure place," and, if their custodians found it necessary, they were directed to have them chained there. That this law was rigidly enforced, the current history of the times affords abundant evidence. The insane in public care were found in every jail, despised even by the criminals with whom they associated, and in the vast majority of cases they were chained. Their treatment was of the most cruel and barbarous character. No supervision whatever was exercised over either public or private institutions. The famous Bethlehem, or " Bedlam" Asylum, as it was popularly called, was the great institution of the period; and the condition of its inmates was beginning to attract popular attention. De Foe had already described in scathing language the private madhouses, and the methods of incarcerating the insane in them. The condition of the patients in " Bedlam" and in the mad-houses was from time to time made public, and excited much discussion. Hogarth sketched the appearance of the insane in their cells, lying in the straw; while other artists figured the inmates undergoing various kinds of torture. But, in spite of the efforts of a few philanthropists, no further legislation was secured until 1774, when England took the first step in the direction which she has steadily pursued from that date, and which has placed her in the first rank of the civilized nations of the world in the care of the insane. The colonies early adopted the practice of the mother country, and in the early statutes of some of them - notably of New York - this vagrant act is found precisely as it passed the English Parliament. This act may be regarded as the basis of our laws relating to the commitment and detention of the insane. The various forms which we find in the different States are essentially but departures from the organic law. As a basis for discussion, it will be necessary to collate and compare the various methods of procedure now or recently employed in committing the insane in the different States. For convenience, Harrison's work entitled " A Collection of the Lunacy Laws of the United States" is selected. This collection was made in 1884. Although changes in these laws have been made during the intervening eight years in certain States, still those changes have not been of so radical
Page 97 THE INSANE. 97 a nature as in any respect to impair the general classification of methods existing at that time. While, therefore, the exact method of procedure in each State may not, at the present time, be in accordance with that given in this paper, yet the existing method in any State will fall under one or another of the heads into which these methods are classified. This collection, therefore, answers our object of presenting a classified arrangement of the methods of commitment of the insane now recognized and enforced in the United States. It should also be stated that in some States there are several methods of commitment, depending upon the social condition of the person. These methods are classified without specifying the condition of the person. I. COMMITMENT ON THE DECISION OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. It is an interesting fact that in five States, two being of the original thirteen States (three, if we include West Virginia), we still find the justices of the peace, as a century ago, empowered to commit the insane to custody. These States are Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Indiana. In Virginia the justice acts on his own " suspicion." The testimony of a physician is a matter of accident. The statute provides that any justice who suspects any person to be insane shall order such person to be brought before him and two other justices, who together shall inquire as to his insanity. His physician -if any- and other witnesses are summoned. The justices propound a series of prescribed questions, and finally decide as to insanity, and order commitment. The proceedings are transmitted with the order. On admission to the asylum, the board of directors is assembled; and, if they concur in opinion with the justices, the patient is received and registered. If not, the patient is confined in the jail. The proceedings in West Virginia differ slightly from those of Virginia. In that State any justice who suspects any person to be insane shall require such person to be brought before him, and shall summon a physician and any other witnesses. The justice propounds a series of prescribed questions. The justice decides as to insanity, and commits or not as he pleases. The proceedings are sent with the order. On admission to the asylum an examining board is assembled. If it concur in opinion with the justice as to his insanity, the patient is received and registered. If not, the patient is discharged. In North Carolina the medical testimony is emphasized. Some respectable citizen makes before and files with a justice of the peace an affidavit in writing. The justice requires the patient to be brought
Page 98 '98 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. before him, and one or more justices. They must take the testimony of at least one respectable physician, who, with such other competent witness as the justice may determine, subscribes under oath to a series of questions. Two justices must decide as to insanity, and commit because patient is dangerous. In Tennessee, in the case of public patients, one of the informants must be a physician. Some respectable citizen files with a justice of the peace a statement which can be proved by at least two persons, one of whom must be a respectable physician. The justice takes the testimony of these persons and such others as he may think proper, at a time appointed; but the patient is not necessarily present. The justice decides as to insanity, and commits as dangerous. The proceedings are filed with the clerk of the county court, and a copy is sent to the asylum. The clerk issues his warrant to a suitable person to convey the patient to the hospital. In Indiana a respectable citizen makes a statement in writing under oath before a justice of the peace. This statement is in blank form, and consists of answers to twenty-two questions. The justice with another justice, and a respectable practising physician, —not the medical attendant of the patient,-selected by the first justice, visits and examines the alleged insane person. The justice then orders the clerk of the Circuit Court to subpcena as witnesses the persons named in the statement (question 21 requires the imformant to name the persons by whom his statements can be proved): the medical attendant; the party making the allegation of insanity; the selected medical examiner; and such other persons as the justice may choose, including witnesses in behalf of the person alleged to be insane. The trial is at the court-house. The medical attendant is required to make an affidavit on a blank form containing a full and careful statement of the medical history and treatment observed by him in the case. The medical examiner makes an affidavit that he is not and has not been recently the medical attendant of the patient; that within a week he carefully and personally examined him, and also the statement alleging insanity; that he heard all the testimony given in the inquest. Finally, he formulates his opinion, giving the facts on which it is based. The justices decide as to insanity, and make a statement of their judgment in a prescribed form. The commitment is for insanity and the danger of the community. The statement, certificate, and judgment are filed with the clerk of the Circuit Court, who applies to the Indiana Hospital for the Insane for the admission of the patient. Remarks.-From the preceding sketch of the methods of procedure it will be seen that the essential features of the Old Vagrant Act are still maintained in these five States. The most important departure is in the medical element in the testimony required by statute, the only part of the proceeding which gives it any scientific
Page 99 THE INSANE. 99 accuracy. The law of Virginia more nearly conforms to the terms of the Vagrant Act, as a physician is required to give testimony only in case there was one in attendance upon the alleged insane person. But an important provision is added, which to a certain extent supplements this defect in the proceedings. This provision requires that the board of directors of the asylum assemble and examine the patient, and they have power to refuse admission if they do not concur in opinion with the justices. The law of West Virginia is an improvement; for the justices must summon a physician as a witness, and, when the patient enters an asylum, an examining board meets and examines him. Such a board presumably consists in part of medical men. The law of Tennessee is more enlightened still; for it requires that one of the informants must be a physician, and he must appear as a witness. The highest grade of improvement of the Old Vagrant Act is reached in Indiana. Here the justices associate with themselves a respectable practising physician, and require the testimony of the medical attendant; but at the close of the proceeding the justices, and not the associated physician, decide as to insanity. This method of commitment, with all its improvements upon the original English Act, is in every respect inadequate and incompetent. On a justice of the peace, an inferior civil officer, is imposed the responsible duty of determining one of the most difficult questions in medical science. On his uninformed judgment rests the future wellbeing of the sick man who is brought into his court. 2. COMMITMENT ON THE DECISION OF A JUDGE. Commitment on the trial of the insane by a judge, and on his decision as to the person's insanity, is the practice in eighteen States and two Territories; namely, Louisiana, Florida, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Michigan, Idaho, South Carolina, Missouri, New Jersey, California, Alabama, Arkansas, Ohio, Montana, Massachusetts, and the Territories of Utah and Arizona. In Louisiana any person may petition, under oath, the district or parish judge who issues a warrant to bring the patient before him in chambers. No physician is required to testify or examine the case. The judge decides as to insanity, and in committing issues a warrant to the sheriff, commanding him to convey the patient to the asylum. In Florida the suggestion is made by petition or otherwise to a
Page 100 I00 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. judge of the Circuit Court. The judge issues a writ to the sheriff, directing him to bring the person before the judge for the purpose of inquiring as to insanity, No physicians or other witnesses are specified as necessary to the inquiry. The judge decides as to insanity, and directs and orders the sheriff to transport the patient to the asylum. In Rhode Island a complaint is made in writing, under oath, to any trial justice or clerk of a justice court that an insane person at large is dangerous. Such justice or clerk must require the sheriff, deputy, town sergeants or constables, to bring him before such or some other justice for examination. No medical testimony is required. The justice decides as to insanity, and commits for custody. In Wisconsin any respectable citizen makes application in writing to a judge of a county court or circuit court or a court of record, and specifies whether or not a trial by jury is desired by the applicant. The judge appoints two disinterested physicians, of good repute for medical skill and moral integrity, to visit and examine the patient at his residence. The report of the physicians is embodied in a series of twenty-seven prescribed questions. The judge decides as to insanity. If a jury is called for the trial, it is the same as by jury in justices' courts; but all persons are excluded except witnesses. The verdict of the jury decides as to insanity. The proceedings are sent with the order to the asylum. In Oregon any two householders make application under oath to a county judge, who shall cause the person to be brought before him at such time and place as he directs. Two or more competent physicians are required, who, after careful examination, must certify under oath to his insanity. There must be an attorney present to represent the State. The judge decides as to insanity, and commits. An appeal lies from the decision of the judge. All the proceedings are filed with the county clerk. In Washington, on an application under oath to a judge of probate, he causes the person to be brought before him, and at the same time and place causes to appear one or more respectable physicians who must state under oath or in writing their opinion of the case. The judge decides as to insanity, and commits or not as he pleases. The patient or any person may demand a jury. In Nevada any person under oath may inform a district judge, who shall cause the patient to be brought before him at such time and place as he shall direct. He shall also cause to appear at the same time and place one or more practising physicians, who shall, after careful examination of the person alleged to be insane, certify upon oath as to his insanity, and that he is unsafe at large. The judge decides as to insanity, and causes him to be sent to the asylum, if unsafe. In Utah application under oath is made to a probate judge that the patient is dangerous to be at large, who thereupon causes him to be brought before him, and summons at the same time two or more....o..
Page 101 THE INSANE. I01 witnesses who "well knew the accused," and shall also cause to appear at the same time and place two or more practising physicians. After careful hearing of the case and a personal examination of the person alleged to be insane, the physicians must certify, on oath, as to insanity, whether recent or curable, and whether patient is dangerous. The judge decides as to insanity, directs the sheriff or some suitable person to convey him to asylum. The judge transmits a copy of papers to the asylum. In Michigan, in case of pauper insane, superintendents of the poor or any supervisor; and, for indigent insane, any person makes application to the probate judge, who makes the inquiry'by summoning witnesses, one or more of whom must be a respectable physician for a pauper, but two are required for an indigent. The judge decides as to insanity, and makes a certificate in order for commitment. In Idaho any person alleged to be indigent and insane must be brought before a court of record or judge thereof. Examination shall be public; and at least one physician, a graduate in medicine, must testify. Judge decides as to insanity, and makes an order on the county commissioners, who provide transportation. In South Carolina a judge of probate or of the Circuit Court may order a trial justice to inquire as to the insanity of any person. And, when information on oath is given to a trial justice, it is his duty to call to his assistance two licensed practising physicians, and examine such person. The physicians shall certify to the judge or to the board of county commissioners the results of their examination, whether the person is curable or incurable or dangerous. The judge or the board decides as to insanity, and commits by an order. In Missouri, in the case of paupers, a citizen files with the clerk of the county court a statement as to the insanity of the person, naming as witnesses at least two persons, one of whom shall be a respectable physician. The clerk summons the persons named as witnesses and other persons to appear on the first day of the first session of the court thereafter. The court causes the witnesses to be examined before themselves as a jury. At least one of the witnesses examined shall be a respectable physician. The court or jury decides as to insanity, and commits for treatment. Pay patients are committed on the certificate of two physicians. In New Jersey, in the case of paupers, the overseer of the poor applies to a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. The judge calls one respectable physician, and fully investigates the case. The judge decides as to insanity and commits, because the disease is of such a nature that it may be cured, and issues his order to the overseer. In California affidavit is made before a magistrate, who issues a warrant for patient's arrest, and that he be brought before a judge of a court of record. The judge summons two or more witnesses, best acquainted with the patient, to testify; and at least two graduates of medicine must hear their testimony, examine the patient, and certify, on prepared blanks, to insanity, and its dangerous character. The
Page 102 102 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. judge decides as to the insanity, and commits because patient is dangerous to health, person, or property. In Alabama friends, or any other person, inform the probate judge. He calls one respectable physician and other creditable witnesses, and fully investigates the facts, with or without a jury, at his discretion, and decides as to sanity and indigence. If he decide the patient insane, he certifies to the fact, and forwards his own and the physician's certificate, with the patient, to the asylum to be filed. The cause of commitment is insanity. In Arizona any person under oath may inform the probate judge. He causes the patient, if at large, to be brought before him, and summons two or more witnesses, then acquainted with the " accused," to appear and be examined under oath. He also must cause one or more graduates of medicine, and reputable practitioners thereof, to be present, who, upon the hearing of the facts " and a personal examination of the accused," shall make a written statement as to the existence of insanity, its permanency, and the dangerous character. The judge decides as to the insanity, and commits, if patient is dangerous. In Arkansas any reputable citizen may file a written statement with a county and probate judge. He appoints a hearing for such competent witnesses as may be produced, and causes the patient to be examined by one or more regular practising physicians of good standing, who must present in writing a sworn statement of the result of their examination, including twenty-six printed interrogatories. Judge decides as to the insanity, and commits for "care and treatment as his being at large is dangerous to the community or prejudicial to his chances of recovery." In Ohio a citizen files an affidavit with the probate judge, who appoints a day for the inquest not more than five days after the affidavit. The patient must be present unless the judge decides otherwise, in which case the judge must personally visit him and so certify. One witness must be a respectable physician, who shall answer and certify to a series of questions. The judge decides as to insanity, and directs the sheriff to convey the patient to the asylum. In Montana the probate judge takes the oath of two reputable physicians, and examines the patient himself or causes him to be examined by an impartial person. The judge decides as to insanity, and makes an order of commitment. Husband or wife, or relative to the third degree, may demand a jury. In Massachusetts a judge of the Supreme Judicial or Superior Court in any county, and a judge of the probate, police, district, or municipal court, may commit. Judge shall see and examine the patient, or state in his final order why he did not do so. The judge appoints the place of hearing. No commitment is legal unless there has been filed with the judge a certificate signed by two physicians, graduates of a legally organized medical college, and who have practised three years in the State, and are not connected with any hospital or other establishment for the treatment of the insane. Each
Page 103 THE INSANE. IO3 must have personally examined the patient within five days of signing the certificate, and each shall certify that he is insane, and a proper subject for treatment in an insane hospital, giving the facts on which the opinion is based. The judge decides as to insanity, and commits for treatment. Remarks.-The commitment of the insane on the decision of a judge, after trial, differs from the method of commitment by a justice of the peace only in the character of a presiding officer. The selection of a judge of probate, or of a county, Circuit, or Supreme Court, to conduct the proceedings for commitment, instead of an ordinary justice of the peace, marks an advance of public opinion in the direction of giving more character and more precision to the process. In its most objectionable form, the judge is not required to take medical testimony, as in Florida, Louisiana, and Rhode Island. The patient is summarily arrested by the sheriff, brought into court, and tried by the judge, like an ordinary offender. The examination of the patient by competent medical men, and their sworn opinion as to the existence of insanity, are required in most of the States having this method. In addition to this requirement, in Montana the judge must examine the patient himself, or cause his examination to be made by an impartial person, not necessarily a physician. In Ohio the patient must be present at the trial, or, if he is not, the judge must himself personally visit him. In Massachusetts the judge must personally visit the patient, or state in his final order why he did not do so. These additional requirements are of no practical value. Neither a judge nor an impartial person could, on visiting the parties, determine the special nature of the disease or the peculiar necessities of the case. They could only form an opinion of the general condition and surroundings of the sick person. In South Carolina the proceeding is somewhat peculiar. A trial justice calls to his assistance two licensed practising physicians. The physicians certify to the judge or to a board of county commissioners the results of their examination, and the judge or the board, as the case may be, decides as to the disposition to be made of the patient. This method is only another phase of the proceedings in this division. 3. COMMITMENT ON THE VERDICT OF A JURY OF LAYMEN. The States requiring a jury trial of the insane by a jury of laymen are Maryland, Mississippi, Colorado, Texas, and Wyoming. I - _
Page 104 104 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. In Maryland the law provides that, when any person is alleged to be an insane pauper, the Circuit Court for the county, or, if in Baltimore, the criminal court, shall empanel a jury of twelve men to inquire as to the truth of the allegation. The jury decides as to insanity. No medical examination or testimony is required. In Mississippi, when a citizen suggests in writing to the clerk of a chancery court that the friends or relations of any lunatic neglect or refuse to place him in an asylum, the clerk shall direct the sheriff to summon as soon as may be the alleged lunatic, and six discreet persons to make inquisition thereto on oath. A majority decides as to insanity, and the clerk orders patient arrested and placed in asylum. No medical examination or testimony required. In Colorado a reputable person files a complaint, duly verified, with the county clerk, who issues an order to any sheriff or constable of the county for the apprehension of such alleged insane person. When arrested, he is taken forthwith before the county court or the judge thereof. He may elect to have the inquest at once: otherwise, ten days' notice must be given, he being confined meantime in the county jail or other convenient place. At the trial a jury of six men is empanelled. No medical testimony is required. Jury decides as to insanity and its dangerous character; and judge commits, on ground of danger to patient or others, or to property, to county jail until otherwise disposed of according to law. In Texas pauper or public patients are committed as follows: Information in writing, under oath, must be given to a county judge, who causes the patient's arrest by the sheriff or constable, and summons a jury of six competent jurors. The State is made the plaintiff, and the patient the defendant. The county attorney represents the State, and the patient has counsel. Medical testimony is not required. The jury decides as to insanity. If he is found to be insane, a judgment is entered, "adjudging the defendant to be a lunatic, and ordering him to be conveyed to the lunatic asylum for restraint and treatment." Proceedings are entered of record in the probate minutes, and a copy sent to the superintendent of the asylum. In Wyoming the law provides that, when information is given in writing by a citizen or probate judge or coroner or constable to a probate judge, he may cause the facts to be inquired into by a jury. The judge may, at his discretion, cause the patient to be brought before the court. No medical testimony is required. The jury decide as to insanity. Remarks. — The trial of the insane by a jury is still another phase of the Old English Vagrant Law. It may be regarded as an effort to perfect that law by substituting for the judgment of a single incompetent person, as a justice of the peace or a judge, the verdict of six or more persons even more incompetent. The insane person is still treated as a common offender against the law, is arrested and confined with criminals, and as such placed on trial before a jury.
Page 105 THE INSANE. 105 This method of procedure is essentially that adopted for minor criminals in police courts, and has but one element that gives the patient any certainty of being dealt with judiciously. This is the requirement that he shall be examined by qualified physicians, and that their testimony shall form a necessary part of the procedure. There is now no safeguard to the patient to prevent the proceeding from being one of a harsh and cruel nature. The physician has no voice in the proper care of the patient, and he may be treated with all the rudeness which characterizes the arrest and trial of a common criminal. Many insane persons become the sport of officers and by-standers, owing to the peculiarities of their delusions, at a period in their sickness when they need quietude, sympathy, and seclusion from the public curiosity. 4. COMMITMENT ON THE VERDICT OF A MIXED JURY OF LAYMEN AND PHYSICIANS. Three States —namely, Illinois, Kansas, and Minnesota- require that at least one physician shall be on the jury. In Illinois a near relative or any respectable person petitions the county judge. Judge orders clerk of court to issue a writ to the sheriff or any constable, or the person having charge of the alleged insane person, requiring him to be brought before the judge at a time and place appointed. A jury of six persons, one a physician, is empanelled; and the case is tried in the presence of the person alleged to be insane, who may have counsel. No medical evidence is required. The jury render their verdict in writing in a prescribed form, the finding being insanity or not, and whether he is a proper subject to be sent to the State Hospital. In Kansas information in writing is given to the judge of Probate Court. The judge fixes the time for trial, and empanels a jury of six persons, one of whom is a physician in regular practice and good standing. The judge may, at his discretion, cause the patient to be brought into court; but the patient has the right to be present at the trial with counsel. The jury decide as to insanity, and as to his being a fit person to be sent to the asylum. They must all sign the verdict. There must be attached to the verdict a brief statement of the medical treatment of the case, with other necessary information, by the physician on the jury. In Minnesota information is filed with the probate judge or the court commissioner, who causes the person to be examined by a jury consisting of two respectable persons besides himself, one at least of whom shall be a physician. A majority of the jury decides as to
Page 106 0o6 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. insanity, and the judge issues duplicate warrants committing to care. One warrant is filed in the office of the judge, and the other in the asylum. Remarks.-The trial of the insane by a jury containing a medical man is another departure, which, though not very radical, still shows clearly the trend of public thought in the direction of a scientific and rational method of treating the insane. We have, in this fact, as in the compulsory attendance of medical witnesses, a recognition of the true status of the insane as sick persons, and the proper relation of the medical profession to their care. This method of jury trial reaches its highest development in the State of Minnesota, where the jury is reduced to three in number, one of whom is the judge, who conducts the proceedings. The second must be a physician, and the third may also be of that profession. A majority of the jury decides as to the issue of insanity. In such a court the medical judgment is likely to be paramount and conclusive in determining the nature of the prisoner's mental condition. The whole proceeding, however, in any of the forms by which the insane are arrested and brought before juries for trial, belongs to a past age, and is unworthy of this enlightened period. 5. COMMITMENT ON DECISION OF THE CHANCELLOR OF THE STATE. The proceedings for the commitment of the insane in the State of Delaware are as follows: — Relatives or friends, with the certificate of two practising physicians, apply to the chancellor of the State, personally or by petition, setting forth facts as to insanity, and necessity of a better and more efficient mode of medical treatment than can be afforded in the county almshouse of the State. The chancellor decides as to insanity, and recommends the governor to remove the patient to an almshouse. Remarks.-This form of commitment reminds us of the English custom of regarding the insane as under the special jurisdiction of the Lord Chancellor. The same custom once prevailed in the State of New York. The method does not differ essentially from that form in which the certificate is submitted to a judge of a higher court.
Page 107 THE INSANE. 107 6. COMMITMENT ON DECISION OF A COMMISSION APPOINTED BY A JUDGE. In Rhode Island, Georgia, New Mexico, and Connecticut the commitment of the pauper insane is on the decision of a commission appointed by a judge to whom application is made. In Rhode Island, on petition under oath, a justice of the Supreme Court appoints not less than three commissioners, who must be sworn by the justice before the inquisition. The patient must be notified of the time and place of hearing, in order that he may have an opportunity by evidence, by his own statements, and by counsel to defend himself against the charge of the petition. No medical testimony is required. The judge decides as to insanity, and may commit to a curative hospital for the insane of good repute. In Georgia, upon the petition under oath, the ordinary, upon proof that ten days' notice of such application has been given to the three nearest adult relatives of such person, if there are such relatives, issues a commission to any eighteen discreet and proper persons, one of whom shall be a physician, requiring any twelve of them, including the physician, to examine by inspection the person, and to hear and examine witness, and report the results to the ordinary. The ordinary commits, if the commission report that the person is insane. In Kentucky the State or county attorney makes application to some court of the county. The court (Circuit or Common Pleas, or chancellor, county judge, or city or public court judge) causes an inquest by a jury to be held in open court. The court appoints a lawyer to protect the interests and rights of the patient. The State attorney is especially charged to be present at all inquests. A form of verdict is prescribed. The patient is to be present, unless two physicians make affidavits that they have personally examined him and believed him to be insane, and that it would be unsafe to bring him into court. The judge decides as to insanity, and makes an order of commitment. The presiding officer draws up a brief history of the patient, which he transmits with the record to the asylum. In New Mexico a petition, with affidavit, by a relation by blood or marriage, or by a person interested in the estate, must be made to a district judge, who issues a commission to one or more persons to inquire into the lunacy of the patient. The form is... "do hereby appoint, authorize, and command you, or any two of you, that at such certain day and place as you shall think fit you diligently inquire, by the oaths or affirmations of six or more good and lawful men by whom the truth of the matter may be better known." No medical testimony is required. The court empowers the commission to issue writs of venue, subpoenas, and habeas corpus, and to force obedience to the same. In Connecticut, on a written complaint made to any judge of the
Page 108 108 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Superior Court that a person not a pauper is insane and unfit to go at large, the judge shall immediately appoint a committee, consisting of a physician and two other persons, one of whom shall be an attorney, judge, or justice of peace. If, in their opinion, such person should be confined, the judge shall issue an order therefor. Remarks.- The process of commitment by this method is not unlike that by a jury. It is entirely destitute of that accuracy which should characterize such proceedings, and is liable to subject the patient and friends to injudicious and disturbing treatment. 7. COMMITMENT ON DECISION OF COMMISSIONERS OF INSANITY. In three States commissioners of insanity are created in each county, who examine each case of alleged insanity, and determine the condition of such person. In Iowa information under oath is made to the commissioners of insanity (there are three commissioners in each county: one is the clerk of the Circuit Court, and others are appointed by the judge of the Circuit Court, one of whom must be a respectable practising physician, and the other a lawyer). The commissioners may examine informant, and, if satisfied that there is reasonable cause, shall at once investigate the case. They may require the presence of the patient during the examination or not, at their discretion; but in any case they must appoint a regular practising physician to make a personal examination of the alleged insane person, to obtain answers to the prescribed series of questions from relatives or others, and to certify under his hand to his examination. The commissioners decide as to his insanity, and whether the patient is a fit subject for treatment and custody. The warrant for removal to the hospital is made to the sheriff. The patient has the right of appeal from the decision within ten days. In Maine any relative or justice of the peace makes a complaint in writing to a board of examiners (the municipal officers of towns) who take testimony. The evidence and certificate of at least two respectable physicians, based upon due inquiry and personal examination, are required. The examiners decide as to insanity, and commit, if he is insane, because they think his comfort and safety and that of others will be promoted. Any person deeming himself aggrieved by the decision of the board may appeal within five days. In Dakota written information under oath is filed with the commissioners of insanity (a commission exists in each county, and consists of the judge of probate, a respectable practising physician, and a respectable attorney). Commission investigates. Patient present or not, at discretion of commission. Any citizen may appear for or against. Commission appoints some regular practising physician to
Page 109 THE INSANE. Io9 make personal examination, and to obtain from relatives and others correct answers to certain prescribed questions. Commission decides as to insanity, and whether patient is a fit subject for treatment and custody in the hospital. Sheriff or deputy, or other suitable person, removes patient; but, if a woman, another woman or relative must accompany her. In Nebraska information, verified by affidavit, must be filed with the commissioners (a board of three members in each county, styled "Commissioners of Insanity," one of whom is the clerk of the district court, the others are appointed by the judge of said court, one being a respectable practising physician, and the other a respectable practising lawyer). The commissioners may have the patient present or not at the inquest. In any case, they shall appoint some regular practising physician, who may or may not be of their number, to make a personal examination, gather facts from relatives, and certify under his own hand as to the insanity and condition of the patient. The board decides as to insanity, and commits for treatment and custody. Remarks. —The method of determining the existence of insanity, and of the commitment of the insane, by a permanent commission, one of whom must be a respectable practising physician, and another must be a respectable practising lawyer, while the third is a probate judge or the clerk of a court of record, is still another step in the progress of reform in the care of the insane. Its special merits consist in the high character of the members of the commission; the permanency of the commission, which insures a better qualification of the members; the method of conducting the proceedings, which relieves them of all disturbing conditions; and, finally, the power to determine the nature of the affection, and the proper care and treatment of the persons alleged to be insane. The commission in Maine, which consists of the officers of the municipality, is inferior to those of the other States, because the membership is by no means so select, and there may be no medical member. An objection to this method is in its inconvenience, the commission often being remote from the patient. 8. COMMITMENT ON DECISION OF AN ASYLUM BOARD. In two States there is provision for the commitment of the insane on the decision of an asylum examining board; viz., Virginia and Mississippi.
Page 110 IIO NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. In Virginia, on application for the admission of a person into an asylum, the examining board may receive him, if unanimous in its action. In Mississippi the superintendent and board of trustees of the asylum may, on application, admit " any person being a lunatic and a resident of the State," though no proceedings in lunacy have been taken. Remarks.-It has long been held that it would be an unsafe proceeding to give the power of committing the insane to a party who was personally an officer of the asylum to which such insane person was to be admitted. Even the testimony of a physician is not allowed in England, nor in several States, in the case of an alleged insane person who is to be admitted to the asylum with which such medical examiner is connected. The purpose of such legislation is evidently to guard the person alleged to be insane from the possibility of being committed to an asylum unjustly by interested parties. Standing as an act of asylum managers, without any State supervision or other responsibility to proper authority, this method of commitment cannot be regarded as wise or judicious. It must, however, be considered as an advance in public sentiment; for there is an evident recognition of the necessity of a higher grade of examinations than that secured in courts of law. 9. COMMITMENT ON THE DECISION OF PHYSICIANS. In the States of New York, New Hampshire, Georgia, Texas, Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and in the District of Columbia the insane are committed on the certificate of physicians. In New York the sworn certificate of two physicians is required. They must be of reputable character, graduates of incorporated medical colleges, permanent residents of the State, in actual practice at least three years, and not connected with the asylum to which the patient is committed. These qualifications must be certified to by a judge of a court of record. There must be a personal examination of the patient by the physicians, and the certificates must bear date of not more than ten days prior to commitment. They must finally be approved by a judge of a court of record, who may, at his discretion, institute further inquiry, or take proofs, or call a jury. In New Hampshire two reputable physicians must certify to insanity after a personal examination within one week of commitment. Such certificate must be accompanied by a certificate of a judge of the Supreme Court or Court of Probate, or mayor, or chairman of the
Page 111 THE INSANE. I I I selectmen, testifying to the genuineness of the signatures and the respectability of the signers. Judge of probate may commit any insane person who is dangerous. Overseers of the poor may commit any insane pauper. In Georgia a pay patient is admitted to an asylum on the certificate of three respectable practising physicians, well acquainted with the condition of the patient, or one from such physicians and two respectable citizens, stating the cause of application. In Texas private patients are committed as follows:The legal guardian, near relative, or other person interested in the patient must present to the superintendent of the asylum a sworn statement of facts relating to him, accompanied with the affidavit of the physician certifying that he made a careful examination of the patient and verily believes him to be insane, and with a certificate of the county judge that the physician certifying is a respectable person. The physician decides as to insanity, and the commitment follows. In Connecticut a selectman applies to the judge of probate in behalf of pauper insane. The judge appoints a respectable physician, who shall fully investigate the facts of the case and report to the judge. If the physician is satisfied that the pauper is insane, the judge orders the selectmen forthwith to take such insane pauper to the hospital. In the District of Columbia two respectable physicians appear before a judge of the Supreme Court or justice of the peace, and depose in writing, under oath, that they knew the patient, and from personal examination believed him to be insane and a fit subject for treatment in the Government Insane Hospital. The judge or justice makes a certificate, which, with the affidavits of the physicians, is presented to the Secretary of the Interior, who grants an order admitting the patient to the Hospital. In Vermont the certificate of two physicians certified by the judge of probate to be of unquestioned integrity and skill, not members of the same firm, nor officers of an insane asylum, is required. The certificate must be made not more than ten days previous to the admission of the patient to the asylum, and not more than five days after making a careful examination of the alleged insane person. The physicians decide as to insanity; and their certificate, certified by a judge of probate, commits to an asylum. The next friend may appeal from this decision to the supervisors (three persons elected by the general assembly, biennially, two of whom are physicians, their duties being the visitation of asylums), who must forthwith examine the case and reject or indorse the certificate according to evidence. In Tennessee legal guardians, relatives, or friends, or a justice of the peace, may place an insane person in an asylum, provided at least one reputable physician certifies within one month of admission under oath, before a justice of the peace or a judge of any court of record, who attests the same, that the person is proved to be insane upon personal examination. The physician decides as to insanity.
Page 112 112 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. In Pennsylvania two physicians, residents of the State, who have been in the actual practice of medicine for at least five years and who are not related to the patient, shall certify that they have examined separately the patient, and that the disease is of a character which requires that he be placed in a hospital or other establishment where the insane are detained for care and treatment, and that they are not related to the patient, nor connected with the institution to which he is to be committed. This certificate shall have been made within one week of the examination and within two weeks of the time of admission, and must be sworn to before a judge or magistrate of the county, who shall certify to the genuineness of the signatures and the good repute of the signers. The physicians decide as to insanity. In Rhode Island parents, guardians, relatives, or friends, and overseers of the poor, when the patient is a pauper, may place insane persons in a curative hospital of good repute, on the certificate of two practising physicians of good standing, and known to be such by the superintendent of the hospital. Remarks.-In the commitment of the insane on the decision of medical men alone, we have the highest development of this proceeding yet placed on the statute book. The true nature of insanity is fully recognized; and the insane are removed from the category of criminals, and placed among that class of sick persons requiring only medical care and treatment. The courts perform only simple notarial functions, by certifying to the genuineness of the papers or to the professional standing of the physicians. In New York there is still noticeable in the proceedings a relic of the ancient law. The judge approves or not the certificates, according to his discretion, though in this act he is believed to assume no other responsibility in the commitment than to certify to the proceedings. But he may institute farther investigations, and may even call a jury, and submit the person to the ordinary trial of a petty criminal. In that respect the law admits of great abuse. Practically, however, the commitment is on the decision of the examining physicians, the judge performing no other function than that of perfunctorily signing his name in approval. A very important feature of the law of New York is that forbidding physicians from certifying to the insanity of any person unless they have been duly certified by a judge of a court of record to have graduated from an incorporated medical college, to have been three years in actual practice, and to be of reputable character. This provision of law has secured to every part of the State a class of examiners in lunacy representing the best educated and most respectable class of practitioners.
Page 113 THE INSANE. II3 The method of commitment on the decision of physicians reaches its highest development in the States of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. In the former State the certificate of insanity of the physician is conclusive, the judge merely certifying to the genuineness of the signatures and the character of the signers. In the latter State even this formality is dispensed with, and the only requirement is that the superintendent of the hospital shall know of the good standing of the certifying physicians. If we rightly interpret the preceding review, it will appear that there has been a slow but progressive advance of public opinion, during the century of the existence of the United States as an independent nationality, towards a more correct and rational treatment of the insane, as shown in the gradual improvement in the methods of commitment adopted and enforced in the several States. These methods, as classified, illustrate the prevailing views as to the insane at different periods. There is no more striking illustration of the refining and elevating influences by which modern civilization has gradually moulded the public conscience into forms which give expression to the highest sentiments of philanthropy than the remarkable changes which have occurred in the relations of the State to the insane during the century of the existence of this republic. One hundred years ago no one was recognized as sufficiently insane to require care or custody who was not furiously mad, and too dangerous to be at large. To-day insanity is recognized as a disease, having a great variety of expressions, and demanding treatment in its several stages by competent medical men. One hundred years ago the insane were arrested as common criminals, were incarcerated in jails, were tried by juries, and were condemned to imprisonment with the same formality as the indicted and convicted felon. To-day in most of the States no person can be lawfully declared insane, and be removed from his home unless he is first examined by physicians who have been approved by the court as competent examiners, who must give the facts on which they base their opinions in a written certificate, verified under oath. One hundred years ago the insane, when duly convicted by a jury, were incarcerated in cells and dungeons with criminals, and, if necessary, were chained. To-day the States have provided for the insane residences erected on the choicest available sites, and endowed them with every known convenience and appliance for their recovery and personal comfort. One hundred years ago cruelties and outrages in the personal treatment of the insane were of public no
Page 114 114 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. toriety; but they elicited no remonstrance, nor did they create a ripple of agitation. To-day the faintest rumor of unkind treatment of the insane, or even of restraint by the mildest means, arouses popular indignation as does no other tale of wrong or cruelty. If we analyze the historical events in the care of the insane during the past century, it is not difficult to discover the general trend of thought and investigation by which these remarkable results have been accomplished. Running through the entire period, we notice the gradual change of opinion as to the nature of insanity and the responsibility of the insane. The prevailing belief as to the legal status of the insane at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution was that they should be considered and treated as dangerous vagrants. Indeed, the popular belief in the demoniacal possession of the insane was as yet strong, and quite controlling with the common people. The first awakening of the public conscience to a realization of the wrongs done to the insane occurred near the close of the last century. It was at this time that the famous York Retreat of England, under the management of the Society of Friends, began to attract attention. A new policy was adopted in this institution. The inmates were regarded as susceptible of control and good government by humane measures. The old system of restraint was abandoned, and moral influences substituted. The result surprised England. This asylum became a model of good order, freedom from excitement, and absence of the old and familiar forms of restraint. Many patients entered the wards who had been chained for years in other asylums, but who were soon made tractable under the influence of kind, intelligent, and humane attendants. A visitor to the Retreat states that "they sometimes have patients brought to them frantic and in irons, whom they at once release, and by mild arguments and gentle acts reduce almost immediately to obedience and orderly behavior." The new and humane method of treating the insane only required a trial to convince the most sceptical that it was based on correct principles. Gentleness and kindness controlled more effectually than the whip and chains. As the century advanced, far more thought was given to insanity by competent medical investigators. A better knowledge of pathology revealed more and more clearly the important fact that insanity, under all conditions and circumstances, depends upon deranged, disturbed, or abnormal states and consequent action of some portion of that complex organism, the brain. In a broad sense, it is a disease; and in every possible phase which it may
Page 115 THE INSANE. II5 assume it must be relegated to the domain of medical science. This is the mature judgment of every student of mental pathology and physiology, and must be accepted by the State in its management of the insane. It is through the failure of legislative bodies to realize the fundamental fact that the insane are sick people that we have the multitude of incongruous laws relating to them which fill the volumes of statute laws of the States. But it is gratifying to notice in the preceding review that there has been a steady improvement in this regard throughout the United States, and that some States have even now reached that high position of committing the insane entirely to medical care. In turning now to the development of a general scheme of commitment, we must first establish certain general principles, which each of the States may adopt, as the basis of legislation, without so radically affecting organic laws as to render the reform impossible or even doubtful. In the laws of all of the States we may trace more or less distinctly the recognition of these principles. In some of the States these principles are already so fully recognized that but little change would be required in existing laws; while in others less advanced the necessary changes are most desirable, and would doubtless meet with popular approval if the public was properly enlightened on the subject. While, therefore, a method of commitment deduced from principles already recognized in the laws of the States may not be ideal in all of its details, these principles certainly form the only basis on which unification of the laws relating to commitment can at present be constructed. In our former report we gave the results of a careful study of the methods of commitment by all of the States, and embodied them in a series of propositions. These propositions with some modifications we now restate as the general principles on which unification of the methods of commitment of the States may be effected. THE RIGHT TO CONFINE THE INSANE. It is a maxim of law that status is the basis of personal rights, and that the right of status, or condition, is founded on a universal jurisprudence. The right to deprive the insane of their personal liberty is based on the law of the status of the individual. The status of the insane has varied at different periods, because at no time have jurists been able to agree upon a basis which received
Page 116 16 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. general consent. At an early period of English jurisprudence the status of the insane, as regards property rights, was the same as that of natural fools; and they were treated accordingly. Again, only furious maniacs were recognized as insane persons; and, under the law of status, they could be restrained of personal liberty without affording any necessary foundation for an action of false imprisonment. At common law any person might confine a dangerous lunatic as a matter of common right; and even an assault committed to restrain the fury of a lunatic was justifiable. Finally, the insane were regarded as sick persons, without the judgment to take proper measures to regain health. This is the present status of the insane in England, where care and treatment enter as important factors in the question of commitment. While all of the States commit on the common law right of confining the insane who are dangerous to be at large, many States commit also on the more humane obligation to secure to them proper care and treatment. There is no reason why all of the States should not now recognize both principles; for they represent the most advanced opinions of alienists and philanthropists, and are essential to the proper treatment of the insane, with a view to their restoration to society. In this view, however, it does not follow because a person is insane that he should be committed to custody. It is demonstrable that there are persons in nearly every community who might technically be adjudged insane, and yet who are good citizens in the sphere which they occupy, and have the most undoubted right to their personal liberty. Again, there are many insane persons who are so well cared for by their friends that it would be a manifest injustice to remove them to a custodial institution. Laws relating to commitment should therefore base the right to confine the insane upon the actual condition of the person at the time, as attested by competent authority. In estimating his condition, consideration should be given (i) to the form of insanity with which he is afflicted, its stage of progress, its curability under any other method of care and treatment, its tendency to homicide, suicide, destruction of property; (2) to the immediate surroundings of the person and their adaptation to his special necessities. We would propose the following as an organic act relating to the insane in every State: — NVo insane person shall be deprived of his liberty unless restraint is necessary, expedient, benefcial, or remedial.
Page 117 THE INSANE. r17 If we adopt the preceding proposition as a fundamental act in our laws, we may state the first condition of the insane requiring commitment as follows:It is necessary to place in custody the insane who perpetrate acts dangerous to themselves or to others, or to property. As already stated, the common law has already recognized the necessity of placing in custody by summary process the furious maniac. Any person is justified in restraining from his acts a dangerous lunatic. All the States adopt this principle in legislation. While it is necessary to the public safety, as well as to the safety of individuals, to confine the insane who commit acts of violence, it cannot be considered otherwise than expedient to confine the insane who, by threats, make it reasonably certain that in some moment of frenzy they will perpetrate acts of violence. Not all insane persons who threaten violence are dangerous; but, in all cases where violence is threatened, it is important that the conditions under which the patients live, and the varying states of mind to which their disease renders them liable, should be discriminated, that no mistakes be made, The second condition requiring the commitment of the insane may therefore be stated as follows — It is expedient to commit to custody the insane who show by threats, or otherwise, dangerous tendencies or uncontrollable propensities toward the perpetration of crime. There are insane persons who may be regarded as harmless, but who require custody for their own protection. They are usually of the laboring class of people, who live on the border line between selfsupport and indigence. Their chief propensity is to wander about in an aimless manner, and they are constantly subjected to the vicissitudes of the life of vagrants. Such insane persons should be placed in confinement for their own comfort and protection. There are still other insane persons who are confined by their friends at home, but are treated cruelly or are neglected. In these cases, the law should require the interposition of the proper authorities and the removal of the person to a suitable asylum. Therefore, we propose as a principle thatIt shall be lawful to commit the insane to custody who are disposed to wander about, and on this account suzfer for want of food or shelter, or expose themselves to accidents, and who cannot be properly restrained under the conditions in which they live, or who are ill-treated or neglected by their relations orfriends.
Page 118 118 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Although the laws of but few States specifically recognize this proposition, yet it is so well grounded in the English lunacy laws and is so just and humane that its propriety cannot fail of recognition by any legislature. While it is probable that no one will deny that the three preceding conditions of the insane require commitment, the following proposition will not receive universal assent, though we regard it as the most important: - It is advisable to commit those insane to custody for remedial purposes whose disease is in such a stage that the restraint, discipline, or therapeutical measures of an institution will tend more efectually to secure recovery than the conditions under which they live. Insanity in its various phases is now universally recognized as an expression of morbid or abnormal condition of the system. It must be studied as a disease of an acute or chronic character, and in every stage requires the most skilful medical care and treatment. The fact that there is still so much obscurity connected with its pathology and its manifestations emphasizes the necessity of subordinating its management more completely to the highest grade of medical investigation and treatment. All future progress in unfolding the now mysterious operations of the mind in health and disease, and their relations to the varying conditions of nerve structure, and of nerve structure to the organs of the body, must be along the line of more accurate knowledge of the minute anatomy of the brain, and more exhaustive clinical observation and research. To accomplish these results, the insane must be brought under the direct and absolute control, for the purpose not only of care and treatment, but of study and investigation of the highest available medical talent. We believe, therefore, that under whatever condition the insane are found, and whatever may be the form, grade, or stage of progress of the disease, the question of curative care and treatment should be considered as paramount, and should determine their destination. The English Lunacy Commissioners take this ground, and declare that "the object of the Lunacy Acts is not so much to confine lunatics as to restore to a healthy state of mind such of them as are curable, and to afford comfort and protection to the rest." We believe that the time has fully come when the dominant question in the commitment of an insane person should be, as aptly put by Professor Ordronaux, "whether he needs such treatment as is afforded alone in an asylum, and is therefore a proper person for care and treatment therein. If so, then
Page 119 INSANE. II9 no matter whether he be quiet and harmless; for it is still the duty of society to protect him against the consequences of a disease both dangerous to him and to others. The proper test in all cases is the dangerous nature of his disease, not the dangerous character of his demeanor alone. Hence the right to confine him, if necessary, is an incident in the treatment of his malady which the State may permit in virtue of that discretionary power of guardianship which arises by implication of law from the capitis diminutio of the citizen." In two or three States this principle is established, and is the rule of action. In the laws of several other States we trace its recognition and partial adoption in practice. In the large number of States, however, curative treatment is a mere incident, depending for its application upon the existence of an asylum, with an intelligent governing board and a competent medical superintendent. We submit to the judgment of this Conference if it can render to the insane of this country any higher service than through its influence and efforts to secure the adoption by every State of the principle that the primary question in commitment shall be the curative treatment of the individual insane person. Finally, it is the universal experience of alienists that the chance of recovery from insanity is in inverse ratio to the length of time which the disease has continued. Hence the necessity of early treatment. It follows, therefore, that those methods of securing commitment which present the fewest obstacles, with proper security of the rights of individuals, are the best. The Earl of Shaftesbury, in his evidence before the Royal Commission, regarded early treatment as so important that he deprecated any formalities in the process of commitment which were likely to make friends delay, such as too great publicity. Equally important is it that, as far as possible, the insane should not in this act be subjected to treatment which in any manner unduly disturbs them or aggravates conditions on which their insanity depends. While, therefore, the proceedings should be conducted so quietly as not to expose the insane to unnecessary irritation and excitement, the successive steps should be taken with that precision which will secure a right judgment, and assure the friends and the public that sane persons cannot, designedly or by mistake, be committed. The following principle should govern in devising a scheme of commitment: - The procedure of the commitment of the insane should be so planned and executed as to secure their early removal to a curative hospital, with the
Page 120 120 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. leastpossible disturbance of themselves or friends, and with adequate protection from wrong. In attempting now to formulate a law for the commitment of the insane which may be adopted by all of the States, we shall advance no new and untried scheme, but shall deduce it, as we have the principles just stated, from the laws already existing in the several States. In these laws and in the principles drawn therefrom, we find all of the elements necessary for the construction of a code of procedure, which, if not fully up to the standard which science and humanity would require, is certainly a vast improvement upon that in practice in the great majority of the States. Our task is, therefore, rather that of constructing a new system out of existing methods than of creating it from new materials. From the preceding review of the methods of commitment in the different States it appears that, in general, two proceedings are necessary; viz., one to determine the existence of insanity and the wants of the insane, the other to pass upon those proofs, and either reject them or give them effect. In the execution of these processes we find the special differences in the methods of the States. Let us consider those processes separately, with a view to formulating a method common to all of the States. First, as to the determination of the existence of insanity and the kind of care and treatment required, in a few States the testimony of any citizen knowing the alleged insane person is relied upon. In the larger number of States, however, the laws require that among the witnesses there shall be one or more "graduates from an incorporated medical college," or "reputable practising physicians." There can be no difference of opinion as to the competency of the witnesses who are to determine the status or condition of the individual. Is he or is he not insane? If insane, what form of insanity is it? In what stage of progress is the disease? What are the chances of recovery? What kind of care and treatment does this person require for his recovery or comfort? This group of questions can only be answered intelligently by a medical man. It is true that the merest child might correctly decide that a person is insane, as he might that he has fever; but the establishment of that fact alone should not determine, as we have seen, the necessity of his being placed in confinement. The case must be thoroughly studied as a whole by competent physicians before an intelligent judgment can be formed as to the care and treatment which he requires. The first duty of the State is, therefore, to provide competent examiners in lunacy.
Page 121 THE INSANE 121 While the medical schools of the country do not as yet give adequate medical instruction in psychology, it is nevertheless true that they generally teach more or less thoroughly the principles of that science, and many give clinical instruction. It is also true that there is in every small community in the United States, however isolated, medical practitioners of reputable character, and graduates of incorporated medical colleges. In this fact we find the necessary medical examiners, and usually so distributed and located as to be easily accessible and immediately available. In the vast majority of cases, such physicians are professionally more or less familiar with the antecedents of the insane person, and are therefore still more competent to judge correctly in regard to every question which it may be necessary to determine. We propose, therefore, that each State recognize as a qualified medical examiner in lunacy every physician duly certified to be of reputable character, a graduate of an incorporated medical college, a resident of the State, and in the actual practice of medicine. This is the law of the State of New York; and under its operation nearly every competent physician qualifies, thus giving to the remotest districts, and the immediate vicinity of the patient, a quasi official having the authority and functions of a medical examiner in lunacy. If two or more officials are called to investigate the condition of a person afflicted with the disease insanity, and are empowered and required to personally examine such person, and to collect and record as the basis of their opinion all the facts relating to his sickness and necessities as regards care and treatment, can there be any possible need, in the interests of such insane person, of any additional official inquiry? We believe not. Every one who has been much among the insane has been impressed with the sense of injustice which they feel towards every one who has any part in their commitment. This feeling is increased in proportion to the publicity which is given to it. To them the whole proceeding has the character of a conspiracy; and hence the larger the number engaged in it, the more aggravated and irritated they become. We can but conclude that the highest and best interests of the insane will be consulted if the entire investigation as to their condition and needs preliminary to commitment be by statute imposed upon the examiners in lunacy above provided. 'If we thus secure the evidence which justifies the commitment of an insane person, what further proceedings are necessary to complete the process? Evidently, nothing is now required but to give to this -. --- —
Page 122 I22 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. evidence that judicial sanction and force which, in various forms, all the States now require. In very many States this sanction rests upon a review of the evidence, as in any criminal suit, and a decision thereon. In some States, however, the judge merely administers the oath and certifies to the character of the signers of the certificate and the genuineness of their signatures. From the preceding discussion we conclude that the fact is satisfactorily established that a layman, even a judge of the highest court, is not competent to review the facts embraced in this certificate. The only person capable of sitting in judgment upon these facts is a medical man familiar with the disease insanity. We shall therefore hold that those States have a process of commitment more nearly in accord with the rational and scientific treatment of the insane, which requires only medical inquiry into the condition and wants in any individual case as a basis of commitment, but limits the judicial function to the administration of the necessary oath, and the certification of the character of the makers of the certificate and the genuineness of their signatures. In the following project of a law of commitment, we intend simply to embody the conclusions which we have formed from the preceding discussion in a form best adapted to illustrate their relations and their practical application to each State. In preparing the details for legislative action, the form and verbiage would be susceptible of material changes. SECTION i.-No person shall be deprived of his liberty, in this State, by being committed to custody as insane, unless his insanity be established in manner and form prescribed in this act, and his commitment to custody be recommended either because (I) he has perpetrated acts dangerous to himself or to others or to property; or (2) it is reasonably certain, by his threats or otherwise, that he has dangerous tendencies, or uncontrollable propensities toward crime; or, (3) he wanders about, and is exposed to want of food or shelter or to accidents; or (4) he is ill-treated or neglected by relatives or friends; or (5) his disease is of such a nature, or in such a stage, as to require, for his recovery, care and treatment while under legal restraint. SECT. 2.-It shall not be lawful for any physician to certify to the insanity of any person, for the purpose of securing his commitment to custody, unless said physician be of reputable character, a graduate of some incorporated medical college, a permanent resident of the State, and shall be in the actual practice of his profession. The possession of such qualifications shall be certified to by a judge of a
Page 123 THE INSANE. I23 court of record, and such certificate shall constitute said physician an examiner in lunacy for the purposes of this act. A copy of said certificate shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county in which such physician resides; but it shall be unlawful for any examiner in lunacy to certify to the insanity of any person for the purpose of committing him to an asylum or institution devoted to the custody of the insane of which said examiner is either the superintendent, proprietor, an officer, or a regular medical attendant. SECT. 3.- Each certificate of insanity must contain, in addition to other information, answers to the following inquiries as far as they can be obtained:Inquiries were made and answers obtained as follows (here give names of persons of whom inquiries were made):1. What is the patient's name and age? Married or single? If children, how many? If a mother, age of youngest child. 2. (a) Where was the patient born? (b) Where was the patient's father born? (c) Where was the patient's mother born? 3. Where is his or her place of residence (legal settlement)? 4. What has been the patient's occupation? If a woman, husband's occupation? 5. Is this the first attack? If not, when did others occur, and what were their duration? 6. When were the first symptoms of this attack manifested, and in what way? 7. Does the disease appear to be increasing, decreasing, or stationary? 8. Is the disease variable, and are there rational intervals? If so, do they occur at regular periods? 9. On what subject or in what way is derangement now manifested? State fully. io. Has the patient shown any disposition to injure others? ii. Has suicide ever been attempted? If so, in what way? Is the propensity now active? 12. Is there a disposition to filthy habits, destruction of clothing, breaking glass, etc.? 13. What relatives have been insane? I4. Did the patient manifest any peculiarities of temper, habits, disposition, or pursuits before the accession of the disease, —any predominant passions, religious impressions, etc.?
Page 124 124 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. 15. Was the patient ever addicted to intemperance in any form, or to the habitual use of any narcotics? i6. Has the patient been subject to any severe disease, to epilepsy, to convulsions in any form, or had any injury of the head? I7. Has any restraint or confinement been employed? If so, of what kind and how long? i8. What is supposed to be the cause of the disease? I9. What treatment has been pursued for the relief of the patient? (Mention particulars and the effects.) (b) Facts learned on personal examination. (Mention every appearance or condition of the person bearing on the question of existing insanity.) (c) Recommendations. (Give the special reasons for recommending commitment according to section first.) (d) Date of each visit to the patient. (Signed) SECT. 4.-The certificate above provided for shall have been made within one week of the examination of the patient and within two weeks of the time of the admission of the patient, and shall be duly sworn to or affirmed before a judge of a court of record of the county where such patient has been examined, who shall certify to the genuineness of the signatures, and to the fact that the signers are duly qualified examiners in lunacy. The portion of the report devoted to the detention of the insane, and based on an examination of the various methods employed in the United States, is incomplete, and will, if desired by the Conference, be submitted next year.
Page 125 THE INSANE. —DR. DEWEY. I25 SOME OUTLINES OF STATE POLICY IN THE CARE OF THE INSANE. BY RICHARD DEWEY M.D., KANKAKEE, ILL. It is sought in the present paper to present some ideas for the consideration of this Conference in relation to the general subject of care and classification of the insane, and on the construction, administration, and organization of institutions for the insane. These ideas will, it is believed, be largely in agreement with the drift of thought and experience at the present time; but some of them relate to questions upon which opinions differ. The numbers of the insane are increasing, as is well known. The census of 1850 gives us in round numbers fifteen thousand insane in the United States; that of i860, twenty-four thousand; that of I870, thirty-seven thousand; that of I88o, ninety-one thousand. The percentages in these successive censuses upon the total population were respectively 6, 7, 9, and i8 for each ten thousand of the inhabitants. The census of I890 is not yet available. The increase of insanity is greater than the increase in the population, and it is to be expected that eventually there will not be less than three insane persons to each one thousand of the population in the various States of the Union. Besides the insane, there are the imbecile and idiotic, who have increased, as indicated by the census, from 15,787 in i850 to 76,895 in i880. But in the anxious and unfavorable comment we hear concerning the increase of insanity and mental defect, one compensating fact seems to be overlooked; and that is that wealth and resources in our communities are increasing even more than in equal proportion to the increase of the insane, so that the burden upon the community does not really increase. A large part of the increase is, furthermore, probably more apparent than real, and is due to more general knowledge of the facts, more thorough inquiry into the numbers and conditions of the unfortunate, and more general provision of institutions for the insane. It is impossible in this connection to enter into any inquiry as to the causes of the real or apparent increase of insanity further than to say that an undue proportion of it comes from our
Page 126 126 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. foreign population (at least one-third), and that insanity is a disease incident to, but not caused by, high civilization. The insane have to be cared for. They are helpless, and many are dangerous; and the only way to provide for them is to build asylums and hospitals. There are, of course, some who can be cared for at home, many who could be if they had any home, and some who could be boarded in families, as is done in Belgium, Scotland, and to some extent in the State of Massachusetts. The census shows that, of the insane, in i880 about one-half are at home; and, of the imbecile, sixsevenths are cared for at home. But extensive provision in institutions is a necessity. In accumulating the insane in institutions, we have to meet the evils of associating the insane together; and one of the leading principles which should be carried out in such institutions is that of minimizing the evils of such association. This is to be done largely by more perfect classification than has hitherto been obtained, and in this way there are many advantages which may be secured counteracting the evils of association. Another guiding principle in such institutions should be that of approaching in the institutions, in all ways which the fact of insanity will allow, more and more nearly to the ordinary every-day life of the people, with its natural interests and activities. This principle, which seems so little adapted for the insane at first view, comes more and more into fruitful prominence and value as it is more put in practice. Institutions have been provided for the insane throughout our land, but there are hundreds and even thousands unprovided for still in many States. The principle has been generally recognized that "the insane are the wards of the State "; but, if this is the case, it is not clear why only one-half or two-thirds of the insane are provided for, and the other half or third neglected, except that the very great cost of institutions has proved an obstacle which could not be overcome. Certainly, if it is the duty of the State to provide for the insane, it is her duty to provide for all of them; and an injustice is done to those who are neglected. The great reason for the failure to provide for all has been the great cost of institutions. Up to within the last fifteen years it had been considered that from one to three thousand dollars per patient were required to provide accommodations in an institution. But within the time named there has been a general change in style of buildings, which has led to a reduction in the cost of buildings, so that
Page 127 THE INSANE. —DR. DEWEY. 127 three to five hundred dollars are made to do the same work to-day that formerly required two or three thousand; and this reduction in expense furnishes a hopeful augury for fuller provision in the future, though the reaction from former extravagance has perhaps gone to the other extreme, and given us buildings, in some cases, too cheap and poorly constructed. Institutions for the insane, at first, were only places of confinement for the dangerous or troublesome; and no thought was given to curative treatment or to adaptation of individual needs. But within twenty years it has been seen that the insane are not all alike, and do not need exactly the same surroundings. The experience with the insane has shown that there is an enormous variety among them, and that they fall into several large groups, which again require further subdivision in order to properly adapt means to ends in their care. The following statement of the varieties among the insane will furnish some idea of the great differences which must be taken into account.* Taking first the cases that would come under the old familiar classification, we have: - I. Mania; Melancholia; Dementia; Imbecility; Delusional Insanity; Paranoia, or Monomania. II. Insane epileptics. { Nearly all chronic, incurable, and dangerous. III. Insane victims of morphine, word. chloral and other drugs. stricter sense of the word. J Convicts. "IV. Insae crimin. Mittimus" cases; i e., persons acquitted of crime on plea of insanity. [ Persons committing crimes while in the hospital. V. Insane persons from ( Paralytics, traumatic cases, general paralysis or " pareorganic brain dis- sis," apoplexy, cerebral embolism, tumor, and ease. other structural brain diseases. VI. Neurasthenic and VI Neurasthenic a. Often not insane in the stricter sense of the word. hysterical cases. I Now, the above may almost all be subdivided into at least seven minor groups, as follows:I. Recent and largely curable. 2. Chronic and largely incurable. 3. Mild and inoffensive. 4 Dangerous, violent, and destructive, including two important subdivisions, the "suicidal" and the "homicidal." 5. Untidy and uncleanly. 6. Neat and orderly. 7. Helpless or in stuporous condition. *Taken from writer's paper before Chicago Medical Society. See Chicago Medical Recorder, February, I892.
Page 128 128 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. And, finally, all have to be again considered as to their possession or non-possession of this world's goods,- and are: ist, pauper; 2d, indigent; 3d, comfortably off; 4th, wealthy,- and must be accordingly dealt with. Of course, the above statement does not represent totally distinct classes, as the same individual might in some cases come under two or more of the above heads. It is only given to show the great diversities among the insane, and forcibly demonstrates that great diversity in the buildings inhabited by the insane is needed, and indeed in their whole environment. SEPARATE INSTITUTIONS NEEDED FOR CERTAIN CLASSES OF THE INSANE. There are several classes of the insane that require, if possible, total separation from the ordinary mass of the insane in institutions especially built for them. Such are the insane of the criminal class, insane epileptics, those belonging to the feeble-minded rather than the insane, and, where possible, those whose insanity is due to alcohol or drug habits. The principle of separation of the above classes is coming slowly into recognition to-day. There are several States which have separate asylums for insane criminals, and it is to be expected all will eventually provide them, and the reason why insane criminals or convicts should be separately provided for is that such persons are entirely unsuitable inmates of a charitable institution, whose policy is to treat its inmates with all possible leniency and give them every possible privilege, their disposition being criminal in spite of their insanity and, indeed, criminal tendencies being intensified by the insanity. The ordinary reputable insane themselves, as well as their friends, complain of association with criminals, and ask why these evil-doers are not kept by themselves. But, unfortunately, it is impossible to keep the criminals by themselves, in an ordinary asylum, as they constitute the one class of the insane who are prone to combine for purposes of conspiracy and mutiny. And, further, they vary in condition so enormously among themselves that they cannot properly be associated together. One is quiet and of civil deportment, another noisy and quarrelsome day and night, one untidy in habits, another clean, one constantly destructive and homicidal, another industrious
Page 129 THE INSANE. —DR. DEWEY. I29 and orderly; but all, with scarcely an exception, are keenly watching an opportunity to escape. An ordinary asylum is not and never can be a suitable place for the detention of expert cracksmen and other cunning and desperate criminals. The asylum is a charitable institution. It seeks, just as far as possible, to dispense with all the features of a prison having regard to the welfare of innocent persons suffering from the disease, insanity. There is no high-walled enclosure about the buildings. The patients are not sent out in gangs with locked step. It is impossible to prevent their meeting and communicating together in an ordinary asylum without revolutionizing the management of hundreds of innocent invalids for a handful of desperadoes. The patients' rooms all have outside windows guarded sufficiently for the ordinary insane, but not for expert burglars. There are no cells in blocks cut off from communication with the outside world, that are locked by machinery. The attendants, finally, while firm in the exercise of authority, are taught to be lenient and forbearing rather than stern and suspicious; and it is sought to foster in them the former habit of mind, which is best for the average innocent insane person. Furthermore, in reference to the criminal class it is to be remembered there are insane persons who are primarily criminals, and require the arrangements of a prison (they are chiefly the insane convicts); while there are other insane persons whose violent acts have been purely the result of their insanity, and who were of previous reputable worthy life and character. These two classes should not be placed in the same building or in the same institution. They should either be in separate institutions or "dangerous" wards should specially be arranged for the latter at the ordinary asylum. That the epileptic class of patients require separate provision in an institution of their own does not need to be argued here. The reasons are familiar and obvious. One State of our Union, Ohio, has already provided a separate institution for them, to her honor be it spoken. It is to be remembered, with reference to epileptics, that, while a large majority of them are affected mentally, there are many who cannot be called insane; and such of these as need provision can well be provided for in connection with, and yet separate from, the mentally impaired, as is done in the famous and very successful colony of the epileptic in Bielefeld, Germany. The insane victims of alcohol have not been separately provided
Page 130 130 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. for in recent times, but have generally gone to the general hospitals for the insane, although their condition makes it important that their treatment should be quite different from that of the insane in general. They, along with the cases of neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion, form a group of cases often not insane, in the stricter sense of the word. And yet it is more feasible to provide for such in an ordinary institution than for the criminal or epileptic class. The imbecile and idiotic should perhaps be considered here. Of these the great majority should receive custodial care in connection with the institutions for the feeble-minded. This principle of separate provision for adult imbeciles has come into general recognition, and is put in practice in the State of Illinois and in several others at the present time; but there is great need of its extension. CERTAIN GROUPS OF THE INSANE WITHIN EVERY INSTITUTION NEED TO BE IN SEPARATE DEPARTMENTS. In connection with provision for certain classes in separate institutions should be mentioned the care of certain other subdivisions of the insane in separate wards or departments of the ordinary asylum or hospital, to avoid injurious contact. The classes referred to are the curable patients, the neurasthenic, and "habit " cases (alcohol, morphine, etc.), the bodily sick, and the refractory. Above all, an especal care should be given to fostering and maintaining curative wards for the recoverable insane. Every institution for the insane, of large size, should have its curative wards exclusively for those patients who can be expected to recover; and by these I mean mostly cases of recent origin. There are, of course, numbers of very recent cases that are hopeless from the start, and other very chronic cases that are possibly curable; and every patient should have the benefit of the curative ward, and of skilled and conscientious care in such ward until the incurability is unmistakable, and many cases should have repeated trials in the curative wards at suitable intervals. Into these curative wards should be distilled all the healing influences which science and benevolence combined can exert. Into the details of organization of curative wards it is impossible to enter in the present limits, further than to say there should be unlimited means of treatment, medical, mental, moral, and hygienic. Every patient should have medicine, electro-therapeutics, balneo-therapeutics, massage, muscle culture, manual and mechanical. There should be music, games, sociability, trained nurses and attendants. No patient
Page 131 THE INSANE.- DR. DEWEY. 13I should, by any possibility, annoy any other patient; and there should be such classification that every individual would form a class of his or her own if necessary. The architect, the physician, and the Good Samaritan should concentrate their efforts on the curable patients. All the older institutions should introduce a system of "curative wards " as best can be. All new institutions should especially construct them. * The neurasthenic cases, and many cases of alcoholism, morphinism, etc., form a group of patients in whom insanity, in its ordinary sense, is scarcely present. They should be in separate wards specially adapted for them. Such patients are almost always quiet, mostly rational, harmless, and well conducted, and do not need to be brought into contact with the positively insane, except perhaps occasionally during brief periods. At the same time they need close surveillance. Many of our institutions already have their separate hospital wards for the bodily sick; and it is greatly to be desired that all should secure this improvement, and give special nursing, care, and attention to the acute medical and surgical diseases intercurrent to insanity. By this means those who die in the institution may always have the care of nurses and attendants in their last hours. The hospital ward should have a physician quartered therein, in attendance upon it. The refractory patients again, by reason of their noise, violence, and destructive tendencies, require wards separated from those of the quiet patients, and especially adapted to the care of those with the above peculiarities. These patients, however, should, under no circumstances, be far removed from the care of the medical officers and of skilled attendants. A physician should be readily accessible to them at all times, if not in the same building, and the supervision of such cases should be conducted with the utmost care. In connection with the patients of this class, many of those who are especially dangerous might also find their quarters. For all the above-named classes, for whom a greater degree of separation is required, it is quite possible to provide by choosing a location which affords some natural separation,- by grouping the buildings so that they can be separated by an enclosure, and by planting trees and shrubs about them so that they will be near enough to form an integral part of the institution, and yet a separate department, removed from objectionable contact, thus avoiding the evils of the too distant colony. * From a paper read before Chicago Medical Society, as mentioned above.
Page 132 132 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. CHANGES THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS FOR THE INSANE. In the above connection it is well to speak of the changes in construction of buildings which have gradually taken place, forming a new departure from the linear and congregate style, which was wellnigh universal up to about the year I880. The institutions for the insane at first provided were all on the congregate plan, and built almost precisely alike. It was found in the early periods that the number of insane was not sufficient to warrant more than one building; and the pernicious idea prevailed that all the insane were alike, and required the same surroundings. But the very great variety existing among the different groups and classes has come to be recognized and provided for in adaptation of buildings to the needs of the several groups. It is evident that variety of construction is required for such various conditions as are shown in the statement above given; and for twenty years past differentiation and segregation have been agitated and advocated until different and greatly varying plans of buildings have come to prevail. It is impossible to describe the movement here in detail. But the cottage or village, the pavilion, the colony for the insane, have grown from year to year; and the number provided for in two-story buildings, constructed like an ordinary house, has increased from one or two hundred in I880 to more than five thousand at the present time (1892). The size of institutions for the insane is a question presenting itself under the head of construction, and it is a vexed question. Most of those familiar with the subject have advocated small institutions, believing that thus individual care and attention could be better secured. And it is true that, if the resources of an institution are sufficient, other things being equal, the patients will have better care in smaller numbers. There are advantages and drawbacks both in connection with the size of institutions. The advantages of the small institution are possibility of more personal supervision by the chief authority and greater nearness of the patient to friends. It has also been claimed that industry and economy could be promoted better in small institutions. The disadvantages of the small institutions are that a high standard of supervision, medical and humane, is not so economically secured; and especially with small numbers of patients there is limited opportunity for classification. An institution with a large
Page 133 THE INSANE. — DR. DEWEY. I33 number of wards can adapt each ward to some one specific purpose; and the homogeneous character of the inmates admits of their all receiving the care they need and such surroundings and conveniences as their condition requires, which it would be impossible or extravagant to provide for a small number. The truth is that the large masses of the insane found in any public institution are persons who have been, in their former lives, accustomed to the simplest and most elementary modes of living, and have all enjoyed the same or a quite similar environment. They can, therefore, if divided into certain groups, be treated with great uniformity without disadvantage. What they most require is the ordinary comforts of life, provision for their physical wants, kind treatment, and such employment as may be possible to provide for them. Hundreds of such persons can have all the conditions of comfort met in a large and well-equipped asylum better than in a smaller one. There are, of course, the exceptional cases; but these are also provided with a suitable place by a large number of different groups or classifications. Another consideration which favors, and indeed compels, the establishment of large institutions, is the fixed determination shown by the legislative bodies of the various States to build only large institutions. There is an insurmountable aversion on the part of the average legislator to establishing a new institution; while, on the other hand, the legislative bodies continue, year after year, making new additions to already established institutions, until they become overgrown and unwieldly in their proportions. And especially is this true where an institution has been originally planned for a certain number, and the dimensions of its kitchens, laundry, water supply, heating apparatus, etc., have been fixed for that number. With the successive additions, these working arrangements of the institutions are outgrown, and require to be torn down and built over again, which is a very wasteful and extravagant policy. DETERMINE AT THE OUTSET THE ULTIMATE CAPACITY OF THE INSTITUTION. One of the most important elements of State policy, in establishing a new institution, should be the determining of the exact ultimate size of such institution, and arranging, at the start, all its working parts with reference to this established size. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wasted by disregard of this rule.
Page 134 134 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. It seems probable that we shall be obliged, on the whole, to reconcile ourselves to the erection of large institutions. The experience of the vast majority of the States of the Union shows this; and there are reasons to believe, as above stated, that the very great size of institutions may be made in many ways advantageous, and admit of a higher standard of care than the small institutions. It is true the person chiefly responsible cannot give personal attention to the great numbers; but the duties of the other officials, in the large or small institutions, would be practically the same. The humanitarian and business supervision should be considered separately. So far as the business departments are concerned, it would not be denied that a large establishment could be as successfully managed as a small one. In the matter of humane treatment the supervision is, of course, more difficult for large numbers. But, with a large institution organized in its business department on business principles, the medical superintendent and staff are left free to give their whole thought to medical and humane care, and can thus accomplish results unattainable in a smaller establishment, where they must necessarily have more of the functions of a purely business and administrative nature. All things considered, it seems to me, institutions having six hundred to one thousand inmates are to be recommended. They will not be perfect; but perfection, though always striven for, is never attained in this world. One may readily admit that small institutions are desirable; but satisfactory small institutions, considering the resources of the State and the disposition of the State authorities, are even more unattainable than large ones. GOVERNMENT OF INSTITUTIONS FOR THE INSANE. All institutions for the insane should be under State control. They should be required to comply with the recognized conditions of hygiene and safety, and with the rules for efficiency in administration and classification; and these should be embodied in the statutes creating the institutions, and no institution should be permitted to receive patients without complying with all the requirements. Every State should have its Board of Public Charities, possessing advisory powers and duties, and the right and duty of inspection and investigation, and of reporting its conclusions in relation to finances, humanity, efficiency, or any other subject. Such a Board should be appointed by the State authorities, as should also the trustees or man
Page 135 THE INSANE. — DR. DEWEY. I35 agers. These Boards should all be non-partisan, representing both the leading political parties. Among their members should also be one lawyer and one physician. I incline to the opinion also that it would be an advantage to have a woman upon each of the Boards. No compensation should be allowed to any member of these Boards except for actual expenses. Their labors will thus be performed from motives of public spirit, and only men will accept such office who are philanthropic in their ideas. A Board of Charities uncompensated and serving for honor, and with advisory powers, I believe to be preferable, in the present state of affairs in our country, to a salaried commissioner or Board of Commissioners with mandatory powers. As soon as a salary is attached to a position in the gift of a State executive, it becomes an object of petty ambition to persons who have rendered services of a purely political nature; and such a position is too often given as a reward for such services. If the salary is not a large one, furthermore, only persons of mediocre ability will seek it; and it is not to be expected that our States will be willing to create boards of commissioners of lunacy sufficiently highly salaried to command first-class ability. It is much to be preferred, therefore, that public-spirited citizens should hold such positions, and labor in them from an honorable ambition and motives of humanity and benevolence, and having advisory rather than mandatory powers. The responsibility thus remains fixed where it should be,- in the immediate management of the institutions, which can better work out individual excellences than if all are reduced to a dead level by the rulings of mandatory commissioners. THE COUNTY AUTHORITIES SHOULD NOT HAVE THE CARE AND CONTROL OF THE INSANE. The county boards of the various States have purely business and economical functions. The whole history of county care of the insane shows that they are not fitted by experience or inclination for charitable work. If county authorities could in some way wholly surrender their control of the insane to suitable persons selected by the State, something might be accomplished; but they cannot do this, and any attempted combination of State and county agencies in working together is an "entangling alliance," and results in a hybrid organization, which can be neither one thing nor the other. It has been attempted to secure the united action of State and county au fI.
Page 136 136 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. thorities in the State of Wisconsin, by giving the State Board of Charities authority over the care of the insane. But the result even there has been that the superintendent of the county farm is for the most part the superintendent of the county asylum, and the asylum is a part of the county almshouse. Now, a man may be a good farmer or a good director of an asylum; but he is not likely to be both. Notwithstanding the obstacles in. the way, the State Board of Charities of Wisconsin reached at one time a high grade of excellence in their system of county asylums; and, if the level attained by them could be made permanent, certainly the friends of the insane would greatly prefer their methods to those of ordinary county care. But who that is familiar with the Board that accomplished this work can doubt that they are altogether exceptional men, and that the success of their methods was due to their personality and to their unusual combination of practical business sense with enlightened humanitarian views? While they were in control, a high standard was maintained; but in the inscrutable fluctuations of politics they have already been superseded, and their successors, as is well known, have neither the adaptation for the work nor the interest in it which was possessed by the former Board. But, if not superseded, they must have eventually died or resigned; and then, when new rulers arose who knew not Elmore and Giles, the same lapse into mediocrity or worse must have occurred. I think all are agreed that State care of the insane is everywhere wanted. The Wisconsin system is intended to be State care in county asylums; but in what is this necessarily superior to State care in State asylums? Is there anything which a county can do for its insane which a State cannot do as well or better? Is it not true that, when the State acts through the counties, it is diminishing its force by just the extent to which it delegates its work to other and less intelligent hands? To the Wisconsin system we are indebted for valuable lessons in frugality and industry; but it remains to be seen that there is necessarily anything accomplished by this system which the State could not accomplish directly. The difficulty is that neither State nor county, in Wisconsin or elsewhere, has yet risen to the necessities of the case; and under no system can we expect perfection. There is only a choice of evils in either case. If the county can provide the conditions of industry and a natural and simple life for the insane, is there any reason why the State cannot provide them better under the
Page 137 THE INSANE. — DR. DEWEY. I37 newer segregate system of construction, and with this medical care of a grade which it is impossible for counties to furnish? It may be claimed that more are thus cared for, and it is true Wisconsin has more nearly provided for her insane than many States. But other States that have adhered exclusively to State care, as Minnesota, have also provided for the entire body of their insane. An objection to the Wisconsin system is that it sets apart a socalled class of the insane called chronic; while the increased experience attained has shown more and more that the insane recover, under favorable circumstances, who were formerly considered chronic and incurable. And there are, in my opinion, none of the insane who should not steadily be under careful medical supervision, with a view to taking advantage of any favorable turn in their malady and aiding them onward toward recovery. I am of the opinion, indeed, that all of the insane without exception within the borders of any State should be made the subject at suitable intervals of a careful, special medical study and examination, and a written official report should be made and filed as to the condition and prospects of cure, as nearly as may be determined, of each and every patient, so that there would be an incentive toward the most careful attention and supervision, for the purpose of securing recovery of those cases which experience shows do, in the l ng course of the malady, come to a favorable position for improve ent and recovery. The Wisconsin system is sometimes called "semi-State care." The able and zealous gentlemen who created the system were legislated out of office; and the care now given by the new Board, it is to be feared, is " demi-semi-State" care, and will eventually become, judging from what we know of politics and county management of the insane, " hemi-demi-semi-State care." VOLUNTARY OR SELF-COMMITMENT OF THE INSANE. Nothing is included in this paper upon legislation for the insane, as it was expected that a special report on that subject would be presented to this Conference by Dr. Stephen Smith. I do not wish to enter upon this subject further than to express a hope for an ultimate legislative enactment which will provide in a suitable manner for "voluntary or self-committed" patients to the State insane hospitals. It is well known there are many persons threatened with insanity or suffering attacks of nervous prostration who are not insane, in the
Page 138 138 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. ordinary sense of the word, and could not be put in any institution for the insane, who yet earnestly desire to utilize its opportunities for treatment and cure. Such patients as this are often later brought to the asylum against their will, having become positively insane, and when the most favorable period for treatment has passed away. The law already permits such voluntary treatment in Massachusetts and, I believe, in New York and Pennsylvania; and it is greatly to be desired that such a system should be placed within the reach of those needing its benefits everywhere. THE STATE TO ASSUME THE CARE OF ALL. The policy of admitting into the State institutions private patients who are allowed to pay for their treatment, it is believed, leads to favoritism and to the exclusion of equally deserving patients who are poor, as well as other evils. And it is greatly to be desired that the law should be so amended that in all States all the patients who go to the public asylums would be supported by the State, and all placed upon an equal footing, it being understood that the great thing to be desired is curative treatment in all cases where cure is possible, and kind and skilful care in other cases. There are certain matters of internal administration and management that are worthy of mention, as being important to the greatest efficiency of institutions. The first of these which I will mention is: THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR THE ATTENDANTS UPON THE INSANE. The most important problem confronting those who have the care of the insane is the securing of kind and skilful performance of their duties by the attendants. The troubles and abuses which occur from time to time in institutions of this class are largely the outgrowth of ignorance, and seldom come from intentional brutality or cruelty. By securing attendants who are naturally well adapted to their work, and providing for them courses of instruction by means of lectures, recitations, and instruction and drill in the practical work of caring for the insane and the sick, and learning the manipulations ordinarily required of nurses, a body of efficient and intelligent attendants can be developed, who are capable of greatly furthering the work of the insane hospitals. Several institutions have already established such schools, among others the McLean Asylum, the Buffalo and the Utica
Page 139 THE INSANE.- DR. DEWEY. 139 State Hospitals of New York, the State Hospital of Independence, Ia., and that at Kankakee, Ill. A WOMAN PHYSICIAN IS DESIRABLE UPON THE MEDICAL STAFF OF INSTITUTIONS FOR THE INSANE. Another exceedingly useful adjunct to the medical work of an institution for the insane is the presence of a woman physician upon the medical staff. Every large institution can have its work in the care of female patients greatly facilitated by the presence of a woman physician. Such physician need not necessarily have the care of all the female patients, as there are always some who prefer a male physician. But it is impossible to care for all the insane needing certain forms of treatment satisfactorily with male physicians alone; and, in advocating a woman physician, I do not ignore the fact that greatly exaggerated ideas of her possible usefulness have been entertained in many quarters, and that experience has shown that far less was to be expected from local treatment and operative procedure in certain classes of the female insane than had at first been supposed. CONSULTING PHYSICIANS. Another step in advance in the medical work of institutions for the insane may be expected whenever satisfactory arrangements can be made to provide each institution with a consulting staff of specialists. How this is to be done is not exactly clear, because none but eminent and capable men ought to be employed in such capacity; and such men are unable to give their time or services without large compensation. But in many institutions it may be feasible to form a connection with some medical school, and secure the services of able specialists by giving them an opportunity to furnish clinical instruction to their classes. All should, however, be under the exclusive direction of the medical head of the insane hospital, and the position of the consultants advisory. SCIENTIFIC WORK. Finally, an improvement which it is very desirable to secure is more thorough and comprehensive scientific work on the part of the medical staff of the various institutions. It is true that a large
Page 140 140 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. amount of material remains unutilized in these institutions at present, but the State has done little or nothing to encourage scientific work or original research. In the first place, physicians who are able to do such work can seldom be secured for insane hospitals, because they can do better in other ways; and such positions, at the present rate of compensation, do not attract them. In the next place, the whole time and energy of the physicians in insane hospitals are generally required by the necessary daily routine treatment of their patients. And, finally, the State does not generally provide the necessary equipment of instruments and apparatus, which, to be in any degree complete, require a special appropriation. I would endeavor to summarize the thoughts presented in the foregoing pages somewhat as follows:First.- The increase of insanity, and the large number now unprovided for, render it exceedingly desirable that a settled line of policy, which will meet the requirements of humanity and economy, may be arrived at and generally agreed upon. Second.- Institutions were formerly provided which were ill-adapted for meeting the greatly varying conditions among the insane, and were too expensive in their construction. A reaction has taken place, and a notable change in the style of construction has grown up in the last ten or twelve years; and simple, inexpensive, two-story buildings, much like an ordinary house, have been found feasible for the great mass of the insane. Thus a greater degree of adaptability has been secured to the varying conditions of the insane. Third.- For good management and for the welfare of the insane, separate institutions are needed for certain classes; namely, the insane criminals, the epileptic insane, and, where possible, the insane victims of alcohol, morphine, etc. Fourth.-In every institution having a large number of patients there are certain groups of patients which should have, by means of detached buildings, such separation as will minimize the evils of associating the insane. These groups are the curable patients, who should be in " curative wards " especially constructed for them, the "habit" cases and those of neurasthenia (unless removed to a separate institution), the bodily sick and the infirm patients, and the refractory patients. By suitable arrangements the groups of buildings for these patients can be an integral part of the institution, near enough for good administration, yet so separated as to prevent injurious contact and association.
Page 141 THE INSANE. —DR. DEWEY. I4I Fifth.- The size of the institutions has been continually increasing, and the movement in this direction seems to be unavoidable. There are, however, advantages in the large size of institutions which compensate, in a measure, for the drawbacks. The insane, when associated in considerable numbers, fall into certain homogeneous groups, each sufficiently large to have buildings and surroundings proper to themselves; while in smaller numbers such classification is impossible. Further, the great majority of the insane have been accustomed to very similar previous conditions of life, which admit of much uniformity in their care and surroundings. Incidental to the size of institutions, great stress should be laid on the importance of determining, when an institution is begun, what its ultimate size shall be. Sixt/.- In the government and supervision of institutions for the insane, a Board of Charities, with advisory and supervisory powers, is to be preferred to a commission of lunacy, with mandatory powers; and the Board of Charities, as well as the boards of trustees or managers of institutions, should be non-partisan and uncompensated. Such Boards should have a lawyer and a physician, and, where practicable, a woman, as members of the Board. Seventh.- County authorities should not have the care and control of the insane in whole or in part. The county government is not adapted for the insane, and a combination of State and county agencies is only an "entangling alliance." The State ought to be able to do anything that a county can do, and do it better. At the same time the county system, as originally established in Wisconsin, possessed elements of value worthy of imitation, especially in the frugality and industry secured. Eighth.-Voluntary or self-commitment of the insane is something that it is desirable to provide for in the commitment laws, as it is already done in several of the States. linth.- Training schools for the attendants are desirable in every institution for the insane. Tenth.- A woman physician should be a member of the medical staff of every large institution for the insane. Eleventh.- A large amount of scientific work is desirable, as a feature of the work of institutions for the insane, and such work should be encouraged both by the State and by the management of the various institutions.
Page 142 142 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. INSANITY FOLLOWING THE KEELY TREATMENT FOR INEBRIETY. BY DR. RICHARD DEWEY, KANKAKEE, ILL. It is only intended in this paper to present notes concerning three cases of insanity in which, apparently, the exciting cause was treatment at the Keely Institute at Dwight, Ill., and to make some observations on the Keely method, as well as on other Keely patients who came under my care as insane, but whose insanity was not to any great extent due to the Keely treatment. But, so far as insanity in general resulting from the Keely treatment of inebriety is concerned, this is a subject which I do not now endeavor to treat, although it would appear that a large number of such cases have occurred, and would be worthy of collection and scientific study. Whether we regard drunkenness as a disease, a habit, a vice, or a combination of the three, constantly varying with the individual, or whether we only look upon alcohol -as some ultra-progressive minds have done- as simply a convenient means of exterminating those individuals and races not fit to survive, we can but find a certain interest in the phenomena of the Keely cure. At the same time it is difficult for a physician whose mind and life are regulated by the ethical standard he inherited from our fathers to approach the subject without prejudice. Yet this it will be my effort to do. This remarkable cure seems to have several elements which combine to produce the striking results which all have noted. These elements may be regarded as:First. The medication, hypodermatic and internal. Second. Influences producing a powerful mental and moral impression upon the patient. These latter may be subdivided into the means employed to profoundly influence and impress the patient at the various " institutes," and the advertising which the system receives by one agency and another throughout the land. These all have their importance, but the second yields nothing to the other in the part which it plays; and I will briefly consider these at the close of my paper. Coming now to the details of the cases in which insanity has been
Page 143 INEBRIETY AND INSANITY. —DR. DEWEY. I43 associated with the Keely treatment, I would say that in all there have come under my notice, as superintendent of the State Insane Hospital at Kankakee, eight patients, who were committed more or less directly after residence at the Institute at Dwight, Ill. These cases, with two exceptions, were all received between September, I891, and February, 1892, and the following is a brief outline of such cases:CASE No. I. —Cause of inebriety, alcohol, morphine, and cocaine. Received at Kankakee in March, I890. Treated at Dwight two or three years previously, and relapsed within a few months thereafter into habits of drink and morphine, followed by an attack of insanity. Was then treated in an asylum, and recovered. Patient never insane before going to Dwight. No heredity of insanity. After leaving Dwight, started on a sea voyage, and commenced drinking on ship. Discharged recovered from this second attack of insanity. CASE No. 2.-Morphine habit. Admitted to Kankakee in I890, after "home treatment" from Dwight Institute in August, I890. Insanity apparently antedated the Keely treatment. No insanity in family. Did not resume morphine habit. Still in insane hospital. CASE No. 3.-Alcohol habit. Admitted at Kankakee in September, I891, after taking, a few weeks previously, a course of treatment at Dwight. Attack of melancholia shortly after leaving Dwight, in consequence of which patient was committed to hospital. Patient commenced to drink after leaving Dwight. Discharged from hospital at Kankakee as recovered mentally. (See further notes of this case.) CASE No. 4.- Case of alcohol, morphine, and cocaine habits. Received at Kankakee in October, I89I. Treated at Dwight some years previously. Relapsed, and had been refused admission at Dwight a second time. A month or two before admission at Kankakee was in an institute in Indiana, where patient became wildly insane, apparently in consequence of treatment received there. No direct heredity. Maternal uncle insane. Discharged recovered mentally. Patient still drinks. CASE No. 5. —Alcohol and morphine habit. Admitted at Kankakee in November, I891. At Dwight in preceding August and September. Not insane before going to Dwight. Insane delusions appear to have developed while there. No heredity of insanity known. Did not resume liquor or morphine after leaving. Still in insane hospital. (See further notes of this case.) CASE No. 6.-(Same as patient No. i.) Alcohol, morphine, and
Page 144 144 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. cocaine habits. Date of admission at Kankakee, January, I892. Had applied the year before for admission to Dwight a second time, but was refused. Had taken Keely's "home treatment" repeatedly after leaving Kankakee, and had been in Hargreave's Institute, the "W. C. T. A. Sanitarium." Not insane before going to Dwight. No heredity. Discharged recovered from this third attack of insanity. CASE No. 7. —Alcohol habit, complicated to some extent with morphine. Admitted in January, I892. Had taken about two months' treatment at Dwight. Insanity developed while there. No heredity. Still in hospital. Did not resume habits after leaving Dwight. (See further notes of this case.) CASE No. 8.-Alcohol habit. Admitted in February, I892, leaving Dwight one month before, after regulation course of treatment, and immediately relapsed into drinking habits. No previous insanity. No heredity. Still in hospital. This patient has been subject to epilepsy at long intervals. In the above eight cases only seven individuals are represented, as the same person admitted twice makes two cases. Of these only two. are non-complicated cases of drink habit, the others being all more or less subjects of morphine, cocaine, etc. There are two of the cases in which the insanity would appear to have developed at Dwight, and one in which melancholia seemed to follow immediately the treatment there. Of these three cases I will present a somewhat more detailed statement. In two of these three cases, morphine as well as alcohol had been used to excess for protracted periods, and these two cases present a quite similar form of mania with hallucinations of the auditory type, while the patient whose insanity resulted from alcohol alone was affected with decidedly different psychosis,- namely, simple melancholia. In all these cases there was of course a profoundly disturbed condition of the brain and nervous system without reference to the Keely treatment. I will now describe the three cases of insanity in which the exciting cause is apparently the Keely treatment. First.-(Case No. 7 above.) This patient, a single man, aged thirty-seven, was a heavy user of alcohol from his eighteenth year, and lately, for one and one-half years past, had taken up the use of morphine, using at times as much as three and one-half grains hypodermically. This he used largely when awakening in the morning after a debauch, in such a shaky condition as to be unable to go on without additional stimulation. He was a physician. His parents
Page 145 INEBRIETY AND INSANITY. —DR. DEWEY. I45 were cousins, and one brother was an inebriate. At time of admission to Kankakee, nutrition fair, tongue coated, appetite fair, bowels regular. Sleep poor except under the influence of hypnotics. Eyesight good, pupils equal. Hearing good except for hallucinations. Sensibility normal. Tendon reflexes exaggerated on the right side. Shape of chest normal. Lungs and heart apparently normal. Respiration regular. Pulse regular,- 84. This patient spent about two months at the Keely Institute, and on coming home was found to be affected with delusions. He thought he heard voices, and believed people were talking about him, and was inclined to think himself insulted, and threatened violence; at times, in consequence of his auditory hallucinations, produced alarm among his friends, and was committed to the insane hospital three weeks after leaving Dwight. After a few weeks at the hospital the active hallucinations wore off, and patient's mind became clear on all ordinary subjects, but grandiose delusions remained. Patient thought he would run for governor, wrote poetry, and prepared an inaugural address. Outside of his delusions his mind and memory were clear, and he described intelligently all that had occurred. He stated that he had been dosed heavily with drugs at Dwight, and described accurately the symptoms of atropine intoxication as being present most of the time while at Dwight, being familiar with these things as a physician. Is still in the hospital, and rational except for exaggerated ideas and frequent inconsistent changes of opinion. His appetite for stimulants is still uncontrollable, as shown by attempts to secure liquor. He is steadily improving mentally and physically. This patient, with another Keely graduate, was allowed to go to the city on condition of not entering any saloon. When supposing themselves to be entirely unobserved, they were seen to enter one of those resorts by the attendant, and commenced by taking lemonade, but ended by calling for strong liquor. It was found necessary at once to recall the privileges which had been accorded them. Second.- (Case No. 5 above.) Male, aged thirty-nine. Single. Salesman. No heredity of insanity. Addicted to the use of alcohol and morphine for several years. On admission to Kankakee, nutrition fair. Tongue clean. Appetite good. Bowels constipated. Sleep poor. Sight good, pupils normal. Hearing impaired, and imaginary "voices" present. Skin cool. Muscular system and motility good. Heart, lungs, and pulse normal. Respiration regular. This patient had scarlet fever when about four years old in a very
Page 146 146 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. serious form, which permanently affected his hearing. On account of his sickness and infirmity of hearing he was very much petted and indulged, and never subjected to the average amount of discipline and control. Patient was very rational on all subjects except his hallucinations of hearing. He stated that he went to Dwight in August, I891. He had at that time been taking morphine for at least ten years, and used liquor in excess from the age of eighteen, in his early years having frequent sprees and later drinking steadily, but not often to the extent of drunkenness. When first coming under the effect of the medicine at Dwight, he noticed that his vision was much affected, and there was great dryness of the throat. After being there about three weeks he began to feel that every one was looking at him with suspicion. He believed that he was still accused of taking morphine on the sly, and spoke to the doctor about it, saying that it was an unjust suspicion. The doctor, however, assured him that he did not believe he was taking morphine. The time he had expected to remain at Dwight passed by, and he did not feel any better, but rather worse. His head troubled him, and he neglected to go to the "shot tower " for his injection. The doctor came to see about it, and insisted that he should take the medicine regularly. He remained there about five weeks, and the doctor then sent him back to Chicago with an attendant. He reported to his friends in Chicago, and was still under the impression that they believed he was not giving up his bad habits. He endeavored to assure them that he was all right; and they insisted they had no suspicions of him; but he could not believe them. He went to a hotel by the advice of his friends, and stayed about three days, during which time he took little or no. nourishment. He slept scarcely at all during the three days. His head pained him intensely. He kept ice on his head a good deal of the time. In his room in the hotel it seemed to him they were blowing "insect powder" into his room. His mind was abnormally active, and things came to him which he had not thought of for twenty years. His exhausted condition increased; and his friends, finding the state he was in, sent him to a private institution for about three weeks. He had all the time heard strange noises, and a feeling as if images came to him in some unexplained way. Shortly after going to the private hospital this took the form of distinct hallucinatory voices, which accused him of every imaginable crime; and under the effect of these voices he grew worse, and it was decided to send him to the State insane hospital. He was admitted to Kankakee in
Page 147 m INEBRIETY AND INSANITY. —DR. DEWEY. I47 November, 1891. On admission patient complained of headache, and desired to have hypodermic injections of morphine. Very restless, walking up and down. Tormented by hallucinations. Thinks he hears voices accusing him of crimes and using disgusting language. Much depressed physically. June, 1892, still in hospital. Improving steadily, and now rational about everything except the "voices " which he still hears, but now thinks it is his own voice. Third.- (Case No. 3 above.) Alcohol habit. Male, aged thirtythree. Single. Salesman. Had been in Washingtonian Home, Chicago. In good physical condition. This patient's insanity was, in its form and causations, different from the two preceding cases. The patient went to Keely Institute in a somewhat sceptical mood, and passed through the usual course of treatment there, which he stated disturbed his vision, so that he was not able to see or read correctly. Great dryness of the throat and tongue was produced, and depression, dizziness, and loss of memory. The depression and despondency continued after leaving Dwight, and he commenced to drink again. This patient became rational in a short time after admission to the hospital, and described his symptoms very intelligently. He recovered, and went home entirely well after five months' treatment. Of interest in this connection, and as bearing upon the nature of the treatment administered at Dwight, the statements concerning three other patients may be added here, whose insanity did not seem to be due to treatment at Dwight, but followed quite directly the treatment in other similar "institutes," these patients having recovered and gone home in two cases, and the third being now convalescent. These three cases were as follows: - CASE No. 4.- (See above.) This patient had had extensive experience in a large number of institutions in different parts of the country for the treatment of inebriates, and had himself at times received and treated and cured such patients, and was very friendly to Dr. Keely. He was one of his early cases ten or more years ago, and had failed of benefit then, and been treated by Keely in the interval once or twice. He was familiar with the Keely methods, and claimed to know that atropine was one of the principal ingredients used hypodermically, described the typical dilatation of the pupils, disordered vision, dryness of throat, etc. Having been refused by Keely any further treatment, he went to another habit-treating institution in Indiana, and after a short time there became frenzied and
Page 148 148 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. unable to control himself, apparently was given poisonous doses of atropine, and became wild and furious in his conduct. (But he may have continued morphine secretly as well.) When his friends found what state he was in, they took measures to commit him to the hospital at Kankakee, where he was admitted on October 31. On his admission he was in a state resembling acute delirious mania. Delusions of persecution, especially of being followed by persons with designs on his life, very marked. Also auditory and visual hallucinations. Speech thick and hesitating. Articulation defective. Tongue coated and foul. Sores on gums. Constipation present. Digestion very weak. Great emaciation. It seemed as if this patient could not possibly live at the time of his admission. Under appropriate treatment, however, and nursing and feeding, he made gradual improvement, and in six weeks was entirely rational, and physically greatly improved. His improvement continued until January 25, when he left the hospital. His weight was 105 pounds when admitted, and 145 when discharged. He conversed very rationally about his own case, which he had studied considerably. One patient admitted at Kankakee in January, I892, a young man aged twenty-three, took the "dipsocura" at the "institute" in Chicago managed by a former associate of Keely's, the "Woman's Christian Temperance Alliance Sanitarium." The "dipsocura" is Dr. Hargreave's improved formula of "bichloride of gold," and, his circular says, is given "without effecting [sic] the eyesight." During Hargreave's treatment the eyes of the patient became weak, head dizzy. Could not read. Felt numbness after injections. This patient had been for five years an increasingly heavy drinker, sometimes five days on a spree and in saloons all' night. Would go home, be sick two days, and then go to work until the next spree, four or six weeks later. Was a victim of alcohol, but took up morphine while under Hargreave's treatment. Learned to use morphine from another patient, whom he met when going for his daily treatment. While being treated with "dipsocura," lost appetite for drink. Two days after treatment was completed he went down town and took a drink to try himself. One of beer and seven drinks of whiskey followed that evening. Next morning continued drinking. Not long after went to a saloon, and, having a morphine powder which he was trying to take in some whiskey, was assisted by the bar-tender, who saw how shaky his hand was. The bar-tender, thinking the powder was quinine, put in such a quantity that the poisonous effects of
Page 149 INEBRIETY AND INSANITY. —DR. DEWEY. 149 morphine were at once produced. Patient fell down on the street, and had to be carried to the county hospital. This patient was shortly after committed to Kankakee as insane. He has steadily improved, and shows an earnest desire to reform, having left off the use of tobacco under hypnotic suggestion, and voluntarily continues to abstain from it; and he is now making a good recovery. Case No. i (see above) had also, after treatment at Dwight Institute and relapse and intermittent use of Keely's "home treatment," for two or three years employed the "dipsocura." States that, while taking this cure, his "heart troubled him" and pupils were dilated, and the effect was such that he could not continue it, and asked his money back. He continued to grow more and more nervous, passing into a weak and frenzied condition, in which he was brought to the insane hospital. Now let us briefly consider the elements which enter into the Keely treatment. First.-As to medication, Keely maintains profound secrecy on this point; but there seems to be no doubt that ordinary well-known tonics, and perhaps cathartics, are combined with some narcotic or mydriatic drug, probably atropine. As to the presence of gold a doubt seems to exist, since authoritative analyses of the preparations sold from the Keely Institute have in at least one instance failed to reveal it; but bi-chloride of gold and sodium may be present. Dr. Keely states that he uses no "narcotic" in his treatment, but it seems to be incontrovertibly proven that atropine 'or a drug of its class is one of the chief ingredients. The numerous patients with whom I have conversed describe correctly the symptoms of atropine almost without exception. Second.- The moral influences (and under this head is included all that produces an effect upon the mind of the patient) are remarkable. In the first place, the patient generally goes to Dwight with an earnest expectation of benefit; and the value of such an expectation is readily apparent. It places the patient in the most favorable attitude for beneficial results. An enthusiastic hope is engendered, and the operation of this emotion alone may produce greater results than any drug is capable of. The powerful influence of an aroused expectation is illustrated by the facts of hypnotization, prestidigitation, and mediumistic performances, and also by the apparently miraculous results of visits to Lourdes or the laying on of hands by some individual supposed to be endowed with supernatural healing powers. Further, X -- -
Page 150 I50 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the intensification of this effect, by bringing large numbers together with the same hope and enthusiasm, is a factor that it is hardly possible to overrate. One impressive part of Keely's plan of treatment is the remarkable freedom with which, while laboring to cure the alcohol habit with one hand, he seems to proffer the whiskey bottle with the other; and, when the patients find that they are now entirely indifferent to its contents, great is their astonishment and gratitude. But the explanation of this wonder consists in the fact that any person who is powerfully "doped" with large doses of stimulating and narcotic drugs (as, for instance, atropine and strychnia) will for the time lose all accustomed appetite for other stimulants or narcotics. And here another important element comes in. This plying of the patient with such powerful drugs partially "paralyzes" him mentally and physically, and this is important as a means of impressing him with the idea that some great and remarkable change is taking place in his system. He naturally believes he is being "made over" from top to toe, and that a great process of elimination is going on, which, when completed, will make of him a new creature in all his appetites and desires. He is told his taste for liquor will disappear, that he will not care for it any more, and generally he believes it. He is told, perhaps, that he cannot take liquor, even if he should devoutly wish to; that it will disgust him, and will not remain on his stomach. And that it will disgust him is a fact, for liquor is naturally disgusting to a healthy appetite. This is even more the case with tobacco; and habitues of liquor and tobacco often, after abstinence or sickness, do lose their accustomed taste without going to Dwight. Another marvel comes in here. It is well known that Keely patients have actually found, as predicted, that they could not swallow whiskey, or, if they did, it would come up again; but the very fact of the prediction has a great deal to do with this. It is on the same principle that the mesmerist uses in telling his subjects they are in his power, that they must do as he says; that, for instance, at a certain hour they will feel an impulse which they cannot resist to do a certain thing. The hour comes, and they feel the impulse, and obey it if they believe what the mesmerist asserted; but, if not, the assertion has no power over them. So it is with those Keely patients who find they cannot keep whiskey on their stomachs. For it is well known there are numerous instances in which the Keely patients can and do resort to their old habits, the appetite not being removed by their treatment.
Page 151 INEBRIETY AND INSANITY. — DR. DEWEY. I5I It is of course an important question whether there is any treatment which will remove the appetite for alcohol; and it, in my opinion, remains to be shown whether anything further than the operation of natural and well-understood causes is required to account for the undisputed fact that a large proportion of the Keely patients do lose their appetite for liquor, these natural causes being the natural distaste for liquor restored by abstinence and return to better physical health, and the fixed belief of the patient that this appetite is cured. There is another question about the Keely system to which an answer is required by science and humanity. Dr. Keely announces that drunkenness is a disease. He makes no exceptions, if I remember rightly, to the statement that it is a disease pure and simple. If this is true, the question arises why he refuses to treat patients a second time. In doing this, is he not punishing them on his own showing for their misfortune? What would be thought of any hospital or sanitarium which refused to receive a patient with pneumonia or rheumatism because he is guilty of having a second attack? It does not answer this question to say the effect on others is bad of taking back old cases, though we know the effect would necessarily be bad upon the attendance at the Keely Institute of having the cases of failure staring the new cases in the face. Coming now to the percentage of cures, Dr. Keely claims 95 per cent. of cures and the figures of the bichloride of gold clubs are even higher, but they both neglect to state, so far as I have observed, what constitutes a cure. Does a cure mean one or five years' abstinence, and do the figures given embrace all the cases treated or only those about whom information is forthcoming? In the first place, the drink habit is not like rheumatism, paralysis, consumption, and other bodily diseases whose presence or absence can be demonstrated (though it is possible for patients to be deceived and to deceive others who are afflicted even with these); but the cure of drunkenness is a more difficult matter to ascertain. No one can follow up all Keely's patients for months and years to see how they turn out. He cannot do this himself. Patients may be still drinking, and deny it or deceive others. There are many whose paroxysms of drinking are months and even years apart; and there must be hundreds who drop out of sight entirely, especially if they relapse. Some relapses are admitted even by Dr. Keely, and yet he announces that his remedy is "infallible," printing this word upon the label of his bottles; and of course, if his claims are cor -T -
Page 152 152 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. rect, the percentage of cures should be 1oo per cent., and, to be consistent, he should claim this figure. The department of "publicity and promotion " of the Keely enterprise is one of the most important factors in its success. A large proportion of the advertising is spontaneous wholly: it is secured gratis from the wonder and gratitude of the patients. Dr. Keely states in the North American Review that he has never advertised further than to allow the Chicago Tribune to open its columns to the Keely patients and their friends. This is a very moderate statement of the part the Tribune has taken in the matter. There is a weekly journal published by the Bichloride of Gold Publishing Company; and there are various tracts, narratives, circulars, etc., which are extensively circulated. It is fair to suppose that the missionary and commercial spirit are both interested in these various publications; but no fault need be found with the advertising, so far as the claims set up are true. The question of medical ethics and the unquestionable violation of the code both as to secrecy of the preparation and as to advertising by Dr. Keely are things entirely apart from the question of the value of his treatment, and that his treatment has been of value to thousands one may be glad to admit; but there remains the question as to the truthfulness of his claims, which we are especially concerned to examine, and to which I will presently return. It is scarcely possible to overrate the importance of the part which concealment plays in the Keely methods. The "secret" of Keely, if it were known, would, it seems probable, prove to contain nothing essentially new. One is reminded, in this connection, of the " Keely Motor." The inventor of the latter claims to have discovered a new mechanical principle in physics as radically important as " perpetual motion," which he refuses to divulge and out of which he makes a profitable speculation. The Keely of Dwight is doing the same thing in medicine. There is a kinship of spirit, if not of blood, in the two. The Keely of Dwight, however, has a richer field. It embraces the whole world. Drunkenness is nearly as universal as " the weather." It is as difficult, however, for the trained physician to believe that Keely has made a momentous discovery of some important, hitherto unknown principle as it is for a trained astronomer to believe that Wiggins has a deeper knowledge of the universe than all the science of all the schools embraces. If it be true that there is something essentially new in Keely's
Page 153 INEBRIETY AND INSANITY. —DR. DEWEY. I53 methods, a motive for concealing them becomes at once apparent on the supposition that he wishes to derive personal advantage from his inventions; but, if he wishes to derive personal advantage, and there is nothing new or important in his system, the motive for concealment is equally apparent, and the personal interest is the same in either case. It is a fact that ignorant and unscrupulous persons are to-day imitating his treatment, as far as in their power, everywhere, and probably the impositions are greater than they would be if the " secrets " were divulged; while, if. the facts were made known and there were value in them, skilful and scientific men could universally make use of them for the benefit of all. Keely compares his secret to that of Koch, who was supposed to have discovered a remedy for consumption; but the parallel does not hold good, for, while Koch only kept his methods secret until he could perfect them (as he believed), Keely claims that perfection has already been attained, and, if so, he is inexcusable, from the standpoint of science and humanity and medical ethics, if he does not place his methods within the reach of all competent persons. If these methods should be misunderstood or abused by ignorant or unscrupulous persons, that is something to be risked in all such cases. There is, however, one parallel between Koch and Keely which does hold good; namely, that each of them inaugurated a movement of apparently immense and far-reaching importance, which in one case did not rest upon a solid foundation of science. Koch's worldheralded discovery proved valueless. It remains to be seen how true Keely's claims may be; but, if Keely should prove to be a Barnum of medicine rather than a Jenner or a Lister, I should owe an apology to Koch for coupling his still great reputation with that of an adventurer whose chief merit is that he knows how to turn human credulity and misfortune to personal account. Dr. Keely, in a lecture delivered to his patients at Dwight in March, I892 (see Chicago Tribune), states that he is not what is called a Christian, but he does believe in special providences, and believes that his " discovery " is a special providence. This is, perhaps, the first instance on record of a special providence offering its services for cash. "Verily, he has his reward" at the rate of "$Io per pair of bottles, or $25 per week." One final word should be spoken for the many physicians (of whom I am one) who have, although not approving of the Keely methods F.....
Page 154 154 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. nor believing his claims to be wholly true, utilized his power for good. There are many who have not hesitated to send patients to Dwight, believing that, all things considered, it was better they should go there, and that at least temporary, and possibly permanent, benefit might be obtained through the agencies which Keely happens to have at command. Since I became satisfied that there are cases in which insanity may be developed by the Keely treatment, I have given no further advice to patients to take it without being satisfied there was no risk of insanity, but still believe there are large numbers of patients for whom it is perfectly safe so far as insanity is concerned; and, undoubtedly, many of those who have gone insane after the Keely treatment would have as readily gone insane without it. r In closing, I will ask the question whether the admitted facts of the Keely cure can be accounted for on already known principles or whether it is necessary to suppose that Keely has made a discovery as great or greater than any in the annals of medicine. To my own mind, the answer is not doubtful. It seems more probable that all the facts can be accounted for by known agencies and laws than that anything epoch-making has been created by Keely.
Page 155 VI. 3^e jFetblt-mtinaea. THE COLONY PLAN FOR ALL GRADES OF FEEBLE-MINDED. BY GEORGE H. KNIGHT, M.D., SUPERINTENDENT SCHOOL FOR FEEBLE-MINDED, LAKEVILLE, CONN. In advocating the merits of the colony plan for all grades of the feeble-minded, we do not come before the Conference of Charities and Correction as instructors, nor with any claim that we represent the most pressing needs of the time; but we come asking your attention and encouragement, even your dissent, if that should seem to advance the work in which we have such a keen interest. It is impossible to make the general public understand what is meant by " all grades of the feeble-minded." To them an idiot is an imbecile, and an imbecile is an idiot; and the term "feeble-minded" seems only a sort of complimentary name for an unmixed evil. Even statistics, which some one has said can be made to prove anything under the sun, cannot alone advance the plea which we wish to make especially strong for the further care and betterment of the class whose needs we are here to represent. The Conference has been made acquainted with the special views of some of the best thinkers and workers in our ranks, and is familiar with the general features of the work we are trying to do, as well as with the theories that have been advanced from time to time. In the limits of a short paper I can only generalize, and go over again in part ground that has been nearly covered before. Unfortunately, the reform we aim at securing needs the same line upon line that every other reform has to have before it becomes, first, familiar to the thought, and then possible of execution. In order that I may give you a better insight into what we mean by
Page 156 156 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. "all grades of the feeble-minded," I will briefly state the classification which is accepted by specialists in this work. I. Idiocy. Apathetic, excitable. 2. Imbecility. Lower, middle, high. 3. Juvenile insanity and moral imbecility. 4. Epilepsy in all its degrees. Since this is not a medical paper, I shall not take up the classification in detail, but will consider the subject under but three divisions, as follows: First. The Custodial Class. Second. The Imbecile, or Improvable Class. Third. The Epileptic Class. In the custodial division are included children who have not developed even physically beyond the proportions of infancy,- the maimed, the halt, the blind, the deaf and dumb, children who are incapable of standing alone, who cannot feed themselves nor make any want known, to whom any direct movement with purpose is impossible,- literally babies as long as life lasts, requiring constant care and watchfulness, and incapable of rewarding even the tenderest care or most persistent effort with any evidence of growth. In other cases, even when the physical development has been normal, the mental capacity is often limited to ordinary animal instincts. These are but two of the many helpless conditions which go to make up what we call the Custodial Department. That there is compensation for caring for such as these I will prove by citing one of the few cases which come just often enough to convince us that even among custodials there is something to work for and to save. The following case is reported by Miss Bancroft, of Haddonfield, N.J., and I will give it in her own words:The one of whom we will speak is a deaf-mute, and so marked a case of idiocy that we feel that we would like to have it known what can be done for such a one with systematic individual training. In the summer of 1887 S. C. was brought to us. A sickly, wild, destructive, disgusting specimen of humanity, with his eyes rolling, his head never still, his unearthly noises, his vomiting, his sniffling, and poor, worn-out stomach, he certainly seemed not only a hopeless case, but appallingly hopeless. Neighbors asked where we kept the cow which bellowed so, the children who passed looked in trembling eagerness to see the wild man, while all our attention was given to keeping him from breaking away and destroying furniture, etc. The only gleam of hopefulness to us in the case was S. C.'s homesickness and the strong affection he showed for his family. During
Page 157 THE FEEBLE-MINDED. —DR. G. H. KNIGHT. 157 the first few months efforts were given to getting him physically well. Indiscriminate eating and drinking had almost destroyed the coating of his stomach, consequently, even after drinking, he would vomit. After months of weary effort in dieting we were rewarded, and it was recorded twelve months after his coming to us that S. C. went four days without vomiting or destroying his clothes. During that year we had tried both male and female attendants. All left in disgust with their failure; and finally we decided, if we were to win in the race, we must take entire charge day and night. And this I did for three months,- slept in the same room with him, tended him and cared for him, taught him to love me and feel that I loved him,- and from that time the greatest trial was over. In the summer of i888 Miss C. entered into the work with me; and she noticed that S. C. was fastidious about the color of things he wore, and suggested having nice, fine clothing for him,- white shirts, collars, neckties, etc. His people were willing, but laughed at the idea. However, we took him to Philadelphia, purchased a nice suit for him, and the success was wonderful. S. C. was perfectly delighted, blew and puffed on his clothes, and from that time, unless some very serious trouble arose with his care-taker, never destroyed anything he wore unless it was ugly. Previous to this he would tear or destroy three or four suits a week. We took him to the Academy of Music at one time, and he behaved beautifully, and appreciated the play. We desired to have his picture taken, but, so far, it had been impossible; but we showed him how much we wanted him to be good, and he had a good picture taken after he had been with us two years. It seemed impossible to secure his attention, and after ayear we had only succeeded in getting him to string buttons and beads, and this only for a short time, his favorite pastime being to rock in a chair. In the fall of i888 we had him sufficiently under control to have him in the school-room, and have the discipline of sitting still during the opening exercises. Miss Cox, who had charge of him, made him draw strokes with a carpenter's pencil in a book or on a slate, and with chalk on the blackboard. In I889 and I890 to the drawing of lines he had added mat-weaving. It would be impossible to count the number of mats destroyed and the weaving needles broken, but at last patience was rewarded; and the whole school set up a hurrah one morning when S. C. threaded his needle and put in one row without help. There were many ups and downs, but from that time the improvement was constant, until it became a matter of course for S. C. to finish a mat in two or three lessons. A peculiarity of his was always to choose delicate pinks, blues, and grays, never showy, bright colors. We had a set of stencils for him, and, taking a hint from Laura Bridgman, had him print the words and get the articles; for example, cake, knife, water, cup, glass, key, etc. He was very fond of riding, and great was his glee when he could print horse, and take it to the man at the stable to show him he was to have a ride. His lessons the last year consisted of kindergarten
Page 158 158 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. drawing, weaving, pricking, pinking, drawing objects in Krusi's drawing books, Nos. i and 2, printing, carpentry, of which he was very fond, hammock-making, and we were about having him taught shoemaking, as he had a great aptitude for tools. Hundreds of people have heard and seen this boy before and since his coming to us, and all wonder at our great success. It has taken unbounded patience, hopefulness, and trust; but the great secret has been love, our love for him and his love for us, and trust in us. We tried two or three times placing him in the care of others to teach, when engaged with a new pupil; but it always failed, as none loved him, or thought it worth while to try as we did. The utilitarian will ask, "Was the result reached in this case worth the effort made?" Setting aside every consideration but the one of utility, we can answer that, since such children are here, ordinary humanity demands that they should be cared for; and, if there was no other result reached, the tremendous saving in wear and tear to every one who would hereafter come in contact with this boy would compensate a thousand-fold for all the skill, the untiring patience, and heroism shown in bringing about this almost miracle in one who is a representative of what we call the Custodial Class, which, we must remember, numbers 46,000, every one of whom is dependent upon somebody for care and protection. Next, we consider the Imbecile, or improvable, Class. In those we consider improvable are included all that properly would come under the discipline of the training-school. These are what we call imbeciles. From their ranks come workers in trades, farmers, builders, stone-workers, road-makers, care-takers, tailors, shoemakers, brushmakers, workers in laundries, sewing-rooms, and general housework. In these ranks we find what we call our highest grade, who are capable of acquiring almost everything but that indispensable something known in the world as good, plain common sense. The greater proportion of this class can become self-supporting if the institution is large enough to find occupation for them within its own walls. Among the children of this grade we also find the type which we characterize as "Moral Imbeciles," dangerous enough in an institution, doubly so - yes, infinitely so - when at large; for it is the type from which is recruited many of our criminals. With a moral imbecile, it is not a question of yielding to temptation, but rather a question of yielding to his natural instincts, which are almost without exception instincts for evil. This is the class, too, which can work incalculable mischief through
Page 159 THE FEEBLE-MINDED. —DR. G. H. KNIGHT. 159 reproduction of its kind. Especially is it true that the women of this grade, who are often bright and pleasing, become the victims of licentiousness. You will all agree with me that every consideration of morals and decency demands that such cases be kept for a lifetime under restraint, oversight, and wise direction. This much the community has a right to expect, and even to enforce. At the Conference of I886 I made as earnest a plea as I am capable of for the special care and better provision of the epileptic. It is with the greatest gratification that we find many of the States erecting buildings suited to the needs of this class, in which some are cured and all have the chance of improvement. The work among the other grades has been so imperative that this most distressing and most discouraging of all work among the feebleminded has been left to the last for proper recognition and effort. But, distressing and discouraging as we find it, we are compelled by the urgency of its needs to give it its true place in our work. When we realize that epilepsy exists of itself or as a complication in over 60 per cent. of the histories of the children received into our institutions for the feeble-minded, we are compelled to recognize the necessity for adequate provision for this class. A most conservative computation of the number of these sufferers in our midst places it at about nineteen thousand. These are the grades, in general terms, which make up an institution population; and it is not too much to say that the happiness and well-being of each division in turn depends upon the others. The epileptic, who varies in intelligence from the accomplished, educated, and refined victim to any as loathsome and unattractive as can be found in any Custodial Department, requires, in addition to constant care, medical and otherwise, amusement, help, and diversion. Both of these departments are helped out and inestimably benefited by the sharing with the brighter grades, so far as they can, their amusements and occupations; while the brighter class in turn reaps the benefits that come from feeling that they, the strong, are helping the weak. Legislatures to the contrary notwithstanding, it is not because superintendents covet numerous buildings, large grounds, and all the care and watchfulness that come from the proper management of what we call a colony, which makes them urge the gathering together of great numbers of this class of defectives, but because they have learned in the hard school of experience that they must have large numbers from which to draw children enough of equal mental endow
Page 160 I60 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. ment to do even the simplest thing well. They have found that, even for money, they cannot get suitable people who are willing to come in contact with the lowest grade in the right spirit,- a spirit which demands patience, cheerfulness, and affection. But they do find that what is called the imbecile will share his pleasures and attainments with his weaker brother with a sense of high privilege in being allowed so to share it; that none make tenderer care-takers, nor, under supervision, more watchful ones; and that the bond of fellowship so engendered is of lasting benefit. The custodial case must be cared for for a lifetime. There is no greater burden possible in a home or neighborhood. The bright imbecile finds occupation, amusement, training, happiness, safety, both for himself and others, inside this usually to him happiest home he has ever known. And the epileptic who, from his higher mental grade, suffers most at being set apart from his fellows in the world, finds in the building suited to his needs all the favoring circumstances both of medicine, care, and occupation, upon which his best good, often his recovery, depends. This is why the colony plan commends itself to us as superintendents. Experience has taught us that these children, under careful direction, are happier, better cared for, more trustworthy when trust is given, more self-sacrificing and self-contained, and in every way benefited by the training, occupation, and amusement which a large institution makes possible, and which it is impossible to gain where there are few in number. We admit that the first expense of building is greater, when we provide a separate home for the different grades. But, if we take into account the gain from training those capable of it into caretakers and laborers of various kinds, I am firmly convinced that, even in the matter of dollars and cents, the colony plan will be found to have the balance in its favor. Those of us who have the colony plan most at heart consider that it pays, when it returns to us the best care and training, the most useful lives, and the greatest amount of happiness and safety possible to the most unfortunate and helpless among the defective classes. The time has gone by when we reckon the success of work among our fellow-creatures by its market value. In the words of our lamented and beloved President of last year, "We are come to see what men and women can do and ought to do to make life easier for our brethren, to remove some obstructions from the way of little children, to bring soothing to the mind that wanders."
Page 161 THE COLONY PLAN. —DR. W. B. FISH. I6I THE COLONY PLAN. BY WILLIAM B. FISH, M.D., LINCOLN, ILL. In a report submitted to the Eighteenth National Conference of Charities I presented some arguments in favor of the colony plan for the care of adults of feeble mind. I desire in this paper to call attention to this plan, and to set forth its advantages in connection with the organization of State institutions for the care of all grades of the feeble-minded. Dr. Knight, in his able report, has shown that the feeble-minded in our institutions are divided into several classes, each requiring distinct methods of care and treatment, and yet enjoying special advantages by association under one management. The colony plan of organization is simply a recognition of this fact. It contemplates provision for all grades of the feeble-minded in separate buildings or colonies under one executive management. It will be conceded by all who have had experience in this special work that a proper classification of the inmates of an institution is a matter of great importance. The advantages the above plan affords in this respect are obvious. American institutions for the care and training of the feeble-minded have been in existence about fifty years. Nearly all of them originated as schools. In my own State of Illinois the first appropriation for the support of the infant institution at Jacksonville was for an "experimental school for idiots." The founders of our institutions for feeble-minded realized the necessity of giving the sceptical public an object-lesson. It had to be demonstrated to legislators, to the community in which the institution was located, that the feeble-minded child, endowed, perhaps, with but one talent, could, in proportion to his endowment, compare favorably, under proper training, with his more fortunate brother possessing ten talents. So in the beginning of our work the brave and gentle souls who consecrated their lives to the uplifting of these solitary ones were inspired with an enthusiasm which led them to believe that the influence of the school would reach even the most hopeless cases. With them there was no such word as "failure." They took these unfortunate children with them into their families, they slept with them at their bedside; they entered into their childish pleasures, and they achieved results which challenge our admiration, and gained the sym
Page 162 162 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. pathy and support of all who were brought in contact with them. In this connection, the eloquent address of the late J. B. Richards at our Conference at Washington and the case quoted in Dr. Knight's paper are realistic pictures which leave a lasting impression on our minds. As time passed on, the little school with ten or twenty inmates developed into the great State institution, caring for its hundreds. A new situation confronted us. Insidious disease, in many instances, blighted the life of the promising boy or girl who had received the training of the school, and rendered them cases for custodial care. The dread scourge of epilepsy developed in some. We found that a number of our children, who under the kindly discipline of the institution were leading useful lives, were unfitted to take part in the struggle for existence which confronted them, when separated from us. We found that by the death of relatives and friends those who could be helpful in their homes, when thrown upon their own resources and neglected, became recruits for the great army of criminals, tramps, and paupers. We found that but twenty per cent. of those committed to our charge could successfully hold their own in the battle of life. So our work broadened. The veteran H. B. Wilbur, established at Newark, N.J., the custodial branch of the Syracuse institution for adult females of feeble mind. Dr. Kerlin, of Pennsylvania, outlined at the Conference at St. Louis the asylum village; and in the great institution at Elwyn he has, in large measure, realized his conception. Dr. Doren, in Ohio, developed the magnificent institution at Columbus, and proved the feasibility of employing the feebleminded in industrial and agricultural work. Dr. Stewart, of Kentucky, was early impressed with the importance of industrial training, and has, in the institution in his charge, brought it to rare perfection. The chairman of our section, Dr. Knight, has eloquently presented to you in the past the claims of the epileptics. At the present time you will find in nearly all of our institutions for feeble-minded custodial departments, departments for industrial training, hospital buildings for the sick, farm colonies, and, in a few, buildings specially planned for the care of epileptics. Each institution has worked out its own salvation, and, confronted with new problems in its special field, has solved them as best it could. Have we not at the present time reached a point where we can formulate some intelligent plan for the organization of new institutions, and, avoiding the errors of the past, embody in our plan the
Page 163 THE COLONY PLAN.- DR. W. B. FISH. i63 most advanced thought of the present? We may confidently look forward, in the near future, to the establishment of institutions for feeble-minded in every State in the Union. The experimental period has passed. I do not mean to say by this that we have reached perfection; but I do feel justified in saying that American institutions for feeble-minded, wherever they have been established, have demonstrated, in the face of opposition and widespread scepticism, that, tried in the balances of public opinion, they have not been found wanting. So long as our States extend their charity to any of our defective classes, so long will our institutions for feeble-minded receive due recognition. So far there has been given to but one State (California) the opportunity of laying the foundation of an institution on the broad lines suggested in the colony plan of organization. The magnificent grant of money and land which the management of this institution has secured reflects equal credit upon them and the legislature which granted the appropriation. California has wisely appreciated the future of this work. It will reap the reward of its enterprise and public spirit in the future. In the brief limits of this paper I can but outline my idea of an institution organized upon the colony plan. It is but the opinion of an individual; and, as such, it is liable to the criticism of those better fitted to advise. One thousand inmates should, in my opinion, be the maximum number under one management. The school should be the nucleus of the institution, with separate buildings for the care of custodial cases of each sex, epileptics, a hospital for acute cases of disease, industrial buildings, and buildings for a farm colony. It is of great importance that as early as possible sufficient land should be secured to meet the requirements of the future. Having decided upon the number of inmates, at least one acre of land for each inmate should be purchased. Experience has shown that the time to buy land for an institution, at a reasonable price, is when it is first established. In a central position should be the building for the administrative and school departments. This building should embrace dormitories, dining-rooms, play-rooms for children of the school grade, and provide suitable accommodations for teachers, business offices, etc. The centre should not exceed three stories in height; the wing for each sex should be two stories; no part of the building under ground should be in use,- no basements. Convenient to this building should -r _ _ _
Page 164 164 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. be a building for schools and assembly hall. In the rear should be laundry building, engine-room, custodial buildings for each sex, buildings for epileptics, hospital buildings for each sex, for cases of acute disease, industrial buildings, etc. Plain and substantial buildings should be erected for the farm colony. I believe the salient points of the above plan, modified to meet the requirements of different States, will be of some slight benefit to those who may be called upon to organize State institutions for the feeble-minded. It may not be deemed expedient to appropriate at first enough money to carry out this plan in detail. In this case, I would suggest that as much land as possible be secured, and the school and administrative departments be first considered. The future will show the need of provision for custodial cases and epilepties. If we are to learn anything from the past, it is this: that a State institution for this class of defectives should, in its plan of organization, prepare for the reception of all grades of feeble-minded. Charity should be as broad as misfortune. Realizing that at least fifty per cent. of the inmates of the institution will be cases for custodial care, let us be prepared to care for them. Let us recognize the fact that a certain proportion of our children may develop epilepsy. Let us fully recognize the scope of our work, and, as we establish new institutions, lay the foundations with some definite plan in view. If we do this, we will contribute largely to the efficiency and economy of their future management. In conclusion, permit me to say that the problems presented to us as to the best methods for caring for this class of defectives deserves our most careful consideration and serious thought. We can no longer ignore their claims. Over 77,000 in number, by the census of,88o, they are the second division in the great army of defectives, and are exceeded in number only by the insane. Our work in behalf of this class has for its foundation the teaching of our Lord and Master. Modern materialism may ignore it; so-called scientists may charge us with sentimentalism, and argue that the interests of society are best conserved by the elimination of the defective classes. To all who are imbued with this spirit I would say, Present your arguments to a mother who pleads for help and assistance in the care of her afflicted child. Tell her that her maternal love is unscientific; tell her that the best interests of society demand that her afflicted child should be sacrificed for the general good; impress her with the
Page 165 THE COLONY PLAN. —DR. W. B. FISH. 165 thought that the weary days and nights she has spent in the care of her child have been wasted; talk learnedly about the survival of the fittest, and, if you win her to your views, we will listen to you. I appeal not to sentiment alone. I invite your thorough investigation and study. Our institutions have everything to gain from investigation and everything to lose from ignorance. I do not think that the members of this Conference occupy any uncertain attitude as to this work. You have given us in the past your encouragement and support. From this great assemblage, which brings together every year men and women from all parts of our country, who in various fields labor for the glory of God and the relief of man's estate, proceeds a potent influence which is felt throughout the world. We find in your meetings inspiration and encouragement. Grateful for your sympathy and encouragement in the past, we bespeak their continuance in the future.
Page 166 VII. Urform cbrooIl. GENERAL FEATURES OF REFORM SCHOOL WORK. BY IRA D. OTTERSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE STATE REFORM SCHOOL, NEW. JERSEY. In the first place, let us study some of the reasons which demand that we should have reform schools. There are fifteen thousand stubborn facts which prove conclusively that the reform school is a necessity. These fifteen thousand facts we will not take up in detail, but will simply state that, according to the statistics collected and prepared by that zealous, faithful laborer in the cause of uplifting humanity, Rev. Fred. Howard Wines, in his bulletin relating to reform schools, there were in the United States, June I, I890, fifteen thousand children in juvenile reformatories. Every one of these children represents a reason and a cause. You will find both reason and cause, to a great extent, in another extract from another bulletin from the same source,-namely, that relating to convicts in penitentiaries,- in which it is stated that, according to the Eleventh Census, there were 45,233 convicts undergoing sentence for the graver violations of law,- an increase of thirteen to the million of population during the last decade. Here we find over forty-five thousand more reasons for having juvenile reformatories; for we must remember that "great oaks from little acorns grow." Solomon says, "Take us the little foxes." There must have been forty-five thousand little foxes which at different times and places escaped capture, or, having been captured, did not receive the treatment in each individual case which their natures demanded. We further say that the fifteen thousand little foxes now in juvenile reformatories are just so many special and separate cases needing special treatment; and to that end we should have institutions where this treatment can be given, and those of the
Page 167 REFORM SCHOOLS. —MR. OTTERSON. very best in every particular,- not simply in location, surroundings, architectural design of buildings or their furnishings, not simply in the system and routine of daily duties, or the officering of the schools, from the boards of control down to the humblest employee in the service, but a strong combination of all these features, and a strong public sentiment to realize the need of establishing such places, and maintaining them with sympathy and prayers as well as with their dollars after they are established. It has been truly said, "There is no use in enacting a law until the public is ready to enforce it." Bring your philanthropic, energetic people to the knowledge that there are children born in poverty and wretchedness, whose earliest breath is reeking with fumes of pollution, with crime for their father and crime for their mother, and every surrounding tainted with crime. I hear some one say: "If the parents are criminals, why not punish them for their crimes? Take them and lock them up until they have served a sentence fitting their crime." That is well, but not well enough; for in that case what will you do with the child or children? "Why," says the public, " there are almshouses provided for their care." Let such follow the history of children reared in the ordinary almshouses, and they will find reason for the noted increase of those cared for at public expense in almshouses, juvenile reformatories, prisons, and asylums. Educate the public mind to the necessity of lifting such from the influences of their environments, and saving them from a life of crime. We find that in Great Britain they have a " Reformatory and Refuge Union," in which are registered and classified, and under government inspection, over seven hundred and fifty institutions and societies, reformatory, preventive, and child-saving. While we may hardly suppose all or any of these are in themselves perfection, the results of their united labors are a continued decrease in the number of the criminal and dependent classes. They are working, not to make the lowest cost per capita, or the greatest per capita earnings to turn into the public treasury, or even toward the greatest number of studies and trades taught, but to make self-supporting men and women and productive citizens. That they may fail in many instances there can be no doubt, but certainly the end is worthy. How applicable to our own country is the report of the State Children's Council of South Australia! After giving statistics, it says: "From these figures it would seem that destitution is on the increase, parental control is becoming more lax, juvenile crime is
Page 168 i68 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. making great strides, and immorality is spreading among the young. On looking into the circumstances of each individual case, these figures bear a somewhat brighter aspect, although, even when in the light of analysis the best possible color is given to them, one cannot but be saddened by the knowledge that in South Australia so many children require to be placed under the parental control of the State." Further it says, "The Council is of the opinion that the time has arrived when there should be drastic legislation to compel parents of this class to fulfil their natural obligations." We are sorry to be compelled to report that in the State of New Jersey, during the last two years, of those committed to her Reform School for Boys, over fifty per cent. were less than thirteen years of age. Surely there is fault somewhere that there should be need of sending such a large number of little children to a reform school. We find among the forty-five thousand convicts in prison in these United States many reasons - we find among the nearly four hundred and fifty thousand emigrants landed at the port of New York during the year I891, together with those of previous years, many other reasons-for adopting stringent measures and establishing institutions for restraining and reforming these while in early life. We will now consider what our reform schools should be. As to whether they should be juvenile prisons, surrounded by high walls, with windows and doors protected with iron grating, or whether they should be farm industrial schools, is a matter which we think has been fully decided. All States erecting new reformatories have adopted the farm industrial school idea. Some of those having used the congregate, walled in institution system are changing for the open system. While we do not dispute there has been good work done under the congregate system, we think the farm school has many advantages. The managers of the Philadelphia House of Refuge, who for over sixty years have worked for the reformation of the children committed to their care in a congregate school, have for several years been erecting buildings for a farm school on the family plan, and expect to move the children to it at an early date. This action has been decided upon after careful study of plans and systems throughout this country and in Europe. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, and other States have changed from congregate to open schools. Now as to some of the features of the work and methods used and needed. To a child born in the city, and whose only recreation grounds have been the filthy streets and reeking alleys, varied by
Page 169 REFORM SCHOOLS. — MR. OTTERSON. I69 back yards strewn with old tin cans and garbage, to be taken through the jail as the gateway to a home in a school on a farm, surrounded by grass, flowers, and trees, and to be informed that those in charge are not simply keepers, but friends whose desire is to do him good, who will trust him just as far as he shows himself worthy of being trusted, is a new experience; and in a' large majority of cases the change has a good effect from the first. It is true that in many instances, after the novelty of this change has worn off, the true nature of the patient to be treated shows itself; and it is at this time that the greater patience, combined with tact and firmness, on the part of those directly in charge of the child, needs to be exercised. This is the time to study his character, and at the same time to exert a useful influence. In all institutions for the reformation of children there should be a varied programme for each and every day. It has been our experience that to devise means for self-amusement is a matter almost, if not quite, beyond the power of ordinary reform school boys. As a class, they lack system and self-reliance in everything. Therefore, the time must be carefully divided into periods for work, study, recreation, meals, and sleep. Regular hours for sleep, and plenty of them, must be arranged. A variety of food, well cooked and served promptly at the appointed time, should be given in satisfying quantities. When we say satisfying quantities, we are speaking particularly for the boys; and we think it applies as well to the girls. Some cannot realize that it is necessary for a growing child to consume a liberal allowance of bone and muscle producing food. When boys, although not very rugged, we very well remember visiting dear friends who seemed astonished at the amount of food we consumed, when, in fact, we had only been trying to see how little food we could soothe our appetites with, for to appease it would have taken all the food on the table. For recreation, provide ample grounds, and healthy, invigorating games for outside use in fair weather, and sheltered rooms for inclement weather, with some light gymnastic exercises. The setting-up exercises in "The School of the Soldier" in the Infantry Tactics furnishes a good series of muscle exercises for indoor use, and the manual of arms and simple marchings and evolutions should properly be added to the out-of-door exercises; but these should not be carried to too great an extent, particularly with the smaller boys. A half-hour a day on week-days should be sufficient. We doubt the wisdom of attempting to make a military post of a reform school.
Page 170 I70 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. In every well-appointed reform school there should be trade teaching, and suitable shops for instruction in the practical working of each trade. When we say suitable shops, we do not wish to be understood as meaning shops fully equipped with all the most improved laborsaving machinery and tools. Effort should always be made to teach the pupils to make the best use of whatever is at hand. By all means have boys instructed to take some part in every kind of work necessary for the upbuilding or maintenance of the institution. If you can perfect a boy in any one trade, it is well. If you cannot do that, teach him to be useful and handy with tools and study how best to use them. We learn that in some reform schools it is already boasted that they "do not have their boys waste their time in sweeping and washing floors, in washing dishes, making beds, and such unmanly drudgery." Are we to understand that they do not sweep or wash their floors, make their beds, or wash their dishes? If they do not, whom do they degrade to do it for them? We contend that, if it does not degrade our mothers, sisters, wives, or daughters to do this kind of work, it certainly does not degrade the boys to have them do enough to learn how it should be done. We have lived to see the day when, with grateful hearts, we can boast that as boys your chairman and his brothers were taught by a loving, devoted mother to do all kinds of housework; that in so doing we were not only able to assist her at the time, but that, when grown and the heads of families, we have' found our early experience a benefit to us; and now, as the superintendent of a reform school, your chairman finds his knowledge of housekeeping as useful to him and the institution as any other one qualification possessed. Do not at all understand me as advising that a boy be put at the domestic work of an institution and kept at it while he remains in it. Not at all; but, when he has learned how to sweep a floor, make a bed, or wash dishes, and do it well, put him then either at farm or garden work or at some mechanical trade. We are aware that trades-teaching in reformatories is believed by some to be the panacea for all evils, so that the institution which does not have a trades-school department is an institution which might as well drop out of the race and embark in some other business. We know there are many institutions in which there are no trades-schools, properly speaking, yet where quite a proportion of the pupils can be and are profitably employed at various trades necessary in the maintenance of the institution, and gain very practical ideas of
Page 171 REFORM SCHOOLS. —MR. OTTERSON. I7r their uses. In the New Jersey Reform School there are engaged in practical work at firing steam-boilers, running and caring for stationary engines and dynamos, steam and water pipe fitting, carpentry, blacksmithing, shoemaking, house and carriage painting, masonry, making and repairing clothing, laundering, bread-baking, cooking, care of poultry, greenhouse, and lawns, making bricks in season, care of farm stock, general farm and kitchen-garden work, and printing, about thirty-three per cent. of all the pupils in the school. About twenty per cent. are employed at the domestic work, and are changed frequently to other places. About thirty-three per cent. are engaged at brush-drawing and finishing. Those who work at the drawing are the smallest in the school, and they acquire a dexerity which is useful in any trade. Those at finishing get an idea of working-machinery, the use of tools in making cases, etc. The remainder of the pupils work in various places as the needs of the institution require. All, except those driving teams or who work on the farm or in the brick-yard (who are of the largest boys in the school), go to school three and a quarter hours each day, five days each week. (Those above excepted attend during the winter.) We speak of this as being the routine in our school. We believe this to be practically the routine in most similar schools. In the school-rooms we find that a majority of our pupils are in scholarship below the average children of their age: consequently we confine our teaching mainly to the rudiments of an English education, but carry the pupils as far as we can during their stay. We find them, as a class, uneducated to think for themselves. This fault we try to overcome, teach them to think about their work, to observe what is going on around them, and how to apply what they learn. If you can do this, you are on the road to success. It is important that we instill in each pupil the habit of quietly reading some good book or paper. This habit, well fixed, will save from many an error, besides the amount of knowledge gained. We cannot speak in too high terms of teaching boys farm work, and getting them interested in animals and plants. To get the idea out of the heads of city boys that farm life is menial and low should be one aim of reform school workers. Though the work may be hard, and usually done by men or boys working alone or in small companies, this is one of its beneficial features. One matter that we fear is too often lost sight of, in the desire to teach boys trades, is the fact that, in a majority of cases, when you
Page 172 I72 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. have taught a boy a trade, you compel him to go to the city to follow it, and thereby expose him to all the temptations to be found in the cities. The idea that the mechanic has so much better wages and so much easier life is only true in part and under certain circumstances. To our knowledge, those boys going out from our institution to work on farms are the ones who have the most money, and are the best fitted to care for themselves at their majority. In dividing our boys into classes or families, we aim to do so on the line of age and morality, trying not to mix those versed in crime with those who are more innocent. This we deem important. We would like to go farther in this direction than we are now able. In securing heads for these families, too great care cannot be exercised in the selection. In every case where it is possible, we advise providing a God-fearing man and wife to take charge of a family. Their religion must not be a passive kind, but a religion which is lived in action as well as words every day in the week. The influence of a pure Christian woman in the permanent reformation of this class cannot be overestimated. With other accomplishments, she should possess a knowledge of music, at least sufficient to play her accompaniments, and sing with the children and teach them to sing,- not necessarily teach the theory, but to sing by note,- and teach them to memorize both words and music, committing the best songs and hymns. The recollection of hours thus spent, and the recalling of old familiar tunes and words, will many times exert an influence for good which may never be known in this life, but in eternity may show abundant fruit. These female heads of families in our school act in the dual capacity of mother and housekeeper and teacher. We find that even with the largest of our boys they maintain just as good discipline in the school-room, command respect, and, if properly qualified, do just as good school work. The male head, house father, or officer, as you may choose to designate him, should be a man of exemplary habits and manners. The more good qualifications he possesses, the better results you may expect from his labors. He should be a keen observer and student of human nature, should possess the faculty of knowing how to see everything without apparently watching his pupils. We never knew a boy who would not chafe under the knowledge that he was being watched. The father should not only know what each boy is doing at all times, but, so
Page 173 REFORM SCHOOLS. —MR. OTTERSON. I73 far as possible, know of what he is thinking. To a novice in the work this may seem an impossibility; but to one who makes it a study, while he may not be able to tell of what a boy is thinking, he can tell if his thoughts are right, and usually if his conscience is clear. He should show an interest in every work at hand, and not simply stand by and look at his boys after telling them what to do. It will elevate the work and the worker in the estimation of the boys if the officer takes hold and shows them how and bears a portion with them. By a stroke here and a word there the best officer will be the best instructor, and not only get more and better work done, but will have the most contented boys. This we have seen repeatedly demonstrated. Let no man think he can gain the respect of his boys who holds himself aloof from the work in which they are engaged. The cheery "Come, laddies! " of one of the best officers we ever knew was the key to his success. Above all, let no man who has chosen the high calling of reforming unfortunate boys committed to his care fail to seek help from the Fountain of all help, and never be afraid to let it be known as to his source of help and strength. The man who uses vile or profane language, tobacco, or liquors, has mistaken his calling, and would better make a change before doing harm to others. The test of the fitness of a pupil to be paroled should not be based entirely upon his conduct, but also upon his progress in his studies, and his ability by some branch of labor to earn an honest living. It has been questioned in the past as to what good reform schools do for those graduated from them. We are pleased to note that nearly all the reform schools sending your chairman replies to his inquiries on this point report from seventy per cent. to ninety per cent. of all paroled pupils doing well during minority. The looking after paroled pupils is an important part of the work, and we heartily recommend that every school adopt some system of keeping in communication with its graduates, either by special visitor, by the superintendent and resident officers of the school, by its chaplain or those appointed for the purpose in districts. For juveniles, we believe visiting by some one connected with the school has a better effect than visiting by district agents, although the latter might be very helpful in assisting the graduate in procuring and retaining employment. Only those who have tried it can imagine how pleasant it is to visit those who have reached their majority, and are no longer under the control of the school. It has been our pleasure to visit some of our graduates who were permanently settled in busi
Page 174 174 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. ness, maintaining a home and family; and we have yet to find one doing well who did not express pleasure at our visit and gratitude to the school. By a judicious system of oversight, we think the influence of the work done in the school cannot only be prolonged, but extended to others. We notice that Illinois has changed her juvenile reform school into a reformatory for first offenders between the ages of ten and twentyone years. Nebraska has established a new industrial school for girls. The young State of Washington has opened a reform school at Chehalis. West Virginia has established one at Pruntytown. North Carolina is moving in the matter. New York has established a reformatory for women, and passed an act in her legislature to establish another. We sympathize with Maine in the loss of her new cottage school, which was destroyed by fire the very day they were to have moved into it, but congratulate them upon going immediately to work to erect another. New Jersey still has a commission, which was appointed nearly two years and a half ago, in the matter of establishing an intermediate reformatory. It is only a question of time as to when the legislature will pass an appropriate bill and appoint a building commission. We must have it: it is a necessity. We are sorry to have to record that some of our faithful coworkers of the past have fallen out of line. Some, on account of long service, have retired from the cares of institution life; some in the prime and vigor of manhood have transferred their talents to active commercial business; and some have ended their labors. In grateful remembrance we will cherish their deeds which remain to bless and encourage. To those who have taken up the work where the old hands left it, we extend a cordial greeting, and shall hope for mutual benefit in our intercourse.
Page 175 THE REFORM SCHOOL CHAPLAIN. —MR. NUTTING. I75 THE REFORM SCHOOL CHAPLAIN. BY REV. J. H. NUTTING, RHODE ISLAND. The chaplain in a reform school should, before all else, be a man of masculine quality, that he may command respect for himself and for his office. Young people do not fail to discount heavily an effeminate individual wearing a black coat and a white necktie. He should be a man of strong common sense, and one not easily imposed upon. If he lacks here, the fact will be discovered by those who will take advantage of it to deceive and " work him " for unworthy ends. A wealth of educational acquirement, of theological wisdom, of eloquent speech, and of refined sentiment will not compensate for a deficiency in good, old-fashioned common sense. He should be able to command the confidence of boys and girls, to do which he must be worthy of their confidence. They are shrewd judges of character. A pretender has a better chance with men and women than with young people. He should have faith in the general good intent of young people. They are entitled to this. There is in them good ground for such faith. Young people are not expert in the science of moral distinctions. They act impulsively, they act inconsiderately, they act in thoughtlessness of that which shall follow as the consequences of their act; but they are not to a great degree deliberately and with premeditation wrong-doers. Well-considered and circumspect wickedness is mainly the prerogative of mature sinners. He should know the capacity that is in young people for religious and moral culture. With all their natural inclination toward lawless and degrading courses, they have an ability to know and do better things. If he is unaware of their good endowment, if he has faith in the power of an evil heredity, he will soon lose heart, and thereafter will accomplish but little. He should be a man not easily discouraged, for he will be tempted strongly along this line. The fruit of his effort will not at once appear. It is not to be expected. There must always be some space of time between seed-time and harvest, in which will accrue disheartening things. There will be relapses on the part of those who, he had fondly fancied, might be wholly regenerate and fully sanctified. -I
Page 176 I76 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Partial failure will be matter of daily experience. He will probably not be rewarded with seeing the majority of those committed to his care become wholly angelic by reason of his endeavors. Until the end they will remain very human in temper and fallible in deed. His need will be an inextinguishable hope and perseverance indomitable. He should unfeignedly believe in the power of religion to renew the life and to correct the conduct of all who will accept its doctrines and put into practice its precepts. Religion is the means by which he is to benefit those upon whom his effort is expended. No substitute for religion is given him, and without faith in this he can do nothing. He should not misjudge his parish. It is composed of boys and girls who have been more unfortunate than they have been criminal or vicious. In all the essentials of human nature they are like other boys and girls,-like the boys and girls who attend regularly upon the Sunday-school connected with some very respectable church. At bottom they do not materially differ from the boys and girls in the chaplain's family. It will probably be a little humiliating for him to admit that they are of like passions with those who call him father, but he should know what is true in the matter. However widely the proportions may differ, the constituent elements are the same in all children. He should remember that the reform school boys and girls have not been highly favored. Rarely does one come from conditions and circumstances altogether wholesome. Many were unfortunate in their parentage. The father and the mother, one or both, were ignorant, idle, vicious, or otherwise incapable. Many are orphans or half-orphans, the surviving parent being the one least qualified to rear the child. Not a few are illegitimates. In any case, they were not taught, guided, or trained as they should have been. They were permitted to run at large in the city streets or in the village highways, there to pick up such companionships as might be at hand, and to do those things which are inconvenient. Moved by inexperience and unchecked impulse, they contracted habits of vice, they violated the statute law, they committed deeds which, when done by men and women, are high crimes and misdemeanors; but, even at their worst, they are more unfortunate than they are criminal. The chaplain should make some allowance for what may easily be the blunders of an unrestrained and uninstructed youth. He should consider himself,
Page 177 THE REFORM SCHOOL CHAPLAIN. — MR. NUTTING. 177 what evil tendencies were in him, what he might have done, and what he might have become, had he, like these, been exposed and left to his own devices at an early age. He can scarcely fail to see that his present superiority is due to the better conditions under which he began to live, and the better family and school life in which he was nurtured, quite as much as to his own native excellences. Such considerations will help him to see the possibilities that are in those who have made a worse start. What care, discipline, and instruction did for him, the same things may, in a degree at least, accomplish for the most unpromising specimen of them all. The evil that has gained in them a considerable ascendency may be brought into subjection to that which is good. The chaplain should know what he has to do. He is to teach those things which pertain to religion and godliness. He is a teacher, not a mere exhorter, not a mere retailer of goody-goody fables and pathetic anecdotes about good children who died very early. It is not his office to conduct for an hour in the chapel on Lord's Day a service whose chief end is the entertainment of those present. It is his business to teach Christian doctrine and Christian morality. Incidentally, it may become his duty to look after the library, to distribute periodicals, to attend to the mails, to find homes for those who may be permitted to go on probation, to have a supervision over these and over the people with whom they are placed. Some of these things will surely devolve upon the chaplain; but the chief thing, that to which every other thing must be held subservient and made auxiliary, is to teach the Christian religion. He should remember whom he is to teach. They are the wards of the State. The State recognizes the fact that Christianity is the religion of her people, but the State is very properly indifferent to all those issues upon which the various churches and sects are divided. Believers in seven sacraments and believers in two sacraments, the adherents of the most elaborate ecclesiastical system in the world and the members of the simplest religious society, stand upon the same plane. The State will not sustain either as against the other. When she employs a chaplain, it is not that he may antagonize the peculiar views of any religious body or prejudice any one against the faith of his fathers. He is not to make Protestants of Roman Catholics, or Roman Catholics of Protestants, Methodists of Baptists, or Presbyterians of Episcopalians. He has enough to do in teaching those great catholic doctrines which are accepted by all religionists
Page 178 178 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. who have formulated their faith into a creed, leaving untouched the peculiar views of each church and sect. Will the churches be satisfied with only so much? That will depend upon the emphasis which each places upon the thing which distinguishes it from all others. The Roman Catholic Church believes it her duty to educate as Roman Catholics all children who have been baptized at her altars, and she wishes to discharge this duty. I think she should be privileged to do so. She can, through properly accredited persons, supplement the chaplain's teaching with instruction in her catechism and modes of worship. If I may refer to the reform schools with which I am connected, I would say that this method is pursued in them. In the Sockanosset School for boys there is a Roman Catholic Sunday-school, taught by gentlemen of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, under the direction of the priest within whose parish the institution is located. Oaklawn School for girls is regularly visited by Sisters of Mercy who instruct the Roman Catholic girls in their catechism. A like privilege would be cheerfully accorded to any other Christian body that might desire it. So far as I know, this arrangement gives satisfaction to all interested parties. Certainly, it is satisfactory to myself. A chaplain employed by the State, and paid from the public funds, ought, I think, to be as catholic as this requires. The chaplain should be able to teach young people the worship of Almighty God, and to excite a devotional feeling, and cultivate a spirit of reverence for Him who has bidden us seek that we may find, and who pours out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and supplication. The form should be suited to the high end which it is designed to serve. Nothing that would impart to the occasion the quality of an entertainment is to be endured. A dignified and solemn earnestness should characterize all that is done. It would be well for all to participate audibly in the service, singing hymns of worship that have been set to worshipful music, reading responsively the Psalms and Scripture lessons, repeating in concert the creeds, with prayers which they have previously committed to memory. The reform school chaplain should know how to preach to boys and girls. They require a studied discourse, not a mere string of stories, and an invitation to come to Jesus. No class of hearers demand more careful preparation on the part of him who shall address them regularly on each Lord's Day. I do not know that I could tell another chaplain how he should preach. I am not at all
Page 179 REFORM WORK FOR GIRLS.- MISS KEELY. I79 sure that I am myself very successful in this line. I am sure, however, that a discourse which is to be preached in the chapel of a reform school should contain instruction and motive suited to the case of the hearers, and presented in such a manner as to enlist their attention, and make an impression upon their memory. There would seem to be no lack of appropriate themes. The incidents of our Saviour's life on earth furnish a list which it will take years to exhaust, and which, if wisely presented, cannot fail to interest and profit. In this way all the principles and precepts of righteousness may be treated, and more of genuine religious knowledge imparted than in a lifetime devoted to the popular methods of Sunday-school teaching. But, however well qualified the chaplain, and however wise his methods, all his efforts will be in a measure neutralized unless the superintendent be heartily in sympathy with him and with his work. He can attain the highest degree of usefulness only where he has the co-operation of each officer in the institution, and how far he shall have this will depend upon the attitude assumed toward him by the man who is at the head. It is a sorry thing when his teaching must contend for the right of way against the bad example of some one in a place of authority. In any case, he should remember whom he serves, and to do his whole duty. To his own Master he standeth or falleth. The labor of a faithful man can never result in absolute failure. REFORM WORK FOR GIRLS. BY MISS SARAH F. KEELY. If our land were full of good homes, there would be no need of industrial or reform schools; but, because of the lack of these, our streets are full of wayward boys and girls, street waifs, familiar with all the phases of sin. Their homes are so uninviting and the parents so rude and coarse that we do not wonder at the low propensities of the children. Perhaps there never was in any age of the world so much being done to reform character as at present; but reform moves much more slowly than vice. There is a feeling with many that hereditary influence determines, after all, what the future of a child shall be;
Page 180 I8o NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. but scientists claim that it is the environment more than the inheritance that decides the character and destiny of the young. It is considered much more difficult to reform a girl or woman than a boy or man; and yet, if it be true that, as the mothers are, so are the community, the State, the nation, what greater need can arise than the reformation of girls and women? If they are to be the mothers of the future generations, they are in a measure to control public thought through the inheritance and training they give to their children. For the sake of the future of our nation the many wilful, perverse girls of this day and generation must be taken from their present environments, and placed under better influences. We stand in the place of parents to these children, many of whom are worse off than if they had no parents; and we owe it to them to try to enrich their minds with all that is good and true. We owe it as members of the great family of God. We must be ready with some true principle to take the place of every evil thought we ask them to give up. As we separate them from that which is degrading, we must be ready with that which will be elevating. An incorrigible girl becomes in a sense a moral cripple, and she must be dealt with much in the same way as a physical cripple. There must be different appliances adjusted with great care to the defect or injury. It requires skill, ingenuity, and justice, tempered with wisdom and mercy, to meet these various defects; and who can nurse with more tender care or help on this work better than woman? A reform school should be a home, a place of moral restraint, a place for training for duty; and girls must have this training as well as boys. They must be taught that life means something more than to dress and be gay. It is true men fight our battles; but women follow on to care for the wounded, nurse the sick, and comfort the dying. And so in this great battle with evil, when great efforts are being made to snatch our boys and girls as well as our men and women out of the jaws of a death far worse than the death of the body, woman has her place, her influence and mission. She will gather up more patiently the broken threads of life. She will linger more lovingly over the dying embers of some existence she hoped to save. She will work on to the end and persevere, though circumstances may be very adverse. A discipline of a few months cannot be expected to work a radical change in any human being; but by patient continuance in effort, with divine help, a well-formed character is built up.
Page 181 REFORM WORK FOR GIRLS. — MISS KEELY. I8I In the reform school as in the home it is line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, until the great lesson of life has been mastered. The heart must be trained as well as the hand, and the hand as well as the heart. There must be ample time in every reform school for recreation and innocent fun, as well as hours of work and study. The best school privileges should be given to girls as well as boys, and physical training is needed for one as much as the other. Too much cannot be said in favor of an education in the industries of life. Useful trades should be taught, and girls should be drilled in all the intricacies of housework. It should be impressed upon them that it is a great accomplishment to be a good cook and to care for a home properly. To know how to darn and sew well is an excellent thing. In fact, girls must be taught to do well all that fits them for life's duties and responsibilities. If all this is taught properly, a woman's thought and influence must be felt; but it is not every good woman who will make a good matron. One must be fitted by nature as well as by training and experience. There must be a love for souls and faith in redemptive power, but this alone will not make a good matron without other qualifications. Reformatory work for women and girls has many discouraging features. There are few to help a girl up when once fallen, and still fewer to have any faith in her when she attempts to do better. Her least failure is noticed, and it is a fact that women are often the slowest to show mercy to women; but there are many examples to show that even the worst girl or woman may become so changed by Divine Power as to be made of great use in helping others out of the darkness of sin into better lives. There are various agencies at work in this world for the bettering of humanity and the reformation of the erring; but sin has so snarled and twisted the threads of human experience as to require the greatest care and patience in undoing the tangled meshes. In this work for girls we cannot yield to the difficulties and trials that are sure to obstruct our every effort. Many who find their way into the reform school are condemned by the world because of their wayward lives; and the question is often asked: "Where are your results? What good is accomplished by your work? Do not these girls and women go astray again almost as soon as liberated from the benefits of such an institution?" Whittier answers thus:
Page 182 I82 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. "We know the single sinner well, But not the nine-and-ninety good." The few who do return to former lives are before the public eye almost continually, while the many rescued ones do not expose themselves to the public gaze, but slip away into some quiet home where they can lead honest, virtuous lives, and are thus lost sight of. Our duty is very clearly defined. We must give to these erring ones a chance to lead better lives. We are not responsible for results. It is ours to prepare the soil and scatter good seed, but God alone giveth the increase.
Page 183 VIII. 3je ZCit i problem THE PROBLEM EDUCATIONAL. BY PRESIDENT JOSEPH CARHART, ST. CLOUD, MINN. My relation to education leads me to deal with the problem as it presents itself under normal conditions. But certain laws and principles of the problem are fundamental in character, and hence universal in their application. I will present some of those principles first in the abstract, and, second, will endeavor to indicate their application to the abnormal conditions with which most of my fellow-delegates have to deal. At the outset, I beg leave to dwell for a moment upon the definition of two terms, which throughout this paper bound its thought, and which are used to express sharply contrasted ideas; viz., Individuality and Personality. In popular speech these words are used interchangeably; but a few writers, notably Ralph Waldo Emerson, A. Bronson Alcott, and United States Commissioner of Education, Dr. William T. Harris, employ them to express antithetic notions, and their derivation justifies that use. Both words, you observe, are of Latin origin, and each consists of three parts. In, the prefix to the word "individuality," means not; dividual is from dividuus, and means divisible; the suffix ity signifies the state, condition, or quality of. Together, the three parts mean the state, condition, or quality of being indivisible,-not separable in parts. The individuality of any one, then, is that peculiar something which separates him from others, and makes him a distinctive, isolated being. The word "person" is derived from per, through, and sonare, to sound. Add to these the meaning of the suffix already explained, common to both words, and we have for the meaning of personality the state, condition, or quality of sounding through, or, in the passive form, the state, condition, or quality of being sounded through. The
Page 184 184 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. history of the word "person " is interesting and instructive. It was first applied to the actor whose voice, while uttering his passage in a species of drama, sounded through the mask which concealed his features. The play itself, usually called a mask, was sometimes designatedpersona, thereby implying that, as there was a more real face behind the mask, so back of the play there existed a more substantial fact, some state or condition of society, of which the play was the image. Calling itpersona suggested that the purpose of the play was "to hold, as it were, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature; scorn, her own image; and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure." In the present discussion the words "individuality" and "personality" are employed in their original sense: individuality, to express that which makes one a particular, distinctive, isolated being; personality, to signify that condition whereby one ceases to be a mere individual, an isolated thing, and becomes a part of his -race, a member of society,- a quality which makes him representative of the very age and body of his time; representative of humanity; a branch of the vine, an adjunct to God himself. The difference between the two ideas can be more clearly expressed by concrete example than by abstract statement. The lightest word dropped by Mr. T. V. Powderly is flashed over the country and under the sea, and is read with profound interest by the people of two continents, because he represents one million horny-fisted sons of toil. Through him organized labor speaks. Two epochs in the career of Charles Stewart Parnell illustrate that difference. Mr. Parnell, the leader of the Home Rule party; Mr. Parnell, the arbiter of Ireland's fate; Mr. Parnell, the representative of humanity's sense of justice; Mr. Parnell, the embodiment of the world-historical spirit; Charles Stewart Parnell, the representative of God in history,- was a person of immense proportions. Mr. Parnell, the illicit lover of another man's wife, was deposed from the leadership of a great political party. The world spirit, jealous of the integrity of the family, refused the services in any capacity of one who had violated the sanctity of the home. And Charles Stewart Parnell, the once large person, now cut off as a withered branch, dies at the early age of forty-five, a mere individual,-his chief mourner the unfortunate and heart-broken cause of his downfall. There are two classes of persons,-those who represent public opinion and those who represent truth. The demagogue and the
Page 185 THE CHILD EDUCATED. — PRESIDENT CARHART. I85 politician who is more anxious to know what his constituents think than to know his duty are examples of a low grade of personality. He who respects God rather than man, who is more anxious to know the truth than to know what men think, is of a higher type; and Socrates, who would rather drink the fatal hemlock than to withhold the truth from the youth of Athens, is, perhaps, the best representative of the class, save one. The only perfect type of this character came unto his own, and his own received him not. But he and the Father were one; and, if he be lifted up, he shall draw all men unto him, that they may be one in him as he is one in the Father, the supreme person. The race of man may be regarded as an example. All history is but the record of man's effort to grow out of his isolated, individual condition, and to grow into the related condition which the word "personality" expresses. According to some authorities, our remote ancestor was neither a person nor a handsome individual. They say he had long arms, an unclothed hairy body, low, retreating forehead, deep-seated eyes, prominent cheek-bones, heavy jaw, protruding canine teeth, shambling gait, body neither erect nor prone. His house a cave, his food the blood and flesh which, with his clawlike hands, he tears from the bones of some weaker animal, together with the roots he digs in the earth, his mode of life is quite unlike that of his children of this remote generation. He has no family, no church, no school, no state, no business society, no printingpress, no objective, substantial world of spirit by means of which he may rise out of his isolated condition into a universal life; and yet this animal represents the condition of our race at some period of its history. Between that cave and modern society there is a great gulf; but it was predetermined in the nature of things that that animal should bridge the chasm. Resembling in many respects the animals by which he is surrounded, there is yet an essential difference between him and them. They may be able to form aggregations, —flocks, herds, swarms,- but to him alone is it ever possible to unite with his fellows into an organic, intelligent community. Unpromising as he seems in that cave, he yet has in him the germ of the wonderful ethical world in which we of to-day live and move and have our being. He alone of all created things has in him a spark of the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. Conjugal love will woo him from that cave into a log hut, where he will preside over the first organized society, the family. An acquired love for -r - -
Page 186 I86 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. and faith in his fellow-man will lead to a change in his conduct toward him. Instead of eating him on sight, he will unite with him and institute business society, with its manifold appliances, and its market, to which he will bring his own small contribution,- a bushel of wheat, a pair of shoes,- and receive in return, as the contribution of his fellows, food, clothing, and shelter, gathered from all parts of the world, for himself and family. Reverence for his Maker and desire for eternal happiness will be expressed in the Church. The security of all these will be expressed in that substantial form of organized reason, the State. The desire that his offspring may be intelligent participants in all of these, and that they may be saved the toil and struggle which he himself experienced, will be expressed in that preparatory institution, the school. Thus the mere individual emerges from the isolation of his cave life, and enters into a life universal. For him the mine yields its treasures, the mountain stoops to the plain. The isolated individual, having nothing in common with his fellows, has become a person, a related being, a member of society, in which each is for all, and all is for each. He has become a branch of the vine. He has learned that there is "one mind common to all individual men, and that his mind may be an inlet to the same and to all of the same." [In becoming a person, the individual does not lose the consciousness of his identity: he rather enlarges his consciousness by identifying it with universal reason. His responsibility as a unit of society is not lessened when he becomes "the very age and body of his time," but rather is it increased by so much as he has enlarged himself.] In a certain sense, every child born into the world is born a cave child, -a weak, limited, empty, isolated individual. His destiny is to realize within himself all that his race has achieved, all that it has thought and felt and done. Society stands pledged to elevate him to the level of his species, to endow him with the culture of his race, to make him a free, intelligent member of society, a representative of universal reason, a branch of the vine. Society stands pledged to do all of thisfor its own sake. He who is not for society is against it. He who is filled with its essence, with its spirit, cannot be against society; for, in such a case, he would be against himself, against his own essential, permanent nature. Between the babe born eighty-three years ago and the foremost English statesman of to-day there is almost an unthinkable difference,
Page 187 THE CHILD EDUCATED. — PRESIDENT CARHART. i87 a separation as wide as that between the life of the most circumscribed cliff-dweller and the life of the most central figure of modern complex society. The young child is a child of nature. His capricious disposition destroys in this moment what the last produced. He is incapable of foregoing immediate good that a larger good may result. Incapable of generalization, he is without the power of substantial combination with his fellows. He is a mere animal, and, like other animals, is the creature of impulse,-is governed entirely from without, through his senses. As the bear demolishes the hive and steals the honey, so the young child invades the rights of others and seizes whatever attracts his fancy. As hungry dogs contend for a bone thrown into their midst, so merely natural children wrangle over a coveted prize. The bear that has been vigorously stung foregoes the honey; the dog, lacerated by the teeth of a more powerful rival, gives up the contest for the bone; the burned child avoids the fire. None of these are governed by an inward principle. All are creatures of impulse, determined from without, restrained only by necessity. The dog and the bear must ever remain children of nature; the other may become a child of human nature. By having new natures produced in him, one above another, he may ascend out of his savage, isolated condition up into the world of universal spirit. By culture he may become the obedient servant of reason: first, of objective reason, in which case he is still under necessity, still governed from without, but which is a higher condition than that in which he was ruled by caprice; secondly, he may become the willing servant of subjective reason, in which case he is governed from within, and is free because he sees, loves, and wills to do the universally right. There may be produced in him that condition that shall enable him to see his deed as a totality,- as beginning, continuing, and returning to himself, to his family, to his race, that condition that shall enable him to think his deed under the form of eternity, to see it as universal. By conforming his conduct to this enlarged conception, he will so act, in all the relations of life, that his deed would not be self-destructive if adopted by all men. He may conceive of himself not as an isolation, but as a fragment of the race; and, in the light of this relation, he will forego immediate benefit for a larger ultimate good. He will sacrifice selfish interest for the common weal in which he is a participant; lose his particular, selfish animal life, that he may find the universal life of spirit. This change from the savage, isolated state of nature to the uni
Page 188 I88 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. versal, related condition of human nature is a process of evolution, brought about chiefly by artificial means, prominent among which is the school, with its various departments, from the kindergarten to the professional school of the university. Before the child reaches the school age, the sunlight of family affection and the ethics of the home have done much to modify his lower nature. But, from the necessary conditions of the home, it must deal with the child as an individual. The natural transition from the home to the school is the kindergarten, with its perfect conditions for an exercise of the senses upon their appropriate objects, insuring their harmonious development; with its games and occupations which give to the child an image of civil society, and permit him in the form of play to anticipate the work and activity of mature life in the real world. Play rather than work is the form of activity appropriate to the kindergarten; beauty rather than duty, its proper motive. But the love of play gradually exhausts itself, and work is a relief. The mind may be surfeited upon sensuous beauty until it demands a different pabulum. When that condition is produced, and it comes to different children at different ages, the work and system of the public school is better adapted to promote the further development of the child than the games and other exercises of the kindergarten. When the child enters the public school, it seems to him arbitrary that he is required to perform a particular act, in a particular way, at a particular moment; that he is required to sit, to stand, to march, in unison with his fellows. But this to him, and frequently to his parent, meaningless machinery has the deepest significance. It means that he is to be taken from the dominion of caprice and made a reasonable being, so that he may hereafter unite with his fellows in all the forms of organized society. The lower school, recognizing the fact that the young child is without the power of reflection, incapable of estimating the value of deeds, seeks to modify his capricious disposition by securing a uniform habit of obedience to the five cardinal virtues of the school,punctuality, regularity, silence, industry, and truthfulness. These are the essential conditions of combination in civil society; and, by forming his character in accordance with them, the school is qualifying the child to combine with his fellows in the real world. As his mind develops, the child is led to see that the rules to which he has given a somewhat blind obedience are not imposed upon the school from without by the teacher, but that they exist in the very nature of the
Page 189 THE CHILD EDUCATED. — PRESIDENT CARHART. I89 school. His expanding mind discovers that the school is a part of the ethical world in which he lives; discovers that the institutions of society -family, school, business society, state and church- are his reason, his universal self, made objective and substantial, and that, in obeying institutions, he is obeying his highest, his permanent self. Thus he becomes in his conduct a person representing reason. If this character could be produced in each individual, prisons would close and remain tenantless, penalties would be unknown. The school is worth all it costs if it simply trains and enlightens the pupil's will, and makes him universal in character and conduct; but the school does more than this. I have endeavored to explain the rationale of public school education, operating under normal conditions, by suggesting the end which it proposes to accomplish and by hinting at the means employed. Those means fall into two general classes: (i) those which are intended to train the will into habits of obedience to reason; (2) those which are intended to develop the child's intelligence. The same purpose inheres in the nature of the institutions, operating under abnormal conditions, which you represent. How shall the severed branches about to wither be reunited with the vine, that they may feel its life and become fruit-bearing? How may the neglected children, bubbles floating upon the surface, become parts of the great stream of goodness, truth, and beauty? How shall the isolated individual, whose crimes have cut him off from society and confined him in a prison cell, be restored to the world, and made a free, a useful member of its institutions? The same means that are producing such wonderful results in the public school are applicable under the less normal conditions with which you have to deal. Discipline and instruction are your weapons. Prison discipline is more noted than prison instruction. The prison workshop is more frequently discussed than the prison school, possibly because prison regime is not well understood by the public, but probably because in times past prisons were regarded simply as penal institutions, whose sole purpose was to inflict upon the offender, in the form of hard labor, a punishment commensurate with his crimes. The sole purpose of the discipline to which the criminal was subject was to make prison life a burden and to secure from him the greatest amount of profitable labor,- profitable not to him, but to the State. He entered the prison the victim of his own evil nature; he left it a slave to prison regulations. He left the prison, not regretting his crime, but regretting that he was caught, and resolving that he would be more skilful in
Page 190 I90 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the future. This conception, in these humane times, is rapidly giving way to the more rational view that the purpose of the prison is not punishment, but reformation. It must use punishment, but as a means, not as an end. It still insists upon the most prompt, unquestioned obedience to the most exacting regulations, but not for the purpose of increasing the output of the prison workshop, but for the sake of producing character and skill in the workman. Society is acting upon the paradox that the end of confinement is freedom. The body is restrained to make the mind free. The mind is made free by instruction, the will is made free by enlightenment and training. By the study of geography the pupil in the prison school gets a conception of the world as the home of man. He sees the earth producing the materials which man converts into articles of use and beauty. He sees each bringing to the world market his small contribution, and receiving in return, as the gift of his fellows, the fruits of the earth and the products of human skill. He looks through his prison bars upon a spectacle more marvellous than the miracle of the loaves and fishes. He sees his larger self in the operations described in geography, and longs to become a part of this world, this social whole, from which he has cut himself off. He gets another glimpse of his larger self in the study of history. Here he sees himself in a process of becoming. He sees that power in the world which makes for righteousness, that which is eternal in the human will, subduing all that is negative, and realizing itself in institutions. In the solitude of his cell he contemplates the deeds of great persons, listening to their "thoughts that breathe and words that burn," uttered for him and all mankind. His better nature is stirred to life; and he identifies his will with that universal will unfolded in history, and desires to conform his life to that power which makes for righteousness. In the study of ethics he learns that the institutions of society are based upon that which is permanent in human nature; that they are the embodiment of reason. By reflection he discovers that his reason is a part of all reason, and that by obeying institutions he is obeying his best, his permanent self, and so is free. I hail the advent of the kindergarten in the orphan's home, the artistic performance, the reading-room, and the library in the insane asylum and the prison school - the best example of which I have seen is in the Minnesota State Reformatory -as among the most promising signs of the time, and bid you God-speed in the application of rational means to the accomplishment of your noble purpose.
Page 191 ECONOMICS OF THE CHILD PROBLEM. —MR. HART. 19I THE ECONOMIC ASPECT OF THE CHILD PROBLEM. BY HASTINGS H. HART, SECRETARY OF THE MINNESOTA STATE BOARD OF CORRECTIONS AND CHARITIES. We are to discuss the child problem from the economic standpoint. We are to take the position of the political economist, to lay aside all influences of sentiment or sympathy, and undertake our investigations in the cold, unprejudiced spirit of scientific inquiry. Every child represents a certain amount of invested capital at his birth. He has a heritage of vital force varying according to the physical, moral, mental character of his parents. In the days of slavery a likely negro baby was valued at $50 or $ioo, because of its anticipated capability for physical labor. The free-born infant is worth more than the slave child, because we may reckon upon its mental and moral capabilities as well. This hereditary capital of the new-born child is increased by whatever is invested from year to year of money, care, and training. By a moderate estimate, the average cost of caring for each child cannot be less than $ oo a year. The State of California appropriates from $75 to $Ioo a year for the care of each of four thousand dependent children. In the State of New York the average yearly cost of taking care of children in one hundred and fifty orphan asylums and other children's institutions is officially reported at $I30 per year. The estimated cost of caring for children in State institutions for dependent children in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Indiana, is about $160. The average cost of caring for children in reform schools of these States is $I45 per capita. This cost does not include any interest on the invested capital or any expenditure for new buildings and permanent improvements. In private families in the Northern United States the cost of food, clothing, medical attendance, and schooling, together with a very moderate allowance for the value of maternal care, will be found to average more than $ioo for each child. It appears, therefore, that the average child at the age of fourteen years represents an investment of at least $i,5oo in money and productive force on the part of
Page 192 192 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the community, either through the parents or benevolent agencies or the public treasury. The child problem economic is: What methods and agencies will enable us to secure satisfactory returns on this investment? How shall we make the child an active contributor to the wealth, comfort, and happiness of the community, and how shall we most economically care for those who must be a public burden? The methods and agencies for the solution of this problem must be, first, efficient. They must actually accomplish the work in the great majority of cases. Every failure is a double failure; for the community loses the productive force of the child, and the addition to its resources which ought to come from him. And, on the other hand, if he becomes a pauper or criminal, the financial burdens of the State are increased, and much of the best vital force of the community is expended in meeting the added strain. The methods and agencies employed must be, second, adequate. In most of our communities it is practicable to use such agencies that every child may have a fair opportunity to become a useful, prosperous citizen; and we ought not to be satisfied with any methods which come short of this. The methods and agencies employed must be, third, economical. They must involve the least possible expenditure of force and capital compatible with efficiency, but the economy must be genuine. It is not economical to gather children off the streets of one community and turn them loose upon the prairie in another community without supervision. It is not economical to herd children in overcrowded institutions without fresh air, natural growth, or industrial training. It is not economical to employ cheap and inefficient people to care for them. The child problem is solved for the great majority of the children of the State by a fairly good home. This is the most efficient, adequate, and economical agency in existence; and it is now generally conceded that the child in even a moderately good home is in the best possible position to develop into a worthy and valuable citizen. There are in the United States twenty-five million children under the age of sixteen years. Of this number there are, as nearly as can be ascertained, about Ioo,ooo children under public care, or that of charitable agencies, distributed approximately as follows: in orphan asylums, children's homes, almshouses, etc., 74,000; in juvenile reformatories, 5,ooo00; in schools for feeble-minded, 5,000; in schools
Page 193 ECONOMICS OF THE CHILD PROBLEM.- MR. HART. 193 for deaf, 4,500; in schools for blind, I,500. Our inquiry has to do with this portion of the children of the State, together with those who are likely, through neglect, homelessness, or disease, to become members of these classes. The magnitude of the economic problem involved can be seen from a statement of the capital already invested, the amount annually expended, and the number of persons employed. The value of the property invested in institutions for the care of children in the United States may be estimated as follows: - Orphan asylums, children's homes, and other institutions for dependent children................... $40,000,000 Juvenile reformatories.............. 10,000,000 Schools for feeble-minded children............. 2, 500,c00 Schools for deaf children................ 2,000,000 Schools for blind children.............. 1,o00,000 Total value of property, $55,500,000 The annual expenditure for the support of children in these institutions may be estimated as follows:Care of 74,000 dependent children at $I30....... $9,500,000 Care of 15,000 delinquent children at $I33........ 2,000,000 Care of 5,000 feeble-minded children at $i6o......... 8oo,ooo Care of 4,500 deaf children at $200............. 900,000 Care of 1,500 blind children at $270............ 400,000 Total annual expenditure, $I3,600,000 The number of persons employed in the immediate care of these 1oo,ooo children may be estimated as follows:i for each 8 dependent children................ 9,00o I for each 12 delinquent children.............. 1,200 I for each 4.5 feeble-minded children.............. 1,o1 I for each 5 deaf children................. 9go i for each 3.75 blind children................ 400 Total estimated number of care-takers, I2,600 These estimates are believed to be safely within the actual facts; and they sufficiently indicate the magnitude of the economic problem, though they do not include the unpaid labor of thousands of men and women who act as managers, secretaries, solicitors, etc., nor the labor of those who search out and gather the children who are the objects of this care.
Page 194 194 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The children who come under the care of the State may be divided into three classes,- defective, delinquent, and dependent children. DEFECTIVE CHILDREN. The defective class comprises the deaf, the blind, and the feebleminded. It is generally conceded that most of the defective children must necessarily be treated on the institutional plan. A small portion of the deaf children living in cities, where the numbers are sufficient to form classes, can be treated in day schools; but the great body of them must be trained in institutions. Treatment of deaf and blind children is chiefly educational. Very few of these children belong to the pauper class. The State provides for these children not only free tuition because of their misfortune, but free text-books, free board and lodging, and even religious instruction. To this extent the work is charitable; but it is the highest form of charity, and does not involve any pauperization on its subjects. Experience has shown that from an economical standpoint this work makes the most valuable returns. Educated deaf children become self-supporting almost universally, while a large portion of the educated blind children are able to maintain themselves. The danger of injury from institution life has been wisely recognized by those who have had this work in charge, as is indicated by the change of terminology. Instead of asylums for the deaf and blind, we have now schools for the deaf and blind; and this danger has been successfully obviated by the fact that nearly all of the children spend their vacations at home, and thus keep in touch with the home life and return easily to normal conditions of living. The institutions for feeble-minded, on the other hand, are primarily charitable in their character, and only incidentally educational. I think that it must be acknowledged that the early hopes of the pioneers in this work have not been fully realized. At the outset, it was anticipated that through the training schools for feeble-minded a large portion of these unfortunate children could be fitted to sustain themselves as independent members of society; but in practice it has been found that a very large proportion of these children, while greatly benefited by their treatment, are still unable to maintain themselves independently, and are likely to drift into almshouses or insane asylums, if left to go at large. A portion of those who have homes have been able to take their places comfortably as members of
Page 195 ECONOMICS OF THE CHILD PROBLEM. —MR. HART. 195 the family as long as suitable homes were provided for them; but the leaders in this work now generally concede that the public welfare demands custodial provision for a large portion of the older members of this class, and especially that all feeble-minded women shall be made a public charge during the child-bearing period. Experience proves that a large proportion of these unfortunate girls become mothers, and that their children are generally defective, while at the same time through their helplessness they become a means of corruption to the youth of the community. A very casual examination of the records of the Juke family, or Mr. McCulloch's Tribe of Ishmael, will make manifest the possibilities in this direction. The economic value of the public care for the feeble-minded children is great. It not only protects the community from the dangers already mentioned, but it brings great relief to the families of this unfortunate class, both rich and poor, in taking off burdens of care and responsibility, and relieving them from the stigma which generally attaches to families containing such members. The amount of relief given is out of proportion to the expense involved, and the public appreciation of its advantages is manifest from the rapid growth of institutions of this class during the past ten years. It is coming to be recognized that feeble-minded persons cannot be properly cared for in almshouses, and that special institutions for them are as economical and much more efficient. DELINQUENT CHILDREN. The treatment of delinquent children, until very recently, was confined almost entirely to the institutional plan, the children being gathered in reform schools, industrial schools, houses of refuge, truant schools, etc., which may be classed under the general treatment of juvenile reformatories. Some of these institutions, such as the New York House of Refuge and the Philadelphia House of Refuge, have grown to such proportions that the individuality of the children was largely lost, and they were necessarily treated en masse. Of late years, however, a reaction has set in, which manifests itself in the adoption of the family plan or the cottage plan, whereby a fuller classification is secured, together with more individual treatment of the inmates. Most of the juvenile reformatories receive children on indeterminate sentences, under which they can be released as soon as, in the judgment of the managers, is consistent with their best interests.
Page 196 196 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The economic advantages of the system are seen in the fact that, while these children represent the dangerous element of the population, yet, so far as can be ascertained, the great majority of them become respectable citizens, and are not found among the criminal classes. Industrial training is rapidly increasing in importance as a feature of juvenile reformatories. Formerly the industries were confined largely to such work as cane-seating chairs, knitting socks, brush-making, and other simple industries which afforded a revenue and kept the children busy, but gave them no practical experience. Recently, however, technological training has been introduced into reform schools, and is rapidly extending. At present the tendency of juvenile reformatories seems to be in favor of trade schools, in which boys shall learn a practical working trade and be fitted to go to work as journeymen. The trades of the printer, the blacksmith, the carpenter, the machinist, the bricklayer, the wood-carver, the tailor, the shoemaker, and the baker, are the principal ones taught. Thus far comparatively little has been done in the way of caring for children of the delinquent class outside of institutions, but there are indications of a change in this direction. Several of the States take considerable pains in locating children dismissed on trial from reform and industrial schools, and exercise some supervision over them after their release. For example, the State of New Jersey employs a State agent whose special duty it is to investigate the homes to which children are to go and to exercise watch and care over them. But in many of the States this important matter is neglected. In the State of Minnesota children dismissed from the reform school are usually sent back to the families and surroundings from which they came, and in many cases the good work of the reform school is speedily undone. This action is often based upon a sentimental regard for the parental feeling. After a child has once been committed to the guardianship of the State because of delinquency the ruling consideration should be the public welfare and the welfare of the child. But the feelings of the parents should be disregarded whenever they come in conflict with the higher good. In the States of Massachusetts and Michigan no child is allowed to be tried on criminal charges unless an agent of the State is present to conserve the interests of the child. At any stage of the proceedings the judge may turn the child over to the State agent who
Page 197 ECONOMICS OF THE CHILD PROBLEM. -MR. HART. I97 may supervise him in his own home or find a suitable place for him. If the child subsequently proves incorrigible, he may be brought into the court and the proceedings renewed. In practice, a large proportion of these children never come into court again; and in many cases it is found that a cure can be effected without resorting to institutional treatment, and to the great benefit of the public purse. It is believed that, as the Massachusetts and Michigan systems become better known and their methods become perfected, this plan will come into general use. The suspended sentence is now in use in most parts of the country, but its benefits are largely lost for lack of special supervision of those to whom this favor is extended. This lack is met by the laws of Massachusetts and Michigan. In the State of Pennsylvania the Children's Aid Society receives a limited number of children from the courts on suspended sentences, and these children are boarded out in private families until such time as "free homes " can be secured for them without compensation. It is claimed for this system that the stigma of a conviction and sentence to an institution is avoided; that the expense is less; and that the results are full as satisfactory as those secured by institutional treatment, if not more so. DEPENDENT CHILDREN. The principal plans for dealing with dependent children are as follows:First, the plan of extermination. In ancient civilized nations and in barbarous nations of modern times the practice has prevailed of allowing supernumerary, deformed, diseased, or idiotic children to perish. This practice has found some defenders in modern times. A recent writer maintains that our modern methods tend to deteriorate the race by preventing the operation of the law of the survival of the fittest. A prominent physician some time ago related this instance. A child was born under his care having such cranial deformities that it was certain that it could never become anything but an idiot. By extraordinary care the child's life might have been preserved; but the physician, believing that the child could bring nothing but misery to himself and his relatives, simply neglected the necessary effort, and the child died. The physician defended the act on the ground that it promoted the general good.
Page 198 I98 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The extermination plan is still in vogue in the modern baby farm; and even the average foundling home is liable to be counted as an example, in view of the extraordinary rate of mortality prevailing therein. The extermination plan has been thoroughly tested in the case of minor criminals. A hundred and fifty years ago there were about one hundred and fifty capital crimes of all grades and qualities, and multitudes were put to death; but it was the general testimony of intelligent observers that it resulted in no economic benefit to the community. This plan may be plausibly defended on sentimental grounds, but the economist rejects it as being opposed to the public welfare. A strict regard for human life, even the poorest and weakest, is one of the safeguards of society. The popular estimate of the value of human life is doubtless exaggerated. What is my life or yours in comparison with the accomplishment of a great purpose? We do not hesitate to sacrifice the life of a man, or more than one, to build a great bridge or explore a dark corner of the world; but, wherever human life is lightly regarded, the rights of property and the welfare of humanity generally are lightly regarded. Applying the test with which we started, this plan appears to be neither efficient, adequate, nor economical. It is inefficient because it does not make the invested capital productive; and, while we might consider it a gain to the afflicted, very few of the unfortunates would recognize the intended benefit. Even determined suicides have their ardor chilled when one offers to promote their intention. The plan is inadequate because public sentiment would not sustain its general application. Indeed, it would be difficult to set limitations. If we may take the life of the senseless idiot, must we spare the intelligent fool? If we may drown a supernumerary daughter, must we save a useless son? Shall we let the cripple perish who cannot work and spare the lazy vagabond who will not? Shall we chloroform the leper and nurse the consumptive? Who shall select the victims? The plan is extravagant because it destroys whatever productive force there is in the individual. Modern science has learned to make profitable much material that formerly went to waste. A second plan of dealing with dependent and delinquent children is that of emigration. The most important examples of this plan have been found in the cities of New York and London. A society
Page 199 ECONOMICS OF THE CHILD PROBLEM. —MR. HART. 199 under the management of Dr. Bernardo, of London, has sent a large number of these children over to Canada; and a small number of these children have been brought into the United States. They are distributed chiefly among farmers and village residents, and some effort is made to maintain a supervision over them. A similar work has been maintained for nearly forty years by the Children's Aid Society of the city of New York. This society reported up to 1885 77,oo000 children emigrated or placed in homes through its agency. The methods of this emigration were simple. Homeless children were gathered by the society in New York, and were sent West, a carload at a time, to find homes. A local committee was appointed to pass upon applications for children and take general charge of the matter. The local newspapers invited applications and announced the time and place of distribution. The homes were selected with but little previous investigation, and the children were hastily distributed without any formal indenture or contract. Secretary Charles L. Brace, in his book on "The Dangerous Classes of New York" (published in I872, p. 243), describes the plan as follows: "The children are not indentured, but are free to leave, if ill-treated or dissatisfied; and the farmers can dismiss them if they find them useless or otherwise unsuitable. This apparently loose arrangement," he adds "has worked well." Mr. Brace said before this Conference in 1876 (see Proceedings, p. 139): "The employers agree to send the children to school, and, of course, to treat them kindly. Beyond this there is no agreement, and no indenture is made out. The relation is left much to the good feeling of both parties." Within the past few years there have been some changes in the system. Mr. B. W. Tice, agent of the New York Children's Aid Society (a member of the Conference), describes the present methods of the society as follows: - The children are gathered chiefly from orphanages or temporary homes in New York City and vicinity, and taken in small parties of from eight to twenty children, in charge of an experienced agent, to some Western city where a local committee has thoroughly advertised, and, receiving a large number of applications, is enabled to secure good homes. This local committee is composed of the representative men and women of the town, who conscientiously work in the interests of the child. The committee acts as the local guardians of the children; but the homes are carefully examined by an agent of the society sent out from New York, and, if the children are not properly
Page 200 200 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. treated, they are placed in other homes. If a child does not give satisfaction, the local committee is notified, and a change is effected. If on repeated trials the child seems beyond control, it is returned to New York by the society's agent. Experience proved that it was easiest to distribute children on this plan in new communities. As States grew older, objection was made to the introduction of dependent children from the East; and of late the work of the Children's Aid Society has been considerably circumscribed by the growth of public sentiment against the immigration of dependents of all kinds. From the economic standpoint, the emigration plan has decided advantages. If a boy is to run loose, it is much better that he should run loose among the farmers of Nebraska or Kansas than on the streets of New York; and doubtless, on the whole, there has been a gain. In the city of New York there has been a great decrease of juvenile crime in the past thirty years, which is believed to be traceable largely to this emigration. On the other hand, however, this work has been justly criticised for its lack of thoroughness both in its selection of homes and in the subsequent supervision of the children. I have had personal knowledge of two or three young girls brought to one community in Minnesota, who have gone to ruin for lack of efficient supervision. However useful the emigration plan may be, it will doubtless have to be abandoned or essentially modified very soon in consequence of the public sentiment already mentioned. A third plan for dealing with dependent and delinquent children is that of training them for the public service in the army and navy. This plan dates back to the time of Sparta, and has found some advocates in modern times. In this country it has not extended beyond the enlistment of a limited number of boys as apprentices in the naval service. The plan has some advantages, but it is not likely to become general for two reasons. First, for the most efficient service (especially in the navy) it is desirable to select those who are specially adapted to the service, which would be impracticable if dependent children were taken as they come. A second objection is found in the popular sentiment in favor of individual liberty in America. It is deemed the right of every citizen to choose for himself his calling in life; and, while this may be largely a sentiment, it is still likely to exercise an influence against the adoption of this plan. A fourth plan for dealing with dependent and defective children is
Page 201 ECONOMICS OF THE CHILD PROBLEM. —MR. HART. 20I the institution plan. This plan has been generally adopted by private charitable agencies; but of late years there has arisen a strong sentiment against what Bishop George D. Gillespie has called "institutionalizing children," and this view has found such defenders as Charles L. Brace, Hon. C. D. Randall, Oscar C. McCulloch, and F. B. Sanborn. These maintain that the policy of bringing up children in institutions until the age of fifteen or sixteen years is an extravagant expenditure of money and effort; that it is an artificial system, raising up a helpless and inefficient class; and that it tends to the unnecessary multiplication of institutions. The institutional treatment of infants is deprecated because of the excessive death-rate in institutions where several infants are associated. A great and beneficent work is being done by orphan asylums and children's homes; but it is generally conceded that institution life is, at best, an artificial life, and that it is undesirable for a child to spend a term of years even in the best institution. When discharged, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, it is difficult to become adapted to the ordinary conditions of life. A fifth plan for dealing with dependent and delinquent children is the placing out system, whereby children are located in selected families and homes, with a view to their speedy absorption into the mass of the population. This work is carried on by children's aid societies, without the intervention of children's institutions, in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, and California. The work differs from the emigration work of the New York Children's Aid Society and of Dr. Bernardo, of London, in the fact that the children are placed usually within the borders of their own State, and the added fact that the homes are more carefully selected and the subsequent supervision is more thorough and complete. This organization bids fair to be an exceedingly useful one, and is a great advance upon the wholesale work of some of the great societies. But there is a considerable number of cases where children are not fit to be transferred directly into homes on account of physical or moral defects, and where a temporal institutional treatment is needed in order to bring them into such a condition that a respectable family will be willing to receive them. I believe, therefore, that the best development of this work will be reached by co-operation between the different children's aid societies, which compose the Children's Home Society, and some of the existing institutions, whereby the institutions will be relieved of -I -
Page 202 202 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. their inmates as fast as they are fit to be placed in homes, and the Children's Home Society will have the benefit of the institution for the temporary care and treatment of such children as are not ready to be immediately placed in homes. This work is being carried on with great economy. The average cost for each child placed by the Minnesota Children's Aid Society is about fifty-five dollars. This is considerably more than the amount expended by the New York Children's Aid Society; but the work is better done, and the cost is low enough. A sixth method of dealing with dependent and delinquent children is by a combination of institutional treatment with the placing out system. In Ohio this is done through what are known as the children's county homes, of which there are thirty-six, having a permanent investment of $I,200,000 and a united capacity of three thousand children. Children are placed out from these institutions by the trustees. The Ohio system is objectionable from an economic point of view, because the work could be equally well done with fewer institutions and less expense. The trustees of these institutions are naturally ambitious to magnify their institutions, and are, therefore, under temptation to retain the children longer than is absolutely necessary. The State of Massachusetts maintains an institution known as the State Primary School at Monson, containing about four hundred children. From this institution children are rapidly placed in family homes. The average yearly number in the school has decreased from 448 in 1892 to 329 in 1891. The children placed out are either boarded at public expense in families or kept by the families without compensation. Sept. 30, 1891, there were 730 children in homes under the guardianship of the State. In the State of Michigan, in the year 1871, there was organized the State Public School, -a State institution for the temporary care of dependent children until they could be placed in good homes. When this institution was organized, there were five hundred children in the almshouses of the State. The school gradually reached a capacity of three hundred children; and in the course of five or six years all children of sound mind and body above the age of two years were transferred from the almshouses of the State to the State Public School, from which they were transferred to carefully selected homes. For several years past the number of children remaining in the school has been about two hundred, and the average time of their stay in the institution has been less than one year.
Page 203 ECONOMICS OF THE CHILD PROBLEM.- MR. HART. 203 The children placed in homes are kept under a careful supervision, and are promptly transferred whenever they do not do well for any reason. They remain under the guardianship of the State until they reach their majority. Those with whom they are placed enter into a formal contract as to the training and schooling of the children and the amount to be given at their majority. The Michigan plan has been adopted by the States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Rhode Island; and in all of these States the results have been thoroughly satisfactory. The efficiency of this system is seen in the fact that the great body of these children are shown by the record to have easily amalgamated with the rest of the community and to have become valuable citizens. Notwithstanding the untoward circumstances of their early life, it is believed that they will average with the rest of the community in industry and morality. The adequacy of the system is seen in the fact that it provides for all children who are thrown upon the public for support, so that no child of sound mind and body is allowed to remain in any almshouse The economy of the system is seen from the fact that, while the State of California cares for 4,000 children at an annual cost of $250,000, the State of Michigan is caring for an average of I98 children at a cost of $33,000 per year; and the State of Minnesota, whose population is about equal to that of California, is caring for an average of 130 children at an annual cost of only $22,000. It appears, therefore, that from an economic point of view the natural method which is successful in the community at large in producing active and efficient citizens is the best method to be pursued in dealing with the dependent and delinquent classes; that institutions are an expensive and complicated form of machinery, to be used only so far as it is impossible to bring to bear the more simple and efficient machinery of the home; that it is a crime against nature to handle children in the mass. To attempt to deal with children by the thousand is like handling eggs or tropical fruit in bulk, and the result must always be disastrous. They learned in Michigan many years ago that hand-picked fruit keeps best.
Page 204 IX. Ctaritr Organitation. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. BY GEORGE B. BUZELLE, CHAIRMAN. HISTORY. The principles of Charity Organization are as old as the mutual needs and mutual obligations of society. Its history as a recognized department of work is short, but significant. Hardly more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since, from certain results of the devoted work of Ozanam in Paris, of the bold and vigorous work of Dr. Chalmers at the West Port of Edinburgh, of the personal service and the life of Edward Denison in the East of London, from certain results of the well-known municipal plan in Elberfeld, the much older plan tested in Hamburg, and results of other studies, work, and experiments, widely separated in place and scope, the deductions and combinations were made which were the initiative of the Charity Organization movement. At some points in the work expedients have been devised which may have been suggested by the Dutch Labor Colonies or the work of Count Rumford, as these again may have been suggested by the ancient, dimly recorded experiment in Ceylon. Charity Organization is a product of the study of the great social problem, and the practical working out of some of the conditions of the problem. With more and more critical study, with more work and more thoroughness in work, have come an increasing appreciation of organization as indispensable, and a recognition of the Charity Organization movement as of right and of necessity holding a place of some honor and much responsibility at the centre of the common field of philanthropy, with open lines of communication to all extremes and all details. The development of the Charity Organization movement has been
Page 205 CHARITY ORGANIZATION, HISTORY. - MR. BUZELLE. 205 the healthful, vigorous development attained under unsparing criticism and the severe tests of actual work. Among the means and appliances which have been tested and approved in actual service are: — I. Systematic, thorough, kindly examination of the causes of distress, as the necessary first step in treatment which is to result in cure. 2. The registry, which is not a publication of distress nor a pillory for the exposure of evil doers. It is a depository of facts held in sacred trust, to be used, and only used, for the welfare of those concerned. It forestalls deception with fact, and certifies integrity with carefully kept credentials. 3. The employment office for directing one who wants work to one who wants a worker. Since its possible efficiency and accuracy increase in tenfold ratio to an increase in its volume, it should be in every instance as inclusive as possible. 4. Work agencies of various kinds, supplying immediate opportunity to the willing worker, a beginning of development to the undeveloped, and a true bill of indictment against the shirk. 5. Organized facilities for exchange of mutual help among individual workers in the spirit of charity,- the consultation office, for use in the course of daily work, the district conference, the general conference, the national conference. 6. A working relation between all societies working on our lines, which is such that our society in Denver, on receiving application from a family in distress here, but having interests in London, New York, San Francisco, or Melbourne, may secure the adjustment of those interests with the promptness and accuracy of a business transaction by simply forwarding a request to the chief executive officer of our society in either city. The construction and development of these means and facilities has been effected at the command of charity. They have become possible because there has been progress in the knowledge of charity and charitable work. The distinction between the emotion which is gratified by thoughtless giving of mere outside things and the beneficence which does not spare one's very self in giving is more clearly seen and more sharply accentuated. Of those who hold in trust the largest possessions of wealth and the larger possessions of heart and intellect, some are finding the grace of their stewardship. Of those whose degradation
Page 206 206 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. seemed most hopeless, some have grasped the hand reached to them for their uplifting, and the traditional social chasm between the rich and the poor has, in places here and there, ceased to be impassable,has become but a smiling valley, fit for habitation. The disheartening, vast, dead level to which the squalid poverty of the great cities had settled has been broken by the external signs of renovated lives. THE FIELD OF WORK. Turning from our brief history, there is before us and on either hand a field so vast that for geographical knowledge of it one needs use the utmost reach of rail and wire and keel. Morally, the field is broader yet. The mere extent of the field of work would be overwhelming, were it not a field occupied and to be occupied by organized work. More important than the view of the extent of the field, and not less impressive, is the view of the existing conditions to which the work must be adjusted. These conditions demand, and must have, thorough study. There is time here for no more than a brief and partial survey. Some of the conditions of our work are behind the age. It is still necessary to go on uttering and repeating truths which ought to have been recognized as truisms long ago. There are occasions yet when it is necessary to spend time in insisting, with words of one syllable, that charity is more than food or clothes. There is reason to fear that some sins of our most holy things remain to be identified and renounced. It is necessary still to face the grief and mild reproaches of good souls whose idols have been shattered by remorseless fact. Our large endowment in the curses of those whose schemes of fraud and cruelty are thwarted is still increasing. Whenever a bevy of school-girls, whose emotions are excited by their first knowledge of poverty, and whose hands fond parents have filled with money, make haste to put into the jaws of vicious misery that which it feeds upon, and in disappointment and terror see the monster " grow by that it feeds upon," - there is call for the enlightenment and kindly, patient guidance into the better ways which have been made available by the organization of charitable work. Wherever an arctic type of benevolence "stands off " its supposed beneficiary across a glacial expanse, wherever a questioning spirit has arisen concerning one's duty to one's neighbor, there is our field of work. Wherever is the deepest and the foulest abyss in which a human
Page 207 CHARITY ORGANIZATION, PRACTICE. —MR. BUZELLE. 207 life is, there is our work. That abyss we are to open to the light, which is ready to shine into it with the celerity and sureness possible only under thorough organization. If it be true that the division line along which the domain of want marches with the domain of riches is the historic danger line of society, across which, back and forth, men have waged the bloodiest warfare, it is also true that to-day along this line our work has double promise among those on either hand. If it be true still that along this division line lie the gravest dangers which menace society, it is also true that along this line there is now developing opportunity which invites the spread and the exercise of the principles which underlie the friendly visitor's work, which take the sting and menace from animosities between man and man and between classes of men. Some of the grim facts of our problem are anachronisms left behind in the progress of enlightenment until, among the issues which belong to our day, they are as discordantly out of time as a winged reptile out of palaeozoic ages would be among the birds that sing in our June mornings. The fact that at the centres of our civilization men and women are living in unprevented pauperism, that in an atmosphere physically and morally pestilential children are born to them, and die as a candle goes out when dropped into a sewer, or live to become old in sin, while they are babies, is a fact which exists because the best people of the community do the things which make its existence possible. In almost any community cultured but arid souls and souls consciously or unconsciously starving for cultivation are neighbors, and are perishing because they are prevented by an artificial insulation of their lives from giving each what the other needs. The fact still survives that members of the human family in distress, reaching out their hands to other members of the family for help, are denied the help, and are offered a dole, and in the name of charity are directed downward. These facts, and others like them, still represent portions of our field of work. To deal with such facts, can any policy be too aggressive? Can any measures be too prompt? Can any enlightenment be too vivid? And. yet the present is not like the past. The thought and care and devoted service given in previous years by those who are still with us and by those who have passed on beyond our horizon are coming to their fruitage now. They are represented in that interest in social problems which is now moving almost all civilized communities. Our time is taking its place in history as the
Page 208 2 8 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. time of social awakening. Never before, probably, was there so great an evolution of benevolent schemes and efforts, earnest, unregulated, dangerous, hopeful. The interests at stake were never greater, and were never before so critically placed between hopeful and disastrous possibilities. What is to be the outcome? The Charity Organization movement has roused these forces into action, and the Charity Organization movement must determine the outcome. THE WORKING FORCE. In that part of the field included in the United States over eighty societies are now at work upon the usual Charity Organization lines. From a part only of these societies reports are in hand in such form as to be approximately summarized. From forty societies are reported for the past year I59 executive officers and agents, 66 district conferences, 3,748 volunteer or friendly visitors, nearly an equal number of volunteers serving on committees and in similar capacities, and 41,000 families dealt with for the first time during the year. In three societies nearly Ioo friendly visitors appear to be working without the advantages of the district conference. PRESENT REQUIREMENTS. Our work requires a more thorough diagnosis of existing morbid social conditions. It requires the diffusion of definite knowledge of the principles and methods and appliances of the work. It requires the advancement of the clear, exhaustive, and systematized knowledge which constitutes the science of charity. It is time for the recognition and development of the art of charitable work,- among liberal arts the most liberal, of fine arts the most exactingly fine, in which is scope, and more than scope, for all the old Greek instinct for perfectness in detail, most acute discrimination of intricate conditions, the most vigorous conception of ideals. This art demands of all its learners a warm and devoted loyalty. The science and the art of charitable work demand the utmost intensity of faithful study. And yet it is a humiliating fact that we need warning against losing sight of the patient while dealing with his disorders. One is interested in a purely scientific study of pauperism as a morbid development. Another is interested in pauperism in a purely subjective way. Its appeal excites a flutter of emotions which, with the gratify
Page 209 CHARITY ORGANIZATION, PRINCIPLES. - MR. BUZELLE. 209 ing act of giving a dole, rounds out an experience which some find to be pleasing. Too many are interested in pauperism, but not in the pauper, and not in the prevention or the cure of his pauperism. There is need of the keenest scientific study of the morbid conditions with which we are in contact; but this study is comparatively valueless unless it subserves a distinct purpose to remove or to prevent those conditions. There is need of the emotional response to the appeal of want, but such a response is abortive or worse unless it be unselfishly made in the true spirit of compassion. At the earlier stages of development Charity Organization was largely, perhaps inevitably, occupied with material issues, the discriminating administration of material relief, and economy in such administration. These objects, as matters of course, are still necessary, and are attainable by aid of ordinary business ability in ordinary methods of business. But the mere economy of material relief is worthy of but an infinitesimal part of the thought and care and effort, for lack of which the highest interests suffer and the ready harvest of noblest results is ungathered. Material relief in any of its phases is almost solely significant because of its complication with higher interests. The time has now come for the recognition of the real problem as esentially, in the broad sense, spiritual, not physical, and solvable only by spiritual agencies. The work requires enthusiasm; but it is to be enthusiasm which springs from a deep-hearted beneficence, intensified and made enduring by an intelligent purpose, toned and directed by a vigorous moral sense, —enthusiasm which shall be, as Goethe puts it, "a mighty spiritual force." The time of the doctrinaire and the theorist has passed: we have come to the time of service, the living earnestness, the intensity of real work for the real object. It was meet that our experiment should be tried "in a modest and tentative spirit." Our experiment has been tried, and tried with heavy odds against it. It has been found to answer its purpose. It has succeeded. The principles of Charity Organization have been equal to all the strain of actual service, both reasonable and unreasoning. The methods generally accepted are those which have been proven to be sound. The means, facilities, and expedients devised generally and adopted are those which use has shown to be helpful to the worker and to expedite the work. It is now time for the courage of conviction to be re-enforced by the courage of experience.
Page 210 210 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Repressive measures are necessary. But there is better promise in arousing, quickening, and strengthing that which should be developed. Nothing is so surely fatal to the evil as the good. In all our plans for broadest activity, in our most intense effort for the individual, we do well to trust the principle enunciated by Dr. Chalmers, -" the expulsive power of a new affection." Of next things to be done, these seem to secure a better adaptation of facilities for bringing to bear upon a particular emergency the trained ability, the thoroughness and celerity which have been acquired in dealing with similar emergencies, and for converging upon a given complication of difficulties in any part of the field the best thought, experience, and appliances in the whole field: to so study the force of each individual worker in the spirit of charity, and the particular work to be done, that there may be prepared for the spiritual forces upon which all depends a more accurate and sensitive adjustment of the work awaiting them; by applying knowledge of methods, appliances, means, and facilities, to speed to its result every intelligent effort prompted by the spirit of charity; to give heed to the heedless impulse, and train it to thoughtful efficiency; to turn upon wrong and false methods the unsparing, inexorable light of truth, fact, and experience; to extend the horizon of the charitable worker, and help him to knowledge of that which must still be beyond his horizon. The processes of analysis, combination, and elimination, must go on. Destructive repetitions and duplications in work will be made known and corrected. Now and again the worker will come to a neglected desolation not covered by existing organizations. But the motive of Charity Organization is charity. And, having in view the ideal system under which the fittest help shall be available to those who need it everywhere, charity requires the construction of any part of lacking part of the system. We join here, and we are glad to join, in the "hymn of human progress." But we are here for work, -to study together questions which we have individually found too hard for us; to contribute each of his experience to the common fund; to hear of the discovery of ways in which our effort may be more efficiently applied; to give and take suggestions to be wrought out in our local fields. The problem with which we are in contact is not a problem of a sect: it is a problem of religion. It is not a problem of a section: it is a problem of our whole land. It is not a problem of a class: it is
Page 211 PRACTICAL CHARITY ORGANIZATION.- PRESIDENT SLOCUM. 211 a problem of humanity. Yet in the final analysis it is seen to be an individual, personal problem. Its solution rests with myself and my neighbor. The unit of Charity Organization is the work of the individual friend of the poor. We collectively shall best aid to mature and develop the time of social awakening into the time of efficient pervading good will if we individually learn to do, and do our work more wisely, more firmly, and more tenderly. THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF CHARITY ORGANIZATION. BY PRESIDENT WILLIAM F. SLOCUM. There are certain things that all wise workers in Charity Organization are agreed upon. It is well for us to stop for a moment and recall them, because we find that in all this work we are bound to go back to fundamental principles. Indiscriminate almsgiving is a crime against society. It is opposed to the divine order. It saps the very foundation of the self-respecting home. It destroys the best element of true society. It destroys citizenship and those active powers of the human soul that put it in sympathy with the divine ideal. We are agreed that duplicate dolegiving is wrong. We are also agreed that almsgiving, while it may, in a way, express charity, has not the essence of charity. We are also agreed in recognizing that pauperism is a disease, that it should be destroyed, and that whatsoever helps to develop this disease is wrong. But, as we come to discuss these evils, we realize, as practical workers, that we are dealing too often with the negative side of the question merely. I am sure that many lose their enthusiasm, their power as workers, because they deal with the negative side alone of true charity work. I was delighted to-night by the emphasis given in the paper just read to the idea that we are really working for humanity. There was, to my mind, a ring in that which led us to the positive ideal necessary to perfect work, and is far beyond the negative conception that so often controls us.
Page 212 212 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. We must recognize that there is a certain amount of work which necessarily has a negative.bearing, but is only preliminary to positive work. It is destructive of that which is false, in order that what is positive and true may be wrought. For example, it is necessary sometimes to destroy what is a home only in name. In our experience in Baltimore it became necessary to secure legislation to enable us to destroy what was falsely called a home. Sometimes one or both of the parents were given over to drink, and were paupers upon the community. It was the duty of the charity worker and of the State to take the children out of their environment, and place them where they might receive the influences that would make them true citizens. In all this it is all-important that we remember we are dealing with the individual as an individual. The work does not centre so much in us who are doing the work as it centres in the individuals for whom we are working and in whom we are seeking to develop that which is noblest and best. All charitable effort will fail, it will lose its power and enthusiasm when practical work is undertaken, unless, reaching the life of the individual, it lays hold of him, saying, " Here is a child of God, who has within him noble possibilities; and my work is to bring into expression all these possibilities that are there." It is in line with this thought that I want to discuss our question to-night. It is the work of every one of us, if we are trying to carry out the divine idea of charity, to find out the possibilities in man's soul and bring him into a realization of them. How are we to do this? There is such a practical side to our task that we feel the tendency to study charitable work on this side alone; and we need to be careful lest, in our discussion of these questions, we forget that we must be idealists. He who has no ideal is superficial, running hither and thither, and his life is without useful result. But he who bears an earnest, distinct ideal to his work is the one who will solve the problem of modern charitable effort. I have said that we must try to develop the possibilities that lie within the individual. How is this to be done? I see four lines in which it should be attempted. As far as possible, the individual must be placed in that best of all institutions, the home, so that he may realize the ideal of a home. Let us illustrate. I once knew of a home where the mother was weak, foolish, and ignorant, the father dissipated, and becoming in
Page 213 PRACTICAL CHARITY ORGANIZATION. -PRES. SLOCUM. 213 creasingly so because of the wretched condition of the home; the children growing up homeless, leading weak, indifferent lives. An active, noble woman, large-souled, clear-eyed, went into that home, secured that mother's interest, and made her her friend. She showed the mother how to make bread, showed her the relation that homemaking, good, regular meals, and a well-set, neat table bore to the true home. She showed the relation between cleanly children and the ideal home; and then, for the first time in the experience of that poor, ignorant woman, she saw, through the wisdom of that friendly visitor, that there was a relation between poor bread, a dirty home, neglected children, irregular meals, and the habit of drunkenness. By and by it began to dawn on the husband, in that renewed home, that something new had taken hold of him that led him away from his drunken habits and made a new man of him. That good woman began with the home for the sake of the man, woman, and children who needed to be saved. We shall always enlarge the capacity of nobility, of earnestness, and of power in those for whom we work, as we put them into relation with the institution of the home and the best elements of human character which build it up. Again, we have imperative duties to that other institution, society, of which each individual forms a part. When men and women congregate together for any purpose, in the slums or in palaces, in business or in the factory,- wherever men and women come together, —there is society. Now, in working for the individual, we must try to make him feel that his own life has a distinct relation to society. He must learn the full significance of any business relation; that business is undertaken not simply for the sake of gaining money, but is a part of the economy of human life. When a man realizes that he is a part of this great human organization, that he can have something to give the world through an industrious, orderly, business life, his soul is awakened, and he becomes a man indeed. Or let him learn the significance of any meeting where consecrated people have come together to worship God or plan for the welfare of their fellow-men. As soon as he grasps the idea of such social relations he is much more of a man. Once more, we must awaken in the one for whom we work an idea of the privileges and obligations of citizenship. If he has been a pauper, he has thought of society only as the force that has power to punish him or to take care of him. But the moment he feels that he is a citizen, that it is possible he may be a factor in his country's wel
Page 214 214 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. fare, then a new strength and nobility enter into his life, and his conception of manhood is broader and deeper. It is not our work so much to condemn as to save; and there is many a poor life to-night that we, as charity workers, ought to reach, that does not know in any degree the meaning of home, of society, or of human government. In working for poor humanity we must also bring it to some conception of the divine order, teach it that there is a great purpose running through human life, and that each life may become a blessed force in the divine order. I may make my meaning clearer by the use of an illustration of Hegel's, in his discussion of the part played by the institutions of civilized society in the development of individual character. If there were a blackboard here, I would make a dot on it which should represent the individual, and then draw a circle around this which should be called the home,-the institution which most closely touches the individual, and through which he finds the development of an important side of his character. And must we not say that, unless we come into a living relation to the home, he cannot know the full possibilities of his own soul? Now we make another circle enclosing the first, which shall represent society, and add that, as the individual realizes what he owes to society, and what he may gain through the fulfilment of his obligations to society, he becomes so much the more a man. Again we draw a third circle around the other two, which we will call government. The individual must realize that he is a citizen; and, if he is to receive from society the blessing it has for him, he must give to it service and obedience. In other words, man does not find his true self until he comes into right relations to the State. There is, however, one other circle to be drawn around all the others; and this we will call the divine order or economy. The perfect man is realized only as the individual awakens to this largest of all the relationships of human life, and in loving obedience to it perceives the relation it bears to all other institutions, and the claims it has upon him. As one gives himself to the largest ideals, he finds his own life. There is no profounder truth than that " he that would save his life shall lose it." I desire to be no mere theorist. These truths come to me with force whenever I study charity work on its practical side. The gospel to-day is an applied science, and it is our duty to apply it with the
Page 215 PRACTICAL CHARITY ORGANIZATION. — PRES. SLOCUM. 215 greatest intelligence. Many of us are repeatedly discouraged by finding that enthusiasm grows cold, that we become formal in our work, and are drifting into the very mistakes that we hoped, in the beginning, never to make. I think it is because we do not start with an ideal that is high enough to call out our noblest and best activities. As you stand at the gate called Beautiful, the gate of the human soul, and put your hand into the hand of the poor man, pauperized in thought, in feeling, in belief, and, with the determination to save him, lift him up, saying, " Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto thee: stand on thy feet, and walk,"- as you do this in the spirit of divine helpfulness, you have the power to become a true charity worker. We must give ourselves,- not in sentimentalism, but with the profound sentiment of self-sacrifice, and yearning to bring the darkened lives into light. The still, sad music of humanity is constantly within our hearing, but our souls do not hear it. The man who is to solve the problems of modern sociology must be a good man himself: he must have the power that lies in a right conception of home, the sentiment that makes noble society, the patriotism that makes statesmanship, love of country, and that larger ideal that brings him into sympathy with the best and noblest in all life. He must have an enlarged soul himself whose life and whose growth are in giving. The ministry of such a soul never fails to be a blessed one. Divine truths pass from it into human lives about it. It gives no dole: it gives of its very self. "The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, In whatso we share with another's need. Not what we give, but what we share, - For the gift without the giver is bare; Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me."
Page 216 x Wtomen in pjilantbropv. THE CO-OPERATION OF WOMEN IN PHILANTHROPY. BY MRS. ANNE B. RICHARDSON, CHAIRMAN. Taking advantage of the fact that many members of the Conference do not remember with exactness all that was said or read last year, I venture to repeat what was so well said by Mrs. Smith, of Connecticut, when addressing the Conference on the subject you have assigned to the committee of which I am the chairman this year. The quotation is this: " The co-operation of women in charitable work seems in itself so natural an arrangement that at first blush one hardly admits the necessity of its discussion." And I confess, when first considering what might be said or written on this subject, I thought to myself that it would be a work of supererogation to enumerate the instances in which women have shared with men this work, or to attempt any account of the good resulting from such co-operation. It seemed to me that it must be self-apparent, and go " without saying" directly home to any thinker upon the subject. But I should do injustice to the sound judgment of this Conference if I did not admit that the fact that the subject is considered at all would seem to indicate that there are, perhaps, two sides, and certainly two opinions, as to the policy of placing women with men upon the administrative boards in the outside management of institutions. For, I take it, it is not intended to contest the usefulness and efficiency of women in their internal economy, or that there has ever been a time in their history when women were not thus employed. But I shall have to concede, difficult as it has been for me to conceive of it, that there are those who are honestly opposed to this direct co-operation, and would gladly see women relegated to what they are pleased to consider their proper sphere, so strictly domestic that it does not admit of sufficient broadening of their mental horizon
Page 217 CO-OPERATION OF WOMEN. — MRS. RICHARDSON. 2 I7 to embrace outside effort at all. I cannot but think, however, that these are they who fear that "entering wedge" always "entering" with every movement for the advancement of women, but which has never yet entered, and who consider every step taken outside the domestic circle as nearer the attainment of " women's rights," in the common sense in which that term is used. These are they who dread any new responsibility for women, for fear that the apostolic instructions "that they be keepers at home" may be disregarded, and that they will usurp the rights and privileges of the sterner sex and their so-called "better halves." It is well, perhaps, to state to all such timorous souls and to the Conference, at the outset, that your committee has no intention of enforcing the claim of women to hold positions on administrative boards because of their sympathy with these dreadful doctrines at which I have hinted. The only claim to rights here made is the equal right with men to minister to and labor for the sick, the suffering, the helpless, the dependent, and the depraved, and that other claim, in some instances, a peculiar fitness by virtue of their sex for such positions. These claims they assert from a belief in that unwritten law higher than any human enactment. Because of fitness for the positions referred to should both men and women, one just as much as the other, be appointed, and not at all as a question of sex. Fitness may be found in both men and women willing to give service in the cause of suffering or sinful humanity. In the light of to-day's civilization and of common sense it is as absurd to place men only in management of institutions where women, girls, and children are the subjects of their care as it would be for boards of women only to administer the affairs of a State prison full of hardened male criminals of the most depraved kind. It is often argued that women have not that knowledge of affairs which entitles them to an equal place with men in the executive functions of a board of management. Women may perform what they are pleased to call the sentimental role: they may sit by the side of the sick, they may advise the youthful sinner, may coax the juvenile offender, pity the neglected and dependent; they may even try to "Minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the... troubles of the brain "; they may suggest comforts, are admitted to be more efficient in the compouriding of food, in the cut of clothing, than men. But to know
Page 218 218 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. anything of the construction of buildings, of suitable sites for buildings, sanitary arrangements, to discuss questions in which men are skilled, questions of economy, often of extravagance, of policy, of parliamentary usages in the conduct of the Board,-" Oh, no, women are not fit for these things: these are out of their sphere." I am well aware that these are somewhat old-fashioned arguments against the admission of women to places of important trust, and have little weight now as compared with former days; but, as I have already stated, as the question is assigned a place in the deliberations of the Conference, it is so because there are those who are opposed to such co-operation. And yet, as I have listened to the papers and discussions, I have thought many times, as tributes have been paid by writers and speakers to the value of women's work in charity, that so general was the acknowledgment it was hardly worth while to attempt any argument in favor of that which seems already a foregone conclusion. Nor does it seem necessary to combat any opposition, because so fast is woman being recognized as an important factor in philanthropic work and educational work as well that it will be useless at this day to attempt to stem the tide of progress in that direction. And it is repeated that it is not intended to advocate the appointment of women on boards with a view to their advancement as women, but as a means of bringing into useful activity all feminine qualities which shall supplement those of men and round out to harmonious proportions organizations formed for facilitating charity work. Women are a large force, unused in the past, but which our civilization is beginning to recognize as too valuable to remain so; and wherever that civilization is highest, wherever progress is pushing aside time-worn usages, there do we find the most hearty recognition of this truth. In New England, perhaps, we find the doctrine of the co-operation of women with men in charitable work more in favor than in most other sections of the country. In the State of Massachusetts women are members of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, of the Boards of Trustees of the State Almshouse, State Farm, State Schools, State Hospitals and Asylums for the Insane, of Commissioners of Prisons; are members of Boards of Overseers of the Poor, Inspectors of Factories; occupy positions on the medical staff of the lunatic hospitals; are eligible to office as members of school committees; and are supervisors of schools. Women also vote for school committee in Massachusetts,another instance of that " entering wedge " which has stayed just where
Page 219 CO-OPERATION OF WOMEN. — MRS. RICHARDSON. 2I9 it stuck when the law was passed some six or seven years ago. A woman is also in entire charge of the large Reformatory for Women. In Connecticut, too, women occupy many positions similar to the above. Women, too, occupy official positions in New York; and perhaps that great State owes to no one member of its Board of State Charities, celebrated as many of them are, more than it does to a woman, Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, a past member of that board. New Hampshire, too, recognizes women as necessary in its charitable and reformatory work, and gives them official positions in some instances, while it is only supervisory and advisory in others. I do not learn that in Pennsylvania women have received executive or legislative sanction to appointments on the administrative boards; but the women who have been educated in their school of medicine and who have served in their hospitals are known all over the country, are doing noble work in States where their services are recognized as equal to, and in some instances far more desirable than, those of male physicians. Nor do I know that Maryland gives a place to women in the State Charities; but their prominence in private charity, and their energy and persistence in raising the means to establish a medical school for women in connection with the Johns Hopkins University, have proven their fitness for such places. In the great Western States there seems to be a general recognition of the value of women's work in responsible positions, but for some cause in the majority of these States women are not appointed to official positions. Indiana has given authoritative sanction to women as trustees, and as members of the State Board. Wisconsin had at one time a Board of State Charities upon which were women; but, as I am informed by Mrs. Fairbanks, a former member, this board has been superseded by what is called a " Board of Control," consisting of paid male officials only. Iowa is in the progressive line. It is to be regretted that here in the youthful but strong State of Colorado, where so many women have proved their ability for the work, they are not yet recognized on the State Board. Wyoming occupies the anomalous position of a State where women can vote, and yet no distinctly official appointments in State work for charities has been given to women. Verily, the time was not quite ripe there for woman's suffrage, or they wofully neglect their opportunities, misunderstand their privileges, and underrate their power. I may have overlooked some Western States where women are placed in offices of equal responsibility and co-operating with men.
Page 220 220 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. If so, I shall be glad to be corrected. But in the whole South I do not find that women are ever considered as eligible for the places they so often fill in other sections of the country. Women in the North and West have been bred to rely upon their own efforts more thin have their sisters of the South, certainly in the past; and traditionary influence may have much to do with this condition of affairs there. But the men of that region will rise from their old prejudices before long, and will utilize all the forces they have for the benefit of the unfortunate classes; while the women are finding new-born energies, and will soon respond to the call for their help. It is unnecessary to state the importance woman's work has assumed, and the expansion of the avenues open to her. You all know them, and you must recognize the truth of Mr. Lowell's saying, "There is no good in arguing against the inevitable." I have said that men have conceded that women can manage Domestic affairs, cook, cut and make clothing better than they can, and so are useful in the inside work of institutions, but that in the larger concerns of executive management they can do little. Now, men are not by virtue of their sex all gifted with executive ability, nor are women by virtue of theirs necessarily deprived of it. Indeed, we have all known notable instances when lack of this essential quality in a man has been supplemented by that of a woman, not only in the outside management of institutions, but-in the outside world of affairs; and the reverse is undoubtedly true. Yes, women are better judges than men of cooking food, and of the quality of food which should be given to the inmates of institutions; and in the examination of this department they are found sound counsellors. When a man employed as cook and steward of an institution for children makes from good material a poor, weak, greasy substitute for soup, which even the stomachs of hungry children reject, and argues, when remonstrated with, that hard and fast boiling must be kept up for want of time; that bread, though made of good flour, must be stiff and tough to have holding qualities; that nothing need be done to give variety or tempt the appetite by inexpensive changes, -it is time a woman in authority should criticise his results, and should demand a change, and should show by practical demonstration how a wholesome, toothsome dish may be presented instead of the distasteful mess he offers, and an agreeable variety secured at the same cost as his sickening regimen of routine. It is also women's province, our Conservative friends to the contrary notwithstanding, to look to it that poisonous
Page 221 CO-OPERATION OF WOMEN. - MRS. RICHARDSON. 22I air is not admitted to the sleeping or living rooms of inmates; and who sooner detects this than a woman, perhaps a mother, who has all her life guarded her own children from just such dangers? Is it quite incredible that an intelligent woman shall know something of the nature of soils, and advise as to the sterility of this or the fertility of that? Is it impossible that women should see the opportunities for drainage or the want of such opportunities in the site for a public institution? that they should understand economy of room, arrangements for convenience, and be able to decide on necessary appliances for labor'? Nor in these days is it altogether an unknown thing for a woman to have sufficient conception of the simple parliamentary usages required in the conduct of meeting of boards as not to make herself a hindrance to work, or to help to lower the dignity of such a body. No, indeed. An intelligent woman is now capable of all these things; and none but an intelligent woman, or man either, should be appointed to such positions. In the times that are happily gone or going women had no opportunity for training for other than domestic work and duties pertaining to domesticity. Men have had the training of the ages, while women have but newly learned the A, B, C, of the work. That they have been apt pupils you will none of you deny; and the training now offering itself slowly, but surely, will soon fit them more generally for the functions of administrative public work. The most radical of us will concede that there are times and conditions in a woman's life when her work must be largely domestic and confined to her own family, but that with mature years and ripe experience there also comes a time when she can, without wronging or defrauding any one connected with her, devote time and care to the general interests of outside work. Now, to sum up what has been said at too much length perhaps. Your committee disclaims any intention of advocating the placing of women on administrative boards as the means to the end of their advancement as women and with a view to final assertions of rights. They advocate women for places on these boards because of their peculiar fitness for some of their duties, and because of their ability to grasp all the work. They claim that men should be appointed for precisely the same reasons, their fitness for the positions, and for no other, and that they can work together better than either alone; that women should have their hands upheld and their work sanctioned by legislative authority as well as men; that, if the States
Page 222 222 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. where the experiment has been tried and legislative enactment has made provision for such experiment keep the statute in force, such a state of affairs shows plainly that in those States the policy is approved, and that the legal enactment is the result of a general sentiment. If, in the large insane hospitals, since the appointment of women on the boards of trustees, the condition of the inmates has been more endurable; if the unfortunate women in these hospitals have been comforted by the sympathy of their own sex and their physical ailments have received the care of a physician of their own sex with a success unattainable with male physicians only; if in the reformatories where women and girls are confined, and in the schools where children and youth of both sexes have been placed, women have been better able to cope with these women and girls, more sympathizing, more prone to inspire them with hopes of a new and better life, more untiring in their efforts for reform, more watchful over them, because knowing better their temptations, more fertile in plans for a wise and safe disposition of them on coming out than men alone can be; if they have succeeded in reforming a larger percentage than in the days when men alone were intrusted with their care; if even in the prisons, where adult males are confined, their advice and sympathy, carrying with it, perhaps, the memory of mother or sister, has touched the heart of a hardened criminal quicker and with greater force than would often result from the words of men alone, -who shall say women shall not have the opportunity by executive appointment to participate in this work? Co-operation is asked. If women are helpers and something more than helpers in the home, in the social circle, if they are powers for the moral advancement of society, if they are needed in the church, in the Sunday-school, the day school, if they are needed by those that are "whole," or are considered so, shall they not minister to those who need a physician? What shall be said against their appointment on administrative boards to co-operate with men in the great work for suffering and erring humanity in all the branches of that work?
Page 223 XI. Conftren^e termon. DIVINE HUMAN LIFE. BY REV. GEORGE A. GATES, D.D., PRESIDENT OF IOWA COLLEGE. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."- MATT. iv. 17. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God."- MATT. vi. 33. In Jesus Christ we see the divine life lived humanly. In Jesus Christ we see the human life lived divinely. There is no salvation in merely looking at it, but condemnation, if that is all we do. We are bidden to lead the life divine ourselves. "There is no more distinguishing mark of the Christianity of this day than that it is predominantly interested in the welfare of men. It has learned something of the injunction that, if a man love God, he must love his brother also. This is not only characteristic of the Christian Church, but of all the ethical thinking of the day." The Christ-spirit is at work in the world. There was never a time when the Christ-spirit was so vigorously and intelligently applied to human conditions and problems as is done to-day, not only in the Church, but in the world. There was never a time when Christianity was understood as it is to-day. There was never a time it was believed in, never a time when it was recognized as a power, and the only power adequate to the redemption of the world, as to-day. There is no diviner gift in man than common sense. Right under our eyes is growing up a new appreciation of the common senseness of Christianity. Christianity has passed through many stages. Just in our day there is a development of Christianity in the world, the magnificence of which we are as yet unable to judge properly. We are too near it. It will need to be set in history against its proper background, and in connection with achievements yet to come, before it can be adequately judged. There is a divine life for individuals: there is a divine life for the race. The divine life for individuals is possible: it is not attained by any one in its fulness. The divine life for the human race is pos
Page 224 224 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. sible. It is this hope that inspires the Christian. He who believes that the kingdom of God was born on this earth when Jesus Christ came to it believes that there is to be a race inhabiting this earth human and divine,- both in one. We believe in the reality of the divine life among men. If it be a reality, then it must be an intelligible reality. The form of it is capable of being set forth in intelligible terms. While there is in all human thought a background of mystery, yet, if a thing be all mystery, it is of no practical value. If it is worth while for us to think about and talk about the divine life for ourselves and our fellows, it certainly is possible for us to get such a conception of it as common intelligence can understand. It must not be all in the air. It must not be vague and mystical and dreamy and incomprehensible. It must be a mentally tangible reality. We ought to be able to put it into terms that will be as clear as the sunlight. The Christ-life pretends to be for all, the wisest and simplest. If that is true, then the essential elements constituting it must be within the reach of plain common sense. Let us, then, endeavor to think clearly about a few of the fundamentals of this divine-human life. " The kingdom of God " is a phrase which may give us the foundation from which to work out a true conception of the divine-human life. Christ said he came to found the kingdom of God. He used very many expressions about it to enable his followers to avoid a misconception of it and to help them to an accurate view of its nature. The " kingdom of heaven " is precisely the same thing, expressed by a different word. The " kingdom of heaven " is not in heaven. The "kingdom of heaven " is never synonymous with the future life beyond death. The " kingdom of heaven " is on earth. Here on earth it is established. There is a "kingdom of heaven" beyond this mortal life. But that home of the blessed dead is not what is ever meant in the language of the New Testament by the words "the kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven." All the figures in which Jesus has described the kingdom of heaven-the leaven in the lump of dough, the seed, "the kingdom of heaven is within you," "The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation"- seem to indicate that it is not a separation of the few out of the many, but a permeation of the many by the spirit of the few. Just here is where the Church has made one of its saddest errors.
Page 225 THE CONFERENCE SERMON. —DR. GATES. 225 That view, if properly apprehended and thought out to its conclusion, will give a death-blow to a large part of some remarkable notions of what constitutes salvation. It is not pulling a man out of one place and putting him into another. It would be an interesting process if God could save people that way. Here is a man drowning. We pull him out, and lay him limp on the sand. You say, He is rescued, and it is a glorious thing. But of what good is his rescue if he is going to lie there like that? The man may say, I am rescued, and I am going now to lie still. Then he might as well have gone down. It sometimes seems to me that it is the worst thing that ever happened to some men to be converted. They seem never to have got over it. Salvation, to be of any value, must be not only from death, but unto life. That is the whole meaning of salvation; and, unless it can mean that, it is a poor and worthless thing. I know it is a great thing to be born physically, but the significance of that little lump - of what I suppose we are obliged to call humanity -that is just born lies not in the fact of what it is, but of what it may grow into. It is good for us to be born again; but, if it stops there, it is a very poor sort of salvation, and not at all what the Bible means by salvation. So the kingdom of heaven, if it is to be established on this earth, must be salvation unto life, unto action, unto work as God works. The spirit which constitutes the kingdom of God on earth can be defined in one word, helpfulness. That spirit is abroad in the world. It permeates all departments of life, and the most consummate blunder that the Church can make is to suppose that Christianity is confined to our churches. Let the Church be simply the agent which shall go on bringing in the kingdom of God, as it has largely done in the past, The Church is divine; but, because it is divine, it does not follow that in its present organization it is more than temporary. There may be something infinitely better. God may provide it. It matters much that the world be redeemed. Just so sure as the Church grows lazy and content and selfish, Christ will repudiate this Church, and build up a new and diviner organization that shall do his work. It is not important that the Church shall live. One thing is of importance: that the will of Almighty God should be done on earth. If the Church will not do it, then something else will; and all Christians will be glad. For selfishness and pride and laziness are no better-nay, worse-for being eternal selfishness, laziness, and pride. If our spiritual joy be something which we hug to ourselves in proud self-righteousness, then is our spiritual joy our curse, and
Page 226 226 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. will be our death unless we can get at the idea of what the divine life is. Let the Church do the work of God. We are bidden to walk with God. Very well. If we are going to walk with God, it will be found necessary to keep up; for "our God is marching on." Christianity is not in the world primarily to get us ready for the heaven that is to be. Christianity is in the world to make of it a redeemed world, even a heaven here. That done, the other heaven will take care of itself. Christ is in the world as a redeemer of it. The kingdom of God can be nothing short of a redeemed world. Anything smaller than that is a narrowing of the definitio!n of the kingdom of God, that it will not endure. A redeemed world must mean redeemed society, redeemed politics, redeemed social life, redeemed family life, redeemed schools, redeemed Church. The divine life, when we once get the sweep of it, in its meaning is infinitely inclusive. It embraces every function of human life. If we could once get a view of what the Bible really means by the kingdom of God on earth, it would seem that such a vision would fill the soul with a radiance of heavenly glory, and fill our days with redeeming activity. It is because we think of that kingdom as so small and narrow that the kingdom of God is held back by our thoughts, our talk, our preaching, and our life. After we have got this salvation unto life and have got ourselves all on fire with the divine life, how will it display itself? How is that translated in human terms? Why, it is so simple that a child of a dozen years ought to understand it. If there be any Christ-life, our Christ-life ought to consist in doing, thinking, and feeling as Christ did and thought and felt, or as he still does and thinks and feels. That was the object of his coming on earth. Is there anything mysterious about thinking and acting as Christ did? What did he do? He went about doing good. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; not to lay people under service to him, but to serve all people. He came not to get, but to give. He opened his hands in a perpetual benediction of service to his fellow-men and on practical lines, too. He opened the eyes of the blind, comforted the poor, healed the sick, gave encouragement to the despairing, preached good news of hope to those sunk in wrong, brought light to those in darkness, liberty to those who were bound, freedom to the captive, and release to the oppressed. How did he do all that? In all manner of ways. And are we to do the same? Certainly. We have no other business on the earth. Exactly so far as our life is the divine life, just so far are we doing
Page 227 THE CONFERENCE SERMON. — DR. GATES. 227 what Christ did,-not perhaps in the exact way in which he did it, nevertheless doing it. We can do it more rapidly and efficiently than Jesus did it when on earth, an incarnate person. Wait a moment. That was not irreverent. His spirit has developed in eighteen hundred years tools in the shape of organizations with which the mission of helpfulness in the world can be carried on. Jesus himself wrought tools with which the work can be carried on that Jesus himself never did. He himself said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he d.a," - not, of course, greater in the sense that they are more miraculous, but that they are more extensive. The meaning is that the sweep of the gospel is beyond Palestine, where alone Jesus taught and wrought. Jesus said, "I am the way"; but men have never believed it. What was the way? Helpfulness. If you want to save your life, give it up. If you cling to your life, you will be sure to lose it. Men have said that is an orientalism, a hyperbole. We say Jesus used that language, but then he did not really mean it. Oh, but he did mean it. Go, for an illustration, to the last place on this earth where you would expect to find the carrying out of that principle, - the realm of commerce. The principle that seems to underly all commerce and trade is selfishness. The common saying is, " Every man for himself, and "-you know the rest of it. The motto is- "Get all you can: hang on to all you can get. Get ahead of your neighbor." Competition? Why, it is the life of trade. Yet I say right here, the Christspirit is coming in, and converting commerce from that which is pure diabolism into that which is divine. You know that business men say that will not work, that it is well enough for ministers to rhapsodize about it in the pulpit, but, if they should go on the street with it, they would find it a failure. Carry out a principle like that, they say, and the bummers would have all the property of the world. Of course, if you apply it in that stupid way. Nevertheless, the principle is correct. Give that which a man needs. If there is a man who does not get his rights, it is the tramp. There is no one in our country for whom I have more sympathy. I pity him from the bottom of my soul. He cannot get his rights; namely, a tremendous thrashing. There is no man in America abused as the tramp by being fed and clothed in his laziness. It is because people are cowards and ignorant that they join with him in his crime, by sheltering and feeding him in idleness. I say, Give him his rights:
Page 228 228 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. then, if he " will not work, he shall not eat." That is just as good Scripture as " love your neighbor." So I say that we cannot get this principle of love, of universal selfsacrifice, into the world, unless we apply it intelligently. But you say it cannot be applied in trade and commerce. Nothing else can be applied with ultimate success. Let two men open stores in a village. Let one say: I am here for what I can get out of it. I am going to charge as high a price as I can, and sell as poor an article as I can. The other man goes on the other principle. He says, I will have a legitimate profit, but every time a customer shall get his money's worth. Which man will drive the other out of town? Yet you say it will not work. It will work, and nothing else will work. Was it not about a year ago that the great bankers in London were about to fail? What would have happened some seventy-five years ago under similar circumstances? Why, the other great banking firms would have given a kick and a blow, and said, "Thank God, there goes one rival out of the way." But what did they say now, and what did they do? What they said was: "Look out! Baring Brothers are going down, and we shall all go with them." What happened? The telegraph wires flashed all over the world, " Help us, or we shall go down"; and they did help. The money poured in, and the company was held up. Why did they do it? Did they want to do it? No. Why, then, did they do it? Because God Almighty has bound this old world together with bands of copper and steel, and has so united all that they had to do it or plunge into world-wide disaster. There would have been the greatest financial panic that the world ever saw if the world had not been Christian in spite of itself. Hard-hearted, hard-headed, selfish commerce is getting this world into its grip in such a way that, if there is an epidemic in one country, there is danger of an epidemic in all. If there is disaster in one part, there will be disaster in all. So that men, for very self-protection, must help each other. Thank God for bringing about, by means of commerce and trade, the time that the old poets sang of,the time when "men the world o'er shall brothers be." That is the time that is coming; and it is coming, because God is marching on in commerce to-day. I believe that this company of men and women, whatever church they belong to or no church,- though I wish every one of them were loyal to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,- I believe that these people, of whatever creed or name, or no creed, are carrying out the
Page 229 THE CONFERENCE SERMON. - DR. GATES. 229 Christ-spirit, and are laying hold of the practical problems of this world and helping redeem it unto God. I am glad, therefore, to accept your invitation, and speak with you for a little in a Christian church and in the name of Christ. Here and now on this planet is a demand for all the human energy that can be employed. The spectacle all this time of churches sitting and discussing and losing their temper over such a question as what God Almighty is going to do in future with a certain sort of people, about which we know nothing, instead of occupying themselves with the problems of the best way of taking care of this planet, would be a most sublimely ludicrous sight if it were not an awful sin. Here and now are we to do all the work that we have strength for. God commands us to serve him. Just what does he ask us to do? He does not ask us to help him swing the planets: he can take care of them. We do not serve God when we worship him. We serve ourselves then. The Church is not an ark of safety, but an arsenal of war. We are to fight against wrong, where wrong touches our fellow-men. The Church has yet properly to learn that it is not the place of service, but only the place where we get ready for service. God wants our service. I challenge this company of people to tell me any way we can serve God except by helping God help men. We can serve God - that is, help God - in that way. That he asks of us. Because I believe this company is trying to do that, therefore am I glad, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to speak to them in his name. My final word shall be in the language of a poet whom some of you knew, and knew to honor and love. The man who wrote it was an Irishman. He was an Irishman, but he was more than that. He was an American, too; but he was more than that,- he was a man. He was a Catholic; but he was more than a Catholic, for he was a Christian. I refer to John Boyle O'Reilly. "What is the real good? I asked in musing mood. Order, said the law court; Knowledge, said the school; Truth, said the wise man; Pleasure, said the fool; Love, said the maiden; Beauty, said the page; Freedom, said the dreamer: Home, said the sage; Fame, said the soldier; Equity, the seer. Spake my heart full sadly, The answer is not here. Then, within my bosom, softly this I heard: 'Each heart holds the secret: Kindness is the word."' Or, as Saint Paul puts it, " The greatest of these is love."
Page 230 XII.,3n fonmoriam, TRIBUTES TO OSCAR C. McCULLOCH. ADDRESS OF ISABEL C. BARROWS. In the last Year Book of Plymouth Church, Indianapolis, on the page where the name of the pastor should appear, there is a pathetic blank. That empty line tells a significant story to the flock left shepherdless. Here, too, in this Conference there is a blank where the name of Oscar McCulloch should stand, and a consciousness of loss that moves us all to mourn for him. A gracious Providence has ordained that, when one friend after another slips out of our sight, the waves shall close over them, and the glad work of the world shall go on uninterruptedly in spite of our personal loss. And yet we can but feel that there must be a stay in the progress of reform when such a man as Oscar McCulloch is missed from the field. Tha.t we may catch an inspiration from the example of his goodness that shall incite us to imitate his beneficent life, we devote this hour to his memory. The quiet town of Fremont, Ohio, well known throughout the country from its being the residence of ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes, was the native place of Mr. McCulloch, whose birthday we so nearly celebrate to-day. He was born July 2, I843. Childhood and boyhood were uneventful years. Like other boys, he played, studied, and worked by turns; but, unlike most lads of his age, his strongest characteristic was to do everything well, not from ambition to surpass his mates, but from an innate loyalty to duty. Two important events marked the fifteenth year of his life, both showing the maturity of his character: he left school to become his father's assistant in a drug-store, and he united with his parents' church, the Presbyterian. Thus at the very outset we have the union of the religious with the practical affairs of life which distinguished his course throughout.
Page 231 OSCAR MCCULLOCH — MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 23I For ten or twelve years he mixed or sold drugs, not only at home, but beyond the Rocky Mountains, in the far South, and in the central West. But what other druggist's clerk ever compounded with his drugs potions of Carlyle, Milton, and Scott? He sugar-coated his pills with poetry, and mixed his powders with art. Though his sense of duty made him a thoroughly valuable salesman and his natural ability might have easily brought him financial success, yet his ideals were far too fine to allow him to limit himself to this. At one time his tastes seemed likely to lead him from business into literature; but that deep undertone of religion, which was his inerrant guide, gave him a nobler ambition. His religious life was quiet, almost reticent. He never "talked in meeting," and seldom led in prayer in the social gatherings; but his heart was touched with the needs of the world, and he determined to enter the ministry, undeterred by the fact that he was about to begin his professional studies at an age when many ministers are ready to take up their life-work. Happily, the love of good literature, which had led him through the choicest paths of that delightful maze, stood him now in good stead in lack of an academic preparation. He had read only the best, and, aided by a wonderfully retentive memory and a systematic turn of mind, what he had acquired was always ready at his call. This made the way to the seminary an easy one. His father thus tells the story of the young man's decision: - At about eighteen he had finished a course at Eastman's Commercial College, and soon after was selling goods on the road. He was very successful at this, making fast friendships and pleasant and permanent relations with customers for his house. But he did not like the business, and his distaste grew constantly until he came to me one day and said he was meditating studying for the ministry. I did not expect it, but it pleased me. I told him that his mother and I had given him to the Lord when he was given to us, and that I was glad. " But," said I, " take plenty of time to know your own mind, and remember that in after years, with the average luck of ministers, you may find yourself poorly appreciated, poorly paid, poor in every way, while your young friends have become rich, honored, and eminent; and you may feel like saying, It might have been. If that is likely to be the outcome, then stop here and now." Three days followed,- thoughtful, solemn days. Then he came to me, and said, "I have decided to go into the ministry." There was never a misgiving after this, never a looking back. During his course at the Chicago Theological Seminary he was superintendent of a Sunday-school, where he developed the rare
Page 232 232 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. capacity for interesting children which was a distinguishing characteristic of his ministry. Serving in a mission church about the same time also gave him an opportunity to learn how to deal with the sadder classes of humanity that he would not have easily acquired otherwise. He learned there that religion should minister to every human need,- material, intellectual, affectional, and spiritual. After graduation came seven years' settlement as a pastor in Sheboygan, Wis., where he gave of his best to the upbuilding of the people. The same religious fervor which led the young travelling salesman to fill up the time of waiting for a train in a dreary Arkansas railway station by writing a lay sermon on telegraph blanks led him now to adopt every expedient for the highest intellectual and spiritual culture of his people. But a wider field was preparing for him. In 1877 the faithful Sheboygan pastor was called to Indianapolis, to the former church of Henry Ward Beecher, whose portrait is still loyally kept as the first face to greet the stranger in the vestibule. The history of the labors of Oscar McCulloch in that church and city is written in the hearts of living men and women who wrought with him in sympathetic fellowship for fourteen years, till Dec. o1, I891, when he laid down his burden and fell asleep. The details of that work in the city which he loved, and whose people loved him with a mighty love in return, will be given by his friend, Alexander Johnson, who is to follow me. Yet, to make this record of his life cover the main points in it, it should be said that he not only managed the affairs of an ever-growing congregation and built up a large and flourishing society, but was president of the largest charitable society there, afterwards of the Charity Organization Society, which grew up under his fostering hand, and of the State Board of Charities. His efforts for the good of mankind were multifarious. They extended to the care of children, to the establishment of free kindergartens, friendly inns and woodyards, nurses' training schools, dime saving societies, home libraries, and similar wise and helpful reforms. With this power of initiative and of leadership, it was not strange that, when at last Indiana established a State Board of Charities, she called him to the highest place on that Board. As he was always master of himself, so Mr. McCulloch easily became a master of men. Yet to every man and woman with whom he came in contact he granted a full share of individuality. He trenched on no man's rights. With a love of freedom that demanded t
Page 233 OSCAR MCCULLOCH —MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 233 an unbounded horizon for himself that he might face the heavens unhindered, he demanded the same for every man. He could bide no creeds which hedge men in. All were welcome to him who came seeking the truth. Jew and Catholic and Protestants of all denominations were among those who heard him gladly. So vast was his charity and so tolerant his sympathy that they were in no danger of hearing their own special theories abused by him. And, as he welcomed all to spiritual communion, so he welcomed them to intellectual comradeship. And wider yet was his invitation to those who were weary and heavy-laden. Mr. McCulloch's nature was a very unusual combination of the ideal and the practical, of the poet and the business man. It was the imagination of the poet which gave him an ever-present consciousness of the sorrow, the misery, the heartache of the world. It was this consciousness which lent that peculiar pathos to his voice, that sympathetic look to his clear, kind eyes. But it was the practical side of the man which found out or devised expedients for overcoming the misery of mankind, which organized charities, built up the State Board, and lent a hand to making the Conference of Charities and Correction a success. But here, too, the omnipresent voice of duty was heard; and no outside benevolent work, no intellectual clubs, ever interfered with his pulpit. The dignity and the opportunity of the Christian ministry were never forgotten. All other things ministered to that; and for his sermons he drew from the rich experiences of life that came to him from these many outside sources which interested him, and thus he kept his people in touch with the ways of God in the world. He was a preacher of righteousness. He tried to show that "trade, politics, law, medicine, industry, all rest on great natural principles;" that is, on God's laws. He interpreted Christianity as in harmony with nature and reason. His sermons, as published by Mrs. McCulloch in his memory in that delightful collection under the title "The Open Door, " show his simple, direct, and persuasive style. As we read the printed page, we can almost hear the fine, sympathetic tones of that voice, which, alas! is forever silent. As a student, Mr. McCulloch was unwearied. It has been said that the long, unbroken friendship between him and the President of the Nineteenth Conference, began with their common taste for the study of Spencer and other philosophical writers. His careful reading and his systematic methods made everything that he learned
Page 234 234 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. available in his general work. His mind was not like a Hindu water tank which accumulates and accumulates, with no perceptible inflow or escape. It was rather like the basin of a spring on a Vermont hillside, fed with living waters from the rock, and sending forth a perennial stream, which dances and sings on its way to the lowly meadows. All that he had was poured out for the blessing of those who were athirst. His heart was the basin into and from which poured the water of life. It would take the vast throng of Mr. McCulloch's friends and acquaintances to delineate the man. No two saw him from the same angle, and so each would describe him a little differently. But even superficial observers must have been struck with his great love for humanity. He not only loved men, but he believed in them. His soul was like a magnet. As the magnet can find out and attract to itself every scrap of steel in its vicinity, so he detected good where few would find it, and drew it to himself. Men would do their best for him. They would show the best side of their character, not to deceive, but because he had the faculty of putting people on their mettle, and of awakening in them the activity of their best powers. He not only wanted men to have a chance, but a fair chance. While advising wisely restricted immigration, he could yet, at great risk to himself, plead for justice for those immigrants who had become the rabid Chicago anarchists. While searching out to the uttermost and depicting most exactly the horrors of the "Tribe of Ishmael," he could yet find hopefully light spots in that blackness. Like Abou Ben Adhem, he could be writ as one who loved his fellow-men, but even more as one who loved his God. Because of this love he saw divine reflections in the ugliest human breast, and religion to him meant love in service of these fellow-men. We judge a man by the things he loves. The objects that Oscar McCulloch loved were uplifting and refining,-books, music, pictures, natural beauty, children, home, friendship, sincerity, truth. As a recreation from his busy months of city work, Mr. McCulloch was wont to fly to the solitude of the woods, in whose peaceful quiet he regained nervous tone and physical strength. Here with his chosen friend he fished by day, and in the evening sat by the blazing camp fire; and from a never-failing fund on the part of both men hour after hour was filled with song or story or anecdote, enriched by his own rare thought and genial play of wit. Europe, too, had its attractions for him as a source of renewed life and enjoyment; and
Page 235 OSCAR MCCULLOCH - MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 235 the last summer of his life was spent over the sea in beautiful scenes and with congenial friends. But for his progressive disease it would have been a season of pure delight. Of his love of books his father says: ' It was a passion. He knew them at sight. He scented them out, and possessed them. He knew how to use them, delicately and affectionately. They would be marked and pencilled, read and quoted, and always near at hand." The same writer says: " His love of children was passionate and supreme. His daintiest things in sermons and talks were for them. They were the angels of the household to him from an early time and always." Again, the appreciative father shows a true characteristic of the son when he says: "He loved the poor. He was the poor man's friend. He felt that society was often unjust to them, apparently ignorant of their needs, and willing to let them get along as best they could. He espoused their cause, and the thing to be done for their relief and education he was forever finding out." His love of music found expression in many ways. Never was there a Conference of Charities so literally attuned to music as the one in Indianapolis under his guidance, when the great organ pealed out its rich tones daily, and the voices of men, women, and little children added their harmony. Music was ever his consoler and inspirer; and, when the last sickness came, a friendly musician soothed many hours of the dying man with the notes of his violin, thus bridging the narrow space between the two worlds with melody. Mr. McCulloch's connection with this Conference has been constant and active since 1884. This is the tenth Conference of which I have been the official editor and reporter. At seven of these Mr. McCulloch has been in attendance, and has taken an important part. I have carefully reread all that he said on those occasions, as well as the letters which I have had from him pertaining to these meetings. Every word is characteristic. At the very first meeting when I had the pleasure of hearing him, his opening utterance was with reference to children, reporting work that had been accomplished in Indiana in their behalf. In a paper read at the Washington Conference he says: "There can be no personal charity without reverence for human nature as such. We all can bear testimony to the unexpected revelations of the seemingly worst people - some capacity for self-sacrifice, some tenderness, something that shows the presence of a nature whose divinity is obscured, not extinguished."
Page 236 236 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. At the St. Paul Conference he began a vigorous speech: " I want to say one word for the tramp.... Ninety per cent. of all who are called tramps are honest men." In this remark was displayed that side of his nature which always called for fair play. At the Buffalo Conference he begins again with his usual ardor for humanity: "The cry of women with dependent children appeals to us all." And so one may go through the volumes and pick out his carefully prepared papers or his bits of extemporaneous discussion, and find everywhere the spirit that sees God's image in each of his children, and that is roused to sympathy and to action at the sight of their distress. But that sympathy does not spend itself in sentimentality. Without exception there is always a practical hint or suggestion as to the wisest way of meeting the crying needs of the world. On his return from the California Conference Mr. McCulloch made a full report of that meeting to the people of his parish in the form of an address entitled "Charity buildeth up." The manuscript of that discourse I have been permitted to read, and from it I glean a few sentences as indicating the temper of Mr. McCulloch toward the Conference of Charities and Correction and as bringing to mind a pleasant incident connected with that gathering,-the singing of songs and hymns at Palo Alto, led by his beautiful voice. He said:The spirit of the Conference was the spirit of hope. From beginning to end not one doubtful or hesitating word was uttered. No pessimist croaked," The time is out of joint." This is significant. If they who deal most closely with the fragments of humanity, who hear its sorrowful tale and see the disfigured faces, the tainted natures, of men, can yet work in hope, who then shall dare despair? For they work with God, the great Lover, and in Love, the great builder.... The Conference was made up of all creeds. But in this work no creed is known. "Love laughs at jailers," says an old song. Love laughs at creeds also. I care not what else you believe, Love says, so that you believe that the criminal may regain the stature he has lost, the renewal of the beauty which sin has swept away, the possible saving of little children, the recovery of sight to the blind, of hearing to the deaf, of sense to the insane. Love laughs at creeds; for creeds tear down, but love builds up.... At the station at Palo Alto we were to part. We had been together many days. There had been no jar, no dissension. All kinds of men and women had worked together for the human uplift, each in his own lines profiting by the other; some in the name of Christ, some keeping the old Jewish faith, some voicing no distinctive relig
Page 237 OSCAR MCCULLOCH - MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 237 ious faith; all believing in God, the good, all working in the spirit of Christ, the brother, all working in Love, the builder. Some now were to go South, some North, some East. One started a song [it was he], which the others took up. It is only hopeful people who can sing. For an hour, song after song succeeded. Then the trains came in, taking some South and some North. Friends, from all this I get this thought: Here are men and women ignoring differences of opinion and working for the common good. Outside us is the waiting world, lying like the lame man at the beautiful gate of our civilization. That he, with countless others, lies there day by day, is due to the emphasis of unimportant differences in religion and politics. When these are forgotten, the ancient springs of human kindness are reopened; and Love, that buildeth, restoreth, comforteth, quieteth, takes the hand of the man, and says, "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk." That atmosphere of hope and faith and love none more than Oscar McCulloch helped to create. As Judge W. A. Woods said of him in Indianapolis, so members of this Conference may say, — "We are richer in mind and heart, we are stronger and purer in purpose and aspiration, because he has lived among us." Of all that Mr. McCulloch was to this Conference last summer I do not trust myself to speak. His cordial hospitality made every delegate at home. His wonderful efficiency as an organizer and as a presiding officer carried the meeting through to a brilliant success, while his charming personality won for him a friend in every stranger; and to those who were already privileged to call him friend and brother the never-to-be-forgotten association of those days, when his presence was among us, is something for which ever to be grateful. We may no more see the kindly smile nor hear the melodious voice, the warm grasp of the hand and the spoken word of wisdom may fail us; but the beneficent influence of Oscar McCulloch will be ever with us, an uplifting and inspiring force. As I sketch this outline of a good man's life, I sit by an open window overlooking the sea, a beautiful foreground of orchards in bloom; at one side the chimneys and spires of a busy city. The room where I write is lined with books. From below come the sounds of a piano, the musical voices of children at play, and the trill of an oriole in the elm-top. Away against the blue sky float the flags of our country, for it is Memorial Day. It seems as if above and around were suggestions of all things that Oscar McCulloch loved: home, friends, humanity, and country; books, music, and children; the sea, the woods, the birds, the boundless sky. It was
Page 238 238 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the love and contemplation of these and the reverent recognition of their Eternal Source that helped to mould his gentle, refined character, and made him as a leader among us, a model whom we may well imitate for the Christ-like excellence of his character. With the sacred personal relations of Mr. McCulloch and his ideal life as a husband and father we have no right to meddle, save that we may express our gratitude that he has left as a legacy to the world sons and daughters who inherit his graces of soul, and that we may as a Conference express our loving sympathy with the beloved wife, whose womanly presence and wise and gracious ministries gave him his noblest conception of womanhood and home. How better can I close this tribute of friendship to one who had a genius for friendship than by quoting an epilogue written by himself in i886?By and by our hands shall drop heavy, and our work shall be done. The word we say goes on with its reverberations, cheering, instructing, soothing, comforting. The work we do goes on like the little ripples upon the water, until they wash some unknown shore. Nothing is lost,-" no accent of the Holy Ghost." No word spoken in truth, no work done in love, is ever forgotten of God, ever drops into oblivion. Our boys and girls shall grow up into men and women. We can leave the work in their hands. We need have no fear of them. With strong hearts they shall bear as a blessed burden the work of helping the world. They shall be kept from the world's evil by the power of the happy life that is in them. They shall have found the secret of happiness in human service. For ourselves, it is pleasant to think that the way of life has been cleared of some of its stumbling-stones by our efforts: the air shall be a little purer because we have worked here; sweeter sounds than the discordant sounds of human struggling shall be heard; it will be a better world to be born into after we have done our work. We shall make life happier to some. Some young men shall rise up to a stronger and more useful manhood; sonme shall have larger opportunity to express the hope and life that is in them. Women will be better sisters, wives, and mothers, men will be better brothers, husbands, and fathers, as these thoughts enter into them. Some of the burdens of the world's sorrow we shall have lifted; some of the gloom of the world's woe we shall have lighted. There will be less ignorance, selfishness, and narrow sectarianism; less binding of creeds upon the growing human spirit; less clutch of the dead hand of the past upon the human heart and upon the human mind; more faith in God and more faith in man; more hope for the world's salvation; more charity and tolerance for the world's sin and differences. Is not this possible to us?' "Hitherto the Lord hath helped us": shall we not go forward?
Page 239 OSCAR MCCULLOCH -MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 239 ADDRESS OF ALEXANDER JOHNSON. When a dear and valued friend is taken from us by death, sorrow and sense of loss overpower all other emotions. But, as the first keen edge of our grief wears away, slowly there come into our hearts other emotions more permanent and more powerful than sorrow. The memory of our friend as he was in life comes back to us. We do not forget our sorrow, but we also remember the joy we had in our friend while with us. And, as the years go on, the chief thought of the dear and dead one is not of grief for his loss, but gladness and gratitude for what he was, for the many helpful, happy days during which we had the blessing of his friendship, the stimulus of his example. So let it be of him we hold in special memory to-day. Let our hearts fill with thankfulness that Oscar McCulloch lived and worked among us; that we saw him year after year, and heard his cheerful voice and met his kindly greeting; that he showed us so bright and good a life; that his sweet, wholesome, and unselfish nature helped us to be unselfish; that he brought to the level of our dull comprehension, by a plain example known and read of all men, the very heart of the Christ; that, here among the toil and moil of the busy nineteenth century, in him there was renewed for us the revelation made in Jesus of Nazareth in the first century, and for us he brought the great human example down to date, making the spirit of Jesus easier to understand because clothed in familiar garments and exercised in familiar work. I know no truer words in which to tell the character of our dead friend than those in which Matthew Arnold expresses the secret and the method of Jesus: "Inwardness, mildness, self-renouncement, sweet reasonableness." "The smoking flax he did not quench, and the bruised reed he did not break." "Ever with zeal he upraised the humble good." I am to tell you something of what he was to the charitable and reformatory work of Indianapolis and the State of Indiana. I can only give you the merest hint of what he did: to fully enumerate and explain each branch of charity whose seed he sowed and whose fruitage he protected and fostered would occupy many hours of your time. I must try to tell you what he was or what he appeared to me to be. His position in charity matters in our city and State was that of an inspirer and a leader. Long ere he died men had come to respect
Page 240 240 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. him and believe in him, so that his word was received with confidence and his wisdom and guidance were fully trusted. His achievements include many reforms in both charities and correction. To him was due the reorganization, upon a sound and lasting basis, of the Indianapolis Benevolent Society, and the establishment and the conduct of the Charity Organization Society, with the many branches of their work, -the Friendly Inn and Wood Yard, the Free Baths, the District Nursing among the poor, the Flower Mission Training School for Nurses, the Industrial School, the Free Kindergartens, the Board of Children's Guardians, the Summer Mission for Sick Children. For all of these and many more he supplied the initiative, and much of the motive force thereafter. He was chiefly instrumental in establishing the County Workhouse, - a most important reform in penal matters. When abuses had crept into the County Poor Asylum, he procured and helped to conduct an investigation, and secured redress of the evils discovered. Mr. McCulloch knew how to work and how to wait. He took long views of what should be, and was content to make haste slowly, never hastening, never resting. He realized how transitory and permanently valueless is the bulk of ordinary charity, and he sought to set going good things which should some day supplant and make it needless. Specially in this line did he value the Dimes Saving and Loan Association. He called it "our first great movement upon conditions." He watched its progress week by week, and rejoiced to see its success. For years he worked towards the establishment of a Board of State Charities, sowing the first seed in 1882, and patiently waiting and ceaselessly urging the matter at every favorable opportunity. At last, after seven years' perseverance, he had created the public sentiment that made it possible. The opportunity came: he drafted the bill which the legislature made law. He was the first member, the leader and organizer of the Board. He lived long enough to shape its policy,- a policy which, if faithfully carried out by those who succeed him, bids fair to make the Board one of the most useful and influential of its kind in the nation. Perhaps the spirit and idea of the Charity Organization movement has never been put more clearly and effectively than in the following extract from one of his addresses: That is the true idea and object of the Charity Organization Society, -to draw around the poor, the miserable, the neglected, the forsaken, and the evil a circle of sympathy, affection, intelligent thought, and
Page 241 OSCAR MCCULLOCH — MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 24I resolute will. Each associated society differing from every other in the special work it undertakes, all unite in the common effort to strengthen that which is weak and lift up that which is fallen. In a sermon he said: - Charity is changing. It used to be pity. It is not pity now. It is the equalization of opportunity. The new religion takes the social as well as the individual into its life. Again, in a grand sermon on "The Discontent of the Fortunate," he said: - It is a mighty tide that is rolling in upon us now. The new triumphs of our civilization are going to be conquests of misery, trouble, and sickness. Colleges, schools of technology, play-grounds for children, -all these are going to come. Men are thinking about them more than they are thinking about who is to be the President of the United States. What lack I yet? I ask each of you. There is a look of discontent on some of your faces, a want of happiness in your lives, of freshness in the water you drink, of sweetness and relish in the food you eat. What do you lack? What does any man lack? Contact and touch; reciprocity of man, helping others, ministering to others, touch and response with the great human tides which come and go. This is life and happiness. This is the secret of it. But he was not only strong in theory and expression: he had a calm and balanced judgment, and a knowledge of the people among whom he lived and worked, surpassing that of ordinary men. As an illustration of this, let me tell you of a noble piece of charity work which he outlined, and which was carried out in his spirit. One day in the early summer of i890 a fire broke out in a large stationery house. When the walls fell, fourteen brave firemen were killed, and many more were wounded. People said something ought to be done for the wives and families of the brave men who had met death trying to save our property. Mr. McCulloch made the calamity the topic of his next sermon. He told us our duty. He sketched out briefly what ought to be done, and how. He said we must care for the wounded, and help them back to strength; we must bury the dead; we must provide for each widow and each orphan; each must be pensioned,the widows for life, the orphans until they are able to care for themselves. He said, This will cost fifty thousand dollars; and we must raise that amount, and use it well. I remember how some of us in church that morning looked at each other and thought, " For once that calm judgment is at fault: his heart has run away with his head."
Page 242 242 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The amount he asked for seemed to us impossible. The subscription list was opened, the plan marked out. A committee of the business men undertook the work. Precisely what Mr. McCulloch said should be done was done. The total amount raised was nearly three thousand dollars more than he first put it at. So accurately did he measure the disaster and the cost of the remedy, so well did he know the temper and spirit of his fellow-citizens. During the early years of the Charitable Organization Society in Indianapolis, Mr. McCulloch met with much determined opposition. Some people were jealous of his success. Some sincerely believed that the new way in charity meant not the organization, but the suppression, of benevolence. He was even accused of personal greed and selfishness, and was attacked both in the newspapers and among the business men. But he never answered railing by railing, he never struck back, and he bore no malice. He knew he was right, his motives were absolutely sincere, he had confidence that faithful and earnest work would eventually silence all opposition. Of one who maligned him and misstated his motives and plans, he said to me, "He does not understand: he will see things differently after a while." How true was his estimate of the influence upon the city of the work he was doing, was shown before he died. His enemies had become his friends. No one dared to slander one whom all believed in and trusted. When he died, the city mourned. Not till his last illness did he begin to realize how firmly he had wrought himself into the hearts of the people of every rank and condition. Let me quote a passage from an address made at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Charity Organization Society by one of its members, a young and talented lawyer, who had been closely associated and had worked with Mr. McCulloch for years:From the time he came to this city down to his last illness he quickened the flagging spirits of this people in every work that sought to save, to strengthen and uphold, the weak and the downtrodden. In all that he thought and said there was a complete suppression of himself and his personal comfort and interest. His life has been an instance of noble devotion to the welfare of mankind, and his memory will be cherished as long as good deeds and heroic sacrifices for humanity have power to move the hearts of men. In his loss we, his associates on this committee, feel that the soul and spirit of this society has departed.
Page 243 OSCAR MCCULLOCH -MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 243 Mr. McCulloch's force and success as a leader were due to the remarkable union in him of two qualities that are rarely united in such measure,- the quality of the sympathetic imagination, or insight, and the quality of practical executive sense. He understood men, and he understood things. He had a clear and calm judgment, free from bias and free from superstition. He saw through the outer husks of facts, among which most of us so often helplessly grovel, to the inner spirit and meaning of them. Work of most kinds was easy to him. He easily discerned and arranged what was to be done. He easily impressed himself on his subordinates and associates. He never spared himself, and his coworkers rarely drew back from what he asked them. He was a leader who said " Come," not " Go." He was used to having his own way, and always quietly took it. He was a gentle autocrat, kindly, sympathetic, considerate, but absolute. His judgment of men was usually accurate. Sometimes he was a little too severe upon those he thought selfish and careless of what seemed to him the highest good. His test of a man, the question he asked himself and asked others, was, " Has he the spiritual touch? " He was singularly happy in those he confided in and chose for his associates in charitable work. He said no man in whom he had trusted had ever betrayed him or abused his confidence. In his ideas he was a modern of the moderns; and yet, no matter how he differed from them in opinion, he had a never-failing sympathy with the sentiments of those who clung to the ideas of the past. I remember well his advice to me when taking charge of the Charity Organization work in Chicago as to cultivating friendly relations with the old and time-honored Relief and Aid Society there. He said: " Respect the old sentiments. They have a strong hold on the public heart. Never antagonize: win by conciliation." In all things he had the courage of his convictions: but he never made a show of it, nor challenged opposition needlessly. In theological disputes he took no part: he had no taste for polemics. He said, "The duty of the Christian minister is not to find points of difference: it is to find points of sympathy and likeness." He was a man, and nothing human did he count alien to himself. He realized the solidarity of mankind. Always the cause of the oppressed was his cause. No one more than he believed in and acted out the grand and favorite motto of the trades-unions, —"The injury of one is the concern of all." He was always ready to speak for
Page 244 244 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. and advise the workingmen, and they listened to him as to few. The Typographical Union made him an honorary member, and hung his portrait, draped in mourning, in their lodge-room, when he died. His was a wonderfully hospitable mind, and he stored it with the treasures of literature. He was a voluminous and almost omnivorous reader. Two kinds of books he did not read, theological works and those concerned with metaphysical philosophy. He was passionately fond of poetry, using it freely in the pulpit and elsewhere. He had faith in the poetic insight. He held that the poet, not the statistician, is your true delineator of mankind. He thought in emotions and images rather than words. Logic, as logic, had no charm for him. He had no use for merely verbal conclusions. Nothing was proved to him until he had realized a clear concept of it in his mind. Hence his splendid power of clear and convincing expression, and also his distaste for and lack of patience with the orthodox, political and social economy, and that kind of organized charity which analyzes its "cases," sums them up, and divides them off into neat arrangements of classes. To him the people he loved to help, were not " cases of distress ": they were living, breathing, suffering men, women, and little children. With all his poetry and his power of sympathetic imagination, in one sense of the term, no more practical man ever lived. Yet he was not financially practical for himself. He loved to use money; but he only loved it for its use, and no mere money consideration ever influenced him. He was not a spendthrift. For his church and his Charity Organization Society he was a skilful financier, but he was not a cheese-paring economist. When in San Francisco, he spoke of liking to be in a city where the nickel was the smallest coin in circulation. Mr. McCulloch took a large view of the minister's duty as a citizen. Every effort to make the city he had chosen for his home a true city of God and a fit habitation for God's children had his earnest sympathy and help. When the Commercial Club was established, he was one of its first members. He preached a memorable sermon on the opportunities of the Commercial Club, which the club had printed and widely circulated. He thought the city must be made first safe, then sanitary, then beautiful. He had great plans in his heart for improvements, especially of parks and open places, play-grounds for the children, reading-rooms, and other opportunities of healthful and innocent recreation. With Mr. Sleazy he believed "the people must be amused."
Page 245 OSCAR MCCULLOCH - MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 245 The key to his character was sympathy. He held it the secret of success in all dealings with our fellow-men, the unfortunate and the distressed, the criminal and the vile, as well as the pure and good. Beautiful exceedingly was his love for children. He rarely spoke of them without the qualifying adjective. Little children he would always call them: their helplessness and dependence appealed to him. He said, " What appeals to us all like the cry of a little child,my child, your child, some one's child? " He said, "While any child suffers, my children are not safe." Before his sermon he had always a word for the children. " This for the children," he would say. Some touching story, some beautiful bit of poetry. His prayers were for all: "We come to Thee,- men, women, and little children." He lived a beautiful, almost a perfect, life,-brave, fine, sweet sane, hopeful, helpful, strong. Truly he was, in word which he loved to quote and think on,"One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward; Never doubted clouds would break; Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph; Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake." ADDRESS OF RABBI HENRY BERKOWITZ. It does appear to me an anomaly that I should be called to speak to you in tribute to the memory of Oscar McCulloch; for I am well aware of the fact that I am addressing many who were his friends through long years, some who were intimate with him through life, while my acquaintance with him was but for the brief span of one week. However, I believe in revelations. It may not be in supernatural words, but in the intuitions of the human mind, in the strange previsions and unspeakable apprehensions of the human heart, and in those mysterious flashes from the unknown that make known to us the truth. Amid the lightning flashes of eloquence and the answering thunders of applause that beat about the Sinai head of that great Conference in Indianapolis, last year, there flashed out to me the revelation of the character of Oscar C. McCulloch. I have thanked God from then until this day for the inspiration which his life has become to me. He was revealed to me as the typical American,-the outcome of that evolution and friction of many civilizations, nationalities, and contending influences, which in this land of liberty are blent together
Page 246 246 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. to produce a fairer and nobler type of humanity than any gone before. Now we may study our revelations after the fact. We may study them, in order to verify them by human experience and investigation. The results of all such studies invariably lead us to the conclusion that what we have learned is only what we knew in the beginning. "Thou shalt not steal" is as imperative before as after the investigation of its reasons. I have studied all I could find of the writings of Mr. McCulloch and about his life. I have listened with rapt attention to-day to the keenly appreciative and tender tributes that have been paid to him here by those who knew him so well. As the result of these studies, I have come to the conclusion that they have given me only what I knew before from the flash of revelation that seemed to come to me, proclaiming what kind of man he was. As an American, he seemed to be specifically the type of an American Educator. He had in him not only the ability to impart knowledge, but to draw out the latent possibilities of men, women, and children alike. I still hear the ringing outcry that marked the anguish of his soul when he said, " The crime of this age is in the neglect of its little children." He knew how to mould the plastic infant mind, and he knew as well how, with the trip-hammer of his common sense, on the anvil of truth to crush the crude ore and transform the hard metal of the fixed prejudices and ideas of matured men and women. It was, moreover, the atmosphere that pervaded him in all his teachings that lent an impulse and an inspiration to those who learned from him, which made him, according to the demands of the new education, a typical American Educator. He was the American Philanthropist. It has been ably recounted to you in how far he fulfilled the ideal that we have whose hero is the philanthropist. He made the stream of charities run clear, washing out the sediment of sentimentality and letting the pure, limpid waters of practicality flow out into the open seas of a boundless humanity. Herein he knew nothing of creed or sect. He said, "Brother, sister, child of God." He asked not whether you called yourself Christian, Jew, infidel, or atheist. He had a wonderful knowledge of human nature. It was this that made him so capable of comprehending and appreciating the genius of the poets, and brought him into such close sympathy with those who knew best how to delineate human character. He knew the weakness of men, but also their strength. He saw their needs clearly, he felt their wants keenly, he brought them help honestly and wisely.
Page 247 OSCAR MCCULLOCH —MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 247 The educator, the philanthropist, he revealed himself to me as something more even than these,-the typical American minister. He seetned to be the exemplification of two things,- of intense American practicality, on the one side, and the loftiest ideality, on the other. His business career must have given to him something that most of us American ministers generally lack. He had a practical sense that kept him in touch with the people; and he had the ideality that gave him the "spiritual touch," and kept him in contact with the divine. Therefore have I found so much inspiration in the example of his life and teachings. His church had "the open door" which made it the cherished home of his people, "The House of Life," as he loved to call it. It was not, as so many churches are, a mausoleum, standing the week around enshrining the silence of the tomb, but a house where men and women live every day, and nurture the higher life of the intellect and the soul. Most beautiful and touching was that episode of his death-bed referred to by Mrs. Barrows, showing that in his last illness there was nothing that could soothe him like music. How suggestive it is that the man who could draw unto himself the spirit of the learning of the East and the West, who could take into his heart the aspirations of the noblest human souls, in whom the utterances of kindness and wisdom that have been made in all languages found their appreciation,- that his soul should find its last and best and most uplifting expression in the universal language of music, which is the same for all men, of all creeds, of all climes, of all times! I, a Jew, do place the humble tribute of these words as a chaplet of immortelles, the best that I can weave, upon the tomb of this noble Christian; and I ask you, friends, in imagination, as I do so, to bend in reverence with me over his grave. Let us thus be held more closely together by the bonds of our common humanity, and be upheld all the more truly by the love of our common Father on high. ADDRESS OF REV. MYRON W. REED. I shall have to talk in a little lighter vein if I talk at all. A man is many-sided. There is his serious side, there is his humorous side. I remember reading about Macaulay. It was said of him, There is the historian Macaulay, there is the member of Parliament Macaulay, and there is Tom Macaulay; and to his sisters he was Tom Macau
Page 248 24S NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. lay. So there is Mr. McCulloch the preacher, and Mr. McCulloch of the Charity Organization Society; but the Mr. McCulloch that I knew most deeply is the man McCulloch by the camp fire or wading a cold river. It is not every man that will stand up to his waist in white water and handle a trout, and at the same time quote to you something from Bacon or Plato. I never knew when Mr. McCulloch did his reading, although I knew him very intimately; but it always seemed to me that he had read everything that is good. He gathered unto himself the best things that had been thought and said on earth. We were up on the Rangeley Lakes once, and it came Sunday. Along toward night he said, "I wonder if there is any service round here"; and some one said, "Yes, there is service at the schoolhouse, about a mile from the hotel." We went up to that schoolhouse. It was lighted up by six candles. Each one that came brought a candle. A man would light it with a match and turn it upside down, and let some of the tallow run down on to the windowsill, put the candle on it, and it would hold itself up. It was a dismal little house, with a few country people gathered together. The leader was discoursing on Eternity. He saw us present, and said, "I see some strangers here: I would like to hear from them." I said, " Mac, this is your chance." So he rose, and in his ever-easy way discoursed about the clouds, the water, the trees, and the flowers, about all the beauty in the region, and sat down. And the leader said, "Does the stranger really mean to say that God is in the clouds, in the trees, in the water, and in the sunshine? If you please, we will resume the subject of Eternity." About this time the candles began to go out, and the people began to go out also; and we walked out into the darkness, and walked with the country people invisible beside us. But I did hear one lady say: " I don't like the way that our minister spoke of that stranger. For my part, I like what the stranger said." I said, "Mac, you will probably get a call up here." It is these things that I remember concerning him. In Indiana we were pretty close together in space and in sympathy. We read the same books and often preached the same sermons, not in matter, but in subject. I remember we bought that wonderful book, "Margaret, the Mother of Criminals," the same week; and we read it, and we preached about it the same Sunday night. A gentleman went into Mr. McCulloch's church and listened to him for a
Page 249 OSCAR MCCULLOCH- MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 249 while, and then said: " I can't stand this. I want to go where there is some gospel being preached. I will go over, and hear what Mr. Reed has to say." Mr. McCulloch was, you remember, a much more rapid speaker than myself. So, when the gentleman reached my church, I was just about where he left off in the sermon on the same subject, so the man quit me, and went over to the Baptist church. I suppose that the last letter that Mr. McCulloch wrote to any human being was written to me; and to show you how his mind worked, how his thoughts worked, I may say there was not a mention in it that concerned himself. This is about the style of the letter as I remember it:I have packed up to-day and caused to be sent to you the rod made by Major Arnold and given to me. I have also put in the reel which we bought of that old gentleman at St. John. I have found that I have no further use for these things. You will have a good time at the Conference. You will have lots of work and lots of pleasure, and make lots of new friends. Give my love to Ruth and Paul and Ralph. Your wife already has it. Paul will make his mark at Troy. Yours, MCCULLOCH. You see no turning in upon himself, no fear of the future, no anxiety about the future. He had loosed his boat. He was not rowing back to the old anchorage: he was going to sail the sea. God's in his heaven, and all is well with his world. That is his creed, my creed, too, and the creed of this Conference. I have had some beautiful times with him, and nothing that was not beautiful. We always borrowed one another's books. Once in so often we would have a rounding up. Our books were all in common. Our money was common money. HTe did not know anything about money of his own except to spend it. We came back from the Nepigon once, and neither of us had a coat on, only flannel shirts. We had been out three weeks. We were unshaven and rough. We got back to Port Arthur, and I said to him, "Mac, how is the money?" "I have not any," he replied. "Well, I haven't any, either," I said. "What shall we do? "Draw some," he said. "Draw! Nobody knows us here." "That's all right," he said: "come right along." "Well," I said, "you can do the talking." We went up to the bank, and he said, "We want to
Page 250 250 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. draw on Indianapolis or Denver." The man said we could draw all we pleased. I got a hundred dollars, and put the wad in my pocket. Then Mac came near spoiling the whole thing by announcing that we were clergymen. The man evidently did not believe it. He was almost as well loved in Denver as in Indianapolis. Coming here to visit me, coming here in connection with business long before I came, he knew all our people and they knew him; and he had a wide welcome here, and is widely mourned. The last time but one that he was here he came to Glenwood Springs. We fished on the Eagle and on the Roaring Fork and on Brush Creek. Finally, we had twenty-eight miles to ride to Leadville. In some way we got on the wrong road. After a while I was suspicious of the road, and, as we met a man coming down with a team, I said, " Where does this road lead to?" He said, " It leads to the Mount of the Holy Cross." We turned back. Since then he has returned to that road, and has arrived; and I, for my part, tread a somewhat lonesome trail. I thank God for one thing, that I have been extremely fortunate in finding friends in this world. I suppose we all have friends, but it is a beautiful thing to have such a friend. Some friends we don't remember after they have passed away. Someway, we don't realize them. We can't see their faces. But I can see him in forty positions. I can see his gestures, I can hear his voice. I can note his speech. He is not very far off. He has gone into another room of the Father's house, and is working in some "department of God's vast house." I believe in immortality just for his sake. For such a child there must be a Father's house; and for such a spirit, with so many thoughts, there must be a place to work them out.
Page 251 XIII. Reports from Etate.o REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. BY ALEXANDER JOHNSON, CHAIRMAN. The Committee on Reports from States adopted the general plan of report which has been in use for three years past. The form in which the report was asked was, however, changed; instead of a circular asking for the information sought, sets of blanks, with questions and space for answers, were prepared, and sent to each of the Corresponding Secretaries. In the form of blanks, the questions appeared so much more formidable than before that many correspondents supposed the present committee had' largely increased the burden they sought to lay upon them; but, with the one exception of a question as to the holding of State Conferences of Charities and Correction, which was ordered by a resolution of the Eighteenth Conference, only the information which the circulars of the past three years have asked for was requested for this year. The committee has some doubt upon the wisdom of seeking the statistics in the manner that has become customary, and is rather of opinion that the best and most useful reports that can be secured from, at any rate, a majority of the States and Territories of the Union are those which express in general terms the progress or the retrogression that has occurred in the methods and practice of the States with respect to their treatment of the defective, dependent, and delinquent classes. While admitting the great value and interest of accurate statistics, collected from year to year, if they could be obtained, the committee thinks that, with the machinery at present at the command of the Conference, it is impossible to obtain statistics of value from the majority of the States. If the time shall ever come when the National Conference shall have a permanent Secretary, with a sufficient amount of paid clerical help, then something of the kind, which should approach a permanent census bureau of these departments, might be achieved.
Page 252 252 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The chairman of the Committee on Reports from States this year happened also to be Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Conference. By resolution, the Executive Committee is empowered to fill all vacancies among the officers of the Conference, so that it was his first business to correspond with all the State Secretaries, and, with the advice of the President, substitute other names for those who declined to serve, or who could not be found through the mail. Although reasonable diligence was used in this work, yet for the following States and Territories the efforts to obtain a report have been unsuccessful - NON-REPORTING STATES, WITH POPULATION. Arkansas,. California,. Idaho,.. Maryland.. Mississippi,.. Nevada,... New Hampshire,.. 1,128,179 1,208,130 84,385 I,042,390 1,289,600 45,76I 376,530 New Mexico,. South Carolina,. Virginia,.. West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin,.. Total, *... 53,593.., I1,5I,49... 1,655,980.... 762,794... 349,390... i,686,880... 10,934,76I It will be noticed that several of the States above named have been among those from which the Conference has heretofore usually received reports. The failure to report in such cases has been owing to the fact that the Corresponding Secretaries have been unable to act, and have failed to notify the committee of their inability until too late for a substitute appointment. In several of the cases this inability was caused by the complexity and fulness of the report asked for. Had the Secretaries been satisfied to do the best they could, some report would have been made; but, in attempting to comply with all that was asked of them, they ended in total failure. In other instances no Corresponding Secretary has yet been found. Reports, more or less full, have been received from the following States and Territories, namely: States. Popjulation. Alabama,...... I,513,0I7 Arizona,..... 59,620 Colorado,...... 412,198 Connecticut,..... 746,258 District of Columbia,... 230,392 Delaware,...... I 68,493 Florida,....... 391,422 States. Georgia,. Illinois.. Indiana,... Indian Territory, Iowa,... Kansas,.. Kentucky, Population..,837,353 * 3,826,351. 2, I92,404.. 1,911,896.. 1,427,096 * 1,858,635
Page 253 REPORTS FROM STATES. States. Louisiana, Maine,.. Massachusetts, Michigan,.. Minnesota,.... Missouri,.. Montana,. Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Populatiozn.. 1,118,587.. 66i,o86. 2,238,943. 2,093,889 1,301,826. 2,679,184 ~. 132,I59 I.,058,910. 1,444,933 * 5,997,853 1,6I7,947 ~.. I82,719 States. Ohio,... Ontario, Oregon... Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee,... Texas,.. Utah,.. Vermont,. Wyoming,. 253 Popzlation. 3,672,316 33,767 5,258,014 * * 345,506.. 328,808 1,767,518 2,235,523.. 207,905.. 332,422 60,705 Of these the following appear for the first time in the list of States reporting, namely: Georgia, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ontario, South Dakota, and Wyoming; while the District of Columbia and Texas, which have reported previously, failed to report last year. Following the example set by the committee of last year, the information received has been grouped into departments; and whatever statistics have been given are arranged under the department head. Under the heading of "Legislation," etc., will be found any general remarks in answer to the query: " What has been the general drift and result of legislation in your State during the last few years? What new laws would you mention as important during that period? " Many of the reports received this year are very full, and have been prepared with great care; and the thanks of the committee are tendered to the Secretaries who have so well performed a duty voluntarily assumed, and for which the reward is so slight. Many other Secretaries, whose reports are brief and less statistical, have labored,under greater difficulties, owing to the fact that there were no general sources of information available to them, so that the facts they present have been collected with great patience and diligence from a variety of sources. This is made clear under the heading of " Statistical Agencies." When no report has been received upon one of the topics, the name of the State is omitted under the heading. POPULATION OF STATES REPORTING. The figures of the eleventh census are still fresh enough to be used for the purposes of this report, and are given above. We have received this year more or less complete reports from States and Terri
Page 254 254 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. tories, including the Province of Ontario, Canada, having a total population of 53,953,841; while from States and Territories containing Io,934,761 inhabitants no report has this year been received. But, as from the States of California, Maryland, New Hampshire, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, with a total population of over 9,000,000, reports have been received in recent years, it is fair to say that the Conference is in touch with not less than 94 per cent. of the total population, as far as receiving reports through the committee is concerned. STATE BOARDS. The Committee on State Boards of Charities has the duty of reporting specially on this subject. From the reports received, we give the following items by States, omitting, in most cases, particulars which have been fully given in recent reports of this nature. Alabama.-Has no State Board of Charities. There is a Board of Inspection of Convicts, which has general supervision over prisons. Arizona.-Has no State Board of Charities. Has a Board of three Prison Commissioners, and a Board of three Insane Asylum Commissioners. Colorado.- Has an efficient State Board of Charities, which has advisory and inspectional powers over all charitable and correctional institutions and affairs. Connecticut.- Has a State Board of Charities, which has advisory supervision over State, county, and private penal, charitable, and reform institutions. District of Columbia. —No State Board, but a Superintendent of Charities, a federal officer, has supervision of certain medical charities, child-saving institutions, and lodging-houses for non-resident poor. His duties include advice to Congress as to appropriations in aid of charitable and reformatory institutions. Delaware.- Has no State Board of Charities. A State Board of Health, a State Board for the Insane, with general powers, and a State Board of Immigration. Efforts are making toward the establishment of a State Board of Charities with some hope of success. Florida.-Has no State Board of Charities, but a Board of State Institutions. Specific functions not given. Georgia.-No State Board of Charities. The lunatic asylum is conducted by the State officers. Illinois.- Has a Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities,
Page 255 REPORTS FROM STATES. 255 which has authority to inspect and report on State charitable institutions, county jails, and almshouses. Indiana.- Has a Board of State Charities having advisory and inspectional powers over State, county, and municipal penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions. Indian Territory.- Has no State Board of Charities or other Board with general powers or duties. Iowa.- Has no State Board of Charities. Has a State Board of Health, with ample power. Kansas.-Has a State Board of Trustees of institutions, which controls the benevolent institutions of the State, also a State Board of Health. Kentucky.- Has no State Board of Charities. Has a State Board of Health. Louisiana.- No State Board of Charities. There is in New Orleans a Prison Commission, with supervisory powers only. Maine.- No State Board of Charities. A committee of six trustees, five men and one woman, appointed by the governor, have general control of State penal and charitable affairs. Massachusetts.- Has a State Board of Lunacy and Charity, with full supervisory and considerable executive functions, also a Prison Commission and a State Board of Health. Michigan.-Has a State Board of Charities and Correction, having advisory supervision of State and county penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions; also a State Board of Health. Minnesota.- Has a State Board of Charities and Correction, with advisory supervision of State, county, and municipal charitable and correctional affairs; also a State Lunacy Commission, with powers of inspection. Missouri.-No general State Board. Each State institution has its own board of management. A committee of the legislature, to visit institutions during the interim between biennial sessions, is appointed by the governor. Montana.- Has no State Board of Charities. The Department of State has charge of the several boards of institutions; and there is also a Board of Pardons, consisting of the Secretary of State, AttorneyGeneral, and State Auditor. Nebraska. No State Board of Charities. The institutions are under the control of the State Board of Public Lands and Buildings, consisting of the Secretary of State, Attorney-General, State Treas
Page 256 256 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. urer, and Commissioner of Public Lands and Buildings; except a Home for Friendless and an Industrial School, which are under joint management of above Board and a Woman Board of Associated Charities. New Jersey.- There is no active State Board of Charities. A Council of Charities and Correction, with little appropriation, is inoperative. The State Board of Health inspects the sanitary condition of all the institutions. There is a State Charities Aid Association, voluntary, but authorized by Supreme Court to visit and investigate charitable and penal affairs. The State Charities Aid Association contributes a very full and useful report, which is used in the following pages, as well as that from our Corresponding Secretary. New York.-Has a State Board of Charities, a Superintendent of State Prisons, a Commission in Lunacy, a Factory Inspector, a Board of Mediation and Arbitration, and a Bureau of Labor Statistics. North Carolina. — Has a Board of Public Charities, with supervisory powers. NVorth Dakota.- Has no Board of State Charities. Each institution has its local board. Ohio:- Has a Board of State Charities, with advisory supervision over public charitable and correctional institutions. Ontario.- No Provincial Board. The lunatic asylums and central prison are managed by inspectors. The Inspector of Prisons seems to perform some of the functions usually expected of a State Board of Charities. Oregon.- Has a State Board of Charities just beginning its work. Pennsylvania.- Has a State Board of Public Charities, with advisory supervision over public charitable and correctional affairs. Rhode Island. —No Board of State Charities proper. A Board of State Charities and Correction has direct charge of State Prison, Providence County Jail, State Almshouse, State Asylum for the Insane, and State Reform School; also has some other duties. Besides this Board there is a Board of Control of the State Home and School, and another Board of Control of the Institution for the Deaf, South Dakota.- A State Board of Charities and Correction has direct charge of the management of the State institutions only. No other supervising board. Tennessee.- No State Board of Charities. Each institution has its separate board of control.
Page 257 REPORTS FROM STATES. 257 Ti'xas.- No State Board of Charities. Each institution has its own board of control. Utah.- No State Board of any kind. Vermont.-No State Board of Charities. There is a Board of Supervision of the Insane. Wyoming.- A State Board of Charities and Reform has charge of insane, prisoners, and dependants, and is a joint Board of Control of the institutions. No supervising board. GENERAL AGENCIES FOR THE COLLECTION OF STATISTICS OF THE DEPENDENT, DELINQUENT, AND DEFECTIVE CLASSES. Alabama.- Some reports are annually made to the governor. Arizona.- Reports are annually rendered to the governor of the Penitentiary and the Insane Asylum. These are printed biennially. Colorado.-The State Board of Charities and Correction is about to begin the regular collection and compilation of such statistics. District of Columbia.-Reports are received by the District Auditor. Delaware.- No general agency of the kind. Florida.- The Commissioner of Agriculture receives reports from State institutions only. Georgia.- Reports are received from State asylums only. Illinois.- Reports from State institutions are received by the State Commissioners of Public Charities and from the Penitentiary and State Reformatory by the governor. No reports are received from counties, cities, or towns; but information is gathered biennially by the assistant secretary of the State Board, and published by it. Indiana.- Reports are received and filed by the Board of State Charities, as follows: from the hospitals for insane, a monthly report, by name, of patients received and discharged; from all State charitable and correctional institutions, a quarterly report of expenditures and of inmates by number; also, quarterly report from the county poor asylums of their inmates admitted and discharged, by name; annual reports of the county expenditures for poor relief, expense of asylum, children's homes, jails, and similar expenditures. The records of patients in hospitals for insane and inmates of poor asylums are kept in alphabetical card catalogues. It is intended to extend the system until one general alphabetical card catalogue includes the names of all inmates of State and county institutions, with supplementary catalogues by classes, such as "Insane," " Orphans," "Prisoners," etc.
Page 258 258 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Indian Territory.- No reports received. Iowa.- Reports received from State institutions only. Kansas.- State Auditor receives reports from charitable institutions. Kentucky.- No reports except those of institutions to the State Auditor. Louisiana.- Only of the Charity Hospital and the Insane Asylum. Maine.- Reports are made to the governor and council. Massachusetts- Reports are received by the State Board of Lunacy and Charity and by Prison Commissioners. MAfichigan.- Reports from. State institutions to Auditor-General, monthly. From county institutions to Secretary of State, annually. Quarterly reports from insane asylums and annual reports from poorhouses to Board of State Charities and Correction. Minnesota. —Full reports of State, county, and municipal charities and correction are received by the State Board of Charities and Correction. Missouri.- The Auditor of State publishes an annual report of the amounts appropriated by the State. No other general statistics. Montana.- Some reports are received by the Department of State. Nebraska.- Only statistics of State institutions are kept. New York. —The Secretary of State receives reports from the counties, showing the number of paupers, both town and county, number of persons temporarily relieved, expenses connected with county poorhouses, expense of administering temporary relief, value of poorhouse establishments, etc. Similar returns are made to the State Board of Charities; and to the latter reports are also made of expenditures of all State charitable and reformatory institutions, and of all orphan asylums, homes for the friendless, hospitals, and dispensaries. Reports of expenditures of State prisons are made to the Superintendent of State Prisons. Expenditures on behalf of immigrants are reported to the State Board of Charities. North Carolina. —The State Board of Public Charities is collecting some statistics of the kind. North Dakota.-Only State institutions report their expenses to the capitol. Ohio.- Statistics of all State and county charities and correction are received by the State Board of Charities. Ontario.- The Inspector of Prisons receives reports from the hospitals, jails, refuges, and orphanages yearly.
Page 259 REPORTS FROM STATES. 259 Oregon.-None, so far. The State Board of Charities and Correction will have reports. Pennsylvania.-All persons having oversight of the poor in all cities and counties of the State, all those having charge of penitentiaries, reformatories, and county jails, and all those having charge of any charitable, reformatory, or correctional institution, are required to report to the general agent of the Board of Public Charities, at such time and in such manner as he shall prescribe. Rhode Island.- The only reports are those made annually, in print, to the legislature. South Dakota. —Reports are received by the governor only for those who are maintained at State expense. Tennessee.- No reports received except of State institutions by the Secretary of State. Texas.- Only reports from the State institutions. Utah. —The superintendents of insane asylums, Reform School, and School for Deaf report to the legislature. No other reports are made to the Territorial authorities. Vermont.- Reports are received by the State Auditor. Wyoming.- No reports of the kind received. EXPENSES OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS, HOW APPORTIONED. Alabama.-The insane are supported in full by the State, also the deaf and dumb and the blind. Paupers and other dependants are supported by the counties in which they reside. Arizona.- Felons are maintained in the Penitentiary by the Territory; their transportation there, by the counties in which they are convicted. Insane, same plan. For lesser crimes confined in county jails. No systematic care of paupers. Counties act singly. Colorado. —The insane in the hospital are supported by the State; those in poorhouses, etc., by the counties. The Industrial School for Boys, Institution for the Deaf and Blind, Penitentiary, and Soldiers' and Sailors' Home receive State support. Paupers are supported by the counties. District of Columbia.- Federal government contributes to hospitals, and provides for education of dependent blind. District government provides for all other classes, placing many in federal institutions and paying pro rata for their support. Florida. —The State supports those in the State institutions. The counties support the paupers.
Page 260 260 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Georgia.- All insane supported by the State. Each county provides for its paupers. Illinois.- Inmates of State institutions are maintained wholly by the State, except a trifling charge for clothing and other incidental personal expenses. The counties construct and maintain the jails and almshouses, except in a few counties where the towns are charged with the actual cost of maintaining their respective paupers. Outdoor relief is furnished by towns to a slight degree. The counties pay for clothing, etc., for indigent inmates in State institutions. They also pay a fixed charge per month for the maintenance of boys and girls committed to the industrial schools by the courts. These industrial schools are conducted by private corporations. The city of Chicago maintains a House of Correction. The State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home is supported by the State, the United States paying about half the per capita cost. Penitentiaries and reformatories are supported by the State. Indiana.- Inmates of State benevolent institutions are maintained by the State, except as to clothing and transportation, which is paid by the friends or by counties. About fourteen per cent. of the insane are in county poor asylums at the expense of the counties, the remainder in State hospitals at State expense. The arrangements for the care of the chronic insane are in a condition of transition from county to complete State care. Convicts in State Prison are self-supporting under contract labor. The reformatories for boys and girls are controlled by the State, but half the expense is paid pro rata of the inmates sent by the counties from which they come. The paupers in poor asylums are supported by the counties, also the jails and workhouses. Outdoor relief is administered by township trustees, but is a charge on the county funds. Dependent children in orphans' homes are supported by the counties, except those in the State Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, and those in private, church, or endowed orphanages. Indian Territory.- No provision for care of such persons, except insane in Cherokee district, which has a small building where twenty can be cared for. Iowa.- Counties support all dependants who have legal residence. Inmates of State penitentiaries are supported by the State, jails by counties. All paupers are county charges. Insane in State institutions who have legal residence are paid for by the counties from which they are sent. The county authorities collect where families are:
Page 261 REPORTS FROM STATES. 26I able to pay, otherwise the county provides. Non-resident insane are State charges. Kansas.- The State supports insane, in asylums or by repayment to counties for expense occurred, at fifty cents per day. Kentucky. —The insane are cared for by the State, the poor by the counties. A deplorable system of allowing seventy-five dollars per year to be paid to the parents or guardians of an idiot is the source of much extravagance and abuse, and militates against the success of the State School for the Feeble-minded, which stands in immediate peril of dissolution at every session of the legislature. Maine.- "Only insane persons when in insane hospitals are supported by the State, and then only when they have no 'pauper settlements' in any town in the State. All others are supported by the towns where they happen to be then in distress, unless they happen to have settlement in some other town in the State. The State supports no paupers outside of plantations. " Massachusetts. - All paupers having a settlement in a town are supported by the town. All others are supported by the State. Michigan. —The insane in the State asylums are supported by their respective counties for two years, and then transferred to State support. Such as have no legal settlements are supported from the first by the State. The jails and poorhouses are constructed and maintained by the respective counties. There are a very few exceptions, however, to the county support of inmates in poorhouses, a few counties having the township system. The law provides that either may be adopted, the matter being left with County Boards of Supervisors. Lock-ups are supported by the cities in which they are, and Detroit maintains a House of Correction. Other counties may send their prisoners to this institution if they have a contract with it, and pay for the board of short-time prisoners to be sent. Prisons and reformatories for juvenile offenders are maintained entirely by the State, as is also the State Public School, School for the Blind, and School for the Deaf, except in the case of the two last named, the expense of clothing patients is charged back to the counties. (See also indigent and pauper insane under " Insanity" etc.) Minnesota.- All insane cared for by the State, no charge to counties or individuals. Delinquents cared for by the State, except inmates of county jails and municipal lock-ups and workhouses. Deaf, blind, and feeble-minded cared for by the State, except a charge back upon parents or counties for clothing and transporta
Page 262 262 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. tion. Paupers are a charge upon the several counties in sixty counties. In about twenty counties they are a charge upon the townships, villages, or cities. No State paupers. Missouri.- Report not clear on this head. The State supports schools for the blind and deaf and asylums for the insane, counties and cities paying for the care of their insane in the State asylums. Incorporated cities support poorhouses, hospitals, and insane asylums. St. Louis City maintains an insane asylum, receiving some aid from the State; also two hospitals, a poorhouse, a workhouse, and a house of refuge, with an aggregate of about 2,500 inmates. Montana.- Each county takes care of its own poor and dependants. The insane are sent to the State asylum. New Jersey.- Some counties have county houses, others support by townships. There are eight county (lunatic) asylums, and two owned by the State. The State appropriates two dollars per capita per week for patients in county asylums, and one dollar per capita for each county patient in State asylums. The counties pay the remainder. The State provides for the support and clothing of insane convicts in the State asylums and pays the salaries of the officers. No report as to other institutions. New York. —The State maintains in institutions the blind, deaf and dumb, idiots and feeble-minded youth, juvenile offenders, criminals, and " State paupers" (these in selected county poorhouses). The State also maintains a Soldiers' and Sailors' Home. Counties maintain the dependent insane partly in State institutions and partly in county poorhouses and poorhouse asylums. (This has been changed as fast as the law enacted in I890, placing insane under State maintenance, has been applied. It is expected that after Oct. i, I892, all the pauper and indigent insane will be removed from the poorhouses and become a State charge, except in New York and Kings Counties.) For dependent adult blind, deaf and dumb, idiots and epileptics, there is no public provision but in county poorhouses, except that in New York City twenty thousand dollars are annually distributed pro rata among the adult blind, of good character, who have not been inmates of public institutions. The counties maintain their own paupers. The "township system" is adopted in some counties, and prevails more or less in most of them. The reformatory institutions are maintained by the State. Tramps, when sent to the Penitentiary, are maintained at the expense of the State. North Carolina.-The report is not clear on this head. The State
Page 263 REPORTS FROM STATES. 263 makes a small annual appropriation in aid of the asylums for orphans, supports an institution for the deaf and one for the blind. Has leased land to employ convicts in farming. North Dakota.-All insane committed to the State hospital, and convicts sent to the Penitentary, are at the expense of the State, no account being kept with the separate counties. Ohio. —State makes provision as follows: for insane, imbecile, deaf-mute, blind, soldiers' and sailors' orphans, juvenile offenders of both sexes, and criminals. The institutions for above-named classes are maintained at State expense, but bills for clothing and travelling expenses of inmates (except of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home and the Penitentiary) are certified back to the counties for payment. The counties make provision for the dependent poor, also for insane, imbeciles, and epileptic, when such are for any reason ineligible for admittance to State institutions. The council of any city or village has power under the law "to establish, erect, and maintain houses of refuge and correction, and workhouses." Ontario.- The Province maintains the pauper insane in the six asylums of the Province. Many of the harmless insane are supported by the municipalities in poorhouses, and in some cases, unfortunately, in the county jails in counties where there are no poorhouses. The municipalities maintain the sick and dependent, but the government assists pro rata. Oregon.- State supports insane, and maintains also schools for the blind and deaf, and a Reform School; also appropriates money to two orphan asylums and refuge home. Each county supports its own poor, on a poor-farm or by binding out or by outdoor relief. A few towns extend charitable aid, but it is purely voluntary. The support of the insane and indigent is by law committed to the State and the counties. Pennsylvania.-The State erects penitentiaries, and pays the salaries of their officers. The counties pay for the maintenance therein of their convicts, and all expense of county jails. The same rule applies to reformatories. The State pays for the education and support during youth of the blind, deaf, and feeble-minded. It also erects hospitals for the insane, and, after the counties have paid one dollar and seventy-five cents per week for each inmate received therefrom, pays a balance not to exceed two dollars per week. The State supports two hospitals in the anthracite mining, and four in the bituminous mining regions, for injured persons. All paupers are sup-,1 --
Page 264 264 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. ported by their respective counties. The legislature makes many appropriations to private charitable institutions. Rhode Island.- The cities and towns support the paupers having legal settlement therein who are not insane. The State supports all others. The State, however, does not furnish outdoor relief. Cities and towns bear the burden of expense attending violation of their ordinances. The State bears the expense of other crimes and misdemeanors. South Dakota.- Counties care for their own paupers. Criminals are at State expense. Counties are charged sixteen dollars per month for each inmate of the insane hospitals they send. The remaining expense is defrayed by the State. Tennessee.- The State supports the insane, the deaf and dumb and the blind asylums, the Industrial School in the proportion of i for every I,Ioo of the scholastic population, the prisoners in the Penitentiaries, and the Confederate Home. In the case of the insane the State supports i for each 4,000 of the population. The insane are cared for as above, and all paupers are cared for and supported by the counties. The Penitentiary is run under the lease system. Texas.- Paupers and insane are cared for by the counties until the insane are sent to the asylums. Then the State is at all the expense. Towns do nothing directly. Utah.- The Territory pays the expenses of the insane asylums and reform schools. The counties and cities pay for the support of a few paupers. There is very little public charity in Utah. The United States government pays for all criminals sent to the Penitentiary. Prisoners in city or county jails are supported by the city or county. Vermont. —Insane paupers are wholly supported, when in the asylums, by the State; when out of the asylums, by the towns to which they belong. There are no county charges. Wyoming.- Insane, dependants, delinquents, and criminals are supported by the State; the insane by a special tax, others by a general appropriation, all under the control of State Board of Charities. STATISTICS OF THE INSANE FOR ONE YEAR. When general statistics are kept, other than those of individual institutions, the same is specified. Any special information is appended.
Page 265 REPORTS FROM STATES. 265 Alabama.-Insane in institutions, whole number for the year, 1,330; average, I,1I5; maintenance cost, $124,267.44. Pay patients in State institutions, 47. None in private institutions, none in county or town institutions, none boarded out. Arizona.-Whole number in institutions, 115; average, 81.8; maintenance cost, $25,372.42. All insane are in the Territorial asylum. The capacity of the building is I50 patients. Attached to the insane asylum is a farm of i60 acres, which is being brought to a high state of cultivation by those patients capable of outdoor labor, and is becoming a factor in the maintenance of the institution. Colorado.-Whole number, 296; average, 286; maintenance cost, $48,698.63, or $170.27 per capita. All in the State institution. Connecticut.-Total patients in State hospital May i, 1892, 1,498. Eight private asylums. Number of patients not given. District of Columbia.-Whole number in institutions, I,857; average, I,505; maintenance cost, $349,505.98, or $232.23 per capita. None in private or other institutions. Tower Building for the sick among the inmates at the Government Hospital for Insane now complete, Ioo beds. Howard Hall for the criminal and dangerous classes of the insane is being completed. Its plan is a quadrilateral building enclosing open grounds. Capacity, 120 single rooms. Management of Government Hospital for the Insane is asking Congress to appropriate for a building for I50 of the epileptic insane, 125 of this class at present mingling with other insane, to their detriment. Delaware.- Whole number in State hospital, 262; average, 182, including 13 pay patients; maintenance cost, $25,ooo. No county, town, or private institutions. No insane boarded out. Florida.-Whole number, 3I3. Georgia.-Whole number in State hospital, I,580; average, I,530, including 25 pay patients. Illinois.- Whole number in State, estimated, 7,592; average, estimated, 5,987; maintenance cost, $792,385.58. Average in State institutions, 3,837; cost, $586,843.50. Average in county institutions, estimated, 2, Io; estimated cost, $205,540.00. Average in private institutions, 64; estimated cost, $20,000. None in public institutions at private cost (pay patients). None boarded out at public expense. Insane in county institutions are in poorhouses, some of which have separate insane departments.
Page 266 266 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Indiana. —Whole number in institutions, 3,863; average, 2,841; maintenance cost, estimated, $64I,960.59. Average number in State institutions, 2,441; cost, $534,598.59. Average number in county institutions, 400; cost, $29,999.40. Cost to counties of conveyance, inquests, etc., $107,362. Average number in private institutions, 12. No pay patients in State hospitals. No insane boarded out at public expense. Insane in county institutions are in poorhouses. General statistics of insane in institutions are collected, compiled, and published by Board of State Charities. Indian Territory.- Whole number in institution, 6; maintenance cost, $2,000. None boarded out, none in county institutions, etc. The only provision for insane is made by the Cherokee nation for Cherokees. Iowa. —Whole number in institutions, 2,761; average, 2,690. Average number in State institutions, 1,887; cost, $649,305.54, including 63 pay patients. Average number in county institutions, 803. None in private institutions, none boarded out. There are fourteen county asylums mostly in connection with poor-farms. The rest are in poorhouses. Kansas.- Average number in State institutions, 1,262;' maintenance cost, $20I,06I.43; per capita, $160.75. Insane in care of counties or towns are kept generally in county poorhouses or jails. None are boarded out at public expense. Kentucky.-"A mistaken notion of economy has reduced the per capita for the support of the lunatic asylums, and the number of attendants has necessarily been reduced, and the wages paid cannot secure the best service." Louisiana.-Whole number in institutions, 654. Maintenance cost of State hospitals, $71,016.73. Some insane are in county poorhouses. The city of New Orleans sometimes sends some to the Louisiana Retreat,.a Catholic asylum. " Here, as in many other States, it is as yet not understood that an insane person is a patient, and not a criminal. Maine.- Whole number in State institutions, 667; average, 649, including 53 pay patients; maintenance cost, $189,512.36. No statistics as to county institutions. None boarded at public expense. "The probability is that about one-half the insane are maintained at the hospital: the remainder - many of whom are mildly insane - are taken care of at home or in the various almshouses."
Page 267 REPORTS FROM STATES. 267 Massachusetts. —Whole number in institutions, 7,438; average, 5,568, including 481 pay patients; maintenance cost, $1,o08,630. Average number in State institutions, 4,140; cost, $735,474. Average number in town institutions, 1,186; cost, $162,829. Average number in private institutions, 242; cost, $210,327. Of the insane in care of towns, an average number of 778 are in town almshouses, 2,666 in lunatic hospitals. Insane boarded out at public expense, average number, I89; cost, $29,17I. General statistics of the insane are compiled by the Board of Lunacy and Charity. Michigan.- Whole number in institutions, 4,002; average, 3,366. Average number in State institutions, 2,872; cost, $562,10.I.7, including 202 pay patients. Average number in county institutions, 332. Average number in private institutions, I62. None are boarded out at public expense. The insane in care of the counties are kept in poorhouses, except in Wayne County (Detroit), where is a good asylum building with 187 inmates. General statistics of State, county, and private institutions are compiled by the Board of Corrections and Charity. The asylums for the insane are more than full. Some counties are making contracts with the one R. C. Asylum to care for their insane, and the jails are being used for the temporary confinement of the insane. The following distinction exists between indigent and pauper insane in Michigan. When a person in indigent circumstances becomes insane, application may be made in his behalf to the judge of probate of the county where he resides for admission to a State asylum. The judge investigates (under careful provision of law) the facts as to his insanity and also his indigency. If, after careful investigation, in the presence of the prosecuting attorney of the county and of the supervisor of the township or alderman of the ward in which such insane person resides, such insane person is adjudged indigent, the judge reports such fact to the supervisor of the county, who is required to raise money requisite to meet the expenses of the support of such insane person. In the case of a pauper insane, the superintendent of the poor, or supervisor, shall make application to the judge of probate, who investigates the question of insanity only, issues his order for admission (if the facts warrant it), and reports to the supervisor, same as in the case of an indigent. Minnesota. —Whole number in State institution, 2,639; average, 2,032; maintenance cost, $370,000. None in county or town institutions. None boarded out. None in private institutions. General
Page 268 268 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. statistics of the insane are compiled by the Board of Corrections and Charities. Missouri.-Total number of inmates in three State asylums, 1,4 1. No statistics as to cost. Montana.- All the insane are in the State asylum. Nebraska. — No statistics, except of appropriations. See "Appropriations." Nezw Jersey.- Whole number at end of year in institutions, 2,701. Number in State institutions at end of the year, 1,578. Number in county institutions at end of the year, I,123. No statistics of cost. (See report on apportionment of expenses on a previous page.) These figures given are of those in special asylums. There are some others in poorhouses. None are boarded out. VNew York.-Whole number in institutions Oct. i, I891, 16,647. Average number in State institutions, 6,508; cost, $1,643,400, including about 500 pay patients. Number in county or town institutions October i, estimated, 8,612. Cost is estimated at about $2.25 per week per capita. Number in private institutions October i, 835. The insane in care of counties are partly in poorhouses and partly in asylums for the insane. They are now being removed to State hospitals as fast as accommodations are ready. None (or very few) boarded out at public expense. The legislature of I891 appropriated nearly half a million dollars to carry the " State Care of the Insane" Act into effect, by providing additional accommodations on the grounds of the existing State hospitals. The insane are being removed as the additional buildings are ready; and, when all have been removed from the county poorhouses and asylums, the maintenance of the insane becomes a State charge. At present the State erects buildings and pays only salaries, repairs, etc., charging the counties a certain amount per capita for maintenance. Female physicians have been appointed in most of the State hospitals, under an act of I890. The State Asylums for the Insane have been changed in name to State Hospitals. The distinction between the acute and chronic insane has been removed by the State Care Act; and all hospitals receive and care for all classes of the insane, each within its own district. North Dakota.-Whole number in State institutions, 320; average, 227, including 2 pay patients; maintenance cost, $57,300. None in county or town institutions. None boarded out. All are sent direct to the State hospital.
Page 269 REPORTS FROM STATES. 269 Ohio.-Whole number in institutions for year, 7,752; average, 6,291; maintenance cost, $85I,450.06. Average number in State institutions, 5,289; cost, $758,264.06. Average number in county institutions, I,003; cost, $93,186. Average number in private institutions, no data. Insane in county institutions are maintained in county infirmaries (poorhouses). None are boarded out. General statistics of the insane are compiled by the Board of State Charities. Ontario.-Whole number in State institutions, 4,972; average, in State institutions, 3,898; cost, $544,633, including 577 pay patients. In county or town institutions, very few. In private institutions, less than fifty. None boarded out at public expense. The insane in care of counties or towns are in poorhouses, and in some cases in jails, where there are no poorhouses. General statistics are compiled by the Government Inspector of Asylums. At the Toronto Asylum the cottage system is being adopted. The Prison Reform Commissioners recommend a more prompt removal of the insane from the jails to the provincial asylums, in cases suitable for asylum treatment. They also recommend that the erection of poorhouses be made compulsory on the part of the counties, and that the quiet and harmless insane be transferred from the jails to the poorhouses Oregon.-Whole number in State institutions, 700; average, 670; maintenance cost, $85,ooo. None in county or town institutions. None boarded out. Very few in private institutions. The insane hospital has now 725 inmates, and has reached the limit of capacity. The subject of building another in the eastern part of the State is being discussed. Pennsylvania.-Whole number in institutions, 7,587; average, 7,125; maintenance cost, $I,I93,700. Number in State institutions, average, 5,I89; cost, $947,220, including 725 pay patients. Number in county institutions, average, 1,425; cost, $246,480. Number in private institutions, average, 575; cost, $297,665. The insane in care of counties are for the most part kept in asylums for the insane. About two hundred are boarded out, expense not given. General statistics of the insane are compiled by the Lunacy Committee of the Board of Public Charity. Rhode Island.-Whole number in institutions, 952; average, 7I5. Number in State institutions, average, 527. Number in private institutions, average, i88. Number in county institutions, none. No insane are boarded out.
Page 270 270 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. South Dakota.-Whole number in State institutions, 373; average, 277; maintenance cost, $66,ooo, or $238 per capita. None in county institutions. None in private institutions. None boarded out. Tennessee.-Whole number in institutions, 1,176; average, I,000; maintenance cost, $228,000. In State institutions, average number, 886; cost, $210,000, including 49 pay patients (this includes the estimated value of the farm products used). In county institutions, average, 290; cost, $18,000 (this is exclusive of farm products used). In private institutions, none. The insane in the care of counties are kept in poorhouses. There are 9 boarded out at public expense, at a cost of $6o per capita per annum. The State has four asylums of a total capacity of 1,200 to 1,500, three for white and one for colored insane. Counties can now erect asylums for insane. Davidson County is now doing so at large expense. In the asylums the whites and negroes are kept entirely separate, although under the same management and treatment. Every comfort and convenience given to one race is given to the other also. Texas.- Average number in State institution, 1,113; cost, $23I,392. No statistics as to county or other institutions. Insane are held in jails, without any regard to anything except safety, frequently a great length of time, awaiting room in the asylum. Meantime they get attention from the county physician, but their condition is often pitiable. Utah.-Whole number in State institution, I97; average, I41; maintenance cost of same, $30,879. None in county houses or private institutions. Vermont.- Whole number in institution, about 550; average, about 500, including about Ioo pay patients; maintenance cost, about $97,500. Average number in county institutions, unknown, not many. Average number in private institutions, about io. None boarded out. The insane in the care of the counties are kept in poorhouses. The only State asylum is the partially built one at Waterbury. The older asylum at Brattleboro is not strictly a State asylum, though it has hitherto served the State. Wyoming.-Whole number in State institution, 41; average, 27; maintenance cost, $9,780.12. None in any other institution, nor boarded, etc. None cared for by counties or towns.
Page 271 REPORTS FROM STATES. 27 THE PUBLIC POOR. Arizona.- "No systematic plans for the relief of the indigent have been instituted. In fact, our communities have not as yet felt the need. The Board of Supervisors have the power of especial donation, and exercise it, when needed, with the approval of the people. Three of the eleven counties maintain hospitals for the indigent sick. The others, through the supervisors, employ physicians and nurses as occasion demands." District of Columbia.- Whole number assisted by indoor relief in poorhouses, almshouses, hospitals for sick (omitting children and insane patients), 5,640; average number of the same, 729.I; total cost of the same (almshouses proper and medical charities), $I56,ooo. Something less than $i,ooo annually is distributed by the police in outdoor relief. Delaware.- Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, no records; total cost of the same, $28,ooo. Whole number by indoor relief, 624; daily average, 20; total cost of the same, $21,217.62. Number receiving outdoor relief, not known. Cost of outdoor relief, $6,782.38. Florida.-There appears to be no public poor relief in Florida. The Secretary reports that "the amount is not known, as it was extended by individuals." Georgia.- "Each county has a poorhouse: this is the home of all paupers in each county. The destitute are all provided for in some suitable way in our State." Illinois.-Total cost of indoor and outdoor relief, $2,436,438.20. Whole number aided by indoor relief, 2I,I63, estimated. The above number includes, estimated, 2,150 insane, and, estimated, 353 children in county poorhouses; average number of the same, 7,370, estimated; total cost of the same, $885,424, estimated. Cost of outdoor relief per annum, $648,596, estimated. Indiana.- Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, no statistics; total cost of the same, excluding cost of hospitals, $803,985.TI. Whole number aided by indoor relief, not known; average number of the same, including 400 insane and 432 children in poor asylums, 3,253. Number receiving outdoor relief, unknown. Cost of outdoor relief, $569,0I2. Indian Territory.- No public poor relief. All help is from private sources.
Page 272 272 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Iowa. No statistics are available. Kansas.-No statistics are available. Outdoor relief is provided by townships, the cost being refunded by counties, except where there is a county poorhouse. Louisiana.- There are no county institutions for relief in Louisiana. Massachusetts.- Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, 73,323; average number of the same, 31,542; total cost of the same, $2,251,26I. Whole number aided by indoor relief, II,766, including 963 insane, and, estimated, I,ooo children; average number of the same, 5,649; total cost of the same, $1,393,856. Whole number receiving outdoor relief, 55,03; average number of same, 21,598; cost of outdoor relief for the year, $857,405. Michigan.-Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, 48,194; total cost of the same, $870,722.63. Whole number aided by indoor relief, 5,265, including 135 insane and 396 children; average number of the same, 2,087; total cost of same, $255,460. Whole number receiving outdoor relief, 42,929; cost of outdoor relief, $4I0,321. Minnesota.-Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, 9,ooo; total cost of the same, $3II,200. Whole number aided by indoor relief including 6I children; poorhouses, 712; hospitals, I,513; total, 2,225. Average number of same: poorhouses, 385; hospitals, 121; total, 506. Total cost of same: poorhouses, $54,ooo00; hospitals, $3i,800; total, $85,800. Whole number receiving outdoor relief, estimated, 6,775; average number receiving outdoor relief, 5,100; cost of outdoor relief, $225,400. Missouri.- Apparently there is no system of official outdoor relief in this State. A full report is given of the work of the St. Louis Provident Association and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which seem to do the necessary outdoor relief work for the city of St. Louis. Montana.- Each county has a poorhouse and generally a county farm. When buildings are out of order, the poor are boarded in the town. Where husband and wife with young children need aid, it is supplied by outdoor relief, from county funds; and the family remain together. Among the benevolent institutions in Montana, St. Peter's Hospital in Helena, under the auspices of the Episcopal church, holds a high place. It is open to every creed and nationality,- a blessing to all Montana and for the afflicted strangers within our gates.
Page 273 REPORTS FROM STATES. 273 In 1864 the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity from Montreal opened a school for Indian girls at St. Ignatius, and also a hospital in Missoula in I873. The Sisters of Charity from Leavenworth opened a school, orphan asylum and hospital at Helena in 1864. In i88I they began St. James Hospital at Butte and a hospital at Deer Lodge. At the last named place they opened a school in 1882. The Catholic Sisters have now, besides the above, hospitals at Benton and Anaconda, and an orphanage now attached to the hospital at Helena. Number of orphans, 25. In Helena, Mont., is a Home for the Fallen, opened in I889. According to the State Constitution, the State, cities, towns, and districts are forbidden to make any appropriation in aid of any school controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination. New Jersey. —No statistics available. From the excellent report made to the Conference by the State Charities Aid Association of New Jersey the following is extracted: *"In the State are 41 almshouses of a public character. i2 are county almshouses, supported by a county tax. In 29 townships are township poorhouses, a few of which are private. Great abuses have existed in many of them. The work of this Association has nowhere shown better results. When investigations began, as a rule the almshouses were found to be dirty, with no sanitary regulations 6r conveniences, and no such thing as separation of sexes. The list of those included in tie above description is growing less every year. They are all perfect in their system of perpetuating pauperism. In these institutions can be found, at all times, able-bodied men and women. The Secretary of the Association says it would be well to abolish almshouses. The few that need care from the public would then be cared for by our religious societies. Extremely radical this may seem, but it will come. An act for the better regulation of the almshouses of the State was passed May 6, I889, and amended March 12, I89o, at the special request of the Association, calling for the complete separation of the sexes in all parts of the buildings and yards, an exception being made in favor of old married people living together as man and wife. It is found almost a Herculean task to enforce the requirements of this law. In the small almshouses, if possible, it will be evaded. *It is a matter of regret to this committee that it has not space to give the entire report of this Association, which is exercising many of the best functions of a Board of State Charities. The report comes with the authority of the Governor of New Jersey as well as that of the Association.
Page 274 274 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. " Undoubtedly, the jails, penitentiaries, and prisons receive their supply of criminals through the indirect influence of indiscriminate giving of outdoor relief. This way of giving the tax-payers' money is found in our large cities, by the recipient, such an easy affair that it leads to idleness and the grog-shop. Wife and children go to the almshouse, where the children receive an education, from association, which fits them only for lives of idleness; and from that to wickedness and vice is an easy and short step. Many cases which have come under the personal supervision of the Secretary show that the seeds of pauperism and crime were sown during the early part of this century by the indiscriminate giving of town relief. In the cities where such relief has been greatly reduced, the result has been good." New York.-Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, 2II,078; total cost, $3,480,143. Whole number aided by indoor relief, 79,540; total cost, $2,825,488. Whole number receiving outdoor relief, 131,538; total cost of same, $654,655. North Dakota. —No statistics available. A law was passed in session of I891-92, appropriating $7,ooo for State officers to expend in aid of those counties which had reached the limit of their indebtedness and were unable to care for their poor. Ohio.-Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, 81,456; total cost of same, $1,179,888.72. Number aided by indoor relief, in county infirmaries, 13,529, including I,171, insane and 1,409 children; average number of the same, 7,200; total cost of same, $736,606. Whole number receiving outdoor relief, 67,927; cost of outdoor relief, $443,282. During the decade ending with i890 the population of the State increased by I4.83 per cent. For a corresponding period, ending I891, the expenditure for outdoor relief increased by 62.54 per cent. Ontario.- Whole number aided by indoor relief, 13,588, including 3,907 children; average number of same, 2,249; total cost of the same, $391,95i. No outdoor relief given directly by public funds. The work is done by charitable societies, aided by grants from the municipalities. This is more particularly the case in the large cities of the province. In Toronto the relief societies co-operate by means of a Board of Associated Charities representing all relief societies. Oregon.- Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, 900; average number of same, 300; total cost of same, $75,ooo. Number aided by indoor relief, 300, including 20 children, no insane; aver
Page 275 REPORTS FROM STATES. 275 age number of same, Ioo; total cost of same, $15,000oo. Number receiving outdoor relief, 6oo; average number of same, 200; total cost of outdoor relief, $6o,ooo. Pennsylvania.- Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief: in almshouses, 23,011; by outdoor relief in almshouse districts, 19,590; township poor not in almshouse districts, 4,946; hospitals and homes, 13,708; total, 6I,255. Cost of same: almshouses and outdoor relief, $2,I62,863; hospitals and homes, $4,200,000; total, $6,362,863. Number aided by indoor relief: almshouses, 23,011; hospitals and homes, 13,078; total, 36,089, including children in almshouses, I88i, 9,381, and in hospitals and homes, 7,500. Cost of same: almshouses, $I,I35,46i; hospitals and homes, $4,200.00; total, $5,335,461. Number receiving outdoor relief, 24,536; cost of outdoor relief, $283,010. This does not (apparently) include the township's relief of those not in almshouse districts. The above figures do not include vagrants. During the year ending Sept. 30, I891, 37,117 vagrants were assisted by meals, lodgings, transportation, etc. NOTE.- The above figures as to hospitals and homes belong doubtfully under this heading, hence they are given separately. The number of children reported in almshouses does not seem consistent with the law regarding dependent children quoted under the next heading. South Dakota.- No statistics available. Tennessee.- Whole number aided by indoor and outdoor relief, 4,025, estimated; total cost of the same, $198,000, estimated. Number aided by indoor relief, 2,042; total cost of same, $113,700. Number receiving outdoor relief, I,985; cost of outdoor relief, $84,300. Texas.-Counties usually have a poor-farm, and it is let to the lowest bidder per capita of paupers to be maintained. No insane are sent to poor-farms. Some idiots are sent to them. Utah.- Utah Territory makes no provision for paupers except the pauper insane. In the cities and larger towns the municipal authorities give outdoor relief in exceptional cases and to a limited extent. The same is true of a few counties, but there is nothing that can be called a system of relief. Two of the counties have poorhouses. Their inmates are either very old or are feeble-minded children and young people. The oldest organized charity in Utah is the Female Relief Society of the Mormon Church. This society was formed I
Page 276 276 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. before the Mormons crossed the Missouri, and was put in working order in Utah soon after the settlement of the Territory. As the whole of Utah is divided into Bishop's Wards, and the society has a branch in every ward, the poor who are members of the Mormon Church are not supposed to need any other help than that furnished by the Relief Society. But this supposition is not borne out by the facts. The objects of the society are to give temporary relief to the destitute Mormons, to care for the aged poor, to care for the sick and bury the dead. It has other objects also, such as raising money for building temples, storing grain for years of famine, etc. I am unable to give any statistics of the work of the society for the past year. The only unsectarian charities I am able to report are the Young Ladies' Aid Society and the Orphans' Home and Day Nursery. The Aid Society is composed of young women, most of them members of wealthy families, who have devoted themselves to the work of seeking out and caring for the aged poor and of helping widows with young children. The society has other beneficiaries, but its work is chiefly among the classes named. The expenditure of money by the society represents only a small part of the good accomplished by it. Its members give their personal services whenever and wherever needed, in caring for the sick, finding work for the unemployed, and visiting the poor at their own homes. One day in each month is set apart by the president and secretary for receiving the poor people they aid at the home of one or the other; and this day is made pleasant in every way that they can devise for the guests who have so few pleasant days. The funds needed to carry on the work of the society are furnished by voluntary contributions. During I89I the society has had an average of thirty families monthly under its care. It has expended less than $I,500 in money, or its equivalent, during the year for these families, the object being to aid, not to pauperize them, to relieve temporary distress, and then help them to help themselves. The Hebrews, the Catholics, and each of the Protestant denominations represented in Utah have aid societies that furnish outdoor relief to the poor. There are three hospitals in the Territory, all of them in Salt Lake. St. Mark's Hospital (Episcopal), Hospital of the Holy Cross (Catholic), and Deseret Hospital (Mormon). These hospitals were established in the order named, St. Mark's having been opened in I873. They are not, strictly speaking, charitable institutions. Most of the patients pay for care and treatment, but a limited number of charity
Page 277 REPORTS FROM STATES. 277 patients are received at each hospital. The Hospital of the Holy Cross, the largest and best equipped of the three, cares for a large number of outdoor charity patients. Perhaps the most hopeless paupers in Utah are the wandering Indians, scattered remnants of tribes that have almost ceased to exist. These unfortunates, as far as my knowledge extends, receive no care from the government or from any other source. They hunt and fish a part of the year, and the women and children beg from door to door. The Governor of the Territory has made repeated reports of their condition to the Secretary of the Interior, and it is hoped that the authorities at Washington will act upon the information furnished. DEPENDENT CHILDREN SUPPORTED BY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CHARITY. Arizona.-No provision made for this class, and as yet no need for it. Connecticut. —Eight county temporary homes for dependent, neglected, and abused children are doing as good work as their most sanguine advocates predicted for them. Fifty per cent. of the children in homes are located in private families each year. The law forbidding children over two years of age to be in almshouses has operated to largely depopulate the almshouses of the State, not many more than one-half the number, even of adult inmates, of ten years ago being found in the almshouses on a recent visitation. District of Columbia.- Total number in institutions or boarded out, I,200, estimated; average number, I,077; cost of same, $0o7,084, estimated. Average number supported entirely by private charity, 432; number boarded out, average, 25 infants; cost of same, $io per capita per month, not including cost of supervision. This is done by St. Ann's Infant Asylum, managed by Catholic Sisters. The insti. tution receives $6,500 per annum from public funds. Only nursing white infants boarded out, mostly with wet-nurses, usually colored. Children's Aid Society, a private institution, places children in homes outside District, but not very far away. The above covers the work of 15 private institutions. There is no strictly public institution for the care of dependent children in the District. Of the I5 above mentioned, 10, having an average population of 645 children, receive public subsidies to the amount of $54,000 per annum. The subsidies are not directly proportioned to
Page 278 278 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the number of children cared for, nor to anything else. Of those receiving no public subsidy, 2 are Catholic, i is fully endowed, and the others are " non-sectarian," and supported by private contributions. Delaware. —Total number in institutions or boarded out, 286, estimated; average number of same, 210, estimated; cost of same, $o,000ooo, estimated. The children enumerated are in the Home for the Friendless and in orphanages conducted by the Catholic Sisters. The Home for the Friendless boards out a very few children (3 or 4) at a cost of $2.33 per capita per week. All the institutions place out the children in adoptive homes as far as possible. Florida. —An estimated number of 250 children are supported in various ways, chiefly by church societies. No precise statistics are available. About I50 children are annually located in adoptive homes. There is a State law regulating placing out, no particulars given. No general public registry kept. Georgia. —All our cities have homes for orphan children supported by charity. Some of the different churches have homes for orphan children, who are fed, clothed, and educated by the churches. Illinois. —Total number in public institutions, 2,125, estimated; average number in same, 1,673, estimated; cost of the same, $264,803, estimated. Average number in State institutions, 1,320. Average number in county institutions, 353 (these are children in poorhouses). No statistics as to private institutions, of which there are a number. The Protestant (non-sectarian?) institutions place children in homes as rapidly as possible. The Children's Home Society has branches in nearly every county in the State for this purpose, also correspondents in other States. Dependent and delinquent children are committed by the courts, at the instance of the Humane Society or other agency, to the care of the various private and semi-public institutions, the county from which they are sent paying for their care at the rate of $Ioo per capita per annum. This only applies in counties having contracts with the institutions for this work, and is limited in various ways. Indiana.-Average number in institutions, 2,779; cost of the same, $303,015, estimated. Average number in State institutions, 592. Average number in county institutions, 1,447, including 432 in county poor asylums. Average number in institutions supported by private charity, 740. A few children are boarded out by the Board of Children's Guardians of Marion County. Two orphans' homes send chil
Page 279 REPORTS FROM STATES. 279 dren to other States, placing by indenture or adoption. (There is some doubt as to the legality of this action.) An average number of perhaps 75 to Ioo are annually sent out of the State. About twice this number are annually received and placed out by indenture or adoption from States to the eastward, chiefly from Ohio, through the Children's Home of Cincinnati, and Massachusetts, through the New England Home for Little Wanderers. There is no State'law regulating this work, but the need of some legislation on the subject is beginning to be felt. Indian Territory.- Total number in institutions, 400; average, about the same; cost of the same, $40,000, estimated. Average number in State institutions, 300. Average number supported by private charity, Ioo. These are all supported by the Missionary Board. They are all orphan children of the five civilized tribes. Iowa.-Total number in State institutions, 400; cost of same, $89,1I2, estimated. Children are also cared for in several institutions supported by private charity. No statistics given. A few, of whom no records are kept, are boarded out by the poor-masters. The Children's Home Society finds homes in the State. Since November, i888, when it was organized, this society has placed 418 children, at an average total cost of $50 per capita, including careful after-supervision. No accurate registry of dependent children is kept, except of those placed by the Children's Home Society. Kansas.-Average number of children in State institutions, 522. No other information given. Louisiana.-There are in New Orleans 12, and in the State altogether 14, institutions taking care of sick, etc., and 84 eleemosynary institutions taking care of children and aged infirm. Maine.-Total number of institutions, 425; cost of the same, $2 per week per capita, estimated. There are very few children in poorhouses. All Maine institutions are supported in part by State appropriations, except "Good-will," a home for boys, which averages 25 inmates. Placing out, inside the State, is done by the Maine Women's Christian Temperance Union. None placed outside. Massachusetts.- Number of children in public institutions, 1,I31; boarded out, 250; placed out, 1,63I; total, 3,012. Average number of same, 2,277; cost of the same, estimated: in institutions, $3.59 per week per capita; boarded out, $2 per week per capita. Average number in State institutions, 635. No statistics as to the work of private charity.
Page 280 280 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Michigan.- Total number in institutions, etc., 1,244; average number, 512; estimated cost, $63,ooo. Average number in State institutions, I94. Average number in county or town institutions, none. Average number in institutions supported by private charity, 3 8. These include orphan asylums and homes for the friendless. None are supported exclusively by churches, none are endowed. None are boarded out, and none are sent to homes in other States. The law of Michigan prohibits dependent children being brought from other States for placing out. An agent in each county, appointed by the governor, supervises the work of placing. A perfect registry is kept at the State Public School; and perfect supervision is had of the children placed by the county agents, who visit the homes and report to the school. Many "misfits" are adjusted by Michigan's county agency system, and childless homes are provided with homeless children. Minnesota. —Total number in institutions, 1,195; average number in institutions, 750; estimated total cost, $93,000. Average number in State institutions, 122. Average number in county or town institutions, 20 in poorhouses. Average number in institutions supported by private charity, 628: endowed institution, Washburn Home, 83; Catholic institution, 345; Episcopal institution, 37; Lutheran institution, 41; Protestant institution, 122. Practically, none boarded out. Parents, guardians, and county commissioners are authorized to board out children under certain circumstances, but there is no public registry of such children. The board of managers of the State Reform School and the board of directors of the State Public School for Dependent Children have authority to place children in homes. In the latter institution a complete and satisfactory record is kept. The Children's Home Society places a good many children in homes, but it is not governed by any special legislation. In the State there is now adequate provision for every homeless and neglected child, except that our arrangements for placing out reform school children in homes are inadequate. Missouri.- No precise statistics given. A number of private and sectarian asylums in St. Louis are enumerated, with a total of 1,321 inmates; and it is added that there are at least as many more. Besides these should be mentioned the work of the day nurseries, Children's Aid Society, and others. Nebraska.-No general statistics in report. Special reports as to. the Reform School and Home for the Friendless. From the Reform
Page 281 REPORTS FROM STATES. 28i School, as to finding homes: " The chaplain goes through the State finding homes for those who have none, or none suitable, and not only finds the homes, but visits them afterwards to see that they are well cared for and well treated. This system has worked most satisfactorily, so much so that the demands for boys who are ready to go out from the school exceed the supply." Home for the Friendless: Number of children cared for in the past year, 243. Of this number 154 were surrendered and 89 bonded. Number placed in permanent homes, 60. The legislature empowered the Society of the Home for the Friendless to become the legal guardian of all the deserted or surrendered children in the State. All children belonging to the Home are placed in permanent homes for adoption as soon as suitable ones can be secured. A private record is kept in the institution of all children placed out. The private register consists of the records of adoption papers in the counties where adopting parties live. Three months' trial is given before adoption. The superintendent visits the home. Oversight is maintained after adoption. There is no organization for placing children outside of the State, for we can scarcely supply the Nebraska demand. One line of charity which this Home believes in is to encourage a poor mother to keep her children by boarding them for her very cheaply. She can then go out and earn a living, feeling that her children are well cared for, she giving in return the sum she is able. NAew Jersey.- No statistics available. One county has a Children's Home. There are many institutions of a private character, such as orphan asylums, children's homes, which do not reach the children most needing care; namely, the children of worthless parents, etc. It is proposed to create State or county industrial schools for such children, to which they can be sent without commitment (?), and from which they can be placed in good homes. New York.-Total number, etc., a slight increase only from last year. 23,000 children in institutions. New York City supports 14,000 at an expense of $1,500,000 in institutions controlled by private citizens. There are no State institutions, except for defectives. A few small institutions are supported by counties. The law forbids the detention of children over two years of age, except defectives, in poorhouses. The boarding out system prevails in one county, where about 30 are boarded at county expense in families. The Children's Aid Society, the New York Juvenile Asylum, and a few less important societies send children out of the State, chiefly to homes in the
Page 282 282 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. South and West. Average expense, about $25 per capita. There is no law placing restriction on placing out by Superintendents of the Poor or other officers. A form of indenture is prescribed, but no public registry, except the book of the Superintendent or Overseer of the Poor. Public subsidies to private institutions for children are yearly causing the number of dependent children to increase out of proportion to the increase of population, especially in New York 'City. Nort/h Carolina.-We have two asylums for orphans at Oxford,- to which the State makes a small appropriation annually,-one for colored orphans. Some of the churches maintain orphanages on a small scale, others send contributions to Oxford. North Dakota.- No general statistics. One school for dependent,children at Fargo, with about 30 inmates. There is a State branch of the Society for Relief of Dependent Children. Ohio.- Total number in public institutions, 4,691. No statistics as to private orphanages. Average of same, 3,760, including 425 children in poorhouses; cost of same, $339,808. Average in State institutions, 798. Average in county institutions, 2,337. Thirteen private homes report number of inmates 1,992. The statute makes it mandatory upon the trustees of children's homes to find suitable homes for children committed to their care, and provides that proper record of every such transaction be made and preserved. Ontario.- Total number in institutions, 3,907; average number in institutions, 1,859; estimated cost of same, $1I6,347. There are 26 orphanages, 9 of which are Roman Catholic, and 17 Protestant. The 'Ontario government give a pro rata grant to orphanages of about 10 cents per capita per day. Children are adopted into families, none boarded out. Children are brought out from England, and are pro-vided with homes either in Ontario or the North-west Provinces. The societies bringing them out exercise supervision. We have a good industrial school, on the cottage system, near Toronto, where 50o boys are kept. A Children's Aid Society has recently been organized in Toronto. Oregon.-Total number in institutions, 225; average number in in'stitutions, 175; cost of same, $25,ooo, estimated. All are in State institutions or receiving State aid. None in poorhouses. There are no institutions of the kind supported by private charity. All institutions for children receive State appropriations. None are sectarian, but some of the more important receive aid from private sources.
Page 283 REPORTS FROM STATES. 283 All organizations for charitable and benevolent purposes may take away children from persons who are abusing or neglecting them. The society may be given the control and possession of the children by the proper court upon proper application. Pennsylvana. —Total number in public institutions, etc., 9,394; average, 9,ooo; estimated cost, $99o,ooo. The above are in county or town institutions. Average number supported by private charity, 5,ooo; number boarded out, about 800; cost, about $2 per week. This is done by the Children's Aid Society of Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and other localities. The Children's Aid Society receives and supervises children sent from other States. No child between two and sixteen years of age (unless idiotic, etc.) is allowed to remain in almshouses or poorhouses. The law requires that such children be placed in homes or families in the respective counties. A registry is kept. South Dakota. —The State has no institution for dependent children. Tennessee.- Average number in institutions, 1,443; cost of the same, $157,000, estimated. Average number in State institutions, 573. This apparently includes the pupils in the schools for deaf and blind. In county or town institutions, none. There are no special institutions of this kind, and children are seldom permitted to stay in poorhouses. Average number in institutions supported by private charity, 870. The counties make regular donations toward the support of these institutions. Under the laws of Tennessee, when parents become county charges, their children may be taken and bound out or adopted into homes. The adoption system is the one most used. The demand for children is greater than the supply. Occasionally, citizens from other States apply to adopt children. This becomes a matter for the consideration of the city judge. When done, a record is made. Some other children from other States are received occasionally, when they are taken into institutions or provided with homes by the county judges. Records of adoption or indenture are carefully made; but occasionally a child may be taken to raise and educate by written agreement, witnessed without any court record. The State provides for only such dependent children as are wayward and incorrigible, deaf, dumb, and blind. The Tennessee Industrial School at Nashville, for the reformation of wayward boys and girls from eight to sixteen years of age, is supported by State donation, in the proportion of i to every i,Ioo of scholastic population of each county; the coun
Page 284 284 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. ties have the right to send additional children at the rate of $1oo per annum for each, and private persons can send children on the same terms. There are now 285 children in this school, —60 State and 125 county inmates, —233 white boys and 26 white girls and 26 colored boys. The reformatory for juvenile criminals has not yet been established; but the law authorizing it has passed, and we hope at an early day it will be erected. In all the charitable institutions in this State, both State, county, and private charities, the white and colored races are kept in separate institutions, and receive the same treatment and attention, and are under the same government. There are a large number of organized private charities for dependent children. Excellent work is being done by the efficient and worthy superintendent of the Nashville Relief Society in caring for, providing homes, and educating dependent children. It will suffice to state that many a helpless and destitute child has found a friend in need in her. I refer to Miss Fanny Battle. The numbers above mentioned as being in the institution by no means represent the number provided for during the year, which cannot be better stated for want of records; but it is as large as, or larger than, the number of children now remaining in the institutions. When in the capacity of county judge of the county, a much larger field for work in providing homes for dependent children and caring for wayward boys and girls has been opened up. And it has become my duty, as well as pleasure of heart and soul, to have provided, by adoption and as children in families, homes for I50 children within the past three years, and to have picked up from the streets of Nashville about 250 wayward boys and girls and sent them to the Industrial School. Other county officials have also sent about I50 to this school. And I am proud to note the fact that at least Ioo boys who have been sent out from this school during this time have come out reformed, and are making worthy men, occupying places of trust and profit. Texas.- One State orphan asylum has about 50 inmates supported at State expense. Three private orphans' homes have about 200 inmates supported by private donations. Extreme poverty, as in Eastern cities, is almost unknown in Texas. Children are sometimes left destitute, but they are soon taken up by individuals. Utah.-The Territory does nothing for dependent children. In the only counties that have poorhouses children are kept there with adults. It is proper to state that the number of dependent children
Page 285 REPORTS FROM STATES. 285 is small. We have no large cities, and in the country and small towns private charity is sufficient in most cases. There are two private orphanages; namely, the Orphans' Home and Day Nursery and St. Ann's Orphanage (Catholic). The former practises the placing out plan as much as possible. PRISONERS AND OTHER DELINQUENTS. Alabama.- Whole number in State Prisons, 3,382; average number in State Prisons: men, 1,775; women, 75,- I,850. Cost, nil,they pay a net profit. No reformatories or reform schools. No statistics as to jails and workhouses. The lease system is employed. The occupations are: farming, average number, 275; saw-milling, average number, 125; mining, average number, 1,450. The last legislature appointed a commission to report on a change to the public account system of labor and as to establishing reformatories. The report is to be made this fall. Arizona.- Average number in State Prisons,- men, I40; women, none; cost, over and above earnings, about $I.io per diem. Only one institution (the Penitentiary at Yuma) is maintained by the Territory. No labor is performed except what is actually needed by the prison to supply its wants. Each county has its jail (eleven in all), besides smaller ones for temporary detention at points remote from county seats. Colorado.- Prisoners: whole number in Penitentiary, 86; average, 532; cost above earnings, $79,8I9. Whole number in Reformatory, 39; cost above earnings, $11,258. Whole number in Reform School, 270; average, 157; cost above earnings, $32,500. Connecticut.- No statistics as to prisoners. The State Prison has been improved by enlarging and remodelling, but the number of inmates seems to have steadily decreased. Our county jails are full. Some have been improved: others need better facilities for cleanliness and classification. The Reform School for Boys has 434 inmates, committed for truancy and penal offences. The five cottages which have within the last few years been established near the Central Building are homelike. There are no gratings at the windows, guards are dispensed with, and, to use the superintendent's own words, "The boys are held in their places by kindness and home influences instead of bolts, bars, and high fences." The In
Page 286 286 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. dustrial School for Girls has about 200 inmates, committed as wayward and viciously inclined. Education is more carefully attended to than formerly. The cooking school supplements the work of the cottages in that direction. The placing out system obtains; and good work is done by its agent, who reports that she considers 88& per cent. of the girls received are saved to virtue and honest lives. District of Columbia.- Whole number for year, prisons and reformatories, workhouses and jails, 7,930. This includes many duplicates, the same person being counted each time he is committed. Average number for year, in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails, I,030; estimated cost above earnings, $120,762. Average number in State Prison, 256. This includes a few United States prisoners from outside the District. Cost of same above earnings, $31,o47. No reformatories for men or women. Average number in Reform School for Boys, 200. (No reform school for girls, but one is much needed.) Cost of the same above earnings, $41,157. Average number in jails, workhouses, and other county and city prisons, 574; estimated cost of sane, $48,552. Convicts are all sent to Albany for imprisonment. At jail there is no work, except care of building, etc. At workhouse women wash and scrub, but are not kept busy. Men are taken out to work on streets and roads, to clean markets, etc. At Reform School the work is mainly farming, except a box factory, on piece-price plan, and a greenhouse on State account. Delaware.-There is no State Prison in Delaware. The county jails keep the convicts, some of them life prisoners. There are no reformatories for adults, but about 40 boys in the Ferris Reform School. It is under excellent management. A few of the prisoners in the county jails are kept at hard labor, breaking stone in the jail yard. There seems no other form of labor. The prisoners are herded in groups of from 2 to as many as 70 thrown together. The, pillory and the whipping-post are still used in the vain and obsolete hope of deterring crime by exhibiting legalized brutality. Florida.-Average number in State Prisons, —men, 280; women, 70,- 350; estimated cost, none, as they are leased out and bring the State a revenue. Georgia.-Average number in State Prison: men, i,815; women, 45; total, i,86o. The State Penitentiary inmates are leased for twenty years. The lease will expire April i, I899. They work in coal and iron mines, at saw-mills, building railroads, digging canals
Page 287 REPORTS FROM STATES. 287 farming, and any like work. None on the walls, about 800 in mines, 500 sawing lumber, the balance on farms. None on railroad at present. Ilinois.- Average number in State reformatories, workhouses, and jails, 4,028, estimated; average number in Reform School for Boys, 383; cost of same, $55,838. No reformatories for adults or for girls. There are two State penitentiaries and one State reformatory. The convicts are employed on some unexpired contracts, the remainder on public account. Indiana.- Average number in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails 2,711. Average number in State Prisons,-men, 1,371; women, 57,-1,428; cost of same over and above earnings, nil. (Profits of one prison pay the deficiency of the others.) No reformatories for adults. Average number in reform schools,-boys, 542; girls, I42.5,-684.5; cost of the same above earnings, $97,646. Average number in jails, workhouses, and other county and city prisons, 600, estimated. Two prisons for men, where they are employed on contract labor. One reform school for boys and one for girls. One prison for women in connection with the Reform School for Girls. Indian Territory.-Whole number in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails, 350; average number in same, 300; estimated net cost of same, $35,000. Average number in State Prison,- men, 250; women, 3, —253; cost of same above earnings, $25,000. Average number in jails, etc., Ioo; cost of same, $Io,ooo, estimated. Three United States jails, five tribal prisons. No work done except by tribal prisoners, who are used in cleaning the streets, etc., under care of the sheriff. Convicts are usually sent to Detroit; boys, to Washington (D.C.) Reformatory. Iowa. —Whole number in penitentiaries, 7I4; average number in penitentiaries,- men, 609; women, 13,- 622, of whom 30 are insane; cost of same, over and above earnings, $69,o08. No reformatories for adults. Average number in reform schools, —boys, 401; girls, I 7, —5 8; cost of same above earnings, $86,o17. No statistics as to jails, workhouses, etc. There are two State penitentiaries and two reform schools, now known as " Industrial " Schools, one for boys and one for girls. At the Penitentiary at Fort Madison 305 convicts are employed by contractors, at 45 to 50 cents per day. At Anamosa most of the convicts are employed in the construction of a women's department of the Hospital for Insane.
Page 288 288 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Kentucky.- The new constitution requires special provision to be made for the detention of young criminals; and, as the entire code of laws of the State is to be remodelled, it is to be hoped that improvements may be secured. Maine.- Average number in State Prisons,- men, I63; women, 6, - I69; average number in industrial schools, - boys, 102; girls, 50, — 52. There is one State prison and sixteen jails, one for each county. No reformatories. Reformatory influences are used in the prison and in several of the jails. The labor in prison and jails is on public account. Massachusetts.- Number in prisons, reformatories, and jails, 22,149; average number of same, 4,338; estimated cost of same above earnings, $648,603. Average number in State Prisons,-men, 612; women, none, —6I2; cost of same above earnings, $138,407. Average number in reform schools,- boys, 192; girls, 94,- 286; cost of same above earnings, $76,9I5. Average number in jails and other county and city prisons, 2,772; cost of same, $320,768, estimated. The labor in the correctional institutions is upon public account; namely, in the Lyman School for Boys, State Industrial School for Girls, State Prison, Reformatory Prison for Men, Reformatory Prison for Women. Michigan.- Whole number for year in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails, I8,593; average number of same, 2,907; estimated cost of same above earnings, $330,108. Average number in State Prisons,-men, I,I67; women, none,-I,I67; cost of same above earnings, $114,431. Average number in reform schools, — boys, 503; girls, 233,- 736; cost of same above earnings, $86,2I6. Average number in jails, workhouses, and other county and city prisons, I,oo4; cost of same, $129,460, estimated. In three prisons 591 convicts are employed on contract work, and 499 on State account, not including those employed about the prison. In the Boys' Reformatory 130 are employed on the piece-price plan. Minnesota. —Whole number for year in prisons and reformatories, 614; average number in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails, 1,201. Average number in State Prisons, —men, 31; women, 4,-3I5; cost of same above earnings, $79,000. Average number in reformatories for adults,- men, 128; women, none,- I28; cost of same above earnings, $45,000. Average number in reform schools, -boys, 263; girls, 23,- 286; cost of same above earnings, $39,500. Average number in jails, workhouses, and other county and city
Page 289 REPORTS FROM STATES. 289 prisons, 472; cost of same, $128,000, estimated. About one-half the convicts in the State Prison work on contract: the remainder, as well as the prisoners in the Men's Reformatory and the boys in the Reform School, work on State account. In the absence of legislation for the establishment of the parole system in the State Prison, the governor has established a conditional pardon system, which is, in effect, a parole system. It applies to convicts serving their first sentence in Minnesota, who are not known as having served sentences for felony in other States. Only a prisoner who has served at least one-half of the full term for which he was sentenced is eligible. The conditional pardon is recommended by the board of managers and warden of the prison, and the governor reserves a right to refuse to grant a pardon on their recommendation. The prisoner so released may be retaken and returned to prison if he violates the conditions. At the same time a system of grades and markings was established similar to the system in use in the State Reformatory and other reformatories for men. Missouri.-Total number of convicts in Penitentiary, I,700. Annual expense per capita, gross, $123.39; annual expense per capita, less earnings, $23.43. Reform School for Boys, inmates, o07. Reform School for Girls, inmates, 8. St. Louis House of Refuge, no statistics. Montana.- State Penitentiary completed in 1871 at Deer Lodge by the United States. The prison grounds comprise 20 acres, which, with all the buildings upon it, became the property of the State when admitted to the Union, being presented to Montana by the United States. All the prisoners, except the Indians, Chinese, and 5 whites, can read and write. A school was to be started in the Penitentiary for them at the beginning of the present year, and I presume is now in operation. Dec. I, I891, there were 298 prisoners,-294 males and 4 females; 17 life prisoners,- J for forty years, i for thirty, i for twenty-five, the remainder from one to fifteen years. Nebraska. —The Penitentiary is managed on the contract system. The State pays the contractor 40 cents per day for keeping prisoners. The total expense, including appropriations for cellroom, etc., was, for ten years, $163,548. The average number of convicts is 360. The contractor uses their labor. There are two industrial schools, one for boys and one for girls, the latter having been established during the past year. Special attention is given to trade instruction, with good results. The school is organized on a military
Page 290 290 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. system. One company is equipped with Springfield rifles. The officers, both commissioned and non-commissioned, are selected from the inmates. See remarks on placing out the boys, under the heading of "Dependent Children." New Jersey. — Whole number in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails, I,ooo, estimated. Average number in State Prisons, 6oo. In the State Prison a great deal has been done for the prisoners, principally from an educational standpoint. A night school has been established. Prisoners are always anxious to attend it. A choir drawn from the inmates has been found an elevating and humanizing addition. No false sentiment in regard to the amusement of prisoners has been allowed by those in charge. The parole bill now in operation in our State was drawn at the suggestion of the State Charities Aid Association. Warden Patterson pronounces it in every respect a success. The Association has also in many ways, by petitions, etc., urged the building of an intermediate prison on the plan suggested by the commission appointed by the governor two years ago, of which Charlton T. Lewis, LL.D., now President of the Association, was chairman. At the meeting of the Association held in Trenton, May 14 of the present year, the following extract was read from a letter written by Warden Patterson to the Secretary: "To the subject of providing for discharged convicts I have given a great deal of thought, and it seems to me that no more laudable thing could be done in our State than that of providing some way to ameliorate the condition of those who have been unfortunate enough to be placed under our control. Other States are making suitable provisions for this class, and all of the States are considering the subject." A committee are considering plans for a prisoners' home, and one will be opened in the fall. An act was drawn by the Law Committee of the Association, which became a law in i888, providing for the separate confinement of youths under sixteen years of age from older criminals in the jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries. Clause 3 of the same act provides for the separate detention of youths in the station houses and lock-ups. It has been found difficult to make the various Boards of Freeholders conform to the provisions of this act, owing to the fact that alterations in the jails, costing money, were required; but by degrees, under strong pressure, the requirements of the law will be fulfilled. In the distribution of magazines and proper books in the jails, where it has been properly carried out, the result has been good
Page 291 REPORTS FROM STATES. 291 The establishment of religious services in many of the jails has been of great benefit to the prisoners. Idleness, the most serious injury we can inflict upon our fellow-beings, is the rule in our jails. The best managed jail in the State is the one located at Paterson, Passaic County. There the prisoners are kept busy. Card-playing and gambling are not allowed. Under the present system commitment to the jail is not dreaded. The jail is not looked upon as a place of punishment. The largest number of commitments to our jails arises from disorderly conduct caused by drink. Some plan must be devised by which such persons shall be kept under restraint, with the plainest of food and penalty of hard work. Also short sentences should be abandoned. Accumulative sentences are much needed; and, further than this, the systems which govern our police courts should be reformed. Police justices should receive salaries, and not be paid per capita. The former plan would prevent the sending to jail of a person who might be excused because it is the first offence if it were not for the fact that the police justice thinks of his own pocket-book. The suspension of first sentences is the goal to which New Jersey hopes to attain. Jail matrons are employed in some of the large jails. The station houses throughout the State are generally well built, well lighted, with the proper separation of sexes. New York.- No statistics given under this head. A Reformatory for Women was opened at Hudson five years ago. Two years ago (I890) an act was passed for the establishment of a similar institution in Western New York for the western district. A bill is now in the governor's hands creating such an institution for New York County. To the first two, magistrates may commit misdemeanants for a term of five years; and the trustees may discharge in their discretion within this term. To the institutions of New York County it is provided that felons may also be committed for a term of not less than three years nor more than five. The supervisors were authorized by a bill of I89r to establish town houses for the employment of persons at present sent to jail and confined therein. A serious effort has been made to introduce a system of cumulative sentences in commitment to the workhouse in New York City, where the " rounder" custom prevails; but the bill failed of passage. The legislature of I892 has passed a bill in amendment to the Penal Code, forbidding the detention of children in prison, court, vehicle, or any place of confinement, in company with adult criminals. The act also obliges the trial of children in rooms apart from those of adults.
Page 292 292 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. North Dakota. —The State Penitentiary at Bismarck has about 70 inmates. The labor is on public account. Ohio.- Whole number for the year in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails, 20,212; estimated cost of same above earnings, $352,450. Average number in State Prison,- men, 1,565; women, 31,- 1,596; cost of same above earnings, nil. The State Penitentiary at Columbus earned, during the year, $II,I57 over expenses. Average number in reform schools,-boys, 660; girls, 294,-954; cost of same above earnings, $11,1I89. Total number in jails, workhouses, and city prisons, 16,217; cost of same, $252,418. In the State Penitentiary the convicts are employed on the piece-price plan. In the Boys' Industrial School and the Girls' Industrial Home the inmates are under industrial training. The State reformatory for first offenders is in process of erection. The Cleveland workhouse and House of Refuge are not included in above. Ontario.-Whole number for year in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails, I1,642; average number of same, 1,777. Average number in Central Prison (men), 337; cost of same above earnings, $53,000. Average number in reformatories,-men, none; women, 12I,- 12I; cost of same above earnings, $24,400. Average number in Reform School,-boys, I85; girls, 44,-229; cost of same above earnings, boys, $38,556. Average number in jails, workhouses, and other city and county prisons, 558. There are 42 county jails, 12 lock-ups, I central prison, i female reformatory, I refuge for girls, I boys' reformatory, and i Dominion penitentiary in the Province. There are, on an average, 576 prisoners from Ontario in the Dominion Penitentiary at Kingston, about 30 of whom are women. All are on sentences of over two years. Oregon.-Whole number in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, jails, etc., estimated, 7,700; average number of same, 686. Average number in State Prison,- men, 375; women, none,-375; cost of same above earnings, I$7,000. Average number in reformatories: men, none; women in Magdalen Home, io, — o. Average number in reform schools: boys, 30; girls, none,-30. Average number in jails, etc., 3II. There is a State Penitentiary where an average of 175 convicts are employed on contract at stove-moulding at 40 cents per day; total earnings, $20,000. Convicts are also employed in making bricks for State buildings, when needed, and on other State work, amounting last year to 3,030 days' work. Pennsylvania.- Whole number of prisoners Sept. 30, I890o, 9,088; *The figures for I890 will closely approximate those for I891.
Page 293 REPORTS FROM STATES. 293 average number, about 6,200; cost of support above earnings, $I,112,750. Number in State penitentiaries and State Reformatory Sept. 30, i890, 2,090; cost of same above earnings, $248,633. At the Eastern State Penitentiary at Philadelphia, conducted on the separate, or individual, system, the number of prisoners remaining Sept. 30, I890, was I,026; average daily number, I,Io; cost of support per capita per annum (labor and profits deducted), $65.44. At the Western State Penitentiary at Allegheny, conducted on the congregate system, the number of prisoners remaining Sept. 30, I890, was 732; average daily number, 689; cost of. support per capita (labor and profits deducted), $47.97. Number in county jails, workhouses, house of correction, and houses of refuge, 6,998; cost above earnings derived from labor, $864,I16. A State Industrial Reformatory for young men.between fifteen and twenty-five years, first offenders has been opened at Huntington, —Feb. 5, 1889, —and the number remaining Sept. 30, I890, was 332. Sout/ Dakota. — Average number in State Prisons,- men, 7,507; women, 200,- 7,707; cost of same above earnings, $28,500. Average number in reform schools,- boys, 57; girls, 13, —70; cost of same above earnings, $14,875. Work in Penitentiary on State account, quarrying and cutting stone, farming, gardening, etc. About 25 convicts work outside the walls at farming. At the Reformatory the principal work is farming. Tennzessee. —Whole number in prisons, reformatories, workhouses, and jails, 4,133; average number of same, 2,298; estimated cost, above earnings, $65,ooo. Average number in State Prison,-men, 1,407; women, 41,- 1,448; estimated cost of the same, nil. Average number in reform schools, see remarks on Industrial School under " Dependent Children." Average number in jails, workhouses, etc., 850; cost of same, $65,ooo, estimated. The prisoners in the Penitentiary are leased at $ioo,ooo per annum, the lessees paying all other expenses. The convicts are employed as follows: in the prison at Nashville, wagon-making, 314; on the lessees' farm at Nashville, 102; in the coal mines at various points, 1,052. The misdemeanants are confined in county workhouses and jails, and are utilized by working them on the public roads, the counties paying expense of maintenance, etc. In the matters of prison reform no advancement has been made further than seeing to the necessary maintenance, proper care, and humane treatment of prisoners in the Penitentiary and in jails and
Page 294 294 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. workhouses. And, while the odious lease system prevails, no real advancement and reformation in prison life can be had in this State; nor until the State shall have built new and more modern prison houses. The people, to a large extent, are thoroughly aroused on this subject, and it is to be hoped that our next legislature will take some decisive action. Utah.- No statistics for prisoners are obtainable. Average number in Reform School: boys, 35; girls, 8,- 43. Prisoners sentenced in the district courts are sent to the Penitentiary, which is the property of the United States, and placed in the custody of the United States marshal. All the convicts are supported by the United States, though a large proportion of them are Territorial prisoners. The number of prisoners in the Penitentary averages about two hundred. These prisoners have no regular employment. A few of them work on the farm belonging to the Penitentiary, and a few are employed in domestic work, and in making and repairing clothes and shoes for the convicts; but the greater number have nothing to do. I am unable to give cost of maintenance. Most of the county jails in Utah are primitive structures, designed only to hold persons awaiting trial or prisoners serving out very short sentences. The city prisoners work on the street. City and county prisoners are fed by contract, usually fifteen cents per meal. There are but few female prisoners in the Penitentiary, and often none at all; but a considerable number of women and girls are confined in the city and county jails. There are no police matrons in Utah. Wyoming.- Whole number in prisons, I20; average number of the same, 94; estimated net cost above earnings, $I7,ooo. Average number in State Prisons: men, 90; women, 2,-92, estimated. Average number in reform schools: boys, 3, estimated; girls, 2, estimated, —5. In the State Penitentiary at Laramie the convicts are worked on the lease system: some are at Joliet, Ill., on conract. Until recently all convicts from Wyoming were sent to Joliet, Ill. They are now sent to the State Penitentiary at Laramie, Wy. The prisoners at Joliet are to remain until their sentences expire. IMMIGRATION. But few of the States report under this head except to say that no attention seems needed or given it. Those which report are as follows: -
Page 295 REPORTS FROM STATES. 295 Delaware.-The governor appoints three suitable persons, one from each county, as a Board of Immigration. They are given power to advertise in papers and magazines published in Europe and elsewhere, to employ such means as may be at their disposal, to properly represent the advantages of schools, climate, soil, diversity of crops grown, and facilities of communication, to contract and appoint an agent or agents in Europe or elsewhere. We regret to report they have never accomplished anything. Florida.- The State has legally appointed immigration agents, who locate individuals or colonies and care for them one year until they can make themselves self-sustaining. Under this system it is impossible to give numbers, though there are a great many, mostly from the several States of the Union. Georgia.- There is some sort of an organization to aid immigration, but nothing being done. We don't need immigrants. There is no State immigration board. Indian Territory.- No regulation whatever. The "Intercourse Law" of the United States is a dead letter, and immigration is unrestricted. All laborers, farmers, etc., pay residence tax of an average of $I2 per annum. Our immigrants are usually from bordering States, generally of the class known as "poor whites." There are also many negro families settled lately. Iowa. —We used to have a Commissioner of Immigration. None now. No information. Kansas.- None, except State Board of Agriculture, which, by its reports of our State, invites within our borders all who will partake of the feast. No statistics are possible. We are making a State, not analyzing the birth or heredity of its people. Maine.- Immigration Board in the city of Portland only. No State law. An estimated number of I,500 immigrants per annum, mostly from England, Ireland, and Scandinavia, about equally divided. Massachusetts.-Vessels bringing passengers to any port in this Commonwealth are under the supervision of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, who enforce in regard to such vessels and the passengers brought therein all the provisions of law concerning the bringing of strangers and aliens by sea into this Commonwealth. The landing of any such passengers is not expressly prohibited; but the insane, idiotic, deaf and dumb, blind, deformed, or maimed persons, and aliens who have before been a public charge within the State, cannot be so landed until the State is secured against their sub
Page 296 296 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. sequent support by the master's, owner's, consignee's, or agent's bond in the sum of $I,oo0 for each of such passengers. Certain of these provisions are understood to have been superseded by national legislation. The number of passengers from foreign ports brought by sea into this Commonwealth during the year ending Dec. 3I, I89I, was 70,838: alien immigrants, 55,290; American citizens, I3,195; tourists and visitors, 639; cattlemen, 1,511. Debarred and returned whence came, 203. The alien immigrants came from the following named countries: Ireland, II,3Io; England, 7,515; Scotland, 1,835; Germany, 283; Russia, 4,080; Poland, 416; Sweden, 3,848; Norway, 719; Denmark, 172; Austria, 74; Hungary, 28; Italy, 37; Dominion of Canada, 24,525; other countries, 448; total, 55,290. Mininesota. —The immigrant population of Minnesota is largely Scandinavian. These people make good citizens, furnish a very small ratio of criminals, about an average ratio of paupers, and a very large ratio of insane patients. A considerable number of paupers and insane persons have come into this State direct from foreign countries. The number is very small, however, in proportion to the whole number of immigrants. Missouri.- The Mullanphy Emigrant Relief Fund was established by Bryan Mullanphy, who willed to the city of St. Louis, in trust, onethird of his property, to furnish relief to poor emigrants and travellers coming to St. Louis on their way as bona fide settlers in the West. The property had an estimated value in 1884 of $4I1,590.29. It is controlled by a Board of Commissioners. An assistant secretary is employed, whose duty it is to visit boats and trains arriving with emigrants and travellers, make himself known to them, give them information and advice, and, when necessary, material aid. From January, 1874, to January, 1889, relief was obtained by 8,484 emigrants and 13,227 travellers, whose destinations were: Misssouri, 15,986; Kansas, 2,227; Colorado, 544; other States, 2,954. There were furnished 75,430 meals and 23,523 lodgings. New York. —. What regulations are made by State law as to immigration, and what State officers or boards exist to enforce them?None. Immigration into New York is regulated by the federal authorities. I73 alien paupers were returned by the State to their homes in different European countries during the year, at a cost of $3,946, or $22.8I per capita.
Page 297 REPORTS FROM STATES. 297 2. Give any particulars you can as to immigration, such as total number, and number from various countries, etc. Total foreign immigration at the port of New York for the past twenty years: 1872, 294,581; 1873, 267,901; i874, 130,420; I875, 84,560; 1876, 68,264; 1877, 54,536; I878, 75,341; 1879, 135,079; i880, 327,371; I881, 455,687; I882, 476,681; 1883, 405,900; I884, 330,030; i885, 291,066; i886, 321,814; 1887, 405,405; i888, 419,718; i889, 349,233; I89, 358,510; 1891, 430,884; total, 5,682,927. Nativity of alien steerage passengers, I891: Ireland, 35,951; England, 22,820; Wales, 456; Scotland, 4,887; Germany, 79,496; France, 4,189; Russia, 52,022; Poland, 27,500; Switzerland, 6,264; Sweden, 32,426; Norway, o0,600; Belgium, 2,773; Holland, 4,295; Italy, 65,084; Spain, 124; Portugal, 1,985; Denmark, 9,024; Hungary, 25,409; Austria, 27,433; Bohemia, 8,074; Finland, 4,030; Australia, 15; Armenia, 946; Turkey, 73; Greece, 1,083; Arabia, i; all other countries, 3,969; total, 430,884. North Dakota.-There is a State Commissioner of Immigration elected by popular vote. The immigrants are chiefly from Norway. It is estimated that from 331 to 50 per cent. of our population is from that country. There is also a large number of Swedes. Ontario and Other Parts of Canada.- i. What regulations are made by State law as to immigration, and what State officers or boards exist to enforce them? —Immigration is under the control of the Dominion Government. There are agencies. in Great Britain and on the Continent. There are agencies also at Halifax, Nova Scotia, St. John, New Brunswick, the city of Quebec, city of Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, and London. A small sum of money is paid to actual settlers. Immigrants likely to become a charge on the country are returned, unless the master of the vessel gives bonds to be responsible. Agents give every assistance to immigrants in finding land or in finding employment. The interests of newly arrived immigrants are very carefully guarded both by law and in fact. Female immigrants are especially looked after both on ship and on land. 2. Give any particulars you can as to immigration, such as total number, and number from various countries, etc.-In I891 there were 82,165 actual settlers in Canada. Of 23,435 landed at Quebec there were: English,. II,782; Irish, 903; Scotch, I,93; Scandinavians, 5,522; Jews, I,i88; others, 1,158; total, 23,435. Of 10,335 who settled in Ontario there were: English, 6,140; Irish, 1,256;
Page 298 298 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Scotch, 1,368; Scandinavians, 96; Americans, 690; Germans, 649; others, 136; total, 10,335. 38,940 passed through Ontario to the United States. Of children brought out from England by societies in i89I, there were 3,418 who settled in Ontario. Oregon.- i. What regulations are made by State law as to immigration, and what State officers or boards exist to enforce them?None whatever. We have a State Board of Health which confines itself to licensing physicians to practise. There are voluntary Boards of Emigration, but they chiefly confine themselves to inducing desirable emigrants to come to the State from other places. Incidentally, they give information and assist in finding work for laborers. 2. Give any particulars you can as to immigration, such as total number, and number from various countries, etc.-Our immigration all comes overland, except a few Chinese, and is chiefly American, though a few Swedes and Germans and an occasional one of other nationality come across the continent direct to friends here. We get most of our foreigners second-hand from other States. Pennsylvania.- i. What regulations are made by State law as to immigration, and what State officers or boards exist to enforce them? -By an act of Congress of March 3, 1891, the Pennsylvania Board of Public Charities has been relieved of immigration duties. 2. Give any particulars you can as to immigration, such as total number, and number from various countries, etc.- The total number of alien arrivals during the year ending June 30, I89r, was 25,798, and their nativities were as follows: Ireland, 5,137; England, 3,702; Wales, 50; Scotland, 790; Germany, 5,396; France, 70; Russia, 1,763; Poland, 2,348; Switzerland, 138; Sweden, 2,225; Norway, 925; Belgium, 246; Holland, I5; Italy, 44; Spain, 5; Denmark, 451; Hungary, 552; Austria, 547; Turkey, 65; Greece, 03; Austria Hungary, 132; Finland, io; Armenia, 27; Australia, i; all other countries, I,o56; total, 25,798. Texas.- i. What regulations are made by the State law as to immigration, and what State officers or boards exist to enforce them?None. All are welcome. 2. Give any particulars you can as to immigration, such as total number, and number from various countries, etc.- Immigration to this State from foreign countries is very limited, and mostly German and Bohemian; and I dare say nine-tenths of those are via New York, and reported by that State. Mexicans are coming to and going from us all the time across the Rio Grande, but the Mexican population is
Page 299 REPORTS FROM STATES. 299 increasing. Comparatively very few Chinese reach us from the Pacific Slope. Utah.- Has no immigration laws. Immigration has always been under the supervision of the Mormon Church, but five years ago the Mormon Emigration Society was disincorporated by act of Congress. Since that time immigrants have been brought in every year by Mormon missionaries, but no statistics are to be obtained from them. RECENT LEGISLATION AND RECENT NOTEWORTHY VOLUNTARY ACTION ON CHARITABLE AND CORRECTIONAL MATTERS OTHER THAN HAS BEEN REPORTED UNDER THE VARIOUS HEADINGS. Many of the States not mentioned here have had no legislative session since last report. Arizona. —None at all radical, mainly refers to emoluments of officers, employees, etc. District of Columbia.- Very little change, as far as District matters are concerned. The importunity of private charities for public subsidies led to the creation of the office of Superintendent of Charities in I891. Bills are now pending as follows: to alter the character of certain charitable corporations; to establish a reform school for girls; to establish a municipal lodging-house, with wood-yard; to create a Board of Children's Guardians, and to further provide for the care of dependent children in the District; to establish a reformatory and house of detention for women. Delaware.-The establishment of a State Board for the Insane. The providing hard labor for certain classes of criminals.-Under this head the Associated Charities of Delaware reports as follows: " Much interest was manifested during last winter, looking to the establishment of a State Board of Charities. In order to promote this project the Associated Charities of the city of Wilmington held an all-day meeting, at which addresses were delivered by prominent workers from outside of our city." The Associated Charities comprehends the city of Wilmington, and is the only movement of its kind in the State. The agencies co-operating directly with it are the Benevolent and Provident Societies, which provide employment for women, the Penny Provident Fund, and Plant-growing Mission. The last two named have been recently inaugurated, and are full of promise. All city institutions and societies are in friendly relations with the Charities, and the co-operating
Page 300 300 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. spirit is rapidly increasing. The Penny Provident Fund of the Society of Associated Charities was begun Feb. Io, I892, the association investing $25, and subsequently an additional $50, to meet the increasing demand. Five stations have been in operation, representing to date 526 depositors and an exchange of cash amounting to $352.o4,-a sum of money not likely to have been saved by any other means. Depositors have manifested great interest. A number have opened accounts with the savings funds of our city, receiving interest on their deposit and renewing their deposits with the Penny Provident Fund, thus continuing their small savings to meet the amounts required by the larger institutions. The demand for the 5-cent and Io-cent stamps is the largest of the respective denominations,-, 3, 5, Io, 25, and 50 cents, and $I,-and has suggested the feasibility of establishing a nickel or dime savings fund, paying a small interest on deposits. We heartily commend it for adoption by other associations. Florida.- The drift of legislation is toward better care of all. Georgia.-The legislature has been silent, except as to establishing a reformatory prison for minors and that has failed to date. Illinois.-The legislature for I889 made provision for 9oo additional insane patients, established an asylum for the criminal insane, - capacity oo,- and provided means for a custodial building at the asylum for feeble-minded children. The legislature of I891 provided for 450 more insane patients, and established the State reformatory, designating the State Reform School at Pontiac as such reformatory, appropriating $I,50o,ooo for additional buildings, and provided that the State Board of Charities shall no longer have control or supervision of the same. Indian Territory.- Nothing, except late special provision for orphans. Kentucky.- See under Insanity, etc. lMaine.- The legislation has been in the "line of progression." A new insane asylum is to be built,- on the plan approved by the most progressive, it is hoped. Massachusetts.- Laws for the better protection of infants in baby farms, etc.; establishing a hospital for dipsomaniacs and inebriates; providing that persons above forty years of age shall not be sentenced to a reformatory; doing away contract labor in State Prisons, reformatories, and houses of correction; providing for registration and identification of criminals.
Page 301 REPORTS FROM STATES. 3o0I Afiichzigan.- Last year's report mentioned that the legislature was in session, and that a bill to abolish the Board of Corrections and Charities was before one of its committees. The bill was never reported out from such committee. Therefore, no action was had on it. Eight State boards, however, were consolidated into two. The State Prison, the State House of Correction and Reformatory, the Reform School for Boys, the Industrial Home for Girls, and the Asylum for Dangerous and Criminal Insane, each of which had had its own board, were placed under one and the same board, composed of four persons. The School for the Blind, the School for the Deaf, and the State Public School for Dependent Children, each of which had had its own board, were placed under one and the same board, composed of four persons. The age of admission of boys to the Reform School was raised from ten to twelve years. The evils resulting from this change can never be estimated. A law was enacted providing for uniform accounting for all State institutions, and reports required of them to the auditor-general monthly. Thus are data for making close comparisons secured, which Michigan has lacked in the past, but which it has long felt was greatly needed. The Wayne County Insane Asylum has been placed under State supervision, and is entitled to transfer its inmates, after two years, to State support, the same as the State asylums do. Missouri.-Legislation since I872, when we got beyond the passions of the war, has generally been towards economy and improvements in the State government and reform of prison management, towards better control of the corporations of the State, towards the extension of eleemosynary institutions. This has resulted in the founding of two asylums for insane, a reform school for boys and one for girls, the establishment of a Bureau of Geology and a Labor Bureau, to inquire into the various phases of the labor question and recommend methods to the legislature for the betterment of the condition of the laboring classes. Montana.- The drift of all Montana laws is benevolent. Nebraska.- The sentiment in behalf of Associated Charities work is growing in this State. The Omaha association is gaining in usefulness and popularity. Lincoln has organized also, and is doing good work. The Industrial School has been divided, the girls being now established in a new school at Geneva. New yersey.- Legislation is improving, and becoming more liberal. The parole law is the most important one. See "Prisons," etc., and "Dependent Children."
Page 302 302 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. New York.- A bill is now in the governor's hands directing the State Board of Charities to select a site for an institution on the colony plan for the care, medical treatment, education, and employment of epileptics. By a bill of I889, the Superintendent of the Poor, or the proper town auditing board, is directed to set apart certain sums on application of the commander of the local Post G. A. R. for distribution by the relief committee of the post to indigent veterans and their families. A bill passed by the legislature of 189o requires the Overseers of the Poor to keep books in which shall be entered the name, age, sex, and native country of every poor person who shall be relieved or supported by them, together with a statement of the causes, either direct or indirect, which shall have operated to render such a person a pauper, so far as the same can be ascertained; also statement of moneys received, when and from whom, and on what account, and of all moneys paid out by them, when and to whom, and on what authority; also a statement of all debts, providing these books shall be laid before the Board of Town Auditors each year, together with itemized account of all moneys received and paid out; that the books shall be open for inspection by the voters of the town at the annual town meeting, where the entries therein shall be publicly read, if required by the resolution at such meeting. A bill was passed in I890 exempting personal estate of charitable corporations from the collateral inheritance tax. See also under "Insane," "Prisoners," etc., and " Dependent Children." North Carolina.- Our last legislature made provision for buildings, and support of the deaf and dumb apart from the blind. The new buildings for deaf and dumb are at Morganton. Up to this they were together at Raleigh, where the blind only are to remain. See also under " Prisoners," etc. Ohio.- The tendency is towards a more thorough equipment for the care and treatment of the dependent and defective classes, as evidenced in the erection of an asylum for epileptics (now building), the opening of the Working Home for the Blind, appropriation for the completion of the State Reformatory, and initiatory steps by the legislature (I892) for an additional asylum for the insane in Eastern Ohio. Ontario.-The Ontario government appointed a Prison Reform Commission two years ago, and soon radical reforms were recommended; but as yet they have not been given the sanction of law. It is now illegal to send a child under thirteen years to a reformatory, to
Page 303 REPORTS FROM STATES. 303. sell tobacco to a child under sixteen, and spirituous liquors to a child under eighteen. School trustees are required to appoint truancy officers, and see that all children under fourteen attend school. Oregon.- Creating Board of Charities and Correction, authorizing counties to levy a tax for the support of indigent soldiers, founding a State reform school. The drift of legislation is more in the line of modern scientific investigation and treatment than ever before. Pennsylvania.-No new general laws. A new asylum for chronic insane is building. The House of Refuge and the Institution for Deaf and Dumb have purchased large farms, and have erected new buildings on the family plan, having all the appliances approved by the most scientific study. A new institution for the blind has been started at Pittsburg. Many new Homes have been erected. Rhode Island.-There has been some legislation giving better opportunity to the insane to have their cases heard before the courts. Industrial training has been introduced in the Reform School for Boys. Tennessee.- The tendency has been in the line of modern advancement on all these subjects. Within five years two additional hospitals for insane have been built, an industrial school for wayward boys and girls established, and the Home for Confederate Soldiers with a pension. A law has been enacted giving counties the right to establish homes for the poor, etc., on a larger scale than formerly. Texas.- The tendency has been towards the amelioration of their conditions. One lunatic asylum built and opened, one boys' reformatory established, more literature for convicts, and a better commutation law for long-time convicts. Utah.- Considerable appropriations have been made to enlarge and improve the insane asylums. The Reform School has been established, also a school for deaf and dumb. The latter were reported last year. " Although the report of charities and reform for Utah may not compare favorably with reports received from other States and Territories, yet there has been great progress made in the last ten years. In i882 Utah had no public charities to report, and no organized private charities, except the Mormon Relief Society, and the aid societies of the different denominations represented in the Territory at that time. My report refers chiefly to Salt Lake County, because this county contains more than one-fourth of the entire population of the Territory and nearly all the organized charities. The present report does not include the Woman's Industrial Home. This is not
Page 304 304 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. a local charity, but a government institution. The Home was built and furnished by the United States, at a cost of nearly $Ioo,ooo. It was established, in the language of the bill making an appropriation for it, 'to provide a home for women who voluntarily renounce polygamy, and the children of such women, of tender years.' The doors of the Home were opened a little wider by subsequent legislation, and the women and young girls who wished to escape from polygamous surroundings were admitted; but few were found willing to avail themselves of the provision made for them by the government. There has seldom been more than twenty inmates at one time, and for most of the time since the Home was opened the average number has been less than twelve. The Home will accommodate two hundred women and children. A bill to establish an institution for the blind was introduced into the legislature during the past winter. It was rejected 'because of the state of the Territorial finances,' but it is hoped that a similar bill will be passed at the next session of the legislature. "Taken altogether, the present disposition of our law-makers is to inaugurate wise measures of public charity as fast as our finances will permit. The people will sustain them in this; though the masses here, as elsewhere, need to be educated as to the duty of the State and the individual toward the criminal and dependent classes." Vermont.-The most important recent legislation is the law providing for the care of insane paupers by the State. STATE APPROPRIATIONS FOR MAINTENANCE AND CONSTRUCTION OF CHARITABLE AND CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS, ETC. District of Columbia. Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. Washington Asylum (almshouse, hospital, and workhouse),.......... $62,355.48 $Io,636.01 Dispensaries and outdoor medical relief,.... 14,896.10 Outdoor relief and aid to lodgings for non-residents, 5,150.00 *Hospital for the Insane,......... 87,291.67 Freedman's Hospital,......... 5I,000.00 Reform School for Boys,......... 41,157.23 industrial Home School,....... I3,500.00 -Garfield Hospital,.......... I5,000.00 iColumbia Hospital for Women,...... 20,000.00 tProvidence Hospital,........ I9,000.00 * Federal management, and support patients mainly from the District. t Private institution receiving a subsidy from the District to the amount indicated.
Page 305 REPORTS FROM STATES. 305 Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. *Women's Christian Association,...... $4,000.00 *Association for Destitute Colored Women and Children............ 12,000.00 *Children's Hospital,........... Io,oo8.00 *St. Ann's Infant Asylum,......... 6,500.00 *German Orphan Asylum,.........6,ooo.oo *St. John's Church Orphanage....... 1,500.00 *Washington Hospital for Foundlings,.. 7,000.00 *Association for Works of Mercy,...... 3,042.00 5,000.00 *National Homceopathic Hospital,..... 6,ooo.oo 6,ooo.oo *Temperance Home,.......... 2,500.00 *St. Rose's Industrial School,....... 2,500.00 *HIouse of the Good Shepherd....... 3,000.00 *Columbian Institution for Deaf and Dumb,. 10,500 00 *Emergency Hospital,.......... 00.00 Support of convicts (institutions outside the District),............... 31,047.80 Feeble-minded children (at Elwyn, Pa.),... 2,450.00 Transportation of paupers and prisoners,... 3349.70 -Delaware. Name of Institution. Maintenance. Delaware Hospital,............$500. Homceopathic Hospital,....... 500.00 Home for the Friendless and Destitute Children, 500.00 tFerris Reform School,........500.00 Jail Commissioner........... 3,000.00 Trustees of the Poor........ 28,000.00 Florida. Name of Institution. Maintenance. For the blind, deaf, and dumb,....... $7,000.00 per annum For the Lunatic Asylum,......... 33,7 50.00 " Georgia. Name of Institution. Maintenance. State Asylum............ $90,000.00 Academy of the Blind,........ 16,000.00 Deaf and Dumb Asylum,........ 17,000.00 Illinois. Construction, Name of Institution. Maintenance repairs, and for year ending libraryfor June 30, i892. two years. Northern Hospital for Insane,...... $I29,642.81 $67,I84.00 Eastern Hospital for Insane,........ 24,000.00 260,I69.00 * Private institutions receiving a subsidy from the District to the amount indicated. t Recently the Levy Court have appropriated $2,000 annually for this school, such excellent preventive work having been accomplished.
Page 306 306 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Construction,, eMaintenance repairs, and Name of Institution. for year ending libraryfor June 30, 1892. two years. Central Hospital for Insane,....... $145,500.00 $32,200.00 Southern Hospital for Insane,..... 117,500.00 29,182.00 Asylum for Insane Criminals,....... 25,000.00 2,200.00 Institution for Deaf and Dumb,....... 92,000.00 26,100.00 Institution for the Blind,......... 40,000.00 32,540.00 Asylum for Feeble-minded Children,... 78,500.00 39,400.00 Soldiers' and Sailors' Home,....... 145,000.00 53,300.00 Soldiers' Orphans' Home,....... 50,000.00 13,350.00 Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary,...... 26,000.00 6,550.00 State Reformatory,.......... 56,000.00 155,300.00 Northern Penitentiary,......... 50,000.00 40,500.00 Southern Penitentiary,.......... 95,000.00 69,00.00o Indiana. Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. Central Hospital for Insane,......... 281,992.10 $11,438.90 Northern Hospital for Insane,... 83,694.37 Eastern Hospital for Insane,....... 83,176.48 Southern Hospital for Insane,..... 85,000.00 34,052.44 Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home,.... 19,617.67 31,538.20 Institution for Deaf........... 59,851.16 13,605.17 Institution for Blind,.......... 28,776.36 14,025.6I School for Feeble-minded Youth,...... 76,761.32 43,003.06 Total charitable,......... 819,605.10 I47,663.3,8 State Prison (north), Cr.,...... 15,938.81 State Prison (south), total,........ 3,89 88 Reform School for Girls and Women's Prison, 35,972.68 Reform School for Boys,....... 69,646.74 All appropriations are made subject to the return of any unexpended balance at the end of the fiscal year. The above figures are the net amounts in all cases. For construction, the above show the amounts drawn from the treasury for the year, not the full appropriations. Indian Territory. Name of Institution. Maintenance. 'Construction. *Choctaw Academy (boys)........ $25,000.00 *Choctaw Seminary (girls)........ 25,000.00 *Creek Orphanage,.......... 8000.00o tCreek Boarding-schools,........ $20,000.00 t Choctaw Boarding-schools,........ 40,000.00 20,000 oo Amounts carried forward,....... $60,ooo.oo $88,ooo.oo * For orphans. t Supported by public funds.
Page 307 REPORTS FROM STATES. 307 Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. Amounts brougzhtforward,........ $60,000.00oo $88,ooo.oo *Cherokee Boarding-schools,......... 40,000.00 *Seminole Boarding-schools,....... 1200.00 50,000.00 *Chickasaw Boarding-schools,...... 20,000.00 Cherokee Insane Asylum,...... 20,000.00 Cherokee Orphanage,......... I0,000.00 United States Jails (3).......... 25,000.00 Tribal Jails (5),............ Io,ooo.oo Total,............. $197,000.00 $138,000.00 Iowa.-For biennial period ending June 30, 1891:Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. Soldiers' Orphans' Home......... $80,417.83 $46,000.00 College for Blind,............ 59,333-76 8,ooo.oo Institution for Deaf and Dumb,...... 120,518.43 26,050.00 School for Feeble-minded,....... 146,771.91 41,600.00 Hospital for Insane, Mount Pleasant,.... 266,I8I.88 37,I00.00 Hospital for Insane, Independence,..... 261,33.84 I80,400.00 Hospital for Insane, Clarinda,...... 109,740.23 180,400.00 Penitentiary, Fort Madison,........ 59,760.98 9,700.00 Penitentiary, Anamosa,...... 98,634.71 38,850.00 Industrial School for Boys,....,528.68. 20,850.00 Industrial School for Girls,..... i4,528.68 8,I25 00 Soldiers' Home,........... 104,95.00 38,15000 Industrial Home for Blind........ 2,041.71 40,000.00 Per diem and expenses Board of Trustees of above institutions for same time,.... 17,490.20 Kansas. Name of Insitution. Maintenance. Topeka Insane Asylum,......... 20,000.0 Ossawatomie Insane Asylum,..... 82,500.00 Reform School for Boys,........ 26,893 o00 Asylum for Imbeciles,....... 21,274.96 Industrial School for Girls,..... 13,000.00 Soldiers' Orphans' Home,........ 18,360.00 Institution for Education of Deaf,..... 46,000.00 Institution for Education of the Blind,.. 20,000.00 Louisiana. Name of Institution. Maintenance. Charity Hospital, New Orleans,...... II2,082.05 Charity Hospital at Shreveport (no statistics),. The State of Louisiana has no institutions of charity except the above. * Supported by public funds.
Page 308 308 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Maine. Name of Institution. Children's Home, Bangor,....... Temporary Home for Women and Children, Bath Military and Naval Orphan Asylum, Girls' Industrial School,... * o. ~ Maintenance. $I,000.00 1,000.00 8,000.00 7,000.00 I8,ooo.oo 800.000 Construction. $6,ooo.oo Boys' Reform School, St. Eli's Orphan Asylum, State Prison,. Insane Asylum,.................................* I 0, 500.00 28,538.00 Massachusetts. Name of Institution. Worcester Lunatic Hospital,.... Worcester Insane Asylum,... Taunton Lunatic Asylum,... Northampton Lunatic Hospital,... Danvers Lunatic Hospital,.. Westboro Lunatic Hospital,.. State Almshouse, State Farm,...... State Primary School,... Lyman School for Boys,... State Industrial School for Girls,. Massachusetts School for Feeble-minded, Massachusetts Reformatory,... Women's Reformatory Prison,.. State Prison,.... The above figures are the net expense to towns, etc., being deducted. Maintenance. $28, I4.97 17,575.34 22,927.15 14, I18.65 16,500.05 39,34I.02 103,641.93 61,472 44 51,304-98 41,339.17 20,397.76 23,549.96 151,554.84 35,577-63 138,407.6 the State, Construction. $923.84 6,22I.91 o1,882.81 4,181.95 24,713.39 2,706.35 I3,749-96 66,072.86 8,727.49 6,004.70 payments by Michigan. Name of Institution. State Public School for Dependent Children, School for the Deaf,..... School for the Blind,.... Industrial Home for Girls,.... Asylum for Dangerous and Criminal Insane, State Prison, Reform School for Boys,.... Michigan Asylum for Insane,....... Northern Asylum for Insane.... State House of Correction,. Eastern Michigan Asylum for Insane,. Maintenance. Construction. $35,000.00 $5,3-0.00* 56,800.00 3,500.00* 23,000.00 35,000.00 10,ooo.oot 76o.0oo* 0 41,633.00oo 25,000.00t 10,000.00* 46,867.001 56,000.00 4,500.00o 5, I 00.00* | 2, 5oo.oot 12,500.001 I I, 500.00* I 5,ooo.oot 19,980.oo* 25,000o.00 t Betterments. * Repairs. t Construction.
Page 309 REPORTS FROM STATES. 309 NOTE.-Asylums for the insane have no appropriations for maintenance. Prisons have no appropriations for maintenance. Our law simply provides that "the auditor general shall draw his warrant on the treasurer for such sums as the inspectors of the prisons shall from time to time direct. But such sums so drawn at any one time shall not exceed $I,ooo, and no further sum shall be drawn until vouchers are presented for amounts previously drawn." Minnesota. NMame of Institution. Maintenance. St. Peter's Hospital for Insane,....... 66,ooo.oo Rochester Hospital for Insane,...... 66,000.00 Fergus Falls Hospital for Insane,..... 69,500.oo State Soldiers' Home,.......... 20,000.00 School for the Deaf,......... 37,920.00 School for the Blind,.......... 17,000.00 School for Feeble-minded,........ 52,750.00 School for Dependent Children,..... 22,800.00 State Reform School,....... 43,500.00 State Reformatory,......... 41,00.0 State Prison,.........7 5,250.00 Total,............. 711,720.00 Construction. $21,320.00 33,9IO.00 66,500.00 53,89o.oo 33,500.00 564.00 1,500.00 14,758.oo 4,070.00 838.00 246,250.00 $477,1oo00oo The above are the total appropriations for the fiscal year ending July 3, I892. The deduction from current expense for earnings and sales for the last fiscal year were $25,000. Do not know how much they will be for this fiscal year. Nebraska.- The following appropriations were made for the institutions as named below for the present fiscal year closing March 31, 1893:Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. Hospital for Insane at Lincoln,..... $90,200.00 Hospital for Insane at Norfolk,....... 56,500.00 Hospital for Insane at Hastings,..... 80,945.00 Industrial School at Kearney,....... 69,074.00 Home for Friendless at Lincoln,...... 21,270.00 $15,000.00 Industrial School for Girls at Geneva,... 40,000.00 Industrial Home at Milford,........ I4,825.00 Penitentiary at Lincoln,......... 81,274.00 New Yersey.- Some items of expense for year ending Oct. 31, 1891:-,,~,._,..,,,WS J_. mr___....... Ivame of institution. State Prison,.... Blind and Feeble-minded, Boys' Reform School, Girls' Reform School,................. Ilaiznlenance. $173,937-37 71,877-57 43,740.74 12,472.71
Page 310 310 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. New York. Name of Institution. Utica State hospital (Insane), Willard State Hospital,.... Middletown State Hospital,.. Hudson River State Hospital, Binghamton State Hospital,... Buffalo State Hospital,..... St. Lawrence State Hospital,.... House of Refuge for Women,... Syracuse Asylum for Feeble-minded Children, Custodial Asylum for Women,... Thomas Asylum for Indian Children,... State Prisons,...... Asylum for Insane Criminals,.... Elmira State Reformatory,.... Soldiers' and Sailors' Home,... Institution for Deaf and Dumb,... Institution for the Blind,.... Institution for Juvenile Delinquents,.. North Dakota. Name of Institution. Hospital for Insane,..... Penitentiary,..... Soldiers' Home,.... Relief of Destitute...... Deaf and Dumb Asylum,... Maintenance. $15,000.00 16,900.00 13,500.00 36,500.00 38,500.00 13,500.00 32,200.00 50,000.00 8 i,ooo.oo 40,000.00 11,000.00 477,900.00 38,1I00.00 38,1 ioo.oo 150,000.00 140,000.00 245,000.00 90,000.00 151,000.00 Maintenance. $57,300.00 43,700 oo 7,000.00 Construction. $98,220.00 37,700.00 140,450.00 141,500.00 120,220.00 90,000.00 374,551.80 5,500.00 6,700.00 I6,ooo.oo 2,738.60 24,94I.8 97,961.53 35,000.00 7,000.00 Construction. $2,000.00 I0,000.00 I0,000.00 Ohio. Name of Institution. Athens Asylum for Insane, Cleveland Asylum for Insane,.... Columbia Asylum for Insane,... Dayton Asylum for Insane,... Carthage Asylum for Insane..... Toledo Asylum for Insane.... Institution for Feeble-minded Youths, Institution for Epileptics,.... Institution for the Blind,.... Working Home for the Blind,... Institution for the Deaf and Dumb,.. Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home... Boys' Industrial School,.... Girls' Industrial Home,.... *Ohio Penitentiary, Cr.,.... $II,157.52 Ohio State Reformatory,... Maintenance. $105,347.98 I07,443.23 I66,016.95 9I,64454 01,969.38 145,568.79 125,I41.60 49,416.54 IO,877-07 70,012.26 I42,616.67 I09,9I9.28 75,487-32 35,701.95 Construction. $1,887.94 41,444.87 12,420.20 11,488.69 I0,I56.28 40,000.00 2,332.50 794-05 I5,373.83 37,662.01 1,718.22 1,250.00 I00,000.00 *The amount given, $I1,157.52, is the net earnings of the institution.
Page 311 REPORTS FROM STATES. 3II Ontario. Name of Institution. Maintenance. Institution for the Blind, 133 pupils at $271.8I each, $36, I50.00 Institution for Deaf and Dumb, 260 pupils at $168 each,........... 43,927.00 6 Insane Asylums, 3,468 patients at I42.43,... 486,I26.00 Central Prison (average, 345 prisoners): Total expense,...... $65,955.00 Profit on labor,... 12,865.00 43,090.00 27 hospitals: Total maintenance,.... $24I,562.00 32% of cost paid by government,..... 77.309.00 36 refuges: Total cost for maintenance,.. $50,957.00 Pro rata paid by government,..... 45,850.00 26 orphanages: Total cost for maintenance,.. $I16,347.00 Pro rata paid by government,....... 5,245.00 9 poorhouses erected by counties: Total cost in five years,... 3,000ooo.oo 25% paid by government....... 32,7 0.00 Oregon.- For the biennial period 1889 and 890: - Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. Insane Hospital,........... $75,706.57 $ro6,592.73 Penitentiary,............. 92,074.66 8,900.00 Blind School,............ 9,123.37 Deaf and Dumb School,........ 17,7 58.76 Orphans' Home, Portland,......... 5,000.00 Orphans' Home, Salem,......... 5,000.00 1,000.00 Refuge Home,.......... 5,000.00 Reform School,............ 30,000.00 Pennsylvania. —Gross appropriations, no deduction for earnings, etc.:Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. Eastern State Penitentiary,.........$49,ooo.oo Western State Penitentiary....... 35,500.00 $22,500.00 State Industrial Reformatory,....... 40,000.00 68,782.50 State Hospital, Harrisburg,........ 36,200.00 State Hospital, Danville,.........0,000.00 Dumont Hospital,...... State Hospital, Warren,.... State Hospital, Norristown,...... 9,402.50 State Hospital, Philipsburg........ 5,000.00 3,000.00
Page 312 312 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Name of Institution. State Hospital, Mercer,..... State Hospital, Blossburg,..... State Hospital, Hazleton,........ State Hospital, Ashland,... Pennsylvania Reform School,.. House of Refuge,..... Institution for Blind,..... Institution for Blind, Pittsburg,... Institution for Feeble-minded,... Institution for Deaf and Dumb, Philadelphia, Institution for Deaf and Dumb, Pittsburg,. Home for Blind Men,... Home for Blind Women,... Sundry general hospitals for the sick,... Sundry homes for children, etc.,. Maintenance. $4,500.00 5,000.00 17,500.00 32,000.00 39,693.96 55,000ooo.oo.30,000.00 15, 50000 82,500.00 96,000.00 30,000.00 I0,000.00 2,000.00 Construction. $3,000 co 1,500.00 1,500.00 I,000 00 25,000.00 12,500.00 I0,000.00 239,ob0.20 55,250.00 158,400.00oo 40,350 00 In addition to these amounts, the sum of $850,000 was appropriated to the Harrisburg, Danville, Warren, Norristown, and Dumont insane hospitals for the care and treatment of the indigent insane for the years I891 and I892, or $425,000 for each year. South Dakota. Name of Institution. Penitentiary,..... Insane Hospital,... Reform School....... School for Deaf-mutes, Tennessee. Name of Institution. Central Hospital for Insane,... East Tennessee Hospital for Insane,.. West Tennessee Hospital for Insane,... School for the Blind,..... School for Deaf and Dumb,... Industrial School........... Texas. Name of Institution. Texas penitentiaries,..... Texas penitentiaries, literature,... State Reformatory,..... Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Asylum (colored), Orphans' Home...... Deaf and Dumb Asylum,.... Blind Asylum....... North Texas Insane Asylum..... Austin Insane Asylum..... Maintenance. $28,950.00 66,350.00 14,875.00 12,350.00 Maintenance. $60,ooo.oo 40,000.00 40,000.00 20,000.00 27,000.00 I6,000.00 Maintenance. $50,ooo.oo 500.00 I7,930.00 I6,566.oo 6,o85.00 52,616.00 40,048.00 I47,6I2.00 151,710.00 Construction. $2,250.00 Construction. $20,000.00 20,000.00, 3,000.00, 3,50.00. 6,ooo.oo, Construction. $41,000.00 5,000.00 3,536.00, 8,ooo.oo. 30,000.00 23,000.00, 12,000.00, 12,000.00,
Page 313 REPORTS FROM STATES. 313 Utah.- Appropriations for two years are made at each biennial session of the legislature. The legislature now in session has just made the following appropriations:Name of Institution. Maintenance. Construction. Reform School,............. $40,ooo.00 Asylum for the Insane,.......... 0oo,ooo.o06 53,807.oo University of Utah (free), which includes the Deaf-mute Institute,......... 90,000.00 Wyoming. Tax levy for support and maintenance of State Insane Asylum,........... $2,201.13 General appropriation for use of State Boards of Charities and Reform for penal institutions, one year,............. 25,000.00 STATE CONFERENCES, ETC. In reply to the question, " Have you held any State Conferences of Charities or similar meetings in your State? Give particulars and results," the following information is given. States not mentioned either do not report or say that none have been held. Delaware.- A State Conference of Charities was held in Wilmington December, I89I. It was only fairly attended, but all were earnest and interested. See under "Legislation." Illinois.- State Conferences have been held in Chicago and Peoria. Both meetings were fairly well attended and were interesting. Indiana.- A State Conference was held in I89o. It was fairly well attended, and was a very useful meeting in many respects, especially in making known and popularizing efforts for reform in charity and correction. It is proposed to hold the State Conference yearly hereafter. Maine.-No State Conferences. Portland Associated Charities does a good work of the kind in the city. Michigan.-We hold an annual convention, changing place of meeting each year. The tenth was held last December. Great in terest is taken in them where held. As an educational scheme, they are "immense." Minnesota — No State Conferences have been held. City Conferences have been held in St. Paul and Minneapolis, and steps have been taken for organizing an Associated Charities in St. Paul. New York.- Only the State Convention of County Superintendents of the Poor. The twenty-first meeting was held at Ithaca,
Page 314 314 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. beginning Aug. II, 189r, and continuing three days. There were about forty counties represented in convention by superintendents, supervisors, and other delegates appointed for this purpose, and numerous charitable, correctional, and reformatory institutions and associations of the State were represented by delegates from their boards of managers or other officers. In the course of the convention reports and papers were read upon the following subjects: Better Methods in Public Charitable Work Desirable; The Duties and Responsibilities of Superintendents of the Poor; The Dependent Poor; Child-saving Work; The Work of the Children's Aid Society of the City of New York; The Tramp Question; Immigration; A History of and Plea for State Provision for the Feebleminded; The Duties and Responsibilities of Overseers of the Poor; The Plan and Methods of Work of the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York; The Merits of the System of Exclusive State Care, Treatment, and Maintenance of the Chronic Insane of the State as compared with the System of County Care, Treatment, and Maintenance of the Chronic Insane considered in a Humanitarian Sense; The Moral Effect of the Present System for the Care and Support of the Dependent Poor; Some Features of Child-saving Work. Ohio.-The first State Conference was held at Columbus June, 189I. It was a very successful and useful meeting: about 200 delegates from more than one-half the counties of the State were present. The cost of the Conference, about $250, was defrayed by the Board of State Charities. The entire proceedings, papers, addresses, and discussions will be printed as an appendix to the annual report. The Conference will be held annually hereafter. Ontario. —The National Prison Association was held in Toronto in I887. This was followed by a Provincial Conference in i889, which resulted in the appointment of the Ontario Prison Reform Commission from which we expect reform all along the line. Oregon.- No State Conferences so far. We have a city Board of Associated Charities, three years old, in Portland; and one has just been formed in Salem. Pennsylvania.-The Directors of the Poor of the various counties meet annually. There are no particulars to report. Tennessee.- So far we have not been able to do so. We have organized a Conference of Charities at Nashville, preparatory to the organization of a State Cenference at some future time.
Page 315 REPORTS FROM STATES. 315 THE INSANE IN THE UNITED STATES. (CENSUS OF I89o.*) Alabama,... Arizona,... Arkansas,.... California,... Colorado,.... Connecticut,.... Delaware,.... District of Columbia, Florida,... Georgia,... Idaho,.... Illinois.... Indiana,... Iowa,.... Kansas,... Kentucky,... Louisiana,... Maine,.... Maryland,... Massachusetts.... Michigan,.... Minnesota,... Mississippi....... Missouri,... Montana,....... 1,469 59 789 3,594 326 2,056 I97 1,576 35' 1,815 82 6,638 3,290 3,I97 1,793 2,729 910 1,299 1,646 6,103 3,723 2,204 I,I03 3,47 187 Nebraska,... Nevada.... New Hampshire,. New Jersey.... New Mexico,.. New York,... North Carolina,.. North Dakota,. Ohio.... Oklahoma.... Oregon,... Pennsylvania,.. Rhode Island... South Carolina,.. South Dakota,... Tennessee,... Texas..... Utah..... Vermont.... Virginia,.... Washington,... West Virginia,... Wisconsin, Wyoming,... 932 I75 960 3,163 66 17,831 1,725 221 7,599 7 618 8,480 792 912 310 1,845 I,668 i65 823 2,406 376 I,079 3,510 38' UNITED STATES,..... 0o6,254 *These important figures, which do not include all the insane, are just received (Nov. I, I892) from Dr. J. S. Billings.
Page 316 ;s ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Page 317 XIV. Minuter anb VDotues;ono. SECRETARY'S REPORT. FIRST SESSION. Thursday night, June 23, I892. The nineteenth annual session of the National Conference of Charities and Correction began on Thursday night, June 23, I892, in the Broadway Theatre, Denver, Col. Music was furnished by the Apollo Club. Mr. J. S. Appel, chairman of the Local Committee, presided. Prayer was offered by the Rt. Rev. J. F. Spaulding. Addresses of welcome were made by Mr. Appel, by his Excellency, Governor J. L. Routt, Hon. Platt Rogers, Mayor of Denver, and Professor Aaron Gove (pages x-6). Responses were made by Hon. Oscar Craig, Rev. H. H. Hart, General R. Brinkerhoff, Rev. J. H. Nutting, and Hon. A. E. Elmore (pages 7- 1). Letters were read from Hon. R. B. Hayes and others, including the following from George William Curtis: - WEST NEW BRIGHTON, STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., June I6, I892. Dear Sir,- I am very much honored by the invitation to attend the National Conference of Charities and Correction on the 23d instant, and I am exceedingly sorry that I am unable to accept it. I have no especial title to the honor from experience in the work, like so many who will be present; but I am one of the great multitude who sympathize in every way with the noble movement of organized charity. It is a very great service to show that giving is not charity, and that an immense proportion of what is given as alms merely increases and aggravates the wretched condition that it would relieve. The perception of this truth and the elaborate application of it in practice are among the great triumphs of the humane spirit of this generation. They belong to the vast system of modern achieve
Page 318 3 18 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. ments which illustrate much more than material inventions and enterprise the real progress of civilization. These things are very familiar to you who are engaged actively in various branches of this good work. But I would remind you that it is a work of which the principle and scope and vital importance are perceived by an immense body of your fellow-citizens, who feel that charity becomes more truly Christian just in the degree that it is organized according to the views which the Conference holds and inculcates. Very truly yours, GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. Rev. Myron W. Reed, of Denver, President of the Conference, delivered the annual President's address (page i). On motion of A. E. Elmore, it was voted that a committee of seven should be appointed, to whom should be referred all new business and all resolutions without debate. On motion of Dr. C. S. Hoyt, it was voted that a Committee on Organization of the Twentieth Annual Conference should be appointed, this committee to consist of one delegate from every State and Territory, including the District of Columbia. On motion of F. B. Sanborn, it was voted that one delegate from every State and Territory should form a Committee on Credentials. The benediction was pronounced by Rev. J. W. Freeman, and the Conference adjourned at Io P.M. SECOND SESSION. Friday morning, June 24. The Conference met at 9.30 A.M. in Unity Church. After the singing of a hymn, prayer was offered by Rev. W. O'Ryan, of Denver. The following committees were appointed:Committee on New Business and Resolutions.- A. E. Elmore, Wisconsin; M. D. Follett, Ohio; L. L. Barbour, Michigan; Mrs. Anne B. Richardson, Massachusetts; P. C. Garrett, Pennsylvania; J. M. Glenn, Maryland; Mrs. J. S. Sperry, Colorado. Committee on Credentials. —F. B. Sanborn, Massachusetts; A. E. Elmore, Wisconsin; A. L. Welch, Colorado; Rev. Thomas Mills,. Indiana; Dr. A. T. Barnes, Illinois; Dr. W. Lindley, California; Rev. S. G. Smith, Minnesota; M. Parrott, Ohio; Miss M. M. McBryde, New York; Rev. J. H. Nutting, Rhode Island; R. R. Caldwell, Tennessee; Miss M. E. Richmond, Maryland; Dr. S. Bell,
Page 319 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 319 Michigan; Professor G. T. W. Patrick, Iowa; A. W. Clark, Nebraska. It was moved that a Committee on Time and Place be appointed. Mr. A. E. ELMORE.-The time and place of the next Conference are fixed. It will be held in Chicago. That was decided last year. Rev. S. G. SMITH, Minnesota.-This Conference must confirm the vote of the last Conference. Mr. F. B. SANBORN.- If the gentleman will withdraw his motion until the committee appointed last year has reported, it will be better. There is no objection to the appointment of a Committee on Time and Place after that. The motion was withdrawn. The business of the day, Reports from States, was.then taken up, Mr. Alexander Johnson, Indiana, chairman. The report was made by Mr. Johnson (page 25I). Five-minute verbal reports were called for. Dr. Walter Lindley reported as follows. — Dr. LINDLEY.-Being called upon in this unexpected manner to respond to the condition of the general work in California, I can give you but an incomplete and disconnected statement. Up to this time California has had three insane asylums. They have all been in the northern and central portion of the State. The consequence has been that all the insane in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, and Santa Barbara, have been obliged to undergo the terrible ride of five or six hundred miles before reaching a place where they could be suitably treated. This inhumane state of affairs will soon be past, as at the session of the legislature in I889 $350,ooo was appropriated to erect an insane asylum in Southern California. This institution is now almost ready for occupancy. It has been reported to me that it is a most complete and excellent building, but it is on the congregate plan. I have no doubt that California will keep pace with Eastern States, and will by and by adopt the plan which is known as the Wisconsin, or "cottage," plan of caring for its insane. California has two penitentiaries, one at Folsom, the other at San Quentin. The latter is the older and larger of the institutions. These institutions are both in good hands; but the older one, particularly, is established on such a disgraceful basis that we are all looking forward with hope to the time when its present method can be changed. Major W. E. Hale has recently taken charge of it as warden, and he is very anxious to get facilities, so that he can allow, the younger convicts especially, to follow some trade or some avocation which will prepare them better for the struggle of life after they
Page 320 320 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. are discharged. At present almost the only work in this San Quentin Penitentiary is in a jute mill. This work in the jute mill not only unfits them for work when their term expires, but is very injurious to their health. Major Hale tells me that frequently he has men come to him with tears in their eyes, begging that they be put to work at something of advantage to them, so that, when they are discharged from his institution, they can go out into the world and make an honest living. It will be a great blessing when this disgraceful state of affairs is abolished. California is especially proud of her Home for the Feeble-minded. It has recently been removed from Santa Clara County, where it was established for some years, to Glen Ellen, where the State has erected excellent buildings; and they have a fine fruit farm and gardens in which the unfortunate who belong to this class can have splendid outdoor exercise, and their talents, small though they may be, can be developed to the utmost. Mrs. Katherine B. Lathrop, who is the founder of this work in California, and who is president of the Board of Trustees of this institution, is here in attendance with Mrs. A. E. Osborne, the matron of the Home for the Feeble-minded. I cannot state positively, but am of the opinion that there is no State in the Union where the feeble-minded are cared for on as advanced a plan as in California. As I have already told you in regard to our penitentiaries, there has been practically no reformatory work in California. The State made an appropriation in I889 for a reformatory school, which was located in Whittier, Los Angeles County, about twelve miles from the city of Los Angeles. This school was opened July i, I891. Previous to its establishment there was a municipal so-called industrial school in the city of San Francisco. This was practically a school of crime; and, as soon as the school at Whittier was opened, the San Francisco school was closed, and all the children were sent to the State school. I have charge of this State school, and can say that I am delighted with the progress that has been made by the boys and girls in my care. There are two departments of this school, and they are one mile distant from each other, making practically two institutions under one general supervision. The State has also made an appropriation for a reformatory at lone, Amador County, twenty-five or thirty miles from Sacramento, and about one hundred miles from San Francisco. The building for this school is almost completed. It is under the management of the State Board of Prison Directors, and will doubtless relieve to a great extent the terrible condition of affairs which exists in our State penitentiaries. California has as yet no State Board of Charities, and is behind the procession in this respect. But our State is progressive, and is constantly learning from the information which we get from such Conferences as these; and we hope to be enlightened sufficiently to lead us to the front in reformatory work.
Page 321 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 321 Mr. HART, Minnesota. —What has the State done toward caring for orphans? Dr. LINDLEY.- I think the State pays to private institutions caring for orphans $1oo per annum for whole orphans and $50 per annum for half-orphans. Mr. HART.- How many are there in these orphanages? Dr. LINDLEY.- I believe there are about two thousand, but cannot say positively. Rev. W. H. Brodhead was asked to speak for Colorado. Mr. BRODHEAD.- In regard to the State Board of Charities, we find that the administration is in full sympathy with the Board. There is not the least friction. I do not know that we are the youngest, but certainly we are among the youngest of the State Boards. The greatest work accomplished has been in regard to new buildings and improving the county jails. There are fifty-five counties in the State, and most of them have jails that could be improved. Many of them are, however, above the average. We find that the commissioners of the counties are in full sympathy with us, and have taken all the suggestions that the Board has made in a kindly way. A little directory which we have published and distributed gives all the names of the institutions in the State. The State Board is exceedingly anxious for an appropriation by legislative action for forming a reformatory in connection with the penitentiary. The prospects of this seem good. The buildings have not been started, but we are getting the grounds in condition. Our insane asylum is overcrowded. The State Board sees no way of relief unless there should be found a place for the feeble-minded, and thus release them from the care of the insane asylum. A National Consumptives' Home in this State is a necessity that presses heavily upon our Charity Organization Society. The reputation of our climate is such that consumptives flock to Colorado. They come with little health and little money, and both are soon gone. This is a very heavy drain on Colorado. Only last week the president had a fellow come to his house just able to crawl. He wanted work, and went to -work with a shovel and fainted in his tracks. There is no place for such men, because we have not a consumptives' home. Such a home ought to be national. The sick people come here from all parts of the land. We do not breed sick people in Colorado. You send them, and you ought to help us take care of them. We will do the work if you will supply part of the means. I regret that our blind and mute institution is closed. The school is adjourned for the year. All educational institutions of the State are closed. The boys' industrial school is at Golden, under the care of Superintendent Hatch. We have no industrial school for girls; but our State Board of Control is in working sympathy with the Sisters in charge of the Home of the Good Shepherd, and the State and county board girls that are committed in that institution.
Page 322 322 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Mr. J. S. APPEL.- The last Sunday of last October, through the influence of our State Board, Prison Sunday was inaugurated in Colorado; and the effect has been excellent. It is hoped that before the Colorado delegates shall return to their homes we shall form here a Prisoners' Aid Society. Mr. L. S. STORRS, Michigan. —As a member of this committee that has just reported, I must say that I differ from the chairman in the recommendations that have been offered. I would move that the recommendations in that report be submitted to the Committee on Resolutions, to be reported upon by that committee. Voted. Mr. A. E. Elmore was asked to report for Wisconsin. Mr. ELMORE.- Heretofore the State of Wisconsin has been to the front. Now it has to take a back seat, and I do not like it. The State Board of Charities has been abolished, and merged in with another board which we had. The new board is called the Board of Control. I hoped some representatives from that Board would be here, and it is possible they may come yet. If not, I shall ask that we may be permitted to furnish statistics from Wisconsin. Since the last meeting at Indianapolis one more county insane asylum has been established, and is succeeding admirably. Permission was granted, and in accordance therewith Mr. Elmore afterward submitted the following report from Wisconsin: — The "State Board of Control," who by law have the former powers of the "State Board of Charities" conferred upon them, furnishes the following: - There were in the several State institutions on the Ist of July, 1892, the patients, etc., named below:State Hospital for Insane near Madison, 532; Northern Hospital for Insane, Oshkosh, 620; Deaf and Dumb School, Delavan, 178; School for the Blind, Janesville, 74; Industrial School for Boys, Waukesha, 285; State Prison, Waupun, 526; School for Dependent Children, Sparta, 205; The Milwaukee County Insane Hospital, a semi-State institution, 291. There are now twenty-one county insane asylums, one having been opened in December last; and the number of inmates therein are: - Brown County Insane Asylum, near Green Bay, 99; Columbia County, Wyocena, go; Dane County, Verona, I03; Dodge County, Juneau, IOO; Dunn County, Menomonee, 97; Fond du Lac County, Fond du Lac, io6; Grant County, Lancaster, 96; Green County, Monroe, 115; Iowa County, Edmund, 95; Jefferson County, Jefferson, I07; La Crosse County, West Salem, I02; Manitowoc County, Manitowoc, IOI; Milwaukee County, Wauwatosa, I2I; Ontagania County, Apple
Page 323 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 323 ton, 102; Racine County, Racine, Ioo; Rock County, Johnstown, 81; Sauk County, Reedsburg, 52; Sheboygan County, Sheboygan, 98; Vernon County, Viroqua, 105; Walworth County, Elkhorn, 93; Winnebago County, Winnebago, 66. The county insane asylums are taking care of the inmates in a satisfactory manner in all respects, and the system has the continued approval of the people interested. I regret not being able to make a more complete report. ANDREW E. ELMORE. Gen. BRINKERHOFF. —The statutes of Ohio compel the State to care for its insane and defective classes. Any child of the State is entitled to the best care that can be given. We have no pauper insane. We have not entirely carried this out yet, owing to the fact that we have not yet had room enough; but we are approaching it. Mr. LEVI L. BARBOUR, Michigan.- I believe it was mentioned in the report that the State Board of Corrections and Charities of Michigan holds an annual convention, but the report failed to say that we have another convention of the superintendents of the poor. It gathers representatives of the different State institutions together. It makes a very much greater convention than the other. Questions come up which pertain to child-saving, to jails, to insanity, and reformatories; and so it becomes a means of circulating throughout the State information in connection with these different institutions. The members really obtain great benefit from it. The last meeting was held in February. It was the nineteenth convention of superintendents of the poor. The State Board has had no greater aid from any other body of men. Rev. J. H. Nutting was asked to report for Rhode Island. Mr. NUTTING.- We move on in the even way in which we have been moving. Our industrial school plant, for which the State provided twenty-five hundred dollars, is now in successful operation. At the Boys' Reform School we have well-equipped blacksmiths' shops, machine shops, carpenters' shops, printing-office, etc. A fine chapel has been built at an expense of two thousand dollars. The illness of the State Corresponding Secretary accounts for the fact that we have received no formal report. Mr. F. B. SANBORN.-The chairman has given us an admirable report this morning, but I want to call the attention of the Conference to the fact that there are two distinct things sought in these reports. We cannot dispense with the report from the platform concerning each State. It is often the most interesting part of the session. But we also desire, and it is necessary for new States, that we should have printed in our Proceedings the general condition of every State in this Union respecting its charities and corrections. That information cannot be presented at our Conference fully. It would be unin
Page 324 324 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. teresting from its statistical nature. But it is important to collect and publish this information in our Proceedings. Therefore, I hope that, while we shall persist in hearing oral reports from States, we shall also persist in endeavoring to gain information for publication which will be useful. Mr. PHILIP C. GARRETT.- In the report from Pennsylvania it was said that a conference of directors of the poor is annually held. That conference is really a conference of charities and corrections. It not only includes directors of the poor, but the Board of Public Charities and the Charity Organization Society are invited to join it. I believe in holding such conferences, because they are of great value to those in charge of institutions. Rev. F. H. WINES.- In addition to what Mr. Sanborn has said in regard to the value of full statistical reports, it has occurred to me that it may be desirable for us to adopt the practice of printing, in connection with our Proceedings, an annual list of charitable institutions in the United States, with the number of inmates. We have in the census a list which will soon be printed. The figures will be for I890. It will be of great value. There is a great demand for such a list. There are about twenty-five hundred names in it; but, by using small type, I think we could put the whole list in a compact form that would not take an excessive number of pages, and probably enough independent lists would be printed to pay the additional expense of including it. We could make an annual year book, published by this Conference, which would be desirable if it could be brought about. Mr. W. R. Pittman was asked to report for Missouri. Mr. PITTMAN. —We have three lunatic asylums in Missouri. The Baptists have an orphans' home in St. Louis, and a sanitarium that will accommodate over a hundred patients. It is supported by benevolent people among the Baptists and other Christian people. We have a chapel at the insane asylum in St. Joseph, where the ministers preach in rotation. We have a home for the friendless doing great good. I hope a statistical report from Missouri will be printed in the Proceedings. The report of the Committee on State Boards of Charities was made by the chairman, Hon. William P. Letchworth (page I3). DISCUSSION. Mr. ELMORE.-I do not wish to criticise that report very much, because the writer has said that he alone was responsible for it. But there.are things in it that I protest against: first and foremost, that part which says the governor of the State should be- a member of the State Board of Charities. I do not think so. There is a notable
Page 325 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 325 instance of a governor of the State of New York who did not know there was such a thing as the National Conference of Charities and Correction, and he knew but little of the State Board. There is not a governor who knows the business that a State Board has to care for half as well as the weakest member of the Board. Again, the secretary of a State Board of Charities ought not to be a member of the Board. If he is fit to be a secretary, and is a member, he has more influence than any one else. Again, the report was too long. Mr. BARBOUR.- Mr. Elmore has given one of the best reasons in the world why the governor should be ex officio a member of the State Board. If, for instance, that governor of New York had been a member of the State Board, he would have known when the Conference of Charities and Correction took place. Another thing, he feels a responsibility in connection with the action of the Board, if he has something to do with it. He does not feel that the Board is usurping any of his powers in making recommendations, or that it is interfering in the business of governing State institutions if it makes recommendations in regard to them. I think, however, that Mr. Elmore is right in regard to the question of the secretary being a member of the State Board. If he is a member of the Board, he is held responsible for the action of the Board in a great many instances where he otherwise would not be. He can confer upon a more independent ground with the superintendents and directors and trustees of institutions if he occupies simply the position of a routine or hired clerk. They will talk with him more freely, and he can in that way get a great deal of information that is necessary. Then, too, if he is a member of the Board, there comes a difficulty about the selection of a secretary. There is more or less friction, more than there would be if they were to take a perfectly independent citizen and make him the secretary. Dr. A. T. BARNES, Illinois.- I was very much pleased with the report. I think it makes little difference whether the secretary is a member. I care nothing about that. But that part in relation to hospitals for the insane struck me with a great deal of force. The tendency of the times in our State is to increase the size of the hospitals for the sake of cheapness. It is almost impossible to get an appropriation to build a new asylum. There is no trouble in getting an appropriation to increase the size. I do think that we are losing ground. We are falling behind in increasing the size and capacity of our institutions for the insane. The average cure of the insane is falling behind. I do not care so much for the chronic insane, but I do think that it is highly important for acute cases to be placed in institutions that are not so large that it is impossible for the medical superintendent to look after them. It is impossible to look after the details of the care of the acute insane if they are mixed up with the chronic insane. The acute should be put into smaller institutions, where they can be looked after properly, and have treatment early, as that is the only hope you have for curing them. I am glad to know
Page 326 326 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. that the writer of the report has taken such high ground in the matter. Mr. CHARLES MCLOUTH, New York.- If the gentleman from Wisconsin had been fortunate enough to have the personal acquaintance of the distinguished governors of New York for the last twenty years, I am quite sure he would not have criticised the report in the manner *that he has. It may not be known to many in this Conference that the present governor of New York, Hon. Roswell B. Flower, in these hot days and nights, with all the pressure of executive duties of that great empire on him, is spending his days and nights in visiting institutions from one end of the State to the other, with the express purpose of examining every educational, charitable, and correctional institution under that great State. I believe that the gentleman will concur with the report that the present executive of the State of New York is likely to know something of the charitable and correctional institutions of the State. Mr. ELMORE.-Governor Flower does know about them. I have talked with him about them for hours. Mr. McLoUTH. —Then he may be a member of the State Board? Mr. ELMORE.- Exactly. Mr. SANBORN.- I am going to try hard to agree both with Mr. Letchworth and Mr. Elmore. I have never seen or heard, in a report or paper on this subject, so much sound truth so modestly set forth as has been done by yourself, sir (addressing the chairman). You have expressed some opinions with which I do not agree; but I regard it as fortunate for the Conference, and for the State of New York, and for the country, that a gentleman who has served so long on this charitable board has in so shining a manner set forth the gospel truth concerning State Boards of Charities. Having said that, I am going to agree with Mr. Elmore a little. He has called himself a crank. If I understand the nature of that instrument, it is something that turns round. I think I have heard from this particular crank expressions of opinion quite similar to some of those that he now dissents from with respect to the care of the insane. Mr. ELMORE.- Oh, no. Many things in that report are as sound as a dollar, but some I object to. Mr. SANBORN.- The gentleman who spoke from California pointed out an evil with respect to the insane there which was very serious. All insane patients from the southern part of California have had to be carried five or six hundred miles before they could receive treatment. That evil in various degrees of atrocity is, in my opinion, the great evil respecting the treatment of the insane in this country. But, while local institutions should be encouraged, I do not think that the governors of States, though they may serve on State Boards of Charities, should appoint the officers. I think it may be done by the old alternative method by judges of the courts, the object being of course to withdraw the management of all public charities from the political arena.
Page 327 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 327 Mr. ELMORE.- That is so. Mr. SANBORN.- In that we are agreed. There is a slight error of statement in regard to the care of children in Massachusetts. That care was not diminished by the act of I879. Indeed, some of the operations of that act have extended and improved the system. I do not mean to say that the system is actually better than before 1879; but, so far as legislation is concerned, it is better. With respect to private charity there was a considerable response made to the statement that private charity is preferable to public. I should like a distinction. There are certain forms that are absolutely indispensable; and, while we recognize the advantages of private charity in its sphere, yet it is just as strictly limited as public charity. When it extends beyond those limits, it increases the evil which it endeavors to prevent and it increases the necessity for public charity. There must be this constantly reciprocal checking and expanding of the two systems of public and private charity to meet the situation. Prof. GRAHAM TAYLOR, Hartford Theological Seminary, Connecticut.- I am glad to represent informally that State in which there are more public institutions to the square mile of territory than in any other State in the Union, and to emphasize some thoughts in this report. The first point is the necessity of establishing reciprocal relations between our private and public charities. I speak specifically rather than in general terms. In Hartford, where I reside, there are many splendid institutions of private charity having more or less public relationship; and yet the great need of that institutional city is co-operation, not only of the private charities among themselves, but of the private charities with the public charities and institutions. For ten years we have been trying to bring about that cooperation, but the difficulty has been that the old established private charities lacked a common basis for conference and co-operation. I take it that a State Board of Charities could have no higher prerogative than to bring about such an enlargement of view not only, but the active co-operation between private charities themselves and with municipal or county representatives of the public charities. After ten years of the hardest labor we have within thirteen months established the Charity Organization Society in the city of Hartford; and the first obstacle that we have had to encounter, since the others have been overcome, is the non-co-operation of the municipal charities. We had to carry it into town meeting and have a regular pitched battle, and practically revolutionize the system of procedure. But it seems as though we might have avoided all this friction, which will probably last many a year, if our State Board of Charities had been in position to bring about a friendly and co-operative conference. Let me emphasize, also, the value of the statistical reports of State Boards of Charities to educational institutions. There is looming up a great department of educational work in the higher institutions and also in the theological seminaries of the land, —the department of sociology. There is no permanent literature available of greater
Page 328 328 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. value than these official reports. Let me say, to the honor of Massachusetts, that there are no more valuable sources of sociological information than the reports of Carroll D. Wright and Horace Wadlin. The educational institutions are seeing openings before them of a sociological nature. Hartford Seminary, which I have the honor officially to represent, was perhaps the first institution of its kind to establish a department of sociology in the regularly required theological curriculum. Yale Seminary has just elected a professor of social ethics. It is high time that the social and personal element be allowed some influence and some weight in the measurements of economics and the study of political economy. Let me add two items of prime importance for this Conference to know. First, the report to the Hartford town meeting of the special committee on the charities of the town, piepared by Professor J. J. McCook of Trinity College, I believe to be the most valuable single document in the American literature of this subject. It has in less than two years since its publication become a text-book in many institutions in this country. The statistical information gathered there from all parts of the world in regard to the matter of municipal charity far exceeds even the New Haven report, which, in its day, was the best thing of the kind. Professor McCook has also given a course of twelve lectures on the tramp question. They supply the most thorough and satisfactory analyses and treatment of that question known to me. I do not know whether those lectures will be published, but it will be a great loss if they are not given to the public in full. They are based on returns from I,360 tramps, written by themselves or the managers of institutions where they were cared for, as also upon the reports of the German colonial treatment, of the English methods, and of the state of the problem in other foreign countries. It is high time that this Conference became a clearing-house to a great exchange of ideas. I wish that we could provide for district conferences in which the representatives of all the public and private charities of a State or of a group of States could be gathered together, where local questions might be more carefully considered than in this National Conference. President REED.- When a gentleman talks well, he can talk over his time. Judge R. R. CALDWELL, Tennessee.- I was pleased with the report, though I might differ about some of the suggestions. In Tennessee we need what has been recommended, a State Board of Charities. I think the idea there is first to get a local conference of charities. I have visited some of the largest cities, and we have got that under way. I thoroughly agree with the report as to the matter of the insane. I wrote a statute which was passed, giving each county in the State the privilege of building a county asylum under the management, or the same supervision, as the State asylum. The white insane are cared for in two asylums at different ends of the State. These institutions have capacity to care for about four hundred patients. The institution for colored has a capacity to take
Page 329 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 329 charge of three hundred at Nashville. The insane are being well cared for in that way. A great many are cared for in the poorhouse. It was to overcome this difficulty that this law was created. Rev. F. H. WINES.-The effect of a State Board of Charities, wherever it exists, is to diminish the power of politicians over the appointments in our State charitable and correctional institutions. In any movement on the part of practical politicians to remove this obstacle to the freedom of partisan appointments, where it is desired to subordinate the management of these institutions to the supposed exigencies of a political machine, it usually assumes the shape which it has taken in Wisconsin, where not only the State Board of Charities, but the local Boards of Trustees as well, have been abolished, and a consolidated board of control created to succeed both. That makes the very worst kind of a political machine. For the State institutions spend more than half the ordinary revenue of the State. If a partisan board has the disbursement of such a fund as that, and the appointment of all officers and employees beside, it will certainly be under strong temptation to use this power and patronage in the interest of a political party rather than that of the institutions and their unfortunate inmates. I call on every friend of State Boards of Public Charities, here and elsewhere, to oppose any attempts in the legislature to establish consolidated boards of control in charge of all the State institutions of any State. Reference was made in Mr. Letchworth's admirable paper to the State of Illinois, and our system of accounts of expenditure of public moneys, which has brought about a great reduction in the amount of the appropriations for the ordinary expenses of our State institutions. I think it due to you to say that the Illinois State Board is of the opinion that it has reached the extreme limit in this reduction of per capita cost. We are disposed hereafter to increase rather than to diminish the per capita cost of our State institutions. Reference was also made by Mr. Letchworth to the necessity for sending back paupers and criminals who are put upon us by other States or nations. When the World's Fair is held in Chicago, in I893, we anticipate not only a great influx of criminals, whom the Chicago police department is already preparing to handle, but a great influx of paupers also. People will come to Chicago who will not have money enough to get away after spending what they will spend. It will be absolutely necessary for the State of Illinois to organize a system of self-protection against this class of visitors. We shall ask the legislature to make an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars for this special purpose. Mrs. C. C. RAINWATER, Missouri.- At a charity conference called in St. Louis in connection with the work of the W. C. T. U. we had some eighty representatives, all women, representing almost every class of charity in the State. The benefits of such a conference are large. The conference was an entire success. There were full reports, perfect harmony, and so much enthusiasm that it was decided
Page 330 330 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. to call another a year hence. We hope to increase the scope until every charity is represented. Judge M. D. FOLLETT, Ohio.- I want to say a word with reference to the judiciary of any State or locality appointing any officer for charity or any other work. The Superior Court of Cincinnati has just expressed itself on the legal aspects of that. I only wish to call the attention of the Conference to the fact that we do not wish to bring the judiciary to act as an executive officer. I will not stop to discuss the question, because there may be difference of opinion; and my short time does not permit. If the Supreme Court of any State should appoint all the executive officers to all the charitable and penal work, the effect would be to lower confidence in the judiciary. I have no time to elaborate this thought. I hope the good people of this Conference will turn their attention to some other source to get capable, honest, and efficient men and women to carry out this great work. Do not look to the judiciary. Their work is entirely different, their thoughts are different. They have not time to supervise the work of their appointees, and they cannot and ought not to try them after they have appointed them. Stand by the governor's appointments for the present. Mr. CHARLES W. BIRTWELL, Boston.- Reference has been made to the State agents in Massachusetts who attend the trials of juvenile delinquents. That system has done great good by preventing the indiscriminate commitment of children to correctional institutions. But certain errors inherent in the original plan have of late years begun to show themselves. In the first place, the State agent may be subject to a financial motive, which ought not to have a chance to play a part in the matter. For instance, the city of Boston has a House of Reformation for Juvenile Offenders. It is organized on the congregate system, and is improperly located on Deer Island, where also is a vast institution for adult offenders. If a boy is sent to that school, the city of Boston meets the expense of his care. The court, however, may commit the child to the State school, called the Lyman School, which is on the cottage plan, and is entirely removed from all institutions for adult criminals. But in the latter event the expense falls on the State, so there is an opportunity for an improper motive to affect the judgment of the State agent, and the recommendation he may make to the court. For several years I have observed narrowly the working of the system in Boston. Secondly, if a handful of agents must cover a whole State, they work at a disadvantage, because they have to go so far to attend trials. It is not in the nature of things that their investigation should be thorough. Delays occur, too; and children are detained under undesirable conditions. But, thirdly, if the investigation is made at a disadvantage, supervision during any period of probation is still more heavily handicapped. The community in which a girl or boy lives must come to the rescue. Some responsible local official, representing the local court, or the municipality, or a private charity,- a man for boys and a woman for girls,- who can
Page 331 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 33I easily learn about any child's home, conditions, record at school or at work, companions, relatives, etc., and can easily seek out teachers, employers, etc., should be on hand when the boy or girl is tried, and, in case commitment is not advisable, should counsel, befriend, and guide the erring youth day by day. In Massachusetts there is being developed a system of local probation officers for adults. It seems to me that these local officers should look after the juveniles also. They, rather than any State agent, should investigate, attend the trial, advise the court, and, when "another chance" is given, insure a real, and not a merely formal probation. Adjourned. THIRD SESSION. Friday nigh, June 24, The session was called to order at 8 P.M. by the President. The subject for the evening was Charity Organization in Cities, Mr. George B. Buzelle, chairman. At the request of Mr. Buzelle, the President of the Conference took charge of the discussion instead of the chairman of the committee. The report of the committee on Charity Organization was made by Mr. Buzelle, (page 204). The address was given by Rev. W. F. Slocum, D.D. (page2 ix). DISCUSSION. Mr. CHARLES D. KELLOGG, General Secretary of the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York.- Your chairman has asked me to say a few words on Charity Organization as an educating force. It is one of its most material features to infuse into the community correct ideas of the proper treatment that should be pursued toward the poor. So much of the "help," —and Heaven forgive those who so sadly misconstrue the meaning of that word,so much of the help extended to those who seek our aid in bearing their heavy burdens is hasty, ill-considered, perfunctory, sentimental, or emotional, that it is all-important that fixed principles of wise charity should be well diffused among the community. There is only one standard by which you determine the measure of the kind of help required by the poor, and it is vital. It is whatever is necessary to be done to put an individual or household in honest and respectable relations to society, of which maintenance without any sort of begging is the minimum. We must hold fast to this principle, because it is a chief article in the creed of charity organization. You will ask, "But can you make the blind or lame or aged or sick self-suppQrting?" And this goes right to the heart of
Page 332 332 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. the problem. Who is the best friend to the blind? The man who, for the asking, gives him a half-dollar on the street every few days, or Dr. S. G. Howe, who taught the sightless to read with raised letters, invented or discovered occupations by which they could maintain themselves, and opened to them busy, cheerful careers? A hundred years ago it was believed that nothing could be done for idiots but to put them in asylums where they could be fed and clothed. Dr. Edward Seguin, with long and patient toil, found out how to train them, so that he could efface their look of stupidity, and guide their jerking limbs to movements of precision and skill. Who was their better friend, Seguin or the man that contributed to feed them in a Bedlam? Is the lady who sends cold victuals to a deaf and dumb beggar at the back gate doing a work like Dr. Gallaudet, who gave to mutes a sign language, and showed them how to be happy and independent with tools? I might go through the list of special sorts of defective and dependent classes, and show how loving and ingenious souls, who have done the most to lessen the gulf between the weak and the strong or capable, have wrought on the principle of making their relation to society and industry as nearly like that of normal people as possible; and every success they have had has carried brightness, manliness, usefulness, independence, and gratitude to the unfortunate. Is not that better than giving money and soup and cold victuals? Now, Charity Organization principles ask us all, in some measure, to be Howes and Seguins or Gallaudets in adapting our charity to the deeper need of those whose wants appeal to our compassion, and not to be easy-going, self-pleasing, superficial dabblers with their troubles. And this kind of work can be done as well for the vicious as for the defective classes. Read the records of Charles L. Brace, who sent forty thousand New York street waifs to homes in the West, and put manliness into the hearts of thousands of newsboys; of Mary Carpenter, who has done a like work in Liverpool; of Octavia Hill, whose firm insistence has turned filth-saturated courts in London into impressive scenes of cleanliness and sunlight, and converted rough boors and slattern women into patterns of neatness and sobriety; of Z. R. Brockway, who sends four out of five of the criminals coming under his control at Elmira back to useful upright lives in society. Or read again for yourselves in the biographies of Edward Denison, Governor Macquairie, John Howard, and Elizabeth Fry. No, our greatest trouble lies less in the incorrigibility of the vicious than in the incorrigibility of society which has cast them out, and will not consider how to rescue them, which gives them the contemptuous pity of almshouses and charity agents, but will not touch them with time or thought or moral strength. Social problems as yet are not so well understood that rules can be framed for dealing with all sorts and conditions of men; and they never will be, because they are constantly changing, so that each age brings its own difficulties. Here is one point where Charity Organ
Page 333 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 333 ization has a modest word to say. Any person or association which insists that our present methods are good enough is either very indifferent to the welfare of the poor or very conceited. Such a position is an assumption of information and wisdom which is well-nigh arrogant. Charity Organization insists on the reverse, imploring men and women to come together and search out what needs to be done; and it takes any and all measures to get them together. It is constantly publishing the best reflections and suggestions obtainable from the pens of persons experienced and well informed in charitable enterprise. It invites conferences in its halls for the freest exchange of views by either critics or friends. It strives to establish communication between workers in all kinds of philanthropy. In its own cases of relief very seldom does any one of its agents attempt to decide alone on the course to be taken. Men and women consult together over every appeal for help, in order to get all the light and wisdom obtainable, and to determine what it is best to do. We do not decide in advance either how much we shall do or what treatment we shall supply, but leave all questions open to the freest action, tending completely to emancipate a needy person from dependence. It is charged against the " Charity Organization " system that a great deal of "red tape " is inevitable in all this conferring, investigating, and visiting; but it is not the case. "Red tape " is a very useful article in its place, and promotes efficiency and economy, when properly used. We all prefer to deal with a merchant or lawyer or doctor who does his business in a methodical, systematic manner, and generally find that intelligence and orderly ways go together in all avocations. Charity Organizationists use no more "red tape" than is necessary to arrive at a just understanding of the case under treatment, convinced that an inconsiderate snap judgment is a mischievous and cruel species of charlatanism. What it is so hard to get for the destitute and ignorant are personal kindnesses, even the alms of understanding, prudence, discretion, counsel, friendship. Enough money is already available for them, and needs only to be systematically managed. The true workers must go to the needy, as Christ came into the world, making themselves poor that others may become rich. We cannot confuse this moral and spiritual work with expectations of money without increasing the evils we are trying to eradicate. All the money the Charity Organization Society, pure and simple, collects is spent in the kind of red tape alluded to. So far as we can control it, all goes to investigations, bureaus for exchange of information, conferences, offices kept daily open in many parts of the city, special agents, correspondence, publications, gathering of statistics, etc. Doubtless this absorption of money in mere administration tells against the society with those who wish to find fault, or who are ignorant or indifferent as to our avowed purposes; but our contributors are fully and fairly told that we shall make this use of their support. The criticism only shows how infatuated the
Page 334 334 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. mind can become with the idea that nothing is worthily done for the poor unless money is given them. Our churches raise millions of dollars to send missionaries to the heathen and to the frontier, whose aim is not to give away alms, but solely to help pagans and pioneers to think higher thoughts and live better lives. Why should any one begrudge the few thousands needed to send our missionaries of hope and good will to the practical heathen in the alley-ways, back courts, and purlieus of our towns? Remember that Charity Organization is above all things an educator, a disseminator of ideas, of thoughts which will redeem the lives of the depressed, and which will make the great, rich, easy-going world of charity to be humane in due time. In view of the vast field, geographical and moral, awaiting occupation, we cannot be satisfied with the result. But we are sure the charitable instincts of whole communities and countries have been clarified, ennobled, and deepened by the Charity Organization movement, much wise and humane legislation has been enacted at its instigation, many corrupting perils have been checked in their flow toward the feeble and outcast, and the demonstration has been made again and again that society can confront and cure its most formidable and disgusting evils, when it combines its forces to do so. We are sure that never before, outside of the Christian Church, has there been the spectacle of so majestic a co-operation for the redemption of our miserable brothers and sisters, nor a more real exhibition of a brotherhood among men deeper than all diversities of estate, of religion, and of race. To describe in a sentence what is the cardinal aim of Charity Organization, so that one can think it out from its central idea, it is the co-operation of all benevolent forces for the cure of debasement and distress, or, in other words, it is to liberate the fine moral and spiritual forces, now the possession of the well-born and the rich, and set them moving upon the troubled sea of penury, ignorance, and debasement, and to establish sound social relations for every one on the basis of personal kindness and fidelity each to the other's highest good. These lessons are then nothing less than the science of sociology, and "the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience, and of a faith unfeigned." P. W. AYRES, Ph.D., Ohio. —In addition to those inspiring words which have been given to us, I should like to say something in regard to the parable of the good Samaritan, especially with regard to the priest and the Levite who went by on the other side. Though it is not found exactly so in the New Testament, you will perhaps permit me, for my purpose, to call the priest in a certain measure the minister of a certain set of churches in the East, and the Levite the university student. It is with regard to the attitude of the churches of our Eastern States and the students in the universities that I wish to speak, because I believe that both of these classes are going by on the other side. It is a strong statement, and will need modification with
Page 335 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 335 thousands and thousands of exceptions, but in certain instances it is true. I speak from the point of view of a university student. I am sure there is a good deal of gathering of statistics and studying of social problems without seeing the suffering that exists. I have been guilty of it myself, and of going by on the other side. There is a good deal of studying for the purpose of making books and speeches, but that does not reach the heart of the man who is in trouble. One word in regard to our churches. It seems to me that in our large cities there is a possibility of turning the hearts of the well-todo toward the poor. The ministers need to lead the people, and need to be led themselves into seeing what the great needs are in the slums of our cities. That does not apply to Denver, because Denver is not -old enough to have slums yet. I feel strongly that what we need is the good Samaritan spirit, which will take us ourselves, men, women, and children, into these wretched homes of the back alleys and tenements, and bring to them the light and life and hope that come to us in our lives. Mrs. A. Jacobs, of Denver, was invited to speak. Mrs. JAcoBS.-I did intend to give way to visitors entirely this year. But I have had a great deal to do with Charity Organization, not only since our society was organized here, but long before. In Denver we are a co-operative body of citizens, composed of thirteen societies, all kinds and creeds working harmoniously together. Our plan of work is different from that of any other city. Therefore, I will have to explain it to you. These thirteen bodies are composed of the relief societies. We place before our citizens every year the needs of these societies, and a sufficient sum of money to carry on this work is subscribed. One collection is taken up at Thanksgiving, when the hearts of the people are tender. Our citizens respond nobly to every call made upon them. In the special work of the Charity Organization Society, of which I have the honor to be the secretary, we have a central office. We have the charities of the cities under control to a great extent. One great trouble in Denver is that there are so many homeless people. The true life is the home life; but there are many, many cases of children coming to us homeless and friendless, and we have to find homes to place these children in. Then there are large numbers of people coming here friendless, miserable, homeless, hopeless, wretched. Very few families will take them in to board. They are not willing to take a helpless, weak, consumptive into the family to destroy the harmony of the home life. They are usually too weak to do anything. They all come asking for light work; but we have no light work. Everybody here who has health and strength can get plenty to do, but the weak ones are pushed to the wall. Many times they are taken in for board and clothing; but what does it amount to? They cannot even do the duties of such a life, and they are thrust out; and they come again to
Page 336 336 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. our office for relief. We find them home after home, but it is of no use. What are we to do with the homeless and the friendless with no homes to put them into? We want in Colorado to avoid building any institution until we have the right plan and right methods. We want to avoid the pitfalls of the East. We dare not commence wrong. Consequently, we are waiting until we have sufficient experience and means necessary to the care of the many, many strangers coming in upon us. Many families arrive here with the last dollar gone,-families with father, mother, and little children hoping to pick up gold in the streets. Our real estate men have boomed Colorado so much that people think that we all live happy, grand, brilliant lives. We do our best for them but how can we do more without means? Money is an essential thing in Charity Organization work, but it must be spent in the right direction. There comes the true core of charity work, the work of the friendly visitor. But do you not think it is time that we had institutions to educate friendly visitors? I wish we could have an enthusiasm factory. We have sympathy and enthusiasm which at first is willing to do anything on earth; but, after a little while, such visitors drop down and give up the work. They do not understand it. They have not the bull-dog tenacity to hold on, and I tell you that charity work takes more true patience and perseverance than any other kind of work on the face of the earth. Just to listen, day after day, to the repeated iteration of these poor people takes patience. They are so glad to have a friendly ear into which to pour their trials, to have some one smile upon them, to have some one enter the home and give them a little ray of sunshine and joy. The spirit of the true friendly visitor makes one forget himself or herself, and one enters the home as a brother or sister, not in a spirit as though one were humbling one's self. One should make the man or woman whom he is visiting his equal for the time and hour. That is the spirit in which to enter all homes, whether of poverty or of wealth. Go as a friend. If you do not go in that spirit, your work is a burden. It is truly essential in all this good work that you do it in the highest and truest and noblest spirit. It is only when you are your true self, and not an affected man or woman, when you go in an earnest, simple, pure, manly or womanly spirit, that you reach the hearts of those who need your help and care, whether they are rich or poor. Never go in a patronizing spirit. I think of a poor woman who had owned her own home and lost it. Her last request, when she was dying, was that she might be carried after death to the old home and into the parlor, and rest there over night, because she knew that the voices of the past would echo in that room; and her request was granted. The body was allowed to lie all night in the old parlor; and who can say that the spirits of her dear ones were not with her? Who can say that the spirit of the past was not round about her? These poor folks are ready to pour into your ears their hopes and highest aspirations. Perhaps you can rouse in them the spirits of the dead past.
Page 337 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 337 Perhaps you can give them another chance. I have been told that men going up into balloons, as they ascend into the atmosphere, hear last of all the voices of little children. Is it not natural, then, that the whole spirit of humanity must centre in the child? The voice of the child rises higher and higher. It appeals to God, and through God to us. We need to cultivate a neighborly spirit. You must rouse in yourself the true spirit of neighborhood charity. You must not say, Who is my neighbor? for all are your neighbors. As you treat them, so will you be treated. So I appeal to you to draw out of your lives some joy and sunshine, and let it radiate in other homes. After music the benediction was pronounced by Professor Haskell. Adjourned. FOURTH SESSION. Saturday morning, June 25. The Conference was called to order at 9.30 A.M. by the President. Prayer was offered by Rev. William S. Friedman, of Temple Emanuel. The report of the Committee on the Rules of Procedure was read by the chairman, Rev. H. H. Hart, as follows:REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RULES OF PROCEDURE. At the Indianapolis meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Correction it was voted "that a committee of five be appointed to present at the next Conference Rules of Procedure based on resolutions adopted by the Conference heretofore, and the unwritten laws on which the Conference has hitherto acted, the intention being not to adopt a constitution, but to formulate simple rules to be reported for such action as the Conference may take." Your committee, after collating the resolutions that have been adopted by previous Conferences, has agreed, unanimously, upon the accompanying Rules of Procedure, which are respectfully submitted for the consideration of the Conference. At different times in the history of the Conference it has been suggested that an annual membership fee be established, in accordance with the practice of the National Prison Association and other similar organizations, in order to obviate the necessity of depending on the Local Committee for assistance in printing the Conference Proceedings. It is expected that the Conference of I893 will receive no pecuniary assistance whatever from the citizens of Chicago, as they do not undertake to render any such assistance to any of the numerous societies which are to meet there in I893. It will be necessary, therefore, for the Conference to provide for the expenses of printing
Page 338 338 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. and mailing circulars and announcements and other local expenses, amounting to several hundreds of dollars. It has been suggested, therefore, that a membership fee be charged for the Conference of 1893, leaving the question of membership fee for subsequent Conferences to be decided at that meeting. Your committee respectfully submits for the consideration of the Conference the accompanying paragraph marked "h," to be appended, if adopted, to rule "I." This paragraph provides for an annual membership fee of $2. The committee recommends that this paragraph be voted upon separately, and, if adopted, be in force only for the Conference of 1893, unless continued by vote of the Conference. All of which is respectfully submitted. H. H. HART, F. B. SANBORN, ANDREW E. ELMORE, WILLIAM P. LETCH WORTH, PHILIP C. GARRETT. Committee on Rules of Procedure. RULES OF PROCEDURE FOR THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION FOR 1892. PROCEEDINGS. YEAR. PAGE. PREAMBLE. 1891. 37& The National Conference of Charities exists to discuss the prob- 1887. 15-17 lems of charities and correction, to disseminate information and 1889. 263 promote reforms. It does not formulate platforms. 1885. 457 But see - I879. 226 I. MEMBERSHIP. The membership of a Conference shall include: — I879. iv (a) All past officers of the Conference who have served more than one year. (b) Members and officers of State Boards of Charities or 1875. 15 boards of kindred functions. (c) Members of Boards of Management, and officers of public and private charitable and correctional institutions. (d) Members and officers of boards and societies organized for the relief or improvement of the poor, the unfortunate, or the neglected. (e) Persons designated by State or municipal authorities or by the Local Committee (f) Others especially interested may be enrolled as members, 1885. 425 and may share in the discussions, without the privilege I88i. xv of voting. 1882. XX - I884. 328 (g) Honorary Members may be elected on recommendation of the Executive Committee. <i ~~4 ~ **
Page 339 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 339 II. OFFICERS. PROCEEDINGS. YEAR. PAGE. The officers of the Conference shall be a President, one or more Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, three Secretaries, and an Official Reporter and Editor. Also a Corresponding Secretary for each State 1885. 477 and Territory. These officers (except the Treasurer) shall be elected annually by the Conference for the ensuing year. The ex-Presidents of the Conference shall be the Counsellors, and shall be members of the Executive Committee. III. COMMITTEES. The standing committees shall be an Executive Committee, a 1886. 477 Local Committee, and a committee on each subject which it is proposed to discuss at the ensuing Conference. The Executive Committee shall consist of the President ex officio, four members elected by the Conference, and the Counsellors. 1878. 17 These committees shall be chosen annually for the ensuing year, and the chairman of each committee shall have power to fill vacancies, with the approval of the President, and shall elect one of its members as Treasurer. The President, soon after the opening of the Conference, shall 1886. 330 appoint a Committee on Organization of the next Conference and a Committee on Time and Place of the next meeting, each consisting of one member from each State and Territory; also a Committee on Resolutions, to which all resolutions shall be referred without debate. IV. DUTIES OF OFFICERS. The officers of the Conference shall discharge the duties usually devolving upon such officers. The President-elect shall be chairman ex officio of the Executive Committee, and shall have the supervision of the work of the sev- 1886. 478 eral committees in preparing for the meeting of the Conference and securing a suitable attendance. He shall have authority to accept resignations and fill vacancies in the list of officers and chairmen of committees. The first Secretary shall be Secretary of the Executive Committee ex officio. He shall conduct the correspondence of the Conference with Committees, Governors, Boards of State Charities, etc., under the direction of the President. He shall direct the work of the other Secretaries during the Conference, and be responsible for the correctness of the roll of members. The Treasurer shall be the custodian of the unsold copies of the Proceedings and of the money received and disbursed in course of I885. 478 their preparation. The Official Reporter and Editor shall report and edit the Pro- I879. 226 ceedings of the Conference, subject to the direction of the Executive Committee. But see- 1884. 406 And - 1889. 263 The Corresponding Secretaries shall be responsible for the annual reports from their several States. It should be their duty I885. 478 to secure the attendance of representatives from public and private institutions and societies, and the appointment by Governors of State Delegates in those States where there are no State Boards of Charities. V. DUTIES OF COMMITTEES. The Executive Committee shall be the President's Advisory 1885. 478 Board, and shall hold the powers of the Conference in the interim between meetings.
Page 340 340 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. PROCEEDINGS. YEAR. PAGE. The Local Committee shall make all necessary local arrange- 1885. 478 ments for the meeting, and provide funds for the local expenses, such as hall rent, salary, and expenses of the Reporter, local printing, etc. The Committee on Subjects shall arrange the programme for the sessions and section meetings assigned to them, subject to the approval of the President. 1885. 478 The committees are required to arrange their programmes so as I880. ]xii to give opportunity for free discussion. 1884. 328 No paper shall be presented to the Conference except through I880. Ixii the proper committees. But see — 1884. 326 And — 1884. 406 And - I888. 439,400 VI. DEBATES. In the debates of the Conference each speaker shall be limited to i880. xii five minutes, except by unanimous consent, and shall not be allowed I88I. xv to speak twice on any one subject until all others have had an I882. xx opportunity to be heard. 1884. 528 VII. AMENDMENTS. These rules may be suspended or amended at the pleasure of the Conference, but otherwise shall be in force from one year to another. PROPOSED ADDITION TO RULE NO. I.,(h) The annual membership fee shall be $2, which shall entitle each member to a copy of the Proceedings and other publications of the Conference. State Boards of Charities and other societies and institutions sub-:scribing for the Proceedings in quantities shall be entitled to enroll their officers and members as members of this Conference, in proportion to the amount subscribed. The list of annual members shall be printed in the Proceedings, with asterisks marking those in attendance. Mr. WINES. - I move that these rules be printed, and made a special order for Tuesday morning at 9.30 A.M. It was so ordered. Mrs. J. S. Cushman, of South Dakota, was asked to report for that State. Mrs. CUSHMAN.- We have a State Board of Charities in Dakota; and I have here the report for 1890, the last legislative report. I think they are doing the best they can for a new State. People are very charitable in the mining communities and the Black Hills. The pockets of the men and women are open to all who need. I represent the women whose special duty it is to find homes for homeless children. The subject for the morning was then taken up, the report of the Committee on the Care for Feeble-minded. The report was read by Dr. George H. Knight, of Connecticut, chairman (page I55).
Page 341 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 341 A paper on " The Colony Plan " of organization as adapted to the establishment of State institutions for the feeble-minded was read by Dr. W. B. Fish, Illinois (page i6i). Mrs. J. S. Spear, California, was called to the chair. DISCUSSION. Mr. H. H. HART.- The State of Minnesota was exceedingly fortunate in the inception of its work for the care of the feeble-minded in securing the services of the honored father of the chairman of this committee to found our institution; and he laid the foundation so broad and deep that it has had a steady and normal growth ever since. I am proud to be able to say that the State of Minnesota is making larger provision in proportion to its population for the care of the feeble-minded than any other State, and we hope to keep that record. Our last legislature made appropriations for beginning an additional building, and we expect to enlarge our plant. The chairman of this committee was his father's successor after a year or two, and was for five years in charge of our institution. He ably seconded the work of his father. We have come in our State to regard this charity as not only one of the most kindly, but one of the most beneficial to the community; one which not only benefits the poor, but the people of refinement and culture, who gladly acknowledge their debt to the institution in relieving them of a terrible care, and in enabling them to happily discharge their duty to their unfortunate children. I have been especially impressed with the necessity of the custodial care of the children of this class. I think that we may just as well confess that our original hopes in this work have met with a degree of disappointment. It was hoped that large numbers of these children would be so educated and trained that they could go out and become self-supporting members of the community. The result has not justified this expectation. Those who have parents who can give them a home may go back comfortably into the community, and cease to be a cause of chagrin and mortification to their friends. But those who have themselves to care for, and have no guardians, go into almshouses to be cared for. We have many children of this class in our institution, and hope they will always be there. They must be under perpetual guardianship. This is specially true of the girls. Custodial care of those girls cannot be regarded as unnecessary by any one familiar with the almshouses of any great State. These girls, when they come to the almshouses, are exposed to the greatest perils. Their condition is pitiable to the last degree, and every consideration of humanity and public policy demands that they should be under State guardianship, especially during child-bearing age. Those who remain in the community are a menace to the welfare of society beyond what we sometimes imagine. It is not simply the fact that the majority of these poor girls will become mothers of children, three
Page 342 342 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. fourths of whom will be defectives, but, living in ordinary country villages, they are a cause of corruption and evil to the community that cannot be overestimated. I have had under my own observation two girls of this class who have been the means of corrupting a large number of the youth of one village, who otherwise would not have fallen into these evil practices. We ought to protect the community, as well as these poor girls, by removing them, and putting them into circumstances where they can be happily employed, and contribute largely to their own support in the labor of the institution by caring for those who are more helpless than themselves. We could not have a more important topic for discussion than this; and it is one which ought not to be confined to experts, but the laity ought to ask questions and discuss it, in order that their vision may be extended. Col. HENRY STONE, Massachusetts.- I am very greatly interested in this subject. It may not be uninteresting to the Conference to state what the School for the Feeble-minded in Massachusetts now is and what it hopes to become. For a long time it was situated in a little out-of-the-way cluster of buildings in South Boston. There the school was under the immediate eye of Dr. Howe, the superintendent of the School for the Blind. After a while the State began to take some interest in it, and a few years ago an appropriation was made to erect admirable buildings, enough to accommodate all the feeble-minded in the State. The school consists of a cluster of buildings designed especially to meet the conditions of the feeble-minded. To mention one little thing to show the care that has been taken, in laying the floors of the buildings there is no such thing as a threshold, so that these little children can walk easily from one room to another. The same kind of care has been shown in regard to all the buildings. The school-rooms are as well arranged as any in the State. There is a gymnasium where all sorts of exercises for the physical welfare of the children can be carried on under proper restrictions and supervision. The improvement shown by the children is something wonderful, and the affection they inspire is something pathetic. I am sure no one who would go into these schools with the expectation of being disgusted with what he should see could come into immediate contact for half a day with these children without finding that his disgust was changed to pity and affection. I trust that every one will go away from this Conference feeling the necessity of stimulating the people of his State to do everything possible to meet the wants of these children. In Massachusetts we mean to do more and more for them, and I hope the same spirit will everywhere prevail, Judge CHARLES MCLOUTH, New York.- I represent the New York State Custodial Asylum for feeble-minded women, an institution which has not its counterpart in the world. I am happy to observe that in all the papers that have been read here, especially in the admirable paper read by Mr. Letchworth yesterday, the custodial care of the feeble-minded is recommended. Our institution is still young, and our work is as yet experimental. There was an overflow of the
Page 343 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 343 Syracuse institution, and a few of the girls were transferred for some years to a building which was an annex to the State institutions at Syracuse. Then by the efforts of its president, S. S. Pearson, the institution was incorporated by the State of New York. A building was purchased upon a tract of forty acres in an admirable and most convenient situation. As the institution grew, the State made some appropriations, and there were dormitories built. At this time there are three large buildings. Two of them are dormitories. One of them is for other purposes of the institution, containing diningrooms and other rooms. From about twenty inmates some seven or eight years ago we have now three hundred and fifty, and there is not -a superintendent in our State who is not clamoring to secure admission for some unfortunate girl who is in the almshouse, supported by the county, and liable to all the dangers which have been referred to this morning. The age of admission to our institution is limited to between fourteen and forty, or at the highest forty-four. The reason for this is obvious. The report to the legislature shows that from the sixty counties of the State there are from one in some counties to sixty-five from New York County sent to our institution. There is not a county in the State that is not represented there. The entire expenses of the institution are paid by appropriations from the State. It has been remarked this morning that it is not as a matter of saving of dollars and cents that these people should be cared for in the colony method, but that it has, after all, been found to be the cheapest. I confess I do not understand the difference between the colony method and the custodial plan. Wherever a few are gathered together, that is a colony; and, wherever they are kept together, that is custodial care, and yet there is a difference. In our custodial institutions of three hundred and fifty inmates the per capita cost last year was $2.36, including everything. I challenge you to produce the equal of that in dollars and cents. We have a sufficient plant in every way to increase our numbers to five hundred, but we have not the dormitories. When I asked the legislature for $20,000 to increase them, it was refused. So to-day we are powerless; and every time that any one, from a county superintendent to the governor of the State, asks for the admission of another imbecile, we are compelled to say, We have no room. It is a reproach to our State, and I trust that our constant refusal to receive imbeciles will impress upon our legislators the necessity for increasing our appropriations. We have a female physician. Among all our employees there is but one male. We never thrust out inmates into the streets: we keep them until death. We have had seventeen deaths during the last year, and three have been taken away by friends. We have a chapel and Sunday-school and religious service every Sunday. We teach everything, mental and physical, that the girls are capable of acquiring. As the girls can work but little outdoors, we need but little land. They do a great deal of sewing. Twenty-five thousand articles have been made by these girls, and they are made very nicely. We have visitors from
Page 344 344 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. every country of the known world. Our visitors never go away dissatisfied. Mr. ELMORE.-Wisconsin, I am ashamed to say, has no State care for the feeble-minded. We have got the best system for the insane that they have anywhere in the world, Ohio not excepted, but no State care for imbeciles. For twenty years I was a member of the State Board of Charities, and visited all the institutions of the State. I did all that I was able toward securing an institution for the feeble-minded. It is a great crying want to-day, and I indorse everything that these gentlemen have said. If you had seen these poor unfortunates as I have, and marked the effects of not having them taken care of, there would be but one voice on the subject. You would compel your legislatures everywhere to pass such a law as has been recommended here to carry out such a system. There is no class that so much needs taking care of as the feeble-minded. Hon. OSCAR CRAIG, New York.- I am very glad that Judge McLouth has presented the matter of the Custodial Asylum. We have at Syracuse an asylum for the teachable idiots. It was the idea at first to have the Newark Asylum made a branch of the original asylum. The State Board of New York opposed that with the gratifying result of a new and independent institution for the Custodial Class established at Newark. Judge McLouth is a new member of the Board, and is as interested as he is earnest that we shall have enlightened views on the subject. I have always been in favor of small institutions, those on the cottage plan. We have succeeded to some extent in carrying out these ideas at Newark. But I do not hold to any theory of small institutions as absolute. That is merely relative. There are situations where larger institutions are sometimes called for, as in the modern development of industrial occupations in some of our prisons and reformatories, for example. We could not have a variety of trades adapted to the tastes and aptitudes of men with only two hundred inmates. We must have seven or eight hundred. In insane asylums we may have cottage buildings. presided over by subordinate officers who are competent to take charge of the institution themselves, but responsible to and reporting to the general medical superintendent. That may sometimes give classification, which we could not get in an ideal small institution. So in these things we wish to be practical; and, in carrying out reforms in the State of New York, our Board feels that we cannot hold an absolute standard. By yielding here or there in a practical way we may sometimes be able to compass the best attainable ends, as we could not otherwise. We have to justify large expenditures of money for the benefit of defective and dependent classes. We must have in mind the tax-payers, the common people who are the workers, who pay the taxes for these benefits. Now on what practical basis is justified this care for the Custodial Class? On two grounds. If you leave this class with the families of poor persons, you tend to pauperize those families. The care of such unfortunates is an encumbrance
Page 345 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 345 on the labor, the time, and faculties of those classes. The second point is that it will pauperize the community if they are left to go free, and perpetuate their kind either by heredity, or by environments which they cause or help to make. Mr. F. B. SANBORN, Massachusetts.- I am very glad to hear that statement from Mr. Craig; and I heartily agree with it, so far as it relates to this class of dependants. I have never heard the reasons expressed for this care of the feeble-minded so clearly as in the report of Dr. Knight. Large institutions for the feeble-minded are tolerable,-toleraripossunt, as the Church says. Large institutions for the insane are intolerable, under the most favorable circumstances in which they can be placed. The education and training of the feeble-minded demand a class of instructors of so high ability that it is safe to leave the management of a large institution in the hands of these persons. But the employees of the insane asylum or hospital are not of this class; and, although we hope by training to bring them to the standard desirable,- a standard which has from the first been established for the feeble-minded,- I do not expect to live to see that standard reached in the care of the insane. Of course, the argument of Dr. Knight for classification applies more forcibly to the insane. On another point I was pleased and instructed by the report of the chairman. I knew Dr. Howe very well; and, long before I was associated with him in the management of public charities, as I was more than twenty-five years ago, I had become somewhat familiar with his own Institution for the Blind and with the Idiot School he established. Undoubtedly, Dr. Howe, whose mind was very acute and forecasting, did then expect greater results from the instruction of the feeble-minded than he attained; and he afterwards told me that had been his disappointment. In his later life he was thoroughly convinced that instruction could not be carried so far as he and his associates at first fancied. But his feeling that instruction is very important, and its results are important, continues in Massachusetts. Quite recently we have established a custodial branch of the institution in Massachusetts, and have admitted epileptics there. I am very glad that has been done, and have no doubt the example will be followed of instructing those who can be instructed; but custodial care must be the system for the great majority of this class. I agree with Mr. McLouth as to the necessity for it. It is difficult, however, to bring to the minds of legislators, even when they are unbiassed by prejudices, the beneficial results of this system which has been here advocated. I think the strongest argument is the fearful result of neglect so often seen. Gen. R. BRINKERHOFF.- Dr. Doren, the superintendent of our Ohio institution, than whom I think there is no higher authority in regard to this subject, has for years been anxious to secure the establishment of an institution for the custodial care of adults of the imbecile class. Dr. Doren, who has had this large experience, believes, and we believe, that the thing to do with our institutions for
Page 346 346 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. feeble-minded youth is to continue, after their discharge from school, caring for them in a permanent custodial institution, which shall be separate and independent. Dr. Doren believes that he can take the young men that are graduated from his institution, and make them self-supporting afterwards in an institution by themselves. He went so far as to say to the committee of the legislature that, if the legislature would permit him to have charge and control of the adults, he would buy a thousand acres of land and pay for it out of the surplus earnings of the adult males who are graduated from his institution. We have in our State secured a separate colony for epileptics. We are heartily in favor of this custodial care, and are glad to see so large an indorsement of the idea by this Conference. Dr. F. M. POWELL, Iowa.-The present law of Iowa governing the Institution for Feeble-minded provides for all classes of the feebleminded. We have found by experience that we cannot care for them properly when all these classes are mingled together. That has brought up this question of colony care that is now being discussed. I have been connected with the institution in Iowa for ten years. We must divide this class from one another, and must provide separate institutions or colonize them. To illustrate: We have a cottage for adult boys, farm boys from twenty to thirty years of age. They had been cared for in connection with our other buildings. They were so nearly associated with the rest of the children that we found evil results from that association, from their coming into contact with younger classes. It was necessary to separate them. It seemed to us, if a cottage could be rented at a convenient distance, about a quarter of a mile from the parent institution, these difficulties would be removed, and much good would result to the boys themselves. I am glad to say that this has been our experience. Indeed, nothing has been more satisfactory than the farm colony or the farm boys' cottage. They live out there, and the farmer's wife does the cooking for them. They take their meals, and sleep there. But the boys feel that they have a claim on the central institution for educational advantages. We have our little entertainments twice a week, to which they can come. They dress up, black their shoes, and come in in good order. And I can give them scarcely a greater punishment than to say, You cannot go to the Friday evening entertainment. It is one of the best methods of discipline that we have ever had. The question is whether we have a right to put them so far away that they would not have all the privileges which they now have by being connected with the parent institution. They could not provide for their own entertainments. Most of the time we have kept up the evening school for them. We find that it pays to give them this entertainment and instruction. That is our experience in the Iowa institution regarding the separating of the different classes. Our idea has been on a farm of three hundred acres to provide custodial care for girls. Then we have lower grades, also, which must be provided for. During the last session of our legislature, which was extremely econom
Page 347 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 347 ical, there was unfortunately no provision for the extension of buildings for any of the institutions of Iowa. We hope for better things in the future. In regard to the epileptics, I am surprised every year at the great number there are in the country. I was compelled to report last year one hundred and thirteen under one roof. Those who know anything about them can imagine the embarrassment which it makes, and the injury that may come from their close contact with other children. We cannot provide for them as I should like to. What to do with them is the next question. Our Board was compelled to pass a rule forbidding the acceptance of any more until the State legislature should provide ample means for them separately. Perhaps there should be a separate colony in another place. The same question, however, arises in my mind,- whether isolating them entirely will not make them feel the loss of the privileges of the association that they find in a fully organized institution where there are schools. A large number of them enjoy coming to the entertainments, and some of them appreciate school privileges. It seems to me that, if we could have them at a sufficient distance, we could prevent the evils resulting from close association, and they could still share in the benefits derived from the main institution. Mr. L. S. STORRS, Michigan.-Unfortunately, Wisconsin is not the only State to report no care for feeble-minded. Michigan is in the same case, but we are depending largely on this Conference for better things. Dr. RICHARD DEWEY, Illinois.- I do not agree with Mr. Sanborn, if I understand what custodial care means. The understanding I have of it is that those of the feeble-minded for whom the school has done all that it can, and the adult feeble-minded, who are incapable of instruction, shall be cared for in separate institutions. I believe that this is certainly a very important work to be done. The immense number of the feeble-minded without care in the United States - some seventy-seven thousand- demand attention. Mr. Sanborn speaks of its being tolerable that a large institution for the feeble-minded shall exist, but that it is intolerable for the insane. I believe that just as good care can be obtained for large numbers of the insane together as for large numbers of the adult feeble-minded. The custodial buildings in these colonies, I take it, will be separate from the school buildings. Of course, teachers of a higher grade of intelligence will be necessary for their work than the attendants for the insane or the adult feeble-minded. But the whole question is, in both cases, only the question of securing good talent, giving good instruction and training, and maintaining a high degree of supervision. It is not definitely understood what is meant by a colony; but, if it is to be an establishment at a considerable distance from the main institution, I think there are serious objections to it of an economical nature. All of these institutions must be provided for in all their various departments, with proper sewerage, heating, and kitchen and laundry appliances. If these must all be provided at a
Page 348 348 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. long distance from the central institution, it will almost double the expense. I believe, therefore, that, as the gentleman from Iowa has expressed it, the colony should be sufficiently near to the main institution so that these conveniences can be provided from a central point of distribution. But I believe that the separation can be made sufficient, so that no injurious contact will be necessitated between the various classes or colonies. The colonies that have been established for the insane in some places are objectionable for the reasons that have been stated. Their buildings are removed to a great distance from the central institution, and have not the sanitary conveniences or the oversight which they should have. Mr. GARRETT, Pennsylvania.- I am glad the uncertain definition of the colony plan has been referred to. I had in my own mind something quite different from this. My impression was gained from a plan of Dr. Kerlin's, which contemplated the settlement of perhaps thousands of feeble-minded in one village. A feeble-minded colony such as Dr. Dewey suggests seems to be different. I think it means more classification rather than colonization. While it is true, as Mr. Sanborn has said, that there is a great distinction between the insane and the feeble-minded, there is another ground than the one stated,that the insane are usually persons in an extremely sensitive condition and the feeble-minded are in a rather dull and unimpressible state. The congregation of so many together who are sensitive is open to an objection that a large congregation of the feeble-minded is not. But it seems to me that the great object in both cases - it applies more especially to the feeble-minded- is this; that individual treatment is absolutely essential. You have got to take each case of the feebleminded on its own merits. When you have hundreds and thousands, it is almost impossible to devote that conscientious care which is essential to the development of each case. I should be much obliged to Dr. Knight if he would define just what he means by the colony plan. Dr. KNIGHT.-The colony plan, as given to you by the chairman of this committee last year, is the plan, I think, which most of the superintendents are agreed upon. We supposed that that article would be so thoroughly read by the members of this Conference that it would not be necessary to repeat it in detail. As I understand the colony plan, it is not the massing together of two or three thousand of these children. But the more experienced men in this work are agreed to-day that at least a thousand children can be placed in an institution under this system, with a central building for school-rooms, and near to that other buildings,-the males and females in different cottages,-and that not too far off shall be buildings devoted to epileptics of both sexes. Still further off, perhaps, may be buildings which shall be for the custodial cases of both sexes. It has been found in the institution at Elwyn, which now numbers nearly a thousand, that this plan is successful. The corner-stone of a new building for epileptic girls was laid there last week. In this plan not only do we reach the imbecile class in all its various grades, and
Page 349 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 349 give to the epileptic class the care and treatment necessary to them, but we can make use of the adult imbeciles who have been trained in the schools for caring for these custodial cases. This is the most economical way, and with it we get the best results. Mr. McLouth stated the expense per capita at Newark, N. J., to be $2.36. Last year at Dr. Kerlin's institution the cost was $ioo per year for everything. Now, that is the most economical way of caring for these children that has yet been reached by any institution, and it was only reached by making use of the adult imbecile class in caring for these custodial children. The amount of work performed by the adult imbeciles at Elwyn effects a saving of more then $22,000 per annum to that institution. Dr. Doren has been referred to. I want to make his statement plainer. As I understand it, the statement of Dr. Doren was that, if Ohio would give him a thousand acres of land, he would guarantee to take charge of every custodial case in Ohio without expense to the State. Now, that in brief is what all the superintendents are agreed on in regard to what we call the colony plan for all grades of the feeble-minded. Mr. GARRETT.- Thank you. That is very clear. But would it be possible to congregate two or three thousand without detriment? Dr. KNIGHT.-I am not convinced. Dr. Kerlin did not carry me along with him in his scheme of caring for them in a village, but I do believe it is quite possible to carry out the plan for a thousand. Dr. FISH.- Dr. Knight's last statement covers the ground. Mr. Garrett has referred to the fact that, in the establishment of an institution for a thousand of the feeble-minded, the identity of the individual child may be lost sight of. I think there is possibly some ground for that fear; but in our institution, which is planned to care for a thousand eventually, we do not find any lack of that same personal care and interest on the part of care-takers and attendants. Their enthusiasm and interest are just as great as in the beginning of the work. I do not anticipate any evil results in the extension of the work on the line suggested. Mrs. Emily A. Fifield, of Boston, was asked to speak. Mrs. FIFIELD.-The institution in which I am especially interested has been most adequately described to you by several persons. I certainly should not attempt to discuss the larger question before you. In Massachusetts we are doing well with our feeble-minded. I think, if Dr. Howe were to come back again now, he would not be disappointed. He would say that the new education had done so much for the institution that he would no longer feel a sense of disappointment that he could not improve the feeble-minded more. Much has been accomplished by the new appliances which have been brought forward in all educational work. I was very much interested in the explanation of what the colony plan is. It seems to me that the reason you have trained feeble-minded children to take care of
Page 350 350 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. others and to be helpful is on account of these new educational methods, —the kindergarten method, and the others which follow that. I would like to emphasize very strongly the value of a gymnasium and all physical training for the feeble-minded. It is useful for them as something which they can do together. The class system is of importance to them. Another element in the training of these children is the industrial element, which can only result in good. Invitations were read to the Conference to visit the Convent of the Good Shepherd, St. Luke's Hospital, Orphans' Home, and the county hospital. Miss Catharine D. Johnson was appointed Recording Secretary by the President. The remainder of the session was devoted to addresses in memory of Rev. Oscar C. McCulloch. The exercises were opened with music on the organ and the singing of the hymn by John W. Chadwick beginning, "It singeth low in every heart." The memorials were given by Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows, Mr. Alexander Johnson, Rabbi Henry Berkowitz, and Rev. Myron W. Reed (pages 230-250). Mr. I. P. Wright, of Minnesota, added a few words of appreciation of the noble character of Mr. McCulloch. Mr. F. B. Sanborn called attention to the fact that Dr. Pliny Earle had died during the year. Adjourned at 12.30 P.M. FIFTH SESSION. Saturday night, June 25. The Conference was called to order at 8 P.M. by the President. After music the subject of the evening was taken up, Reformatory Work among Juveniles. A paper on reformatory work was read by Mr. Ira D. Otterson, of New York (page i66). A paper by Mrs. Sarah F. Keely was read on " Reform Work for Girls" (page I79). Rev. F. H. Wines made the following report, as chairman of the Committee on the International Conference and Exhibit of Charities and Corrections: - The Committee on the International Conference and Exhibit of Charities and Correction makes the following partial report: - The organization of the International Exhibit has been provided for by the appointment of Mr. Nathaniel S. Rosenau Superintendent of the Bureau of Charities and Correction, under direction of the
Page 351 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 351 Chief of Department of Liberal Arts of the World's Columbian Exposition. The organization of the International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy has been intrusted to a committee of three, of which the chairman of this committee is the chairman; and the co-operation of the National Conference of Charities and Correction in such organization has been requested. The time for the International Congress has been fixed for the week commencing June 12, I893. The organization of the National Conference of Charities for I893 will require to be provided for as usual by this Conference; but we recommend that it be made as simple as possible, and confined to two or at most three days in the week, ending June o1, I893, it being of course understood that the place of meeting will be Chicago. Mr. PHILIP C. GARRETT.- I move that the report of the committee be not only accepted, but adopted, at this time. Adopted. Mr. Richard H. Clarke was asked to open the discussion. An abstract of Mr. Clarke's address follows: - RICHARD J. H. CLARKE, LL.D., President of the New York Catholic Protectory.- The public wardship of children arises either from poverty, the neglect of parents, vagrancy, or juvenile delinquency. And here it must be earnestly insisted upon that juvenile delinquency is a very different thing from confirmed criminality. The former yields readily to a change from an immoral to a moral atmosphere: the latter needs the corrective energy of the law. Punishment should be educational rather than vindicative. As the system of education is primarily religious, as pursued in the New York Catholic Protectory, which I have the honor of representing here and in many other institutions of different denominations, it is based upon great principles of Christian philosophy and experience.. I propose in this paper to cite as authorities solely disinterested, patriotic, and American publicists, philanthropists, and statesmen. The system of education adopted and pursued with such signal and acknowledged success in the New York Catholic Protectory is fivefold. It is religious first and always,- that is, as its name frankly announces, Catholic; secondly, it is mental; thirdly, it is industrial;. fourthly, it is physical, or athletic; and, fifthly, it is American, or national, and under this last head are included the military drill,. instruction in the duties of American citizenship, and the cultivation of the virtue of patriotism. This institution was chartered by the legislature of New York on May 5, I863, with a board of twenty-six lay managers, and with the addition of three ex-officio managers, the mayor, recorder, and comptroller of the city of New York. It is a part of the public and municipal administration. The city and State have appointed this
Page 352 352 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. corporation of citizens their agents for the performance of this high duty. The charter of I863 gives it the name of " The Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children in the City of New York." Its name was afterwards changed by the legislature to "The New York Catholic Protectory." By its charter it is authorized to receive three classes of children: first, children under fourteen years of age, intrusted to it by their parents or guardians for protection or reformation; second, children between seven and fourteen who may be committed to it by any magistrate of the city as idle, truant, vicious, or homeless children; and, third, children of like age who may be transferred to it by the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction. The founders were Dr. Levi Silliman Ives and Archbishop Hughes. The three distinguished citizens who have preceded me in the office of president of the Protectory, and have now gone to their great reward, were Dr. Levi Silliman Ives, Dr. Henry James Anderson, and Mr. Henry L. Hoguet. The president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Elbridge T. Gerry, says of the Protectory: "Your excellent institution is accomplishing much practical good among the unfortunate children who often, from no fault of their own, need reformation in order to become useful members of society.... During my recent travel in Europe I have seen no institution which equals it in point of efficiency, admirable management, and practical results.... And your success to-day is only accomplished through what I have already insisted is absolutely essential for the reformation of children, - the commingling of religious influences with moral training and education, and the judicious union of both in the systematic learning of useful employments, which will endure after the children themselves leave the institution and become men and women." Not only has the Empire State incorporated and aided the New York Catholic Protectory for the protection and correction of children of the Catholic faith, but it has also incorporated and provided for the support of institutions more or less similar thereto of all other religious denominations, all such institutions receiving for each child committed to them a per capita allowance from the city or State. The institutions thus incorporated and provided for by the laws of the State of New York, as listed by the manual of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, are as follows:American Female Guardian Society, Protestant; Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls, Catholic; The Association for the Benefit of Colored Orphans, Protestant; Asylum of St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic; The Children's Fold, Protestant; Commissioners of Charities and Corrections; Commissioners of Emigration; Dominican Convent of our Lady of the Rosary, Catholic; Five Points House of Industry, Protestant; The Five Points Mission, Protestant; The Foundling Asylum of the Sisters of Charity of the City of New York, Catholic; Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum of the City
Page 353 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 353 of New York, Hebrew; The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York, Hebrew; House of the Good Shepherd, Catholic; House of Mercy, Protestant; House of Refuge; Institution of Mercy, Catholic; The Ladies' Deborah Nursery and Child's Protectory, Hebrew; Ladies' Home Missionary Society of the Methodist-Episcopal Church (known as the "Five Points Mission "), Protestant; The Managers of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents (known as "The House of Refuge "); Missionary Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, Catholic; Mission of the Immaculate Virgin for the Protection of Homeless and Destitute Children, Catholic; New York Catholic Protectory, Catholic; New York Infant Asylum, Protestant; New York Juvenile Asylum, Protestant; The New York Magdalen Benevolent Society, Protestant; The Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New York, Protestant; Sisters of the Order of St. Dominick, Catholic; St. Agatha's Home, Catholic; St. Ann's Home for Destitute Children, Catholic; St. James Home, Catholic; St Joseph's Asylum in the City of New York, Catholic; St. Michael's Home, Catholic; St. Martha's Home, Protestant Episcopal; The Burnham Industrial Farm, Protestant. There is another feature in the legislation of our State which recognizes, in the spirit of American liberality and fair play, the great and fundamental principle of religious liberty. Laws have been enacted by which children coming into the hands of magistrates and liable to commitment by them to any of the institutions of the State shall be committed, when practicable, to such incorporated charitable reformatory or other institutions as are governed by persons of the same religious faith as the parents of the children; and also children who are vagrants, truants, paupers, or disorderly, shall be sent to such institutions as are governed by persons of the same religious faith as the parents of the children. See Laws of New York, i888, Chap. I45, and Penal Code, Section 713. This statute is not a dead letter, but a live and veritable law; and it is enforced by the courts of New York. So that, if a child is committed by a magistrate to an institution of a different faith from its own, the Supreme Court will bring the child out under a writ of habeas corpus, and order its commitment to an institution of the same religious faith as itself or of its parents, willing to receive it. And, if the child is left in the institution of its first commitment, our Freedom Worship Bill, just now passed in I892, will give him access to the ministry, sacraments, and religious consolation which its conscience demands. Even with this last concession, I think the former mode of disposing of children is far preferable. Now, thanks to the influence of public American sentiment, and of the religious liberty clause of the United States Constitution, there is scarcely a State in this glorious Union that does not place in its Constitution, as a sentinel at the watch-tower of human liberty, the clause in favor of religious freedom. I feel that I have a sort of hereditary right to champion the cause of religious liberty, because I
Page 354 354 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. my ancestor in Maryland, under Lord Baltimore, sat as a privy councillor in the legislature, in I649, and voted for the first religious liberty act that ever graced an American statute book. But how could the old thirteen States legislate against religious liberty, and why were Constitutional clauses necessary for its protection? Religious liberty is not a free gift of State, Congress, legislature, potentate, or monarch. It is a natural and inalienable right of all men. It is the gift of God to man. It is based on the natural and moral obligation of man, under the law of nature and of nature's God, to save his soul. Now, if such be man's natural and moral obligation, it results in the unanswerable logic of the conceded premises that man is entitled to the means and the liberties necessary to the fulfilment of that obligation; that is, freedom of conscience and religious worship. This right belongs to all men, of every race, color, climate, sex, age, and condition. It is an inalienable right. A man may forfeit his civil liberty, his property, his profession, and his all else for crime, but not his religious liberty. The criminal in jail, the murderer on the scaffold, the child in the asylum, protectory, or reformatory, has a perfect right, under the laws of nature and of nature's God, to freedom of conscience, and to worship God according to the convictions of his conscience. Citizenship in a country is not necessary to the enjoyment of this right. This is an absolute right of our common humanity. It is more free, more absolute, than any other right. It is non-forfeitable and indestructible. Man himself cannot barter it away or surrender it: it is inalienable. Now you will observe that under this system of religious liberty the recognition of the rights of all men -congregational and religious institutions are constituted the agents of the State or city, to perform for it that part of its municipal work of charity and correction. If these children were left as vagrants in the streets or to swell the class of the suffering poor or of juvenile delinquents, the State or city would have to provide for them as a measure of justice, necessity, and public safety. Immense economy is gained in those institutions in which the care of children is confided to regularly organized charitable, religious, or congregational orders, brotherhoods or sisterhoods, whose men accept no salaries or compensation beyond their board and clothing. But this does not reflect upon their system of employed service. By the penal code of the State of New York, children under -the age of seven years are absolutely incapable, legally, of committing crimes; and children over seven and under fourteen are presumed incapable of committing crime. Under the penal code of New York, children under sixteen years of age convicted of crime, instead of being sentenced to imprisonment in a State prison or penitentiary, may be confined in a house of refuge or reformatory. Offences during these ages of presumed incapacity for the commission of crime constitute the field of juvenile delinquency. These subjects of the law, like the convicted criminal in the State prison, do not of
Page 355 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 355 course forfeit the inalienable right of religious liberty and freedom of worship. That right is indestructible. Such religious and charitable institutions as I have enumerated in the State of New York as receiving public recognition and support embody the principle of religious education. I need not plead the cause of religious education in a Christian country like America. It has become a part of our national traditions. Every President of the United States, from George Washington down to the present time, was educated in religious schools. In maintaining religious education among all sects there is given no cause for sectarian jealousy. It is not a question of liberality, though many would call what I say by that name. I regard it simply as a matter of justice. I do not refuse, but I advocate Christian or religious schools for all religious denominations. What I claim for one I concede to all. It is for the good of the whole country that all the religious societies of the land should have their respective religious reformatories, protectories, and houses of refuge and correction. Every good and fair system of public charities and correction should recognize and sustain them all, of whatever denomination they may be. I not only wish Catholic children brought up in Catholic institutions, but I wish to see, equally, Episcopalian children brought up in Episcopalian institutions and schools, Presbyterian children brought up in Presbyterian institutions and schools, Methodist children brought up in Methodist institutions and schools, Baptist children brought up in Baptist institutions and schools, Hebrew children brought up in Hebrew institutions and schools, and so on throughout the entire list of religious societies and churches. There are obvious reasons for this. This leads us to a brief consideration of sectarian and non-sectarian institutions. I think it would be more agreeable and more accurate to call them congregational and non-congregational institutions, because in the public mind there seems to be attached to the word "sectarian " the odium of bigotry, though I think erroneously. In sectarian, or congregational, institutions an exact form of religious faith and morals is taught. In non-sectarian institutions are taught only the broad principles of Christianity or none at all. These broad principles of Christianity are very good as far as they go, provided they are not set up as an entire and complete system in themselves. For, while these also are taught in sectarian or congregational institutions, thus presenting to children all the religious education which non-sectarian or non-congregational institutions present, the former go much farther, and give to children a complete religious education according to some exact religious creed or church. Why should Episcopalians be expected to accept a system of religious education in which all distinctively Episcopalian teachings are conspicuous by their absence? and so, too, with Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Hebrew, Catholic, and all other religion and churches. While the broad principles of Christianity are those upon which all
Page 356 356 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Christians agree, there are many other religious teachings which are equally necessary parts of religious training for the young. Now to deprive people of various denominations of these distinctively peculiar teachings of their own is an interference with religious rights, in violation of the rights of conscience, of religious liberty and freedom of worship. The evil of non-sectarianism, as it is called, is to accustom children to believe, that, so long as they claim in a general way the name of Christians, it is a matter of indifference which form of Christianity they embrace, or that they should embrace any particular form. It is indifferentism. Children thus educated cease to be members of the church of their parents, and seldom become members of any church. They believe at first in moral principles, but not in dogmas. Finally, they adopt materialistic views, regard morals as mere matters of conscience, reject all faith, discard all morals as constituting duties; and thus in the end you have a nation of infidels instead of a nation of Christians. In sectarian, or congregational, institutions the religious instruction is full, ample, exact, earnest, and zealous. In the other it is only partial, incomplete, and merely incidental. The conductors of religious institutions are men or women of devoted religious pursuits and vocations, whose lives are recognized as examples and guides; and the whole organization of the institutions tends to that end. A non-sectarian reformatory to which the meed of highest praise is given claims that about eighty per cent. of its inmates become reformed, or at best, as far as known, are not often afterward heard from in the criminal courts. In religious institutions there is scarcely an appreciable proportion where thorough reformation is not successful. The moral atmosphere breathed by children greatly affects their successful reformation; and who has not felt the superior moral atmosphere of religious institutions? In them boys or girls become good in spite of themselves, by force of the example around them; and because a bad' boy or girl there has no chance, has no following, no companions, they fall in readily with the orderly, dutiful, and religious discipline prevailing. Bad boys or girls carried to a non-sectarian institution always find companions similar to themselves to sustain them in evil conduct. Even a good boy or girl introduced into such companionship is liable to become corrupted. But a bad boy introduced into a religious institution soon ranks among the good ones. Institutions which are usually characterized, by way of reproach, as sectarian, are, in this sense, the best institutions, because they are religious institutions; and therein religion, the most perfect and complete known to the conductors of them, is instilled into the hearts and souls of the young. Believing as I do in securing to all persons, whether children or adults, religious liberty, and freedom of religious worship, I think it would be a great improvement on the present system of common or non-sectarian institutions, which elicit from the public constant criti
Page 357 MINUTES. AND DISCUSSIONS. 357 cism, to so shape the administration of the public charities and corrections as to result in the maintenance of asylums, houses, retreats, reformatories, juvenile asylums, houses of refuge and prisons of every kind, in such manner as to enable the public, through the courts, to commit every person coming within the sphere of charities and correction, whether child or adult, to institutions of his or her own religion. If well-to-do and wealthy citizens throughout the various religious denominations or sects take great pains to rear their own offspring in their own respective creeds or sects, why should not the children of the poor, children of misfortune, and even of crime, not enjoy the same advantages? They need it more. The religious precepts heard from one's parents in infancy and childhood are, when recalled in after life, the most powerful means of correction and reformation. If placed under enforced confinement, it becomes their right to demand it, the public's duty to concede it. From whatever point we view this subject, whether of charity, policy, duty, or patriotism, every consideration carries the conviction that we are bound to perform and concede to all the sacred and inalienable rights of religious liberty and freedom of worship guaranteed by the Constitution. Mr. T. J. Charlton, Indiana, was asked to take part in the discussion. T. J. CHARLTON, Indiana. —I thank you for calling upon me to speak upon this occasion. What I will say is this: I find upon coming to this great State of Colorado that the State Industrial School, located at Golden, is suffering from the bad law that governs it. There can be no juvenile reform school unless the inmates are sentenced to the school until they are twenty-one years of age. This should be the law of this State. Boys are committed to the school at Golden for various periods, varying from three months up to one and two or three years each. This makes the school a juvenile prison. I do most earnestly hope that the next legislature will do away with this law, and adopt a law such as we have in other States. The State of llinois had such a law, and it destroyed the Reform School there. Last year the legislature abolished it as it should have done. I hope that Colorado, abreast as she is in other things, will place herself in line as to her Reformatory at Golden. Hon. OSCAR CRAIG.-We have in New York reformatories for adults. These are eliminated at the present time from my statement. Then we have two houses of refuge for boys and girls. One is the State Industrial School at Rochester, the other the House of Refuge at Randall's Island, New York. These homes are without religious distinctions. In the State Industrial School at Rochester there are two chapels, Catholic and Protestant. When the matter came to the decision of the board of managers, it was voted that that system should be adopted. Mr. Fulton, now superintendent at Cincinnati,
Page 358 358 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. was then superintendent of the Industrial School at Rochester. A leading Baptist deacon, who was one of the managers, voted for it; and a leading Presbyterian elder, who was another manager, was also in favor of it. I can state that the system has been successful, and is operated without any friction. The reformation of the boy and girl depends on religious instruction more than anything else; and, if you want to get to the heart of the boy or girl, you must have a pastor or a friend who can reach him upon the basis of his moral and religious life. In the House of Refuge on Randall's Island this system is not maintained. Between these two are several institutions, of which one has been described to us this evening; that is, the Catholic Protectory. It does not take boys convicted before the courts. It takes misdemeanants and boys and girls who are intrusted by parents and guardians. Corresponding to that institution is the New York Juvenile Asylum, under Protestant influence. I must say that the Catholic Protectory has been in advance of that institution in the teaching of trades and of the many industrial methods in former years. I must say also, to be just, that I think the New York Juvenile Asylum has been in advance of the Protectory in putting children into family life, which I regard as very important; but, as a Protestant orthodox Christian, I express my conviction that the fundamental position taken this evening by Mr. Clarke is sound. A LADY.- Provision is made for the Hebrews? Mr. CRAIG.-The Hebrews are a very liberal people. I think they carry out the Scripture of the Old Testament better than we do. They provide for their own. You almost never find a Hebrew boy in the poorhouse. I have never heard a Jew object to this method of instruction. They recognize that they are in the minority, and that we cannot cover all the ground. Mr. WINES.- In behalf of the Hebrews, it may be said that they understand and appreciate home life so well that they very rarely have children in reform schools. Rev. E. M. CARPENTER.- I represent the New York Protestant Juvenile Asylum. We have more than one hundred Jewish children in our institution; but during the twenty-two years that I have been there, no one has said one word to me about their religious teaching, except on one occasion, when a father came to me, and said, "Do you proselyte the children?" and I said, "We do not." He replied, "I am perfectly satisfied with your rules and instructions." We not only have about one hundred Jewish children, but about as many Catholic; and no one has ever said one word to me about their religious instruction, and I have been chaplain for twenty-two years. It takes a father and a mother to bring up children; but, when a family lives in a tenement house swarming with people, and either father or mother is taken away and the other has to go out to labor for the children, they do not receive proper home care. They cannot. When such children go into the streets, they easily fall into wrong ways. The children that come under our care are mostly the children
Page 359 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 359 of intelligent parents, who have sense enough to desire that their children shall be brought up aright, and are not willing they should run the streets and become vagabonds. I have tried to get at the facts as to the numbers who have been reformed. I took fifty children for ten years, five hundred children in all, and took the last addresses which I had, and sent a man to find out about them. He took two months, and found two hundred and forty-three out of the five hundred. Out of two hundred and forty-three, all but seven were doing well. After the benediction by Chaplain Hall the Conference adjourned at o10.1 P.M. SIXTH SESSION. Sunday morning, June 26. The Conference sermon was preached on Sunday morning in the First Congregational Church by Rev. George A. Gates, D.D., President of Iowa College, Grinnell, Ia. (page 223). SEVENTH SESSION. Sunday evening, June 26. The Sunday evening session of the Conference was held at the Tabor Opera House at 8 P.M., and was called to order by the President, after music by the Apollo Club. Prayer was offered by Rabbi Berkowitz. The subject of the evening was "The Child Problem," under charge of the Committee on Kindergarten Work and Placing out of Children, Rev. S. G. Smith, Minnesota, chairman. The Rev. H. H. Hart gave an address on "The Problem Economic" (page 191), and Professor Joseph Carhart one on "The Problem Educational" (page I83). Rev. C. G. Trusdell, D.D., was to have given one on "The Problem Religious"; but, owing to the lateness of the hour, Dr. Trusdell spoke for only a few minutes, at the close of the meeting. In opening the meeting, Mr. Smith spoke as follows:The child problem is a great problem. We must not commence in reform work with drunkards, tramps, and dead-beats, but with little children if we want to have our work successful. We believe that every public school teacher, every mother in her home, every Sundayschool teacher, everybody who teaches the brain, the heart, the body, of the little child, is moulding the generation that is to be. This
Page 360 360 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Conference believes in the perfectibility of the race. We do not believe that we are here simply to assuage the evils of the world, but to remove them. The present condition is only a temporary phase of humanity. Pauper relief is to be done away, because pauperism is to; be done away. The insane hospital is to go, because we are to have a healthy, sane civilization with men and women healthy and sound in body, and healthy and sound in mind. All these works of charity are vanishing works, but the child problem is to abide perpetually. It will be the abiding problem of the race. As we have come up out of the savage brute, as we have developed the civilized man, so we read in that the prophecy that we shall go on, and that the civilized man is not the final product of the evolution of society, but that the civilized man is to be developed into a saint, and we are to move into a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Mr. Smith then introduced the speakers of the evening. The following is an abstract of the remarks of Rev. C. G. Trusdell: Mr. TRUSDELL.-It is too late to make an address. I will tell you a story. This meeting is in the interest of children. Mr. McCulloch, our dear departed friend and late President of this Conference,. says in one of his letters that the object of this Conference is to see what can be done, and ought to be done, to help little children, and to remove obstacles from the way of little children. That was the idea, whether the words are correct or not. I do not know whether that sentiment was divinely inspired or not, but it has the ring of the gospel in it; and, if I were going to preach a sermon, I would take the last words of that for my text. Remove the obstacles from the way of little children. That implies that children have rights and power, and that there are obstacles in the way. Good old Peter Cartwright, who was a Presiding Elder in Ohio for fifty years, was on his death-bed. One of his old companions, who had travelled with him many a mile, and labored with him on many occasions, was present. Old Uncle Peter looked up and said, "I have read and heard a good deal about death-bed sayings, and I have wondered, when I came to die, what would be my last words. Now," said he, "I can give them to you, and I want you to tell them to the brethren at the conference, -'Give the gospel a chance, give the gospel a chance.'" I say, Give the children a chance. Take the obstacles out of their way. We were to consider childhood to-night, not as it pertains to poverty, the children of the poor, not as inmates of institutions, but children,-the children of the rich as well as the poor. Do not the children of the rich need training as much as the children of the poor? Is wealth not as dangerous as poverty? Are not luxury and idleness more damaging to character than dirt and rags? Here is an illustration. I made a pastoral visit once on one of the richest of
Page 361 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 36I my congregation, a farmer living out in the country. He had a large farm, well stocked with everything in the world that he could need, and plenty of money to run it. He had recently married a second wife, who had a little boy by a former marriage, about five years old. He had a perfect match to him. You would have thought they were twins. As my duty, I called to pay my respects as pastor. I had been there but a few minutes when one little fellow came in, rough, ragged, his clothes badly soiled, and his face no better. But I looked through the dirt to the child, and I said: "There's a nice little boy. Come and shake hands with me." He glowered at me. " You shet yer head!" "Oh," said his mother, "you should not talk that way to the man." Just then the other boy came in. The first, evidently feeling that he had not done the square thing by me, gave me a wink, "I could lick him." "Why? You don't fight," I said, "do you,- two nice little boys?" "Yes, we do." And at it they went. Then the mother went for them, and gave a kick to the one and a cuff to the other, and sent them off howling into the yard. I did not stop to pray with that family as I sometimes did. Then I had a poor woman in my church once. I remember the little boy in the Sunday-school, twenty odd years ago,-the veriest little monkey you ever saw. He was the pet of the Sunday-school and of the community. He could stand on his head as well as on his feet. He would walk on his hands, and play every trick he had ever seen at the circus. He was the life of every Christmas festivity and picnic. He was always happy and good-natured. He had a drunken father, but he had a good, kind-hearted, hard-working, faithful mother. By and by his father died, and little Patsy felt at once that he ought to share the burdens of his mother. She had three beautiful little girls. One was a suffering little thing, with curvature of the spine. I found it a means of grace every time I went to see her. The boy was off with papers before daylight, and was soon known throughout the neighborhood. Many a gentleman gave him a dime or a quarter without waiting for change. He worked at his papers and helped his mother with the washing, and it was not long before he had a bank account; and then they had a cottage of their own. One evening, as they were sitting together and his mother quiet and her thoughts evidently wandering off into the past, Patsy spoke up, and said, "Mother, I am glad pap's gone, aren't you?" "'Why," said she, "you must not talk that way about your father." "Oh," he said, "he never amounted to anything. He spent all he could get for whiskey, and we never should have had this home if he had lived." Patsy is a banker now in Chicago, and is Mr. Patrick Ryan. "And they brought young children to Jesus, that he might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them, and, when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and he said, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he took them up in his arms, and put his hand upon them and blessed
Page 362 362 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. them." A little girl sat weeping by her humble home once, whence her mother's body had been carried to the potter's field. A gentleman, passing, said, "What is the matter? "Be you Jesus? What makes you so late? I have been waiting a long time for you." The gentleman, surprised, said: " My child, I am not Jesus. What do you mean?" "Why, " she said, "mamma told me that Jesus would take care of me, and I have been waiting for him ever so long." " Well," said he, " I am not Jesus, but he sent me to you." And he took her in his arms to his home. We can all be saviors and do the work of saviors in a thousand ways if we will open our hands and our hearts and help rescue the children. " Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto Him." President REED.-Ladies and gentlemen, you are in the Opera House built by Mr. Tabor. This is the seventh time that he has given it for charitable uses on Sunday night. Our thanks are due to Mr. Tabor for this gift. [Applause.] The benediction was pronounced by Professor Haskell. EIGHTH SESSION. Monday night, June 27. The Conference was called to order at 8 P.M. by the President. The subject of the evening was taken up at once, " Care and Classification of the Insane." The chairman of the committee, Dr. Richard Dewey, presented a paper by Dr. Stephen Smith on "The Commitment of the Insane." On motion of Mr. Wines, it was referred to the Executive Committee, with leave to print (page 94). Mr. WINES. —We had some interesting remarks this afternoon from a missionary from China, who has been in charge of the first missionary hospital ever established at Canton. He explained the condition of the insane in China and their needs. He has come to this country to seek means to erect the first insane hospital in that great country. I should like to offer the following resolution with reference to it:Resolved, That the National Conference of Charities and Correction approve the proposal to create and establish a hospital for the insane in China, and hopes that through the liberality of American philanthropists it may be carried into successful execution. The resolution was referred to the Business Committee without debate under the rules. The report of the committee was then read
Page 363 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 363 by Dr. Dewey, under the title "Outlines of State Policy in the Care of the Insane " (page 125). Dr. Dewey announced that Hon. W. P. Letchworth, who was to have read a paper on the subject of insanity, would give his time instead for discussion. DISCUSSION. Hon. OSCAR CRAIG.-I am no fanatic on the subject of State care, but I have convictions. There is no absolute standard relating to the care of the insane. The standard is relative and progressive. In New York State we had a system of county care under the supervision of. the State. Five years ago an investigation was made by a committee of the State Board of Charities of the insane asylums of New York City, situate on Ward's Island, at the request of Mayor Hewitt. The report of that committee recommended State care. Last winter the present mayor appointed a commission to investigate Ward's Island again. They found the same evils, but they did not recommend that the county system be abrogated. Within the last few years the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of New York City have declined to make the necessary appropriation for buildings and improvements. I predict that the evils of the system in the city and county of New York will continue until all the insane are under State care. The Board of State Charities recommended four years ago that the State system should be substituted, or, as an alternative, that the county system be reformed so as to be governed by trustees appointed by the justices of the Supreme Court. The reason for reconsidering the alternative was that the justices of the Supreme Court exercise the power of the old chancellor and vicechancellor, and are therefore the guardians of the insane. It is within their province to examine into the condition of their wards. They do not always perform this duty, but it remains their duty. It would not be derogatory to the dignity of a Supreme Court justice that he should, in pursuance of statutory direction, exercise his office and appoint trustees of the county asylums, who could be removed or controlled under further statutory provisions by the State Board. But the alternative, it was found, would remove patronage and power from county officers, and therefore would be as objectionable to the county politicians as ordinary State care. The issue, therefore, was joined on State care pure and simple. Now there is no plan which is worth considering that is more humane. The chief objection interposed was made on the ground of economy. The prediction was made that, if in the State of New York the State care act should be enacted, it would cost the State of New York ten to fifteen million dollars to erect buildings. We have provided new buildings recently for more than half of the county asylum inmates, which have cost less than half a million dollars; and we can provide for them all at the cost of less than one million. So much for that prediction.
Page 364 364 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Mr. SANBORN.- Do you mean the people of New York County? Mr. CRAIG.- No: because they were excepted from the State care act. Mr. SANBORN. —I am expected to take the place of Mr. Elmore, though I have not his age, his wisdom, nor his gold spectacles; but we have a good cause. The gentleman has stated a few things that we do not agree to; but he has not stated, and no gentleman of that side has ever stated, the true question involved. They use the phrase "State care." I agree that State care should be adopted everywhere. I was instrumental, to some extent, in getting it adopted in Massachusetts; and I approved the Wisconsin Board's action in getting it adopted there. State care does not mean that the State must pay the whole cost, but simply that the authority of the State shall be so exercised in regard to the insane that every insane person in the State shall receive that treatment and be placed in that condition which his malady requires. I make the assertion, and I challenge any one to prove the contrary, that the State of Wisconsin comes at this moment, notwithstanding the change in Boards there, nearer to the ideal standard of providing for every person the treatment best adapted to his needs than any State in the Union.* I have studied this matter for years, have watched and examined the Wisconsin asylums, and have repeatedly stated (and it has never been disproved) that the insane of Wisconsin were under the old Board, and are now under the new board, better provided for in all the essentials of treatment than the insane of any other State. And I will now say that, under the State care law of New York (honest in its intention, but most extraordinarily perverted in its operation), the insane of New York are almost in the worst condition of those in any State. In the great city of New York, which should naturally have the most advanced and the best treatment, when I visited its asylums about two years ago, I found the condition of the patients, the prospect of recovery, or of restoration to their friends, worse, as I thought, than the condition of any similar number of the insane in the United States. I suppose that has been improved somewhat; but, if the State care given by New York is such that, after two years, the mayor of New York has appointed a commission to see whether the evils are diminishing,which is doubted,-it shows that not much progress has been made. A DELEGATE.- Were not New York and Kings Counties excluded by the new law? Mr. SANBORN.-They were allowed to avail themselves of the law, but were not required to do so; and they declined. Mr. CRAIG.-They have not declined, but they have not accepted it. Mr. SANBORN.- Having stated, as I think, the issue between us,that we all favor State care, but do not all favor paying the cost of care from the State treasury,- I wish to say that, while it is not in-. Minnesota might have been excepted.-(F. B. s.)
Page 365 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 365 tended to mislead the audience, they are misled by speaking of the Wisconsin system as county or semi-State care. It is State care. The State controls the care of the insane in every county. Mr. CRAIG. —I hardly know how to answer an argument in my favor. Mr. SANBORN.- Make it in my favor. Mr. CRAIG.- The counties of New York and Kings are exempted, but they at their election can come in. They are now under the old system of county care. I have read in the New York Post an indictment of the asylum of South Boston, which, if the evils are as there stated, is in a worse condition than even the asylums of New York and Brooklyn. There are no terms of comparison. I said before I sat down that it was predicted that the buildings for the insane of the State of New York would cost fifteen millions of dollars, and that that prediction had not been realized. How about the cost of maintenance? They said it would come up to four or five dollars per capita, as much as in asylums for the acute insane. We have kept it down to two dollars and fifty cents per capita, including clothing and breakage, which is as low as the cost in the county asylums. They never would get the cost of the county asylums in Wisconsin so low if they separated them from the poorhouses. [Here the Chair declared the speaker's time closed.] Mr. SANBORN.- The gentleman entirely mistakes the situation in South Boston. It is bad enough, but it is not so bad as in New York City. As I was saying, the system in Wisconsin is a State system; and it is unfair to disparage it here by calling it a county system. The State of New York assures us that in its counties the local authorities cannot be trusted with the care of the insane, because they abuse them. We have heard similar statements from Illinois and Ohio. I submit that this argument, from the abuse of authority, has no weight at all, since the proper exercise of that authority, which we have seen for twelve years in Wisconsin, is in favor of the county asylums. We are in Colorado. Yesterday I visited the Colorado Insane Asylum. Here is " State care " to the fullest extent. The building is good, the management is respectable; but what takes place there? Under this system of exclusive State care the superintendent cannot discharge a patient. He is compelled, even when the patient has recovered, to ask the order of the county judge where the patient claims to reside, before his patient can leave the asylum. Until that comes (and it is sometimes delayed for weeks and months) he must remain. Moreover, when the superintendent chosen by the State of Colorado, who knows the condition of the patient, gives a certificate that he is suitable to be discharged, some county physician, who may never have seen the patient, may prevent discharge by a certificate that he is not fit to be discharged. The consequence is that the Pueblo Asylum is filled up to-day with chronic patients, and
Page 366 366 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. many curable insane are in the jails, in the poorhouses, and in the private families of Colorado, because, under the benevolent "State care," they cannot get into the State asylum. Were there any system. of county care in Colorado, it would be possible to relieve the asylum of these patients. If the counties were compelled to pay the cost, even of the paupers in the State asylum, they would be discharged more readily. Mr. CRAIG.- In Wisconsin the counties that have no buildings pay from $325 to $375 more than the cost of taking care of the chronic insane in New York. Mr. HASKELL.- It has been my privilege to visit the public institutions, charitable and penal, in New York, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin. Among other places, I visited the insane asylum in New York on Blackwell's Island. I heard of a case there where a change of treatment produced such a wonderful effect that I would like to refer to it here. A man who had been considered insane had been chained, staples were driven into the floor, and manacles were put round his wrists, and there he was fastened. He had no friends, no, sympathy, no hope. A change in the care of the institution occurred;. and the superintendent tore up the staples, took off his manacles, and let him loose. The next Sunday morning he was marching up and down, and looking into the clear sky and at the rising sun, and saying, "O my God, how beautiful, how beautiful!" That relief, that dawning hope, was the beginning of the healing of that patient. Mr. BRODHEAD.- I should be sorry to have any one go away with the impression that Mr. Sanborn gave that our jails and poorhouses. were for the insane. Mr. SANBORN.- Oh, no! oh, no! I made no such statement. I stated that the acute insane, instead of being in an insane hospital, were some of them in the jails, some of them in poorhouses, and some in private houses. Mr. BRODHEAD.-The increasing population has made it almbst impossible to keep up with the demands that are made on our institution. If the last legislature had given $2,000 more to our insane hospital, we might have finished the ward that is unfinished now, and. that will stand unfinished until the next legislature. Mr. APPEL.- I believe that the position of Mr. Sanborn is right as applied to Colorado. Take this county, which has one-third of the population of the State. It ought to have an asylum of its own. We have insane people confined in our county jails and hospitals, and there are cases where it has taken time to get discharges for the chronic insane, because they are kept at the expense of the State. If this county had to pay for them out of its own taxes, it would not have kept them so long at the State hospital at the expense of the county. I hope to see, before the next meeting of this Conference,. laws which will enable us to make a change. Gen. BRINKERHOFF, Ohio.- I heartily approve of the paper which has been read to-night.' Our entire Board of Charities are in favor of
Page 367 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 367' that position. I have examined recently very carefully the system of Wisconsin, and I have examined it before; and I say, We do not want that system in Ohio. We have the first asylum that has been constructed in the United States for epileptics. We believe in it. We have made it a careful study for years, and have adopted the idea mainly from the institutions at Bielefeld in Germany and La Force in France. Our institution will have two cottages ready within a month. It is at Gallipolis. It is intended to make the institution sufficiently large to support one thousand patients. We have now in public care in the State asylums and county infirmaries about seven hundred, possibly eight hundred. But this institution is not intended to be restricted to the epileptic insane. It is to be for the reception of all epileptics. The law gives the board of trustees and superintendents entire authority to decide as to who shall be received, as. they see their way.... In process of time we shall ascertain as to what to do with epileptics. We have carried out in Ohio nearly everything which has been suggested in this paper. The only thing we lack is an asylum for insane criminals. We believe that would relieve our other asylums, and we hope to get such an institution. We do not believe in county care for the insane. Mr. PITTMAN, Missouri.- I have been connected as chaplain with the State asylum for three periods. I was the first chaplain the institution had. We have about five or six hundred patients. Nearly all of those people who are insane think that they are eternally lost. A dancing hall does not remove that belief. I think it helps them to preach to them about the goodness of God. I have seen their faces illumined like the breaking through of the sun on a cloudy day. That is a good medicine. I wish every asylum might have some sensible chaplain to talk to the people. Let him be a man with great hope, great tenderness, broad views of things, and liberal notions of God's goodness and loving care for all his children. In addition to music and dancing, the insane should have some good tonic in the way of good thinking. Dr. DEWEY.- I will only say a word with relation to the difficulty of State and county acting together in the care of the insane, or in similar work of a charitable nature. Whatever is done by the county must be controlled by county boards who have not usually the broad views requisite for benevolent interests. Mr. Wines reported as follows for the committee of nine appointed to consider the International Conference:To the National Conference of Charities and Correction,- The special committee of nine appointed at Indianapolis to arrange for an International Conference of Charities and Correction, to be held in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in I893, reports progress as follows:Mr. N. S. Rosenau has been employed by the Directory of the
Page 368 368 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Exposition to prepare an international exhibit of charities and correction under Dr. H. S. Peabody, Chief of the Department of Liberal Arts, and has entered upon the discharge of his duties in that relation. He has also been authorized to send out the printed preliminary announcements and conduct the correspondence with reference to the proposed Conference, the title of which will be The International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy. It will convene on the morning of June 12, I893, and will remain in session during the whole of that week. With regard to the exhibit to be made by the Department of Liberal Arts we have no direct or indirect responsibility. We have secured an indirect but important relation to the Congress, the nature of which may be briefly stated. All of the international congresses are under the immediate control of the World's Congress Auxiliary, of which Mr. C. C. Bonney is president. The Auxiliary will provide as many rooms, free of cost, as may be required for the general and sectional meetings, will defray the expenses of printing and mailing circulars, and will publish the Proceedings. It will not attempt to control the conduct of any congress in detail, by dictating its programme, organization, or speakers. The general scheme for these congresses, however, contemplates the presentation, as far as may be practicable, of the history of progress in all branches of the associated life of the world, and the statement of all the living questions of the day, with a view to making the series of volumes to be published a great landmark to indicate the stage of social evolution reached in all lands at the close of the fourth century after the discovery of America. The International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy will be under the auspices of two special committees appointed by Mr. Bonney on Moral and Social Reform Congresses, one of men, of which Mr. John G. Shortall is chairman, and one of women, of which Mrs. J. M. Flower is chairman, who have invited the co-operation of our committee. At a joint meeting of these three committees held in Chicago, April 6, I892, it was voted to delegate their powers, so far as relates to the World's Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy, to a joint committee of three, composed of their respective chairmen, which will be known officially as the Committee of Organization of the International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy. With the formation of this joint committee, our functions and duties with reference to the proposed Congress might very properly cease; but the continued advice and co-operation of the National Conference, represented by us, has been expressly asked. We therefore ask the Conference to recommend to the joint committee aforesaid: First. That General Rutherford B. Hayes, ex-President of the United States, be respectfully and earnestly solicited to accept the position of President of the World's Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy. We are of the opinion that the Conference would do well also to recommend a Vice-President.
Page 369 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 369 Second. That the Congress be organized in sections, as follows: - I. A section on the prevention and relief of pauperism. 2. A section on the care of neglected, abandoned, and dependent children. 3. A section on the care and treatment of juvenile delinquents of both sexes. 4. A section on the hospital care of the sick, the training of nurses, dispensary work, and first aid to the injured. 5. A section on the care and treatment of the insane. 6. A section on the custodial care and on the training and development of idiots and feeble-minded children. 7. A section on the prevention and repression of crime and the punishment and reformation of criminals. 8. A section on the introduction into the curriculum of institutions of learning of sociology as a special topic of investigation and teaching. Third. That the official language of the Congress be English. Fourth. That the organization of the sections herein named, including the subjects of discussion, writers and speakers and officers, be placed, so far as practicable, in the hands of such existing bodies as may be recognized as representative under each topic covered by any single section in all cases where they are willing to undertake and assume the responsibility. Your committee respectfully submits this report with an appendix containing the memorandum adopted April 6, 1892, and asks to be continued. FRED. H. WINES, Chairman Committee. NATHANIEL S. ROSENAU, Secretary. MEMORANDUM To govern the relations and define the duties of Mr. N. S. Rosenau, Superintendent of Charities and Corrections, in connection with the organization of an International Congress of Charities and Correction, under the auspices of the World's Congress Auxiliary. At a joint meeting of the committees of the World's Congress Auxiliary on Moral and Social Reform Congresses and a committee of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, held in Chicago Wednesday, April 6, 1892, it was unanimously voted that Mr. Frederick H. Wines, Mr. John G. Shortall, and Mrs. J. M. Flower, the chairmen of the three committees aforesaid, or their successors in office, be appointed an Executive Committee, with full power to act for the said committees on all questions relating to the preliminary work necessary to be done in the organization of an International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy, to be held in Chicago during the summer of 1893. The Executive Committee thus appointed has formulated the following memorandum of its understanding of the relations and duties of Mr. N. S. Rosenau, whose appointment by the Director-General as Superintendent of Charities and Correction, has been confirmed by the Executive Committee of the World's Columbian Exposition, in order that the same may be submitted to the Director-General, the chief of the Department of Liberal Arts, the president of the World's Congress Auxiliary, and the president of the Directory for their approval, which is hereby requested, so that Mr. Rosenau may distinctly understand his responsibilities with reference to the proposed International Congress.
Page 370 376 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. I. Mr. Rosenau's primary function and duty is understood to be the preparation of an international exhibit of the methods, appliances, and results of charitable and correctional work throughout the world. With this branch of his work the Executive Committee herein named has no connection or relation whatever. And he is at all times, as a subordinate assistant of the chief of the Department of Liberal Arts,, to be subject to the direction of the said chief alone. 2. In preparing and mailing printed circulars and other correspondence, however,. he is at liberty, and it is expected of him, that he will at one and the same time invite and solicit co-operation in the International Exhibit and the International Congress. 3. In all matters relating to the proposed International Congress, the Executive Committee herein named shall possess the powers and discharge the functions of the general committees of the World's Congress Auxiliary on Social and Moral Reform Congresses, and shall act as Mr. Rosenau's adviser, subject to the direction of the president of the World's Congress Auxiliary. It shall be known as the Committee of Organization of the International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy. 4. All circulars and announcements to be issued for the information of the public on the subject of the International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy shall be submitted before publication to the Executive Committee, and, if approved by it, to the president of the World's Congress Auxiliary. 5. In the preparation of the programme of the International Congress and the selection of writers and speakers, the aid of the National Conference of Charities and Correction is invited, and will be welcome. 6. The official title of Mr. Rosenau in connection with the Congress shall be Secretary to the Committee of Organization of the International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy. On motion of Mr. Appel, the report was unanimously adopted. Mr. CRAIG.- I move that the Conference recommend that Mr. Wines be made First Vice-President of the International Conference. I wish to say that this was the unanimous wish of the committee, but that Mr. Wines would not consent to have it put into the report. Mr. Craig's motion was unanimously adopted, and it was ordered that the name of Mr. Wines should be inserted as Vice-President. Mr. N. S. Rosenau made the following report: — Mr. ROSENAU. —I apprehend that it is unnecessary to preface these few remarks with any statement of the magnitude of the World's Columbian Exposition which will open its doors to the nations of the globe on the first day of May, I893, nor to prognosticate how many thousands of souls from all the hemispheres will attend it. Chicago is a city which does not do things by halves; and, if she has caused some criticism because her great project has exceeded even the calculations of its local managers, this should be no detraction from her reputation for enterprise, and should, on the contrary, gain her all the more support from the nation, which has, indeed, a vital interest in the success of what will, undoubtedly, be the greatest of all World's Expositions. For the first time a Universal Exposition will give space to a separate department devoted to an exhibit of charitable and correctional work on a comprehensive scale. Efforts in this direction have been made
Page 371 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 371 before; but they have never had sufficient scope to allow of a close study of the world's progress in caring for its dependent and delinquent classes, nor of a comparison of the methods in vogue in different countries and States. The question has been frequently asked, "How are you going to make an exhibit of Charities and Correction?" The task is not an easy one. There is so much that is intangible and invisible in the work which you are doing that it will be hard, indeed, to give an adequate tangible expression of it. But the effort must be made, and there seems at present to be some show of success. It were idle to dwell upon the importance of this exhibit to the interests which the National Conference of Charities and Correction represents. That it will be stimulative to all of us goes without saying. That it will convey to the busy world, which gives too little interest to our work, some idea of the enormous amount of money and of time and of thought that is being devoted to these subjects, is beyond question. That it will enable some portions of the world which are behindhand in this most important of all human endeavor to pull themselves together, so to speak, to do what others are doing, there can be no doubt. The exhibits which will constitute the Bureau of Charities and Correction of the Columbian Exposition will come from four different sources:I. The Bureau itself will undertake to prepare, in an attractive form, a few statistics which will convey to the mind of any casual visitor some idea of what is being done in charity and penology. These, of course, will be but the resum~ of the statistics, which will be collected as hereinafter described. The Bureau proposes besides to construct a prison corridor of which the cells shall be types in use by the different countries and States of the world. And lastly, but by no means least, it will try to collect as complete a library as possible of the philanthropic and penological literature of the world. I desire at this time to call particular attention to this library feature of the exhibit, because it will be difficult to reach every corner of the country without the cordial assistance of this Conference. We want to collect as complete a set as possible of the reports that have been issued by every society and institution of the world. It makes no difference how insignificant that society may consider itself, whether it consists of three or three thousand members. So long as it is engaged in dealing with the dependent and delinquent classes, we want its reports; and, unless we have them all, our library will not be complete. It will be extremely gratifying to the Bureau if every person whom these words reach will make it his business to act as a collector for this library. It will take little time on the part of each individual, but the sum of the united effort must be enormous. 2. The next source from which exhibits will come is the State officers who have charge in general of the charitable and penal work of their respective States. This includes State Boards of
Page 372 372 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Charities and State Prison Commissions. It is unfortunate that we have not in every State a body of this kind to which we may appeal for assistance; but it is hoped that in those States where they do not exist individuals may be found who will interest themselves sufficiently in this matter, so that their States will not be unrepresented in the exhibit. The State Boards will be asked to send a series of charts in accordance with directions which will be transmitted to them shortly, and further than that to stimulate the individual institutions in making exhibits. 3. Naturally, the bulk of the Bureau of Charities and Correction will be made up of the exhibits of individual institutions. These are not confined to those institutions which are supported by the States themselves, but will include as well the institutions which owe their existence to private benevolence. Room, of course, cannot be provided for an extensive exploitation of all institutions; but there will be room for an exhibit of some kind from every one of them. It is intended to select from the various States certain institutions which are typical of the classes to which they belong, not so much in management and in results as in the adaptability of the buildings and grounds of the institution to the ends for which they were erected. These institutions (and their number must not be too large) will be asked to have constructed models of their buildings in addition to making the other exhibit. We want from every institution, in the first place, a chart showing the nature of its management and support, and giving a few other general statistics. 2. Plans, drawn to a scale of grounds and buildings, which will clearly convey to the observer, methods of construction, of ventilation, of sewering, the location of different buildings with reference to each (other, and the proportionate area of grounds and buildings. 3. Photographs of exteriors and typical interior rooms which will show the arrangement of furniture and apparatus. 4. Samples of various appliances used in the institution. 5. Dolls dressed in the regulation uniform of the institution. 6. The dietaries provided for inmates at different seasons of the year. 7. Samples of the various forms used for records. 8. Samples of the work of inmates of the institution. It is especially requested in this last case that discrimination be used in sending exhibits, because it will be very easy to overcrowd this portion of the group, and fill it up to such an extent as to make a study of it wearisome, if not uninteresting. Where the object of the institutional industry is purely commercial, it is not desirable to have an extensive exhibit, because the institution confines itself to a very few lines of work, although it turns out a large variety in each line. If a prison make ten different kinds of brooms, one broom will be sufficient to show what that prison is doing. We do not need to have each kind exhibited, because the object of the exhibition is not to
Page 373 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 373 sell the goods, but to show what the prison is doing. When, however, an educational element is involved in the production of goods, then sufficient must be shown to indicate how the inmates are being instructed. The exhibits of societies, of course, cannot be nearly so instructive as those of institutions; but they can show the results of their work by means of charts, and how they do their work by means of samples of their record forms with descriptions of their uses. The fourth source from which exhibits will come will be the manufacturers of articles intended especially for institutional use. Their object being largely commercial, of course they will not require very much stimulation. One feature which we hope to make quite an important one will be the distribution of literature in connection with exhibits. Some provision will be made by which the exhibiting societies and institutions may place in the hands of the Bureau quantities of their reports or special publications prepared in connection with their exhibits, which will be judiciously distributed by intelligent attendants. Space is, of course, an important consideration in connection with this Bureau as it is with every other. We cannot tell you how much space we shall have. All we ask intending exhibitors to do is to make application at the earliest possible moment for such an amount of space as they think they will require for an adequate representation. If it be necessary to cut down that space because we cannot give everybody all he desires, it is a matter for later consideration. What we want now is to get your ideas of how much you will need. Later you will get our ideas of how much we can give you. It has been impossible, of course, in this brief address to explain completely exactly how you all are to get to work; but it is hoped that in a very few weeks each one of you will receive a pamphlet conveying the ideas of the Superintendent of the Bureau of Charities and Correction as to what may be expected from you in the way of an exhibit. The cordial co-operation and useful suggestions which have been, and we trust will in future be, received from this Conference will make it sufficiently complete to be a guide, and to accomplish its object of securing a set of exhibits which will not only be of general interest, but which will be worthy of deep study by students. There are many important points which have not been touched upon which I hope to be able to make clear to those who are sufficiently interested to make inquiries. As has been announced, I will be in parlor 128 of the Albany Hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from 1.30 to 4 o'clock for the special purpose of consultation about the exhibits of Charities and Correction. You need not be told of the importance of this exhibit to the work we represent. We are to have a grand opportunity to show to a world, which is, unhappily, not so much interested as we would have it in its unfortunate classes, what progress has been made by thousands of willing workers in doing what is best for those who have
Page 374 374 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. been unable or unwilling to do for themselves. It is an opportunity to be grasped; it is an opportunity in which we ask your earnest co-operation; it is an opportunity which, if taken advantage of, will leave an ineffaceable impression on the universe. It would be too bad, after all the work of collecting this special library, to see it scattered where it would never be of use. There has been in the minds of a few of the members of the Conference the hope that the Conference would some day have permanent headquarters. It has therefore occured to Mr. Wines and myself that it would be wise to obtain possession, in a legitimate way, of all the exhibits that will be sent to the Bureau of Charities and Correction. I therefore beg to offer the following resolution:Resolved, That the committee of nine on International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy be authorized to appoint a Board of Trustees of such number as may seem most expedient, and that all bodies and individuals making exhibits in the Bureau of Charities and Correction of the World's Columbian Exposition be requested to assign such exhibits or such parts of them as they may not care to reserve to said trustees in trust for the National Conference of Charities and Correction as the nucleus of a library and museum of charity and penology to be established in the future. Mr. Wines moved that the rules be suspended, that the resolution of Mr. Rosenau might be adopted. Voted. Rev. M-r. Smith, of Minnesota, moved as an amendment to Mr. Rosenau's motion that the committee of nine be asked to take into consideration the advisability of the incorporation of the Conference of Charities and Correction. Mr. Wines accepted the amendment, and the resolution was adopted. On motion of John M. Glenn, it was voted that the committee in charge of the International Conference should make arrangements for the accommodation of guests. A telegram of greeting to the Conference from Mrs. S. B. Cooper, of California, was read. On motion of Mr. Hart, the Secretary was instructed to send a suitable reply. Mr. Letchworth called attention to the reports of kindergarten work in California which Mrs. Cooper had sent to the Conference for distribution. A message of greeting was received from Miss Clara Barton. After the benediction by Rev. Mr. Haskell, the Conference adjourned.
Page 375 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 375 NINTH SESSION. Tuesday morning, June 28. The Conference was called to order by the President at 9.30 A.M. Prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Pittman. The report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure was distributed in printed form. Rev. H. H. HART, chairman of the committee.- The report is in the hands of the Conference, and explains itself. These rules of procedure are simple and elastic, and can be amended at any time by a majority vote of the Conference. After a little discussion, in which Messrs. Sanborn, Bell, and Hart took part, the rules were adopted. A letter from Rev. T. C. Wilson, of North Carolina, was read by the Secretary. An invitation to the Conference to hold the session of I894 in Nashville, Tenn., was read. The invitation was signed by the Governor of the State and other State officers. Colonel Stone, of Massachusetts, hoped the Conference would go to Nashville in I894. Rev. Mr. Pittman hoped the Conference would accept the invitation. On motion of Dr. Hoyt, the invitation was referred to the Executive Committee. Mr. HART.-Mr. Wines informed me that he should offer an amendment to these rules. As he is not here, I move that we reconsider the acceptance. The PRESIDENT.- I will call that out of order. The hour was fixed in advance for action on this subject, and those interested should have been here. Rev. Mr. SMITH.- I move that the regular order be suspended for ten minutes, till Mr. Wines comes. I do not think it is fair for the President of the Conference to shut off an amendment that some of us think of importance. The PRESIDENT.- I will not entertain the motion to suspend the regular order. Mr. SMITH.- I appeal from the decision of the chair. I submit that we are not under a tyrant. The appeal was seconded; but, on putting it to vote, it was not sustained. The regular business of the hour was then taken up, the subject of Immigration. The report of the committee was made by the chairman, Mr. F. B. Sanborn (page 76).
Page 376 376 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Dr. Hoyt stated that he had asked Rev. J. L. Milligan, secretary of the National Prison Association, to prepare something on preventive measures in connection with the guarding of immigration, but, owing to pressure of work, Mr. Milligan had not been able to do so. An address on the subject of "The Immigration of Invalids " was read by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, pastor of Unity Church, Denver (page go). Mr. L. S. Storrs, Michigan, was called to the chair by the President. DISCUSSION. Prof. GRAHAM TAYLOR, Connecticut.-One of the complications in connection with this subject is the cheap lodging-houses of the cities. Inspector Byrnes of New York insists upon it that it is one of the most fruitful sources of crime that lodgings can be obtained at such reasonable rates. In New England the establishment of charitable or cheap lodging-houses has apparently led to an immense increase of the transient element of the population, a large increase of crime, and the tramp nuisance. The State of Connecticut has one of the severest tramp laws upon the statute books of the country; and yet the establishment of charitable lodging-houses, even upon the sound economical basis of the payment of lodging by labor, and the increase of the low-type lodging-house on a mere commercial basis, have been attended by an increase of the criminal and the tramp population. I think that it is one of the most essential side issues of this question. Far from making any complaint against the charitable lodging-houses, we would better have cheap lodgings provided under good than under bad auspices, if we must have them at all. The police in all our large cities are very much overburdened with station-house lodgers. The demoralizing influence of the station-house lodging and the cheap lodging-house on the commercial basis has been well stated by Mr. Byrnes in his exclamation of surprise, almost of horror, at the rapidity with which a young man from the country drops into the criminal class after a night or two in a New York lodging-house. I have heard a suggestion of relief in a town, municipal, or State lodging-house supervision. I raise the question for the sake of getting further light. Mr. ALEXANDER JOHNSON.-I have had the responsibility of conducting relief for tramps in two cities, and my conscience has been very much exercised. I will give you an instance. A man came to me from Salamanca, and said he wanted to go to work in the woodyard. He had nine dollars and a half on hand at the time. I asked him what he wanted to work in the wood-yard for. He said he thought ^he should like to live in the city in the winter. I asked him if he understood that he could only get his board and lodging by working in the wood-yard, and that in the country he could get good wages.
Page 377 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 377 "I understand all about that," he replied, "but there is more fun on Madison Street in five minutes than there is in Salamanca in six months." I explained to him the object of the wood-yard, and told him when he had not a friend and was " dead broke " to come to me; but I advised him to go back to Salamanca. I asked him how many farm-houses there were between Salamanca and the city where he could get work. He said, " I guess about a hundred or two." " Go and find them," I said; and so I sent him away. But it seemed to me possible that by our wood-yards and cheap lodging-houses we might be attracting to our cities a class that we were trying to deter from coming. If a fellow with some sacrifice of self-respect can go to the wood-yard in the various cities, he is sure of a nice lodging-house without becoming an absolute pauper; and it encourages him to travel, when otherwise he might stay at home. Our experience is that our working men travel too easily. It would be a good thing if we could induce them to settle down. I am very much afraid that our work of that kind is increasing the evil. If so, we are in danger, and some remedy must be found. P. W. AYRES, Ph.D., Cincinnati. —It has been suggested to me by what Mr. Johnson has said that perhaps the experience of the Charity Organization Society in one of the Middle States might throw some light upon the intermigration between States of paupers. We provided last year in Cincinnati for not less than a thousand homeless persons. Out of the thousand, seventy-nine were homeless women. There is in the middle Western States a certain number of homeless women who are marked by a migratory character. That leaves us 92I homeless men whom we have dealt with during the year. A certain number of these have their families with them. The migratory family is a very distinctly marked type. It may be made up of wife and several children, and they appeal to the charitable organizations of the city. They do not come alone to the Charity Organization Society. One family applied to the Young Men's Christian Association, the Helping Hand, and the Charity Organization Society within half an hour. They are largely of the type known as "poor white trash," and, as we believe, are descendants of those inmates of almshouses who came to the southern counties two hundred years ago. They go from town to town especially through those central States. From our 92I men we may leave out a hundred as those who have families with them. Of the others there were about 350 middle-aged men and 520 young men. I have talked with all these thousand persons personally, and know something about them. The middle-aged are largely men who have deserted their families. A considerable number are men out of Soldiers' Homes on parole. There are a good many men in these Soldiers' Homes who have deserted their families. Other men have their children in orphan asylums and their wives in the Eastern States. These middle-aged men work on street contracts in summer and get into the Soldiers' Homes or almshouses in winter. Then
Page 378 378 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. there are the young men whose ages range from sixteen to twentyone. Among these are some Germans, but the large proportion are Americans or Irish who have been sent out of their homes because they have been such miserable fellows that the town will not hold them. I deprecate the suggestion that we should try national legislation as a means of curing this evil. It does not strike me as favorable. If the railroads could prevent young men from riding on freight trains, that for one thing would help to prevent the evil. If our lodging-houses could be put under strict police supervision, and if people could be prevented from sending men back and forth, it might not abolish, but it would lessen the evil. Mr. GEORGE W. JOHNSON, Massachusetts.-I would like to call the attention of this Conference to certain recommendations made by the Board of Lunacy and Charity of Massachusetts upon the subject of emigration between the States, which were referred to the State legislature, and by reason of which the legislature passed the following resolutions:Resolved, That the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in general court assembled, earnestly and respectfully urge upon the Congress of the United States and the executive and legislative departments of the several States the importance of adopting legislative measures establishing a uniform policy in dealing with immigrants from foreign countries, and persons migrating from State to State, who are dependent upon public or private charity, and are of idle, vicious, or criminal habits. Resolved, That the Secretary of the Commonwealth be requested to transmit copies of the foregoing resolution to the presiding officers of both houses of the Congress of the United States, to each of the Senators and Representatives therein from this Commonwealth, and to the governors of the several States of the United States. [In Senate, adopted May 13, I892. In House of Representatives, adopted in concurrence May 23, I892.] The peculiar difficulties under which Massachusetts has labored in regard to this are set forth in a pamphlet entitled "Report on the Burdens of Pauperism, etc., imposed on Massachusetts by other States," by Charles F. Donnelly, a member of the State Board. Mr. Donnelly recommends: - First.-That, to settle differences between Massachusetts and coterminous or:adjacent States, and to prevent the controversies which have been constantly arising regarding the disposal of professional paupers migrating from State to State as well as of the worthy poor who may not be in the places or States of their set*tlements when they fall into distress, it is advisable the legislature institute a com-mission to consider the whole subject, confer with the executives of other States, -if found expedient, and report some plan in the direction of comity and commutual.adjustment of all questions of domicil and settlement which are likely to occur -where relief is sought or needed by the unfortunate and deserving poor in States,outside of those from which they may be entitled to support. Second. — That Congress, having the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States," and now broadly exercising that power, might, it would seem, be invoked to protect the several States from the transportation into their territories from sister States of passengers who are convicts, lunatics, idiots, or unable to take care of themselves without becoming a public charge. The advocacy of such a measure in Congress would probably soon meet with
Page 379 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 379 the support of many of the States; and any hesitancy about its adoption which might arise concerning the question of the means and cost of enforcing such a law would soon disappear on a careful examination of the proposed measure. To prevent the migration from one State to another of persons belonging to the classes named, and not destined to a State in which they have a settlement, the Interstate Commerce Commission might be authorized to prescribe rules and reg-.ulations for the railroad corporations and other carriers engaged in interstate transportation of passengers, forbidding the receiving and transportation of such passengers, under a suitable penalty for violation of such regulations, besides subjecting the person unlawfully transported to be returned to the State whence he came at the expense of the corporation transporting him across the boundaries of the State in which he had taken passage. If the power of Congress, under the Constitution, to regulate commerce, which -means intercourse and traffic between the States, is paramount, and applies and has been applied to passengers as well as merchandise, it does seem that a remedy may through it be found to remove an evil which is assuming larger proportions as society grows more complex and density of population increases, and so renders,old methods and old conditions inadequate to the needs of the present as well as the future. I desire to urge upon the members of the Conference that, in addition to any resolutions they may pass here collectively, each and every one of them, as members of State Boards and other kindred organizations, shall suggest similar action from their colleagues, either in the form of resolutions addressed to their respective State legislatures or in such other form or by such other means as their wisdom may counsel, to advance public opinion in respect to the importance of such Congressional action as will diminish the existing unsatisfactory and irritating relations between neighboring States. As individuals, we can do somewhat toward the desired end by impressing representatives to Congress, to whom we may happen to have favorable access, with the wisdom and necessity of some legislation on this subject. Miss M. E. RICHMOND, Baltimore.- Mr. Johnson has asked me to say a word about our experience in Maryland. Baltimore has no outdoor relief except a fund for transportation for non-residents. That was originated to hit back other cities which had loaded their paupers on to us. The money was drawn from the city treasury. The applicants coming in the early part of the month were sent away as long as the fund lasted, and then they did not get any more until the next month. That seemed to us a loose plan; and the proposition was made that we would investigate every case of application for transportation, and report on the same to the city. The plan was adopted, and has worked admirably. The former custom was to send people to the neighboring city, whether they belonged there or not; and from there they were passed on to the next city six or eight times before they reached their final destination, and they were paupers before they got there. Instead of that plan, those who were to be sent to a distance were sent right through. Instead of this method, entailing additional expense, last year we turned over fifty per cent. of the fund into the treasury unused. It seems to me that the cooperation of Charity Organization Societies, where they are thoroughly established, will help to mitigate this evil to a certain ex
Page 380 380 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. tent, though it can never entirely check it. The suggestion made by the admirable report seems an applicable remedy. You may have good laws for railroads and police, but the railroad employees and policemen have a sneaking affection for a tramp. They will. continue to break the law. Perhaps the employees feel that they may sometime get into the same box themselves. Railroad employees will let tramps sneak through the railroad, and policemen will look the other way when they are found. Miss M. M. McBRYDE, New York.- I have been for some years interested in women's lodging-houses in New York. Men tramps have been spoken of here. I can say that I have had a great many women tramps who have come into our lodging-houses, and have been passed on to the West. A few weeks ago I came accidentally into connection with a new charity. I know nothing, as a general thing, of the Salvation Army; but it has started in New York the experiment of opening cheap lodging-houses; with a wood-yard, for the benefit of people in need. They have done it at an extraordinarily cheap rate, and they think it will pay. They are going to open them in different parts of the United States, if they make those in New York a success. Rev. WILLIAM S. FRIEDMAN. —I should like to say a few words with reference to importing invalids. I have a great many calls made upon me, as representative of the Jews of Denver, from consumptives. I think that nine-tenths of our charity, or over $400 a month, is expended' simply and purely in taking care of these invalids who are sent to us from neighboring States. Our largest immigration is probably from New York. A great many of these people, who have had all kinds of cruel treatment and hardships, and who have been compelled in Russia to live in badly ventilated homes, come to this country inoculated with the germs of consumption. There is a large fund in New York known as the Baron Hirsch Fund, and the trustees seem to think that it is a duty incumbent upon them to send these poor Hebrews here as soon as they have consumption. Not only are the Jews of the State compelled to support these invalids from New York, but the poor throughout the country are sent to us. We are overwhelmed with the influx of the sick and the decrepit, so that ninetenths of our charity is expended in this way. As the natural result of this, we have been compelled to start a hospital simply for the purpose of taking care of the poor who are sent to us from other States. It would be charity in our neighboring States to retain their poor. This is not only the experience in Jewish charities, but in all our local charities. A great expense is entailed in sending back those who come or in caring for them here. A large part of the cases that come are utterly hopeless. They die. I have several funerals a week, as Mr. Eliot and other ministers have. People come who live but a week or two, and are then laid to their eternal rest. I think that some action should be taken by this Conference on this question. The sending of paupers indiscriminately into Denver, the sending
Page 381 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 38I of these poor sick people, who are absolutely without any visible hope or chance of recovery, should be prevented. We have come to such a state that we shall be compelled to require a sufficient amount to maintain those sent during the time of their dependence or to require sufficient money to send them back to their homes. The great difficulty in starting such a hospital as we have inaugurated is that it may encourage the immigration to Colorado of these invalids. We had two hundred applications before the first stone was laid to the Home for Invalids. I do not know what the result will be when the building is completed. It will accommodate only seventy-five. I wish the Conference would consider the measure thoroughly,'and the difficulty of disposing of the sick poor, especially those with pulmonary troubles. Dr. MARY BRADNER, Denver.-We have a large number of patients who come to us in a curable stage. They are at a critical state. A few weeks will decide whether they can be cured or must go down to their eternal rest. But those few weeks are very important. The recovery of those patients depends upon proper nutriment, light, air, and exercise. They come without means, without friends, without knowing where to go for medical aid. The principle thing is not medical treatment. It is good advice, which is easy to give for those who know how to give it, good food, and proper exercise. There is no place where these people can get all this in Denver or in the State. They cannot go on to the farms. People will not have invalids to work on farms. They cannot get good board in private houses. They drive others away. I see no way except to establish a consumptives' home. If this is arranged on the cottage plan, it will furnish them with the necessities for carrying them over those few weeks that will decide their recovery or not. They will get exercise in work. They will have freedom from the mental strain of not knowing where they are to get their meals the next day or week. That is a large element in the cure of consumptives who come in a curable stage,the peaceful mental condition. Those who are harassed must go down when the mental condition influences the physical condition so that they cannot hold up under it. I wish that we could have this consumptives' home discussed more freely than we have had yet. It is a great necessity for us and for the Eastern States. We have the climate, and you have not. If we can get the help which we must have from Eastern States, many of your invalids can be cured who cannot be otherwise. Dr. B. W. TICE, New York.-I am the representative of the Children's Aid Society, which has sent out thousands on thousands of children. Our work has been criticised. It has been stated that we ship children in carloads. That was true years ago. It was said that we have not proper supervision. That criticism was once true. Under the present management it is no longer true. Our children are carefully supervised throughout the country. There is a local committee to look out for them and inform us concerning the action of these children whom we send out, and an agent whose business it is to
Page 382 382 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. inquire into the care and treatment of these children. It has been said that the street children from New York encourage bad habits among other children. The children now are of a higher type than we used to send out. Large numbers of them have had months of care and discipline in some of the best orphanages of the State; and a large majority of those who are placed in homes in the West, who are properly received and cared for, grow up to be an honor to the community. Many children who are doing well there, if they had been left in New York, would probably have grown up to be criminals, and would have been a great expense to the State. One of the governors of one of the Western States was a poor, neglected boy who a few years ago was picked up in New York by the Children's Aid Society. Another boy, now in the city of Denver, has a bank account of a hundred thousand dollars. We have not placed a child in Illinois for fifteen years, nor in Michigan for about the same time, nor for several years in Wisconsin, nor a very large number in Minnesota. We are now placing children in Iowa and Missouri. Two years ago we placed quite a large number in Nebraska. We place in the neighborhood of five hundred children every year, and find homes and employment and situations for more than two thousand a year. A great many are placed in homes in the vicinity of New York. On motion of Mr. Barbour, the following resolution was referred to the Business Committee by whom it was afterward reported, and adopted by the Conference. Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the. President of the Conference to prepare and present to Congress a bill for the appointment of an immigration and interstate immigration commission, and to, define its powers and duties. Mr. HOFFMAN, Philadelphia.-I wish to speak of Jewish immigrants whom we have found it wise to send away from Eastern cities into adjacent States or less densely populated parts of the West. Of course, we have at the present time a tide of immigration from Russia of Jewish men and women, owing to the terrible persecution there. This amounts to about twenty-five thousand a year. They naturally settle in the large seacoast cities of the East. We find that very often they are wretched in the extreme, but that they can be made self-supporting if they can be taken out of their wretched quarters and sent to less densely populated portions of the West. It is not a pauper class. They are men who toil, and who are willing to toil, and who, if they are given an opportunity, prove the best citizens that we can possibly have. And all that we undertake to do is to give them that opportunity which is denied them in those densely settled portions of the East. I want to say what we have done, not in the way of indiscriminately scattering them, but by systematic planning, and by planting them where they can be well received and can make a livelihood. We have agents who, go over the country and find out
Page 383 MINUTES AND DISCUSSrONS;. where there is employment which these people: can properly obtain. When we have found a factory or a mill or a railroad section where they need men to work or where they need girls to work, we send them there. We have a transportation fund by which we can send these men, women, and children to these various portions of the country. In addition to that we have throughout the country committees who correspond with us, and we ask them to accommodate the men and furnish means of support for a short time. We ask them to locate a few families at a time. We do not send out individuals, but families, and place them where they can be settled permanently. One committee will say, Send us ten families, and we can find employment for them; and we do so. Our experience as far as we have gone has been successful. I want to urge upon this Conference that it is best for these people and for the country that they should not inhabit the Eastern States, but should, under a proper, systematic management, be placed in the Western portions of the country. Mrs. JACOBS.- It is not only for the benefit of the immigrants, but for the benefit of the country, that they should be scattered. If they come to our hospitable shores, we want their children to be made Americans. It cannot be done if they settle together, hearing only their own language and living according to their own customs. Under those circumstances they will never be Americans, in the true sense of the word. They should learn to speak our language, at least the children should. The children should go into American public schools, that they may grow up to be good American citizens and their old habits should be done away forever. They are ready for better influences because they have been so tortured and so patient. No one on earth has any idea of the patience with which these poor people have had to endure the thousands of evils, the misery and oppression that have come to them in the past. Scatter them as far as possible, and let them become true American citizens. Miss ANNA M. TILSON, Indiana. —What satisfaction is it to a man or woman to give some one ten cents or ten dollars, and then go his,own way and forget that that person ever walked the earth? Where is the so-called soft-heartedness in that? Some one has said that railroad people are ready to pass people from point to point. Why do they do that? So as to get them out of sight. Out of sight is out of mind, so far as railroad people are concerned. That is not charity: it is cowardice. If a man needs ten cents, he needs ten dollars. He needs something that shall do him good, and not evil. He does not need top be kept going, from one part of the earth to another. I have heard a great deal about the tramping man, but not much about the tramping woman and the tramping children. They.are going to and fro on the face of the earth, and the people who talk about their own soft hearts are the people who send them. One man boasts to us that he always passes people where they want to go. I asked one woman who came to the Charity Organization Society with. 'five children where they stayed nights. She said sometimes in the
Page 384 384 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. fence corners, sometimes in old houses, or wherever they could find a place. We picked up another woman who looked like a gypsy, who had travelled all up and down the Ohio River and up the State as far as Chicago. I do not know where she had not been, and she had been living that life as far back as she could remember. She had a child with her. Nobody knows where the woman came from nor where she got the child. The child said she was not her mother. She said she had a father and mother at home. The child was as filthy as the woman was, starved and unwashed. We went to the Board of Guardians, and we took the child before the court, and the judge gave us the child. Now, will you tell me what good the softhearted people had done who had been keeping that woman travelling all those years? Mr. CHARLES RICHARDSON, Philadelphia. —I have listened to the discussion with a great deal of interest. Even if we could devise a scheme which would enable every State to return to every other State the tramps and dependants that belong there, it would involve an enormous expense; and I doubt whether it would pay. I notice that the complaints come from different States in all parts of the Union. It seems to me it would be a very difficult scheme to devise anything that would remedy this state of affairs. Investigation as to where a tramp legally resides, where he came from, is a difficult thing, and one that will involve a great many disputes and legal contests, and a great deal of hard feeling. I do not think the advantage would be sufficient to justify the expense. Mr. HOFFMAN, of the United Hebrew Charities. —One thought suggests itself to me in connection with the coming here of consumptives from Eastern States. I think the people here are largely to blame for that condition. I do not think that there are any very great numbers sent out here by charitable organizations to become dependent upon you, but that a great many come here who are led to come by the glowing descriptions of your climate which are sent out by your commercial organizations, by your physicians, and by the people generally. In addition to that, it is a well-known fact that has impressed itself upon the people of the East that some almost miraculous cures have taken place here. They hear of people leaving the Eastern States in the last stages of consumption, coming out here and spending a year or two, who are wonderfully cured and made sound. Now, this may apply only to those who are able to take the best of care of themselves; but you cannot deny to that poor man who may be in consumption, who comes out with a few dollars, the privilege of trying to maintain that life, the same as a rich person would do. The consequence is that a great many of the people who become dependent upon you are of the class of unfortunates who think it possible to obtain a cure in this climate which they know is impossible in the East. You may express your disapproval and your condemnation of organizations sending incurables out here; but what are you going to do with the poor man who by his own volition comes
Page 385 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 385 here in an endeavor to maintain his life, and who becomes dependent on you? Rev. Mr. ELIOT.- That is the problem. Mr. HOFFMAN.- We have a home for incurables, and we do not attempt to shoulder upon the good citizens of Colorado the maintenance of those we know are afflicted with an incurable disease. Miss Tilson, Indianapolis, was asked to speak of the guardianship of children, to which she had referred. Miss TILSON.- We worked up such a sentiment among our own people in the community that we were able to procure legislation, first in the townships, later in the county in which Indianapolis lies, whereby we could get control of dependent children if we could show to the satisfaction of the judge of the Circuit Court that the little children that were brought before him were bound to grow up paupers, criminals, or prostitutes. The guardianship was put in the keeping of a Board of Guardians,-six people appointed by him to stand in the relation of parent to child. The child was legally separated from its parents for all time, so far as the law was concerned. If the parents recovered it, it was because the decision was reversed for reason. Thus these little children are taken from improper care. In that way the little child to which I have referred was taken. The judge was satisfied that there was nothing before her but the worst things. She was placed in the care of this Board of Guardians, kept in a temporary home until her body became healed and her manners improved, and she was then placed in a family. The agent first makes an investigation of the family where a child is to be placed before the child is placed in any home. If everything is satisfactory, the child remains so placed. If not, the child is removed, and is placed in other relations. On one occasion two little girls were captured in a house of ill-fame kept by colored people. The little girls were white. Their mother and grandmother were about the streets. The children had been left alone, and had gone to the museum for the evening; and, when they returned, the door was locked, and the two little things went to this house, and at night went along with the rest of the company. These children were given by the judge to the Board of Guardians, and they were placed in good homes. President SLOCUM, of Colorado College.-I have a confession to make. When I was in Baltimore, before coming to Colorado, we had one family always coming up for discussion every Thursday afternoon. That family never was mentioned without a sickly smile passing over our faces. We had found opportunities to work in the stores for two or three. They were eminently respectable people, who had seen better days. We gave them chances here and there, but they always came back on our hands. Finally, a very happy idea came into the head of the woman,-that she had a distant cousin in Colorado, and that probably it might be a good plan to go there. I
Page 386 386 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. confess, the moment we thought of that, a great sense of relief came upon us. And, in our conscientious desire to do all that we could for this family, we immediately secured passage, and raised money to send them on to Colorado. The sequel of it is interesting. Circumstances called me to this State; and I had been here about three days when a familiar, smiling countenance appeared at my door, and said, "I used to know you in Baltimore." I said, "I think I have seen you somewhere." I was very busy that day, and could not give much time. But the same face returned again and again, and finally she told me that she could not find her cousin out here, and she would be very happy if she could get back to Baltimore. I suggested that the best thing we could do was to return that family to the place of its earlier surroundings. So we sent them back. Now, I think we sent that family out here because we did not know what else to do with it; There was no definite object in sending that family to Colorado, and no definite idea anyway, except to get rid of it. While we are willing to take care of these families as well as we can, none should be sent out here without investigation. The actual facts must be found out. If you can find cousins who will take care of them, why, of course, that is all right. Mr. FORREST, Michigan.-What the people of Colorado should do with the young men who come here is a question I have had some ideas upon. A few months ago, in my own home, just after breakfast I was called to the back door, where I found a respectable-looking young man. In an instant I found what was the matter with him: his face showed it. He said he lived in New York. He had money enough to come to Michigan, and was on his way to Colorado, and wanted to know if some one would help him on. I took him to the hotel to breakfast. I urged him to go back home, but he would not go. So I helped him on his way out here. If that young man is alive, which I doubt, there is not much poetry in the way I am going to tell you how to take care of him; but it is practical. It is simply this: take some of the profit that you have made out of me and my family in the last few weeks, and take care of that young man. Mr. REEVES, Denver.- I have a large acquaintance in Philadelphia. And, on an average, I receive young men and older men with letters of introduction from friends in Philadelphia every week. In very many cases those friends who give the letters of introduction are persons of large means, and are interested in the people they send. But they fail, when they give these letters of introduction, to give those people to understand that in some way they will be cared for by friends in the East, and that the climate shall have a chance to do its work. We are perfectly willing to take care of all young men. I believe we can raise the money to care for those who come of their own accord; but I do not believe that it is right for the most prominent physicians to send their poor patients here; nor is it right for the wealthy people of Philadelphia to send people here and not provide them with means whereby they can support themselves until the
Page 387 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 387 climate can do them good. I came here ten years ago for my health, and recovered it. When skilful physicians decide that this is the best climate for sick people, they should come here, but money enough should come with them to maintain them. Mr. CHARLES W. BIRTWELL. —Within two or three months an Invalids' Aid Society has been organized in Boston, partly to assist invalids to their destination, where they can be in a proper climate, and partly to protect the community which receives the invalid, and to make proper arrangements for them. It is hoped that, when they reach their destination, they may be properly cared for until they become rooted in the new soil. In this way it is hoped that an opportunity may be given to those who are sick to reach more favorable climates before it is too late, and that many, who now seek these Western States only to die, may be sent early enough to enable them to become self-supporting and enterprising citizens of the places to. which they go. I have not studied this particular organization carefully enough to be a sponsor for it. I only bring it to your attention,, as suggestive of what might be done in all our communities. If any choose to inquire about it, they can write to Mr. Edward Clement,. editor of the Boston Transcript, who, I have no doubt, will be glad to, answer any question about it. It is called the Invalids' Aid Society. Dean HART, Denver. —I am delighted, above all things, to meet a number of Eastern people, and to hear them discuss this subject. You send invalids out here, and you have worn out my life in trotting about this town caring for them. A Boston lady came here only the other day to die. There is a man dying this very moment with tuberculosis, whom I have just seen. And to-morrow I have to go out of town to bury another. Mrs. SPERRY.- Speak for Pueblo as well as Denver, Dean Hart. Dean HART. —You are quite able to speak for Pueblo yourself. But these facts are true of all Colorado. A Boston lady came to me and said, "We know all this; but what shall we do?" I said: "Get on a car with me, and I will show you a row of cottages. Go down and take three of them; and, if you will send me the money, I will see that these cottages are properly furnished, and you can send eight consumptives from Boston, with five dollars a week each to keep them." But I have never heard of her again. We will all tell you the same story. If we can have the money provided, we can take care of the people. I have received some money from the East. Mrs. Morgan sent me two hundred dollars, and Mrs. Vanderbilt two hundred, and another one hundred. Another has sent four hundred and fifty, and one two hundred and fifty. If we can have money sent from all over the country, we will have an organization that will care for consumptives. The benediction was pronounced by Bishop Brown, and the Conference adjourned.
Page 388 388 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. TENTH SESSION. Tuesday night, June 28. The Conference was called to order at 8 P.M. by the President. The subject of the evening, "The Indian Policy in its Relation to Crime and Pauperism," was taken up. The report of the chairman, Mr. Philip C. Garrett, of Pennsylvania, was read (page 23). A paper on "Questions connected with Indian Citizenship," by the Rev. R. W. Hill, D.D., was read, and referred to the Executive Committee (page 34). A paper on "The Advantage of Mingling Indians with Whites" was read by Captain R. H. Pratt, of the Carlisle Training School, Pennsylvania (page 45). DISCUSSION. Mr. ELI N. BLAKE, Jr., Providence, R.I. —I have had one year's experience among the Indians at Hampton, and I would like to say a word. In the first place, how are you going to break up the Indian's present relations? Their ties are very strong. It seems to me absolutely impossible. They have no idea of what home ought to be. As a practical matter of fact, the students who come to Hampton and return West are placed at great disadvantage. Yet, when they go on to the reservation and begin their home life, many of them overcome the influences of the barbaric community, and establish little homes in imitation of those they have seen in the East. I believe the only way to give them an ideal of home life is to take them where it exists under proper conditions. Bishop SPAULDING, of Colorado, mentioned one or two instances that had come under his observation of Indian youth who had studied in the East and had returned to savage ways on going back to the reservation, one young girl in particular. "If," he said, "you are going to break up the tribes and make wild Indians into American citizens, it will take a good many generations. They must be educated on the reservation. The best education these Indians get is in employment." Mrs. J. M. THURSTON, Omaha, Neb.- I would like to ask about the Alaska Indians. They must be educated in their own country, for they cannot stand any other climate. President REED.-The Indian has done better than any race on earth. Of course I know the disappointment of the people that they have not made more progress in farming; but, if you will read the history of the English people, you will find that it took the English people nearly five hundred years to learn how to farm. If you will read the history of the people of Israel, it took them four or five hun
Page 389 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 389 dred years to learn to farm. But we have undertaken to make the Indian a successful farmer at one step, and he has failed. What are the natural steps in development? The natural steps for a hunter are first to be a herder, to go into the cattle business and raise cattle and horses. The next step is slowly to get into the simplest farming. The Indian has never taken the first step. We have never given him any chance to do so. As far as solving the question is concerned, Wisconsin and Michigan have solved it within their own borders. In I850 both of those States sent their Indians to Dakota and Nebraska. Nearly all of them came back, not as a tribe, hardly as families. They came back and settled here and there in the northern part of the State. They cultivated a little land and raised corn. Gradually, they have got larger farms; and the States of Wisconsin and Michigan have let them alone until now they are a part of the community, absorbed into it. They vote, they have books. There are seven thousand of these people in those two States now who are citizens. The State, I say, has simply let them alone; and they have become part of the whole. You people who are going West, from here to California, will see by the side of the track Indians drunken, ragged, filthy. I want to say that their drunkenness is taught them. It is New England rum that they drink generally. Those rags that we see upon them are the rags of shoddy blankets furnished by the government; and those diseases that kill them off are caught from the whites. I wish I had here to-night the speech of Red Cloud made two years ago after the trouble at Dakota, after the fight at Bloody Knee. That speech in a school-house was one of the finest speeches that has been made in the last ten years in America. He told about the dying of the little children and the starving of the people. " The little children," he said, "were not heavy, but we were weak." Ladies and gentlemen, let us have patience with these men. It was thought, when we came here, that this would not be an unpopular question in these borders. Well, Colorado is not desperately in love with the Indian yet, but we are beginning to do better. We have established a branch of the Indian Rights' Association here; and I have not heard an Indian called a red devil for three years. Mrs. THURSTON.- At the time the Russians landed in Alaska the Indians made whiskey. Mr. REED.-I am not acquainted with Alaska. Mr. F. B. SANBORN.- The Indians of this part of the country and even farther east have not been very long in contact with the white race. In Massachusetts the Indians have come within the sphere of American civilization and political interests for centuries. What Mr. Reed has said of the Indians of Michigan and Wisconsin is true of ours,-they have been let alone. They are in little Indian towns which were originally reservations. They are now mostly a mixed race. There is little intemperance among them, and little crime. I happened to be not two months ago in the neighborhood of our Mashpee Indians, and I saw one of the citizens of the town. I was
Page 390 390 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. interested in establishing public libraries in country towns, and I found that this little town of Mashpee was establishing a library under the gift from the State. " So you are going to have a public library," I said. "Yes," he said, "we are going to open it next Saturday, and it will be the third public library in our population of three hundred people." " How does that happen? " I asked. He replied there were two rival organizations of Knights Templar or some such order established in different parts of the town. Each had a liorary, one here and the other there. I said, "What are you going to do about this new library? " " Oh," he said, "we shall put it halfway between." The number of books in proportion to the population will be larger in these State libraries than in two-thirds of the towns of Massachusetts. This is one result of two hundred and fifty years' contact with white civilization in Massachusetts. Father O'RYAN, Denver. —The missionaries of California, hundreds of years ago, put their religion in practical form. They built a church, and taught the Indians trades adapted to the people. They taught them rough agriculture. They made some kind of civilization in their midst, and they married and intermarried with the Spanish. I suppose the whole cause of the Indian trouble is our Anglo-Saxon treatment of them. Where the Indians have been civilized, it has been recognized that they had souls. We have made the problem so much the more difficult because we have always broken treaties with the Indians. Dr. CLARKE.- The Indians of Paraguay are civilized. They have attained a civilization creditable to any race. They were formed into a republican form of government even before our republic was formed. They had agriculture, and raised cattle and various products of the earth, and so supported their own people. In our own country there has been no example of the civilization of Indians except in the missions of California, where the Indians were formed into civilized communities. They raised immense herds and agricultural products far beyond their own necessities, so that they became articles of export. This was before California was annexed. The government of Mexico under the barbarous system of that time blotted out this beautiful system of civilization from the face of the earth. Captain R. H. PRATT. —I look upon the Indian as inevitably compelled to become a part of the people of this country. We have taken the Negro into the country. Las Casas turned Indian slavery into Negro slavery, and the result is the greatest blessing to the Negroes that has come to them in the history of the world. Seven million of Negroes are citizens of the United States to-day,- an industrial element that we cannot get along without. The Indians number about two hundred and fifty thousand. Those Negroes brought to us from a lower state of civilization are now able to contend with us and to hold their own. The Indian, because we have driven him back under a false principle, is a helpless man. He is helpless in the State of New York. He is not a citizen there. They are colonized even
Page 391 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 391 in Massachusetts and in Maine. I do not believe that it is doing any more violence to humanity to scatter Indians in the United States than it is to scatter the Irish or the Germans. If they are to become able to cope with us, they must be scattered. Bishop Spaulding has referred to some returned students among the Arapahoes who returned to savage life. We did receive some children from the Arapahoes for three years. 'Three years for a blanket Indian to become educated and speak English! They were then sent back to the agency. The white people stood off. This gentleman himself who saw them stood off and criticised. Did he help that girl whom he saw going back to evil ways? Did he help those boys? Supposing a child goes back to the tepee and lives with his father and mother. In a little while his clothing is gone. I have received at Carlisle boys and girls who have been five and six years in school at the agency who came in a blanket. They cannot help it. The way to civilize the Indian is to take him away from his tepee and his blanket, and educate him and let him live in the midst of our own civilization. If our civilization is heaven, let the Indian come in and share it with us. The report of the Committee on Organization was made by the chairman, Mr. Philip C. Garrett. Mr. GARRETT.-It is proposed that the President of the Conference for I893 shall make a report of the work of the last twenty years, and that the rest of the Proceedings of the Conference shall consist in full reports from all the States. The following persons are proposed as officers and members of the committees of the Twentieth Conference. (For this list see p. xi.) The report of the Committee on Organization was accepted and adopted, and the officers declared elected. Adjourned at io.50 P.M. ELEVENTH SESSION. Wednesday night, June 29. The last session was held in the First Congregational Church, and was called to order at 8 P.M., after music by the choir. On motion, it was voted that the name of Dr. Samuel Eliot, of Boston, be added to the Committee on the Prison Affairs. The report of the treasurer and auditors was presented, and ordered to be printed. The report of the Committee on the Co-operation of Women in the Management of Charitable Institutions was made by the chairman, Mrs. Anne B. Richardson, of Lowell, Mass. (page 2I6).
Page 392 392 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The following resolutions were reported by the Secretary, and were unanimously adopted:Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the President of the Conference to prepare and present to Congress a bill for the appointment of an immigration and an interstate immigration commission, and to define its powers and duties. Resolved, That the National Conference of Charities and Correction approve the proposal to create and establish a hospital for the insane in China, and hopes that through the liberality of American philanthropists it may be carried into successful execution. On motion, it was voted that the Conference should listen to a paper by Mrs. Higgins, of the W. C. T. U., on the evils of intemperance and the necessity of moral qualifications in police matrons. The following report of Mr. F. B. Sanborn was referred to the Committee on Printing. Mr. SANBORN.-Your Committee on Credentials have attended to the duty assigned to them, and beg leave to report as follows, in connection with the list of delegates published this day by the Local Committee, to which members are referred for details:The States and Territories actually represented by delegates who are present at this nineteenth session are the following: California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The whole number of delegates cannot be exactly stated, but is between 505 and 5I5, of whom Colorado furnishes the noble aggregate of 250 or more,- nearly half of the whole number. Of the other States, Massachusetts sends 33; Illinois, 3I; Ohio, 29; New York, 25; Nebraska, I8; Iowa and Michigan, each, 17; Minnesota, I8; Pennsylvania, 12; Indiana and Missouri, o1 each; and the other States and Territories numbers varying from i to 5. In no previous Conference have so many of the largest States been so numerously represented by delegates; and it has seldom happened that the whole number of delegates from a distance has been so large as this year, although we have sometimes had a greater number of States and Territories represented by smaller delegations. Twenty-five States and two Territories, containing an aggregate population of nearly 40,000,000, have had a voice in this Conference. The size of the larger delegations indicates an increasing interest in the subjects brought forward year after year; but it often happens that the small delegation presents its case and describes the charities of its State quite as effectively as the larger delegations. It might be
Page 393 dMINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 393 advisable hereafter, as has been attempted this year, to bring together for conference with each other the numerous delegates from States having a large area, so that they may become personally acquainted, and present the matters in which their States are interested methodically, and, if possible, without omission or repetition. Particularly will this be important in I893, when it is hoped that every State and Territory will be heard from the platform of the Conference in regard to its past history and existing condition in the great field of the charities. Your committee congratulate themselves and the Conference on the harmony, energy, and practical clearness with which the State delegations and the representatives of local organizations, public and private, have submitted to the Conference what it was incumbent on each to bring forward. Your Committee on Credentials, having had occasion to notice the diversity and individuality of the delegations, can well bear testimony to this harmonious and instructive practical result, which must also have been obvious to all who attended the manifold sessions of the Conference. F. B. SANBORN, For Committee on Credentials. The following resolutions of thanks, presented by Mr. L. C. Storrs of Michigan, were adopted unanimously by a rising vote: — Whereas the Nineteenth National Conference of Charities and Correction has been most hospitably entertained, and whereas the members of such Conference wish to express and put on record their expressions of satisfaction, and of the pleasure experienced during its sessions in Denver, we offer the following: - Resolved, That we extend to the ladies of Denver our thanks for the delightful reception tendered us on Friday afternoon last; also to the Local Committee of Arrangements, who has done so much to make our visit in this beautiful city one continuous season of pleasure. Resolved, That we most heartily thank the kind friends, who have, by appropriate and choice music beautifully rendered, added so much to the delight of our sessions. Resolved, That we appreciate the kindness of those who have provided us with places in which to hold our sessions,- the Broadway Theatre, the Tabor Opera House, the Unity Church, and the First Congregational Church, notably the three latter, whose doors have been thrown open for our meetings free of any expense. Resolved, That our thanks are due, and are heartily tendered, to the railroad companies, whose kind attention and generous action have enabled so many of us from great distances to attend this Conference to the Chamber of Commerce and the street railroad companies, who, by their kindness, have enabled us to view the many beautiful parts of the city. Resolved, That to the press of Denver we are under great obligation, not only for the very full reports of our proceedings published, but also for the facility extended for mailing such reports to our less fortunate friends, who were unable to be present with us in this Conference.
Page 394 394 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Resolved, That to the public and private charities of Denver, who have opened the doors of their respective institutions, and kindly invited us to visit and inspect them, and to the sheriff of Arapahoe County and his officer in charge of its jail, who have extended to visitors to such county institution every facility to examine and inspect it, the thanks of this Conference are extended. Resolved, That the thanks of this Conference are due, and are hereby heartily tendered, to every citizen of Denver who has done so much to make our stay in this wonderful city a constant delight, from the humble one on the street, who has so kindly and carefully directed us to the places we desired to find, to the genial and hospitable member of the Denver Club, who has with a seeming satisfaction endured our poor playing at nine-pins. Resolved, That to the President of this Conference and to his worthy Secretary, who, by their untiring labors, have made the programme of this Conference a most excellent one, and to the Secretary of the State Board of Colorado, our sin*cere thanks are due, and are hereby heartily extended. Resolved, That the Conference thanks the chairman of the Local Committee for his persistent labors for the past three years, in season and out of season, which have been so largely instrumental in bringing this Conference of Charities and Correction to Denver, this city, the half of which, as to its beauty, its enterprise, its hospitality, and its great future, it will be impossible for any member of this Conference to relate on his return to his home. Brief addresses and remarks were made by Rev. W. H. Brodhead, Rev. J. E. Roberts, Mrs. Agnes D'Arcambal, Judge M. D. Follett, Mr. Alexander Johnson, Rev. Myron W. Reed, President-elect H. H. Hart, and J. S. Appel, chairman of the Local Committee, abstracts of which follow: - Mr. BRODHEAD.- When the delegates from Colorado returned from the Eighteenth Conference, conscious that you had accepted our invitation for this year, we felt that it was due you to do what we could to make your visit pleasant here. We have done the best we could, and we thank you for coming. What the Gulf Stream is in the ocean, the Conference of Charities is in the ocean of humanity. The people of Colorado have learned much from you. We are conscious that there is more to learn. Here in Colorado we see God manifested in nature as nowhere else. We learn here that nature has no holes in her pocket, that the pockets are filled with silver, locked up where men can get it by proper labor. We have learned that we can here make the desert blossom as the rose. But we have learned, too, that men are more than things; that no bird-song is so wonderful as the human voice; that no babbling brooks are so musical as the ripple of laughter from a happy heart; no solemn tone of the wind so grand as the psalm rolled out by an assembled congregation; no pulse of the ocean so deep as the throb of a human heart; no flower as lovely as a child; no sunset so splendid as the memory of a noble manhood; no crystal so beautiful as a clear character; no mountain
Page 395 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 395 so sublime as a loving life; and no harvest so fair as the harvest of a useful career. These things the people of Colorado have learned, and we thank God for the knowledge. We are open to all the light there is. We are glad that you have been with us. We are grateful for the many happy and helpful suggestions you have made, and we hope your return will not be long delayed. Rev. J. E. ROBERTS.- When the five hundred delegates return to their homes, a hundred thousand people scattered over this great country will be asking two great questions. The first will be, What of the Conference of Charities? And the answer in various moods will be that it was noteworthy for the fact that every set of workers in its different departments manifested interest in the work of all other departments. It was essentially mutual. It was a congress of ideas. It was a time of hospitality of mind,- a time when the sympathy of the human heart was bounded only by the needs and sufferings of our common kind, and when the hopes and aspirations were as wide as the latitude and longitude of human life. In the second place, it will be said that the Conference was notable for having a very decided intellectual quality. Yet another quality, the delegates will say, was its optimism. Nowhere has there been heard a despairing note. Though no man or woman could tell better how deep, how pitiless, how despairing human lives may be, yet not one single note of despondency was heard. This, it seems to me, is due to the fact that with the incoming of the scientific method there has also been an outgoing of mere sentimentality, and that men and women feel now that no task on this earth is hopeless for him who works in harmony with the purpose of the Everlasting. You have noted, as we have, that the cry of despair never comes from the man or woman who is genuinely at work toward bettering the world. No man or woman, who has ever really been in love, argues that marriage is a failure. They are willing at least to take the chance. I think no one who has ever truly loved and lost ever quite, -though he stands by the awful silence and walks disconsolately by that sea which, like a perpetual tide of human tears, sobs on the shore of the known, and brings back no response from the unknown, -I think no one, in his heart of hearts, doubts that across that trackless sea there is some otherwhere, where friends will find friends, and hearts that bled and broke shall be healed forever, and that life and love shall proceed in everlasting concord. So the workers of the world are never pessimists. This Conference has been notable again for the marvellous achievements of its local Committee of Arrangements. When the delegates gathered in Denver, the Local Committee and the Denver people presented the keys of the city; and, when there were not keys enough to go around, they said, "It does not matter: we will leave all the doors unlocked." And so they did. The second question will be, What of Denver? I think even the grave and reverend seniors will be compelled to drop into the language of the day, in order to express their feelings, and will say, As
Page 396 396 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. for Denver, she is strictly in i. She reaches out her hand on one side, and touches the mountains, and says, " Of your guarded treasures we have need"; and the mountains pour their treasures at her feet. On the other hand, she looks and sees where desolation has brooded in the noiseless past for generations, fields waiting only to slake their thirst that they may bless millions with the abundance of their fruits. Denver, this magic queen, reaches out her hand, and touches the coy and sequestered pools and lakes that lie smiling idly under the mountain sun, and, lo! at her bidding they leap down the mountain sides, laughing as they go, to say to this queen, " Here am I: send me." And, lo and behold, when the wondering morning looks down again where brooded unchanging death, it sees, and is greeted by, an ample array of rustling grass, and fields smiling in abundance and plenty. So I think five hundred delegates more or less are going to carry back to fifty thousand people more or less the splendid story of the week filled to the full with hope and inspiration and faith and genuine Western hospitality. Mrs. D'ARCAMBAL. - It is almost a week to-morrow since we came to this beautiful city. How have we spent the week? It has been full of sunshine, gladness, and inspiration. The days have been hours, and the hours minutes, and it seems to me impossible that the week has flown, and we must say good-by. We have enjoyed every moment all the kindness and attention of the ladies, the generosity of the men, the beauty of the flowers, the excellent programme, the visit to the homes. Oh, I assure you we shall have plenty to tell about Denver when we return. We thank you for all your kindness and hospitality; and we bid God bless you, and lead the people into all happiness and prosperity. Judge FOLLETT. -I would like to say to the people assembled that whatever work you have to do, whether it be in a reformatory way, whether it be in penal affairs, whether you turn your thoughts to the care of those whose minds are gone, whether you turn your eyes even to the principles of government, you need to study the topics that we have been discussing here. You need to learn from the officers of this body and from the Proceedings of this Conference, in order that you may govern yourself properly with reference to these themes. But you are waiting for the good-by words; and, of all times in the world, that is not the time when you want advice, but let me say this: As you go home, carry with you the influence of this body. I want to thank the people of Denver and the people throughout Colorado for the hearty greeting and the kindness they have shown us. We have known for years of your thrifty and energetic young men who have been building up your city, and have been bringing here the most sacred and powerful influences to make a noble and happy people. I want to thank you for what you have done for our whole country by your life and action here. I was a little while ago in New Orleans, when one of the most scientific men in the
Page 397 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 397 United States told me something in regard to the cereals of the United States; and he said that, of the forty kinds of wheat, one of the best in all the United States came from Colorado. I trust your prosperity will never be less. We shall carry home with us the memory of your hospitality; and the thought that you are engaged in this same work with ourselves will help us, and will help all the people of this land. Mr. ALEXANDER JOHNSON.-It is a hard word to say, Good-by. We came about a week ago, knowing very few people in Denver. We go knowing a great many and loving you all. You have taken a place in our hearts along with a great many of the citizens of other cities where we have held our Conferences these last twenty years. Whether by the broad waters of the Mississippi, or by the Falls of St. Anthony, or under the shadow of the Washington Monument, wherever we have gone, we have carried away in our hearts warm affections for the friends we have made, but none warmer than from this beautiful city of Denver. Some of us have been here before, and knew a little of the exquisite delicacy and tenderness of this climate. It is a climate of beauty. The nights and the mornings are delicious. We have enjoyed it for a week, and we are by your kindness to enjoy it four days more; and I do not know how to express our thanks. We thank you with all our hearts, and we hope to see you again. Our Conference has been a success. As far as numbers go, you have beaten Indianapolis. We go on that way from year to year, ever increasing. Our members occasionally drop off. We miss some dear faces. Some of the gray heads are getting a little grayer. Some that are not gray are getting a little thinner on top, but we have the hope and the inspiration of new blood coming in all the time. These young men bring life, vigor, and enthusiasm; and we old fellows may feel that there are those who will take our places, and make the Conference more worthy than it ever was before of the confidence of the people. You have made parting such sweet sorrow that we shall not have to say good-by until Monday morning, so tonight I will only say the word that we have borrowed from our German friends, Auf Wiedersehen. President REED.-There is a great deal more fun in going to a Conference than there is in staying at home and receiving one. I feel very glad of the success of the Conference for the sake of those who have labored with me in this work, the people and the Local Committee. The hard work has been done especially by Mr. Brodhead, Mr. Appel, and the good citizens generally. As I told you in the beginning, when you found a good thing here to give thanks to these gentlemen, my very efficient staff, though I have worked a little myself. All sorts and conditions of men dwell here in Denver together in unity. These flowers [holding up a basket of flowers which had been presented to him] are a sample of it. They are a gift from Father Ryan to me. It shows the kind of a town we are in. We are working here together in associated charity. We meet to consider the poor, Protes
Page 398 398 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. tants of several denominations, Catholics, Hebrews, and now and again Colonel Ingersoll people. We meet together to deliberate how to help the poor. These flowers were given to me, as I said before, by the Rev. Father Ryan. May I tell you what was the best thing I ever saw in Denver? It was when a young journalist died, and the four who went in one carniage to his grave were a Roman Catholic priest, a Jewish Rabbi, a Unitarian clergyman, and a Congregational pastor. Whatever good results have come from work here have come from this mingling together and working in harmony. I think that we here together are all united. Our creed is to do good, and the world is our country. You are all going to-morrow to climb the narrow way that was once a trail, now broadened into the railway through the clear Creek Cafon. You will follow that to Silver Flume. Eight years ago I noticed up there a sign: " Meals, fifteen cents; square meals, twentyfive cents; and a Royal Gorge, one dollar." That reminds me of another sign I saw in a place near Silver Flume: "Eggs, ten cents; good eggs, sixteen cents." Of course, I had some anxiety about this Conference. It came after the great success in Indianapolis. I could not assure myself easily that you would come so far, or so many of you. It is a long way. The sectional meetings have been a great success. They were an experiment this year. They have been well attended, and I think we all believe in them now. I have been greatly pleased to see young men and young university men taking hold of charity, making it scientific and wise. I have been delighted to hear so much about education and about the care of little children. I never see a broken man or a crooked man without thinking of the remark of a little girl when she saw a twisted tree. "Some one," she said, "must have stepped on that tree when it was little." So many children are stepped on when little, and grow up twisted. This Conference has. always done a great deal to help little children. It has helped up women, and showed their value. I believe more in men and women and children than I did a week ago, and I believed in them a week ago. One regret that I have in connection with this Conference is that more of you did not come. The other regret is that you are going away so soon. Our streets will be very dull and tame for several days after you have gone. We have received an impulse, and the people feel it. All the people of Colorado will feel it. In the strength of this we can go on and finish our work. We shall meet again, I hope, many times. Some of us are getting old; and, when we are quite old, young men will follow us. As long as a man or woman has a purpose unfulfilled, God will give him strength and da)ys to finish the work he has begun. If by and by we fail to meet, we shall meet in the city over the gate of which is written, "Neither shall there be any pain." President-elect HART.- I tender to you all my grateful thanks for the honor which has been conferred upon me. I know of no privi
Page 399 MINUTES AND DISCUSSIONS. 399' lege greater than the privilege that comes from presiding over this body. Outside of my immediate home circle of friends, the friends that are dearest to me are those whom I meet here. I thank God for the friendships which I have been permitted to enjoy in this Conference, for all that I have learned of manhood and of womanhood among you. I am not unmindful of the fact that a man may well hesitate when called upon to stand in the line of Hoyt, Gillespie,. Byers, McCulloch, and Reed. I can only ask your indulgence. We are to meet next year in Chicago. It will be the twentieth anniversary of this organization. We hope to show in every department what advance has been made during the past twenty years. Mr. Hart closed by giving some of the outlines and arrangements for the meeting in Chicago in I893. Mr. J. S. Appel, chairman of the Local Committee, was the last speaker. He gave some outlines of the work accomplished by the Local Committee in preparing for the Nineteenth Conference, and closed with an Eastern parable. After the singing of " Home, Sweet Home," and the benediction by Rev. S. A. Eliot, the Nineteenth Conference of Charities and Correction was adjourned until June 8, I893.
Page 400 XV. pubtic Institutiono. SECTIONAL MEETING I. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. BY GEORGE F. HAMMOND, ARCHITECT. In order to intelligently predict the future construction of some of our principal classes of institutions, I have divided this subject into three heads, Institutions of the Past, of the Present, and of the Future, the last head relating more to possibilities, perhaps, than to probabilities. All institutions may be classed under two heads: correctional, by which I mean institutions for evil doers; and remedial, or institutions for the sick either of mind or body. During the Middle Ages there seems to have been preserved little reliable history of the establishment, maintenance, or construction of institutions. Indeed, those that did exist - and there were many - were generally the result of private enterprise, and consequently bore only a slight resemblance to the public institutions of our day. During the Middle Ages the correctional institutions consisted largely of places of confinement or imprisonment, either for State offenders or persons whose wickedness or influence was dangerous to the feudal lords in whose castles the places of confinement were located. Thus it will be seen that the idea of correction was not considered to any extent. It was simply a question of how to confine a prisoner so he could not harm a person or party in power. The bastiles, donjons, and castles of France -perhaps owing to the turbulent character of early French history -contained some of the best typical examples of the methods in vogue in those days for the incarceration of offenders. "We must warn our readers," says M. Merimee, "to guard against local traditions which are attached to the vaults of donjons. Atrocious colors are often given to the Middle Ages, and the imagination accepts too easily the scenes of horrors which the romancers locate in such places." How many cellars and storehouses for wood have
Page 401 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 401 been taken for frightful dungeons! How many bones, the rubbish of kitchens, have been regarded as the remains of victims of feudal tyranny! It was not the custom in the Middle Ages to erect establishments specially designed for prisoners, which can only exist in countries or States in which the administration of justice is centralized. There still exist in many mediaeval castles, notably at Loches, San Michel, and Vincennes, authentic prisons which are nothing more than grated chambers, otherwise healthy, pure, and well lighted. While it goes without saying that these castle-prisons were not marked by the provident measures, the sanitary plumbing arrangements, and the system of regular surveillance which in our day places these establishments in the ranks of finished and wisely contrived edifices, it cannot be denied that they were better than many of the apologies for jails which are a disgrace to certain localities in the United States to-day. As I stood in the cells of the Tower of London and at the Conciergerie of Paris, I could not help noticing their comparative cheerfulness in contrast to many of the prisons here at home. Yet the people of the Middle Ages made it very uncomfortable for those for whom a total disappearance was desired. We have nothing to compare with the terrible "Vade in pace" and the "Oubliettes" (for the forgotten) that are found in some of the mediaeval prisons. The oubliettes consisted usually of a pit or well sunk in the centre of the floor of a vaulted dungeon. The dungeon was usually from ten to sixteen feet in diameter, and twenty feet in height, the access to it frequently being by means of an aperture in the ceiling. The oubliettes, or well, was from six to eight feet in diameter, thus leaving the dungeon floor simply a rim around the oubliettes into which the condemned was destined sooner or later to fall. The bottom of the oubliettes, or well, was often sloped so that it was like an inverted cone, and the whole construction was so massive, so deep, and withal utterly dark, that the word "oubliettes " is as appropriate as it is horrible. The other class of institutions for the care of the sick are, perhaps, more pleasant to contemplate; and there certainly is much reliable information to draw upon. Many of these remedial institutions are hardly what would be considered desirable in our day; but they were certainly the result of careful consideration on the part of their founders, and it is by studying their defects that we are enabled to improve on their arrangements. During the Middle Ages hospitality was obligatory. From the Carlovingian epoch there existed taxes designed to succor poor pilgrims and the sick. Charlemagne had, in his ordinances and decrees, recommended to his subjects the exercise of hospitality; and "it was not permitted then to refuse to travellers shelter, fire, and water." Communities vied with kings, lords, and with ordinary individuals in works of benevolence. Many cities established hospices, either in
Page 402 402 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. new buildings or in abandoned edifices which were restored with a view to their use. Hospices were even built in isolated places to serve as refuges for travellers, and to secure them against the robbers who infested the highways. These buildings were often founded by cenobites and under the care of monks. The cities were usually closed at night, and travellers passed the night under the open sky. In 1202 two German nobles wished to remedy this grave inconvenience, and had a hospice constructed beyond the gate of St. Denis at Paris. In 1310 the number of Maisons Dieu, hospitals, and leproseries receiving assistance in money from the private purse of the king of France was about five hundred, and in the suburbs of Paris alone forty-eight hospitals for the sick profited by these gifts. Public and private charity knew how to render its assistance more efficaiious by founding hospitals for certain particular infirmities. Thus we see that at this early period specialists were encouraged, and the value of segregation of classes in hospitals was understood and provided for. By the side of disorders of every kind, and of abuses without number which signalized this age, it must be recognized that all, great and small, sought to soften the lot of the suffering classes by the most efficacious means, and that the spirit of charity was never more active than at this period. Among the oldest hospitals standing to-day in Europe may be mentioned the one at Tonnerre, France, founded by Marguerite of Burgundy, in 1293. In the deed of incorporation it is agreed that "the poor shall be lodged in the establishment, that convalescents shall be nursed for seven days, and discharged with a shirt, a petticoat, and shoes"; that a chapel should be built with four altars; that the Brothers and Sisters, to the number of twenty, charged with the internal affairs of the establishments, should have for their mission "to give food and drink to those who should be hungry and thirsty, to receive strangers and pilgrims and to harbor them, to clothe the poor, to visit the sick, to comfort the prisoners, and to bury the dead." There remains of this hospital the great hall and several out-buildings; and a brief description of the hall, which served at the same time as chapel and sick-ward, is worth considering. The size of this great interior hall is approximately 72 feet by 292 feet, and with its high cylindrical wood ceiling, say 60 feet, subordinates the idea of the hospital to the solemnity of the church. On either side is a row of alcoves or cells formed of light wooden partitions, about 10 feet high and open at the top. At the side walls and one end, covering a portion of each alcove, a platform, establishing a continuous circulation above the alcoves, permitted the opening of the cathedral-like windows and a general oversight of the interior of each cell. There were 40 alcoves, in each of which was placed a bed. In connection with this main ward were separate smaller buildings, containing the kitchen, rooms for the attendants, and the residence of the foundress. Every patient, while being submitted to a surveillance as easy as
Page 403 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 403 that exercised from the gallery, found himself possessed of a real chamber. He profited by the enormous air space contained in the building, and received light from the high side windows. His head, being placed next to the wall, was shaded from the glare of the light from the windows by the projection of the balcony. It will perhaps be objected that the ventilation of these cells was imperfect; but, as the hall contained but forty beds, the room being very large and high, it must be admitted that the salubrity was very good. Letting these somewhat primitive but well constructed buildings serve as typical examples of the institutions of the past, we will now consider a few of the constructions of our own day. The correctional institution has resolved itself into many kinds, the most common of which are the penitentiary, the jail, the workhouse, and the reform school, with subdivisions or modifications suited to the requirements of individual localities. The remedial institution has been modified to such an extent that the hospice of the Middle Ages is known by many special names. When we consider the vast number of institutions believed to be remedial in their nature, we find that there are two great divisions, the asylum and the hospital, both having an indefinite number of subdivisions, in either of which may be included the infirmary, which, as now conducted and containing so varied a class of inmates, partakes of the character of a correctional institution to some extent. Of the correctional institutions of the present, embracing all that have been built in this country during the past forty years, I am tempted to say, "The least said, the better." But this would be a gross injustice to the few good examples of construction. The cities of our Eastern and Southern States have the older and, in some instances, the poorer specimens of infirmaries, jails, and workhouses. These have served as the models for many erected at about the same time in many of the Western States, where a desire to decrease the expense and an increased cost of materials have produced a class of buildings containing few elements of success. The first qualification of a jail is that it shall be capable of keeping its prisoners; yet we frequently hear of jail deliveries that are owing entirely to the faults of construction. At whose door shall the blame be laid? Usually, the sheriff is blamed at first; but, after a hard and usually unsuccessful run over the country, indignation turns to pity for his hard work, the old jail is repaired, a new bar put in here and there, perhaps a fresh coat of paint applied in the residence portion, and the matter passes into peaceful forgetfulness. Yet some one is to blame. Is it the architect of the past, who forgot he was planning for the future? Is it the commissioners, who wanted two dollars' worth of material for one dollar in money? Perhaps both are to be blamed; but, if their mistakes are going to teach us a lesson and be of value to us, it is only by examining what they did that we can hope to avoid falling into the same faults. A jail is usually a square stone house, with a nearly flat tin roof,
Page 404 404 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. two chimneys at each side, and an excrescence of equal architectural beauty containing cells behind. It stands asserting at once its importance and its ugliness on a principal street corner of the county seat. Let us look inside, and examine the structure. It is at once evident that in the residence portion there is as much wood and as little stone as the law allows; and the floors have a suspicious slope towards the centre, indicative of weak or few supports of wood, each resting on a stone in the uncemented cellar. Entering the cell-room by means of an oak door hung on heavy iron butts and a noisy but not overstrong lock, we find ourselves in a sort of alley or corridor formed by the stack of cells which occupy the centre of the cell-room. The walls are usually of brick, the floor of stone, and the cells back against each other, so that each barred cell door admits only a portion of the little light that may have filtered through the heavily barred windows. And the cells,-what of them? Let us examine them also. 4x7x7 feet,-that's the size found in a large majority of jails. Just think of it, —I96 cubic feet in the cells, and about the same amount outside of it, —say 400 cubic feet for each inmate. How about the ventilation? Surely, that must be perfect; for we know a man can live in any small space, provided the air is constantly changing. " Well, the ventilating pipes here never seemed to work very well, and we've stopped up most of them to keep the cold air out. I know it's close here, but you don't notice it much after you get used to it." The sanitary system is equally bad. Usually a semi-rusted slop hopper and the bucket system do duty for more modern appliances. Nor is this all. There are no special cells, no isolation of prisoners, no cells for women or young boys; and withal, and to crown all, this abortion-this apology for sanitary justice-is two or three stories high. You may think you are familiar with county jails,-perhaps you are,-but, when you visit one again, try the quality of ventilation in the upper tier. Now do not misunderstand me as claiming that a great display of architectural design must be introduced to make a satisfactory exterior. What I wish to impress upon you is that it is not necessary to make a thing hideous to make it cheap; for that is what is wanted, whether it be jails or any other public or private expenditure. What I have said regarding jails will apply with equal force to workhouses and infirmaries and reform schools, although the latter are of somewhat more recent date usually, and consequently in better sanitary condition. The average asylum of to-day, as erected in this county, is based on the Kirkbride, or a modification of the Kirkbride plan. The question of greatest importance to all interested in the treatment of the insane is to what extent separate classification, or segregation in detached or semi-detached buildings, is advisable.
Page 405 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 405 The architect is, or should be, as much interested in this subject as in the planning and construction of the buildings, because, to intelligently plan any building, it is necessary to be en esprit with the needs of the occupants and modes of life therein. The public buildings of our country are with rare exceptions copies or modifications of earlier buildings; and it is only by such gatherings, at times, as these conventions afford that an interchange of ideas help to solve the new problems constantly presenting themselves to those interested in the subject. Persons experienced with the cottage plan are still as unanimous in its praise as those of the older Kirkbride plan are in its condemnation; yet we all must confess that both systems work satisfactorily in different localities. I never have seen a more smoothly conducted institution for the insane than the old and rather poorly built Alabama State Hospital at Tuskaloosa. The reason may be found to some extent in the fact that the patients work so large a proportion of the time out of doors. In the South where the windows are open so much more than in the North, where a constant circulation of fresh air and sunshine is pervading every room and corridor, it is natural that the cottage advocate finds his best reasons for a cottage system of less value than elsewhere, if the question of danger from fire be left unconsidered. Those who live in localities where the temperature varies little are usually found to be less enthusiastic about detached buildings than elsewhere. At least, that has been my experience. I do not refer alone to Superintendents -I include Boards. There can be no question that the miserable quality of work which has been foisted on the State under the guise of "building" has done much to prejudice people, who know good work when they see it, against the cottage system. There has been too much written about the cheapness of the cottage system by persons who profess to be capable of comparing both methods of building. To hear the reasons given is amusing. Because an incomplete institution on the cottage plan was got into such shape that a large number of unfortunates could be housed and fed at a less constructional cost per capita than in institutions on the Kirkbride plan, built over twenty years before, we are gravely informed that the constructional cost of the cottage system is onehalf as much as the Kirkbride system. When walls are built eight or twelve inches thick instead of sixteen or twenty-four inches, when large dormitories are constructed instead of small rooms, when tin is used instead of copper, and, more important than all, when the cost of material has been reduced so that war prices no longer prevail, how can it be otherwise than true that the cottage system is costing States less than the Kirkbride or linear-planned institutions of the past? It is like comparing several two-story shanties with a four-story hotel. I have not yet succeeded in finding any cottage-planned institu
Page 406 406 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. tions where, when the comparison was put on what I consider a fair basis, the difference in the cost of the two systems is as great as has been stated. Do not misunderstand me as talking against the cottage system. Personally, I believe it to be superior to the linear-planned buildings, if only on one account; and that is because patients can be conducted from one department to another without passing through wards occupied by other patients. The decrease of the danger of fire is another reason which many might consider of paramount advantage, but with the recent reduction of steel beams there can be less excuse for poorly built buildings than there has been in the past. In regard to the jails of the future, I have devised a method of letting the subtile electric fluid be a constant watchman of the security of the jail, thus doing away the cumbersome vault cells of the past. By the use of electricity, a cheapening of construction should be obtained and a consequent enlargement of cell capacity permitted. The use of bathing-tubs in jails to be used in common is another evil soon to be done away; and, while Dr. Wyman's marble slab is valuable for the hospital, it is not equal to the ordinary shower bath over a cement or even floor for all jails and kindred institutions. The iron or steel cell jail, meaning floors, walls, fronts, backs, and ceilings of one-fourth inches plate riveted together, either tool proof or otherwise, has come to stay; and very soon the old stone jail will have passed into the obscurity which it has long since deserved. The days of four and five tier cell-rooms will soon be a thing of the past, and the isolation of prisoners is daily receiving more careful consideration. DISCUSSION. The Committee on Plans of Public Buildings had charge of a special session of the Conference, and met in Room B on Wednesday morning, June 29, 10 A.M. In the absence of the chairman, Dr. Hal C. Wyman of Michigan, General Brinkerhoff presided, and introduced the speaker as one well qualified to deal with his subject. A paper was read by George F. Hammond, of Cleveland, entitled " Public Institutions: Past, Present, and Future." (page 400). The chairman then announced that the subject was open for discussion, and that the essayist invited frank criticism. Speakers would be limited to five minutes each. He said that for once he had found an architect who enjoyed criticism, he had studied so much and so thoroughly that he did not know it all. In answer to questions from Mr. Barber, of Michigan, and others as to the electric protection of jails and other points, Mr. Hammond answered as follows: - A jail should contain not less than one thousand cubic feet of air
Page 407 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 407 space for each prisoner. This allows for wide corridors, and the outer corridor may then be divided into two by a set of wires horizontal and vertical between the cells and the windows. Through the wires a weak current of electricity can be passed, so as to cause a bell in the sheriff's office to ring if a wire is cut or two wires touch each other. In this way a cheaper cell can be made perfectly safe, we get more room, more air, and less cost. Cells should be not less than g x 6 x 8 feet, and never in tiers one above another. Doors and window guards should be as strong as they can be made, for the electric protection may get out of order when applied to a door which has to move. Mr. HART, of Minnesota, thought the subject was one of immense importance, and wished more attention would be given it in future Conferences. The Minnesota Board had succeeded in impressing the county commissioners, so that it is now impossible to build a jail of the old type in Minnesota. The idea as to cheaper construction and more watchfulness is of great importance. In building a large jail where there will be a guard always on hand, the use of chrome steel is a waste of money; but a small jail must be built as strong as possible. When jails are supposed to be tool-proof, the officers relax vigilance, so that escapes are as frequent from strong jails as from weak ones. A jail with gas pipe bars, through each of which runs an electric wire so that a bell rings in the sheriff's office when the bars are tampered with, is better than chrome steel. It is necessary that jails and lock-ups should be fire-proof. In Minnesota a prisoner is cremated on the average once a year in cheap wooden lock-ups. Have now a plan for fire proof lock-ups, which can be built at from $500oo to $1,000. Mr. HAMMOND.-The reliance for security is to be in vigilance helped by electricity. Architects are usually somewhat antagonistic to the jail-builder. It is necessary to avoid specifying anything upon which there is a patent. Mr. WooD, of Michigan, said there is a prejudice in his State against tall buildings and architectural adornment. Mr. HAMMOND.- It is easier to get land than buildings. Land is the cheapest thing an institution has to buy. I never plan for more than two-story buildings. I recently went before a Board as to plans for a jail. The Board wanted four tiers of cells. I declined to build a four story-jail. The Board gave me my way, and the jail is to be two stories. An architect is often hampered; but he must convince people that he is more anxious to erect proper buildings than to get the job. Mr. WooD.- Now about the aesthetic. What is the tendency as to ornamentation? Mr. HAMMOND.- The tendency is to leave it off, and depend upon breaking up the surface of the building for effect. A well-planned building is one well adapted to its purpose. There is no reason why a hospital should loom up to the sky because it is a large building.
Page 408 408 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Mrs. RICHARDSON, of Massachusetts.- The experience of the Massachusetts Board has been that architects do not understand the uses of the buildings they design. Mr. HART, of Minnesota.- In Minneapolis we are building a Court House and City Hall. A new jail is badly needed, but the resources are exhausted. The new building will have more room than will be needed. It is a fire-proof building. They are proposing to locate the jail in the top story of the Court House. Mr. HAMMOND.-That might perhaps do if the prisoners can be got out and in without too much difficulty. But it is pretty hard to say that a building is fire-proof, as there are many so-called fire-proof buildings that could be pretty badly damaged by fire. The disasters from fire in so-called fire-proof buildings are from the smoke, especially when people are locked in. Buildings cannot be made smoke tight. Gen. BRINKERHOFF. —I was consulted on this point, and advised strongly against it. I. P. WRIGHT, Minnesota. —I approve of Mr. Hammond's suggestions, especially as to two-story buildings, size of cells and air space. ALEXANDER JOHNSON, of Indiana, spoke of the special value of this committee to those who have to examine and criticise plans, and hoped the committee would be made a permanent one. Mr. BLACKSTONE, of Massachusetts, said that numerous buildings in the State of Massachusetts were not fire-proof, but were of slow-burning construction. Rabbi FRIEDMAN, of Denver, requested the delegates to examine and criticise the plans of a hospital to be built in Denver, which he submitted. Mr. FORREST, of Michigan.-The great thing in building is to choose the right architect. A man who will do very well for a State House may fail with a hospital. A certain architect who built several State Houses built an insane asylum which fell down before it was finished. Mrs. RICHARDSON, of Massachusetts.-Are architects supposed to keep posted in matters of reform? Mr. HAMMOND.- An architect should be able to travel and study new buildings of special interest. Dr. KNIGHT, of Connecticut.- I have listened with interest to the very useful discussion. I want to turn now to the hygienic side, especially as to sewerage. In several institutions of which I have had oversight there have been epidemics. Boards of Health have been called up for opinions as experts. The experts usually say, "Your sewerage system is all wrong: you must put in A. B. C.'s system." Very good. A. B. C.'s system is put in at a cost of $4,ooo or $5,ooo. A few years later comes another epidemic; and another set of experts say, "It is all caused by that stupid A. B. C. system you have: you must take it out, and replace it by X. Y. Z.'s system." Mr. HAMMOND.- There are merits in all systems. I have exam
Page 409 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 409 ined buildings, and found excellent ventilation in three-fourths of the house, and none at all in the other fourth. The trouble was a valve closed and forgotten. For air, a fan forcing in and drawing out is best. It can now be run cheaply by electricity. In cottage hospitals a shaft at the end of the ward, with ventilators under each bed, is good. But air must have force applied to it, to make it rise. Dr. HOWARD, of Massachusetts.- All plumbing should be plainly visible, and the water test should be applied before accepting the job. Recently, in a new building, the plumber said, "You need not test this; it is perfect;" but the test was applied, and four new sections had to be put in. Mr. HAMMOND.-There never was a job of plumbing perfect the first time. Not only water, but soil-pipes should all be tested, full of water, so that it runs over at the top. A test of this kind should be included in specifications. L. C. STORRS, of Michigan, hoped the committee would be continued. Gen. BRINKERHOFF was of the same opinion.
Page 410 XVI. ieformatorv Wori, SECTIONAL MEETING 11. AIMS, METHODS, AND RESULTS OF REFORMSCHOOL TRAINING. BY JOHN T. MALLALIEU, SUPERINTENDENT STATE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, KEARNEY, NEB. Aims.- The aim of our institutions is to develop noble manhood and womanhood, and to prepare boys and girls to go out into the world, take their places in society, and make an honest living. Where the parent has failed, the institution must begin to rebuild. It is not the little child, laughing and playing in its crib, that is placed under the fostering care of the school, but the neglected youth, the vagrant, the incorrigible, the prostitute, and the criminal. As a teacher, it must give its pupils a fair education. As a ministering agent, it must provide for their moral and religious training. As a true statesman, it must teach them loyalty to the State and its laws, and instruct them in the science of good government. As a master mhchanic, it must teach them such practical trades as will secure them a good livelihood. As a disciplinarian, it must embody all the elements of the fireside, the school, society, and the church, and not only mould character, but remould many phases of it. While our aim is so exalted, the material upon which we have to work is often of a discouragingly inferior quality. The assertion so frequently made, that the worst boys are the smartest, is an erroneous one. It reflects unjustly on good home training. It places a premium on vice, and discounts virtue. Boys are smart in the line in which they have been trained. If this training has been of the street Arab nature, they are quick in the depraved slang and trickery of the street. When they are required to take up other lines of study or work, as a general rule, they are slow to learn and dull to comprehend. The absence of an even and symmetrical development is plainly and painfully observed. It requires.patience, perseverance, and constant practice to undo the work of the street and place them on the right track. The doors of an institution swing inward to receive the degenerate representatives of all classes of society. They
Page 411 REFORMATORY WORK. 411 swing outward to return seventy-five per cent. of these same youths permanently to honor and respectability. Our charges come from the homes of luxurious wealth, where indulgence has been mistaken for kindness, and the boy, failing to have his desires gratified, resorts to larceny in order to replenish his purse; from the great army of juvenile tramps, whose minds have been poisoned by the trash literature of the cheap novelist; from the haunts of misery, where criminal tendencies, following the laws of heredity, have been transmitted from sire to son until the penal nature of the former has left its impress through the physical and moral degeneracy of the latter; from the homes of the inebriate, where intoxicating drinks have broken up family ties, extinguished filial affections, and domestic happiness has given place to starvation and crime; from the vile dens of iniquity which infest our social system, and which are sapping the manhood and womanhood of so many of our youths of the present day. Methods.- The development of the moral, physical, educational, and industrial faculties must go hand in hand. The moral training is the cement which unites the character-building into one grand and solid structure. It should permeate and amalgamate every department, and be instilled into every duty. Living examples of its great influence should be embodied in every one employed in an institution. Honesty, faithfulness, and charity on their part may be more potent elements in this moral development than lectures and sermons. Deception in the use of means as well as materials may do more harm than can be imagined. What if a boy should take one of us for a model! Would our daily actions justify him in making such a selection? Assuming to be what we are not, and pretending to do what we do not, may cause him to lose faith in us and in humanity. The playgrounds and sports are features that must not be overlooked or underestimated. Physical development can, to a certain degree, be accomplished through the agency of the working departments; but its full fruition comes through the physical exercises and mental relaxations which the playground affords. The interested teacher will superintend these, and impress his individuality upon them. In fact, he should be the moving spirit, the life and soul of the playground. This not only begets an interest, but makes the boys more contented and cheerful. Among such a restless, surging, active crowd, amusements are almost as necessary as food itself. If the hours of recreation be crowded with sports and plays, the smiles of the face will reflect the joyousness of the heart during the hours set apart for labor and study. The football is the concomitant of the spade; the base-ball and the bat, of the rake and hoe. No one must expect a boy to work merrily and freely if deprived of all means of physical enjoyment. The hours of play should be as specific as the hours of work, and proper instruments should be provided in each case. A reform-school boy should be required to study faithfully, work diligently, and play enthusiastically. An institution must provide proper means for giving each inmate a
Page 412 412 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. fair education. The training of youths, whose future success will be measured more by physical labor than intellectual culture, should be practical, and should embody a knowledge of those business forms and principles which are required in the ordinary vocations of life. The principal work of the school-room should be to teach reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic. One of the most important functions of an institution is the industrial training or the teaching of practical trades. Whether supported by State, church, or municipality, it is the duty of this corporate guardian to provide avenues and facilities for this purpose. The industrial departments should be established and regulated with reference to the ability of the boy, and also with reference to the trades in vogue in the State. They should be such as would insure occupation for the inmates when paroled. Tailoring, shoemaking (hand work), painting, carpentry, cabinet-making, printing, woodturning, blacksmithing, and such practical trades should be thoroughly taught. Such trades, backed up by a fair education, environed by good moral training, set off by a well-developed, clean, healthy physique, are the grand designs and methods of reformatory institutions. These can all be accomplished by earnest work and proper facilities. Results.-The results of the work become more fruitful each year. As our institutions become better equipped, the officers and employees gain more experience, the principles of reform methods are closer studied and applied, and a more liberal policy is pursued by the controlling boards, the work becomes more efficient and the percentage of those who go out and do well is correspondingly increased. There is a limit to all things, and reform is not an exception. The constant depraved training of many committed to our care, from earliest infancy and probably through a period of a dozen years, has so disarranged their mental faculties that only a similar term of the opposite training can change. Yet it is expected that a few months detention is sufficient to revolutionize the individual. The reformatory that receives into its custody the dregs of society, with a small sprinkling of a better element, is expected to mould every case into perfect symmetry, mentally, morally, and physically. I believe the records of any reformatory will show that not less than seventy-five per cent. of the inmates develop into good men' and women and useful citizens. We cannot put sound brains where diseased ones already occupy all the cranial space. We can only work patiently to improve them. We can develop, but we cannot create. We can keep unfortunateborn youths on the right track while they are under our control, but cannot insure the future, unless they can have the best of environments. Then we have to succeed in spite of legislative drawbacks. Means are asked of these important bodies to establish branches that will be
Page 413 REFORMATORY WORK. 4I3 instrumental in preparing the pupils for citizenship. A plan is outlined and placed before the proper committees, and the figures appall them. They throw up their hands at the apparent ridiculousness of the proposition, and look upon it as the embodiment of cheek and extravagance. Without proper facilities for teaching trades, without funds to properly man and adequately compensate a competent corps of instructors and foremen, often without genuine encouragement from sources where most should be given, an institution is expected to accomplish wonderful things. It does, notwithstanding these discouraging features; and the seventy-five or eighty per cent. of benefited boys testify to this fact. It is sometimes said that the most hardened criminals in the prisons are graduates of reformatories. Well, what of it? We have among our number some mean boys that come from the Sabbath school. By a parity of reasoning all the Sabbath-school scholars must be bad. Our public and private schools contribute a share to the reformatory population. Does this signify that the public and private schools are places for educating the most hardened juvenile criminals? Because a youthful criminal comes from a family, it does not follow that the whole family are trained criminals. The discipline of the home, the school, and the church, has not made them criminals. They have become such in spite of this discipline. Nor has the training of the reform school made these candidates for the penitentiaries hardened criminals. Their institutional experience has only served as a few months' respite between the prior criminal schools of the streets and the subsequent professional criminal career on a larger and more mature scale. Instead of the implication or insinuation that the "hardened criminal" was made so while in a reform school, the fact is that the only period of his life, from the hour he left the cradle until the prison doors closed on him, during which he was restrained from criminal pursuits, was the few months he spent in the reform school. As workers, we must expect such criticisms, and notwithstanding this discouraging feature must look at the bright side. We must so manage our pupils as to gain and maintain their confidence and respect. If we would govern them rightly, we must set an example of proper self-government. If we would have them become good and useful citizens, we must exercise good citizenship. If we would have pleasant and happy words greet our ears, whether in the school-room or on the playground, we must speak in kind and friendly tones. If we would build up true manhood in others, we must exemplify genuine manhood. If we would have them read good and wholesome literature instead of demoralizing trash, we must advise them of what is good and wholesome. If we would correct bad habits in others, we must be sure that those bad habits are not a part of our own make-up. In all our instructions it should be borne in mind that the discipline of youth will be the foundation upon which manhood is built. A mis
Page 414 414 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. take on the part of a teacher, through rashness or premature action, may blight the entire life of his pupil. The pupil must be taught to cultivate the habit of self-control. He must learn to do right because it is honorable and manly, and not because it pays. We must teach him to be industrious, for it is only by hard labor that the palm is gained. Confidence obtained, it is a long stride in a boy's career; but confidence maintained is a golden link that binds the souls of men. He must be taught that temptation and trials are to be encountered and overcome. These are the agencies necessary for the development of true manhood.
Page 415 XVII. 'lt Care of Clfilbten, SECTIONAL MEETING III. PLACING OUT CHILDREN. BY F. M. GREGG, D.D. In the discussion of my subject I assume that the best place for a homeless child is in a good family home, God's orphanage. I assume too, that, in the United States there are enough childless homes for all the homeless children, and that our first and paramount duty is to bring these two supplementary factors together. I assume, further, that such children, as well as such homes, are fairly distributed throughout the country,-that they are in every State, every county, every community of any importance; and, in assuming this, I find, at once, an unanswerable argument in favor of the plans and methods of the "Children's Home Society," a society which seeks to organize an auxiliary whenever it is needed, wherever there is a single homeless child to be rescued and saved. The old theory was that such an organization as this is needed only in the great cities. It favored gathering homeless children in masses, and then shipping them by wholesale into the country where the childless homes were supposed to be. It was too soon in the history of "child-saving work " for its friends to know any better way. The natural method is the one which now begins to command our attention: it is taking a child,- one child,-and carrying it gently, tenderly and quickly to a good family home. Whether it be a helpless infant, or a boy or girl older, it is worth while for some one to do this,-to visit the childless home, bearing the precious burden, thus bringing new joy to the household and saving a whole life. I am pleased to quote the language of Mr. Birtwell, found in the twentyseventh Report of the Boston Children's Aid Society, for the double purpose of showing the necessity of the cause which I stand for to-day and the naturalness of the method. " Our methods, it will be seen, though elastic and many-sided, are simple and natural. Although there are signs that an era of more natural methods in humanitarian work is dawning both in our own and other countries, the vast majority of the children who are in the /
Page 416 416 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. care of child-helping' agencies are still cared for in institutions, and shut away from the wholesome atmosphere of every-day family life. It is idle to think of real success in 'child-saving work' unless in our chain of methods we recognize and utilize the great natural forces of life, such as the influence of home and friends and neighborhood, of education and work and opportunity, of contact with both the amenities and stern realities of life under natural and wholesome conditions." I can assure Mr. Birtwell that he speaks in every way as truly for Chicago as Boston, and I believe for every city and State. I am sure I can best serve the cause by giving a brief history of the " Children's Home Society" which I represent. It was chartered by the State of Illinois, in I885, as the "American Educational Aid Association," with headquarters at Chicago. Its mission is to seek homeless, neglected, and destitute children, and to become their friend and protector. To find homes for them in well-to-do families, and to place them there wisely, with the least possible delay. To look occasionally, with discretion, into the homes of all our children, and thus prevent abuse and neglect. To replace children, when necessary. To make it possible for many persons (without children of their own) to adopt, without fear of future interference, a child that may be a blessing to the household. To minister in comforting assurances to parents in fear of leaving their children penniless and homeless. To protect society (by guaranteeing proper home training and education to the unfortunate little ones) against its greatest enemies, ignorance and vice. To improve American citizenship by making of the poorest and -feeblest valuable members of society. To extend our organization, through the missionary spirit, into sister States. To perpetuate and spread the work of Him who is pre-eminently the children's friend, and whose life was spent in deeds of love and mercy. It is broadly philanthropic, without sectarian basis, asking the cooperation of the citizens of every community where their aid may be needed, without regard to nationality, creed, or color. The plan of work contemplates a national organization, with State branches. A National Board of Directors and a General Superintendent have general oversight over the whole field. In each State a State Board of Managers and a State Superintendent have special charge of the work in that State. States are divided into districts, each with a superintendent; and in the towns are local Advisory Boards, made up of representative men and women, who have charge of the interests of the Association in their respective communities. This feature secures what is lacking in most plans for the placing out of children; namely,
Page 417 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 417 such a thorough and efficient supervision as renders it impossible for a child under the care of this society to be abused or neglected without its very soon coming to the notice of those who have power to interfere in the child's behalf. In May, 1883, the first child was carried in the arms of our present Superintendent from Vandalia to El Paso, Ill. (about one hundred miles), and placed in a family home. On the ist of June, I892 (the end of our fiscal year), the number placed in family homes was 2,157. Since 1883 the Society has spread from Illinois into nine other States; namely, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, California, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Tennessee. Preparatory work has been done in a number of other States. We have Io Temporary Homes; maintain a paper of twentyfour pages, with a monthly issue of I6,ooo copies and 60,000oooreaders in more than a dozen States. We have i,500 local Advisory Boards, and at least a million people are familiar with and interested in our work. Recently Judge John C. Ferriss, of Nashville, who has placed 2,400 homeless children in homes during the past twenty years, was commissioned as State Superintendent of Tennessee, so that our forces now represent 4,500 children placed in good homes in all the Southern States except South Carolina; and all the North, west of Connecticut, except two or three States toward the Pacific. Why should not our organization in a few years be in every State and Territory in the Union? It will be; and we are here to place our standard upon the mountain peaks of Colorado. The people of each State should do their own "child-saving" work, and city and country must unite in it. By an extended organization, the greater sources of child supply are better utilized; while the outlets are increased. It is easy enough to send a child to a distant State, when there is a commissioned officer there ready to receive it. One State is tributary to another; and so the entire field is cultivated. Only good men and women with an aptitude for this work are needed to carry speedily the organization of the " Children's Home Society" all over our land. A few persons in each State, with money or without it, can begin and carry on the work successfully. It easily grows and spreads. The method is so natural and reasonable that friends and supporters cannot long be wanting anywhere. I cannot do better than to recite (from our.Manual now in press) the duties of State and District Superintendents and Local Advisory Boards. DUTIES OF A STATE SUPERINTENDENT. i. To effect, when duly commissioned, as soon as practicable a State organization. 2. To seek to know the extent and needs of the jurisdiction; to become acquainted with the friends of child-saving work in it; and to keep a list of the names and addresses in alphabetical order in a book to be known as the " State Register."
Page 418 418 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. 3. To be diligent in seeking homeless and destitute children, and homes for the same. 4. To accept and place only children properly surrendered to the Association, and only in families known to be reputable and reliable, taking care that the child and its home shall be adapted each to the other. 5. To keep in a book, to be known as the "Children's Register," a list of all children surrendered to the Association; recording in each case name, date and place of birth, age, names of parents, when adopted, time spent in Temporary Home, when and where placed in a permanent home, color and nationality. 6. To faithfully supervise all children placed in his jurisdiction, and all other work of the Association, and to replace children when necessary. 7. To select persons to serve as district superintendents with care, nominating them to the State Board of Managers for election, instructing them in their duties, assigning them their fields of labor, commissioning them in writing, and reporting them as to name, address, and district to the general superintendent. 8. To keep in a book, to be known as the "Family Register," a record of all families applying for children. 9. To keep in a book to be known as the "Membership Register a list of all members. 10. To furnish subordinate officers with proper blanks and other requisites, including the " circular literature " of the Association. i. To circulate and obtain subscriptions for the Children's Home Finder, and to deliver public addresses. 12. To keep an accurate account of all travelling, office, and other incidental expenses, and to report the same at least once a quarter to the State Board of Managers. I3. To keep in a book to be known as the " Register of Final Settlement" the names of all children adopted, indentured, or placed by special contract in compliance with the laws of the State. 14. To report the name and address promptly of a child placed beyond the bounds of the State to the superintendent within whose jurisdiction the placement has been effected. 15. To seek individual care and solicitude for a homeless child, and to record its rescue as the work of a single contributor, giving him a certificate of credit. i6. To provide proper papers for effecting the final settlement of a child, and, in the event of its legal adoption, to place on file in the office of the Association, within ninety days, a certified copy of the record of the court. I7. To surrender to the Association, when retiring from its work, all official books, papers, and other property of the Association. The Society is absolutely free from sectarianism, and depends upon voluntary contributions for support. The average cost of placing a child in a permanent home is a fraction less than $50. An unoccu
Page 419 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 419 pied State may begin the work of organization by sending to the National Board an application signed by nine or more reputable citizens, requesting permission to form an auxiliary society, and the appointment of a suitable person to serve as State superintendent. Under the influence of such a motive, under the spell of such an inspiration as this, we have no reason to fear any hindrances. We may work in Church or State, or alongside of them, without strife or contention, ready to do much where much is required, pleased to do a little where we can do no more. Let the State have her institutions, if she will, her laws, her classified statistics, and the Church her solemn worship, her dogma, her orphan asylums; and we will ask only the privilege of taking the homeless little ones in our arms and placing them in family homes. We supplement the State, we supplement the Church, doing what neither Church nor State as such can do, but not without their help. Regard us, if you please, as only gleaners in the field. We shall not complain. Gleaning is necessary in this great field of humanity, in which many little ones are ready to perish, needing at once a tender helping hand. And in uniting all these communities, all these cities and Commonwealths, in one society, in a union of loving hearts and willing hands, we shall add a new glory to our already splendid civilization, a new grace to love of country, a new joy to love of home. THE CHILD AND THE FAMILY. BY HOMER FOLKS, OF PHILADELPHIA. The members of this section seem to be pretty well agreed that the only proper place for a child who is merely dependent is the family. It is here, and here alone, that we can give full play to those natural forces which were intended to shape the development of the child. Certain difficulties, however, are experienced in carrying our belief into practical effect. Every children's institution finds certain children who are not placed out readily, —children who are not real strong, who have some slight weakness or defect, mental or physical. It is perfectly evident that these children need family life as much as the others. Their peculiarities are those of hundreds of other children who cause their parents a little extra trouble and expense, but who become excellent citizens. The problem is perfectly simple,how to find families who will give these children the extra attention and care which parents give their own children under like circumstances. There is but one way out. If we cannot get what we want for nothing, we must pay for it. We must do just what the well-to-do
Page 420 420 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. father does when his children are left motherless. He says to some friend, in whom he has confidence, "Take my children and do for them what their mother would have done, and whatever is just I will pay you." I believe therefore that every orphan asylum, every school for dependent children, and every reformatory which receives children under fourteen years of age should have a fund or an appropriation for boarding children in families: then, when we agree that the child would be better in a family, place him in a family at all hazards. I believe that such a combination of the temporary institution, boarding out, free homes, and wages would be an entirely feasible and practical way of working. I emphasize this, because I do not wish those who are connected with institutions of any sort to feel that there is no alternative between their plan and the one I was about to describe. But some one will suggest, "Will not this reasoning carried to its logical outcome close our institutions for dependent children entirely? " We have agreed, most of us, that the children should be kept in the institution as short a time as possible. If we can board our children in families until free homes can be found, why have the institutions at all? And why should we? Why not say to every unfortunate child: You shall live as nearly as possible as other children live. You shall have the opportunities and surroundings which have made us what we are. The Children's Aid Society of Pennsylvania last year took charge of one hundred and ninety children. They came from the almshouse, of Philadelphia, from the county almshouses, from the police stations, from magistrates, and from dismembered families. Not one of these children slept a night or took a meal anywhere but in a family, - in somebody's home. One day last October we took six children from an almshouse in the interior of the State. They had been there, some of them, since infancy. Their condition you can imagine. That night every one of them was tucked in bed by a kind, motherly woman in a private family. When one of them exhausted the patience and long-suffering of one family, he did not go back to the almshouse nor to an orphanage, he simply went to another family. Little by little they are all learning how to live as other children live. We are therefore prepared to say that'in an agricultural State the assumption that a temporary institution is a necessary evil is a mistake. It may be an evil, but it is not a necessity. All that is necessary is an office with plenty of efficient help. The yearly per capita cost of a child while boarding is $I38; of the supervision of a child in a free home, $22. You will notice that the expense of the boarding child is considerably less than that reported by Mr. Lewis as the per capita cost in the State Public School of Minnesota, while the per capita expense of supervision of children in free homes is somewhat more. In a paper read before the Conference of last year there was pre
Page 421 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 421 sented a new phase of the problem of juvenile delinquency; i.e., the possibility of dealing with these children in families. To the general argument of the paper, its estimate of existing methods, and the general outline of method advocated, nothing further remains to be added. The work was, as was stated, in the experimental stage. We could only state our belief, our hopes, our confident expectations, and say that thus far the conditions had been favorable. We are now able, however, to speak with a greater degree of assurance. Our work extends over a period of two years, and the conditions grow more favorable as time passes. I purpose stating merely the results of our work to this date. During these two years we have received from the judges of criminal courts twenty-nine children convicted of larceny, varying in age from eight to fifteen years. All of these had been arrested, given a hearing, thrown into prison, brought before the judge, tried, and convicted; and yet they were children. Eighteen of the twenty-nine had lost either father or mother, or both. The parents of three had given up their homes, and were living separated; of the eight who had homes, the parents of three were notoriously drunken; of one, weak-minded; only four of the twenty-nine came from ordinary homes. The first great difference between these and other children was that they had not had ordinary home training. This fact led us to a little investigation. In I890 there were 5,479 children committed to reformatories in the United States. 2,624,or 48 per cent., were orphans or half-orphans. Adding those whose parents-were separated, considerably more than half the child criminals are practically homeless children. Furthermore, twentyeight of the twenty-nine were Philadelphians by birth and training: their lives had been passed amid the temptations and loneliness of a great city. Philadelphia, in proportion to its population, convicts seventeen times as many children of crime and incorrigibility as do the other eastern counties of Pennsylvania. A second distinguishing feature of the child criminals is that they are city children. These twenty-nine children were given each a country home. As a result, not one of the number has again appeared in prison or in court. Two have so far improved that they have been allowed to return to their parents, and are doing well. Twenty-five are still in the families with whom they have been placed by the Society, and give evidence of improvement. One, who left his home recently, has not yet been recaptured. One boy, who ran away three times in succession, has been placed in the House of Refuge. Twenty-seven, or ninety-three per cent., have so far been handled successfully. During the same length of time we have received from magistrates thirty-five children, ten of whom were accused of larceny, and twentyfive of insubordination and incorrigibility. Twenty-three had lost father or mother, or both; the parents of six had separated; only six in thirty-five had parents living together. Twenty-nine are now in families, as placed by the Society, and are doing well. Three have
Page 422 9 422 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. so far improved that they have been allowed to return to their parents. Two others, who were improving, were removed by their parents. One only has proven himself truly incorrigible, —i.e., incurable by our methods,- and has been sent to a reformatory. Most of these children have not been known as bad children since they left the city. The following letter from an excellent farmer, who had boarded one of our boys for fifteen months, expresses admirably the feeling which we desire to cultivate. It was in reply to a communication asking him to keep the boy without further expense to the Society: - M -, June 15, I892. "Children's Aid Society,- Yours of the gth received. Since Malcolm has been with us, we have endeavored to care for him the best we could. He has been a very good boy. He went to school four months last winter; only missed one day. His progress in his studies we think very good. He has one month more this summer. Last summer he stayed home on account of his eyes. I am sorry to say his eyes are no better. As he is not very tough, we think he should be kept at school all the time he can be. We feel an interest in Malcolm. He does not want to leave us, though we do not need his services during the summer, as we have rented our farm this year. If we could be of any benefit to Malcolm by his staying with us, we accept your proposition, provided you pay his tuition at the graded school at M — this fall. We had intended him to go. "Yours respectfully, [COPY.] "A. M." This boy, left an orphan, had been early placed at work. He had stolen three dollars from his employer, and had gone to see the wonders of Atlantic City. Having spent his money, he was picked up by a policeman, returned to relatives in Philadelphia, taken by them to a magistrate, and by him sent to us. He is now reinstated in society, he has a standing in the community, he is self-supporting. Everybody expects him to be honest and upright, and treats him accordingly. He has the care, training, and confidence of a father and a mother. Between him and them there is a reciprocal affection. He is free from the demoralizing conditions of the poor in a great city. Could we ask more? From parents and relatives we have received, on account of their waywardness, sixteen children. Fourteen of these are in families under the care of the Society, and show gratifying signs of improvement. One has been returned to his parents improved; and one, a young colored lad, who was a graduate of an orphan asylum and a reformatory, has done badly. From the central station we have received ten boys, who are, so to speak, a miscellaneous lot,- mostly vagrants and runaways 'from other cities. These boys came to us without any legal process, and
Page 423 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 423 we have no knowledge of their antecedents. Three have been found to be runaways from good homes, and have been returned to their parents. Two have been returned to their parents as defective. Three are in families and doing well. Two have absconded. The Society has, at the request of the prison agent, endeavored to sustain friendly relation with five vagrants, youths from sixteen to eighteen years of age, discharged from the county prison at the expiration of a short sentence. Usually, nothing is known of the antecedents of these youths; and it is doubtful whether we are able to do much for them. The experience of the past year emphasizes the necessity of the following methods: — I. An intelligent, persistent study of the antecedents and home surroundings of each child. 2. The payment of a reasonable sum for the care, training, and maintenance of the children. However attractive the prize may seem, we cannot get something for nothing. To attempt it is to invite disaster. 3. The continual development of new fields and the use of the more distant localities in our own State. 4. Thorough investigation of every family from references independent of those given by the applicant. As an additional safeguard in the selection of families and means of obtaining more complete information concerning the progress of our charges, we have opened communication with the teacher of every public school attended by one of our children, delinquent or otherwise. This has proven one of the most hopeful features of the whole work; for nearly all of these letters told of regular attendance, good scholarship, commendable deportment, and intelligent and conscientious home training. While it is true that an experience of years will be needed to demonstrate all the merits and all the weaknesses of the plan we feel that in these results there is something of positive evidence of the feasibility and efficiency of this method, especially when we remember how conservative are the estimates of those who deal with crime in any of the later stages. The Children's Aid Society has for ten years been providing for children from almshouses and impoverished and broken up families. The family plan has proven an undoubted success from every standpoint. The care of delinquent children, undertaken two years ago, with much hesitation, becomes, in the light of these results, an established and important branch of the Society's work,- a work which is worthy of its best efforts, and promises for the community the most fruitful results.
Page 424 .424 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. DAY NURSERY WORK, BY MISS M. H. BURGESS. The real aim of the Nursery, as I understand it, is to furnish a home through the day for such children as would otherwise be without one, and help self-respecting parents to support themselves and families. What children should be received, and in how great numbers? How and by whom should they be cared for while there? What is a proper case? A child who would otherwise be necessarily homeless or without proper care through the day. I say necessarily, because I wish to exclude from my definition those cases where the mother works from a mere whim or the desire to have a little more in the way of dress or furniture or even money saved, or for any reason wishes to shirk the care of her children. This is to be condemned when it causes her to neglect her home duties. The mother's place is at home, except in cases of absolute necessity (I would also exclude those cases, if possible), where the father is lazy or intemperate or both. It is always a delicate and grave matter to decide upon one of these cases. We find the most successful way in these cases to be an appeal to the nearest Ward Conference of the Associated Charities. Sometimes through some member of the conference, preferably a man, the intemperate father may be reached; and though, perhaps, his reform may not be radical or lasting, if he can be induced to work for a short time, that is a great gain. Such cases need continual moral help to keep them in the straight way of temperance and industry. Where a man shows a real desire to reform and become self-supporting, and where the wife is anxious to help by working herself, we think it advisable to take their children in the Nursery until they have regained their footing. We always cooperate with the Associated Charities as much as possible, as their means of investigation are much more efficient and thorough than our own. Many of the families live in tenements of two or three rooms, with little or no yard room. The children are on the street all the time. Our rooms are pleasant and ample. Shall we take them in, where they will hear less of the street evil? Four or five years ago I should have said "yes" at once. Now I say as emphatically "no." The only way these people can be induced to seek better conditions of living is by having excited in them the desire for those conditions. Take away the children, for the hours of daylight even, and you take away the chief incentive to demand better accommodations. There is this to be considered, when we are filled with pity for the children on the street. They associate there with the same kind of children with whom they would associate in the Nursery. It is true they are under constant supervision in the Nursery; but those of us who exer
Page 425 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 425 cise this supervision know how impossible it is to banish altogether bad language and bad habits, where we have the children eight hours and their homes have them sixteen. The children are often the means of getting the mother out for a daily walk or an hour in the park, when otherwise she would work all day with no outdoor exercise. It is true there will always be some instances where the parents are too ignorant or careless to provide better accommodations for their children, or too vicious to be fit companions for them. Yet, if we take these children, we are offering a premium to idleness or ignorance or vice which must be very discouraging to the really painstaking, industrious mother. I have been told by discouraged women that, if they only drank and neglected their children, plenty of people would be ready to help them. I believe no good we can do the child, however great that good may be, will compensate for the evil of introducing into his life and character a tendency to pauperism by taking the responsibility of his care from those who, by divine and human right, are really responsible. Paradoxical as it may seem, there is a time when the only thing we can do, is to do nothing, but let circumstances press in so hard upon the shiftless and careless ones that they will be driven to alter those circumstances by the effort of their own wills. It is hard to let the children suffer for the parent's fault; but the innocent must sometimes suffer for the guilty, perhaps that the innocent may at length save the guilty. After all, the evils of physical discomfort and neglect are not so great, or their effect so lasting, as the evil of obliterating from the mind of any child or parent the clear principle of self-help. To maintain that principle, the Nursery is established. It fails of its purpose when it aids laziness or wilful ignorance by relieving of care those addicted to these vices. We would never see any child abused or neglected. Any such case submitted to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children would be promptly attended to, and the child removed from the parents' care altogether. One who is corrupt or abusive should not be trusted with a child day or night. The proper cases, then, are the children of needy widows or deserted wives,often more destitute than widows,- motherless children, children of sick mothers or sick fathers, where the mother is obliged to work. There are cases that should be taken temporarily, where there is serious illness in the family, during the confinement of the mother, or after a severe financial crisis following sickness or death. But it must be distinctly understood that the help is only temporary, otherwise the Nursery becomes a crutch; and they continue to walk lame as long as they can use it. One word about the numbers. Great harm is done to children by massing them together in large numbers. The Nursery is to be a home to them: it cannot be that if the numbers are so large that constant drill and routine are necessary. I know the inconveniences of the small Nursery, and that more complete organization and system are possible in the large Nursery. But we do not commend a
Page 426 426 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. private home for its superior organization so much as for its home influence, the real home spirit. This is what we want in the Nursery. To have it, we must have the numbers small enough to have the children under the control of one person as far as possible. The aggregate good done by the Nursery is not represented by the numbers, but by the intelligent care of the wisely chosen few, and the influence of that care on the homes to which the children return. Having our children, who shall care for them? In the freedom of the home atmosphere of the Nursery, the matron studies and learns to understand her charges as no one but a mother, or one who stands in her place, can do. Therefore, it is necessary that we have for our care-taker the best and most wisely and carefully trained person that can be found,-one whose heart and judgment are well balanced, who has a clear, distinct method, adaptable to each individual child. I feel strongly the advisability of having a kindergartner for a matron. We demand normal school graduates now for all our public schools, because we realize that a teacher should not only know what to teach, but how to teach it. On the same principle the matron of a Nursery should have a thorough knowledge of child nature, with its requirements and the best means of meeting those requirements. Then children must be employed. This need the kindergarten occupations fill, as nothing else can, because they are adapted to just this stage of the child's development, and founded on a sympathetic knowledge and comprehension of his whole nature. Yet the main point upon which I would base my claim of the necessity for a kindergartner as matron would be not so much for her ability to use these technical parts of the system as for the reason that as yet no training has been found that so initiates the student into the mysteries of child nature at this early age; for it is this which first emphasized the necessity for studying such young children, and training them rightly. Having our children and matron, what shall we do with them? Perhaps it would be well to tell what we do with the children in our Nursery. The majority come between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, an occasional exception coming before that, sometimes as early as seven o'clock. While the clans are gathering, they play or sit and talk. Beginning at nine, our programme briefly is this: marching, five minutes; songs, prayer, object-lesson, or talk, twenty minutes; marching, ten minutes: occupation, for all but infants, twenty minutes; games, twenty minutes; free play (out of doors, if possible) until it is time to prepare for dinner, about II.30. After the children have been washed and bibbed, a second occupation is given, or playthings and games fill up the time before dinner, while the older children, who come from a public kindergarten, are made ready for dinner. Dinner is at 12.30, and occupies half an hour. After dinner the younger ones take a nap. The older ones have free play (out of doors, if possible), then some simple occupation,-a story, a little resting-time, marching, or playthings. At 3.30 the babies come
Page 427 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 427 downstairs from the crib-room, and we have the good-by song. Most of the children go home between four and five o'clock, though there are late exceptions in the evening, as there are early ones in the morning, The work in the house centres largely in the matron. What tells with both mother and child is the personal touch of the one who has the care of the child through the day. The mother will naturally tell her woes most readily to the one who has gained her confidence by her sympathetic care of her child, and will receive from her without offence suggestions and advice as to the continuance of that care in the home. The matron often notices physical peculiarities that the mother, with her many cares or through ignorance, has not noticed. The study of the child's character is incomplete without intimate knowledge of the parents and all th. family circumstances and surroundings. This is another argument for small numbers; for, with them, the matron may reach every member of each family. Here we have the direct influence of the nursery training on the child, and the indirect influence of the Nursery on the home itself. It is especially true of this class, as of children, that they are best taught by object lessons. The Nursery should be this object-lesson,a model home. The place and spirit should be such that any mother, seeing it, should be moved to " go and do likewise " in her own home. It is important that the clerical work of the Nursery be carefully done. The record of each child should be full and continuous, while he is a member of the Nursery, and added to from time to time, if possible, after he leaves it. Some hold on the children may be kept after they enter school by forming a club of nursery graduates, to meet once a week at the Nursery, and by occasional calls at the homes, if time permits. If you can show a record in black and white of families that, through misfortune, needed nursery help, but with that help became self-supporting, keeping honest and respectable through all their trials, in many cases became more respectable, you can convince the doubter more effectually than by pouring into his ear fifty heart-rending stories of want and woe. The pity of it is that, even while we use our plain facts to appeal to the reason, there will be told by them a tale to move any heart. I think, if we work broadly, looking at the child not only as a child, but as a part of a family and nation, a future citizen, we shall find that our work reaches out very widely in time and numbers. The Nursery, rightly managed, is a great good. Abused, it may be one of the greatest evils, as anything is that, bearing the name of good, uses that name to work indiscriminately. Used rightly, it is one of the best and most necessary charities of the present and future. Without it many children would be worse than homeless for a greater part of their waking hours; more destitute than orphans, for they cannot be taken out of their misery and adopted in homes or families; or they would have to accept the worse alternative of being dependent on uncertain doles from the charitably inclined. In other words, they would be paupers.
Page 428 XVIII. eCaritv Organization. SECTIONAL MEETING IV. CO-OPERATION IN THE WORK OF CHARITY. I. CO-OPERATION A NECESSITY. Mr. ALEXANDER JOHNSON, of Indianapolis, Ind., emphasized the necessity, sometimes forgotten by those engaged in Organized Charity work, of co-operating with others. Too often, he said, we lose sight of this our cardinal principle, and feel in actual field work strongly tempted to deal with individual cases upon our own responsibility. Natural as this feeling is, it is better that advice should be taken, assistance sought. We cannot expect others to unite their efforts and ours unless we are willing to share with them our own charitable undertakings. The second point urged.by Mr. Johnson was the need that an Association of Charities should be useful to the societies of which it is composed. If this is not the case, it is impossible to secure or return their co-operation. Service is the price of success, and usefulness should be the aim of all Charity Organization Societies. 2. INTERNAL CO-OPERATION. CHARLES D. KELLOGG read the following paper on this topic:By internal co-operation are meant a spirit of harmony and a practice of co-operation in all the component departments of a Charity Organization Society, as distinguished from the co-operation and harmony which the society seeks to promote among all the various elements outside of itself which compose the charitable system of the community. One of the most essential requirements for a Charity Organization Society is thorough organization within itself, so that it may itself illustrate the benefits of united and uniform action. No organizing agency can be effective or influential in securing external co-operation unless well centred and disciplined within itself.
Page 429 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 429 There must be definite and clear views of principles behind the work of a society, or there will be vagueness and indefiniteness of purpose,all through. District or branch committees are composed of human nature; and human nature is a very strange thing, and often in some fit of independence or amateurism goes off in a tangent from well-settled principles, unless controlled by an internal governing force. Much benevolent work is perverted and hindered from this lack of unity in methods, and this clear comprehension of principles; and one part suffers and blunders for want of the knowledge and experience dearly won by other parts of the same society. Much mischief is also done because the work of one district or conference differs from that of another and a co-ordinate branch of the same society, and because the experience of neither is stored for the common use. All individual effort is weak as compared with co-operative endeavor; it is only when labor is intelligently associated that it becomes omnipotent. Each part of the society should have a common interest and a common property in all the information gathered by all its parts. Each worker must set aside his or her individual preferences and prejudices. The general cause of charity is advanced by full and free comparison of methods, and especially by deliberation over actual cases of an individual character. The judgments of visitors need to be brought into contact with each other, and especially with those who have had dissimilar and varied experiences. Working alone always makes men and women narrow, opinionated, and mechanical, but mutual deliberations enlighten the vision, suggest new modes and resources, and concentrate the wit and wisdom of many on the perplexities which bewilder the isolated worker; and under the light shed by so many judgments the difficulties will yield, the sufferings of the distressed be lessened, and the reformation of the vicious be more rapid and sure. There is in the minds of many people a strong aversion to a centralized power; but, where each subdivision has a voice and a part in that power, there is no danger of its becoming arbitrary and irrational. A strong central board has many advantages that can be gained in no other way, and has many opportunities to solve the problems of social inequality and deterioration that a subordinate department could never secure or improve. Without this central body and its centralized and unified power there is great danger of the different departments or districts of a Charity Organization Society forgetting its first principles by lapsing into the old and easier methods of mere physical relief, and of abandoning the higher aim of the permanent care of pauperism until each district or conference, in the self-conceit of its own individuality, becomes a mere competitor of the general body, to which it should be the highest aim of each to add strength. The most successful Charity Organization Societies have been those which possessed and exerted the most of this cen
Page 430 430 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. tralized power, and thus secured internal uniformity of methods and loyalty to principles. The members of the local parts are more often unable or unwilling to exercise constant vigilance and control; and the work is thus apt to fall in incompetent or designing hands, and a well-adjusted and centralized power is the only safeguard against such results. 3. CO-OPERATION WITH PUBLIC AUTHORITIES. Dr. A. G. WARNER, of Washington, D.C., submitted the following propositions relating to this topic:I. No private association for organizing charity should receive any subsidy from the public funds of the city, county, or State. The very breath of life of such an association is the confidence of the community in which it works, and it will best keep that confidence only when it must look to the community for voluntary support. When a society solicits contributions, it hears all the complaints that are made about itself, and to be compelled to listen to these is the first step in either showing their unsoundness or in correcting the faults on which they are based. 2. Neither the police power alone nor private associations alone can suppress street-begging: the two must co-operate. 3. The larger the number of persons who, through work for the poor, acquire an intimate knowledge of the practical workings of the city governments, the better will be the outlook for municipal reform. 4. Public officials, like agents of charitable societies, are surrounded by many difficulties which those unacquainted with their work do not appreciate. Those who would co-operate with them must appreciate the limitations of official power as well as its extent. 4. WHY SHOULD RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES CO-OPERATE WITH CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETIES? The following paper on this topic, by GEORGE B. SAFFORD, D.D., was read in Dr. Safford's absence by Rev. S. A. Eliot: - The answer to the question is briefly this: Because such co-operation insures a measure of success otherwise impossible in the undertakings both of religion and of Charity Organization. It is the effort of Charity Organization so to guide and so to unite philanthropic agencies that there shall result the least injury, the least waste, the most efficiency, and, in consequence, the most hopeful incentive to enlarged outlay. To religious bodies, more earnestly and more confidently than to all others, Charity Organization appeals with its proposal of reciprocal help.
Page 431 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 431 I. Religious bodies have been the chief victims of dishonest mendicancy. The guise of distress, real or fictitious, has had a magic spell to waste the fruits of the good but thoughtless man's industry. Churches have been looked upon as the legitimate field for mendicant application. Families transfer their connection from one church to another, or, with an impartiality rare in other relations, distribute their representatives among several Sunday-schools or churches, gaining by pseudo-devout arts what they can from each: Methodist clothing, Baptist groceries, Presbyterian meat, Episcopalian potatoes, Roman Catholic rent, Universalist cash, available for "sundries,"-all are acceptable to the mendicant pensioner of religious charity. II. A second evil, far worse than this, is the encouragement that religious'bodies have unconsciously given to vice. Notice that every penny paid to dishonest mendicancy is a bribe to every kind of vice, and this evil will appear beyond computing. The unthinking giver of various doles furnishes the food on which mendicancy thrives. It is a grave question whether some benevolent organizations, springing up in the light of religion and nourished by its spirit, have not done more harm than good. To their beneficiaries, so called, they have offered bribes to reject industry for indolence, honesty for hypocrisy, reverence for sacrilege; and all the while there rests unnoticed in the registry that Charity Organization has maintained the record of facts which in many cases might protect against the fraud that first robs the church and then drags it into unconscious but effective alliance with corrupt arts to debase the poor. Let it be remembered that the registries of Charity Organization hold in confidence the material intrusted to them; that nothing is published but what ought to be published for the exposure of fraud and the protection of the public; that the details of personal history are guarded from all eyes except those that have a legitimate interest in the inquiry; that the rights of personal and domestic privacy are sacredly observed. If, then, the churches will consult these registries before making new families the recipients of alms, and if they will record in them the instances of their own almsgiving, the evil of which I have spoken will be reduced to the minimum. III. Charity Organization discovers and presents to religious bodies special opportunities for their best work. Among those who appeal to Charity Organization for help are many whose sorrow and want have made them accessible to the ministries of religious philanthropy. The Church looks upon the miseries of the poor in the mass, and is disheartened: one knows not where to begin in the effort to relieve. But Charity Organization shows where to begin. It individualizes and separates the mass. It knows the man, the woman, the family in distress. It knows who will appreciate the offices of genuine kindness, and who will respond to them with revived hope and renewed courage and braver struggle for victory over misfortune. It
Page 432 432 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. says to a man of religious spirit: " Here is a family in want. We know their want and its cause. We know their despondency. We know their suspicion of the wealthy. We know that they account religion itself as a luxury mortgaged to the rich. We know the cheerless, the frightful outlook for the children already prematurely wise in knowledge of the world on its dark side. Some special distress has brought them to our door. We see that they are responsive to genuine sympathy. Now we intrust them to your care. Be you their friend. Make their life's problem your own. Bestow upon theii your heart. Win their confidence. Point, lead, lift them upward. Take the commission as in God's name, that this family may engage your thought and time and prayer, and may become at length your joy. It is a task that an angel might covet. It is a task that the Divine Son eagerly accepted. And so in God's name we offer it to you." This is the continuous appeal of Charity Organization to men of religious profession. Why should it not win ready response? IV. Charity Organization proposes to religious men a method of effort that promises the best results. That method has two features: first, the development of self-respect in the beneficiary; second, the agency of personal friendship. The best help is that which shows one how to help himself and encourages him to do it. The primeval law of labor, spoken when man was put into the garden, and was bidden to till it, contained the condition of real welfare. That law is still operative, supreme, benignant. We would not crush manhood by loading it with unearned wealth. We would exalt the law of self-respecting and self-supporting industry. We would train to work, and encourage to work, and stimulate to work all who can work. We would not offer alms as an inducement to the acceptance of religious teaching. The free Sunday breakfast, followed by a sermon, has its advocates. I do not doubt that in some instances it has done good. But I know too well that in some it has done harm. The man who is really hungry, and the other more numerous man, who is glad to get a free lunch that he may have the more money for rum, are not favorably impressed when a breakfast is offered as an inducement to swallow a dose of otherwise unpalatable religious discourse. The hungry man will reason that, if the charity were genuine, it would be given outright. The greedy sot will look on the whole thing as a poor device for proselyting, that he can easily circumvent. In both cases, religion is degraded in the mind of the beneficiary. The methods of philanthropic effort, to be effectual, must command the respect of those who are to be helped. It has been thought that the methods of Charity Organization were unsuited to the use of religious men, because the society bears no religious title and makes no religious profession, and welcomes to its aid men who have not learned the shibboleths of the sects. Now, we think that this feature of our work gives it pre-eminent claim on the sympathy and help of religious men.
Page 433 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 433 Starving and shivering bodies forget that they enshrine souls. The offer of a tract or of religious counsel to one who is most distinctly conscious of bodily want offends and repels. The culture of religion in stately temples, with accompaniment of charming music and thrilling eloquence, is accounted a luxury that makes the very name of religion repulsive to some of the poor, and an occasion of bitter envy to others. But the friendliness that meets one in the want of which he is conscious, and that bestows sympathy and help at just that point, wins confidence. It gains power to lift the needy one to a higher plane, not only of physical comfort, but of spiritual consciousness and aspiration. We remember that the great preacher of repentance in the Jordan valley, when eagerly questioned about his ecclesiastical relation, gave no answer. He was only "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." His power was in the truth that he spake, and in the glowing heart behind it. When the new messenger of God's redeeming love was working his wonders in Judea and Galilee, even to John, who asked, " Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" he refused answer. He only said, "Go, tell John what things ye do see and hear." His works were his testimony, and royal honors would have been thrust upon him by force if he had not fled. We remember the lesson in the parable of the Good Samaritan, where Christ appointed one of a race that he pronounced heterodox to instruct His Church unto all time in the rudimental lesson of helpful love. We welcome those who will do with us the God-like deed. We introduce ourselves to the needy one in the name of human brotherhood. We escape the suspicion of sinister design. We touch the sorrowing heart where we can. And we doubt not that thus the way will be opened for the higher ministries of religion. We are assured that now, as of old, wisdom will be justified of her children. Think not that I disparage the Church, or that I counsel indifference to those phases of religious truth on which good men debate. Never should the Church furl its banner until with songs and everlasting joy it celebrates the final triumph over the evil that is in the world. Never should religious men forget their pre-eminent right to employ every reasonable instrument for doing good. Proselyting is prohibited by the principles of our organization. But, if one is filled with the love of Gcd, he cannot help infusing his holy passion into another who turns to him for help in time of need. That is not proselyting. In the eagerness of genuine love and in the earnestness of its endeavor a man cares little through which one of the twelve gates the recovered child of God shall enter the celestial city. But for multitudes the celestial pathway begins at the point where a crushed and desponding heart catches some new ray of hope through a love which seems at first only human. V. Have patience for yet one more reason for the co-operation that we advocate. It is the service that Charity Organization renders to practical religion.
Page 434 434 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Nominally, our enterprise is addressed to the relief of the poor. Really, it is addressed quite as much to the need of those who are not called poor. It is especially addressed to the need and aspiration of religious bodies. It opens to them the very opportunity that they profess to seek, the opportunity to gain by imparting, to be enriched by giving. Much of the piety that we see about us is an infantile thing. It has to be cradled and pillowed and fed by continual nursing. It has not taken on the manly vigor and the womanly grace developed in those active ministries for the good of others, to which religion commissions its disciples. Our pastors lament the dwarfed religious life in the churches to which they minister. Many good men and women themselves lament that they find so little scope for the beneficent spirit that is in them. To this want Charity Organization addresses itself. In our large cities, at least, there is work enough to be done for the development of the best energies that religious love inspires. Let the man who would put into practice the spirit of beneficence inculcated in his hours of worship seek an opportunity at the office of the Charity Organization Society: he will not have long to wait. Let the pastor who would train the members of his flock to some activity that will nourish and develop the spiritual life make his wish known: he can be shown the opportunity to suit his wish. There is some soul to-day on the borders of despair, waiting for the kind word and the judicious counsel that a Christian heart inspires. Are there not also many Christian hearts throbbing with eager wish to speak the word, and to offer the counsel, and to stretch out the hand that shall bring life and hope to the desponding? The daily records of Charity Organization are rich in fresh opportunities to develop the holiest graces by exercise. Here under our eye there is misery enough to bless every one who has heart and purpose to relieve; there is poverty enough to enrich every one who seeks the higher wealth of God-like beneficence; there is sin and despair enough to glorify every one who, from the fulness of his own spiritual life, can bestow repentant hope. This earth in all its wretchedness had new glory to offer Him who came from the eternal throne on the errand of salvation. And every sorrowing child of earth holds in his hand the recompense of everlasting joy for every ministry of Christ-like love, from the gift of a cup of water to the costliest service in the Lord's name. Charity Organization admits no rivalry nor jealousy towards any society that does good, least of all towards those bodies manifestly inspired:th religion pure and undefiled before God. But, if it has found an instrument that can protect the Church from imposition and from enforced alliance with imposition, if it has opened a new door of opportunity to the beneficence of religious men, if it has proposed methods of effective beneficence, and, more than all else, if it has furnished an agency through which the loftiest
Page 435 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 435 aspirations of religious men may be more effectually realized, then is its plea for co-operation made good. DISCUSSION. At the conclusion of Dr. Safford's paper the subject was presented for general discussion. Dr. AYRES emphasized the importance of not allowing Organized Charity Associations to furnish direct relief. They should refer applicants to the proper places for obtaining relief, but should not undertake relief themselves. Deviations from this policy infallibly antagonizes some of the co-operating charitable societies. They argue that they should receive assistance from the public rather than the organization, because all the money given them is paid out in relief, while in the case of the Organized Charities a large part of money subscribed is expended in salaries, etc. He explained the "Golden Book" plan, copied from a Baltimore idea, whereby some contributors agree to raise their subscriptions to a stated figure on demand, if, on the representation of the agent of the Organized Charities, they believe an immediate cash outlay necessary to meet some special urgent case of distress. This enables the Organized Charities to promptly relieve emergency cases without holding any actual fund for that particular purpose. He said this plan worked perfectly well. He objected to charity funds in general. Emergency cases demanding immediate relief were rare, and could be otherwise assisted. Miss ZILPHA SMITH, of Boston, agreed that a trust fund for relief was not desirable, but expressed an opinion that assistance in money form was often an excellent and necessary kind of relief. She urged that different families required assistance of different kinds. Rev. Mr. ELIOT spoke of the peculiar character of relief work in Denver. Nearly all cases arising here, he said, "were immediate emergency cases." More than one-half of the thousand applicants last year were single men. The population is floating, and families who apply for relief seldom remain for more than a month or two. Mr. Eliot said the "Golden Book" was practically an emergency fund;. that in Denver they preferred to keep their money in hand. He spoke of the need of a Dime Savings Bank, and the necessity of inculcating principles of economy and thrift. Miss MARY E. RICHMOND, of Baltimore, spoke of some of the dangers to Charity Organization resulting in the decrease of popular criticisms of the movement. She desired to point out that, while cooperation of a certain sort was easily obtained, it was very difficult to secure that enlightened assistance absolutely essential to the full realization of our ideals. She urged that persons working in this line should beware of applauding the popular attitude towards the movement, and that, in order to effect the most complete and worthy fulfil
Page 436 436 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. ment of their purpose, they should strive to educate the public, whose help is sought, until that help becomes intelligent co-operation of the highest character. Miss SMITH said that the most effective co-operation by religious bodies was found in churches having a large mission work, together with a considerable number of volunteer and paid workers. In Boston many such churches not only hold separate conferences for charity work, but also co-operate with the rest; and the success of their efforts is to be traced to the fact that they were begun under a co-operative system. Churches having only a few poor members do not supply "friendly visitors" except in connection with the general work of Organized Charity. SECTIONAL MEETING V. RELIEF IN WORK. The following propositions were submitted: (I) Effort is a normal condition of acquirement; (2) Work as the price of things needed is the restoration of one right element in the problem of a destitute or a debased life; (3) Want brings with it a motive to work; therefore, (4) Work is a natural first step in relief, reformation, or development. EXPERIMENTS IN RELIEF IN WORK. Dr. AYRES, of Cincinnati, read the following paper on the topic:The experiment of relief in work has been more extensively tried in Europe than in America. The labor colonies in Germany and General Booth's industries in London are both pronounced sound in principle as well as helpful in practice by many who are competent to judge. There may be greater need in the Old World than in the New for relief in such form that the labor brings an income, and the cost of charitable administration is diminished. It is not upon the ground of diminished cost, however, as I understand these movements, that they have been organized and managed with such persistent effort, but rather because such relief in work has been found to benefit the character of the applicant far more than any relief in alms. It is the character of the poor, not their pockets, that is in question; and here lies the great gulf fixed between the old charity and the new. The whole matter was clearly discerned fifty years ago by Hugh Miller, who said: "We hold that the only righteous and practical check on adult pauperism, the only check at once just and efficient,
Page 437 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 437 is the compulsory imposition of labor on every pauper to whom God has given, in even the slightest degree, the laboring ability." The specific object of this paper is to sketch the extent of Relief in Work in this country. From correspondence with about ninety societies the following statements have been drawn: All of the Charity Organization Societies in this country find employment without charge for men and women in need of work in so far as the agents and visitors can find openings in the regular commercial field, odd jobs, etc. In Ohio we have been trying a very interesting experiment with five public State employment offices (free) in the five large cities of this State. Legislation for these was secured through efforts of labor organizations. Thus far the office in Cincinnati has been free from political interference, but it remains to be seen whether the present Republican Administration will put in a new superintendent. At first the office advertised its work extensively, and claims to have secured eight thousand places in the first six months. By communication through different offices the demands for various kinds of labor is equalized throughout the State. None of the Charity Organizations throughout the country found special difficulty caused by strikes; and, when found at all, it has been treated by the usual methods. Very few of the societies report an honest, sober man of average capacity as having been long out of work. Mr. Kellogg says that in New York "such cases are rare." Mr. Buzelle says that in Brooklyn they are "very exceptional." Mr. Trusdell in Chicago reports "none worth mentioning except non-residents." Experimentsfor the Temporary Employment of Men. Institutions for the temporary employment of men are best developed in Boston and Philadelphia. The Wayfarer's.Lodge of Boston is a municipal institution under the direction of the Overseers of the Poor. Each man must take a warm bath on entering, and receives a wholesome breakfast or supper. In return he cuts and saws wood for one or two hours. Men also earn their meals in the Lodge yard. The wood is used in public buildings, sold to the public, and given to the poor. If a man neglects his allotted task, or refuses to perform it before eleven o'clock of the day succeeding his application, he is deemed a vagrant, and may be sent to the House of Correction. This being a city institution, no effort is made toward bringing it to a condition of self-support. The two Wayfarer's Lodges in Philadelphia are under the care of the Charity Organization Society, and together cost that society about $3,000 annually (I889), in addition to the sales of wood, which are large. The general plan is the same as in Boston, men being detained until ten o'clock, and the superintendent of the lodges having police powers. The city police stations give no shelter to men, but refer all to the Charity Organization Society.
Page 438 438 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. There are two wood-yards under the direction of the Brooklyn society. The first one was so carefully managed as to be able to help to start the second one, which is nearing self-support. New York, Buffalo, Chicago, and Milwaukee have self-supporting wood-yards. Those in New Haven and Cleveland are nearly so. Labor tests are reported in Louisville, Detroit, Omaha, Davenport (Iowa), and Cincinnati, either in connection with a Friendly Inn or some private firm willing to test the men. I believe that the best results financially and morally can be obtained only by the employment of high-grade talent in capacity of superintendent. It takes the highest to make an impression on the minds of the lowest. If we can persuade college men to go into the field, it would be much better tilled. It is a new field, and offers scope for talent. With increased facilities for transportation, the body of the homeless poor is bound to increase. No one as yet in this country has given them scientific attention. Experiments for the Temporary Employment of Women. Instances of distress, caused by lack of male support, are among the most frequent and difficult with which we have to deal. These include three classes: widows, deserted wives, and families in which the husband is drunken or disabled. If giving temporary employment other than as a labor test is better than giving alms, how much more it applies to women than to men! The burden of support falls far more heavily upon the woman. Her self respect and independence of spirit are, therefore, more easily broken. If there is any plan that will keep a care-worn woman above the position of a beggar, or, finding her in that position, will raise her above it, is it not greatly preferable to grants and doles? The plan of giving temporary employment to women has been successfully put into practice in several cities, notably in Brooklyn. To friends of the poor in Brooklyn is due the credit of having worked out the experiment of employing and training women, both skilled and unskilled, more carefully and successfully than any one else who has ever undertaken it. The essentials of General Booth's plan were already in successful operation in Brooklyn before they were announced in London. There are in Brooklyn two work-rooms for unskilled women, and two laundry training schools, for higher grade women, with recommendations. In the work-rooms any woman may find employment, none being obliged to beg. Work is fitted to the capacity of each woman. One was found who in the forty years of her life had never threaded a needle. To the nearly blind, with rheumatic fingers, the sorting of light from colored pieces is given, and the ravelling of carpet for rags. Quid pro quo is the motto, while something for nothing is held to be false in principle. Making and cutting garments, rugs, aprons, ragcarpets, with braiding and patching, are the leading industries. A substantial luncheon is given at mid-day, and the wages paid are cloth
Page 439 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 439 ing and groceries at night. No cash is given. Mothers may bring their children, under six, who are cared for in an adjoining room. The society in Portland, Me., has a sewing-room for women. Those in Poughkeepsie, Newark, N.J., and in Kansas City, give sewing to women, in connection with laundry work, the first sometimes getting women work at mending meal-sacks. The work-room in Cincinnati has been established thirteen months, and to those in our city most interested in the poor has become indispensable. Its light, warmth, and sociability are a god-send to the discouraged, while as a means of giving earnest, cultivated women an opportunity to know intimately the ills of their unfortunate sisters it is unrivalled. Five restaurants send food daily, and an effort is made to gather up all useful material in the city that might otherwise be wasted. The institution is not self-supporting, and with such unskilled labor cannot be, but is infinitely better than doles costing an equal sum. In Brooklyn the laundry training schools are nearly self-supporting. The finest work is done for the best people in the city. New York and New Haven have laundries established in connection with the Charity Organization Societies, the latter having become self-supporting after ten years' experience. Kansas City had a laundry (now suspended), while Milwaukee and Chattanooga report beginnings made in this direction. The Female Charitable Society of Newark maintains a laundry. The Charity Organization Society in Baltimore has opened a room in which a number of sewing-machines are run by electricity. The women bring their sewing here, and pay a small sum for using the instruments. Girls are taught the use of machines. So much for experiments recently tried. Permit me, in conclusion, one or two broader reflections. The existing industrial system has a certain definite relation to the problem of poverty, consisting in this; namely, that, if the conditions of labor are improved, fewer persons are likely to fall from the ranks of dependence. If men have better wages and more leisure, fewer women and children will have to toil beyond their strength. If men can earn more, they can save more, use building associations and insurance more, and fewer widows and children come to want. Mr. Carroll D. Wright has said that the conditions in shoe factories (sometimes had in the West) are better than the conditions in the houses from which the girls come. This is often true. But it appears to me a legitimate field for Charity Organization to keep at its work of finding and healing the cause of distress, until it shall see to it that every factory, every shop and store, is a help, and not a harm, to its employees. Let us work public sentiment and legislation. Let us awaken the churches, agitate, persuade, till we find employers willing in all cases to treat their employees as men and women. All honor to those who are already doing well. This is " Relief in Work."
Page 440 440 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The following paper by Mr. JOHN GLENN, of Baltimore, was readthe writer being absent -by Mr. John M. Glenn:In solving the problem of the unemployed, we find very little difficulty in meeting the needs of those who want us to find work for them, or, when we cannot find it, expect us to provide it. But there is another portion of the problem which is not so easy to solve, or rather, from what we see around us, seems to be difficult. It is the question of dealing with what the Germans call the "workfearer," who is unemployed because he will not work. A compulsory or quasi-compulsory labor is the only remedy for this class, and it is with this question that we propose now to deal. The early Christian Church dealt with it. The simple motto of Saint Paul, " If any did not work, neither should he eat," constrained the lives of those early Christians to such a degree that a beggar was looked upon as a false brother, and retained no place in their community. The monastery of the Middle Ages reversed the principle, and, like many of the churches of the present day, counted the amount of their treasury laid up in heaven by the number of beggars they daily made here. Europe swarmed with these beggars; and such was their power that in Munich, about a hundred years ago, they had become a menace to both State and Church, and the citizens could not even walk the streets in safety. In one day Count Rumford dispersed this army. He simply induced the State, the Church, and the citizen to co-operate and offer to the beggar and the tramp the option of a remunerative labor, which should be accepted voluntarily, or that of an unremunerative labor, the acceptance of which would be enforced; and beggary disappeared from Munich and the surrounding country. Not only did it disappear, but, strange to say, the tramp learned to recognize the charms of labor and to love it for himself, and to love him to whom they owed the lesson. There is a touching proof of this in one of the incidents of Count Rumford's life. He was lying ill, and not expected to recover. One morning he was aroused by the sound of music and the steady tramp of a passing army. Turning in his bed, he asked its meaning. The answer was, an army of beggars marching to the neighboring church, to the sound of sacred music, to pray for the restoration of him who had taught them self-respect, and what it meant to be a citizen and a man. In our dealings with this class of the unemployed, does it ever occur to us that we have a duty which we have failed to perform?that for generations the ideas of home and property and law have been unknown to them, and that we have never tried to teach them? Not only are we as individuals increasing this army of beggary and vagabondage, but in our institutions and in our municipal government we are offering a premium for its perpetuation, when a simple remedy
Page 441 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 441r is at hand which we could apply with a certainty of success. I mean the introduction of labor into our almshouses, and this labor so directed as to be used but for one purpose,- that of reformation. The plan proposed would be about as follows: - Every almshouse should be located conveniently for access by the beggar. It should be provided with all the simple comforts of a home, and made attractive by such appliances as are to be found in the homes of the thrifty, self-respecting laboring men. To such a home the beggar should be invited, but his entry should be coupled with the condition that he should remain subject to the rules of the institution for at least a year. This period might be shortened at the discretion of the superintendent. The work of the day should be two or three hours given to mental and moral teaching, four hours to industrial training, — and here the ordinary useful trades should be represented. Farming should be given the preference, and those trades which are connected with the farm. Two or more hours should be given to the gymnasium and the drill. The effect of physical training upon the moral sense is extraordinary. With this training the ideas of order, regularity, discipline, promptness, and control, are all united; and in many a case, where the attempt to impress these ideas by simple intellectual means would fail, they are introduced by simply acting them, and the moral sense thus aroused develops by the simple law of growth, so that you can build upon it intellectually. Two things will be necessary to introduce into such a scheme. The work of the beggar should be valued, and a part of his earnings. should be deposited to his credit, and his performance at school or at work, or his behavior, should be registered, as at an ordinary reformatory, by marks. These marks should each have a money value. He would thus be taught that money was a representative of his best intelligence and labor; and, if all that was best in him had produced this money, in the spending of it it ought to represent what was best for others. This I know may seem to some too fine for the beggar, but there is a logic and a sequence in moral ideas which those who deal in them know are far beyond the sphere of human calculation. On the other hand, if he refused to carry out his contract, he should. be treated on the line of the separate system in a prison until he should ask for work as a relief arid as a diversion; for nothing makes work so desirable as enforced idleness under restraint. Should he escape or should he be found begging upon the street, he should be committed to the House of Correction. Maryland was peopled by the tramp. In England, where his calling was profitable, he remained a tramp. In his new home, where there was no one to yield to his importunity; and where he was obliged to work if he would eat, he did work, and became a man; and the same process will always produce the same result. Degraded by beggary, a man loses not only his self-respect, but his individuality. He becomes one of a class, of a herd, where hope. is gone, and into whose lives the idea of a possibility never comes.
Page 442 442 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Turn him from this condition by simply teaching him to labor, and you elevate him above the herd into an individual; and he goes out of his former presence the new creature of hope and possibility. DISCUSSION. Mr. S. O. PRESTON, Of New Haven, Conn.-Our experience has been that, if we are to get an equivalent for help rendered, we must secure it before aid is supplied. In order to do this, the yard is kept open until Io P.M.; and very few come too late to do their work before that time. One-twentieth of a cord of wood sawed and split is required for each meal or lodging supplied. The meals are furnished on the premises. The breakfast and dinner bill of fare consists of beef stew, bread, and coffee. For supper we offer bread, cheese, and coffee. We purchase cooked food from the neighboring restaurants, and find it cheaper and better than we can prepare. We give a man all he desires to eat, and there is no complaint as to quantity or quality. No men are lodged in the house except under unusual circumstances. The average laborer is sent to a cheap lodging-house with an order stamped and signed by the management. "Who," I am asked, "are employed in the night at wood-sawing and splitting?" Non-residents, "tramps," etc., who come seeking lodgings and food. "How late may a man work?" The office receives applicants until 9 P.M., and the yard is run until the task is completed, generally about io P.M. When they come later, security for return to work in the morning is required. "How many really do the night work?" Perhaps twelve men nightly during the winter months. "How many refuse to do it when offered?" Less than one per cent. There is no other institution in this city where lodgings can be secured except by cash payments for same. "What is the connection of the night work with your office, and how managed practically? " It is simply a continuation of the day system, and was forced upon us by the (sometimes premeditated) arrival of the tramp after office hours. By it we determine character, genuineness of professed need, and willingness to work. Our whole work (administration, investigation, registration, and labor department) is one work. " How does the night work (or the ability to offer it) help or simplify your general work?" By making the work test available day and night. " Is the night work especially helpful to those who accept it?" Yes: without it they must beg or steal the equivalent of a lodging or walk the streets all night. " Does it furnish a satisfactory answer to the 'gusher' who desires to give every evening beggar twenty-five cents?" No: nothing satisfies the "gusher ": he will persist in giving his (or some one's else)
Page 443 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 443 money to the plausible beggar as often as he appears; but sensible people are well satisfied that our system is business-like, as well as humane, and show their faith by a liberal patronage. Capt. W. H. MATTHEWS.-I was superintendent of one of the "Boys' Lodging Houses" in 1882, under the care of the ' Children's Aid Society" of New York. If a boy had money, he paid five cents a meal and five cents for a bed. A lady became interested in a badly crippled boy, and sent him to me to see if I could find any place where he could be taught a trade, if a premium was paid. After canvassing the city for three months, a man was found who taught him cobbling within a few months. We had nine disabled boys in our home. They were supplied with newspapers and shoeblacking outfits. Put in wet and cold weather they could not earn a living. One had no legs, another no toes, two were paralyzed, three were one-legged, and two had hip disease. The matter was laid before a gentleman, who advanced $400 to start a brush shop. Mr. C. L. Brace, Secretary then of the C. O. S., said we might board the boys free until they could earn their living. The Phelps Mission gave us the use of a basement. We got an instructor, whom we paid $5 a wveek, and the regular price for finishing. The boys were boarded, clothed, and paid fifty cents a week until they could earn sufficient wages on piece work. Then we charged them $i a week for their board. The boys were paid the market price for their work. We could only teach the boys the part that paid the smallest wages. The responsibility of the finances was on myself. The first year we sold most of our brushes for less than the cost of the material used and wasted. But we took in every crippled boy that came. Many worked a few weeks, some a few months, and were only an expense. Our average number employed was sixteen, and the annual yearly cash loss was $150. Many of them were begging, and were sent by the C. O. S.; others were sent from court; some came themselves; the S. P. C. C. sent others. The moral and intellectual and physical effects have been encouraging in every respect. Greater self-respect, more independence,-the difference that you see between a beggar and a self-supporter. Mr. A. W. CLARK, of Omaha, Neb., presented the following account of co-operation with county authorities in furnishing relief in work:The Provident Wood-yard of Omaha has one interesting feature. The county commissioners send men to work in the yard for groceries and coal. Their time is reckoned at fifteen cents an hour. The county pays these men in groceries and coal. Aside from the financial aid to the wood-yard, other advantages are manifest. These poor men are not pauperized in receiving the needed aid. They are simply furnished an opportunity to earn an honest living; and, under this arrangement, some men are driven to do work which they are well able to do, but have previously been quite unwilling to do.
Page 444 444 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. The county is financially advantaged by the fact that tramps and dead-beats being cut off from the usual form of outdoor relief have no alternative but to accept the relief the county offers as the result of their work or to go elsewhere. The question as to whether or not a wood-yard should be self-supporting was discussed. Dr. Ayres took the ground that a tramp not only owed himself a living, but, like the rest of the community, owed something to the unfortunate. He said that, if a wood-yard were not self-supporting, it was either because of poor management or because too much was sacrificed to the "industrial training" which he may be supposed to receive. The tramp ought, even for his own sake, to be made to work hard, and make the wood-yard self-supporting. This result has been reached in five or six cities. Two years, he said, was the shortest period in which a wood-yard had been made self-supporting. Hon. R. H. CLARKE, of New York, President of the New York Catholic Protectory, spoke of the cooking school for girls organized by that body, founded under the instruction of Miss Juliet Corson. Twenty-four girls from the female department of the Protectory receive the benefit of this instruction. Miss RICHMOND, of Baltimore, spoke of the sewing school for poor women in that city. She said it was still an experiment, carried on in a tentative way. Originally, the idea had been to utilize electric power for sewing-machines, in order to assist women broken down by the fatigue of using foot-power machines. This plan had been abandoned. Women who had worked at home did not care to work there. Accordingly, an attempt was made to train women to do good, rapid work who had never done any sort of machine-sewing before, with the idea of feeding them out, so fast as they become competent, into the regular factories of the commercial world. Of thirty-six women who have attended this training school, twentytwo are now making a living by sewing, fourteen are doing other kinds of work. The women who come are chiefly no longer young, and are unable to secure places in any workshop. The Charity Organization Society sends most of them. There is a large demand for skilled work of this class in Baltimore; and, in consequence of practical representations made to members of the School Board, sewing was now taught in the public schools. Miss Richmond thought it very desirable that training of this sort should be removed as fast as possible from the charitable into the educational field. Mrs. C. C. RAINWATER, of St. Louis, described the successful Manual Training School of the Women's Christian Association. No women, she said, were turned away for lack of money; but, where. applicants had no funds, work was always required of them to preserve their self-respect and to avoid pauperizing. Miss SMITH said that, in supplying work to persons living outside
Page 445 CHARITY ORGANIZATION, 445 institutions, there was danger of missing the real object of such work, which was the saving of the person's self-respect, and the putting him into relations with regular commercial employers. Neglect of this point, she said, had partly caused the failure of three attempts made in Boston to afford relief in work. Mr. N. R. WALPOLE, of Portland, Ore., said that in that city about half the applicants for assistance there were single men of the genus 4'tramp." In December, 1890, the Union Pacific R.R. discharged twenty-five hundred employees who came upon the city for relief. Work was found for a number of them by getting the steam saw-mills to employ them, the city paying a bonus for their employment. By advertising, Mr. Walpole had brought many of them into contact with employers who needed help. In general, he had found among the unemployed a reluctance to work; and he regarded compulsory work as the only solution of the problem. SECTIONAL MEETING VI. THE EDUCATION OF THE FRIENDLY VISITOR. BY MISS ZILPHA D. SMITH. Life itself will still be the chief schoolmaster of the friendly visitor; and the part of the society with which he works must be to bring him into relation with new aspects of life, and to help him by contact and conferences with other workers to see them rightly, and to use to the best advantage his opportunities for doing good. A gentleman once came to our central office to ask if we could use him as a visitor, though he could give time only on Sundays or out of business hours. A month later he confessed to a member of the conference with which he worked that he offered to visit merely because he believed the Associated Charities were all wrong. He wanted to sift our methods for himself. "Now," he said, "I am entirely converted." He took a family to visit that he believed was misrepresented, and began, as some visitors will, in spite of good advice, by giving relief. Not only did he lose his faith in the power of giving, but he gained faith in the power of personal influence, and kept on with the family to retrieve his first failure. The work itself made him realize that he was wrong, and conference with other workers showed him the better way. Friendly visiting on any large scale can hardly be successful without conference meetings, without that frequent opportunity of hearing
Page 446 446 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. about others' work and of helping each other by bits of suggestion. After experimenting with various intervals, all our fourteen conferences in Boston have found weekly conferences best. "Every Tuesday at three " is easily remembered; notices need not be sent except on special occasions; if one misses a meeting the interval becomes only a fortnight, and he does not lose touch with the work; and, while the attendance at each meeting may not be so large, a greater number will have been present in any one month. We cannot expect every visitor to attend every meeting, and we may be fairly satisfied with an average attendance of eight or ten out of fifty visitors. If there are only two or three, it is better to go over the work and do it at your best. It helps the workers who are there, encourages them to come again, and is excellent practice toward carrying on a large meeting well. We have gradually divided the responsibility of the conference. There are three persons who are sure to have more or less to say, the chairman, the secretary, and the member of the committee who has prepared and presents the business for discussion. The more we increase the number who take part, the more likely a new visitor is to gain courage to speak, the more each learns from touch with the thought and experience of others. In the course of the meeting two or three opportunities should be given for any visitor present to ask a question or make a report. But our old way of calling upon every one frightens away those who can never be persuaded to speak in meeting, and by wasting time on unimportant matters makes many of the most useful people avoid the conferences. No wish to expedite business, however, should crowd out accounts of successes or lead us to make decisions without considering together the principle involved. We have lately published in Boston a paper on Daily Committee Work, in which even inexperienced visitors can engage. The Daily Committee strengthens all the work, makes the conference meetings more helpful, and the visitor's own service better. A lady who had very high ideas of what should be done, and was often impatient because her poor friends were not so quick as she to see what was right and best, was appointed a member of the committee which prepares the business for the conference and presents it there. In this way she came to know much of the work of other visitors, and of the results they attained by slow and patient service. Her own visiting has been greatly improved thereby. She is less quick to judge harshly, more tender and patient. "Ideals are catching," as one of our visitors says. When Mr. Kellogg left the Philadelphia society, the visitors there sent him resolutions thanking him for his patience, his wisdom in guiding them over hard places, and his kindness in pointing out true methods of work. In Mr. Kellogg's reply he said, "I feel that, wherein I have been helpful to the visitors with whom it was my privilege and pleasure to serve, it was as the exponent of lessons
Page 447 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 447 learned with and from themselves." I think we all feel this. Because we can give much time to the work, whether we are paid for it or serve as volunteers, because this gives us opportunity to learn much from others, we have a duty toward them, a duty to " lead them forth," which I believe is the true meaning of education, to help them to learn the lessons that the work itself teaches. A lady offering to become a visitor said she liked all she had heard about our work except our taking children away from parents. Of that she strongly disapproved. It was explained to her that we tried to take children away only when there was no home worth the name, no proper feeling toward the children, no chance of their growing up to be decent men and women. Going to visit a family to which she was assigned, she returned immediately to say that those children must be taken away, the home was too dreadful. Then she was persuaded to try to make the home fit for them to stay in. As in this instance, the new visitor often needs another's steady hand and head to guide him through the first shocks of finding conditions so strange to his experience that he cannot judge them rightly. Sometimes a-visitor will become so discouraged by failure at first that she will not go on. Then, if she can be used as a volunteer in the office, writing, etc., she gradually learns about others' work, and by and by begins to visit again with fresh confidence in herself. I am always anxious to warn others against making friends only with those members of the family who meet you half-way, because I made that mistake myself and suffered the consequences. If the visitor is a woman, the shy ones in the family are usually the man of the house and the older boys, who, as far as material prosperity goes, are the most important members of the family. A visit on Sunday finds them at home, but even then they may be unwilling to talk, and occasion must be made to see them away from their own family. Most visitors have some things to unlearn when they begin. One is to give up their faith in the power of relief. A visitor was interested in a woman who greatly needed work, and herself employed her. Once or twice it happened that the woman had to go to court in the morning, and came at ten instead of eight, or again the visitor let her off early; but she always paid her for the whole day. The visitor was advised that in the long run it was unwise not to pay by the hour, as was the custom; but she was not convinced until, having got work among her neighbors for the woman, they complained that she came at ten instead of eight, and expected pay for the whole day, and they would not employ her longer. The relief the visitor gave disguised as pay defeated her efforts to help the woman to self-support. Another thing which many have to unlearn is the notion that, when the crisis is past and the family have become self-supporting, they do not need to see the visitor again, that there is no more work to do. One agent guards against this by giving each new visitors two families, one where there is a definite thing to be done at once, the other
Page 448 448 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. where the only possibility for the time is to make their acquaintance, and work along slowly, preparing for an opportunity by and by. The experience in the second family is apt to make one use similar methods with the other, and form ties which will hold after the first emergency has been disposed of. Another agent thinks it better to watch carefully, and, when the first definite thing is nearly finished, to suggest another, perhaps for another member of the family. Visitors often wish to give up after but two or three visits, because their advice is not taken. Then some one should help them to see that it was best to give the advice on the chance of its being taken, but that we cannot wonder that it was not accepted. We would not ourselves often act on the advice of a stranger; and there may be considerations the family are yet too shy to mention, influencing their decision. The story of what others have accomplished by keeping on a year, of the great change that appeared at last, though progress seemed slow, encourages a visitor to persevere. We are apt in beginning to be so occupied with our own attitude toward the poor people that we forget to ask ourselves what their attitude toward us may be. I fancy this is what Mr. Ayres meant, the other night, when he said the university student might go constantly to the slums, and yet pass the poor by on the other side. We do personal work among the poor, we say; but do we make the poor people feel that it is personal to them? We can make it so by really giving ourselves, not merely our thought and care in their affairs, but telling them from the first something of our own. "Tell them about yourself and your family," is good advice to a visitor. If some one is sick, the mother or sister will be interested to hear about your friends who have recovered from the same disease. All your affairs will be quite as interesting to them as theirs to you, and any confidence you can give will inspire confidence in return. Even visitors of some experience do not always recognize the beginnings of their own successes. A lady who had shown herself a good visitor came to the office of the conference one day, and said: "I think I may as well give up the Browns. I cannot see that I do any good there." But the agent said, "Think over last week: do you remember what you said then?" "No." "You said those children's faces were clean, they never were clean before. That surely shows a little improvement. Do go once more." The next week the windows were clean, and fresh white curtains put up. And now, after four years, the visitor says: " How thankful I am that you insisted on my keeping on! I would not give them up for anything." One of our volunteers applies this test: to a visitor who wants to give up, she says, "Does the woman like you?" If the answer is "Yes," she urges her keeping on. If "No," the inference is that we have not sent the right visitor to that family. Often their trust seems to come suddenly after a year or two, and they turn to the visitor for the very advice that in the first month
Page 449 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 449 they would not listen to. They may have thought then, " He can't be right: he doesn't know how things really are with me." The record of a family, though all true, often starts a visitor with a false notion. It is said that a criminal is known by the worst thing he ever did, though none of us would care to be measured in that way; and a poor family is often judged by its worst member. There are two ways of avoiding this difficulty at the outset. One is, while giving the whole record to the visitor, to lay special emphasis on the attractive children, or whatever pleasant thing is known of any member of the family. Another is to ask the visitor if there is any special kind of family he wishes to visit. If not, then to give him only the briefest statement of whom he will find in the family who needs work or hospital care or whatever, not showing the record or telling the worst until he comes back to report, and, with the picture of the family in his mind, can give the worst its proper relative place. Sometimes, happily not often, the visitor unconsciously patronizes the poor people, forgetting that there is more likeness than difference between him and them. Unwittingly, he does and says little things that hurt and make a barrier. Working much with others who from nature or training never make those mistakes leads such persons to avoid them also. It helps all about us to the right spirit, if we take pains not to say "cases " when we could say " families," never to say "your family" when we might say "the Browns" or the "Greens," to speak of a woman as a friend of ours and not merely of ourselves as friends to her; in short, to speak of them and treat them as persons, and not as beings of another race. You want to help some one to a better, happier, or more prosperous way of living. If you begin by believing that there must be something in him to respect or admire, you will find it, and can meantime win him to trust you. You cannot persuade him to give you his confidence and ask your counsel if you despise his. CHARITY ORGANIZATION AS AN EDUCATING FORCE. BY MR. CHARLES D. KELLOGG, OF NEW YORK. Your chairman has asked me to say a few words on Charity Organization as an educating force. It is one of its most important functions to infuse into the community correct ideas of the proper treatment that should be adopted in helping the poor. So much of the "help," — and Heaven forgive those who so sadly misconstrue the meaning of that word,-so much of the help extended to those who seek our aid in bearing their heavy burdens is hasty, ill-considered, perfunctory, sentimental, or emotional, that it is all-important
Page 450 450 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. that fixed principles of wise charity should be well diffused among the community. There is only one standard by which you determine the measure of the kind of help required by the poor, and it is vital. It is that which is necessary to be done to put an individual or household in honest and respectable relations to society. The minimum is maintenance without any sort of begging. We must hold fast to this principle, because it is a chief article in the creed of Charity Organization. You will ask, " But can you make the blind or lame or aged or sick self-supporting? " And this goes right to the heart of the problem. Who is the best friend to the blind? The man who, for the asking, gives him a halfdollar on the street every few days, or Dr. S. G. Howe, who taught the sightless to read with raised letters, invented or discovered occupations by which they could maintain themselves, and opened to them busy, cheerful careers? Here is one point where Charity Organization has a modest word to say. Any person or association which insists that our present methods are good enough is either very indifferent to the welfare of the poor or very conceited. Charity Organization insists on the reverse, imploring men and women to come together and search out what needs to be done. It invites conferences for the freest exchange of views by either critics or friends. It strives to establish communication between workers in all kinds of philanthropy. Charity Organizationists use no more "red tape " than is necessary to arrive at a just understanding of the case under treatment, convinced that an inconsiderate, snap judgment is a mischievous and cruel species of charlatanism. Now, Charity Organization principles ask us all, in some measure, to be Howes or Seguins or Gallaudets in adapting our charity to the deeper need of those whose wants appeal to our compassion, and not to be easy-going, self-pleasing, superficial dabblers with their troubles. And this kind of work can be done as well for the vicious as for the defective classes. Read the records of Charles L. Brace, who sent forty thousand New York street waifs to homes in the West, and put manliness into the hearts of thousands of newsboys; of Mary Carpenter, who has done a like work in Liverpool; of Octavia Hill, whose firm insistence has turned filth-saturated courts in London into impressive scenes of cleanliness and sunlight, and converted rough boors and slattern women into patterns of neatness and sobriety; of Z. R. Brockway, who sends four out of five of the criminals coming under his control at Elmira back to useful, upright lives in society. Or read again for yourselves in the biographies of Edward Denison, Governor Macquairie, John Howard, and Elizabeth Fry. No, our greatest trouble lies less in the incorrigibility of the vicious than in the incorrigibility of society, which has cast them out and will not consider how to rescue them; which gives them the contemptuous pity of almshouses and charity agents, but will not touch them with time or thought or moral purpose.
Page 451 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 451 What it is so hard to get for the destitute and ignorant are personal kindnesses, even the alms of understanding, prudence, discretion, counsel, friendship. Enough money is already available for them, and needs only to be systematically managed. The true workers must go to the needy, as Christ came into the world, making themselves poor that others may become rich. We cannot confuse this moral and spiritual work with expectations of money without increasing the evils we are trying to eradicate. To describe in a sentence what is the cardinal aim of Charity Organization, so that one can think it out from its central idea: it is the co-operation of all benevolent forces for the cure of debasement and distress; or, in other words, it is the liberation of the fine moral and spiritual forces upon the troubled sea of penury, ignorance, and debasement, and the establishment of sound social relations for every one on the basis of personal kindness and fidelity each to the other's highest good. ADDRESS OF MR. P. W. AYRES, PH.D. "In addition to these inspiring words I should like to say something in regard to the parable of the good Samaritan, especially with regard to the priest and the Levite who went by on the other side. Though it is not found exactly so in the New Testament, you will perhaps permit me, for my purpose, to call the priest in some instances the minister of certain up-town churches in the East, and the Levite the university student. It is with regard to the attitude of the churches of our Eastern States and the students in the universities that I wish to speak, because I believe that both of these classes are going by on the other side. This is a strong statement, and will need modification with thousands of exceptions; but in certain instances it is true. I speak from the point of view of a university student. I am sure there is a good deal of gathering of statistics and studying of social problems without seeing the suffering that exists. I have been guilty of it myself, going by on the other side. There is a good deal of studying, for the purpose of making books and speeches, that does not reach the heart of the man who is in trouble. I feel strongly that what we need is the good Samaritan spirit, which will take us ourselves, men, women, and children, into these wretched homes of the back alleys and tenements, and bring to them the light and life and hope that come to us in our lives."
Page 452 452 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. THE CLASS FOR STUDY OF THE FRIENDLY VISITOR'S WORK. AN EXPERIMENT. BY MRS. S. E. TENNEY. Last November, at a meeting of the District Conference of Friendly Visitors for Ward 20, Brooklyn, the need of more knowledge of defined principles, methods, and means, for use in working out the problems encountered, was greatly felt. The time of the Conference being necessarily used in the consideration of cases in charge, some special arrangement for study seemed needed. At the request of the Conference the General Secretary gladly consented to arrange a series of lessons, should there be a sufficient number who cared to attend. A letter from this Conference was then sent to the other thirteen conferences, stating the plan and asking each conference, should it approve, to appoint a delegate to attend the class. Thirteen of the conferences responded, sending each its student with instructions to take notes and make a report of each lesson at the next District Conference meeting. The class, enlarged by a few office workers and representatives of churches and King's Daughters, met twelve consecutive Tuesday afternoons for an hour's work. Students were invited to bring written questions to drop in the question-box. These were read, and some were immediately answered, while others assisted in forming or deciding the subject of a lesson. Type-written copies of the topic to be considered, with page references to books in the Technical Library, were supplied to each student previous to each session. A considerable use of the library was made by the students. At each session of the class some member was first called upon to review the previous lesson, after which, all being provided with notebook and pencils, about half an hour was used in noting the slowly enunciated statement of the subject, its relation in the general field of sociology, and especially its relations, applications, and uses in the daily work of the Friendly Visitor. Then followed reading of selections or an original paper by a student, suggestions, questions, objections, and a free talk. The topics considered were as follows:Session: Charity,-definitions, outlines, terminology. Session 2: What should I do for one who must have food or fuel or clothing and cannot earn them? Session 3: What should I do for a case of sickness? Session 4: What should I do for one who is in the distress of poverty, and is able and willing to work? What should I do
Page 453 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 453 for one who is in the distress of poverty, and is able, but not willing to work? Session 5: What are the objects which I should most endeavor to realize through industrial education and relief in work? Session 6: The friendly visitor's special opportunity. Sessions 7 and 8: How can I help to improve the home and home influences? Session 9: How can I best apply,direct effort to aid the right structure of character? Session io: How can workers in the service of charity best aid each other? Session ii: How, and how far, should I discriminate between the worthy and the unworthy? Session 2: The recognition of success. At the close of the last lesson a committee from the class was appointed to confer concerning the arrangement of a future course. At the conference meetings in six districts attended by the writer the notes of the students were listened to with great interest and attention. Many were surprised at the number of sources for material relief, by gift and by work, which have been arranged in Brooklyn for use of the friendly visitor in working out the problem of assistance to self-support. - But to many the study of the friendly visitor's work above that plane brought a revelation. "The standard set for us is high," remarked a student with enthusiasm as she read, " This is the real help,- the lifting of a soul to a higher life." "Do you like this work?" said one friendly visitor to another at the close of a meeting where notes of the last session had been read. "Yes," was the earnest reply: "there is room for all there is of me in it." Although the writer learns that in some conferences the students were irregular, and consequently full notes of the studies were not read, yet enough has been seen in the raising of the tone and the general improvement of friendly visitors' work to warrant much encouragement. LETTER FROM S. C. LOCH, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY OF LONDON. [Read by Miss Richmond.] Conditions are so different in different places that one may miss the mark quite when one speaks generally. But here are my suggestions for what they are worth. I take a practical suggestion first. Charity Organization wants more trained workers and better planned and more systematic methods of training. It depends primarily on the force of the individual in aiding the individual. The organization is a means of
Page 454 454 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. training, co-operating, and providing kinds and ways of help. But it is only a means to an end, helping the individual to help the individual. The first question is, What would our individual worker, visitor, almoner, or whatever we may call him, be or become? He or she comes to us in the first instance with certain vague ideas, but some most earnest and real aspirations. We do not understand one another at once. We should try, therefore, to show him or her the true purpose of what we do. I will set down the line of what occurs to me as the best, though I think others in our society could probably do it better than I can. I should get a person to visit some pension cases first with the ordinary visitor, so that the monthly report may be filled up as required. People often know nothing of the ways and thoughts of the poor: this could be a beginning. I should simultaneously have my pupil attend committees and be present when I am taking down cases, choosing the cases for the purpose; and I should talk over principles and methods in regard to several cases. I should next get him to look up cases which are being dealt with when some point of information has to be ascertained or some small arrangement made. I should do all I could to interest him individually. Then I should have parts of the inquiry in the cases done by him, and finally make him take down a case and deal with it from end to end, bringing it before the committee himself. There is besides this, according to the ability of the worker, letterwriting and much minor business detail that may be undertaken, all of which, if one knows the reason for it, becomes interesting. Finally, when a person has learned what the methods are, and what is the reason for his faith, I should, if possible, attach him to some local charitable work, so that he may train others in turn. Some plan of training like this is what I should suggest as a real need, one that is leading us more and more to try to train all volunteers, according, of course, to the limitations of practical work, but always with the main purpose of helping the individual to help the individuals thoroughly, with or without the aid of the society. My other suggestion is vagut, though it is real. Believing as I do in Charity Organization as personal charity aided by organization, I believe that the use of general methods-that is, the plan of assisting people in the gross by sheltering them in refuges, giving them artificial employment, and the like —is extremely limited. The multiplication of inmates at any single centre is very often a multiplication of the difficulties of dealing with such inmates. Certain institutions, especially for the afflicted, besides others that will occur to any one, are required. But in the main the rule is, I think, as I have stated it. The gathering together of large numbers of a single class soon overtaxes the strength even of the strongest, and routine takes the place of a constantly fresh initiative. Now, if this be so, for our objects we want among the ordinary members, the rank and file of
Page 455 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 455 our society, the most quiet and earnest charity. They must have their ideal of what they would be to others, and have that welldirected, restrained, charitable impulse out of which comes the true mood of Charity Organization. They will then do what institutions fail in doing. We belong to different sects and classes; but unless this charity is kept before us as a beacon, and within us as a sacred fire, we shall never have the courage to reform or strengthen the dissipated or the weak. Of such work few can do very much. It is not in the nature of things that they should; and often, if they can do it, it will be largely a reflection of the charity which they already have towards the members of their own households and family circles, and which in Charity Organization is throwing its light a little further outward. My second suggestion, then, is that we need above all things this charity, the source of our strength and the bond of our unity. After all I have said, I am afraid I am giving a bad answer to the questions asked of me. But the questions remind me of some questions of which Professor Jowett used to say that they are questions that it is good to ask, but to which you must not expect an answer. DISCUSSION. Rev. Dr. SLOCUM spoke of his experience with friendly visitors and of the necessity of training them to discriminate in their treatment of different cases. Mr. A. W. CLARK, of Omaha, inquired what should be done where friendly visitors volunteered to work in connection with their own churches only. Mr. BUZELLE stated that he thought it undesirable that work should be done under unnecessary restrictions, but added that he had received assistance from one church to which a "band of friendly visitors" belonged who would take any case referred to them and do the best they could with it. Miss RICHMOND read the following anonymous question: "How are friendly visitors obtained in the first instance?" Mr. CLARK.- I advertise for them in the daily papers. Miss MOORE.- In Buffalo one way is to ask any one especially interested in a given case or family to become their friend. Miss RICHMOND said that neither too much nor too little should be expected of the friendly visitor. They should not be held responsible for too much wisdom, yet should be made to feel that they are trusted. The friendly visitor must largely be educated in the work as the child learns to swim in water. Mrs. BARROWS advised that families, as well as individuals, should be interested in the work of friendly visiting. Mrs. JACOBS, of Denver, inquired whether the friendly visitors usually remained active for any length of time.
Page 456 456 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Miss Z. D. SMITH replied that in Boston a number of visitors were still engaged in the work who had enlisted at the beginning, but that many changes had occurred. The total number slowly increases. There are about 750 in Boston. Mr. BUZELLE mentioned the method of soliciting individuals to visit special families, explaining their condition and needs. Miss RICHMOND said that in Baltimore clergymen would sometimes read from the pulpit brief statements furnished by the Organized Charity Society, describing cases without giving names, and would ask for volunteer visitors. Mr. AYRES said that in Cincinnati, where a new or outlying district was to be covered, the pastors were first consulted and references obtained from them to people who might be willing to undertake friendly visitors' work; that, when one visitor was secured, he or she was urged to obtain the assistance of others. More visitors were thus obtained than in any other way. A person was never asked in general terms to be a friendly visitor,-it was so easy to say "no." A special case of necessity having first been found, a person was requested to undertake the work. Miss SMITH said that a committee of ladies was in Boston responsible for obtaining friendly visitors. It was no part of the agents' duty to do so. In reply to a question from Mrs. Tilson, of Indianapolis, Miss Smith explained that friendly visitors in Boston reported to paid district agents working in connection with volunteers. Mr. CHARLES D. KELLOGG said that he had had small numerical success in securing friendly visitors in New York. The workers he had, however, had been faithful and earnest. New assistants usually came as inquirers about some special family,. then, becoming interested, volunteered their services in the general work. He considered some degree of training highly essential, and considered it unwise to employ totally inexperienced persons in the work of friendly visiting. Mr. KLUG, Overseer of the Poor at Milwaukee, asked if it were advisable ever to permit friendly visitors to give money or actual alms. In reply it was stated that such a course was admissible only in the rarest instances.
Page 457 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 457 SECTIONAL MEETING VII. THE FRIENDLY VISITOR'S OPPORTUNITY. BY BRAINARD RAEB. [Read by Mr. Blake.] The opportunity which the friendly visitor seeks and finds is the opportunity to obtain such access to the life of a fellow-being that it becomes possible to render to that fellow-being the most needed service. When one star or sun is to pass another star or sun in the heavens, men travel far to reach a favorable point from which to observe the transit, in hope of catching a glimpse of a momentary unveiling of the mystery of the stars. When some accident to the human body or the surgeon's knife has removed some portion of the tissues which ordinarily cover and conceal the action of the mechanism by which the vital processes are sustained, the occasion is used by keen scientific observation in hope of gaining some new fact, however minute, to the science of physiology. So at a critical point in the history of a human life, when, by gradual change or by some convulsion within or without, the conditions under which the life is lived are thrown into new combinations or antagonisms, the accustomed environment is removed or broken, that which enveloped and concealed the inner life is, for the moment at least, withdrawn, the life may be approached and may be known as never before. At such a crisis the life itself often undergoes a change of special significance, assumes a new attitude toward that which is without, becomes accessible, gives a new response to influences good or bad. Such a change is developed in coincidence with disease, accident, adversity, the distress of poverty, the suffering which is distinctly traceable to one's own wrong-doing, the awakening which comes with work and manual training, generally in connection with some crisis in one's life. Under these conditions our special opportunity is developed: a soul is made ready for the help we can give; one who is blind is beginning to be partly willing to see; one who is grossly ignorant is not quite satisfied with ignorance; the weakest and lowest feebly reaches out and reaches up for help. If we do not find a way opened through which we may bring help, we may find that former obstructions have been lessened and are no longer unsurmountable, and by such exertion as brings the life-boat to the wreck we may reach the soul that needs us most. And there may sometimes come to any one of us,
Page 458 .458 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. without effort of ours, the revelation of an opportunity the most overwhelming of which one can conceive, the laying bare of a human life which is torn, sick, and despairing, which is brought and laid before,us to be saved. Such opportunity implies a mutual relation which is deeper and stronger than is described by the phrase en rapport, and exceeds the best meaning of the phrase "in touch." In the friendly visitor's opportunity there is a real though distant likeness to the opportunity which Christ used, when " the multitude pressed and crushed" about him, and he said, "Some one did touch me," and to that one he gave healing. But an objector may say: "How can this be described as the friendly visitor's opportunity? All altruistic effort has the same opportunity." There is some truth in the objection, but not so much as there ought to be. The people in whose lives our opportunity occurs oftenest are well used to visits of the doctor, the policeman, the house agent, the insurance man, and the missionary. Toward each a certain attitude has become habitual. For each a set of phrases is ready. The attitude and the words may have little to do with the real need which is to be met. To the friend who wears no label, who comes in the simplicity of a friendship which has been tried and proved, the real trouble and the real opportunity are made known. As to the use of the opportunity, I venture but three suggestions: ist. It must be intensely personal. Means, institutions, tools of any kind, count for very little. They may count for nothing at all. It is a part of the warfare, even "the weapons of which are not carnal." The utmost keenness, sensitiveness, and force of our own personality must be free from trammels and conventionality. 2d. It calls for absolute self-devotion. In it, dilettanteism, affectation, anything self-centred, has no place. 3d. It must be reverent. We are to take a part in a struggle the import of which is far beyond our comprehension. We are not to "rush in where angels fear to tread." We are to watch for and heed our summons. The recognition of our opportunity is sometimes easy. It declares itself by unmistakable signs. At other times it requires keenest observation, minute study, most delicate analysis, most accurate understanding. We may have to recognize and use our opportunity with the quickness of the flashing of a thought. It may pass like a meteor, and not return. We may have to wait its development. If so, we are to wait with alertness; and we are to differentiate, as best we may, the changes which lead up to it. Such opportunity is not infrequent. Through the daily experience of pain and want and sin the divinest work intrusted to human hands is made ready. Too often the opportunity comes and passes unused.
Page 459 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 459 THE OBLIGATIONS OF PERSONAL WORK AN AID TO RIGHT STRUCTURE OF CHARACTER. BY W. J. BREED. [Read by Dr. Ayres.] The greatest power of Charity Organization is in its personality. It is a careful focussing and distribution of personal sympathies in accordance with the best available principles and methods. It is not a work simply of criticism and decision. It has no place for the mere critic. The visitor goes not as judge, almoner, trustee, or capitalist, but as one who, having had limited experience in the trials of life and methods of overcoming them, endeavors to apply such experiences in aid of a fellow-being who has had less favorable opportunities. The society is supposed to be without politics, without partisanship, non-sectarian, given solely to the helping of humanity. It must, however, often choose for its work from amongst its earnest thinkers, extreme partisans, strong sectarians, and people of peculiar views. It cannot always make adaptation perfect. Wherein, then, is its protection from partisanship? Is it not in the fact that in the presence of distress and of poverty, and in the necessity of solving the problems of life for others, there is no room for peculiar tenets, and politics even are forgotten? Earnest care for starving children, drunken parents, dissolute father and suffering wife, are too serious for anything but a full, exclusive consideration of the subject in hand. Proper care of cases of delinquency, distress, and want, requires, more than anything else, a consideration from the point of view of the sufferer; and improvement must commence at and continue from that level. Hence the work of the most successful friendly visitor is of necessity a most complete abandonment of self, a self-appropriation of the difficulties and trials observed, and a careful effort to bring light out of darkness, first in the direction of self-sustenance, and then, as the work is continued, as a natural sequence, of improvement and elevation of character. What, then, is my duty as a visitor in my efforts to promote the upbuilding of character? Are there rules to govern my procedure? No more than to govern any daily performance of duties. Are there examples which I may follow? Only to a limited extent, for no two families are alike or have like experiences. In the early history of Charity Organization the work of the friendly visitor did not go much beyond securing self-sustenance and this with the probability that aid would not be required for a considerable time. The present demand is more for continuous work
Page 460 460 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. more complete acquaintance, careful study of each case, with the view of developing character in the direction of industry, providence, and knowledge. This prolonged, continuous responsibility is not of our own imposing. It is the result of the earnest work already done. The whole lives and characters of the families in charge may be and should be, as far as practicable, moulded by the kind helper whom Providence has assigned to the duty of friendly uplifting. By the lowest estimate, three millions of people are to-day grateful for the prompt averting of suffering, the kind suggestions, gentle leadings, and helpfulness to independence obtained through the instrumentality of the friendly visitor. Must the power acquired by this gratitude be abandoned? Has not a larger field opened to us, unsolicited and yet imperative? We have an avenue through friendship to three million hearts. Another three million, as work progresses, will soon be added. They have no stronger friends than those already found. Their best helpers are those who have already helped. Through the power of kindness six millions of people can soon be reached by encouragement to industry, thrift, independence, and usefulness. It becomes our duty, therefore, to plan for their continuous progress in good citizenship and nobility of character. How, then, may a visitor best contribute toward this grand purpose? It cannot be done by lectures, by meetings, by literature. Public assemblies and cold printed facts, advice or exhortations, are weak, compared with the individuality of a kind, genial, unprejudiced, selfsacrificing student of human nature, who, having taken in hand a character weak or deformed or depressed, to influence for good, bends all his energies toward developing it into complete manhood or womanhood. A few suggestions may lead toward systematic clearness of thought in this direction. There should be:ist. Adaptation in choice of family to the trend of mind, opportunities, or ability of the visitor. 2d. Thorough study of the family history and surroundings, with special reference to the cause of distress. 3d. Watchful interest in each member of the family, content only when some indication is furnished from each of progress in one or more particulars. 4th. Practical indications of genuine friendship through courtesies, kindnesses, and helpful suggestions. 5th. Securing affiliations with appropriate acquaintances, schools, societies, churches, and other environments. 6th. Carrying not gossip nor sentimentality, but information; and, better than any of these, some specific line of thought, especially in the direction of helpfulness to home life. But it is useless to attempt an enumeration of the duties, privileges, methods, and varied lines of work appropriate for the visitor. Suggestions only can be made of their infinite variety.
Page 461 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 46 The problems of life for each individual are not all solved at once. Truth comes to all of us in instalments. As it is received in daily life, it is appropriated with double force and clearness when shared with another. The development of the work is in its infancy. Doubtless, in time the system may be more complete and the duties more scientifically correct. More attractive, however, is the enthusiasm of its developing youth, the earnest effort impelled by heart throbs, although with somewhat less of mature wisdom. Better a few mistakes than the chill of too rigid a system. Yet, if ever a subject needed study, this does. If ever there was a call of the weak to the strong, of the needy to the affluent, of the ignorant to the well-informed, this call of the waning nineteenth century is the strongest, most comprehensive, most vital, and most important. Are we to have in our cities a large element of discontent, ignorance, and poverty, tending to degradation and all sorts of crime increasing at a fearful rate? Or are we to see an intelligent, sympathetic community rising to the occasion, willingly giving of time and money, not for promiscuous distribution, but for intelligent use in the development of character? Six millions of citizens during the next ten years may be led to such knowledge and appreciation of life and its aims that, instead of being likened to unstable and perishing substrata, they may become as the very granite and redeem the reputation of our large cities. What a grand opportunity for the scientist to awaken interest which will secure attention and useful instruction, for the student of medicine to teach hygiene and proper care in diet, exercise, and physical development? There is room for the historian, the poet, the chemist, photographer, and astronomer. There is room for the pastor, the Sunday-school teacher. Especially is there room for the capitalist to seek opportunities to bring by various methods and devices useful entertainment and knowledge before those most needing it. There is room for all who desire to improve others, and there are methods adopted and methods to be devised. We have, then, in the friendly visitor a student of humanity, earnest in relieving actual distress and in bringing his own broader experience for the upbuilding of character. His helpfulness to the conference of visitors is in proportion to his zeal and wisdom, and his help from them is an essential feature. Beyond this he identifies himself for the acquirement of the best methods and the results of the best experience with his city, the State, the nation, the world. What a grand opportunity for the personality of the friendly visitor to be reflected in all its kindness, loveliness, and strength in enlightening and elevating character! Again, what enlargement, what growth, what ability to lead and encourage, are acquired in return!
Page 462 462 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. DISCUSSION. Miss MOORE, by request, read the following extract from a recent novel, as typical of certain debased conceptions of the opportunity for charitable work: — The hero says of his work among the poor of Whitechapel, London: - " You'll hardly understand,-for you don't know the class,-the lowest deep of all, those who can't be dealt with by the societies, poor wretches whom nothing will raise, and who are abandoned as hopeless. They really are so, you know. Neither religion nor political economy can do anything for them, though efforts are made for the children. Poor sodden, senseless, vicious lumps of misery, with the last spark of soul bred out of them,- a sort of animated garbage, given up as a bad job, and only wanted out of the way,-from the first they were on my mind more than all the others." Question."And can you succeed where so many have failed?" "Oh, what I do doesn't involve success or failure. They're only brutes in human shape, hardly human shape, either. But I have a feeling for brutes. I love horses and dogs. I can't bear to see things suffer. So that's all I do,-just comfort them in their own way. I don't bother about their souls, because they haven't any. I see their wretched bodies, and that's enough for me. It's something not to let them go out of the world without ever knowing what it is to be physically comfortable. There is one thing in which everybody is alike, I suppose,the want of money. What I could do in the way of filling empty stomachs, if I had control of large means! Only in the matter of beer and tobacco, what interest I could get on a few hundred pounds! '" So much for the hero of the novel. The frank immorality of the method here exploited is sufficiently repulsive. But is not all this really less harmful and less culpable than so-called charitable work, which sets out with much declaration of high aims, and yet, in practical contact with the poor, sinks to the same plane of materialism? Dr. AYRES, of Cincinnati, said that he sometimes found ladies peculiarly successful in using the opportunity found among the most degraded class of outcasts through sympathy. The effort was to comfort them in their own way. Bread thus cast upon the waters sometimes comes back, not, perhaps, in material results, but in comfort for outcast souls. Rev. Dr. TAYLOR, of Hartford, said that he had been questioned as to his experience in founding a new Charity Organization Society. The work had taken no less than ten years, in consequence of the difficulty of covering the ground without overlapping. At first the work was mainly destructive, consisting in the overthrow of a corrupt municipal ring. This antagonized to some degree the city authorities. There were also "rival" societies, whose work it was, of course, not desirable to duplicate, but whose co-operation it proved difficult to
Page 463 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 463, secure. Constructive work should always be begun as early as possible; but the best way of doing it was a difficult question. Should a new body of Friendly Visitors be organized? There were in all com — mittees certain classes who fell out between the lines, however drawn. It is the business of the Charity Organization Society to see that the case is attended to. It matters little whose friendly visitor it is that does it. Miss MOORE, of Buffalo, asked whether, when Dr. Taylor referred a case to a church, the responsibility of the Charity Organization. Society was supposed to be at an end. Dr. TAYLOR.-Not unless they promise to take entire charge both as to visiting and relief. Some churches will do that. Miss MOORE.- But you look to see if it is done? Dr. TAYLOR.- Somewhat. It depends on the people. We usually ask, after a while, how the family is getting on. Miss MOORE.- I usually find people ready to promise a report of what they do for a family, but I seldom receive the report. Mrs. BARROWS.- Many people have a superficial idea of the duties of the friendly visitor. They lose touch with a family whose acquaintances they have made during some temporary trouble. This is poor economy and waste of opportunity. After losing sight of a. lamily for six months or so, only exceptionally capable visitors can be sent. Mrs. A. L. D'ARCAMBAL related her experience with a young man, generally considered an incorrigible character, who eventually yielded to persistent efforts, and is now a self-respecting and worthy citizen. A question was asked as to whether, in case a church offered to take full charge of their own cases, it would be advisable for a Charity Organization Society to accept the proposal. Miss SMITH, of Boston, replied that few churches, whose membership included many poor, made such offers. Where the Charity Organization Society intrusts cases to the charge of the church, however, no report from the church is asked beyond the names of the persons of whom they are taking charge. Mr. GLENN.-Are the friendly visitors of these churches also friendly visitors of the Associated Charities? Miss SMITH.-No. Conferences, however, are held in three churches. The almoner is a separate person. Friendly visitors do not give relief. Mr. BIRTWELL, of Boston, spoke of the need of improving the first opportunity, which arises with some emergency, to secure the confidence of a family. When the difficulty has been straightened out, it is harder to obtain their friendship. The friendly visitor should be lynx-eyed for opportunities to get near the hearts of the families. in his charge. Mrs. TILSON.- It is difficult to keep up the visitor's interest after the emergency has passed. In the case of the Flower Mission it has been found almost impossible, after the recovery of the sick to whom
Page 464 464 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. flowers have been sent, to retain the visitor as a permanent friend of the family. They feel that their mission ends with the particular illness. Mrs. BARROWS, of Boston.- Don't you give your visitors too many families? Mrs. TILSON.- No: they have only one family to visit apiece. Mrs. BARROWS.- Perhaps they have not had proper training. Mrs. TILSON.- Most of them do not want to see very much. It hurts their feelings. Mrs. BARROWS.- They have not had much experience. Mrs. TILSON.-We tell them what they ought to know. Mrs. BARROWS.- In my own experience it was at first desperately hard not to give to the very poor. I did not dare to, because they said I mustn't. But I found that they soon had a great deal more respect for me, though I gave them nothing, than for those who did give. They care more for the spirit than for the gift, just as we do. Children must be cared for particularly. Often the only hope for the family is in keeping the children straight. Miss RICHMOND said that many people, wise enough in other respects, seemed to lose their heads when confronted with the poverty they met in friendly visiting. The test was whether the relation of the visitor to the family was healthful and natural or not. A FRIEND.- When the visitor gives flowers to the patient, and begins acquaintance, only to give it up with convalescence, I should attempt one of two things. Which I should attempt would depend upon my estimate of the visitor. I might induce some one else to take up the case and use the opportunity, and develop results; have the work considered in conference meeting, and, when the atmosphere is right, bring the recusant visitor to a conference meeting to learn the results. Or I might make a direct effort, in personal interview, to enable the visitor to see the opportunity, and the mistake of neglecting it. In one or another way, I should try to make sure that the visitor was made very unhappy because of the neglected opportunity. Mr. CLARK said that he was accustomed to visit the various societies at their meetings, and endeavor to secure assistance, usually through the influence of two or three with whom he had talked the matter over. Miss Z. D. SMITH.-We often try to give the visitor something else to do besides the special case in his charge, which will serve to keep him busy past the crisis or emergency, and thus retain his services. Dr. TAYLOR asked how the interest of single men was best secured. Dr. SHIPPEN, of Baltimore, stated that all the visitors of the District Board with which he was connected were men, but that only families were visited. Mr. GLENN, of Baltimore.- Friendship, based on equality, is essential. The trouble is that visitors often go, thinking that they are going to do something for charity. But there are some points of
Page 465 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 465 equality, and the visitor should go with so much interest that he will forget himself enough to let the points of equality between visitor and visited appear. He may be sure that the person he is visiting is fully his equal in many respects. And another thing needed is patience. Don't expect results: you will be disappointed, and give it up if you do., Sow the seed, and let it take its own time to grow. It was suggested that young men could often best be helped by encouraging them to visit the friendly visitor, under circumstances favoring the securing of their confidence without impairing their selfrespect. In one instance, a young man has called on the visitor at his office Sunday mornings. In another instance, a young man calls at the visitor's house evenings. Miss SMITH.- It is hard to hold them, though I have correspondence with some few. Of our friendly visitors, one in nine or ten are men. Mr. BIRTWELL.- If a visitor desires to secure and use all possible influences, he should be warned against the natural tendency, which he will have to leave behind, when he starts out, his own life and his own interests. Take them all with you. All your hopes, your successes, everything, confide in them, as you wish them to confide in you. The question was asked whether it was advisable to let a family whom one was visiting know that one had other families in his charge. Miss SMITH.- I don't think that ever does any harm. But it does hurt if they feel that the visiting is to a district or block rather than to the people in it. The CHAIR.- Or that the visiting is professional. Miss SMITH.- You should let them feel that you belong to them.
Page 466 466 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. SECTIONAL MEETING VIII. HOW CAN I, AS A FRIENDLY VISITOR, BEST APPLY EFFORT TO AID IN IMPROVING THE HOME AND HOME INFLUENCES? Mr. CHARLES W. BIRTWELL opened the discussion, speaking of household games as a means of brightening the homes of the poor. A remarkable ignorance of even the simplest games was found to exist among them. "Home Amusement Groups" were formed, meeting in particular houses: a paid visitor met the children, and taught them how to play the games. An evening's entertainment would usually include one "standing up" and one "sitting down" game. The children, having learned the games from the lady visitor, were expected to know how to play them the next time. To certain games they took readily, to others less so. The "' Home Library" plan was then described. A capable boy in some poor family was taken as librarian to draw up a list of ten companions, to meet weekly. The books were placed in the very poorest families. The second set were put in one of the worst houses on one of the worst streets in the city. Of course, the libraries were not put exclusively in such places. A set consisted of fifteen books, along with some juvenile periodicals, the whole being placed in a neat case with a glass door and Yale lock. When the set was thoroughly read over, the books were exchanged for others, thus enabling the young readers to obtain the best of juvenile literature. A few friends undertook to do the necessary visiting. Mr. Birtwell said that there were at that time sixty-six " Home Libraries" scattered about Boston, with a visitor for nearly every "group." They were in all sections of the city. A strong effort has been made to select the very best literature. The books underwent a very rigid examination before being placed in the libraries. The reputation of the authors was not of itself sufficient. The originators of the plan aimed high, and tried to keep the standard up. They did not believe in the "dime novel" as an entering wedge. It was found that there was plenty of available reading that was wholesome and pure, from "Dotty Dimple" up to "Tom Brown at Rugby." This " Home Library " plan, Mr. Birtwell added, often becomes the means of reaching the boys' lives and character in other ways. Stamp-saving schemes and the like may thus be successfully introduced.
Page 467 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 467 Mr. Birtwell stated that many inquiries had reached him about Home Libraries, but he desired to round out the Boston experiment first rather than begin as yet in other cities. He thought that a Home Library ought not to be a part of a charitable organization; for it would then carry with it a certain humanitarian odium, so to speak. Of course, the children wondered where the books came from. They were labelled "Boston Home Library." Either a Children's Aid Society or something like it ought to start the plan. Mr. Birtwell suggested that, if some volunteer visitor in Baltimore or Rochester should go to the public library and ask for a list of fifteen books for two or three months, to be changed at the expiration of that term, he might then start a Home Library on his own individual responsibility. If several persons, having started on this basis separately, could unite when the time was ripe, a genuine "Free Home Library Association" might thus be founded. Visitors of the Associated Charities who founded libraries, Mr. Bjrtwell added, joined the library conferences. Visitors to libraries were not allowed to give. Mr. Birtwell also mentioned window-gardening as a pleasant and useful amusement for poor children. He said that the Horticultural Society offered prizes for the best grown plants. Three hundred and fifty children had bought four or five hundred plants for this competition, usually paying about eight cents a piece for the plants. Miss MCBRYDE read a very interesting paper on the " Relation of the Home to Provident Schemes." Mrs. A. JACOBS, of Denver, said: I did intend to give way to visitors entirely this year. But I have had a great deal to do with Charity Organization, not only since our society was organized here, but long before. In Denver we are a co-operative body of citizens, composed of thirteen societies, all kinds and creeds working harmoniously together. Our plan of work is different from that of any other city. Therefore, I will have to explain it to you. These thirteen bodies are composed of the relief societies. We place before our citizens every year the needs of these societies, and a sufficient sum of money to carry on this work is subscribed. One collection is taken up at Thanksgiving, when the hearts of the people are tender. Our citizens respond nobly to every call made upon them. In the special work of the Charity Organization Society, of which I have the honor to be the secretary, we have a central office. We have the charities of the cities under control to a great extent. One great trouble in Denver is that there are so many homeless people. The true life is the home life; but there are many, many cases of children coming to us homeless and friendless, and we have to find homes to place these children in. Then there are large numbers of people coming here friendless, miserable, homeless, hopeless, wretched. Very few families will take them in to board. They are not willing to take a helpless, weak consumptive into the family, to destroy the harmony of the home life. They are usually too weak to do anything.
Page 468 468 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. They all come asking for light work, but we have no light work. Everybody here who has health and strength can get plenty to do, but the weak ones are pushed to the wall. Many times they are taken in for board and clothing; but what does it amount to? They cannot even do the duties of such a life, and they are thrust out; and they come again to our office for relief. We find them home after home, but it is of no use. What are we to do with the homeless and the friendless with no homes to put them into. We want in Colorado to avoid building any institution until we have the right plan and right methods. We want to avoid the pitfalls of the East. We dare not commence wrong. Consequently, we are waiting until we have sufficient experience and means necessary to the care of the many, many strangers coming in upon us. Many families arrive here with the last dollar gone,- families with father, mother, and little children, hoping to pick up gold in the streets. Our real estate men have boomed Colorado so much that people think that we all live happy, grand, brilliant lives. We do our best for them; but how can we do more without means? Money is an essential thing in Charity Organization work, but it must be spent in the right direction. There comes the true core of charity work, the work of the friendly visitor. But do you not think it is time that we had institutions to educate the friendly visitor? I wish we could have an enthusiasm factory. We have sympathy and enthusiasm which at first are willing to do anything on earth; but after a little while, such visitors drop down and give up the work. They do not understand it. They have not the bull-dog tenacity to hold on, and I tell you that charity work takes more true patience and perseverance than any other kind of work on the face of the earth. Just to listen, day after day, to the repeated iteration of these poor people takes patience. They are so glad to have a friendly ear into which to pour their trials, to have some one smile upon them, to have some one enter the home and give them a little ray of sunshine and joy. The spirit of the true friendly visitor makes one forget himself or herself, and one enters the home as a brother or sister, not in a spirit as though one were humbling one's self. One should make a man or woman whom he is visiting his equal for the time and hour. That is the spirit in which to enter all homes, whether of poverty or of wealth. Go as a friend. If you do not go in that spirit, your work is a burden. It is truly essential in all this good work that you do it in the highest and truest and noblest spirit. It is only when you are your true self, and not an affected man or woman, when you go in an earnest, simple, pure, manly, or womanly spirit that you reach the hearts of those who need your help and care, whether they are rich or poor. Never go in a patronizing spirit. I think of a poor woman who had owned her own home and lost it. Her last request, when she was dying, was that she might be carried after death to the old home and into the parlor, and rest there over night, because she knew that the voices of the past would echo in that room; and her
Page 469 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 469 request was granted. The body was allowed to lie all night in the old parlor; and who can say that the spirits of her dear ones were not with her? Who can say that the spirit of the past was not round about her? These poor folk are ready to pour into your ears their hopes and highest aspirations. Perhaps you can rouse in them the spirits ot the dead past. Perhaps you can give them another chance. I have been told that men going up in balloons, as they ascend into the atmosphere, hear last of all the voices of little children. Is it not natural, then, that the whole spirit of humanity must centre in the child? The voice of the child rises higher and higher. It appeals to God, and through God to us. We need to cultivate a neighborly spirit. You must rouse in yourself the true spirit of neighborly charity. You must not say, Who is my neighbor? for all are your neighbors. As you treat them, so will you be treated. So I appeal to you to draw out of your lives some joy and sunshine, and let it radiate in other homes. Miss RICHMOND read by request the following memorandum of an incident in friendly visiting:"The joke of it is," said the friendly visitor, "I have no musical talent." But this is what happened to her. She was at the "interview desk." A long succession of wretched men and women had come in, each with a want or pain to be told to and shared by the patient woman at the desk. In many languages or fragments of languages, often with tears and sighs, they had told their pitiful stories, until the very air and walls of the room seemed charged with a polyglot wail, and ready to give it out again like a gigantic phonograph. At length a little girl came up for her talk with the lady. "I know you," she said. "Well, that is nice," said the lady, "but I don't know you. How's that?" "Why, you see," said the child, "you used to come to see Mrs. Brown when she was sick so long before she died, and we lived on the same floor, and, when you used to sing to Mrs. Brown, we used to hear you. When you came in, mother would stop working, and tell us children to stop playing so we could hear; and I learned part of what you sang so I could sing it." "I'm glad to hear that," said the lady: "won't you sing it for me now?" Then, with a quaint, true little voice, the child sang through a sweet old song of faith and aspiration that has lifted many a tired soul on its wings. "My brothers and sisters learned it, too," she said; "and we can all sing it, all five of us." DISCUSSION. Mr. TAYLOR, of Hartford, said that the home was practically an ignored agency for the elevation of mankind. There was, however, no better vantage ground for reaching the home than the right kind of church. If there was one special mission for the church, it was to help the homes of the poor. The truest of all sanctuaries was the home. He believed there was such a thing as putting the dining
Page 470 470 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. room table to an evangelical use. He spoke of two ladies in New Haven who had established polite social relations with thirty-five young men, in the most dangerous period of life, with a view to strengthening the characters of their visitors. Dr. AYRES asked what could be done by city authorities to keep hallways clear. Miss SMITH replied that the law required the landlord in Boston to keep the house clean, and that the landlord's name had to appear on the door. The houses were regularly inspected by the Board of Health, the worst houses being oftenest visited. Dr. AYRES.- Are any ladies on the visiting board? Miss SMITH.- NO. The CHAIR. —Is there any difficulty in getting obvious abuses attended to? Miss SMITH.- No, in the main. The worst trouble is where things are irremediable. The Board of Health has lately taken stringent action in such cases. There is a State Board, with detective and inspectional powers, which has two women inspectors whose duty it is to inspect factories and shop buildings. In answer to a question Miss Smith distinguished between "district visiting " and "friendly visiting." The former term is employed where all the families of a certain class in a given block or district are put upon the visitors' list. In "friendly visiting" only a very few families are visited by each volunteer. Friendly visiting is individual: district visiting is geographical. Mr. BIRTWELL suggested that each Charity Organization secretary, or some active member of the volunteer force named by him, should make a specialty of collecting games suitable for children. He added that the games familiar to all, but which had not got into the books, were almost of more value than the others. Mr. E. W. BLAKE, Jr. —While investigating Charity Organization methods, I was shown an office-book kept upon a plan which seems to me of great value. It is called " Problems, Principles, Methods, and Means," and its object is to assist the friendly visitor in practical field work. It contains a list of "leading" or typical cases, arranged alphabetically according to the nature of the exigency which they represent, so that a visitor who finds himself confronted by any special difficulty may be able to learn, by referring to the Register for an account of those cases cited in the " P. M." book, what has actually been done under similar circumstances before. That experience of so much value, learned often at such high cost, should be preserved and made accessible to the beginner, is evidently a most desirable result; and in a very few years a book of this sort, judiciously compiled and carefully indexed, would prove an immense aid to effective work in the homes of the poor, and indeed in any part of the field. Miss DICKINSON, of Denver, spoke on the relation of the kindergarten to the home.
Page 471 CHARITY ORGANIZATION. 47J The principles of the kindergarten, she said, were not simply true because Froebel said they were. They were only an embodiment of all home experience. To an overworked mother they were little short of salvation. "At the weekly meetings," Miss Dickinson said, "the mothers meet us. We establish a relation between the home and the kindergarten. The child is the cable between them. These relations are established through the friendly visitor." An effort is made to retain a hold upon the children, and it is hoped the time is not far off when the establishment of industrial schools will make reformatories unnecessary through the removal of ignorance. Mrs. JACOBS mentioned excellent work done among the children of the poor by the " Helping Hand " societies of boys and girls. Miss YOUNG, of New York, said that the kindergarten children were often real missionaries. Even the stolid ones would often go home and repeat all that they had heard. Mothers would often come to inquire about the kindergarten games, etc. One girl would refuse to do anything at home unless " please " was said, because they had said that to her at the kindergarten. Children's books, Miss Young said, were often the best even for adults among the very poor. They were really children in respect to mental development. Miss DICKINSON spoke of the growing success of the free kindergarten baths given on Saturdays. The matter of publication was taken up. Remarks were made favoring the publication of the work of the section in the Charities Review, and on motion of Mr. C. D. Kellogg it was voted that the chairman and secretaries be appointed a Committee on Publication with power.
Page 472 TREASURER'S REPORT. To THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NINETEENTH NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION:The Treasurer of the Conference respectfully submits the following summary of his receipts and expenditures from May 20, I891, to June 29, 1892:SEVENTEENTH CONFERENCE. Credit Balance May 20, I891............ Receipts since May 20, 1891, as follows:Board of State Charities, Ohio... Board of Corrections and Charities, Minnesota Board of Public Charities, Illinois... Illinois Northern Hospital for the Insane... Indiana State Library..... Maiden Public Library, Massachusetts.. Indiana Reform School for Boys.... The Kansas City Provident Association.. Sundry Sales....... Payments since May 20, 1891, as follows. Postage........ Clerk hire........ Exchange............ Balance carried to the Eighteenth Conference $I,678.75 $63.50 112.50 159.30 9.00 5.50 5.25 3.oo 3.00 30.50 $20.00 5.00 1.93 391.55 $2,070.30 26.93 $2,043.37 EIGHTEENTH CONFERENCE. Credit Balance from the Seventeenth Conference... Receipts since May 20, I891, as follows: - Alexander Johnson, Secretary, for sales of Conference Proceedings..... Indianapolis Local Committee.... State Board of Charities, New York.. Board of State Charities, Ohio State Board of Lunacy and Charity, Massachusetts Amounts carried forward,...... $2,043.37 $I63.25 500.00 i8o.oo 225.00 112.50 $I,I80.75 $2,043.37
Page 473 TREASURER S REPORT. Amounts brought forward,... Board of Corrections and Charities, Michigan Board of Public Charities, Illinois... State Board of Charities and Reform, Wisconsin. Board of State Charities and Correction, Rhode Island......... Board of Public Charities, Indiana... State Board of Charities and Correction, Colorado......... Associated Charities, Burlington, Ia... Charity Organization Society, New York City. A. G. Warner, Superintendent of Charities, D.C. City Board of Charities, Portland, Ore. Associated Charities, Baltimore, Md.. Southern Hospital for the Insane, Anna, Ill. School for Feeble-minded, Lakeville, Conn. Pennsylvania Training-school for Feeble-minded Children, Elwyn............ State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women, Newark, N.Y............ Illinois School for the Feeble-minded.. Indiana State Prison...... Ferris Industrial School, Wilmington, Del.. Kansas City Provident Association... Bronson Library, Waterbury, Conn. Sundry Sales...... Interest......... Payments since May 20, 189I, as follows:Geo. H. Ellis, 2,000 copies Eighteenth Conference Proceedings, including composition, printing, correcting, electrotyping, binding, heliotype portrait, etc. Geo. H. Ellis, for binding, envelopes, and circulars Geo. H. Ellis, for printing and envelopes...... Geo. H. Ellis, for binding 614 copies Conference Proceedings, etc.......... A. Johnson, Secretary, for expenses of Stenographer and Clerk, etc....... Insurance................ Postage and Expressage.... Exchange....... Balance June 29, 1892........ 473 $I,I80.75 $2,043-37 112.50 112.50 i8o.oo 27.00 112.50 56.25 11.25 13.50 I I.8o 9.00 33.75 7.50 I3.50 37-75 I3.50 9.00 6.25 9.00 7.50 2.50 252.70 121.24 2,341.24 $4,384.61 $I,483.85 23.6i 10.75 I99.77 I00.00 4.50 85.00 5.69 1,913.I7 $2,471.44 Through the liberal spirit shown in subscribing for copies of the Proceedings by the State Boards of Massachusetts, Ohio, New York,
Page 474 474 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Illinois, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Michigan, Connecticut, Minnesota, Indiana, and Colorado, and the generosity of the citizens of Denver, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Buffalo, and Omaha, it is now practicable to publish the Proceedings of the Conferences without pecuniary embarrassment to the officers. I trust this prosperous condition may continue, and that the present fund, acquired through much effort, may not be reduced, but, on the contrary, that it may be increased, and that it may prove a power for good in the continuance of our work. The following is an inventory of the printed Proceedings of former Conferences now on hand in Boston: - 8th Conference, Boston, I88I.... muslin o paper 2 9th " Madison, 1882..... " o loth " Louisville, 1883.... " o " 63 IIth St. Louis, I884 0... o " 90 I2th " Washington, I885... 5 0 o I3th " St. Paul, i886.... " 40 " 39 I4th " Omaha, 1887..... " 38 " 0 15th " Buffalo, I888..... " 95 " 40 I6th " San Francisco, I889. " 285 " 400 I7th " Baltimore, I890... " 46 " 205 I8th " Indianapolis, I89... " 281 " 33 Copies of the foregoing, as well as of the Proceedings of the present Conference, when printed, can be obtained of Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows, 141 Franklin Street, Boston, Mass. It is due Mrs. Barrows to say that the Conference is largely indebted to her for voluntary services rendered in corresponding, distributing, and collecting during the past year. We are also indebted to Mr. George H. Ellis, of Boston, for kindly aid. Respectfully submitted, WM. P. LETCHWORTH, Treasurer. The undersigned have examined the accounts of Wm. P. Letchworth, Treasurer, and find them correct, a balance remaining in his hands due the Conference of two thousand four hundred and seventy-one dollars and forty-four cents. PHILIP C. GARRETT, CHAS. S. HOYT, Au diting Committee.
Page 475 LIST OF DELEGATES. California. Fletcher, Mrs. Carrie, San Francisco. Lathrop, Mrs. Katherine B., California Home for Feeble-minded, San Francisco. Lindley, Walter, M.D.,. State Industrial School, Whittier. Nolan, James J., Whittier. Osborne, Mrs. M. P., Home Feeble-minded Children, Glen Ellen. Spear, J. S., Jr., Benevolent Society of San Francisco, San Francisco. Spear, Mrs. J. S., Jr., General Secretary Associated Charities, San Francisco. Van Ness, Rev. Thomas, San Francisco. Van Ness, Mrs. Thomas, San Francisco. Waueh, Lorenzo, Founder of Band of Hope, San Francisco. Colorado. Abel, Mrs. A., President Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society, Denver. Aggers, Mrs. G. L., Reception Committee, Denver. Anthony, Miss, Flower Mission, Denver. Appel, J. M., Reception Committee, Denver. Appel, J. S., Corresponding Secretary Nineteenth Conference of Charities and Correction, Denver, Appel, Mrs. I. M., Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society, Denver. Appel, Mrs. J. S., Denver. Appel, Mrs. M. S., Hebrew Ladies' Relief, Denver. Apple, Henry, Patriotic Sons of America, Denver. Apple, Miss Ella, Young Ladies' Guild, St. John's Cathedral, Denver. Arkins, Mrs. John, Denver Orphans' Home, Denver. Ashley, Mrs. E. N., Orphins' Home, Denver. Atchison, Mrs. R. H., Woman's Christian Association, Denver. Auehorn, Mrs. John, Orphan's Aid Society, Denver. Baldwin, H. L., Denver. Baldwin, Mrs. H. L., Woman's Christian Association, Denver. Bancroft, Dr. F. J., St. Luke's Hospital, Denver. Barnes, Mrs. P. W., W. C. T. U., Denver. Barth, Mrs. William, Orphans' Home, Denver. Baxter, W., St. Luke's Hospital, Denver. Beebe, Mrs. Sarah B., St. Luke's Hospital, Denver. Belford, Mrs. Frances, Denver. Boller, Mrs. M. P., Secretary Ladies' Relief Corps, Denver. Bozett, Mrs. Fred. W., Denver. Bradner, Dr. Mittie, Tabernacle Free Dispensary, Denver. Bradshaw, Rev. W. C., St. Luke's Hospital, Denver. Brazee, Mrs. Mary A., W. C. T. U., Denver. Brinkerhoff, C. T, Beaver Creek. Brodhead, Rev. William H., Secretary State Board of Charities and Correction, Denver. Brodhead, Edith H., Denver. Brown, Miss Emma, Matron Day Nursery, Pueblo. Carlin, Mrs. P. V., Orphans' Home Society, Denver. Carrington, E. Evans, Pastor M. E. Church South, Colorado Springs. Carrington, Evelyn Evans, Colorado Springs. Carrington, Sophie Evans, Colorado Springs. Casey, Robert, Anti-Capital Punishment Society, Denver. Chambers, Mrs. Elsie W., President El Paso County W. C. T. U. Clark, Miss Anna M., Registiar of Conference, Denver. Clark, William, Superintendent County Hospital, Denver. Clifford, Julia C., St. Joseph's Hospital, Denver. Cooper, Kemp. G., Convent of the Good Shepherd, Denver. Cornforth, Joseph T., St. Joseph's Hospital, Denver. Craddock, Edith, Bessemer. Craddock, M. C., Woman's Protection Club, Bessemer. Cullings, Mrs. R. C., Golden. Currigan, Joseph P., St. Vincent Orphan Asylum, Denver. Decker, W. S., Member Local Committee, Denver. Dewees, Mrs. N. D., Ladies' Relief, Denver. Dennis,.n. Mrs. J. H., Chairman Invitation Committee, Denver. Dickinson, C. E., Member L6cal Committee, Denver. Dobbins, Mrs. Turah E., King's Daughters, Denver. Dodge, Mrs. D. C., Orphans' Home, Denver. Doty, Thomas W. W., Reception Committee, Denver. Eddy, Mrs. Edward, Denver. Eldredge, Mrs. Charles, Secretary Kindergarten Association and Children's Aid Society, Colorado Springs. Eliot, Rev. S. A., Charity Organization Society, Denver. Eliot, Mrs. Samuel A., Unity Church, Denver. Ernest, Mrs. Finis P., Convent of the Good Shepherd, Denver Evans, Mrs. John, Orphans' Home, Denver. Farley, J. F., Chief of Police, Denver. Ferguson, D. H., Member Local Committee, Denver. Fish, Mrs. E. P., Secretary Ladies' Benevolent Union Society, Pueblo. Fisk, Mrs. R., Matron Industrial School, Golden. Flanigan, Miss L. K., Secretary Orphans' Aid, Denver. Foote, Mrs. A. I., President Woman's Christian Association, Denver. France, Mrs. L. B.. Denver. Friedman, Rev. William S., Vice-President Charity Organization Society, Denver. Funsler, Mrs. Agnes, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Denver. Gano, Mrs. George, Denver. George, Mrs. Zetta, Registrar Charity Organization Society, Denver.
Page 476 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES 476 Gibson, J. M., Vice-President St. Vincent de Paul Society, Denver. Gillette, A. W., Secretary and Treasurer Glenarm Club, Denver. Good, Mrs. John, Orphans' Home, Denver. Gove, Prof. Aaron, Chairman Reception Committee, Denver. Grace, Katherine, Stenographer of Local Committee, Denver. Griggs, Mrs. Herbert, Flower Mission, Denver. Grosbeck, Mrs. C. S., I. O. G. r., Denver. Hall, Rev. L. J., Chaplain State Penitentiary, Canon City. Hamilton, George A., Me:de Post G. A. R., Denver. Hamilton, Mrs. G. A., Treasurer Meade Relief Corps No. 6, Denver. Hanna, Mrs. Kate E., Associated Aid Association, Greeley. J Hardin, Mrs. F. D., Meade Relief Corps, No. 6, Denver. Harmon, Mrs. E. P., Convent of the Good Shepherd, Denver. Hatch, D. R., Superintendent State Industrial School, Golden. Hawthorn, Mrs. Lilian, I. O. G. T. and Ladies' Aid Society, Denver. Hay, John C., Vice-President State Board of Charities, Pueblo. Hay, Mrs. R. G., Vice-President Woman's Hospital, Pueblo. Head, Miss Edith, Recording Secretary Flower Mission, Denver. Higgins, Mrs. Eva C., State W. C. T. U., La Veta. Hipp, Mrs. John, Central W. C. T. U., Denver. Hiscock, Mrs. H. M., Woman's Christian Association, Denver. Houser, Mrs. B., Investigator Charity Organization Society, Denver. Hurd, Mrs. N. S., President Pioneer Ladies' Aid, Denver. Huscher, Charles, Industrial School, Golden. Jacobs, Mrs. A., Secretary Charity Organization Society, Denver. Jacobs, Miss Eva, Girls' Mutual Benefit Club, Denver. Jacobson, Mrs. E. P., Orphans' Aid Society, Denver. James, Mrs. B. L., Treasurer Orphans' Home, Denver. Jeffrey, E. T., Member Local Committee, Denver. Johnson, Mrs. Egbert, Unity Church, Denver. Johnson, Mrs. C. W., Reception Committee, Denver. Jones, Mrs. Robert N., Woman's Christian Association, Denver. Jordan, Mrs. W. T., Woman's Christian Association, Denver. Joy, Mrs. S. J., Ladies' Relief Society, Denver. Keeley, Mrs. Thomas, President Flower Mission, Denver. Kelley, Andrew J., St. Vincent de Paul Society, Denver. Keltner, Mrs. W. S., Woman's Protection Club, Bessemer. Kieth, Mrs. O. P., St. Luke's Hospital Board, Denver. Killan, Julia E., Clerk of Chairman County Commissioners, Denver. Kountz, C. B., Member Local Committee, Denver. Laughlin, Mrs. C. H. N., Central W. C. T. U., Woman's Exchange, Denver. Leonard, Rev. Ella F., W. C. T. U., Denver. Likens, Mrs. S. M., Matron City Jail, Denver. Luthe, Mrs. Herman, Denver. Macon, Mrs. Thomas, Convent of the Good Shepherd, Denver. Maginnis, Miss Emily, Kitchen Garden, Denver. Maginnis, Mrs. H. S., Superintendent Day Nursery, Denver. Manley, A., Secretary and Treasurer St. Vincent de Paul Society, Denver. Marshall, Rev. Charles, St. Luke's, Denver. Mathews, E. M., Reform School, Golden. McDonald, R. P., Chairman Arapahoe County Commissioners, Denver. McGaffney, Mrs. A. B., Free Kindergarten, Denver. McGill, Mrs., St. Vincent Charity Association, Denver. McMann, Mrs. R. H., Denver. McNeil, J. L., Member Local Committee, Denver. McNeil, Mrs. John L., President Denver Orphans' Home, Denver. Miller, Mrs. Hortense, I. O. G. T., Denver. Miller, Mrs. James, Orphans' Home, Denver. Mitchell, Mrs. David, Ladies' Relief Society, Denver. Moore, Mrs. T. M., Orphans' Home, Denver. Morse, Mrs. H. M., Treasurer Ladies' Benevolent Union Society, Pueblo. Mott, Mrs. F. J., St. Joseph's Hospital, Denver. Murphy, Joseph T., St. Joseph Hospital, Denver. Murphy, Mrs. J. M., Denver. O'Bryan, Mrs. Thomas, Convent of the Good Shepherd, Denver. O'Ryan, Rev. William, Denver. Owens, B. R., Equal Suffrage Association, Denver. Parsons, Ed. S., Pastor U. Congregational Church, Greeley. Patton, Mrs. C. S., Woman's Christian Association, Denver. Peck, Miss H. N., Unity Church, Denver. Perry, John A., Convent of the Good Shepherd, Denver. Perry, Mrs. M. A., St. Joseph's Hospital, Denver. Pfanstiehl, Rev. A. A., Denver. Phillips, Mrs. A. B., Ladies' Relief Society, Denver. Piper, Alice M., Treasurer Day Nursery, Pueblo. Pitot, Miss M. P., Denver. Plummer, F. E., Anti-Capital Punishment Society, Denver. Prim, Mrs. John, St. Luke's Hospital, Denver. Prosser, Mrs. E., Denver. Putnam, Alfred, Denver. Reed, Myron W., President State Board of Charities and Corrections, and President Charity Organization Society, Denver. Reed, Paul L., Denver. Resor, Mrs. M. M., Bessemer. Riethmann, Mrs. J. J., Denver. Ringolsky, Mrs. L., Treasurer Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society, Denver. Rhoads, A. G., Denver. Rhoads, Mrs A. G., Denver. Roe, Robert S., Police Board, Denver. Roe, Mrs. Robert S., Pioneer Ladies' Aid, Denver. Rogers, Edmund J. O., St. Luke's Hospital, Denver. Ross, Lydia, Tabernacle Free Dispensary, Denver. Routt, Governor J. L., Ex-officw President State Board of Charities, Denver. Routt, Mrs. J. L., Denver. Rubidge, Mrs. Robert, Flower Mission, Denver. Ruth, Miss O., Orphans' Home, Denver. Salomon, Miss, Flower Mission, Denver. Saxton, Mrs. Scott, Vice-President Anid-Capital Punishment Association, Denver. Schick, Mrs. F. M., Denver. Schnapp, Miss Louise, Ladies' Aid Society, Colorado Springs.
Page 477 LIST OF DELEGATES. 477 Scott, Mrs. George L., Fortnightly Club, Denver. Selleck, Rev. W. C., Pastor First Universalist Church, Denver. Sewell, Henry M., Assistant Health Commissioners, Denver. Sheedy, Dennis, State Board of Charities, Denver. Shopleigh, Mrs. G. A., W. C. T. U., Denver. Sinclair, Mrs. John, Kitchen Garden, Denver. Skinner, Mrs. James A., Woman's Christian Association. Slocum,W. F., Colorado College, Colorado Springs. Smedley, Mrs. Dr. William, Denver. Smith, Mrs. Milo A., Orphans' Home, Denver. Sopris, Mrs. Richard, Pioneer Ladies' Aid, Denver. Spaulding, Rt. Rev. John F., Bishop of Colorado (Episcopal), Denver. Spaulding, Mrs. J. F.; President St. Luke's Ladies' Aid, Denver. Sperry, Mrs. J. S., Ladies' Benevolent Union, Pueblo. Stanley, Mrs. C. E., Greeley. Steele, Miss H., Flower Mission, Denver. Stockder, Mrs. M., St. Vincent Orphan Asylum, Denver. Storrs, 0. S., Denver. Storrs, Mrs. 0. S., Denver. Sunley, W. T., Secretary Westminster University, Denver. Thatcher, Mrs. J. A., Kindergarten, Denver. Thompson, G. H., Colorado Humane Society, Denver. Thompson, Mrs. G. H., Colorado Humane Society, Denver. Thompson, Mrs. F. A., Woman's Christian Association, Denver. Titsworth, C. G., Young Men's Christian Association, Denver. Townsend, Rev. C. T., Denver. Townsend, Mrs. C. T., Denver. Tudor, William M., Industrial School, Golden. Tuemre, Miss, Flower Mission, Denver. Twoombly, J. C., Commissioner Arapahoe County, Denver. Uzzell, Rev. Thomas, Member Executive Committee, Denver. Van Brunt, Mrs. William, Bessemer Protection Club, Pueblo. Voorhees, Ralph, Chairman Hotel Committee, Denver. Wade, L. E., Officer State Industrial School, Golden. Wade, Mrs. Juliet F., Matron No. 5, Family Building, State Industrial School, Golden. Wagner, Mrs. Aurilla, State I. O. G. T., Denver. Wallace, D. Douglas, St. Luke's Hospital, Denver. Walsh, Mrs. J., Orphans' Aid, Denver. Ward, Mrs. J. D., Denver. Ward, Mrs. William Shaw, Kindergarten, Denver. Way, Mrs. Annie C., Ladies' Benevolent Union Society, Pueblo. Webster, Mrs. J. W., Ladies' Relief Society, Denver. Welch, A. L., Secretary Nineteenth Conference Charities and Correction. Denver. Welch, Mrs. J. H., W. C. T. U., Denver. Wilson, Charles F., Chairman Entertainment Committee, Denver. Wisebart, Miss Lina, Ladies' Relief, Denver. Wood, John N., Denver. Wood, Mrs. John N., Denver. Woodbury, R. W., Member Local Committee, Denver. Young, Mrs. E. C., Denver. Zell, Mrs. J. L., St. Luke's Hospital, Denver. Connecticut. Knight, George H., M.D., Superintendent State School for Imbeciles, Lakeville. Knight, Mrs. George H., Lakeville. Knight, Mrs. Mary F., Lakeville. Taylor, Rev. Graham, Charity Organization Society, Hartford. District of Columbia. Wilson, Mrs. A. D., Washington. Illinois. Barnes, Dr. A. T., Commissioner of Public Charities, Bloomington. Boicourt, W. H., Trustee Illinois Southern Hospital for Insane, Golconda. Bottom, James, Trustee Southern Hospital for Insane, Sparta. Bottom, Mrs. James, Sparta. Bross, Miss Jennie, Soldiers' Home Association of Chicago, Morris. Clow, J. L., C., B. & Q. Agent, Chicago. Corbin, J. C., Mendota. Corbin, Mrs. J. C., Mendota. Culp, M., Trustee Southern Hospital for Insane. De Motte, H. C., Superintendent Illinois Soldiers' Orphans' Home, Normal. Dewey, Dr. Richard, Medical Superintendent Eastern Illinois Hospital for the Insane, Kankakee. Elrod, Dr. E. B., Medical Superintendent Illinois Southern Hospital for Insane, Anna. Fish, Dr. W. B., Superintendent Asylum for Feeble-minded Children, Lincoln. Fish, Mrs. W. B., Asylum for Feeble-minded Children, Lincoln. Fisher, A., Illinois M. E. Conference, Chicago. Flower, Mrs. J. M., Chairman Moral and Social Reform Committee World's Congress Auxiliary, Chicago. Gould, J. M., Commissioner Public Charities, Moline. Gould, Mrs. J. M., Moline. Gregg, Rev. Frank M., Assistant General Superintendent Children's Home Society, Chicago. Huddleston, Mrs. George W., World's Fair Auxiliary, Chicago. Jobst, V., President State Reformatory, Peoria. Jobst, Mrs. V., Peoria. Locke, Josephine C., Chicago. Mills, James P., M.D., Foundlings' Home, Chicago. Rosenau, Nathaniel S., Superintendent Bureau of Charities and Correction, World's Fair, Chicago. Shiells, Mrs. Hugh, Chicago. Trusdell, Rev. C. G., State Board Charities, General Superintendent Chicago Relief and Aid Society, and Children's Aid Society, Chicago. Van Arsdale, Rev. M. V. B., Children's Home Society, Chicago. Wadsworth, Dr. J. L. R., President Board of Public Charities, Collinsville. Wallace, Mrs. M. R. M., President Illinois Industrial School for Girls. Wines, Rev. F. Howard, Secretary Board of Public Charities, ex-President National Conference, Springfield. Indiana. Charlton, T. J., Superintendent Indiana Reform School for Boys, Plainfield.
Page 478 478 NJNETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Charlton, Miss Alice R., Matron Indiana Reform School for Boys, Plainfield. Hauser, Z. H., Trustee Central Hospital for Insane, Columbus. Johnson, Alexander, Secretary Board State Charities, Indianapolis. Johnson, Katharine D., Clerk Board State Charities, Indianapolis. Keeley, Miss Sarah F., Superintendent Reform School for Girls, Indianapolis. Rodkey, Mrs. Lotta, C. C. Aid Society, Kokomo. Scofield, Mrs. Sherman, Franklin. Smallwood, W. C., Secretary of Organized Charities, Terre Haute. TilNon, Mrs. Anna M., Agent Charity Organizatiln Society, Indianapolis. Wertz, D-. T., Trustee Southern Hospital for Inz-an-, Evansville. Wiles, Rev. Thomas M., Board of State Charities, Franklin. Wiles, Dr. W. N., State Board of Health, Spencer. Iowa. Gates, Rev. George A., President Iowa College, Grinnell. Gates, Mrs., Grinnell. Hamilton, J. D. M., Trustee Hospital for Insane, Fort Morgan. Inscore, Miss Etta, Institute for Feeble-minded, Glenwood. Leonard, Mrs. John, Winterset. Lewellin, Dr. P. W., Superintendent Hospital for Insane, Clarinda. Lewellin, Miss Mary, Clarinda. Maywood, Miss M., Institute for Feeble-minded, Glenwood. Millard, Mrs. F. A., Assistant Secretary Charity Organization Society, Burlington. Patrick, G. T. W., State University, Iowa City. Powell, Dr. F. M., Superintendent Institute Feeble-minded, Glenwood. Powell, Mrs. F. M., Matron Institute Feebleminded, Glenwood. Powell, Fred, Glenwood. Starr, Miss M. E., Secretary Charity Organization Society, Burlington. Stuart, D. E., "The Nonpareil," Council Bluffs. Stuart, Rev. T. McK., Member Board Trustees Hospital Insane, Clarinda. Van Patten, Dorothy Hartzel, Secretary Ladies' Industrial Relief Society, Davenport. Van Patten, J. P., Davenport. Wilman, Miss Minnie, Clarinda. Kansas. Brady, Miss Cora, Leavenworth. Louisiana. Baker, W. M., State Delegate, New Orleans. Baker, Mrs. W. M., State Delegate, New Orleans. Pitot, Miss Bertha, New Orleans. Reese, Mrs. Lousia P., New Orleans. Roundtree, Miss M. E., New Orleans. Maryland. Glenn, John M., State Delegate, Baltimore. Morris, Dr. John, State Delegate, Maryland Prisoners' Aid Society, Baltimore. Richmond, Miss Mary E., Secretary Charity Organization Society, Baltimore. Shippen, Dr. C. C., State Delegate, Baltimore. Massachusetts. Allen, Mrs, Caroline B., Associated Charities, Dorchester. Barrows, Mrs. Isabel C., Official Reporter and Editor National Conference, Boston. Belcher, J. White, Chairman Trustees State Almshouse and State Farm, Randolph. Belcher, Mrs. J. W., Randolph. Billings, Edmund, Wells Memorial Institute, Boston. Birtwell, Charles W., General Secretary Boston Children's Aid Society. Blackstone. H. M., Superintendent State Farm, Bridgewater. Blackstone, Mrs. H. M. Brackett, A. L., Lancaster. Brackett, Mrs. L. L., Lancaster. Chapin, T. F., Superintendent Lyman School for Boys, Westborough. Crawford, Dr. Sarah M., Medical Visitor State Charities, Boston. Crehore, Miss Ellen H., Dedham, Mass. Dunbar, Miss Mary E., Canton. Fifield, Mrs. Emily A., Massachusetts School Feeble-minded Youth, Dorchester. Fiske, Mrs. Sarah D., Malden. Hall, Miss Adelaide, Associated Charities, Dorchester. Homans, Miss Amy Morris, Director Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, Boston. Howard, Herbert B., M.D., Superintendent of State Almshouse, Tewksbury. Johnson, G. W., State Board Lunacy and Charity, Brookfield. Lewis, James H., Agent Overseers of Poor and Secretary Union Relief Association, Springfield. Lewis, Mrs. James H., Springfield. Mason, Miss Ellen E., Matron Lawrence General Hospital, Lawrence. Noyes, Miss M. E., Associated Charities, Dorchester. Pratt, Mrs. C. C., Westfield. Pratt, Robert W., Associated Charities, Jamaica Plain. Richardson, Mrs. Anne B., Massachusetts Board of Lunacy and Charity, Boston. Sanborn, F. B., ex-President National Conference, Concord. Shurtleff, Hiram S., State Superintendent Outdoor Poor, Boston. Siebker, Miss Sophie L., Dorchester. Smith, Miss Zilpha D., Associated Charities, Boston. Stone,.Col. Henry, President State Board Lunacy and Charity, Boston. Strong, Mrs. C. M., Springfield. Wheeler, Walter A., Monson. Woodbury, Charles E., Inspector of Institutions State Board Lunacy and Charity, Boston. Michigan. Baldwin, Mrs. S., Detroit Industrial School, Detroit. Barbour, Levi L., Detroit. Bell, Dr. Samuel, Member State Board Charities and Correction, Detroit. Benjamin, Miss Minnie, Grand Rapids. Bowling, E. B., Detroit. Bowling, Mrs. E. C., Home of Industry, Detroit. D'Arcambal, Mrs. Agnes L., Founder Home of Industry and State Delegate, Detroit. Dewing, Miss Mary L., Kalamazoo. Dewing, Mrs. J. A., Kalamazoo. Forrest, Herbert A., State Board Charities and Correction.
Page 479 LIST OF DELEGATES. 479 Giddings, Mrs Julia E., Bethesda Home, Kalamazoo. Hinchman, T. H., Detroit. Randall, C. D., Coldwater. Storrs, L. C., Secretary State Board Charities and Correction, Lansing. Tupper, Rev. Mila Frances, Grand Rapids. Wood, Dr. R. H., State Reform School, Lansing. Minnesota. Carhart, Joseph, President State Normal School, St. Cloud. Hart, H. H., Secretary State Board of Corrections and Charities, St. Paul. Hoyt, F. W., Red Wing. Hoyt, Miss Fanny, Red Wing. Hoyt, Miss Winifred, Red Wing. Hoyt, Mrs. F. W., State Reform School, Red Wing. Jefferson, R. C., St. Paul. Lewis, H. W., Agent State Public School, Owatonna. McCrea, E. E., Pioneer Press, St. Paul. McCrory, Miss Harriett, Minneapolis. Mclntire, Jesse, Manager State Reform School, Red Wing. Savage, E. S., St. Paul. Savage, Miss Nellie, St. Paul. Savage, Rev. E. P., Superintendent Children's Home Society, St. Paul. Smith, Mrs. S. G., President Orphan Asylum, St. Paul. Smith, Rev. S. G., Vice-President State Board of Charities and Correction, St. Paul. Soboliska, Mrs. J. B., Plainview. Williams, M. W., Spring Valley. Wright, Isaac P., Chairman and Treasurer Board of Control, St. Paul. Missouri. Berkowitz, Rabbi, State Delegate, Kansas City. Fusz, Louis, President St. Vincent de Paul Society, St. Louis. Fusz, Mrs. Louis, St. Louis. Perry, Miss Mary E., State Delegate, St. Louis. Pittman, Mrs. W. R., State Delegate, St. Joseph. Pittman, Rev. W. R., State Delegate, St. Joseph. Rainwater, Mrs. C. C., State Delegate, St. Louis. Roberts, Rev. John E., State Delegate, Kansas City. Wolf, D. R., Director St. Louis Provident Association and State Delegate, St. Louis. Wolf, Mrs. D. R., Member Board of Girls' Industrial Home, Manager for Baptist Orphans' Home and St. Louis Protestant Orphans' Home, St. Louis. Nebraska. Anthony, Margaret M., Tecumseh. Babcock, Mrs. H. A., President Board of Directors of the Home for the Friendless. Barnes, A. T., Lincoln. Clarke, A. W., City Mission and Co-operative Charities, Omaha. Hoel, Mrs. L. B., Superintendent Home for Friendless, Lincoln. Howe, P. M., Chaplain State Penitentiary, Lincoln. Lewis, Frank W., Charity Organization Society, Lincoln. Lewis, Miss Nettie, Omaha. Mallalieu, John T., Superintendent State Industrial School, Kearney. McCord, W. D., Colon. McCormick, Mrs. Annie, Matron Charity Organization Society, Linc 'In. McKelvey, Mrs. Luella, Matron Girls' State Industrial School, Geneva. Munson, C. C., Lincoln. Munson, Mrs. C. C., Lincoln. Porter, Mrs. F. F., Omaha. Shaff, H. D., Teacher State Industrial School, Kearney. Shaff, Mrs. H. D., Assistant Matron State Industrial School, Kearney. Skinner, Lloyd, Charity Organization Society, Lincoln. Thurston, Mrs. John M., Omaha. New Jersey. Otterson, Ira, Superintendent State Reform School, Jamesburg. New York. Blake, William, Superintendent Charities and Correction, New York. Brady, Miss Kate, New York. Buzelle, G. B., General Secretary Bureau of Charities, Brooklyn. Buzelle, Miss S. M., Brooklyn. Carpenter, Elisha M., New York Juvenile Asylum, New York; Carpenter, Mrs. E. M., New York. Clausen, Mrs. L. F., Middletown. Clarke, Hon. R. H., President New York Catholic Protectory, New York. Covill, D. L., Rochester. Craig, Oscar, President State Board of Charities, Rochester. Craig, Mrs. Oscar, President Charitable Association, Rochester. Herendeen, E. W., Geneva. Herendeen, Mrs. E. W., Geneva. Holmes, Prof. J. D., Superintendent Newsboy's and Bootblack's Home, Buffalo. Hoyt, Dr. Charles S., Secretary State Board of Charities, ex-President National Conference, Albany. Hubbard, William A., Secretary Homcepathic Hospital, Rochester. Hubbard, Mrs. William A., Rochester. Kellogg, Charles D., General Secretary Charity Organization Society, New York. Kellogg, Mrs. C. D., New York. Letchworth, William P., Commissioner State Board of Charities and Correction, ex-President National Conference, Buffalo. McBryde, Miss M. M., Penny Provident Fund, New York. McLouth, Charles, State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women, Palmyra. McLouth, Mrs., Palmyra. Moore, Miss M. I., Assistant Secretary Charity Organization Society, Buffalo. Sibthorpe, Miss M., Margaret Strachen Home, New York. Tice, B. W., Children's Aid Society, New York. Walrath, Peter, State Board of Charities, etc., Chittenango. Young, Miss M. K., New York Kindergarten Association, New York. Ohio. Ayres, P. W., General Secretary Associated Charities, Cincinnati. Brinkerhoff, Miss A. H., Mansfield.
Page 480 480 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Brinkerhoff, Roeliff, Chairman Board of State Charities, ex-President National Conference, Mansfield. Byers, Joseph P., Clerk State Board Charities, Columbus. Crouse, Meigs V., Superintendent Children's Home, Cincinnati. Crouse, Mrs. M. V., Cincinnati'. Follett, M, D., Member State Board of Charities, Marietta. Fulton, Col. Levi S., Superintendent House of Refuge, Cincinnati. Hammond, G. A., Cleveland. Johnson, Miss A. M., M.D., Zanesville. Kelley, J. G., Children's Home, Columbus. Kelley, Mrs. Lida E., Children's Home, Columbus. Kerr, J. G., Surgeon Medical Missionary Society, Canton, China; Post-office Address, Seville, Ohio. Kerr, Mrs. J. G., Seville, Ohio. Limbert, L. F., Board State Reformatory, Greenville. Limbert, Mrs. L. F., Greenville. March, J. R., Columbus. Meese, D. J., Mansfield. Meese, Mrs. D. J., Mansfield. Morris, P. E., Cincinnati. Morse, Miss E. M., Associated Charities, Cincinnati. Munson, Charles E., Columbus. North, Mrs. Anna M., Vice-President Bethel Associated Charities, Cleveland. Parrott, Charles, Member State Board Charities, Columbus. Shields, Miss M. J., Newark. Stanley, Marguerite, Toledo. Stanley, Mrs. Flora D., Lucas County Children's Home, Toledo. White, Albert S., Superintendent Children's Home, Columbus. White, Mrs. Albert S., Matron Children's Home, Columbus. Wilson, Dr. J. L., Greenfield. Oregon. Walpole, W. R., Secretary City Board Charities, Portland. Pennsylvania. Folks, Homer, General Superintendent Children's Aid Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Garrett, Philip C., ex-President National Conference, Member United States Indian Commission, Philadelphia. Gawthrop, Henry, Society for Organizing Charity, Philadelphia. Gawthrop, Mrs. Henry, Society for Organizing Charity, Philadelphia. Hoffman, David, Treasurer Hebrew Charities, Philadelphia. Justice, Miss Margaret R., Manager Seventh Street Home of Industry, Philadelphia. Perot, Miss Annie S., Manager Shelter for Colored Orphans, Philadelphia. Perot, Miss Elizabeth W., Manager Female Association, Philadelphia. Perot, Miss Mary W., Manager Foster Home, Philadelphia. Pratt, R. W., Superintendent Carlisle Indian School, Carlisle. Richardson, Charles, House of Refuge, Philadelphia. Richardson, Mrs. Charles, Manager Philadelphia Orphans' Society. Rhode Island. Blake, Eli W., Jr., Society for Organizing Charity, Providence. Manchester, A. N., Providence. Nutting, Rev. James D., Chaplain State Institutions, Howard. Parish, Miss Minnie, Providence. Wightman, G. W., Agent State Board Charities and Correction, Providence. South Dakota. Cushman, Mrs. J. S., Children's Home Society, State Delegate, Deadwood. Tennessee. Caldwell, Mrs. R. R., Flower Mission Society, State Delegate, Nashville. Caldwell, R. R., County and Probate Judge, State Delegate, Nashville. Hooth, Mrs. M. E., Memphis Xmas Club and Aid Society. Truex, Rev. H. E., Gallatin. Utah. Grosmayer, Miss Rachel, Ladies' Charitable Society, Ogden. Metzler, Mrs. Joseph, Ogden. Vermont. Dennison, J. H., State Delegate. Washington. Hart, A. D., Seattle. Hart, Mrs. A. D., Seattle. Wisconsin. Elmore, Andrew E., ex-President National Conference, Fort Howard. Frelson, G., Superintendent Associated Charities, Milwaukee. Klug, William F., Superintendent Poor, Milwaukee. Wyoming. Farwell, Stephen T., Secretary State Board of Charities and Reform, Buffalo. Weyler, Rev. Samuel, Pastor Union Congrega. tional Church, Buffalo.
Page 481 ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFERENCE OF 1892. President. REV. MYRON W. REED, Denver, Col. Vice-Presidents. H. H. HART, Minnesota. JOHN GLENN, Maryland. DR. ARTHUR J. BROWN, Oregon. MRS. JOSEPH S. SPEAR, JR., California. A. O. WRIGHT, Wisconsin. MIss CLARA BARTON, District of Columbia. Secretaries. ALEXANDER JOHNSON, Indiana A. G. WARNER, District of Columbia. A. L. WELCH, Colorado. Treasurer. WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH, New York. Official Reporter and Editor. ISABEL C. BARROWS, Boston, Mass. Executive Committee. PRESIDENT MYRON W. REED, Chairman. H. H. HART, Minnesota. REV. THOMAS J. UZZELL, Colorado. REV. CHARLES W. WENDTE, California. HIRAM S. SHURTLEFF, Massachusetts. GEORGE S. ROBINSON, Illinois. ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF, Ohio. F. B. SANBORN, Massachusetts. ANDREW E. ELMORE, Wisconsin. FREDERICK H. WINES, Illinois. PHILIP C. GARRETT, Pennsylvania. W. P. LETCHWORTH, New York. WM. HOWARD NEFF, Ohio. H. H. GILES, Wisconsin. DR. CHAS. S. HOYT, New York. RT. REV. GEO. D. GILLESPIE, Michigan. OSCAR C. McCULLOCH, Indiana.
Page 482 482 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. STANDING COMMITTEES. On Reports from States. Alexander Johnson............ Indianapolis, Ind. L. C. Storrs...................... Lansing, Mich, John H. Finley..........2I University Place, New York, N.Y. On Preventive and Defensive Measures against Pauperism and Crime. Dr. Chas. S. Hoyt................ Albany., N.Y. Dr. James L. Wilson........... Greenfield, Ohio Laban Pratt...................... Boston, Mass. Rev. Henry Hopkins.......... Kansas City, Mo. Rev. J. L. Milligan............. Allegheny, Pa. Mrs. J. M. Flower.................Chicago, Ill. On the Commitment and Detention of the Insane. Dr. Stephen Smith, 574 Madison Ave., New York. Fred. H. Wines.................. Springfield, Ill. M. D. Follet.................... Marietta, Ohio Peter Bryce, M.D............ Tuscaloosa, Ala. John W. Willes............... St. Paul, Minn. On Care and Classification of the Insane. R. S. Dewey, M.D., Chairman.... Kankakee. I 1. A. R. Moulton, M.D............. Boston, Mass. H. H. Giles.......................Madison, Wis. W. P Jones, M.D............. Nashville, Tenn. Oscar Craig................... Rochester, N.Y. G. Vivian, M.D....................Oakland, Cal. H. A. Tobey, M.D.................'roledo, Ohio Dr. Jennie McCowen............Davenport, Ia. John R. Elder.............. Indianapolis, Ind. On Kindergarten Work and the Placing Out of Children. Rev. S. G. Smith................. St. Paul, Minn. Mrs. Virginia T. Smith..........Hartford, Conn. Mrs. C. R. Lowell............... New York, N.Y. Miss M T. Battle............... Nashville, Tenn. Mrs. Sarah D. Cooper........ San Francisco, Cal. J. H. Mills....................Thomasville, N.C. Homer Folks............... Philadelphia, Pa. On the Colony Plan for the Care of All Grades of the Feeble-minded. George H. Knight, M.D......... Lakeville, Conn. Dr. W. M. Fernald..............Waltham, Mass. S. S. Peirson...................... Newark, N.J. W. W. Reed, M.D...............Jefferson, Wis. Dr. J. A. Eskridge................... Denver, Col. Miss Mattie Gundry........... Owings Mills, Md. Dr. Edgar A. Osborne.......... Santa Clara, Cal. On Co-operation of Women in the Management of Charitable, Penal, and Correctional Institutions. Mrs. A. B. Richardson............. Lowell, Mass. Francis Wayland............. New Haven, Conn. Mrs. E. B. Fairbanks............Milwaukee, Wis. Charles Parrott...................Colunmbus, Ohio Miss Mary E. Richmond..........Baltimore, Md. Mrs. J. S. Sperry..................De.ver, Col. Mrs. A. L. D'Arcambal........... Detroit, Mich. Mrs. A. B. Gove................... Oakland, Cal. On Charity Organization. Geo. B. Buzelle.................. Brooklyn, N.Y. P. W. Avers....................Cincinnati, Ohio Miss Hannah M. Todd..............Lynn, Mass. W. G. Steele...................Portland, Ore. A. G. Warner................ Washington, D.C. Mrs. A. Jacobs..................... Denver, Col. Rev. C. A. Henderson............. Detroit, Mich. Mrs. Nettie F. Howard........... Davenport, Ia.
Page 483 STANDING COMMITTEES. On State Boards of Charities. 483 Wm. P. Letchworth................ Buffalo, N.Y. Geo. D. Gillespie........... Grand Rapids, Mich. Andrew Elmore.............. Fort Howard, Wis. Henry Stone......................Boston, Mass. Rev. W. F. Slocum........ Colorado Springs, Col. Rev. T. L. Eliot.............. Portland, Ore. J. F. Ball......................Wilmington, Del. G. W. Crossley................Fort Madison, Ia. On Reformatory Work. Ira C. Otterson............... Jamesburg, N.J. Dr. Walter Lindley..............Whittier, Cal. Theo. D. Kanouse........... Sioux Falls, S. Dak. W. C. Kilvington............... Nashville, Tenn. Geo. W. Johnson..............Brookfield, Mass. Rev. James H. Nutting.......... Howard, R.I. Miss M. S. Elder............ Indianapolis, Ind. On Immigration and Migration between States. F. B. Sanborn................. Concord, Mass. Rev. J. L. Leucht............. New Orleans, La. Dr. Charles S. Hoyt.............. Albany, N.Y. Rev. S. A. Eliot....................Denver, Col. Levi L. Barbour................ Detroit, Mich. Brilsford P. Flint............. San Francisco, Cal. N. J. Batchelder........... Concord, N.H. On the "Indian Policy" in its Relation to Pauperism and Crime. Philip C. Garrett............... Philadelphia, Pa. Rev. R. W. Hill............ Muskogee, Ind. Ter. Gen. S. C. Armstrong.............Hampton, Va. Miss Alice Fletcher............Washington, D.C. Gen. Eli S. Parker............. New York, N.Y. Miss Anna L. Dawes............ Pittsfield, Mass. Capt. R. H. Pratt............ Carlisle, Pa. On Plans of Buildings for Public Institutions. Dr. Hal. C. Wyman..............Detroit, Mich. Simpson Ely................... Kansas City, Mo. A. 0. Wright..................... Madison, Wis. Dr. O. W. Archibald........Jamestown, N. Dak. Dr. W. B. Fletcher............Indianapolis, Ind.. H.H. Hart...................St. Paul, Minn. Albert S. White............ Columbus, 0. State Corresponding Secretaries. Alabama........... Dr. Peter Bryce, Tuskaloosa. Arizona...........Dr. Thomas Darlington, Bisbee. California..........S. B. Mosher, San Francisco. Colorado................... J. S. Appel, Denver. Delaware....... Mrs. A. D. Warner, Wilmington. District of Columbia...A. G. Warner, Washington. Florida............ H. S. Elliott, Tallahassee. Georgia..... Rev. George L. Chaney, Atlanta. Idaho........................... Illinois..............John W. Whipp, Springfield. Indiana........ Alexander Johnson, Indianapolis. Indian Territory.... Robert R. W. Hill, Muskogee. Iowa...........Dr. Jennie McCowan, Davenport Kansas............................T. F. Rhodes. Kentucky.............. B. B. Huntoon, Louisville. Louisiana.......... John A. Kearny, New Orleans. Maine........ Mrs. L. M. N. Stevens, Portland. Maryland........... John M. Glenn, Baltimore. Massachusetts.....Dr. Albert R. Moulton, Boston. Michigan................... L. C. Storrs, Lansing. Minnesota................ H. H. Hart, St. Paul. Missouri...............T. P. Holly, Kansas City. Wyoming.............. Montana..........Mrs. D. F. Hatch, Big Timber. Nebraska............... J. A. Gillespie, Omaha. Nevada................ Fred. Fairbanks, Dayton. New Hampshire...Dr. Irving M. Watson, Concord. New Jersey.......... Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, Trenton. New York.............C. D. Kellogg, New York. North Carolina...............Rev. T. C. Willson. North Dakota... Dr. 0. W. Archibald, Jamestown. Ohio.................. John G. Doren, Columbus. Oregon..................W. R. Walpole, Salem. Pennsylvania..... Cadwalader Biddle, Philadelphia. Rhode Island..........W. W. Chapin, Providence. South Carolina............J. L. Vass, Greenville. South Dakota................................... Tennessee............. R. R. Caldwell, Nashville. Texas.................... Benjamin McCulloch. Utah.... Mrs. Cornelia G. Paddock, Salt Lake City. Vermont........Dr. Joseph Draper, Brattleboro. Virginia..........Dr. J. B. Taylor, Lexington. Washington............... Henry Oliver, Tacoma. West Virginia...... Nathan L. Goff, West Virginia. Wisconsin........................................................1....
Page 484 OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF DENVER LOCAL COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. Myron W. Reed, ex officio. J. S. Appel, Chairman. R. W. Woodbury. C. S. Morey. J. L. McNeil. W. S. Decker. Dennis Sheedy, Treasurer. William H. Brodhead, General Secretary. W. S. Lee. C. B. Kountz. W. S. Cheesman. C. E. Dickinson. D. H. Ferguson. Ralph Voorhies. H. P. Steel. E. T. Jeffrey.
Page 485 OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF STATE BOARDS. COLORADO. State Board of Charities and Corrections. Gov. John L. Routt, ex offcio.................. William F. Slocum............ Colorado Springs Myron W. Reed, President.............. Denver Bruce Johnson..........................Greeley J. C. Hay, Vice-President................Pueblo J. S. Appel....................... Denver Dennis Sheedy.........................Denver William H. Brodhead, Secretary.........Denver CONNECTICUT. State Board of Charities. Mrs. Virginia T. Smith................. Hartford George H. Woods......................Hartford Mrs. Francis Bacon, Secretary......New Haven ILLINOIS. Board of Public Charities. J. L. R. Wadsworth, M.D., President.. Collinsville Rev. C. G. Trusdell, D.D................ Chicago J. C. Corbus, M.D......................Mendota J. M. Gould.............................Moline A. T. Barnes, M.D.................. Bloomington Rev. F. H. Wines, Secretary.......... Springfield John W. Whipp, Assistant Secretary. INDIANA. Board of State Charities. Hon. Ira J. Chase, Governor, ex officio President Timothy Nicholson............... Richmond Stoughton A. Fletcher..............Indianapolis Mrs. Margaret F. Peelle............ Indianapolis John R. Elder..................Indianapolis Mrs. C. W. Fairbanks...............Indianapolis Rev. Thomas M. Wiles................. Franklin Alexander Johnson, Secretary........ Indianapolis KANSAS. Board of Trustees of the Charitable Institutions. L. K. Kirk, President................Garnett W. W. Miller, Treasurer............. Osage City T. F. Rhodes, Secretary............. Frankfort W. T. Yoe...................... Independence H. B. Kelly......................... McPherson MASSACHUSETTS. State Board of Lunacy and Charity. Richard L. Hodgdon, M.D., Chairman, Arlington Mrs. Anne B. Richardson. -.............. Lowell Mrs.Henrietta G.Codman,Vice-chairm'n,Brookline George W. Johnson................ Brookfield Charles F. Donnelly.....................Boston Henry Stone........................... Boston Edward Hitchcock, M.D................ Amherst Laban Pratt............................. Boston Charles J. Curran, M.D............ North Adams Stephen C. Wrightington.............. Fall River Charles E. Woodbury, M.D...........Arlington (Superintendent of Indoor Poor.) 'Inspector of Institution- ) Hiranm S. Shurtleff.......................Boston John D. Wells....................Cambridge (Superintendent ot Outdoor Poor.) (Clerk and Auditor.)
Page 486 486 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. MICHIGAN. Board of Corrections and Charities. The Governor, ex offcio....................... Herbert A. Forrest............... East Saginaw Rt. Rev. George D. Gillespie, Samuel Bell, M.D.......................Detroit Chairman................. Grand Rapids James M. Neasmith.................. Vicksburg L. C. Storrs, Secretary...................Lansing MINNESOTA. Board of Corrections and Charities. Gov. W. R. Merriam, ex-officio President..........M. Hall.........................Red Wing C. Amundson........................St. Peter Rev S. G. Smith...................... St. Paul H. J. Boyd.........................Alexandria J. W. Willis.........................St. Paul G. A. Brackett..................Minneapolis H. H. Hart, Secretary..................St. Paul NEW JERSEY. State Board of HealtA. MEMBERS EX OFFICIO. Hon. Henry C. Kelsey, Secretary of State Hon. John P. Stockton, LL.D., Attorney-General Prof. John C. Smock, Ph.D., State Geologist Ezra M. Hunt, M.D., LL.D............ Trenton Prof. Cyrus F. Brackett, M.D., LL.D., E. A. Osborn, C.E................. Middletown President......................Princeton Edward R. O'Reilly, M.D..............Elizabeth Franklin Gauntt, M.D................Burlington Laban Dennis, M.D....................Newark Prof. A. R. Leeds, Ph.D................Hoboken NEW YORK. State Board of Charities. EX OFFICIO MEMBERS. Hon. Wm. F. Sheehan, Lieutenant Governor................................ Albany Hon. Frank Rice, Secretary of State.............................. Albany Hon. Frank Campbell, Comptroller.............................Albany Hon. Simon W. Rosendale, Attorney-General................................. Albany MEMBERS APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR( AND SENATE. First Judicial District......William R. Stewart....................... 54 Williams Street, New York New York County..........Samuel Alexander............................95 Park Avenue, New York (Under Chapter 571, Laws of 1873.) New York County......... Mrs. Beekman de Peyster........ 465 West Twenty-third Street, New York (Under Chapter 571, Laws of 1873.) Second Judicial District.... Vacanc. Kings County..............Carll H. De Silver......................... 45 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn (Under Chapter 57i, Laws of 1873.) ThirdJudicial District.....John H. Van Antwerp........................... 2 Lodge Street, Albany Fourth Judicial District....Edward W. Foster........................ Potsdam, St. Lawrence County F/fth Judicial District......Robert McCarthv............................................Syracuse SixthJudicial District. Peter Walrath............................ Chtt, enang,, Madison County Seventh Judicial District...Oscar Craig..................................................... Rochester Eighth Judicial District.... William P. Letchworth.......................................... Buffalo OFFICERS. Oscar Craig...........................President Charles S. Hoyt....................Secretary John H. Van Antwerp.......... Vice-President James O. Fanning............ Assistant Secretary NORTH CAROLINA. Board of Public Charities. Charles Duffy, Jr., M.D., Chairman.... Newbern I. T. Reid, M.D........................Old Fort Lawrence J. Haughten............... Pittsboro W. M. N. Jones.................... Raleigh William T. Blair....................... Winston C. B. Denson, Secretary.................Raleigh
Page 487 OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF STATE BOARDS 487 OHIO. Board of State Charities. Gov. Wm. McKinley, Jr., President ex officio.... Henry C. Ranney................... Cleveland Roeliff Brinkerhoff, Chairman.......... Mansfield Charles Parrott...................... Columbus William Howard Neff................. Cincinnati M. D. Follett...........................Marietta James L. Wilson.................... Greenfield Joseph P. Byers, Clerk.............. Columbus OREGON. State Board of Charities and Corrections. C. E. Cline, President............... Woodstock W. E. Rinehart, M.D.................The Dalles W. E. Carll, M.D...................Oregon City J. S. White...............................Salem Dr. Solis Cohen....................... Portland Thomas N. Strong, Secretary............Portland PENNSYLVANIA. Department of Public Charities. Mahlon H. Dickinson, President.....Philadelphia George I. McLeod.................Philadelphia Thomas G. Morton.................. Philadelphia James B. Scott.....................Pittsburg J. W. C. O'Neal......................Gettysburg Thomas W. Barlow.................. Philadelphia George W. Starr...........................Erie William B. Gill...................... Philadelpnia Henry M. Boies........................Scranton George W. Ryon................. Shamokin Cadwalader Biddle, ex officio Secretary and General Agent, Philadelphia RHODE ISLAND. Board of State Charities and Corrections. Thomas Coggeshall, Chairman.......... Newport William H. Spooner......................Bristol Henry L. Greene................... River Point William S. Hayward................... Providence Phineas O. Littlefield........... Narragansett Pier Walter A. Read....................... Providence Ellery H. Wilson....................Providence John C. B. Woods....................Providence Charles H. Peckham, Secretary........ Providence SOUTH DAKOTA. State Board of Charities and Corrections. G. A. Uline, President...............Dell Rapids C. M. Howe..........................Mellette J. M. Talcott........................ Elk Point Robert W. Haire......................Aberdeen Z. Richey, Secretary................... Yankton WISCONSIN. State Board of Control of Reformatory, Charitable, and Penal Institutions. Clarence Snyder, President..............Ashland Charles D. Parker.................... River Falls J. E. Jones..............................Portage J. M. Oliver............................W aupun Dr. J. L. Cleary....................... Kenosha W. H. Graebner...................... Milwaukee P. Mulholland, Secretary.............. Madison WYOMI \G. State Board of Charities and Reform. MEMBERS EX OFFICIO. Otto Gramm, State Treasurer. Charles W. Burdick, State Auditor. S. T. Farwell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Page 488 INDEX OF SPEAKERS AND WRITERS. Appel, J. S., i, 322, 366, 399. Ayers, P. W., 334, 377, 435, 436, 451, 462, 470. Barbour, Levi L., 89, 323. Barnes, A. T., 325. Barrows, Mrs. Isabel C., 230, 455, 463, 464. Barton, Miss Clara, 374. Berkowitz, Rabbi, 245. Birtwell, Charles W., 330, 387, 463, 464, 465, 466, 470. Blackstone, H. M., 408. Blake, E. W., 388, 470. Bradner, Dr. Mary, 381. Breed, W. J., 459. Brinkerhoff, R., 9, 323, 345, 366, 408. Brodhead. W. H., 321, 366, 394. Burgess, Miss M. H., 424. Buzelle, George B., 204, 455, 456. Caldwell, R. R., 328. Carhart, Joseph. 183. Carpenter, E. M., 358. Charlton, T. J., 357. Clark, A. W., 455. Clarke, R. H., 351, 390, 444. Cooper, Mrs. S. B., 374. Craig, Oscar, 7, 344, 357, 358, 363, 364, 365, 366, 370. Curtis, George William, 317. Cushman, Mrs. J. S., 340. D'Arcambal, Mrs. A., 396, 463. Dewey, Richard, 125, 142, 347, 367. Dickinson, Miss, 470, 47I Donnelly, Charles F., 378. Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., 89, 90, 385, 399, 435. Elmore, A. E., 1i, 322, 324, 326, 337, 344. Fifield, Mrs. Emily A., 349. Fish, William B, I6r, 349. Fletcher, Alice C., 59. Folks, Homer, 419. Follett, M. D., 330, 396. Forrest, H. A., 386. Friedman, Rev. William S., 380, 408. Garrett, Philip C., 23, 324, 338, 348, 349, 351, 391, 474. Gates, Rev. Geo. A., 223. Glenn, John M., 440, 463. Gove, Aaron, 5. Gregg, F. M., 415. Hammond, George F., 400, 407, 408. Hart, Dean, 387. Hart, H. H., 8, I91, 321, 338, 375, 398, 399, 407, 408. Haskell, Mr., 366, 374. Hill, Robert W., 34. Hoffman, David, 382, 384, 385. Howard Herbert B., 409. Hoyt, Charles S., 89, 376, 474. Jacobs, Mrs. A., 335, 383, 456, 467. Johnson, Alexander, 239, 251, 376, 397, 408, 428. Johnson, George W., 378. Keely, Miss Sarah F., 179. Kellogg, Charles D., 331, 428, 449, 456. Klug, William F., 456. Knight, George H., i55, 348, 349, 408. Letchworth, William P., 13, 338, 374. Leucht, I. L., 89. Lindley, Walter, 319, 321. Loch, S. C., 453. Mallalieu, John T., 4I0. Matthews, W. H., 443. McBryde, Miss M. M., 380, 467. McLouth, Charles, 326, 342. Moore, Miss M. I., 462, 463. Nutting, Rev. J. H., o1, 175, 323. O'Ryan, Rev. William, 390. Otterson, Ira D., I66. Pittman, W. R., 324, 367, 375. Powell, F. M., 346. Pratt, R. M., 45. Preston, S. 0., 442. Rapb, Brainard, 457. Rainwater, Mrs. C. C., 329, 444. Reed, Mvron W., J, 247, 362, 388, 389. Reeves, Mr., 386. Richardon, Mrs. Anne B., 2i6, 408. Richardson, Charles, 384. Richmond, Miss Mary E., 379, 435, 469. Rogers, Platt, 4. Rosenau, N. S., 369, 370. Routt, John L., 3. Safford, George B., 430. Sanborn, F. B., 3, 19, 89, 323, 326, 337, 345) 350o 364, 365, 366, 375, 389, 392. Shippen, C. C., 464. Slocum, William F., 70, 211, 385, 455. Smith, Stephen, 94. Smith, Rev. S. G., 319, 359, 374. Smith, Miss Zilpha D., 435, 436, 444, 445, 456, 464, 465, 470. Spauldine, Bishop, 388. Sperry, Mrs. J. S., 387. Stone, Henry, 342. Storrs, L. S., 322, 347. StuaIt, James M., 66. Taylor, Graham, 327, 376, 462, 469. Tenney, S. E., 452. Thurston, Mrs. J. M., 388. Tice, Dr. B. W., 381. Tilson, Mrs. Anna M., 383, 385, 463. Trusdell, C. G., 360. Walpole, N. R., 445. Warner, A. G., 430. Wines, F. H., 324, 329, 340, 350, 358, 362, 367, 374. Wood, R. H., 407. Wriht, J. P., 350,408. Young, Miss M. K., 471.
Page 489 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Aborigines, course towards, 23, 24. Abstracts of speeches at first session, i. Act proposed with reference to insane, 116. Addresses: of welcome, i, 3, 4, 5; of response, 7, 8, 9, io, xi; of President Reed, ii. Advantage of mingling Indians with whites, discussion on, 388. Advertising of the Keely enterprise, I52. Agency system, 61. Aims, methods, and results of reform school training, 408. Alabama, laws on insanity, 102. \ Allotment of land, 65. Arapahoe, 40. Arizona, laws on insanity, 102. Arkansas, laws on insanity, 102. Army and navy training for dependent children, 200. Arnold, Matthew, 239. Asylum board, commitment by, 109. Attitude of government toward Indians, 29. Batchelder, N.J., 89. "Bedlam," [Bethlehem] Asylum, 96. Belgium, care of insane in, 126. Bernardo, Dr., 199, 20I. Bielefeld, Germany, colony for epileptics in, 129. Board of Public Charities for every State, I34. Bonney, C. C., 368. Bounties for scalps, 5I. Boys' Reform School in Rhode Island, 323. Brace, Charles L., I99, 201, 332. Brockway. Z. R., 332. Buffalo, N.Y, State Hospital, 138. Buildings for insane, changes in construction of, 132. California, laws on insanity, 107. Care and classification of the insane, discussion on, 362. Care of children, 415. Care of the feeble-minded, discussion on, 34I. Care of the insane, 21. Carlisle School, 30, 54, 57. Carpenter, Mary, 332. Cartwright, Peter, 360. Catholic schools, 54. " Century of Dishonor, A," 24, 47. Chancellor of State, commitment by, o06. Charitable Organization Society in Indianapolis, 242. Charity Organization, 204, 428. Charity Organization as an educating force, 449. Charity Organization, discussion on, 33I. Charity Organization in Denver, 335. Charity Organization Society of Hartford, 327. Charity Organization Societies in connection with State Boards, 19. Cherokees, 53. Chevennes, 40, 49. Chickasaws, 53. Child problem, the, 183. Child problem, economic aspect of, 192. Child and the family, the, 419. Children's Aid Society, New York, I99. Children's Aid Society in Pennsylvania, I97. Children's Aid Society, Minnesota, 202. Children's county homes, 202. Choctaws, 53. Civilizing Indians, 56. Class for study of the friendly visitor's work, 452. Classification of insane cases, 127. Coggeshall, Thomas, 86. Colony plan, the, 16i. Colony plan for all grades of feeble-minded, I55. Colony plan for feeble-minded, 348. Colorado Insane Asylum, 365. Colorado, laws on insanity, 104. Colorado State Industrial School, 357. Comanches, 45. Commission, commitment by, 107. Commissioners of insanity, commitment by, 108. Commitment of insane, 94. Commitment, law of, 122. Commitment of insane, right to, 115. Committees: on new business and resolutions, 318; on credentials, 318; on organization, 391. Conference sermon, 224. Connecticut, laws on insanity, 107, III. Consulting physicians in institutions for insane, I39. Consumptives in Colorado, 9I. Co-operation of women in philanthropy, 216. Co-operation in the work of charity, 428. Cost of caring for dependent children, 191. County authorities should not have care and control of insane, 135. Courts of Indian Offences, 62. Creeks, 53. Crook, General, 24. Curtis, George William, 3I8. Custodial care of adults of the imbecile class, 345, 347 -Custodial class of feeble-minded, 156. Dakota, laws on insanity, o18. Dakota State Board of Charities, 340. " Dangerous Classes of New York, The," 199. Day nursery work, 424. De Foe, 96. Defective children, 194. Delinquent children, 195. Denison, Edward, 332. Dependent childrtn, I97. Dependent children supported by public and private charity, 277. Determining at the outset the ultimate capacity of institution for insane, 133. "Discontent of the Fortunate, The," 241. Discussion: on State Boards of Charities Report,. 324; on Charity organization, 331; care of feeble-minded, 341; on reformatory work among juveniles, 351; care of the insane, 362; immigration of invalids, 376; public. institutions, 400. District of Columbia, laws on insanity, iii. Divine human life, 223. Donnelly, C. F., 79. Doren, Dr., 162, 345. Duffy, Charles, 86. Duties of Indian agents, 6i. Earnings of Indians, 57. Economic aspect of the child problem, 191. Education of Indians, 32, 39, 42. Education of the friendly visitor, 445.
Page 490 490 NINE]EENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Emigrants' certificates, 77. Emigration plan for dependent children, I98. Employment for inmates of State institutions, 20. Epileptics, 159. Expenses of charities and corrections, how apportioned, 259. -Extermination plan for dependent children, I97. Federal statutes on immigration, 76. Feeble-minded in Massachusetts, school for, 342. Feeble-minded in Minnesota, 34I. Feeble-minded, the, 155. Fenton, Governor, 14. Flint, B. P., 89. Florida, laws on insanity, 99. Flower, Mrs. J. M., 368. Flower, Hon. Roswell B., 326. Friendly visitor's opportunity, 457. Fry, Elizabeth, 332. 'Gallaudet, Dr., 332. -General agencies for the collection of statistics of the delinquent and defective classes, 257. ~General features f reform school work, I66. 'George, Henry, 29. 'Georgia, laws on insanity, 107, III. German immigrants, 56. Gerry, Elbridge T., 352. 'Gillespie, Bishop George D., 85, 20o. 'Godding, Dr. W. W., 87. 'Government of institution for the insane, 134. 'Governor of the State a member of State Board of Charities, 324. Harrison, President Benjamin, 65. Harrison's " Lunacy Laws of United States," 96..Hart, H. H., 81, 87. Hayes, Rutherford B., 368. Health resorts, 9o. Hill, Octavia, 332. Home for feeble-minded, 320. " Home Library " plan, 466. House of Refuge, Randall's Island, N.Y., 357. House of Reformation for Juvenile Offenders in Boston, 330. How can I, as a friendly visitor, best apply aid in improving the home and home influences? 466. Howard, John, 332. Howe, Dr. S. G., 332, 345. Howling Wolf, 45. Hoyt, Dr., II, I4. Hughes, Archbishop, 352. Hunt, E. M., 8i. Idaho, laws on insanity, ioI. Illinois, laws on insanity, n15. Illinois State Board of Charities, 329. Imbecile class of feeble-minded, I58. Immigration, 76. Immigration in States, 294. Immigration laws of 1882, 84. Immigration of invalids, discussion on, 376. In memoriam, 230. Increase of insanity, 125. Independence, Iowa, State Hos; ital, I39. Indian citizenship, 34. Indian legislation, 66. Indian policy, 23. Indiana, laws on insanity, 98. Indiana State Board, 80. Indians, education of, 32, 39, 42. Indian's view, an, 66. 1 nebriety and insanity, 143. insane asylums in California, 319. Insane, commitment of, 94. Insane in the United States, 3I5. Insane in Tennessee, care of, 328. Insane, the proposed act in reference to, II6. Insanity following the Keely treatment for inebriety, 142. Institution plan for dependent children, 201. International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy, 368. Interstate commerce acts, 84. Interstate migration commission, 85. Interstate migration, 76. Invalids, migration of, 90. Iowa, laws on insanity, 108. Ives, Levi Silliman, 352. Jackson, Helen Hunt, 25. Jewish children in New York Juvenile Asylum, 358. Johnson, Alexander, 79, 80. Judge, commitment by, 99. Jukes family, I95. Jury, commitment by, 103, 105. Justices of peace, commitment by, 97. Kankakee, Ill., State Hospital, 139. Kansas, laws on insanity, Io5. Keely Institute at Dwight, Ill., 142. " Keely Motor," 152. Kentucky, laws on insanity, 0I7. Kerlin, Dr., 162. Kerlin's plan, Dr., 348. Kindergarten in the Orphan's Home, I90. Kirk, L. L., letter from, 82. Kirkbride plan, the, 404. Knapp, Miss Elizabeth, 13, 14. Knight, Dr., 162. Koch, Dr., 153. Land in Severalty Bill, 52, 58. Law of commitment, a, 122. Legis ation for insane, 95. Libraries in the insane asylum and prison school, I90. List of delegates, 475. List of New York institutions incorporated for the protection and correction of children, 352. London Charity Organization Society, 453. Louisiana, laws on insanity, 99. Lowell, Mrs. Josephine Shaw, 219. McCook, Professor J. J., 328. McCulloch, Oscar C., 201. McCulloch, Oscar C., tributes to, 230. McLean Asylum, 138. Macquairie, Governor, 332. Maine, laws on insanity, 108. ' Margaret, the mother of criminals," 248. Maryland, laws on insanity, 104. Massachusetts, laws on insanity, 102. Massachusetts State Primary School, 202. Massachusetts Board of Lunacy and Charity, 79. Medical men, importance of in committing insane, 122. Medication in reference to Keely treatment, I49, Merrill, General, 24. Miamis, 49. Michigan, laws on insanity, 1oI. Michigan State Board, 85. Michigan State Public School, 202, 203. Migration of invalids, 90. Milroy, Samuel, 48. Mingling of Indians and whites, 45. Minimic, 45. Minnesota, laws on insanity, Io5. Minnesota State Board, 8i. Minnesota State Reformatory, 190. Minutes and discussions, 3I7. Mission Indians, 42. Mississippi, laws on insanity, 104, 1o.
Page 491 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 491 Missouri, laws on insanity, xor. Montana, laws on insanity, I02. Moral influences of Keely treatment, 149. Morgan, General, 30, 63, 65. National Consumptives' Home in Colorado, 321. Nebraska, laws on insanity, log. Nevada, laws on insanity, 1oo. New Hampshire, laws on insanity, I1o. New Mexico, laws on insanity, 107. New Orleans, letter from, 80. New Jersey, laws on insanity, IoI. New Jersey Reform School for Boys, I68, I71. New Jersey State Board of Health, 81. New York Catholic Protectory, 351. New York, formation of State Board in, 14. New York House of Refuge, 195. New York Juvenile Asylum, 358. New York, laws on insanity, i o. New York State Custodial Asylum for Feebleminded Women, 342. North Carolina, laws on insanity, 97. Number of Indians in United States, 59. Oaklawn School for girls, 178. Obligations of personal work an aid to right structure of character, 459. Ohio, laws on insanity, 102. Ohio, separate institution for epileptics in, 129. Oklahoma, 40, 41. " Open Door, The," 233. Oregon, laws on insanity, Ioo. O'Reilly, John Boyle, 229. Osage girl, 48. Osa'es, 49. Parker, Miss Anna, 13, 14. Pauper settlement laws, 88. Pendleton, Mrs., 46. Penitentiaries in California, 319. Penn, William, 23. Pennsylvania, laws on insanity, I12, 113. Philadelphia House of Refuge, 168, I95. Phthisis, go. Physicians, commitment on decision of, I10. Piegan massacre, 49. Placing out children, 21, 201, 415. Population of States reporting, 253. Practical side of Charity Organization, 211. Preliminaries in dealing with Indians, 43. Preparation of the Indian for citizenship, 59. President's address, XI. Prisoners and other delinquents, 285. Problem educational, the, 183. "Problems, Principles, Methods, and Means," 470. Pruyn, John V. L., 14. Psychological study of the insane, 121. Public institutions, 400. Public institutions, discussion on, 405. Public poor, the, 27I. "Ramona," 24. Randall, C. D., 201. Rations and annuities, 29. Recent legislation and recent action on charitable and correctional matters, 299. Records of State institutions, 20. Recreation in reform schools, 169. Reform school chaplain, 175. Reform schools, 166. Reform work for girls, 179. "Reformatory and Refuge Union" of Great Britain, 167. Reformatory work, 408. Reformatory work among juveniles, discussion on, 351. Relief in work, 436. Reports: of committee on the Indian policy, 23; of the committee on the commitment and detention of the insane, 94; of committee on care for feeble-minded, i55; of committee on charity organization, 204; of committee on the co-operation of women in the management of charitable institutions, 216; of committee on report of States, 251: of committee on rules of procedure, 337; of committee on International Conference, 350. Reservation system, the, 3, Resolutions: on exhibits in Bureau of Charities and Correction of World's Columbian Exposition, 374; on hospital for insane in China, 392; on the appointment of immigration committee, 392; of thanks, 393, 394. Rhode Island, laws on insanity, Ioo, 107, II2, II3. Rhode Island State Board, 86. River and Harbor Bill, 49. Rochester, N.Y., State Industrial School, 357. Roman Catholic Church, 178. Rosenau, N. S., duties of, as Superintendent of Charities and Correction, 369. Rules of Procedure for the National Conference of Charities and Correction for I892, 338. Sanborn, F. B., 201. Scientific work of the medical staff of institutions, 140. Scotland, care of insane in, I26. Secretary's report, 317. Seguin, Dr. Edward, 332. Seminoles, 53. "Semi-State care," 137. Separate departments in every institution for groups of insane, 130. Separate institutions for certain classes of insane, 128. Severalty and citizenship, 37, Severalty law, 66. Shaftesbury, Earl of, 119. Shortall, John G., 368. Sites for public buildings, 20. Smith, Mrs. V. T., 216. Sockanosset School for Boys, 178. Soldiers' homes, 377. South Boston Asylum, 365. South Carolina, laws on insanity, ior. State agents, 196. State agents in Massachusetts, 330. State appropriations for maintenance and construction of charitable and correctional institutions, 304. State Board of Charities in Colorado, 321. " State Board of Control " in Wisconsin, 322. State Boards, 254. State Boards of Charities, 13. State Boards of Charities, discussion on report, 324~ State care of all insane, 138; discussion on, 363. State Children's Council of South Australia, 167. State conferences, 3I3. State policy in care of insane, 125. State Primary School, Monson, Mass., 202. State Public School, Michigan, 202. Statistics of the insane for one year, 264. Stewart, Dr., 162. Subsistence for Indians, 33. Supplies for State institutions, 20. Tabor, Mr., 362. Taxation of land of Indians, 68. Taxes and Indians, 41. Temporary employment of women, 438. Temporary employment of men, 437. Tennessee, laws on insanity, 98, 99, iii.
Page 492 492 NINETEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES. Texas, laws on insanity, 104, xil. Thayer, James M., 26. Tice, B. W., x99. Tilden, Governor, 16. Trade teaching in reform schools, 170. Trades for Indians, 40 Training school for attendants upon the insane, 138. Tramp question, the, 328. Treasurer's report, 472. Treaty period, the, 35. Tribal relations of Indians, 34. Tributes to Oscar C. McCulloch, 230. Utah, laws on insanity, ioo. Utica, N.Y., State Hospital, I38. Vagrant laws' of colonies, 96. Vagrant laws of England, 95, I04. Value of property invested in institutions for the care'of children in the United States, 193. Varieties among the insane, 127. Vermont, laws on insanity, iII. Visitations of State Boards, I7. Virginia, laws on insanity, 97, 99, I0o. Voluntary or self-commitment of the insane, 137. Wadlin, Horace, reports of, 328. Ward's Island, asylums on, 363. Warner, A. G., 83, 87. Washington, laws on insanity, Ioo. Welcome to Denver, 1-5. West Virginia, laws on insanity, 97. Wilbur, H. B., i62. Wines, Rev. F. H., 82, i66. Wisconsin, laws on insanity, I0o. Wisconsin State Board, 83. Wisconsin system in care of insane, 136. Woman physician upon medical staff of institutions for the insane, 139. Woman's National Indian Association, 65. Women, co-operation of in charitable work, 218. Women in philanthropy, 216. Women on the State Boards, I6. Woods, Judge W. A., 237. World's Congress Auxiliary, 368. Wright, A. 0., 82, 88. Wright, Carroll D., report of, 323. Wyoming, laws on insanity, 104. York Retreat, England, 114.
Page [unnumbered] I I i sr 1 4 iI I i THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN GRADUATE LIBRARY DATE DUE;,-T;:,.1,I "I i!" i I;:,I i I:, i:N, I'l I il 1. I i I 11 q,II I,1 i4-, I 14-1 #We% -wp."-R 00 V-1, I, 3-11., -- cl, - g rT-1 nqc I$ZOO~ i I I i i i
Page [unnumbered] 0 0 0 0 | ~~~~~~~~UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANV Replaced with Co 3 9015 03939 9053 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..... _. DO NOT REMOVE OR MUTILATE CARD Cat. No. 23 520
