annual meeting; to the members of the standing committees in attendance at the session and among members of the Local Committee of One Hundred; to the managers of the local office and others who had contributed time or money to make the anniversary a memorable In acknowledgment of the gift each recipient of a medal gave President Stewart his autograph signature in a book prepared for the purpose. It may be doubted if there can be found in the pages of a single volume the autographs of an equal number of individuals bent upon ministering to the needs of the unfortunate.

success.

A condition upon which the American Numismatic and Archæological Society issued the original medal was that, after a sufficient number had been struck, the dies should be deposited with the society for cancellation. Before the fulfilment of this condition, however, it seemed fitting to officers and members of the Conference and of the Local Committee of Arrangements that the President, who not only had planned for the medal, but had given himself to every detail of the quarter-centennial meeting, should receive at the hands of his associates a Conference medal struck in gold. Soon after the adjournment of the session, therefore, Mr. Stewart was waited upon by a committee representing the National Conference and the Committee of One Hundred, and the presentation was made.

In adapting the obverse of the medal to its use as an official seal, the name of the American Numismatic and Archæological Society has been replaced by the words: "Charity and Correction united to uplift Humanity." This motto is a modification in the interest of brevity of an expression used by Mr. Alexander Johnson, President of the Twenty-fourth Conference, namely: "Charity and Correction are the two sides of one great cause,- the uplifting of humanity." The abbreviation was suggested by Mrs. Charles R. Henderson, the wife of the President of the Twenty-sixth Conference.

WALTER S. UFFord,

Local Secretary, Committee of One Hundred.

I.

President's Address.

THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE ERRING
AND THE DEPENDENT.

BY WILLIAM RHINELANDER STEWART,

PRESIDENT NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES.

The Constitution of the United States does not contain the word "charity." The national government makes statutory provision for Indians on their reservations, for destitute veterans by pensions, and for the dependent of the District of Columbia; but, with these exceptions, the duty of making public provision for the dependent in general is relegated to the States. The recognition of this duty is as old as history. Every nation, on emerging from barbarism into civilization, has in some way acknowledged the obligation to distribute relief from the common store to the poor, the sick, and the unfortunate.

Assuming, therefore, that the State as a political entity owes a duty to the dependent and to the erring also, when and how should this duty be admitted? To what classes should State relief be directly extended? What others may with safety be left to county, municipal, and private care? Should State authority supervise all charitable administration, not only public but private? If so, how far should this supervision extend, and by whom should it be exercised? These are some of the leading questions that would seem to invite consideration at a gathering like this.

The beginning of public or private charitable work in any new community is seldom organized. House to house relief is extended, the wayfarers are sheltered and fed, the sick visited and cared for. With the growth of villages, towns, and cities, their residents are obliged to unite to make public or private provision of an organized

kind for the sick and the unfortunate, in order that the burden of their support may be more wisely distributed and better results achieved. Thus county, city, or town almshouses, hospitals, asylums, and the like, in turn take their place in a system of charitable administration.

Later, as communities grow larger and in a sense more prosperous, originate the hospital, orphan asylum, home for the aged, general relief societies, and kindred charitable organizations under private management.

Into the public institutions, and, indeed, into some of the private ones, find admission, from time to time, insane persons, feebleminded, idiots, epileptics, and the deformed, for whom no separate asylum has been provided, and who become a source of disturbance to the inmates for whose care these institutions were opened, while the unfortunates themselves are condemned to needless suffering for want of the special care and attention their condition requires. Hence arises an intelligent demand for State care for the insane, the criminal, the idiot, and for other unfortunates.

The organic law of every State should explicitly acknowledge the obligation of its people to make provision for the destitute insane, idiotic, feeble-minded, deformed, and epileptic, and the delinquent or criminal. The State owes no higher duty than the protection of its citizenship from the dangers and pollution incidental to the unrestrained commingling of these defectives with the people generally; nor is there a greater evil than the increase of their kind. Wise public policy requires that for these unfortunates uniform and suitable custodial care or restraint should be provided by the State. The destitute blind and deaf, whose education, by reason of their deprivation of a sense, is rendered difficult and expensive, should also be maintained and educated by the State, in order that they may, by early training and instruction, become self-supporting and intelligent citizens.

There should be no delay until abuses in private, municipal, or county administration, enforce the extension of State care. Before the need has arisen, the duty should be acknowledged and the promise given that the State will assume the care of all the classes of unfortunate or defective people named whose relations are unable to make suitable provision for them.

By the Revised Constitution, adopted in 1894, the State of New

York, for the first time, assumed in the fundamental law the duty of State supervision for the defective and destitute, insane and criminal, by directing the legislature to provide for State boards or commissions of charities, lunacy, and prisons, to visit and inspect all institutions for the dependants, or delinquents in the State. Subsequent legislation, enacted pursuant to the authority of the constitution, further provided that all county, municipal, and private charities should be subject to the supervision of the State Board of Charities. For many years previous, State care had been generously extended to the insane, idiots, feeble-minded, and other unfortunates, while for the juvenile or older offenders and more hardened criminals State reformatories and prisons were established when required.

By more recent legislation the State of New York has also made provision for destitute veterans in homes at Bath and Oxford, for Indian children at the Thomas Asylum at Versailles, and for epileptics on a farm known as "Craig Colony," so named in recognition of the public services to humanity of the late Oscar Craig, of Rochester, formerly president of the New York State Board of Charities, and Vice-President of the Seventeenth National Conference of Charities and Correction. This colony was established in 1894, and is the only one of its kind in the United States. In passing, a tribute should be paid to Ohio, the first State to undertake the care and treatment of epileptics in an asylum founded exclusively for the reception of persons afflicted with this mysterious disease, opened in 1893. Massachusetts, California, and New Jersey have since taken steps in the same direction.

While, therefore, advanced ground has recently been taken by the State of New York on the subject of State care for the dependent classes, it as yet only inferentially recognizes this duty, by the direction to the legislature to make provision for the three supervisory boards named. That the consideration of this constitutional obligation is important may be demonstrated by the fact that in no State. Constitution is the obligation of the State to provide for the dependent clearly admitted, except in that of North Carolina, which, by Article XI., Section 7, declares, “Beneficent provision for the poor, "the unfortunate, and orphan, being one of the first duties of a civil"ized and Christian State, the General Assembly shall, at its first "session, appoint and define the duties of a Board of Public Chari

"ties, to whom shall be intrusted the supervision of all charitable "and penal institutions, and who shall annually report to the gov "ernor upon their condition, with suggestions of their improvement." All honor to North Carolina, who has pointed out this duty to her sister States !

46

The Constitution of Nebraska, by Section 19, provides that "the "commissioner of public lands and buildings, the secretary of State, treasurer, and attorney-general shall form a board, which shall have "general supervision and control of all the buildings, grounds, and "lands of the State, the State prison, asylums and all other institu"tions thereof, except those for educational purposes; and shall per"form such duties and be subject to such rules and regulations as "may be prescribed by law."

The Constitution of South Dakota, by Article XIV., Section 1, declares what the charitable and penal institutions shall consist of, and by Section 2 directs that: "the State institutions provided for in the preceding section shall be under the control of a State Board of Charities and Corrections, under such rules and restrictions as the legislature shall provide; such board to consist of not to exceed five members, to be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, and whose compensation shall be fixed by law."

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The Constitution of Wyoming, in Sections 18 and 19, provides, under the caption Charitable and Penal Institutions: "Such chari"table, reformatory, and penal institutions as the claims of human"ity and the public good may require shall be established and sup"ported by the State in such manner as the legislature may prescribe. They shall be under the general supervision of the State Board of "Charities and Reform, whose duties and powers shall be prescribed "by law." "The property of all charitable and penal institutions be"longing to the Territory of Wyoming shall, upon the adoption of "this constitution, become the property of the State of Wyoming, and "such of said institutions as are then in actual operation shall there"after have the supervision of the Board of Charities and Reform, as "provided in the last preceding section of this article, under provi"sions of the legislature."

No State has reasonably fulfilled its duty to the dependent, which has not only acknowledged this duty in the organic law, but has also established, in such law, supervising commissions of charities, prisons, and, if need be, of lunacy. Adequate State supervision