were helping the institution by their names, and giving it tone by their presence. They were willing to pay a dollar a month to me, to take the sting out of charity. With shame and contrition, I here confess I acceded to this dishonorable, this outrageous demand, and gave these people these paupers - rights and privileges properly belonging to the honest private patient who consults a physician at his office, and who was at one time before the advent of my nefarious scheme and dollar-a-month abomination - willing to do so." Ancient Rome was overthrown by her lavish charities. So shall we be, unless we check the downward progress so plainly indicated by the figures obtained from the comptroller's office, only a few of which I have given you. Think of it! there are fifteen thousand dependants in our public institutions alone to-day,- that is the average daily census. This shows only those in the public institutions, and there is a greater number in the private and semi-private institutions. Surely, this should point the note of warning. I wish to enter my solemn protest against the continuance of a policy that has caused such dire results, lest the populistic tendency created be too great for us and the paupers rule the world. Already is it the popular side. Already have some of our leading citizens become so wedded to this system that it causes no alarm when we see prominent charitable institutions reaching out for funds which do not belong to them. The city authorities have this year discovered in three private institutions alone nearly $100,000 wrongfully taken from the city. All these things point to the necessity of State supervision as the only safeguard against our threatened institutions,— yes, as the safeguard also of our country. The next subject in order was the report of the Committee on Immigration and Interstate Migration. Hon. T. E. Ellison, VicePresident of the Conference, was asked to take the chair. The report was read by the chairman, Hon. Richard Guenther, president of the Wisconsin State Board of Control (page 262). A paper on "The Relation of Immigration to Insanity in Europe and America" was read by Mr. F. B. Sanborn, of Concord, Mass. (page 268). Adjourned at 12.30 P.M. THIRD SESSION. Thursday night, May 19. The Conference was called to order at 8 P.M., in Association Hall, by the President. The Committee on Resolutions was announced,- Messrs. Philip C. Garrett, George H. Knight, Lucius C. Storrs. The subject for the evening was then taken up, the report of the committee and addresses on municipal and county charities. The report was presented by the chairman, Mr. Homer Folks, who also conducted the Conference during the time allowed for his committee. The report will be found on page 106.* Mr. FOLKS. I have the pleasure of now introducing to this audience one who, as mayor of a large city, has given special attention to public charities. To aid him in that direction, he appointed a committee of citizens of fitness and ability who have special charge of certain departments. I introduce Hon. Josiah Quincy, of Boston. Mr. Quincy made a brief address (page 198). Mr. FOLKS. During the past four months the public charities of what was New York and is now known as the boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx have been under the charge of one commissioner. So far as I can ascertain, it is the opinion of those familiar with those institutions that a great and decided advance has been made during the past four months, greater than within any similar period of observation. Let me give you an instance. We have on Randall's Island an infant asylum that cares for foundlings and motherless babies. The death-rate has been very high,- how high I should not dare to say for fear you should think I was exaggerating. Since the 1st of January more supervision has been provided, more nurses have been employed, and a strenuous effort has been made to give every child individual care. As a result, while the death-rate for 1897 was 44 per cent., during the first four months of 1898 it was 17 per cent. Again, if you have visited Bellevue Hospital previously, and have visited it again since this Conference began, you The following correction was received too late to appear in its proper place in the body of the book: The city of Cambridge, Mass., maintains no institutions for children. During 1897, 7 children were placed out in families at board, 3 by the Overseers of the Poor and 4 by the Boston Children's Aid Society, the Overseers paying the latter the actual cost of board, clothing, and supervision. 2 previously at board were placed in free homes by the Boston Children's Aid Society. On Jan. 1, 1898, there were in private families 18 children, 10 of whom were boarded by the Overseers of the Poor (2 in their own homes, 3 with other relatives, and 5 in other families), and 8 under the supervision of the Boston Children's Aid Society, but at the expense of the Overseers. 4 of these 8 were in free homes, the city paying only for the actual expense of supervision by the Children's Aid Society. must have missed some familiar figures from the wards. The destitute sick of New York are no longer degraded by being placed in constant association with the prisoners from the workhouse who are sent to help take care of the patients. That was forbidden by law in 1896. It was partially carried out in 1897, but it was not carried to full completion till early in the present year. These are two large straws which show which way the wind is blowing in New York City. I introduce to you now Hon. John W. Keller, president of the Department of Public Charities. Mr. Keller's address will be found on page 212. An address followed by Hon. Joseph H. Choate, New York (page 218). Adjourned at 10.15 P.M. FOURTH SESSION. Friday morning, May 20. The session was called to order at ten o'clock by the President. The Committee on Organization was announced as follows: Mr. Alexander Johnson, chairman, Messrs. Ernest Bicknell, R. W. Hibbard, F. B. Sanborn, J. R. Brackett, J. P. Byers, and J. J. Kelso. The report of the Committee on Time and Place was made by Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, chairman. The report showed that Dallas, Tex., and Cincinnati, Ohio, had both invited the Conference to meet there at its next annual session. The invitation from Dallas was afterward withdrawn; and the committee reported unanimously recommending that the invitation of Cincinnati be accepted, the next meeting to be held in May, the date to be fixed by the Executive Committee. On motion of Dr. Hoyt it was voted that the General Secretary be instructed to cast one ballot in favor of Cincinnati, and this was done. Invitations to visit various institutions in the city were read by the Secretary. Adjourned at 10.30 A.M. art. FIFTH SESSION. Friday night, May 20. The Conference was called to order at 8 P.M. by President Stew The PRESIDENT.— It gives me pleasure to inform the Conference that I have to-day received an official communication from the President of Mexico, announcing the appointment of a delegate to represent our sister republic at this Conference. You will notice that since our last session the flag of the republic has been added to our decorations, and the colors of our natural neighbors on the north and on the south, Canada and Mexico, are now intertwined with our own. The General Secretary read several invitations for the Conference, including visits to the Cooking School in the United Charities Building, the Mills Hotel, the Catholic Protectorate. The subject for the evening was "Politics in Charitable and Penal Institutions." The President introduced Professor Charles R. Henderson, D.D., chairman of the committee, as the presiding officer of the evening. The report of the committee was read by Dr. Henderson (page 237). A paper on "Civil Service Reform" was read by Mrs. Charles R. Lowell, of New York (page 256). Dr. HENDERSON.- It is one of the saddest things for an American to find persons claiming to be American citizens who are willing to accept the duties of caring for the helpless and forlorn, and then act in such a way as to bring reproach upon this country. It is bad enough to subject these pitiful cases to such guardianship. But we do not forget that, in spite of this abominable system, some of the noblest, most useful, and most devoted men and women that the world has ever known have been found. Some of these officials are here to-night, and we respect them and honor them. But we wish to make it possible for those who are not so favorably situated, and who have not, perhaps, the same moral strength to endure temptation, to do their duty. We are grateful to-night that we have had this message from one who knows the facts, and speaks always what she knows. I said it was sad to have unworthy officers. But there is a lower depth still, and that is the condition of indifference with which these things are regarded by the ordinary citizen. There is a depth still lower than that, there is an abyss opening still deeper; An address on "Civil Service Reform " was given by Hon. Carl Dr. Henderson then introduced Mr. Charlton T. Lewis, who spoke as follows: THE SPOILS SYSTEM. in the Mr. CHARLTON T. LEWIS, New York.- Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—I have no speech to make to you upon the reform of the civil service or the abolition of the spoils system in appointments to places in our institutions; but I wish to call your attention for a moment to an evil which is strictly parallel to the spoils system, which springs from the same moral defect in the community, and which is to be healed, if healed at all, by appeals to the same agencies of which we have heard from Mrs. Lowell and Mr. Schurz. in this State progress We have, as you have heard, made excellent very great progress, if we will look back for fifteen years substitution of the principle of merit as a basis for personal appointments. But meanwhile the worst form of politics has sought refuge behind the appointing power itself, in the sacred citadel of our government, in the very constitution itself. Now I am very sorry that my friend, the silver-tongued orator who charmed us all in Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night, is not here this evening: otherwise I should ask him to correct an impression which an incidental paragraph in his eloquent remarks must have made upon many of I am requested by the visitors to New York from distant parts. the Prison Association of New York to try to correct that impression in his absence. I am not about to argue against a figure of speech nor to criticise the orator's illustrations, but it is my duty to remind Mr. Choate of the history of the amendment to the constitution |