REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
gutrnratiuMal Congress of Charities, 
Correction and SHrilanthropg 
I. GENERAL EXERCISES, Etc. 
II. THE PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM General Exercises 
'of 
THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 
CHARITIES, CORRECTION AND PHILANTHROPY, 
CHICAGO, JUNE, 1893 
TOGETHER WITH 
LIST OF OFFICERS AND MEMBERS, PROGRAMME 
AND RULES 
BALTIMORE 
THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS 
LONDON 
THE SCIENTIFIC PRESS, LIMITED 
428 Strand, W. C. 
1894 Copyright, 1894, by The Johns Hopkins Press. 
The Friedenwald Company, Printers, 
Baltimore, Md. PAGE 
Officers 5 
Programme of Sessions and Subjects 8 
Rules 9 
Members 12 
Preface 25 
General Exercises 29 
Sermon : The Relation of the Church to Charities and Reform. By 
Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer 36 
Appendix: What is the True Work of Humanity for Humanity? By 
Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz 44 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. THE WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY OF THE 
WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 
GENERAL OFFICERS: 
President, 
Charles C. Bonney. 
Vice-President, 
Thomas B. Bryan. 
WOMAN'S BRANCH : 
President, 
Mrs. Potter Palmer. 
Vice-President, 
Mrs. Charles Henrotin. 
DEPARTMENT OF MORAL AND SOCIAL REFORM. 
Mrs. James M. P'lower, Chairman of Joint Committee. 
THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES, 
CORRECTION AND PHILANTHROPY. 
June 12-18, 1893. 
COMMITTEE OF ORGANIZATION. 
Frederick Howard Wines, John G. Shortall, 
Mrs. James M. Flower. 
Corresponding Secretary and Sec'y to the Committee of Organization, 
Nathaniel S. Rosenau. 
OFFICERS OF THE CONGRESS. 
President, 
General Rutherford B. Hayes.* 
First Vice-President, 
Frederick Howard Wines, LL.D. 
Second Vice-President, 
Robert Treat Paine. 
* General Hayes accepted the presidency of the Congress, but died before it met. The vacancy 
was not filled. 6 
international congress of charities and correction. 
Honorary Vice-Presid,ents. 
England, Henry C. Burdett. 
France, Marquis de Chasseloup Laubat. 
Austria, Dr. Isidor Singer. 
Russia, Michael Kazarin. 
Italy, Mme. F. Zampini Salazar. 
Switzerland, Edward Boos-Jeglier. 
Belgium, Prosper Van Geert. 
Australia, Miss Catherine H. Spence. 
General Secretary, 
Alexander Johnson. 
Secretaries, 
John M. Glenn. ' Joseph P. Byers. 
Executive Committee, 
The President, First Vice-President, General Secretary, and the 
Chairmen of the Eight Sections. 
SECTIONS. 
I.-The Public Treatment of Pauperism. 
Chairman, Ansley Wilcox, 
Charity Organization Society, Buffalo, New York. 
Secretary, John H. Finley, Ph. D., 
President of Knox College., Galesburg, Illinois. 
II.-The Care of Dependent, Neglected and Wayward 
Children. 
Chairman, Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, 
Board of Control of State Home and School for Dependent Children, Providence, Rhode Island. 
Secretary, Charles W. Birtwell, 
General Secretary of the Children's Aid Society of Boston, Massachusetts. 
III.-Hospital Care of the Sick, the Training of Nurses, 
Dispensary Work, and First Aid to the Injured. 
Chairman, John S. Billings, M. D., LL. D., U. S. A., 
Washington, D. C. 
Secretary, Henry M. Hurd, M. D., 
Superintendent of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. OFFICERS. 
Subsection on Nursing. 
Chairman, Miss Isabel A. Hampton, 
Superintendent of Training School for Nurses, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Marylan 
Secretary, Miss Emma Cameron, 
Assistant Superintendent of Illinois Training School for Nurses, Chicago. 
IV.-The Commitment, Detention, Care and Treatment of the 
Insane. 
Chairman, G. Alder Blumer, M. D.,' 
Superintendent of State Hospital for Insane, Utica, New York 
Secretary, A. B. Richardson, M. D., 
Superintendent of Asylum for Insane, Columbus, Ohio. 
V. The Prevention and Repression of Crime, and the 
Punishment and Reformation of Criminals. 
Chairman, Charlton T. Lewis, 
President of New York State Prison Association, New York City. 
Secretary, Rev. John L. Milligan, 
Secretary of National Prison Association, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. 
VI. -The Organization and Affiliation of Charities, and 
Preventive Work among the Poor. 
Chairman, Daniel C. Gilman, LL. D., 
President of the Charity Organization Society of Baltimore, Maryland. 
Secretary, Richmond Mayo-Smith, Ph. D., 
Professor of Political Economy and Social Science, Columbia College, New York City. 
VII.-Sociology as a Special Topic in Institutions of Learning. 
Chairman, E. Benjamin Andrews, LL. D., 
President of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. 
Secretary, Amos G. Warner, Ph. D., 
Professor of Social Science in Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, California. 
VIII.-The Care and Training of Feeble-minded Children. 
Chairman, George H. Knight, M. D., 
Superintendent of School for Imbeciles, Lakeville, Connecticut. 
Secretary, Gustavus A. Doren, M. D., 
Superintendent of Institution for Feeble-minded Youth, Columbus, Ohio. PROGRAMME OF SESSIONS AND SUBJECTS. 
Monday, June 12. 
10.00 A. M.-Opening Exercises. 
Address in Memoriam of General Rutherford 
B. Hayes. By Rev. Frederick H. Wines, LL.D. 
Oration : 
" The Problem of Charity." By Rev. Francis G. 
Peabody, D. D. 
12.00 M.-Luncheon and Conversazione. 
2.00 P. M.-Section Meetings. 
8.00 P. M.-General Session. 
" The Public Treatment of Pauperism." 
Tuesday, June 13. 
10.00 A. M.-Business Session. 
10.30 A. M.-Section Meetings. 
2.00 P. M.-Section Meetings. 
8.00 P. M.-General Session. 
" The Relation of Public and Private Charity." 
Wednesday, June 14. 
10.00 A. M.-General Session. 
"Hospital Care of the Sick; the Training of 
Nurses ; First Aid to the Injured." 
2.00 P. M.-Section Meetings. 
8.00 P. M.-General Session. 
" The Care of Dependent, Neglected and Wayward 
Children." 
Thursday, June 15. 
10.00 A. M.-Business Session. 
10.30 A. M.-Section Meetings. 
8.00 P. M.-General Session. 
" The Care and Training of Feeble-minded Chil- 
dren." RULES. 
9 
Friday, June 16. 
io.oo A. M.-General Session. 
" Sociology as a Special Topic in Institutions of 
1030 A. M.-Section Meetings. 
2.00 P. M.-Section Meetings. 
8.00 P. M.-General Session. 
"The Uses of Imprisonment"; "The Care and 
Treatment of the Insane." 
Sunday, June 18. 
11.00 A. M.-Religious Service. 
Sermon : " The Relation of the Church to Charities 
and Reform." By Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer. 
8 00 P. M.-General Session. 
" The Relation of the Kindergarten to Pauperism 
and Crime." By Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper. 
"American Education from a National Point of 
View." By Dr. Felix Adler. 
Closing Exercises. 
RULES. 
I.-Time, Place of Meeting, Object and Membership. 
1. The Congress will meet in the city of Chicago on Monday 
morning, June 12th, 1893, at 10 o'clock, in a hall of the Art Institute. 
2. The object of the International Congress of Charities, Cor- 
rection and Philanthropy is to bring together in the city of-Chicago, 
during the time of the World's Columbian Exposition, interested 
persons of all countries, to discuss matters charitable, correctional and 
philanthropic. 
3. The governments of foreign nations, of the United States of 
America, and of the individual states of the United States, scientific 
societies, official bodies, and corporations and societies which own or 
control charitable or penal institutions, or are engaged in any kind 10 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
of philanthropic work, are invited to co-operate with the committee of 
organization and to send representatives to the Congress. Member- 
ship in the Congress will be limited to persons bearing credentials 
from the authorities and organizations herein referred to, and to such 
private individuals as are interested in charitable and penal work as 
may be admitted to membership by vote of the executive committee, 
or who may be specially invited by the committee of organization, or 
the chairman and secretary of a section. 
Delegates must present their credentials before registering as 
members of the Congress. 
From the obvious necessities of the case, no persons other than 
those herein specified can be permitted to participate in the debates 
or to vote on questions before the Congress. But a general invitation 
is extended to all persons who may be interested in the questions 
discussed to attend the sessions and listen to the debates. 
II.-The Work of the Congress. 
4. The work of the Congress will be confined to matters germane 
to the titles of the various sections into which the Congress is divided. 
Each section will have devoted to it one general session of the Con- 
gress, and will hold, besides, five sectional meetings. 
5. An executive committee, composed of the president, first vice- 
president, general secretary, and the chairmen of the sections, will 
have charge of the general administration of the Congress from 
the time of its assembly, under the rules framed by the committee of 
organization. 
6. Copies of all papers presented at sessions of the Congress shall 
be furnished for publication in its proceedings. 
7. In preparing the proceedings for publication, the committee of 
organization reserves the right to abbreviate papers and the steno- 
grapher's report of remarks. 
III.-Rules of Order. 
8. The Congress will be under the direction of the committee of 
organization, which will present further rules for the government of 
its proceedings before its opening. 
9. The sessions of the Congress and its sections will be strictly in 
accordance with the accompanying general programme. 
10. English will be the exclusive language of the Congress. RULES. 
11 
11. Papers may, however, be submitted to the committee of 
organization, in any language, and the committee will, in its discre- 
tion, publish complete translations or English abstracts in the pro- 
ceedings. 
12. No paper will be read at a general Session of the Congress 
unless its author is present, except by decision of the executive 
committee. When an author is absent, his paper will be read by 
title and included in the published proceedings, in the discretion of 
the committee of organization, unless otherwise especially ordered. 
13 Not to exceed thirty minutes will be allowed for the presenta- 
tion of a paper, except by previous arrangement with the committee 
of organization. In cases where a paper will exceed these limits, and 
its value will be impaired by condensation, the paper will be received 
and printed, and the author given time, not exceeding the above 
limit, in which to present a r£sum£. 
14. Debaters will be limited to five minutes, and no person will be 
allowed to speak to the same subject more than twice. This rule 
may be suspended by a special order. 
15. It is the duty of the chairman of each section to organize the 
work of his section, and to prepare programmes for the general ses- 
sion of his section and the five special meetings of his section, 
which programmes shall be submitted to the committee of organiza- 
tion and the president of the Auxiliary, for approval. 
16. It is the duty of the secretary of each section to carry on the 
correspondence of the section under the direction of its chairman, 
and especially to secure foreign representation in the work of the 
section. He shall keep a record of the proceedings of his section, 
during the time the Congress is in session, and shall transmit the 
same daily to the general secretary. LIST OF MEMBERS.* 
Foreign. 
Aderkas, Ottocar d', The Russian Imperial Charitable Institutions of the 
Empress Mary, St. Petersburg, Russia. 
Austerbridge, Miss I. R., Prince Edward's Island. 
Beaton, Miss Annie H., Paisley, Ontario. 
Boos-Jeglier, Edward, Director, School of Art and Needlework, Zurich, Swit- 
zerland. 
Burdett, Henry. C., The Lodge, Porchester Square, London, England. 
Chasseloup Laubat, Marquis de, 51 Avenue Kleber, Paris, France. 
Dupuy, Rev. E. J., Maison Hospitaliere, Paris, France. 
Haine, Stanislas H., Mont de Piete, Antwerp, Belgium. 
Hart, Ernest, Chairman, British National Health Society, 429 Strand, London, 
England. 
Hughes, Miss Amy, Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses, 23 Blooms- 
bury Square, London, England. 
Kazarin, Michael, The General Administration of Prisons of Russia, St. Peters- 
burg, Russia. 
Lamperiere, Mme. Anna Yon, Interieur Instruction Publique, Commerce et 
Industrie, g'Rue Anice, Leures, France. 
Macdowell, Miss F. Louise, Kingston, Canada. 
Marshall, Mme. Marie, Oeuvre des Liberees de St. Lazare and Le Foyer Chre- 
tien, Paris, France. 
Notter, Lieut. Colonel J. Lane, M. D., Surgeon-Major, British Army, Netley, 
England. 
Salazar, Mme. Fanny Zampini, Rome, Italy. 
Singer, Prof. Isidor, Ph. D., University of Vienna, Austria. 
Spence, Miss Catherine Helen, Government Commissioner, Charity Organi- 
zation Society, Adelaide, South Australia. 
Van Geert, Prosper, Bureau de Bienfaisance, Antwerp, Belgium. 
Van Geert, Mme. Prosper, Antwerp, Belgium. 
California. 
Cooper, Miss Harriet, Superintendent, Golden Gate Kindergartens, 1902 
Vallejo St., San F'rancisco. 
Cooper, Mrs. Sarah B., President, Golden Gate Kindergartens, 1902 Vallejo 
St., San Francisco. 
Edholm, Charlton, Florence Crittenton Heme, San Francisco, Oakland. 
* A complete list can not be furnished, owing to the failure of many in actual attendance to 
register their names and addresses. MEMBERS. 
13 
Wallace, Miss Elsie, Superintendent of Nurses, Children's Hospital, San Fran- 
cisco. 
Warner, Prof. Amos G., Ph. D., Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Palo Alto. 
Colorado. 
Appel, Mrs. J. M., Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society, Denver. 
Appel, J. S., State Board of Charities and Corrections, Denver. 
Appel, Mrs. J. S., Denver Free Kindergarten Association, Denver. 
Brodhead, Rev. Wm. H., Secretary, State Board of Charities and Corrections, 
Denver. 
Gabriel, John H., Young People's Charity Club, Denver. 
George, Mrs. Izetta, Charity Organization Society, Denver. 
Houser, Mrs. Bella S., Charity Organization Society, Denver. 
Mills, J. Warner, State Board of Charities and Corrections, Denver. 
Reed, Rev. Myron W., State Board of Charities and Corrections, Denver. 
Williams, B. F., Industrial School, Golden. 
Connecticut. 
Crothers, T. D., M.D., Superintendent, Walnut Lodge Hospital, Hartford. 
Knight, Geo. H., M. D., Superintendent, Connecticut School for Imbeciles, 
Lakeville. 
Knight, Mrs. Geo. H., Lakeville. 
Stearns, Dr. Henry P., Superintendent, Retreat for the Insane, Hartford. 
Delaware. 
Clark, Mrs. Mary A. T., Superintendent, Associated Charities, Wilmington. 
Wright, Mrs. James H., Associated Charities, Wilmington. 
District of Columbia. 
Billings, John S., M. D., LL. D., Surgeon, United States Army, Washington. 
Falls, A. J., Reform School of District of Columbia, Washington. 
Gatewood, J. D., M. D., Medical Department U. S. Navy, Navy Department, 
Washington. 
Pope, Georgina F., Superintendent, Columbia Hospital, Washington. 
Rogers, Miss M., Children's Hospital, Washington. 
Shallenberger, G. A., Reform School of District of Columbia, Washington. 
Illinois. 
.Bagg, Mrs. S. F., Reception Committee, 3764 Lake Avenue, Chicago. 
Bartlett, A. C., Home for the Friendless, Chicago. 
Bath, Miss Alice K., 901 Jackson Boulevard, Chicago. 
Baxter, Mrs. T. W., Newsboys' Home, 343 Dearborn Avenue, Chicago. 
Beckwith, Mrs. N. K., Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum, 77 Pine Street, 
Chicago. 
Beebe, Mrs. L. A., Reception Committee, 76 Park Avenue, Chicago. 
Bemis, Prof. E. W., Ph. D., University of Chicago, Chicago. 
Bonney, Charles C„ President, World's Congress Auxiliary, Chicago. 14 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
Bowman, Miss Eliza W., Newsboys' Home, 1418 Wabash Avenue, Chicago. 
Breeze, Miss Jessie, Illinois Training School for Nurses, 691 Monroe Street, 
Chicago. 
Brown, Mrs. Wm. T., Home for t,he Friendless, 4637 Greenwood Avenue, 
Chicago. 
Cameron, Miss Emma, Assistant Superintendent, Illinois Training School for 
Nurses, Chicago. 
Cann, Miss Irene, Reception Committee, 3151 Prairie Avenue, Chicago. 
Carpenter, Mrs. A. A., Reception Committee, 83 Cass Street, Chicago. 
Chafee, Mrs. G. D., Illinois Industrial School for Girls, Shelbyville. 
Chamberlin, Mrs. A. S., Reception Committee, 186 31st Street, Chicago. 
Clowry, Mrs. R. C., Reception Committee, 524 Dearborn Avenue, Chicago. 
Coffin, Chas. F., Chicago. 
Corbus, Dr. J. C., Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities, Mendota. 
Cushman, B. V., Bethesda Mission, 205 Warren Avenue, Chicago. 
Curtiss, Geo. W., Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities, Stockton. 
Darrow, Mrs. Geo. W., Chicago Orphan Asylum, Glen Ellyn. 
Dewey, Richard, M. D., 1114 Venetian Building, Chicago. 
Doering, Mrs. Edmund J., Chicago Orphan Asylum, 2406 Prairie Avenue, 
Chicago. 
Doud, Mrs. L. B., Erring Woman's Refuge, 3257 Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 
Draper, Miss Edith, Illinois Training School for Nurses, 304 Honore Street, 
Chicago. 
Dudley, Mrs. E. C., President, Visiting Nurses' Association, 1619 Indiana Ave., 
Chicago. 
Dudley, Oscar L., Superintendent and General Manager, Illinois School of 
Agriculture and Manual Training for Boys, 113 Adams Street, Chicago. 
Engleman, Miss Emma, Reception Committee, 649 Cleveland Ave., Chicago. 
Enrich, Mrs. E. F., Charity Council, Aurora. 
Fairbank, Mrs. N. K., St. Luke's Hospital, 1801 Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 
Felton, Chas. E., 4206 Lake Avenue, Chicago. 
Finley, John H., Ph. D., President, Knox College, Galesburg. 
Fitz Simons, Mrs. Chas., Women and Children's Hospital, 161 Ashland Ave., 
Chicago. 
Flower, Mrs. Jas. M., Department of Moral and Social Reform, World's Con- 
gress Auxiliary, 361 Superior Street, Chicago. 
Follansbee, Mrs. G. A., Old People's Home, 2342 Indiana Avenue, Chicago. 
Frake, Mrs. James, Newsboys' and Bootblacks' Home, 625 Fulton Street, 
Chicago. 
Galt, Mrs. Thomas, Aurora. 
Galvin, Edw. I., Hyde Park Protective Association, 5725 Madison Street, 
Chicago. 
Gerry, Miss Jennie E., City Missions, Snell Hall, Chicago. 
Glenn, Miss Lizzie C., Rockford Hospital, Rockford. 
Goodwin, Daniel, Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, 600 North State 
Street, Chicago. MEMBERS. 
15 
Gregg, Rev. Frank M., D. D., Children's Home Society, 230 La Salle Street, 
Chicago. 
Groves, Mrs. Denison F., Woman's Board of Waifs' Missions, 3946 Ellis Ave., 
Chicago. 
Hancock, Mrs. Bradford, Department of Moral and Social Reform, World's 
Congress Auxiliary, 180 N. State Street, Chicago. 
Harrison, Mrs. Ursula L., Illinois School of Agriculture and Manual Training 
for Boys, Glenwood. 
Harwood, Mrs. H. W., 5012 Ellis Avenue, Chicago. 
Hemingway, A. T., Oak Park. 
Henderson, Rev. Chas. R., D. D., Social Science Department, University of 
Chicago, 6108 Washington Avenue, Chicago. 
Henrotin, Mrs. Charles, Vice-President, Woman's Branch, World's Congress 
Auxiliary, Chicago. 
Hill, Mrs. Thomas A., Home for the Friendless, 2924 Michigan Ave., Chicago. 
Hobbs, Mrs. J. B., Home for the Friendless, 343 La Salle Avenue, Chicago. 
Horton, Miss Sarah M., Chicago Orphan Asylum, 18 Aldjne Square, Chicago. 
Hotchkin, Mrs. C. M., Chicago Orphan Asylum, 3006 Prairie Avenue, Chicago. 
Howe, Mrs. F. J., Half Orphan Asylum, 444 Chestnut Street, Chicago. 
Huddleston, Mrs. G. W., Reception Committee, 903 Adams Street, Chicago. 
Hutchinson, Miss Florence C., Home for the Friendless, 3145 Indiana Avenue, 
Chicago. 
Jay, Mrs. Milton, Illinois School of Agriculture and Manual Training for Boys, 
2510 Indiana Avenue, Chicago. 
Judd, Mrs. N. B., Home for the Friendless, 3522 Calumet Avenue, Chicago. 
Keep, Mrs. Albert, Home for Incurables, 2010 Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 
Kip, Francis E., United Hebrew Charities, 288 Forty-second Street, Chicago. 
Kline, Mrs. Matilda E., National Temperance Hospital, 62 E. Forty-third St., 
Chicago. 
Laflin, Mrs. Geo. H., Chicago Home for the Friendless, 1614 Michigan Ave., 
Chicago. 
Lathrop, Miss Julia C., Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities, 
Rockford; resident of the Hull House, Chicago. 
Lett, Miss K. L., St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago. 
Lewis, Dr. H. F., Chicago. 
McClaughry, Major Robert W., Superintendent, Illinois State Reformatory, 
Pontiac. 
.McCullock, Mrs. Catherine, Children's Aid Society, Chicago. 
Mack, Julian M., United Hebrew Charities, 4242 Langley Avenue, Chicago. 
Maddell, Mrs. Elsie, Temperance Hospital, 3232 Rhodes Avenue, Chicago. 
Mangasarian, M., Society for Ethical Culture, Chicago. 
Matz, Mrs. Otto H., Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, 431 Oak St., 
Chicago. 
Meech, Miss Marietta, Illinois Training School for Nurses, 242 Winchester 
Avenue, Chicago. 
Millar, Mrs. Allen P., Newsboys' Home, 289 Ontario Street, Chicago. 16 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
Moore, D. T., Chicago. 
Nichols, Charles K., 608 W. Ohio Street, Chicago. 
Nichols, Mrs. Wm. C., Home for the Friendless, 493 Fullerton Ave., Chicago. 
Pajeau, Mrs. J., Home for the Friendless, 4345 Grand Boulevard, Chicago. 
Palmer, Mrs. Potter, President, Woman's Branch, World's Congress Auxiliary, 
Chicago. 
Ricker, Mrs. Jewett E., Hospital for Women and Children, 401 Superior St., 
Chicago. 
Roler, Mrs. E. C. T., Erring Woman's Refuge, Lexington Hotel, Chicago. 
Rosenfeld, Mrs. Maurice, Visiting Nurses, 1620 Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 
Ryerson, Arthur, President, St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago. 
Shortall, John G., Illinois Humane Society, 1600 Prairie Avenue, Chicago. 
Smith, Mrs. Orson, 41 Bellevue Place, Chicago. 
Stone, Miss Jessie G., Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, 620 West 
Monroe Street, Chicago. 
Stone, Mrs. Leander, President, Young Women's Christian Association, 3352 
Indiana Avenue, Chicago. 
Strong, Rev. John M., Children's Aid Society, Waukegan. 
Sumption, Miss Martha A., Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, 620 
W. Monroe Street, Chicago. 
Taylor, Rev. Graham, D. D., Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago. 
Taylor, Miss Winnie Louise, Children's Aid Society, Freeport. 
Thatcher, Mrs. Watson, National Temperance Hospital, 787 Walnut Street, 
Chicago. 
Tolman, Mrs. S. A., Old People's Home, 2031 Prairie Avenue, Chicago. 
True, Miss M. E., 320 Marshfield Avenue, Chicago. 
Trusdell, Rev. C. G., Superintendent, Chicago Relief and Aid Society, 51-53 
La Salle Street, Chicago. < 
Tyrrell, Miss A. M., Illinois Training School for Nurses, 6345 Stewart Avenue, 
Chicago. 
Ullman, Mrs. Frederic, 282 Forty-eighth Street, Chicago. 
Vincent, Miss Sarah J., 242 Winchester Avenue, Chicago. 
Visher, John, Secretary, Illinois Conference of Charities and Correction, 1037 
Mead Street, Chicago. 
Walker, Mrs. Edwin, St. Luke's Hospital, 2612 Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 
Walker, Mrs. J. M., 1720 Prairie Avenue, Chicago. 
Wheeler, Mrs. C. Gilbert, The Lexington, Chicago. 
White, Mrs. Wm. R., Presbyterian Hospital, 263 Warren Avenue, Chicago. 
Willard, Miss Laura, 5555 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 
Wilmarth, Mrs. H. M., Auditorium Hotel, Chicago. 
Wines, Rev. Frederick Howard, LL. D., Springfield. 
Indiana. 
Bicknell, Ernest P., Secretary elect, Board of State Charities, Indianapolis. 
Guild, Mrs. Helen F., President, Fort Wayne Relief Union, Fort Wayne. 
Hathaway, Miss Sarah, Children's Aid Society of Indiana, Mishawaka. MEMBERS. 
17 
Johnson, Alexander, Secretary retiring, Board of State Charities, Indianapolis. 
Johnson, Miss Katherine D., Clerk, Board of State Charities, Indianapolis. 
Kittring, Mrs. E. G., Children's Aid Society of Indiana, South Bend. 
Peele, Mrs. Margaret F., Board of State Charities, South Bend. 
Reeve, Chas. H., Plymouth. 
Smith, Mrs. C. L., Hope Hospital, Fort Wayne. 
Smith, James, General Secretary, Charity Organization Society, Indianapolis. 
Snyder, Katherine S., M. D., Southern Hospital for Insane, Evansville. 
Wardner, Mrs. Louise Rockwood, Industrial School for Girls, Laporte. 
Iowa. 
Ayres, Miss J. G., Young Women's Christian Association, Stuart. 
Carleton, Mrs. M. J., Charity Organization Society, Burlington. 
Gatchel, Theodore, Iowa Humane Society, Des Moines. 
Hoover, Rev. Geo. K., Iowa Children's Home Society, Davenport. 
Howard, Mrs. Nettie F., Associated Charities, Davenport. 
Millard, Mrs. F. A., Assistant Secretary, Charity Organization Society, Bur- 
lington. 
Powell, F. M., M. D., Superintendent, State Institution for Feeble-minded 
Children, Glenwood. 
Putnam, Mrs. M. L. D., Davenport. 
Starr, Miss M. E., Secretary, Charity Organization Society, Burlington. 
Kansas. 
Eastman, B. D., M. D., Superintendent, State Insane Asylum, Topeka. 
Faulkner, Chas. E., Superintendent, Soldiers and Sailors' Orphans' Home 
Atchison. 
Hausholder, M. A., State Board of Trustees of Charitable Institutions, 
Columbus. 
Kelly, H. B., State Board of Trustees of Charitable Institutions, Lawrence. 
Lease, Mrs. Mary E., President, State Board of Trustees of Charitable Institu- 
tions, Wichita. 
Martin, Miss Edith M., Ottawa. 
Pilcher, F. Hoyt, M. D.,' School for Feeble-minded, Winfield. 
Spencer, Martha S., State Industrial School for Girls, Beloit. 
Wait, W. S., State Board of Trustees of Charitable Institutions, Lincoln. 
Wentworth, L. F., M. D., Superintendent, State Insane Asylum, Osawatomie. 
Yoe, W. T., State Board of Trustees of Charitable Institutions, Independence. 
Kentucky. 
Avery, Mrs. Susan Look, Women's Club, Louisville. 
McKechvine, Miss Mary W., Louisville Training School for Nurses, Louisville. 
Wilson, Laura A., Children's Free Hospital, 220 E. Chestnut St., Louisville. 
Louisiana. 
Heymann, Michel, Jewish Orphans' Home, New Orleans. 18 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
Maine. 
Burrington, Mrs. E. A. D., Belfast. 
Stevens, Mrs. L. M. N., Girls' Industrial School, Portland. 
Maryland. 
Boland, Miss Mary A., Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. 
Brackett, Jeffrey R., Ph. D., Charity Organization Society, 210 West Madison 
Street, Baltimore. 
Dock, Miss L. L., Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. 
Glenn, John M., Charity Organization Society, 12 St. Paul Street, Baltimore. 
Hall, A. Cleveland, Charity Organization Society, Baltimore, and Bureau of 
Charities and Correction, World's Columbian Exposition. 
Hampton, Miss Isabel A., Superintendent, Johns Hopkins Training School for 
Nurses, Baltimore. 
Hurd, Henry M., M. D., Superintendent, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. 
Richmond, Miss Mary E., General Secretary, Charity Organization Society, 
Baltimore. 
Stoner, George W., M. D., United States Marine Hospital Service, Baltimore. 
Massachusetts. 
Ames, Miss Lucia T., Associated Charities, 28 St. James Ave., Boston. 
Balch, Miss Emily Greene, Denison House and Gwynne Temporary House 
for Children, Jamaica Plain. 
Birtwell, Charles W., General Secretary, Children's Aid Society, Boston. 
Birtwell, Miss Frances M., Boston Children's Aid Society, Cambridgeport. 
Birtwell, Miss Mary L., Associated Charities, Boston. 
Bright, Miss Emily H., Boston Associated Charities, Cambridge. 
Carolin, Wm. T., M. D., Trustee, State Farm and State Almshouse, Lowell. 
Chapin, Miss Mabel H., Brookline. 
Crawford, Mrs. Sarah M., M. D., Department of Outdoor Poor of State Board 
of Lunacy and Charity, Boston. 
Curran, Dr. Charles J., State Board of Lunacy and Charity, North Adams. 
Dawes, Miss AnnaL., Home-Work Association, Pittsfield. 
Dow, Miss Helen, Children's Aid Society, Boston. 
Durham, Miss Elizabeth P., Children's Aid Society, Boston. 
Fernaid, Walter E., M. D., Superintendent, State School for Feeble-minded, 
Waverley. 
Fiske, Mrs. Frances, Sloyd Industrial Work, Boston. 
Frenyear, Miss Myra G., Associated Charities, Boston. 
Hitchcock, Edward, M. D., State Board of Lunacy and Charity, Amherst Col- 
lege. 
Jackson, Miss Anna P., Children's Aid Society, Boston. 
Johnson, Mrs. Ellen C., Superintendent, Reformatory for Women, South Fram- 
ingham. 
Johnson, Geo. W., Chairman, State Board of Lunacy and Charity, Brookfield. 
Lee, Miss Alice, Boston. MEMBERS 
19 
Lee, Joseph, Secretary, Massachusetts Committee on Charities and Correc- 
tion, World's Fair. 
Page, Charles W., Danvers Lunatic Hospital, Danvers. 
Paine, Robert Treat, President, Associated Charities, Boston. 
Parker, Miss Sarah, Roxbury. 
Peabody, Rev. Francis G., D.D., Professor of Christian Ethics, Harvard Col- 
lege, Cambridge. 
Pickering, Henry G., Children's Aid Society, Boston. 
Pratt, Laban, State Board of Lunacy and Charity, Boston. 
Prescott, Miss Josephine F., Children's Aid Society, Boston. 
Putnam, Miss Elizabeth C., Trustee, State Primary and Reform Schools, 63 
Marlborough Street, Boston. 
Raymond, Miss Sarah E., Boston Associated Charities, Charlestown. 
Richardson, Mrs. Anne B., State Board of Lunacy and Charity, Lowell. 
Rogers, Miss Annette P., Overseer of the Poor, Boston. 
Rowe, G. H. M., M. D., Superintendent, City Hospital, Boston. 
Shurtleff, Hiram S., Superintendent of Outdoor Poor, State Board of Lunacy 
and Charity, Boston. 
Smith, Miss Frances A., Associated Charities, Boston. 
Smith, Miss Zilpha D., General Secretary, Associated Charities, Boston. 
Somerville, C. E. M., District Nursing Association, Lawrence. 
Spinney, Frank C., Boston Associated Charities, Lynn. 
Stone, Col. Henry, State Board of Lunacy and Charity, Boston. 
Swanton, Mrs. S. B., District Nursing Association, Brookline. 
Todd, Miss Hannah M., Probation Officer, Municipal Court, Boston. 
Todd, Miss Myra M., Lynn. 
Wheaton, Miss Florence, Boston Associated Charities, Roxbury. 
Wheeler, Walter A., State Primary School, Palmer. 
Wheeler, Mrs. Walter A., State Primary School, Palmer. 
Whitman, Mrs. Bernard, Lend-a-Hand Club, Boston. 
Woods, Robert A., Andover House, 6 Rollins Street, Boston. 
Michigan. 
Barbour, Levi L., 661 Woodward Avenue, Detroit. 
Bell, Samuel, M. D., State Board of Corrections and Charities, 87 State Street, 
Detroit. 
Crozier, Alfred O., Charity Organization Society, Grand Rapids. 
D'Arcambal, Mrs. Agnes L., Superintendent, Home of Industry for Discharged 
Prisoners, 250 Willis Avenue, Detroit. 
Dewing, Mrs. J. A., Dewing's Children's Home, Kalamazoo. 
Hinchman, Theo. H., Industrial Home for Girls, Detroit. 
Hauber, Carl, Muskegon. 
Mott, Mrs. H. C., W. C. T. U. Prison Work, Muskegon Heights. 
Randall, C. D., State Public School, Coldwater. 
Sickels, Mrs. Lucy M., Industrial Home for Girls, Adrian. 
Storrs, Lucius C., Secretary, State Board of Corrections and Charities, Lan- 
sing. 20 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
Minnesota. 
Amundson, C., State Board of Corrections and Charities, St. Peter. 
Cowie, G. G., Clerk, State Board of Corrections and Charities, St. Paul. 
Hart, Rev. Hastings H., Secretary, State Board of Corrections and Charities, 
St. Paul. 
Hart, Mrs. H. H., St. Paul. 
Holt, Geo. D., Secretary, Associated Charities, Minneapolis. 
Jackson, Jas. F., General Secretary, Associated Charities, 139 E. University 
Ave., St. Paul. 
Merrill, G. A., State Public School for Dependent Children, Owatonna. 
Norrish, John F., State Prison, Hastings. 
Rogers, A. C., M. D., Superintendent, Minnesota School for Feeble-minded, 
Faribault. 
Wolfer, Henry, Warden, State Prison, Stillwater. 
Missouri. 
Finney, Rev. Thos. M., General Manager, Provident Association, 4028 Morgan 
Street, St. Louis. 
Harrison, Edwin, 3747 Westminster Place, St. Louis. 
Harrison, Mrs. Edwin, Episcopal Orphans' Home, 3747 Westminster Place, 
St. Louis. 
Moore, Mrs. Catti, Kansas City. 
Rice, Miss Josephine B., St. Louis Protestant Hospital, 1011 N. Eighteenth 
Street, St. Louis. 
Sibley, Miss Elizabeth M., St. Louis Protestant Hospital, ion N. Eighteenth 
Street, St. Louis. 
Springer, Mrs. C. R., Women's Charities Association, St. Louis. 
Nebraska. 
Bates, Mrs. Laura A., Soldiers and Sailors' Home, Aurora. 
Clark, A. W., Assistant Secretary, Associated Charities, Omaha. 
Clark, Mrs. G. W., " Open Door," Omaha. 
Laughland, John, Associated Charities, 807 Howard Street, Omaha. 
Mallalieu, John T., Superintendent, State Industrial School for Boys, Kearney. 
Woods, Albert F., Charity Organization Society, Lincoln. 
New Jersey. 
Dunlap, Mary J., M. D., State Institute for Feeble-minded Women, Vineland. 
Gile, Mrs. F. A., State Institute for Feeble-minded Women, East Orange. 
Maddock, Geo. C., Industrial School for Girls, Trenton. 
Otterson, Ira, Superintendent, State Reform School, Jamesburg. 
Van Meter, Miss Anna H., Charity Organization Society, Salem. 
Warman, David, M. D., State Charities Aid Association, Trenton. 
Williamson, Mrs. Benjamin, Secretary, State Charities Aid Association, Eliza- 
beth. MEMBERS. 
21 
New York. 
Adler, Dr. Felix, New York. 
Anthony, Miss Susan B., Western New York Industrial School, Rochester. 
Betts, Miss Laura A., Homeopathic Hospital, 109 Cumberland St., Brooklyn. 
Bliss, Rev. Howard S., Plymouth Church, 51 William Street, Brooklyn. 
Blumer, G. Alder, M. D., Superintendent, State Hospital for Insane, Utica. 
Bunn, Rev. Albert Carrier, M. D., The Church Charity Foundation of Long 
Island, 464 Herkimer Street, Brooklyn. 
Caldwell, Miss Louise T., Charity Organization Society, New York. 
Cary, Mrs. E. M. L., Charity Organization Society, Buffalo. 
Cary, Thomas, Charity Organization Society, Buffalo. 
Craig, Oscar, President, State Board of Charities, Rochester. 
Darche, Miss Louise, Superintendent, New York City Training School for 
Nurses, Nurses' Home, Blackwell's Island, New York. 
Davenport, Mrs. John, State Charities Aid Association, Bath. 
DeForest, Robert W., President, Charity Organization Society, 62 William 
Street, New York. 
Dennis, Caroline E., Auburn City Hospital, Auburn. 
Folks, Homer, Secretary, State Charities Aid Association, 105 E. 22d St., New 
York. 
Fullerton, Mrs. Marietta, Association for Improving Condition of the Poor, 
New York. 
Gladding, Agnes S., City Hospital, Auburn. 
Hepner, Elizabeth R., Charity Organization Society, Lockport. 
Iles, George, Secretary, Society of Political Education, New York. 
Kellogg, Chas. D., General Secretary, Charity Organization Society, 105 E. 
22d Street, New York. 
Kellogg, Mrs. Chas. D.,New York. 
Lathrop, Jas. R., Roosevelt Hospital, 59th St. and 9th Ave., New York. 
Lewis, Charlton T., President, New York State Prison Association, 34 Nassau 
St., New York. 
Love, Miss Maria M., Fitch Criche, Buffalo. 
Mayo-Smith, Prof. Richmond, Ph. D., Columbia College, New York. 
Merchant, Mrs. G. A., Charity Organization Society, 413 Auburn Avenue, 
Buffalo. 
Moore, Miss Alice, Charity Organization Society, Buffalo. 
Moore, Miss Marion J., Assistant Secretary, Charity Organization Society, 
Buffalo. 
Ormsby, Mrs. Mary Frost, St. Michael's Church, 115 W. 96th Street, New York. 
Paton, John, President, Association for Improving Condition of the Poor, New 
York. 
Pughe, Rees P., State Hospital for Insane, Utica. 
Rosenau, Nathaniel S., Superintendent, Bureau of Charities and Correction, 
World's Columbian Exposition, Fitch Institute,'Buffalo. 
Round, W. M. F., Director, Burnham Industrial Farm, 135 E. 15th St., New 
York. 
Savage, Charles C., Roosevelt Hospital, 133 E. 29th St., New York. 22 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
Schuyler, Miss Louisa Lee, State Charities Aid Association, 19 W. 31st St., 
New York. 
Sutliffe, Miss Irene H., Directress of Nurses, New York Hospital, New York. 
Smith, T. Guilford, Charity Organization Society, Buffalo. 
Wald, Miss Lillian D., New York Hospital, Rochester. 
Wells, Miss Mary E., Homeopathic Training School for Nurses, Brooklyn. 
Wilcox, Ansley, Charity Organization Society, White Building, Buffalo. 
Ohio. 
Ayres, Philip W., General Secretary, Associated Charities, 45 E. Fifth Street, 
Cincinnati. 
Behrens, Henry, Director, House of Refuge, Cincinnati. 
Brinkerhoff, Gen. Roeliff, President, Board of State Charities, Mansfield. 
Byers, Joseph P., Secretary, Board of State Charities, Columbus. 
Crouse, Meigs V., Superintendent, Children's Home, Cincinnati. 
Crouse, Mrs. M. V., Children's Home, Cincinnati. 
Dalton, James, Director, House of Refuge, Cincinnati. 
Eyman, H. C., M. D., Superintendent, Cleveland Asylum for Insane, Cleveland. 
Follett, M. D., Board of State Charities, Marietta. 
Fulton, Levi T., Superintendent, House of Refuge, Cincinnati. 
Gano, Mrs. John A., Cincinnati. 
Gladden, Rev. Washington, D. D., Columbus. 
Greenwood, Miss M. Hamer, Jewish Hospital, Cincinnati. 
Hathaway, S. J., Superintendent, Children's Home, Marietta. 
Johnston, Miss Sara F., Lawrence County Children's Home, Ironton. 
McDougall, A. W., Associated Charities, Cincinnati. 
Morse, Miss E. M., Associated Charities, Cincinnati. 
Neff, Wm. Howard, Board of State Charities, Cincinnati. 
Niesz, Mrs. J. K., Children's Home, Toledo. 
Parrott, Charles, Board of State Charities, Columbus. 
Peek, Mrs. Sarah O., Superintendent, The Retreat, Cleveland. 
Richardson, A. B., M. D., Superintendent, Columbus Asylum for Insane. 
Columbus. 
Tobey, H. A., M. D„ Superintendent, Toledo Asylum for Insane, Toledo. 
Waterton, Mrs. R. T., County Visitor, County Jail and Infirmary, South 
Newbury. 
Webb, John, Jr., Director, House of Refuge, Cincinnati. 
Oregon. 
Rowland, L. L., M. D., Superintendent, State Hospital for Insane, Salem. 
Walpole, William R., Secretary, City Board of Charities, Portland. 
Pennsylvania. 
Crabtree, Miss Hezzie T., Philadelphia Hospital, Philadelphia. 
Davis, Miss E. P., Superintendent of Nurses, University of Pennsylvania 
Hospital, Philadelphia. MEMBERS. 
23 
Donnell, Chas. G., Allegheny County Poorhouse, Pittsburgh. 
Milligan, Rev. John L., Secretary, National Prison Association, Allegheny. 
Walk, James W., M. D., Department of Charities and Correction; Secretary, 
Society for Organizing Charity, Philadelphia. 
Wilmarth, A. W., M. D., Norristown. 
Wright, Edward S., Warden, Western Penitentiary, Allegheny. 
Rhode Island. 
Andrews, E. Benjamin, LL. D., President, Brown University, Providence. 
Nutting, Rev. James H., Board of State Charities and Corrections, Howard. 
Spencer, Rev. Anna Garlin, Board of Control of State Home and School for 
Dependent Children, Providence. 
Wilson, Prof. George G., Ph. D., Brown University, Providence. 
Woods, J. C. B., Board of State Charities and Corrections, Providence. 
Tennessee. 
Sims, P. D., M. D., State Board of Health, Chattanooga. 
Texas. 
Hayes, Mrs. R. H., Galveston. 
Utah. 
Wells, Mrs. Emeline B., National Woman's Relief Society, Salt Lake City. 
Washington. 
Bale, Geo. A., Gig Harbor. 
Wisconsin. 
Bannister, Miss Lucy A., Wisconsin School for Nurses, Milwaukee. 
Chenneworth, Mrs. H. W., Woman's Club of Philanthropy, Madison. 
Cleary, J. L., M. D., State Board of Control of Reformatory, Charitable and 
Penal Institutions, Kenosha. 
Graebner, W. H., State Board of Control of Reformatory, Charitable and 
Penal Institutions, Milwaukee. 
Jones, J. E., President, State Board of Control of Reformatory, Charitable and 
Penal Institutions, Portage. 
Lynde, Mrs. Win. P., Industrial School for Girls, Milwaukee. 
Oliver, J. W., State Board of Control of Reformatory, Charitable and Penal 
Institutions, Waupun. 
Parker, C. D., State Board of Control of Reformatory, Charitable and Penal 
' Institutions, River Falls. 
Roberts, W. P., American Invalid Aid Society, Evansville. 
Snyder, Clarence, State Board of Control of Reformatory, Charitable and 
Penal Institutions, Ashland. 
Wilkins, Frederick, Chairman, Knights of Labor. 
Wright, A. O., Wisconsin Veterans' Home, Madison. PREFACE. 
The International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philan- 
thropy, at Chicago, in 1893, was the indirect result of the congress 
held at Paris in 1889, concerning which a report was made by Miss 
Elizabeth C. Putnam at Baltimore, in 1890. The Paris congress 
expressed a desire that the Americans would organize a similar con- 
ference of charity workers in connection with the Columbian Expo- 
sition. Accordingly, at Baltimore, the Reverend Charles G. Trus- 
dell, secretary of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society and president 
of the Illinois Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities, 
extended an invitation to the National Conference of Charities and 
Correction, on behalf of the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago, 
to hold its twentieth session in Chicago in 1893. This invitation was 
accepted. On motion of Dr. Wines, a special committee of fifteen was 
appointed to lay before the authorities in charge of the Exposition a 
project for the organization of such a congress, and for an inter- 
national exhibit of charities and correction in connection with it.* 
This committee was not called together, but conducted its work by 
correspondence through its chairman, Mr. Trusdell, who secured 
from General George R. Davis, director-general of the Exposition, 
and from Mr. C. C. Bonney, president of the World's Congress 
Auxiliary, promises of cordial co-operation and aid in the effort to 
organize both the congress and the exhibit. 
At Indianapolis, in 1891, letters of invitation addressed to Rev. 
Oscar C. McCulloch, president of the Conference, by Messrs. Davis 
and Bonney, were read and a new committee of nine was appointed, 
* The following gentlemen were appointed members of the committee : Rev. 
C. G. Trusdell, Chicago ; George S. Hale, Boston; Oscar Craig, Rochester, 
N. Y. ; James W. Walk, M. D., Philadelphia ; John Glenn, Baltimore ; Gen. 
Roeliff Brinkerhoff, Mansfield, Ohio ; John R. Elder, Indianapolis; Levi L. 
Barbour, Detroit; Andrew E. Elmore, Fort Howard, Wisconsin; D. C. Bell, 
Minneapolis; Rev. Myron W. Reed, Denver; H. O. Nelson, St. Louis; A. S. 
Colyer, Nashville, Tennessee ; Benjamin E. McCulloch, Texas. (See Pro- 
ceedings 17th National Conference, Baltimore, pp. 360, 432, 450.) 26 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
to continue for two years, empowered to arrange for both the con- 
gress and the exhibit, and to take any action necessary to that end.* 
This committee met in Chicago in 1892, and submitted a report to 
the National Conference at Denver.! The committee elected Mr. 
Nathaniel S. Rosenau secretary, and secured his appointment by 
Director-general Davis as superintendent of the bureau of charities 
and correction, under Dr. S. H. Peabody, chief of the department of 
liberal arts, to organize the exhibit, and as'secretary of the executive 
committee named, under authority of the World's Congress Aux- 
iliary, to organize the congress.| 
The exhibit was only a partial success. But for any disappoint- 
ment which may have been felt by any person on this account, it is 
due to Mr. Rosenau to say that he was not to blame. Many 
exhibits were promised which were not furnished. The foreign 
charitable and correctional exhibits were nearly all shown in connec- 
tion with the general displays made by the nations which sent them 
to Chicago. The time allowed for preparation was insufficient, and 
no one was sent to Europe, as had been planned, to make the proper 
representation as to the importance of this undertaking, which was 
not fully appreciated by Mr. Rosenau's superior officers. There was 
also great delay in providing a suitable place (in the Anthropological 
Building) for the collection. Nevertheless, the showing was, on the 
whole, and as a beginning-a precedent for future imitation on a 
larger scale-by no means discreditable, and it attracted a large share 
of popular attention. Mr. A. Cleveland Hall, of the Johns Hopkins 
University, ably assisted Mr. Rosenau in explaining it to visitors, 
many of whom took copious notes. The main exhibits, or many of 
*Tbis committee was composed as follows: Rev. Frederick H. Wines, 
LL. D., of Illinois; Rev. Hastings H. Hart, of Minnesota; Lucius C. Storrs, 
of Michigan ; Frank B. Sanborn, of Massachusetts ; Andrew E. Elmore, of 
Wisconsin; Gen. Roeliff Brinkerhoff, of Ohio; Oscar Craig, of New York; 
John M. Glenn, of Maryland; Rev. Oscar C. McCulloch, of Indiana. (See 
Proceedings 18th Conference, Indianapolis, pp. 349-352.) 
f See Proceedings, pp. 367-374. 
JThis executive committee was made up of the chairman of the committee 
of nine above referred to, Dr. Wines ; the chairman of the men's committee of 
the World's Congress Auxiliary on Moral and Social Reform Congresses, Mr. 
John G. Shortall, of Chicago ; and the chairman of the women's committee 
of the same, Mrs. James M. Flower, also of Chicago. The executive committee 
had entire and exclusive charge of all arrangements for the congress, subject 
to the approval of Mr. Bonney. PREFACE. 
27 
them, were ultimately given to the Johns Hopkins University, at 
Baltimore, as the nucleus of a sociological laboratory of practical 
charities and correction. 
The Denver Conference decided not to merge the National Con- 
ference into the International Congress, but to hold a separate 
(historical) session in Chicago during the week preceding that fixed 
for the congress, of which the Reverend Hastings H. Hart, of St. 
Paul, secretary of the Minnesota State Board of Corrections and 
Charities, was president. 
The International Congress assembled in the Hall of Columbus, 
in the Art Institute, under the auspices of the World's Congress 
Auxiliary, on the morning of Monday, June 12, 1893, and adjourned 
on the evening of Sunday, June 18. The executive committee 
arranged the general programme,* and named the chairmen and 
secretaries of the sections.f The latter had sole control of the work 
of their respective sections, subject to the approval of the executive 
committee, including the selection of questions for consideration and 
of speakers and writers. The actual work of the congress was therer 
fore wholly prepared by them, and they should have the credit 
which properly belongs to them. 
The attendance from abroad was not large, but the papers 
furnished for publication were numerous and valuable. The number 
of Americans present was probably about eight hundred. Not all 
of them were registered. The Art Institute, during the continuance 
of the congress, presented the appearance of a university, with 
classes and lecturers scattered all through the building ; and the 
counter attractions at Jackson Park drew away but few from the 
serious business on hand. No time was spent in social diversion and 
festivity, though grateful mention should be made of the receptions 
by the local committee, composed of the members of the Committees 
on Moral and Social Reform and representatives of the charitable 
societies and institutions of Chicago. One of these was held at the 
Art Institute on Monday; the other on Thursday afternoon at Mrs. 
Samuel M. Nickerson's, who kindly tendered her house to the com- 
mittee for the entertainment of the members of the Congress. 
The joy of the occasion was marred by the death of General 
Rutherford B. Hayes, ex-President of the United States, who had 
* For a copy of the programme see pages 8 and 9 of the present volume 
The rules governing the congress are printed on pages 9-11. 
tSee list on pages 6 and 7. 28 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
consented to preside over this congress, but was prevented by death. 
In his absence, Dr. Wines, the vice-president, took his place. 
The publication of the proceedings was entrusted to a committee 
of two, consisting of Dr. Wines and Mr. John M. Glenn. They 
have been printed in five volumes, of which this is the first, as follows : 
I. The Public Treatment of Pauperism. 
II. The Organization of Charities. 
III. Dependent, Neglected and Wayward Children. Sociology 
in Institutions of Learning. 
IV. The Insane. The Feeble-minded. Crime and Criminals. 
V. Hospitals, Dispensaries and Nursing. 
It is believed that, informal as the organization and proceedings of 
this congress were, no international congress ever held has covered 
a wider range of topics nor discussed the questions before it in a 
more practical and utilitarian spirit. 
No attempt was made in the direction of a permanent organization 
of the movement; but Americans are ready to co-operate with their 
European collaborators for the establishment of an international 
society for the free and independent study of all the forms of chari- 
table and correctional work, and of the results attained under each 
of them, whenever in their judgment the time shall come when such 
an organization is practicable and can be made effective. 
The American plan is not to formulate conclusions, as is customary 
abroad ; but to present the arguments advanced on both sides of 
every question and leave to individuals the task of passing upon their 
relative weight and importance. This prevents division and the 
formation of parties. It leads to a freer discussion. No proposition 
can fully or fairly state the substance of the debate or the sense of 
the body ; and it is not believed that the dogmatic statement of 
points upon which there is a more or less general agreement has any 
special influence upon public opinion, particularly where the propo- 
sitions put forth are in the nature of a compromise, as is apt to be 
the case. Such propositions tend to grow into a creed and to exert 
an influence prejudicial to freedom of thought and breadth of argu- 
ment. For these reasons the reader who looks for a deliverance on 
the part of the congress will search for it in vain. GENERAL EXERCISES. 
OPENING SESSION. 
Monday, June 12, 1893, 10 a. m. 
The World's Auxiliary Congress of the Department of Moral 
and Social Reform convened at 10 o'clock. 
The Rev. Dr. J. G. Johnson invoked the divine blessing. 
President C. C. Bonney.-We have assembled to open the fifth 
series of the World's Congresses of 1893. The truest measure of 
the progress of the age is the development of what is known as 
Moral and Social Reform. Antagonizing the fierce strife of selfish- 
ness for wealth and power, it offers as a substitute, to enlighten man- 
kind, a generous service of the wants and welfare of others. Moral 
and social reform follows with the white flag of purity and peace the 
terrible army of pauperism, insanity and crime, saving and protecting 
all who come within the reach of its heavenly hand. To charity, 
using this word in its most comprehensive sense, everything human 
is sacred, because everything truly human is an offspring of the 
Divine. Selfishness would let the destitute perish, while charity 
feeds and clothes and supplies, as far as human power may go, the 
needs involved in human suffering. Stern justice consigns the 
offender to prison and to punishment. Charity follows with saintly 
step the march of justice, seeking to reform, rather than exterminate 
the offender; seeking to restore him to ways of righteousness and 
justice and peace. Social order punishes to restrain, while heavenly 
charity seeks to prevent the first steps to crime and disorder, immor- 
ality and vice, and the evils that follow in their train. 
Glancing over the splendid programme prepared for this series of 
congresses, luminous as it is with great subjects and distinguished 
names, we notice nearly all the American states, England, Scotland, 
Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Den- 
mark, Netherlands, Norway, New South Wales-and the list is not 
complete. Since it was printed other countries have been added to 30 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
the catalogue, whose representatives will be named in the announce- 
ments as the congresses proceed. 
Six congresses are to be held in this series : The Congress led by 
the National Prison Association, that by the National Conference of 
Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, the General Congress 
embracing International Conferences of that name, a Congress of the 
King's Daughters and Sons, a Congress of Visiting Nurses' Associ- 
ations, and a Congress on Preventive Work. There was also 
appointed to be held a Congress of the Social Wing of the Salvation 
Army, but circumstances have intervened to cause the postponement 
of this meeting to a later date. 
The first two congresses named have already been held during 
the past week, the extent of the several programmes being such that 
they could not well be executed in a single week. The General 
Congress on Moral and Social Reform is appointed to hold fourteen 
sessions. It is also divided into eight separate sections : One on the 
Public Treatment of Pauperism, to hold five sessions; one on the 
Care of Neglected and Dependent Children, to hold five sessions ; 
one on Hospital Treatment, Dispensaries, Nurses, and First Aid to 
the Injured, to hold five sessions; a section on the Treatment of 
the Insane, to hold five sessions; a section on the Prevention of 
Crime, Punishment, and Reformation, with five sessions; a section 
on Charity Organization and Co-operation, with the furnishing of 
employment to the poor, to hold four sessions; a section on Socio- 
logy in Education, one of the most important of all, with a similar 
number of sessions; and a section on the Care and Training of the 
Feeble-minded, with five sessions. These fourteen general sessions 
and these nearly forty sectional sessions outline a scope and thor- 
oughness of treatment of all the questions involved which I think it 
entirely safe to say has never before been attempted on any occasion 
of the kind. The sessions already held indicate the comprehensive- 
ness of treatment which maybe expected in those which are to follow, 
and in which will be presented the views and methods of proceedings 
current, not only in our own country, but in many other lands. See- 
ing this magnificent array of intellectual and moral treasures, one 
might well imagine that unlimited resources had been placed at the 
disposal of the committee of organization which has had these con- 
gresses in charge; but it will be one of the wonders of this series of 
world's congresses that nearly all this work has been done through 
the voluntary efforts of self-denying men and women. Not one dollar GENERAL EXERCISES. 
31 
has been provided by the Exposition authorities for the compensa- 
tion or expenses of attending delegates, and yet there is scarcely any 
part of the world which has not sent or is not now sending its repre- 
sentatives here to Chicago to participate in the discussion of the 
most vital problems which affect the human race. 
Under these circumstances my first duty is to make a grateful and 
sincere acknowledgment of the superb ability and devotion to duty 
which has characterized the committee of organization, whose work 
centered in the executive committee, of which Mrs. James M. 
Flower is chairman and Mr. N. S. Rosenau secretary, aided by 
veterans in the war for moral progress and reform like Dr. F. H. 
Wines and his eminent corps of coadjutors. It only remains for me 
now to extend a most hearty and earnest welcome to the World's 
Congress of Moral and Social Reform of 1893. I give you this 
welcome, not only in behalf of the World's Congress Auxiliary, but 
in behalf of the city in which you meet, the state under whose 
authority you convene, and the government of the United States, 
which has supported and upheld the World's Congresses of 1893 
from their inception. My personal regret is that so many other and 
pressing duties will prevent my enjoying from session to session the 
rich feast of intellectual and moral excellencies provided for this 
occasion. 
One thing more remains to be done before the work of the con- 
gress proper shall commence. The World's Congress Auxiliary 
would be but half an organization but for the Woman's Branch, 
which has had in charge the interests of woman in all the depart- 
ments of human progress, and has brought them forward for presen- 
tation in each of the congresses. That Woman's Branch of the 
World's Congress'Auxiliary has for its chief officer a distinguished 
leader whose name is known in all countries as one of the foremost 
champions of woman and her interests, and thus of the welfare of 
human society, Mrs. Potter Palmer, who will now address you. 
• Mrs. Potter Palmer.-With such a rare and varied programme 
awaiting, I feel I should not detain you one instant in uttering my 
word of welcome to the distinguished guests here assembled. My 
only excuse for doing so is that women have so distinguished them- 
selves in the field of work which you are now to consider and dis- 
cuss, that some attention should be called to that fact. While gov- 
ernments and the masculine sex have been interested in maintaining 
and sending their armies out for the defense of the country they 32 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
loved, they have also uttered the paradox of sending out with the 
other hand organized armies of women and nurses to heal the 
wounds which they found it necessary to make. This organization 
has become so important and so conspicuous all over the world that 
it forms the greatest and one of the most important factors of modern 
life. While the government punishes in its prisons and takes care of 
the injured in its hospitals, it is the women who tend to them and 
attempt to spread abroad the spirit of benevolence and kindness, 
the principles of good housekeeping and good order, and the special 
gift of the temperament of women makes them specially available in 
work of this field. From the time* of Florence Nightingale, who 
commenced the first earnest work on the field of battle, to the time 
of our own civil war, when one of the distinguished members of this 
congress did so much to organize the relief work in this country, and 
whose name, for that reason, has now become world-wide and known 
everywhere, the annals of strife are illuminated by the humane 
record of women. The Sherborne prison at Massachusetts stands 
foremost among the benevolent institutions of the age ; that is man- 
aged and conducted entirely by women. 
I am more pleased to welcome you, because we are now entering 
upon a new era of charitable work. We are now considering the 
administration of charities in a scientific way. We are not attempting 
so much to alleviate existing conditions as we are to prevent their 
existence, and, because of the many distinguished persons who are to 
address you on these subjects, this congress is one of the most impor- 
tant that will assemble in this city during the coming season. All 
thinking persons will watch the deliberations with the greatest interest 
and with a full realization of the significance to the whole world of 
the words which are uttered here. Our welcome seems faint in com- 
parison to the welcome with which your words will be received 
everywhere. I have the honor to wish the most successful meeting 
to this congress. 
President Bonney.-Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes, ex-president of 
the United States, had accepted the presidency of this Congress 
of Moral and Social Reform. Before this assembly, as you are all 
aware, he was called by the Divine Master to that higher realm 
whence all spirit of charity proceeds. His place in this organization 
has not been filled. It was deemed a higher and better tribute to 
his memory that the place assigned to him should remain vacant, 
and that the duties of the presiding officer should devolve upon the GENERAL EXERCISES. 
33 
first vice-president, and I have the honor to present to you as your 
presiding officer Dr. Frederick Howard Wines. 
Dr. Wines.-I congratulate you on the favorable auspices under 
which this congress has assembled and for the success with which 
the preliminary arrangements for it have been conducted. We are 
greatly indebted to Mr. Bonney and to the World's Congress Auxil- 
iary ; and we are especially indebted to the Woman's Branch of 
that organization and to our friends, Mrs. Palmer and her coadjutors. 
It is true that for success in charitable work we are more indebted 
to women than to men. I am very sorry that President Hayes 
could not be here to-day. As he is not here, it has been thought 
proper that some words should be said by me in the introduction 
with regard to President Hayes' life and character, which will take 
the place of the address which he would have made had he been 
present.* 
The following foreign delegates were introduced to the audience 
by Dr. Wines : 
M. Ottocar Aderkas, of Russia. 
Mme. Marie Marshall, of France. 
Mme. F. Zampini Salazar, of Rome, Italy. 
M. Prosper Van Geert, of Antwerp, Belgium. 
M. Edward Boos-Jeglier, of Switzerland. 
Lieut.-Col. J. Lane Notter, M. D., of the British Army. 
Miss Catherine H. Spence, of Australia. 
M. Michael Kazarin, of Russia. 
M. Ottocar Aderkas.-I have the honor to express to you, 
in the name of Russia, my native country, and especially in the 
name of the Russian Imperial Charitable Institution of the Empress 
Mary, my sincere thanks for the hearty welcome accorded us in this 
very learned and cosmopolitan assembly. In Russia we are largely 
interested in all philanthropic and charitable questions, and for that 
reason we attend this international congress with a feeling of the 
most profound sympathy. It is on account of the historical and 
social conditions in Russia and the development of philanthropic 
questions in Europe that we come here to greet you. For the last 
twenty-five years we have witnessed a rapid and successful move- 
*This address is published in full in the proceedings of the National Prison 
Association for 1893, and is therefore omitted here. It can be obtained from 
the Secretary of that Association, Rev. John L. Milligan, Allegheny, Pa. 34 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
ment in this direction, and constant efforts are made by the govern- 
ment and by all classes of the Russian people in this direction. 
Therefore all the questions to be examined here are important and 
interesting to us, since they bear upon vital conditions of our social 
life. For instance, the suppression of pauperism, the care of the 
foundlings of neglected and feeble-minded children, the treatment of 
the insane, the organizations of charities in large cities and villages, 
etc. I feel sure that great benefit to the unfortunate of all countries 
will be derived from your valuable reports and discussions. 
It is a well known fact that, for charities and philanthropy, there 
is no boundary separating countries and peoples. A striking proof 
thereof was given by the American people last year, when, after the 
poor harvests in Russia, American ships laden with corn reached the 
far-away northern shores of the Baltic Sea. As a token of gratitude 
for such philanthropic assistance, the Russian Imperial Charitable 
Institution of the Empress Mary sent a complete exhibit to the 
World's Columbian Exposition, an exhibit of the works of the pupils 
of various schools, orphans' homes, children's asylums, and homes 
for the blind and deaf and dumb, including maps, photographs and 
statistics, and have decided that all these exhibits, after the close of 
the Exposition, are to be given to the American charitable institu- 
tions. Now let me repeat the thanks of Russia and to wish this 
international congress the fullest success. 
Madame Marshall.-I shall detain you but a minute, ladies and 
gentlemen. My voice has gone this morning. I am very happy to 
bring here my word of thanks in the name of my country, and in the 
name of the friend whom you have heard before, Madame Bogelot. 
I hope to have an opportunity to speak about her work and about 
the work done in France for preventing the young from falling and 
for rehabilitating those who have fallen. 
Madame F. Zampini Salazar.-I am thankful to be invited to 
speak, but I have a paper upon the children in Italy which I shall 
have the honor to read Wednesday evening. I thank you very 
much for your kind reception. 
M. Van Geert.-Being a foreigner, I must first of all apologize 
for my bad English. The hearty welcome which was wished to us 
by the President and the Mrs. President is very flattering for me. 
Coming from Antwerp to your city to attend your International 
Congress of Charities and Corrections, I did not expect to meet here 
such distinguished people from all countries of the world. There GENERAL EXERCISES. 
35 
are so many new ideas to be presented in this congress that I hope 
and trust there will come some new light for the benefit of humanity. 
Lieut.-Col. Notter.-I thank you most sincerely, on behalf of the 
British Army, which I represent, for the honor you confer upon it in 
the hearty welcome you have accorded me as its representative. 
Viewing, as I do, this question from a military aspect, I hope it will 
be followed by discussion to carry out those systems which are in 
vogue in civil life to lessen to some extent the calamities which are 
incidental to all, and that the outcome of this congress will be such 
as to insure a uniform system, alleviating some of the hardships 
incidental to a soldier's life. 
Miss Spence.- In speaking to you I do not speak as a foreigner. 
We are daughters of the same mother nation. The great British 
Empire is ours, the English language is ours, the English poets 
have sung to us, the English history is our history, and our lives are 
lived upon English lines. Nothing thrilled me so much as when in 
San Francisco I heard the band strike up the hymn of "America," 
and lo I the air was " God save the Queen." 
As an Australian, I shall speak to you at more length upon our 
methods in Australia at another time. 
M. Boos-Jeglier and M. Kazarin also made brief responses. 
Dr. Wines introduced Dr. Francis G. Peabody, of Harvard 
University, who delivered the oration on The Problem of Charity. 
printed elsewhere, in the volume on Organization of Charities. 
At the close of the morning session the delegates were given a 
reception in another room in the Art Institute, where a handsome 
collation was served. 
CLOSING SESSIONS. 
Sunday Morning, June 18. 
Religious services were held in the Hall of Columbus, at n A. M., 
in accordance with the following programme: 
Organ Prelude, Miss Harris. 
Introductory Reading. 
Song-" The Holy City," Addam, Mr. Dale. 
Scripture Reading. 
Prayer. 36 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
Hymn-"Life's Service'' George Herbert. 
Sermon-" The Relation of the Church to Charities and Reform'' 
Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, Minister of Bell-street Chapel, Prov- 
idence, R. I. 
Hymn-" The Law of Love'' R. C. French. 
Benediction. 
THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO CHARITIES 
AND REFORM. 
REV. ANNA GARLIN SPENCER. 
The church, like the state, was born at the fireside, in the home. 
The ancient father was both priest and king. The race religions which 
developed from this ancient worship of ancestors have each given 
some unique and characteristic element in the history of religion; 
the universal religion of which these are but a part. Each has given 
some note in the symphony of religion without which our present 
harmony of worship, of aspiration and of service, would not be so 
perfect. Mediaeval Christianity, which is our more immediate ancestor 
in religion, claimed to be universal, and sought to control and lead all 
the higher social, moral and spiritual activities of man. The Protestant 
Reformation, so-called, which set our civilization its lesson, broke this 
united centralized power of human leadership into many parts. The 
state, which had been but a temporal arm of the church, became an 
independent power. Education, which had been most jealously 
regarded and held as a principal function of the church, became 
growingly independent of it, and set up housekeeping in the school 
of life on its own account. And charity itself, even now so closely 
allied to all church activity, became more and more an object of 
secular interest and study, and a function ofsecular control and leader- 
ship. So that to-day, in place of one all-pervading interest in life, 
like Latin Christianity, we have, in all our Protestant countries (which 
seem to be the leading countries in modern civilization), this variety 
of interests, all at work upon the same problem-how to mend the 
world and how to grow better men and women. 
In this process of differentiation of spiritual forces, many have 
seemed to lose sight of the value and worth of the church itself. 
Because education and charity, and even government itself, were once 
within the power of the church and subject to its leadership, when 
those influences are no longer churchly, but have gone out into the SPENCER. 
37 
open air, away from the temple and the altar (to the sight of men at 
least), many fail to see for what the church can now stand and what 
is its special value. We must, therefore, ask ourselves first of all 
what the unique and special function of the church is. Is there any- 
thing in it which always was its special business, and now remains 
perhaps its only business, since this change has been brought about. 
In brief-I must - speak, of course, from my own point of view 
-the church stands with us for religion. And what is religion? 
Religion is, first, the thought of man about the universe in which 
he finds himself, his struggle to explain not only the powers which 
surround him, but himself and his relation to those powers; and, 
second, religion is the yearning and effort of the human soul 
to place itself in right relations with this universe in which man 
finds himself a part so small and yet so great. If that be true, if 
religion under all its aspects has been the seeking of man's mind to 
spell out God, the source of all power, as a centralizing influence in 
this universe ; if religion, under all names and in all climes, under all 
differentiation, has been the effort of man after self-culture toward 
holy living, the effort of man to place himself at one with the forces 
drawing the ages on ; if this be religion, then is there any other influ- 
ence in society save the church that stands for it and it alone ? 
Every charitable agency, every reformatory institution or move- 
ment is doing its special work in helping men and women to grow 
better, and its strength, the strength of individual effort, is its weak- 
ness also. Nearly every man and woman to-day is called upon, six- 
sevenths of his time, to serve as a link only in a great chain of social 
effort. He is made to feel almost oppressed with the weight of other 
lives. He sometimes loses himself in his relations ; and the danger 
is quite as great for the special worker in philanthropy or reform as 
for the man whose business is the promotion of material interests. 
He who is set a special task, and acquires expert knowledge in order 
to fulfill that task, is quite as apt to forget that he is simply a part of 
the great enginery of reform. He is very apt to feel that his cause is 
the causeof humanity; and so, for the workers in charity and reforms, 
quite as truly as for the worker in business and for the artisan and 
for the man or woman set any task in life, it is important that one day 
in the week he be appealed to as a whole person, as having infinite 
relation with the eternal, which is here and now. 
"We want," says Emerson, " not thinkers, but men thinking." So, 
in charity and reform, we want not moralists: men at work at this 38 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
or that specialty in such ways as to lose their personality in their 
work; but we want men, working morally: those who stand in the 
beauty of holiness. Let us never lose from our consciousness the 
derivation of the word holiness-those who stand in the beauty of 
wholeness, and take hold of their individual tasks, not as specialists, 
but as whole men and women doing special things. The church 
stands to me for that altar where man or woman shall find, and where 
alone they can find, that heavenly manna which feeds the soul day 
by day, that heavenly manna which comes only day by day, the 
church of the living God, the living church of the living God, the 
church of the present revelation of God in human life. It stands- 
with its doors wide open and its windows flooded with the daylight. 
It stands with its altar facing always north and south and east and 
west, with its past and its future linked in the present, which includes 
them both for the soul that struggles and aspires. I see no other 
institution in society which can thus appeal to the whole man and the 
whole woman. It is the ideal fulfilment of the command, " Be ye 
perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Not merely do the 
thing that thou hast been set to do, and do it well; but live the life 
that has been given thee, and live it well. So the church, now that 
its function has been differentiated and made more exclusive, is more 
than ever the gift of God in human growth; it is more than ever the 
one sacred meeting-place of all souls. 
If so, what is its relation to special charities and reforms ? As these 
children of the old mother of mediaeval Christianity-education, phil- 
anthropy, reform, government, domestic life-have gone out from 
the ancient shelter and set up housekeeping on their own account, 
have they become independent ? so independent, that the church, 
as mother, has no longer any special relation to them ? If that were 
true, then the function of the church would be so specialized that it 
would lose its power. A man or a woman that loses his rooting in the 
common life is thenceforth impotent. But the church is not set, as a 
permanent task, the various special works of philanthropy and 
reform. 
Let me explain. Not long ago, an eloquent voice called upon 
every church in every locality to establish a kindergarten in its vestry. 
It was a good call to a noble service, but in my opinion not the 
wisest call. Better than a kindergarten in every church vestry is a 
city kindergarten, under the public school system, divorced from all 
sectarian interests, standing upon its own educational feet. Just so, SPENCER. 
39 
I heard another eloquent voice call for district nurses to visit the 
poor to be attached to every church organization. Far better than 
that is the public dispensary, under charge of the physician, and dis- 
trict nurses going forth with no taint.of proselytism, even in the sus- 
picion of those to whom they minister, upon their white garments; 
going forth as representative of that outside church of humanity that 
does not even try to spell its creed. And so of all the agencies 
which make up the great procession of philanthropic effort. 
What is the especial effort of the charity organization movement 
in our time? Is it not to lift the partial and petty charities of indi- 
vidual churches and of little societies, where each person has his pet 
theory, into the atmosphere of scientific investigation and of universal 
human brotherhood ? That is the distinctive feature in all modern 
work in charity and reform. As we find our need in the matter and 
learn our way, we take ourselves out of the narrow path, however 
dear that path may be, and strike out into the open highway, to the 
betterment of our own work and to the enlargement of the whole 
scheme under which We labor. 
When our speakers, during this past week, wished to place the 
highest crown upon their own effort in any line, they all uttered the 
same sentiment: "We do our work without regard to sectarian 
interests, without regard to churchly affiliations; we do it on the 
broadest human ground." The church that would seek to stem that 
tide, even by its own activity in a special line-the church that should 
cling, for instance, to its own little kindergarten, instead of putting 
in its work with the city kindergarten, or to its own little district 
nursing and its own friendly visiting, instead of going with the crowd, 
in a large way and on the best lines, is defeating the end for which 
it stands, the end of uniting the life of man to the life which is its 
source. 
If there can be no such relation between the church and these 
special philanthropies and reforms, can there be no other? The 
church is not to be a moral workshop, but it should be a moral expo- 
sition. It is not to show the drudgery and the toil of the special 
worker, still less of special reformers; but the pulpit should exhibit, 
one after another, the great works of ethical progress and of social 
reform. For this purpose I believe that lay-workers should receive 
a fine sympathetic setting of their work in the pulpit. The minister 
is the only professional person who is bound to be general rather 
than special in his study. He is the only one who, by virtue of his 
professional demands, must keep himself open on all sides to truth 40 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
from all directions. He is the only person who should be what 
Hartley Coleridge declared Harriet Martineau was, " a monomaniac 
about everything." But what is the penalty that one pays for know- 
ing a little of a great many things ? It is that he shall not know 
enough about any one. And I believe the pulpit needs strengthen- 
ing to-day by visits now and then, visits of inspiration, of direction, 
of instruction, from these laymen and laywomen who minister with- 
out the robe and without the laying-on of hands in the great outside 
church, in humanitarian service. When the minister is recognized 
to be, what I believe he is, chiefly a teacher, then he will welcome to 
his teacher's desk every man who can teach some one thing a great 
deal better than he can teach it; and then we shall see indeed in the 
church a moral exposition. Then it will be impossible, as I fear now 
it is alas 1 possible, for a man or woman to attend church regularly 
for twenty years, and know almost nothing of what is being done 
for humanity, almost nothing of the special movements that are 
lifting people up in social condition. The function of religion is to 
appeal to the individual where he stands. " Be ye perfect," but what 
does that mean to the man or the woman, and above all to the little 
child, who is cradled in degradation, who breathes in pollution with 
every breath? For such (and they are legion), the outward condi- 
tions of life must be made better, in order that the word of religion 
may be able to reach them. 
I do not forget the magnificent efforts of the Salvation Army and 
others who carry the gospel of Christ, with the old daring of the 
Master, into the darkest places of earth. I give them my reverence 
and my honor. But what, my friends, was the most remarkable 
thing in General Booth's great book, In Darkest England and the 
Way OuD. Was it the enthusiasm for humanity? That has been 
shown by many another. Was it his faith in thepow'er of the human 
soul to respond to the noble appeal of religion? That is felt by 
every true minister of religion.- The most remarkable thing in that 
book is that his scheme is a scheme such as the charity organization 
and every other charitable society is pressing, a scheme to purify 
conditions, to uplift men by the thousands, by setting them in better 
surroundings. And that is the testimony, unconscious largely, of a 
man whose methods in religion are of the older kind. It is the 
special teaching of the spirit of our age. I cannot give it better than 
in Herbert Spencer's words: " No man can be fully moral until all 
are moral; no man can be perfectly happy until all are happy ; no 
man can be perfectly wise until all are wise." SPENCER. 
41 
And what does that mean ? Precisely the same thing that was 
meant by Him of old who said, " Ye are members one of another"; 
only we call it now the solidarity of the human race, and we have 
learned to translate it in terms of science. It means that every man 
and woman should every day give thanks, on bended knee, that the 
justice of God will not let one human being get so far ahead of the 
rest that he has not to wait for them to catch up. It means that we 
are all God's children. We tried to believe it in the old days, but 
we are learning that it is true. The new doctrine of equality of 
human political rights has forced it upon us. The new method of 
education by development is teaching it to us in gentler ways. In 
the administration of charity we see that poverty is an open mouth 
which never can be filled until we remove the cause. We are learn- 
ing that nothing is really permanent that does not uplift life. And 
thanks to God for the lesson, though it comes sometimes in hard 
ways, and we find ourselves pulled back-and it is God's justice that 
does it-pulled back and held down by the great mass of creatures 
not yet emerged from the soil, who, as Emerson says, " are still paw- 
ing to get free." We must bring all of music, all of art, all of beauty 
that we may, to coax the creature out from his bestial surroundings. 
We must bring as many purified homes, all open air-spaces, all edu- 
cational appliances, all the tenderness and care, all the wisest direc- 
tion of which we are capable, to help this creature in his upward 
striving. For the creature is ourselves. We are one, in a deeper 
sense than we are separate-we children of a common father. What 
is it in us that links us to God ? Is it the separate self? No, it is a 
universal self. It is because we, in our souls, are a spark of the 
divine; and the divine is one. As one of old said : " He who doth 
not love his brother, whom he hath seen, can not love God, whom 
he hath not seen." 
The relation of the church to charities and reforms is the relation 
of one uniting aspiration, one altar of worship to all special workers. 
The church is, as I have said, a moral exposition, where history is 
shown to be not a collection of dry facts but a series of footprints of 
divinity, still warm from the holy pressure. It is a place where 
science is seen to be not merely a studious attempt to master 
the secrets of the material universe, but a record of the "loitering 
of the Holy Spirit on its way to the soul of man"; where education 
is seen to be not self-cultivation chiefly, but the cultivation and 
development of all; a place where its old appeal to the individual INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
42 
soul to be better here and now just where it stands, has added an 
atmosphere sympathetic and warm to every movement that seeks to 
better the conditions in which any and every individual life is placed. 
I have a vision of the church that shall be. It will be a place of 
peace. In it man and woman shall love one another. They shall 
not quarrel over texts or sects. It will be a place of harmony. It 
will have its altar reared to the one God of all human souls. It will 
have a ritual made splendid with the prayers of all the saints of all 
the ages. It will have a glory and truth which is the shining of the 
Sun of Righteousness. It shall have a brave word from its pulpit 
that "nothing human alien deems, nor disesteems man's meanest 
claim upon it." Into it men shall go, not for rest alone, but for an 
uplifting of spirit that shall forever put to shame all lowness of 
aim and all selfishness of purpose. And when the church thus 
verifies its credentials and magnifies its office, nay, whenever an indi- 
vidual church seeks, however feebly, so to live out its life, there shall 
be no complaint that men and women do not go to hear its word. 
We have lost somewhat, some people tell us, the old faith. It is 
not true. There never was an age when men so hungered for the 
revelation of the infinite. There never was an age when men's hearts 
were so on fire with holy purpose as now. The trouble is, that the 
church has entangled itself in small ways and in cheap business, when 
it might be working for the multitudes on the world's great highway. 
The true church is in the heart of man. It is not in brick or 
mortar or marble; it is not in picture or legend or book. The 
tabernacle of God is with men-with living souls, and the revelation 
of God is to men-to living souls. " The pure in heart shall see 
Him as He is, and to him who doth the deed the truth shall be made 
known." 
Sunday Evening. 
The following is the programme of the Sunday evening session: 
Organ Prelude, Mrs. Parsons. 
Address by Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, President, Golden Gate 
Kindergarten Association, San Francisco. 
Subject: " The Relation of the Kindergarten to Pauperism and 
Crime."* 
Vocal Solo-" Come Unto Me'' Cowen, Miss Marion Treat. 
* Published in proceedings of section on Neglected, Abandoned and Way- 
ward Children. GENERAL EXERCISES. 
43 
Address by Dr. Felix Adler, of New York.* 
Subject: " American Education from a National Point of View." 
Closing exercises of the Congress. 
Organ, Mrs. Parsons. 
In closing the Congress, Dr. Wines said : In a few moments this 
Congress will dissolve without day ; but before it separates, I crave 
permission to say one word in conclusion. 
It is customary to pass votes of thanks to those to whom we feel 
ourselves under obligation. But the cause of humanity and philan- 
thropy is under obligation to nobody. It is rather a privilege to 
serve it, and for the opportunity to serve it every man and every 
woman should feel grateful. However, there are certain persons not 
immediately identified with us in our work whom I wish to mention 
here. We are grateful to the ladies and gentlemen who have 
furnished the sweet and inspiring music which we have so thor- 
oughly enjoyed. We have been particularly gratified by the 
delightful and agreeable services rendered by the young lady ushers 
who have attended the sessions of the sections of this congress. We 
shall remember them always with pleasure. 
This has been, in spite of great difficulties, a successful congress; 
successful in the attendance, and especially successful in the character 
of the papers and discussions. Great permanent results will surely 
grow out of it. We think that we have placed the work of the 
trained nurses of this country upon a better and more enduring basis 
than ever before, and that we have brought philanthropy and learn- 
ing into closerand more vital contact by forming a connection, which 
we trust will never be severed, between the institutions of learning in 
this country and the practical workers in this field of humanitarian 
effort. 
I should feel myself wanting in my duty if I did not say that for 
whatever success the Congress has had, we are greatly indebted to 
our friend and co-laborer, Mr. Nathaniel S. Rosenau, who, I think, 
has done more than any other one person to make it what it has 
proved to be: an international forum for the philanthropists of the 
world, and a school of theory and practice for American laborers in 
the field of correction, prevention and benevolence. 
I now declare the Congress adjourned sine die. 
* Published in proceedings of section on Sociology in Institutions of 
Learning. APPENDIX. 
WHAT IS THE TRUE WORK OF HUMANITY FOR 
HUMANITY?* 
MRS. ABBY MORTON DIAZ, BELMONT, MASSACHUSETTS. 
First, let us make clear to ourselves the purpose of human beings, 
namely, io live. The whole universe is subject everywhere to the 
same general laws, and the most apparent of these, and including all 
others, is the Law of Life. Science tells us that, beginning with the 
most infinitesimal atom and ending with the highest human intelli- 
gence, life fills all and is all. 
In studying this universal law the world of vegetation serves well 
as an object-lesson. Here, and co-extensive with life, we find the 
Law of Individuality. Within a few square yards of ground we find 
grasses, daisies, mullein, trees, bushes, each form taking heat, light, 
moisture, air, soil-properties, as its capacities may require. The 
whole pattern must appear. Complete individual expression, and 
nothing short of this, means life, whether for the blade of grass or 
for the tree; and just so far as in any case the full pattern is not 
shown forth, just so far that form of growth fails to live. And note 
here that in any extent of ground where such failure shows itself in 
unshapely forms, blight, stunted growths, scanty or imperfect fruit, 
we see that by this individual failure the grand intent of the whole is 
interfered with, that the completeness of the whole demands the full 
development of each. 
In nature, so far as appears to us, this law of individual expression 
acts unintelligently; but to the higher creation, humanity, belongs 
the power and responsibility of choice. Nevertheless, the Law of 
Life is inexorable. 
Now, this superior order, mankind, has chosen to bring itself under 
the management of five general systems : the political, the commer- 
cial, the religious, the social, the educational. These have wrought 
* Paper prepared for a meeting on Preventive Work, held in the Art Insti- 
tute, Chicago, Friday, June 16, and published by request of Committee on 
Preventive Work. DIAZ. 
45 
out for us a wondrous demonstration called civilization. It offers 
much that is desirably; but as human beings, born to live, we ought 
to ask if it is carried on in accordance with the Law of Life; is it 
making the best of each one of us ? On the contrary, throughout 
the whole range we find conditions which absolutely hinder such 
development, and that our boasted civilization is closely joined with 
human sacrifice, is based upon loss of life. The term " necessities of 
life" is made to refer chiefly to the animal necessities-food and 
bodily protection. The cost of living is calculated on these, 
whereas all that makes man man lies beyond the animal. 
Let us consider our five systems. 
First, the political or governmental. Politicians themselves, who 
surely know, declare this to be utterly corrupt, ruled by bribery 
and self-interest acting for money-gain. Corruption means a loss of 
the saving elements of character; means decay, rottenness, destruc- 
tion. Life cannot come from corruption. 
Second, the commercial. This is now largely based on the animal 
propensities. Its dialect is animalism. These are some of its 
phrases: "They are at our throats," "Fight 'em off," "Foxy," 
" Kill 'em out," " They want our blood," " Run 'em off," " Roast 
'em out," " Crush 'em out," " Freeze 'em out," " Financial vultures," 
" Coal cormorants." Success demands " the strong claw," " the 
quick eye," "the swift wing," "the piercing talon." It is distinctly 
stated that moral standards are not to be maintained. But when a 
double standard of morals is recognized as satisfactory it is time to 
fly the danger-signals. That time is now. In speaking of a deceased 
millionaire whose unscrupulous " talon " and grasping " claw " had 
wrought wide-spread ruin and misery, a leading paper makes this 
significant statement-mark well its import: " He was no worse 
than thousands of others who stick at nothing short of crime . . . 
he was not dishonest, judged by the prevailing rules of commercial 
morality." And of a very prominent politician who had made a high 
governmental position serve greatly his own pecuniary interests it 
was said : " While a desire for wealth made him unscrupulous, we 
have looked upon him as neither better nor worse than many of our 
American merchants who have a good standing." But is it not a 
matter of alarm that the " great mass " of our countrymen acknowl- 
edge two standards of action and adopt the lower? Clearly we can 
look to neither of these two systems as a means of developing in 
humanity its highest possibilities. Yet they include "the great 
mass " of our people. 46 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION. 
Turning to our third, the religious, we find one of its denomina- 
tional papers regretting " the connection of professing Christians 
with stock-gambling, with financial jobbery, and with knavishness 
in business management"; and a recent article says that "in railroad 
finance the struggle for life in the savage contests, the slaughter by 
right of might, the taking from the weak, goes on as if the Chris- 
tian civilization never existed. Christian gentlemen, good family 
men, endowers of hospitals and founders of colleges, will follow a 
financial rival like a sleuth-hound, and slay with the joy of a Com- 
anche cutting throats." In view of all this, and of the general lowering 
of the moral standard, we may say of our third system that it has by 
no means established the dominion of the higher human qualities; 
and it should be added that by its imposition of creeds and doc- 
trines it has hindered the free action of individual mind, and thus 
antagonized the divine law of individuality as shown throughout 
creation, the human creation included. 
Our fourth, the social system, is rather an outside affair, its social 
intercourse being conducted chiefly on an upholstery basis and on 
more or less elaborateness in the preparation of food. This matter 
of elaborate feeding acts as a perpetual hindrance to a genuine social 
intercourse and plenty of it. As the chief aims of our social system 
are wealth and position and the consideration which these bring, it 
has a tendency to foster pride, vanity, rivalry and unworthy ambition, 
and it cannot therefore be relied upon as a means of that high and 
full development which alone is life. Moreover, its general law- 
follow the leader-directly hinders individual expression. 
Our fifth, the educational system, has been chiefly occupied with 
instructing rather than in supplying conditions for bringing out the 
complete life-pattern in each child born. Moreover, it has not yet 
discovered that the work having the first claim upon it lies in the 
direction of character. Character rules. Teachers should aim directly, 
but work indirectly, the purpose not being made apparent. The 
province of the home ? So it is. But beginning at the social top 
and ending with the abodes of crime and abject poverty, or with the 
swarming population of the " sweating " dens, we shall find very few 
homes having the requisites for so difficult a duty-the leisure, the 
wisdom, the knowledge, and the sense of responsibility. The fact 
that these cannot be generally found in our homes, even of the 
better sort, reveals a strange lack in this fifth system of ours ; a lack 
spoken of by Herbert Spencer in his volume on Education. He DIAZ. 
47 
expresses wonder that while almost everything else is thought 
worthy of attention, no special preparation is given for the most 
sacred and important duties of lifetime, those of parents and home- 
makers. 
By introducing into our system a department of parenthood 
enlightenment, and by giving character work the first rank as an aim 
of education, it may yet come about that the sound or saving traits, 
such as truth, love, justice, honor, integrity, shall be put in the 
ascendant. To make these the absolute controlling power, to sub- 
stitute their dominion for the dominion of self-seeking and greed 
and rivalry and money, to do all this would surely prove a true 
work of humanity for humanity, and it should begin by giving 
human beings an idea of their own divine possibilities as the temples 
of the Living God, and of the privileges and the obligations which 
are theirs by reason of this Divine indwelling. 
While waiting for so desirable a state of things, we can lessen the 
evils of systems one and two by extending our present degree of 
nationalistic control. This now includes, in greater or less degree, 
the management of schools, of mail-carrying, of all military affairs, of 
roadsand bridges, of public libraries, of street-lighting and of water 
privileges. The telegraph and telephone can be added at once and 
some other things later. Evil conditions are lessened according as 
the element of self-interest, through money profit, is removed; and 
the government of any country, especially of a republic, is made 
less corrupt according as it is freed from the control of corporations 
and of personal interests generally. 
Should it be asserted that these latter will always rule, on account 
of the badness of poor human nature, let it be counter-asserted that 
we do not yet know what human nature is, since it has always been 
under damaging restrictions ; also, that as continual progress has 
been shown on the industrial plane-by application of the more and 
more immaterial forces-so will it be shown in the higher plane. 
Moral progress is assured. We are not always to be selfish, any 
more than we were once always to be cave-dwellers, limited to the 
industrial use of stone and wood. We must hold fast by this ideal 
of excellence in order to bring its realization. " The power of a 
living principle, or a longing, or a hope, or ideal, once planted in 
society is well-nigh omnipotent." the 
Public Treatment of Pauperism 
BEING A REPORT OF 
THE FIRST SECTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 
OF CHARITIES, CORRECTION AND PHILANTHROPY, 
CHICAGO, JUNE, 1893 
EDITED BY 
JOHN H. FINLEY, Ph. D. 
President of Knox College 
BALTIMORE 
THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS 
LONDON 
THE SCIENTIFIC PRESS, LIMITED 
428 Strand, W. C. 
1894 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY OF THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN 
EXPOSITION. 
The International Congress of Charities, Correction and 
Philanthropy. 
president : 
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT : SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT : 
FREDERICK H. WINES. ROBERT TREAT PAINE. 
GENERAL SECRETARY : 
ALEXANDER JOHNSON. 
COMMITTEE OF ORGANIZATION ; 
FREDERICK H. WINES, JOHN G. SHORTALL, Mrs. J. M. FLOWER. 
NATHANIEL S. ROSENAU, Secretary. 
SECTION I. 
The Public Treatment of Pauperism. 
CHAIRMAN : 
ANSLEY WILCOX, 
Charity Organization Society, Buffalo, New York. 
SECRETARY: 
JOHN H. FINLEY, Ph. D., 
President of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. 
Copyright, 1894, by The Johns Hopkins Press, PAGE 
The International Treatment of the Poor Question. By Baron von 
REITZEN STEIN I 
Pauperism in Great Cities; Its Four Chief Causes. By Robert Treat 
Paine 23 
American Administration of Charity in Public Institutions. By Oscar 
Craig 58 
Public Relief and Private Charity. By Charles R. Henderson .... 89 
Tramps. By John J. McCook 97 
Vagrancy. By A. O. Wright 108 
Municipal Provision for Shelter of Homeless Poor in Boston-Temporary 
Home for Women and Children-Wayfarers' Lodge and Woodyard 
for Men. By Thomas F. Ring 117 
Free Public Employment Offices in Ohio. An Experiment in Socialistic 
Legislation. By P. W. Ayres . 124 
Pauperism and Crime. By John B. Weber . 131 
The Problem of Inebriate Pauperism. By T. D. Crothers 140 
Causes of Pauperism and the Relation of the State to it. By A. O. 
Wright 146 
The English Poor Law: Its Intention and Results. By Mrs. May 
McCallum 151 
Poor Law Progress and Reform, Exemplified in the Administration of 
an East London Union. By William VallaNce 158 
The Work of the London County Council in Relation to Public Health 
and the Housing of the Working Classes. By John Lowles . . . 172 
Private Unofficial Visitation of Public Institutions. By Louisa Twining 188 
Immigration of Aliens. By Arnold White 191 
Charity in Belgium. By Prosper Van Geert 198 
Relief by Work in France. By Grosseteste-Thierry 207 
The Austrian Poor Law System. By Edith Sellers 216 
Poverty and its Relief in Austria. By Dr. Menger 224 
Sketch of the Organization of Public Poor Relief in Austria. By Fried- 
erich Probst 230 
Poor Relief in Vienna, and its Reform. By Rudolph Kobatsch . . .» 241 
Charity in Turkey. By T. Flakky 284 
Procedings and Discussions 290 
Index 307 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. THE INTERNATIONAL TREATMENT OF THE POOR 
QUESTION. 
BARON VON REITZENSTEIN, FREIBURG, BADEN. 
Was den grossen Ring bewohnet, 
Huldige der Sympathie ! 
I. 
Phases of Development in the International Treatment of the Poor 
Question.-Present Outlook. 
The need of uniting the nations on common lines of action for the 
solution of the problems connected with the poor question has made 
itself felt since the middle of the century with ever-increasing force. 
The constantly growing recognition of this necessity has introduced 
an element into the development of these questions which has 
exerted an increasing influence upon their treatment. This element, 
however, is not entirely new. ' There have been periods before in 
which common ideas and a consequent similarity in forms of organi- 
zation forced the nations to take one and the same course in their 
methods of caring for the poor. These periods were followed by 
others in which the effort to emphasize national individuality consti- 
tuted the prominent characteristic in the development of the question 
of poor relief. History, then, presents the picture of a rising and 
falling tide in the influence of unity of ideas upon development- 
periods in which the prevailing feature was to work on common 
lines alternating with those in which national individuality was the 
predominant characteristic of development. 
The transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance was one 
of those periods of alternation in which first one and then the other 
idea had the upper hand. In the Middle Ages poor relief was in the 
hands of the church and of the institutions which she had founded. 
It was natural that identity of dogmatic belief and of ecclesiastical 
organization, extending far beyond the limits of a single nation, 
should determine the development of the care of the poor in a 2 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
common direction. In contrast to this, in the following period, when 
church separation and the formation of independent states took 
place, the desire became prominent to find within individual church 
communities and nations distinct forms corresponding to the con- 
ceptions which had there won recognition. In this period of national 
differentiation, the points of contact between nations resulting from 
that unity of ideas and organization which had pervaded the life 
of the Middle Ages as a characteristic feature naturally grew less. 
The intellectual spirit which wa,s developed by the philosophy of the 
eighteenth century and by the humanitarian ideas proclaimed by it 
gave a fresh impulse to fraternity and union; but this movement 
also succumbed to a reaction. The reviving and growing national 
feeling among civilized nations supplanted these cosmopolitan tend- 
encies and brought again into greater prominence the element of 
national individuality. The counter movement, which has been the 
characteristic feature of the second half of this century, has been 
essentially influenced by the wider relations brought about through 
increased facilities of international intercourse, which could not fail 
in turn to affect the interchange of views in the realms of science. 
But though those earlier tendencies resulting from a common feeling 
had later to give way to counter tendencies, they were not entirely 
without fruit in clearing the way for international co-operation. As 
many of the institutions which sprang from the intellectual life of the 
Middle Ages and which extended beyond the limits of single nations 
have been preserved, though in altered form, so also we have active 
among us to-day numerous influences suggested by that period ot 
enlightenment. Even in the realm of purely national development 
many an organization has been formed, the importance of which has 
later been recognized by other nations in the revival of the exchange 
of ideas. In spite of these alternating waves, the result has been in 
general to multiply the points on which the effort to bring about 
international unity of action rests. On the whole this development 
presents itself as an advance towards harmonious action on a larger 
scale. 
What applies to the material results applies still more to the means 
for bringing about these results. These too have constantly increased. 
The realization of the ideas concerning the care of the poor that had 
become dominant within the church during the Middle Ages rested 
upon church doctrines and organizations which were in great measure 
common to all the peoples of Christendom. Even to-day the REITZENSTEIN. 
3 
common views developed within each individual church community 
regarding the province and form of poor relief are to a certain extent 
a happy element in bringing nations to a closer union. In the 
Illumination Period it was through individual exchange of opinion 
between leading men and through literary discussion that the mutual 
clarification of ideas was chiefly accomplished. Even to-day these 
two methods are those which give the best prospect for progress in 
the line of greater fraternity. Indeed, ever since de Gerando's great 
pioneer work first gave us its widely influential example, the collec- 
tion of materials referring to conditions and institutions among other 
nations and the comparative treatment of the poor question based 
upon such information have constantly gained ground in literature. 
The* very use of associations to which we owe in recent times the 
especially powerful impulse given to this common treatment, had 
its beginnings in the Illumination Period, and upon these beginnings 
we are still building. But association life in its development during 
the second half of the last century remained pre-eminently local. 
This development first entered on a wider stage through the influence 
of the recent movement which, favored by the extraordinary growth 
of facilities of intercourse, has ever striven to extend the organization 
of associations to the widest circles and over as large a territory as 
possible. The effort has been not only to concentrate the forces 
within the limits of a single .nation, but to pave the way for united 
action on the part of different nations. The attempts which have 
been made in this direction evidence a constantly higher degree of 
perfection of detail and systematic treatment. 
The initiation of these attempts was due to a resolution passed by 
the Societe d' Economic Charitable, in Paris, in 1855, on motion of 
its president, Vicomte de Melun, to embrace the opportunity afforded 
by the Paris Exhibition to bring about an international conference 
for the purpose of discussing questions referring to the situation of 
the poorer classes. This idea met with approbation, and was sup- 
ported especially by that noble philanthropist, Ducp6tiaux, inspec- 
tor-general of the Belgian prisons. The holding of the International 
Congress of Charities in Brussels in 1856 was owing to his initiative. 
This congress was followed by others, in Frankfort-on-the-Main in 
1857, and in London in 1862, which latter was held at the World's 
Fair of the same year. The strained relations which resulted from 
the wars of 1864-1871 were not propitious to the further progress 
of this development. The next international congress did not take 4 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
place until 1880, in Milan. This was followed by the congress held 
in connection with the World's Fair in Paris in 1889, which was the 
immediate forerunner of the one about to take place in Chicago. 
The common aim of all these congresses has been to establish a per- 
manent organization, in order to secure a well-regulated exchange of 
experiences and views between experts on the pauper question of 
different nations, not only at the congresses but also during the 
longer or shorter intervals between them. None of these congresses 
has had any permanent success in this direction, however. As yet, 
the maintenance of mutual relations during these intervals rests 
rather upon the national associations, which have in increasing meas- 
ure taken cognizance of one another's work and made all the materials 
pertaining to it accessible to one another. The extraordinary activity 
shown in the last few decades, in the membership of associations as 
well as in the establishment of new associations, must be welcomed,' 
therefore, as an advance tending to further the growth of the inter- 
national idea of the treatment of the poor. The example of Switzer- 
land, whose time-honored "Association for Public Good" (Gemein- 
nutzige Gesellschaft} has existed since the year 1810, was first 
followed by England, through the formation in 1857 of the " National 
Association for the Promotion of Social Science." Each of these 
associations, although their programme was much more comprehen- 
sive, took special interest in the study of the poor question. The 
associations which sprang into life at a later period differ from 
those of earlier date, in that the sphere of their activity is defined by 
narrower limits, comprising, for the most part, besides the care of 
the poor, only cognate subjects, such as the care of discharged pris- 
oners. To this class belong the National Conference of Charities 
and Correction, founded in 1874 in the United States of America, 
the German Association for Poor Relief and Charity {Deutsche 
Ver ein fur Annenpflege und Wohlthdtigkeit} which dates from 
the year 1881, and the Societe Internationale pour VEtude des 
Questions d'Assistance, in Paris, which owes its origin to the impulse 
given by the International Congress of 1889, and which has since 
been in full activity. In Italy, too, national charity conferences have 
been held, the second of which met in Florence in March of the 
present year. Although the Paris society calls itself international, it 
differs very little from the others; not only is it composed almost 
entirely (its board of directors exclusively) of French members, but 
it confines its regular work for the most part to questions connected KEITZENSTEIN. 
5 
with the French poor. Other associations, however, interest them- 
selves, when occasion offers, in the work of other countries. The great 
majority of the members of all these societies are practical workers 
in the care of the poor. The fact that they from time to time inform 
themselves as to movements elsewhere has manifestly helped, first, 
to give to their discussions a wider scope, and thereby to bring 
about a larger participation in these debates, and second, to heighten 
the interest in the international treatment of the question within the 
circle of experts practically engaged in the care of the poor. Evi- 
dently connected with this is the fact that the practical element has 
become the greatly preponderating one in the composition of inter- 
national congresses, and that the theoretical philanthropist has gone 
to the rear. The majority of those who participate in these gather- 
ings are members of the poor boards and poor relief associations of 
the country in which the congress is held. This double change in 
the composition of the congresses has necessarily resulted in the 
delimitation of the subject-matter of the discussions and in giving to 
them a more precise and practical turn. 
If we consider the wide range of topics discussed at previous 
international congresses, we are especially struck with the increasing 
definiteness of the programme. While, in the programme of the 
Brussels Congress of 1856, subjects foreign to the practical working 
of the poor administration and only indirectly connected with the 
care of the poor, as for example the question of the means of sub- 
sistence, still occupy a prominent place, the programme of the 
London Congress of 1862 shows a far greater specialization of the 
subjects considered. Nevertheless, of the two questions there 
proposed for cjiscussion, only one, the compulsory education of 
neglected children, Comes within the province of the care of the 
poor, while the other, compulsory elementary education, lies entirely 
outside of it. The policy of more narrowly defining the subject was 
much more logically carried out in the Milan Congress of 1880. In 
framing the programme, the purpose of confining the discussions to 
practical questions concerning poor relief proper was kept clearly 
in mind. Besides these questions, only special ones referring to 
preventive poor relief as well as to the care 'of discharged prisoners 
find a place in these debates. The Paris Congress of 1889 moved in 
the same direction. This congress included in its programme the 
question of the principle and limits of obligatory poor relief, the 
manner of placing children to be supported by public poor relief, the 6 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
care of the sick poor in country districts, and the systematic organiza- 
tion of charity. While in this change the increasing influence of the 
practical element shows itself, this influence is manifested still further 
in the fact that the treatment itself has become more concrete, and 
has been brought in closer relations with the peculiar condition of 
poor relief and the efforts towards reform in the respective countries. 
This is especially the case in the last two congresses, as in them an 
unusually large number of the participants belonged to the countries 
where they were held. The transactions, although in theory intended 
to be rather of an international character, in practice assumed a 
decidedly national coloring. This comes out plainly in the resolu- 
tions of the Milan Congress, in which we cannot fail to recognize 
their direct bearing upon the great reform questions then agi- 
tating Italy, such as the concentration and modification of endow- 
ments, the centralization of administration of institutions engaged in 
outdoor relief, and the establishment of outdoor sick poor relief in 
the country districts. The same is true of the Paris Congress. The 
resolutions adopted concerning the method of caring for children 
supported by charity, and of establishing outdoor sick poor relief in 
the country, touch current questions of reform, and reflect in general 
the conception of the problem in the mind both of French specialists 
and of the government. Since the trend of reform in France was 
largely in the direction of the extension of the area of obligatory poor 
relief, it was in keeping with the local situation to give expression to the 
recognition of this idea, at least in so far as it referred to those poor 
who are unable to work. The fourth subject of discussion, the syste- 
matic organization of charity, goes, to be sure, much farther. Its dis- 
cussion assumed a far more international character, and included the 
details of methods in operation in Germany, England, America, and 
other countries. No substantial conclusion, however, was arrived at. 
It was agreed to postpone action until the next congress. The Inter- 
national Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy which 
will assemble in Chicago on June 12 of this year, under the auspices 
of the World's Congress Auxiliary, will, therefore, find this question 
an open one. Of course it will be taken up during the proceedings, or 
at least touched upon, for it has a place on the programme of two 
sections of the congress, the first and the sixth. The public treat- 
ment of poverty is assigned to the former as the subject of its inves- 
tigation, and to the latter the organization of the activities concerned 
with the care of the poor on the part of communes, districts, and the REITZENSTEIN. 
7 
state, and their relations to each other, including also preventive poor 
relief. The reports to be submitted by the latter section especially 
concern the demarcation of the province of private charity, the insti- 
tution of the almoner, and support through work. These preliminaries 
show plainly that, in so far as it is contemplated again to take up this 
fourth question, the intention is to enter upon its treatment with a 
certain amount of reserve. It appears here divided into its several 
elements, the effort being made first to obtain complete information 
as to the conditions under which different systems operate. 
There are only too good reasons for this reserve. Even if the dis- 
cussion of this question at the Paris Congress had not suffered from 
the near approach of the close of the congress, a definite solution 
would hardly have been reached. In this respect it is unlike other 
questions treated by the congress. It is easy enough to draw con- 
clusions from a principle which is recognized as valid, or to discover 
the proper forms of applying the same from the standpoint of general 
suitability. Thus it is easy to answer affirmatively, in a manner 
more or less applicable to every kind of condition, the question 
whether the organization of public sick poor relief is a necessity in 
country districts. In the same way we can say that, as a rule, the 
boarding-out system is preferable, where the Question relates to the 
mode of caring for children maintained at public expense. Where, 
on the other hand, the general organization of a charitable system is 
under consideration, inasmuch as the system has grown out of the 
previous historic development of the nation and is in harmony with 
the national character expressed in the constitution, laws and policy 
of the government, the solution of this question can for the most 
part be only relative, that is, it can be said to be valid only where 
certain preliminary conditions exist. This is the case, to a certain 
degree, with the question of the limits within which the principle 
of obligatory poor relief is applicable, limits differently defined 
according to the manner in which public poor relief is administered, 
the measure of forces at the disposal of the administration, and the 
views prevalent as to public poor relief and its relation to private 
charity. Still more, however, is this true of the question of the 
practical organization of poor relief. The answer depends essenti- 
ally on the extent to which this organization, according to existing 
concrete conditions, belongs to the province of public or private 
charity, and, where the former is the case, on the character of the 
unions upon which the duty of relief devolves. Here also are to 8 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
be further considered both the quantity and the quality of the 
means at disposal for carrying out the plans of organization. If a 
solution of the problem is to be attained, the forms and operation of 
each of the systems prevailing in different countries, as well as the 
preliminary conditions upon which their existence depends, must 
first be definitely settled. The question of the universal adaptability 
of arrangements and of their availability for introduction among 
other nations is by no means left out of view here, but merely takes a 
second place in our deliberations. Only after we have learned to 
understand the conditions under which the separate systems of poor 
relief in different countries operate, can we proceed to the examina- 
tion of this question. 
If, then, the international congress about to convene in Chicago, 
as we may expect from what has already been intimated, wisely 
intends to confine itself to the study of these opposite systems and 
the preliminary conditions of their operation, and, upon the founda- 
tion of the agreement as to these questions that may be reached 
through its discussions, to shape its further deliberations in regard 
to the absolute value and adaptability of the systems, it will have 
made an important step forward in the treatment of the subject. 
We shall thus enter upon a path more extended, it is true, but at the 
same time a safe one; a path on which the steps once made need 
not be retraced. At any rate such a treatment may lead to results 
which, upon every future reconsideration of the subject, will be looked 
upon as useful and welcome points on which we can rely. 
II. 
Points of Comparison between the Charitable Systems of Different 
Nations. 
In the discussions to date as to the most practical method of poor 
relief, the English-American and the German systems have been 
contrasted; in other words, the Elberfeld principle with that which 
lies at the foundation of the charity organization societies. First of 
all, therefore, a precise statement of the resemblances and differences 
between these two systems is demanded. The greater our success 
in this, the clearer the ground for an exhaustive treatment of the 
question, and for a judgment as to how far either of them meets the 
requirements met by the other. REITZENSTEIN. 
9 
Both movements are animated by a common purpose, namely, the 
desire to secure greater individualization in the administration of 
charity. But while one of them seeks to accomplish this end entirely 
through the medium of private organization, the other depends for 
its accomplishment almost wholly upon the organization of public 
poor relief. Both are agreed that, in order to secure greater indi- 
vidualism, the active participation of a larger proportion of the 
citizen element is necessary in practical charity work. Finally, both 
may be viewed in contrast with the system now in operation in 
France and Italy, where such development in this direction as it has 
been possible to attain has been of inconsiderable importance. The 
existing conditions are there unfavorable to such development. 
Wherever the funds for the Support both of public and private 
charities are derived chiefly from endowments, it is for the most 
part impossible to draw a strict line of demarcation between the two. 
Besides, the will of the testator fetters the action of the trustees to 
such a degree as to be inconducive to any extensive enlistment of the 
citizen element in this service. 
France.-In France, under the ancient regime, attempts were 
made to organize the systematic care of the poor by the commune. 
But these efforts remained without lasting result, because in their 
prosecution the needed persistency was lacking; and because, from 
and after the seventeenth century, the government interested itself 
exclusively in the creation of ne\V hospitals,* and in the enlargement 
of those already in existence. Since that date, the state charitable 
system has had these institutions for its centre. This policy, after 
suffering a temporary interruption during the Revolution, received 
a fresh sanction in the reconstructive legislation of the year V. It is 
upon the hospitals that the care of the poor chiefly devolves. They 
are supplemented by the " bureaus of charity " {bureaux de bienfais- 
ance\ which, as organs of outdoor relief, stand at their side. The 
efficiency of both is limited by their financial resources, which, par- 
ticularly in case of the hospitals, consist mainly of the income derived 
from endowments, any deficiency in which must be supplied by vol- 
untary contributions on the part of the separate communities. On 
account of the magnitude of the interests comprised in the care of 
poor children and of the insane, and the imperative necessity of syste- 
*The word "hospital" is here used in the Continental, not in the English 
sense, and is very nearly equivalent to our English "home " or "asylum."- 
Translator. 10 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
matic care for these classes of dependents, the primary responsibility 
for such care has been laid upon the departments. A recent bill 
proposes in addition to compel each separate community to provide 
relief for the sick poor, the cost of which is to be assessed jointly 
upon the departments, and the national treasury, according to a fixed 
scale. Nevertheless, individuals in need of help have no other ulti- 
mate dependence than the hospitals and the charity bureaus, whose 
assistance is optional, or rather is measured by the means at their 
disposal. Scarcely more than two-fifths of the communities have 
charity bureaus; and hospitals are usually found only in cities, often 
only in the larger cities. 
Italy.-In Italy the situation is similar; though here greater pro- 
gress has recently been made in the application of the principle of 
obligatory poor relief. Special attention may be called by way of 
illustration, to the sanitary law of December 22, 1888, which requires 
the communities to furnish medical aid to the poor ; and to the law 
of June 30, 1889, on public safety, which makes provision for paupers 
unable to work. Here, as in France, the care of foundlings and of 
the insane devolves wholly or chiefly upon the provinces. But the 
way was not effectually cleared for a reform in the character and 
for the centralized control of endowed institutions and other chari- 
table establishments, until the passage of the act of August 3, 1862, 
and especially the act of June 17, 1890. In Italy also, the extent of 
relief granted, in many departments of charity, is proportionate to 
the resources of the institutions. The first result of this situation is, 
as has been intimated, the absence of any distinct boundary line 
separating public from private charity. Institutions which are richly 
endowed often encroach upon the customary domain of private 
initiative; if their resources are restricted, they are frequently not in a 
position to meet the most scanty requirements. Since the bulk of their 
income is derived from interest on endowments and from voluntary 
contributions, it is impossible to prevent them from doing their work 
in a manner characteristic of private charity. For this precise reason 
it is1 difficult to assign to any larger organization, based upon the 
systematic utilization of voluntary workers, any clearly defined 
sphere of duty, in relation to either public or private charity. But 
this assignment is one of the first preliminary conditions for the suc- 
cess of such an organization. The difficulty growing out of the 
restrictions laid upon the greater part of the work of institutions, in 
consequence of the obligations and limitations imposed upon them as REITZENSTEIN. 
11 
endowed institutions, is even more insuperable. The citizen element 
is unsuited to cope with these hindrances, for the superiority of this 
element in charitable work depends upon absolute freedom of judg- 
ment and of action. These difficulties are further enhanced by the 
fact that the charitable institutions, in the discharge of their functions, 
are controlled by the religious orders, especially by the sisterhoods, 
or employ them to do their work. These are thecauses which have 
prevented the systematic organization of charity, except within 
narrow limits, in France and Italy. 
The efficiency of the form of organization which has been given to 
public outdoor relief in Paris, and its administration, under the 
control of the direction de I'assistance publique, by the bureaus of 
charity, aided by agents of both sexes {commissaires and dames de 
bienfaisance}, has not been fully demonstrated, as appears from a 
bill lately framed for the reorganization of the system. In the 
domain of private charity it is for the most part only the oeuvres du 
travail, working, as they do, in restricted areas of activity, in which 
the need for a better organization of volunteer workers has found 
emphatic expression. 
The situation just described differs from that in England and 
America, on the one hand, and in Germany, Austria and the German 
cantons of Switzerland, on the other, in the following respect. In all 
these countries the principles of public relief are substantially the 
same. The granting of aid is confided to public unions, whose legal 
obligation is theoretically absolute; that is to say, it is not limited by 
the amount of the resources in their possession. The service is not 
conditional upon the procuring of the necessary funds, but the pro- 
curing of the means required is conditioned upon the demands of 
the service. In this fundamental principle of relief the two groups 
are in accord, but they differ widely in their methods of carrying it 
out. This difference is the governing factor in the aforesaid contrast 
between English, American and German modes of application of the 
forces of private initiative in the administration of poor relief. 
England.-The most salient feature of the English poor law 
system is its characterization by a fundamentally broad conception 
of the task in hand, as opposed to an administrative machinery inad- 
equate to meet fully the demands of individualization. This wide 
conception of the task finds clear expression as early as 1601, in the 
act of Elizabeth, which forms the point of departure of pauper relief 
in England. That act expressly extends the obligation of relief to 12 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
the able-bodied, who are to receive it in exchange for labor. An 
obligation so far-reaching naturally demanded for its discharge the 
most careful specialization on the part of the officers entrusted with 
its fulfilment; an individualization the more difficult in proportion to 
the loss of stability in the condition of the poor, due to the growth 
of industries. But the unions upon which the administration of the 
law devolved were unequal to this demand. These unions were the 
parishes; unions of dissimilar capabilities, which, the more they 
assumed the form of special organizations intended for carrying out 
the aims of poor relief, the more they lacked intercommunal life. A 
lax and routine performance of the duties pertaining to them in this 
regard, by the administrative organs of the parishes, was almost 
universal in the eighteenth and in the earlier decades of the nine- 
teenth century. Moreover, the attempts made to remedy this defect 
by a larger utilization of the justices of the peace were unproductive 
of any lasting result. The latter officials were devoid of special 
qualifications for the undertaking and felt no lively interest in it. 
The want of administrative capacity in the communal organization 
was the cause of evils which found expression in the enormous 
increase of the poor rates and led to the great reform of 1834. The 
process of disintegration of the communal organization, occasioned 
by the formation of other districts for various administrative pur- 
poses, was the negation of reform of that organization in the direction 
of a better individualization of the poor. The definite abandonment 
of the search for a remedy in this direction, therefore, is a character- 
istic feature of the amended act, which substitutes for individual 
inquiry into the circumstances of applicants for relief, the deter- 
rent influence of the workhouse. Since the maintenance of work- 
houses necessitated larger unions, they were created by uniting 
parishes. The perfunctory, mechanical character naturally inherent 
in the administration o£ such unions, and their peculiar lack of living 
relations to their inhabitants, resulted in devolving the duty of out- 
door relief upon salaried under-officials (relieving officers). These 
relieving officers are unsatisfactory to an extraordinary degree. The 
efficient administration of out-relief depends not so much upon 
mechanical training as upon knowledge of local conditions on the 
part of the officials entrusted with it, their being in touch with the 
applicants and beneficiaries, their independent judgment, and the 
degree of their interest in the success of the administration-pre- 
requisites more often found in unsalaried officers taken from the body REITZENSTEIN. 
13 
of the people than in paid subordinates. The abundant funds with 
which the unions are supplied intensifies the character of mechanical 
uniformity which thus attaches to the work of poor relief in England. 
The county governments have little share in this work, outside of 
the care of the insane. The development of their participation in it 
is still in its infancy. 
The United States.-The influence of the example of England in 
the form given to American institutions explains the English stamp 
upon the pauper legislation of the United States. Nevertheless, we 
meet with important differences. For instance, the workhouse 
principle is by no means so general or prominent here as in England. 
The dominant tendency is to make local communities chargeable 
with the care of their poor, instead of forming unions for that 
purpose; and more is done by the states than by the English 
government. But here, as in England, public relief is principally 
given in institutions. What out-relief is granted is here also 
distributed by paid under-officials. The perception of the evils 
arising from out-relief thus administered, evils considerably enhanced 
by haphazard private benevolence, has produced that new move- 
ment (which continually gains ground in England and has been 
transplanted to American soil) whose double aim is, by voluntary 
organization, to secure individualization in outdoor relief and to 
restrict public relief, as far as possible, to institutions. This move- 
ment has found its characteristic expression in the charity organiza- 
tion societies. The chief aims of these societies are to secure 
co-operation between all local private charities, central supervision of 
their operations, investigation into the circumstances of each appli- 
cant, and careful consideration of the appropriate means to be 
employed in each case ; finally, when aid is deemed requisite and 
proper, to act as intermediary in procuring the same and if necessary- 
at least this is the case with the societies in England-to grant it 
themselves. In these societies there is large scope for the utilization 
of the citizen. The machinery of public poor relief has, it is true, 
here also exercised such an influence in the way of example, that 
many of these societies employ paid agents as visitors to the poor, 
side by side with voluntary workers selected from among their 
members ; and sometimes the visiting is left entirely to these agents. 
This occurs very frequently in the English societies, while in 
America the practice is to make larger use of friendly visitors chosen 
from the members of the society. It is needless to add that women, 14 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
especially in America, form a large contingent among the forces 
taken from the circle of private life for the service of poor-relief. 
Germany.-According to what has been said, the reaction against 
the evils which have sprung up in connection with the public care of 
the poor in England and America takes the form of organized 
private charity. In Germany, on the contrary, the effort has been 
chiefly to bring about the needed improvement through reforms in 
the machinery of public poor relief. Above all, the endeavor has 
been to give to the pauper administration such an organization as 
would render it capable of a higher degree of discrimination between 
individuals. Outdoor relief has thus succeeded in maintaining for 
itself, in the domain of public care of the poor, not only an important, 
but even a largely predominating position. This development was 
favored by the fact that in Germany, in contrast with England, not 
only was the task a more limited one, but the government had at its 
disposal an administrative apparatus better fitted for the accomplish- 
ment of this special purpose. 
Although by law the duty of caring for the poor in Germany 
includes the able-bodied, public relief is in fact almost everywhere 
bestowed only upon those who are entirely or partially incapable of 
work. In so far as granting aid to the able-bodied poor has been a 
necessity, such aid, as a rule, has been afforded by means lying out- 
side of the province of poor relief proper. By the imperial law of 
June 6, 1870, and the Bavarian law of April 29, 1869, the duty of 
caring for the poor, thus limited in fact, devolves now in principle 
upon the local communities in all Germany, except Alsace-Lorraine. 
Unequal as these local communities are, both in their administrative 
and financial capabilities, they have this in common, that their sphere 
of activity includes in itself the various tendencies of local, communal 
life; also that the management of their administration is in great part 
in the hands of citizens elected by the community. Almost without 
exception this is especially the case in small, rural communities. 
To the elasticity thus secured in the administrative life of the com- 
munity is due the adaptability of the community for individual treat- 
ment in the bestowal of public poor relief. The powers incident to 
this branch of administration are, in the rural communities, mostly 
vested in the local municipal authority chosen by 
the community. As a rule, there is no need of any mediate agency 
between it and the inhabitants, since in these smaller commu- 
nities every man's condition is more or less well known, and the REITZENSTE1N. 
15 
local authority is thus in position to act from personal knowledge 
of the situation and the individual. At any rate the restrictive idea 
in the treatment of applications for relief by the local authority 
reaches its full development, and the danger of supplying relief 
beyond the need, or even lavishly, is almost wholly prevented. We 
find, therefore, in the rural communities in general no such increase 
of the burden of pauperism through laxity of management as was 
the case in the English parishes before the amendment of the poor 
law. In the towns the contrary is true, especially in the middle- 
sized and larger ones. Here, by reason of a larger area and a denser 
population, the details of individual cases escape, as a rule, the 
immediate knowledge of the chief authority, so that special interme- 
diate agents are required, in order to obtain the necessary informa- 
tion. But they, too, in the performance of this part of their task, 
have not infrequently difficulties to contend with. In fact, instances 
have not been wanting in which the burden of pauperism reached 
disproportionate dimensions, on account of the inadequate investiga- 
tion of individual cases. For these evils, however, the municipal 
organization itself presented the remedy. It is a leading feature of 
these organizations, that while salaried officials, trained for their 
vocation, have a large and often preponderating share in their direc- 
tion, on the other hand, private citizens are designated to perform 
the executive and controlling functions of the administration in the 
separate city districts, who must attend to these duties, and who hold 
offices of honor only, therefore without salaries, by virtue of a general 
political obligation. 
We owe to the Prussian Municipal Law of November 14, 1808, 
the great work of the never-to-be-forgotten Minister von Stein, the 
first impulse in this direction and its application also in the domain 
of poor law administration. According to the requirements of that 
act, the direction of poor relief in every town is in the hands of a 
so-called bureau of charities, (Armendirektiori), a body composed 
of the burgomaster and other members of the magistracy, town 
councilmen, citizens, and in certain cases also of clergymen and 
physicians. The act provides that 
" Under this directing body the relief of the poor must be attended to solely 
by committees of citizens, and the town for this purpose must be divided into 
suitable poor districts " it is the duty of the town councilmen and citizens 
elected on the committee to look up the poor in their districts, and to investi- 
gate their condition ; but it devolves upon them as a whole to care for the 16 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
maintenance, medical care, employment, education and instruction of all the 
poor in the town; the entire care of the poor is, therefore, entrusted to the 
citizens, their public spirit, and the benevolence of the inhabitants." 
The substance of these provisions afterwards found its way into the 
town constitutions of other German countries also. It forms the basis 
of that organization which, first called into existence in the city of 
Elberfeld in the year 1852, afterward obtained celebrity under the 
name of the Elberfeld System. 
The cause of this movement was here too the increase of the 
burden of pauperism through defective investigation. Its leading 
feature was the endeavor to insure such an examination and control 
of each case as to render it possible to refuse aid to those not in 
need, and at the same time to grant to the needy adequate and suit- 
able assistance. The essential element in this reform consists chiefly 
in the multiplication of the citizen force working in the administra- 
tion of poor relief; the number of persons entrusted with the inves- 
tigation of individual cases-almoners (Pflegef)-is increased to 
such an extent that only a comparatively small number of the poor 
is assigned to each visitor, who is thus placed in position to give to 
each case individual treatment. As a precaution against attaching 
too great weight to the personal opinions of individual almoners, 
aid is granted, as a rule, subject to certain exceptions, only upon 
the decision of the district board ezirkskommissiori), a body in 
which the almoners of the district meet under the chairmanship of 
the district-superintendent (Bezirksvorsteher}. For the regulation 
of the relations between these district boards and the superior 
city board, the principle has been formulated that the local boards 
should be given the largest possible independence of action, but 
uniformity in principles and methods should be maintained. The 
highly favorable results attained by this system have smoothed the 
way for its introduction into the great majority of the medium-sized 
and larger towns of Germany; It follows, as a matter of course, that 
there is considerable variation in detail, corresponding to the vary- 
ing conditions in the different towns. This so-called system only 
indicates a principle, which is capable of being mqre or less fully 
carried out according to the degree of interest taken in the work by 
the unpaid visitors, and which will produce the best results only 
where the office of almoner is regarded as a dignified and responsible 
one. On the other hand, the value of this system has been dimin- 
ished in exceptional cases, fortunately rare hitherto, in which REITZENSTEIN. 
17 
communes have subjected the citizen-workers holding these offices 
to the control of paid under-officials, partly with reference to the 
communal treasury, partly through distrust of the element of self- 
government, or through tender consideration for the convenience of 
the inhabitants. Whatever progress has been attained in the man- 
agement of poor relief in the larger cities is principally due to the 
application and development of this principle. By means of it a 
large body of citizens and a wealth of useful forces have been drawn 
into the domain of poor administration and led to take part in it; 
and the poor administration has been to them a school of public 
spirit and of the faithful discharge of public functions. So much the 
more has this been so, since the care of the poor is precisely one of 
the branches of administration thus far least influenced by political 
currents of opinion, and in which the habit of a purely business 
management has been preserved in an especially high degree. This 
training of forces for service in the municipal administration has in 
many ways inured to the benefit of these municipalities as a whole. 
The prospects for a flourishing future development of the care of 
the poor in German towns, therefore, must essentially depend upon 
the universal application of the Elberfeld system, if possible; upon 
its further improvement in accordance with a variety of conditions ; 
and upon its adapting itself to the changing needs of the pauper 
administration. That in the accomplishment of this there will be 
many difficulties to be overcome is a foregone conclusion. Such a 
one, for example, is presented by the mode of growth of many large 
cities. In these, following the example of England and America, a 
greater tendency is continually manifest to assign different districts 
to the different classes of the population or to the different trades. 
Commerce and industry, labor and luxury, dwell in separate quar- 
ters. By this separation, much to be deplored from a politico-social 
standpoint, the relations between the wealthier and the poorer classes, 
which depend upon personal acquaintance and direct intercourse, are 
weakened. The exercise of the duties of the office is also rendered 
much more difficult on account of the distances between their dwell- 
ings. We must regard as a difficulty not less formidable the 
probable modification in the scope and character of relief due to the 
impending change in the condition of the laboring class. On the 
one hand, we may anticipate a diminution in the demand for relief 
in consequence of the increased amount of life insurance by working- 
men, though it is impossible to arrive at even an approximate 18 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
estimate of its extent, and although we must utter a warning against 
the over-appreciation of this tendency. It may already be regarded 
as certain that that portion of the laboring class reached by insurance 
is to a great extent raised above the level of pauperism. But on the 
other hand, the burden of relief is increasing through the growing 
influx into the larger towns of the indigent classes of the population, 
and through the more and more unreliable and irregular character of 
production in consequence of the rapid changes in methods of manu- 
facture and in the condition of the market. This change is the cause 
of temporary want of work, which ever assumes a more important 
rank among the causes of poverty. While, as before mentioned, 
the operation of the machinery of municipal relief is rendered easier, 
because its function is so often limited to the care of the poor who 
are unable to work, this favorable condition will in the future be 
much less frequently met with. The task therefore remains, to 
adapt the system in a practical way to the care of those temporarily 
out of work, regarding whom no fixed rules have yet been agreed 
upon in Germany. Consequently, the problem of relief of the able- 
bodied poor, with which the English system has busied itself from 
the very beginning, must be classed in Germany with questions 
which have not yet found a definite and fundamental answer. The 
somewhat unsystematic and isolated efforts made by public admin- 
istrative boards and by associations more and more clearly prove the 
necessity which exists for its solution. 
There is a broad field, therefore, for reform in the care of the poor, 
even in the towns. Still more is this the case in the country. In 
the towns, through the application of the Elberfeld system, a suffi- 
ciently intense charitable activity has been in many instances insured, 
together with a thorough inquiry into individual cases of distress and 
the rejection of unfounded claims. It is otherwise in the country, 
where the aid granted is only too often inadequate and far below the 
actual need, on account of the deficient resources of many commu- 
nities, which makes it the policy of the local bureaus of charity 
to restrict the giving of relief within the narrowest possible limits. 
Here a remedy has been sought mainly in the direction of imposing 
upon the larger unions a greater relative share of the expense, partly 
by assigning to them particular branches of poor relief, partly by 
assessing them for the expense of the local care of the poor; and in 
numerous instances service of this kind has been voluntarily rendered 
by them. The attempts of which we are speaking lie entirely within REITZENSTEIN. 
19 
the discretion of the local legislatures of the several provinces or in 
the region of the autonomy of the unions concerned. In this single 
fact we may see why these attempts are so widely divergent in 
respect of the application both of principles and methods. Here, 
too, greater clearness in the development of principles is needed. 
The complete transfer of the care of the poor in rural districts to 
larger poor unions, each to be formed out of a number of communes 
and manors, though advocated by many, meets with some obstacles 
arising from the peculiarities of the German communal system, and 
it would in any event be disadvantageous, in so far as it would 
tend to detach the relief of poverty from its hitherto close relations 
with the other branches of local administration, and to disrupt the 
central bond of union between the various administrative functions. 
It is doubtful whether, in poor unions of this kind, an organization 
modeled after the Elberfeld system could be successfully intro- 
duced, since one of the essential preliminary conditions of that 
system, namely, the effective control of the individual almoner by the 
joint action of other almoners equally familiar with all the circum- 
stances, would be impossible to establish in unions composed of a 
number of communes. 
Austria and Switzerland.-The condition of Austria and German- 
Switzerland, though not exactly the same as in Germany, is yet 
similar. In both countries, individpal treatment in public poor relief, 
according to the Elberfeld system, is less general, even in the larger 
towns, than in Germany; for not until recently has a beginning 
worthy of attention been made in'this direction. In Switzerland it 
was principally the reorganization of the local government of Zurich, 
brought about by the consolidation of the suburbs with the city, 
which was the occasion of a movement in this direction, merely ten- 
tative as yet. The difficulties with which poor relief has to contend 
in the rural districts are in Austria still greater than in Germany, 
especially since the co-operation of the larger unions is less devel- 
oped there than in Germany. In a bill lately proposed by the gov- 
ernment and passed by the legislature of Lower Austria, an attempt 
was made to transfer the care of the poor to larger unions and to 
organize it upon the Elberfeld system ; this measure, however, failed 
to receive the sanction of the Crown. In Switzerland, on the con- 
trary, the cantons usually do more in the way of sharing the burden 
of local poor relief than do the larger unions in Germany. But the 
peculiarity of the situation is that in the majority of the cantons 20 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
the obligation to relieve ordinarily devolves upon the home com- 
mune as distinct from the local commune. But there is an appar- 
ently growing movement in opposition to this relic of communal 
development belonging to a historical epoch long since obsolete. 
Adaptability of the Elberfeld System. 
Among those organizations, then, which are the result of the devel- 
opment of poor relief in Germany, and which have at present reached 
a certain completion, the one known as the Elberfeld system is 
plainly that which, originally limited in its application to the larger 
and medium-sized towns, has received proportionately the greatest 
measure of recognition and has the best prospect of extension of its 
sphere of operation. Of late much study has been given to the 
question of transplanting it to other countries, to England and 
America in particular. The expediency of such a transfer is not 
negatived by the growth of charity organization. Although both 
systems rest upon the same principle, in so far as charity organiza- 
tion also aims as far as possible to secure individualization in charity 
by attracting to it the personal force which resides in voluntary 
service, yet the significance of such an enlistment of forces is less 
in the domain of private than in that of public charity. In the first 
place, the realization of this idea, if confined within the limits of 
private charity, must always fluctuate more or less in accordance 
with the views of the persons who direct it and with the temporary 
mood of influential circles of the population. But in the domain of 
public charity it rests upon the communal organization, so that a 
more durable foundation can be laid for it in the legal obligation of 
citizens to respond to the demands of the service in question, and 
upon this foundation a more enduring structure can be erected. 
A second essential difference results from the fact that the develop- 
ment of private charity must lead to a delimitation of the sphere of 
operation of public poor relief, which will therefore be more extended 
in the country than in towns; for in the country, organizations for 
private relief will not spring up in equal number, nor will they be so 
strong. If, therefore, the existence of such organizations in towns 
makes it possible to entrust to private initiative that part of the care 
of the poor in which individual treatment is most necessary, in other 
words, outdoor relief, the same cannot be the case in the country. 
This difference in the demarcation of the sphere of activity of public 
poor relief must prove an obstacle to its further development not to REITZENSTEIN. 
21 
be lightly estimated. The Elberfeld system, therefore, has this 
argument in its favor, that it secures individualization within the 
domain of public poor relief itself. Corresponding organizations of 
private charity in connection with this will not be by any means 
superfluous. 
To the establishment of organizations of this sort within the prov- 
ince of public poor relief, so far as England is in question, an obstacle 
will exist, so long as the duty of relieving distress devolves upon 
special unions created exclusively for that purpose. In these there 
will never be begotten the lively communal public spirit demanded 
in order to give the requisite moral impulse to the work of almoners 
selected from among the citizens. There seems, however, no pros- 
pect of a reform in the constitution of the English commune looking 
to the inclusion of the care of the poor, together with the other func- 
tions of local governments, within the working sphere of an undivided 
local commune. 
In this respect, the situation in America is more favorable. Here, 
at least, where the township system prevails, the communes and the 
pauper districts have the same geographical boundaries. But a 
difficulty of another sort here grows out of the wide-spread practice 
of regarding public office, even in local administration, as a spoil of 
party politics and a means of perpetuating party control. This is obvi- 
ously incompatible with the proper,administration of charity, particu- 
larly of municipal outdoor relief. This conviction is a principal reason 
why American authorities on the problems of poverty regard the 
furnishing of relief by municipalities, outside of institutions, as 
dangerous, and recommend that this form of relief be left to private 
benevolence. Especially in the National Conference of Charities 
and Correction in 1891, this view received distinct expression, 
though not without encountering a no less decided opposition. 
Others, on the contrary, point out the necessity of emancipating 
municipal government, in the interest of honest and economical 
administration, from the influence of party rule, and of resting it, as 
in Germany, upon the basis of a participation in it by the citizens of 
universal obligation, entirely free from any admixture of political 
considerations. In keeping with this opinion, and as a feature of 
municipal reform, the organization of relief in cities upon the basis 
of the Elberfeld principle is advocated. This is the point of view 
lately presented with such ability by Professor F. G. Peabody. His 
eloquent exposition of his theory could not fail to meet a hearty 
response and approval in Germany. ' PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
22 
The charity organization movement might be made a valuable 
first step in the direction of the adoption of the Elberfeld system. 
The enlistment of individual workers by these societies for service, 
although at first only in the voluntary care of the poor, will never- 
theless accustom them to a businesslike and cautious treatment of 
cases needing relief. Through the training thus given these forces 
become available, also, for the purposes of public poor relief. 
But it would be a one-sided view to consider that movement from 
this standpoint alone. For us also it is more than merely a transition 
stage. This co-ordination of efforts and forces in private charity, 
forming as it does the fundamental trait of the movement, has a 
value of its own, independent of any relation to the future reform of 
public poor relief. Organizations working for this end are a need 
also with us, which heretofore has been felt in a less degree only 
because we were able to remedy a portion of the evils in the domain 
of public poor relief, and because reform in that domain was for us 
the primary necessity. We, too, feel more and more keenly the 
importance of securing a systematic interlocking of the activities of 
private charity now working so far apart; and, indeed, beginnings 
worthy of notice have been recently made in this direction. In the 
effort to perfect our organizations in this respect, we can make use of 
the experiences of the charity organization movement of England 
and America as valuable guides. 
Thus, upon another field we receive back again that which we 
were able to give, by setting up a model for the organization of 
public poor relief; we take part in a competitive contest and com- 
merce, in which the noblest conquests of the mind become objects 
of reward and exchange. The differences that exist between these 
methods are not comparable with what they possess in common. 
Each desires to interest workers who will busy themselves with the 
condition of their suffering fellow-citizens ; and in caring for the 
same we may discern in both actively at work the teachings of Him 
who has in the command to love our neighbors as ourselves laid 
down a rule of conduct and given a watchword for all social develop- 
ment, which shall one day unite all the world in the bond of brother- 
hood. The words of the great poet which I have placed at the 
head of my paper are penetrated through and through by this 
spirit of brotherhood. They are an admonition from the past to the 
present century to press forward to the ideal of peaceful agreement 
and hearty co-operation between nations in the great questions of PAINE. 
23 
civilization, as we have received this ideal from the intellectual 
movement of those times. And they are also a greeting from the 
Old World to the New, from Germany to America, an expression of 
the warm interest with which we are following the great movement 
now in progress on the other side of the sea, a stimulus to earnest, 
united effort for the elevation of humanity, which is the solution of 
the questions which agitate mankind. May the hopes which we, too, 
cherish for success in this undertaking be richly fulfilled ! 
PAUPERISM IN GREAT CITIES: ITS FOUR CHIEF 
CAUSES. 
ROBERT TREAT PAINE, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATED 
CHARITIES OF BOSTON. 
The problem of poor relief in great cities requires to be re-stated 
in ampler terms. The diseases of society are more aggravated, the 
dangers are graver, the need of radical remedies is more absolute, 
than the new charity has yet fully and fairly faced. 
This last quarter of a century has witnessed a noble outburst of 
the energies of good men to help suffering brethren. 
" Science and sympathy" have been moved to do their utmost, 
under such fiery inspiration as that of Phillips Brooks when he threw 
the whole power of his.support into the movement to create the 
Associated Charities of Boston. [Speech of March 12, 1879.] 
The world is brighter and better for the devotion of the great 
galaxy of noble men and women all through the civilized world, who, 
seeing how the problem needs wisdom, bring to it deep and faithful 
study, and how it needs their sympathy and aid, bring to it loving 
devotion. 
These are the men and women who are making this world fit to 
live in and this life worth living. 
When the poor sink below their poverty into, pauperism, and 
pauperism becomes hopeless and degraded and brutal; when 
powerful and prolific causes are at work to swell the rising tide ; 
the day has gone when it is enough to go on dealing with details. 24 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Society must study till it knows the whole measure of the problem,, 
seek whatever heroic measures can remedy the evils, and especially 
can cut off the supply, and invoke all the powers in our modern life 
of wisdom, energy and love, under the guidance and inspiration, and 
with firm faith in the aid, of God. 
Conditions of Life in Large Cities. 
The conditions of life in our great cities excite deep concern. Pass 
them in brief review. The growth of city population, rapid and 
irresistible, compels the prophetic imagination to ask, but in vain, 
what is to be the limit of the number of souls in London and Paris, 
New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, and even in Baltimore and 
Boston. 
With population, rents rise so that the average man, that is the 
masses of the people, are forced to live in utterly unfit homes, fear- 
fully overcrowded; hence low vitality of body and soul, diseased 
morals and diseased bodies. 
The extremes of society grow more pronounced, so that from the 
increasing numbers of the very poor, a larger residuum, Charles 
Booth's Submerged Tenth, Charles Loring Brace's Dangerous 
Classes, reach such proportions that they can no longer be dealt 
with in detail and hopefully as individuals, but fill up whole areas like 
that great ward in Liverpool, crowded with the dock laborers, where 
the level of life is at such uniform dead low tide, that to uplift a part 
is impossible without uplifting the general level of all, and the idea 
of uplifting the whole suggests attacking the Atlantic ; to me the 
saddest spectacle of hopeless despair I have ever anywhere beheld, 
Liverpool's Dead Sea. 
Society by its loving energies can deal with evils in detail, but who 
can find the remedy when evils of all kinds are aggregated into a 
vast mass at a uniform low level of degradation, destitution and 
despair ? 
Strong drink is almost the sole solace of their dull routine. Satur- 
day night and Sunday find so many, that it seems a large proportion, 
sodden with drink, the aged as well as those in youth, even babies 
at the breast. Nay, let me recall the words of the chief of police as 
he took me through these sights of sadness, children begotten by 
drunken parents, born of drunken mothers, nursed by drinking 
mothers, and thus saturated with liquor from the start. PAINE. 
25 
Crimes of violence, crimes of lust, crimes against property, not only 
prevail, but cease to shock, where the general level of life has lapsed 
into a new phase of barbarism. 
What hope for boys and girls growing up in such atmosphere 
of sin, in overcrowded cities from which playgrounds have been 
excluded by rising rents; playgrounds for the innocent outpouring 
of the boys' animal spirits which will have some vent, if not in 
hockey and football, then in breaking into empty buildings, stealing 
lead pipes, and stoning dispensary.doctors or police with even-handed 
delight. 
Yet critics say " The Bitter Cry of Outcast London " is a bit over- 
drawn. 
" We have opened but a little way the door that leads into this plague-house 
of sin and misery and corruption, where men and women and little children 
starve and suffer and perish, body and soul. We shall not wonder if some, 
shuddering at the revolting spectacle, try to persuade themselves that such 
things cannot be in Christian England, and that what they have looked upon 
is some dark vision conjured up by a morbid pity and a desponding faith. To 
such we can only say, Will you venture to come with us and see for yourselves 
the ghastly reality ?" [Page 20.] 
What is my conclusion ? Shall I not say that in the largest cities 
where conditions are worse, and the evils of pauperism, grown 
chronic and contagious, are blended with habits of drunkenness and 
other vice, breaking out into crimes against the law, pauperism 
cannot be wisely considered alone, but the problem of how to uplift 
the general level of life must be studied as one whole problem, 
especially as to the causes of the evils ? 
Boston can speak words of encouragement. Boston is of just the 
size for the best study of the data, as well as a successful combina- 
tion of forces for a thorough, encouraging and permanent success. 
I rejoice to be able to say that in Boston the conditions of life 
among working people, counting all, even those on the lowest levels, 
are on the whole visibly improving. 
Does not this same encouraging condition prevail amongst most 
of the smaller cities of the United States? Have not the various 
agencies, working together for good in the social awakening and 
religious life of our times, attained such vigor that they are waging 
winning war against the forces which drag life down? On the 
whole, are not things mending rather than growing worse ? 
What more can I hope to achieve on this point, than to fasten the 26 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
acute observations of leaders in each city on this exact question, 
whether the standard of life of working people is rising or falling ? 
In New York and London, no doubt in Paris and Berlin, the data 
are largely different. I hope I am wrong when I express the fear 
that in these cities the general tide is still falling, in marked contrast 
to its rise in almost all other cities of less size. 
But what hope is there for these four greatest cities-may I add 
Chicago-unless they are stirred to superhuman efforts, in part at 
least by candid and friendly criticism ? 
Pauperism Assuming a Worse Type in Large Cities. 
One main purpose of my paper is now to draw attention to this 
tremendous fact, that pauperism is assuming a new and more terrible 
type in the largest cities, where paupers have lived so long in this 
condition that they know nothing better;- 
Where pauperism is hereditary and paupers are born into a condi- 
tion not unlike the castes of India, whence there is no hope; and 
they are content with their lot, which varies with the seasons, 
tramping on lovely country roads in summer, robbing hen-roosts or 
houses, perhaps from hunger or partly from delight in pleasurable 
excitement, increased by the risk of an encounter, or of a month or 
two in a spacious building with all reasonable comfort, so much 
better than they get outside ;- 
Where out-relief, or private charity, or loose alms guarantee 
against serious suffering;- 
And where, as in London and New York, their numbers are so 
large that, first, the evil influences they receive from each other far 
exceed any good influences which Christian society has yet learned 
to apply; second, their treatment in casual wards, almshouses, jails, 
reformatories or prisons, by police or officials, is-I had almost said 
of necessity-almost always mechanical, and too often hard and 
brutalizing, as for instance in the casual wards* of London with cold 
* The Wayfarers' Lodge in Boston seems to unite such decent treatment of 
inmates with clean bed in ample rooms, fairly good food, with enforced bath 
and a stent of about three hours' labor in sawing wood in the morning, as to 
meet the present conditions of pauperism in a city like Boston. The system 
is not so harsh that humane citizens refuse to send casuals to the Lodge, nor 
so attractive as to promote vagrancy. 
Wayfarers' Lodges have been established in Philadelphia and are proposed 
in New York, similar to that in Boston. PAINE. 
27 
stone walls, in prison-like cells-a stent of stone to be broken and 
thrown out through the meshes of the net, before they are free, after 
a confinement of a day and a half at the least, so that the great facts 
stand out for all students of city life to see. 
Brutality and Sullen Defiance. 
Brutality and sullen defiance are added to and engrafted on the 
pauper character. With the sullen endurance of the North Ameri- 
can Indian they meet their fate ; gentler treatment not repelling, and 
harsh treatment only embittering and degrading. 
When the pauperism of a vast city is sunk in sullen despair and 
degraded life is no longer abhorrent to its victims, and brutality 
sinks men into savages, so that despair, degradation and brutality 
become the dominant traits of character of a great pauper mass, 
then, in the name of God, society has got to put forth mightier 
energies in more judicious array than heretofore, or fail in its 
attempt. 
I declare before this great audience representing the best civiliza- 
tion of many countries, that the methods of dealing with pauperism 
hitherto applied are impotent against this swelling tide of brutal, 
degraded pauperism. 
England's great poor law reform of 1834 is always cited first. 
The fundamental principle of this reform was ■"That the situa- 
tion OF THE PERSON RECEIVING RELIEF SHOULD NOT ON THE 
WHOLE BE MADE REALLY OR APPARENTLY SO ELIGIBLE AS THE 
SITUATION OF THE INDEPENDENT LABORER OF THE LOWEST 
CLASS." (Nicholl's History of English Poor Law, Vol. 2, p. 257.) 
This principle has been everywhere accepted. 
Seth Low cites it in his famous attack on the evils of " outdoor 
relief" (1879, p. 3) as an accepted principle. 
The charity organization societies of London and of all other 
cities concur. 
The earlier system which prevailed, of sending to police stations casuals 
who asked bed or food, has been generally condemned. 
Shall we not agree that every city should have a lodge for wayfarers, com- 
bining humane treatment, enough though very simple food, clean bed, with 
insistence on a just return in labor from every able-bodied man, and a full 
measure of genuine sympathy for those seeking work, nay for all, and 
especially with best possible counsel where to seek employment ? Boston has 
its great Labor Bureau in an adjoining building. 28 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
In fact, the soundness of this principle is unquestioned. The lot 
of the pauper must not be made too attractive. Yet I am led to ask 
whether Repression has not been guilty of a fatal error. Has not 
the system been left to such mere officialism as to be hard and 
depressing and at last brutalizing? 
And this in two directions. First, to the worthy poor, so that all 
England is now vibrating in recoil from the sad lot of the old and 
worthy and suffering poor. Second, to the idle, the dissolute, the 
loafer and the tramp-the unworthy poor. 
Do not present conditions in London and New York force us to 
face a new and graver problem? Yes, and the conditions in cities 
of the second rank also. 
They will not live by Labor. 
Do not the new race of brutally degraded paupers laugh to scorn 
the principle of the English Reform of 1834, that their lot shall not 
be made too attractive? Do they not defy differences of detail of 
poor law administration? Must we not reckon with the fact that 
they have resolved only upon one sure and certain thing, that they 
will not live by labor ? 
For proof I cite that malignant talisman, the story of the Jukes. 
If any have not read Dugdale's story, let them straightway do so, 
and see how the mere principle of repression, as society has applied 
it, in almshouse or jail or by denial of out-relief, failed to prevent a 
.numerous and degraded offspring through many generations enjoy- 
ing life in every imaginable form of degradation. 
Or who can forget that similar story of horrors, " The Social 
Degradation of the Tribe of Ishmael " by Oscar C. McCulloch, 
five years ago, which will long endure as a powerful argument for 
speedy and radical reform, to which he gave the wisdom and 
enthusiasm and organizing energy of his noble life? 
If you love statistics, count the number of applicants for relief in 
the great cities of this land or of England or Germany. Count the 
convicts annually sent to jail. How many are old repeaters? Can 
many cities surpass Boston in its list of offenders sent down to the 
House of Industry two or three or four or five score of times, till the 
leader of the throng is found perhaps boasting of his one hundred 
and forty sentences ? 
What a parody on punishment when the drunken ruffian whom I 
knew in the South Cove comes home from jail so reckless that he PAINE. 
29 
takes from Johnnie's feet the new boots his wife has bought, and the 
calico gown off his little daughter, to sell for rum, and so degraded 
that he likes the " Island" as well as his home.* 
No wonder Governor Altgeld of Illinois, in his welcome through a 
friend to the Prison Commission last week, said arrests were too 
many, 70,000 a year in Chicago. Expand this mere statistic to its 
full meaning. The length and breadth of its lessons are too 
tremendous. 
Has not the principle of repression miserably failed, when its 
effort to make the lot of the pauper not over eligible hardens tramps 
into such brutal degradation that in their game with society they 
seem just now to hold in their hands the winning cards, and yet on 
the other hand the worthy poor of England are in such straits that 
a great pension scheme throws its baleful shadow across the land ? 
No doubt the conditions of labor there are less favorable than in the 
United States, wages lower and demand for labor slack, the army of 
Londoners unemployed increasing, and the lot of worthy poor in 
their old age appealing to every sympathy. 
Do not misunderstand me. I do not object to repression, but to 
its failure. Why has it failed? Partly no doubt because the whole 
system of punishment by fine and by brief terms of confinement has 
failed to be deterrent. Sentimentality has also refused to permit 
punishment to be reasonably severe. 
But the chief reason is that officialism has lacked the humane 
element absolutely necessary to save its influence from being 
mechanical and degrading. 
Officialism without humanity can punish, but it only sinks the 
sufferer into worse debasement. 
*"There are soft-hearted persons who would cry out in the name of philan- 
thropy against indeterminate and cumulative sentences, and still more against 
the incarceration for life of vagabonds who have never done anything worse 
than go on in beggary, dirt, and drunkenness, and beget children doomed by 
their birth to idiocy, profligacy, or crime. Yet the sterilization of the unfit by 
life-long segregation is demanded in the interests of every hope of social 
morality, and it is a blot upon our civilization that men and women should be 
sent to the Island or the Bridewell, a dozen times a year for ten days or two 
weeks at a time, year in, year out, from their first commitment for drunkenness 
at eighteen or nineteen years of age, till they stumble at last into a pauper's 
grave. What a senseless mockery of corrective discipline to suppose that a 
drunkard of forty years' standing is going to be reformed by giving him ten 
days at the Island for the hundredth time !"-Father J. O. S. Huntington, in 
Social Progress, p. 186. 30 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
When also punishment ceases to prevent crimes, the problem 
assumes the most terrible aspect. 
How such pauper criminals and criminal paupers can be restored 
to manhood, is so hard a question that theology sometimes fears it 
may be beyond the power of God. 
No wonder that it is a supreme task for man. Yet this is the 
exact task which scientific charity now has got to accept-to deal 
fittingly with degraded need. Sympathy loves to aid the tender and 
attractive child. It hastens to the side of a widow in her woe. It 
cares for the sick or the suffering, for victims of fire, flood or other 
casualty, but it has not yet begun to do its duty to the pauper, and 
too often recoils with horror from that compound of pauperism and 
vice which is the worst phase of great city life. 
Repression alone is a Failure. 
Charitable work has two sides, the positive and constructive, and 
the negative or repressive. 
The last is content to prevent overlapping, stop begging, discover 
imposture, cut off needless alms and reduce excessive outdoor relief. 
The first aims at improving the condition of a family in any pos- 
sible wise way, health, home, skill, work,.trade, temperance, thrift, 
cheer, by personal influence, by organizations like stamp savings, 
or the Bedford Industrial Building, or by whatever other wise ways 
ingenuity can discover. This charity I will call constructive, and 
the other repressive. Who will not agree with me that repressive 
charity alone is hard, and that negative measures alone will fail? 
Only as charity learns to diagnose and discriminate, and then brings 
ingenuity to the various problems, with deep and genuine sympathy, 
boldly summoning to this imperative duty the social and Christian 
powers of all good men and women in personal service, only so can 
charity succeed. 
The height of this ideal for great cities, I know too well to seek 
to belittle. Only by stating it in its utmost demands can the mighty 
powers, as yet dormant or little aroused, of great cities be stirred to 
their tremendous task. Little cities delight in this duty, and can do 
it with a measure of success full of inspiration for us all. 
Newport offers a picture of beautiful and devoted work, which I 
have always delighted to honor and to cite as encouraging proof of 
what will follow from thorough, patient, persistent, personal work, 
wisely guided and well done, in a small community, where the right 
influences may be applied in each different case. PAINE. 
31 
Their C. O. S. report in 1880 shows the exact change and improve- 
ment in the condition of 220 families classified at the beginning and 
at the end of their first year's work.* 
Success in Newport has continued. It is largely due to the devo- 
tion and wisdom of a few leaders who threw themselves into the new 
work, and to faithful friendly visiting. 
Cities of the first size, like London, New York, Chicago and Phila- 
delphia, differ in no more important respect from smaller cities than 
in their apparent inability to create and maintain " friendly visiting," 
on any large scale.f 
This great topic will be worthily treated to-morrow. Enough here 
to say that this spirit underlies the best efforts to improve the condi- 
tions of the poor, whether en masse, or more especially in their indi- 
vidual needs, in many other cities from Brooklyn and Boston, down. 
With absolute candor I must say, that in my judgment where 
cities are too large for personal relations of friendly sympathy and 
help-where distances are too great or absorption in the whirl of 
other cares is too intense, the chasm between the happy and the 
* "The. amount of outdoor relief given by the city for the year 1879-80 was 
about $2500 less than the previous year. This was partly due to the fact that 
the winter was an open one, and outdoor work was carried on to an unusual 
extent. For the current year, 1880-81, the appropriation for the Poor 
Department has been reduced by $2000. Uj> to December first there have 
been less than one-third as many applicants for relief as there were up to the 
same date in 1879. 
"Last year we dealt chiefly on the necessity for the work, the need of inves- 
tigation, the duty of withholding indiscriminate alms; this year we show you 
as the result of those principles, put in practice through some difficulties, that 
the worthy poor are well cared for, that homes have been bettered, characters 
improved, the unworthy and disabling spirit of pauperism checked, and above 
all, that thrift, one of the first duties of a citizen, is being taught, if slowly, 
yet surely." 
t " What," says Miss Hill, speaking of the Charity Organization Society, 
" is its living call to us all ? To come ourselves and help. In every Metropolitan 
district is its group of workers, men and women of every kind united in but 
one thought-how to help in wisest and most patient ways every case of want 
and suffering. Its remedy is the eternal remedy of patient care and thought 
and wisdom, brought to bear on men and women and children in their own 
homes by their neighbors. Money, yes, certainly, and plenty of it; but abid- 
ing and large gifts as citizens for fellow-citizens, sown like separate seeds 
with care, watched and watched over and given with ourselves to the real service 
of those we know and love." 32 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
wretched must go on growing more deep and terrible, till the condi- 
tion of the pauper criminal mass becomes intolerable. 
Chicago in this season of her glory, can she pardon critics who 
suggest that the star of friendly visiting is needed to make her 
diadem complete ? 
Philadelphia began with a goodly corps of friendly visitors, but 
has failed to maintain their efficiency or numbers. 
New York has not yet conceived it possible to obtain friendly 
visitors in large numbers. 
Read in Hon. A. S. Hewitt's admirable address at the opening of 
the United Charities Building in New York these words of the Charity 
Organization Society: "Its mission is by investigation and registra- 
tion to guard the public against the abuse of benevolence and to 
devise and institute measures of prevention, in which reside the only 
solid hope of a permanent moral improvement." 
Whereby it appears that gathering and using a large number of 
friendly visitors is not alluded to as any part of the New York con- 
ception of organized charity. 
From London we read in the Charity Organization Review (July, 
1893, p. 46), in an article perhaps written by Mr. Loch, entitled 
"American View of Charity Organization Society work " : 
" The second institution to which we should like to refer, as evidently held 
in high estimation by many leading Charity Organization Society thinkers, is 
that of frieadly visitors. 
" How, in America, they manage to obtain qualified friendly visitors on a 
large scale, we do not know. 
"The World's Fair at Chicago will give any who wish the opportunity of 
noting the enthusiasm and hopefulness of the American societies at first 
hand." 
Boston is perhaps the city where friendly visiting first became an 
essential part of the new charity. It formed no part of the original 
movement in London in 1869. It had been done in Boston on a 
small scale in ward seven, by the co-operative society of visitors before 
the organization of the Associated Charities; butthat body first made 
formal and definite announcement that friendly visiting would be 
seriously undertaken in a large way.* 
" The great work for friendly visitors " was here explained and 
* See inaugural address of Robert Treat Paine, March 12, 1879, when chosen 
president of the Associated Charities of Boston, "Charity Organization," No. 
6, Publications of Boston Associated Charities. PAINE. 
33 
developed substantially upon the same lines that it has followed to 
the present time. 
The principle was thus stated in my address at the Social Science 
Conference, at Saratoga, in September, 1880 ("Not Alms, but a 
Friend." No. 17): 
" Whenever any family has fallen so low as to need relief, send to 
them at least one friend-a patient, true, sympathizing, firm friend- 
to do for them all that a friend can do to discover and remove the 
causes of their dependence, and to help them up into independent 
self-support and self-respect." 
Let me call attention to one fact. The original draft of the Boston 
society authorized giving relief, if it could be procured from no other 
source. But this clause was stricken out, owing to the opposition of 
relief societies, and, as it seems to me, by the finger of God. Visitors 
were compelled to devote their thought and sympathy in other 
directions, so admirably described by Miss Octavia Hill, with what- 
ever measure of success has been attained. 
Fourteen years' experience justifies more strongly with each new- 
year's results the encouraging claim that, in almost every case, a 
friendly visitor can learn how to help, and can often succeed in help- 
ing into independence, a family in distress, if he (or usually she) goes 
into their home and learns the truth, going there not to give alms, 
but prohibited usually from giving alms, therefore forced to 
study how to aid the family in permanent ways. 
Statistics year after year show in how many varied ways real help 
has been given. 
Brooklyn is the largest city which has successfully developed and 
maintained efficiently the work of friendly visiting. See report of 
Brooklyn Bureau of Charities for 1892, p. 16, for an interesting 
organization of their visitors for study as a class, and an admirable 
statement of the 
Dzities of Friendly Visitors.* 
" It shall be the duty of a friendly visitor to visit the poor and distressed as 
a friend ; to examine, in the spirit of kindness, the causes of their trouble ; to 
do what can be done to remove those causes; to become acquainted with the 
ability which each may have, and to aid in developing it and in finding ways in 
which it maybe employed in self-help; through friendly intercourse, sympathy 
and direction, to encourage self-dependence, industry and thrift; to recom- 
mend whatever may be possible and wise to alleviate the sufferings of those 
*Art. 9, Sec. 2 of By-laws. 34 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
whose infirmities cannot be cured or removed ; if material aid be necessary, to 
obtain it from existing organizations as far as possible ; and in every case to 
promote in all practical ways the physical and moral improvement of the 
families in the visitor's charge.'' 
Mr. Alfred T. White, president of the Brooklyn Bureau of Char- 
ities, has recently described the excellent work done in that great 
city. (" The Friendly Visitor's Opportunity," Charities Review, 
April, 1893, p. 329.) 
"It may appear," he says, "a slow process to eliminate poverty piece by 
piece from our great cities, and it is natural to long for some quicker way, but 
there is no way which does not reach to and touch the character of the individual 
poor. . . . Surely there never was a time when so many were interested 
in the elevation of those less favored than themselves." 
" Where is the call so clear to us in city life as this need of our neighbors 
for our personal consideration and service ?-a need doubly commanding since 
the organization of charity has so greatly increased the possibilities of success- 
ful interest and effort " (p. 331). 
Here in Mr. White's words is the supreme aim and need of friendly 
visiting: to " touch the character of the individual poor." 
Radical Remedies. 
What reply has scientific charity to the question whether the 
grand aggregate of degraded pauperism in great cities is to increase 
or decrease, when the forces that work for evil are all weighed :- 
The unemployed, an army in London, numerous in New' York, 
not many usually in smaller cities ; 
The inefficient, always in all cities a great number vibrating 
between work and idleness; 
Paupers resolved only on one thing, that they hate work; 
The terrible element of vice, and the great army of criminals, who 
war upon society, not deterred by present penalties; 
Then add the causes of sickness and low vitality ; 
In some cities all these evils aggregated into great masses. 
Simply and surely this first, that merely to deal, no matter how 
wisely, with single cases of distress or crime as they arise, is 
infinitely insufficient. 
Nay, worse, Prof. W. G. Tucker in his Phi Beta Oration at 
Harvard, last June, compels us to seek more radical cure, by more 
radical measures, when he says: "The philanthropy which is PAINE. 
35 
CONTENT TO RELIEVE THE SUFFERER FROM WRONG SOCIAL CON- 
DITIONS, POSTPONES THE PHILANTHROPY WHICH IS DETERMINED, 
AT ANY COST, TO RIGHT THOSE CONDITIONS." 
" Who does not know," says Professor H. C. Adams, "that much of our 
so-called philanthropy tends to perpetuate those conditions which seem to make 
philanthropy necessary ? Father Huntington has rendered a marked service 
in the strong protest which he urges against the charities of our day. He 
shows to the discerning mind that a philanthropy which is satisfied when the 
cry of the sufferer is hushed has no place among the permanent forces of 
social progress." (Social Progress, p. x.) 
This brings me to the main purpose of my paper. Has not the 
new charity organization movement too long been content to aim at 
a system to relieve or even uplift judiciously single cases without 
asking if there are not prolific causes permanently at work to create 
want, vice, crime, disease and death; and whether these causes may 
not be wholly or in large degree eradicated ? 
If such causes of pauperism exist, how vain to waste our energies 
on single cases of relief, when society should rather aim at removing 
the prolific sources of all the woe. 
The four great causes of pauperism and of degraded 
CITY LIFE HAVE LONG SEEMED TO ME TO BE THESE : 
1. Foul homes. 
2. Intoxicating drink. 
3. Neglect of child life. 
4. Indiscriminate almsgiving. 
Who can closely study the conditions of life among the poor of 
cities without seeing these malignant forces working day and night 
to create all forms of degraded life? 
Who then will not agree with me that resolute and heroic meas- 
ures must be taken in all large cities, before conditions become 
hopeless ? 
What happier augury can come from this conference than the con- 
viction that all the forces of scientific and Christian charity must 
combine to extirpate these outrages upon the virtue, health and 
happiness of the masses of the people ? 
Charles Booth* counts up twenty-three principal causes of pau- 
perism : 
* " Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age," p. 9. 36 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Crime, vice, drink, laziness, pauper association, heredity, mental 
disease, temper, incapacity, early marriage, large family, extrava- 
gance, lack of work, trade misfortune, restlessness, no relations, death 
of husband, desertion, death of father or mother, sickness, accident, 
ill luck, old age. 
But may not all these twenty-three causes, except old age, acci- 
dent and death, come from wretched life in a foul home, or drunken- 
ness, or neglect when the victim was a child, or indiscriminate 
giving of alms ? 
Yes, these four causes are the primary, potent and prolific sources 
of the degraded life in cities. All of them are remediable in different 
ways and to different degrees. 
How long will it be possible for the public to witness these out- 
rages against itself and against the welfare and the rights of our 
poorer citizens, without such indignant wrath as to cleanse them 
away from city life ? 
Foul Homes. 
Which of the two causes dragging down the conditions of life 
among the masses, foul homes or intoxicating drink, is more potent, 
I do not know. Each leads surely to the other. 
Everywhere the conviction gains ground that it is impossible to 
elevate the conditions of the lower class of working people above 
the condition of their homes. If they are left in foul and over- 
crowded slums or damp basements or dilapidated barracks, it is too 
much to expect them to be virtuous or self-respecting or inde- 
pendent. These rotten slums are hotbeds which propagate low 
life, shattering the health of occupants and so promoting pauperism, 
loosening the morals and so promoting vice and crime ; and perhaps 
worst of all in their poisonous influence on the children who grow 
up in them too often without virtue, self-respect, health or hope. 
We all rejoice to see that the increasing interest of society in the 
homes of the people is taking shape in many efficient ways. 
What I believe to be of great importance to this cause, is that its 
close relations to the whole pauper problem of great cities should be 
recognized; so that all observers may see and know that the two 
causes are only one cause ; and the friends of each may see the 
larger relations of their work and gain power and motive from this 
consciousness that they are not merely dealing with details, but rather 
are shaping the conditions of the present and future welfare of the 
people. PAINE. 
37 
A Higher Standard of Habitability. 
If the aim of all charitable work among the poor is a general 
improvement of their condition, so the aim of all who are interested 
in their homes must be to establish a higher standard of habitability. 
Grand impulse has been given to this movement in England by 
four persons, Lord Shaftesbury, Octavia Hill, Sir Sydney Waterlow 
and George Peabody. 
Lord Shaftesbury began the movement to improve the homes of 
working people in 1842, of which time he says: "So little were 
people acquainted with the state of the houses in which laboring 
people dwelt, that we treated the question as an entirely new one. 
Many persons then thought that we were undertaking a quixotic 
work, and that there was really very little that required amendment. 
But I am happy to say that the improvement of the condition of the 
working classes in a domiciliary aspect is now almost a trite subject." 
He was the first witness before the Royal Commission of 1884, 
and his words describing the horrors of the abodes of the poor 
shocked all England. When he died in 1886, full of honors and 
beloved of all, he had no juster claim to honor and love than his 
life-long services for the homes of plain people. 
Octavia Hill came next in order of time, but she stands supreme 
thus far in the world's history among and above all others who have 
thought, labored and lived for and among the poor, to improve their 
homes. 
Octavia Hill and Sir Sydney Waterlow are entitled to rank 
among the great discoverers of this world, now that sociology takes 
its due rank, above all natural sciences, next only to the knowledge 
of God. 
Miss Hill discovered and has taught the world the true relations 
of landlord and tenant. She has created a normal school in this art. 
Men and women from this country as well as England try to learn 
the sweet and beautiful and wonderfully potent, uplifting influence 
which she and her band of rent collectors have been exerting for 
years among the very humblest classes of tenants in some of the 
gloomiest courts of London. Let sociologists watch the spread of 
this new power through the world, and teach it to every school. 
Sir Sydney Waterlow's discovery ranks next in value to working- 
men. Risking first his own means alone, he learned and proved 
that even in a great city like London, where land values are high, 38 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
model tenement-houses, built with all reasonable conveniences and 
comforts, can be made a commercial success. This discovery 
introduces into modern civilization a potent force to improve the 
homes of the people. Its effect has been so powerful as to have 
changed the face of London. Capital has been attracted by the 
millions of pounds sterling; one'company alone of which Sir Sydney 
is president, " The Improved Industrial Dwellings Company," has 
built thirty blocks in different parts of London at a cost of $5,000,000, 
and offers to some 30,000 souls homes not devoid of aesthetic charm, 
at moderate rents, which yield five per cent, on the capital. 
Alfred T. White has achieved a like success with model blocks in 
Brooklyn, on a large scale.* 
The Boston Cooperative Building Company has in 22 years pro- 
vided 76 houses, with 962 rooms, for 325 families, at a cost of 
$400,000 in Boston. These tenements are eagerly sought by intelli- 
gent tenants, and the investment has been most successful in all 
respects. 
Three Agencies. 
Three agencies directly deal with the task of fitly housing the 
people: 
1. Philanthropic agencies, which aim to improve the condition 
both of tenants and of the tenements they occupy. 
2. Economic agencies providing decent homes, often in model 
buildings. 
3. Municipal agencies aiming to abolish the worst evils and to 
destroy foul homes. 
High above each and all of these three agencies in its influence 
and promise of grand results, I place the rising ambition of working- 
men themselves to own their own homes.t 
If this laudable ambition is lacking among the lowest class, so also 
do both of the powerful agencies at work to provide model homes, 
whether by philanthropic or invested capital of which I have just 
spoken, shoot over their heads. 
* Described in his " Improved Dwellings for the Laboring Classes," 1879, 
and "Better Homes for Workingmen," 1885, Conference of Charities. 
t H. M. Hyndman, of the Social Democratic Federation, addressing the 
Labor Commission in England, objects to thrift in workingmen, because it 
only makes them small capitalists, buttressing the class they should supplant 
and intensifying the competition from which they suffer!-[Econ. Journal, 
March, 1893, p. 169.] PAINE. 
39 
The agency which must be invoked to rescue the very poor, 
whether virtuous and struggling, or degraded and indifferent, is the 
municipal power to destroy utterly unfit abodes of habitations. 
Sad, indeed, is the fact that when charity aids some wretched 
family to move out of a vile basement or dark and nasty slum, pre- 
sently some other like family moves in. 
The growth of public sentiment towards practical unanimity in this 
decision has been marked by important measures in London, Glas- 
gow and other cities of Great Britain. 
The London Charity Organization Society reports on the dwell- 
ings of the poor record this progress. (1873 and 1881.) 
I will only quote here the judgment of one man, which has aided 
in this enlightened movement. 
Dr. Gairdner, Medical Officer of Health for Glasgow, wrote: 
" I believe that nuisance removal, epidemic inspection, cleansing, ventila- 
ting, and suppression of overcrowding, are all good up to a certain point . . . 
But in relation to the persistent and slowly accumulating evils of our great towns, 
the social rottenness, so to speak, that is in them all, these are mere surface- 
measures. . . . I am putting it roundly,perhaps you will even say paradoxically, 
but I am stating the result of a deep conviction, when I say that the destructive 
part of the duty of the authorities is of more importance, if possible, than the con- 
structive ; that the first and more essential step is to get rid of the existing haunts 
of moral and physical degradation."* 
This movement to destroy the slums is under powerful headway. 
Rome, Paris, London, Glasgow, New York and Boston, and so on 
in different degree, have all set to work to exterminate those rotten 
spots or foul abodes which tainted human life. 
I place this movement at the head as the most powerful force 
conducing to improve the condition of the abject poor. 
How it can be made more thoroughly effective is the most import- 
ant question I may send home with each of my hearers. 
Pass in review our co-workers, and then let us see how they can 
be strengthened. 
The medical profession to a man, economists, ministers and 
churches, philanthropists and workers among the poor, novelists and 
the press, and last and most efficacious, boards of health. 
New York gave a powerful impulse by the investigation and report 
of the board of health in 1887. 
* Report of the Dwellings Committee of the Charity Organization Society, 
1873, p. 9. 40 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Boston did the same by the report of Professor Dwight Porter in 
1889, and Gen. F. A. Walker, whose judgment carries weight not 
surpassed in the United States, at the meeting where this report was 
presented, stated: 
" I believe that a true view of the economy of state action may not infrequently 
disclose the occasion for saving a great deal of interference and a great deal of 
state action, in subsequent stages, by putting the firm hand of government 
upon the very sources of evil, and applying the powers of the state to crush 
out social mischief in its inception. I confess that it has for some time seemed 
to me increasingly probable that the social philosophy of the age would soon 
come to recognize the housing of the very poor as the point at which the 
remedial action of the government may be applied, not only with the highest 
effect upon the happiness and health of the community, but actually with 
large resulting reductions from the sum of state action and governmental 
authority. 
" It would be an act, either of monstrous ignorance or of monstrous impudence 
on the part of any man, contemplating the changes of public sentiment which 
have taken place on this subject within the last fifteen, ten, and five years, to 
put his foot down and say, ' Thus far and no farther will I go towards enlarging 
the functions of the state.' In view of the great developments of the imme- 
diate past, the most likely thing in regard to each one of us by turns, is that, in 
five, ten, or fifteen years from now, he will be occupying a position on this 
subject very different from that he now anticipates. Yet I confess I have of 
late been coming rapidly to the conviction that ere long there will be a general 
consent of conservative citizens, in every enlightened state, to regard as 
thoroughly good politics all interference by law which may be necessary to 
prevent any portion of the people from living in houses which are unfit for 
human habitation, residence in which is incompatible with health, or with 
social or personal decency. 
" I expect soon to see the time come when the commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts shall declare that no one of its citizens, under whatever plea of poverty, 
shall have his home where he has not a sufficient access of fresh air and of 
God's sunlight, and where the conditions as to drainage and the disposal of 
refuse are not such as to afford reasonable security for the health of the indi- 
vidual, and to protect society against communicable disease. I believe that 
not only will the law of the commonwealth say this, which, indeed, is little 
more than it now says, but that the public sentiment of the community will 
have been so educated on this subject as to support the officers of the law in 
whatever rigorous and painful measures may be required for the thorough,, 
systematic and unrelenting enforcement of the most advanced sanitary 
requirements." 
Destroy the Slums. 
No movement can be inaugurated in any city, more potent to 
improve the conditions of the most wretched poor and to cut off the PAINE. 
41 
supply of degraded pauperism, than the movement to destroy the 
slums. 
Probably no city has been wholly inactive. But I am sure no 
large city in'this country has begun to act up to the standard required 
for the health or morals of the poor, or by economy to the public, or 
by principles of justice and right. 
Boards of health have power probably in all cities to vacate dwell- 
ings unfit for human habitation. All that is needed is aroused public 
interest to learn the unspeakable horrors of the homes of the wretched 
poor to-day, and then to insist on a higher standard of habitability. 
Boards of health will follow the public command and the public 
conscience. 
Boston is taking active steps in this direction. A number of public- 
spirited men and women have organized a " Better Dwellings Society," 
which has directed attention to many intolerable rotten spots. The 
board of health is acting with judicious firmness in vacating unfit 
homes below an accepted standard, which has been steadily rising for 
a score of years in compliance with enlightened public judgment. 
Yet Boston has many terrible abodes of vice and wretchedness 
still left where all circumstances concur for evil life. 
It is a cause of surprise and regret to find in the reports of charity 
organization or relieving societies of different cities so little attention 
paid to this supreme yet eradicable cause of pauperism and crime.* 
New York finds this problem of housing the poor more difficult 
than any other city of the world. The report of " The Association 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor" (1892, p. 60), describes 
their action as to homes of the poor, viz.: 
516 inspections, 
251 reports to the board of health, 
760 causes for complaints, and of these 
76 were for filthy premises, 
54 were for dirty yards, 
27 were for wet cellars. 
Yet the surprising thing is that only thirty complaints seem to 
point at radical evils, " Buildings generally dilapidated." Even 
here action hardly seems to be aimed at, of wholly vacating the 
buildings as fatally and hopelessly unfit. 
* Nor any allusion to it in that superb history by Mr. Kellogg last evening of 
all the C. O. S. work for these twenty years. 42 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
The Pittsburg report of " The Association for Improving the 
Condition of the Poor " (1892, p. 8) states that visitors made 20,915 
visits to the poor, visiting " homes in basements that are unhealthy 
through dampness and no sunshine, and to people who live in old 
boats." Yet no fierce protests of righteous indignation are made to 
boards of health. 
Chicago will, I hope, permit a few frank words about this terrible 
source of pauperism. 
The report for 1892 of the " Chicago Relief Society " states : 
" The general circumstances and conditions of the poor in Chicago are much 
more favorable than in most large cities in this or any other country. The 
proportion of paupers is much less. Most of the working class in Chicago 
live in their little cottages, in many cases owned by their occupants, or in 
comfortable rooms in houses usually occupied by two or three families and 
seldom by more than four or five, at rents from five dollars to seven dollars 
monthly." 
Yet on the other hand, the last report I have seen of the " United 
Hebrew Relief Society" of Chicago states, (1885-86) under the 
heading of " Tenement Houses for the Poor" : 
'■'■Sickness has been deplorably prevalent. The evil may be traced to the ttnwhole- 
some habitations in which the poor generally reside. These dwellings not only 
destroy physical vigor, but they stifle the mind and blunt the morals. They 
are inimical to the cause of education as they are dangerous to bodily health."* 
As you ride out to the World's Fair to see the latest triumph of 
architecture and art in these days, look down from the South Side 
Elevated Railroad (the Alley road, so-called) near the 21st street 
station on the west, or again at 26th street, at the wretched slums 
below you. The protracted picture of conditions of intolerable life 
points my argument that the problem of poor relief in great cities 
knows no possible solution till these hotbeds which propagate 
degraded pauper life are absolutely abolished. 
* On June 8, 1893,1 visited some of the wretched abodes of the very poor in 
Chicago with an officer kindly detailed by Chief of Police Mr. McClaughry. 
The sights were too sad for words. One cellar was so poisoned with sewer 
gas and the effluvia of leaking water-closets that the tenant said, in not wholly 
crushed despair, " I have lost one child here and don't propose to lose 
another," (No. 359 Clark Street). Another utterly dilapidated barrack, (543 
Clark Street) about 30 X 9° feet, swarming with Italian children from eight to 
ten families, has long been utterly unfit for human beings to live in. PAINE. 
43 
Would to God my words could strengthen the conviction of every 
delegate to this Congress, as he goes home to his own city, that 
slums must be abolished. 
So might public interest be more keenly aroused and the good 
cause gain momentum, as one city after another joined injudicious 
and resolute action. 
Intoxicating Drink. 
Intoxicating drink is the second great cause of pauperism, crime 
and many other wretched conditions of degraded life. 
The temperance reform makes perceptible headway, although the 
most powerful passions of mankind oppose its progress. In the last 
ten years England has seen a great improvement in the conditions 
of the working people in this respect. 
In the United States prohibition or high license or restricted 
license, or the Gothenburg system, or that new state system in South 
Carolina, or local option which secures no license in many cities and 
towns, all these movements mark a great popular awakening to the 
terrible influence of drunkenness upon the welfare of the people. 
Their improved conditions where temperance prevails are so 
evident, that for instance in Massachusetts the smaller cities are 
making steady progress in the direction of voting for no license in 
the annual struggle. The contest in such states as Iowa and 
Kansas marks the growing popular condemnation of the evil. In 
spite of all this progress, more or less visible throughout the civilized 
world, the gigantic power of the rum-shop to drag its victims down 
rages through the world with insolent defiance of the sympathy and 
intelligence of good citizens to discover and execute any efficient 
method of suppression. 
My object here is to propose and stimulate an alliance of these 
two forces, the friends of temperance and all the other forces work- 
ing to improve the conditions of the poor. Such an alliance will 
strengthen both and lead each party to see the broader scope of 
their task. 
Neglect of Children. 
The third prolific cause of pauperism is found in the conditions of 
neglect or maltreatment of child-life in great cities.* 
*Hon. A. S. Hewitt, in his address at the opening of the United Charities 
Building of New York (Charities Review, April, 1893, p. 304), says : " In this 44 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Two specifications of the boy's indictment against society have 
been mentioned. Absence of playgrounds almost compels him to 
choose, in a great city, between stupidity and crime. Absence of 
manual training forces him to live by his wits or by commonest 
forms of labor.* But I wish especially to draw attention to the need 
of a great development of charity in the treatment of widows with 
young children. 
Large cities are disputing about the comparative merits of 
systems, all of which are so unworthy of our age, and so cruel to the 
mother and dangerous to the welfare of the child that the time has 
come for worthier treatment by the best method science and 
sympathy can devise. 
No one will deny the influence growing out of different systems 
of dealing with this class of children. The systems in England, 
New York, and Massachusetts are radically different. No one of 
them can escape condemnation. 
England very largely refuses out-relief to the widow with 
children, breaks up the family, and sends one or more of the children 
into the district school or into that department of the almshouse called 
the industrial school, usually a vast institution where children are 
gathered by hundreds. The mother is left with only one or two 
children whom she may be able to support. 
Am I wrong in ranking the English system as least favorable for 
the happiness of the home or the future welfare of the child, unjust 
city a large number of children of both sexes live in an atmosphere of poverty 
and vice, and even crime, which educates them to be paupers and criminals 
instead of training them to become honest workmen and good citizens. And 
for this result, which is generally no fault of their own, they are punished, and, 
along with them, the industrious class of the community is also punished by 
taxation for the support of poorhouses, hospitals and criminals. Gangs of 
young men not yet twenty-one years of age are to be found in many parts of 
the city, w'ho, not having been permitted to learn trades, or having been denied 
the opportunity to follow some useful occupation, have grown up in idleness, 
and expend their animal energies in excesses which make them a terror to the 
neighborhood and a trial to the police, the only barrier between them and 
crime. In time most of them necessarily become criminals and they are very 
sure to breed criminals. The public is not dealing with this great menace to 
society either with sense or firmness." 
* Which alcoves in all the vast and varied World's Fair are richer in promise 
for the welfare of the coming generation of men than the alcoves full of the 
results of manual training in many cities ? PAINE. 
45 
to both mother and child, and not worthy of the Christian philan- 
thropy of the age ? * 
The New York system has no provision of outdoor relief for such 
a family of children, and resembles the English method in that the 
family must be broken up, but the children instead of being sent to 
great public institutions, are distributed among private institutions 
which receive a per capita allowance from the State ; tempting them 
to promote this destruction of family life. 
This method seems to me next to merit condemnation because it 
allows money consideration to break up families, even where a 
worthy mother is struggling to preserve her child and her home, 
and because secondly these children are condemned to institution 
life, and as yet, as Mrs. Lowell of New York says,f " It is to be 
remembered that the poorest home, unless it be a degraded one, is 
better than any institution." 
Mrs. Lowell brings this further charge: 
"That unfortunately in New York city at least, the custom has grown up of 
requiring that judges shall commit children to private institutions, as a neces- 
sary condition of obtaining payment from the city for their support This 
undoubtedly is a dangerous proceeding, since the familiarization with a court 
of law tends to destroy the dread of arrest, which should be fostered as one of 
the strongest deterrent influences against crime. To bring a child before a 
judge in a criminal court in order to secure his entrance into an institution of 
charity is a most unwise measure." 
The dependent child problem has attained great proportions in 
New York city where 15,697 boys and girls are supported at an 
* Quest. 5838.-What system would you like to see substituted ? 
Mrs. Charles.-" I should like to see boarding-out as far as possible, and 
the plan of taking children from their mothers and sending them to a district 
school, by way of giving them poor relief, I think is a mistake. It would be 
far better, in my opinion, I having had very considerable experience, to give 
the poor widows a little outdoor relief, and allow them to keep their children 
at home. It acts in this way also upon the mothers. They find that they can 
part with their children and throw off their responsibilities ; and it is not 
right for any one to be allowed to throw off the responsibility she has volun- 
tarily incurred. That is another evil of the district school system, that poor 
law guardians will give widows relief in the shape of sending their children to 
these schools; then the widows are free, and I am sorry to say I have known 
many instances where the widows have not conducted themselves as well as 
they would have done if they had had the responsibility of their children at 
home."-Report House of Lords Com., Poor Law Relief, Aug. '88, p. 641. 
1 Public Relief and Private Charity, p. 74. 46 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
annual charge of $1,500,000 out of a population of 1,600,000 in 1889, 
or a proportion of 1 to 100. While Massachusetts had 1951 
dependent children out of 2,000,000 souls, or 1 to 1025, Penn- 
sylvania had 10,000 dependent children, 1 to 450, while Michigan 
had only 200 dependent children, or 1 to 10,000.* 
The Massachusetts system aims to keep families together where 
there is a not totally unfit home, and if relief is not obtained from 
some other source, the overseers of the poor give, and continue, 
needed relief to a widow until the children grow to an age when 
their labor added to their mother's earnings can support the home.f 
Many competent judges cannot believe that the Massachusetts 
system works well for the child, though it is certainly more humane 
for the mother than the system either in England or New York. 
The poisonous influence of our outdoor pauper relief must be felt 
upon the child's character in many cases, yet the family is kept 
together, and the children are brought up under the loving care and 
influence of their mother, free from the injurious influence of any 
institution, and especially escaping the almshouse brand. 
Critics who urge the total abolition of outdoor relief may claim 
that this system works badly even in this class of cases, and some- 
times with justice when pauper relief leaves upon the child a pauper 
taint. 
Do you ask whether in Massachusetts we think our system the 
best and are resolved to maintain it ? I answer frankly, No. 
Here is a better method which I believe to be the best. Aid the 
mother to maintain her home, provide adequate relief, but free from 
any pauper poison. Let it go from her church, from some private 
society, from some benevolent individual. Let it go as from the 
hand of a friend, as the circumstances of each special case may 
suggest to be best to the friendly visitor who undertakes the con- 
tinuous task. Shame on the charity of any city which shrinks from 
this duty. 
This is the reform which in the judgment of many of us in Massa- 
chusetts, should be engrafted upon our public relief system. 
* Report State Board of Char, of N. Y., 1890, p. 33. 
t Prof. Francis Wayland in his paper on outdoor relief [1877] gives the 
weight of his judgment in favor of outdoor relief, especially in "cases where 
the head of the family is removed by death or prostrated by sickness, and 
where there is reasonable prospect of the mother being able to keep her 
family together and ultimately maintain them " (page 9). PAINE. 
47 
This is the class of cases which has always been used most effec- 
tively by our overseers of the poor in advocating the necessity of out- 
door relief. Taking from the overseers this class of cases would 
greatly facilitate its total abolition, or great reduction. This is the 
special reform which I strenuously advocated in the report of the 
Associated Charities of Boston in 1882, basing my argument upon 
the analysis of 938 families in the care of one conference, of whom 
only 370 received aid in 1884-5 or 1885-6. Only 119 of those were 
aided in the last year by the overseers of the poor, and of these only 
20 received over $20 each, of whom four were aided because there 
were children, receiving in all $159.50.* 
The result of this analysis was that a few thousand dollars of 
benevolent funds would replace out-relief to this class of widows and 
orphans, and provide for them in the best possible way, by judicious 
aid from a friendly hand, usually not known either to child or 
neighbor. How long will it be before charity fully assumes this 
loving but imperative duty to the widow with her children ? 
I have not yet exhausted the list of wrongs which boys and girls 
suffer at the hands of society, often thereby started on a wrong road 
through life. 
Enough if I can show that neglect and maltreatment of the " child 
problem in great cities " is one of the prolific causes of pauperism 
and crime which must be remedied if society is in. earnest to improve 
the conditions of the poor.f 
Indiscriminate Almsgiving. 
Indiscriminate almsgiving is the fourth and a most potent cause of 
pauperism. It has been considered in these conferences from the 
start. Yet we have much to learn. Charles Lamb is its only 
defender, who says " Give, asking no questions." Fowlestates the 
* Boston is in recent years devoting more thought and care to the child 
problem and with excellent results.. See reports of Children's Aid Society, 
North Bennet Street Home, and Boys' Institute of Industry. 
t In "Poverty and its Relief in the U. S.," p. 14, Dr. Aschrott says : " The 
societies for organizing charities took up this movement, and to their inspira- 
tion it is due that the number of charitable societies which care for poor, 
deserted, neglected and exposed children, has increased in a very rapid 
manner. All America is now covered with a network of so-called children's 
aid societies. There is scarcely a state in the Union in which there is not at 
least one such society to be found." 48 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
rule to be "that the amount of pauperism is in proportion to the 
amount of relief." 
Let me avoid the vexed question whether total abolition of public 
outdoor relief is judicious, in order to fasten attention on the principle 
universally accepted by experts, that as lax relief has created pauper- 
ism, so adherence by private as well as public relief, especially by 
the charitable public, to rigid rules, excluding all but those whose 
need is well founded, has greatly lessened both the number of pau- 
pers as well as the cost of relief.* 
Brooklyn, with its dramatic and wonderful reform, little Brook- 
linef also, and several great English unions, all teach the 'same 
lesson. 
* The Boston Commission of 1878 on the treatment of the poor, declared 
(page 5) : 
" Experience shows that a steady persistence in limiting relief to support in 
some public institution, where labor is required under reasonable restraint, 
diminishes the amount of outdoor relief without any proportional increase of 
indoor relief. The applicant supports himself, or is provided for by his 
friends." 
But the committee are not ready to recommend the abolition of outdoor 
relief, but only that rules for its sharp limitation should be rigidly adhered to, 
and they say (page 8) that the "rules may be relaxed for recent widows with 
young children." 
I The experience of Brookline shows how effectively an improved system may 
reduce pauperism. 
Mrs. James M. Codman states that outdoor relief had amounted to $9,000 
for a population of 6,000, and that after careful investigation had somewhat 
reduced the numbers, there were still 355 persons on the list of' paupers. 
After strong opposition, it was decided to build an almshouse, and " notice 
was then given that in future no rent would be paid for any one, no fuel 
allowed, no able-bodied man would be helped in any way, and outdoor relief 
would be given only in very exceptional cases." 
" Now for the results. Within a year the number of persons relieved fell to 
53, no able-bodied man has ever even applied for help, the number at the alms- 
house has never exceeded seven, and this number was only at the time when 
the experiment was tried of caring for some of the harmless insane there, an 
experiment speedily abandoned. While the population of the town has 
doubled, the amount expended for the relief of the poor is now $6,000, of 
which $2,500 goes to pay the board of our largely increased number of insane 
in the state institutions, leaving $3,500 the amount actually expended for the 
poor; $1,500 for the almshouse, and the balance for outdoor relief in our own 
town, and largely for temporary relief of our poor in other towns and cities. 
With all this there has been no suffering.Conference of Charities and 
Correction, 1891, page 47. PAINE. 
49 
Yet the recent facts must give us pause. Rev. S. A. Barnett, of 
St. Jude's, Whitechapel, the head of Toynbee Hall, states that the 
effort to provide pensions by private charity for the aged worthy 
poor must be counted a failure; since it is with great difficulty that 
100 pensioners in the three East End missions of London, where 
out-relief is given up, are provided by appeals through the whole of 
London. 
Again, the conviction that the lot of the poor in England is too 
hard and their treatment under the poor law too severe has caused 
such reaction that a pension scheme of $85,000,000 a year hangs in 
the air, and a Royal Commission has been created to consider the 
condition of the poor. 
Of course the lot of the laborer in England cannot be compared 
with that in this country. Still let us beware of any extreme attack 
upon outdoor relief which shall result in violent reaction. 
Three reforms of the abuses of outdoor relief should receive 
universal sanction, and will effect in very large measure the end 
which all parties desire: dealing with the unworthy, those out of work 
and the inefficient. 
First. To the unworthy, rigid prohibition of all relief, public or 
private, so that, abandoning all hope of it, they shall seek their own 
support. This includes the lazy, idle, shiftless, extravagant or vicious 
paupers, as also in most cases those with relatives or friends. 
Second. The provision for men or women out of work demands 
most serious study of ablest economists and statesmen. The magni- 
tude of the problem in London, present and prospective, affrights 
the imagination. One road leads to danger; permanent municipal 
industries which would attract the shiftless into larger masses, 
whereas the only safety lies in scattering them through the com- 
munity.* 
Not of course that they should starve. They must be dealt with 
as individuals. How great cities like London, Chicago and New 
York escape the dilemma of cruelty or of indiscriminate almsgiving, 
without friendly visitors in goodly number, we in Boston do not 
know. 
The third and grand reform aims to recreate the inefficient, always 
in great cities a numerous class, into self-support by skill and cheer, 
* Beware, however, of aiding by alms able-bodied men or women. PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
50 
and to save them from gratuitous relief as deadly poison.* I cannot 
learn what New York, Chicago or London do with this class except 
to leave them to struggle with the law that the unfit must perish. 
Charles Booth in his brilliant chapter on " The Unemployed," 
expresses regret that the problems of the working class are often 
confounded with the problems of the inefficient. 
To confound these two problems is to render the solution of both 
impossible-! 
The problem of poor relief in cities has no department where 
results are more largely dependent on the most judicious treatment 
of both science and sympathy. 
To the inefficient, when out of work and in need, nothing can be 
worse than alms and doles, dragging them down into paupers. Noth- 
ing can be better than cheer, counsel and assistance to gain needed 
skill and courage. 
Professor Franklin H. Giddings, in his essay on the Ethics of 
Social Progress, develops a new law of the evolution of society, or 
rather of a new possible slavery, with startling power: 
" Neither oppression nor greed has been at any time the first cause of legal 
bondage or of economic dependence. Both are secondary causes, induced by 
experiences with a slavery already existent. 
"Modern civilization does not require, it does not even need, the drudgery 
of needle women or the crushing toil of men in a score of life-destroying 
occupations. If these wretched beings should drop out of existence and no 
others stood ready to fill their places, the economic activities of the world 
would not greatly suffer. A thousand devices latent in inventive brains would 
quickly make good any momentary loss. The true view of the facts is that 
these people continue to exist after the kinds of work that they know how' to 
perform have ceased to be of any considerable value to society. Society con- 
tinues to employ them for a remuneration not exceeding the cost of getting the 
work done in some other and perhaps better way. 
" The economic law here referred to is one that has been too much neglected 
in scientific discussions. It ought to be repeated and illustrated at every 
opportunity, for at present it stands in direct contradiction to current prepos- 
sessions. We are told incessantly that unskilled labor creates the wealth of the 
world. 
"It would be nearer the truth to say that large classes of unskilled labor 
hardly create their own subsistence. The laborers that have no adaptiveness, 
* " I consider it the greatest problem in philanthropy to make human beings 
who are capable of work out of individuals who otherwise must become 
paupers, and in this way to create useful members of society."-My Views on 
Philanthropy, by Baron de Hirsch, p. i, North American Review, July, 1891. 
JMiss Jane Addams, in Social Progress, page 55. PAINE. 
51 
that bring no new ideas to their work, that have no suspicion of the next best 
thing to turn to in an emergency, might be much better identified with the 
dependent classes than with the wealth-creators. Precisely the same economic 
law offers the true interpretation of ancient slavery. In strictness civilization 
did not rest on slavery. It was not in any true sense maintained by slavery. 
The conditions that created the civilization created economic dependence, and 
they are working in the same way, with similar results, to-day. 
" Ancient civilization accepted the dependence, and utilized it in the crude 
form of slavery. Modern civilization accepts and utilizes it in the slightly 
more refined form of the wages system. Certain great social tasks of creative 
organization have always confronted our race. The enforced effort to achieve 
them has been history's great competitive examination. The slaves and serfs 
have been those who have failed. The first great necessity was social unity, 
the power to act together in a disciplined way, and the first slaves were those 
who could not create a sufficiently coherent social organization to sustain a 
growing civilization. They had to make way before others who were equal to 
that great achievement, and they became slaves not solely nor chiefly because 
of a conqueror's tyranny, but primarily because slavery or serfdom was practi- 
cally the only economic disposition that could be made of them. To-day social 
unity has been in good measure established and the world has entered on yet 
larger undertakings. The condition and assurance of freedom to-day is the 
ability to devise new things, to create new opportunities, to make not only two 
blades of grass grow where one grew before, but to make a hundred kinds of 
grass grow where before grew only one kind. 
"Accordingly, the practically unfree task-workers of this present time are 
those who, unaided, can accomplish none of these new things. They are those 
who might do well in old familiar ways, but who have nothing to turn to when 
their ways cease to be of value to the world. To live they must force depreci- 
ated services upon society on any terms that society can continue to pay. 
They are unfree task-workers not because society chooses to oppress them, but 
because society has not yet devised or stumbled upon any other disposition to 
make of them. Civilization, therefore, is not cruel. It is ever supporting and 
trying in many ways to utilize the wrecks and failures of its own imperfect 
past." 
What can withstand this new inroad of slavery, this sinking of the 
unskilled into social bondage, but a thorough system of teaching 
skill to the inefficient, supplemented by almost infinite social sympathy 
for those who fail ? 
One of the best standards to-day to test the progress of construc- 
tive Christian charity of the various towns and cities of our own or 
any country, is to see what practical measures have been devised to 
convert the inefficient into an efficient worker. 
Charity sewing-schools were rather a poor start. Laundries 
followed, and promise well. 52 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
In Boston, Trinity Church has for a dozen years carried on Trinity 
Laundry to teach skill and provide work, employing about a hundred 
different women annually, and paying out in wages about $3,500 
each year. 
Several other agencies are at work also expressly aiming to teach 
skill in some handiwork to adults who desire this aid, some of whom 
should rank as inefficient, while others may have used well all their 
opportunities, but are ambitious of further progress. 
Then the Wells Memorial Workingmen's Institute has for years 
offered free evening instruction to journeymen seeking knowledge in 
their own trades. The class on the steam engine attracts mechanics to 
the weekly lecture from towns within a radius of twenty miles, while 
that on electricity given by Prof. Puffer to over a hundred of the 
journeymen working in all departments of that difficult art, is 
perhaps the most interesting attempt to aid workingmen to increased 
skill. 
The Cooper Institute in New York, and the Pratt Institute in 
Brooklyn, train young men before they begin work. So also do 
Col. Auchmuty's admirable trade schools in New York. The 
mechanic art schools of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, St. Louis 
and Chicago, are full of promise for the increased skill and larger 
earnings and brighter future of the youth of our land. 
Has all of this nothing to do with my subject? Everything to do 
with it. I will be silent in despair, unless we who want to solve the 
problem of our cities' poverty can hope to see our whole land tingle 
with the fixed and intelligent resolve that the boys and the girls as 
they grow up, shall have, besides such training of the brain in books 
as they can get and hold, such training also of all the rest of the 
body, the various senses, especially the eye and the finger, as will 
fill the land with artistic and skilled mechanics, and so increase the 
earning powers of labor and open a brighter future for workingmen. 
Here then is one great remedy for the evil conditions which create 
need. The whole standard of manual skill and of cultivated taste 
must be raised and widely disseminated, so that the children of the 
working classes shall have a fair chance in the race of life, and not 
start under such heavy handicap that they soon fail and despair. 
What city will, however, dare to appeal from my decision that for 
thorough system for training the inefficient into skill, and inspiring 
them with new courage for the struggle of life, Brooklyn is entitled 
to the palm ? PAINE. 
53 
The Bedford Industrial Building* just completed at Brooklyn 
under the guiding inspiration of Mr. G. B. Buzelle, who has just 
*"The work of our Bureau of Charities in Brooklyn has-been in part the 
evolution of our surroundings in Brooklyn, part Mr. Buzelle's ten years 
devoted service, and part and most largely the experience of some of our most 
capable friendly visitors, committeemen or trustees, in which together with 
many others I have had a certain part. Actually the woodyards, laundries 
and work-rooms in turn were embodiments of suggestions and requests 
coming back to the board from our visitors, and not provided in advance of 
such. 
" We have been occupying for five years, as tenants, a building which we 
fitted up in very much the same way as the new Bedford Building is fitted up, 
and in which our central offices, central laundry, workrooms, etc., are now 
located under a twenty years' lease. In the Bedford Building, which we own, 
we were not able to make a great many changes that seemed to us improve- 
ments. The changes we did make are really of minor importance. That tells 
you better than anything else how satisfied we have been with the plans 
evolved five years ago. Besides the building which we lease, and the Bedford 
Building which we own, we need one more building, but shall have to wait 
some years for it. The three buildings together would give us a triangle with 
about two miles distance on each side, three centres of work from which we 
think we could take care of our work in good shape for a good many years to 
come. We should not change the scheme or plan of the buildings in any way 
that I can now think of. 
"As to the general interest in Brooklyn in the Bureau of Charities, I should 
say it is steadily increasing and in a wholesome fashion, but our supporters 
are more among the middle and less wealthy classes than among those of the 
largest means. This is wholesome for the future, while it drops the financial 
burden on a few for the present."-Copy of Letter of Alfred T. White to R. T. 
Paine, May 27, 1893. 
" Day after day and week after week," writes Alfred T. White, " our friendly 
visitors came back to us saying, 'This man or this woman says he cannot get 
work, but would take it if he could. What shall we do ?' To-day we answer 
the question in two well-equipped laundries, two large workrooms for 
unskilled and unrecommended women, and two woodyards for able-bodied 
men, all under the control of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. There the 
visitor quickly learns whether the applicant really wishes work, and whether 
he will stick to work if found; and if this be proved, effort is made to secure 
for him more permanent and remunerative employment. Some of our visitors 
are wise enough to recognize that the moment a woman enters the workroom 
marks a crisis in the life of many an applicant for aid, and as the chemist stands 
by his crucible and watches for the time when the pure metal may be detached 
from its impurities, so the friend who stands by in such a crisis of life sees the 
elements of character slowly separating, and may eliminate some of the baser stuff 
before this supreme opportunity is lost. Such work-rooms without the friendly 54 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
closed a life of exquisite devotion, and of Mr. A. T. White, and by 
gifts incited by their aid, at a cost of about $40,000, seems to me on 
the whole the best building ever yet built as a workshop of human 
character, to lift on to their feet the poor who largely for lack of skill 
are discouraged and down, and to enable them to stand and walk.. 
The Bedford Industrial Building seems to me to serve such a 
useful function in the supremely interesting problem of how to deal 
with the inefficient, broken-down, depressed poor of our great cities, 
not properly equipped for the struggle of life, that I try thus to 
attract the utmost attention to its methods and aims. 
What city has got its one or more Bedford Industrial Buildings? 
What city is there which can do without? 
Let me magnify my office for a good purpose, and declare that no 
city is adequately equipped which has not one or more Industrial 
Training Buildings to provide training for the inefficient, and while 
this process is going on, also powerful personal encouragement and 
cheer from loving friends. 
Conclusions. 
These are the conclusions drawn from a study of the sadder side 
of life in great cities. 
The separate problem of poor relief is insoluble. 
Pauperism, vice and crime are common factors of the inseparable 
and tremendous problem of how to uplift the general conditions of 
life among the poor. 
First. The difficulties increase in more than geometrical ratio 
with the masses of congestion no longer of pauperism alone, but of 
vice and crime and broken health commingled into base and often 
brutal degradation. 
Second. Negative treatment, the mere principle of repression, 
while just as needed to-day and always, as when declared in the 
reform of 1834, not only fails to repel paupers in their lowest estate, 
but tends to degrade them into that reckless or brutal indifference, 
so much sadder for them as well as more hopeless for society, while 
also it is open to such charge of harshness to the worthy aged poor, 
more numerous in England than here, that English philanthropy 
visitor woiild be worthless ; they would be solely so many shops ; but the friendly 
visitor's work gives them a character and influence which can hardly be over- 
estimated."- On the Friendly Visitor's Opportunity. Charities Review for 
April, 1893,/. 328. PAINE. 
55 
wavers towards a vast scheme of pensioning all the aged, good and 
bad, rich and poor alike, a burden I fear too tremendous to be 
borne. 
This principle of repression sinks the humane Wayfarers' Lodge 
of Boston, or Philadelphia, or as proposed in New York, into the 
prison cell of London's casual ward. 
Repression alone makes guardians or overseers of the poor, and 
all relieving agents, managers of almshouses, jails and prisons, and 
especially the police* who guard the city's peace, hard, cold and 
unsympathetic, so that the sad multitude who pass under their influ- 
ence grow more brutally defiant. 
In short, mere repression is a cruel and unchristian failure. 
Third. Therefore, all work among the poor and wretched, 
whether done by official agents, or police, or friendly visitors, whose 
name should be legion, all efforts to keep families unbroken and 
children near to the love of a widowed mother, all efforts to train 
and cheer the inefficient must be permeated, energized, ennobled 
by the mighty force of love;- 
Love, which Drummond shows to be the greatest thing in the 
world, in that burst of inspiration which every one should read;- 
Love, described by St. Paul in one of the three noblest chapters of 
all human literature ;- 
Love, which so moved the soul of God, that He sent His Son to 
•our rescue;- 
Love, not in weak sentiment, but strengthened by all the vigorous 
firmness of strong men, so that repression may be resolute; yet 
conscious love shall permeate every fibre of the force which would 
hope to deal successfully with the pauper, the criminal or the brute. 
Love is the motive to summon hundreds of friendly visitors from 
their sunny homes, to go down into the wretched abodes of gloom, 
where the battle of civilization is to be lost or won, ready to act up 
to their motto of " Not alms but a friend,"f and seeking a fuller 
*"Moreover, there are few persons in the community more deserving of the 
sympathy and support of good people than an honest policeman located in a 
bad city quarter. He has to stem the tide of the city's moral defilement, as 
no other person is called upon to do; and he is almost wholly deprived of the 
uplift, which nearly every social worker now feels, that comes from knowing 
of a great body of true men and women who are glad of the work he is doing." 
fFirst used by Robert Treat Paine in his address to the Baptist Union on 
Dec. 29, 1879 56 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
me isure of ingenuity, discrimination and patience than Boston has 
learned, guided by the lesson of encouraging success described by 
Alfred T. White, in Brooklyn, inspired by the life work and words 
of wisdom of Octavia Hill in London, till this spirit shall recreate 
the relations of the wretched and the happy ; and the superb energies 
of philanthropy in New York shall not rest content even with such 
noble gifts as John M. Kennedy's offering of a United Charities Build- 
ing at a cost of $600,000, as a headquarters for organized charity,, 
but all shall rather see in it a proclamation of hope for every sufferer, 
and of summons to every child of God to give personal service in 
adequate measure till the sunlight of heaven shall dispel miasma 
from every home of woe. 
So that before long personal service, easily equal to the task in 
every other American city, shall not fail in Chicago, nor even in 
New York, whose congested population gathers into crowded limits 
the various forms of degraded life from many foreign lands, and 
across the ocean shall find some remedy for that Dead Sea of Liver- 
pool, and rise to the supreme task for charity which earth now offers 
in the countless multitude of London. 
Love is the motive which builds into beauty and power Toynbee 
Hall and Oxford House, Neighborhood Guilds, Andover House and 
Denison, and, not surpassed by any, Hull House here at Chicago; 
all these college settlements, the latest and loveliest manifestation of* 
the fierce grip which suffering and sin fasten on the sympathies of 
noble culture. 
Love is the force which impels Brooklyn to build its Bedford 
Industrial Buildings and to fill them with a spirit of wisdom and 
sympathy which alone can save the army of inefficient from their 
impending slavery. 
Love is the force which summons all whose lot is sunny to join 
workingmen in their strenuous demand for justice. 
Love is the force to ennoble the career of the policeman into 
dignity, prompting him to save by friendly counsel the wild lads 
before their wildness issues in such crime that he must strike it 
down. 
Love is the motive and personal service is the method by which 
tens of thousands of Christian churches are to go out in their 
ministry, not only by their thousands of priests ordained by the hand 
of man, but more effectively by their hundreds of thousands of men 
and women, consecrated by the spirit of God, into every haunt of 
wretched life. PAINE. 
57 
Repression guided by love, love reinforced by repression, must 
unite to deal with every one of the various phases of the pauper 
problem. 
Wisdom too must stand at the helm as pilot. No cause for fear 
when among the leaders of the social reform are the wise and strong 
men who are at the head of the great universities of learning. Pres- 
ident Daniel C. Gilman, of Johns Hopkins, Seth Low, of Columbia, 
William J. Tucker, of Dartmouth, Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard, 
John H. Finley, of Knox, and your own Frederick Harper, at 
Chicago and Francis A. Walker of the Boston Institute of Technol- 
ogy bring to any cause they support strength Soci- 
ology takes rank in the colleges as a worthy study for men who 
propose to rule or aid their fellowmen. The rise of this study has 
been so rapid that only a few years ago it was introduced at Harvard 
as a half course, and a bit later the printer's devil would have had 
Professor Peabody say that it was " raised from a half curse to a 
whole curse." Now no college is equipped without a competent 
professor of sociology.* 
Public sentiment in the community must also be aroused to take 
interest in all judicious movements, for instance, to support overseers 
of the poor in enforcing strict rules against lax relief, police in pie- 
venting children from begging, boards of health in preventing "any 
portion of the people from living in houses which are unfit for human 
habitation." 
We rejoice to count as sure allies, literature and the power of the 
press. If " Uncle Tom " abolished slavery, so has the " Bitter Cry " 
been heard round the world ; " Prisoners of Poverty " must go free; 
"All Sorts and Conditions of Men" have their Palace of Industry. 
The author's pen dipped in the blood of those who suffer, writes 
with power. 
Nothing is more wonderful than the speed of modern events, the 
rapidity with which an avalanche of reform overwhelms all opposition 
after it has begun to move. 
This International Congress of Charities meets to-day for the first 
time on the soil of America. It is honored by the counsel of illustri- 
ous men and women distinguished for philanthropic devotion horn 
many lands. 
* It was my hope to promote this study at Harvard as well as to strengthen 
this movement by the aid of thoroughly trained experts, by founding a fellow- 
ship for sociology. 58 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
What result laden with larger measure of blessing for the humbler 
ranks of men can issue from this Congress, than a deep conviction 
upon all minds that the great preventible causes of human degrada- 
tion can be and must be abolished ? 
AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION OF CHARITY IN 
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
OSCAR CRAIG, LATE PRESIDENT OF STATE BOARD OF 
CHARITIES OF NEW YORK. 
My invitation to present a paper on topics relating to " The 
American Poorhouse, its Past, Present and Future," conveys from 
the secretary of the section, the following suggestions, viz.: 
"A discussion of this subject would probably show, as well as that of any 
other, the character of our public relief system, for the poorhouse may fairly 
be called, I presume, the corner-stone of this system. The committee would 
suggest that perhaps your paper might show, among other things, the growing 
specialization of relief, and so might properly speak of the provision that has 
been made on the part of the state and municipalities, for classes once housed 
in the poorhouses and almshouses." 
It will, however, within the allotted compass, be impossible to 
take in the points thus indicated in the circumference of each of the 
forty-four states. Selection is therefore made, not by eliminating 
any of the sections indicated, but by confining their consideration 
mainly to one of these nearly half-hundred circles of statehood. 
For, while each is a sovereignty in respect of the subjects here 
considered, all are akin in language, literature and institutions. 
The Empire State excelling in population and wealth, and not 
surpassed in moral enterprise and intelligence, is therefore chosen 
as the proper theatre for treatment of the themes presented by the 
secretary. 
In passing to our topics we note by the way that general descrip- 
tions of the poorhouse systems and the poor laws of various states 
may be found in the published proceedings of the National Confer- 
ence of Charities and Correction, at its annual sessions, including CRAIG. 
59 
reports from states and also articles by specialists, among which 
particular mention is made of the paper given at the eleventh session 
by Mr. Frank B. Sanborn, of Massachusetts, on the Management of 
Almshouses in New England. 
The political unit in New York being the county, unlike that in 
Massachusetts, which is the town, the administration of its poorhouse 
system is vested by the Revised Statutes (p. 620, §24) in the county, 
and the existence of town poorhouses is by sufferance of the county. 
The second annual report of the State Board of Charities, in the year 
1869, refers to out-relief as the chief form of dispensation to the indi- 
gent in Hamilton and Schuyler counties, and to several town poor- 
houses in Suffolk and Queens counties on Long Island. There 
are now four town poorhouses, two in Schuyler county and two in 
Queens county, and there is no county house in either Hamilton or 
Schuyler county. 
Including the almshouse of the city and county of New York, 
with its various departments, and the almshouse of the county of 
Kings, which embraces the city of Brooklyn, there are now fifty- 
eight county poorhouses, besides five city almshouses proper, situate 
respectively at Kingston, Newburgh, Oswego, Poughkeepsie and 
Utica. In the larger towns of Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Troy 
and Syracuse the city poor are cared for in the poorhouses of their 
respective counties. On these and related points there have been 
few changes during the last twenty-five years. 
But the quarter-century presents remarkable variances from 
beginning to end in many respects. The average population of the 
county houses has increased from 7,760 to 20,918 ; and their total 
census in the first year, 21,529, was, in the last year, raised to 
83,667. The ratio is more nearly in geometrical than in arithmetical 
progression, and is out of all correspondence with the growth of 
population in the state, which, by the federal census of 1870, was 
4,382,759, by the federal census of 1890 was 5,981,834, and by the 
state enumeration of 1892 was 6,513,343. Thus while the period 
shows that the number of the inhabitants of the state increased 
about fifty per cent., it discovers an increase in the average number 
of inmates of these county houses almost three hundred per cent., 
and in their total number annually received nearly four hundred 
per cent. In brief, the dependents domiciled in the poorhouses 
multiplied six to eight times faster than the inhabitants of the state. 
Though relief outside of institutions comes within the scope of this 60 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
paper only in its relation to indoor relief, it is, for such relativity of 
knowledge, proper to observe that the number receiving out-relief 
at the beginning of the quarter-century was 50,983, and at the end 
was 131,439, showing increase at less rapid rale than indoor relief. 
It is the tendency of counties and cities to lessen the public adminis- 
tration of out-relief, and to favor the substitution of its private dis- 
pensation, and to refer its problems to "charity organizations and other 
voluntary instrumentalities. This trend is in accordance with the 
views of the State Board of Charities, which regards governmental 
agency in out-relief as open to the objections against municipal poli- 
tics in charity administration, the influence of which is apt to be in 
the promotion rather than the prevention of pauperism, together with 
the neglect of the modest and honest poor, whose votes are not 
purchasable, and whose wants and griefs are not paraded in the 
market-places. 
It is of practical as well as curious interest to note that the ratio 
between native and foreign born paupers, at the beginning of 
the era, was about three of natives to six of foreigners; while at the 
end it is about three of natives to five of foreigners. This decrease 
in the proportion of alien paupers, though apparently small in effect, 
is relatively of large moment in comparison with the increase during 
the same period in volume of immigration, including defective, degen- 
erate, delinquent and otherwise dangerous and dependent classes. 
These considerations lead to inquiries respecting the evils of illicit 
immigration, and the remedies which have mitigated if they have 
not completely corrected them. 
There can be no doubt that municipal governments, charitable 
societies, families and individuals, in Great Britain and various coun- 
tries in Europe, have promoted the emigration of criminals, lunatics, 
outcasts and paupers, directed or destined to the United States, 
principally through the port of New York. The late Martin B. 
Anderson, LL. D., president of the Rochester University and mem- 
ber of the State Board of Charities for the Seventh Judicial District, 
submitted to the board a paper, dated January 12, 1875, which cites 
admissions made by publicists and other authorities abroad, showing 
this fact. And it has been confirmed by proofs annually gathered 
since the year 1873 by the observations and examinations of 
Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, secretary of the State Board of Charities, and 
by the correspondence of Hon. John H. Van Antwerp, its vice-presi- 
dent, and by the findings of the board made in its annual reports to 
the Legislature. CRAIG. 
61 
The state of New York has sought relief in various enactments. 
Chapter 277 of the laws of 1831, and chapter 230 of the laws of 1833, 
were practically inoperative, on account of the difficulty of proving 
the intent or knowledge of the master of the vessel or other person 
introducing the convict or the pauper into the state. The act passed 
May 15, 1847, entitled "An act concerning passengers in vessels 
coming to the United States," and the amendatory and supplementary 
acts created commissioners of emigration, and among other things 
made the consignees, masters, agents and owners of vessels liable for 
the support of immigrants who were " lunatic, idiot, deaf, dumb, blind, 
infirm, maimed, over sixty years old, widows having families, or for 
any cause unable to support themselves," provided that such liability 
might be discharged by paying a commutation tax of two dollars and 
fifty cents per capita on all immigrants, within twenty-four hours after 
leaving the vessel. The result, of course, was that the commutation 
money was always assessed on the emigrant at his place of departure. 
The law directed the commissioners to pay from such money the cost 
of maintaining such immigrants as became a public charge within 
the state, but not beyond a period of five years from landing. This 
statutory indemnity was inadequate, on account of the short term of 
maintenance and of the small sum of " head money by reason of 
which the commissioners, though restricted by the five years'clause, 
incurred debts which their resources would not cancel. While about 
nine thousand foreigners were thus maintained from such commuta- 
tion money between the years 1868 and 1873 inclusive-a period 
just prior to the first subsequent legislation hereafter mentioned- 
there were foreign-born inmates of county poorhouses and city alms- 
houses in the state during the same six years to an annual average 
of thirty-five thousand to forty thousand, being about two-thirds of 
the total population of these houses, though foreign-born persons 
were only about one-third of the total census of the state. Another 
inevitable limitation in the law was that it could cover only the ports 
of entry within its jurisdiction, while the classes of defective and 
dependent persons provided against were in large numbers shipped 
to Canadian ports, and thence forwarded over che border, with their 
destinations practically fixed, as if ticketed, to the poorhouses and 
almshouses of the counties and cities of the state. 
This statute provoked comments from jurists on the question of its 
validity. Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States, in the 
case of Henderson et al. v. Mayor of New York et al., decided in PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
62 
October, 1875,* declared that the provisions in the law for levying 
the tax on immigrants, and the penalties leading to it, were in regu- 
lation of commerce, and therefore in violation of the federal con- 
stitution. 
After this decision, cutting off the inflow of the " head money," 
the unnaturalized paupers, who had floated on the currents of immi- 
gration and had become moored by our charity cables and the five 
years' clause, were supported by the commissioner of emigration on 
Ward's Island, from appropriations by the legislature of the state, in 
the years 1876 to 1883, amounting to $1,140,500; and on credit in 
county poorhouses, city almshouses, incorporated hospitals, orphan 
asylums and other charitable institutions, in the further amount of 
$105,008.96, which is a debt against the state to be paid from the pro- 
ceeds of the sale of its property on Ward's Island ; and also from a 
loan of $200,000 made in 1875 by the Emigrants' Industrial Savings 
Bank of New York, secured by a mortgage on the Ward's Island 
property, which mortgage was, in 1882, assigned to the comptroller 
of the state as an investment for the United States Deposit Fund, 
thus making the funny combination of a mortgage held by the state 
on its own property and as security for trust-funds. 
But these various sums represent only a small part of the deficiency 
of the " head moneys," as already shown by reference to the ordi- 
nary statistics of alien pauperism, which was a public charge not on 
the state at large, but on counties and cities. The proofs demon- 
strate that the Supreme Court, in cutting off the commutation con- 
tracts, released the people of New York state from a most destructive 
and deplorable -policy of inviting foreign convicts, lunatics and 
paupers to come under an implied covenant of maintenance for five 
years and probably for life. 
At the time of this decision (1875) there was no national statute on 
the subject. Subsequently federal legislation was repeatedly invoked 
by the State Board of Charities of New York, in correspondence with 
the State Department and senators and representatives at Washing- 
ton, and with the National Conference of Charities and Correction, and 
the boards and authorities of other states. The result of the agita- 
tion was the act of Congress to regulate immigration, passed in 1882, 
by which it was provided, among other things, that if there shall be 
found among emigrants on vessels, "any convict, lunatic, idiot, or 
any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becom- 
*92 U. S. Reports, 259. CRAIG. 
63 
ing a public charge, . . . such person shall not be permitted to 
land." This law was, in pursuance of its provisions, at first executed 
by state authorities, but subsequently by virtue of further enactments 
was enforced by federal officers, under regulations of the Secretary 
of the Treasury of the United States. Assuming, for argument's 
sake, that its administration has been reasonably diligent, the fact 
remains that great numbers of alien paupers have annually eluded 
the federal examinations and obtained a footing on our shores, 
perhaps the majority of whom infest the city and the state of New 
York. 
The legislature of the state has provided for the.return of such 
foreign and unnaturalized paupers as are assisted by cities, charitable 
societies and other agencies to emigrate, after the expiration of one 
year from their immigration (which is the period limiting such action 
by officers under the federal statute). Under the alien pauper law of 
New York, enacted in 1880, and enforced by the chief secretary of 
its State Board of Charities, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine of 
these assisted immigrants, most of them being remnants of the 
imperfect execution of the law of Congress, have been sent to their 
homes or places of settlement, by through tickets to those places in 
foreign countries. Such returns have been accomplished in humane 
ways, at an expense of less than twenty-one dollars per capita, or 
about one-fifth of the cost of maintenance for one year, computed at 
two dollars per week, and about one seventy-fifth of their support 
for life, on an estimate of expectation of fifteen years, which is verified 
by experience. Thus at a total expenditure of $40,916.40, the expul- 
sion of these organized invaders of the soil of New York has saved 
to the taxpayers of the state over $2,890,000. 
These general statistics are taken in substance from the annual 
reports of the State Board of Charities to the legislature of New 
York, from the last of which the following data are copied, to wit: 
" During the fiscal year ending September 30, 1892, the Board removed 150 
alien paupers from the poorhouses, almshouses, hospitals, asylums and other 
charitable institutions of this state, and sent them to their homes in different 
countries of Europe, pursuant to chapter 549 of the laws of 1880, as follows : 
To England 16; to Ireland n ; to Scotland 9 ; to Germany 34; to Austria- 
Hungary 14 ; to Russia 11 ; to Italy 39; to Switzerland 8 ; to France 4, and to 
Sweden and Denmark each 2; total 150. 
"The examinations showed that these persons were deported to this coun- 
try from their several European homes by the following agencies, viz.: By 
cities, towns and other municipalities, 13; by various benevolent, charitable 64 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
and immigration associations and societies, 38; by relatives,, guardians and 
friends, 77 ; by individuals and companies under agreement to labor, 22 ; total, 
150. 
"According to the statements of these persons, they were landed in this coun- 
try as follows: In New York, 125; at other United States ports, 17; at 
various Canadian ports, 8 ; total, 150. 
" Their condition at the time of landing, as developed by the examinations, 
was as follows : Lunatic, 9 ; imbecile, 6 ; epileptic, 3 ; paralytic, 5 ; vagrant and 
diseased, 27 ; old and decrepit, 22; blind, 2 ; crippled, 7 ; deformed, 4 ; feeble- 
minded, 26; otherwise diseased, 39 ; total, 150." 
Preceding the alien pauper law was the state pauper law, enacted 
June 7, 1873, and amended in 1874 and 1875, which is still in full 
force and effect. Under its provisions, the secretary of the State 
Board of Charities returns to their homes or friends in other states 
of the Union and other countries, state paupers, that is to say, 
dependent persons having no legal settlement by sixty days' resi- 
dence in any of the counties of the state, and found by the secretary 
in the state almshouses, which are certain county poorhouses 
selected and designated by the state board as receptacles of these 
classes. 
The report of the State Board of Charities, transmitted to the 
legislature for the fiscal year 1892, shows that the whole number 
of persons committed as state paupers under this act since it went 
into effect, October 22, 1873, has been 25,520, viz: males, 19,908; 
females, 5,612. Of these 15,980 have been furnished transportation 
to their homes or places of legal settlement in other states and coun- 
tries, and this state thus released of the burden and expense of their 
support and care through life. To have maintained these paupers 
in the poorhouses and almshouses of the state, at the low rate of 
$100 each per annum, wQuld have involved an annual outlay of 
$1,507,100; and, calculating the average duration of their lives at 
fifteen years, they would, in the end, have entailed the enormous 
expenditure of $24,928,800, by the various cities and counties of the 
state. The average annual expense since the law went into effect, 
for maintenance, supervision and care, and for the removal of 15,980 
helpless paupers to their homes or places of legal settlement, has 
been less than $40,000, or about $25 per person. 
Every invasion of the delinquent, diseased and destitute classes 
which is finally turned back by the state government, if not at first 
repelled by the federal authorities, deters unnumbered irruptions of 
similar sorts; by making such experiments of vagrant mendicants CRAIG. 
65 
through interstate migration uncertain, or rather rendering it almost 
certain that their ventures will prove unprofitable and unpleasant to 
themselves; and by discouraging benevolent societies, municipali- 
ties and government agencies in Europe, from their bolder attempts 
to organize such immoral incursions into our territory. Thus the 
state pauper law and the alien pauper law have not only immediately 
effected an actual saving of over $25,000,000 as already computed, 
but on a fair estimate of probabilities have resulted in sparing the 
resources of the state the useless expenditure of still larger sums of 
money. 
These results are due to the conservative but effective execution 
of these laws by the secretary of the state board, Dr. Charles S. 
Hoyt, whose wise exercise of discretion has prevented occasion for 
any well-grounded complaint during the whole period of his admin- 
istration. 
The residue of alien and other unsettled paupers not returned to 
their homes are maintained by the state in certain county poorhouses 
selected by the State Board of Charities and designated State Alms- 
houses. At the beginning of this fiscal year there were thus main- 
tained in the various state almshouses, 159; at the several state 
hospitals for the insane 53, and at an orphan asylum 1, making 
altogether 213 state paupers. 
Comparisons with other states show that this special work in New 
York has been accompanied with similar labors and results in 
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania on the seaboard; and, as to inter- 
state migration, in other commonwealths of the Union; and that 
regarding state almshouses, the West has generally followed not the 
law of Massachusetts for their separate establishment, but the law 
for their selection from county houses which obtains in New York. 
While these improved methods for reducing the number of alien 
and unsettled paupers have been followed, improved measures have 
been adopted for the dispensation of indoor relief to the diseased, 
defective and dependent inhabitants of the state. The organization 
of such relief has been developed by differentiating the beneficiaries, 
first, on lines of classification under the poorhouse roof; and second, 
on lines of separation and segregation in institutions respectively 
adapted to various sorts of special needs. 
The classification of the inmates of the poorhouses has not been 
carried far beyond the distinction of sex. But this distinction has 
come to be well observed in most of the poorhouses and almshouses, PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
66 
both day and night. The contrast in this respect between the 
present time and the beginning of the quarter-century of the State 
Board of Charities is marked. 
The second report of the state board represents the conditions at 
the beginning of the quarter-century, from which the following is an 
excerpt: 
" But few of the poorhouses of the state, owing to their arrangement, admit 
of a proper classification of their inmates. The authorities, in most of them, 
aim to keep the sexes separated at night, but this is only partially accom- 
plished. During the day there is an indiscriminate and unrestricted associa- 
tion of all classes, including the aged and respectable, children, insane, idiotic 
and blind ; together with the middle-aged, able-bodied, slothful, debased and 
profane of both sexes. In most cases they partake of a common fare at a 
common table, and not infrequently share with one another a common dormi- 
tory. The effects of such an association can be better conceived than 
described. Its fruits will be reaped in a large increase of pauperism and 
crime, coupled with grievous and burdensome taxation. During the year 304 
children were born in these establishments, a large proportion of whom were 
illegitimate; and 799 of their inmates absconded, many of them to become, 
quite probably, a public charge, as vagrants or criminals." 
Other features of this picture of 1868 are as follows: 
"An examination of the foregoing table shows that, at the time of visitation 
of the several poorhouses of the state, there were found present 7,019 per- 
sons of all classes. Included among the number were 1,222 children under 
sixteen years of age; 1,528 insane; 314 idiotic; 87 blind, and 44 deaf and 
dumb; all others, 3,825. Full one-fourth of the latter were middle-aged, and 
apparently without infirmity or disease. There were also a considerable 
number of sick and crippled, many of whom, it was stated by those in charge, 
had been inmates for a long time. A few were observed presenting appear- 
ances of intelligence and respectability, but these were mainly among the aged 
and children. 
" Nearly all the poorhouses throughout the state are old, and most of them 
are out of repair. With but few exceptions they are badly constructed, ill 
arranged, and are without proper ventilation or suitable appliances for bathing. 
In a large proportion of them the rooms are small and the ceilings low. At 
the time of inspection, in many of them the air was hot, foul and oppressive, 
and to the casual visitor hardly endurable. The rooms are often crowded, 
especially in winter, and much of the sickness and wretchedness of their 
inmates doubtless results therefrom. 
" In the absence of proper hospital accommodation, the sick in most of the 
poorhouses are treated and cared for in the ordinary rooms associated with 
others ; and in several instances, owing to the lack of suitable buildings for 
the isolation and treatment of contagious diseases, the infection has spread CRAIG. 
67 
among all the inmates, resulting in great mortality. During the past year 841 
deaths occurred in these institutions, in an average population of a little over 
7,000 persons. Such a large ratio of mortality would seem to indicate 
inexcusable negligence of the sick, and it should attract public attention and 
the attention of the authorities responsible for their treatment and care. . . . 
"In nearly all of the counties of the state the authorities have provided 
separate buildings for the insane. These are generally small and ill arranged, 
and, with but few exceptions, wholly unsuited for the purposes to which they 
are applied. None of them are constructed so as to admit classification of 
the insane, with reference to the various forms and stages of the disease-the 
acute and chronic, the maniacal and quiet occupying the same floor, and not 
unfrequently share with one another the same cell. The sexes generally 
are kept separated at night, but in most cases they hold unrestricted inter- 
course during the day, nor are the insane protected from the intrusions of the 
ordinary paupers. Instances frequently occur where insane women become 
mothers in the poorhouses, and two such cases have fallen under observation, 
at the time of inspection, during the present year. 
" But few of the county institutions contain the appliances necessary for the 
treatment of the insane, yet recent cases are being constantly received and 
held in these institutions, without effort on the part of the authorities to 
secure them admission to the state asylum. Several such cases were found at 
the time of inspection. When excited they are locked up in cells or chained ; 
when quiet they are allowed their liberty, and escapes often occur. Two 
hundred and thirteen were found thus restrained at the time of inspection, 
many of whom, it was represented, had been confined for years, and several of 
them were nearly, and two entirely nude. . . 
"The condition of the insane, idiotic, blind and others, unavoidably com- 
pelled to accept a home in the county poorhouses, is truly deplorable, allusions 
to which will be fully made in the detailed accounts of the inspection of these 
institutions in the after pages of this report. The poorhouses of the state, 
to a considerable extent, have become the abodes of the vagrant and idle, and 
if by chance respectable citizens, in consequence of poverty, infirmity, disease 
or misfortune of any kind, are compelled to accept a home in them, they 
necessarily become their associates. Vice and poverty assemble under the 
same roof, and this association in a great measure defeats the objects for 
which the institutions were established. The citizens generally manifest but 
little interest in their condition, and really know but little of their true 
character. They are usually visited annually by the board of supervisors ; 
but are seldom inspected, except upon the occasion of such visits." 
But over these chaotic conditions there hovered the brooding spirit 
of humanity, evoking order and reforms and remedies for almost all 
the evils here depicted. The exception is in the failure properly to 
classify the inmates under the poorhouse roof, save as has been 
already stated on the distinguishing line of sex, where classification 
is now well observed and maintained as a rule ; and save also on the 68 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
line of plain demarcation between the merely infirm, who at present 
comprise the great majority of inmates, and the very sick, who now 
are usually cared for in hospital buildings or rooms set apart. With 
these two saving clauses there is no proper classification. 
The separation of the sexes, which has been effected in the county 
houses, will, it is believed, be followed by better classification of the 
inmates. The obstacles now in the way are not so frequently the 
results of maladministration as they are the necessary effects of bad 
construction of old buildings. But all obstructions must give way 
to the obligation of respecting the worthy poor, who have become 
dependent through losses of friends or health or property, and of 
separating them from vagrant or vicious paupers. Such classifica- 
tion for indoor relief, with private charity properly organized outside, 
will remove the last excuse for the public dispensation of out-relief. 
The consummation will afford another illustration of the harmony 
between humanity as a social and political duty and public policy. 
This imperfect distribution and administration by classes is, in 
large measure, due to defective construction of buildings. To secure 
relief, much attention has been given by the State Board of Charities 
to "poorhouse construction," chiefly through Mr. Letchworth, one 
of its members, whose paper on this subject, appended to the report 
of the board to the Legislature in 1879, and his subsequent article 
read before the state convention of county superintendents in 1891, 
are authorities. Among the exhibits furnished by the state board, 
and now in the Columbian Exposition, is the model of a poorhouse 
in a rural county. 
But while complete classification within the walls of the poorhouse 
for the protection of the cleanly against the filthy, of the morally 
clean against the defiled and the corrupting, and of the refined 
against the vulgar and the brutal, has not been secured ; the segre- 
gation in separate institutions of the blind, the deaf, the insane and 
the feeble-minded, as well as of children, has progressed to present 
certainty and promised completeness of development. The domi- 
ciling of these classes in their respective schools, hospitals and 
asylums clearly indicates the humanitarian spirit of the last quarter- 
century. 
It was even earlier that asylums or schools for the blind and the 
deaf were inaugurated. CRAIG. 
69 
By chapter 325, of laws of 1863, as amended by chapter 180 of 
laws of 1870, chapter 548 of laws of 1871, and chapter 213 of laws 
of 1875, deaf children of indigent parents are provided for as follows: 
"§i. Whenever a deaf-mute child, under the age of twelve years, shall 
become a charge for its maintenance on any of the towns or counties of this 
state, or shall be liable to become such charge, it shall be the duty of the 
overseers of the poor of the town, or of the supervisors of such county, to 
place such child in the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, or in 
the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, or in.the Le Cou- 
teulx St. Mary's Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, in 
the city of Buffalo, or in the Central New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, in 
the city of Rome, or in any institution of the state for the education of deaf- 
mutes. 
" §2. Any parent, guardian or friend of a deaf-mute child within this state, 
over the age of six years and under the age of twelve years, may make appli- 
cation to the overseers of the poor of any town, or to any supervisor of the 
county where said child may be, showing by satisfactory affidavit, or other 
proof, that the health, morals or comfort of such child may be endangered 
or not properly cared for, and thereupon it shall be the duty of such overseer 
or supervisor to place such child in the New York Institution for the Deaf and 
Dumb, or in the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, in the 
city of Buffalo, or in the Central New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, in the 
city of Rome, or in any institution in the state for the education of deaf-mutes. 
" §3. The children placed in said institutions in pursuance of the foregoing 
sections, shall be maintained therein at the expense of the county from whence 
they came, provided that such expense shall not exceed three hundred dollars 
per year, until they attain the age of twelve years, unless the directors of the 
institution to which a child has been sent shall find that such child is not a 
proper subject to remain in said institution." 
Besides such provisions for county pupils, there are provisions for 
the education, care and maintenance of state pupils between the ages 
of twelve and twenty-five years, being deaf, which further provisions 
are incorporated in the statutes relating to public instruction, being 
laws of 1886, chapter 615, §1, and laws of 1875, chapter 213. 
In addition to the institutions named in the foregoing acts, there 
have been several new ones since established with provisions of law 
bringing them within the same terms respecting county and state 
pupils. All of these schools, eight in number, are private corpora- 
tions receiving public aid, of which the following is a complete list, 
with census, October 1, 1892, to wit: 70 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, New York 
Males. 
208 
Females. Total 
88 
296 
Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, 
New York 
97 
93 
190 
Central New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Rome.... 
66 
67 
133 
Le Couteulx St. Mary's Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Buffalo 
70 
60 
130 
St. Joseph's Institution for the Improved Instruction of 
Deaf-Mutes, Fordham 
141 
158 
299 
Western New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Rochester 
87 
56 
153 
Northern New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Malone . 
51 
33 
84 
Albany Home School for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf 
7 
5 
12 
■ 
- - 
Total 
727 
570 
1297 
The aggregate number of pupils in these schools has been stationary 
during the last decade. 
The average per capita cost for each pupil, for the last fiscal year, 
was a little less than $300; but the aggregate cost was more than 
the public appropriations. 
The said schools being close corporations, there are, in the proper 
sense, no state institutions for the deaf. 
Hon. William Rhinelander Stewart of the State Board of Charities 
has made careful inspections and examinations of the methods 
obtaining in these schools during past years, and his reports have 
won recognition throughout the United States. 
. "An act to authorize the establishment of the New York State 
Institution for the Blind," passed April 27, 1865, with "An act to 
define the objects" of the same, passed April 24, 1867, has resulted 
in a flourishing school for the blind at Batavia, the end and scope of 
which are ordained as follows: 
"§4. The primary object of the institution shall be, to furnish to the blind 
children of the state the best known facilities for acquiring a thorough educa- 
tion, and train them in some useful profession or manual art, by means of 
which they may be enabled to contribute to their own support after leaving 
the institution; but it may likewise, through its industrial department, provide 
such of them with appropriate employment and boarding accommodations as 
find themselves unable, after completing their course of instruction and train- 
ing, to procure these elsewhere for themselves. It shall, however, be in no 
sense an asylum for those who are helpless from age, infirmity or otherwise, 
or a hospital for the treatment of blindness." 
Besides this one state school for the blind there is a private insti- 
tution for the same class, incorporated under an act passed April 21, 
1831, which was continued in force under chapter 333 of the laws CRAIG. 
71 
of 1852, which was amended by chapter 166 of thg laws of 1870. 
Section 1 of the act of 1870 is as follows : 
" §1. The managers of the New York Institution for the Blind are hereby 
authorized to receive, upon the appointment of the superintendent of public 
instruction, made for a term of not exceeding five years, all blind persons, 
residents of the counties of New York and Kings, between eight and twenty- 
five years of age, who, in the judgment of the board of managers of said insti- 
tution, shall be of suitable character and capacity for instruction, and shall 
have charge of their maintenance, education and support, and shall receive 
compensation therefor from the state in the same manner as is now provided 
by law. The term of such appointments may be extended, from time to time, 
by the superintendent of public instruction, on the recommendation of the 
board of managers of the said New York Institution for the Blind, for such 
further period as they may deem advantageous in each individual case." 
The census and the cost for each pupil in the respective schools 
for the blind, the State Institution at Batavia, and the corporate body 
in New York, both of which have their current expenses met by the 
state, are as follows : 
State Institution. 
Average population, 130 
Per capita cost per year, $250.64 
Corporate Institution. 
Average population, 202 
Per capita cost per year, $286.52 
The aggregate number in public schools for the blind, 332, con- 
trasts strongly with the aggregate number in public schools for the 
deaf, 1,297. But during the same period there were in the alms- 
houses of Kings and New York counties, and in city almshouses, 
212 blind persons, besides 67 in the Home for the Blind, New York, 
making a total of 705 blind persons, indigent and dependent for 
maintenance or education, upon public provision. This total it seems 
is about one-half the total of indigent deaf persons similarly depend- 
ent. The tables published by the State Board of Charities in 1891 
show that in the county poorhouses and city almshouses there were 
for the preceding fiscal year, 299 blind persons and 54 deaf persons. 
"An act to establish an asylum for idiots," passed July 10, 1851, is 
the first enactment for such a state institution in New York. Under 
acts amendatory and supplementary the asylum has developed into a 
school for the education and training of teachable idiots. Chapter 
220 of the laws of 1862, as amended in 1867 and 1878, provides 
among other things for the selection, admission, removal and support 
■of pupils as follows : 
" §20. There shall be received and supported gratuitously in the asylum 
■one hundred and twenty pupils, to be selected in equal numbers, as near as 72 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
may be, from each judicial district, from those whose parents or guardians are 
unable to provide for their support therein, to be designated as state pupils ; 
and such additional number of idiots as can be conveniently accommodated 
may be received into the asylum by the trustees,on such terms as maybe just. 
But no idiot shall be received into the asylum without there shall have been 
first lodged with the superintendent thereof a request to that effect, under the 
hand of the person by whose direction he is sent, stating the age and place of 
nativity, if known, of the idiot, his Christian and surname, the town and city or 
county in which they severally reside; the ability or otherwise of the idiot, his 
parents or guardians, to provide for his support in whole or in part, and if in 
part only, then what part; and the degree of relationship or other circumstance 
of connection between him and the person requesting his admission ; which 
statement shall be verified in writing, by the oath of two disinterested persons, 
residents of the same county with the idiot, acquainted with the facts and 
circumstances so stated, and certified to be credible by the county judge of the 
same county. And no idiot shall be received into said asylum unless the 
county judge of the county liable for his support, shall certify that such idiot 
is an eligible and proper candidate for admission to said asylum as aforesaid; 
provided, however, that idiots may be received into said asylum upon the 
application therefor signed officially by any county superintendent of the poor 
or by the commissioners of charity of any of the cities of this state, where such 
commissioners exist." 
An offshoot, under the patronage of the State Board of Charities, 
was planted at Newark for the " enforced custody and protection, 
during the child-bearing age of feeble-minded young women of proper 
physical development to become mothers." Chapter 281 of the laws 
of 1885 enacted, among other things, as follows: "The asylum 
established by the State Board of Charities at Newark, Wayne 
county, for feeble-minded women is hereby continued "; and pro- 
vided for the government thereof by trustees to be appointed by the 
Governor by and with the consent of the senate. 
Besides these two state institutions there is an idiot asylum depart- 
ment in the almshouse of the city and county of New York, which is 
educational as well as custodial. The following table shows the pop- 
ulation of idiots and feeble-minded women at the beginning of the 
last fiscal year in public institutions of the State of New York, to wit: 
State institution at Syracuse 510 
State institution at Newark 345 
Idiot asylum, city of New York 386 
Kings county almshouse 39 
Other county poorhouses 251 
City almshouses 12 
Total1,543 CRAIG. 
73 
the care of whom is educational as well as custodial in all but 302 
cases. 
The weekly average expenditure per capita in the two state insti- 
tutions for idiots and feebled-minded women, for the last fiscal year, 
was as follows: in the institution for idiots, $3.12: in the institution 
for feeble-minded women, $2.32. 
There is no public institution in the state of New York, save poor- 
houses and almshouses, for epileptics. The Legislature of 1892 
passed and the Governor signed a bill charging the State Board of 
Charities, which is an unpaid body, with the duty of selecting a site 
and obtaining an option for land, not less than one thousand acres, 
and reporting an organization for an epileptic colony. At great 
expense of time and labor the State Board reported to the legisla- 
ture of 1893 a site and an organization for such a colony, which both 
the senate and the assembly passed unanimously, but the Governor 
vetoed on alleged grounds of economy. . 
There are now in the poorhouses of the state about five hundred 
epileptics, and in very poor families many more, most of whom are 
incumbrances upon the productive labor of the people,.while in such 
a colony they would become self-supporting by their labor expended 
for their physical and mental benefit under medical direction. 
At the beginning of the quarter-century there was the New York 
State Lunatic Asylum at Utica for the acute insane, and there were 
in process of construction two other state institutions, viz: the 
Hudson River State Hospital for the insane at Poughkeepsie, which 
was also designed for acute cases, and the Willard Asylum for the 
chronic insane on Seneca Lake. The Willard Asylum was the first 
state provision for the chronic insane, the only public accommoda- 
tions for whom, by previous law, had been the poorhouses and alms- 
houses. The statute establishing this asylum made it incumbent on 
the counties to be designated by its trustees to send to it all their 
pauper and indigent insane who were proper subjects of public care, 
and not proper candidates for either of the two state hospitals ; and 
in pursuance of its authority the trustees of the asylum designated all 
the counties of the state as properly under its supervision except 
New York, Kings, Monroe, Albany and Jefferson. Subsequently it 
was found that the capacity of the asylum was not one-fourth the 
demand ; and a new statute entrusted to the State Board of Charities 
power to exempt counties from the operation of the Willard Asylum 
act. During nineteen years this board exempted nineteen counties, 74 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
acting on the rule of the choice of the less of two evils, and preferring 
the exempted county asylum, though a mere department of the 
poorhouse placed under license and regulation, to the poorhouse 
unlicensed and unregulated. At length, however, and in the fall of 
1888 the standing committee on the insane appointed by the State 
Board reported to it facts concerning these exempted asylums 
showing great evils and abuses, and conclusions, from which, as the 
writer was chairman of the committee, excerpts are made as follows, 
to wit: 
" Your committee are united in the conviction that a revised lunacy code 
should enact one of two alternatives, viz : either, first to abolish county care ; 
or second, to restrict and regulate it. . . . Your committee are of the 
opinion that county care can be made what it should be, if at all, only under 
some such system as will take it entirely out of political control, and subject 
it to some such authority as that now committed to the state board, with the 
more flexible and elastic powers to be conferred by some new provisions as 
proposed. . . 
" In conclusion, your committee cannot refrain from referring to misappre- 
hensions and misconceptions which sometimes prevent and arrest reformsand 
remedies in lunacy legislation and administration. Some of these mistakes, 
with their corrections, may be stated as follows: 
" 1. A misapprehension that lunatics and voluntary paupers are generally 
the products of the same causes operating in similar ways is often expressed, 
when, in fact, the contrary is the case, as shown by the opinions of alienists as 
well as by statistics. 
"2. A misconception that the right of the county, as the unit in political 
organization, is to dictate the treatment and care of its indigent insane, is 
sometimes represented ; while on the contrary, lunatics are, as infants are, 
but as paupers are not, the special wards of the Supreme Court, which has 
control over their persons and estates, in chancery and by common law, as 
well as by statute, thus exercising a special jurisdiction, which is not of the 
county, but of the entire people of the state. 
" 3. A misunderstanding of Darwin's law of natural selection, or of Spencer's 
law of the survival of the fittest, provokes criticism of attempted reforms in 
lunacy matters, as designed unnaturally to prolong the lives of the useless 
and wretched ; the case being in truth that such endeavors are intended 
primarily to increase the cures of acute, and as may be done, even cures 
among chronic classes, and to render the incurables more useful and less 
wretched ; while their secondary purpose of lengthening the existence of these 
unfortunates is also required by these very laws of nature acting in the realms 
of sociology and morality, for society has no more right negatively to leave 
its infirm to die or suffer than it has affirmatively to inflict on them suffering 
or death, either of which is in opposition to altruism, the last outcome of 
evolution, and in violation of nature, which executing the divine decree CRAIG. 
75 
selects those civilized peoples as the fittest to survive who obey among them- 
selves the Christian law of kindness." 
These conclusions, among others, were adopted by the State 
Board of Charities and transmitted with its annual report to the 
legislature in 1889. 
As a sequel, the bill which the State Charities Aid Association of 
New York city had introduced into the legislature for the state care 
of the insane, having been argued and urged by representatives of 
the association and by the committee of the state board, while 
opposed by the superintendents of the poor, passed the senate and 
nearly passed the assembly in the same year. Meanwhile, a bill for 
the creation of a commission in lunacy, superseding the old commis- 
sioner in lunacy, was drawn by Dr. Stephen Smith, a distinguished 
medical authority of New York city, who was then the commis- 
sioner in lunacy, and who had been and is now again a member of 
the State Board of Charities. This bill was promoted by the 
committee of the state board, and was enacted, being now chapter 
283 of the laws of 1889, with statutes amendatory and supplementary. 
In the following year the bill for exclusive state care of the insane 
became a law, being chapter 126 of the laws of 1890, with acts 
amendatory and supplementary. 
"The New York Law for the State Care of the Insane," is the 
title of a paper prepared by the writer for the eighteenth annual 
session of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, and 
published in its proceedings for 1891 (pp. 92-94), from which extracts 
are made as follows: 
"The new system makes state care coterminous with public care, with the 
exception of New York, Kings and Monroe counties, which were independent 
of the Willard Asylum act; but with the option in each of these three excepted 
counties to come under the law. Monroe county has already elected to take 
its benefits and bear its burdens. 
" The new statute puts the state institutions, including the four hospitals for 
the acute insane, with the new St. Lawrence hospital, and the two asylums 
for the chronic insane, upon the same basis. These seven institutions are now 
hospitals for all the dependent insane. This feature of mixed hospitals or 
asylums for acute cases and all chronic classes of the insane was severely 
criticised by the former president of the state board, Mr. Letchworth, than 
whom, perhaps, no alienist or specialist was better qualified to speak, from 
study and travel among institutions in this country and abroad. His opposi- 
tion to this part of the new system did not, however, lead him to oppose the 
system as a whole. His noble nature overruled his special objection, for the 
sake of the general movement of progress towards state care. . 76 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
"There is no actor in the movement, now happily consummated, who is 
authorized to give a compendium of all the grounds on which all the movers 
were actuated in urging the enactment of the measure. But it is believed that 
such a synopsis would include the following summary of reasons, namely : 
"First.-The medical supervision of the state hospital, with its semi-daily 
inspection of all its patients by competent and trustworthy physicians, and the 
absence of anything like it in the average county poorhouse or asylum, are 
reasons enough for exclusive state care. 
"Second.-The more beautiful environment of the state institution, with its 
adaptation and facilities for graduations and variations and successions of 
scene for different patients or phases of the same patient, tending to excite 
more healthy correspondence in their nervous organisms, and playing often 
the chief part in recovery, is sufficient to justify our contention in favor of 
state care. 
" Third.-The county institution with four wards, being two for each sex, has 
most inadequate means for classification, in that seldom will the cleanly and 
quiet cases be simply equal in number to the filthy and disturbed classes, so 
that almost always will such wards, which the casual or superficial observer 
might call homelike in the daytime, become in the night season, without night 
service, filled with disgusting and repulsive horrors for the better class of 
patients. 
"Fourth.-Inasmuch as one hundred patients need as many classifications as 
do one thousand, but with wards containing twenty-five inmates each, the 
former population would fill only four, while the latter population would fill 
forty wards, it is manifest that the state institution, with the larger census, has 
the advantage over the county institution, with the smaller census. 
"Fifth.-Moreover, the state institution alone is likely to have the means for 
changes of classification to meet the demands of changes of cases, and, above 
all, changes in the same case. 
"Sixth.-The labor of the state patient is for his own benefit under medical 
supervision, while the labor of the county patient is for his own support with- 
out medical supervision. 
"Seventh.-In fine, the state institution always, and the county institution 
almost never, treats its patients as sick persons, as in fact they are, whether 
suffering from acute attacks or succumbing as chronic invalids. 
"Eighth.-The pauper associations of county care, caused by putting the 
indigent insane in the poorhouse, or in a building adjoining or adjacent or on 
the poorhouse farm, or under poorhouse officials, are degrading to the indigent 
or dependent insane, who, as has been shown, are seldom paupers. 
"Ninth.-Individual care is practicable to a greater extent in a state institu- 
tion, though larger, because its medical and personal treatment, its more 
extensive, varied and inspiring environment, and its means for more correct 
and complete classification, differentiate the treatment in accordance with the 
differing cases and the changes of the same case. 
"Tenth.- Though the mixed system is not essential to exclusive state care, 
it has one important advantage in the opportunity which it gives for transfers CRAIG. 
77 
back and forth between the hospital and custodial or domiciliary treatment 
and care, following successive changes in the same case as well as changes of 
cases. 
"Eleventh.-While constant watch and ward by a central commission or 
board is impossible, jt is the part of wisdom to provide a smaller number of 
larger institutions under the immediate control of medical superintendents of 
high honor, in order that the continuing influence of the supervising body may 
be kept alive in the intervals between its visits of inspection. Another and a 
similar advantage of such superior institutions is that they may be held to a 
reasonable standard without reducing them to a dead level of uniformity, but 
with the liberty which, within proper limits, leads to the differentiation which 
is the law of development. 
" Twelfth.-Though state care is based on humanity, and notoneconomy.it 
is, as has been shown, no less economical, while it is more humane. 
" Thirteenth.-The system of exclusive state care is more practical as well 
as philosophical in its simplicity, as compared with the former exemption 
system of New York, or the present Wisconsin system, which introduces state 
administration to correct the evils of county administration, and which, so far 
as it insures good results, is in reality qualified state care, encumbered with 
useless machinery engendering unnecessary friction and producing wasteful 
loss of power as evidenced in limited results. 
" Fourteenth.-New York's new law is a development from the first principle 
of state care in the Willard Asylum act; it is an evolution or growth, and not a 
special contrivance or creation. 
"Fifteenth.-While the county is for practical purposes the political unit, it 
is as such only a small and subordinate part of the whole, which is the state 
paramount and sovereign. The criminal law recognizes this principle in 
determining not only the nature and penalty of felonies and other offenses, 
but their place as well as mode of punishment. Lunacy legislation even more 
legitimately proceeds upon the same basis; for its subjects, the insane, both 
by statute and common law, and in respect of person as well as property, are 
the wards of the state." 
The board for establishing the hospital districts of the state, com- 
posed of the commission in lunacy, the president of the State Board 
of Charities and the comptroller, was charged by the statute with the 
duty of providing, upon the grounds of existing institutions, cottages 
for the classes of the insane who are chronic in a medical sense, the 
legal definition of chronicity by the term of two years having been 
abolished. The state institutions are now all hospitals for the cure 
of the insane, with provisions for the proper care of such as may 
prove to be incurable. On the first day of October next, all the 
indigent and dependent insane except those of New York and Kings 
counties, will be domiciled in these hospitals, the new cottages of 
which, including the necessary equipments for heating, lighting, 78 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
ventilation, fixtures and furniture, have been built at a cost not exceed- 
ing $550 per capita. The appropriation of last winter for the main- 
tenance of the patients in these state institutions is less per capita 
than the former cost to the counties of the state. This result is in 
part due to the contribution of New York and Kings counties by 
taxation. But should these two counties share in the benefits as well 
as the burdens of state care, it is believed that the cost would be less 
than under the old system, taking into consideration that the expen- 
ditures of the counties cannot be taken at their own estimate, for the 
reason that but one of the counties exempted by the state board 
kept its accounts or finances for the insane separate from those for 
its paupers, while Monroe county, which had an independent asylum 
created by statute, gave less accommodations at greater expense 
than Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane. 
Statistics compiled by the state board from returns by the state 
hospitals and county asylums for the insane, have been reported by 
the board to the legislature for the last fiscal year, including the 
following: 
"The daily average number of insane in the various state hospitals during 
the year ending September 30, 1892, was 7,173, and the number in their custody 
and care, October 1, 1892, 7,484. The average number in these institutions 
during the year ending September 30, 1891, was 6,508, and the number in their 
custody and care, October 1, 1891, was 6,961. The increase in the daily aver- 
age during the year ending September 30, 1892, it thus appears, was 665, and 
the increase in the number under care, October 1, 1892, was 523. . . . The 
number of insane in the several state hospitals, October 1, 1891, was 6,961. 
The admissions during the year ending September 30, 1892, were 2,474, making 
a total of 9,435 under care during the year, as against 8,777 the preceding year. 
The following changes occurred in these institutions during the year, viz. : 
discharged recovered, 561 ; not recovered, 362; improved, 135; unimproved, 
200; not insane, 21 ; died, 672; thus leaving 7,484 under care, October 1, 1892, 
of whom 3,653 were men and 3,831 women. . . . The number of insane in the 
asylums of New York city, October 1, 1892, was 5,767, as against 5,390, October 
1, 1891, of whom 2,638 were men and 3,129 were women, the increase for the 
year being 377, as against 343, the increase the preceding year. The admis- 
sions during the year 1892 were 1,592, as against 1,401, the admissions for the 
year 1891, an increase of 191 during the year. The discharges in the course 
of the year were as follows : cured, 166 ; not cured, 457 ; not insane, 3; died, 
589, thus leaving 5,767 under care, October 1, 1892, distributed as follows : 
on Blackwell's Island, 1,918 women; on Ward's Island, 2,168 men and 90 
women ; on Hart's Island, 78 men and 1,081 women ; at Central Islip, 392 men and 
40 women. . . . The number of insane in the care of the institutions of Kings 
county, October 1, 1892, was 2,120, as against 1,997, October 1, 1891. The whole CRAIG. 
79 
number under treatment during the year was 2,496, as against 2,461 the preced- 
ing year. The distribution of those under care, October 1, 1892, was as fol- 
lows: in the buildings at Flatbush, 518 men and 881 women; total, 1,399; 'n 
the buildings at King's Park, 376 men and 345 women ; total, 721 ; aggregate 
2,120, of whom 894 were men and 1,226 were women. 
The capacity of the buildings for the insane of this county is for 1,680 
patients, viz : at Flatbush for 1,000 patients ; at King's Park for 680 patients. 
The daily average number of patients during the year has been 2,051, or an 
excess of 371 patients beyond the capacity of the buildings, and the excess, 
October 1, 1892, was 440 patients, the greatest crowding being at Flatbush." 
Homes for the friendless, being private institutions in the state of 
New York, contain 2,403 men and 5,633 women, making 8,036 adult 
inmates. 
The first orphan asylum in the city of New York was established 
in 1806. 
Numerous acts, notably those of 1855, 1857, 1869, 1870, 1875 and 
1878, provided for the support and care of poor children, until they 
were consolidated in chapter 438 of the laws of 1884, entitled "An 
act to revise and consolidate the statutes of the state relating to the 
custody and care of indigent and pauper children by orphan asylums 
and other charitable institutions." Among other provisions of this 
law are the following : • 
"§i. The guardianship of the person and the custody of any indigent child 
may be committed to any incorporated orphan asylum, or any institution incorpo- 
rated for the care of orphan, friendless or destitute children, by an instrument 
in writing signed by the parents of such child, if both parents shall then be 
living, or by the surviving parent if either parent of such child be dead, or if 
either one of such parents have, for the period of six months then next preced- 
ing, abandoned such child, by the other such parent, or if the father of such 
child shall have neglected to provide for his family during the six months 
then next preceding, or if such child be a bastard, by the mother of such child ; 
or if both parents of such child shall then be dead, by the guardian of the 
person of such child, legally appointed, by the approval of the court or officer 
which appointed such guardian to be entered of record; or if both parents of 
such child shall then be dead and no legal guardian of the person of such 
child shall have been appointed and no guardian of such child shall have 
been appointed by the last will and testament or by a deed by either parent 
thereof, or if the parents of such child shall have abandoned such child for the 
period of six months then next preceding, by the mayor of the city or by the 
county judge of the county in which such asylum or other institution shall be 
located, upon such terms, for such time, and subject to such conditions, as may 
be agreed upon by the parties to such written instrument. And such written 
instrument may provide for the absolute surrender of such child to such corpo- 80 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
ration. But no such corporation shall draw or receive money from public 
funds for the support of any such child committed under the provisions of this 
section, unless it shall have been determined by a court of competent jurisdic- 
tion that such child has no relatives, parent or guardian living, or that such 
relative, parent or guardian, if living, is destitute, and actually unable to con- 
tribute to the support of such child. 
" §2. It shall not be lawful for any county superintendent or overseer of the 
poor, board of charity or other officer, to send any child between the ages of 
two and sixteen years, as a pauper, to any county poorhouse or almshouse for 
support and care, or to detain any child between the ages of two and sixteen years 
in such poorhouse or almshouse ; but such county Superintendents, overseers 
of the poor, boards of charities or other officers shall provide for such child or 
children, in families, orphan asylums, hospitals or other appropriate institu- 
tions, as provided by law. The boards of supervisors of the several counties 
of the state are hereby directed to take such action in the matter as may be 
necessary to carry out the provisions of this section. When any such child 
shall be so provided for of placed in any orphan asylum or such other institu- 
tion, such child shall, when practicable, be so provided for or placed in such 
asylum or other such institution as shall be controlled by persons of the same 
religious faith as the parents of such child." 
This act was secured by the State Board of Charities, with the 
co-operation of the county superintendents of the poor. The article 
which was destined to mark the beginning of this bright epoch of 
reform and beneficence in child-saving, came from Hon. William P. 
Letchworth, a member of this board, and was with its annual report 
in 1875, transmitted to the legislature; which thereupon enacted the 
law, forbidding the subjection of children to the evils and perils of 
poorhouses, and providing the proper administration of relief to 
them, between the ages of sixteen and three years, which minimum 
age was afterwards reduced to two years. 
In the following year, 1876, Mr. Letchworth visited all the orphan 
asylums in the state, then 136 in number, and reported on them 
through the board to the legislature. Thus in two successive years 
the conscience of the people and their representatives was informed 
of the evils and abuses respecting children in the poorhouses and 
almshouses, and of the remedies and means of relief and conditions 
in the orphan asylums. 
Mr. F. B. Sanborn of Massachusetts stated in the fourteenth session of 
the National Conference of Charities and Correction, " that at the time 
when the state boards were first established, poor children in most 
of the states were associated in asylums and poorhouses and other 
public establishments with the adult poor, often insane, incurably CRAIG. 
81 
diseased or vicious in life." That this state of things no longer 
existed he ascribed to the early and persistent efforts of these boards, 
selecting as an example that of New York, and emphasizing the 
work of Mr. Letchworth. 
These orphan asylums shelter 15,027 boys and 12,580 girls, besides 
their wards already placed in families, being an increase of 441 
inmates during the last fiscal year. 
There is reason to believe that the tendency in these institutions 
has been to enlargement and aggrandizement, by omitting to place 
their children in families, and thus assuming to be permanent domi- 
ciles rather than transitional places in the transfer of their wards to 
family homes. If so, the remedial legislation, while succeeding in 
moving its wards from the poorhouses to the orphan asylums, has 
failed to secure its ultimate intention of removing them from asylum 
to family life. This may be due in part to the fact that these institu- 
tions are close corporations, while maintained in large part by 
municipal contributions. That there is a growing danger in this 
direction is shown by statistics gathered by the State Board of 
Charities. The following figures are approximate, as they relate 
only to the institutions that reported these special data in 1891, 
which, however, are a majority of the whole number. 
Of 18,556 orphan and destitute children in such asylums, October 
1, 1891, there were 3,671 orphans, 10,356 half-orphans, 4,065 who had 
both parents living, and 465 whose social condition was not given; 
while there were supported by cities, countiesand towns, 11,061 ; by 
parents and friends, 1,717 ; by the institutions, 2.430; and not stated, 
3,348; and there were committed, by magistrates and courts, 8,130; 
by commissioners of charities, 1,005 J by superintendents of the poor, 
1,823; by overseers of the poor, 938 ; by parents and friends, 4,422 ; 
and not stated, 2,238; and the duration of institution life had been 
5,763 for less than one year; 5,757 for one year and less than three; 
3,051 for three years and less than five ; 2,782 for over five years ; and 
not stated, 303-though the total number of sick, infirm, crippled, 
deformed or disabled was only about three per cent., and of feeble- 
minded only one and tw'o-tenths per cent., with thirteen cases of 
idiocy. 
A high authority on these questions, Mrs. Charles Russell 
Lowell, in her report to the State Board of Charities, transmitted 
with its annual report to the legislature in 1890, has given proofs of 
the evils in the present system or want of system, and proposed 82 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
remedies. The report shows about $1,500,000 expended for the care 
and maintenance of about an average of 14,000 children for the pre- 
ceding fiscal year in the city of New York, with other facts, from 
which the inference is plain that many parents with their offspring 
are pauperized by removing them from the natural relations of life, 
with unwise kindness, if not inhumanity, to them, as well as injustice 
to the taxpayers. 
In the State Charities Record for December, 1891, published by 
the State Charities Aid Association, the leading article, by Mrs. Anna 
T. Wilson, formerly of Philadelphia, now of the State Charities Aid 
Association of New York, contrasts the care of dependent children 
in the two cities, and it is stated that, in the year 1890, the city of 
New York, with a population of 1,500,000, appropriated $1,647,- 
295.10 for the support of 15,449 children in its private institutions, 
and $192,997.74 for the support of 909 children on Randall's Island, 
making $1,840,292.84 for an average of not less than 15,000 children ; 
while the city of Philadelphia, with a population of 1,000,000, appro- 
priated $28,724.82 for the support of an average of less than 250 
children in institutions. The system of boarding-out children until 
they can be permanently placed by adoption in families is in Phila- 
delphia made the substitute for the system of asylums in New 
York ; and from all accounts it appears to be working well, as may also 
be said of the new extension of the plan from dependent to destitute 
children, including those convicted of felonies, of which Homer 
Folks writes hopefully in the Record for last November. It should, 
however, be borne in mind that the results have been partly due to 
fortunate combinations of circumstances, including the assistance of 
the Children's Aid Society of Pennsylvania ; and that data from large 
fields in other states and countries show that the boarding-out system 
has not always proved humane, even for dependent adults. 
For juvenile dependents the system is reported from England as 
unsatisfactory (p. 171, appendix to the last edition of the "Poor 
Law" of England, by T. W. Fowle: Macmillan & Co.). The ex- 
tended and successive reports of Hon. William P. Letchworth, mem- 
ber of the State Board of Charities, on the asylums for orphan and 
destitute children in the state, are of high authority and value, and 
give cogent reasons for preferring the asylum system of New York, 
with its incidental evils, to the boarding-out system of Massachusetts 
and Pennsylvania. Among the papers of Mr. Letchworth here 
alluded to is that on pauper and destitute children, transmitted by CRAIG. 
83 
the State Board of Charities, with its annual report, to the legislature 
in 1875; another in the symposium by various members of the 
committee on preventive work among children, in the proceedings 
of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, in 1886; and 
his article on the New York state system for the care and training of 
dependent children, prepared on invitation for the International Con- 
gress, held at Paris, June, 1889. 
The remedy for the incidental evils of orphan asylums, as well as 
for the essential evils which obtain in the absence of such institu- 
tions, is in the placing of children as inmates in families, but not 
as boarders, unless with the most protective safeguards, limiting 
such measure as a merely provisional expedient. The interstate 
agency best known and appreciated is the Children's Aid Society of 
New York city, the methods of which, in selecting its fields and 
transplanting its cases in western states, have been sometimes criti- 
cised, but are generally justified, as conditionally approved in the 
eleventh session of the National Conference of Charities and Correc- 
tion, by Rev. Hastings H. Hart of Minnesota, the last president of 
the Conference. 
In the incorporated hospitals of New York there were at the 
beginning of the present fiscal year, 5,312 patients; of whom a large 
number were non-paying, and in part provided for by municipalities. 
Such indigent patients, however, are dependent upon private charity, 
inasmuch as the public allowance granted seldom defrays the whole 
or even the greater part of the cost of their maintenance, care and 
treatment. 
In the New York State Soldiers and Sailors' Home, the daily 
average for the last fiscal year was 864, being 139 less than the pre- 
ceding year; the greatest number was 1,012, and the least number 
723 present during the year. 
There is no public institution for inebriates, the former state asylum 
for this class having been converted into the Binghamton Hospital 
for the Insane. 
The State Asylum for Insane Criminals and the Criminal Insane, 
at Matteawan, and the adult and juvenile reformatories are not 
specifically mentioned, inasmuch as in their absence their inmates 
would be in jails, penitentiaries and prisons, rather than in poor- 
houses. But there is a class of intermediate institutions intended 
for juvenile delinquents who are not felons or hardened offenders, 
which come between the reformatories and the orphan asylums. 84 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Among such intervening corporations are the Catholic Protectory, 
with a census of over two thousand, and the Juvenile Asylum of 
New York city, and the Burnham Industrial Farm near Albany. 
None of the private institutions for the insane or other classes of 
afflicted persons, who do not belong to the indigent and dependent 
classes, and which do not receive public aid, are described, for the 
reason that their inmates would not in any event be residents or 
contingents of the poorhouse or almshouse. 
Including orphan asylums and private hospitals receiving munici- 
pal aid, and therefore treated as semi-public institutions, and already 
described, there are about 500 charitable corporations in the state of 
New York, which are generally exempt from state, county and city 
taxes, but not from special assessments for local improvements to 
real estate. 
These corporate charities, with state and municipal institutions, 
are subject to the authority of the State Board of Charities, which 
includes powers of inspection and of examination under oath, and 
other supervisory functions, but none executive or administrative, 
save those relating to the alien and state pauper laws already 
described, and those respecting the incorporation of orphan asylums 
and other institutions having to do with children, concerning which, 
the certified consent of the state board is made a condition precedent. 
An impression of the expenditures by public and private institu- 
tions for the destitute and dependent classes in the state of New 
York may be obtained from the tables published by the State Board 
of Charities in 1891, and from their returns to this board for the last 
fiscal year, some of the conclusions from which are here epitomized. 
The census of state and private institutions receiving public aid 
for the deaf, the blind, the idiots and feeble-minded, the insane and 
other special classes, having been given already, the population of 
the same classes, in the county and city institutions, namely, the 
poorhouses and almshouses, is here presented approximately and in 
round numbers, as follows : 
diots. 
Epileptics. 
Blind. 
Deaf. 
Children under 
3 years of age. 
Children between 
a and 16 yrs of age. 
600. 
500. 
200. 
5°. 
I5°- 
600. 
Of the number of children between two and sixteen years of age, 
five hundred and forty were in the almshouse of the city and county 
of New York, but classified in special departments, though not 
separated as they should be from the almshouse system. CRAIG. 
85 
The amount expended in relief, through county and city officers 
for the fiscal year, was in round numbers as follows: 
In Poorhouses and Almshouses. 
In Out Relief. 
Total. 
$2,700,000 
$570,000 
$3,300,000 
The value of the establishments of the counties and cities for the 
poor is in round numbers $7,800,000, and the value of the labor of 
the inmates for the fiscal year was $75,000. 
The small income from employment of the paupers may be 
explained in part by their general condition, which is infirm, as 
shown not only by returns, but also by the observation of visitors at 
these poorhouses and almshouses, which in fact at the present time 
are, more nearly than many persons believe, in the nature of 
municipal infirmaries. But medical direction of the energies of these 
sufferers in channels of proper work would doubtless yield the 
greatest benefit to them in improving their physical, mental and 
moral condition and character, as well as lessen financial burdens in 
justice to the taxpayers. 
Returning now to private institutions of special sorts, we find that 
the estimated value of the property owned by the orphan asylums 
and homes for the friendless, October 1, 1891, was in real estate 
$20,193,722.27, and in personal property $5,765,717.47, making a 
total valuation of $25,959,439.74; that their receipts for the prior 
year were $7,464,439.77, and their expenditures for the same period 
were $6,776,265.43 ; that the incorporated hospitals for the same 
year returned receipts, in the aggregate, $3,477,942.61, and expendi- 
tures, in the aggregate, $3,338,097.31 ; and that the free dispensaries, 
for the same period, show receipts $346,689.86, and expenditures 
$292,942.63. 
The total expenditures for the indigent and dependent classes, 
including paupers, for the year ending 1891, were $17,605,660.58. 
Our review of laws and agencies relating to humanity and social 
economy in the state of New York, has not lost sight of the vital 
relation between the primary work of protecting the producers in 
society from lapsing into indigence, and the secondary work of 
preventing the poor from falling into pauperism. But the means of 
performing the paramount duty of protection to the workers come 
directly within the purview of this article upon the care and cure of 
pauperism only in the matter of the cost of private and public charity 
and relief. From the tables of statistics collected and compiled by 86 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
the State Board of Charities, and appended as schedules in its 
annual reports to the legislature, the following comparative statement 
has been made, showing expenditures for charitable and reformatory 
purposes between the years 1880 and 1891, both inclusive, to wit: 
Year. 
Amount expended. 
1880 
$ 8,482,648 71 
1882 
0,120,142 60 
1884 
10,642,763 86 
1886 
12,027,990 OT 
1888 
13.315.698 97 
1890 
16,349,842 43 
Year. 
Amount expended. 
1881 
$ 9,260,147 77 
1883 
9>938,O37 05 
1885 
",538,739 86 
1887 
12,574,074 67 
1889 
14,868,733 77 
1891 
17,605,660 58 
It thus appears that in this period of twelve years the expenditures 
have increased a little more than one hundred per cent. Though 
the population of the state increased only about nineteen per cent., 
as is shown on the basis of the federal census, it also appears from 
the reports of the comptroller of the state that its wealth has 
increased about fifty per cent, during the same period. Of this 
increase in expenditures-$9,123,011.87-the sum of $1,222,282.61 
relates to institutions managed by the state; and the State Reform- 
atory at Elmira, and the Soldiers and Sailors' Home at Bath, two of 
the state institutions existing prior to 1880, did not appear in the 
statistics at the beginning of this period of twelve years. Again, of 
this increase the sum of $1,171,053.58 relates to institutions owned 
and controlled by counties and cities, leaving $6,729,675.68 increase 
in the institutions under the direction and control of incorporated 
benevolent associations. Thus it will be seen that more than two- 
thirds of the increase of the cost of public and private relief and 
charity is due to private charity, with public aid administered 
through private corporations; and that the fraction of less than one- 
sixth of such increase chargeable to the state institutions is further 
reduced on account of two of them existing, but not reporting to the 
board in 1880. 
There is no reason to disbelieve or doubt that-excepting perhaps 
the Soldiers and Sailors' Home, the existence of which is justified by 
patriotic sentiment-each and all the state institutions for relief or 
reform, including the eight state hospitals for the insane, the State 
Institution for Feeble-minded Children at Syracuse, the Custodial 
Asylum for Feeble-minded Women at Newark, the reformatories 
and the asylums for the blind and the deaf, do save to the people 
more than their cost in preventing pauperism, and therefore in pro- 
tecting both the industrial and the indigent classes. CRAIG. 
87 
But when all thus accomplished for the harmony of humanity and 
economy, and in the reconciliation of kindness to the afflicted with 
prudence for the taxpayers and bread-winners and burden-bearers 
of society, is considered with reference to the remaining evils result- 
ing from the vicious habits of a large residue of the dependent 
classes, the problems of pauperism seem to be insoluble. The cure 
of the evils must be found, if at all, in radically new remedies. 
The paupers go by families. Hence the Code of Criminal Pro- 
cedure produces no appreciable effect by providing that " the father, 
mother, and children of sufficient ability, of a poor person who is 
insane, blind, old, lame, impotent or decrepit, so as to be unable by 
work to maintain himself, must at their own charge, relieve and 
maintain him in a manner to be approved by the overseer of the 
town where he is, or in the city of New York by the commissioners 
of charities and correction." 
While the able-bodied pauper practically has been excluded from 
the poorhouse, his relative, the impotent, who is " unable by work 
to maintain himself," but who is improvident, intemperate and incon- 
tinent, is supported in seasons and periods of his own election, in 
order, as if by express design, to prepare him to procreate a progeny 
of paupers. Thus the humane expedient of the revised statutes 
injures both the subject and society, in providing without restriction 
or condition that "every poor person who is blind, lame, old, sick, 
impotent or decrepit, or in any other way disabled, or enfeebled, so 
as to be unable by his work to maintain himself, shall be maintained 
by the county or town in which he may be." 
Relief is impracticable and impossible under existing laws. The 
remedy, if any, may be found in classifying vicious and infirm, as 
well as vagrant and able-bodied paupers, with the criminal classes, 
and subjecting them to indefinite confinement. The indeterminate 
sentence is the proper and potent corrective. Already approaches 
to its principle have been made in cases of recidivous criminals, by 
legislation in several states relating to felons, and in Ohio respecting 
mere misdemeanants. But the despairing thought in criminal 
anthropology is, that criminal characters are being recruited from 
pauperdom faster than they can be reduced by counteracting 
processes. 
Radical and reformatory legislation is required to protect the 
state from crime as well as pauperism, by sequestering from society 
the habitual and hardened pauper, as well as the recidivous criminal, 
until he reforms or dies. 88 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Questions of civil or moral right are not here involved, as if the 
relief proposed was by the sacrifice of life or mutilation of the body. 
The alteration of the physical organism so as to prevent the propa- 
gation of the kind is not necessary, and therefore is not justifiable. 
Indeed it is inadequate and inexpedient, inasmuch as the data of 
experiments in child-saving, as well as theories of natural selection, 
show that the vicious and criminal classes are transmitted by succes- 
sion with more facility and potency through their creation of envi- 
ronments and external influences, thus producing correspondence in 
their offspring, than through heredity. 
The principle of indeterminate sentences for vicious paupers being 
not for retribution, but for restraint and reform, is just and merciful; 
and its application for the protection of the people has nothing to 
overcome except the inertia of society. 
The foregoing review of the New York system of indoor relief for 
her infirm and indigent people, who may be characterized as her 
worthy poor, as well as for her worthless paupers, is representative 
of similar systems of sister states. Though the progress of the 
Empire State is greater than the average of the advances of her 
sister commonwealths, there is one prevailing trend among them all 
tending toward general unity of design, if not uniformity in execu- 
tion. The concrete presentation confined to the one may therefore 
be taken as a suggestion of the many better than would be their 
separate consideration in the abstract. 
The New York dispensation through the poorhouse, with its 
development into distinct and distributive relief to children, and to 
the deaf, the blind, the feeble-minded, and the insane, in their 
respective schools, hospitals, and homes, state, municipal and corpo- 
rate, is therefore taken, in its imperfection, as typical of American 
administration of charity in public institutions. 
The evolution of this system is less advanced on lines of classifi- 
cation and administration under the roof of the poorhouse proper, 
than on lines of segregation and organization within other walls. 
While the sexes are separated, and to some extent the very sick are 
retired from the merely infirm, there is no distinction observed 
between the virtuous and the vicious poor. 
What of the future ? Does the progress in the last quarter-century 
forecast the next? Yes and No. 
Yes, as the segregation in separate institutions has been the proof 
and the fruit of development, and so will be continued until provision 
shall be made for all the worthy poor in separate homes. HENDERSON. 
89 
No, in that the proper discipline and detention of paupers who 
are unworthy and unsafe, must be provided not by an evolution of 
the poorhouse system, but by its conversion into a place of continued 
security for the protection of society. 
PUBLIC RELIEF AND PRIVATE CHARITY. 
PROFESSOR CHARLES R. HENDERSON, UNIVERSITY OF 
CHICAGO. 
The purpose of this paper is to present in outline some of the 
more important relations of state and voluntary charity. The ulti- 
mate social ideal of modern philanthropy does not contemplate 
almsgiving and almstaking, but rather fellowship in opportunity 
and justice. We are not here to patch up a decaying caste-wall 
which divides mankind into lofty patrons and cringing, begging 
clients. Perhaps there is no form of social organization which 
excites more distrust and hatred among wage-earners than conven- 
tional benevolent societies. No doubt this is largely due to the 
ordinary misunderstanding of their motives and aims. Often do we 
hear the bitter reproach of those whose earnings are scant, that 
philanthropy is dealing with symptoms and not with causes; that 
charity in the sense of relief is mockery. A brief review of the 
recent literature of charity will show that this reproach is not 
altogether deserved. Those who have undertaken to cut off this 
devil's grass have most of all men found the strength and length of 
its roots. Look at the programme of this very Congress and you 
will see that serious study is being given by administrators of charity 
to the economic, domestic, educational, and political defects which 
cause or aggravate the evils of pauperism and crime. It may 
honestly be said that one of the chief incentives to sociological 
investigation is the desire to go below the mere machinery of 
administering relief funds to the complex origins of social miseries. 
No one entitled to consideration regards social pathology as more 
than a temporary phase of social organization and development, and 
all feel that to heal social diseases and to promote health all the 
factors of social energy must be called into play. 90 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM, 
The first duty of charity is to secure higher wages, shorter hours, 
better physical and moral conditions of labor. It was once thought 
by some persons that orthodox political economy must question or 
deny the possibility of making any change in these factors by any 
voluntary human effort. Now it seems to be more generally 
believed that wages, hours and conditions are not altogether fixed 
by fate and fore-ordination, but partly also by free will. The blind 
drivings of natural selection are helped out by social selection after 
a conscious design. Philanthropy, law, cooperation, united demands, 
may secure substantial, though not unlimited, improvement in indus- 
trial conditions. The first-rate economists of England have very 
frequently been misread or carelessly interpreted. Perhaps the 
name of Ricardo is most of all connected with the awful "iron law," 
that wages tend of necessity to fall to the minimum where the 
laborer must be in constant peril of becoming a dependent; but 
many forget that it was Ricardo who taught these memorable words : 
" The friend of humanity cannot but wish that in all countries the laboring 
classes should have a taste for comforts and enjoyments, and that they should 
be stimulated by all legal means in their exertions to procure them. . . In 
those countries where the laboring classes have the fewest wants and are con- 
tented with the cheapest food, the people are exposed to the greatest vicissi- 
tudes and miseries." 
Economics teaches us that hope may take the place of dull 
despair. Starvation rates of wages are not part of the order of 
eternal justice or of omnipotent and relentless destiny. The starva- 
tion of one willing to work, in sight of palaces, green fields and 
bursting granaries, is to our minds intolerable. The word " over- 
production " of coats, where there are a million bare backs, signifies 
social wrong and stupidity, a cover for inaccurate thinking and 
unjust doing. It is as intolerable to see any class of persons partly 
supported at public expense as parasites, who should be wholly 
supported by the trade which makes their employers rich. If these 
employers declare that they see no way of raising wages, and plead 
the " wickedly overworked" law of supply and demand, we accept 
their confession of ignorance and incapacity as " captains of industry," 
but we do not accept their conclusion. Eor the history of industrial 
agitation during this century has taught us something. It has not 
taught anarchy, hate, rebellion, but kindness, patience and strong 
hope. It has not taught us to curse the rich nor to despise and 
slander the trades-unions. It has shown the possibility of a slow but HENDERSON. 
91 
steady gain in the material conditions out of which domestic and 
civil progress can grow. English factory legislation has proved, 
what the iron and cotton kings once denied, that money can be made 
in face of the competition of the world without working naked women 
in the mines, and babies at the loom, and grown men beyond the 
average power of endurance. The " captains of industry " are now 
as sure of that as Shaftesbury and Oastler were when they formed the 
forlorn advance which made the fight. The trades-unions of England, 
with all their faults, have proved that it is safe to trust political 
power to workingmen, that responsibility sobers men, and that a 
savings-bank account or huge strike fund makes them conservative. 
We admit that loveless and ugly deeds deform noble aspirations; 
and yet we can see that Britain has not erred in giving to unions of 
workingmen recognition and respect. 
While multitudes are being paid a rate below the life-line, charity 
as a substitute for justice is cruelty. All the charity in the world can 
never sweep back this ocean-tide of misery caused by an unjust rate 
of pay and hours of toil prolonged till they kill. The average rate of 
life for toilers must be brought up nearer to that of the well-fed, 
well-clothed, well-taught people who live on rents and interest, even 
if thereby the rate of interest and rent falls a point or two. Worse 
things are happening than passing a dividend on copper stocks or 
distillery investments. Slavery was not indispensable to the South, 
and sweating-dens may be omitted without injury to the progress of 
the North. To assure yourself that this is the right place for 
scientific charity to begin, go with a volunteer friendly visitor in a city 
where they believe in friendly visiting. Many such have gone out with 
pockets full of pennies for poor children, and buoyant with expecta- 
tion, only to discover that pennies thrown about do no good, and 
that pity is not such a crying need as justice. Not more alms, but 
more wages, should be the aim of our charity. The " higher classes " 
are the persons to lead in this crusade. The best proof that one 
belongs to the really superior people is that he has the will and 
inclination and ability to help emancipate multitudes from the most 
degrading form of slavery, living upon public alms. Culture has no 
higher task. Universities may perform no worthier work than 
showing how a better economical basis can be laid for the future 
intellectual and social deliverance of the masses of mankind. It is a 
great achievement to describe and account for the actual systems of 
finance, transportation, communication, banking, tariff, and to show 92 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
how wealth is produced and exchanged. But it will be an immensely 
greater achievement, intellectually and morally, for our great 
economists to show how this wealth can be more equitably dis- 
tributed. Who can doubt, when he surveys the vast strides of 
science and goodness in our age, that such economists and merchant 
princes will be found? 
But economists and captains of industry must have the aid of 
others. They must have the co-operation of " laboring men." They 
must even have the consent of drunkards, sots, idlers, vagabonds, 
tramps. All the world cannot make drunkards well-to-do. The 
gold of California would slip through a tramp's fingers and leave 
him poor. So all teachers, parents, editors, preachers, missionaries, 
women with varied gifts, godly demagogues, ambitious attorneys, 
agitators, reformers, retired merchants with time heavy on their 
hands-philanthropy needs them all. Before all free soup-houses, 
lodging inns, charity balls, gambling raffles for widows' benefit, 
subscriptions for orphanages, we must have diffused knowledge, 
means for social recreation, night schools, all preventive agencies 
which stand against pauperism as with sword of flame. Adminis- 
trators of charity know best of all that what they do is a makeshift. 
They know that almstaking cannot be made harmless to recipients. 
No one has invented a way of living at the expense of others or by 
the permission of others without degradation. There is boundless 
room for widening justice, for the fellowship of social equals, for 
reciprocity in services, but there is no place for almsgiving as an 
excuse for neglecting fair dealing. There is no territory on God's 
earth for a class of idle and dependent rich or idle and dependent poor. 
Comparative and Historical. 
While all social agencies are busy dealing with causes of pauperism, 
that malady itself confronts us as a tremendous social fact. It cannot 
scare us nor force bounty by display of numbers. We are not 
generous upon compulsion. It would be possible for the capable 
majority to exterminate the incompetent members. But this method, 
which was precisely that employed by our barbarian ancestors, who 
kept family clubs to kill off feeble grandsires, is not to be thought of 
in our age. We cannot endure the sight of pain. Sympathy is 
organized to relieve distress. Social remorse torments us in the 
enjoyment of unshared luxuries. Sensitiveness of nerves and con- 
science establishes relief. HENDERSON. 
93 
In the modes of relief administration we discover great diversity, 
due to peculiarities of situation, history, temper, habits, sentiments, 
laws and governments of various peoples. Turning to Germany, we 
see that since the sixteenth century the state has recognized as its 
duty the public care of the poor. First, it enforces the obligation of 
those immediately bound to care for dependent persons, as relatives 
and neighboring communities. But even when a legal obligation 
does not exist, the public care of the poor will not forbid the free 
benevolence of individuals, societies, and the church. Public care of 
the poor must merely complete private care and enter when this is 
inadequate. Both pursue a common end, and they should work in 
harmony. More than in any other departments, those of charity are 
decentralized. The burden is laid on local political organizations, as 
parishes and poor unions, since the necessities are best known in the 
neighborhood, the best administrators can be chosen, and the burden 
of taxation is less likely to be excessive. Private persons are selected 
for this purpose, those who have knowledge of the conditions, a 
sound understanding of human nature, and devotion to the common 
weal. The number is so large that it is impossible to pay salaries; 
the almoners work for honor and from sympathy. In Elberfeld and 
in the cities which have imitated its example, the public districts 
include all who apply for aid and show the need of it; but the officers 
appointed by the authorities work in harmony with private and 
church charities, so that none are neglected ; voluntary charity has 
ample scope, and abuses are swiftly corrected. The local political 
unit should bear the expense of those who belong to it and have a 
residence. If a case does not properly belong to a parish or union it 
is cared for by the state, and questions of responsibility are deter- 
mined by a state tribunal. The aid is regarded as a loan, and the 
relatives are expected to reimburse the parish if the indigent person 
cannot do so. The sources of funds are endowments, collections, 
gifts or legacies, fines, taxes and imposts. 
In France, the principles are stated by M. Chevalier as follows : 
"The commune will limit the circle of its action, will encourage and stimu- 
late the development of private beneficence, in which it ought always to see a 
valuable auxiliary and not a rival. It will come to its aid and will obtain for 
its assistance the influence necessary to have its useful counsels accepted, and 
to co-ordinate without confusing aid coming from both sources, Charitable 
legislation in France is actually dominated by this principle, that if society 
has the moral duty never to leave any real suffering without solace, yet assist- 
ance can never be demanded by the indigent as a right. The greatest liberty 94 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
is left to works of private charity. When these works reach the dignity of 
institutions they obtain the privileges of civil life by means of conditions easy 
to fulfil. Public charity has no monopolj' in France, not even of solicitations 
and public subscriptions. Charity is administered by the state, by departments 
and by communes. The commune is the unit of organization of charity, and it 
is there that it becomes personal and direct." 
In the same article occurs this criticism, which shows how we are 
regarded by a high authority over sea : 
"In certain states of the Union politics plays a rOle in public relief, and it 
is believed that for some politicians the functions of overseer of the poor are 
his part of the victors' spoils. And of what he receives for the office a part 
goes to the future voters for the same politician." 
That seems hard for a European to understand. It is only too 
easy for us. 
In the United States we have as many different systems as there 
are states ; and in each state as many plans as there are counties ; and 
in each township as many devices as there are trustees, and some of 
these devices are not exactly heavenly in origin and character. Out 
of so many competing experiments we ought to reap some results, 
for the process of vivisection without anaesthetics is costly enough to 
raise expectations. Yet it should be said that the state laws, origi- 
nally derived from the English sources, give a degree of uniformity 
to administration. Speaking of the rule, the state cares for all 
defective and dependent persons who are homeless and helpless in 
its institutions. The local officers give a certain amount of aid to the 
friendless and helpless in their homes. In addition to this, churches 
and benevolent societies, lodges and individuals, give aid to many 
who have not been entirely cut off from personal connections with 
some social group. The charitable efforts of European countries are 
studied, and the inventiveness of our inventive people is taxed to 
find new and hopeful methods of relieving distress. State supervision 
of private charities is much needed and hardly exists, while private 
charities are administered as a rule without mutual understanding 
and co-operation. 
In England, to take another example, the establishment of a gov- 
ernment board has helped to unify the aid given by local authorities, 
but, save where the organized charities are well established, there is 
no mode of intelligent co-operation between public and private 
modes of help. Indoor relief is used as a check upon outdoor relief. HENDERSON. 
95 
Points of General Agreement. 
The Christian nations of our age generally agree that all depend- 
ents, defectives and delinquents are wards of society. The state, as 
the only organ of the collective will, must see to it that no citizen 
perishes, physically or morally, without care. Of course the fore- 
bodings of Mr. Spencer may prove to be wise warnings, and the 
most sympathetic administrator of charity will admit the peril of the 
position. But, for good or ill, the modern nations have launched upon 
this troubled sea of experiment. No man is to be driven from door to 
door until with curses on his lips he freeze or starve. Whatever the 
state permits, authorizes or encourages, it is never free from the moral 
duty, in the last resort, to see that relief is given. It must then be 
the duty of the state to see that general society is not profoundly 
harmed by the vicious working of a local and limited association. 
It is generally agreed that personal and private charity surpasses 
official charity in spontaneity, versatility, adaptability, idealism, 
religious fervor. It is thought that official charity surpasses 
private charity in completeness, adequacy, equality of burdens, and 
in the control of criminal tendencies often mixed up with pauperism. 
Thus it is agreed that it is wise to combine the working of public and 
private charity as far as possible. 
Some system is needed to secure harmony and unity between 
public and private beneficence. In Germany the famous Elberfeld 
system seems to be the one best adapted to the conditions of the 
country. In America, at present, that system would be impractica- 
ble. Our citizens have not been taught by custom to accept such 
tasks from the state. We are, therefore, looking to the voluntary 
and paid services of officers and visitors of the associations of chari- 
ties. In these associations visitors are secured by appeals to good- 
will and civic virtue. In no city have we secured an adequate supply 
of competent visitors, but steady advance has been made. A still 
further step of progress will be made when public administrators 
learn the value of full co-operation with these associations. The 
inspectors of public charity are usually shrewd detectives of fraud, but 
that very quality unfits them for the personal influence which a friendly 
visitor can wield. The salaried officers are too few to do such work 
as the Elberfeld visitors, even if they were inclined to do it. 
It seems certain that the state should never subsidize denomina- 
tional charities, but, if compelled to employ them, should simply 96 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
pay for services actually rendered. But there is no objection to 
encouraging the most cordial co-operation in the work of charity and 
reform. 
Changing the point of view, we may consider the private initiation 
of charity. And first, of the individual benefactor. The personal 
element is the most vital, direct, and human, especially if it is not 
official. It is an acknowledged social and legal principle that the 
relatives, associates, neighbors and co-religionists are first of all 
bound to assist an indigent person. It is only after all these sources 
have failed that the state consents to open its hand. But individual 
beneficence should not be insulated. The right can never be con- 
ceded to a man so to do as he will with his own as to work harm to 
society. Kindness may find ways of usefulness with organized 
charities, even when money is not in possession. The busy rich, able 
and willing to give large sums, can do most good in experimental, 
preventive and educational charity. 
The relation of church to public charity is delicate and vital. The 
church is no longer the chief almoner of charity. The poor apply 
to public authorities when they come to want. The members of our 
churches who are indigent are relatively few. It is the habit of 
church members to refer needy persons to the public authorities in 
most places. If public outdoor relief were abolished, the church 
would again come to care for the helpless. But the necessity of 
civic co-operation would then be as great as ever, for ecclesiastical 
charities have been as much abused as state relief. Churches need 
to cultivate a sense of social unity. Benevolence that is insulated 
from a general system corrupts recipients. 
All religious services in public prisons and hospitals should be 
given by churches and the expense should never be met from the 
common treasury. Those who believe in religion should not ask 
unbelievers to help sustain religion by enforced taxation. I honor 
all good chaplains in army and prisons, and I know that they are 
rendering faithful and holy service. It would be cruel injustice not 
to have such men where they are, and the state should not forbid 
their access to those who wish their presence. But they should be 
paid by an alliance of churches, not by a tax. I say this just because 
I believe in Christianity and dislike to see it go begging to the state 
for appropriations. 
Good people should also support societies to aid discharged pris- 
oners. Lady Meath, of England, has shown to Christian women a McCOOK. 
97 
way of lightening up the cloudy, dreary days of their sisters in the 
county poorhouses all over the land. Public as well as private hos- 
pitals can be made more cheerful and successful in their divine work 
of healing by the ministry of flowers, fruits, songs and kindly looks 
of the King's Daughters. 
Thus we see a growing integration and unification of charity work. 
The university sends to London's East End students to ponder 
misery at its source. Church and state join hands. Private and 
public agencies seek an understanding. The Prince of love and 
peace is drawing all men to Himself, and hence closer to each other. 
TRAMPS. 
PROFESSOR JOHN J. McCOOK, TRINITY COLLEGE, HARTFORD, 
CONNECTICUT. 
Aimless wandering, no visible means of support, capacity to labor 
along with fixed aversion to labor, begging from door to door, camp- 
ing on property of others without their consent-no one of these by 
itself, but all of them together, make up the legal picture of that 
species of vagabond whom we have come lately to call the Tramp. 
In the days of Richard II, five hundred years ago, he used to be 
called " sturdy vagabond, valiant beggar," and was so objectionable 
then and later that the whipping-post, ear-slitting and hanging were 
his legal portion, and a fine was the reward of the man who harbored 
or helped him. 
In those days, and for centuries, the average pauper clung to his 
parish because, within orderly limitations, an existence was assured 
him there. The sturdy vagabond must therefore have been a per- 
son to whom orderly life was intolerable, mere existence insufficient, 
fixed conditions of any kind unendurable, and who broke away from 
the inglorious hum-drum of the birth-spot and ventured out into the 
life and stir of the wide world. That is to say, he was built on the 
general lines of our nineteenth-century tramp ; and mere convenience 
and brevity seem to be the only justification for the invention of a 
new name for him. 98 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Whether the name tramp originated in England or America I 
cannot be sure. It has no place, so far as I have been able to find, 
in the statutes of Great Britain or Canada, while many of our states 
have adopted it into their legal phraseology. New Jersey began in 
1876; and up to 1892, when I made an examination of the statute- 
books of all the states, eighteen others had followed ; while a nine- 
teenth and twentieth use the word in the index or in defining 
Vagrant. The word is now freely used in England in every-day 
life, and in the literature of pauperism and vagrancy. 
For whatever reason, it is not in general favor among tramps 
themselves in this country. I have talked with a considerable 
number of them on a footing of friendliness and apparent confidence, 
and find that " bum " is the generic term used by them. They care- 
fully distinguish, however, between class and class, and there is 
manifestly an aristocracy among them, and a middle and lower 
order; although, as might, perhaps, be expected, absolute agree- 
ment has not been reached as to which is upper and which lower 
crust. A few weeks ago I had a long talk with one of the " salti- 
grades "-if my spider friends will permit me to borrow one of their 
names-one of the order of jumpers, that is, train-jumpers. He 
put his family first, and spoke with undisguised contempt of the 
" pike bum" who " hasn't the nerve to jump a train,"-even rising 
and imitating the pike bum's long, awkward gait. He was still 
more disdainful in his description of the " city " or " shovel bum " 
and the " mission " or " religious bum." And he almost lacked 
vocabulary to express his feelings towards the "gay cat," an 
inferior order of beings who begs of and otherwise preys upon the 
bum-as it were a jackal following up the king of beasts. 
He called the nobility of the order " hobos." It was thus he 
spelled it. He had often asked old hobos-for he was but twenty- 
six-how it ought to be spelled and what it meant. They did not 
know. It is, however, now unquestionably the generally accepted 
title for the railroad tramp, in America ; and I may venture to say 
here, though I should not care to say it to one of the nobility for 
fear of unduly exciting him, it is even appropriated at times by 
" pike bums " and by " shovel bums." I am in almost daily corres- 
pondence by letter with one of the former class who not only uses it 
but spells it in the most approved French fashion-"haut-beaux ! " 
My saltigrade friend above referred to as priding himself upon 
belonging to the nobility of the order, gave me many incidents con- McCOOK. 
99 
cerning his own career which are curious. They may not all be 
true. In fact, I doubt not he told me more than one lie. Still men 
are not apt to invent things to their own discredit, and the following 
was not given in a spontaneous or boastful manner, but in answer to 
very direct and leading questions. He had "done" thirty days 
each in Erie county, New York ; White Plains, New York ; Brook- 
lyn, Connecticut; thirteen days in San Francisco, California ; twenty 
days in Savannah, Georgia; ten days in Chicago; five days in the 
Tombs, New York City, and had been arrested in Syracuse, New 
York, and Richmond, Virginia. 
He had passed part of one winter in an almshouse-" to get a new 
suit of clothes"; had been nine days in Charity Hospital, Black- 
well's Island, for a finger bruise got in jumping a train ; six weeks in 
a Philadelphia hospital for a secret disease:-they have no aversion 
to such a disease when winter is coming on, he told me in passing, 
and several eminent medical specialists confirm his story; a whole 
winter in a poorhouse hospital in the interior of New York for a toe 
lost while jumping a train; five months in a Boston hospital for an 
abscess on his neck, caused, as the doctors thought, by the jar of 
riding on trucks-he had only been six months on the road at that 
time, he explained apologetically! And he had also been to dis- 
pensaries now and then for medicine required by some trifling cold, 
though he generally carried stuff with him for this. 
Apart from the above he had " never had a day's sickness in his 
life," he said, and spoke with much enthusiasm of the vigor and 
physical strength of the fairly initiated hobo. 
It would be a pity to overlook one other item in the self-confessed 
activities of this gentleman. He had voted eight times on one single 
election day in New York city, receiving therefor a total of sixteen dol- 
lars. The manner in which the thing was accomplished was described 
by him in such fashion as to convince me that he was telling the truth 
-and I am not naturally credulous, nor yet void of knowledge of the 
ways in which this branch of practical politics is cultivated in New 
York and elsewhere. I should, however, perhaps add that I have 
been assured by a New York city detective and by another tramp 
that this was undoubtedly a lie. The detective's confidence was 
based on the record of prosecutions, " showing how careful they 
had been!"-the tramp's, on the high price obtained. He had 
never got anything like that money himself! Which reminds me 
that nearly half of the dozen or so of tramps whom I have recently 100 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
picked up on the street here, and with whom I have had opportunity 
for free conversation on this and other points, have admitted that 
they have received compensation direct or indirect for their vote, 
mentioning the four states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut 
and California as the places where they had done business. One, 
who belonged rather to the order of " city bums," at first resented 
the mere suggestion that he could ever have voted for money. 
Presently I returned abruptly to the subject with the question, " Do 
you mean to say then that your own side gave you nothing for turn- 
ing out?" Whereupon he lifted his head and with dignity replied, 
" What me own side give me for voting's nobody's business but me 
own." Beyond this I could not go, and he would not. 
I have spoken of tramp laws in the various states. Here is a 
list of the states which one tramp tells me he has been in (I select 
the first on my note-book; I have talked with several whose record 
is similar) Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 
Louisiana, Texas, California (twice), New Mexico (three or fourtimes), 
Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Indian Territory, Missouri, Kansas, 
Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Utah, Arkansas, Michigan, Oregon, Nevada. He had 
been in Washington, D. C., of course, and had passed through Ten- 
nessee, though he had not stopped there. He had been through a 
great part of Canada, and had visited England in a cattle steamer, 
landing at Liverpool and tramping thence to Manchester. He 
had spent the night in a casual ward, and did not like oakum-picking, 
since it made the fingers sore. He thought England not compar- 
able with America-people would not give as freely there. He got 
back, he said, through the offices of the American consul, and gave 
details concerning the return passage which may have been wholly 
false, but which needed only to be half true to be painfully sugges- 
tive of the extent to which the brute survives in the human animal. 
This particular man had a rather gay, light-hearted way of talking. 
His face was not bad, though his eye was hardly true. He was decently 
dressed ; but he wore no collar, and had other earmarks which, com- 
bined, had emboldened me to accost him upon the street. He looked 
temperate and had not even the odor of liquor about him. He was, 
however, no total abstainer, and described with much glee what he 
thought a remarkably good plan for getting a drink-a plan almost McCOOK. 
101 
too ingenious to be either true or false. But there is no question of 
these three things ; that the average vagabond is no total abstainer, 
that he always manages in some fashion to get drink when he par- 
ticularly wants it, and that he is enough of a " rectifier," albeit hold- 
ing no license from the United States government, to know that the 
real thing in drink is alcohol, and that water is the cheapest and 
best adulterant. In this as in some other things he is a close observer 
and an astute philosopher. I shall presently have something to say 
of this in a statistical way. 
Both this man and three others whose faces I now recall, reeled off 
the names of the states they had visited, giving the railroads patronized 
from point to point, with a facility and a rapidity that made one's head 
swim. I confess it was all beyond me, though I have traveled some- 
what. And yet localities and lines of communication were occasion- 
ally identified in such fashion as to give me general confidence in the 
genuineness of the itinerary. In one instance I mentioned a number 
of places familiar to myself, but by no means prominent for size or 
otherwise, and purposely put them in wrong states. In every case I 
was arrested with, "Did you say Steubenville? Yes, I've been in 
Steubenville-on the Panhandle road. But see here, sonny, Steu- 
benville ain't in Pennsylvania; it's in Ohio"-and so on. This man 
professed to be from Rhode Island. 
Such knowledge, it is true, could be obtained by a railroad brake- 
man of sufficiently wide experience. And indeed I am more and 
more inclined to think that many of our jumper-tramps have been 
brakemen, and the reverse. I have talked with several engine- 
drivers and firemen who are of this opinion, and in four instances 
tramps have personally informed me that they had been brakemen. 
There can be no question that many a brakeman has a very tender 
spot in his heart for a tramp, and that he finds ways of helping him 
along in spite of the universal reprobation of the management. He 
fails to discover him in box car, or open car, or on the bunters, 
or the trucks. He puts him off when he must, and is more than half 
pleased when he finds at the next stop that he has stowed himself 
away again. He rescues him from starvation, as in one instance 
related to me, when he finds him only too successfully concealed for 
a long transcontinental stretch. Engineers, firemen and conductors 
are far more stern. But they too are not insensible to the pathos of 
" the poor devils trudging along by the rails." 102 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
This interchange explains the wonderful skill of the tramp in jump- 
ing and riding trains. One of them told me he had dived from the 
platform into an open car-a "gondola" as they call it-while the 
train was passing at full speed. It tore every button from his clothes, 
but didn't hurt him. I thought this a lie until an officer employed 
in a freight station mentioned incidentally that he had seen that sort 
of thing himself. And I hear from all sides among railroad men of 
their remarkable expertness in the ordinary ways of catching on. 
The brakeman is the land sailor. An instance came to me lately 
of a man who had gone to sea once or twice, against the wishes of 
his family. He compromised eventually on railroading, and had 
crept up from brakeman to conductor. And I know a man of excel- 
lent family and education, who has left a good farm in eastern Con- 
necticut, first for braking, and then for firing on a train. In the old 
days he would have gone to sea. Our tramps have the instinct of 
the brakemen, but without the industry and laboriousness of the 
better part of them. 
However, this easy transition from the one to the other suggests 
the propriety of railroad managers having a more careful eye than 
they seem always to have had to the record and the habits of their 
candidates for the responsible office of brakeman. 
The number of female tramps of whatever kind is not large. 
There is, however, a limited number of them. I have heard them 
called magpies, petticoat bums, and bags. They mate with a male, 
often arranging the alliance during a winter in an almshouse, leaving 
the institution at different dates to avoid suspicion, meeting at an 
agreed-upon spot, and sharing thereafter bed and board. The man 
has the lion's share of this co-partnership. The woman begs, occa- 
sionally raises money by solicitation at extremely low rates-from io 
to 50 cents-cooks, washes, and serves her lord as his will and her 
devotion may suggest. They camp out, occupy vacant houses, stop 
with farmers, or even in taverns. With the winter the partnership 
expires by limitation. I have been told of one instance in which 
such a female served, in every way, a camp of sixteen or eighteen 
tramps-to such a degree of baseness can the sex relation be low- 
ered. I have read of similar arrangements in the vagabond life of 
Germany, but these have been actually told me here. 
But I must give over this gossiping for a more severe view of 
the field. My observations above given have followed, not pre- 
ceded, an attempt at statistical investigation. And first, the number McCOOK. 
103 
of tramps in America. Massachusetts is the only state which, so 
far as I know, attempts to collect the facts necessary for a calcula- 
tion. In 1891, the average daily number lodged in police stations 
or public lodging-houses for wanderers was 427.3. In answer to the 
question "Where do you usually sleep?" on the blank from which I 
received 1,349 replies in the winter of 1891-2, 377 gave police station 
or other public lodging-house. Assuming this proportion of 377 to 
1,349 to be approximately representative of the ratio between the 
number frequenting such places at night and the total, we shall con- 
clude that the Massachusetts total contingent to the tramp army was 
1,529.7. And, assuming that the Massachusetts contingent bears 
the same relation to the entire army that the population of Massa- 
chusetts bears to that of the United States-29.97-the total for this 
country will be 45,845. I suspect this is not far from correct, 
though it is partly built upon assumptions. It is from five to fifteen 
thousand below the current guess estimates, which fact is slightly 
confirmatory; since estimates of crowds are almost invariably over 
the truth. 
I have spoken of blanks with 1,349 replies. These came from 
fourteen different places to which blanks had been sent. The 
answers were taken down generally by police officers, a separate 
blank being used for each case. There were twenty-four questions 
and eight sub-questions, with a space for remarks. 
Besides the large amount of material thus secured, Mr. W. 
Vallance, clerk of the Board of Guardians for Whitechapel, London, 
secured for me tabulated replies to similar questions from 841 of his 
casual lodgers, October, 1891. The basis for careful conclusions 
was therefore far broader than anything ever before attempted, so 
far as I am aware. These results have been compared with the 
analysis of the 52,335 cases which have come under the observation 
of the German Arbeiter Colonien since their establishment, so far as 
the much more meagre statistical scope of these would allow. 
A brief account of the more important results of my inquiry may 
be of use here: 
Fifty-seven per cent, of our American tramps have trades or pro- 
fessions; forty-one per cent, are unskilled laborers. Ninety-eight 
trades were represented by the 1,349 individuals-and nearly half of 
the persons belonging to these were attached to employments which 
require constant locomotion, as sailors, firemen, teamsters and brake- 
men, or are associated with these occupations-such as shoemakers, 104 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
curriers, hostlers, blacksmiths and horseshoers. Three and six- 
tenths per cent, more are in a trade which is drawn upon for some of 
the most striking figures illustrative of the unrest and transitoriness 
of human existence-the weavers. 
One tramp in twenty is under 20 years of age; three out of five 
under 35; seventy-five out of one hundred under 40, and only one 
in one hundred and eleven over 70. Ours are much younger than 
the English and considerably younger than the German, though 
they too are in the prime of life. 
This was the winter when the grippe was raging, and yet only 8.5 
per cent, of them claimed to be suffering from bad health, and 83.5 
per cent, declared specifically that their health was good. In 
England 91 per cent, admitted that their health was good. The 
German colonies gave no statistics under this item. 
What makes people tramps? The question designed to throw 
light on this was "Why did you take to the road?" And, of course, 
most of them attributed it to their being " out of work "-82.8 per 
cent, in fact. A few were " tired of work," or " wanted to take life 
easy"; still more "wanted to see the country"; more still charged 
it to "drink," a few to "roving disposition" and a very few to 
" won't work." 55 per cent, of them, however, admitted that 
they had not tried to get work the day they were questioned, which 
is suggestive; and 18 per cent, of them "didn't know" when they 
were going to work again, while 2 per cent, more frankly replied 
"never," to the question, " When are you going to work again ?"- 
which is still more suggestive. And most suggestive of all will be 
thought, perhaps, the reply made later on, which showed that 63 
per cent, of them are confessedly intemperate. 
If ever accurate statistics are collected, I think it will be found 
that this is almost exactly the percentage of cases of pauperism in 
general due to intemperance. I believe industrial causes have but 
little to do with pauperism in general, or vagabondage in particular. 
Fifty-six per cent, of our tramps are of American nativity. Next 
follow Ireland, England, Germany, Canada, Norway and Sweden, 
and Scotland. There were only two Italians. A considerable num- 
ber, possibly a majority of the American section, are of foreign, 
chiefly Irish parentage. I have no statistical basis for this statement, 
but think it to be probably correct. England has almost no foreign 
element to deal with among her tramps, and Germany practically 
none at all. McCOOK. 
105 
More than nine-tenths of them are unmarried, and a like propor- 
tion can read and write. This is not far from the proportion of adult 
white literates according to the 1880 census. In intelligence and 
education it is my impression that the average tramp is not appre- 
ciably different from the general population. He is certainly not 
inferior, I think. 
"How they are housed and fed" is an important question. In 
pleasant weather they live out of doors. Eleven per cent, admitted 
having been at some time inmates of almshouses. I suspect this to 
be below the truth. But in any event the close quarters presently 
become insufferable, and by April the captives are off. Some of 
them go south for the winter, living thus in perpetual summer. A 
friend tells me that while running an engine on the Baltimore and 
Ohio railroad he always passed a troop of them with faces turned 
south in October, and another troop with faces turned north in 
April. 
Thirty-two per cent, of them admitted having been in hospital, 
many of them more than once. And I have it from hospital sur- 
geons and from the lips of members of the fraternity, that a hospital 
is considered a good place for the winter, and that certain diseases 
commonly regarded formidable are rather welcomed by them late in 
the fall, as promising indefinite asylum in this comfortable and 
healthful resort. Only one-sixth of them claimed to have been in 
hospital at their own charges ; the rest were paupers of some kind. 
And such slight work as is done in almshouses is done in summer, 
when they are away. So that the hospital and almshouse fraction 
may be set down as a public burden pure and simple. 
While outside institutional walls they are variously housed in box- 
cars, police stations, wayfarer's rests, cheap lodging-houses, hotels, 
wagons, water-closets, churches and school-houses ; and the balance 
accept lodging at "Mother Green's," to use the German tramp's 
phrase for camping out. 
" How do they generally secure their food?" Twenty per cent, 
say they beg; nine per cent, more "beg and work"; over two per 
cent, more " beg and steal." Three per cent, live off their " friends." 
Twenty-seven per cent. " work" or " work and want." Thirty-eight 
per cent, say they "pay for it." How for the most part this is done 
is left to the imagination. I am convinced that the life of a fraction, 
possibly the greater part of this company consists in alternations of 
work and travel or debauchery. The work is suspended as soon as 106 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
the means for the last named have been secured, and the " sobering 
up " is commonly at public expense. 
Counting their house-room at nothing, I am convinced that $240 
a year would be a moderate, and $200 a year a very conservative 
estimate for the actual cost per head of our army of tramps. This 
would amount to about $10,000,000 annually. This has to be paid 
for, of course, by somebody. And that somebody is the taxpayer. 
Only six per cent, admitted having been convicted of crime. 
Manifestly they thought drunkenness no crime, for thirty-nine per 
cent, admitted conviction for drunkenness. I suspect that these 
figures give a fairly correct impression of the real state of the case. 
Things to eat and things to wear are probably looked upon by the 
vagabond as common property. That view of things is apt to come 
to the front as soon as men get away from the restraints of orderly 
life; of which the history of war gives ample evidence, and that of 
picnicking and summering is not lacking in it. But felony is, I 
believe, confined to the few. Criminal assault is possibly the com- 
monest form of felony known among them. I doubt if weapons are 
often carried by them. 
One of their number who has been on the move for thirty years, in 
writing to me complains bitterly of the lawless minority who are 
" mean enough for anything," and who by their evil deeds bring the 
quieter majority into disrepute. Since I have spoken of the con- 
tempt in which the ''jumper" holds the "pike bum" and other 
" bums," it is only fair to add that this informant lays the burden of 
crime upon that same proud and haughty aristocracy of jumpers. 
In answer to a circular containing various questions, I received 
replies from thirty-five chiefs of police and a number of other per- 
sons of supposed wisdom and knowledge. Of the chiefs of police 
twenty-one stated that no conditions of person-as cleanliness, etc.- 
were insisted upon in their cities for public lodging, and twenty-two 
that no conditions of work were imposed. 
Sixteen stated that the same persons returned frequently, three 
occasionally, two periodically ; ten that the same persons did not 
return frequently. 
Twenty-seven stated that applicants were always received ; four 
that they were not; six that they were liable to be arrested ; two, 
imprisoned as tramps or vagrants, if they returned often. 
Twenty-two put the able-bodied at from ninety to one hundred per 
cent. Only three fixed it as low as fifty. McCook. 
107 
Sixteen thought it on the whole advantageous to offer lodging at 
public expense; eighteen were of the opposite opinion. Of the six- 
teen, four favored it on grounds of general humanity, two out of 
regard to the possible deserving minority among the tramps. Nine 
favored it on grounds of public policy, of which six for protection of 
property, one for protection of person. 
Eleven thought compulsory work was the best solution of the 
tramp question; two confinement; two corporal punishment, of 
which one the shot-gun; one severer laws; two enforcement of 
present laws; one furnishing employment; three believed in the 
workhouse; one thought encouragement ought to be refused ; and 
one thought the repeal of the McKinley bill would doit! 
Not a single one advocated moral measures. I am sure this is not 
because our police authorities attach no importance to such instru- 
mentalities. I fear it is because they think the tramp is impermeable 
to them. I should be sorry to declare myself wholly of this opinion. 
On the other hand, moral measures when tried have generally been 
unsuccessful. Two habits have chiefly to do with the conditions of 
vagabond existence-the habit of idleness and the habit of intemper- 
ance : to which perhaps a third might be added-the habit of physical 
uncleanness. Now moral means are very powerful as preventives of 
these habits, and are invaluable allies in overcoming them. But the 
first thing, I suspect, must be forcible restraint from all these habits, 
and forcible inculcation of their opposites. 
And from this it will be plain that 1 should recommend uniform 
laws in all the states committing drunkards and vagrants to places 
of detention where they must abstain from drink, must work, must 
keep clean, must avoid licentiousness-and that for an indefinite 
period. They might be made to nearly or quite support them- 
selves in such establishments. And in that event we should save 
$10,000,000 or so a year. And then there would be the chance of 
reforming some of them, of which there is now almost none whatever. 
But as long as they are left to roam at will, restrained only by an 
occasional spasm of enforcement of the vagrant laws, it would be an 
immense gain if soft-hearted people would stop giving them money. 
Be sure it goes almost without an exception for drink or worse. The 
person who will give any beggar a coin just because it seems too 
hard to refuse him, ought on similar grounds to give razors and guns 
to madmen and children. 108 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
VAGRANCY. 
A. O. WRIGHT, MADISON, WISCONSIN. 
Vagrancy is an offense not confined to our own country or our own 
time. It has been known in all lands and all ages. Perhaps the 
largest amount of vagrancy ever known was a little before and after 
the Middle Ages, in Europe, when the breaking up of the feudal 
state of society and the false ideas of charity inculcated by mediaeval 
Christianity created a large amount of vagrancy and begging. The 
mendicant monks had consecrated one form of vagrancy to the service 
of the church. The universities sent out swarms of beggar students. 
The artisans, after having served their seven years of apprenticeship, 
were then expected to spend an indefinite number of years as Wander- 
burschen, traveling from place to place in search of work, and often 
eventually became tramps in our own sense of the word. There was 
no system of public poor relief, but charity was supplied either by 
loose and unsystematic individual benevolence or by the doles of 
nobles or of monasteries, both of which encouraged vagrancy. In 
England, in the time of Elizabeth and James, the great increase of 
vagrancy was attributed at the time to the changed conditions of 
agriculture, which threw large numbers of farm laborers out of 
employment. All sorts of remedies were tried for the great evil. 
At one time "sturdy beggars" were hung by the hundred. Whip- 
ping was the common method of punishment. The authorities of 
each parish whipped vagrants at the cart's tail from their own parish 
to the next. In more recent times there are still large numbers of 
able-bodied beggars tramping through "merry England," although 
an effective poor law system has provided amply for all the disabled 
poor, so amply that one-half of the laboring population of England 
to-day, if they live more than fifty years, will die in the workhouse. 
In this country there is very little begging by persons who are 
actually maimed or disabled, or who pretend to be so. Our systems 
of poor relief provide bountifully for all cases of real need, and in 
all ordinary times there is work enough for every one to do in this 
paradise of the poor man; and yet we find a large number of able- 
bodied men tramping around the country and living upon the public 
in one form or another. These constitute the tramp problem. The 
tramp is an anomaly in this country. Where the demand for labor is WRIGHT. 
109 
so great, and the pay is comparatively so high, it is a surprising thing 
that we have a large number of able-bodied men tramping around 
the country, apparently looking for work. I remember very well, 
about twenty years ago, in the city of Austin, Minnesota, hearing the 
farmers in harvest-time offer on the streets four dollars a day for men 
to work binding wheat, and at the very time I saw dozens of able- 
bodied men standing on the streets and refusing to accept those 
wages. The city marshal at that time told me that, along with 
the annual migration of harvest hands following the northward 
ripening of the grain, there came also a large number of tramps, who 
refused to labor at any price. The harvest was merely their excuse 
for tramping. 
The characteristic of the genuine tramp is that he will not work 
if he can help it. I saw a tramp, some years ago, in the Waukesha 
county poorhouse, who had been kept in a cell on bread and water 
for six months, every day being offered his choice of good food and 
liberty if he would work, and every day refusing to work on any 
terms. I suppose he got some other food besides bread occasion- 
ally smuggled into his cell by other inmates of the poorhouse, as he 
could not live for six months on bread and water alone. But he was 
a prisoner, and he had been a prisoner for six months on very 
limited rations, rather than degrade himself by woiking. He was a 
martyr to his principles. About three years ago, while inspecting 
jails and poorhouses, I fell in with the state high-school inspector. 
As we were both approaching one of the principal cities of our state 
on a railway train, I invited him to spend the evening with me in 
visiting the jail and seeing and studying the tramps, whom I well 
knew I could find there in abundance; and I noted the effect of a 
crowd of tramps upon a thoughtful and sensitive man, accustomed 
to meet persons ambitious and industrious, mentally and physically. 
He saw in the jail some sixty able-bodied men contented to merely 
exist, having the form of humanity but having little of the spirit of 
it. It was a question which he tried to solve for several days after 
he had left that school of crime and vice, but which he confessed to 
me finally he could not solve. 
There is a regular organization of tramps in this country as in 
England, and I suppose elsewhere. Like other savage societies 
they have certain recognized leaders. Like most secret societies 
they have signs of recognition and passwords, and' they also have 
certain marks by which they indicate the reception given them in the 110 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
houses which they have visited,'so that other tramps who follow them 
may profit by their experience. They also leave their cards in the 
police stations and railway depots on their regular routes of travel, 
something like this: "Chicago Kid, Nov. 30, '92. Going east," 
"Jersey Bill, March 3. Pointed for St. Paul." I have seen hundreds 
of these cards on the walls of a single police station, accumulated in 
one season, before the annual house-cleaning had erased them. A 
few years ago they were organized in bands of a hundred or more, 
who captured freight trains and terrorized villages. At one time the 
militia in Wisconsin were called out and did picket duty on the border 
of the state at Beloit, while the hostile camp-fires of hundreds of tramps 
reddened the evening air of Illinois. ' At another time the militia of 
Madison were called out to receive a freight train when it arrived, and 
captured the tramps who had captured the train, and the jail was 
filled as it never was filled before. The vigorous action of the sheriff 
at the time in compelling the tramps to work gave such a hard name 
to Madison in the tramp circles that for years it was shunned by the 
fraternity. The severe laws against these organized mobs of tramps, 
and their enforcement by the authorities, broke up all the large gangs 
in Wisconsin about the year 1880. 
After having seen many thousand tramps in jails and poorhouses 
and houses of correction, after having interviewed hundreds of them, 
after having talked for many hours with officers who have had them 
under their charge, I am satisfied that the mass of the tramps consists 
of men who are trying to find out where work is so as to avoid 
making its acquaintance. There are a few criminals among the 
tramps, either hiding there purposely as the best way to avoid arrest, 
or having been reduced from regular burglars or pickpockets to 
tramps by drink or by too inquisitive police officers. There are also 
among the tramps quite a few drunkards, who have become so broken 
down by drink that they cannot be trusted with work of any value. But, 
as a rule, criminals are not tramps ; and, as a rule, drunkards are not 
tramps. The mass of the tramps are simply lazy loafers who hate 
work and cleanliness. They are savages in the midst of civilization. 
At best they are persons who love to wander from a restless dispo- 
sition or a desire of novelty. At the worst they are enemies of 
society, ready for any crime that may come.handy, but restrained 
largely by cowardice from anything but minor depredations. 
There are certain classes of persons who are on the border-line of 
vagrancy and yet are not genuine tramps in the strict definition of 
that word. WRIGHT. 
111 
No one considers as tramps the Winnebago Indians, who still 
haunt the four lakes around Madison, as their ancestors did, e\en if 
they do add to their ancestral diet of fish and muskrats occasional 
cold victuals begged from the white man's table, and if they do 
wander from one place to another. 
Nor are the gypsies, whom Borrow, Leland and others have 
glorified, real tramps, although they lead a vagrant life. The gypsies 
are a curious survival, in the midst of our high civilization, oi the 
lower civilization of a wandering Hindoo tribe. 
There are many sailors and lumbermen and other laboring men 
who have no settled home or are far away from home, who work 
when they can, who usually spend their money freely (when they 
get it) for liquor and other vices, and who are then often reduced to 
all kinds of shifts to live till they can get work again. I have heard 
of one thrifty fellow who regularly deposited his wages in a savings 
bank, and, as soon as navigation closed, had himself sentenced for 
the winter to the House of Correction, thus compelling Milwaukee 
county to furnish him good food and clean quarters in return for 
light work. 
It is scarcely fair to put this class of laboring men with the real 
tramps, because they merely beg at private houses and because they 
are willing to work. Still, any measures of treatment of tramps, 
whether by public or private authority, will be sure to get some of 
this class, and in all our plans for dealing with them we must not 
forget that the apparent tramps include many laboring men who are 
not real tramps. 
Tramps are rarely country-bred boys; they are mostly the 
young hoodlums of the great cities. A few years ago I found sixty- 
eight tramps one day in a certain jail, herded together in idleness 
and what a tramp would consider comfort. Over sixty of them 
appeared to be between fifteen and twenty-five years old. I ques- 
tioned each one where he came from, and about fifty claimed to be 
from Chicago. I judged that most of them told the truth. 
Tramps live by begging and stealing. Although charitable 
individuals in the last few years have largely learned to refuse 
money or food to able-bodied beggars, there are still enough people 
willing to give at least food to make it easy for tramps to live by 
begging. In the summer there are many tramp resorts hidden in 
the woods here and there, to which the plunder of the hen-roost and 
garden are brought, as well as the proceeds of begging and an PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
112 
occasional bottle of whiskey for a grand picnic reunion. Within 
recent years it is noticeable that the tramps are fairly well clothed, 
instead of going in rags, as they are still depicted in the comic 
papers, which are always behind the times in their jokes. This is 
due to the fact that the cheap clothing-houses have pushed their 
goods into the country stores, which are not well guarded at night. 
Thus the ready-made clothing suit which began in a sweating-shop 
in the city sometimes ends by clothing a tramp in the country. 
Tramps love to wander. In the summer, tramps follow the fashion 
and take long tours of the country. In winter, they partly go south 
with other northern tourists, partly they crowd into the great cities, 
and partly they find refuge in jails and poorhouses all over the 
country. In traveling, the tramps almost invariably follow the main 
lines of railroads. In the winter, those tramps who remain north are 
driven for shelter to various public institutions. They apply in 
large numbers for admittance to the police stations of the cities, 
where they stay night after night in places provided for them espec- 
ially, until warned to move on, when they try some other police 
station in the same city, unless committed to the House of Correc- 
tion ; in which case the comfortable quarters and good food recon- 
cile them in a measure to the very moderate amount of work required 
of them. In the country they pass from one county-seat or city to 
another, applyingfor admittance, and being received in this or thatjail 
or police station very much according to the discretion of the local 
magistrates and officers. 
The fact that the tramps have become the occasion of a species of 
official plunder, under which the people are quite restive, has kept 
this question before the public mind, and is probably the occasion of 
this topic being selected for discussion here and now. The waste of 
public money in this way by the counties and cities of Wisconsin 
runs from $50,000 to $100,000 a year. It is less now than it was, 
because public opinion has really had some effect upon the officers, 
and because several of the counties which were most burdened have 
salaried their sheriffs. 
The root of the whole difficulty is in the foolish system of paying 
fees instead of salaries. The tramp problem as a serious burden 
upon the taxes would disappear at once if sheriffs and justices of the 
peace were paid no fees. 
It can scarcely be expected of a sheriff, who is elected for two 
years and is then ineligible for re-election, and who is paid by fees, WRIGHT. 
113 
that he should refuse to arrest tramps when they ask to be arrested, 
or when citizens ask their arrest to get rid of the danger of having 
tramps around. It can easily be seen that some sheriffs and justices 
of the peace would be tempted to form a virtual conspiracy to rob 
the public by sentencing tramps for one day each, and by making 
it so pleasant for the tramps that they will pass the word around to 
their fellows to call that way. It could hardly be expected that an 
average officer would take vigorous measures to drive away such 
profitable guests. And the few sheriffs who have worked efficiently 
for the interests of their constituents at the expense of their own 
pockets deserve high commendation. As a rule, however, the fee 
system demoralizes all concerned. If the sheriff wishes to drive 
away tramps, he cannot oppose too strenuously the justices of the 
peace and the various village marshals, who all get a little of the 
plunder. And many of the members of the county board hope to be 
themselves elected sheriff some time, and therefore do not object too 
loudly to the bills that are presented, especially as they are all strictly 
legal bills. The justices of the peace and the marshals also are apt 
to remember a sheriff or a member of the county board who is too 
particular, and when he comes up for some office they will " knife 
him." All which shows that the fee system cannot be cut off by 
inches but must be destroyed as a whole. 
Many counties in Wisconsin have attempted to discourage tramps 
by providing work for them in connection with the jail. The idea 
of labor for tramps is correct, but the execution of it by sheriffs and 
their deputies is ineffective. A sheriff who is paid by fees is not likely 
to discourage tramps. He may not take any pains to encourage 
them; indeed, I think few sheriffs nowadays do so. But it is too 
much to expect of human nature that a sheriff shall take special 
pains to work directly against his own interests. In several cases the 
county board has employed a guard over the tramps while at work, 
but the guard has usually discovered very soon that he had better 
be on good terms with the sheriff than with the county board. And 
in fact the foolish economy of county boards usually leads to the 
employment of such cheap help for this work as to defeat its own 
object, by making the guard as ridiculous to the tramps themselves 
as is a country scarecrow to a flock of blackbirds. 
Another ineffective remedy which has been tried is the reduction 
of the fees in all tramp cases from about five dollars to one dollar. 
When that bill was before the legislature I warned the committee 114 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
that it would be ineffective and showed them why. The result 
has verified my predictions. The returns show that fewer tramps 
have been committed to jail as such, but that there has been an 
alarming increase of drunkenness and other petty crimes. One 
sheriff reported to me in one year 72 persons sentenced to jail for 
"indecent exposure of the person." A tramp is very accommo- 
dating to an officer who is accommodating to him. He will plead 
guilty to any charge the sheriff brings against him, so that he can 
get into jail, but he is very careful not to plead guilty to a state prison 
charge. I was told that, after a revolution in one of our counties, 
so that tramps were no longer encouraged at the jail, a fellow coolly 
took a coat from the display in front of a clothing-store and walked 
along to the next corner, where he stopped and, with a disappointed 
look, hailed the first-comer with the remark, "Say, stranger, hain't 
you got no police in this town? " All of which shows that tramping 
may be abolished in official reports and still exist in full vigor in 
reality. 
Amid a collection of unsuccessful experiments at suppressing 
vagrancy, of which I have given only Wisconsin cases, there have 
been a few successful efforts, which I will name. A little over a 
hundred years ago, Benjamin Thompson, a native of Massachusetts, 
became Count Rumford and prime minister of the King of Bavaria. 
Being given absolute power over this subject, he provided factories 
and workhouses, and on a given day arrested every beggar and 
vagrant in the kingdom and put them at work at such things as they 
were capable of doing. He paid them according to the value of their 
work, encouraging them in every way not only to earn something 
by honest labor, but also to learn how to perform skilled labor at a 
higher rate of pay. By using force on the one hand and inspiring 
liope on the other, he converted the swarms of vagrants and beggars, 
with which the kingdom had been infested, into industrious and self- 
supporting citizens. At the present time the kingdom of Prussia has 
settled a large number of vagrants upon the waste lands of Westpha- 
lia. They are held under commitment for a time, but are encouraged 
to self-support, and given freedom as soon as they can be trusted. 
The scheme which Booth, the head of the Salvation Army, proposed 
in his book, " In Darkest England," although it has had only a year's 
trial, is already working very successfully, and a large number of 
vagrants and drunkards and other broken-down wrecks of humanity 
have already been rescued from the slums of London and are earn- WRIGHT. 
115 
ing an honest living and are nearly if not quite self-supporting. In 
the United States, the state of Connecticut, although close by the 
great city of New York, which sends out its swarms of tramps every 
summer, has for many years prevented the tramps from coming near 
its border by sentence to a state workhouse. The superintendent 
of the Industrial School for Girls told me with great delight how the 
father of one of his charges, who was a tramp, when he came to visit 
his daughter, was obliged to disguise himself as an honest man in 
order to avoid arrest and imprisonment. In Indianapolis and other 
cities the provident wood-yard, by offering meals and lodging for a 
certain definite amount of labor, has sifted out all the vagrants who 
were at all willing to work, and left those who were either persist- 
ently lazy or vicious to be sentenced to the House of Correction. 
These examples in actual experience show that the tramp problem 
is not insoluble. Any agency, public or private, which will offer 
decent board and lodging in return for a fair amount of work is a 
true charity for the homeless but industrious poor. The labor test 
will sift out the genuine tramps from the destitute workers. Along 
with the labor test necessarily goes the test of cleanliness. No insti- 
tution but a jail or police station can afford to keep such dirty lodgers 
as many tramps are, without using a bathroom and a room in which 
clothing is steamed. Any agency, public or private, which will 
furnish food, shelter and cleanliness in return for unskilled labor 
will relieve the public of the need of giving food, clothes or money to 
tramps. But to reach the cases of the genuine tramps, legal meas- 
ures only will suffice, because the genuine tramp will network unless 
compelled to do so. 
One plan which has been proposed for Wisconsin is that of a state 
workhouse. Under proper conditions, this plan can be made 
effective, as the experience of Connecticut shows. But the experi- 
ence of Massachusetts also shows that, where the length of sentences 
and the election between the state workhouse and a local prison is 
left optional with the local magistrates, it will work about like all 
other kinds of local option. In some towns in Massachusetts the 
magistrates sentence tramps for ninety days to the state workhouse, 
and the tramps of course shun those towns; in other towns the mag- 
istrates are more lenient to the tramps, or more anxious for fees for 
themselves, and the tramps patronize those towns. 
I have already spoken of our experience with tramps appearing on 
the records charged with drunkenness, with petty larceny, with 116 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
assault and battery, or with indecent exposure of the person. This 
shows how easy it is to evade the law providing a state workhouse, 
if that workhouse is for tramps only. The way to avoid this is to 
have all sentences for misdemeanors executed in the state workhouse 
and to abolish the foolish system of sentencing for very short terms. 
There are excellent reasons for establishing a state workhouse for 
misdemeanants, entirely aside from the tramp question. In Michigan 
the state workhouse has been tried for misdemeanants with good suc- 
cess. It is nearly self-supporting, without convict labor, and it is not 
a school of vice and crime, as other jails are, to which misdemeanants 
are sentenced. Such a state workhouse ought to have its prisoners 
sentenced for one or two years, unless sooner discharged, with the 
understanding that all first offenders shall be discharged in about 
three months, but that old hands shall be kept longer. The Bertillon 
system of identification of criminals will detect professional criminals 
and habitual tramps, who should be kept much longer, to protect 
society and to weary them of Wisconsin justice, so that when 
discharged they shall seek " fresh fields and pastures new." 
But I am convinced that a yet greater good can be done if we are 
only willing to undertake it. The best jail I ever visited (not in the 
architecture, but in its management) is the jail at Media, Delaware 
county, Pennsylvania. The Quakers are the original prison reformers, 
and the Quaker end of Pennsylvania has the best managed state 
prison and the best managed county jails in the United States. The 
Delaware county jail is not controlled by the sheriff, but by a jailor 
who is appointed by a board of directors, and who is paid a salary 
and no fees. The jail is managed on the public account plan. Ever)' 
prisoner labors in his own cell, and may earn something by a proper 
amount of work. As no tobacco is furnished free, all the prisoners, 
whether required by law or not, willingly labor in order to earn their 
tobacco. There being no fees, the jail is managed in the interests of 
the people. Tramps shun this jail, although near a large city. All 
the jails in Canada are governed by jailors appointed by the pro- 
vincial governments, and are paid salaries, and tramps are not 
numerous in Canada. 
My remedy for the tramp problem would be to adopt the Quaker 
idea of jail management. This will also be a remedy for all the 
various difficulties now surrounding the jails, the most absurdly 
managed and most dangerous part of our whole prison system. 
This plan is not an ideally perfect plan, but it is one which could 
be carried out practically. An ideally perfect system could only be RING. 
117 
attained by destroying our local self-government, which would be 
too high a price to pay for even an ideal prison system. The evils 
of centralization might prove in the end to be greater than the evils 
of local self-government. • 
The tramp is one portion of the debris of our civilization. All the 
various forms of crime and pauperism link in with the tramp ques- 
tion. Whatever is done wisely in one line will irresistibly aid every- 
thing else. Getting rid of tramps from one state will tone up the 
administration of justice in petty cases ; it will prevent our jails being 
polluted and overcrowded by the presence of large numbers of 
uncleanly vagrants; it will relieve our poorhouses and our insane 
asylums of many undesirable inmates; it will reduce the criminal 
expenses of many counties; it will relieve railroad employees of 
much trouble and some risk; it will banish the annoyance and fear 
which tramps have brought to many homes in the country ; it will 
save the people from the demoralizing spectacle of idle loafers in 
the midst of an industrial civilization, and of lawless vagrants in the 
midst of a law-abiding population. Tramps may be driven away, 
which is a gain to ourselves, or they may be reformed, which is a 
gain to humanity. But to do either, we must reorganize in a large 
measure our defective machinery for the treatment of criminals, 
which is a gain both to ourselves and to humanity. 
MUNICIPAL PROVISION FOR SHELTER OF HOMELESS 
POOR IN BOSTON-TEMPORARY HOME FOR 
WOMEN AND CHILDREN-WAYFARERS' 
LODGE AND WOODYARD FOR MEN. 
THOMAS F. RING, BOSTON. 
My theme is the municipal provision made by Boston for the 
temporary relief of the immediate needs of the transient and casual 
poor, who, penniless, friendless and homeless, ask for a meal or a 
night's lodging; it does not extend to the poor admitted to the 
almshouses or hospitals. 
Adjacent to the Charity Building in Boston, where nearly all the 
public and private relief agencies and societies have their offices, is a 118 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
large brick building known as the Temporary Home for Women and 
Children, owned and maintained by the city of Boston and under 
the charge of the overseers of the poor. 
Here, women and children, meaning little children, if of the male 
sex, are provided with beds, good food and shelter for a longer or 
shorter time, according to their needs. In actual experience the 
term has been from part of a day to even six weeks. A nursery 
department is provided for babies and for mothers with babies. 
The whole number of admissions for the year 1892 is stated as 3,564 
(2,703 women and 861 children), but the number of different indi- 
viduals who entered was only 2,023 (1,283 women and 740 children), 
some of course entering more than once during the period. Women 
may have meals and lodging at the home while searching for employ- 
ment, but are required to do some house-work during their stay. 
Meals are given gratis to women who apply for them. 
The average daily population of the home is 30 ; some infants 
are born in the house (17 last year), but the rule is to obtain accom- 
modations elsewhere for lying-in cases when it is practicable to do 
so. Lost children are kept until claimed by relatives or friends. 
370 children came with their mothers to this house in 1893; I27 
were stated to be illegitimate. 
What can be said of the Lives of the Women who ask for Shelter ? 
One-half are known to be of the class that spend much of their 
time in the almshouses, much of their time in the penal institutions, 
with a brief freedom among dissipated companions while in the city. 
It is purely a matter of accident with them where they go next ; 
it may be to the Island for a term of imprisonment, it may be to the 
almshouse, where they may stay practically as long or as short a 
time as they wish, being discharged on their own application, unless 
the medical officer at the almshouse objects in the interest of public 
health. 
A second class is made up from women-servants who have too 
strong a liking for liquor, who cannot or do not remain long in a 
situation, and have no place to go while out of employment. 
Female paupers waiting investigation of their legal standing or 
other circumstances are lodged here, pending definite action of the 
city or state relief officers. 
Sometimes a poor, unfortunate girl, thrust into the street in the 
hour of her trial, asks for a bed and is tenderly carried through her 
confinement. RING. 
119 
Of the rest, little is known ; they come for a meal or a lodging and 
on the morrow "move on," God knows where; they are not resi- 
dents of the city, they have no acquaintances among us, and are 
going somewhere in search of employment or of friends. 
In this charity, Boston expended in 1892, $7,369.63, and it was for 
the protection of homeless women and little children that Boston's 
first shelter was provided. 
Wayfarers' Lodge and Woodyard for Men. 
When it became known that women were given meals free at the 
Temporary Home, numbers of men out of employment applied daily 
for meals also ; they were served, upon condition that they first 
made compensation by sawing or splitting wood, of which a large 
quantity thoughtfully provided was conspicuously heaped in the 
yard of the house. 
This was the beginning of the kindling wood business, afterwards 
transferred to and still carried on by the Wayfarers' Lodge and Wood- 
yard owned by the city. The money to pay for the relatively small 
stock of wood and saws for the experimental yard at the Temporary 
Home was furnished by public-spirited overseers from their own 
pockets, since the city solicitor ruled that money for a speculative 
enterprise could not be drawn from the city treasury. The Lodge 
since that time has paid into the city treasury $21,coo from the 
profits of the business ; the payment, doubtless, is a legal transac- 
tion, for no objection has been made so far by the law officers of 
the city. 
The tramp, as a species, first became known in this country in the 
decade following the close of the Civil War. No marauding invaders 
were more feared in the thinly settled country places than were the 
tramps. 
In the cities they were rather a nuisance than a danger, for police 
control awed them into a sneaking obscurity. They congregated at 
nightfall about the police stations, and were admitted to the hospi- 
tality of the cells, which they shared with the drunken men arrested 
on the street. 
One can judge of the number of such idlers when he reads that 
in 1877, the year before the Lodge was opened, the police stations of 
Boston furnished 55.973 lodgings to men and 6,746 to women. No 
decent provision could be made for the miserable wretches, they 
were not given food nor a chance to wash, but at daybreak turned 120 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
into the street to beg or steal a breakfast somewhere. The police 
stations were not designed for such a swarm of human beings, and 
the atmosphere was next to poison for officers or inmates. 
Acting under the provisions of a law passed by the Massachusetts 
Legislature of 1875, the overseers of the poor of Boston in 1877 
applied to the city for the use of a schoolhouse on Hawkins street, 
then badly damaged by fire and unoccupied, that they might carry 
out the provisions of the law enabling overseers of the poor to 
require some labor from persons applying for food or shelter. The 
city council promptly voted to supply a house and other means, and 
I had the honor, as a member of the board, to be one of the committee 
to organize and manage the new Lodge and Woodyard, and was a 
member of the same committee for nine years, until I declined a 
fourth term on the board. 
Our committee studied the situation carefully, took advice from 
the police, read what they could find printed on the subject, and 
opened the Wayfarers' Lodge (a name suggested by Mr. T. C. 
Amory, the chairman of the committee) in 1878. 
A leading purpose was to get rid of many of the tramps infesting 
the city, by closing the police stations against lodgers, compelling 
all applicants for lodgings to call at the police stations for cards on 
the Lodge, and retaining the applicant at the station if he were noisy 
or intoxicated, giving cards only to men who appeared to be sober. 
On arriving at the Lodge, the applicant presents his card of 
admission, is asked his name, age, occupation, birthplace, and 
whether married or single. A striking proof of the wisdom of the 
institution of matrimony is found in the fact that very seldom is a 
married man a tramp; the tramp has only himself to care for, and 
he seems to take very poor care of that. With us he is becoming 
more of a rarity ; speed the day when he shall be extinct, and the 
last specimen of the race, after repenting of his sins and making an 
edifying death, may atone for all his offenses in a dry purgatory in 
a glass case in the ethnological department of the Museum at 
Harvard University. 
Our applicant, after registry is completed, is given a ticket bear- 
ing a number, which is his number while in the house. He descends 
to the basement, where he completely disrobes; I have seen one 
tramp take off four pairs of trousers, peeling like an onion. The 
clothes are tied up in a bundle and placed for an hour or so subject 
to the action of dry steam, thoroughly disinfecting them and destroy- RING. 
121 
ing all germs of vermin or perhaps disease. About ten thousand 
suits of clothes are so treated annually, certainly a great sanitary 
advantage to the general public. The clothes shaken out of the 
bundle are hung on a hook numbered the same as the man's ticket, 
and dry in a few minutes, with no apparent damage to the garments. 
The lodger in the meantime has been through a warm bath, his hair 
drenched with a special preparation, he has taken a clean night 
shirt, and gone up to the dormitory, where he has a neat cot bed to 
himself. There are three rooms with fifty cots in each, and some 
smaller rooms with more cots ready for use. From forty to one 
hundred and seventy men sleep here every night in the year. Gas 
burns low in the rooms; closets are on each floor for use of the men ; 
there is always peace in the house. The men, after the unaccus- 
tomed luxury of a warm bath and a fresh, clean night robe, sleep 
soundly until called at six in the morning, when they go down and 
dress, then pass into the yard covered by a roof, where each man 
finds a foot of wood and a saw waiting for him. When he has 
finished the task he gets a ticket admitting him to breakfast. Son e 
men can do the work in three-quarters of an hour, some take two 
hours; but unless a man is sick he must do the work before he can 
have any breakfast. By nine o'clock most of the men are gone, and 
the yard is empty until the men come in to work an hour for their 
dinner. 
The cost of the Lodge in 1892 was $9,436.68 (no rent for the use 
of the building is charged by the city), 32,611 lodgings were fur- 
nished, and 71,549 meals given. The cost of the materials used 
for the table makes the meals average six cents each man. Here is 
the menu: Soup (quart bowl), stewed beef, bread, potatoes, Boston 
baked beans on Sundays, fish chowder on Fridays, tea, milk and 
sugar at all the suppers. A man may suit himself as to the quantity 
he wishes to eat. No one watches him. He can take his time and 
eat what he wishes. Counting the cost of the Lodge last year at 
$9,400 and the lodgings at 32,000, the daily cost of a lodging is thirty 
cents, including meals. Each lodger could, if space were available 
(and not half the needed space is provided), saw and split a foot of 
wood, advancing the commercial value of the same tw'enty-five cents, 
and thus almost cover the whole cost of his keeping for the day. 
But for want of space the men are not fully employed at produc- 
tive labor, some are piling wood or doing something to keep them 
moving, so that the result is that the labor of all the men produces 122 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
about one-third of the cost of the Lodge. That, placed on the basis 
of one day, means that it costs the city thirty cents a day, and the 
lodger returns ten cents a day by his labor. 
On the wharf, however, the men who come during the day for 
meals are employed, being given a meal ticket on the completion of 
their task. About one-third of all the wood prepared is sawed and 
split on the wharf by the dinner men, as they are called, to distin- 
guish them from the lodgers. 
An attempt was made sometime ago to try a plan that had worked 
well in Providence, namely, to employ all comers who wanted money 
at the rate of fifty cents a day in cash and their meals while at work, 
but it was found the men so employed mixed themselves with the 
tramps and did no more work than they could avoid doing; the results, 
as far as they could be traced, were of no tangible value, and the 
experiment under the conditions was deemed a failure and was discon- 
tinued. 
A wharf is hired for the receipt of cargoes of wood from vessels, 
and if the place were owned by the city and the men were lodged 
there, a much larger return would be secured from the labor than is 
possible now. The experiment was tried of marching lodgers from 
the Wayfarers' Lodge to the wharf, to do their work there before 
breakfast, but the men scattered in all directions on coming out from 
the yard. True, it is possible to have police escort, but a four 
dollar policeman to a ten-cent tramp would not be a profitable outlay 
for the overseers. 
Seven years ago I prepared a paper on this Wayfarers' Lodge, 
and since beginning the present sketch I have read over my notes 
and I am struck with the great changes noticeable in the classes that 
now come to the Lodge compared with the men as a whole who 
lodged in the house when it was first opened in 1878. 
The worst class, the stowaways from the foreign steamers, do not 
come at all. A law pissed or enforced since forbids the landing of 
stowaways. 
Men claiming to be strikers or traveling in search of work do not 
apply so often; either they have money and go elsewhere, or there 
are fewer looking in this way for employment. 
The tramp avoids the Lodge ; only dire necessity compels him to 
ask a shelter or a meal that must be paid for in labor. The cheap 
lodging-houses, of which Boston has far too many for its peace, are 
the places where he can find congenial company and an occasional, RING. 
123 
but welcome drink. As long as he can steal, or rob a drunken 
passer on the street, he will not face the Lodge. These men spend 
their winters in ease at the almshouse, from which they are discharged 
on their own application in the spring; then they manage to goto 
some penal institution for awhile ; when cold weather approaches 
they are snug in the almshouse again. 
As a means of securing conviction of some of the idle vagrants, the 
Lodge has failed completely to meet the expectation of the first com- 
mittee. The discouragement thrown by a judge on the first good 
case presented made the superintendent feel that it was wasting time 
to do anything further; he simply refuses to let the vagrant in if he 
recognizes him as one who has made trouble, and so dismisses the 
matter. 
The largest of any distinct class now at the Lodge are railroad 
laborers, employed most of the year at construction works. 
When the winter stops operations they spend carelessly what they 
have saved, and those who have no acquaintances or friends come to 
the Lodge for a few days (three days is the limit). Ask any one of 
them why he came to the Lodge and he will tell you that he was 
foolish with his money when he had it, but hopes soon to be at 
work again. 
Summing it all up: the Wayfarers' Lodge is useful to the city of 
Boston. It is not claimed that all the men cut of work can find 
employment here, or that all without means to pay for a lodging can 
be provided for, but it does this much, it contributes largely towards 
the health and safety of the lodgers under its roof. It offers a fair 
test of the sincerity and capacity of the man who says he is willing 
to work, for many good places for laborers have been found by the 
Lodge. 
It takes no payment in money from a lodger, it supposes the 
applicant to be without money. All who come are humanely treated, 
and when they leave they feel that they have earned the cost of their 
food and shelter and are in debt to no one, except so far as to thank 
the Christian instinct ingrained in our national life, which has pro- 
vided a means by which a poor man may without shame eat the 
bread set before him, for he has already done all that was asked from 
him in return for it. 124 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
FREE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES IN OHIO. AN 
EXPERIMENT IN SOCIALISTIC LEGISLATION. 
P. W. AYRES, GENERAL SECRETARY OF ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, 
CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
Free public employment offices, established by the state of Ohio 
in five of its largest cities, are certainly a unique experiment. The 
legislation establishing these offices was new and bold. It has 
aroused peculiar interest, because it undertakes to deal in some 
measure with the relation of the state to industrial action, and at the 
same time is a step toward government control, the end of which was 
not easily seen when the bill passed. 
The offices have been in operation a little less than three years. 
It is, therefore, too soon to estimate their final value. 
The following sketch will endeavor to show to what extent the 
offices have proved useful to laborers, notwithstanding the political 
changes in management, and to what extent they have failed to carry 
out the original ideals of those who the bill. 
The Municipal Labor Congress of Cincinnati, an organization 
composed of all the trade and labor unions in that city, started the 
agitation in favor of free public employment offices to be established 
by the state government. The bill, as introduced into the state 
legislature during the winter of 1889-90, made the employment 
offices a branch of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics, fixed the 
salaries of superintendents and clerks, and placed the expense upon 
the state. Senator M. T. Corcoran of Cincinnati, who introduced 
the bill, fought hard to have it passed in its original form. The 
shrewd farmer legislator, however, proved too much in this case for 
the city representative of labor, and refused to pay from the state 
treasury the salaries of officials, the benefit of whose work would 
accrue largely to the local cities in which they were employed. It 
resulted, therefore, that the city governments should pay the salaries 
which constituted the greater portion of the expense connected with 
the offices, while the state government should pay the rent of offices. 
The original intentions of the framers of the bill were : 
First, that the local offices collect statistical data relating to the 
The Plan as proposed. AYRES. 
125 
industrial interests of the state, supplementing the statistics of the 
State Labor Bureau. 
Second, that they exchange industrial information between the 
various cities of the state, so that scarcity of a given class of laborers 
in one city could be supplied from the excess of such laborers in 
another city. 
Third, that they assist employers to secure employees. 
Fourth, that they furnish working men and women out of employ- 
ment free and reliable information as to the kind and character of 
employment to be had. It was the intention of the framers of this 
law that the free employment offices should be entirely devoid of 
partisan politics, that labor leaders should be appointed to the 
superintendencies, and that the collection of statistics should be 
more complete than had hitherto been made in the state. These 
intentions of the framers have not all been carried out. Legislation 
proposes ; the spoils system, like the voice of God, disposes. 
Prior to the establishment of the free employment offices there 
were " employment agencies," which were run for private profit. 
Some of them were leeches engaged in sucking the life-blood from 
the poor. It is stated that these private agencies charged men and 
women anywhere from one to fifteen dollars for securing them 
employment, and that they obtained their victims chiefly from the 
rural districts and neighboring towns, often bound them by contract, 
and left them in worse condition than before. One of the chief ben- 
efits of the free offices in Ohio has been to prevent the evils arising 
from extortionate private agencies, although some continue to do a 
nefarious business, sending laborers to unsatisfactory places in 
Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, etc. Private agencies in several 
cities still do business limited by competition with the state office. 
The Bill analyzed. {Revised Statutes of Ohio, Section 308.)* 
The bill passed the Ohio legislature, April 28, i8yo. It provides 
that the state labor commissioner shall have an office in the state 
house which shall be a bureau of statistics of labor. It authorizes 
the commissioner to establish in the five largest cities of Ohio free 
public employment offices, with a superintendent and suitable clerical 
help. 11 No compensation or fee shall directly or indirectly be 
*The bill is printed in Fourteenth Annual Report of the Ohio Bureau of 
Labor Statistics (for the year 1890). 126 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
charged to or received from any person or persons seeking employ- 
ment, or any person or persons desiring to employ labor through 
any of said offices." The superintendent is directed to make a 
weekly report, on Thursday of each week, to the state commissioner, 
of the persons desiring to employ labor, and of the persons applying 
for employment, and of the character of employment in each case. 
This weekly list from each office in the state is printed and posted in 
each of the other offices in the other cities. It is provided that each 
superintendent shall receive a salary fixed by the council of the 
city in which he is employed. The salary of the clerical assistants 
is limited to fifty dollars per month, though a less sum may be paid 
by the local city council. 
Under this act, the five offices were at once organized in the sum- 
mer of 1890; Toledo paying a salary of $1000 per year, without an 
assistant; Dayton paying $ioco per year, with an assistant at $600 
per year; Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus paying $1200 per year 
each, with an assistant at $600 per year each. 
The report of the state labor commissioner for that year makes 
this criticism upon the law: "A bad feature of the law is that it 
leaves it optional to councils of the different cities to make and 
unmake salaries. This position endangers the existence of the offices, 
and has a tendency to bring the superintendents and clerks into 
collusion with members of the city government as against the com- 
missioner." 
The offices have not been kept free from political interference. When 
the offices were first opened the state had a Democratic governor. 
The state commissioner of labor appointed by him was a fair-minded 
man, who put into the five free public employment offices three 
Democrats favorable to the labor party and two representatives of 
the People's party. These gentlemen had no.sooner become familiar 
with the office, having held it-about one year, just time enough to 
learn the field and to begin a systematic collection of statistics, when 
the state changed its political head for one of the Republican part}. 
The newly-appointed state commissioner of labor was a Republican. 
All of the original superintendents with their assistants were 
requested to resign, and new appointments were made from the 
Republican ranks, with more or less regard to the labor interests. 
Thus there are nine more offices than formerly that belong to the 
spoils of state. 
Relation to Politics. AYRES. 
127 
State politics, however, are better than municipal politics, and the 
offices have not been interfered with by the local city councils, nor 
have there been places where local jobs have been given away for 
votes. Fortunately, the appointments have been in the hands of 
the state commissioner of labor, and not in the hands of the local 
ward politician. The political interference, therefore, has not been 
of that despicable variety which would change the office from free 
state employment to local ward boss employment. The offices have 
fortunately escaped the exceeding fine grinding of the local political 
machines. 
In the second place, the collection of statistics has not been so 
complete as was hoped for. The failure in this direction probably 
results from the failure to keep the system free from politics. The 
superintendents in the different cities have not been in office long 
enough to develop a uniform system of collecting statistics, while 
changes in office tend to cultivate disrespect on the part of large 
employers. In Dayton, for instance, the employers objected to 
giving the statistics asked for, on the plea that the state had no right 
to collect statistics from the internal secrets of business men, to be 
pried into by designing politicians and business competitors. Six 
firms absolutely refused to comply with the requests, preferring the 
risks of litigation, until events should prove the law a good one or a 
bad one, and either sustain it for its good qualities or repeal it for 
its alleged corrupt and unjust features. It was found also that the 
state commissioner of labor was obliged to withdraw the blanks sent 
out by the local superintendents, to prevent confusion in the work of 
the special agents sent out from the state office. In one instance the 
special agent found that the blanks from the local superintendent did 
not command respect, they had not been sent out with tact. The 
agent refused to work until these local blanks had been withdrawn. 
The Work of a Labor Exchange. 
Still further, the free employment offices have not been the means 
of exchanging knowledge of the industrial situation between different 
cities to the extent that was hoped for. The reports made on Thurs- 
day are sent to Columbus and printed, and returned on Monday or 
Tuesday, so that it is fully a week before the notices are posted in 
each office as to the condition of labor in other cities. When this is 
coupled with the fact that a large proportion of the applicants are 128 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
unskilled laborers, it will readily appear that the posted notices are 
not much considered. 
Nor have the free public employment offices rendered large assist- 
ance to employers in securing employees. As one employer said, 
" So far as the mechanic or skilled laborer is concerned, manufac- 
turers are overrun with applicants at the shop. Therefore they 
have no practical need of the services of the office." The number of 
skilled artisans who have received employment from the Public 
Agencies have been few. The vacancies, or the possibility of vacan- 
cies, have become known and the position applied for before the manu- 
facturer or contractor has had an opportunity of seeking help through 
the free office. The superintendent in Cincinnati reports a favorable 
growth in this direction, and seeks to make his office a local labor 
exchange. 
Furthermore, the work of different offices in the state has been 
very uneven. In the report for the year 1891 the positions secured 
in the Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton offices have been very 
largely for females in the line of domestic help, while many of the 
men who have secured employment have been coachmen, hostlers, 
cooks, butlers, etc., all in the line of household service. Take for 
instance the report of the Cleveland office for the week ending April 
14th, 1893: 
Positions secured for men 38 
Positions secured for women and girls, 55 
Of the thirty-eight positions for men, eleven were for servants and 
work about the house or barn; of the fifty-five places for women 
and girls, thirty-nine were for servants. Of the remaining sixteen 
women for other than domestic work, the positions were as follows: 
Wet-nurse, 1; light work, 3; day's work, 6; house-cleaning, 4; 
laundry work, 2. For that week, therefore, all of the women and 
one-third of the men were sent to household work in some of its 
branches. It would appear that the state of Ohio has gone into the 
domestic servant business! This unfavorable balance of female 
domestic labor does not appear in some of the other offices, though 
it forms a considerable portion elsewhere. 
The following table shows the kind of labor secured in each city 
and the number of male and female laborers employed through the 
five offices, for the week ending April 21, 1893: AYRES. 
129 
MALES. 
Columbus. 
Cleveland. 
Toledo. 
Dayton. 
Cincinnati. 
Total. 
Laborers 
22 
3 
!9 
6 
J4 
64 
Carpenters 
3 
8 
4 
I 
16 
Painters 
2 
i 
3 
Marble workers 
2 
2 
Moulders 
2 
2 
U pholsterer 
I 
I 
Plasterer 
I 
I 
Core-maker 
I 
I 
Shoemaker 
I 
I 
Varnish rubber 
I 
I 
Shop works 
5 
5 
Blacksmiths 
4 
4 
General work 
5 
I 
2 
2 
10 
Clerks 
I 
I 
2 
Canvassers 
I 
2 
3 
Farm hands 
4 
i 
5 
10 
Gardeners 
3 
3 
To private families 
I 
I 
5 
7 
Dish-washers 
I 
1 
2 
Waiters 
I 
3 
1 
5 
Porters 
2 
1 
1 
3 
Hostlers 
3 
3 
Drivers 
I 
4 
2 
7 
Scrubbers 
2 
2 
Boys for work 
Total 
2 
39 
4 
22 
29 
1 
4i 
8 
43 
15 
173 
(A 
□ 
*c 
FEMALES. 
Columl 
Clevela 
Toledo 
Daytor 
Cincim 
Total. 
General housework 
IO 
i5 
IS 
IO 
23 
73 
Chambermaids 
3 
2 
I 
3 
9 
Dining-room girls 
3 
I 
6 
Upstairs work 
I 
5 
5 
2 
8 
21 
Cooks 
I 
3 
3 
2 
12 
21 
Day work 
I 
6 
i 
8 
Nurse girls 
I 
• • 
3 
4 
Dish-washers 
4 
4 
Seamstresses 
2 
• • 
2 
4 
Hotel work 
2 
4 
2 
8 
Laundresses 
I 
2 
6 
9 
Solicitor 
I 
1 
Factory work. 
Total 
21 
37 
30 
2 
23 
59 
2 
170 
Males 
•••173 
Females 
... 170 
• 
- 
243 
for one week. 130 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Summary of Situations wanted, Help wanted, and Positions secured 
from January i, 1891, to January i, 1892. 
Situations Wanted. 
Help Wanted. 
Positions Secured. 
Males. 
Females. 
Males. 
Females. 
Males. 
Females. 
Columbus 
3-128 
i,739 
1,534 
2,268 
9*5 
1,481 
Cleveland 
6,308 
3,830 
925 
3,471 
886 
2,508 
Toledo 
3-859 
i,799 
2,481 
2,479 
2,064 
I,39I 
Dayton 
3,351 
2,118 
1,386 
2,004 
79° 
1,119 
Cincinnati 
4,8l I 
3,428 
3,369 
3,291 
2,312 
2,129 
Total , 
2i,457 
12,914 
9,695 
i3,S!3 
6,967 
8,628 
Situations secured, males and females, 15,595. 
The amount of help wanted was 67.52 per cent, of situations wanted. 
Positions secured was 66.9 per cent, of help wanted. 
'' " " 45.2 " situations wanted. 
The total number of persons who secured employment through 
the offices in one year was 15,525. Of this number, 6,967 were 
males, 8,558 were females. While it appears from the tables given 
that most of the persons benefited by the offices are of the lowest 
industrial grade, few of the men or women being skilled laborers, 
yet it must not be supposed that the work which is accomplished is 
of little value. The five state offices cost the state about $10,000 per 
year. If each of these 15,525 persons had to pay one dollar or more 
for his position, the sum would have been at least $15,525, all of 
which has been saved to the people who need it most and at the 
time when they need it most. The offices are a boon to the unskilled 
laborers, and for their sakes should be continued. 
The offices have not been used by the large employers nor by 
skilled artisans, but they have done a work for the unskilled laborers, 
preventing extortion by private agencies, and directing them to 
places where help is wanted, to which they never would have drifted 
of their own accord. The chief work, therefore, of the free offices 
has not been to influence the labor question materially. They have 
done very little to change the attitude of employers and employees 
toward each other. They have done comparatively little for regular 
employees, who, of course, seldom need the services of the offices; WEBER. 
131 
but they have caught the driftwood of the labor market and have 
directed it into useful channels. They have assisted these out-of-works 
to $15,000 in cash which they otherwise must have spent, in addition 
to the service of information rendered, and thus act as preventives 
of pauperism in a very true sense, without in anywise being helpful 
in the creation of new paupers. 
PAUPERISM AND CRIME. 
JOHN B. WEBER. 
The ordinary definition-of a pauper is one who has become a 
charge upon the public; but, as applied to a foreigner, there is a dis- 
position, widely extended and firmly lodged in the minds of many of 
our people, to have it embrace arriving immigrants who have little 
means, notwithstanding they may possess in a marked degree the 
physical capacity and apparent willingness to gain a livelihood by 
labor. 
Mr. Gladstone, in a speech delivered in the House of Commons on 
the nth day of February last, in speaking to the amendment relat- 
ing to destitute aliens, among other things said : 
•'Now the first thing we have to consider is what is meant by the words 
' destitute aliens.' What aliens are destitute ? . . . . How can we make 
good that definition of a destitute alien, a man who is supporting himself by 
wages which he earns, which his employer is willing to give him, and with 
which he is contented? In what sense is he destitute? He is destitute in 
this sense, that if he had not got employment, and wages as a result of such 
employment, then he would be destitute. Yes, sir, but that is the definition of 
the condition of the entire laboring population. They are not destitute, but 
they would be, if they did not get the wages which they earn in their trades." 
Upon this point Commissioners Kempster and Weber, who as 
representatives of the government visited Europe in the summer of 
1891 to investigate and report upon the subject of immigration to 
this country, used this language: 132 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
"In investigating your proposition with reference to pauperism, the question 
was raised as to the definition of the word ' pauper ' within the meaning of 
existing law. We did not regard a person as a pauper who presented every 
appearance of industry, willingness and physical capacity to labor, even if his 
means on landing were limited, nor yet if he was assisted by friends, relatives 
or philanthropic persons, unless such assistance implied a leaning upon others 
for support. The greatest number of those arriving within the last year, who, 
because of special conditions surrounding their cases, received assistance en 
route, were Jews, yet they very rarely became a charge upon the public. 
Indeed, no race or nationality presents so clean a record in such respect as 
they. A person who by reason of unexpected misfortunes or persecutions is 
deprived of his accumulations, who has been subjected to pillage and plunder 
while fleeing from the burdens which have become unbearable, if capable of 
supporting himself and family-if he has one-with a reasonable certainty 
after obtaining a foothold, and if that foothold is guaranteed by friends or 
relatives upon landing or strong probable surrounding circumstances, is not, 
according to our definition, a pauper. The history of this country is full of 
instances of men from all countries who have reached great prominence in our 
commercial, financial, professional and legislative bodies both in state and 
nation, who would have been returned as paupers if the standard of pauperism 
was based upon money possessions when landing." 
It is true that foreigners contribute an undue quota of paupers and 
criminals in proportion to their numbers, but they are burdened with 
excessive conditions from which the natives are free, and in weighing 
the value of immigrants there should be taken into the account the 
vast net benefits which we derive from the influx as a whole. They 
come into a strange country where new customs and methods con- 
front them, many of them unfamiliar with our language, and to this 
extent start handicapped in the competition for a livelihood. We 
should rather wonder at the small number who become discouraged 
and yield to the temptation of crime or, heartsick and despondent, 
apply for relief to the poor authorities. 
Viewing the subject simply, from the standpoint of dollars and 
cents, which is perhaps a very low but a very practical one, the 
incoming of foreigners has been, now is, and I believe for a long 
time to come will be, the best investment this nation has yet made. 
Charge against them all the cost of crime and pauperism-going 
back a generation or two, if necessary-charge against them all the 
real and alleged evils of their influence in the administration of the 
municipal affairs of our cities where foreigners or those of immediate 
foreign extraction predominate, and the net advantage remaining is 
still colossal. Formerly it was estimated that every able-bodied WEBER. 
133 
arrival added a thousand dollars to the wealth of the country, and if 
this is correct, it is not a difficult calculation to measure the gain to 
the state of New York for the year 1892, during which period about 
40,000 families settled therein. Assuming that only the heads of those 
families were able-bodied producers-and this is a liberal assump- 
tion on the opposite side of my contention-it meant an increase 
of $40,000,000 to the resources of the state. The cost of the alien 
criminals and paupers who cannot under any system of inspection 
or plan, other than total prohibition of immigration, be entirely elim- 
inated, is absolutely insignificant in comparison. Nor is there any 
convincing evidence that the value of the immigrant has diminished. 
The fact that he comes indicates that the conditions here require 
him. The movement is not a haphazard one, nor is it based on 
whim or caprice; except as to Russia, it is in obedience to the law of 
attraction, not repulsion, ft is founded on the law of supply and 
demand. Place the figures of arrivals alongside of your years of 
panic or industrial distress and you have a plain revelation. 
The arrivals of 79,000 in the panic year of 1837 were cut down to 
38,000 in 1838. In 1857 the arrivals were 246,000, falling to 119,000 
the following year. The next panic year of 1873 showed 450,000, 
dropping to 313,000 in 1874, 227,000 in 1875, 169,000 in 1876, 141,- 
000 in 1877,138,000 in 1878, rising to 177,000 in 1879, and regaining 
its normal volume of 457,000 in 1880. 
Immigration statistics have proven an unfailing barometer indi- 
cating industrial conditions ; and in tracing immigrants to final desti- 
nation in this country, it will be found that the movement is most 
sluggish where development is least active; or in other words, where 
the immigrant is a novelty, the sheriff is a necessity. 
Of course it is not contended that we should let in every applicant, 
simply because there is, and will continue to be, a large balance on 
the credit side of the account; but I regard it as an unwise policy to 
close the gates, wholly or in great part, whether in express terms of 
law or indirectly by alleged improvement in the method of inspection. 
I am in favor of any plan practicable in its enforcement and honest in 
striking at real evils, having for its object the exclusion of those who 
are physically and mentally weak, vicious, diseased, dangerously 
ignorant, or whose labor is contracted for abroad to the detriment of 
the better paid and higher grade labor of this country. 
The statistics, however, should not be twisted to strengthen dema- 
goguery or foster narrow-minded prejudice. If the census returns 134 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
are made so as to show that about 15 per cent, of our population is 
made up of persons of foreign birth, the tables of crime and pauper- 
ism chargeable to aliens need not be swelled in their totals by adding 
to the foreign-born those who were born here of mixed or foreign 
parentage. The figures, in respect of crime at least, do not exhibit 
marked improvement of foreign stock by contact with our civiliza- 
tion. On the contrary, one nationality, according to the census 
returns, shows the following, viz.: 
Foreign-born parents of foreign-born criminals.11,118 
Foreign-born parents of native-born criminals16,695 
The pauper statistics of the same nationality make a more gratify- 
ing exhibit, showing a reverse result, but of increased emphasis, viz.: 
Foreign-born parents of foreign-born paupers number28,256 
Foreign-born parents of native-born paupers number 3,758 
These figures seem to indicate that the Americanized generation 
improves as to pauperism, but retrogrades as to crime. 
In analyzing the census statistics of criminals and paupers of 
foreign extraction there were developed some interesting, and to me 
surprising exhibits, differing so materially from popular belief that I 
append a table extracted from the returns and arranged in groups 
for purposes of ready comparison. 
Figures from the United States Census of 1890. 
White Criminals and Paupers. 
Color and Nativity. 
Criminals. 
Paupers. 
Number. 
Per cent. 
Number. 
Per cent. 
Total white 
57.3'0 
100.00 
66,578 
100.00 
Native, white ..... 
Foreign, white 
Birthplace unknown 
Both parents native or foreign 
40,471 
'5.932 
907 
36,969 
70.62 
27.80 
1.58 
100.00 
36,656 
27,648 
2,274 
49,167 
55.06 
4'-53 
3-4i 
100.00 
Natives born of native parents 
Foreigners born of foreign parents 
21,037 
I5>932 
56.90 
43.10 
21,519 
27,648 
43-77 
56.23 W.EBER 
135 
Immigration and Parentage. 
Nationality. 
Immigrants 
1886-1890. 
Parents of Native Criminals and 
Paupers. 
Total 
foreign 
parents. 
One 
parent 
foreign. 
Both parents foreign. 
Same 
nationality. 
Different 
nationalities. 
Criminals. 
English speaking 
673,158 
2,229 
9,104 
1,941 
41,584 
England 
33O,7I9 
449 
590 
5'4 
5,997 
Scotland 
85,619 
191 
240 
355 
1,996 
Wales 
6,332 
35 
46 
36 
343 
Ireland 
250,448 
1,276 
7,935 
825 
29,184 
4,064 
Canada 
(«) 
278 
293 
211 
Non-English speaking . 
457,765 
9 
69 
16 
2,192 
Italy 1 
197,805 
5 
33 
4 
1,209 
Poland, 1 
Russia, J ' 
Hungary 
183,445 
1 
3 
19 
16 
2 
339 
382 
76,505 
1 
• • 
262 
Paupers. 
English speaking...... 
673,r58 
702 
2,231 
363 
4','03 
England 
330,719 
174 
240 
99 
4,688 
Scotland 
85,619 
75 
47 
64 
i,392 
Wales 
6,332 
8 
30 
8 
590 
Ireland 
250,448 
345 
1,806 
146 
32,42i 
Canada 
(«) 
100 
108 
46 
2,012 
Non-English speaking . 
457,765 
5 
32 
IO 
1,037 
Italy 
197,805 
3 
9 
5 
3'7 
Poland, I 
I 
18 
476 
Russia, j 
183,445 
I 
2 
2 
136 
Hungary 
76,505 
3 
3 
108 
(<») No statistics of immigrants from the British North American Possessions since 1885. 
Note by the Editor.- This table has been recast and corrected to con- 
form to Census Bulletin 352, " Nativity and Parentage of Prisoners and 
Paupers." Mr. Weber's argument has been rather strengthened than other- 
wise by the slight alterations in his figures. 
The following figures, also from the Census of 1890, but as yet unpublished, 
may be added to those which he has given. 
The fairest possible comparison is that between the total population of any 
given nationality and the group of the same nationality which is the subject of 136 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
study. The total number of English in. the United States, June i, 1890, was 
907,259; Scotch, 242,197 ; Welch, 100,065; Irish, 1 >871,339; Canadians, 973,- 
488; total, 4,094,618. These figures maybe taken as divisors. There are two 
distinct sets of dividends, of which the first is composed of foreign-born 
prisoners and paupers; the second, of the foreign-born parents of prisoners 
and paupers. By adding six ciphers to the latter we obtain the ratios to 
1,000,000 of the same element of the total population. The adoption of this 
process gives the following result: 
Ratios for Prisoners and Paupers. 
Elements. 
Population. 
Prisoners. 
Paupers. 
Number. 
Ratio. 
Number. 
Ratio. 
Total white 
54,983,890 
57,31° 
1,042 
66,578 
1,211 
Native 
45,862,023 
41,378 
902 
38,930 
849 
Parents native 
24.258.248 
25,690 
748 
34.219 
996 
Parents foreign 
11,503.675 
15/88 
1,364 
4,711 
410 
Foreign-born. 
9,121,867 
15,932 
1,747 
27,648 
3,031 
Selected Nationalities. 
English speaking........... 
4,094,618 
9,628 
2,351 
17,846 
4.358 
England 
QO7.52Q 
1,918 
2,115 
1,962 
2,162 
Scotland 
242,197 
479 
1,977 
575 
2»375 
Wales 
100,065 
89 
'889 
256 
2,559 
Ireland 
1.871.330 
<5,550 
2,070 
14,128 
7,55° 
Canada. 
073,488 
1,583 
1,626 
925 
95° 
Non-English speaking...... 
574.781 
1,050 
1,826 
524 
912 
Italy 
182,342 
562 
3,115 
149 
817 
Poland 
147,416 
149 
1,011 
219 
1,485 
Russia 
182,614 
200 
1,144 
107 
586 
Hungary 
62,409 
13° 
2,083 
49 
785 
Ratios for 
Parents of Prisoners and Paupers. 
Selected Nationalities. 
English speaking........... 
4,094,618 
41,914 
10,236 
41.350 
10,099 
England 
907,529 
5,997 
6,608 
4,688 
5,166 
Scotland . 
242,197 
1,996 
8,241 
1,392 
5,747 
Wales 
100,065 
343 
3.428 
59° 
5,896 
Ireland 
1,871.339 
29,184 
15.328 
32,419 
17.324 
Canada 
973,488 
4,514 
2,261 
2,325 
Non-English speaking 
574,781 
2,192 
3.814 
1,037 
1,804 
Italy 
182,342 
I,2°9 
6,630 
317 
1,739 
Poland 
147,416 
339 
2,300 
476 
3,229 
Russia .... 
182,614 
382 
2,002 
136 
' 745 
Hungary 
62,409 
262 
4,198 
108 
1.731 WEBER. 
137 
As the objections usually heard against particular classes of immi- 
grants are leveled at the Italians, Poles, Russians and Hungarians, I 
have grouped the criminals and paupers of these four countries on 
the one hand, and those from English-speaking countries on the 
other. I select the latter to compare with the first named for the 
reason that so much has been said of the easy assimilation with us of 
our British cousins, because they speak the same language, spring 
from the same stock, and will sooner become "Americanized " than 
the others, that by comparing the best and the worst (according to 
popular estimate) an interesting and perhaps instructive exhibit may 
be furnished. In order that the comparison may be fairly based, I 
give the number of arrivals in each group for the five years preceding 
and including the census year in which criminal and pauper statistics 
were taken ; the totals showing that those in the group of what may 
be termed Southern Europeans are nearly two-thirds as large as 
those from Great Britain,and thereforethe totals ofundesirables should 
bear the same proportions, to place them on a level. The figures 
in every column show the English-speaking people so far in the lead, 
both in respect of criminals and paupers, that it almost staggers 
belief. Thus in the class of criminals confined in our prisons in 
1890, the number of natives with one foreign parent from Great 
Britain or Canada are 2229 and only 9 from Southern Europe; of 
both parents foreign there were 9104 English-speaking and but 69 
from Southern Europe ; of both parents foreign, but of different 
nationalities, 1941 of the assimilable class, and but 6 of the others; 
while the nationality of foreign parents of criminals born abroad and 
here, there were 41,584 of English-speaking people as against 2192 
of those who are not readily assimilated because they do not speak 
our language. The same results substantially are found in the 
pauper classes, except that in the last column we find 41,103 English- 
speaking parents as against 1037 Southern Europeans. These figures 
demonstrate that those who more readily assimilate with us furnish 
the greatest number of criminals and paupers. 
But after all, the question is, Are we making gains and improve- 
ments in keeping out bad elements ? and we must solve the problem, 
How can the weeding process be still more improved ? 
That there has been decided improvement in the matter of inspec- 
tion by the immigration authorities at New York since the federal 
government superseded that of the state officials, the figures amply 
demonstrate; that the laws can be amended so as to produce still 138 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
better results, I confidently believe. The policy of the United States 
officials at the chief immigration station from the beginning has been 
to strengthen the medical and other inspection force at the threshold, 
and thus reduce the number to be cared for after landing. This 
necessarily increased the expense at the starting point, but materially 
reduced it at our hospitals, making the total expense less. Not only 
did it save to the government in the matter of caring for those who 
fell into distress within the year from landing, as evidenced by ascer- 
tainable figures, but it must have saved largely in the classes not 
separated or distinguished, who, after the year, fall as burdens upon 
local communities. For instance, the federal authorities at New 
York turned back to Europe, in the first two years and seven months 
of their administration, twice as many as the state officials did in the 
five years preceding federal control. Under the state authorities the 
daily average attendance of those who were cared for within the 
year of landing at the expense of the "immigrant fund" reached 
266, while under the federal authorities it fell to 73! in 1891, and 81 
and a fraction in 1892, with increased immigration during the latter 
years. The number of insane immigrants (the most serious burden), 
under federal officials, never reached 25 per cent, of those turned 
over to them by the state board, after disposing of the subjects so 
transferred by recovery, death or removal to local institutions at the 
end of the year. There is other corroborative evidence of improve- 
ment in the sifting process. 
The number of steamship tickets for immigrants returning to 
Europe, based upon reduced or charity rates, issued by the com- 
panies to persons having some means, but who failed in successfully 
competing here for a livelihood, show a decreasing tendency; the 
figures from several of the more important lines marking in 1892 a 
decline of 25 per cent, over those of 1889. 
The number of immigrants returned to Europe at government 
expense was reduced from 109 for 1891 to 11 for 1892. The old 
law prevailed for the first three months of 1891, during which 36 of 
the 109 were returned, but the same law governed for the rest of the 
stated time, and material improvement is shown in these reduced 
figures. 
I believe, however, that further practical improvement in the 
sifting process is possible and available. While every plan must in 
the nature of things be in a sense experimental, and none can be 
expected to yield absolutely perfect results, I still adhere to sugges- WEBER. 
139 
tions heretofore made on various occasions, and conclude this paper 
by quoting, as pertinent to this point, from an address on the subject 
of immigration delivered by me at Cooper Union, New York, in 
January, 1893. 
"Plan recommended. Sub-agents' Certification. Inspection Here and Compzil- 
sory Return after Landing. 
• 
" The plan that I would suggest is that laid down in Dr. Kempster's and my 
report referred to, from which I have seen no reason to deviate in its general 
features, except to add a clause vesting in the President the power to suspend 
immigration temporarily in the case of threatened pestilence, and possibly an 
educational qualification ; the report having been written before the outbreak 
of the typhus and cholera of last year, and before illiteracy statistics were 
kept at the Immigration Bureau. I would hold the sub-agents of steamship 
companies, of whom there are many thousands scattered over Europe, respon- 
sible for the sale of a ticket to a prohibited person, reaching them not directly 
by our law, for that is impossible, but striking at their pockets through the 
steamship agencies or companies in this country ; compelling them to pay the 
return passage of a defective immigrant and levying a fine in each instance in 
addition, if necessary ; or in other words, imposing a penalty, which in a single 
case would wipe out the commissions received in a great many. The sub- 
agent, in almost all cases, knows the applicant personally; lives in the 
village with him; is familiar with his family history; knows his conduct and 
deportment, and his mental and physical defects, better than any one who 
comes in contact with him after he leaves his home. No other person who 
can be reached knows so well. As one of the details of this plan, I would 
have each intending emigrant, when he applies for a ticket, sign and swear to 
a duplicate statement covering all necessary points, one copy to be sent 
through the S. S. Agents to the Inspection Bureau in the United States, 
retaining the other for personal presentation by the immigrant upon arrival, 
which would answer as a descriptive list showing precisely what he had sworn 
to upon purchasing his ticket. I would continue a rigid inspection here, and 
besides hold every alien immigrant after landing subject to compulsory depor- 
tation, in the discretion of the courts, whenever he develops into pauperism or 
criminality, and until he has assumed the burdens and acquired the privileges 
of citizenship; or, in other words, I would have him passing through the 
Immigration Bureau continuously until he became a citizen. Every country 
in Europe deports alien paupers and criminals to their homes except Great 
Britain, and there is no sentiment or reason which we would violate if we 
adopted the same plan. This would rid us of paupers when they reach that 
stage, of criminals after serving their sentence, and they would properly 
become a burden upon the community from whence they sprang, or upon the 
governments to which they still owe allegiance. I regard this feature as 
practical and important. In a minor degree we now have this power, and it 
works very well. We are now authorized to return to Europe within twelve 
months after landing, a person who has come here in violation of the immi- 140 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
gration laws, or who becomes a public charge from causes existing prior to 
landing; and under this limited power we have returned over five hundred 
persons during the last year, who could not be detected by any process of 
inspection, here or abroad, and nearly all of whom would have become a per- 
manent burden upon some of our communities. Wipe out this year limit, 
extend it to cover the period to citizenship, and eliminate that requirement 
that we must show that the cause existed prior to landing, so as to take in one 
who becomes a pauper or a criminal here, and we solve the problem of how to 
get rid of the undesirable element coming to us from abroad. Then guard 
better your avenues to citizenship, and a great many of your immigration evils 
will disappear. 
'•'•One Feature of Naturalization. 
"As one of the details of naturalization, I would have permanent records 
kept at the Immigration Bureau of the names of arriving immigrants, alpha- 
betically arranged and indexed, and would furnish to each a certificate setting 
forth a brief description, with name, steamer and date of arrival, which should 
be required by courts of naturalization as evidence of time of residence in this 
country. These papers could be recorded or filed in the various clerks' offices 
to guard against loss, certified copies made in case of change of residence, 
while the record at the immigration station would be available for verification 
in case of necessity." 
THE PROBLEM OF INEBRIATE PAUPERISM. 
T. D. CROTHERS, M. D., SUPERINTENDENT OF WALNUT LODGE 
HOSPITAL, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT. 
Some conception of this problem may be obtained from the fact 
that in 1891 over eight hundred thousand persons were arrested in 
this country charged with being intoxicated and committing petty 
crimes. It may be fairly presumed that at least half as many more 
who used spirits to excess did not come under legal notice. If to 
these are added those who used opium, chloral and other drug 
narcotics, the number reaches enormous proportions. 
Practically this vast army of inebriates represents all classes and 
conditions, and its members are literally withdrawn from the ranks 
of active workers and producers, and become obstacles and burdens 
to sanitary life. They are centres of pauperism and progressive 
degeneration and of the most unsanitary physiological and psycho- 
logical conditions. This army literally follows a continuous line of CROTHERS. 
141 
retrogression, which antagonizes all evolution, growth and develop- 
ment, and seems to be governed by a uniform law of cause and effect, 
marked by a beginning, development, decline and extinction, the 
mystery of which makes it the most absorbing scientific problem of 
the age. 
• To-day over a million workers are waging a great moral crusade 
to break up this evil. Politics, religion, education, the pulpit and 
press are combined in a struggle with this problem, approaching it 
exclusively from the moral side. Medieval superstition and moral 
theories are urged, through the pledge, prayer, persecution and 
punishment, to explain and check this evil. Above all this moral 
agitation and effort the voice of science appeals to physicians for 
help. This army of inebriates is increasing, and with it losses and 
degeneration both of individuals and the race. While inebriates are 
a part of the great army of the " unfit " who are " mustered out " and 
crowded out in the race march, there is yet unmistakable evidence 
that some can be halted, headed off, and returned to health. 
Already science has pointed out possibilities of cure and prevention, 
which give promise of practically stamping out this evil in the near 
future. Some of the outline facts from the sanitary side will show 
the extent of the evil, and the possibilities of cure from a larger and 
more accurate study of the subject. The great sanitary problem of 
to-day is the knowledge and removal of the causes of disease, and 
the placing of the victim under the best conditions for a return to 
health. To remove the conditions which favor and encourage 
disease, and break up the breeding-places of crime, pauperism and 
allied forms of degeneration, is one of the future certainties of science. 
There are to-day over a million unrecognized inebriates who are the 
most defective, dangerous and degenerate of all classes. They are 
centres of pauperism and sanitary evils, which pass on into the next 
generation, entailing misery and loss beyond estimate. 
The superstition of personal freedom with free will permits this 
army of inebriates to go on year after year destroying themselves, 
increasing the burden of their families, and building up veritable 
centres of physical and mental degeneration. Nothing can be more 
disastrous from a sanitary and scientific standpoint than the indiffer- 
ence which permits men and women to use alcohol and other drugs, 
not only destroying themselves, but entailing all degrees of degen- 
eration on their descendants. 142 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Sanitary science teaches that no one has a right to destroy himself 
and peril the health and comfort of others. The moderate and 
periodic drinkers are always sources of danger to themselves and 
others. To wait until they become chronic and degenerate into law- 
breakers is to apply the remedy when it is too late. Public senti- 
ment should not permit one to become an inebriate, nor tolerate him- 
after he has reached such a stage. He should be prevented and forced 
to undergo treatment, and should be regarded as dangerous to the 
safety and welfare of the community, and isolated until fully restored. 
In the near future science will demand that every inebriate have 
legal guardianship and restriction of personal freedom until he 
recovers. When these cases realize that such restrictions will be 
enforced they will seek treatment in the early stages of their disease. 
The teaching of science demands that both the pauper and million- 
aire be seized at the very onset and forced into conditions of health 
and sobriety, and saved from becoming burdens on the community 
and centres of ruin and misery. 
The saloon, with free sale of spirits, is, from a sanitary point of 
view, a source of extreme danger. Its influence in any community 
is bad. It brings sanitary perils by destroying the physical and 
mental stability of its patrons, and both directly and indirectly favors 
the worst conditions of life. The saloon has no claim for recognition 
as a business. It is simply a parasite thriving on the decay and 
degeneration of the community. It is only tolerated by the dense 
ignorance and selfishness of its defenders. It should be classed with 
foul sewers, dangerous waters and unsanitary, death-dealing forces. 
Persecution of it as a moral evil keeps it alive, but examination from 
the standpoint of science would be fatal to its perpetuity. The drink 
problem would be largely solved could the favoring conditions of 
saloons be changed. 
Unregulated marriage, now a mere matter of accident and impulse, 
is another source of danger perpetuating the drink-curse. Inebriates, 
insane, and neurotics of all degrees are permitted to propagate and 
transmit their defects to succeeding generations. The result is a 
race of neurotics, who develop inebriety and all forms of insanity and 
idiocy, together with all associated conditions. The army of neur- 
otics beyond all question reappears in succeeding generations with 
similar or interchangeable diseases. The inebriates of this genera- 
tion who marry and raise up children are creating paupers, criminals 
and insane for the next. They are wrecking their descendants by CROTHERS. 
143 
crippling and incapacitating them to live healthy lives. Every com- 
munity illustrates this fact, and the drink problem is more complex 
and difficult of solution on this account. We need scientific study 
and instruction on this point, and a public sentiment that will make 
marriage a question of sanitary science. Then we shall have the 
means for practical prevention and cure of many present evils. 
The drink problem has another sanitary side in defective nutrition, 
bad ventilation and other conditions of an unhealthy character. 
Build up the physique, relieve the condition of starvation, remove 
the defects of unhealthy living, and in many cases the tendency of 
the drink craze is thwarted. Mental change, unrest and sudden 
change involving a strain on the organism to adapt itself to the new 
conditions for which it is unfit, overwork, underwork and diseased 
conditions, defective and retarded growths, and nearly every kind 
and degree of mental and physical defect, enter into the drink 
problem and must be recognized and studied. 
The present methods of dealing with this problem are followed 
by startling results. Of the 800,000 persons who were arrested last 
year for inebriety not one per cent, were benefited. Over 99 per 
cent, were made worse and confirmed in their habits. The station- 
house and jail are active recruiting places, and the hosts of inebriates 
who are forced into them are transformed into legions of incurables 
who never desert or leave the ranks. Physically the short impris- 
onment of the inebriate simply removes him from spirits and leaves 
him less capable of leading a temperate life. Mentally he has lost 
a certain self-respect and pride of character essential to recovery. 
The first legal punishment of inebriates is followed by a species of 
fatality, seen in a constant repetition of the same or allied offenses. 
This fact is soapparent that these cases are called "repeaters" in 
the courts, and the number of sentences of the same person often 
extends to hundreds. In one thousand cases confined at Blackwell's 
Island, New York, 935 had been sentenced for the same offense, 
drunkenness, from 1 to 28 times. The first sentence was a regular 
switch-point from which the victim was precipitated to a constantly 
descending grade, becoming more and more incapacitated for tem- 
perate living. 
The system of fines is equally ruinous, because it falls most heavily 
on the families, making it more difficult to support themselves, 
thereby increasing the perils of pauperism, both to the victim and 
those who depend on him for support. 144 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
It may be said, and the statement is sustained by rhany facts, that 
the legal treatment by the lower courts of cases of inebriety is fully 
as fatal as the saloons themselves where spirits are sold. The saloon 
and police court are literally the school and college for the training 
and graduation of classes of incurable inebriates, who endanger 
every sanitary interest in the country. The fault is not in the courts 
and their administration of the law, but in the laws themselves, and 
in that state of public opinion which urges that all inebriates should 
be treated as wilful criminals and arrested and punished as such. 
Thus, year after year this terrible farce of prevention of inebriety 
by fines and short imprisonments goes on and the incurability of the 
poor victims increases. Crime is increased, pauperism is increased, 
the most dangerous sanitary conditions are fostered, and the burdens 
of taxpayers and producers are increased. The inebriate is always 
debilitated, and suffers from impaired brain and nerve force; alcohol 
has broken up all healthy action of the body. In prison both the 
quality and quantity of food are ill adapted to restore or build up the 
weakened organism. The hygienic influences of jails and prisons 
are defective in every respect, and adverse to any healthy growth of 
body or mind. The psychological influences also are of the worst 
possible character. The surrounding and the associates precipitate 
the victim into conditions of mental despair from which recovery is 
difficult, if not impossible. The only compensation to the inebriate 
is the removal of alcohol, and in this deprivation the state most 
terribly unfits him and makes him more and more helpless for the 
future. 
Thus, while civilization is one of the sources from which inebriety 
is produced, the blundering effort to remove it by penal punishment 
is an actual factor in increasing and intensifying the disorder. The 
treatment of inebriety from a scientific standpoint has passed the 
stage of experiment and is supported by a great variety of experience 
and collateral evidence that cannot be disputed. 
Probably the largest class of inebriates in this country are without 
means of support and may be termed the indigent and pauper class. 
This class, non-self-supporting and burdensome, should be recog- 
nized by law and committed to workhouse hospitals built for this 
purpose, preferably in the country upon large farms and amid the 
most favorable environment. These hospitals should be training 
schools in which medical care, occupation, physical and mental 
training could be applied for years, or until the inmates had so far CROTHERS. 
145 
recovered as to be able to become good citizens. Such hospitals 
should be built from moneys received from a tax imposed on liquor 
dealers or a license fund, and support themselves in part from the 
labor of their inmates, and be independent of the taxpayer or of 
state support. These places would receive the classes who are now 
sent to jail, and that other class whose numbers are neglected until 
they have passed into the chronic stage and have become inmates 
of prisons and insane asylums. 
A very large proportion of these several classes could be made 
self-supporting while under treatment, and in many cases be an 
actual source of revenue. The hospitals would naturally be divided 
into two classes. The first would receive the better, or less chronic, 
cases; the second would have the incurables, and those whose 
recovery was deemed more or less doubtful. In the one case the 
surroundings and discipline would be more adapted for the special 
inmates than in the other, but the same general restraint would be 
followed in each. In both, recoveries would follow. A large class • 
would be restored to society and become producers. In the second, 
cases would be housed and made to take care of themselves, which 
would be an immense gain to society in economy and safety. 
Private enterprise should be encouraged by legislation to provide 
smaller hospitals for the better class, and for those who would be 
unwilling, or whom it would be undesirable to compel to enter public 
asylums. Here the commitments should be both forced and volun- 
tary, and the restraint combined with the fullest and latest appliances 
of science for the end to be accomplished, blending seclusion and 
good surroundings to build up and make recovery possible. 
The first step is to recognize the fact that the inebriate, whether 
continuous or periodic, has to a greater or less degree forfeited his 
personal liberty and become a public nuisance and an obstacle to 
social progress and civilization. Second, that he is suffering from 
a disease which affects society and every member of the community 
in which he lives, and from which he cannot recover without aid 
from other sources, making it absolutely necessary that he should be 
forced into quarantine on the same principle as the smallpox or 
yellow-fever patient. This is simply carrying out the primitive law 
of self-preservation. Naturally the money to accomplish this should 
come from the license revenue, on the principle that every business 
should provide for the accidents and injuries which follow from it. 
Railroad companies and other corporations are required to pay 146 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
damages for the accidents which follow their business, and this is 
conceded to be justice. But to-day the tax on the liquor traffic is 
used to support courts and jails where the inebriate, by fines and 
imprisonment, is only made worse or more incurable. Thus, literally, 
the business of selling spirits is increased by the almost barbaric 
efforts of courts and jails, and every person so punished is made a 
permanent patron of that business. Against this all the teachings of 
science and all practical study utter loud protest. 
The practical "success of workhouse hospitals for inebriates is dem- 
onstrated in every self-supporting jail and state's prison in the 
country, where the obtacles are greater and the possibilities of 
accomplishing this end more remote. This can also be seen in 
asylums for both insane and inebriates, in the various sanitaria and 
hospitals through the country, where the capacity for self-support 
and the curability of these cases are established facts. More than 
that, these hospitals would relieve society of great burdens of loss 
and suffering; the diminution of the number of inebriates would 
become a practical certainty to an extent of which we can have no 
conception at present. 
It is impossible at the present time to estimate the beneficial results 
that would follow such a systematized plan of housing and treating 
the inebriate, but there are positive indications that its effect would 
be felt in all circles. One of the great fountain-heads of insanity, 
criminality and pauperism would be closed, and a new era would 
dawn in the evolution of science. 
CAUSES OF PAUPERISM AND THE RELATION OF 
THE STATE TO IT. 
A. O. WRIGHT, LATE SECRETARY OF THE STATE BOARD OF CHARI- 
TIES AND REFORM OF THE STATE OF WISCONSIN. 
Pauperism is not poverty, which is generally self-supporting. But it 
is dependence upon alms in some form or other. Pauperism is there- 
fore an outgrowth of charity, paradoxical as that statement may seem. 
In times and countries where no alms are given there may be starva- 
tion, but there is no pauperism. If we imagine an ideal state of WRIGHT. 
147 
society from which all want is banished, there would of course be no 
pauperism, for there would be no needy to relieve. If we imagine 
another state of society, one of absolute selfishness, where no one 
ever aided another in whatever distress he might be, then again 
there would be no pauperism, because there would be no relief for 
the needy. But given such a society as we really have, one with 
many needy persons, and one with much helpfulness for the needy, 
and a dependent class comes into existence at once. In this sense 
pauperism is an outgrowth of charity, but in another sense pauperism 
is actually created by the charity intended to destroy it, because 
when people find they can get poor relief, they are inclined to 
depend upon the relief instead of upon their own exertions. Pau- 
perism is therefore the product of two sets of forces-the needs of 
extreme poverty on the one hand, and the aid offered by public or 
private charity on the other hand. These forces act and react on one 
another, and their result is pauperism as it exists. To study the 
causes of pauperism we must study both the causes that produce 
actual need and the causes that foster factitious, if not fictitious need. 
Pauperism is brought about by something that prevents produc- 
tive labor in those who have no capital laid up. The following classes 
of persons include nearly all who call for poor relief: 
1. Children deprived of their natural protectors by death, deser- 
tion or neglect. 
2. Old people past work, who either have no children, or whose 
children are not able or willing to support them. 
3. Persons sick or crippled, or broken down before old age. 
4. Mothers with young children, and women about to become 
mothers, who are widowed or deserted by their husbands, or who 
were never married. 
5. Persons willing and able to work who cannot find work to do. 
6. Persons able to work, but idle, and willing to be supported by 
others. 
Of these classes it would seem at first that only the last class is 
unworthy-those able but not willing to work. 
But a little investigation shows further facts like these. Many of 
those who profess to be willing to work are not willing to do anything 
that may come to hand, but would pick their work. Many persons 
now disabled from work were disabled by their own vices, especially 
by drunkenness. Many women with illegitimate children are not inno- 
cent victims, but have children again and again, only to give them 148 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
away to infant asylums or to public officers. Many mothers with 
families, deserted by husbands, have made home so uncomfortable as 
to drive them away ; or on the other hand, the father is a drunkard 
or a criminal, and hence leaves his family to charity. Many old people 
make life so unpleasant in their children's homes that they are sent to 
the poorhouses in self-defense. If to these we add the idleness and 
improvidence of many people, which finally drifts into pauperism 
under the appearance of misfortune, we have discovered that a very 
large part of pauperism is due to the vice, the shiftlessness, or the 
crankiness of the paupers or their relatives. Whether we call these 
avoidable causes or not depends upon our view of human nature. 
But now comes in the fact that giving alms very frequently creates 
pauperism. It took the Christian world many centuries to realize 
that almsgiving might easily be no charity at all, where it made people 
depend upon it for a living and created a breed of beggars. The 
waste of money in lavish almsgiving is the least of its evils, the 
waste of manhood being a far greater wrong. The evil is essentially 
the same whether the giver of alms is the public or a society or 
an individual. Public poor relief, especially outdoor relief, however, 
is subject to the danger that it will be used for political effect. By 
this is meant that the local officers will gain votes for themselves by 
giving poor relief liberally. 
Over two-thirds of the outdoor relief given in this country, and 
possibly as much as one-third of the poorhouse relief and one-third 
of the private charity are absolutely wasted on persons who could 
support themselves if they knew that they had to do it. This class is 
not confined to the cities. In many places in the country lavish poor 
relief is given from a mistaken idea of charity and from the petty 
political ambition of local officers. 
So much for the immediate causes of pauperism. Back of these 
lie the more remote causes which exist in society itself. The ignor- 
ance, the shiftlessness, the lack of self-respect, the vicious habits 
which are found even in America among many of the poor, being 
both the cause and the effects of their poverty, tend directly toward 
pauperism. Then the badly adjusted relations of laborers to their 
employers produce strikes and lockouts, mobs and riots, with all their 
attendant miseries, out of which some persons drop into pauperism. 
Worst of all, there are families and groups of persons who are hered- 
itary paupers and criminals, who live a parasitical life on society in 
some form or another, and who hand down a degenerate condition to 
succeeding generations of defectives. WRIGHT. 
149 
It is very difficult for public authorities or for such semi-public 
authorities as administer large private charities to do much in the 
way of preventing pauperism. They can, indeed, refuse to relieve 
those who do not need poor,relief; but what this amounts to is to 
prevent their own machinery from creating pauperism by lavish pcor 
relief. It is not in any other sense an attack on the abuses of pau- 
perism. But so greatly is poor relief abused, that cutting off unneces- 
sary relief is a great gain. When we can say that several large 
cities have cut off all public outdoor relief without any increase in 
the demands on other private or public charities, and without any 
apparent suffering by the poor, it is obvious that poor relief has been 
greatly abused and that this particular cause of pauperism ought to 
be cut off by those who have created it. 
Similar abuses are those of keeping in poorhouses able-bodied 
persons who ought not to be there, of bringing up children in poor- 
houses, of allowing association of the sexes in poorhouses so as to 
breed pauper children. These are ways in which the unwisdom of 
public officers tends to create pauperism. Of course these causes 
should be removed ; but removing them is not preventing pauperism, 
except as it prevents public poor relieffrom itself creating pauperism. 
When we come to the causes of pauperism which are not the 
results of unwise relief, the case is quite different. 
The part which public authorities can take in the administration 
of poor relief is not exactly the same as that which private individ- 
uals or societies can take, even when they cover precisely the same 
ground. Public authorities are administering funds which are taken 
from everybody by the compulsory processes oftaxation, so that while 
such charity is voluntary so far as the community as a whole is con- 
cerned, this charity is involuntary and grudging on the part of a 
large number of individuals. The minority has some rights, even in 
a government where King Majority rules supreme, and their right 
to criticize does prevent the public undertaking many forms of 
charity. And then there is the tendency to reduce things to an 
average, to treat large classes of cases as classes instead of as indi- 
viduals, to work by easy mechanical methods which do not require 
much care or thought. These tendencies are found not only in 
public officers, but also in the officers of large private societies. Such 
wholesale methods are not favorable to the nicer and more discrim- 
inating kinds of charity. Again, the public authorities, and also the 
almoners of large private charities, are apt to regard themselves, and 150 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
are very sure to be regarded by the recipients of relief, as simply 
givers of inexhaustible funds which cost them nothing. It is difficult 
for them to get out of the role of almsgivers, in cases where something 
else than alms is best, and it is not easy to convince the professional 
recipient of such alms that he has not a vested right to help, and that 
in the form of alms. 
Most cases of pauperism, when we go back to their real origin, are 
either the result of defects in society or of defects in the pauper. 
Towhat extent society itself should be reformed to abolish pauper- 
ism is beyond our present purpose and is very difficult to answer in 
a practical way. 
But to a certain extent reformatory methods can and should be 
used by the public to decrease pauperism. For instance, vagrancy 
and tramping ought to be treated by providing work for all w'ho are 
willing and able to work, and sending all persistent vagrants to 
reformatory workhouses. So all mothers of illegitimate children 
who apply for poor relief ought to be compelled to work out the cost 
of their care before being discharged and should not be allowed to 
give away their children without good reasons. So also the neces- 
sary regulations of a well-managed poorhouse, such as careful sepa- 
ration of the sexes, compulsory abstinence from intoxicating liquor, 
requirement of light labor from all not absolutely disabled, and other 
similar regulations, make a properly managed poorhouse a reforma- 
tory institution. Unfortunately, a very large number of poorhouses 
are not well managed institutions, and therefore tend to increase 
pauperism rather than to discourage it. In such ways as these public 
authorities can reduce the tendencies to pauperism. But in general 
we may say that what public authorities do in the way of reducing 
or preventing pauperism is to simply prevent their own machinery 
from creating it. 
The real work of abolishing pauperism must be done by private 
effort, and mostly in the general line indicated by the friendly visitors 
of the charity organization societies. What the poor need who are 
on the verge of pauperism, and in danger of being drawn into that 
slough of despond, is "not alms, but a friend." This is work which, 
from the nature of the case, cannot be effectually done to any extent 
either by public authorities or by the managers of large semi-public 
charitable societies or institutions. Personal work is the only effective 
agency to abolish pauperism-personal work done from philanthropic 
motives, but guided by the wisdom of experience, and felt by the m'callum. 
151 
recipients to be an aid to them in keeping their places as self-sup- 
porting members of society, not as a substitute for their own industry 
and prudence. 
THE ENGLISH POOR LAW: ITS INTENTION AND 
RESULTS. 
MRS. MAY M'CALLUM. 
It may seem, at first sight, useless to inquire at all minutely into 
the details of bygone enactments which have been modified or 
superseded in consequence of changed conditions and habits, but 
something is to be gained by such a retrospect if it enables us to 
distinguish between those social difficulties which are transitional, 
and those eternal problems which perplexed our ancestors and are 
present with ourselves, problems which have their roots in human 
character and exemplify the action of natural laws. 
A French author has well said that " There is no nation, what- 
ever may be its rank, which may not serve as a lesson or an example. 
Who can doubt," M. Faucher continues, "that the peoples may 
gain as much by interchange of their experience and their ideas as 
by that of their products, but such an interchange must take place 
with perfect freedom on both sides, and without any attempt to 
control or to misrepresent the characteristics of the national spirit."* 
These conferences are a concrete expression of a similar opinion, 
and I esteem it an honor to be permitted to lay before an American 
audience a brief review of the English poor laws, which chronicle the 
struggle of centuries with perennial evils. 
From the earliest times, four fundamental ideas may be continu- 
ously traced in the history of our system of public relief. These are, 
first, that the nation must not allow any of its members to perish ; 
secondly, that each locality should care for its own poor, and that 
therefore destitute persons should be compulsorily removed to the 
place of their birth ; thirdly, that vagabondage and idleness should be 
checked and punished; and, fourthly, that charity should be largely 
exercised in mitigation of the hardships of life. 
* Etudes sur P Angleterre. Quoted by Dr. Aschrott in "The English Poor 
Law System." 152 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
It is beyond the scope of this brief paper to examine the growth 
of these opinions.; but among their proximate causes were the petty 
struggles of an unsettled time, the abolition of villeinage in the four- 
teenth century, and the ceaseless efforts of a warlike nobility to con- 
trol the labor and the movements of a peasantry in whom the desire 
for freedom was deep and undying. But in legislation as in life it is 
the unexpected that happens, and while on the one hand our statute 
books from before the fourteenth century teem with repressive meas- 
ures of a stern and even barbarous description, and while on the other 
hand the mistaken generosity of the monasteries weakened personal 
responsibility, the evils that law and kindness alike sought to repress 
grew and spread like noxious weeds. 
Already in the reign of Richard II, who died in 1399, it is directed 
that "beggars impotent to serve" shall abide where the proclama- 
tion finds them, but if the townspeople cannot or will not provide 
for them, they "must draw them to other towns within the wapen- 
take," or to " towns where they were born, and there continually 
abide.'-' 
In 1530 the justices are to give begging licenses to the impotent,, 
and are to punish " persons whole and mighty in body and able 
to labour," who are vagrants and cannot explain how they live. 
By-and-by sheriffs and local authorities are to " charitably receive 
the poor sent back to their district, and on Sundays and holidays 
the churchwardens and others are " in good and discreet ways " to 
collect alms in boxes, and to distribute them " without fraud or affec- 
tion," so that "none diseased or sick who cannot work shall openly 
beg," while " the lusty shall be kept in continual labour." 
Wealthy parishes are to help the poorer, a proposal that is carried 
out in London to-day. Again, to quote the quaint old phrases, 
" curates are to exhort to alms with such talent as God has given 
them," and when it is found that they " gently ask and demand " in 
vain, the spiritual power over froward persons is supported by tem- 
poral threats of imprisonment, and finally a tax or poor-rate is levied 
and collected. 
Curiously enough, more than one law was passed for the purpose 
of punishing any one who gave alms to vagrants, and though these 
statutes were naturally inoperative, they arouse a lurking sympathy 
in the minds of those who watch the manufacture of vagabonds by 
needless charity to-day. m'callum. 
153 
In 1601 was passed a famous act know as the Forty-third of Eliza- 
beth, which consolidated and to some extent improved previous 
legislation. Both praise and blame have been freely lavished on this 
act, but it makes little change in that fatal system of interference 
with labor and with wages under which the English nation contin- 
uously suffered. At this distance of time we cannot judge whether 
its promoters were actuated chiefly by motives of humanity or by 
the promptings of class interest, but two of its clauses are of high 
importance; by the one, the duty of the family towards its aged and 
less fortunate members was legally recognized, and by the other 
relief was restricted, in the case of the able-bodied, to persons 
" without means." The existence of this ancient and most wise 
limitation proved of great service to the reformers of 1834. 
In the year 1722 the overseers of a parish were empowered to 
purchase or hire a house in which to maintain paupers, who were 
not to receive relief in any other form. This is the well-known 
workhouse test, which at first was productive of excellent results, 
but speedily failed of its purpose, owing to the scandalous lack of 
regulation in the workhouses themselves. Such institutions may 
either be refuges in which a decent amount of comfort is combined 
with deterrent discipline, or they may become the habitual resort of 
the idler and the ruffian, who are there supported at the expense of 
the rates. 
The eighteenth century increased the current confusion of ideas 
with respect to the meaning of the word poor. Instead of being used 
to describe a small minority, who through infirmity, accident or mis- 
conduct have ceased to be self-supporting members of society, it 
was placed more and more in simple opposition to the word rich, 
and the belief spread that the state could and ought to provide for 
all such poor, including finally all wage-earning laborers. In 1795 
the Berkshire magistrates actually "settled the incomes of the indus- 
trious poor," by fixing a scale of relief, in pursuance of the instructions 
in a statute known as Gilbert's Act, which introduced some improve- 
ments, but more than counterbalanced them by reversing the policy 
of Elizabeth and creating a rate in aid of wages for the able-bodied. 
The workhouse test was abolished, and the country was launched 
on a career of degradation which perhaps has no parallel. Relief 
was bestowed recklessly and in various ways, sometimes at the price 
of a few hours confinement in some enclosure, or of attendance at 
repeated roll-calls; allowances were freely given, so that wages were 154 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
kept down to starvation point; sometimes " head-money " was 
granted for each child, and immorality was soon a recognized source 
of profit; farmers were forced to employ pauper labor, often in excess 
of their requirements; and to sum up, the man who would not work 
at all received from the parish as much as the honest laborer who 
toiled his day. Family affection too was undermined, and the parish 
had to pay women for rendering the commonest offices of humanity 
to their sick parents, who were accounted " a great hindrance"; in 
fact, the'general demoralization can scarcely now be realized. Popu- 
lation was artificially stimulated, land began to go out of cultivation, 
small tradesmen and farmers were ruined by the enormous rates; and 
in the village of Cholesbury, out of a population of 139 souls, only 
35 persons, including the clergyman and his family, supported them- 
selves ; the remaining 104 by the assistance of the poor law supported 
two beer-houses. Favoritism and fraud were rampant; one man 
received relief in six parishes ; the laborer had, as has been well said, 
"a slave's security without a slave's liability to punishment"; and in 
many places the paupers began to enforce their demands with threats 
and violence, and it seemed as if this abominable system of out-relief, 
with its vain attempts to provide " fair" subsistence, were to prove 
the ruin of the national character. In the words of the eminent 
American, Francis A. Walker, 
" Such may be the effect of foolish laws. The legislator may think it hard 
that his power for good is so restricted, but he has no reason to complain of 
any limits upon his power for evil. On the contrary, it would seem that there 
is no race of men whom a few laws respecting industry, trade and finance, 
passed by country squires or by labor demagogues, in defiance of economic 
principles, could not in half a generation transform into beasts." 
Happily, recovery was still possible ; a Royal Commission was 
appointed to inquire into the whole subject, and issued in 1834 
a report which deserves to be a classic, alike for the student of 
human nature and of economics. The fruit of this report was the act 
known as the New Poor Law, which swept away the worst evils by 
asserting as a fundamental principle that the condition of those who 
receive public relief must be less eligible than that of the independent 
laborer. The workhouse test was, with certain permissive exceptions, 
re-established, and a central board was formed, which has now become 
a government department under a president, who changes with the 
administration, but who is supported by a highly experienced staff 
of permanent officials. m'callum. 
155 
This central board exercises, through its auditors, a complete 
supervision of all parish accounts, and can surcharge the local 
authorities if they incur any illegal expenditure; it sanctions the 
appointment and salaries of relieving officers and workhouse officials, 
the more important of whom are directly responsible to it, and are 
only in a secondary degree under the boards of guardians. Its 
inspectors pay surprise-visits to the various poor law institutions, 
and as they have power to examine witnesses on oath, their reports 
are of great value and interest. The whole machinery of the depart- 
ment is devised with great skill, and under its management a still 
larger proportion of our pauperism would have been abolished, had 
it not been for that English dislike of interference which induces 
local boards to disregard the London authority, and prevents that 
authority from rigidly enforcing its own rules. 
The new law encountered the most violent opposition, not only 
from the ignorant and depraved, but from employers and others; and 
partly on this account, and partly in consequence of seasons of 
depression, such as occurred during the cotton famine, the cholera 
year, and years of war and of agricultural distress, the progress of 
improvement, though sure, was very slow. In 1838 there was "an 
increase of more than 50,000 depositors and of above in 
deposits, in friendly societies," chiefly in rural districts, while in the 
three years that followed the passing of the act there was a gross 
saving to the country of much of which was spent in the 
wages of productive industry. About twelve years later our third 
great friendly society, the Hearts of Oak, came into existence, and 
with its famous predecessors, the Foresters and Oddfellows, con- 
tinues to increase and to display the honorable independence and 
self-governing power of our wage-earners when they are uninjured 
by sentimental legislation. 
The year 1870 marked a new era; fresh interest was excited by 
the reports of the poor law inspectors, and the passing of the Edu- 
cation and other acts gave a new impetus to progress. Poor law 
infirmaries have been provided for the sick, and, at least in London, 
are often equal to the best hospitals; lunatics are placed in properly 
inspected asylums, and children of destitute parents are cared for in 
schools, while those who are orphans or deserted may be boarded 
out in carefully selected homes, so as to avoid the creation of that 
miserable product of our civilization known as " the institution 
child." 156 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
All this expenditure presses heavily on the rate-payers, and the 
question arises whether we are not here and there overstepping the 
limits of a wise provision and offering inducements to pauperism. 
It is also alleged that the extreme care bestowed on the insane, the 
epileptic and otherwise afflicted, promotes the increase of their 
numbers by prolonging their lives and partially improving their con- 
dition. 
In one direction a salutary change has been effected. Determined 
efforts have been made in many places to diminish out-relief, and 
consequently to lessen pauperism. 
The following figures illustrate the effect of twenty years of this 
policy under the direction of an able and devoted chairman and 
board of guardians in the union of Bradfield. In January, 1871, 
there were in that union 1258 paupers, or one in 13 of the whole 
population; in January, 1891, there were only 149 paupers, or one 
in no of the population. Twenty-nine of these were persons who 
had been in receipt of outdoor relief in 1871; not a single outdoor 
pauper belonged to the current year. The money rate had cor- 
respondingly fallen from two shillings and a halfpenny to fivepence 
farthing, and even on a low rental this difference means a consider- 
able addition to the free income of the working classes. The figures 
are equally satisfactory in the case of the aged poor for whom so 
much sympathy is felt; some few may be regarded as survivals of 
the bad old days, for the New Poor Law was almost inoperative in 
their youth, and these no doubt helped to swell the numbers when 
35.5 per cent, of the Bradfield population over 60 years of age were 
paupers; that figure is now reduced to about 4 per cent. 
As one writer has observed, " It is almost entirely a question of 
poor law administration whether 4 or " (taking the figures from 
Brixworth Union into account; "56 per cent, of the population are 
paupers or independent when they die." In some of the Bradfield 
parishes there are no paupers at all. Charity, too, has become more 
active and intelligent, and readily provides for cases of undeserved 
and exceptional misfortune; and lastly, a careful inquiry has shown 
that it is a mistake to assert that the neighboring unions are 
unaffected by the spirit of reform, for there is a steady though very 
gradual improvement in them all. 
With such object-lessons before us it might be thought that 
guardians in general would hasten to institute similar reforms, but 
unhappily there are signs of a reaction in favor of relaxation of the m'callum. 
157 
poor law, and it may be that the poorer ranks of the democracy, 
will refuse to profit by the experience of the middle class, and that 
the old lessons must be learnt-and paid for-again. Two forces 
are on the side of the reactionaries, the Socialists and the mass of 
the clergy of all denominations; for so do extremes meet. The 
Socialist naturally tempts the improvident with dreams of state- 
regulated labor and of state-relief on easy terms, nor is the Liberal 
press guiltless of highly colored statements that picture our work- 
houses as the resort of the deserving poor. It is in part owing to 
this mistaken notion that the conditions in many of these institutions 
have been rendered incomparably better than in many homes of 
workingmen, and that new efforts are being made to modify those 
restrictions which still prove deterrent to persons who live habitually 
on the verge of pauperism. 
The clergy, as of old, exhort their congregations to give, but they 
are not trained to understand, and therefore they cannot enforce, the 
full responsibility of the giver. By making vice and idleness easy, 
an unwise charity directly encourages the pauper spirit; and in all 
probability we owe to the Salvation Army alone a large increase in 
the number of persons who will ultimately come upon the rates. 
Thus, after centuries of legislation we have still an army of paupers 
that diminishes but slowly, and an army of vagrants as well. For 
these, provision is made in casual wards, where a night's lodging and 
a meagre supply of food can be obtained-the performance of a task 
of work, and increased detention after each admission within a month, 
being the conditions imposed. This system has proved a failure, at 
least in London; the pressure of ill-informed public opinion has 
caused the rule of detention to be relaxed, and the multiplication of 
charitable refuges and shelters defeats every attempt of the poor 
law to deal effectually with the vagrant class. Greatly as we dis- 
like over-much legislative interference, it is open to question whether 
our irresponsible and uncontrolled charity does not create worse 
evils; it undoubtedly fosters a class whose existence is not only a 
disgrace, but a source of national deterioration; and here we reach 
the vital issue on which the administrators of relief, whether legal or 
voluntary, differ so profoundly. Are we or are we not to deal with 
the needy and the destitute, that is to say, in the majority of cases, 
with the incompetent and the drunkard, according to their imme- 
diate desires, or in the manner most beneficial to the community at 
large ? 158 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
On one side are the reactionaries, including the host of well-mean- 
ing and enthusiastic persons who are swayed by the appeal of the 
moment, and are able to believe that there are royal roads to happi- 
ness and that the latest big scheme is a panacea for human ills. On 
the other side are those who take a broader and more carefully reas- 
oned view, and who attach the highest importance to the interests 
of the nation as a whole. I venture to think that time will justify 
the latter, and that the triumph of statemanship lies in applying the 
experience of the past, with such wise modifications as are required 
by the exigencies of the present. 
For your great nation all things seem possible, yet as your wide 
lands fill up and your cities increase in size, the old problems will 
inevitably present themselves, and happy will it be for the world if 
you can solve them rightly. It is our hope that out of the failures 
of the past may grow the successes of the future, and in organizing 
and moulding your social institutions you may perhaps find helpful 
material in the records of that old country for which many of you 
evince so kindly a regard. 
Authorities Consulted. 
British Encyclopaedia, last edition. Article " Poor Law." 
Report of Poor Law Commissioners of 1834. 
English Poor Law System. By Dr. P. F. Aschrott. Translated by Preston 
Thomas. 
Poor Law Reform, an essay in Edinburgh Revie-a) of 1841-2. 
Report of South Wales Conference (Poor Law) of 1892. 
Speech of Mr. Bland Garland of Bradfield at Annual Meeting of the Charity 
Organisation Society, etc., etc. 
POOR LAW PROGRESS AND REFORM, EXEMPLIFIED 
IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF AN 
EAST LONDON UNION. 
WILLIAM VALLANCE, CLERK TO THE GUARDIANS OF THE 
WHITECHAPEL UNION, LONDON, ENGLAND. 
The history of poor law administration in England is an instruc- 
tive one, and presents to civilized communities a valuable object- VALLANCE. 
159 
lesson in national philanthropy. It stands as at once the conception 
of an earnest, as well as civilly prudent, people actuated by humane 
impulses. 
It affords abundant evidence, through the centuries, of a public 
concern for the welfare of the poor, whilst in its alternations of 
severity and indulgence is seen the desire to prevent public relief 
from degenerating into a system of indiscriminate almsgiving, with 
all its attendant demoralization. 
We see in the legislation of the last four hundred years the sway- 
ing of the pendulum of popular feeling, the objective in one case 
being the "sturdy vagabond " or the "valiant beggar" who called 
for repression, and in the other the suffering poor, who were recog- 
nized as having a legitimate claim upon society. 
True, mistakes many and great have been made, more especially 
in the administration of the law ; and notwithstanding the lessons of 
history, and the stimulation of modern thought upon social ques- 
tions, we are yet face to face with the unsolved problem-how to 
deal with the poor. 
We know that hundreds of statutes have been passed in relation 
to the poor, and that these represent mountains of speech and rivers 
of ink ; and we think we are in a position to take larger views of 
public and relative duty to our " neighbor " than our forefathers; 
but human nature is found to be as frail as ever, and so the best 
intentions and the best systems fail when the heart is allowed to give 
impulse to human action without the controlling guidance of the 
head. In other words, where the administrators of relief fail to 
appreciate the fundamental principles upon which the law is based, 
and only see the possibility-without regard to antecedent circum- 
stances and prospective results-of ameliorating existing conditions 
of poverty, not only are the spirit and intentions of law contravened, 
but an injury is done to the poor themselves. 
Without attempting to trace the history of the English poor law, 
which is as well known in America as in England, it may perhaps 
suffice to make bare mention of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 
1834, which was founded upon one of the most remarkable reports 
ever presented to Parliament. The abuses, the rampant evils, 
which were found to have resulted from a weak policy and a worse 
administration of poor law relief, so shocked the public sense that 
\Parliament was induced to pass a measure which for nearly sixty 
years has remained the modern landmark in poor law legislation. 160 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
That it was founded upon sound principles is universally acknowl- 
edged by thoughtful administrators, whilst (coupled with the report 
of the Royal Commission) it remains with us a mentor and a warn- 
ing. " The fundamental principle," as stated by the commissioners 
in their report upon the amendment of the poor laws, with respect 
to the legal relief of the poor, is that 
" The condition of the pauper ought to be, on the whole, less eligible than 
that of the independent laborer. The equity and expediency of this principle 
are equally obvious. Unless the condition of the pauper is, on the whole, less 
eligible than that of the independent laborer, the law destroys the strongest 
motives to good conduct, steady industry, providence and frugality among 
the laboring classes, and induces persons, by idleness or imposture, to throw 
themselves upon the poor rates for support. But if the independent laborer 
sees that any recurrence to the poor rates will, while it protects him against 
destitution, place him in a less eligible position than that which he can attain 
by his own industry, he is left to the undisturbed influence of all those motives 
which prompt mankind to exert forethought and self-denial. On the other 
hand, the pauper has no just ground for complaint if, at the same time that 
his physical wants are amply provided for, his condition should be less eligible 
than that of the poorest class of those who contribute to his support. 
Hence the guardians were restricted to the relief of destitution, 
either by receiving the destitute person into a poor law establish- 
ment, or (in certain excepted and exceptional cases) by relief in 
money, food, or articles of absolute necessity. They were precluded 
from the payment of rent; they could not redeem tools or other 
articles from pawn; they could not provide at the cost of the poor 
rate any tools, implements or other articles, other than articles of 
clothing when urgently needed; they could not set up a poor 
person in business. In other words, they could only provide for 
present existing physical wants, and could do nothing either to pre- 
vent the poor becoming paupers or to lift them out of a condition 
of dependence. The "excepted and exceptional cases" to which I 
have referred are chiefly those in which the destitution has been 
occasioned by sickness, widowhood, and old age, and in these cases 
considerable discretion has been reserved to the guardians. But 
what has been the result? It will be admitted by thoughtful admin- 
istrators that the legislation for these "excepted and exceptional 
cases " has been as disastrous to the poor as it has been injurious to 
the community. What was intended to be the exception has become VALLANCE. 
161 
the rule, and the distinction between the "gift" of charity and the 
" legal right " of poor law relief has been lost sight of. Without due 
regard to the causes of destitution, or the consequences of relief, 
guardians have found the means ready to their hand, not only of 
distributing alms out of compulsory taxation to the poor who parade 
their " legal right," but, what has been far worse, relieving the rich 
from trouble and concern, and churches and religious bodies from 
the sense of responsibility, in regard to the well-being of the poor. 
There has also been, proportionately, a relaxation of effort to save 
and redeem from pauperism ; the poor having been left to the relief 
which brings degradation, and to the degradation which brings the 
relief. Thus the poor who might have been saved have become 
paupers, and those who might have been redeemed have remained 
paupers. 
In the case of the Whitechapel Union it has to be observed that 
it is a district largely inhabited by the poor, and " very poor"; and 
that (upon the basis of tables contained in " Life and Labour in 
London," by Mr. Charles Booth, the eminent statistician) the " lower 
and upper middle classes" of the district number 6i per cent, of 
the population; the "regular weekly workers," 71 per cent.; the 
"irregular and casual workers," 19I per cent.; and the lowest class, 
which includes " loafers " and the criminal or semi-criminal classes, 
3! per cent. 
In speaking of the poor law administration in Whitechapel it has 
to be admitted that the policy and practice of the guardians prior to 
1870 were neither better nor worse than those adopted in other parts 
of London and the country. Its relief system may be said to have 
been that of meeting apparent existing circumstances of need by 
small doles of outdoor relief; the indoor establishments being 
reserved for the destitute poor who voluntarily sought refuge in 
them. Able-bodied men who applied for relief on account of want of 
employment were set to work, and in return were afforded outdoor 
relief in money and kind. Under this system the administration 
was periodically subjected to great pressure, so much so that the aid 
of the police had not infrequently to be invoked to restrain disorder 
and afford necessary protection to officers and property. Police 
protection was even at times required for the guardians during their 
administration of relief. The experience of the winter of 1869-70, 
however, was such as to lead the guardians to review their position 162 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
and earnestly to aim at reforming a system which was felt to be 
fostering pauperism and encouraging idleness, improvidence and 
imposture, while the " relief" in no true sense helped the poor. It 
was seen that voluntary charity largely consisted of indiscriminate 
almsgiving; that it accepted no definite obligation as distinct from 
the function of poor law relief; that the poor law was relied upon to 
supplement private benevolence; that the almsgivers too frequently 
were the advocates of the poor in their demands upon the public 
rates; and that both poor law and charity were engaged in relieving 
a distress much of which a thoughtless benevolence and a lax relief 
administration had created. This condition of things the guardians 
resolved to amend. They looked forward to the ultimate possibility 
of laying down a broad distinction between "legal relief" and 
"charitable aid," and of interpreting the former as relief in the work- 
house or other institution for the actually destitute and the latter as 
personal sympathy and helpful charity ; and so they began by gradu- 
ally restricting outdoor relief in " out-of-work " cases, until they were 
able (in 1870) to entirely close the outdoor labor yard, and it has not 
since been re-opened. In this process of restriction it was found 
that about one in ten of those who were offered indoor in place of 
outdoor relief entered the workhouse, and these in turn gradually 
withdrew themselves, so that eventually the indoor pauperism 
resumed its normal condition. Following this was a further review 
of the outdoor relief lists, and the gradual application of other forms 
of limitation, side by side w'ith efforts to bring the more deserving 
within reach of helpful charity. The guardians were especially 
mindful to guard the entrance to the outdoor relief list, and, where 
the circumstances seemed to necessitate present relief in the home of 
the applicant, it was sought to make it in the first place adequate to 
the necessities of the case, and next, temporary in duration ; and it 
was usually given upon some condition of personal effort to avoid 
future recourse to the rates for support. Sick men with families 
dependent upon them, if not offered indoor relief, were relieved 
temporarily in money and kind, upon the distinct promise to join a 
benefit club. Widows with dependent children were, in some cases, 
afforded relief out of the workhouse, for a strictly limited period, 
pending inquiries as to their circumstances and possibilities, com- 
munication with relatives and late employers, and efforts to place 
them in positions to achieve independence. In some cases employ- VALLANCE. 
163 
ment was offered in the infirmary as a scrubber or washer at weekly 
wages ; or, failing other means of meeting the necessities of the case, 
the guardians undertook to receive a portion of the family into the 
•district school, leaving the mother free to enter service, or otherwise 
to provide for herself and one, or sometimes two, children. The 
aged and infirm were only relieved out of doors when there was 
evidence of thrift, and when the guardians were satisfied that there 
were no children or relatives legally or morally bound to support 
them and able to do so; but even these exceptions and limitations 
became non-existent and unnecessary with the organization of 
voluntary charity, which gradually undertook the benevolent work 
of saving the really deserving poor from the poor law. Thus the 
door of out-relief became gradually closed, and, as a fact, no cases, 
other than those of sudden or urgent necessity relieved by the 
relieving officers in kind, have now for some twenty-two years 
been added to the outdoor relief list; and now (in 1893) there 
remains but one aged woman, the sole remnant of a former system, 
in receipt of permanent outdoor relief. As illustrating, too, the 
limited extent to which relief in kind is afforded by the relieving 
officers under circumstances of urgent necessity, it may be added 
that the average weekly cost of such relief last year was but 16s. id. 
Although no written or printed by-laws have been adopted, the 
guardians have none the less fixed rules of administration, and these 
fixed rules the poor understand ; whilst it has been as clearly seen 
that to " play fast and loose " with the poor is to do them injury, to 
encourage reliance upon the poor law, to occasion discontent, and to 
restrain the flow of helpful Christian charity. 
The appended statistical tables will exemplify the gradual nature 
of the restriction of outdoor relief and its contemporaneous effect, if 
any, upon the indoor pauperism. Taking the sixth week of the 
quarter ended at Lady Day, 1870, as a starting-point, that being the 
week in which the highest pauperism was reached, the first table 
will be found to show the number of paupers relieved, the percent- 
ages of indoor and outdoor paupers, and the amount expended in 
outdoor relief in that and the corresponding weeks of the intervening 
years up to 1893, viz : 164 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM 
Indoor 
paupers 
relieved. 
(1) 
Outdoor 
paupers 
relieved. 
(2) 
Total number 
of paupers 
relieved 
1 exclusive of 
lunatics in 
1 asylums. 
(3) 
Percentages. 
Cost of outdoor relief 
(/. e. in money and kind). 
Indoor. 
(4) 
Outdoor. 
(5) 
During the 6th 
week of the 
Lady-day Qtr. 
(6) 
During 
year ended 
Lady-day. 
(7) 
1870 
I>419 
5,339 
6,758 («) 
21.0 
79-o 
£ s. d. 
168 17 4 
£ 
6,685 
1871 
I,2ig 
2,568 
3,787 
32.2 
67.8 
120 14 3 
6,073 
1872 
1,000 
1,568 
2,568 
38-9 
61.1 
75 18 7 
4,730 
1873 
1.163 
845 
2,008 
57-9 
42.1 
5° 4 5 
2,654 
1874 
1,154 
609 
1,763 
65-5 
34-5 
36 'I 1 
2,114 
187s 
1,170 
346 
i,5'6 
77-2 
22.8 
2290 
1,406 
1876 
1,268 
186 
1,454 
87.2 
12.8 
16 19 7 
916 
1877 
1,203 
122 
1,325 
1,362 
90.8 
9.2 
12 2 9 
873 
1878 
1,221 
141 P) 
89.6 
10.4 
11 06 
731 
1879 
1,431 
1,464 
143 (<*) 
1,574 
90-9 
9.1 
9 15 3 
592 
1880 
128 (3) 
i,592 
92.0 
8.0 
9 7 7 
' 546 
1881 
1,582 
121 (t>) 
1,703 
1,583 
92.9 
7-i 
8 17 4 
528 
1882 
1,478 
105 (<*) 
93-4 
6.6 
7 6 11 
584 
1883 
1,482 
9i 
i,573 
94-2 
5-8 
4 8 10 
521 
1884 
1,418 
77 (£) 
1,495 
94.8 
5-2 
429 
463 
1885 
i,37O 
74 (*) 
i,444 
94-9 
5-i 
4 8 1 
3°9 
1886 
i,3O5 
70 
1,375 
1,308 
94-9 
5-i 
3 3 5 
167 
1887 
1,247 
i,356 
61 
95-3 
4-7 
2 7 11 
131 
1888 
63 W 
1,419 
95-5 
4.5 
2 10 11 
117 
1889 
1,308 
46 (£) 
1,354 
96.6 
3-4 
1 15 7 
86 
1890 
1,258 
52 (*) 
1,3'0 
1,4'6 
96.0 
4.0 
1 16 3 
84 
1891 
1,345 
7i P) 
95-o 
5-o 
3 5 4 
77 
1892 
i,342 
1,518 • 
56 W 
1,398 
96.0 
4.0 
2 14 10 
67 
1893 
47 V*) 
1,565 
97-o 
3-o 
1192 
72 
It is to be observed that in 1870 the imbecile paupers were maintained in 
the workhouse and are accordingly enumerated in column 1. In 1S71 those 
paupers had been transferred to imbecile asylums and had ceased to be so 
enumerated until 1879, when they were required to be again included in the 
return of indoor paupers. This will explain the sudden diminution in the 
indoor paupers in 1871 and the sudden rise in 1879. 
(a) The figures for 1870 may be regarded as exceptional to the extent of 
about 2000 paupers, there being at that period a severe temporary pressure 
upon the administration; but it is nevertheless interesting to note that the 
experience of the winter of 1869-70 induced the guardians to voluntarily sus- 
pend the outdoor relief regulation order early in the following year, and to 
apply strictly the principle of the outdoor relief prohibitory order. 
(<5) These figures include 30 boarded-out children in 1878, 36 in 1879, 42 in 
1880, 52 in 1881, 55 in 1882, 60 in 1883, 49 in 1884, 49 in 1885, 54 in 1886, 48 in 
1887, 41 in 1888, 38 in 1889, 42 in 1890, 37 in 1891, 34 in 1892, and 30 in 1893. 
The following table will further show the mean pauperism of the 
Whitechapel Union (classified) in each of the 24 years ended at 
Lady Day, 1893, with its ratio to population, viz : VALLANCE. 
165 
Year l 
ended 
Lady-day. 
INDOOR PAUPERS. 
OUTDOOR PAUPERS. 
Mean 
number of 
indoor and 
outdoor 
paupers. 
Ratio per 
1000 of 
population. 
In work- 
house and 
infirmary. 
In schools 
•and train- 
ing ship. 
Imbeciles 
in 
asylums. 
In 
hospitals, 
etc. 
Vagrants. 
Total. 
In relief 
lists. 
Lunatics 
in 
asylums. 
Medical 
relief 
only. 
Children 
boarded- 
out. 
Total. 
1870 
899 
353 
59 
',3" 
2,797 
178 
579 
3,554 
4,865 
6l.6 
1871 
807 
322 
45 
9 
5' 
1,234 
2,597 
1,848 
184 
686 
3,467 
4,701 
61.8 
1872 
652 
3°3 
121 
26 
3' 
1,133 
171 
276 
2,295 
3,428 
45-o 
1873 
685 
347 
"7 
7 
12 
I,l68 
881 
169 
'97 
1,247 
2,4'5 
3'-5 
1874 
718 
374 
147 
'3 
8 
1,260 
642 
141 
176 
959 
2,219 
2,008 
29.0 
1875 
773 
36° 
150 
8 
'4 
'.305 
435 
136 
132 
703 
26.2 
1876 
774 
376 
'S' 
4 
16 
1,321 
190 
'45 
9' 
426 
',747 
22.8 
1877 
801 
324 
171 
'5 
28 
',339 
142 
184 
73 
'4 
4'3 
i,752 
22.8 
1878 
799 
3'6 
'77 
22 
36 
i,35o 
1,360 
"7 
210 
66 
28 
421 
1,77' 
23-' 
1879 
836 
302 
172 
18 
32 
84 
222 
S2 
35 
393 
',753 
22.8 
1880 
807 
302 
'65 
25 
S' 
',35° 
',365 
70 
238 
73 
42 
423 
',773 
1,804 
23-' 
1881 
830 
298 
164 
23 
5° 
65 
228 
98 
48 
439 
23-5 
1882 
899 
271 
'53 
57 
5' 
1,43' 
46 
230 
53 
55 
384 
1,815 
25-4 
1883 
934 
289 
'45 
23 
4' 
1,432 
i,346 
34 
219 
38 
58 
349 
',781 
24-9 
1884 
875 
293 
'39 
22 
'7 
24 
214 
46 
53 
337 
1,683 
23-5 
1885 
866 
247 
'33 
60 
44 
',350 
22 
218 
32 
53 
325 
',675 
23-4 
1886 
810 
233 
127 
18 
35 
1,223 
20 
232 
44 
52 
348 
',57' 
1,496 
22.0 
1887 
793 
196 
125 
29 
29 
1,172 
'5 
228 
3° 
5' 
324 
20.9 
1888 
871 
186 
126 
3° 
40 
i,253 
8 
226 
42 
42 
3'8 
1,57' 
1,608 
22.0 
1889 
890 
'95 
'37 
25 
56 
1,303 
1,266 
8 
216 
4' 
40 
3°5 
22.5 
1890 
9°4 
180 
'38 
I I 
33 
7 
212 
5' 
39 
3°9 
'•575 
22.0 
1891 
922 
172 
140 
39 
38 
',3" 
'3 
210 
47 
38 
308 
1,619 
22.5 
1892 
901 
'99 
'35 
34 
4' 
',3'° 
11 
229 
38 
34 
3'2 
1,622 
21.4 
i893 
929 
194 
124 
83 
44 
',374 
20 
242 
20 
3° 
3" 
1,686 
22 6 
Comparative Statement of Pauperism 
In the Whitechapel Union, being the mean numbers of paupers of all classes (indoor and outdoor) relieved on the ist of July 
and the ist of January in each of the 24 parochial years ended at Lady-day, 1893; together with the ratio per 1000 of 
population. 166 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
These progressive results, as will be seen, have not been accom- 
panied by a proportionate, nor even an appreciable, increase in the 
number of indoor paupers relieved. Indeed, there is to be deduced 
the somewhat remarkable fact-taking into account the increase of 
sick poor under the separate infirmary system-that the new 
departure taken in 1870 has resulted in a diminution in the indoor 
pauperism. This is probably owing, in part, to the discouragement 
which the system has given to speculative applications for relief, and,, 
in part, to the concentration of official and voluntary effort upon the 
dispauperization of the poor. There is also reason to believe that 
the policy which has been pursued has resulted in an improvement 
in the condition of the poor. Rents are said to be better paid, and 
more money to be deposited in savings and penny banks than for- 
merly, whilst publicans and pawnbrokers are equally lamenting the 
badness of trade. The poor are certainly more self-respecting than 
they were, whilst the work of voluntary charity may be now described 
as more personal service and less almsgiving. So uniform and strict 
has become the administration of legal relief, and so well understood 
is the system, that an application for outdoor relief is now seldom 
made to the guardians. 
Simultaneous with the restriction of outdoor relief has been the 
endeavor of the guardians to reform their indoor administration by 
making their workhouse a " well regulated " establishment, and con- 
tributory as far as possible to character and self-reliance, as well as 
deterrent to the idle malingerer. 
This record of an administration of the poor law in one populous 
East London Union has been rendered possible only by the con- 
sistent adherence of the guardians, during the last 24 years, to the 
principles which they regarded as sound and in the truest interests 
of the poor, and by their determined refusal to become either the 
advocates or patrons of individual applicants at board meetings. 
They saw that by the out-relief system the working classes were 
being educated in dependence, being practically told that every 
recurring misfortune or contingency of life would be amply met out 
of the public rates, whilst they were demoralized by the knowledge 
that the adversity which flows from idleness, intemperance or im- 
providence would be rewarded by an eligible form of relief out of 
the taxation of the industrious, thrifty, and self-reliant. They saw 
also that the system of outdoor relief encouraged reckless and thrift- 
less marriages, husbands and wives being in no sense brought face VALLANCE. 
167 
to face with the realities of life. Employment might be precarious 
and income small, but the lesson of the poor law too frequently bore 
its fruit, "the parish" being written against all such contingencies as 
"sickness," "births," "burials," "widowhood," "orphanage," and 
" old age." It was also found that the practice of awarding from 
public rates permanent pensions to widows with families, at a rate 
so uniform that they were readily calculated in anticipation, and so 
certain that they were received as their due, tended to the relaxation 
of those habits of forethought on the part of heads of families, which 
are essential to the independence of the working classes; it was 
wanting in the elements of a true Christian charity, and induced such 
a spirit of helplessness that their misery and pauperism became 
chronic. In Whitechapel the cases of widows with children depen- 
dent upon them are invariably referred to the Charity Organization 
Society, through which they receive present needed help, and they 
are only returned to the guardians in the event of absolute failure to 
meet adequately the permanent necessities of the case. And here it 
is worthy of notice that this policy has not resulted, as might per- 
haps be assumed, either in the substitution of another form of out- 
door relief outside the poor law, or in a very special increase in the 
number of children maintained in the district school. The present 
number of children of widows in the district school is 37 as com- 
pared with the mean number of 418 widows and 1010 children in 
receipt of outdoor relief in 1870. And not only has this army of 
outdoor pauper children disappeared, but, as a fact, notwithstanding 
the addition of the children of widows to the indoor pauper roll, the 
number of children now maintained in schools and institutions, and 
" boarded-out " in the country is less by 36 per cent, than the number 
provided for in the district school 23 years ago. With regard to the 
aged poor, whatever the difficulty in applying strict principles in 
their relief, experience yet points to the corrupting influence of a 
certain provision, out of public rates, of weekly pensions in old age. 
The system operates to the encouragement of a life-long anticipation 
of a " parish allowance" as an eventuality, if not absolutely to be 
desired, at least not worth a present self-denial to obviate. Nor is 
this anticipation confined to the pauper himself, but extends to his 
children, who too frequently regard their payment of poor rates as 
fully satisfying every claim upon them. In Whitechapel, the entire 
discontinuance of outdoor relief, even to the aged, has been rendered 
possible by the establishment of a " Pension Society," which deals 168 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
with cases of exceptional distress and desert, the pensions going to 
the old people " by the hands of ladies who are both almoners and 
friends." 
But there are not only classes of poor to be dealt with under 
normal circumstances; there are seasons of distress arising from 
a scarcity of employment; and, whether recurrent or exceptional, 
it is equally important that the administration of legal relief should 
be uniform and clearly understood. It may be that some relax- 
ation is necessary at times by reason of insufficiency of workhouse 
accommodation, but it is of the first importance that the poor should 
know the nature and extent of the relaxation and the circum- 
stances under which it is permitted. There is a public sentiment, 
especially in times of commercial depression, antagonistic to a form 
of relief which is thought to have the effect of " breaking-up homes." 
It may therefore be interesting to state that in the early part of 1887 
the Whitechapel guardians sought and obtained, but did not feel 
it necessary to exercise, temporary powers to deal with applications 
for relief in such a manner as to ensure the preservation of decent 
homes, to afford adequate security against a too ready dependence 
upon the rates for support, and to relieve undue pressure upon work- 
house accommodation, namely, by affording outdoor relief to the 
wife and dependent children of an indoor pauper so long as he might 
remain an inmate of the workhouse. Under ordinary circumstances, 
however, the system which seems adequately to meet the necessities 
of " out-of-work " cases, and to be at the same time conducive to the 
interests of the community, is indoor relief to the head of a family, 
coupled with charitable aid to the wife and children, so as to keep a 
decent home intact. There would, of course, remain a further legiti- 
mate work for private charity in saving the more deserving from the 
poor law, and encouraging and aiding them in their efforts to achieve 
independence. 
But however conspicuous may have been the results of a strict, 
consistent and unvarying administration of poor law relief in the 
Whitechapel Union, the records of the country generally, since 1870, 
are also those of gradual and continuous improvement. In that year, 
whilst the ratio of indoor pauperism to population was but 7.1 per 
1,000, that of outdoor pauperism was 39.4, and this may be taken to 
be the then normal pauperism, since there had been little variation 
for many years. VALLANCE. 
169 
The movement, however, which sprang up ip that year, and in 
which the Whitechapel Board had the distinction of taking a leading 
part, in favor of a stricter administration of legal relief has produced 
the following striking results. Taking the quinquennial periods from 
1870, the ratio of each form of pauperism to 1000 of population in 
England and Wales, the metropolis and Whitechapel respectively 
stood as follows, viz.: 
Years. 
England and Wales. 
The Metropolis. 
Whitechapel Union. 
Indoor. 
Outd oor. 
Total. 
Indoor. 
Outdoor. 
Total. 
Indoor. 
Outdoor. 
Total. 
1870 
7-1 
39-4 
46.5 
U-5 
36.O 
47-5 
16.6 
4S-o 
6l.6 
1875 
6.2 
27.6 
33-8 
n.6 
20.3 
3«-9 
I7.O 
9.2 
26.2 
1880 
7-i 
24-7 
31-8 
13-0 
13-7 
26.7 
17.6 
5-5 
23.1 
1885 
6.8 
21.8 
28.6 
13-8 
11.6 
25-4 
18.9 
4-5 
23-4 
1890 
6.6 
20.7 
27-3 
14.1 
11 8 
25.9 
17-7 
4-3 
22.0 
1892 
6.4 
19.2 
25.6 
13-8 
10.8 
24.6 
17-3 
4-i 
21.4 
It will be observed that notwithstanding the outdoor pauper- 
ism in Whitechapel has fallen 40.9 per 1,000 of population, i. e. 
from 45.0 to 4.1 (as against 25.2 per 1,000 in the metropolis) since 
1870, the indoor pauperism has increased but 0.7 in Whitechapel as 
against 2.3 in the whole metropolis. Indeed, the fact may be 
accepted that no increase of indoor pauperism has resulted from a 
strict administration of relief in Whitechapel, since a comparison of 
figures is not fairly equal, by reason of the almost continuous increase 
already referred to in the number of sick poor resorting to the sepa- 
rate infirmary in recent years.* 
This fact sufficiently disposes of the assertion frequently made, that 
a rigid administration of outdoor relief has the effect of driving the 
poor into the workhouse; but if further evidence is needed, it will be 
found in an analysis recently made of the aged inmates of the work- 
house (exclusive of sick under treatment in the infirmary, who were 
assumed to be in receipt of the only form of relief which adequately 
and humanely met their necessities), from which it appeared that 92 
* During the year 1892 no fewer than 5,155 persons passed through the 
infirmary by discharge or death, as against 3,202 in 1885. 170 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
per cent, were admittedly "homeless," in the sense that they were 
without home, furniture or relations with whom they could live out- 
side ; whilst of the remainder, but two were scheduled in the " classi- 
fication of causes " under the heading of " destitution apparently 
arising from misfortune"-as distinguished from destitution of 
which "intemperance," or "improvidence" had been a contributory 
cause. 
But perhaps the most satisfactory way in which to judge of the 
administration of relief in the Whitechapel Union will be by a com- 
parison of its pauperism, and expenditure upon relief, in 1870 and 
1892. Thus we find that the mean numbers of indoor paupers 
(inclusive of vagrants) relieved in those respective years were as 
follows : 
1870. 
1892. 
England and Wales 
156,558 
186,607 
Metropolis 
36,441 
58,145 
Whitechapel 
i,3H 
i,374 
thus showing an increase in England and Wales of 19 2 per cent., the 
Metropolis of 59.5 per cent., and Whitechapel of 4.8 per cent. 
Taking next the outdoor paupers, the mean number relieved in the 
above-mentioned years was: 
1870. 
1892. 
England and Wales 
876,000 
558>i5o 
Metropolis 
114,386 
45,792 
Whitechapel 
3,554 
312 
thus showing a decrease in England and Wales of 36.2 per cent., the 
Metropolis of 60.0 per cent., and Whitechapel of 91.2 per cent. 
The expenditure upon outdoor relief in 1870 and 1891 (being the 
latest return appended to the Report of the Local Government Board 
for 1891-92) was: 
1870. 
i89i. 
England and Wales 
Z3A33><*51 
£ 2,400,089 
Metropolis 
412,817 
184,118 
Whitechapel 
6,685 
800 
thus showing a decrease of expenditure in outdoor relief in England 
and Wales of 33.9 per cent., the Metropolis of 55 4 per cent., and 
Whitechapel of 88.0 per cent. ; or excluding the cost of " boarded- 
out children" the decrease of expenditure in outdoor relief 
in Whitechapel will be found to be no less than 96.1 per cent. VALLANCE. 
171 
In the foregoing figures there is ample justification for saying that 
poor law reform is abroad in England ; whilst in the earnest and 
increasingly organized efforts put forth on behalf of the po'or, the 
sinning and the suffering, we see the stimulus which a strict adminis- 
tration of legal relief gives to a real live charity-the charity of 
personal service. 
But after all, how much remains to be done! As yet, the fields of 
philanthropic service have only been entered. Looking at the giants 
of evil which have to be encountered, especially in our great cities, 
we see how weak and impotent is disjointed effort in the cause of the 
poor, and how increasingly necessary it is that earnest men and 
women should be found, not fighting alone with puny self-made 
weapons, but as members of a highly-trained and organized army, 
furnished with the very best arms which science and experience can 
devise. In this way alone can the great work of serving the poor be 
successfully accomplished; and may the two great English-speaking 
peoples be found in the forefront of the fight, waging war, not against 
pauperism alone, but also against the various social evils which beget 
pauperism, misery and despair. 
From the standpoint, therefore, of an experience of nearly a 
quarter of a century in a strict administration of relief, I would in 
conclusion lay down the following propositions : 
1. That the duty of the state in relation to the poor should, in the 
interest of the commonwealth, be restricted to the relief of actual 
destitution, and not be extended to the alleviation of the condition 
of poverty. 
2. That legal relief, i. e. relief provided out of compulsory taxation, 
should be at once adequate and humane, and yet in a form which 
will not tempt the people to rely upon it, or to induce relaxation of 
effort in making a more eligible provision for themselves. 
3. That the only form of relief which meets these conditions, is 
that of maintenance in some suitable institution. 
4. That outdoor relief, or relief afforded in the applicant's home at 
the cost of the state, and in response to a legal claim, is and must be 
fruitful of evil results both to the individual and the community. 
5. That a strict administration of state relief implies a necessity for 
organized voluntary effort, in saving the more deserving poor from 
a recourse to the poor law, and leaves a wide field of service for the 
individual discharge of man's duty to man. 
6. That the work of visiting and befriending the deserving and 172 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
suffering poor, not already dealt with by the poor law, is a personal 
one, and cannot be discharged through the agency of any state 
machinery. 
7. That all charitable relief is, in turn, but part of and subsidiary 
to organized earnest efforts to raise the standard of existence, and to 
develop the character and possibilities of the poorer classes. 
THE WORK OF THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL IN 
RELATION TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE 
HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES. 
JOHN LOWLES, F. S. S., F. R. C. I., F. I. I. 
In submitting to the notice of the Congress a few facts connected 
with the very important branch of the work of the authorities in 
London which forms the subject of my paper, I may perhaps be 
allowed to preface them by a word or two concerning London itself. 
Like Chicago, its growth has been and is extraordinary. Its popu- 
lation to-day borders close on six millions, whilst the yearly addition 
thereto approaches one hundred thousand. 
Originally, London consisted of what is now known as the City 
proper, an area of 668 acres in extent; but the present county of Lon- 
don, over which the London County Council exercises jurisdiction, 
consists of 75.462 acres, whilst if we measure London by the extent of 
the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police, it reaches an area of 
nearly 700 square miles. Perhaps the latter area affords the best 
standard for comparison with Chicago as its limits are defined to-day. 
The population of the larger area exceeds five and a half millions, 
whilst the smaller area contains four and a quarter millions of people. 
Time will not permit me to trace out the growth of the govern- 
ment of London. Suffice it to say that the parish is the unit of local 
government; and the vestry, whose members are elected for three 
years (one-third retiring annually), is the local authority. In the 
case of smaller parishes, two or more are bracketed together for 
administrative purposes, under the title of district board. In 1855 
a great step forward was made by the passing of an act called the 
" Metropolis Local Management Act," and a body called the " Metro- LOWLES. 
173 
politan Board of Works" came into existence, consisting of one or 
two representatives from each of the vestries or district boards, 
according to population. 
In 1888 a still more important step was taken by the creation of 
county councils directly elected by the people, London being 
created a separate county thereunder, and the Metropolitan Board 
of Works was abolished. The London County Council consists of 
118 councillors (elected for three years by the various parliamentary 
divisions), and 19 aidermen (elected by the Council itself), half of 
whom serve for three and half for six years. Women ratepayers 
exercise the municipal franchise as they do the educational. There 
can be no doubt that the creation of this new governing body on a 
popular basis has greatly stimulated public interest in local govern- 
ment, and has immensely benefited the cause of sanitary reform and 
promoted the health, comfort and happiness of the people. The 
various drainage works, executed at the cost of many millions of 
pounds, and the ample provision for dealing with epidemics and 
infectious diseases, coupled with the unceasing vigilance of the 
authorities responsible for the department of public health, and the 
drastic powers conferred upon them by acts of Parliament, have 
combined to make London the healthiest metropolis in the world. 
Some idea of the magnitude of the work of main drainage alone 
may be gathered from the fact that 38 325,000,000 gallons of sewage 
were treated in the twelve months ending March 31, 1892. Exten- 
sive pumping stations exist at Barking and Crossness, on the north 
and south sides of the Thames respectively ; and the sewage, after 
being deodorized by manganate of soda and sulphuric acid, is 
disposed of by sludge vessels, which deposit the solids in deep parts 
of the English Channel, whilst the effluent flows out to the mouth 
of the river, care being taken to discharge it at favorable states of 
the tide. 
Various schemes for utilizing the sewage for fertilizing purposes 
have from time to time been made, but the mere pressure of the 
daily task of removal has in itself prevented hitherto any extended 
experiments in this direction. A most effectual provision for secur- 
ing local and general supervision in sanitary matters is found in the 
medical officers, whose fixed departmental appointment in every 
parish or district is insisted upon. These in turn periodically report 
to and are practically supervised by the health department of the 
London County Council, which is fortunate in having at its head a 174 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
most capable and efficient expert in the person of Dr. Shirley 
Murphy, whose work is beyond praise. 
The Council has recently been engaged in formulating a series of 
by-laws relating to matters of prime importance in connection with 
public health (a copy of which is appended hereto); and these 
by-laws, on being approved by the Government Department (the 
Local Government Board), will at once be operative and have all 
the force of the act of Parliament itself. 
Further powers entrusted to the London County Council which 
are intimately bound up with the public health are those which 
enable them to inspect and license slaughter-houses and cow-houses, 
to regulate offensive trades, the inspection of dairies and milk-stores, 
the provision of public mortuaries, the appointment of coroners, the 
securing of a constant water-supply, the slaughtering and removal 
of animals afflicted with contagious disease, the prevention of rabies, 
etc., etc. 
The care of the asylums for imbecile and insane (of whom there 
are some n,ooo under treatment) is in the hands of the County 
Council; but the provision of accommodation for persons suffering 
from infectious disease is entrusted to a separate body called the 
Metropolitan Asylums Board, whose work has materially lessened 
the mortality of late years and proved of inestimable benefit to the 
poor in preventing the spread of infection, by immediate isolation 
away from the houses of those afflicted. 
This latter body will at no distant date probably be directly con- 
trolled by the Council, with whose officers, however, it works in perfect 
accord. It will be readily understood that the exigencies of the situa- 
tions in which administrators have from time to time found themselves 
in dealing with the needs of such a vast population, with all the accu- 
mulated sanitary errors of omission and commission of preceding 
generations around them, have rather retarded than advanced the 
practical realization of a perfect ideal in administrative work, inas- 
much as the necessity for close attention to the pressing everyday 
requirements of the present has left little time for perfecting, har- 
monizing and unifying the multitudinous agencies working at high 
pressure day by day. The work of reform in every department of 
the state must ever be progressive and never can be complete, and 
in no department is this truth more manifest than in that under 
notice. 
It is a matter for rejoicing, however, that such enormous strides LOWLES 
175 
in the right direction in matters of public hygiene have been made 
in recent years. These strides were clearly and profitably demon- 
strated by the Congress held in London in the summer of 1891, in 
which so many distinguished American professors of medical and 
sanitary science took part. 
In England the study of sanitary science as a special and distinct 
subject is now firmly established, and no candidate for appointments 
in the public service connected with health matters is considered 
eligible unless he possesses certificates of competency from some 
recognized institution issuing certificates after examination. 
Passing on to the work of the London County Council in connec- 
tion with the dwellings of the working classes, legislation has for 
many years been directed to removing the insanitary areas which 
were at once a disfigurement and a danger to many of our large 
cities, and especially of the metropolis. 
Various Royal Commissions collected evidence of a most appalling 
kind respecting the condition of the homes of the poor. So huge an 
evil could not be remedied by a single act of Parliament; but all 
political parties being agreed that drastic measures were necessary, 
and public sentiment warmly supporting that view, powers have 
from time to time been conferred upon the local authorities, which 
have largely mitigated the evil, and marked the beginning of a new 
era in this important department of social life. Of course the effec- 
tiveness of the remedy very largely depended upon the zeal and 
energy of those entrusted with its application. Danger of laxity in 
this respect on the part of the parochial authorities has been reduced 
to a minimum by the mandatory powers conferred upon and exten- 
sively used by the County Council since 1890. 
Under the Council's auspices a rapid transformation is taking 
place in the metropolis. Insanitary dwellings are being rigidly 
inspected and either completely overhauled at the owner's expense, 
or ruthlessly closed, while in cases where the closely packed build- 
ings did not admit of adaptation to sanitary requirements, they have 
been cleared away at the public cost, and new and improved dwell- 
ings, with every requisite appliance and a minimum width of forty 
feet for each street, have risen up in their place. An important 
movement has been made towards inducing w'orkingmen with 
families to settle in the suburbs, by providing cheap and speedy 
means of transit. 
The Council, aided by several members of Parliament, have 176 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
obtained special concessions from the great railway companies, and 
on one line it is possible for a workman to live ill miles out of 
London and to be carried to his work and back by train at a cost of 
twopence (4 cents) for the double journey. It will still be neces- 
sary, however, for large bodies to reside near their employment in 
the great centres of London, and for these the improved dwellings 
erected by the Council or on the Council's land, where most com- 
plete sanitary arrangements are rigidly enforced, will provide 
accommodation well within their means, at a rental of two shillings 
(50 cents) weekly for each room occupied. 
A most important departure has been taken by the Council in the 
erection of a Municipal Lodging House in one of the poorest parts 
of London (Drury Lane), for the accommodation of poor casual 
lodgers at a cheap rate. The building is perhaps the most perfect 
of its kind in existence, and is worthy of imitation in other centres 
where a large transient poor population exists. Its erection cost some 
and accommodation is provided for 320 inmates, at a charge 
of fivepence (10 cents) per night. This charge includes the use of 
spacious day-rooms, kitchens and lavatories, of appliances for cook- 
ing, and of most comfortable dormitories. Immediately it was 
opened it was filled with appreciative customers, and it is hoped that 
its phenomenal success will stimulate the Council to build similar 
lodging-houses in other parts of London, although it is probable that 
if they do so they will reduce the capacity of each house considerably, 
as it is felt to be safer from a sanitary point of view. There can be 
no doubt that, apart from their superiority in the physical comfort 
afforded to the inmates, these municipal lodging-houses are destined 
to play an important part in the lives of their inhabitants from an 
ethical point of view. They can easily be made healthy, well-con- 
ducted clubs for the poor; and their surroundings are such as to 
bring back or preserve that self-respect, the loss of which, from one 
cause or another, has in most cases been the chief factor in bringing 
the poor creatures to poverty and degradation. 
From what I have myself personally seen in New York and 
Chicago I think great room exists in both cities for work in this 
direction, as also in the whole department covered by my paper, and 
I am quite sure that I may, while tendering my thanks to this Con- 
gress for according me the privilege of contributing a paper (imper- 
fect though it be) on this subject, be allowed to say how delighted I 
shall be to supply detailed information at any time to any one who LOWLES. 
177 
may be interested on this side, and thus reciprocate in some measure 
the uniform courtesy and consideration I have experienced on all 
hands whenever I have visited the United States. 
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL. 
BY-LAWS MADE BY THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL UNDER THE 
PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1891. 
By-Laws under Sec. 16 (2). 
For prescribing the times for the removal or carriage by road or water of any 
faecal, or offensive or obnoxious matter or liquid in or through London, and 
providing that the carriage or vessel used therefor shall be properly constructed 
and covered so as to prevent the escape of any such matter or liquid, and as to 
prevent any nuisance arising therefrom. 
1. Every person who shall remove or carry by road or water in or through 
London any fcecal or offensive or obnoxious matter or liquid, whether such 
matter or liquid shall be in course of removal or carriage from within or with- 
out or through London, shall not remove or carry such matter or liquid in or 
through London except between the hours of 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock in the 
forenoon during the months of March, April, May, June, July, August, Septem- 
ber and October, and except between the hours of 6 o'clock in the forenoon 
and 12 o'clock at noon during the months of November, December, January 
and February. Such person shall use a suitable carriage or vessel properly 
constructed and furnished with a sufficient covering so as to prevent the 
escape of any such matter or liquid therefrom, and so as to prevent any 
nuisance arising therefrom. 
Provided that this by-law shall not apply to the carriage of horse dung 
manure. 
As to the closing and filling up of cesspools and privies. 
2. Any person who shall by any works or by any structural alteration of any 
premises render the further use of a cesspool or privy unnecessary, and the 
owner of any premises on which shall be situated a disused cesspool or privy, 
or a cesspool or privy which has become unnecessary, shall completely empty 
such cesspool or privy of all foecal or offensive matter which it may contain, 
and shall completely remove so much of the floor, walls and roof of such privy 
or cesspool as can safely be removed, and all pipes and drains leading thereto 
or therefrom, or connected therewith, and any earth or other material contam- 
inated by such fcecal or offensive matter. He shall completely close and fill 
up the cesspool with concrete or with suitable dry clean earth, dry clean brick 
rubbish, or other dry clean material, and where the walls of such cesspool shall 
not have been completely removed, he shall cover the surface of the space so 
filled up with earth, rubbish or material, with a layer of concrete six inches 
thick. 178 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
3. Every person who shall propose to close or fill up any cesspool or privy 
shall, before commencing any works for such purpose, give to the Sanitary 
Authority for the district not less than forty-eight hours notice in writing, 
exclusive of Sunday, Good Friday, Christmas day, or any bank holiday, speci- 
fying the hour at which he will commence the closing and filling up of such 
cesspool or privy, and during the progress of any such work shall afford any 
officer of the Sanitary Authority free access to the premises for the purpose of 
inspecting the same. 
As to the removal and disposal of refuse, and as to the duties of the occupier of any 
premises in connection ivith house refuse so as to facilitate the removal of it by 
the scavengers of the Sanitary Authority. 
4. The occupier of any premises who shall remove or cause to be removed 
any refuse produced upon his premises shall not, in the process of removal, 
deposit such refuse, or cause or allow such refuse to be deposited upon any 
footway, pavement or carriageway. 
Provided that this by-law shall not be deemed to prohibit the occupier of 
any premises from depositing upon the kerbstone or upon the outer edge of the 
footpath immediately in front of his house, between such hours of the day as 
the Sanitary Authority shall fix and notify by public announcement in their 
district, a proper receptacle containing house refuse, other than night soil or 
filth, to be removed by the Sanitary Authority in accordance with any by-law 
in that behalf. 
5. Every person who shall convey any house, trade or street refuse across or 
along any footway, pavement or carriageway shall use a suitable receptacle, 
cart, carriage or other means of conveyance properly constructed so as to pre- 
vent the escape of the contents thereof, and, in the case of offensive refuse, so 
covered as to prevent any nuisance therefrom, and shall adopt such other pre- 
cautions as may be necessary to prevent any such refuse from being slopped 
or spilled, or from falling in the process of removal upon such footway, pave- 
ment or carriageway. 
If in the process of such removal any such refuse be slopped or spilled, or fall 
upon such footway, pavement or carriageway, such person shall forthwith 
remove such refuse from the place whereon the same may have been slopped 
or spilled, or may have fallen, and shall immediately thereafter thoroughly 
sweep or otherwise thoroughly cleanse such place. 
6. Where a Sanitary Authority shall arrange for the daily removal of house 
refuse in their district or in any part thereof, the occupier of any premises in 
such district or part thereof on which any house refuse may from time to time 
accumulate shall, at such hour of the day as the Sanitary Authority shall fix 
and notify by public announcement in their district, deposit on the kerbstone 
or on the outer edge of the footpath immediately in front of the house or in a 
conveniently accessible position on the premises, as the Sanitary Authority 
may prescribe by written notice served upon the occupier, a movable recepta- 
cle, in which shall be placed, for the purposes of removal by or on behalf of 
the Sanitary Authority, the house refuse which has accumulated on such prem- 
ises since the preceding collection by such authority. LOWLES. 
179 
The Sanitary Authority shall collect such refuse, or cause the same to be 
collected, between such hours of the day as they have fixed and notified by 
public announcement in their district. 
7. The Sanitary Authority shall cause to be removed not less frequently 
than once in every week the house refuse produced on all premises within their 
district. 
8. Where, for the purposes of subsequent removal, any cargo, load, or 
collection of offensive refuse has been temporarily brought to or deposited in 
any place within a sanitary district, the owner (whether a Sanitary Authority 
or any other person) or consignee of such cargo, load or collection of refuse, 
or any person who may have undertaken to deliver the same, or who is in 
charge of the same, shall not without a reasonable excuse permit or allow or 
cause such refuse to remain in such place for a longer period than twenty-four 
hours. 
Provided («) that this by-law shall not apply in cases where the place of 
temporary deposit is distant at least one hundred yards from any street, and is 
distant at least three hundred yards from any building or premises used wholly 
or partly for human habitation, or as a school, or as a place of public worship 
or of public resort or public assembly, or from any building or premises in or 
on which any person may be employed in any manufacture, trade or business, 
or from any public park or other open space dedicated or used for the purposes 
of recreation, or from any reservoir or stream used for the purposes of 
domestic water supply; (5) that this by-law shall not prohibit the deposit, 
within the prescribed distances, of road slop unmixed with stable manure for 
any period not exceeding one week, which maybe necessary for the separation 
of water therefrom. 
9. Where a Sanitary Authority or some person on their behalf shall remove 
any offensive refuse from any street .or premises within their district, such 
Sanitary Authority or such person shall properly destroy by fire or otherwise 
dispose of such refuse in such manner as to prevent nuisance. 
Provided always that this by-law shall not be deemed to require or permit 
any Sanitary Authority or person to dispose of or destroy by fire any night- 
soil, swine's dung or cow-dung. 
10. A Sanitary Authority or any person on their behalf who shall remove 
any offensive refuse from any street or premises withintheir district shall not 
deposit such refuse, otherwise than in the course of removal, at a less distance 
than three hundred yards from any two or more buildings used wholly or partly 
for human habitation, or from any building used as a school, or as a place of 
public resort or public assembly, or in which any person may be employed in 
any manufacture, trade or business, or from any public park or other open 
space dedicated or used for the purpose of recreation, or from any reservoir or 
stream used for the purpose of domestic water supply. 
Provided always that this by-law shall not be deemed to prohibit such 
deposit of such refuse for a period of twenty-four hours, when such refuse is 
deposited for the purpose of being destroyed by fire, in accordance with any 
by-law in that behalf. 180 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
11. For the purposes of the foregoing by-laws the expression "offensive 
refuse " means any refuse, whether " house refuse," " trade refuse," or " street 
refuse " in such a condition as to be or to be liable to become offensive. 
Penalties. 
12. Every person who shall offend against any of the foregoing by-laws shall 
be liable for every such offense to a penalty of five pounds, and in the case of 
a continuing offense to a further penalty of forty shillings for each day after 
written notice of the offense from the Sanitary Authority. Provided neverthe- 
less that the court before whom any complaint may be made, or any proceed- 
ings may be taken in respect of any such offense, may, if the court think fit, 
adjudge the payment as a penalty of any sum less than the full amount of the 
penalty imposed by this by-law. 
By-Laws under Section 39 (1). 
With respect to water closets, earthclosets, privies, ashpits, cesspools, and recep- 
tacles for dung, and the proper accessories thereof in connection with buildings, 
whether constructed before or after the passing of this Act. 
1. Every person who shall hereafter construct a watercloset or earthcloset in 
connection with a building, shall construct such watercloset or earthcloset in 
such a position that, in the case of a watercloset, one of its sides at the least 
shall be an external wall, and in the case of an earthcloset two of its sides at 
the least shall be external walls, which external wall or walls shall abut imme- 
diately upon the street, or upon a yard or garden or open space of not less 
than one hundred square feet of superficial area, measured horizontally at a 
point below the level of the floor of such closet. He shall not construct any 
such watercloset so that it is approached directly from any room used for the 
purpose of human habitation, or used for the manufacture, preparation, or 
storage of food for man, or used as a factory, workshop, or workplace, nor shall 
he construct any earthcloset so that it can be entered otherwise than from 
the external air. 
He shall construct such watercloset so that on any side on which it would 
abut on a room intended for human habitation, or used as a factory, workshop, 
or workplace, it shall be enclosed by a solid wall or partition of brick or other 
materials, extending the entire height from the floor to the ceiling. 
He shall provide any such watercloset that is approached from the external 
air with a floor of hard smooth impervious material, having a fall to the door 
of such watercloset of half an inch to the foot. 
He shall provide such watercloset with proper doors and fastenings. 
Provided always that this by-law shall not apply to any watercloset con- 
structed below the surface of the ground and approached directly from an area 
or other open space available for purposes of ventilation, measuring at least 
forty superficial feet in extent, and having a distance across of not less than 
five feet, and not covered in otherwise than by a grating or railing. 
2. Every person who shall construct a watercloset in connection with a build- 
ing, whether the situation of such watercloset be or be not within or partly within LOWLES. 
181 
such building, and every person who shall construct an earthcloset in connec- 
tion with a building, shall construct in one of the walls of such watercloset or 
earthcloset which shall abut upon the public way, yard, garden, or open space, 
as provided by the preceding by-law, a window of such dimensions that an 
area of not less than two square feet, which may be the whole or part of such 
window, shall open directly into the external air. 
He shall in addition to such window, cause such watercloset or earthcloset 
to be provided with adequate means of constant ventilation by at least one air- 
brick built in an external wall of such watercloset or earthcloset, or by an air- 
shaft, or by some other effectual method or appliance. 
3. Every person who shall construct a watercloset in connection with a build- 
ing, shall furnish such watercloset with a cistern of adequate capacity for the 
purpose of flushing, which shall be separate and distinct from any cistern used 
for drinking purposes, and shall be so constructed, fitted, and placed as to 
admit of the supply of water for use in such watercloset so that there shall not 
be any direct connection between any service pipe upon the premises and any 
part of the apparatus of such watercloset other than such flushing cistern. 
Provided always that the foregoing requirement shall be deemed to be com- 
plied with in any case where the apparatus of a watercloset is connected for 
the purpose of flushing with a cistern of adequate capacity which is used solely 
for flushing waterclosets or urinals. 
He shall cause every flushing cistern that may be of such a kind as to be 
emptied at one pull of the flushing apparatus to be so constructed that the 
inlet for water shall be capable of charging the cistern in not less than one 
minute. 
He shall construct or fix the pipe and union connecting such flushing cistern 
with the pan, basin, or other receptacle with which such watercloset may be 
provided, so that such pipe and union shall not in any part have an internal 
diameter of less than one inch and a quarter. 
He shall furnish such watercloset with a suitable apparatus for the effectual 
application of water to any pan, basin, or other receptacle with which such 
apparatus may be connected and used, and for the effectual flushing and cleans- 
ing of such pan, basin, or other receptacle, and for the prompt and effectual 
removal therefrom and from the trap connected therewith of any solid or liquid 
filth which may from time to time be deposited therein. 
He shall furnish such watercloset with a pan, basin, or other suitable recep- 
tacle of non-absorbent material, and of such shape, of such capacity, and of 
such mode of construction as to receive and contain a sufficient quantity of 
water, and to allow all filth which may from time to time be deposited in such 
pan, basin, or receptacle, to fall free of the sides thereof and directly into the 
water received and contained in such pan, basin, or receptacle. 
He shall not construct or fix under such pan, basin, or receptacle, any " con- 
tainer" or other similar fitting. 
He shall construct or fix immediately beneath or in connection with such 
pan, basin, or other suitable receptacle, an efficient siphon trap, so constructed 
that it shall at all times maintain a sufficient water seal between such pan, 182 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
basin, or other suitable receptacle and any drain or soil pipe in connection 
therewith. He shall not construct or fix in or in connection with the watercloset 
apparatus any D trap or other similar trap. 
If he shall construct any watercloset or shall fix or fit any trap to any exist- 
ing watercloset or in connection with a soil pipe, which is itself in connection 
with any other watercloset, he shall cause the trap of every such watercloset 
to be ventilated into the open air at a point as high as the top of the soil pipe, 
or into the soil pipe at a point above the highest watercloset connected with 
such soil pipe, and so that such ventilating pipe shall have in all parts an 
internal diameter of not less than two inches, and shall be connected with the 
arm of the soil pipe at a point not less than three and not more than twelve 
inches from the highest part of the trap and on that side of the water seal 
which is nearest to the soil pipe. 
4. Any person who shall provide a soil pipe in connection with a building 
to be hereafter erected, shall cause such soil pipe to be situated outside such 
building, and any person who shall provide or construct or refit a soil pipe in 
connection with an existing building, shall, whenever practicable, cause such 
soil pipe to be situated outside such building, and in all cases where such soil 
pipe shall be situated within any building, shall construct such soil pipe in 
drawn lead, or of heavy cast iron jointed with molten lead and properly caulked. 
He shall construct such soil pipe so that its weight in proportion to its length 
and internal diameter, shall be as follows- 
Diameter. 
Lead. 
Weight per io feet length. 
Not less than 
Iron. 
Weight per 6 feet length. 
Not less than 
inches 
65 lbs. 
48 lbs. 
4 
74 " 
54 " 
5 
92 " 
69 " 
6 
no " 
84 " 
Every person who shall provide a soil pipe outside or inside a building shall 
cause such soil pipe to have an internal diameter of not less than three and a 
half inches, and to be continued upwards without diminution of its diameter, 
and (except where unavoidable) without any bend or angle being formed in 
such soil pipe, to such a height and in such a position as to afford by means 
of the open end of such soil pipe a safe outlet for foul air, and so that such open 
end shall in all cases be above the highest part of the roof of the building to 
which the soil pipe is attached, and where practicable, be not less than three 
feet above any window within twenty feet measured in a straight line from the 
open end of such soil pipe. 
He shall furnish the open end of such soil pipe with a wire guard covering, 
the opening in the meshes of which shall be equal to not less than the area of 
the open end of the soil pipe. 
In all such cases where he shall connect a lead trap or pipe with an iron soil 
pipe or drain, he shall insert between such trap or pipe and such soil pipe or 
drain a brass thimble, and he shall connect such lead trap or pipe with such 
thimble by means of a wiped or overcast lead joint, and he shall connect such LOWLES. 
183 
thimble with the iron soil pipe or drain by means of a joint made with molten 
lead, properly caulked. 
In all such cases where he shall connect a stoneware trap or pipe with a lead 
soil pipe, he shall insert between such stoneware trap or pipe, and such soil 
pipe or drain, a brass socket or other similar appliance, and he shall connect 
such stoneware trap or pipe by inserting it into such socket, making the joint 
with Portland cement, and he shall connect such socket with the lead soil 
pipe, by means of a wiped or overcast lead joint. 
In all cases where he shall connect a stoneware trap or pipe withan iron soil 
pipe or drain, he shall insert such stoneware trap or pipe into a socket on 
such iron soil pipe or drain, making the joint with Portland cement. 
He shall so construct such soil pipe that it shall not be directly connected 
with the waste of any bath, rainwater pipe, or of any sink other than that 
whiclj is provided for the reception of urine or other excremental filth, and he 
shall construct such soil pipe so that there shall not be any trap in such soil 
pipe or between the soil pipe and any drain with which it is connected. 
5. A person who shall newly fit or fix any apparatus in connection with 
any existing watercloset, shall, as regards such apparatus and its connection 
with existing soil pipe or drain, comply with such of the requirements of the 
foregoing by-laws as would be applicable to the apparatus so fitted or fixed if 
the watercloset were being newly constructed. 
6. Every person who shall construct an earthcloset in connection with a 
building shall furnish such earthcloset with a reservoir or receptacle, of 
suitable construction and of adequate capacity, for dry earth, and he shall 
construct and fix such reservoir or receptacle in such a manner and in such a 
position as to admit of ready access to such reservoir or receptacle for the 
purpose of depositing therein the necessary supply of dry earth. 
He shall construct or fix in connection with such reservoir or receptacle 
suitable means or apparatus for the frequent and effectual application of a 
sufficient quantity of dry earth to any filth which may from time to time be 
deposited in any receptacle for filth constructed, fitted, or used, in or in 
connection with such earthcloset. 
He shall construct such earthcloset so that the contents of such reservoir or 
receptacle may not at anytime be exposed to any rainfall or to the drainage of 
any waste water or liquid refuse from any premises. 
7. Every person who shall construct an earthcloset in connection with a 
building shall construct such earthcloset for use in combination with a movable 
receptacle for filth. 
He shall construct such earthcloset so as to admit of a movable receptacle 
for filth, of a capacity not exceeding two cubic feet, being placed and fitted 
beneath the seat in such a manner and in such a position as may effectually 
prevent the deposit upon the floor or sides of the space beneath such seat, or 
elsewhere than in such receptacle, of any filth which may from time to time 
fall or be cast through the aperture in such seat. 
He shall construct such receptable for filth in such a manner and in such a 
position as to admit of the frequent and effectual application of a sufficient 184 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
quantity of dry earth to any filth which may be from time to time deposited in 
such receptacle for filth, and in such a manner and in such a position as to 
admit of ready access for the purpose of removing the contents thereof. 
He shall also construct such earthcioset so that the contents of such 
receptacle for filth may not at any time be exposed to any rainfall or to the 
drainage of any waste water or liquid refuse from any premises. 
8. Every person who shall construct a privy in connection with a building 
shall construct such privy at a distance of twenty feet at the least from a 
dwelling-house, or public building, or any building in which any person may 
be or may be intended to be employed in any manufacture, trade, or business. 
9. A person who shall construct a privy in connection with a building shall 
not construct such privy within the distance of one hundred feet from any 
well, spring, or stream of water used, or likely to be used, by man for drinking 
or domestic purposes, or for manufacturing drinks for the use of man, or 
otherwise in such a position as to render any such water liable to pollution. 
10. Every person who shall construct a privy in connection with a building 
shall construct such privy in such a manner and in such a position as to afford 
ready means of access to such privy, for the purpose of cleansing such privy 
and of removing filth therefrom, and in such a manner and in such a position 
as to admit of all filth being removed from such privy, and from the premises 
to which such privy may belong, without being carried through any dwelling- 
house, or public building', or any building in which any person may be or may 
be intended to be employed in any manufacture, trade or business. 
11. Every person who shall construct a privy in connection with a building, 
shall provide such privy with a sufficient opening for ventilation as near to the 
top as practicable and communicating directly with the external air. 
He shall cause the floor of such privy to be flagged or paved with hard tiles 
or other non-absorbent material, and he shall construct such floor so that it 
shall be in every part thereof at a height of not less than six inches above the 
level of the surface of the ground adjoining such privy, and so that such floor 
shall have a fall or inclination towards the door of such privy of half an inch 
to the foot. 
12. Every person who shall construct a privy in connection with a building 
shall construct such privy for use in combination with a movable receptacle for 
filth, and shall construct over the whole area of the space immediately beneath 
the seat of such privy a floor of flagging or asphalt or some suitable composite 
material, at a height of not less than three inches above the level of the surface 
of the ground adjoining such privy; and he shall cause the whole extent of 
each side of such space between the floor and the seat, other than any part 
that may be occupied by any door or other opening therein, to be constructed 
of flagging, slate, or good brickwork, at least nine inches thick, and rendered 
in good cement or asphalted. 
He shall construct the seat of such privy, the aperture in such seat, and the 
space beneath such seat, of such dimensions as to admit of a movable recep- 
tacle for filth of a capacity not exceeding two cubic feet being placed and fitted 
beneath such seat in such a manner and in such a position as may effectually LOWLES. 
185 
prevent the deposit, upon the floor or sides of the space beneath such seat or 
elsewhere than in such receptacle, of any filth which may from time to time 
fall or be cast through the aperture in such seat. 
He shall construct such privy so that for the purpose of cleansing the space 
beneath the seat, or of removing therefrom or placing or fitting therein an 
appropriate receptacle for filth, there shall be a door or other opening in the 
back or one of the sides thereof capable of being opened from the outside of 
the privy, or in any case where such a mode of construction may be impracti- 
cable, so that for the purposes aforesaid the whole of the seat of the privy or a 
sufficient part thereof may be readily moved or adjusted. 
13. A person who shall construct a privy in connection with a building shall 
not cause or suffer any part of the space under the seat of such privy, or any 
part of any receptacle for filth in or in connection with such privy, to commu- 
nicate with any drain. 
14. Every person who shall intend to construct any watercloset, earthcloset, 
or privy, or to fit or fix in any watercloset, earthcloset, or privy any apparatus 
or any trap or soil pipe connected therewith, shall, before executing any such 
works, give notice in writing to the clerk of the Sanitary Authority. 
15. Every owner of an earthcloset or privy existing at the date of the 
confirmation of these by-laws shall, before the expiration of six months from 
and after such date of confirmation, cause the same to be reconstructed in such 
manner that its position, structure and apparatus shall comply with such of 
the requirements of the foregoing by-laws as are applicable to earthclosets or 
privies newly constructed. 
16. When any person shall provide an ashpit in connection with a building, 
he shall cause the same to consist of one or more movable receptacles sufficient 
to contain the house refuse which may accumulate during any period not 
exceeding one week. Each of such receptacles shall be constructed of metal 
and shall be provided with one or more suitable handles and cover. The 
capacity of each of such receptacles shall not exceed two cubic feet. 
Provided that the requirement as to the size of each of such receptacles 
shall not apply to any person who shall construct such receptacle or recep- 
tacles in connection with any premises to which there is attached as part of 
the conditions of tenancy the right to dispose of house refuse in an ashpit 
used in common by the occupiers of several tenancies, but in no case shall 
such ashpit be of greater capacity than is required to enable it to contain the 
refuse which may accumulate during any period not exceeding one week. 
17. The occupier of any premises who shall use any ashpit shall, if such 
ashpit consist of a movable receptacle, cause such receptacle to be kept in a 
covered place, or to be properly covered, so that it shall not be exposed to 
rainfall, and if such ashpit consist of a fixed receptacle, he shall cause the same 
to be kept properly covered. 
18. Where the Sanitary Authority have arranged for the daily removal of 
house refuse in their district, or in any part thereof, the owner of any premises 
in such district or part thereof shall provide an ashpit which shall consist of 
one or more movable receptacles, sufficient to contain the house refuse which 186 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
may accumulate during any period not exceeding three days, which the 
Sanitary Authority may determine, and of which the Sanitary Authority shall 
give notice by public announcement in their district. Each of such receptacles 
shall be constructed of metal, and provided with one or more suitable handles 
and cover. The capacity of each of such receptacles shall not exceed two 
cubic feet. 
Provided always that this by-law shall not apply to the owner of any 
premises until the expiration of three months after the Sanitary Authority 
have publicly notified their intention to adopt a system of daily collection of 
house refuse in that part of their district which comprises such premises. 
19. Where any receptacle shall have been provided as an ashpit for any 
premises in pursuance of any by-law in that behalf, no person shall deposit the 
house refuse which may accumulate on such premises in any ashpit that does 
not comply with the requirements of these by-laws. 
20. Every person who shall construct a cesspool in connection with a build- 
ing, shall construct such cesspool at a distance of one hundred feet at the least 
from a dwelling-house, or public building, or any building in which any person 
may be, or may be intended to be, employed in any manufacture, trade, or 
business. 
21. A person who shall construct a cesspool in connection with a building, 
shall not construct such cesspool within the distance of one hundred feet from 
any well, spring, or stream of water. 
22. Every person who shall construct a cesspool in connection with a building, 
shall construct such cesspool in such a manner and in such a position as to 
afford ready means of access to such cesspool, for the purpose of cleansing 
such cesspool, and of removing the contents thereof, and in such a manner and 
in such a position as to admit of the contents of such cesspool being removed 
therefrom, and from the premises to which such cesspool may belong, without 
being carried through any dwelling-house, or public building, or any building 
in which any person may be, or may be intended to be, employed in any 
manufacture, trade, or business. 
He shall not in any case construct such cesspool so that it shall have, by 
drain or otherwise, any means of communication with any sewer or any 
overflow outlet. 
23. Every person who shall construct a cesspool in connection with a 
building, shall construct such cesspool of good brickwork bedded and grouted 
in cement, properly rendered inside with cement, and with a backing of at 
least nine inches of well-puddled clay around and beneath such brickwork, 
and so that such cesspool shall be perfectly watertight. 
He shall also cause such cesspool to be arched or otherwise properly 
covered over, and to be provided with adequate means of ventilation. 
24. A person shall not use as a receptacle for dung any receptacle so 
constructed or placed that one of its sides shall be formed by the wall of any 
room used for human habitation, or under a dwelling-house, factory, workshop, 
or workplace, and he shall not use any receptacle in such a situation that it 
would be likely to cause a nuisance or become injurious or dangerous to 
health. LOWLES. 
187 
25. Every owner of any existing receptacle for dung shall, before the 
expiration of six months from the date of the confirmation of these by-laws, 
and every person who shall construct a receptacle for dung, shall cause such 
receptacle to be so constructed that its capacity shall not be greater than two 
cubic yards, and so that the bottom or floor thereof shall not, in any case, be 
lower than the surface of the ground adjoining such receptacle. 
He shall so construct such receptacle that a sufficient part of one of its sides 
shall be readily removable for the purpose of facilitating cleansing. 
He shall also cause such receptacle to be constructed in such a manner and 
of such materials, and to be maintained at all times in such a condition as to 
prevent any escape of the contents thereof, or any soakage therefrom into the 
ground or into the wall of any building. 
He shall cause such receptacle to be so constructed that no rain or water can 
enter therein, and so that it shall be freely ventilated into the external air. 
Provided that a person who shall construct a receptacle for dung, the whole 
of the contents of which ape removed not less frequently than every forty-eight 
hours, shall not be required to construct such receptacle so that its capacity 
shall not be greater than two cubic yards. 
And provided that a person who shall construct a receptacle for dung, which 
shall contain only dung of horses, asses or mules with stable litter, and the 
whole of the contents of which are removed not less frequently than every 
forty-eight hours, may, instead of all other requirements of this by-law, 
construct a metal cage, and shall beneath such metal cage adequately pave 
the ground at a level not lower than the surrounding ground, and in such a 
manner and to such an extent as will prevent any soakage into the ground ; 
and if such cage be placed near to or against any building he shall adequately 
cement the wall of such building in such a manner and to such an extent as 
will prevent any soakage from the dung w'ithin or upon such receptacle into 
the wall of such building. 
26. The occupier of any premises shall cause every watercloset belonging 
to such premises to be thoroughly cleansed from time to time as often as may 
be necessary for the purpose of keeping such watercloset in a cleanly condition. 
The occupier of any premises shall once at least in every week cause every 
earthcloset, privy, and receptacle for dung belonging to such premises to be 
emptied and thoroughly cleansed. 
The occupier of any premises shall once at least in every three months cause 
every cesspool belonging to such premises to be emptied and thoroughly 
cleansed. 
Provided that where two or more lodgers in a lodging-house are entitled to 
the use in common of any watercloset, earthcloset, privy, cesspool, or receptacle 
for dung,the landlord shall cause such watercloset, earthcloset, privy, cesspool, 
or receptacle for dung to be cleansed and emptied as aforesaid. 
The landlord, or owner of any lodging-house, shall provide and maintain in 
connection with such house, watercloset, earthcloset or privy accommodation 
in the proportion of not less than one watercloset, earthcloset, or privy, for 
every twelve persons. 188 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
For the purposes of this by-law, " a lodging-house " means a house or part 
of a house which is let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one 
family. "Landlord" in relation to a house or part of a house which is let in 
lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one family, means the person 
(whatever may be the nature or extent of his interest) by whom or on whose 
behalf such house or part of a house is let in lodgings or for occupation by 
members of more than one family, or who for the time being receives or is 
entitled to receive the profits arising from such letting. " Lodger " in relation 
to a house or part of a house which is let in lodgings or occupied by members 
of more than one family, means a person to whom any room or rooms in such 
house or part of a house may have been let as a lodging or for his use or 
occupation. 
Nothing in this by-law shall extend to any common lodging-house. 
27. The owner of any premises shall maintain in proper condition of repair 
every watercloset, earthcloset, privy, ashpit, cesspool, and receptacle for 
dung, and the proper accessories thereof belonging*to such premises. 
Penalties. 
28. Every person who shall offend against any of the foregoing by-laws shall 
be liable for every such offense to a penalty of Five pounds, and in the case of 
a continuing offense to a further penalty of Forty shillings for each day after 
written notice of the offense from the Sanitary Authority. Provided never- 
theless that the court before whom any complaint may be made or any 
proceedings may be taken in respect of any such offense may, if the court 
think fit, adjudge the payment as a penalty of any sum less than the full 
amount of the penalty imposed by this by-law. 
PRIVATE UNOFFICIAL VISITATION OF PUBLIC 
INSTITUTIONS. 
LOUISA TWINING. 
I have been asked to say something on this subject from an 
English point of view, and I have much pleasure in doing so, as I 
have long been interested in it, advocating its adoption and extension 
in this country. 
It is many years since I read of the plans of the State Charities 
Aid Association, and they at once commended themselves to me. 
I wrote a paper about them in the London Charity Organization 
Review, and would gladly have seen them more widely adopted 
here. But I had endeavored to make a move in this direction TWINING. 
189 
long before ; for as far back as the year 1853 I had begun to visit 
our workhouses, or as they would rather be called in America, 
" poorhouses," under our poor law, supported by rates collected from 
all classes. The evils of close management, carried out only by 
paid officials, at once struck me as being inevitable under such a 
system, in which, at that time, all control and inspection by women 
was unknown ; the paid officers being almost universally of a low, or, 
at least, middle-class grade. The rate-payers had neither knowledge 
nor control of anything beyond the election of their so-called rep- 
resentatives, in which, however, little or no interest was taken, and 
the proceedings that went on inside the "house" were carefully con- 
cealed, visitors of any kind, except the friends of the inmates, being 
unknown. So strong was my conviction of the dangers and absolute 
evils of such a state of things, that even after my first visit I endeav- 
ored to gain admission for other visitors besides myself. This was of 
course objected to by those whose interest it was to keep out all 
inquiry and inspection except, what was demanded by law, the occa- 
sional visits of gentlemen from the Central Poor Law Board. It has 
always been a matter of surprise and astonishment to me that these 
educated and intelligent gentlemen should have had their eyes closed 
for so long a time to the evils of the system ; it has only convinced 
me of the truth, which has been growing ever since, that men are not 
intended to control or examine domestic matters and management, 
and that, as the late Mrs. Jameson acutely remarked in her lectures 
delivered in 1855, the "female element" being entirely wanting (at 
least of an educated or refined description), and no " communion of 
labors" between men and women being even dimly recognized, it is 
not difficult to account for any shortcomings that may have arisen in 
the system. 
It is not necessary for me to relate the many obstacles that were to 
be encountered before my object was attained ; having made my first 
efforts to get the daylight of public opinion admitted into abodes 
that were as inaccessible to outside influence as the strictest of 
prisons, obstacles had been so far overcome by the year 1858 that a 
society was started for " workhouse visiting," supported by some 
of the best men and women of the time, who formed our active com- 
mittee, while a much larger body gave it their sanction and support. 
A journal was shortly started, which quarterly or oftener gave inter- 
esting information to the outside world concerning every department 
of pauper life, the schools, infirmaries, the aged and the able-bodied. 190 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
This was carried on for some years, till its object seemed to be 
attained, and the visitors had been admitted into many poor law 
institutions. The revelations they brought to light, especially as to 
the condition of the sick, led to many more investigations; and the 
attention of medical men being aroused, a commission was set on 
foot by the Lancet for an examination of some of the institutions 
where gross neglect and abuses had been known to take place. In 
this brief sketch it is sufficient to say that all these private efforts, 
beginning with those made by visitors who naturally spoke of what 
they saw, led to the important legislation which was passed in 1867 
for the separation of the sick from all other classes of inmates, espe- 
cially in the metropolitan district, in which there are twenty-four 
different centres or unions, each with a new infirmary, the largest of 
which contains over 700 patients. 
My object is not to describe workhouse infirmaries, but only the 
progress of voluntary effort, which has effected so many reforms in 
all departments of social work. The schools for pauper children are 
now open to different bodies of voluntary workers, such as the 
Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, and the 
workhouse branch of the Girls' Friendly Society. The infirmaries 
have been largely improved and influenced by the Association for 
Promoting Trained Nursing in them, and the committee are now 
applied to from all parts of England for nurses whom they have 
either trained or can recommend. 
Homes of various kinds are begun by private persons for various 
classes of inmates, especially for the industrial training of children, 
and certified by the Central Board, so that payments can be made 
by guardians for their maintenance. Through an act of Parliament 
passed in 1863, supplemented by private charity,* " feeble-minded " 
children are now being thus treated, with every hope of success ; and 
this is chiefly owing to the representations of those who have studied 
their condition in the schools. Committees of ladies, called "Work- 
house Girls' Aid Committees," are authorized to work amongst the 
fallen girls, and endeavor to help those who are capable of being 
*The now well known plans of the Association for Boarding-out Orphan and 
Deserted Children in Families should also be named, as having been begun 
in 1870, by some ladies in Westmoreland, and sanctioned by the last Govern- 
ment Board, and which now numbers thousands of children under the care of 
such committees, who are thus removed from the atmosphere and surroundings 
of pauperism. WHITE. 
191 
raised from their degradation. The beneficent aims of the " Bra- 
bazon Scheme " are too well known in America for me to describe 
them; but the boon that they bestow on the apparently helpless 
and hopeless objects in the sick and infirm wards can be appreciated 
only by those who have witnessed them. Temperance work is 
carried on by outside bodies in many poor law institutions for young 
and old. Then, as the last proof of the progress of this movement 
of voluntary action co-operating with official work, I name with great 
satisfaction the order that was issued in January of this year by the 
Local Government Board, authorizing the appointment of "ladies' 
committees, who need not be guardians, with authority, subject to 
rules framed by the guardians, to visit the parts of the workhouse in 
which female paupers or pauper children are accommodated, with 
the view of their reporting to the guardians any matter which appears 
to them to need attention." 
This is in fact carrying out the suggestions of the Workhouse 
Visiting Society thirty-five years ago, with the additional powers 
of authority to report upon what they see and inspect. 
I can hardly leave this subject without reminding my readers of 
the most remarkable instance of voluntary work resulting in bene- 
ficent reforms by the self-imposed labors of Elizabeth Fry and 
Howard in the last century, and later, by Sarah Martin, when the 
condition of prisons and prisoners was too terrible to be described. 
All improvements that have since taken place may date from those 
efforts of self-denying humanity. 
Visitors are now permitted and appointed for all prisons. 
Outside inspection has not yet been provided for hospitals, but it 
is earnestly desired that ladies should at least be allowed to act on 
the various committees of management. Visitors to the sick are 
allowed to cheer them by reading or conversation, but for no other 
purpose. 
IMMIGRATION OF ALIENS. 
ARNOLD WHITE, LONDON. 
I owe an apology to every American citizen who may do me the 
honor to read this paper. That an apology is due will appear from 
the two postulates underlying the whole argument that follows, i. e. 192 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
that men are born neither (i) free nor (2) equal. There is of course 
a diplomatic and even a theological sense in which men are both 
equal and free; but if casuistry be laid aside, and the vernacular of 
plain business alone employed, the equality and freedom of mankind 
are restricted to iron-clad limits of narrow compass. The yellow 
man propelled from the valley of the Yangtse-Kiang by the expul- 
sive force of over-population and of want; or the poor Jew of Mos- 
cow or of Kiev who is " moved on " by the piety and police of 
Pobiedonostzev or the anger of Alexander, is in each case free to lie 
down and die, and they are equal in " natural rights," whatever they 
may happen to be. The fact is that, as regard individuals as well as 
regards nations, in respect to freedom and equality there has been a 
vast quantity of gaseous cant floating about this planet ever since the 
bovine stipulations of George the Third and his advisers broke up 
the effective and permanent union of the Anglo-Saxon race; and 
more especially since the peasants of France, not without bloodshed, 
successfully asserted their right not to sit up o' nights flogging the 
ponds, so that the seigneurie at the chateau might slumber in peace 
undisturbed by the croaking of frogs. 
Both the States and Great Britain are just at present puzzled by 
the immigration riddle. They are affected by much the same causes, 
if in a different form. Russian persecutions have directed, both to 
American and British shores, an army of excellent people, whose 
chief qualification for citizenship is want, and whose hereditary ignor- 
ance of, and muscular incapacity for, the more elementary conditions 
of success in a ne\v country are better calculated to stir the benevo- 
lence of philanthropists than the admiration of statesmen. Nor is the 
reason far to seek. The duty of statesmen is not fulfilled when they 
have given attention to the current problems of political necessity. 
They are, in addition, trustees for posterity. From this task they 
may shrink; they may evade it; but the duty remains. To regard 
the welfare and destiny of unborn millions may raise no applause, 
make no reputations, and excite no emotions of gratitude; but the 
interests of that silent multitude that mutely waits round the corner 
of the century to receive what we relinquish are interests that cannot 
be ignored by an honest statesman, and will be safeguarded by a 
great one. 
Much dispute is raised in these days of Irish controversy as to 
what it is that constitutes a nationality. Without attempting a com- 
plete answer, it may be admitted that oneness of race is at all events WHITE. 
193 
an elementary condition in a full-grown nation. Nothing strikes a 
stranger more in the United States than the fact that the German 
of Cincinnati, the Swede of Milwaukee or the Irishman of New York 
is in each case more intensely Teutonic, Scandinavian and Hibernian 
than in their respective fatherlands. In point of fact, race is in pro- 
cess of making in North America; you have not yet struck a type. 
It is true that to most European minds the typical American is suc- 
cessfully produced by the Atlantic States. California, Virginia and 
Ohio demur to this assumption. In point of fact, the American type 
is forming ; it is not yet formed, and may well take a few centuries 
to evoke a type that will be recognized throughout the whole of the 
States themselves as racially and distinctively American. 
If my proposition be true, that the American nation, however com- 
pletely equipped for all practical purposes in its struggle for existence 
in the world of to-day, is not yet racially blended, perfected, com- 
plete, or developed, then the duty of your rulers to exclude all that 
may tend to deteriorate your type becomes a duty of the most im- 
pressive nature-that is, if men are not born equal, a proposition 
with which I set out. The difference between a philanthropist and a 
statesman is the difference between one who looks to all the results 
following the movement of a given piece of machinery, and one who 
looks only to the specific phenomenon which has touched the striated 
muscle he is pleased to call his heart. The philanthropist is known 
to exhibit imperial indifference towards the direst sufferings when 
they are the result of the noble emotions. It is enough for him that 
the evil he has set himself to redress really is destroyed. The gen- 
eration of a cloud of other and greater evils is a matter of indifference. 
The bear who watched his sleeping man-friend being disturbed with 
buzzing flies, and thereupon sympathetically destroyed the flies and 
killed the man with one and the same blow, it always struck me, must 
have been an Anglo-Saxon philanthropic bear. 
In point of fact, in statesmanship there is never a clear road. 
Every conceivable course is open to objections. The wisest and the 
greatest statesman is he who, having resolved on his goal, takes the 
line open to the fewest objections. Apply this principle to the 
maintenance and improvement of the respective types of American 
and British nationalities, by what considerations will Washington 
and London be governed in dealing with the question of the immi- 
gration of aliens, and more especially of destitute aliens-aliens 
destitute not merely of money and of muscle, but of character, 194 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
purpose, knowledge, and everything that separates a man from the 
unclean beasts of Gadara. 
In the solution of this problem, the government of the States enjoys 
a marked advantage over that of Great Britain. The port of New 
York is the gate through which, for practical purposes, every sea- 
borne immigrant must pass before he can enter the land where all 
poor men want to go at some time or other during their lives. The 
facility with which regulations can be framed is not much less than 
the ease with which they can be enforced.* A given physical, men- 
tal, or propertied standard, once prescribed, can be effectively main- 
tained under the shadow of the statue of Liberty. It is otherwise in 
England. We have many ports. The distances from other lands 
are measured by hours and not by days. The steamship companies, 
which are under effective control by the United States, elude the 
administrative capacity of any President of the Board of Trade yet 
born in England. The first consideration, therefore, is that of the 
executive powers with which the immigration authorities are to be 
endowed. As in so many other cases of new developments, the 
United States is acting, while Great Britain is weighing the objec- 
tions to every conceivable course and pronouncing, with all the 
weight of inspiration, against the adoption of any of them. The 
result is that not only do we receive the scum of Europe, but we get 
the back-wash of the American scum, besides the good folk who, 
from mental and physical disabilities, do not attempt to ring the bell 
at Ellis Island in New York harbor. 
Next to the executive difficulties in the way of restriction and dis- 
crimination, the main consideration is the democratic lines on which 
restriction is now advocated both in the States and in England. 
The persons who deprecate interference with the free inflow of the 
destitute alien are either pure sentimentalists or capitalists who have 
everything to gain by the fiercest competition between wage-earners. 
Because Elfgland once received the skilled and useful Huguenots 
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when the population of 
these islands was under eight millions, therefore she should now 
receive, they argue, the destitute population of Eastern Europe, 
when her population is thirty-nine millions, and the struggle for life 
so fierce as to crush out the dignity of manhood, the grace of woman- 
hood and the merriment of children. These wiseacres, who can 
* I do not speak of the misuse of the Canadian back-door, which constitutes 
a real American nuisance, to be removed by diplomacy. WHITE. 
195 
afford to indulge in the luxury of traditions for which they do not 
pay, but from which they profit in the form of wicked cheapness, 
have no eyes to see that for all nations there are other and nobler 
traditions, which bear upon the nearer duties of regard to brothers in 
blood, color, race, before exercising vicarious hospitality to strangers 
without racial claim to generosity at the expense of justice to their 
own people. Mr. Gladstone himself has fallen into this error. We 
are, he says, a colonizing nation. We dispatch to other countries 
many more than we receive from them. This is true enough, but 
the quality of the human material received must be compared with 
that sent. The latest witness on this subject is Mr. N. S. Joseph, 
whose labors as Honorary Secretary to the Russo-Jewish Committee 
reflect lustre not only on the community of which he is one of the 
most gifted sons, but also on the country that is so fortunate as to 
reckon him among her citizens. Mr. Joseph delivered an address 
on January 26th, at the inaugural meeting of the visiting and bureau 
departments of the London Russo-Jewish Committee. 
After saying that there remain in London at present an enormous 
number of Russian immigrants constantly demanding sympathy and 
assistance, he continues as follows 
" I purposely abstain from giving any estimate of that number, but it 
suffices to say that the lowest estimate is alarming enough to us as a com- 
munity The first difficulty arises from the heterogeneous nature of 
the refugees. There are some thoroughly capable and industrious, who only 
need a friendly directing hand to guide them to the means of earning a liveli- 
hood ; others wholly incapable and idle, and who, perhaps, rarely did a day's 
work in their own country. There are some fine, sturdy specimens of humanity, 
physically and morally fit subjects for emigration ; others, perhaps fully as 
deserving of a fresh start in a new country, but so attenuated and weakened 
by privation and suffering as to be physically unfit for emigration. There are, 
unfortunately, a large number of poor widows and orphans, and to our disgrace 
it must be added, there are many deserted wives and children. There are 
many men who occupied high social, professional or commercial positions in 
their own country, and who have arrived here wholly without means, and there 
are thousands of immigrants who cannot be called refugees at all, but who, 
chronic incurable paupers, have come from Russia or Poland in the hope of 
getting something from the Russo-Jewish Fund, of which they have heard 
exaggerated accounts. Then there are many who, in Russia, belonged to 
trades w'hich have practically no existence here, and a still larger number who 
were only hawkers and petty dealers. Then there are the sick and aged, who 
might or might not have been driven out of their native place. Moreover, 
there are, as might be expected, the differences arising from variations in 
mental and moral constitution and development-the cultured and the semi- 196 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
barbarous, the truthful and the untruthful, the honest and the dishonest, the 
intelligent and the unreceptive." 
It may fairly be claimed-both by working men and women who 
are subjected to the searching fire of furious competition, and the 
rate-payers who are responsible for maintaining invalided and super- 
annuated workers, disabled in the struggle for life-that immigrants 
of the class described by Mr. Joseph may be rigorously excluded 
from our shores. If they are not wanted in the States, with your 
millions of fertile but still neglected acres, they are still less wanted 
here, with our myriads of unproductive but naked and hungry babies. 
The political refugee argument will not bear examination. The 
Mazzinis, Volkokies, Somersets, Krapotkines, and Garibaldis have 
always paid their hotel bills, or found friends to discharge their obliga- 
tions for them, and will always succeed in obtaining sympathy and cash 
from lovers of freedom. To speak plainly, after an experience of nine 
months in Russia during the height of thejewish persecutions, the true 
expulsive force is as much economic as political. The struggle for 
life in a town like Berdichev, where 70,000 Jews are huddled together 
under the saddest conditions of want, pressure and squalor, can end 
in one of two ways only. Either the poor souls must die or they 
must depart. In England we have no room for them except by 
lowering the general rate of wages in the trades in which the immi- 
grants compete, and thus reproducing in London itself the tortures 
and tragedies of Berdichev. (Michelet said, " La liberie serait un 
mot si Con gardait des mcetirs d'esclaves."} The refugees from 
economic conditions that are insupportable do not gain, and still less 
impart, the liberty they seek, when they are accompanied by the 
very conditions from which they fly. To exchange the religious 
serfdom to the Czar for the economic serfdom of the sweating-master 
of Whitechapel is at least a doubtful advantage to the serf himself. 
But when he spreads the contagion of serfdom in his new home, the 
hour has struck for the rulers of a free people to look first to the 
welfare of their own people and their own race, before admitting the 
inefficient surplus of a lower nation. 
There is little sentiment in this matter of immigration. It is a 
business matter. Since the home is the unit of the nation, celibate 
immigration should be discouraged by adequate restrictive means. 
The anti-Chinese movement arising in your Pacific Coast was justi- 
fied by this consideration alone. Any nationality should be carefully 
watched when the female immigrants fall below thirty-five per cent. WHITE. 
197 
of the whole. On this basis Russia, Italy and Hungary furnish 
unsatisfactory records, as in each case these nations contribute more 
than sixty-five males out of every hundred immigrants of their respec- 
tive races to your shores. 
To recapitulate. The first duty of the statesman of a great nation, 
is to maintain and improve the best standard of his race.; to free it 
from those elements that tend to degrade or deteriorate the commu- 
nity; and to control the influx of human beings so as to raise rather 
than lower the conditions of life under which the new generation of 
hand-workers is born. Mixture of two races may either improve or 
degrade the character of both. The fusion of incongruous blood 
results in the .generation of a mongrel type. The mixture of con- 
gruous and harmonious types results in the production of a race 
combining the characters and virtues of both, and the vices of neither. 
What higher aim can the leaders of our common race pursue than 
the purification and development of the Anglo-Saxon type ? 
If these things be so, the grounds therefore for excluding unsuit- 
able immigrants from America and England are : 
1. The degradation of the racial type. 
2. The unfair competition forced upon the class of unskilled wage- 
earners, who are too poor and too numerous to combine against 
unscrupulous capitalists. 
3. The lowering of the standard of life among the classes with 
whom destitute aliens compete in the unskilled labor market, and 
the consequent contamination of character of the native-born. 
4. The diversion of the charity fund from existing national distress. 
5. In the case of the Russian exodus, the free admission to the 
States or Great Britain of destitute multitudes of what Mr. N. S. 
Joseph calls " chronic incurable paupers," is the best incentive to the 
Czar and his ministers to persevere in their policy of extermination. 
To a savage or a child the surgeon's knife is indistinguishable from 
relentless torture. A great nation, no less than a great family, is 
bound by duty to those that come after us, no less than to the gener- 
ation of to-day, to do nothing, and to spare no one, who imperils the 
realization of the national or family ideal. 198 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
CHARITY IN BELGIUM. 
PROSPER VAN GEERT, BUREAU DE BIENFAISANCE, ANTWERP. 
The Charity Board. 
The Charity Boards were created by the decree of 7th Frimaire, 
year V of the French Republic (November, 1796), after the incor- 
poration of the Belgian provinces. The purpose of the present 
notes not being the narration of the history of the legislation, but 
merely that of the facts connected with the Charity Board, we shall 
simply refer to the act sanctioning its institution. This act contains 
in its tenth section a provision well worth remembering, namely, 
that all assistance given at home shall as far as possible be in kind. 
What is the Charity Board ? The aim of the Charity Board is to 
assist paupers at home. So that so long as there can be no question of 
complete support, so long as the pauper can within certain limits pro- 
vide for his personal needs, he is to be considered indigent and as 
having a call for support upon the Charity Board. On the other hand, 
if there be any reason for committing the pauper to an asylum, in 
case he cannot find the means for self-support, he must needs fall 
back upon the civil asylums, which are themselves managed by a 
special board, entirely different from the management of public 
charity. 
This difference forms the line of separation between the two official 
ways of practising charity in Belgium. The home assistance is 
divided into: (a) Assistance in money, in kind, or in rent; (£) 
Medical assistance; (c) Assistance given to abandoned children. 
Assistance in Money, in Kind, and in Rent. 
According to law, assistance in kind should be the rule. Logic, 
reason and experience fully corroborate this. In fact, how often is 
public charity defrauded by a pauper or a pseudo-pauper. Conse- 
quently there can be no doubt but the chance of making a bad use 
of the gift received will be lessened by assistance granted in kind. 
Gifts in kind are of different sorts; they may be in garments, bed- 
ding, food, or fuel (coals). 
The Antwerp Charity Board possesses a central store for garments. 
The prices of the various articles are posted up for inspection. Besides 
this main store, three branch stores are kept in the populous quarters VAN GEERT. 
199 
of the city, or four places in all where paupers may procure food or 
fuel. As for garments and bedding, these are specially delivered 
upon remittance by the pauper of tickets ad hoc, filled up by the 
visitors of the poor, and countersigned by the chairman of the com- 
mittee. They may, however, also be delivered by the central com- 
mittee itself, if such be the pauper's desire. Such is also the case 
with food and fuel. 
We shall now take the liberty of entering' into a more minute 
inspection of the methods of work of a Charity Board. 
The Charity Board is placed under the guidance of five directors, 
appointed by the town authorities out of a double list of candidates 
presented by the Charity Board itself. The directors are appointed 
for a term of five years, unless they be elected to fill the place or finish 
the term of a deceased director or of one who may have renounced. 
The burgomaster is by right a member of the board, exclusive of 
the five directors; he has a deliberating vote and is chairman of the 
council. However, the burgomaster is not called upon to fulfill 
this mission except under very serious circumstances. 
The members of the council elect among themselves a president, 
an ordonnator, and a secretary, dividing any other kind of functions 
or departments among the rest of the members. 
The work of the board being rather extensive at Antwerp, the 
secretary is elected outside the council; a salary is granted him, but 
he has neither a deliberating nor a consulting vote. He is the chief 
of the corps of officials employed by the board. The council is 
entitled to deliberate when three of its members at least are present. 
General or permanent assistance is granted by the directors during 
the Friday meetings. The pauper then appears before the com- 
mittee ; if he be known, which is ascertained by the inscription of 
his number in his marriage certificate, his state is looked up and the 
reports sent in about him by the inspector or visitor are consulted. 
As the case may be, a gift is allowed him once for all, or a permanent 
tax is granted him, according to the wants of his family. The latter 
allowance is generally in kind, as for instance two francs a week in 
kind. The pauper himself chooses what he is most in want of. 
All the prices are posted up by quantum of 25 centimes (five cents). 
What is the part of the inspectors and visitors? The visitors of 
the poor are not paid, devotion alone urging them to practice 
charity; they take the tickets home to the poor and verify whether 
the assistance allowed continues to be necessary. They also carry 200 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
about with them a number of cards or tickets for all kinds of relief, 
which they are entitled to grant under sanction of the Committee of 
Charity. There are eleven such committees at Antwerp, each of them 
composed of an unlimited number of visitors. Each visitor has a 
circumscription of a certain number of streets. The inspector (one 
for each committee) helps the committee ; he sends in reports about 
the cases which have come to his knowledge, consults the states and 
registers for the booking of the sums or quantities granted, and keeps 
the committees and the directors informed. The inspectors are paid. 
All this is perfectly democratic. The pauper is quite free to 
choose what he likes, and thus receives what he is in want of. One 
thing, however, must disappear, and is condemned to disappear ere 
long, i. e. the allowance of assistance by the visitors and directors as 
well as the Friday meetings. 
These meetings are a disgrace. Fifty or sixty persons flock 
together in one room at a certain moment and are there compelled 
to lay bare their, shame, thus throwing more shame upon society. 
However, not for a long time to come; for, as we said, these meetings 
are condemned to disappear. 
According to the new regulations now in course of elaboration, 
the pauper will apply personally to an official ad hoc who will be in 
attendance at the office, or to his visitor, or even to the director. 
All operations will be transferred to the central office every day. 
The next day the inspector will send in his report, which will have 
to be submitted to the local committee after the visit by the visitor; 
the committee will then allow the assistance, unless the council of 
directors, who are to ratify the allowance, decide otherwise. This 
will be a thoroughly useful reform, as it will avoid giving twice and 
will cause the assistance to turn out useful; but above all, it will 
spare the pauper the mortification of being obliged to apply for sup- 
port in public, an obligation which now makes him devoid of all 
shame and restraint and almost teaches him pauperism. 
The work of the Charity Board should be a regenerating work as 
well as one of assistance, and for this very reason it should avoid 
hurting any feeling of shame and fear in the breast of the wretched 
pauper, lest this feeling be caused to wear off and the pauper urged to 
seek a maintenance in pauperism. 
With regard to the above statement we venture to point to the 
line of working now being followed by the Antwerp Charity Board, 
whose great aim is to try to regenerate the pauper by allowing him VAN GEERT. 
201 
assistance once and for all, but in sufficient quantity. For indeed it 
cannot suffice to say, "We give you two, three or four francs a 
week, your state being a wretched one; go and make the best of that 
sum." The individual's position should be examined and the proper 
way of assisting him ascertained. We therefore feel sure a single 
gift of five hundred francs, well employed, is far preferable to weekly 
gifts of say two francs. 
By means of the two francs a week a focus of pauperism, wretch- 
•edness and mendicity is created, fatally leading to an increase in the 
number of persons kept at the pauper's asylum at Hoogstraeten, 
where charity colonies are formed; whereas when, for example, a man 
has a small business which he can no longer keep up, he may work 
himself out of misery by means of the sum he is in need of; if he be 
an artisan, some tools may be bought for him and work given him. 
It also often happens that assistance is given to wives whose hus- 
bands have left for America, the passage money being paid by 
us. After a lapse of time the great country of labor generally regen- 
erates them, and very seldom do any of these people return to 
Europe. The most beautiful task of the director is the regeneration 
of the pauper by means of one single gift in money. 
Relief in the form of rent comes next, and however rare its practice 
may have been up to the present moment, the city of Antwerp is 
about to make atrial by procuring a hundred rooms foraged people. 
In fact, why should old people, husbands and wives, be kept sepa- 
rated in asylums, where they have to mess at a common table and 
are obliged to lead a convent life? 
Our dream, now about to be realized, is the construction of a 
building for old paupers, male and female, where the sexes are not 
kept apart, where every one can live as if he were at home, in his 
own large, airy room, cooking his own food, as long as they do not 
dine out at their children's, which will be the rule as much as pos- 
sible. Thus we hope to prevent the breaking-up of family life as 
well as the respect due to aged people. The asylum, indeed, only 
becomes necessary when the old pauper is impotent, and in such 
a case he has to fall back for entire support upon the Board of 
Asylums. 
Here ends the first part of the task. I might, indeed, add a few 
words about the desirability of uniting the two Boards of Charity, with 
a view upon the budget as well as with regard to the paupers. But 
hie non locus est. So let us analyze the facts. 202 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Medical Assistance. 
The sick pauper does not always go to the hospital. If he be 
under treatment at home, or rather if his sickness is of such a nature 
that he can walk about and leave his house, he has to look to the 
Charity Board for assistance. The pauper then goes to the dispen- 
saries of the board, where he finds two doctors in attendance for two 
hours every day, with all the instruments for practising chirurgery in 
case of need, in so far as small operations may be required. The 
pauper receives a doctor's ticket, which is never refused him except' 
in case of duly stated abuse. For, sickness being the shortest road 
to misery, given medical assistance should always be given promptly, 
as we cannot be too lavish in distributing the benefits of medical 
science. 
Sixteen physicians are attached to the board service. They also 
visit the pauper at home if he cannot go out, for notwithstanding the 
admirable organization of the Antwerp hospitals, many a poor patient 
persists in his erroneous notion that " the hospital is a place to be 
shunned." So deeply is the spirit of antipathy against hospitals 
still rooted in the working classes. 
We know full well it may seem hard to have to leave your family 
with the prospect of never seeing them back again. How humane 
would it be if we could find means to have every one treated at home; 
but how could we do so now, in the present state of the homes of our 
working people, without the proper quantum of air and space? Con- 
sequently, for the patient's sake as well as for that of health he 
should be taken to the hospital. And that is what we should 
endeavor to make our working people understand. 
Our new rules are essentially democratic. The pauper chooses 
his own doctor as well as his own method of treatment. Recovery 
is very often dependent on confidence. Do we not choose ourselves 
Doctor So-and-so because he has our confidence ? Why should not 
the same latitude be given to the pauper, if he thinks more of the 
doctor of another section than of the physician of his own? Why 
refuse him that satisfaction? On the other hand, if the pauper 
believes in homoeopathy, why should we refuse him the aid of that 
school, which the rich are free to call in? 
The Charity Board has no right to proclaim the excellence of any 
system ; its only task is to look after the common possession of the 
poor; by means of its revenue it is to see that the pauper obtains the 
greatest possible source of welfare, the greatest number of means apt VAN GEERT. 
203 
to relieve him in his misery. Therefore we have considered it to be 
our duty to grant the pauper these two liberties: that of choosing 
his own doctor as well as the method of treatment. 
Such is the constitution of the two first branches of the Charity 
Board. We could also add a great many different departments: 
we could explain the way in which our offices are kept, what is our 
position with regard to the provincial government, to the state; 
what is the sense of the law on home support, and what relations we 
entertain with the various commons of the country. We might also 
treat of the service of funerals for paupers, which is now done by 
order, whereas formerly the pauper was interred by the lowest bidder, 
just as if he had been a parcel. It might be useful to explain what 
our colonies of Hoogstraeten Merxplas are, and our depot at Bruges; 
the suppression of these institutions might form the subject of a dis- 
cussion, as also their eventual disappearance through the foundation 
of charity colonies in the Congo Free State, as it was proposed dur- 
ing the National Conference in 1891. We might also mention the 
various resources of the board, the produce of balls, theatricals and 
concerts, as also the objects which ought to be taxed with a view of 
supporting public charity. But all that would lead us too far ; our 
object was the exposition of the above facts, which we venture to 
hope have been exposed with sufficient clearness and concision. 
Section 2 of the act of July 30, 1834, places the abandoned 
children under the charge of the Charity Committee, and although 
the above-named act has been cancelled by the subsequent law of 
March 14, 1876, in its section 43 the obligations of the Ch'arity 
Committee have not been altered and their position is left quite 
identical. 
Abandoned children (see the imperial decree of January 19, 1811) 
are those who, born of father and mother who are known to 
have brought them up, or who have been brought up by other per- 
sons having those children in charge, have subsequently been left 
alone, the persons who had them in charge having disappeared, and 
no call upon the parents being possible. It would seem that such a 
definition could only refer to parents having absconded from their 
natural obligations by flight. This is not so, however. It has been 
decided (see royal decree of November 22, 1861) that an asylum 
may receive children although the place of residence of the parents 
Abandoned, Children. 204 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
be known since the origin. In fact, it is concluded that in using the 
expression " when no call upon the parents is possible," the law has 
meant an " efficacious " call, the effect of which would be to put an 
end to .the necessity of supporting the child. And in consequence 
of the above interpretation, children whose parents were at the hos- 
pital or in prison have been admitted ever since the law has been in 
force. 
Wishing to work according to the true spirit of charity, our com- 
mittee has also decided that after a special decision of the council 
of directors, the board could also admit " morally abandoned chil- 
dren." Several cases have occurred under exceptional circum- 
stances, and the decision of the committee has always been favorable. 
The guardianship over children abandoned by their parents is 
regulated by the act or decree of 15-25 Pluviose, year XIII (Feb- 
ruary 4-14, 1805). One of the members of the directing committee 
is to be the guardian, the others forming the family council. It is, 
however, very doubtful whether this decree also refers to the mem- 
bers of the Charity Board, the law being very incomplete. The 
guardianship therefore is merely temporary and only lasts until the 
return of the parents. 
A law should be carried taking this guardianship from the parents 
by a decision of the court, after consultation of the Charity Board, 
and transferring it to a member of that board. As matters stand 
now, all is vague and the greatest conflicts are possible. For instance, 
the reimbursement of the sums spent in supporting the child is per- 
mitted in case of return of the parents, according to the text of the 
act of January 19, 1811, section 21. 
Everything remains to be done in that quarter. However, in the 
meanwhile we have gone forward as far as possible. We have 
studied what could be done for abandoned children, opinions having 
widely differed on that subject. 
Section 9 of the decree of January 19, 1811, authorizes children 
over six years of age to be bound apprentices to countrymen and 
artisans, as far as may be found possible. But far from being pos- 
sible, this is much rather barbarous ; for who would think of sending 
a child of six to the workshop or the plough ? 
Several members have expressed the wish of seeing the children 
sent into family life in the country, under the survey of an inspector. 
That was- the old system and has its supporters even now. A very 
good pamphlet was even published on the subject by the honorable VAN GEERT. 
205 
aiderman of finances of the city of Ghent. But experience has taught 
us that this system could lead to nothing but one vast swindle. 
Besides, how could the moral education of the children be looked 
to ; and is not moral education the great point when you are to lose 
sight of them ? 
Other members were for sending them into the country to our 
farmers. This was better, no doubt, but you cannot make a farmer 
out of every child ; moreover, the instruction to be found in the rural 
schools is far from answering the desiderata of our board. Over- 
sight, too, is difficult. 
It has therefore been necessary to make a call upon the resources 
of modern society to find the best system. Up to the age of twelve 
the child is now left in charge of the teacher. Asylums are to be 
built for such children, where they can find family life and go to 
school every day just like the children of our working people. 
These asylums will have to be double; one for girls, another for 
boys. The asylum for girls will also accept girls of over twelve 
years of age, and the children will be kept there until some situation 
is found for them outside. 
In the meantime all the occupations of a woman of the people will 
be taught them, as sewing, knitting, washing, ironing and cooking. 
A nursery will be opened for babes less than four years old. Accord- 
ing to physical strength the girls will consequently be formed as 
cooks, chambermaids, nurses, washerwomen or seamstresses. All 
the work is done at the establishment, so that the girls will find com- 
plete instruction as well as the example of greatest economy, which 
will be the rule at the asylum. 
After school years are past the boys find our baker's shop, where 
the bread for paupers is baked, as well as buns, cakes, etc. The 
bakery is now in existence, as well as a shoemaker's shop, where the 
shoes for all the boys and girls are made. Moreover, the shoe- 
maker also works for his own account, even for families in town; we 
now possess about a thousand houses in the city as property of our 
fund ; we therefore opened a joiner's, a painter's and a plumber's 
workshop to keep them in repair. In every workshop we have 
placed two, three or four boys, living there with the master, and 
thus finding a family life; in the evening the boys go to the schools 
for adults; on Sundays they repair to what we call the " Patronages " 
in such a way that they are learning their trade and finishing their 
primary instruction at the same time. We have, moreover, come 206 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
into connection lately with the Ostend school for sailor-boys and 
with the military authorities, so that we hope to find there another 
couple of ways out by the formation of sailors or soldiers, for 
instance when some of our boys are sons of shippers, or when 
through some circumstances over which we have no control other 
boys may have had no time for learning a trade and express a wish 
of joining the army. 
Last, not least, and to crown the work, plans have now been 
adopted for the creation of a large model farm at Schilde near Ant- 
werp, with lands covering an area of about 200 acres, so that those 
amongst our boys who are not willing to become artisans will have 
a chance of being excellent husbandmen one day, capable of turning 
to profit the numerous rural possessions belonging to the Charity 
Boards. 
This farm will, moreover, produce all the food generally drawn 
from our soil for the use of our charity institutions and that of our 
poor in general, so that the Charity Board will become a kind of 
collectivity managed by all for the- profit of aZZ, to the greatest 
benefit of those dependent on it, and causing the least expense 
possible to those who are obliged to maintain it. 
Such is in raw outlines the service of abandoned children at 
Antwerp. Still above all that, stands a new principle based upon the 
whole and which we feel must be put forward here. For indeed the 
Antwerp Charity Board has been the first to introduce farming into 
the management. A committee has been formed of lady patrons 
who undertake the oversight and economy of our two institutions. 
The care of a good father would not suffice in this instance and 
woman's task is called for. Here, in this continuous work of the 
formation of the child's character, woman can, if she will, show all 
the devotion she is capable of, together with her full power of educa- 
tion and household management. At Antwerp a beginning was 
made; five ladies, the directors' wives, being incorporated into the 
board, together with another lady member, the wife of one of our 
colleagues of the Asylums Board, noted for her devotion and com- 
passionate nature. Moreover, the Burgomaster's wife was elected 
honorary president. The precedent thus established, this comrhittee 
will require to be extended considerably, so as to be able to find as 
many good situations as possible for our pupils. 
Meanwhile the Charity Board has great hopes of seeing this inno- 
vation crowned by success. GROSSETESTE-THIERRY. 
207 
RELIEF BY WORK IN FRANCE. 
M. GROSSETESTE-THIERRY, PARIS. 
[translation.] 
Relief by work in France is not an innovation due to the initiative 
of private individuals. From the most remote period of our history 
it has been practiced by the state towards mendicants. The depri- 
vation of liberty and confinement in workshops, where they were 
compelled to work from twelve to thirteen hours a day, superseded 
corporal punishment for all able-bodied persons found begging in 
city or country. Louis XVI. opened " houses of charity " (maisons 
de charite) for them. The National Assembly and the Convention, 
" thinking that labor is the only means by which wise and enlight- 
ened nations can relieve poverty," distributed considerable sums of 
money among the departments, to be expended in drainage, the 
clearing of land, the digging of canals, etc. The Empire established 
"depots of mendicity," in which "all persons asking aid, or having 
no means of support, shall be detained until they have learned to 
earn their own living at some kind of work." 
It would seem as if such measures ought to have exercised a salu- 
tary influence upon vagrancy and mendicity, and yet their failure 
was complete. In analyzing the result obtained by private action, 
superseding that of the state, we find the cause of this failure. 
I. 
If we study the poor as a whole, we are soon convinced that 
the best argument in favor of work is that the professional beggar 
dreads it. Private action makes use of this very repulsion to unmask 
imposture and aid the truly unfortunate. 
A Parisian was the pioneer in this movement. Under the very 
suggestive name of Pierre de Touche (Touchstone), M. Mamoz has 
created a work which has been of signal service to all who were for- 
merly the victims of epistolary begging. A person receiving a letter, 
in which the most bitter misfortunes are related in the most delicate 
terms, and which ends in a demand for help, has only to send the 
name and address of the writer to M. Mamoz to have any doubt 
dispelled. The Pierre de Touche makes inquiries, gives the results 
to the inquirer, and, at his request, gives aid to the«applicant in the 208 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
form of sewing. The articles made are bought by charitable persons 
and distributed among the poor. " Make the poor work to help 
other poor people " is the motto of a work which has attracted gen- 
eral sympathy. This for the women. For the men M. Mamoz has 
established an intelligence office {office depublicity}, and is constantly 
exercising his ingenuity to find employment suited to their ability. 
Twenty years' devotion to this delicate and often difficult work has 
made of this good man a veritable apostle of relief by work. 
In 1880 Pastor Robin founded at Belleville, the most populous 
quarter of Paris, the Maison Hospitaliere. Here we find the work 
ticket {bon de travail'} in use in nearly all French institutions. A 
work ticket of 1.5 francs torn from a sort of coupon-book permits its 
supporters to send to this institution the poor and unemployed, who 
find there "a kind reception, cordial and comforting words, food, 
shelter, and a place in the workshops, with liberty to go out in the 
morning to look for work at their own trades." Assisted persons are 
employed at making small fagots called margotins. They are not 
paid in money; but in this way they meet their daily expenses, and, 
if they are skillful, can have something to their credit when they 
leave. They are required to make fifty margotins a day, which 
entitles rhem to 1.5 francs, represented by two meals and a lodging. 
All they make above this goes to their credit. 
The results for 1892 are as follows: Of 959 admitted into the 
maison hospitaliere, 695 worked on an average 14I days; 14,275.95 
francs were expended and 13,270.25 francs received-a cost of ten 
centimes per day per man, a very satisfactory result when compared 
with similar work. 264 men were dismissed for refusing to work or 
for insufficient work. 
The object which Pastor Robin has sought for thirteen years is to 
provide the workingman gratuitously w'ith an outfit of tools and to 
make him the beneficiary of all his labor. Charles Robert has'said 
of the Maison Hospitaliere, " the work is beautiful and the idea which 
it realizes is a grand one." So it is not surprising that the assistance 
of the government and of the numerous friends of the work has 
enabled Pastor Robin to construct a building which will accommo- 
date from 45 to 50 inmates. 
The Hospitality par le Travail (lodging and food for work), 
which is under the direction of a religious body, receives annually 
about 1,500 women, who are employed at washing and ironing for 
schools and for private families; they also make artificial flowers. GROSSETESTE-THIERRY. 
209 
These women remain here about twenty days; they receive no 
wages, but are fed and lodged, and places are found for them when 
opportunity offers. 
The gift of a considerable sum enabled an institution, known as the 
Central Office for Charitable Works, to construct in 1891, on land 
contiguous to the property of the Hospitalite par le Travail, some 
buildings designed to receive the unemployed. This refuge has 
been confided to the care of Sister St. Antoine, who has charge of 
the woman's establishment. Here, in very rudimentary workshops, 
with the help of inexperienced assistants, she has in a few months 
established a centre of considerable production, and one which 
satisfies the demands of an exacting clientele. 
The men, coming from all parts of Paris, soured by poverty and 
employed at work of which they are generally ignorant, are sepa- 
rated into groups of ten under charge of overseers, and make com- 
mon furniture-tables, wardrobes, sideboards-which is sold at a low 
price in the large stores of the capital. There are about 70 of these 
men, and their stay is limited to 20 days. Their wages are 2 
francs a day; of this they receive 80 centimes in cash in the morn- 
ing for their food, which is supplied by the establishment, and also a 
lodging ticket, worth 40 centimes, which entitles them to a lodging 
out of the house. 45 centimes are reserved to defray their expenses 
when they are looking for permanent employment. Two days a 
week are allowed for this purpose. The central office has estab- 
lished a regular bureau of information, through which it obtains 
knowledge of the shops where there are vacant places. 
These institutions are in operation all over Paris, and undoubtedly 
exercise an ameliorating effect upon the unfortunate. But their 
influence upon street beggars is not so direct as that of the Relief 
Unions (Unions d'Assistance}, whose sphere of activity is more 
restricted. These have made the profession of begging a very 
difficult one by means of the food-ticket, which puts a stop to indis- 
criminate charity, and forces the beggar to present himself at some 
place where he is subjected to a summary questioning, which it is 
generally his interest to avoid. 
II. 
The municipal council of the city of Paris has created-on land 
belonging to the department of public relief, in the department of the 
Marne-an agricultural colony, which is intended to find for working 210 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
men who have fallen into poverty definite occupation in rural labor, 
after their moral and material restoration has been effected by 
regular and suitable work. 
This colony, which has been in existence since January, 1892, at 
the hamlet of Chalmelle, receives, after inquiries made at the Hotel 
de Ville, unmarried men, to whom are given clothing, food and 
lodging. These men are formed into squads, according to their 
aptitudes or the necessities of work, under the orders of superin- 
tendents of farming or of shops, and receive 50 centimes a day. 
Some perquisites are allowed them in the form of savings-bank 
books. Their stay in the colony is not limited, but it was observed 
that between January and October, 1892, the entire personnel had 
changed. 
The disciplinary measures employed are: first, a reprimand; 
second, withholding wages and transferring them to fund for perqui- 
sites ; third, consignment to the farm on Sunday ; fourth, expulsion. 
The labor consists in improving a section, which has been neglected 
for years, by drainage, cleaning and various kinds of cultivation. 
The winter is employed in repairing farming implements and in the 
little farm work that is necessary. 
This labor is not very productive, because it is unskilled and 
changes are so frequent. This institution will not be a success until 
it is under the direction of earnest men who know how to excite a 
spirit of emulation and a love of work in the colonists. 
In 1892, 57 colonists were received at Chalmelle, of whom 18 were 
from 20 to 30 years old, 17 from 30 to 40, 16 from 40 to 50, and 6 
from 50 to 60 years old. 
Of the 3-1 who left the establishment, 4 were expelled for drunken- 
ness or insubordination, 12 left voluntarily, and 15 were placed by 
the directory. 
The actual sum expended was 15,000 francs, but the commission 
hope that three years of good work will be sufficient to balance 
receipts and expenditures. 
In an agricultural country like France these colonies are needed 
to regenerate the mass of farm laborers who, having been tempted, 
not only by the mirage of a great city, but also by the number of 
charitable institutions found there, believe that they can obtain better 
or less laborious situations. These men, having wasted their small 
savings, are fatally tempted to join the often formidable hosts of the 
abodes of night, and become beggars, and at last criminals. GROSSETESTE-THIERRY. 
211 
The agricultural colony draws them out of this morbid atmosphere, 
restores their confidence in themselves, which the disillusions of life 
and contact with vice have destroyed, and prepares them, by a 
sustained activity of several months, to resume an honorable place 
among their fellow-men. 
III. 
The magnificent outburst of charity provoked by the rigorous 
winter of 1890 gave a fresh impetus to private initiative. All the 
asylums overflowed with mendicants, who crowded the streets. The 
Champs de Mars was transformed into a vast caravansary of idle 
men, who excited a feeling of insecurity everywhere, and who did 
not disappear until they were required to establish their identity or 
go to work. 
It was at this time that societies or unions for relief by work were 
established. This form of relief results almost immediately, in those 
districts where it is in operation, in a very perceptible diminution of 
the number of its idle or pauper impostors. In fact, thanks to its 
restrictions and its almost daily communication with the Bureau of 
Charitable Relief de Bienfaisance') of. the municipality, 
the Union for Relief has been able to establish a local clientele ; for 
by means of the work-ticket it gets rid of the professional beggar. 
We find such a society in the XVII arrondissement, under the title 
of " Societe d' Assistance de Batignolles-Monceau." 
This society opened its workshop on the 15th of February, 1892. 
Its founder, like Pastor Robin, chose the making of kindling-wood, 
an occupation at which any well person can work without serving an 
apprenticeship. The assessment made on the patrons of the society 
is six francs a year. A grant of 15,000 francs from the Mutual Pools 
{Paris Mutuel) has enabled it to erect a building in which, in six 
months, 160 paupers found refuge. They worked 1844 days and 
earned 2,781.25 francs, at the rate of 1.50 francs per day. The 
society pays their wages in cash, for it does not provide for them in 
the house. A committee of lady managers superintends the work 
of the women. 266 women passed through the workshop this year ; 
there were paid to them 3,427.90 francs, and the finished work was 
sent to the school board to clothe poor children, or was distributed 
gratuitously to the needy. 
The Bureau de Bienfaisance of the XVII arrondissement, which 
is the organ of the department of public relief, has adopted one 212 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
measure which does credit to its members and shows how great is 
the desire to deprive impostors of official aid. It gives to the 
assisted tickets of seventy-five centimes, payable after three hours' 
work in the shops of the society. It is evident that this change in 
the form of official relief will, if it becomes general, have a consider- 
able influence on the mass of pauperism and on the apportionment 
made to the honest poor. This work-ticket in use in every ward of 
a large city must be considered one of the most powerful agents 
against professional begging. 
This society aims to assist only those who are worthy of help; to 
give aid only by finding work for those who are well, and by relieving 
the necessities of the unfortunate whom stoppage of work, sickness or 
reverses prevent from taking care of themselves. Its operation is 
assured by an assessment of ten francs a year, by subsidies and by 
donations. It issues two tickets. One is green, of the value of ten 
centimes, which any one can obtain from the agent of the Union; 
this "ticket" cannot be used by the recipient until it has been 
exchanged for a food-ticket; it represents pressing need. The other 
ticket is gray, folds up like an envelope, and is worth what the giver 
pleases. It may contain a simple request or recommendation for aid 
either in money or work. 
If the person assisted is a well person, this ticket is earned by 
sweeping the streets at 2 francs a day of six hours, by making 
margolins in the shop of the society of Batignolles at 1.50 francs, or 
by working in the carpenter's shop of Sister St. Antoine at 2 francs 
a day. Women are paid for sewing or knitting, which they do at 
home or in shops affiliated with the Union, at 1 franc or 1.75 francs 
a day according to their skill. The work of the women has produced 
over 3000 francs in ten months. 
The Relief Union of the XVI arrondissement, having no work- 
shops of its own, is associated with others which have them, and 
employs its beneficiaries and carries their wages to the credit of 
these latter Unions. These wages are the aid inscribed on gray tickets 
transformed into work. All sums charged are collected every 
quarter from subscribers. In this way the Relief Union of the 
XVI has, during the last year, exchanged 6315 green tickets for 
food-tickets, procured regular work for 231 persons, and assisted 
327 with temporary work and 169 with money. 
The Union of the VI arrondissement, established in a vast build- 
ing in the St. Germain market, issues work-tickets of 10 centimes GROSSETESTE-THIERRY. 
213 
without limiting the time of stay ; and the total is collected only after 
they have been worked out. Besides the assessment of the members, 
it has received two grants-one of 10,000 francs from the Mutual 
Pools, and the other of 2000 francs from the city. The average 
number present in the workshops is 30, who pick tow, prepare 
pumice-stone, or pick old corsets to pieces; they remain on an 
average 12 days. They receive no money, but tickets for food and 
lodging are given them. By an agreement between the Union and 
a neighboring restaurant-keeper they can get two meals and a good 
room for 1.70 francs. 
This work, which meets with much sympathy, has produced a very 
sensible diminution of mendicity in the arrondissement. On March 
31, 1893 (the Union was founded in March, 1892), it had found situ- 
ations for, entertained, helped or sent back to the country 758 per- 
sons, of whom 335 were directly placed by the Union, 25 aided 
through their families, 124 returned to the provinces, 26 cared for in 
the house, and 18 sent away for various causes; 133 found situations 
for themselves, and 97 left without any reason given. Say 45 per 
•cent, were placed by the Union, and 65 percent, if we add those who 
were returned to the provinces and those cared for in the house. The 
Relief Union and the free municipal bureau render signal service to 
the VI arrondissement. 
IV. 
The provinces have largely shared in the movement of private 
beneficence which resulted in the establishment of relief unions. 
Marseilles, Lyons, Besang;on, Havre, Nismes, Rouen, Melun and 
other cities have similar institutions, with work as the basis of relief; 
these also find situations for those whom they assist. Two of them 
may be considered types of rational assistance. 
1. Assistance by work in Marseilles.-On the 23d of February, 
1891, there was established at Marseilles, under the title of "Assist- 
ance par le Travail," a work which, thanks to the energy of its 
founder, M. E. Rosbaud, and the devotion of his fellow-laborers, made 
rapid progress. His aim was not only to procure temporary work 
for the unemployed which would give them the necessaries of life, 
but to seek out the worthy poor and to unmask imposture; to bring 
the benevolent and the wretched together; to find regular work for 
the unemployed ; to give immediate help in urgent cases ; to make 
loans upon honor; to give free advice; to protect children in phys- 
ical or moral danger, and to protect discharged convicts. 214 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
The results of two years' work are considerable, but the limits of 
this paper will permit only the report of the section on relief by 
work. February 27, 1891, an account of 4000 francs, allowed by 
the savings bank, formed its first capital. Subscriptions were fixed 
at 5 francs; and on December 31 of the same year, thanks to the 
donations of private individuals, of the Minister of the Interior and 
of anonymous benefactors, the institution showed nearly 65,000 
francs received and 50,000 expended. A certain number of tickets, 
each of the value of 25 centimes for one hour's work, are given to 
the patrons in the form of a coupon-book. One of these tickets 
detached from the book is given to the applicant, who goes to the 
agency, whence he is sent, according to his ability, to the work-yard,, 
or the addressing office, or if the applicant is a woman, she is set to 
packing or sewing. The applicant gets very little remuneration, 
essentially temporary and assuring him a bare living, in order to 
excite him to an effort to find regular occupation. 
Under these conditions, 2545 persons presented themselves at the 
institution 26,478 times in 1892, and worked out 60,601 twenty- 
five centimes tickets, of which the supporters gave 47,099 against 
6235 from other sources, such as the bureau de bienfaisance, savings- 
bank and deaconates. Besides this, 7267 extra tickets were given 
out and paid for in work by bearers of single tickets who were desir- 
ous of obtaining more work to supplement the meagre wage of 25 
centimes. Of the 2545, 1948 men and 335 women were helped at 
the wood-yard and 262 men at the addressing office. These results 
show the interest which the people of Marseilles take in this work. 
It is to be noted that most of those assisted in the wood-yard 
bring in a return of only 9 centimes for a ticket of 25 centimes; that 
is to say, the object of the institution is to offer at all times, through 
the payment for the work by its supporters, temporary work to the 
unemployed. 
The addressing office received 262 persons, mostly unemployed 
clerks, who did 2868 days' or 9010 hours' work. Their writing 
brought in 1407.20 francs, which was entirely absorbed by the 
expenses. 157 women, present 5876.95 times, did work correspond- 
ing to 1533.20 francs wages. 
No assisted person can remain more than four hours a day in the 
shops of the society, and if he shows a disposition to remain longer, 
he is temporarily excluded. The workman receives a book which 
indicates the number of days present and serves as a recommenda- GROSSETESTE-THIERRY. 
215 
tion and protection; it also insures a reserved place in the lodging- 
house (Hospitality de Nu.if). Finally, these tickets when used are 
returned to the''benefactors, who can verify their use and pay their 
value to the treasurer of the work. 
2. The work at Lyons.-This work, established in 1890, permits a 
prolonged stay with remuneration in kind and in work-tickets of 
1.50 francs, which represents the first day's stay. Though the 
system is diametrically opposed to that of Marseilles, the results are 
no less important. Experience has demonstrated to the founders of 
the Temporary Home that the more prolonged the work is the 
more favorable is the result in all respects, and they have never 
hesitated to keep beyond the regulation time any whose earnest 
work might stimulate the zeal of their companions. 
The work-ticket of 1.50 francs permits a person to remain a week 
at least in the workshop, where he receives three meals a day and 
his lodging; he is obliged to make 50 margotins in an afternoon, 
and he is allowed a premium (one centime) for every one over this 
number, which he receives at the end of his stay. Under these con- 
ditions the work has been able almost to balance its budget from its 
own resources, and in 1892 to take care of 890 men who remained 
6974 days, making an average of nearly 8 days. These results are 
excellent, when it is considered that they have been obtained with 
absolutely inadequate facilities. 
The distributing committee of the Mutual Pools, wishing to recog- 
nize the effort and the sustained devotion of the promoters of this 
work, has allowed them the sum of 40,000 francs for the purchase of 
property, and there is no doubt that the Lyonnaise foundation will 
in a short time realize the dream of its sympathetic president: 
"Mendicity is forbidden here, but we receive with cordial sympathy and 
profound joy every one who wishes to regain his manhood, to be regenerated, 
to be saved by work." 
V. 
The French conception of relief by work presents certain peculi- 
arities which reveal its spontaneous origin. A few citizens, in places 
widely separated, and without any appeal to the public or to the 
government, and often with very insufficient funds, established insti- 
tutions having for their foundation the temporary occupation of 
the unemployed, which is freely offered and freely accepted. No 
common rules govern their action. In one the assisted person 216 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
receives payment in money, in another in food, and in a third wholly 
in lodging. At Marseilles, his stay in the workshop is limited to 
four hours a day ; at Lyons, he may remain a week, or longer, if he 
gives evidence of energy and good intentions; at Paris, some insti- 
tutions take care of him fourteen days, others twenty ; and wherever 
these unions are in operation they struggle successfully against pro- 
fessional beggary. Public charity seconds their efforts by active 
co-operation, by subsidies, and by credits allowed by the bureaus of 
charity. Hardly had they been organized when unhoped-for results 
were obtained; because-it is recognized that the change from indis- 
criminate individual charity to a form of relief which is paid for in 
work, and the union of private initiative with public relief, with a view 
to reviving the energy of the able-bodied poor, raise in an agricul- 
tural country like France a much more rational obstacle to the 
revival of vagrancy and mendicity than increased severity of the 
repressive system. 
When the public authorities, completing the work already begun, 
shall endow the country districts with shelters of a preventive char- 
acter which will excite emulation, such as the large centres now 
have, the city will no longer absorb the population of the country; 
the unemployed, who first become beggars and then dangerous 
criminals, will furnish agriculture with the hands it now lacks, and 
will co-operate in national saving, instead of imposing taxes which 
are as burdensome as they are useless. 
THE AUSTRIAN POOR LAW SYSTEM. 
EDITH SELLERS. 
The Austrian poor law system differs widely from that in force in 
any other country. While elsewhere poverty is regarded officially 
as a crime and dealt with accordingly, in the Eastern Empire it is 
held to be merely a misfortune. In the eyes of Western legislators, 
the destitute, whether little children, strong men, or infirm old 
people, are all on the same level. By their laws, the same treat- 
ment is meted out, in the hour of need, to sturdy beggars and loafing 
vagabonds, as to industrious men and women whose life has been 
one long fierce struggle to keep the wolf from the door. Austrian SELLERS. 
217 
statesmen, however, hold different views both as to expediency and 
humanity. They classify their poor most carefully, for they main- 
tain, and with some show of reason, that it would be just as absurd 
to club together all criminals-libellers, thieves and dynamiters- 
as all paupers. They even discriminate in the use of the term, 
reserving it exclusively for able-bodied men and women. Through- 
out the empire, the young who have no relatives to support them 
are the adopted children of the state; the aged destitute are its 
worn-out industrial pensioners; and the whole population would be 
horrified at the thought of treating as paupers the one class or the 
other. 
The first Austrian poor law was drawn up by the Emperor 
Joseph II., and is strongly imbued with the personal characteristics of 
its author. It came into force in the year 1781 and is the basis of all 
later legislation on the subject. Its fundamental principle is that the 
responsibility for the relief of distress rests not on the state, but on 
the town or commune. The imperial exchequer is under no obliga- 
tion to contribute towards the support of the poor, although it may, 
and frequently does, make a grant to some one or more districts in 
case of special distress occurring there. Each town or commune is 
required to provide food and shelter for such of its inhabitants as 
are destitute, and to take charge of idiots, cripples and invalids. 
The local, authorities are exhorted to show special consideration for 
the aged, and to secure for them the means of passing their declining 
days in comfort. On the other hand they are exhorted to deal 
sternly with the able-bodied, and to refuse all help to those who, 
having the strength to work, are lacking in the will. A marked 
feature of this first poor law is the importance of the role it pre- 
scribes for the clergy. The Emperor Joseph, holding that the very 
raison d'etre of the church is to relieve distress, placed the adminis- 
tration of his law in the hands of the priests. He insisted that they 
should become guardians of the poor in all the meanings of the term. 
This arrangement did not work satisfactorily. In many districts 
these clerical guardians proved themselves at once negligent and 
corrupt, with the result that it soon became necessary to replace 
them in their office by laymen. From time to time other alterations 
in this law were made by the provincial assemblies, with a view to 
adapting it to their special local requirements, so that the old impe- 
rial measure has undergone many transformations, and to-day 
almost every province and large town has a relief system of its own. 218 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
All these systems, however, are founded on the same principle and 
are characterized by the same spirit. The one in force in Vienna, 
therefore, may be taken as a type of the rest. 
In Vienna, the responsibility for the relief of the poor is vested in 
the Armendepartment. This department administers the municipal 
charities, manages the public benevolent institutions, and decides 
all questions relating to the relief of the poor of the city as a whole. 
It consists of 537 guardians of the poor ; 233 Waisenvater (fathers 
of orphans); 54 Waisenmiitter (mothers of orphans), and a certain 
number of paid officials. The guardians are elected by the rate- 
payers ; the Waisenvater and Waisenmiitter are appointed by the 
burgomaster. In addition to this central authority, each of the nine- 
teen districts into which Vienna is divided has a board of guardians 
of its own. The members of these boards are elected by the rate- 
payers of their respective districts, to whom they are responsible for 
the administration of the relief granted in these districts. 
The recipients of relief are divided into three classes, viz. children 
under sixteen, able-bodied men and women, and the aged and 
infirm. Vienna boasts, and not without reason, that it takes better 
care of its destitute children than any other city in the world. All 
children, whether orphans or not, whose relatives are unable to 
provide for them are adopted by the city. They are never allowed 
to enter a workhouse or any place where they would be brought in 
contact with paupers, and the greatest care is taken to prevent any 
stigma being attached to them on account of their friendless condition. 
If under ten, they are generally boarded-out with well-to-do peasants, 
who must undertake to care for them as if they were their own sons 
and daughters. They attend the village school, where they mix 
with their companions upon terms of perfect equality; and thus grow 
up without ever experiencing that parish feeling which is often so 
painful a feature of the lot of such children in other countries. Each 
one of them, if a boy, is under the special care of a Waisenvater; if 
a girl, of a Waisenmutter. These official fathers and mothers are 
held responsible by their fellow-citizens for the welfare of their 
charges. They must visit them regularly, see that they are properly 
fed and clothed, that they are treated kindly by their foster-parents, 
and that they are being trained in such a manner as to fit them to 
make their own way in the world. As no one would accept the 
office who was not fond of children, a warm feeling often springs up 
between these guardians and their prot£g6s, to the great advantage SELLERS. 
219 
of the latter, who thus start life with a friend at their back to whom 
they can turn when difficulties arise. When the children are old 
enough to benefit by more careful teaching and supervision than 
can be secured for them whilst boarded-out, they are either placed in 
orphanages or sent to training-schools, where they are fitted for the 
calling for which they show most natural aptitude. Every precaution 
is taken to prevent their going to swell the ranks of unskilled labor. 
The boys are carefully trained in some well-paid handicraft-car- 
pentering, bricklaying, shoemaking, etc.-whilst the girls are taught 
to cook, wash, clean, sew, to perform in fact all the duties of house- 
wives. Ifany of them show signs of special talent they are given an 
opportunity to cultivate it; for attached to the public schools are 
scholarships for which only pauper children may compete. Even 
the University throws open to them gratis all its lectures and exami- 
nations-a noteworthy fact considering the exclusive spirit which 
generally characterizes such institutions. 
Vienna has under its care at the present time some 7000 children, 
of whom one-third, roughly speaking, are in schools and orphanages, 
while the rest are boarded-out. The average cost per head in an 
orphanage is 79.96 kreuzer a day. This is certainly a liberal allow- 
ance for a child-more than half as much again as that granted for a 
man; but the money is well spent, for the adopted children of the 
city turn out as a rule useful men and women, self-supporting, law- 
abiding, and capable of doing good service in the world. 
For the relief of the able-bodied a sort of modified Elberfeld 
system prevails in Vienna. Each district guardian has under his 
care some twenty families with whose character, habits and circum- 
stances he is expected to be personally acquainted. Unfortunately, 
however, like other honorary officials, he sometimes neglects his duty 
in this respect. He has at his disposal a small sum of money for the 
relief of cases of temporary distress. His special duty, however, is 
not so much to deal with distress himself as to supply the information 
necessary for enabling the Armendepartment to deal with it effect- 
ually. He, therefore, unless the circumstances of the case be 
exceptional, passes on all applications for help to the officials of the 
central department in charge of the public institutions for paupers. 
These institutions are arranged on a sort of descending scale of 
comfort. There are Asy/s for those who are anxious to work but 
have no work to do; a workhouse for those who will work if they 
must, but would rather play; and a Zwangarbeithaus (forced labor 220 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
colony) for those who can only be driven to work by threats and 
blows. By thus keeping the three classes distinct, the authorities 
are able to deal out to each one of them the precise treatment it 
merits. 
An Asyl is a municipal boarding-house to which a workman who, 
owing to loss of employment or some other misfortune, is in a state 
of destitution, may claim admittance. There he is provided, free of 
charge, with a supper, bath, bed and breakfast every day for a 
limited time, upon condition that, during that time, he makes every 
possible effort to obtain employment. The Asyl officials are in 
constant communication with the great employers of labor, and have 
a labor-bureau of their own. Thus they know to a nicety where 
work is to be found, and are able to save the unemployed from many 
a weary tramp. So long as a man is honestly doing his best to 
become self-supporting they give him every help; but they keep a 
sharp watch on his proceedings, and if he shows signs of a taste for 
loafing they treat him with scant toleration. In no circumstances is 
he allowed to return to the Asyl too often or to stay there too long. 
Three days is the average length of a visit. At the end of that time, 
unless he has either found work or can prove that he is on the way 
to do so, he must leave the Asyl. Another refuge, however, is open 
to him ; he may go to the workhouse. 
In Austria a workhouse is something entirely different from the 
institution which bears that name in America. Vienna with its popu- 
lation of 1,500,000 has only one workhouse, and of this the number 
of inmates is rarely more than 170. Yet it is by no means an 
unpleasant abode. The food is good, the rooms are comfortable, 
and there is a decided air of life and gaiety about the place. The 
inmates are required to do a certain amount of work, to keep regu- 
lar hours, and to be peaceable and orderly in their behavior. So 
long as they conform to these rules they enjoy considerable liberty, 
for the officials never interfere unnecessarily with their proceedings. 
On Sundays and f&te days they do no work at all, and once a week 
they are free the whole day to go out in search of employment. 
Thus, in certain circumstances, a sojourn In the workhouse may be 
almost enjoyable; it can, however, never be prolonged. The work- 
house, like the Asyls, is designed to tide over temporary distress, 
and the authorities are always on the alert to prevent its inmates 
regarding it as a fixed residence. They may stay there for a few 
weeks, for months even, if it be a time of industrial depression ; but SELLERS. 
221 
sooner or later, unless they find work for themselves outside, they 
will be sent to the Zwang ar beithaus. 
Loafers, vagrants, and all those who wish to live on the labor of their 
fellows have a wholesome dread of a visit to the Viennese Zwang- 
arbeithaus. And well they may, for it is an eminently unpleasant 
experience. In the Zwang arbeithaus the strictest prison discipline 
is maintained, and all who are there must earn their rations before 
they eat them. This is as the law of the Medes and Persians. Nor 
can the inmates leave at will; the length of their stay depends on 
their conduct, not on their wishes. The treatment to which paupers 
are subjected in this institution is undoubtedly harsh, but few will 
be inclined on that account to condemn it. For it must not be for- 
gotten that decently industrious men and women are not sent there ; 
it is set aside entirely for those whom gentler means have failed to 
redeem. And certainly public opinion, especially among the work- 
ing classes, is decidedly on the side of the authorities in putting down, 
with a firm hand, professional loafing. No one thinks the worse of 
a comrade for going to an Asyl; he may even pass a few weeks in 
the workhouse without losing caste ; but if he has once crossed the 
threshold of the Zzvangarbeithaus there is a mark against his name 
for ever. 
The Viennese poor law regulations with regard to the aged and 
infirm are essentially humane in character. Not only are the old 
people well fed, well tended and well clothed, but their feelings, 
tastes and prejudices are carefully consulted. It would be difficult 
for Americans to form any idea of the respectful consideration with 
which the aged poor are treated in Austria. The unusual privileges 
they enjoy result, perhaps, in some measure at least, from the unsatis- 
factory financial conditions of the country. Austrian legislators have 
always been compelled to recognize the fact that, for a certain per- 
centage of the population, pauperism is as inevitable as the grave. 
No amount of economy or self-denial will enable peasants whose 
average earnings are at most three florins a week, or town laborers 
who gain perhaps five or six, to lay by a provision against old age. 
The relief such people receive when their strength is spent can, there- 
fore, carry with it no disgrace. More than a hundred years ago the 
Emperor Joseph proclaimed the principle around which the battle 
to-day is raging so fiercely. " Old age relief is a right, not a charity," 
he maintained. By his law any person who had completed his six- 
tieth year, and was without means of support, might claim from his 222 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
commune an annuity equal in amount to one-third of the average 
yearly wages he had received. The annuity was to be regarded in 
precisely the same light as a soldier's pension, namely, as the reward 
of past services. Since that time the amount of a superannuation 
pension has often been changed and is now miserably small; still the 
right of the old and feeble to be supported by the community has 
never been questioned. 
The city of Vienna is now supporting partially or entirely about 
21,000 persons who are aged or infirm. To some 16,000 of them it 
grants pensions of from two to six florins a month, and also in many 
cases rooms, firing And lights. For the rest it provides homes in 
charitable institutions of one sort or another. Of these the chief are 
the Armeninstitute and the Versorgungshauser. Any native of 
Vienna, if he be above sixty years of age, of good character, and 
without means of support, may claim admittance to a Versorgungs- 
haus. If there be no vacant room at the time, the authorities must 
grant him a pension, or admit him to an Armeninstitute until a place 
can be found for him in a Versorgungshaus. Both these institutions 
are supported by the city. The former are simply poorhouses which 
are reserved for the aged and infirm ; paupers, that is the able-bodied 
destitute, being rigidly excluded. They correspond so far as their 
aim is concerned to state-provided almshouses in America, but are 
arranged with much more regard for the comfort of the inmates. 
Versorgungshauser are an institution peculiar to Austria and one of 
which the nation is justly proud. Vienna owns five, one in the city 
itself and four in the suburbs. They are fine large buildings stand- 
ing in pleasant gardens, and they are regarded by the whole com- 
munity as the special property of the aged poor. 
There is no pleasanter spot in all Vienna than a Versorgungshaus, 
the inhabitants are so delightfully contented and happy. They feel 
there, as they say, in their own home, in the old folks' home, and 
they assume quite an air of proprietorship as they go about the 
place. Their rooms are . most cosy little apartments, with bright 
colored prints on the wall and plants on the window-sill. All sorts 
of old family relics, too, are dotted about, for these lucky old people 
are not required (as they would be if they lived elsewhere) to part 
with their most cherished possessions when they accept a home from 
the state. A Versorgungshaus is divided into two parts, the men 
living on one side and the women on the other. As, however, the 
hall, the dining-room, the corridors and the gardens are equally SELLERS. 
223 
open to the two, husbands and wives, if they wish it, can pass the 
whole day together. They may also go out for walks together every 
afternoon, and may, if they choose, once a week spend the whole 
day with their friends. Their friends, too, are encouraged to pay 
them visits, and on a fine afternoon there is often quite a lively 
assembly in the gardens. The women are expected to help to keep 
the house neat, and the men to give a hand in the garden from time 
to time. Beyond that they are free to employ their leisure as they 
choose; so long as they are orderly in their ways and keep regular 
hours, the officials never interfere with them. Far from encroaching 
on their liberty, they seem anxious so far as possible to humor their 
prejudices. Of this their treatment of the clothes difficulty is a proof. 
The authorities provide warm comfortable clothing of an uniform 
pattern for all the inmates, but if some of them prefer (as many do) 
wearing their own old tattered garments, they are free to do so, at 
least so long as they can keep them clean. 
In some of the Versorgungsh'duser the commissariat arrangements 
are on the restaurant principle. Attached to the building is a 
restaurant, managed by a private company, but under«the super- 
vision of the Armendepartment officials and the guardians. Here 
the old people, excepting in case of illness, have their meals. They 
are each given 38 kreuzer a day for food, and this they may spend 
as they choose, although the guardians reserve the right of with- 
drawing this privilege if it be abused. The food supplied is thor- 
oughly good and beautifully cooked, great care being taken to 
provide a variety of dishes every day. A doctor and two of the 
guardians are always present when the dinners are being served out, 
to insure the old people receiving good value for their money, both 
in the quantity and in the quality of their food. These restaurants 
are marvels of good management, for, although they supply their 
guests with as much wholesome appetizing food as they can eat, at a 
maximum charge of 39 kreuzer per head a day, they are self-sup- 
porting. 
The average cost of the inmates of the Versorgungshduser is only 
52.87 kreuzer a day. This is the cost of maintenance only, and does 
not include any allowance for interest on the capital outlay on the 
buildings. In spite of this, considering the high standard of life 
maintained, they must certainly be classed among the most econom- 
ically managed institutions in the world. 
The public hospitals in Vienna are all under state supervision. 224 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Any patient who presents himself at one of these hospitals is at once 
admitted, provided his condition be such as to necessitate medical or 
surgical treatment. No questions are asked as to his status or means 
until he is cured or pronounced incurable; then the hospital author- 
ities claim a fixed amount for every day he has been under their 
care. This he must pay unless he can prove that neither he nor any 
of his responsible relations have the money to do so. In that case 
the Armendepartment defrays the cost of his treatment. If, how- 
ever, he be not a native of the city, the commune to which he belongs 
must refund the money to the department. 
It is impossible to ascertain the exact cost to the municipality of 
the relief of the poor of Vienna. The money is not raised by means 
of any one rate, but is largely derived from sources which vary in 
the amount they yield from year to year. It is not until the fund 
obtained from the old foundations, confiscated church lands, lega- 
cies, etc., is exhausted that the rates are resorted to. Roughly 
speaking, however, exclusive of the hospitals and orphanages, the 
city spends six and one-half million florins annually on its poor. Of 
this sum only one million, in an average year, falls on the rates. 
POVERTY AND ITS RELIEF IN AUSTRIA. 
DR. MENGER, VIENNA. 
[TRANSLATION.] 
As in other countries, so preeminently in Austria, there are two 
kinds of poverty to be considered, namely, poverty which is due to 
the inability of the person himself to provide the necessaries of life, 
and that which is due to the inability of those whose duty it is to 
support him. 
Poverty in the first form is the result of inability to procure by 
one's own means the indispensable necessaries of life. It befalls indi- 
viduals or families through sickness, death of the breadwinner, the 
consequent destitution of those left behind, other misfortunes, thrift- 
lessness and the like. In many parts of Austria the collective wealth 
as compared with the population is not large, its general distribution 
being often very unequal. This, together with the heavy demands MENGER. 
225 
made by the very high and often unequally imposed state taxes and 
duties, direct and indirect, and the fact that states, districts and com- 
munes are all anxiously striving rapidly to make amends for the 
unfortunate lack of development in the first half of this century, 
multiply in many regions the number of poor beyond what would 
otherwise be the case. The very grave political problems which 
Austria-Hungary has had to face because of wars and preparations 
for wars against the enemies of European civilization (formerly 
against Turkey, now against Russia, with both of which powers 
France joined hands), have not only called forth numerous difficul- 
ties of internal policy, but have affected in many unfortunate ways 
both the state finances and the accumulation of capital, the distri- 
bution of public wealth and the development of business possibili- 
ties. The spirit of enterprise is comparatively little developed in 
Austria. The problems of poverty in Austria are, therefore, for 
reasons of universal experience, far more difficult of solution than 
those of civilized countries with larger and better distributed public 
wealth, greater capital and business possibilities, and, above all, a 
greater spirit of enterprise in the domain of economics, such as 
France, North America, and even Germany. 
In addition to the general causes of pauperism, which are met with 
everywhere, but which in Austria, as stated above, operate much 
more powerfully than in many other countries, there are certain far- 
reaching economic and social phenomena which have brought whole 
classes, or at least considerable portions of the population, to an 
exceedingly distressing economic condition. 
Before industrial production made steam power, the steam engine 
and railways subservient to its use to such an extent as it does 
now, much of the manufacturing in Austria was done in the homes 
of the laborers; this supplied the country with a great variety of 
goods, such as textile fabrics, many kinds of hardware, etc., and 
there was some manufacturing for export. There often resulted 
from this state of affairs in places which were not very productive, as 
in sterile mountain regions, a very dense population. Considerable 
portions ot Galicia, a great part of Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia, some 
districts in Lower Austria, many valleys in Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, 
Vorarlberg and the Tyrol supported themselves by these domestic 
industries. In the northern part of the empire they consisted princi- 
pally in the spinning and weaving of wool, flax, and later of cotton ; 
the south was especially the home of the metal industry. Even now 226 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
the textile manufacture of wool, flax and cotton is carried on in the 
northern states of the empire, particularly in Bohemia, Moravia and 
Silesia, also in Lower Austria; while metal-working prevails in the 
southern and Alpine states. But the competition of large factories 
has overthrown home manufacturing and the smaller producers. 
Of course there might have been such a development in Austria 
as in many other countries, where the different kinds of domestic 
manufacture were replaced by the large modern factory which gave 
work and bread to the laborers in the smaller trades, to the modest 
employer and employees engaged in manufacture at home. This 
line of development was hindered by the circumstance that in the 
first half-century after the establishment of the first railway in 
Austria, hardly any lines except the so-called trunk-lines were built, 
whereas branch roads received but little attention. The main lines 
ran chiefly through the large valleys and plains. Along these lines 
the great manufacturing establishments settled. Many districts 
where home manufacturing flourished remained for decades without 
railroads. There are still extensive and thickly populated regions 
which have none. 
To the other causes of the economic superiority of the large 
manufacturing enterprises there was added cheap and safe trans- 
portation by the railroads. The result was that the small manu- 
facturers suffered the greatest losses; but competition could be 
maintained only by constantly reducing wages. The distress of the 
weavers has become almost proverbial. In many of these districts, 
wages per week amount to from 1.70 to 2.00 florins (about 85 cents 
to one dollar). Only by the completion of a network of railways 
with numerous branch roads can this great evil be lessened to any 
considerable extent, if indeed it is not already too late. 
A second cause of the poverty to which a large part of the popu- 
lation of whole districts is succumbing, is the too minute parceling of 
land, without a corresponding development of other business which 
would help the smaller holder. This happens in those districts in 
which this division is not accompanied with increased activity in 
agriculture. The reason for this is generally the fact that in these 
districts capital, education and the spirit of enterprise in industrial 
pursuits stand on a low plane. Wide-spread poverty is found also 
in many regions where a very large portion of the land is tied up in 
entail, while the proprietors gladly buy up such peasant holdings as 
are for sale. Similar phenomena appear in extensive tracts of land MENGER. 
227 
in Galicia and in some parts of Bohemia and Moravia. The rural 
pauperism in South Tyrol has its chief cause in the diseases of its 
vines and the consequent failure of the crops, and in the great fall 
in the value of silk, due to the competition of China and Japan. 
The far greater part of the Jewish population of Galicia presents a 
peculiarly pitiable form of pauperism in mass. Too early marriages, 
premature and numerous offspring-phenomena connected with the 
religious views of widely extended Jewish sects-increased living 
expense due to the Hebrew dietary laws, the echoes of hard oppres- 
sion under which the Israelites have suffered for centuries even in 
their economic relations, have produced phases of poverty such as 
it would be difficult to find elsewhere. A large part of the Jewish 
population of Galicia does not live from day to day, but, as may be 
said without exaggeration, from meal to meal. From three to four 
Jewish families often live in one room. The territory belonging to 
each family is outlined with chalk. Disease and superstition thrive 
with extraordinary luxuriance under such conditions. Here also the 
lack of opportunity for work, due to lack of enterprise and the shy- 
ness of capital to embark in industrial enterprises, is one of the chief 
causes of this misery and its deplorable consequences in social and 
economic relations. It is not true that Galician Jews in general 
abhor all physical labor. They engage in a great many manual 
trades. They serve even as porters * in many cities. But in many 
parts of Galicia there is not a sufficient supply of even moderately 
paying labor for the Christian laborer. 
The relief of poverty in Austria, as elsewhere, falls first upon 
endowed religious institutions and voluntary associations, but chiefly 
upon the communes, and to some extent upon the states. The 
Austrian institutions for the poor suffered very much from the large 
state bankruptcies in the beginning of this century, their capital 
suffering quite a heavy reduction. To this must be added the very 
great rise in the prices of the necessaries of life, so that it may be 
said without exaggeration that the spirit of benevolence will have to 
multiply the existing institutions greatly, if they are to attain the 
importance which they possessed toward the end of the last century. 
The religious societies-the Catholic church to the greatest extent, 
but the Protestant and Jewish congregations as well-dispense charity 
*A11 through Poland men are employed as we use horses, to deliver goods 
from stores, such as sacks of flour, salt, potatoes, etc. It is very hard work.- 
Translator. 228 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
on a large scale. The fundamental factor in poor relief in Austria 
is, however, the commune. In contrast with former legislative 
efforts, for instance that of 1754, charity now rests upon the follow- 
ing principles: Every Austrian subject, in case of impoverishment, 
is entitled to receive the indispensable necessaries of life from that 
commune in which he has the right of settlement. This right, how-, 
ever, except in case of a voluntary admission into a commune, or 
an appointment to a state office in a specific place, is acquired only 
by inheritance or marriage. The principles of the older Austrian 
egislation, which as late as in the imperial patent of 1804 allowed 
the right of settlement to be acquired by a four years' residence, con- 
tinued without certificate and permitted by the community, were 
done away with by the law of December 3, 1863, which regulates the 
power of granting settlement and the right of settlement itself. 
While the Prussian settlement laws which reached their climax in 
the institution of a relief-domicile have been recognized in all Ger- 
many, with the exception of Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine, the older 
Austrian laws, which also contained a provision for relief-domicile, 
have been invalid since 1863. Every citizen must have a right of 
settlement in some commune. The right of settlement in a commune 
gives a claim to charitable support. This is obtained by birth 
(descent from a domiciled father, or, in case of illegitimacy, from a 
domiciled mother); by marriage, when the groom is domiciled; by 
admission into the commune; and lastly, by appointment to an office 
the headquarters of which are located in the commune. These legal 
regulations have produced a very peculiar state of affairs in the 
domain of charity, and from our experience thus far we have no 
hesitation in saying a very deplorable one. Since in the main the 
right of free migration obtains in Austria, and the movement from 
the open country to the larger cities, from the purely agricultural 
districts to the manufacturing centres, is very great, the ratios 
between residents entitled to right of settlement and residents who 
are not, and between residents and non-residents entitled to the right, 
are becoming every year in many important communes more and 
more unfavorable to the former class in both cases. The time is not 
far distant when most of the people entitled to settlement will live 
away from their places of domicile, and such as do not possess the 
right of settlement in a place will form the majority of its population. 
With each generation this disproportion increases, and with it the 
great evils that follow in its train. MENGER. 
229 
The confused condition of the Austrian settlement laws exercises 
a most baneful influence over poor relief. Families whose heads 
have worked in a place for decades are obliged, when death or 
disability of the father occurs, to claim their right of support in 
some distant community whose name they often scarcely know. 
German poor are removed to Slavic communes, and Slavic poor 
to German communes. The beneficiary of the poor law often does 
not know even the language of the commune in the midst of which 
he must live and which must care for him. All the evils which 
modern German writers urge against a relief-domicile do not com- 
pare with the bad influence which this principle of the right of 
settlement, driven as it has been to the extreme, has exercised upon 
Austrian poor relief. 
These great evils have made the need of reform in settlement laws 
in the interests of Austrian charity clear in almost all of the states. 
Some of these, especially Lower Austria, have passed reform laws 
which as far as possible minimize the defects in Austrian poor relief. 
Some branches of poor relief-for example, much of the care of the 
sick-have been assumed by the states and districts, partly as a 
result of legislation, partly as a result of mere custom. The intro- 
duction of Naturalverpfiegungssiationen has diminished vagrancy to 
some extent, as well as the practice of forcibly moving the vagrant on, 
which had in Austria degenerated into a lamentable abuse. Yet few 
branches of Austrian legislation are so much in need of reform as the 
laws concerning right of settlement in its relation to poor-relief. 
The question of the duty of a commune to relieve its poor arises, 
of course, only when there is no person or society whose duty it is to 
support the pauper. Persons entitled to the benefits of the poor 
laws, have, however, in Austria no right of complaint against a com- 
mune. 230 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
SKETCH OF THE ORGANIZATION OF PUBLIC POOR 
RELIEF IN AUSTRIA. 
DR. FRIEDERICH PROBST, OF THE IMPERIAL CENTRAL STATISTICAL 
COMMISSION. 
[TRANSLATION.] 
I.-Agencies of Public Poor Relief. 
The foundation of the poor law of Austria is contained in the 
statute of December 3, 1863 (R. G. B. No. 105), relative to the 
regulation of settlement. In §§ 1-22 it is enacted that settlement 
(Heimathsrechf) in a commune establishes a person's claim to sup- 
port, and that it is the duty of a commune in case of poverty to 
provide for the support of paupers who have the right of domicile 
there. 
The origin of the poor law on which, as explained above, the 
jurisdiction of the commune rests, is found far back in the establish- 
ment by Emperor Joseph II. of organized parish institutions for the 
poor {Pjarrarmeninstituie'} in all German-Slavonic countries. 
These institutions, carried on under the guidance of the clergy and 
with the co-operation of almoners (Armenvater) chosen from the 
parish, were dependent for pecuniary support on the bounty of the 
commune. But certain other legal means for increasing their income 
were also at their disposal, namely, the half of the income of dis- 
banded brotherhoods, the property of dissolved guilds, all capital 
which had accumulated for the release of poor Christian slaves, all 
fines, a percentage on public auction sales, and all sums bestowed upon 
the poor by will, and a third of the intestate estates of secular priests. 
In the year 1789 an order was issued to these parish institutions that 
before dispensing aid investigation should be made as to whether 
the applicant had resided for ten years in the given place; if he had 
not, no aid should be given. Thus the principle that settlement 
alone entitled one to a claim for support was established, and the 
parish institutions became the agencies for conducting poor relief in 
communes. 
Under the laws proclaimed since 1861 the enunciation of the 
general principles for the regulation of poor relief is under the con- 
trol of the state legislatures. These bodies have legislated in two 
directions. After the political communes had, under the law of PROBST. 
231 
settlement (Heimathsgesetz), been entrusted with the direct man- 
agement of poor relief, the parish institutions for the poor were 
entirely abolished in several states-Lower Austria, Upper Austria, 
Carinthia, Croatia, Carniola and Silesia. The property which they 
possessed at the time was turned over to the communes, and even 
the legal revenues allotted for their support were transferred to the 
communes. In those countries in which parish institutions were not 
abolished, the communes, by virtue of the imperial law mentioned 
above, became the agencies of public poor relief, and parish institu- 
tions for the poor lost their official character. 
In a number of states-Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, 
Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Bohemia, Vorarlberg and Dalmatia- 
legislation went still farther and by local poor laws prescribed certain 
limits within which all agencies for poor relief in a commune must 
act. These laws, however, allowed great latitude to the communes 
in the matter of organizing their poor relief; for this, in the last 
analysis, always remains a matter of peculiar concern for the com- 
mune. So as to poor relief, the local council (Ausschuss) is the 
determining and supervising body, while the local executive (Ge- 
meindevorstancT) has the administrative and executive pow'er. 
In dispensing material relief to the poor the communal council 
has the right to avail itself of the services of certain subordinate 
agencies. It can choose almoners or appoint an overseer (Armen- 
rath') \ in fact it can provide itself with the necessary subordinates, 
who act under its control and superintendence, and for whose acts it 
is responsible. It can, when necessary, regulate the sphere of 
activity of almoners and overseer by general instructions and direc- 
tions, and, within the limits prescribed by the state laws, make its 
own poor laws. 
According to the statute of February 26, 1876 (L. G. B. No. 13), 
Dalmatia possesses its own charitable commissions (conimissioni di 
publice beneficenza), independent of the communes, on which 
devolves the administration of poor funds and the direction of out- 
door and indoor relief. Bishops, provosts (Prbbste) of cathedral 
and collegiate chapters, and pastors of different denominations repre- 
sented in the commune, are by law members of the charitable com- 
mission. The remaining members are nominated, half by the com- 
mon council (Genieinderatli) from persons not belonging to it, the 
other half by the committee of state (Landesausschuss), with the 
consent of the communal executive. In spite of the independent 232 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
position of the charitable commissions, it is the duty of the common 
council, even in Dalmatia, to procure means for the maintenance 
of the poor whenever the resources of the charitable institutions and 
the poor funds are not sufficient. 
If the question be asked how the organization of poor relief has 
actually developed in single communes according to the principles 
expressed in the laws above mentioned, it is at once clear that in rural 
communes a more extended organization of the authorities and official 
agencies entrusted with the care of the poor is not to be expected, 
because of the smaller population and the smaller number of poor 
persons to be supported. This inference corresponds with the actual 
facts. The case is entirely different with respect to poor relief in 
cities, and this topic, therefore, will be only briefly considered here. 
It is necessary in examining this branch of the subject to separate 
cities into different groups from the point of view of the historical 
development of their poor relief, the influence of which is felt at the 
present time. 
Among the German-Austrian cities there are some, for the most 
part small ones, which do not have distinct agencies for poor relief, 
as their administration of poor relief is not distinct from the general 
administration of the commune. Poor relief is carried on according 
to old customs and by very primitive methods ; usually one special 
branch of the common council is appointed as the committee for the 
poor to which a civil officer is added as a poor offi- 
cial. A special poor-commission is found only 
in large cities, and there are only a few almoners. 
In a second group of cities, including the large cities and the cities 
of the Alpine provinces, and of Moravia and Silesia, poor relief is so 
organized that the supreme power rests with the executive of the 
city and its legislative body. These bodies reserve to themselves 
the issuing of regulations only and a general superintendence and 
the management of the funds for the poor, or very rarely it happens 
that at the same time they undertake regular poor relief. This is 
the case in Vienna, whose magistracy acts as a board for the admin- 
istration of indoor and outdoor relief. Besides there are the 
honorary offices of poor commissioners {Armencommissiori}, poor 
councillors (Armenrdthe\ poor directors Ar- 
menausschusse) or guardians {Pflegeschaftsrathe'), who act as corpo- 
rate bodies with power of decision. In large cities, however, deci- 
sions in ordinary and extraordinary cases of actual poor relief have PROBST. 
233 
remained under the jurisdiction of the common council or magistracy. 
In Vienna there is no central poor commission, however, but the 
authority is decentralized among the different boards of district 
almoners. The chairmanship of the poor commission is almost 
everywhere taken by the mayor or his representative. The other 
members are members of the common council, and in rare cases 
trustworthy citizens are added to it. Frequently a member of the 
magistracy {Magistratsbeamter} acts as referee. In large cities, 
such as Prague and Graz, there are under the poor commissions 
special subordinate boards whose sphere of activity is partly identical 
with that of the poor commission, partly with that of the board of 
almoners. Almoners are the executive authorities proper of the 
communal poor relief. Their functions include investigations, sug- 
gestions, raising money, keeping the poor register, making disburse- 
ments and the like. They are organized in one or more boards with 
fixed territorial limits, which have essentially the same duties as 
belong to their individual members. 
These agencies administer either, all poor relief, or sometimes 
-and this is the more frequent-only outdoor relief. For indoor 
relief there are very often special agents, some honorary, some 
filled by municipal appointment. The former are either mem- 
bers of the town council (Gemeinderdthe\ almoners, or persons 
chosen for this especial purpose. Sometimes the administration of 
charitable institutions is under the control of a supervising committee 
(Aufsichtsausschuss'), or of a portion of the poor commission. 
Poor relief is organized on an entirely different plan in the towns 
situated in the southern part of the empire. In Trent, which may 
serve as a type of them all, poor relief is under the direction of the 
Congregazione di Carita, a half-official corporate body which had its 
beginning in the old brotherhoods and which still shows traces of a 
religious origin. This body is composed of a president, vice-presi- 
dents, an ecclesiastical member, the three local pastors, and six other 
members (one of whom must be a lawyer) selected from the inhabi- 
tants and having the rank of members of the magistracy {Magistrats- 
rdthe). All these offices are honorary and filled for four years. At 
the quarterly general assemblies the bishop and a member of the 
magistracy take the chair. 
The Congregazione appoints its own deputies to supervise its own 
charitable institutions. There are three select committees on relief 
(Altnosencommissiori) of the Congregazione whose special duty is 234 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
outdoor relief, and the Congregazione acts quite independently of 
the city magistracy. When compared with the activity of the Con- 
gregazione, the special work of the city magistracy falls far behind. 
In Galicia, where the charitable institutions and societies have, up to 
the present time, succeeded in defending themselves from the ignor- 
ance of city governments, the communes have not established any 
systems of poor relief worthy of mention. Cracow does not even have 
a separate committee on poor relief, but the necessary work is done 
in the city council and in the magistracy, by the committee on regis- 
tration and military. In Lemberg a committee of the common 
council and special commissions superintend all poor relief, with 
help from the magistracy. Besides, the city presidents possess, in 
both places, unusually broad legal powers as to granting support, 
alms, etc. There are also in Lemberg several subsidized semi- 
municipal institutions for indoor relief which are strictly denomina- 
tional. 
Of all the Austrian domain, Buchowina is the province which has 
advanced least in the organization of its poor relief. With the 
exception of the chief city, this province lacks even the necessary 
agencies for administering poor relief. In Czernowitz there is, 
beside the poor relief maintained by the city with the help of the 
poor council and almoners, a so-called Christian Charitable Institu- 
tion (Armeninstitut}, under the supervision of a purely honorary 
commission. This commission is composed of the mayor, all Chris- 
tian ministers, and five Christian citizens, and meets under the chair- 
manship of the Greek-Oriental archbishop. The object of this insti- 
tution is the assistance of all needy Christian inhabitants of Czernowitz 
(whether entitled to settlement or not) from income derived from its 
funds and from voluntary contributions. Besides, Czernowitz has a 
hospital erected jointly by the city and the savings bank, and under 
the joint management of a mixed commission. 
After this short survey of a hundred years' development of the 
organization of poor relief in communes, it will be necessary only to 
mention the fact that lately, in 1889, the Elberfeld system, which is 
of such inestimable benefit in the German empire, was introduced in 
Trautenau and Reichenberg. This system has been eminently suc- 
cessful in its attempt to call forth in the citizens themselves a lively 
interest in the management of their poor relief; and beside the 
individualization ofspecial cases, it has secured a more rational employ- 
ment of available means and thereby relieved the charity budget 
of the commune. PROBST. 
235 
The relative functions of the higher units of government, namely, 
districts, states and empire, in the organization of poor relief, will be 
treated later. 
II.- The Law of Settlement. 
The right to claim support from a commune depends on two con- 
ditions : first, poverty, and second, settlement {Heimathberechtigung) 
in a commune. The state laws call those persons poor who are not 
able by their own efforts or means to procure for themselves and 
their families the necessaries of life. It must be stated here that the 
duty of a commune to support its poor who are entitled to settlement 
is conditional only, and can be assumed only when no one else is 
obliged by law to take it upon themselves. If these persons have 
means and decline to fulfil their obligations, they are liable, in case 
of refusal, to be compelled to do so by legal measures. But in the 
meantime the commune must assume the care of the poor, retaining 
the right to demand reimbursement for its expenditure from those 
whose duty it is to pay. The law of settlement of 1863 makes the follow- 
ing regulations in regard to obtaining the right of settlement. Only 
citizens of the empire can acquire the right of settlement in a com- 
mune. Every citizen of the empire may become entitled to the 
right of settlement in a commune, but it can belong to him in one 
commune only. This right is based upon (1) birth, (2) marriage, 
(3) admission into a commune (fleimathsverbancT), or (4) appoint- 
ment to public office. 
Legitimate children are entitled to the right of settlement in that 
commune in which the father was entitled to it at the time of their 
birth, or in case he had died previous to their birth, in that commune 
in which he had obtained this right at the time of his death. Illegiti- 
mate children have the right of settlement in the commune in which 
their mother had the right at the time of their birth. Legitimized chil- 
dren, in so far as they have no right ofsettlement of their own, acquire 
the right in the commune in which their father at the time of their 
legitimation held it. The right ofsettlement is not established by the 
adoption of a child or by assuming its care. By marriage women 
acquire the right of settlement in the commune in which the husband 
has acquired the right. 
The right of settlement is also acquired by admission to domicile 
in a commune. The commune itself decides upon applications for 
admission without appeal. Admission to domicile, however,, cannot 236 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
be limited to a certain time, nor can it be granted under conditions 
limiting the privileges granted by the law of settlement. The special 
object of this is to prevent waiver of right of support which may, 
perhaps, be claimed later. 
Duly commissioned court, government, and public treasury 
officials, ecclesiastics and public instructors acquire this right of 
settlement, at the time of their entrance upon their public duties, in 
the commune in which they have been assigned a permanent official 
residence. 
In case of change of settlement, a married woman, if she has not 
been divorced, follows the husband, and retains, even as widow, the 
right of settlement in the commune in which at the time of his death 
her husband had acquired his right. Married women who have been 
divorced or separated by law retain the right of settlement which 
they held at the time of the legal divorce or separation. If a marriage 
is declared illegal, the woman is restored to the right of settlement 
to which she was entitled at the time of her marriage. 
In case ofchange of settlement of parents, legitimate and legitimized 
children follow the father, and illegitimate the mother, if they have no 
right of settlement of their pwn. The children, however, who have a 
right of their own retain the right of settlement in the commune in 
which they acquired it. Illegitimate children who have not been legiti- 
mized at the time of the marriage of their mother retain the right 
of settlement which they had at the time of the marriage, provided 
they had not then acquired a right of their own. The right of settle- 
ment in one commune becomes invalid when settlement is acquired 
in another. 
Under provisions mentioned below, persons without settlement, 
that is, those whose right of settlement cannot be proved at once, are 
assigned to a commune in which they may have a quasi-right until 
their proper place of settlement has been ascertained or until they 
have acquired a right elsewhere. This assignment to other com- 
munes takes place in the following order: i, to the commune in 
which the pauper was living at the time of his assignment to or 
voluntary entrance into the army ; 2, to the commune in which he 
lived, uninterruptedly and at liberty, at least a half-year previously, 
or if he has lived within that period in several communes, to the one 
where he last lived ; 3, to the commune in which he was born ; or 
in case of a foundling, in the one in which he was found; or in case 
of a person who is or has been under the care of a public foundling PROBST. 
237 
institution and whose birthplace or place of finding is unknown, to 
the commune in which the institution is situated ; 4, to the commune 
in which he was at the time of claiming the right of settlement. 
Wives of men without settlement and such of their children as 
have no right of their own, but live with them as members of the 
family, are assigned to the same communes as the men themselves. 
The claim to support which the right of settlement gives to a poor 
person cannot by law be enforced against his commune. If by 
reason of refusal of aid, or of the method of dispensing relief, he 
considers himself ill treated, his only resource is to go to the council 
of state for help. A commune may make a grant of aid dependent 
on residence in its territory; but by the laws of certain states this 
condition is waived if the pauper is confined to the commune in which 
he is living in order to gain a livelihood, or if on account of sickness 
he is unable to travel, or if it is merely a question of temporary 
assistance, or if to support him in his own commune would be 
more expensive. 
A commune is required to wholly support its own poor or to give 
them aid. Support ( Versorgung'j includes the entire maintenance ofa 
poor person, and must begin when there is a total inability, through 
absolute lack of means, to obtain a livelihood or to pay for the neces- 
saries of life. Aid ( Unterstiitzung'), on the contrary, includes such 
necessaries of life as a poor man cannot obtain for himself by his own 
exertions or means, or by help from other sources. Support and aid 
are continuous or temporary according to whether a poor man's 
inability or heed of assistance is permanent or occasional. A poor 
man cannot demand a particular kind of support or aid ; but in the 
selection of different methods of relief considerations of humanity 
must be taken into account. The following different methods of 
poor relief are in operation : i, placing in almshouses; 2, aiding with 
money or in kind ; 3, boarding-out (Privatpflege) ; 4, billeting of 
paupers (Armeneinlage) ; 5, care of the sick ; 6, providing transpor- 
tation. With children, the care of their education is assumed. 
By state laws, poorhouses are declared to be an urgent necessity 
in an organized system of poor relief, and their erection is distinctly 
enjoined upon the commune as a duty. The internal arrangements 
of these institutions are left to the judgment of the commune, but 
entire separation of the sexes, prevention of overcrowding in wards, 
III.-Provisions for Public Poor Relief. 238 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
cleanliness, separation of the sick and of those afflicted with loath- 
some infirmities, and the obtaining of proper employment for those 
still capable of light work, must always be provided for. Treatment 
must be humane, but discipline firm. In cities a distinction is often 
made between city poorhouses (Burger spit ale} and poorhouses 
proper; as the former are intended for the reception of persons who 
possess the right of a citizen, the latter chiefly for the reception of 
persons having the right of settlement only. Want of space in these 
institutions has led to the custom of paying a money equivalent for 
the indoor relief to which they are entitled to persons who are 
adjudged eligible for admission into a poorhouse, but for whom room 
could not be provided at the time. 
Permanent aid in money can be granted only to old and infirm 
persons. This constitutes a kind of poor relief for invalids and the 
aged. Aid in kind is almost entirely limited to temporary aid. It 
consists in clothing, shoes, firewood, food, and sometimes in cities, 
tickets for a people's kitchen. 
When a poor person is boarded-out at the expense of a commune 
he enters the family of the person who supports him, and owes the 
latter reverence and obedience. 
Billeting, or placing with first one family and then another, still 
exists in the Alpine communes where it was formerly the custom. 
Those not allowed to receive such aid are: i, children under four- 
teen years of age, except when accompanied by a parent who is the 
recipient of similar aid ; 2, insane persons, and such blind and sick 
persons as are prevented by their infirmities from moving about; 
3, married persons who, by accepting such relief against their will, 
would be prevented from living together; 4, poor persons afflicted 
with a loathsome or contagious disease. Inmates are obliged to 
work in their places of shelter at such occupations as their strength 
permits. 
The care of the sick incumbent upon a commune includes the pro- 
curing of medical aid, of necessary remedies, and providing the course 
of treatment prescribed by a physician and adapted to the needs of 
the patient. 
The care of orphans involves also the appointment of a legal 
guardian and supervising the appropriation for education. The 
state administration frequently unites with the communes in the care 
of orphans. PROBST. 
239 
Naturalverpflegsstationen instituted lately-in Lower Austria in 
1886, in Upper Austria, Styria and Moravia in 1888, in Vorarlberg 
in 1891, and in Silesia in 1892-come under this head. Their object 
is to check house and street begging and to lessen the number of 
tramps, by giving shelter in return for suitable work to the travelling 
poor who are able-bodied but without employment. As a rule, 
these stations are erected on the principal highways, and are under 
the immediate supervision of the commune in which they are 
situated. 
IV.-Sources of Public Relief. 
The expense of public relief falls mainly on the commune, that is, 
upon its poor fund, which is administered separately from the other 
funds of the commune. The revenues of these poor funds may be 
placed under the following heads: 
1. Revenues from the real estate of the poor funds. 
2. Income from investments and endowments. 
3. A percentage of the gross proceeds of all voluntary public 
auctions. 
4. Fees for admission to membership in the commune in case the 
commune has the right to charge such a fee. 
5. Certain other fees, i. e., fees from licenses for public amusements, 
for hunting privileges, the dog-tax, fines for keeping coffee and wine 
rooms open after the legal time of closing, etc. 
6. Fines imposed by the commune itself, by the state government 
or by other public authorities, and merchandise which has been 
declared forfeit, unless the law has made other provision for their 
disposition. 
7. A third of the property of secular priests or of members of 
secularized religious orders who have died intestate. 
8. Donations, bequests and inheritances. 
9. Collections and voluntary contributions. 
10. Assessments, taxes for purposes of poor relief. 
11. Appropriations by the communes. For if all of these volun- 
tary and legal revenues do not amount to the sum necessary for poor 
relief in a commune, it must be made up by means of taxes, just as in 
the case of other expenses of a commune. 
It is left to the option of the several communes of the same political 
district to unite for poor relief with the approval of the political head 
of the state {Landeschef} and of the council of state {Landesaus- 240 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
sc buss'). Such a union may embrace all departments of poor relief, or 
only special branches of it, as poorhouses or hospitals. 
In Styria, where, as in Bohemia and Galicia, there are certain 
autonomic unions of communes under the name of districts* 
(Jdezirke), it is the duty of the latter to contract for and pay the 
charges of a physician or an accoucheur and the cost of remedies for 
such indigent sick persons as have a right of settlement in a com- 
mune of the district and have not been sent to a public hospital. 
A district must advance the expenses of sick strangers, with the 
right to reimbursement from their native commune. 
To defray the cost of poor relief, districts have at their disposal; 
i, income from capital devoted to poor relief in the district or for 
certain branches of it, and from endowments of institutions available 
for such purposes; 2, donations and legacies expressly given for the 
purpose of district poor relief; 3, legal revenues; 4, voluntary contri- 
butions. 
In Bohemia, when the necessary expenses of public relief are 
so great that the commune cannot possibly meet them without strain- 
ing the resources of its taxable inhabitants, the commune is allowed 
to resort to the district authorities for payment of the required 
deficit. 
The expense of the relief of the sick poor is chiefly borne by the 
state treasuries. 
The treasury of the state in which the commune of the poor per- 
son is situated must be called on to pay expenses incurred for him 
in a public hospital or in a public foundling institution, when they 
cannot be collected from his commune. The state treasury must 
besides compensate a commune for its expenditure in the case of 
poor persons who have been assigned to it because of their birth 
in its public lying-in institution. By the laws of several states, the 
state treasury must pay either in part or entirely for the support of 
poor persons who are sent to live in a commune pending the 
establishment of their claim to the right of settlement. 
In Lower Austria a special state poor association {Landesarmen- 
verbancB), with a state poor fund, has been established for the pur- 
pose of making restitution to the communes. (Law of February 1, 
1885, L. G. B. No. 240.) 
This includes also, besides the repayments required by the state 
laws, indemnity in the following cases: 
* These are to be distinguished from political districts. KOBATSCH. 
241 
1. For the aid and support of the poor who belong to Lower Austria 
and yet have lived away from their native commune for ten years 
consecutively, or have never lived in it; in the latter case, however, 
they are supported only when by birth or marriage they have 
acquired the right of settlement. 
2. The state's poor fund contributes to a sum raised by a combina- 
tion of communes to defray the common expenses for certain 
branches of poor relief, especially for the erection and support of 
poorhouses and hospitals. 
By the same law of Lower Austria there was created in every 
political district an honorary district poor director who superintends 
the administration of poor relief. By order of the council of state, 
the duty of reporting and advising on all matters pertaining thereto 
falls upon this director. 
The expenses of the Naturalverpflegzingsstationen mentioned at 
the end of the last section are sometimes, as in Silesia, borne imme- 
diately by the state ; or the communes of a judicial district (Gerichts- 
bezirke') are combined in a union which is responsible for all 
expenses incurred by its stations. 
POOR RELIEF IN VIENNA, AND ITS REFORM. 
DR. RUDOLPH KOBATSCH, VIENNA. 
[TRANSLATION.] 
Prefatory. 
A good system of poor relief is the beginning of every earnest social policy. 
Vienna is confronted with an event of great significance to its 
inhabitants, as well as to its administration, namely, the reform of its 
system of poor relief. It is intended to do away with the antiquated 
idea of the right of settlement (fleimatrechf), the insufficiency 
of the present charitable institutions, and the perceptible lack of 
competent charity overseers, and to abolish the scattering of the 
charity funds and the old order of relief. In their stead a system 
of poor relief is to be adopted which will be more in accord with 
modern requirements. There is a pressing need for regulating the 242 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
relation between communal aid and private charitable societies, of 
which latter, the imperial city, with its "Viennese golden hearts," 
has a large number. This is necessary in order to properly guard 
against pernicious duplication in charity. Finally, it will also be 
necessary to give intelligent attention to preventive measures against 
pauperism and beggary, and to better provide for the care of pauper 
children. Thus an effective and well organized system of poor relief 
is to be instituted. 
In view of this thorough reorganization, which, though it may not 
be entirely planned, ought nevertheless to be carried to completion, 
it appeared to the author to be no idle undertaking to bring the 
present poor relief system to the knowledge of the general public 
by means of short sketches, and to place before them in the clearest 
light the individual points in which reform is needed. The state 
governments, the magistracies and the communual governments of 
Austria will also take a lively interest in the approaching reorganiza- 
tion of poor relief in the metropolis of the Empire ; for it may serve 
to discover a better modus vivendi in the intercourse between local 
poor administrations, wherein the question of support of persons 
coming and going, and the apportionment of the consequent expense, 
cuts so important a figure and constitutes a source of constant 
litigation. 
Opportunity was given the author, who has been occupied for a 
long time as Conceptsbeamter in the poor department of Vienna, to 
obtain an insight into the various branches of poor relief that require 
reform, and to weigh and criticize the present status of affairs. As a 
result of his comparative studies, especially in relation to conditions 
in Germany, he has come to the conclusion that the evils of the 
settlement principle {Heimatsprincip') cannot be checked by the 
introduction of domicile relief (JJnterstiitzungs'wohnsitz\ in what- 
ever form; because under domicile relief the question as to whether 
the pauper should or should not be assisted would depend on other 
reasons than the simple fact of his known poverty and need, which 
should be conclusive; while the cost to those under obligation to 
give relief would not be less, nor would the work be any simpler. 
It follows from this that a radical, effective solution of the pending 
questions can be effected only by a complete concentration, a nation- 
alization ofthe charity funds-maintaining, however, a strictly individ- 
ualizing and more preventive poor relief policy; and that in the 
place of the present contributions of communes and states, the KOBATSCH. 
243 
actual burden of poor relief should be borne by a general, elastic and 
progressive poor rate, which, as will be seen in this paper, would 
entail only a slight advance in the present taxation. 
As an important argument against this plan of reform, it will be 
claimed that, if adopted, still more indigent persons would flock to 
Vienna from the open country ; that as a result the poorer strata of 
the people would be increased in number ; that the opportunities 
for obtaining work would diminish, and that the expenditure for 
poor relief would be swelled considerably; that at the same time the 
smaller communities would obtain a disproportionate relief from the 
burden, and that the question of the unemployed would assume a 
still more critical aspect. 
At present we are confronted with two opposing policies: the 
complete adoption of the humanitarian idea, and the policy which 
considers the community rather than the individual. 
In pursuing the former policy, one is obviously guided by the con- 
sideration that a measure which involves great loss to a portion, and 
that a large portion, of the community cannot possibly redound to 
the real and permanent advantage of society as a whole, especially 
when this loss means economic and social death; whereas the sacri- 
fice which must be made to prevent or repair the loss requires 
nothing more than the giving of a small portion of one's worldly 
goods. 
Finally, at the present day, in theory at least, every pauper must 
be assisted, and it will not be otherwise in the future; but the trans- 
portation to the domicile, the pushing from one place to another, the 
wrangling over indemnities, and the more easy giving of money 
rather than relief in kind, and other inadequacies of the charity 
system, might be removed. And to do this, would not any one be 
willing to pay the slight cost and to pay it gladly ? 
Lbning has truly said in Schonberg's "Handbuch"* that the 
experiment of dividing the burden of poor relief according to the 
principle of equivalents for profit gained must be abandoned, because 
the basis of public poor relief does not consist in letting such persons 
as have brought profit to a community by their economic activity 
receive when disabled an equivalent therefor ; furthermore, that it is 
the state which directs poor relief and is best fitted to intrust its 
administration to the proper agencies.f 
*3rd edition, Part III, p. 995. 
t Compare relief of pauper children, asylums for the insane and feeble- 
minded, etc. See also the very instructive article by Dr. Rauchberg, "Zur PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
244 
If the state would apply itself to a good and straightforward policy 
in all the spheres of social activity, it would be possible for a city to 
prosper and grow stronger even with the increased influx of the 
rural population (who are mostly of the better kind) in search of 
work. Why should Vienna fear an eventual rapid increase in popu- 
lation, when Budapest is being pushed forward by every possible 
means to the rank of a metropolis, when Paris and Berlin are grow- 
ing by an influx of population,* and when in all other places where 
no crusade, open or secret, is carried on against free emigration, nor 
a European Chinese-wall system advocated, the expenditures for poor 
relief are not relatively increasing. 
As to the details of the reform, attention is invited to the paper 
itself. That it contains more censure than praise must be explained 
by the fact that the existing conditions create an urgent need of 
criticism. Therefore we want no superficial policy, but a combat 
with visor open. 
I. 
General bases of the Austrian Poor Law ; Settlement; Domicile 
Relief; Lower Austrian Law of February 1, 1885; Nationaliza- 
tion and a general Poor Tax. 
It is rumored-and the newspaper reports about it increase from 
day to day-that steps are again being taken to reform the poor 
relief system of Vienna. To judge from what has been published,f 
it appears that at this time also only a partial reform of the poor 
laws is contemplated, namely, an application of the Elberfeld, or as 
far as I can learn, of the Berlin system to Vienna. The entire recon- 
struction, however, of these important social institutions, and above 
all the thorough revision of the settlement law of 1863, the question 
of providing work, workhouses, newly framed poor laws, consolida- 
tion of the many large and small funds, etc., all these will for the 
present remain in suspense. 
But even if the proposed reform were effected, which is earnestly 
to be desired, only one, though a very important feature of the Ger- 
man system would be adopted, namely, the individualization of poor 
Kritik des osterreichischen Heimatsrechtes," in the Oesterreichische Zeitschrift 
fur Volkswirthschaft, Socialpolitik und Verivaltung, Vol. II, part I, p. 87 ff. 
*The natural increase of population in Vienna from 1881 to 1890 was 9.54 
per cent. ; the increase by immigration only 6.15 per cent. 
tSee, for instance, the Neue Freie Presse, March 30, 1893. KOBATSCH. 
245 
relief, with obligatory gratuitous service on the part of overseers. 
It is doubtful whether all the other deficiencies of the present relief 
system will be removed by this means. 
To be sure, it is not possible to determine beforehand with abso- 
lute certainty which system of poor relief would be the best and 
would serve as the only perfect model for all poor laws. 
The best of all would probably be no poor relief at all; that is to 
say, such a perfect social policy as to all the economic conditions 
closely allied to poor relief-protection and insurance of artisans, 
manual and intellectual laborers, complete development of benefit 
societies guardianship laws 
gesetze}, etc., that the causes of poverty would disappear. But these 
ideals can hardly even be approached in the present state of society. 
We can see besides that in every country and city-in each accord- 
ing to its respective national and traditional local customs -the same 
end may be striven for, and if at all possible, attained. It will, how- 
ever, scarcely be denied that in order to secure the prosperous 
development of the energies and the desired application of the 
means which are now and then given to the service of poor relief, 
certain general requirements are absolutely essential-requirements 
which may be stated about as follows : that poverty which is known 
(inability to work, lack of employment, incapacity for self-support, 
sickness, loss of parents, etc.) entitles to aid as such, regardless of 
settlement or duration of residence; unity and comprehensiveness 
of administration, support and aid; adequate funds and a sufficient 
number of charitable agencies; special fitness of persons who come 
into immediate contact with the poor for their calling ; the differentia- 
tion of persons totally unfit to work, whether permanently, tempor- 
arily, or both, from those who are only partially disabled, as well as 
from those who are afraid of and unwilling to work on the one hand, 
and from those able to and anxious for work, but who for reasons 
beyond their control are out of employment, on the other ; further- 
more, strict individualization, direct investigations as often as possible 
as to the means and income of the pauper, the causes of his poverty, 
possibly his illness, etc.; constant guarding over, and the strictest 
measures that may be socially justifiable, against " afraid-of-works " 
and professional beggars, and especially exhaustive care of pauper 
children of every kind and of indigent young persons. 
For many reasons, Vienna poor relief, with its abundant means 
and countless private benevolent associations, has not been able to 
take this position. 246 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
In order that we may judge as to these deficiencies • and the 
thorough reforms that are necessary, the following sketch of the 
existing provisions governing Vienna poor relief is given. 
The excellent and exhaustive description of the Austrian poor 
relief system in the Handwbrterbuch der Staatswissenschaften* by 
Baron von Call, relieves us of the task of explaining the Viennese 
municipal poor relief. It will suffice to say that in Austria the right 
of a citizen of a state to poor relief or aid follows from his right of 
settlement in any Austrian commune. The duty of the commune 
extends only to persons entitled to the right of settlement therein, 
whether they have made their residence ("the centre of their 
economic energy ") there or not. The only conditions are that the 
person must have no relatives (parents, children or husband) who 
are able and in duty bound to assist him, and that he has no other 
private or legal claims that may be made good. In the latter case 
the commune is bound to care for the pauper until his possible claim 
may be settled. The commune itself has the right of determining 
the kind and amount of aid to be given, and this may be limited to 
the relief of urgent wants only. The commune may legally compel 
unemployed able-bodied persons without means of support to work 
according to their physical ability, as a return for the aid extended, 
whether in money or in kind. 
The communes must provide for sick persons either in public 
institutions or private houses, and provide medical aid, attendance 
and medicine. Orphaned and deserted children must be raised and 
taught a trade at the expense of the commune, the latter appointing 
a guardian over them. In case the child afterwards comes into the 
possession of an estate, the commune has a right to enter a claim 
against it for expenses incurred. The commune may prosecute this 
claim to indemnity in the state courts and not before a civil tribunal, 
although the rulings of the supreme court of Austria in this matter 
are not definite. In this respect also there would have to be a 
change in the new settlement law, or better still in the poor law, so 
that there would be a shorter way to the settlement of claims for 
indemnity on the part of communes or, in case of nationalization of 
poor relief, on the part of the state. For social political reasons, 
however, this would apply only in case the estate in question is of 
sufficient importance, and not when such an estate devolves upon 
* Vol. I, pp. 862 ff. KOBATSCH. 
247 
the assisted person; then it would only be necessary to discontinue 
the relief. 
Let us now turn to the discussion of points requiring reform in 
the Austrian settlement law (of 1863) as far as they relate to the 
duty of communes to extend relief to the poor. First of all, it must 
be remarked that the social-economic conditions upon which these 
regulations are based have changed, and one might say, broadened, 
perceptibly. The former close connection between a commune and 
its members has not existed for a long time. Since the right of 
unrestricted emigration has been recognized, since the enormously 
increased industrial activity has driven the rural population into the 
cities, and industrial competition, on the other hand, requires the 
people to remove from one city to another, the traditional attributes 
of communes have disappeared and have given place to a new order 
of things. It would be digressing to speak in this connection of the 
effects which this inland migration has exercised and still exercises 
over the well-being of the individual districts. It must be acknowl- 
edged as a fact, however, that poverty and its attendant conditions, 
particularly in large cities, are caused by the economic life there and 
do not, therefore, affect small communes which send their inhabi- 
tants year after year to the centres of trade and industry. 
As, therefore, the poverty in cities is bound up with their economic 
life, the burden of poor relief should fall on the cities.* Instead of 
this natural order of things, the duty of giving poor relief devolves 
in Austria upon the place of settlement. For instance, community A 
may be obliged to aid, and even receive in its poorhouse, husband, 
wife, children and grandchildren, even though they have lived for 
decades in community B. The few departures from this ancient 
principle which the settlement law recognizes (§§18 ff.) come up 
very rarely in practice. Thus arise the cruel vexations instead of 
benefits, the nonsensical and often tedious negotiations, after which 
the commune of settlement either refuses all aid to the pauper, 
or if his right of s'ettlement can at all be proven or is acknowl- 
edged, requires his removal (Abschiebung} or transportation home 
(Heimbefor derung'). We then witness the disgraceful settlement 
proceedings, during the progress of which the applicant for aid may 
either die of starvation or become a beggar, vagabond or criminal, 
or at best may obtain temporary aid of the most trifling nature out 
*Not exclusively, for the country and state are as much interested in the 
economic destinies of large cities as the cities themselves. 248 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
of funds provided for the purpose by such sensible philanthropists 
as have devoted their donations simply to the poor of Vienna without 
regard to rights of settlement. 
It need not be demonstrated how perniciously these things act 
upon the so-called morale of charity. But among the people the 
opinion prevails that one can, by many years of residence, attain a 
real natural right-and more than this, a social right. Let us illus- 
trate the sad consequences which this system of poor relief carries 
with it. A man, otherwise honorable, will not marry a girl whom he 
loves and with whom he is living, because she and her children 
would thereby lose their precious right of settlement in Vienna. In 
another case, two persons will not marry for the reason that the man 
or the woman draws a pension from the municipality of Vienna, and 
the marriage of the pensioner would cut off the allowance. Why is 
this so ? The rationale of these grounds for cancellation is difficult 
to understand. It may have been thought that marriage might be 
used as a means of obtaining settlement privileges, or it may have 
been thought that if persons marry they ought to have the necessary 
means. These are certainly no valid reasons. Let us examine more 
closely. In 1890, out of a total population of 817,299 in Vienna, 
only 301,035, or about 36 per cent, were entitled to right of settle- 
ment. In 1890, 5157 persons were sent away because they were 
not entitled to righf of settlement. Of these, 2953 were over 24 
years of age, and 2110 were sent away on account of lack of means 
of subsistence. 
The expenditures incurred for all this were certainly not justifiable, 
and the social effects of these measures were exceedingly doubtful. 
There was not wanting a perception of these unhealthy conditions; 
they simply acted praeter legem, or even contra legem, rightly 
remembering, " summumjus, summa injuria." But the result was 
that matters only became more complicated and complaints uni- 
versal. The somewhat stereotyped poor law of Vienna (we shall 
return to the needed reforms in detail later on) was to a great extent 
made practically inoperative, and most of the corrections were made 
in order to repair to some extent the injury done by the settlement 
law. Pending the trial of a claim for settlement, the claimant was 
given financial aid at regular intervals out of general funds, etc., 
although this could be given only once in six months. If a pen- 
sioner married notwithstanding the prohibition of marriage, his 
allowance was cut off for a month or two and then resumed. KOBATSCH. 
249 
Those not having the right of settlement were gladly sent to their 
homes ; as far as the law affecting removals (Schubgesetz') did not 
prevent, they were even given money to pay their travelling expenses 
-only to be found back in Vienna again in a short time. 
Even the Lower Austrian law of February i, 1885, regarding the 
establishment of a national poor association did not have the desired 
effect. Vienna was especially to be relieved, in that the national 
association was to reimburse communes for expenses incurred, 
especially in case of persons who were sent to a commune by virtue 
of their birth in a public lying-in hospital situated within its bound- 
aries, or of their having resided there in accordance with §19 of 
the settlement law, or who, on account of an uninterrupted absence 
of over 10 years from their (Lower Austrian) commune, practically 
never lived there. But cases of the first kind rarely occur, and even 
the provisions for the latter, well worked out as they were in theory, 
resulted in no important relief to the poor funds of Vienna; for the 
number of cases where assistance was granted in accordance with the 
law of 1885, that is, transferred from Vienna to the national associa- 
tion, amounted to only 3040 during the first half of 1891, with an 
expense of 103,563 florins, and 3190 cases costing 107,185 florins 
during the first half of 1892. This is scarcely 5 per cent, of the sum 
which the city of Vienna expended in 1890 (2,244,520 florins) for 
pensions, orphans, etc., and homes for the aged. It is considerably 
less than the money distributed by the municipality of Vienna to 
pensioners residing outside the city, but who have not lived away 
from it continuously for ten years, and therefore still retain their 
right of settlement in Vienna. There were, of this class, 5845, 
receiving 225,008 florins. 
But this law was not beneficial even to the poor themselves. Of 
817,299 persons living in Vienna in 1890, there were 301,035 (36.8 
per cent.) natives, and only 87,978 (10.7 percent.) persons belonging 
to Lower Austrian communes. On the other hand, there were 
428,286 (52.4 per cent.) whose settlement, that is, right to relief when 
destitute, was in other parts of Austria or in foreign countries. The 
number of paupers among the 87,978 Lower Austrians was relatively 
smaller than among the 428,286 individuals belonging to Bohemia, 
Galicia, Hungary, Croatia, etc.; it therefore follows that in order to 
really alleviate the hardships of the settlement principle and to 
relieve the city to any appreciable extent, this law would have to be 
extended to cover the rest of the crown lands, and the number of 250 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
years would have to be reduced from ten to five (as in the German 
empire it is desired to raise the period necessary to acquire the right 
to domicile relief from two to five years), if the settlement principle 
is to be maintained. Furthermore, it would not be necessary to be 
so strict in regard to the proof of uninterrupted residence of the ten 
or five years, as the Lower Austrian committee of state has been. 
The important question now arises, what system can be adopted 
in place of the settlement principle? There are several ways of pro- 
ceeding. The one which we would most naturally adopt in Austria 
would be the German method, that is, the system of domicile relief. 
Let us first see what objections have been made to this system. 
It is quite evident that everything did not at once change for the 
better with the enactment of the German law of June 6, 1870, where- 
by the Prussian system of relief at place of residence was extended 
to Saxony and the South German countries. First of all, demands 
were made that instead of domicile relief the burden of poor relief 
should fall upon the larger autonomous bodies, the states and the 
empire. 
The defenders of the existing German poor law* were opposed by 
the claim that the communes of domicile try to evade the duty of 
giving relief by transporting applicants, because the two years' term 
of acquiring residence with poor relief privileges often leads to great 
expense which is generally not economically justifiable ; for there is 
no due proportion between a sojourn of only two years in a com- 
mune and a presumably unlimited obligation to aid. It was claimed 
that the period necessary to acquire the right to relief should be 
generally a longer one. Furthermore, it was maintained, as was 
emphasized in the recent debates in the Reichstag on the amend- 
ments to the present law, that no one could become entitled to 
domicile relief in his own right until after his twenty-fourth year. 
Against the nationalization of poor relief is urged the injustice to the 
pauper, in that in case of continued inability to earn a livelihood he 
may be returned to his commune of residence, is accompanied by dis- 
proportionate expense. It is claimed that the poor who are sup- 
ported by the state are just the ones who have contributed toward 
the increase of the spirit of restlessness. 
Of the many amendments that have been proposed, varying from 
the reintroduction ofthe settlement principle to the complete adop- 
* See Loning a. a. O. and the Handworterbuch filr Staatsuuissenschafteny "Ar- 
•menivesen." KOBATSCH. 
251 
tion of relief at place of residence, the most practical appears 
to us to be that which seeks to draw on the larger political bodies 
for the entire or partial burden of expense, whether it be with refer- 
ence only to persons permanently disabled, or to all persons receiv- 
ing relief outside their poor law domicile. In general, it might be 
well to try to avoid as much as possible the intricate system of 
dividing the expenditures into fourths and thirds, and to levy a poor 
tax on the commune, district, country, and eventually even the state, 
according to the per capita of population, the proportion to be 
determined by the average number of persons assisted during a term 
of years. And this leads us to the consideration of another way of 
reforming the Vienna poor relief (one which we can think of only in 
connection with the Austrian relief system as a whole), namely, the 
question of putting the burden of contribution on the states and the 
empire, as well as to the question of the poor rate. 
If we look at England, Sweden, and other countries which cover 
their expenses for poor relief by means of a poor rate (besides state 
contributions, funds, bequests, etc.), the thought of an elastic poor 
tax will not seem so dreadful as may at first appear. The right to 
poor relief should not be established against a commune either by 
reason of settlement or of a long or a short residence there, but 
because it had its origin in a social economic disease which con- 
sumes state, province and commune; it should be based solely upon 
actual want. The duty of poor relief is incumbent upon the people 
as a whole, and as such they should raise the means. 
The poor statistics of Austria are too incomplete to make it pos- 
sible to ascertain the amount expended annually for the poor in 
the whole empire. The publications of the Royal Imperial Statis- 
tical Central Commission show only the expenditures for mainten- 
ance, and those only for special cases of poor relief. We find the 
following expenditures for the year 1889: 
For orphanages, children's asylums, etc fl. 1,067,381 
For (3) workhouses {Arbeitsanstalten) 41,080 
For homes ( Versorgungsanstalteri) 3,067,203 
For poorhouses (Armeninstituteri) 4,682,996 
Total fl. 8,858,660 
This is evidently much too small an amount; and to be convinced 
of this one need only compare it with the Vienna charity budget. In 252 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM 
1890 the expenditure from public funds for poor relief amounted, 
in round numbers, to 5! million florins, or over 65 per cent, of the 
sum for the whole empire. 
It will therefore be hardly possible by such an inductive method 
to fix even approximately the total expenditure for poor relief in 
Austria. We shall therefore endeavor to supply the figures by 
deduction or analogy. The following table will serve this purpose :* 
State and Year to which 
figures relate. 
Total expenditure 
for 
charity purposes. 
Per 100 inhabitants. 
Cost per capita of 
persons aided. 
Amount. 
Number 
assisted. 
Absolute. 
Omitting 
cost of ad- 
ministra- 
tion. 
Germany (1885) 
Berlin 
90,282,160 M. 
7,318,760 M. 
190 M. 
556 M. 
2-5 
36-57 M. 
91.5 M. 
• 
Italy (1880) 
81,496,000 1. 
260-302 1. 
France (1881-1885): 
Bureaux de bienfaisance 
Hospitals and alms- 
houses {Etablissements 
hospitallers')........... 
33,620,000 fr. 
108,985,000 fr. 
89 fr. 
288 fr. 
22 fr. 
18.7 fr. 
Total 
142,605,000 fr. 
Av. 189 fr. 
England (1881-1885) .. 
Direct expenditures. 
.£15,080,168 
8,316,000 
2-3 
The poor rate in 
1883 was 6 per ct. 
of the revenue 
from real estate. 
Austria (1881-1885), 
maintenance 
6,213,000 fl. 
3° fl- 
1-2 
16.5-65 fl. 
The above data, especially the comparative figures, do not of course 
admit of any very conclusive deductions as to a greater or less degree 
of poverty, or as to the greater or less expense of charity in the coun- 
tries mentioned. But for Austria, whose expenses are reckoned far 
too low at 6} million florins, an approximation may be made from 
the German budget. The figures relating to England and France 
cannot well be used for comparison on account of the great economic 
differences between those countries and the empire on the Danube. 
The population of the German empire is about double that of 
Austria (50 as against 24 millions). There would then be for Austria 
* Compiled on the basis of statistics given in the Handivbrterbuch Jiir Staats- 
ivissenschaften. KOBATSCH. 
253 
a total expenditure of 45 million marks or 27 million florins for 
charitable purposes. Of course the inhabitants of Austria would 
then be taxed 0.95 mark or 0.57 florin per capita, instead of 0.30 
florin. But 0.30 does not by any means represent the true quota, as 
it is obtained only from the amount spent in relief; and if the cost 
of administration, with the present division of means and energies, 
were added, we should have to increase the quota to at least 0.50 
florin. 
But we do not recommend the introduction of the system of 
domicile relief, and we rather believe that with the centralization of 
the poor funds as suggested, the cost of poor relief would be con- 
siderably reduced and the pauper would be assisted promptly and 
thoroughly. 
At any rate, the resulting total amount (after deducting all existing 
funds, trusts, investments, etc., which would have to be converted into 
national property administered by the communes under the control 
of the states), would be allotted as a poor tax among the states and 
communes according to the abovementioned criteria. These would 
then levy upon the inhabitants in the shape of a progressive income 
tax, leaving a considerable minimum exempt from taxation. In 
Vienna where the community must annually expend from 900,000 to 
1,300,000 florins for poor relief, this would mean for the inhabitants 
an increase of 3.3 per cent, in the tax rate-certainly an endurable 
" tightening of the taxation screws." And this might be reduced if 
the charity system itself were more rational and the management of 
it more simple. 
II. 
Poor Relief Regulations in Vienna ; Overseers of the Poor. 
While considering the subject of comprehensive changes in the 
Austrian charity system, before we discuss the actual administration 
of poor relief and the charity budget of Vienna, it is proper, in my 
opinion, to present first the concrete details of the Vienna poor laws, 
and the complete mechanism of the various forms of relief work, 
especially as an early reform of parts is far more probable than the 
reform of the whole. 
By virtue of the provisions of the settlement law, the municipality 
of Vienna has drawn up its own " Regulations for poor relief in the 
charity districts of Vienna " (last edition, 1888). By their aid we 254 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
shall now enter upon the discussion of the details of Vienna poor 
relief. 
The city of Vienna forms a charity district, uniformly governed by 
magistrates, who are controlled by an elective municipal council 
(GemeinderatK). The business management of every municipal dis- 
trict (there were formerly io, now 19) is conducted through the 
" charity office." Each charity office divides its activities among 
several precincts, and the affairs of each precinct are entrusted to the 
care of an overseer The office is in charge of a general 
manager (Institutsvorsteher), assisted by from one to three officials. 
The services of the overseers of the poor are given voluntarily and 
without compensation. Any male resident having a right of settle- 
ment in Vienna, and of unblemished character, of whom it is known 
that he would like to hold this office from a philanthropic feeling, and 
that he is capable of discharging it, may be elected. Guardians for 
orphans are elected in the same way. 
The overseer of a precinct, who is elected by the district board 
(Aezirksvertretung'), is required to recommend for aid only such 
persons as are really in need, and he must avoid any improper taxing 
of the relief fund. If a pauper applies for aid to his proper overseer, 
it is the duty of the latter to convince himself by personal investiga- 
tion, made "with tact and kindness," that the applicant is in need. 
In cases of pressing necessity he is to take proper action as promptly 
as possible. To impudent, lazy, and professional applicants he must 
firmly refuse assistance. At intervals, but at least twice a year, he 
is to look after all the poor in his district. 
Aid may be given once without an examination of the applicant. 
If, however, it is a case of a person returning periodically, or a tem- 
porary or permanent pension, the overseer must make an investiga- 
tion and enter the result upon a special blank form. This, together 
with other documents and reports relating to the case, he must lay 
before the next charity conference, which must be convened at least 
once a month, or if there is danger in delay, he must at once turn the 
papers over to the chairman of the charity office of his district for 
further action. The decisions of the conferences are transmitted 
monthly, the single cases at any time, as special reports, to the charity 
department of the magistracy. This department has power to deter- 
mine the legality of all grants of pensions, etc., or of admissions into 
asylums; so the decrees of the magistracy have to pass through 
a rather long course, as follows: after they have been signed by the KOBATSCH. 
255 
poor commissioner they pass through the charity register for entry 
or revision of the registry sheet; then having passed through the 
bookkeeping department for entry upon the records kept there by 
districts, and for the issue of pension books, which are evidence of the 
right to pensions, they finally arrive in the engrossing room, whence 
they are sent to the respective charity offices. The actual payments 
of pensions take place at the district charity offices near the end of 
each month. The time therefore which elapses between the first 
application and the final settlement of the matter amounts to an 
average of from two to three months under the most favorable condi- 
tions, and even in cases of special reports, which are rare and fall to 
the lot of only the more fortunate poor, it takes three to four weeks. 
This exact presentation of the course of business will certainly not 
seem entirely superfluous, for it shows, in the first place, the bureau- 
cratic methods of Vienna poor relief, and then it furnishes a negative 
illustration of the old proverb, "Bis dal, qui cito dad." The process 
of engrossing, and even the recording of the decisions, could be dis- 
pensed with without injury; the filling in of the convenient pension 
book would be quite sufficient. 
Now as regards poor relief itself, the law defines as " poor " such 
persons as can no longer meet the most pressing needs of life. 
This legal minimum of existence is even specified in figures-an 
unjustifiable application of arithmetic in social legislation. It is 
specified that in order to obtain a permanent pension, the applicant 
must not be in receipt of any income whatever the total amount of 
which equals or exceeds 5 florins a month or 60 florins a year. 
But a pauper cannot make good his claim for assistance as a matter 
of right except through the tedious course prescribed by municipal 
ordinances. These declare poor relief to be a public legal right,* 
whereas we have already alluded to decisions to the contrary by the 
supreme court. The latter has declared the granting of a pension to 
be " in the nature of a wasteful loan " (yorschussweise geleisteter 
Aufwand} according to §1042 a. b. G. B. 
The second requisite for obtaining a pension, etc., is, as was shown, 
the settlement right. It is just in the largest city of the empire that 
the hardships which the settlement principle carries with it are most 
sharply brought to light. Those who are not entitled to settlement 
*In like manner th€ German law recognizes the duty of the charity unions 
to give relief, and consequently the right of the state to compel these unions 
( Verbdnde') to fulfil that duty. 256 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
rights (immigrant laborers and artisans) are among the poorest 
classes of the capital. They cannot acquire settlement because they 
cannot afford to pay the necessary taxes, which vary in amount 
according to the duration of residence in Vienna,* and are relatively 
very high, and would occasion besides much trouble and loss of 
time. 
The settlement law, cited in the above paragraph, is rarely applied 
where certain conditions under which homeless persons may be referred 
to their places of settlement are prescribed ; and when it is so applied 
it is done under protest. It even happens that for a short time aid 
may be refused to a pauper who has only recently acquired the right of 
settlement. The idea appears to be, that if one has lived a consider- 
able time in Vienna he should acquire a right of settlement. But 
how can a person without means do this, when there is no gradation 
in taxation? And if a poor person has finally acquired settlement 
he is, forsooth, turned away because he has only just gained his 
right. The municipality acts from a correct standpoint, economi- 
cally-for the settlement law amounts to very little socially. 
But there are serious faults also in the organization of the overseers 
of the poor. First of all, the number is too small. The table oppo- 
site will show the necessity for reform in this respect, t 
It appears, in the first place, from the above data, that 3.91 per 
cent, (maximum 5.32 per cent., minimum 1.64 per cent.) of those 
having the right of settlement were assisted by means of pensions, 
education and orphans' allowances, not including those receiving 
financial aid on single occasions, or who were admitted to homes for 
the aged, or placed under medical care. If we add the 4,072 persons 
in the various homes, the proportion will be raised to six per cent. 
The figures for those receiving medical attention or financial aid on 
single occasions cannot be used here because, as they appear in the 
Vienna statistical annual, there is no way of determining how often 
assistance was given to the same persons and making the necessary 
deductions. 
We find furthermore in the above tablet that, on an average, there 
* For 20 years residence, io florins ; for io years, 50 florins ; for 5 years, 100 
florins ; and for immediate acquirement, 200 florins. 
fThe data for the new districts, which are not yet officially published, would 
scarcely alter the result for the better. 
J The forms of assistance enumerated in the table do not cover the whole, 
but include at any rate the most important work of the overseers. KOBATSCH. 
257 
Districts. 
Population, 
December 3t, 
1890. 
Persons having settle- 
ment in Vienna. 
1890. 
Persons receiving 
Recipients in general. 
Area in 
Hectares. 
Number of 
regular 
overseers. 
Under one overseer. 
Pensions. 
Orphans' 
pensions 
and allow- 
ances for 
education. 
Total 
number. 
Percentage 
of total 
having 
settlement. 
Number. 
Percentage. 
Number of 
recipients. 
Hectares. 
I 
67,029 
26,625 
39-72 
405 
31 
436 
I.64 
283 
32 
13-6 
8.8 
II 
158,372 
39.582 
24-99 
942 
261 
1,203 
3-04 
2,940 
65 
18-5 
45-o 
III 
110,279 
40,499 
36-72 
1,266 
220 
1,486 
3 67 
604 
72 
20.6 
8-3 
IV 
59335 
24,678 
41-73 
655 
132 
787 
3.18 
179 
47 
16.8 
3-8 
V 
84,031 
34,494 
41-05 
1,390 
405 
i,79S 
5-20 
254 
58 
30-9 
4-4 
VI 
63,901 
28,737 
44-97 
1,013 
I9I 
1,204 
4.18 
!38 
43 
28.0 
3-i 
VII 
69,859 
33.6o8 
48.11 
I»178 
212 
J.39O 
4-13 
145 
59 
23-6 
2.4 
/VIII 
48,976 
22,438 
45.81 
* 981 
214 
I,'95 
5-32 
104 
46 
25-9 
2.2 
IX 
81,170 
32,864 
40 49 
1,142 
297 
i,439 
4-38 
264 
57 
25.2 
4.6 
X 
74.547 
17,510 
23-49 
512 
272 
784 
4-47 
625 
47 
16.6 
13-3 
Citizen 
Pensions, 
• • 
2,295 
• • 
Total.... 
817,299 
3OI>°35 
36.83 
11,779 
2,235 
14,014 
3-9i 
5,540 
526 
26.0 
io-5 258 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
are 26 assisted persons (the extremes being 30.9 and 13.6) and an 
area of 10.5 hectares to one overseer. This figure is decidedly 
large. About the same averages appear for the years 1891 and 
1892, although nine new precincts have been added, among them 
being those with a poorer population. 
There is an urgent necessity for an increase in the number of 
charity overseers and orphans' guardians to at least 2,000, or about 
fourfold, so that in future there will be seven assisted persons to 
one charity overseer. Aside from the absolute increase in number, 
the present inequalities in regard to the area and population of the 
precincts would have to be obviated. In small District I one charity 
overseer looks after 13 to 14 persons, while in District II, which is 
ten times as large, 18 to 19 are under the care of one overseer. In 
District V, which is about as large as the inner city, 31 persons 
fall to one overseer, or three times as many as in District I. 
Again, when an overseer becomes ill or leaves the service the busi- 
ness is blocked, because the election of a successor cannot be held 
promptly and another overseer cannot be doubly burdened. The 
question, therefore, arises, what shall be the future position of over- 
seers of the poor and guardians of orphans? Shall it be obligatory ? 
Shall compensation be provided? Shall there be a penalty for a 
refusal to accept the office? In my judgment, there would be no 
need of compensation if a sufficient number of overseers were 
provided for-say one for 6 to 7 individuals or families, especially 
as each overseer would be relieved of part of his burden through 
such a reform. On the other hand, if a person had any scruples 
about accepting this honorary office, he could be punished by an 
increase of his municipal taxes (Gemeindeumlagen), or a limitation 
of his right of suffrage. Of course, these reforms must be made 
without affecting rights of citizenship in the state, but in a strictly 
legal way, quite apart from the fact that they would otherwise meet 
with much opposition in the municipal council. 
The Berlin system could thus be imitated. There, any voting 
citizen is in duty bound to accept a position in the municipal admin- 
istration without pay, and to hold office at least three years. If he 
retires from the same without having a legitimate excuse,* he can be 
made to forfeit his rights of citizenship for from three to six years 
and to pay a higher rate of municipal taxation. 
* Such would naturally have to be specified in the Vienna law also. KOBATSCH. 
259 
It may be remarked that with the fourfold increase in the number 
of overseers (6 or 7 paupers to one overseer), we should still fall far 
below the Elberfeld ideal; for the latter assigns only four persons or 
families to one overseer, and, in fact, often entrusts only two or three 
persons to his care. 
Finally, we ought also to reflect whether we should not draw 
women into the charity service, especially for the care of women and 
children. We find the same deficiency in the number of orphan- 
mothers (Waisenmiitter), while outdoor relief (orphan pensions, 
education allowances) is exclusively undertaken by men. 
There should also be some regulation as to the occupations of the 
charity overseers. Of the 850 charity overseers (in round numbers) 
for 1893, 220 are engaged in supplying necessary food products 
(dealers in produce, milk and meat, innkeepers, coffee merchants, 
etc.); 143 in the manufacture and sale of articles of clothing and 
furniture ; while only 104 belong to the higher professions. In con- 
sequence of this there is a possibility, and there seems to be even a 
probability, of the employment of paupers at insufficient wages pay- 
able in kind, of which the poor themselves as well as disinterested 
persons have complained. 
The number of physicians for the poor (in 1890, 19, and in 1892, 
54) should also be considerably increased ; the physicians should be 
better paid, and they should be placed under the control of the city 
health department and so under the disciplinary power of the magis- 
tracy. Physicians should be permitted to express an opinion only 
in cases of sickness and consequent inability to work, and as to 
whether the disabilities are permanent or only temporary, total or 
only partial. The question of ability to gain a livelihood being 
closely allied to indigence, and a social-economic one, would better 
be left to the overseers. 
One advantage of the individualization of poor relief would be that 
in cases where poverty was the result of drunkenness, dissipation 
or want of character of the head or some other member of the 
family, the facts could be easily and clearly proved; and it would, 
therefore, be easier to put the paupers at work in a well organized 
workhouse, as well as to place them under supervision and guar- 
dianship. On the other hand, in cases where poverty is due to no 
fault of the pauper, or if so, in only a slight degree, and where indi- 
gence results from a lack of appreciation of the economic conditions, 
or from direct misfortune, the relief work must be conducted on a 
broader and especially on a preventive basis. 260 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
III. 
Temporary Relief. 
In regard to poor relief for adults, the law specifies that the aid 
given shall be in money, provisions, shelter, or employment, accord- 
ing to the peculiar needs of the applicants. In reality, however, the 
assistance rendered is almost exclusively in the form of money, pen- 
sions, or admission to asylums. Relief in kind* or by providing 
work scarcely ever occurs. This is a decided mistake of the muni- 
cipal poor relief, for the only refugef which any one may voluntarily 
enter is far from being complete enough in its arrangements to serve 
as a real and sufficient agency for giving work ; and the asylums, the 
capacity of which is acknowledged to be insufficient, are rarely open 
to homeless, unemployed young men. As regards financial aid 
extended on single occasions, there are peculiarly rigid regulations, 
which must be daily violated if the misery of the numerous appli- 
cants is in any degree to be alleviated. This form of assistance can 
be used only when the distress prevents the gaining of a livelihood 
by the pauper and his family. The recipient must not enjoy any 
other income (pension, etc.) beyond an exceedingly small amount. 
In giving relief it must be noted whether the pauper received any 
assistance during the last half year for any reason, because the 
amount given for this form of relief in any one year cannot exceed 
altogether 15 florins to any one person, man and wife in this case 
being counted as one. The approval of the magistracy must be 
obtained by the charity office in every case before this amount can be 
exceeded. But financial aid is not only given at the charity offices, 
but also in the charity department of the magistracy, at the mayor's 
office, at the imperial police headquarters, and at the hospitals. 
These offices do not come in contact with one another, nor do they 
have, in general, sufficient opportunity for personal investigations as 
to the worth of the applicants. No one will doubt that in this way 
the door is opened to professional beggary and fraud, as well as to 
*The statistical annual for 1890 states that 3,292 persons received aid in kind 
at the charity offices, but it does not insert this figure in the tables because 
" the census is not reliable." In addition to this, there are 300 to 400 persons 
who annually receive orders for wood to the value of 3,000 florins from the 
mayor's office ; a further sum of 9,000 to 12,000 florins is annually expended 
for relief in kind distributed at the precinct agencies. 
jSee the Werkhaus, below, pp. 273 ff. KOBATSCH. 
261 
the refusal of the really worthy but modest poor, and the prohibition 
of beggary on the streets is rendered quite illusory. There are, 
besides, numerous private charitable societies, which shameless appli- 
cants for aid visit as often as they do the municipal or rather public 
charity bureaus. Finally, we must remember that there are many 
aristocratic and princely personages who are applied to, and some- 
times successfully, for alms, and then we can form an idea of how 
greatly professional beggary, laziness and vagrancy have been 
fostered and constantly kept alive. 
The reform in this respect would chiefly consist in giving more 
importance to relief in kind and procuring shelter. It is rarely known 
what is done with money that is given away. It is not known in the 
charity offices, because there are too few overseers, nor in the other 
bureaus, because there is there no personal supervision whatever. At 
any rate, money and provisions should be delivered only at the resi- 
dences of the applicants.* If they have no home, to supply things 
that may be moved on single occasions does no good at any rate, the 
need in that case being chiefly a safe shelter. One need only look 
at other great cities to see how carefully and economically their poor 
relief is managed. While, for example, Vienna in 1886 expended 
400,000 florins for relief in money, this item in the larger city of 
Berlin amounted to only 116,000 florins. The Paris Bureau de 
Bienfaisance in 1889 distributed altogether 6,800,000 francs. 
Of this, the expenditure for bread was 583,900 
For other kinds of food . 58,570 
Total for food 642,470 
For fuel 40,940 
For clothing, etc. 98,850 
Total, in kind 782,260 
Relief in money i,827,54oj' 
The relief in money, therefore, amounted to only 26.8 per cent, 
and the relief in kind to 11.5 per cent, of the total expenditure. In 
German cities, also, these figures are 35 and 12 percent, respectively. 
* See Dr. L. Kunwald, Ueber Communalver-waltzing und Armenpfiege,y\tzxxi3.., 
1883. 
1 See 'Cotnpte Moral de I'Administration de I'Assistance Publique pour I'Exer- 
cise, Paris, 1892. PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
262 
An interesting result of the Vienna system of giving relief in 
money is the fact that of 27,191 persons assisted by the charity 
department and the charity offices in 1890, 420 were 20 years of 
age and under, 1,802 between 20 and 30, 3,946 between 30 and 40. 
Altogether 5,158 (18.9 per cent.) were of an age when men are 
usually capable of doing work, and were therefore decidedly not 
entitled to aid from a social political standpoint. Again in 1890 
relief in money was received by 3,375 single, 6,322 married, 2,029 
widowed and 54 legally divorced men; and by 2,928 single, 3,491 
married, 10,744 widowed and 87 legally divorced women. Unfortu- 
nately we are not able to give the reader still further individual 
statistical data, especially in regard to the personal circumstances of 
persons temporarily aided in other bureaus, or as to personal facts 
such as age and family status, because the respective enumerations 
are missing in the statistical annual.* 
An example worthy of imitation is that furnished by the Vienna 
Society for the Prevention of Pauperism and Beggary ( Verein gegen 
Verarmung ztnd Bettelei), which not only gives presents of money, 
but also makes loans without interest, of which about 40 per cent, 
are returned annually. 
IV. 
Pensions; Reasons for Discontinuance; Relief of Pauper Chil- 
dren ; Food Distribution; Relief of the Sick; Indemnification; 
Berlin City Dispensary and Similar Institutions. 
On what conditions, then, may a poor man obtain a pension, or 
admission into an institution? Here the "Regulations" contain 
some provisions which have to be evaded in practice. 
It has been stated that aid amounting to not more than 15 Austrian 
florins may be given once. If in case of "long-continued illness" 
of the poor man or of his family, or in other cases of " prolonged 
distress," this aid proves inadequate, and if he is not entitled to 
receive a permanent pension, a temporary pension for the probable 
duration of his need, and amounting to from 2 to 4 florins a month, 
may be granted. 
Larger temporary pensions, equal in amount to permanent ones (8 
florins at most), may also be granted, but only in case of special 
physical infirmities; and then the chief condition precedent to 
*See particulars later, regarding their significance as poor statistics. KOBATSCH. 
263 
obtaining a permanent pension, i. e. that the candidate should be at 
least 60 years old, may be waived. 
The magistracy is required to provide lodging for persons who 
cannot find a place of abode even with the aid granted them. The 
question is, " Where?" The institutions are almost full; certain hard 
conditions must be complied with in order to procure admission, and 
no actual rent is paid. Nothing remains except to assist again in 
money.* 
This faulty condition of things shows that an increase in the num- 
ber of charitable institutions and of wayfarers' lodges, and an exten- 
sion of indoor poor relief, are absolutely necessary. 
Any one wishing to obtain a permanent pension must comply 
with still greater requirements. Generally he gets it only in case of 
severe illness (" total inability to make a living ") and at an advanced 
age (minimum age 60 years-"inability to work"); and if the pen- 
sion proves insufficient he may be admitted into an institution. 
Besides this, neither the applicant nor his wife may be any longer a 
taxpayer in any way, and his yearly income must not amount to more 
than 60 Austrian florins. At the age of sixty an applicant receives 
the lowest pension, 2 florins a month, on the express supposition that 
" he is not yet destitute of all other aid or left entirely to his own 
resources, but receives some assistance from relatives." At the age of 
sixty-four his pension is raised to 3 florins a month, at the age of sixty- 
eight to 4 florins; 5 florins a month are paid to people of seventy, 6 
florins to octogenarians and to those who are blind, cripples, in short 
to all who are entirely and hopelessly unsfole to work or to make a 
living, and to these admission into an institution is offered as an alter- 
native. These institutions may also admit pensioners for pay; and 
even persons who are not entitled to the right of settlement on the same 
basis. The best criticism on these principles is furnished by the prac- 
tice ; for in practice they have never been carried out to the letter, and 
never can be. How far in this respect the Vienna poor relief is 
behind that truly good provision of the Elberfeld system, by which 
aid is granted on principle for only two weeks! After this time 
has elapsed a new application or a new request must be made. This 
* That the private associations for warming-rooms ( Wdrmestuben}, shelters, 
tea and soup-houses, etc., do not provide dwellings for even a single person or 
family, but only herd the poor people together as in a stable for a few hours or 
nights, is well known; these conditions can be improved only by an honest and 
thorough treatment of the question of improved dwellings. 264 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
is one of the points which will need reform when the poor relief of 
Vienna is freed from the iron bonds of bureaucracy and red tape ; 
and for this the present head of the community, and councillor 
Trabauer, the present poor commissioner, are working with great zeal 
and clear w'isdom. Money should not be given to the poor for 
months and years at a time, subject only to a semi-annual investiga- 
tion by the overseer,* but only for a short time. For invalids or 
persons entirely and hopelessly unable to earn a living, institutions 
are the proper place. 
And at the special instigation of the persons mentioned, the city 
council either tacitly or by formal resolutions, 
has done away with the worst red tape and has given scope to freer 
movement. The 2 florin pensions will be gradually stopped; for 
some time, permanent or temporary aid, amounting to from 7 to 8 
florins a month, has been given to people under eighty ; and, thanks 
to the untiring and judicious efforts of the present poor commissioner, 
the age schedule is beginning to be considered of less importance 
than the judgment of. the city physician for the poor (Armenarzf) 
and the report of the overseer. The latest improvement, for which 
we are indebted to the same persons, is the addition of 10 and 12 
florin pensions to the regular list, though so far this improvement 
applies only to persons who have been in an institution more than a 
year, who are entirely unable to work or to make a living, and who 
are otherwise worthy of the larger pension. 
Only citizens of Vienna can receive a pension of 15 florins a month 
in cases of destitution, and only at a very advanced age and when 
entirely unable to earn a living; unfortunately there is only a limited 
number (600, 400 and too) of these larger pensions, as of all citizens' 
pensions (6, 8, 10 and 12 florins a month). We have still to speak 
of the reasons which may cause the discontinuance of a pension or 
dismissal from an institution. Eight are enumerated in the " Regu- 
lations," five of which, namely, giving up one's claim voluntarily, 
death of the pensioner, not claiming the pension for three months, 
commitment to a penal institution, admission into a charitable insti- 
tution, immoral and indecent habits,f speak for themselves and need 
no commentary. Not so the other three reasons for discontinuance, 
* Temporary pensions are generally granted for one or two years, evidently 
from a desire to escape work. 
tin this case, commitment to a penitentiary, a home for drunkards, or a house 
of correction [Zwangsarbeitshaus), etc., must take the place of the pension. KOBATSCH. 
265 
which are in urgent need of being reformed. First of all there is the 
regulation which provides that on the acquisition of property, or of 
any source of income, the yearly proceeds of which equal the highest 
pension (6 florins a month or 72 florins a year), the pension must be 
stopped at once, and should the pensioner have continued drawing 
it, he must refund whatever amount he may have drawn after he 
acquired the other source of income. Here every unprejudiced 
person will wonder why this minimum of existence'which is prescribed 
by law, and which is somewhat higher than the limit required for aid, 
was not raised when the seven and eight florin and the recently 
introduced ten and twelve florin pensions were created. 
In the practical application of this economic arithmetic, an evasion, 
or a rather broad interpretation of the "Regulations," often becomes 
a matter of necessity. The unconditional obligation to refund is 
decidedly open to severe criticism ; if any one has continued to draw 
his pension in addition to the income of his newly acquired property, 
or in addition to his other sources of income, he should only be 
deprived of the pension in case of bad faith; a slight improvement 
in his economic condition, the acquisition of a few florins, whether as 
capital or as interest, ought to make no difference in his already very 
moderate fortune. 
It would be different if a pensioner's stipend were stopped because 
it could be proved that he had some property at the time the pension 
was granted, even if the income from it amounted only to the lowest 
pension given (2 florins a month), and that he concealed this fact. No 
objection could be made to this provision, because any one who 
owns a very small amount of property, yielding from 2 to 3 florins 
interest a month, may receive a pension in addition to this, even if 
he states what he owns, and that it is much too little to supply 
him with the necessaries of life. 
"Marriage of the pensioner" is recognized by the poor regula- 
tions as another reason for stopping a pension. 
Rarely has an idea, incorrect in itself, been more unfortunately 
expressed. We have tried before to explain the reason of this law, 
which turns the very moment that is considered one of the happiest 
in most men's lives, into a most unfortunate one for a pensioner; it 
was made to prevent the acquisition by marriage of a right of settle- 
ment and so of a claim to poor relief, or to keep down the number of 
improvident marriages. But are illegitimate relations more provi- 
dent? And do they not also result in offspring ? 266 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM, 
In short, as soon as the law of settlement is revised, this provision 
will become meaningless, and may be done away with without dis- 
advantage. 
Experimental cases, such as saving, if possible, members of the 
middle classes who are on the verge of ruin, and ought to be aided 
by larger amounts, are provided for only by endowments in the 
Vienna poor relief, and these afford a remedy for the unbearable 
condition brought about by the settlement law only if their bestowal 
is not dependent on right of settlement. 
In connection with this discussion of the pension system we may 
consider the often analogous outdoor relief of pauper children. 
Children of poor parents receive aid and contributions for education, 
amounting to 2 florins a month, as long as they are under fourteen, 
i. e. as long as they are subject to the compulsory education law. 
Only children who have lost their father, or natural children whose 
mother is dead, can receive an orphan's pension of 3 florins a month, 
or in exceptional cases 5 florins a month.* 
If children have lost both parents through death; or if the where- 
abouts of their parents is unknown ; or if through " a combination 
of exceptionally unfortunate circumstances " they can no longer pro- 
vide for the support of one or of several children ; and finally, in the 
case of foundlings, the provisions for board (Kostgeld') apply, z. e. 
these children, if they have settlement rights at Vienna and have no 
grandparents able to support them, are boarded by the community 
for 8 florins a month, with people whose dwellings are officially 
certified to be sanitary and of whom " it is not to be supposed that 
they take children merely in order to improve their own condition." 
Children who are not provided for by parents or in some other 
private home, and who are at least six years old, intelligent and 
healthy, and who have been vaccinated, are admitted into the city 
orphan asylums ; those who are blind or deaf-mute, into the state 
asylums for the blind and deaf-mute, where the Vienna relief fund 
pays for their maintenance. Entirely neglected orphans are placed 
in a " Home of the Friendless" {Rettiingshaus}, of which there are 
at present three under private management. 
*The poor law concerning the granting of these pensions follows a most 
astonishing principle, namely, that a mother should be able to maintain at least 
one child without assistance (for why'did she give birth to the child?), and 
therefore contributions for support, money for board, and orphans' pensions 
are generally granted only when there are several children under fourteen. KOBATSCH. 
267 
Compare with the above requirements for persons willing to 
receive children as boarders, the curious fact that among the 780 
people (average number from 1885-1889) taking boarders, 470 were 
tradespeople, about 30 were janitors in offices, schools and other 
places, about 50 day-laborers, women who sew for a living, etc., and 
about too private citizens or officials retired on a pension. Consid- 
ering these figures, we shall feel tempted to regard the arrangement 
of boarding children as a kind of Sisyphean task, and, although 
statistical proof is wanting, this is confirmed by people experienced 
in such matters, who say that many of these " boarded children " 
later in life swell the ranks of pensioners, inmates of charitable insti- 
tutions, wayfarers' lodges, etc.; which proves that they cannot have 
had a sufficiently steady educational training, and that they develop 
physical infirmities early in life-in a word, they are not worth the 
cost. 
What we have said about the tuisiness management, economics, 
etc., of pensions applies to orphans' pensions and contributions ior 
their education. But we must say that relief of children, and poor 
relief generally, should be classified according to the cause of 
destitution and the condition of the paupers, as follows: 1, relief of 
orphans proper (including the care of whole orphans and of entirely 
abandoned children); 2, measures for reforming neglected and 
delinquent children; 3, aid for children of poor parents-this third 
class to be transferred generally to the department of poor relief if 
a corresponding increase in the number of overseers can be obtained, 
as in that case poor relief would individualize the poor and treat 
them in single families; 4, admission of all feeble-minded children 
into proper institutions. It goes without saying that the persons 
entrusted with relief of children, which is pre-eminently preventive 
poor relief, especially with the second and fourth classes, need parti- 
cularly pedagogical qualifications, coupled with economic insight. 
In the relief of the sick, especially in hospitals, the community of 
Vienna is more interested financially than in any other way. This 
is also the province where the true bureaucrat feels at home and 
happy ; here, where the complicated quotation of expenditure and of 
compensation are the order of the day, we find crowds of notes and 
counter-notes, indorsements with, or often unfortunately without 
explanation, reports, duns-bis, ter, quaier urgetur-counter-claims, 
registers; fortunately for the poor, medicines and small bandages, 
if they are to fulfil their purpose, must be given out immediately, 
before a reimbursement of the cost is even promised. 268 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
On this very point of sick relief, through a lack of clearness in the 
Austrian settlement laws, an unnecessary amount of writing has crept 
in. For paragraph 29 of this law declares that a commune must 
take care ot the poor from other places who fall sick within its dis- 
trict, until they can be dismissed without injury to their health. 
According to paragraph 30, such a commune is, moreover, bound 
to inform the commune in which the sick person has settlement 
rights if it is known or can be found out by investigation without 
much difficulty ; and if such information be delayed, it is respon- 
sible for any consequent loss. This paragraph might, with a sem- 
blance of justification, be interpreted to mean that the commune in 
which a sick person is loses all claim to indemnification if it fails to 
give immediate notice of the case to the commune of settlement 
when known. And many communes take their stand on this very 
free interpretation, although ministerial decrees and decisions of the 
court of administration ( Verwalfyngsgerichtshof'} admit of no such 
reading of paragraph 30 of the settlement law. Even if the expres- 
sion " without much difficulty " makes this narrow interpretation 
appear the right one, it would be desirable that in a possible revision 
of the law this paragraph should be more clearly worded, if there is 
to be any indemnification at all from communes where the person in 
question may have been settled perhaps for from two to five years. 
But this mistaken, though possible, interpretation is not all; there 
are communes which apply paragraph 30 to paragraph 28 of the 
settlement law, i. e. which require that the commune which gives aid, 
if it wishes them to hold themselves responsible for indemnification, 
should without delay notify them of the aid given " in case of imme- 
diate need," as paragraph 28 expresses it, referring to medicines 
needed at once and the like. It will be seen that here is an excel- 
lent chance for an endless exchange of notes, and we cannot resist 
the temptation to describe the particulars of such a correspondence. 
The physician of the poor has prescribed for N. N., whose settlement 
is in a small Bohemian commune G., medicines costing one florin or a 
florin and a half. Prescriptions, bills, in short all documents are respect- 
fully submitted to the local governor of the district for collection. 
The document is generally returned to Vienna without the amount. 
The commune G. does not recognize the settlement right, so the 
bundle goes back to the charity office to collect the settlement docu- 
ments to be sent to G. Meanwhile N. N. has perhaps moved to 
another district, often without informing the police of his change of 
address; to procure indemnification is impossible; the florin must KOBATSCH. 
269 
be deducted from the accounts. If N. N. is still found, and if he 
happens to be in possession of a settlement document, the bundle 
may go back to the district with the respectfully submitted request 
to collect and remit the money at last. The bundle actually comes 
back again without the money. The office at G. says that, according 
to depositions made by his brother, N. N. earns enough to make it 
probable that he could pay for the medicines himself; or the ques- 
tion is raised whether N. N. "ought not to have been insured against 
sickness." After further deliberations at Vienna, the document is 
sent to G. for the third or fourth time, and returns with the indorse- 
ment that the commune G. refuses to refund the expenditure for 
medicine, because they were not notified according to paragraph 30 
of the settlement law, or because N. N.'s parents, who live at G., are 
able to pay and ought to be applied to. The document is then 
returned with an interpretation of paragraph 28, to the effect that 
Vienna had the alternative between N. N.'s home commune and 
those of his relatives who come under the obligations imposed'by civil 
law, and was therefore bound by law to apply to the former. It may 
also happen that no answer is sent from G. for a long time, and in 
that case other notes urging payment are sent. If these produce no 
results, the state government must be written to. So far, these 
reports also have remained unanswered; remain to be appealed to 
the ministry and the court of administration, unless by that time the 
legislature has forestalled the administration by a new law. This 
may at any rate serve as an example of file much criticised bureau- 
cracy in the administration of poor relief, and it is to be hoped that 
it may act as a stimulus towards active reform. 
If only the radiant sun of the new settlement and poor law would 
soon rise on the present gloomy horizon of poor administration, to 
drive away with victorious power all the dark spectres of red tape and 
bureaucracy which are clothed in a garment made of a hundred kinds 
of print, and whose soul is the dust of moldering documents! At 
least a regular procedure should be prescribed and made obligatory 
upon the officials both in claiming indemnification and in answering 
claims. 
From what has been said it seems self-evident that the community 
itself could do much towards simplifying and lowering the cost of 
poor relief, especially as regards sick relief. With a little " municipal 
socialism," much more might be gained; the city might' take the 
large corporations for traffic, for lighting, etc., under its own man- 
agement, and so more work could be provided, etc. 270 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
In smaller communities the same principle could more easily be 
carried out. As to the expenditure for the sick poor, it is worth 
while to consider the example of Berlin, where a drug-store under 
the direction of a regularly appointed druggist furnishes the medi- 
cines for the city hospitals and institutions for the outdoor poor relief, 
and even for the sick poor admitted into private charitable institu- 
tions. And although the number of prescriptions filled in 1891-92 
amounted to 89,760, against 83,810 in 1890-91 and 79,732 in 1889-90, 
the profit, after deducting the medicine tax, has increased from 
65,650 marks in 1889-90 to 78,591 marks in 1891-92. The expenses 
for the drug-store amounted in the last three years respectively to 
40,588 marks, 41,080 marks and 40,886 marks; the average cost of a 
prescription was 40-50 pfennigs.* 
Other economic industriesf are managed with equal success by 
the Berlin poor commission, such as the " voluntary workhouse," in 
which only independent artisans are employed to make up raw mate- 
rial furnished by the poor commission, and which furnishes articles of 
clothing to poor apprentices, school children and to the poor gener- 
ally who come under indoor or outdoor poor relief; a special bakery 
makes bread for the charitable institutions, and a cooking institution 
prepares meat-broth for outdoor poor relief (Vienna on the contrary 
has contractors and Cantineuve) ; last but not least, there is a special 
brewery which brews the beer for the institutions at a cost price of 
from io-ii pfennigs a litre. 
The expenses for 1891-92 were : 
In the cooking institution, 1,711 marks 
" bakery, 53.859 
" brewery, 27.095 " 
" wayfarer's lodge, 14,510 " 
Total, including the expenses in the drug-store, 138,061 " 
This outlay is one of the most justifiable for the purposes of poor 
relief, and all other considerations are of minor importance in com- 
parison with it. 
How unfavorable a comparison would be for Vienna may be seen 
from the foregoing; in the following chapters we will discuss the steps 
which Vienna has taken to lessen the danger of lack of employment. 
*In Vienna the average cost is 18-22 kreuzer. 
t Compare Socialpolitisches Centralblatt (Berlin), No. 26, 1893. KOBATSCH. 
271 
V. 
Measures against Lack of Employment; Statistics and Insurance 
of the Unemployed; the Werkhaus; Labor Insurance and Poor 
Relief. 
The preceding account of the Vienna poor relief system shows that 
in a certain sense the " Regulations " recognize the important differ- 
ence between destitution proper and mere want, and make practical 
use of it; but the division lines are not marked with sufficient clear- 
ness, and no proper distinction is made between inability to work 
and lack of employment, nor between temporary and continued 
inability to work. Hence also the frequent inadequacy of agencies 
intended to provide against lack of employment or of sufficient 
income, such as wayfarers' lodges and employment bureaus, to com- 
ply with the large demands made upon them at the present time.* 
That lack of employment, and not merely aversion to work, 
is often the cause of poverty will probably not be denied ; but-and 
here the value of correct social statistics becomes evident-as long as 
there is no record kept in accordance with the requirements of mod- 
ern statistics, of the various factors which must be considered in the 
study of the economic phenomenon of lack of employment, we shall 
always be groping in the dark, and each one will feel inclined to 
attribute pauperism to lack of employment, or to aversion to work, 
according to his own political point of view. While a social demo- 
crat stated the number of the Unemployed at Vienna to be from 
30,000 to 40,000, a university professor at the same time 
that it amounted at the most to one or two per cent, of the working 
population. The few thorough statistics on the unemployed made in 
Germany, Switzerland and England-such an undertaking, as is well 
known, is not easy to carry out-show that last winter at Mannheim 6 
per cent., at Schkeuditz 7 per cent, (of the population), at Leipzig 9 
per cent., at Mockern, a suburb of Leipzig, 10 per cent, (of the 
population), and' among the Berlin printers 17 per cent, were out of 
work. 
It is not to be assumed that these figures would be much smaller 
at Vienna; reason enough, it seems to me, in the interest of a rational 
system of poor relief, to provide work in the first place, and then to 
revise thoroughly this chapter of our policy concerning the poor. It 
*Cf. Die Humanitat \ VI Jahrgang, No. 7), in which it is rightly said : " The 
first leading principle of every rational poor relief is work instead of alms." 272 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
is true that we find lower figures, but this is explained by the fact that 
many workingmen did not receive or fill out a question blank. On 
the other hand, we see in Swiss cities, foir instance, energetic measures 
for introducing insurance against failure of work ; for the above figures 
do not receive their real value until we find out how long every work- 
ingman has been out of work; two or three months without work, 
which is the average period, are more than sufficient to conjure up 
the dread spectre of poverty. 
It will be said that this subject is not within the limits of poor relief 
proper. Our answer to this is the fact that at Ludwigshofen the 
overseers themselves managed the statistical records on the unem- 
ployed, and that the president {Regierungspr'dsidenf) of the Prussian 
province of Silesia obliged the magistrates of cities of more than 
10,000 inhabitants to organize official intelligence offices, and decreed 
that " in future he would recommend the dismissal of complaints 
of refusal of poor relief, only when the magistrate concerned should 
furnish proof that the plaintiff had been provided with a chance to 
work by the city authorities, but had not taken advantage of this 
chance." 
This very rational idea, which, as is well known, forms an integral 
part of the Elberfeld system, ought to be adopted by the Vienna 
poor administration, for the existing regulations are not consistent 
with efficient poor relief. 
Vienna, it is true, has a private association for securing work; the 
trades unions also find work, and the " Home for Apprentices " has 
developed a useful activity. Under the terms of the " Regulations," 
nothing can be done by the community. And the fact shown by 
statistics,* that the employment bureaus always have more can- 
didates for places than places to be filled, is a sign of the prevail- 
ing lack of employment, and the poverty which goes hand-in-hand 
with it. 
Employment bureaus (Arbeitsnachweise') alone are not enough; 
actual work must really be provided, if a large proportion of those 
*From 8000 to 9000 persons annually try to find employment through the 
"Association for Providing Work " {Vertin fur Arbeitsvermittlung} ; of these, 
18 to 20 per cent, are left over from the previous year, and only 30 to 40 per 
cent, obtain work ; the same may be said of the " association for placing 
apprentices" (Vertin fiir Lehrlingsunterbringung'} ; in the city office for find- 
ing work for apprentices, 878 situationsand 1380 apprentices were registered 
in 1889, and 608 apprentices were provided with situations; some of the 
employment bureaus of the trades' associations show somewhat better results. KOBATSCH. 
273 
who seek work and have registered are not to be sent away without 
having had their wants satisfied. Moreover, the already existing 
associations which we have mentioned cannot possibly procure work 
without compensation. 
Here, then, a reform would be necessary, by the establishment of 
wayfarers' lodges and an official employment bureau (cf. Berlin, 
Paris, London, with their Workingmen's Exchange, etc.), and by 
insurance against lack of employment. This branch of " working- 
men's insurance " is supposed to present the greatest difficulties, and 
so it does. But in this matter also, as mentioned above, we are able 
to point out examples worthy of imitation, such as Berne, the canton 
of Basel, and others. We have still to discuss the only existing way- 
farers' lodge, the city Werkhaus. And to its honor it should be said, 
emphatically at once, that it is not an imitation of the English 
" workhouse," where the expenses of living are kept at a lower rate 
than in the Vienna Werkhaus, where the inmates are compelled 
with greater strictness to do even the most disagreeable work, and 
yet do not get the proper training for future independent wage- 
earning, and where even children are confined, though lately sepa- 
rate schools and dwellings are being erected for the care of depen- 
dent children. 
How then does an individual seeking work obtain admission to 
the Werkhaus ? How far does his admission give him the right 
to claim work ?-a privilege which should be granted to all, especi- 
ally to those who are still able and willing to work, but are out of 
work, that is, to all younger people who become destitute. On the 
other hand, these persons ought to be under an .obligation to work, 
and the commune or the state ought to have the right to enforce 
this obligation in case of necessity. This compulsory labor, how- 
ever, ought not to be enforced, as has been done hitherto in most 
institutions of this kind, in such a manner as to frighten away all the 
better elements; to individuals already hardened it makes the insti- 
tution like a prison, a half-despised, half-welcome place of refuge for 
a short time, to be left again as soon as possible. This is unfortu- 
nately very much the case with the Vienna Werkhaus. People 
are admitted after examination by a physician and a thorough clean- 
ing, either by voluntary registration-and by this method of admis- 
sion their claim to work seems practically to be acknowledged*-or 
* But the Werkhaus can accommodate only 500 to 600 persons at one time. 274 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
by commitment in the police courts in case any one is found without 
means of support or legitimate income. 
Those admitted, a very mixed crowd of workers, as may be seen, 
receive besides free lodging the Werkhaus fare, and in return for this 
have to do the work allotted them. After finishing his task a man 
can leave the house; if he has done more than the minimum task, he 
is paid for his extra work on leaving the institution finally. The 
work goes on until the task is finished, with an hour off at noon. 
The privilege of staying out, which, after the work is done, regularly 
extends to 7 P. M. in winter and to 8.30 P. M. in summer, may be 
prolonged for the purpose of looking for work. 
Unruly behavior is punished by the allotment of a heavier task, or 
by giving smaller rations for a time; in case of continued insubordi- 
nation, delinquents are handed over to the police. Drinking, smok- 
ing and gambling are strictly prohibited. 
This treatment, although it reminds one somewhat of school, may 
possibly do for men and women embittered by distress; for vaga- 
bonds and confirmed loafers it only serves as a subject to sneer at 
and is, besides, much too mild. But if any one who is able-bodied 
refuses to go to the Werkhaus he forfeits every claim to other sup- 
port and may be handed over to the police-to what end ? To be 
held in confinement, and after his release to begin the dangerous 
game over again, until he becomes hopelessly demoralized, or a real 
criminal to be sentenced for a longer term in prison. 
But let us return to the Werkhaus and study some of its statistics; 
we shall find many interesting facts. 
On the one hand, we find that the 1,008 persons who were at the 
Werkhaus in 1890 represented about 140 occupations, almost one- 
third being day-laborers. Of these, only a small number remained 
in the institution over a week, viz. 114 from one to two weeks, 54 
from two to three weeks, 36 from three to four weeks, 107 from one 
to two months, 89 from two to three months, etc. And yet at least 
part of these could have obtained work there that would have been 
in the line of their occupation if the Werkhaus had been differently 
organized; if it carried on various trades for the community under 
its own management, instead of giving monopolies to city con- 
tractors.* And the number of punishments shows that most of the 
people are not averse to working. Of the 1,008 inmates in 1890, 
* Of course only such trades as would not injure the smaller tradespeople, 
manufacturers and artisans. KOBATSCH. 
275 
only 62 cases in which a penalty was inflicted are registered. But 
the whole outcome of their economic wisdom is the production of a 
few staple articles bought exclusively by manufacturers, such as bags, 
large and small envelopes, paper bags (in 1890, 60 millions), scolloped 
tags and labels, pasting, etc.* Besides this a very small amount of 
tailoring is done for the use of the institution, and some of the bed- 
ding is made on the premises. As a result of this condition of its 
productive activity, the proceeds of work done in 1890 amounted to 
17,138 florins, while the total expenses came to more than 50,000 
florins, and of this sum only 3,000 florins went to the workingmen as 
pay for extra work. 
It is worthy of note also that the per capita cost per day in 1890 
came to 42.03 kreuzers, of which 22 kreuzers were spent for food ; 
while in the six homes the average cost was 57.3 kreuzers, the 
maximum being 75.68 kreuzers, the minimum 45.99 kreuzers (in 
the younger institution at Liesing). With this may be contrasted 
the fact that of the 4,072 inmates of the other institutions only 642 
were under 50 years of age, and 1,165 under 60, while the Werkhaus 
sheltered only 109 persons over 50, and 773 between 20 and 40. 
In the former institutions there are then 84 persons in every 100 
who are either entirely or almost entirely incapable of earning 
anything, who can no longer work, and who therefore do not 
require such strong food as the 90 persons out of every 100 in the 
Werkhaus, who are in full possession of their strength, and are com- 
pelled to do work which is so little in the line of their chosen occu- 
pation. 1 
* Another example of interference on the part of the authorities with 
personal liberty is worthy of imitation. I refer to the latest report of the 
Marburg House of Correction for Men, in the Allgemeine osterreichische 
Gerichts-Zeitung, of April 15,1893 ; there they have workshops for carpenters, 
blacksmiths,locksmiths,weavers,tailors and shoemakers; they also have agri- 
culture. 
The net income from work done amounted in 1890 to 7,384 florins, in 1892 
to 25,678 florins. During the last year 730 convicts were supported 156,069 
days, of which 94,198 were working days, 911 were days on which extra work 
was prescribed as a penalty, and 19,982 were holidays. The cost of living 
amounted (without bread) to 21,871 florins, or 14 kreuzer per capita per day. 
Such cheap living would not be possible in Vienna, and could not be recom- 
mended ; but we would recommend the excellent organization of the work; 
and it is worthy of note that manufactured articles were provided almost ex- 
clusively for imperial offices and authorities (parts of uniforms, etc.), and that 
only turners and bookbinders furnished articles to private contractors. 276 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
This calculation may not contain exactly the same items on both 
sides, but one thing is shown clearly, namely, that not nearly so 
much is spent, either relatively or absolutely, for preventive poor 
relief as for the final provision for the aged. We can therefore only 
repeat: lack of employment, whether involuntary or through aver- 
sion to work, must be done away with when the individual is able- 
bodied, in the first case by an official supplying of work, or by institu- 
tions providing work, in the second by houses of correction (Zwangs- 
arbeitshauser'). For although by the law of 1885 the community 
of Vienna has the right to prescribe to such persons as are able to 
work, and have no legitimate trade or other means of support, some 
work corresponding to their capacity, in return for money or food, 
it does not follow that the community is under any obligation to 
practice this kind of poor relief; and as we have seen, this method 
is not sufficiently adopted. 
If such a person refuses to accept the work assigned he is pun- 
ished or detained in a house of correction (minors in a reformatory), 
for not longer than three years. Of these institutions also there are 
not enough, and their number must certainly be increased in order 
to accomplish the perfecting of the poor relief system. Our attempts 
to diminish pauperism, as far as it is a consequence of lack of work, 
would be greatly assisted by the rapid perfecting of the laws on 
workingmen's insurance, which are preventive in their very nature, 
as well as by a generally wise policy regarding the poor, and a wise 
poor police (Armenpolizei). As yet the Austrian workingman has 
no law on the insurance of the aged and infirm ; but there is no doubt 
that for the poor funds of Vienna, such laws would be of great 
economic value. Statistics on the decrease of poor relief in the 
kingdom of Saxony inform us that, as a visible result of working- 
men's insurance, there has been a reduction in the number 
of those assisted because of accidents, from 2,463 in 1880 to 1,378 
in 1890 (a decrease of 43 per cent.); 
of those assisted because of sickness, from 25,070 in 1880 to 
18,859 in 1890 (a decrease of 26.5 per cent.); 
of those assisted for other reasons, from 66,185 in 1880 to 60,659 
in 1890 (a decrease of 14 per cent.); 
while the population in these years has increased 17 per cent. 
These statistics of course are open to the objection that the records 
of boards of poor relief and of private organizations cannot be 
depended on for ten or twelve years back, as to whether the reason 
for assistance was accident, sickness or some other cause. KOBATSCH. 
277 
To make a similar comparison for Vienna we must limit ourselves 
to the expenses for the care of the sick. The percentage of increase 
in these since 1888* is really a little less than that in the expenses for 
the care of pauper children ; but this difference is too infinitesimal to 
enable us to draw a definite conclusion as to the effect of the work- 
ingmen's insurance on the poor tax. Possibly there may be some 
significance in the reduction of expenditure for medicine from 22,787 
florins in 1888 to 19,330 florins in 1889, and to 19,506 florins in 1890. 
We have also spoken of the poor police. In this department of 
what one might call " repressive " poor relief, the regulations are 
very numerous and most actively enforced. That, together with 
the problem of lack of work, Schubwesenf commitment and detention, 
prostitution, vagrancy and tramps, treatment of released criminals, 
intoxication, servants' homes, people's homes, etc., should be brought 
under reasonable regulations based on the principles of true social 
economy, is as inevitably necessary as that influence should be 
brought to bear on savings banks, saving and loan associations, all 
aid-funds, pawnbrokers' establishments, building and credit societies, 
and on all institutions generally which, though started by private 
individuals, touch the economic sphere of those who are weak from 
the economic point of view. 
Thus our policy concerning the poor formsan integral, inseparable 
element in the general great social economy of the day. 
VI. 
1 
Charity Budget; Consolidation of Revenues ; Centralization {Pri- 
vate Societies'). 
An all-around reform of the poor relief system is of the greatest 
importance for the Vienna charity budget. 
Here we must again say emphatically that even after the adoption 
of such a poor tax as we propose, the present regular revenues of this 
budget should remain the same; they would only change holders, 
i. e. instead of the community and numerous professionals, the state 
alone would assume control over all the money and other revenues. 
*The law of workingmen's insurance against sickness has been in force 
since July, 1888. Since we have no data on poor relief given in case of 
accident, the accident insurance law cannot be considered here. 
tThe English poor law recognizes the so-called "irremovability," i. e. that 
nobody who has lived in a place longer than a year without having received 
some relief can be sent off to another community. 278 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
The largest fund (in point of expenditure, though not in amount) 
which has been used for charitable purposes so far is the general 
charity fund. Its balance sheets for the last few years show an 
income and expenditure of two and a half millions in round numbers. 
But for years this fund has been considerably in debt to the commu- 
nity, which every year has had to make up its deficit. Since 1882 
this deficit has amounted to over a million florins a year, so that the 
debt of the fund to the community, which amounted to 2% million 
florins in 1873, increased to 5 millions in 1881, to 6 millions in 1883, 
to over 7 millions in 1885, to 8J millions in 1887 and to 9! millions 
in 1890. 
Since 1893 the expenditures of the fund have been included in the 
regular estimate of the community, and its deficit has vanished. 
Nevertheless, the revenues of the charity fund, although they have 
remained the same as before, will hardly make up to the commu- 
nity the expenses which now fall on it instead of on the fund. The 
expenditure not covered by the regular revenues for charitable pur- 
poses* would have to be provided for by the tax we have proposed 
and by the contributions of the states. By this arrangement Vienna 
would have to spend money on a far greater number of poor than now, 
but its expenses would be lessened through an increase in the number 
of overseers and a consequently more rational and economic poor 
relief. 
The consolidation of the various funds and endowments would 
mean an important simplification of the poor finances; for their 
various purposes would no longer be absolutely necessary. This 
proposition would probably be violently opposed in collecting the 
large city fund for the aged and such an opposi- 
tion would have some justification in tradition; but the difficulty 
might be solved by guaranteeing to citizens now living, in the event 
of their becoming poor, the same benefits as before, but not extend- 
ing them to others in future. 
It is clear that the adoption of a principle on which to base the 
reform of all philanthropic organizations is of great importance finan- 
cially and presents much difficulty. It is possible that, while the 
revenues remain the same, one item or another might increase, or 
that new expenses would have to be provided for. The balance of 
income and expenditure must therefore be carefully considered 
* Interest, income, legacies and donations, taxes on music permits, succes- 
sion and auction taxes, poor lottery, fines, etc. KOBATSCH. 
279 
before one ventures to draw up the preliminaries of the future charity 
budget. 
Since the time of residence of a pensioner is not recorded at 
Vienna, it is difficult to calculate by how much the number of persons 
to be aided would increase by the introduction of domicile relief.* 
On the other hand we are able to state how many florins Vienna 
pays each year to people having settlement rights in Vienna but 
who are living in other places (in 1891, 247,377 florins), and to com- 
pare with this the sum refunded on the temporary outlay made by 
Vienna for the poor from other places ; the total expenditure for 1891 
amounted to about 600,000 florins, of which about 300,000 florins 
were refunded. Both figures are subject to modification, though it 
is impossible to say exactly how much ; the former, because the 
people having settlement rights at Vienna but living elsewhere may 
have acquired a claim to domicile relief at their places of residence, 
and because there the length of time for which such persons 
have been absent from their settlement commune would not be 
known unless they had been absent for more than ten years. 
Finally, balances between the national poor associations (Landar- 
menverbdnde) would have to be struck, a problem which cannot be 
solved with even approximate accuracy, and which, if solved, would 
in practice involve complicated operations. 
Taking it all in all, the introduction of domicile relief, whether to 
be acquired by two or by five years' residence, would probably not 
result in that simplification of the poor administration which one 
might expect. Add to this the doubts Raised in the German litera- 
ture of the subject and in practice, and it would be difficult to remain 
an enthusiastic defender of this method of poor relief. And why 
should the time be fixed at two or at five years? Why not three, 
four or six years ? Or why not from three to five years? We think 
that anybody should be entitled to aid from the state as a whole 
* Inama Sternnegg, in his book Die personlichen Verhaltnisse der Wiener 
Armen (Vienna, 1892), states the time of residence at Vienna of about 10,000 
persons with no settlement rights at Vienna, but aided by the Association for 
the Prevention of Pauperism and Begging (Ver ein gegen Verarmung und 
Bette lei'] as follows : 
Up to 1 year 1.6 per cent. 
I to 2 years 2.9 " 
3 to 5 years 5.4 
6 to 10 years 14.8 " 
II to 20 years 34.9 " 
Over 20 years 40.4 " 280 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
simply on the ground of his being in need of aid, and not on the 
ground of his settlement or his residence. And so the nationaliza- 
tion of poor relief with the addition of a poor tax, as described in 
the beginning of this paper, would lead to a natural solution of the 
problem. And here we would point out the beneficial influence 
which the institution of the poor tax has exercised on the charitable 
morals of the countries where it has been introduced, acting as a 
wholesome restraint. 
And so it would be at Vienna; an elastic poor tax, which might 
be called an infallible barometer indicating the status of poor relief 
at any time, awakens a livelier interest because not simply a moral 
one ; for every citizen who has the means must bear his share of the 
expense; every variation for better or worse in municipal prosperity 
will be carefully noticed and anticipated, and every effort will be 
made to check as quickly as possible any lowering of economic con- 
ditions in its very beginning by every kind of private and social 
co-operation; preventive poor relief will be adopted to a greater 
extent, and our policy regarding the poor will become the common 
concern of all; every one in his own sphere will seek remedies and 
improvements. 
So we have no fear for the success of the following principle: 
nationalization of poor relief as regards finances and claims for aid ; 
if necessary, the levying of a poor tax. 
When all the other reforms proposed by us in poor relief proper, 
and in preventive care of the poor, which might be simplified and 
made more economical in various ways, are carried out with wisdom 
and justice, the expense of relief will hardly be greater comparatively 
speaking than now, and if a " kreuzer rate for the poor" (Armen- 
zinskreuzer} were to be imposed on the inhabitants of Vienna, the 
collection of the necessary amount would certainly not be felt. 
There is one more reform needed, and we have already touched 
on it: public and private poor relief must be brought into touch with 
one another. Various attempts (the latest in 1883) have been made 
at Vienna to bring the two closer together, but so far without suc- 
cess. The two systems which are now separate might at least have 
a common financial administration, and they should be in constant 
touch with one another. In the various branches of philanthropic 
work, especially in the care of the sick and in personal intercourse 
with the poor, it would be impossible to do without the active 
assistance of willing individuals or associations; but the finances 
and administration might be centralized under the community, KOBATSCH. 
281 
if only to attain by this concentration a reduction in the cost of 
administration, which is at present considerable. In other cities- 
smaller, to be sure, than Vienna-a more or less cordial co-operation 
between private and public charities has been attained, generally 
with gratifying results. 
But this step, we think, must be preceded by a closer union of all 
charitable societies which have a similar object (as nursing, starting 
and supporting cheap eating-houses, intelligence offices, providing 
shelter). Only if the societies are thus organized can co-operation 
exist in a community. For there is no other result of our social 
energy which can and must be so uniform and at the same time so 
greatly diversified as charity; uniform to avoid duplication of work, 
diversified to obtain as quick and as thorough work as possible. 
Several German and Austrian cities have succeeded in thus central- 
izing poor relief. We mention the Dresden central office of the 
Union of Charitable Associations, 1883; also the union of the com- 
mittee for poor and sick relief at Mayence with the charitable socie- 
ties of that city, made on June 17, 1884. It is the purpose of this 
union to " promote an equal distribution of alms, and to guard against 
fraud, to check begging and vagrancy of strangers, and to prevent 
the surreptitious acquisition of domicile relief." The organization 
and direction of business is managed about as in the Austrian city of 
Gablonz; the mayor calls meetings of representatives of the different 
societies for joint consultations; in Gablonz, the books, question 
blanks and registers of the union are kept together with the city 
books, blanks and registers. « 
Vienna's poor relief should be reformed, 1, by a common organiza- 
tion of the countless charitable societies and small societies,* together 
with constant individual effort for the poor-poor relief proper; 
2, by an intimate connection between the societies so organized and 
public poor administration. 
Most of the Austrians and Germans who write on the subject of the 
poor speak against bureaucratic, and for a more personal treatment 
of charity, and this treatment would be the natural result of a more 
individualized poor relief.J" On the other hand, these writers repeat 
* Their number increased from 216 in 1882 to 280 in 1886, with an expendi- 
ture of 1,128,167 florins ; and to 375 in 1890, with an expenditure of 1,153,326 
florins. 
t Cf. Loning in Schonberg's Handbuch, 3rd ed., Part III, p. 966; Mischler, 
Die Armenpflege in den osterreichischen Stadten, Vienna, 1891, p. 88 ; Sedlaczek 
and others. 282 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
emphatically that under all circumstances the state (or country) 
must assume control of communal poor relief and the supervision of 
private poor relief. 
It is not necessary to go so far as A. Wagner, who says that the 
obligation of the communes to aid is a kind of communism, because 
they have no influence whatsoever over the individuals who are a 
drain upon them ; and he demands for the communes a right of vetoing 
improvident marriages, and recommends the introduction of obliga- 
tory savings (Zwangshilfscasseri) instead of poor relief. Our plans 
of reform aim in the first place at a revision of the settlement law; 
that is, we desire neither the principle of settlement nor of two or 
five years' residence, but unification of the poor administration and 
a general poor tax. 
At the close of this critical review of the Vienna poor relief system 
may be placed two tables compiled from the Vienna statistical 
annuals; the figures, despite their not being exact, show beyond 
doubt, first, that in the course of the last decade the expenditure of 
Vienna for poor relief has increased much less rapidly, indeed often 
more slowly than the population; secondly, that the burden of this 
expenditure has even decreased somewhat in proportion; thirdly, 
that some symptoms point to the conclusion that Vienna has become, 
if not richer, at least not very much poorer. 
oooccooooocooocooo 
k0 oocoooooocoooooo 
00 O'Ln u N 
Year. 
00 
-0'S OOol Ln 
>■ Sf " _° C'O^J P'b'1 
WMJl.MN'CMsl'O 
VO *4 Ln) O' OVO) *4 "4 LU 
VO 00 Jx Jx Ln Ln 1) Li l-n 
Population. 
NNNNWNuNN 
VO VO CO OVLn A 41 U W 
p J- O OVp Ln eq 
b O o i> vb -4 L) "u c 
O O o O C L. O - 
P O O O O u VO 7 5 
b o 2 o o b o b o !" 
oooooooo2 
OOOOOOOOO 
Amount of mort- 
gages. 
f records 
] wanting. 
26,900,000 fl. 
30,860,000 
31,000,000 
30,400,000 
32,800,000 
Amount of 
interest. 
* 
N N H N H su n> 
O LJ O O -U s 0 
■O O O <O « ~ 0 
Ln OvO -O' 3 J, 
OTQ w 
Number of vacant 
dwellings which 
rent for 400 or 
500 florins. 
O\Cn Lrt Ln -f- Ln 
b) O « bn 4k - (Si O\ 
~ O' 00-A- U) U) 0 ~ O 
co 0 -p* p\ « « 0 5. 
C\ ~~ 1S1 0 'M 'O hi os 3 
OOOOOJkJkuLnS" 
O O O O O Ln OVW « 
Unpaid taxes.  
Number of 
Cases aided.* 
Expenditure in florins. 
Number of cases 
aided in 100 
Expenditure for 
poor relief per 
capita of popu- 
lation. 
Year. 
inhabitants in 
the ten old 
From public 
From private 
From public 
From private 
inhabitants. 
wards. 
Total. 
Total. 
From 
Means. 
Means. 
public 
funds. 
Total. 
public 
funds. 
Total. 
1863 ) 
to > 
1871 ) 
1872 j 
to > 
1882 ) 
581,644 
679,277 
100,204 
110,267 
40,248 
53,389 
140,452 
163,685 
2,922,149 
3,830,442 
445,218 
743,098 
•• 
3,367,367 
4,573,540 
17.2 
16.2 
24.I 
24.O 
5-02 
5 64 
5-71 
6.70 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
736,773 , 
747,772 
758,935 
770,265 
781,764 
793,434 
805,278 
817,299 
148,027 
149,413 
153,120 
153,600 
155,899 
181,719 
I75,284 
177,184 
107,480 
108,191 
123,173 
128,973 
134,446 
137,152 
137,860 
153,326 
255,507 
257,604 
276,293 
282,573 
29O,345 
318,871 
3I3>144 
33°,510 
5,317,620 . 
5,33b8l7 
5-495,799 
5,567,251 
5,535,705 
5,4l6,38l 
5,486,1 27 
5,363,608 
961,577 
970,952 
1,066,924 
1,128,167 
1,097,946 
1,180,136 
1,166,276 
1,153,326 
6,279,197 
6,302,769 
6,562,723 
6,695,418 
6,633,651 
6,596,517 
6,652,403 
6,516,934 
20.0 
20.0 
20-3 
I9.9 
20 I 
25-7 
21.0 
21.6 
34-6t 
34-6 
36.6 
36 6 
37-4 
40.6 
39-o 
40.4 
7-21 
7.16 
7.28 
7.22 
7.T4 
6.89 
6.89 
6.56 
8.52 
8-47 
8.70 
8.69 
8.56 
8 40 
8.36 
7-97 
Change 
1883 ) 
to > 
1890 ) 
+ 10.9$ 
+ 19 6$ 
+ 42.6$ 
+ 3°-3$ 
+ o.8$ 
+19-9$ 
+ 3-3$ 
+ 1.6 
+ 38 
- O.65 
- 0.55 
* We say cases aided, not persons aided, tiecause we want to avoid counting one person several times. 
+ The great difference between 24 and 34 cases aided is explained by the apparently large increase of persons aided from private funds (from 53,389 to 
107,480) ; the real reason is simply this, that the data of charitable associations before the appearance of the annual (in 1883) were very scant. 
Note.-It is a significant fact that in 1883 there were 34.5 cases aided to every rco inhabitants, of whom 20 received aid from public funds; in 1890, on 
the other hand, there were 40 1 and 21.6, z. e. an increase of 3.8 and of 1.6,-while the expenditure for poor relief per capita of population has fallen from 8.51 
florins in 1883 to 7.97 florins in 1890 (a decrease of 0.55 florin.) The average expenditure per case is 20 to 22 florins. PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
284 
CHARITY IN TURKEY. 
T. FLAKKY, IMPERIAL OTTOMAN COMMISSIONER-GENERAL TO 
COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 
Invited to assist the sessions of the World's Auxiliary Congress of 
Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, and honored with member- 
ship in this assembly, composed of so many eminent persons from all 
parts of the civilized world, I beg your indulgence to say a few words 
on this important, I must say the most important, question of the 
day, from both the moral and social point of view. 
I feel embarrassed by my lack of confidence, and shall not attempt 
to submit to this honored assemblage new and practical ideas or 
theories on a subject so familiar to you all. The charities and 
philanthropic institutions of the Ottoman Empire are not well known 
to our Western neighbors, hence my great desire to say a few words 
on the subject. 
Let me first of all congratulate you upon this first attempt to bring 
together men from all nations to discuss subjects relating to humanity. 
The aim of humanity must be not only equal, but also relative easi- 
ness of life for everybody; otherwise a great portion of mankind, 
deprived of the vital necessities of life, will either be lost in crime or 
will strive to procure through improper means what is refused to 
them by hard circumstances and by their fellow-citizens. Certainly 
many a criminal is born with a predisposition to crime, but in coun- 
tries where the comforts of life are easily procurable, the number of 
criminals is always far less than where pauperism prevails. But even 
where economical laws are best observed, some unexpected circum- 
stances, such as disasters, international wars, commercial and finan- 
cial crises, bring all to naught The intellectual inequality between 
members of the same community eventually reduces one portion of 
it to the depths of misery, and makes it the duty of the favored 
members to save the rest-to restore them, if not completely, at 
least as nearly as possible, to their former prosperity. Surely many 
a horrible crime might be prevented by this intervention of society, 
by relieving the miseries of the poor and keeping them in the bounds 
of human comforts, ideas and manners. So long as there are guar- 
antees enough for the relief of disasters and misfortunes, society has 
nothing to do ; but the helpless are worthy of its care, and the bar- 
barian device, Vce victis, must be forever forgotten. FLAKKY. 
285 
A well-extended and well-combined system of charities does much 
to prevent crimes and the necessity for correction; but correction 
may also be considered as a charity. Correction means the separa- 
tion of the actually degraded members of society from their more 
law-abiding neighbors, a means which relieves the latter from a bad 
neighborhood and the influences of vice. A good system of correc- 
tion, besides doing its work as a means of punishment, succeeds in 
many cases in making good and honest citizens of bad men, by sub- 
jecting them to its rules based on civil law. 
To prevent humanity from losing its moral virtues because of its 
material misfortunes, and to help those who have already lost these 
qualities to regain them, is what we call philanthropy. These con- 
siderations show why, in my mind, I see such an intimate relation 
between these two words, charity and correction, and how the two 
lead to this idea of philanthropy, which is the motto of this distin- 
guished assemblage. 
I must apologize for the length of these introductory remarks and 
proceed at once to explain briefly the state of charitable institutions 
now existing in my country. In Turkey charity has always been 
considered as a public and private duty. Two essential elements of 
Turkish life give to it a prominent position amongst human institu- 
tions. These two elements are, as you all know, the time-honored 
customs of the Turkish race and the principles of the Mohammedan 
religion. The Turkish tribes have always mixed charity with hospi- 
tality. The stranger, be he poor or rich, coming to a tent to seek 
shelter or refuge, is always welcomed ancF furnished with all means 
of subsistence and comfort. These habits still characterize the 
nomadic tribes and also the more stable population, amongst whom 
every village, besides caring for its own poor, possesses a special 
house where strangers are received, lodged and nourished without 
any cost. 
As to the Mussulman religion, it is universally known that the 
relief of and the respect for the poor have been raised by it to the 
rank of a state institution. 
Mohammed belonged to a tribe in Mecca governed by a class of 
wealthy merchants, who formed a real plutocracy amongst the Arab 
nation. Poverty was of course despised by these men, and it was 
certainly more difficult to press upon them respect for the poor than 
any other social or moral reform. Mohammed succeeded in chang- 
ing the ideas of his people on this matter as on many others ; and he PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
286 
devoted all his time to the welfare of the growing Mohammedan 
community, paying no attention to his personal fortune. His motto 
was, " Poverty is my glory," (Atfakree fahry). His great endeavor 
was to establish a perfect equality between the poor and the rich. He 
succeeded, and the result is that to-day Turkey, like every other 
Mohammedan community, is one of the most typical democratic 
countries, without any kind of nobility or social distinction except 
such as is conferred by the state for the needs of administration. 
One of the five principles of Islam is the Zekat, which is a tax on 
the wealthy class for the maintenance of the poor. In times of con- 
quest, the fifth part of the spoils was sent to the Beit-ul-mal, or 
public treasury, and devoted to the same purpose by the state officials. 
Zekat, a regular public tax in the first century of the Khalifate, has 
ever since been regarded by all Mussulmans as a religious duty. 
Every rich Mussulman who possesses articles of luxury gives a yearly 
amount, in proportion to his wealth, to the poor, and so fulfils his 
obligation for the relief of the poor, an offering which is said in the 
Koran to be the form of prayer most agreeable to the Almighty. 
Personal effects, money, goods used in commerce, and the orna- 
mental articles used by ladies are of course excepted from the charge 
of Zekat, as they do not imply a luxury which may cause grievances 
to the poorer classes. My countrymen are all under the influence of 
these national habits and religious ideas, and hence a man who is 
indifferent to the misery of the poor is considered a monster devoid 
of any humane sentiments and subject to the hatred of his fellow - 
citizens. 
There is no uniform law in Turkey giving to the state poor relief 
the features of a regular institution. The cause of this must be 
found in the fact that there poverty has a thoroughly different mean- 
ing from that of other countries. In Turkey the possession of land 
is quite evenly distributed, and nearly everybody has his share, 
small or large, in the national domain. In fact every man is a land- 
owner, and it is very difficult to find one who has not a parcel of 
land somewhere. Even such men as are known to be poor have 
their own homes and need only the necessary means of subsistence. 
No one has to sleep in the open air when night comes. There are 
no homeless people in Turkey. Consequently there was no neces- 
sity of having a kind of poor law giving shelter to the needy, and 
only a very few destitute people are directly cared for by the 
national government in places specially assigned to that purpose. FLAKKY. 
287 
The consequence is that there is no pauperism, no regular and per- 
manent class of poor in Turkey. Therefore what is most needed is 
special means of alleviating temporary need or accidental suffering . 
The destitute are provided with the means of subsistence without 
putting them in regularly established poorhouses, thus prejudicing 
their standing among their friends and acquaintances. Govern- 
mental relief for the poor is carried on by different channelsand with 
an efficiency truly remarkable. The imperial family, especially his 
Majesty the Sultan, expends a considerable part of his revenues for 
this purpose. When the sovereign or the members of the imperial 
family go out, money is always distributed to the poor assembled on 
the street. A portion of the special cash fund of his Majesty and 
that of the Ministry of the Civil List is expended for persons who 
apply to imperial magnanimity to alleviate their needs. A special 
fund is allowed in the palace to help such of the poor as present 
regularly attested petitions to the sovereign. The marshal of the 
palace is charged with the management of this sum. The first secre- 
tary of the palace also has lately been placed in charge of another 
regular fund instituted by his Imperial Majesty Abdul Hamid II. 
In case of special emergencies caused by accidents, such as fires, 
earthquakes, famines, and other public calamities, the Sultan always 
takes the initiative in the distribution of succor to the needy, and 
invariably he is the first to come forward and assist to heal the 
wounds of the injured and alleviate the misery of the helpless. At 
the recent earthquakes which destroyed a great part of the district 
of Malattiah, all the houses in villages anS in cities were rebuilt by 
the government without any cost to the people, and thus this great 
public calamity left no trace behind. Even in districts far from Con- 
stantinople many needy people have regular allowances paid to them 
from the privy purse of the sovereign. 
The government treasury also pays annually large amounts of 
money for the needy, and a special pension fund is destined for this 
purpose. Pension funds for the families of all the civil and military 
servants of the empire were first instituted during the reign of his 
Majesty. This has instituted a financial power in the country, 
leaving no poor people among the classes that were once dependent 
on the salary paid by the government to the members of families. 
The poor are allowed a certain sum monthly by the government 
treasury, on the presentation of official certificates duly attested and 
sworn to by some reputable citizens of the ward where the applicant 
resides. 288 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
In addition to all these institutions, his Imperial Majesty led in 
the establishment of a great home in Constantinople for destitute 
people of all religions and denominations. This home for the poor 
will contain workshops, places of worship, schools, etc., in one word, 
all that is required for the social and moral progress of the inmates. 
The erection of the required buildings for this purpose has been car- 
ried on with great energy and enthusiasm, and when completed and 
equipped, it will be a magnificent addition to the humanitarian estab- 
lishments of the world, and a great credit\o its originator, the pres- 
ent sovereign of the Ottoman Empire. 
The Vakoufs, namely " pious institutions," also undertake a great 
part of the poor relief work. Vakoufs are real estates, the incomes 
from the rent of which are devoted, under certain prescribed rules, 
to different charities, such as the maintenance of places of worship, 
schools, public fountains, hospitals, etc. These foundations have 
been mostly established by Ottoman sovereigns, while some of them 
are the gifts of private men, but all are under the charge of the Im- 
perial Ministry of Pious Foundations-Evkof. In some cases 
Vakoiifs are under the control of the eldest son or the head of 
the family of the man who is the founder of the institution. Vakoufs 
provide for the needs of the poor in different ways : first, by giving 
life pensions or rations to them; second, by the Tmaret system, 
which is rather peculiar to Turkey. Tmarets are large places where, 
daily, cooking is done by the Vakouf and given without cost to the 
people who apply for it. Everybody can go there at the appointed 
times and receive his share of the day's fare without any formality. 
Constantinople contains more than two hundred of these places, and 
every important provincial city can boast of many places of this 
kind. The poor of a ward can have their daily meals in these 
Tmarets, and poor students, especially those who are studying in 
Medresses (theological schools), can pursue their studies without 
any appreciable cost for board, being lodged in the schools and 
nourished by the Tmaret. 
As to actual private charity in Turkey, it is done on a grand scale. 
The people think it a moral duty to give alms, and this tendency, 
beside leaving no room for great miseries, has even the effect of 
inducing some idle men to beg favors from others. Every family 
gives the surplus of its daily food, with old clothes and other house- 
hold and personal articles which are not needed, to the poor.. Thus 
many poor families obtain all that is necessary by the generosity of FLAKKY. 
289 
their neighbors. Wealthy individuals often take upon themselves 
the marriage of a poor girl who is acquainted with their families. 
Cases are not rare in which a small house, with all the necessary 
household goods, is presented to the bride, and they even procure 
a situation for the bridegroom, thus enabling him to support his 
wife. Often the residents of a ward collect money to help to marry 
the poor girls of their neighborhood, and so no girl is left unmarried, 
when she is of age, on account of poverty. 
The hospitality practised in Turkish cities is also very peculiar. 
Sometimes a whole family goes to another family's house and 
remains there as guests for days or even weeks. The poor are not 
despised, and a poor man acquainted with a rich family can bring there 
his own people and remain some time as guests. This is, of course, 
a great alleviation to the poor man's purse, and enables him to enjoy 
more easiness of life when he stays in the house of his rich relative 
or friend. 
The above considerations show why pauperism, as understood in 
some other countries, is an unknown thing in Turkey. That is a 
good thing, for in the absence of pauperism the extreme hatred so 
natural between the rich and the poor is avoided, giving place to 
more geniality and true brotherhood between citizens of all situations, 
classes and positions. May these hatreds and distinctions, which are 
the principal sources of actual embarrassment in social questions, and 
which are the result of the supposed superiority of the moneyed 
class over the poor, never arise in the land of Turks, but may our old 
and time-honored customs flourish more and more, combined with 
the influence of occidental civilization which is invading our land and 
totally transforming it-to the better, we may hope. PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
First Session, June 12, 1893, 8 p. m. 
The first session of the section on the Public Treatment of Pau- 
perism, of the International Congress of Charities, Correction and 
Philanthropy, was a general session, and was called to order at 8 
o'clock by Mr. F. H. Wines, vice-president of the Congress, who 
introduced as chairman of the section, Mr. Ansley Wilcox, of 
Buffalo, New York. 
Mr. Wilcox, upon taking the chair, spoke briefly of the import- 
ance, in the United States, of the study of the public treatment of 
pauperism, and commented upon the lack of system in state and . 
municipal relief; also upon the absence of reliable general statistics 
of pauperism, which is in part due to the variations in the methods of 
relief pursued by the local authorities. He expressed the hope that 
the presentation of European theories and their discussion by this 
Congress might lead to the development of an intelligent American 
system of poor law administration, which could be put in the form 
of a statute and generally adopted in this country. 
The first paper of the evening was read by Mr. Robert Treat 
Paine, of Boston, on Pauperism in Great Cities. 
The chairman called upon Mr. Henry C. Burdett, of London, 
England, to discuss the paper read by Mr. Paine. He responded 
in the following words : 
Mr. Burdett.-What strikes us English about Mr. Paine and his 
methods is this, that he has gone to the root of the problem, and has 
furnished us the means of solving it, if we will only acquit ourselves 
like men and women, by giving "loveand personal service." In one 
of the districts of London, a district of 20,000 people, there has been 
established an association known as the Friendly Workers' Asso- 
ciation. It is managed by a committee consisting of representatives 
of all religious denominations, under the chairmanship of a layman. 
The object of forming this pan-denominational committee has been 
to utilize to the full the forces represented by the twin sisters of love 
and personal service. The method pursued has been to take a 
census of the people in the district, and then we have gone to work PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
291 
upon the facts, and I am glad to say we have successfully solved the 
difficulties, so far as that district is concerned. 
But that is not all. Another attempt has been made, which is now 
being worked out under the heads of all religious bodies in the 
metropolis, to solve the social problem. Our idea is to get London 
divided into Friendly Workers of manageable proportions, and then, 
by the aid of pan-denominational committees and friendly workers, 
to stir up and awaken throughout the metropolis the feeling, that it 
is not so much the duty of the aggregate mass to solve this problem, 
as it is the privilege of individuals to give themselves to the work, 
and to bring by this personal service something far more valuable 
and beyond all price, the gift of oneself, if only for a limited period, 
that this problem may be solved once and for all. 
It is said that London, with her six million people, is too large to 
handle. My answer is that any one who holds that opinion is 
unworthy of civilization as it should be in this nineteenth century. 
Surely, if our sires were able to deal with the problems which beset 
them in their day, we, their descendants, with our improved methods, 
would not acquit ourselves like men, or be worthy of our sires, if we 
were to allow any aggregate mass to make us hesitate or pause in 
the effort to solve this problem. 
Professor C. R. Henderson, of the University of Chicago, read 
a paper on Public Relief and Private Charity. 
Second Session, June 13, 1893. 
Mr. Ansley Wilcox, of Buffalo, presided. Mr. John H. Finley, 
president of Knox College, Galesburg*, Illinois, acted as secretary. 
Mr. Oscar Craig, president of State Soard of Charities of New 
York, read a paper entitled, American Administration of Charity 
in Public Institutions. 
The Chairman.-The next paper is by Baron von Reitzenstein, 
of Germany, on The International Treatment of the Poor Question. 
It will be read by the secretary. The secretary then read the paper. 
The chairman invited Miss Catherine H. Spence, of Australia, 
to address the section. 
Miss Spence.-In South Australia, where I went in 1839, there was 
a range of wooden buildings, called " Immigration Square," where 
immigrants received room and food for a fortnight, until employ- 
ment could be found for them. The duty which the state owes to 
the poor has never since then been lost sight of in South Australia. 
The government takes the care of the poor upon itself, and in 
order to diminish the number of those wholly dependent upon insti- 
tutional charity in almshouses and asylums, it has organized a system 292 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
of outdoor relief which, I think, is unique and healthful, and which, 
so far as I know, has been wisely administered. If a widow is left 
with young children and without means, instead of taking her children 
from her and placing them in district schools, as would be done in 
England, the South Australian government aids her with rations. 
She is supposed to maintain herself and one child; for herself and 
two children she has one ration; with three, one and a half. The 
rations are not in money, but consist of food, bread, meat, tea, sugar, 
soap, salt and rice. Many respectable families are brought up in 
this way, the mother doing what she can to earn her children a 
living. By this means fewer children are thrown entirely upon state 
maintenance than in any other province in Australia. 
In regard to the old people, we have a " Destitute Board," 
appointed by the government, which says to a son or daughter, 
" Keep your old father and mother and we will allow you one 
ration." Consequently we have fewer old men and women in the 
almshouses than any place in the world. But this system needs to 
be watched. It has the effect of reducing the number of those who 
become entirely pauperized so long as an old man and woman can 
keep a house above their head; but when they are past work they 
will get a ration and a half. We have no able-bodied men in the 
"destitute asylum" at all; they may have a night's lodging, that is 
all ; we have only in our destitute asylums old people who are blind 
or infirm, whom I should like to see in a better place. I don't think 
it is a happy thing for old people to be always by themselves, with- 
out the patter of little feet or the stir of life. I do think there might 
be some way of boarding out old people, such as I read of in a little 
pamphlet I got here. There is a movement in South Australia to 
get a better home for the respectable poor than what is called our 
destitute asylum. 
In regard to children, they are removed from institutions and 
placed in homes, generally country homes. The government pays 
for their keeping, and furnishes registers of inspection (voluntary 
inspection), thus giving to hundreds and'thousands of ladies all over 
Australia an opportunity to visit these places. 
I know there is a great prejudice against outdoor relief; the 
fashion in England is to give no outdoor relief; they say, " If people 
want to live, let them go into the workhouses." I do not know that 
it is right, if our brothers and sisters have fallen, to thrust them with 
others amongst whom they should not properly be. I have read in 
the reports of bureaus of beneficence that temporary help is given in 
time of trouble. I have known families in dire distress to apply for 
a night's lodging who would never ask for a cent; I have known a 
mother to pawn her wedding-ring who would not ask for a cent. 
But all official charges must be regulated ; therefore it is well that 
private benevolence should aid in that way. But the objection to 
private benevolence is that the money all comes out of a few pockets ; 
that thousands of women and men, who can afford to pay well for the PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
293 
support of the poor, escape. You have here your poor-rates, and 
you say the rates are not sufficient for the maintenance of the infirm 
and poor, but that they must be supplemented by the work of active 
men and women. This thought was especially borne upon my mind 
when I attended the Australia Charity Conference in Melbourne, 
where they have no poor-rate, but regard private benevolence as 
quite sufficient. There, naturally, a few people support all the hos- 
pitals. Why should not everybody help to support these hospitals ? 
Therefore I approve of the rate system. I believe that it is the duty 
of the state to care for its poor and afflicted and infirm ; but it should 
not exonerate the private people from giving their services. By and 
by there will be no use for so much charity, because there will be 
more justice. Baron von Reitzenstein, in his observations upon the 
difficulty of public poor relief on account of political methods, 
touched upon what seems to me the essential weakness of America, 
and I have come to America for the purpose of advocating a reform 
in your electoral methods, to inaugurate improvements in such 
methods. 
Mr. Robert Treat Paine, president of Associated Charities, 
Boston.-I have listened with great interest to the remarks of Miss 
Spence, and I wjsh I could ask one question. What are the observed 
results upon these families of children, with their widowed mothers, 
where relief is given in this way ? I should suppose that the fact 
must be known to all the neighbors, so that the children of the family 
are, as it were, marked as paupers. 
Miss Spence.-Singularly enough, it is not considered a disgrace 
for a w'oman to take rations, or medical assistance, if the father of 
the family is ill. It is regarded as a right. I think that to help a 
woman to bring up her family in their own home is the best thing 
that can be done for her. But it is felt to be a disgrace to go to the 
asylums. They feel that it is not right to*let an old father or mother 
go to an asylum or almshouse. 
Mr. Paine.-I agree that the family should be kept together, but 
I doubt whether any method is wise which proclaims to all the boys 
and girls in the neighborhood that any family is, by reason of the 
death of the father, brought down so low that they must be in daily 
receipt of public relief. Is there not a better method ? I cannot but 
think there is just a little bit of that wicked element in boys that will 
lead them to taunt and jeer at their playmates under the circum- 
stances mentioned. My question is whether, if public relief must be 
given, it ought not be given in a more private and secret way; more 
in the form of a pension, or a monthly allowance, with overseers 
employed, so that the neighbors may not know that the wagon of 
shame stops in front of certain homes. Why can it not be done 
quietly? I wish to seize this opportunity to find out how far we 
might go, and whether the cause of the widow and of the children 
cannot be taken care of in a better way, a more friendly way, with 
the neighbors absolutely ignorant of the fact, and perhaps with the 294 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
children not knowing that they are aided ; whether the relief might 
not be taken from some church, or by some individual, and given in 
a quiet, tender, considerate way, until the time comes when the chil- 
dren could be self-supporting. 
Mr. P. W. Ayres, secretary of Associated Charities, Cincinnati.-I, 
too, would like to ask if there is not such a way, and I would like to tell 
Mr. Paine that in our city we have kept to the idea, which I supposed 
they had in Boston, of securing private pensions from private sources 
for certain cases of this kind, where there is a widow with several 
children who ought to be kept with the mother. We have now a 
certain amount of pension money in hand. We have adopted this 
system within the past few years to keep the mother and children 
together by means of private pensions. We do it in various ways; 
sometimes we go to a few wealthy gentlemen and say that we want 
$125 a year or $2 a week for three years until the boy, who is now 
11 years old, shall be 14. Of course we find families in which the 
children are very small and it will be a long time before they are 
self-supporting. It is more discouraging when you find children 
from 10 to 12 years of age, but we have, in answer to the gentleman's 
question, a plan in Cincinnati which has been successful in some ten 
or twelve cases. We have private pensions for women and children ; 
these pensions are so administered by friendly visitors that the family 
does not know it is an object of charity ; but sometimes it is wise to 
tell the family so they may not have a feeling of fear lest they may 
not know where the next meal is to come from. There are instances 
where we have $125 laid up for a family and they know nothing 
about it. 
Miss Zilpha D. Smith, general secretary of Associated Charities, 
Boston.-It is the proudest and happiest moment of my life that I 
am able to stand before you and say that in one district in Boston 
(the seventh ward) we have solved this problem, not only for widows 
and children, but for all the poor. We have provided private charity 
for every deserving poor person that may ask for it. We did not do 
it by looking about us to see how much was to be done, by taking a 
bird's-eye view and saying, Here are so many people and it will 
take so much money "; but we saw the poor families becoming 
demoralized. They would say to us, " If my husband dies I can go 
up to the pensioners, and it is no matter whether I save anything or 
not "; so they do not save. Now, as we do not live under a socialistic 
system, people, in order to save their character, must provide for 
themselves. We should not take away from these widows and chil- 
dren the sense of independence, the feeling that they themselves are 
able to provide for themselves. So we established a society for home 
saving; but the difficulty was that they did not care to save. There 
are a great many people who could take care of themselves if they 
only thought they could, and we are making out a list of these 
people. It is really marvellous, when you come to work out the 
problem, how few people actually need help. A gentleman who had PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
295 
visited Switzerland once said that he inquired for almshouses there. 
They said there were none. He asked, " What do your poor people 
do?" " Oh, they have sons or daughters that take care of them." 
"Suppose they have no sons." "Well, they have an uncle or an 
aunt or a niece." " Suppose they have no one." " Well, everybody 
has some one." So it seems, when you come to study into it, in every 
family there is almost invariably a way for them to get along, either 
by the help of some relative or by their own individual efforts. I 
think if others would begin as we have and say, " Now we will take 
this or that family," taking the easy ones first, gradually we could 
take every single family and make them independent. Then your 
people would begin to do as ours have and join a Home Savings 
Society, and you would find that they will soon have their twenty or 
twenty-five dollars saved, and they will take a proud pleasure in it. 
I know that we have a number of families who own their own houses 
out of town and enjoy themselves in their homes, and when they 
come in to see me they look just like my visitors; I open my eyes 
when they walk into the office, and I think " It is a visitor," and I 
look up and find they are my old poor people. 
Mr. J. R. Brackett, of Baltimore.-It seems to me, in listening to 
this very interesting discussion, that there is entirely another side to 
the question. I do not believe that to take money from the public 
treasury helps in any way to bring the two classes together, the 
prosperous and the poor. Where you get hold of a rich man and 
give him an opportunity to take his money from his pocket and help 
some poor struggling being, you do bring the classes together; and 
it looks like a great pity not to do this. 
Dr. J. W. Walk, general secretary of the Society for Organizing 
Charity, Philadelphia.-I would be extremely sorry if in my city 
widows and orphans were ever made to feel that the poor director's 
wagon would come around and back up»to their door and cause the 
blush of shame to arise to their cheek. We do not want to under- 
mine that idea of independence which is the very best thing among 
our people, and which has turned this great wilderness into a garden 
in the last hundred years. 
Now, Mr. Chairman, the keynote, or rather two keynotes have 
been struck, one by Miss Smith, when she said that by thorough 
investigation you will find immense unsuspected avenues to self- 
help, and the other was struck by Mr. Paine, when he said last 
night that people are determined to raise themselves. I can say, 
with an experience of fourteen years in Philadelphia, that we have 
in that city of over a million people very few families of widows 
or children who, if they had the poor relief, would not take it. We 
work under one or two specially favorable conditions. One is our 
building association system ; almost every poor workingman has a 
share in a building association. Another is the wonderful develop- 
ment of co-operative insurance. Co-operative insurance societies 
have paid out $35,000,000 in the last twenty-two years; they extend 296 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
all over the United States, and are extremely popular in Philadelphia. 
Still another is Girard College, which receives half-orphan boys. 
When a man dies in Philadelphia, very often one of his sons is put 
into Girard College, and there the boy will be given an education. 
Then we have the fund for coal which amounts to $18,000. We do 
not find it necessary to make permanent pensions. 
Third Session, June 15, 1893, 10.30 A- M- 
Mr. Ansley Wilcox presiding; Mr. John H. Finley acting 
as secretary. 
The Chairman.-The first paper which will be presented is by 
Mrs. May McCallum, of London, on the English Poor Law 
System, its Intention and Results, and will be read by Miss Julia 
Leavins. The paper was read. 
The Chairman.-The next paper is by Mr. William Vallance, 
of London, clerk to the Whitechapel Board of Guardians, on Poor 
Law Progress and Reform, exemplified in the Administration of an 
East London Union, and will be read by Mr. T. Guilford Smith, 
of Buffalo. This paper was also read. 
Mr. Prosper van Geert, of Belgium, read a paper on Charity 
in Belgium. 
The Chairman.-We thank Mr. van Geert sincerely for the clear 
account of the subject which he has given us. We thank him for 
coming here and presenting his paper to us in person, because it 
adds greatly to the interest to have it read by the author. 
We have some time still remaining to us, and I think that the 
pleasantest course that could be taken now would be to dispense 
with the further reading of papers and to call for remarks on the 
papers already presented. I shall therefore call upon Judge Follett, 
of Marietta, Ohio. 
Judge Follett, of the State Board of Charities of Ohio.-Many 
persons say that we ought to have no outdoor relief: but why? It 
is demonstrable that in many states (my own, I know, is one) out- 
door relief increases pauperism. But the people seem to desire it, 
and neither political party dares make an effort in the legislature to 
abolish it. It may in the end abolish itself. The trouble is that the 
relieving officers are personally benefited by the distribution of 
patronage, but. the relief granted does not benefit the public. I 
visited a county in Ohio and talked with the county officials in regard 
to a certain form of relief, which I will not describe here, but which 
would reach from 100 to 150. I said : " Tell me, do you really think 
it benefits those who receive it?" "Well, I think that two out of 150 
may be benefited." "And," I said, "the rest are injured?" "Yes, PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
297 
all the rest are injured." And yet that man would not dare to have 
me mention his name; he knows that I will not. Wherever out- 
door public relief is given it has the effect of relaxing the energies of 
men struggling to take care of themselves, which is an injury to 
their manhood. That is the basis of the objection to it. 
I am sorry, therefore, that some of our foreign friends, when asked 
to discuss outdoor relief, at once begin to describe some system of 
social charity, some individual process of family or personal visita- 
tion of the poor. Of course, in cases of distress we may go to the 
afflicted in a friendly way and, taking a man by the hand, say, 
"John, are you not in trouble?" " Yes, my wife is sick, my child is 
afflicted; I haven't been able to get work." And you can either 
send something to the house or slip a piece of money into his hand. 
But that is not public outdoor relief. 
I endorse cordially what has been said in Mr. van Geert's paper; 
it shows that certain things may be done outside of institutions. I 
approve of the remarks of Mr. Paine in the same general direction. 
But caring for and helping boys can hardly be called outdoor relief. 
When we discuss the question of public or private outdoor relief we 
ought to confine ourselves to the point. What is done for the public 
should be for the public good, and what is done for individuals 
should not be a peril to them. We had in our county a man who 
was thrifty and lived independently, but he received aid at one time 
and he stopped work at once. His energies were paralyzed ; he felt 
that the public owed him a living. There is a great difference 
between the poor and the pauperized. The pauperized control the 
relieving officers. They say to them, " Give me so much," or 
" Increase what you give me or I will work at the polls for your 
defeat." That is the road to destruction, to anarchy and ruin. 
There are so many phases of this question that I will not take any 
more time. We must not let the recipient of relief become dictator 
as to its form and amount. 
The Chairman.-The remarks of Judge Follett suggest very 
forcibly one great evil which exists in some of our cities in connec- 
tion with poor law administration. The public administrators of 
the funds of the poor should be appointed and not elected, so that 
they may at least be free to do the best that their powersand intelli- 
gence will permit them to do. 
I will ask Miss Zilpha D. Smith, of Boston, to speak. 
Miss Smith.-I was glad to hear Mr. Vallance's paper, because it 
seems to me that the history of outdoor relief in London is more 
instructive and beneficial than in Berlin or Philadelphia. As to out- 
door relief being bad in Berlin, that may have been simply because 
it was administered under bad conditions; but in England there 
was no such trouble. There they have been able to abolish outdoor 
relief, without hardship to the poor, and bring about a better condi- 
tion of things. It seems, therefore, that the evils of outdoor relief 
are inherent in the system. 298 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
I had the pleasure, four years ago, to talk with Mr. Crowder, one 
of the guardians of the parish of St. George, which is even poorer 
than that of Whitechapel. He told me that he made it a point, in 
his board of guardians when they began to refuse outdoor relief, to visit 
in person every family whose application had been rejected. He was, 
I think, a rich man himself; at least he was in comfortable circum- 
stances ; but whether or no, he was determined to see the right thing 
done; and he found that there were many legitimate ways in which 
the poor could take care of themselves, without breaking up fam- 
ilies or going to the workhouse. He said that it would have been 
more difficult in a district less poor, for the fact that poor people can 
successfully appeal for help to their neighbors renders it harder to 
convince them that they can do for themselves. , 
In Brooklyn, outdoor relief has been abolished by gradually 
leaving first one family and then another off the list as they become 
able to care for themselves. That process began long before they 
h id an almshouse. When the list was reduced to something less 
than twenty, then they said, "These people must have an alms- 
house." They built an almshouse in a wealthy location, thinking 
they would have about seventeen inmates, but when it was ready 
only one of them went there. 
Mr. A. O. Wright, of Madison, Wisconsin.-My experience for 
a number of years as an inspector of the poor and of the charitable 
institutions in the State of Wisconsin, has led me to the deliberate 
conviction that the less that is done in the way of charity the better 
it will be for the state and for charity. It is impossible, perhaps, to 
abolish public poor relief, but it is possible to abolish public outdoor 
relief. That certainly can be done, except, perhaps, in agricultural 
communities. There are agricultural communities where it could 
not be done; but there every resident knows every other resident. 
I do not think that institutional relief can yet be dispensed with. It 
has the indispensable means of dealing with those who refuse out- 
door relief. We say to them, " If you refuse outdoor relief you can 
go to the poorhouse." I am speaking about what has been done by 
the State Board of Charities of the State of Wisconsin. They found 
that a labor system was desirable in the poorhouses, and it has been 
introduced into nearly every one of the Wisconsin poorhouses. The 
result is that the inmates are happier than when they had nothing to 
do. 
Public poor relief is in no sense charity. It is a form of socialism. 
The only true charity is that which is voluntarily and privately given. 
It is not charity to collect taxes from me and give the money thus 
obtained to such persons as may be selected by a public official. That 
is socialism. But it is charity for Miss Smith to take money freely 
given by individuals and with that help to lift up those who are cast 
down. Public poor relief cannot do that; it doles out its allowances 
in small amounts to the pauperized. Private charity is capable of 
giving adequate relief, and it aids not merely those who are pauper- PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
299 
ized, but the worthy destitute, whom it saves from becoming 
paupers. 
Mr. Paine, of Boston.-I desire in one word to express the great 
pleasure with which I listened to the paper of Mr. Vallance. His 
thought is of infinite value, in its application to the general condition 
of the very poor who belong to the working classes. What he said 
is, to my mind, the very hinge of the question. If we can teach the 
people, if we can convince the socialists, if we make the clergy 
of all denominations understand, that this lax relief is demoralizing 
and injurious, we shall accomplish marvels. On the other hand, I 
do not quite see why it is necessary that private reliefshould be admin- 
istered under the same strict limitations. I have never understood 
the problem. When one sees in the report of a private relief society 
in Brooklyn that ten thousand dollars spent in a year gave relief to 
about ten thousand families (40,000 souls), at the rate of a dollar a 
family, that puzzles me. I do not perceive the use of this little drib- 
bling, petty policy of doling out relief in small sums. Relief, where 
the demand for it is real, should be given generously and in ade- 
quate amount. We have families in Boston who receive two hun- 
dred or three hundred dollars a year in relief. Is it not the fact that 
where these great relief societies descend to doling out help at the 
rate of one dollar a family, they do as much harm as public outdoor 
relief could do ? 
The following papers were presented and read by title: The 
Work of the London County Council in Relation to Public Health 
and the Housing of the Working Classes, by Mr. John Lowles ; 
The Austrian Poor Law System, by Miss Edith Sellers ; Poverty 
and its Relief in Austria, by Dr. Menger ; Sketch of the Organiza- 
tion of Public Poor Relief in Austria, by Dr. Friederich Probst; 
Poor Relief in Vienna, and its Reform, by Dr. Rudolph Kobatsch ; 
Charity in Turkey, by Mr. T. Flakky. 
The section adjourned. 
Fourth Session, June 16, 1893, 2 p. m. 
In the absence of the chairman of the section, Mr. John H. 
Finley presided. 
Mr. A. O. Wright, of Madison, Wisconsin, read a paper on the 
Causes of Pauperism and the Relation of the State to it. 
Dr. L. L. Rowland, superintendent of the State Hospital for the 
Insane, Salem, Oregon.-I would like to inquire how we are to 
avoid running in a circle upon this question? A few meetings ago 
it was argued that outdoor relief should not be permitted ; and at 
another meeting it was said that it would be far better to afford the 
mother help at home than to take her children away from her. 300 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
A voice.-From private sources, however. 
Dr. Rowland.-I did not so understand it. But I do not want 
to discuss the question. I merely ask, how are we to help those 
who require but little help, and yet not encourage pauperism ? 
Mr. Wright.-It seems to me that just such cases are those 
which most appeal to private benevolence. If there were no public 
relief for them, there would be found to be plenty of charity in the 
country. The one great evil of outdoor relief is that it destroys the 
motive to private benevolence, and by eliminating from relief the 
element of sympathy, converts it into a cold and mechanical arrange- 
ment on the part of the state. 
Mr. P. W. Ayres, of Cincinnati.-We may congratulate ourselves 
that we have listened to such a paper. I wish that it might be laid 
before some of our state legislatures, in the hope of cutting off out- 
door relief to a greater extent than has yet been done. 
There has been a feeling on the part of the Board of State Char- 
ities in Ohio that it would not be advisable to abolish all outdoor 
relief, because it does not seem practicable everywhere to meet the 
need by private contributions. It is agreed that in large cities it can 
be abolished. As a practical worker, I am sure that there it is 
always harmful. The societies and churches in Cincinnati or any 
other large city are abundantly able to care for all cases of temporary 
distress. 
My mind has been dwelling upon the possibility of substituting 
for the present outdoor relief in country districts, systematic co-op- 
eration by the benevolent and Christian people of five or six or more 
counties, through the employment of a private agent, who could 
investigate and report upon cases of distress, so that the want could 
be intelligently and completely and promptly met. In large cities 
we work to advantage, because the population is compact and we 
can reach a case quickly. With a paid agent for six counties to 
distribute money raised from private sources, all needed temporary 
relief could be given at a far less cost than the public now pays 
for it. 
Mr. Lucius C. Storrs, secretary of the State Board of Charities 
of Michigan.-The plan suggested by Dr. Ayres is certainly ideal. I 
suppose that by the time that the next four-hundredth anniversary 
of the discovery of America is celebrated we may see it adopted. 
Mr. Wright knows as well as myself that at present it is not prac- 
tical. But I am glad of the opportunity to say that I hope, when the 
committees of the National Conference of Charities are appointed 
at Nashville next year, the committee on charity organization 
will be so constituted that both the city and country will be repre- 
sented on it. There is no antagonism between the two, and we 
want advice and instruction and experience from both sides. Our 
city friends describe methods of work admirably adapted to cities; 
but a large number of us come from smaller places, and what we 
want to know is the best way to relieve poverty in rural districts and 
in towns. One complements the other, and both should go together. PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
301 
Mrs. Louisa R.Wardner, of Chicago.-I wish to ask Mr. Wright's 
opinion of indiscriminate private charity. I have been attending the 
Conference of Charities for many years and I have often heard the 
recommendation not to give alms to individuals. Now you say that 
the poor should be relieved by private charity. What do you 
recommend ? Is house-to-house charity the proper method where 
there are no organized charities ? 
Mr. Wright.-My paper does not cover that ground. It would 
make it too long if I had tried to cover everything ; so I omitted 
the question of private charity. But I will say that, as between 
lavish public poor relief and lavish private poor relief, it is a far less 
evil to have it given by private charity. 
Mrs. Wardner.-You mean individually? 
Mr. Wright.-Or by societies either. The charity organization 
societies have covered that ground. 
Mr. Roberts, of Wisconsin.-I want to ask Mr. Wright a ques- 
tion. Very little has been said in regard to poorhouse administra- 
tion. I know a little about the poorhouses of the state of New York, 
and how difficult it has been to provide systematic, continuous work 
for the inmates. Have you any suggestions to make touching that 
point? 
Mr. Wright.-I read a paper before the National Conference 
of Charities at San Francisco on that subject. My experience 
has been in country poorhouses rather than in those of large 
cities. The least successful attempt in that line made in Wisconsin 
is in Milwaukee. Of course the problem is harder in the city than 
in the country. Yet most country poorhouses do not provide the 
occupations they might. There is a variety of industries on a farm, 
and some kind of work can be assigned to almost every inmate. 
One secret of success, in addition to the .kind but firm determination 
of the superintendent and matron, is the* making of certain individ- 
uals responsible for the discharge of certain daily duties, so that the 
organization of labor does not require to be renewed every morning. 
The benefit is not in the money value of the labor, but in the 
discipline. 
The Chairman.-I have been very much interested in a scheme 
in vogue in England known as the Brabazon scheme. The inmates 
are taught to make fancy things, to sew and to carve; and one is 
surprised to see what these poor people can do with a very little 
training. Some ladies of the district give instruction to the inmates, 
visiting the workhouse once or twice a week, and in that way keep 
them constantly employed. An effort has been made on this side to 
carry out the plan in one or more of the poorhouses in the state of 
New York, and the result has been satisfactory. An account of the 
work of Lady Brabazon may be found in the State Charities Record, 
which may be had on application to the State Charities Aid Associ- 
ation of New York. 302 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
Mr. P. W. Ayres, of Cincinnati, Ohio, read a paper on Free 
Public Employment Offices in Ohio. 
The next paper, on Immigration of Aliens, by Mr. Arnold 
White, of London, was read by Rev. H. H. Hart, of St. Paul, 
Minnesota. 
Professor E. W. Bemis, of the University of Chicago.-The immi- 
gration question has greatly interested me. Restrictions upon the 
freedom of immigration are demanded for the protection of the 
standard of living of our working classes. The depressing influence 
of a low standard of living on the part of immigrants is especially 
felt in our slum districts. Pauper immigration is responsible for the 
transfer of the sweating system to American soil. It complicates the 
troubles in our mining sections, and it is the cause of much violence 
in strikes. It unloads upon us a radical element very hard to 
control. 
In discussing this question with workingmen, we discover the 
existence of a divided sentiment. Some of the labor leaders favor 
restriction. They take the ground that an educational test would 
be a good thing; that we should keep out, let us say, all immigrants 
over fifteen years of age who cannot read and write their own lan- 
guage. You know that came very near passing the last Congress. 
It is believed that a majority of both houses was in favor of the bill, 
but it came up in such a form as to require a two-thirds vote, and so 
was defeated. 
I notice with interest the statistics in a late report of the New York 
Commissioners of Immigration as to the relative illiteracy of the 
various nationalities, as shown by the ability of all over fifteen years 
of age who had come to New York during about nine months of the 
year 1892, to read and write. From nearly all the Germanic peoples, 
English, Scotch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Germans, etc., not 
more than 1 per cent, were illiterate. From Ireland less than 10 per 
cent. But from Eastern and Southern Europe the illiteracy of some 
nationalities went to more than 50 per cent. This shows that an 
educational test would keep out the very immigrants whom we would 
like to keep out. It would not keep out all the Jews, but it would 
affect the other nationalities quite sharply. 
In talking with recent immigrants I find them disposed to favor 
immigration, for two reasons. One is the desire to have their rela- 
tives here; the other, that a large portion of the very poor in this 
country are becoming radically and extremely socialistic in their 
tendencies. They are glad, for instance, when a trades-union is in 
anyway hampered by a decision of the courts, as was the engineers' 
union by the Toledo decision. They are delighted at anything 
which tends to crush out effort on the part of workingmen, in order 
that they may be driven into socialism. They are glad to see wages 
temporarily reduced, thinking that it will produce a crisis dangerous 
to the present industrial system. Inasmuch as immigration will PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
303 
increase the slum population and hasten the coming crisis, they 
welcome it. That element is growing very rapidly, recruited by 
immigration. For that very reason, of course, we oppose it. 
One of my students lately investigated the character of the foreign- 
born who send money to Europe through the postoffice to help their 
friends come to this country. He found that more than half of them 
are unable to sign their names. 
I have also been impressed with statistics showing the average 
amount of money brought into this country by immigrants; it is, lor 
the majority of nationalities, less than thirty-five dollars per capita, 
A voice.-The- immigrants probably conceal the amount of 
money they have with them. 
Professor Bemis.-That may be so. But I feel that we ought to 
restrict immigration, and I believe that the movement is spreading 
among the wage-earners themselves. Some people think it is con- 
trary to the spirit of our fathers, but Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes 
on Virginia, opposed strenuously the encouragement of immigration 
from the continent of Europe, preferring to wait for the natural 
increase of our native population. 
M. Stanislas H. Haine, of Antwerp, Belgium, addressed the 
section on the subject of the Mont de Piete in Antwerp. He said 
that the Mont de Piete is an institution established by the govern- 
ment for the purpose of loaning small sums of money on personal 
property. Such loans are made at seven per cent. For a period of 
two years, the largest sum loaned is $200 and the smallest forty 
cents. The original capital was contributed by the government. 
This institution has been in operation since 1830, and has earned 
enough to repay to the government nearly the whole of its original 
endowment. The profits have averaged about $4000 a year. It 
employs about thirty clerks, and there are several branches, in dif- 
ferent parts of the city. The five directors are nominated by the 
city council for four years. Money is loaned without interest when 
the applicant brings a certificate from the public administrators of 
charity that he is unable to pay interest; but this seldom happens. 
The directors usually calculate to loan about four-fifths of the 
intrinsic value of the article deposited as security. They have some- 
times taken stolen goods, especially from other cities. On proof of 
ownership, the owner is given back his property and the loss falls 
upon the institution. Articles in pawn are kept for thirteen months 
after the expiration of the loan and sold within the ensuing year. 
A paper on Tramps, by Professor John J. McCook, of Trinity 
College, Hartford, was read by Mr. Alexander Johnson. 
Mr. A. O. Wright, of Wisconsin, read a paper on Vagrancy. 
The Chairman.-General Brinkerhoff tells me that they have no 
vagrancy problem in Ohio. I should like to know why. 
General Roeliff W. Brinkerhoff, president of the State Board 
of Charities of Ohio.-I simply meant to say that the vagrant ques- 304 
PUBLIC TREATMENT OF PAUPERISM. 
tion is not there so serious as to attract our attention as members of 
the State Board of Charities. Mr. Ayres knows more about the 
tramp question than I do, because he comes from the city of Cincin- 
nati. 
The Chairman.-Have you anything to say in regard to this 
question, Mr. Ayres? 
Mr. P. W. Ayres.-No. The last paper read stated that a good 
many tramps are the product of the slums in large cities. I am 
inclined to think that the young man from the slums is too debauched 
to become a tramp; he hasn't the requisite energy. Their ranks 
are more largely recruited from the young man in small towns. 
While on the floor, I wish to ask if anybody knows of any employ- 
ment for prisoners in small jails? 
Mr. Wright.-Go to Media and see for yourself. The beauty 
of the separate system, in the Eastern Pennsylvania Penitentiary and 
in several of the Pennsylvania county jails, is that labor can be 
carried on without the aid of machinery ; the industries followed are 
such as carpet-weaving, basket-making, braiding mats, knitting and 
the like, which can be performed by individuals in single cells. It 
has been suggested that convicts should be employed to work on 
the roads, but a chain-gang is a demoralizing spectacle. The 
remedy is worse than the disease. 
Mr. Rich.-I think that one great cause of vagrancy is the dis- 
proportion between production and consumption. While in London, 
England, eight months ago, I was told that there were 500,000 
criminals made so by circumstances over which they had no control. 
I was told that others were working sixteen hours a day. There are 
40,000 'bus-men alone in the city of London who work sixteen hours 
a day, for about five dollars a week in our money. I saw a band of 
workingmen who had been made tramps by circumstances, carrying 
a banner with this inscription, "We demand the right to work." 
There are tens of thousands in our country who demand the right to 
work, but cannot get it, who are first made tramps and then criminals 
because this demand is not met. 
I am a German by birth. I occupied a pulpit for eighteen years 
in the German Reformed Church. I thank heaven that the first thing 
I had to learn when I returned from service in the army during the 
Civil War was to handle a saw, a chisel and a hatchet. I have tried 
to find the solution of the social question by taking a practical view 
of it, and so I applied in this town for work. I have gone where I. 
could see the condition of labor with my own eyes. I applied at the 
Fair the other day for employment, and here is my badge, number 
211. When I asked for employment that morning it was announced 
that 100 would be engaged. There were 500 there, and 300 of them 
were sent home in two hours. In three hours after that, 50 more 
were dismissed, and then 50 more. I happened to be one of the 
fortunate ones, and I saw the fierce struggle for work. God give us 
more men that will deny themselves, leave their pulpits, mingle with PROCEEDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
305 
the lower classes, and there, in contact with their suffering, speak a 
word to those who are in authority, urging them to use their power 
and influence to help mankind to a higher level. 
I glory in what General Booth has done in Ehgland. I had a card 
of admission from him to his House of Rescue, and I saw some of 
the grand work he is doing in the houses which he has erected for 
tramps and for the poor. But, my dear friends, do you not know that 
the work given by him to a tramp, in one of these homes, takes the 
bread out of the mouth of some poor family, and robs some father of 
work who has a wife and children dependent on him ? This labor 
problem is the problem of our age. Until we are filled with true 
charity from above, with love and good will to man, until we are 
willing to sacrifice and to suffer, and deny ourselves some of our 
comforts for their sake, we shall never solve this problem. God give 
us mercy ! God give us charity ! 
The Chairman.-The gentleman has certainly named the funda- 
mental principle of the solution of all social problems. 
The following papers were read by title: Private Unofficial 
Visitation of Public Institutions, by Miss Louisa Twining; Relief 
by Work in France, by M. Grosseteste-Thierry, of Paris; 
Pauperism and Crime, by Mr. John R. Weber; Municipal Pro- 
vision for 'Shelter of Homeless Poor in Boston, by Mr.'Thomas F. 
Ring, of Boston; The Problem of Inebriate Pauperism, by Dr. T. 
D. Crothers, of Hartford. 
The section then adjourned sine die. INDEX. 
Abdul Hamid II., 287. 
Adams, Henry C., 35. 
Almsgiving, indiscriminate, 35, 47-49, 148, 150. 
Almshouses, see Poorhouses. 
Altgeld, John P., 29. 
Anderson, Martin B., 60. 
Antwerp Charity Board, 206. 
Armendepartment, see Vienna. 
Aschrott, P. F., 47. 
Associated Charities of Boston, report of, 47. 
Asyl (municipal boarding-house), Vienna, 219, 220. 
Asylums, for children, in New York city, 79; in New York state, 79, 82; in 
Austria, 251 ; in Belgium, 205, 206 ; in Vienna, 219. 
for criminals, in New York state, 83; see London County Council. 
for feeble-minded women, in New York state, 72. 
for idiots, in New York state, 71, 72, 73. 
for imbeciles, London, 174. 
for the insane, in New York state, 73, 75, 78, 79, 81, 85 ; in London, 
174. 
Australia, charity in, 291-293. 
Charity Conference, 293. 
Austria, charity in, 19-20; poor law system in, 19, 216-224, 230, 232, 240, 299; 
classification of paupers in, 216-217 > pjiests as guardians of the poor 
in, 217 ; workhouses in, 220 ; pensions to the aged in, 221-224 ; poverty 
and its relief in, 224-229; displacement of labor in, 225; small land 
holdings in, 226-227 ; pauper Jews in, 227-228 ; settlement laws in, 228, 
229, 230, 232, 235-237, 244, 246, 247, 268; public poor relief in cities in, 
232-235; communal rights in, see Settlement laws ; poorhouses in, 237, 
251 ; relief in kind in, 238 ; boarding-out system in, 238 ; care of depen- 
dent children in, 238, 246; relief by work in, 239 ; duties of commune 
to poor in, 228, 229, 231, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 246, 268, 269; sources 
of public relief in, 239-241; poor relief system in, 246, 251, 252 ; domi- 
cile relief in, 250, 251, 253 ; asylums for children in, 251 ; poor tax in, 
252-253; see Vienna. 
Ayres, Philip W., 124-131, 294, 300, 302, 304. 
Barnett, S. A., 49. 
Bedford Industrial Building, 30, 53, 54. 
Begging, 57 ; by letter, 207-208 ; suppression of, 209, 211, 213; licenses, 152 ; 
see Unions d'Assistance. 
Belgium, charity in, 198-206, 296; dependent children in, 203-206. 308 
INDEX. 
Bemis, Edward W., 302, 303. 
Berlin, system of poor relief, 258, 270; temporary relief in, 261; outdoor 
relief in, 297. 
Better Dwellings Society, Boston, 41. 
Blind, the, see Homes for, Statistics, Tables. 
Boarding-out system for children, 82,83, 155; in Austria, 218-219, 23&> 2^6; 
in England, 82; in Australia, 292 ; objections to, 82, 204-205 ; see White- 
chapel, Statistics. 
Association for Orphans and Destitute Children in Families, 
England, 190. 
Board of State Charities, Ohio, 300. 
Boards of Health, 39, 41, 57. 
Booth, Charles, 35, 36, 50, 114, 161, 305. 
Boston, friendly visitors in, 32 ; private charities in, 294 ; poor relief in, 299 ; 
municipal provision for shelter of homeless poor in, 117-124, 305. 
Commission, 1878, on treatment of the poor, 48. 
Co-operative Building Company, 38. 
Brabazon Scheme, 191, 301. 
Brackett, Jeffrey R., 295. 
Bradfield Union, England, 156. 
Brinkerhoff, Roeliff, 303. 
Brixworth Union, England, 156. 
Brookline, success of relief system in, 48. 
Brooklyn, charity in, 48, 298, 299; manual training in, 52; Bureau of Chari- 
ties, 53; friendly visiting, 35, 53. 
Brooks, Phillips, 23. 
Building association system, Philadelphia, 295. 
Burdett, Henry C., 290-291. 
Bureau de Bienfaisance (board of charity), Belgium, act to establish, 198; 
objects of, 198; stores of, 198-199; assistance rendered by, 198-199, 
200,201, 202-203 ; personnel of, 199-200; methods of work, 199, 200, 
203 ; friendly visitors of, 200; model farm of, 206 ; women workers for, 
206. 
, Paris, 9, 211; cost of supporting, 252, 261. 
Buzelle, George B., 53. 
Casual wards, 157 ; London, 26, 27. 
Central Office for Charitable Works, Paris, 209. 
Chalmelle, agricultural colony at, 209-211. 
Charity, constructive, 30; repressive methods of, 30; duty of, 90; private 
versus official, 95 ; relation of the Church to public, 96; abuses of pri- 
vate, 148, 149, 157; in large cities, 300; prevention of crime by, 285; 
correction and, 285; private, 298, 300,301. 
fund, diversion of, 197. 
organization, objects of, 13,32 ; comparison of with Elberfeld system, 
20-22; criticism of methods, 35; growth of, 60 ; see Elberfeld system, 
Newport. INDEX. 
309 
Charity organization societies, attitude towards outdoor relief, 27 ; to abolish 
pauperism, 150; relation of, to private poor relief, 301; see Friendly 
visitors, Glasgow, Whitechapel. 
Charles, Mrs., 45. 
Chevalier, 93. 
Chicago, slums in, 42 ; homes of the poor in, 42 ; need of municipal lodging 
houses in, 176. 
Hebrew Relief Society, report of, 42. 
Children, neglect of, a cause of pauperism, 35, 43 ; dependent, in Massachu- 
setts, 46 ; in Pennsylvania, 46 ; in Michigan, 46 ; in Austria, 218, 219, 236, 
246; in Belgium, 203-206; illegitimate, 147, 150; feeble-minded, 190; 
see Boarding-out system, Placing-out system, Public aid, Whitechapel. 
Children's Aid Society of New York, 83. 
Church, the relation of to public charity, 96-97. 
Cincinnati, private poor relief in, 294. 
Cities, conditions of life in large, 24-26; charity in large, 300. 
Classification, see Sexes. 
Coal fund, Philadelphia, 296. 
Codman, Mrs. James M., 48. 
College settlements, 56. 
Colonies, charity, Chalmelle, 209-211 ; Congo Free State, 203; Hoogstraeten, 
201, 203 ; see Zivangarbeithaus. 
Commune, the, see Austria, France. 
Competition, unfair, 197 ; effects of, on wages, 220. 
Congo Free State, charity colony, 203. 
Congress, Medical, London, 175. 
, Municipal Labor, of Cincinnati, 124. 
Constantinople, institutions in, 288. 
Co-operation of charity organization with Elberfeld system, 20-22 ; of econ- 
omists with workingmen, 92 ; of charitable agencies, 300. 
Co-operative insurance societies, Philadelphia, 295-296. 
Corcoran, M. T., 124. 
Correction as a form of charity, 285. 
Craig, Oscar, 58-59, 291. 
Crime, pauperism and, 131-140; prevention of, 285. 
Criminals, 284, 304; tramps as, 106-110; see Asylums. 
Crothers, T. D., 140-146, 305. 
Crowder, 298. 
Deaf and dumb, see Homes, Public aid, Tables. 
Destitute Board, Australia, 292. 
Discussions, 290-305. 
Drainage system of London, 173. 
Drink, intoxicating, cause of pauperism, 35, 43 ; sale of, 142. 
problem, the, 143. 
Dwellings of the working classes, London, 37, 175-176; see Homes. 310 
INDEX. 
East London Union, 166-167. 
Economics, relation of, to philanthropy, 90-91. 
Economists, co-operation of, with workingmen, 92. 
Elberfeld system of public charity, 8, 16,93,95, 259,272; almoners of, 16; 
applicability of, to towns, 16; to cities, 17; to the country, 18; adapt- 
ability of the, 20-21 ; see Austria, Charity organization. 
Employment, for tramps, 110-113; free offices for tramps, Ohio, 124-131, 302 ; 
agencies, 125; lack of, 304 ; see Paupers, Relief by work, Tramps, Vienna. 
England, charity in, 11-13, 94 ; outdoor relief in, 170 ; poor relief in, 251, 252 ; 
unemployed in, 271 ; see Paupers, Poor laws. 
Epileptics, see Public aid. 
Equality, 192. 
Faucher, 151. 
'Feeble-minded children, efforts in behalf of, 190. 
women, efforts in behalf of, 86-88. 
Finley, John H., 291, 296, 299, 301, 303, 305. 
Flakky, T., 284-289, 299. 
Folks, Homer, 82. 
Follett, M. D., 296-297. 
France, charity in, 9-10, 93-94 ; commune in, 93-94; relief by work in, 207- 
216, 305; cost of poor relief in, 252. 
Friendly societies, English, 155. 
visiting, 13, 171-172; in Boston, 32; in Brooklyn, 33, 53; its failure 
in large cities, 31, 32. 
visitors, 32, 33; opportunity of, 34; in Philadelphia, 32; in New 
York, 32 ; see Bureau de Bienfaisance. 
Workers' Association, London, 290-291. 
Fry, Elizabeth, 191. 
Gablonz, charity union in, 281. 
Gairdner, Dr., 39. 
Gemeinniltzige Gesellschaft (association for public good), Switzerland, 4. 
Germany, charity in, 14-19, 93 ; domicile relief in, 242, 250 ; cost of poor relief 
to, 252, 261 ; unemployed in, 271, 272; decrease of poor relief in, 276; 
centralization of poor relief in, 281. 
Giddings, Franklin H., 50. 
Girard College, 296. 
Girls' Friendly Society, London, 190. 
Gladstone, Wm. E.,131, 195. 
Glasgow, report of the dwelling committee of the Charity Organization 
Society of, 39. 
Grosseteste-Thierry, 207-216, 305. 
Haines, Stanislas H., 303. 
Handworterbuch filr Staats-ivissenschaften (dictionary of political science), 
250, 252. INDEX. 
311 
Hart, Hastings H., 302. 
Health inspection, see London County Council. 
Henderson, Charles R., 89-97, 291. 
Hewitt, Abram S., 32, 43. 
Hirsch, Baron de, 50. 
Home for the poor, Constantinople, 288. 
Savings Society, Boston, 294, 295. 
Temporary, for Women and Children, Boston, 118-119. 
Homeless poor, shelter for, in Boston, 117-123, 305. 
Homes, foul, 35, 56; movement for better, for the poor, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42; 
condition of, of the poor in London, 175. 
for the aged, see Versorgungsanstalten. 
blind, deaf and dumb, friendless, soldiers and sailors, see 
New York State. 
Hoogstraeten, charity colony at, 201, 203. 
Hospital, State, for the Insane, Salem, Oregon, 299. 
Hospitalite par le Travail (lodging and food for work), Paris, 208-209. 
Hospitals, in Melbourne, 299; for inebriates, 83, 144-146; for the insane, see 
Asylums; tramps in, 99, 105 ; visitors to, 191 ; see New York state. 
Howard, John, 191. 
Hoyt, Charles S„ 60, 65. 
Huntington, J. O. S., 29, 35. 
Hyndman, H. M., 38. 
Idiots, see Asylums, Public aid. 
Immigrants, naturalization of, 140; insane, 138; Russian, 195; reasons for 
excluding, 195-197 ; illiteracy of, 302 ; possessions of, 303. 
Immigration, 60, 131, 132, 138; laws, 61, 62, 64; plan for inspection of, 139- 
140 ; of aliens, 191-197, 302 ; problem, 192 ; duty of statesmen to regu- 
late, 193 ; facility with which the United States could regulate, 194; 
reasons for restricting, 194, 195, 196, 302, 303; lowering of racial type by 
unguarded, 194, 197 ; see Statistics. 
• Square, Australia, 291. • 
Improving the Condition of the Poor, Association for, New York City, 41 ; 
Pittsburg, 42. 
Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, London, 38. 
Individual benevolence, 96. 
Indoor relief, 65, 148, 170; see Austria, Bureau de Bienfaisance, East London 
Union, Whitechapel. 
Industrial training, 53-54 ; for children, Belgium, 205-206 ; institutions, Berlin, 
270. 
Inebriates, 140-146; legal punishment of, 143 ; see Pauperism, Paupers. 
Insane, classification of, in poorhouses, 67 ; immigrants, 138 ; see Asylums, 
Hospitals, National Conference of Charities and Correction, Wisconsin. 
Institutions, 171, 291 ; of technical training, 52 ; children in, 45 ; for juvenile 
delinquents, 84 ; for paupers, Vienna, 219 ; see Industrial training, New 
York state. 312 
INDEX. 
Intemperance, see Drink. 
International Congress of Charities, at Brussels, 3-5; Chicago, 6, 57; Frank- 
fort A/M, 3; London, 3-5 ; Milan, 4-5 ; Paris, 4, 5, 6, 7, 83. 
treatment of the poor question, 1-23, 291. 
Italy, charity in, 10-11 ; cost of poor relief in, 252. 
Jail, tramps in, 116-117 > see Media. 
Jameson, Mrs., 189. 
Jefferson, Thomas, on immigration, 303. 
Jews, pauper, in Austria, 227-228. 
Johnson, Alexander, 303. 
Joseph, N. S., 195. 
II. of Austria, 217, 221, 230. 
Jukes family, 28. 
Kellogg, Charles D., 41. 
Kempster, Dr., 131-132, 139. 
Kennedy, John M., 56. 
Kobatsch, Rudolph, 241-283, 299. 
Labor, displacement of, in Austria, 225-226. 
problem, 305. 
Lancet, medical commission to investigate institutions, 190. 
Land holdings, small, in Austria, 226-227 > Turkey, 286. 
Laundries, 51, 52, 53. 
Laws, to provide for the blind, 71; for deaf children, 69 ; to protect idiots, see 
New York state, Poor laws. 
Leavins, Julia, 296. 
Letchworth, Wm. P., 68, 75, 80, 82. 
Literature of charities ; see References. 
Loch, C. S., 32. 
Lodging House, municipal, London, 176 ; see Boston. 
London, parishes, 172; outdoor relief 10,297-298; Royal Commissions on con- 
dition of homes of the poor in, reports of, 37, 175. 
Central Poor Law Board, 189. 
■ County Council, work of, 172-195, 299; personnel of, 173; specific 
work of, drainage, 173; medical officers, 173, 174 ; coroners, 174 ; health 
inspection, 174, 177-188; care of asylums for imbeciles and insane, 174; 
mandatory powers, 175; cheap transit, 175-176; by-laws under Public 
Health Act, 177-188. 
Russo-Jewish Committee, 195. 
Loning, 243, 250, 281. 
Love, as necessary factor in reform work, 55-57. 
Low, Seth, 27, 57. 
Lowell, Josephine Shaw, 45, 81. 
Lower Austrian law for establishing poor associations, 249. INDEX. 
313 
Lowles, John, 172-188, 299. 
Lunacy Commission, see New York state. 
report on, by New York State Board of Charities, 74. 
Lyons, Assistance par le Travail (relief by work), 215. 
Maison Hospitaliere (wayfarers' lodge), Paris, 208. 
Mamoz {Pierre de Touche}, 207. 
Manual training, 44; schools, 52. 
Marburg house of correction for men, 275. » 
Marriages, results of unregulated, 102, 142 ; reckless, increased by outdoor 
relief, 186; effects on, of settlement rights, 248 ; of pensions, 265. 
Marseilles, Assistance par le Travail (relief by work), 213-215. 
Martin, Sarah, 191. 
Massachusetts, dependent children in, 46. 
McCallum, May, 151-158, 296. 
McCook, John J., 97-107, 303, 305. 
McCulloch, Oscar C., 28. 
Meath, Lady, 96. 
Media jail, 116, 304. 
Medical assistance to the poor, in Belgium, 202-203 ; Berlin, 270; Vienna, 
259 ; by Bureau de Bienfaisance, 202, 203; London County Council, 173, 
174, 177-188. 
Melbourne, poor relief in, 293. 
Mendicancy, see Begging. 
Menger, 224-229, 299. 
Metropolis Local Management Act, London, 172. 
Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, 190. 
Asylums Board, 174. 
Board of Works, 172-173. 
Michigan, dependent children in, 46. 
Mohammed, 285-286. 
Mont de /'////(public pawnshop), Antwerp, 303. 
Municipal Labor Congress of Cincinnati, 124. 
Murphy, Shirley, 174. 
Natidnal Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 4. 
Conference of Charities and Correction, 4, 21, 48, 80, 83, 300, 301 ; 
report of, on poorhouse system, 58, 59; report to, on New York law for 
state care of insane, 75-77. 
Nationality, 192-193. 
New Poor Law, English, 154-155, 156. 
Newport, charity organization in, 30, 31. 
New York city, friendly visitors in, 32; better homes for the poor, 41 ; first 
orphan asylum in, 79 ; need of municipal lodging houses in, 176. 
state, homes for the blind in, 68,71, 88; homes for the deaf and 
dumb in, 68, 69, 70, 71, 88 ; homes for children in, 79 ; laws to protect 314 
INDEX. 
idiots in, 71, 72 ; law to create lunacy commission, 75; insane asylums 
in, 72-78, 83-84, 88; law for state care of the insane, 75-77; orphan 
asylums in, 79; act to protect orphans, 79; children supported by, see 
Statistics; hospitals in, 83 ; cost to, of supporting its charitable insti- 
tutions, 86; public institutions in, 83-86; soldiers and sailors' homes 
in, 83, 86; see Poorhouses, Statistics, Tables. 
Ohio, free public employment offices, 124-131 ; poor relief in, 296-297; va- 
grancy in, 303-304. 
Organization, power of, 171 ; of charity, see Charity organization, Elberfeld 
system. 
Organized effort to relieve poverty, need of, 171, 172. 
Orphans, act to protect in New York state, see New York state ; see Asylums. 
Outdoor relief, 46, 171, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300; reform of, 49; abuses of, 148, 
156; effects of, 293-294; in Australia, 292; Austria, 251-252; Brooklyn, 
298-299; England and Wales, 170; London, 170; see East London 
Union, New York, Public aid, State boards of charities, Whitechapel. 
Overseers of the poor, Vienna, 254-255, 256, 258, 259. 
Paine, Robert Treat, 23-58, 290, 293, 297, 299. 
Pan-denominational committee, London, 290-291. 
Paris Mutuels (mutual pools), 211. 
Pauper laws, 64, 65. 
Pauperism, 54; in large cities, 26, 27, 30, 290-291 ; treatment of, 34, 54, 55, 
290; causes of, 35, 36, 40, 47, 48, 146-151, 299; increase of, 87; in 
Austria, 225; and crime, 131-140, 305 ; inebriate, 140-146, 305; heredi- 
tary, 148; reformatory methods applied to, 150; decrease of, 166; 
economic necessity of, 221 ; in Turkey, 287. 
Paupers, chronic, 28, 29 ; ratio between native and foreign-born, 60 ; alien, 63 ; 
employment of, 85; definition of, 131, 132 ; inebriate, 144; classification 
of, 147; in Austria, 216-217; treatment of exceptional cases, 160; 
indoor and outdoor, 170; burial of, Belgium, 203; see Bureau de Bien- 
faisance, Institutions, Poorhouses, Tables, Vienna, Whitechapel. 
Peabody, Francis G., 21, 57. 
Pennsylvania, dependent children in, 46. 
Pensions, for the poor, 294 ; in Australia, 292 ; in Vienna, 263-266; old age, in 
Austria, 221-224 ; fund in Turkey, 287, 288. 
Society, Whitechapel, 167-168. 
Philadelphia, friendly visitors in, 32 ; relief agencies in, 295; outdoor relief in, 
297. 
Pierre de Touche, see Mamoz. 
Placing-out, see Boarding-out. 
Police stations, tramps in, 110-112. 
Poor associations, 41, 42. 
Poorhouses, in New York state, 58, 59, 61, 63, 65, 66, 88, 301 ; Brooklyn, 298 ; 
Wisconsin, 298; Australia, 292; Austria, 237, 251; classification of INDEX. 
315 
inmates in, 66, 67, 68, 73; children in,80; tramps in, 102, 105, 112, 123 ; 
abuses in, 149, 150 ; management of, 150, 189 ; work test in, 298, 301; see 
National Conference of Charities and Correction. 
Poor law, administration, 290, 297 ; in Austria, 19, 216-224, 230, 232, 249; in 
Germany, 14, 15; in Italy, 10. 
in England, 151-158, 296; reform of, 27, 28,158-172; amendment 
act, 159-160; see Whitechapel. 
- relief, report of House of Lords committee, 45. 
Poor relief, 87, 88, 295 ; centralization of, in Austria, 280-281 ; Germany, 281; 
aim of, 294; decrease of, in Saxony, 276; private, 301 ; in Turkey, 287, 
288; classification of, 267; abuses of, in England, 153-154; tax in 
Austria, 252-253; Turkey, 286; see Boston, Charity. 
, public, 94, 108, 148, 149, 290, 293, 298, 299, 301 ; in Australia, 291 ; 
Austria, 232-235, 239-241,246,299; Vienna, 224, 233, 255, 281; Eng- 
land, 94, 251, 252; Germany, 252, 261, 276; Berlin, 258, 261, 270; 
Sweden, 251 ; Turkey, 287 ; see Charity, Church. 
Poverty, and its relief, 224-229, 299; attitude of the Turks towards, 285-286. 
Prisons, appointment of unpaid visitors for, 191. 
Probst, Friederich, 230-241, 299. 
Prussian municipal law, 15. 
Public aid, 188-191, 305 ; number of idiots in New York state receiving, 84 ; 
of epileptics, 84 ; of blind, 84; of deaf and dumb, 84 ; of children, 84; to 
poorhouses in New York state, 85; to out-relief, 85; see Asylums, Poor- 
houses, Poor relief, Workhouses. 
and private charity, 89-97, 291. 
Health Act, London County Council, 177-188. 
institutions, private unofficial visitation of, 188-191, 305. 
relief, co-operation of private charity with, 95; relation of the Church 
to, 96 ; see Poor relief. : 
References to literature of charity, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 38, 45, 46, 47, 50, 
57. 63, 75, 82, 83, 151, 158, 243, 244, 246, 250, 253, 271, 275, 279, 281, 301. 
Reform, of charitable methods, England, 12; in electoral methods, 293; see 
Poor law. 
Reitzenstein, Baron von, 1-23, 291, 293. 
Relief, legal, 171 ; temporary, 292, 293, 295, 299, 300; to tramps, 102, 105, 112, 
123 ; in Berlin, 261 ; in Vienna, 260, 262, 264 ; of able-bodied paupers, 
Vienna, 218, 219; see Bureau de Bienfaisance, Indoor relief, Outdoor 
relief, Poor relief, Poor law. 
domicile, in Austria, 250, 251, 253; Germany, 242, 250. 
in kind, in Austria, 238 ; see Bureau de Bienfaisance, Whitechapel. 
in money, 294, 295. 
by work, 53, 150; in Austria, 239; France, 207-216, 305; Vienna, 213- 
215; see Hospitalite par le Travail, Laundries, Maison Hospitaliere, 
Workrooms, Woodyards, Wayfarers' Lodges. 
Rettungshaus (home of the friendless), 266. 
Ricardo, David, 90. 316 
INDEX. 
Rich, 304. 
Ring, Thomas F., 117-123, 305. 
Robert, Charles, 208. 
Roberts, 301. 
Robin, Pastor, 208. 
Rosbaud, E., 213. 
Rowland, L. L., 299, 300. 
Royal Commissions, London, 37, 154, 175 ; see London. 
Rumford, Count, 114. 
Saint Antoine, Sister, 209, 212. 
Sanborn, Frank B.,80. 
Sanitary reform, London, 173, 175 ; see London County Council. 
science, study of, 142; in England, 175. 
Saxony, decrease of poor relief in, 276. 
Schilde, model farm at, 206. 
Sellers, Edith, 216-224, 299. 
Settlement laws, Austria, 228-230, 232, 235-237, 244, 246-247, 268 ; Prussia, 228. 
, right of, see Austria, Vienna. 
Sexes, separation of the, 150; in New York state poorhouses, 66-68, 88. 
Shaftesbury, Lord, 37, 91. 
Sheriffs, system of feeing, 112, 113, 114, 115. 
Slums, in Chicago, 42 ; movement to destroy the, 39, 41 ; tramps from the, 304. 
Smith, Stephen, 75. 
, T. Guilford, 296. 
, Zilpha D., 294-295, 297-298. 
Social problem, 291, 304, 305. 
Science Conference, Saratoga, 33. 
Socialism, public poor relief a form of, 298; immigrants in favor of, 302. 
Socidtd d' Assistance de Batignolles-Monceari (relief society of, etc.), 211. 
d'Economic Charitable (society of philanthropic economics), Paris, 3. 
Sociology, study of, 57. 
Spence, Catherine H., 290-293. 
State, the, in relation to the poor, 171. 
boards of charities, of New York, attitude towards outdoor relief, 60; 
reports of, 60, 63, 64, 65, 71, 74, 75; efforts to secure immigration legis- 
lation, 62; asylums for feeble-minded women established by, 72; act 
to protect orphans, 80; authority of, over corporate charities, 84; of 
Ohio, 304 ; see Statistics of Wisconsin, 298. 
Charities Aid Association of New York, 82; report of, 188. 
Statistics ; see Tables. 
Bradfield Union, 156. 
Bureau de Bienfaisance, 211. 
Chalmelle, agricultural colony at, 210. 
Charities, of Austria, 251, 252, 260, 261, 262, 267; Berlin, 270; Saxony, 
276; Vienna, 256, 257, 259, 274, 275, 278; England and Wales, 170; 
London, 170; Whitechapel, 164, 167, 168, 169, 170, 261, 269. INDEX. 
317 
Statistics.-Continued. 
Employment, free public offices in Ohio, 128-130. 
Home for women and children, temporary, Boston, 118. 
Hospitality par le Travail, 209. 
Immigrants and immigration, 133-135, 136, 137-138, 302. 
Improving the Condition of the Poor, Association for, New York, 41. 
Maison Hospitaliere, 208. 
New York state, asylums for children, 81, 85 ; for insane, 78-79; cost of 
its institutions, 85,86 ; children supported by, 81-82 ; Board of Chari- 
ties, 64,65 ; poorhouses, 59, 66; schools for the blind, 71 ; institutions, 
7°, 7L 83. 
Paupers, 62, 63, 64, 65. 
Society d'Assistance de Batignolles-Monceau, 211. 
Tramps, 103-107. 
Unions d' Assistance, 211-213. 
Unemployed, Germany, 271; Vienna, 271, 272. 
Sternegg, Inama, 279. 
Stewart, Wm. Rhinelander, 70. 
Storrs, Lucius C., 300. 
Sweating system, a result of pauper immigration, 302. 
Sweden, charity in, 19-20, 251 ; unemployed in, 271-272. 
Switzerland, charity in, 295 ; unemployed in, 271-272. 
Tables : 
Austria : expenditures for institutions, 251; for charity, 252. 
Berlin : expenditures for economic industries, 270. 
Bureau de Bienfaisance : expenditures for charity, 252, 261. 
Criminals and paupers, native and foreign-born, 134; immigration, 135; 
parentage of, 136. 
England and Wales: cost of outdoor relief, 170; expenditures for charities, 
252; outdoor paupers relieved, 170; ratio of relief to population, 169. 
France : expenditures for charities, 252. 
Germany: expenditures for charities, 252. 
Italy: expenditures for charities, 252. 
London: cost of outdoor relief, 170; outdoor paupers relieved, 170; ratio 
of relief to population, 169. 
New York city, housing the poor in, 41. 
- state : expenditures for charities and reformatories, 86 ; for 
institutions, 70, 71, 72, 84, 85. 
Ohio, free employment offices, 129-130. 
Vienna: poor relief, 282-283; poor relief system, 257; residence in, of 
paupers without settlement rights, 279. 
Whitechapel Union: comparative statement of pauperism, 1870-1893, 
165; cost of outdoor relief, 170 ; indoor paupers relieved, 187C-1893, 
170; outdoor paupers, 170; ratio of relief to population, 169. 
Tenement-houses for the poor, see Homes. 318 
INDEX. 
Trained Nursing, Association for Promoting, London, 190. 
Tramps, 97-107, 109-117, 119-122, 303; in Boston, 119 ; in Ohio, 303-304; as 
temporary inmates of poorhouses, 102, 105, 112, 123; of hospitals, 99, 
105; intemperate, 106, no, 115; criminal, 106, no; in police stations, 
110-112; employment for, 110-113,304; see Relief by work. 
Transit for the poor, cheap, London, 175-176. 
Tucker, William G., 34. 
Turkey, charity in, 284-289, 299; poor tax in, 286; pauperism in, 287 ; public 
poor relief in, 287 ; institutions, 288. 
Twining, Louisa, 188-191, 305. 
Type, racial, see Immigration. 
Unemployed, 215-216, 271-272; see France, Paupers, Relief by work. 
Union of charitable associations, Dresden, 281. 
of the committee for poor and sick relief, Mayence, 281. 
Unions d'Assistance (relief unions), Paris, 209, 211, 212. 
United Hebrew Relief Society, report of, 42. 
States, charity in, 13-14. 
Universities, value of, in solving economic problems, 91. 
Vagrancy, 303 ; history of, 108 ; in Germany, 114; England, 114; see Tramps. 
Vagrants, 157; treatment of, 150. 
Vakoufs (pious institutions), 288. 
Vallance, Wm., 158-172, 296, 299. 
Van Geert, Prosper, 198-206, 296, 297. 
Verein gegen Verarmung zcnd Bettelei (society for the prevention of pauper- 
ism and beggary), 262, 297. 
Versorgungsanstalten (homes), Austria, 251 ; see Vienna. 
Versorgungshauser (homes for aged paupers), Vienna, 222-223. 
Vienna, care of dependent children in, 218-219, 266, 267; relief of able-bodied 
paupers, 219, 220; public institutions for paupers, 219; workhouses, 
219, 220, 273, 275; care of aged paupers, 222, 223; hospitals, 223-224; 
cost of poor relief, 224; public poor relief, 233, 255, 281, 299; poor 
relief and its reform, 241-283; right of settlement in, 241, 248, 249, 
255-256, 268, 279; poor laws, 248, 249, 253; settlement laws, 256; 
medical relief, 259, 267, 269, 277 ; temporary relief, 260, 262, 264; pen- 
sions, 263-266 ; domicile relief, 279 ; charity fund, 278-279 ; poor insur- 
ance, 276, 277 ; poor tax, 252-253, 280; unemployed in, 271-272, 276; 
employment bureau, 272, 273; house of correction, 276; poor police, 
276, 277; see Tables. 
Visitors, see Friendly visitors. 
Visitation of public institutions, 188-191. 
Von Call, Baron, 246. 
Wages of weavers in Austria, 226. 
Wagner, A., 282. INDEX. 
319 
Walk, James W., 295. 
Walker, Francis A., 40, 57, 154. 
Wardner, Louisa R., 301. 
Wards of society, 95. 
Waterlow, Sir Sydney, 37, 38. 
Wayfarers' Lodges, 26; in Boston, 26, 119-123 ; Berlin, 270 ; Vienna, 273. 
Wayland, Francis, 46. 
Weber, John B., 131-140, 305. 
Werkhaus, Vienna, 273-275. 
White, Alfred T., 34, 38, 53, 54, 56. 
Arnold, 191-197, 302. 
Whitechapel Union, 161; outdoor relief in, 161, 162, 163, 168; indoor relief, 
162, 163 ; cost of relief in kind, 163 ; children boarded-out by, 164-167 ; 
effects of poor law administration in, 161, 166; cases referred to charity 
organization society by, 167; homeless in workhouse in, 169-170; sum- 
mary of work, 171-172 ; see Statistics, Tables. 
Wilcox, Ansley, 290, 291, 295, 296, 297. 
Willard Asylum for Insane, 73, 74, 75, 78. 
Wilson, Anna T„ 82. 
Wines, Frederick H., 290. 
Wisconsin, system for treatment of the insane, 77 ; laws against tramps in, 
no; treatment of tramps in, 113, 115; see State boards of charities. 
Woodyards, 119-123; in Brooklyn, 53; see Relief by work. 
Work test applied to pauperism; 150; test in poorhouses, 298, 301 ; see Relief 
by work, Wayfarers' Lodges, Workhouses. 
Workhouse test, 153-154. 
Girls' Aid Committees, London, 190. 
Visiting Society, London, 189, 
Workhouses, 13; in England, 12; Austria, 220; Vienna, 219, 220, 273-275; 
need of private unofficial visitation of, 188-189 ; sending tramps to 
state, 115, 116; see Whitechapel. 
Workrooms, 53. 
Wright, A. O., 108-117, 146-151, 298-299, 300, 301, 303. 
Zekat (public poor tax), 286. 
Zwangarbeithaus (compulsory labor colony), Vienna, 219-220, 221.