of public money, to the disadvantage of those great charitable interests of the city which are not considered the special concern of any one district, except through the establishment of a small board of this character, representing the city as a whole, and not responsible to any district, in which is vested the absolute power of preparing the financial budget. If order is ever to come out of the financial chaos in which most of our American cities are involved, it must be through the establishment and development of some special piece of municipal machinery of the character of a board of estimate and apportionment.

While for the present, charitable organization, both public and private, is perhaps necessarily dealing with the symptoms rather than going to the root of the disease, alleviating distress rather than taking measures to prevent its recurrence, the time is near at hand, I trust, when public charity will not consider more radical measures beyond its scope,- when it will recognize even more distinctly and comprehensively than it does to-day the intimate relation between the problems with which charity has to deal and those larger social, moral, and industrial problems which are beginning to perplex and oppress the world. The very necessity of public charity indicates the existence of social and economic disease in the community, as well as of mere physical disease in the individual.

Scientific charity must come to concern itself more and more with the education, the industries, the habits of living, and even with the recreation of the poor. The charitable administration which takes no cognizance of the individual before he enters an institution or after he leaves it, which only considers him as an inmate, and not as a member of society, will soon fall entirely behind the spirit of the age in which we live, which is conducting scientific inquiries into causes as well as observing effects.

The work of sociological investigation is indeed different from the work of practical charitable administration; but the two are necessarily and closely related, and the latter must not ignore the former. As we come to have a more correct conception of the causes which fill our charitable institutions with inmates and lead to a constant increase in the demands for outdoor relief, we shall, I think, come to realize that a great deal of the occasion for charity, public or private, can be avoided in the future, if not in the present, by a wise extension of political democracy into social and industrial democracy.

THE GRAND RAPIDS EXPERIMENT.

BY FRANKLIN B. WALLIN,

PRESIDENT OF THE POOR COMMISSION, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

I have been requested to continue the discussion on Public Outdoor Relief and Poorhouse Management. In response to this I can only bring my experience acquired by the limited service of two years on the board of poor commissioners of the city of Grand Rapids, which has a population of something over one hundred thousand. The policy inaugurated there, to which reference was made in Mr. Wiley's paper at Toronto, aroused a great deal of hostility among some of our citizens, more especially the Hollanders. Their clergy and church officers complained bitterly because the board would not send the poor and aged Hollanders to the Holland Home, a private institution to be maintained at the expense of the city. Under the laws of Michigan the State cannot contribute to the support of any private institution, either educational, charitable, or religious.

The county of Kent has an excellent "Home," maintained at the public expense; and it would be contrary to law and sound public policy to assign any pauper to any institution other than the one that is now provided. This disaffection was seized upon by ambitious young lawyers and would-be politicians, so that there was a widespread revolt against the board of poor commissioners, and a determination on the part of this pugnacious minority to wipe out the commission altogether. After a great deal of discussion, a compromise was reached. The charter was so amended as to provide that one of the commissioners out of the three should receive a salary not to exceed one thousand dollars a year, so that one year ago the commission was reconstructed by the addition of two members, neither of whom had any experience in this department, and one was a paid commissioner, a Hollander who was hostile to the general policy which was then enforced. In spite of these conflicting circumstances the commission got along pretty harmoniously, and at the end of the year just closed I feel satisfied with the general results.

This commission, when organized, was deeply imbued with the popular idea that outdoor relief administered by the authorities was always dangerous, and frequently led to confirmed pauperism. I did not believe that this was necessarily true, and am now convinced that a large proportion of poor people are paupers neither from instinct nor choice. True, they are morally weak, and frequently physically deficient. The environment under which they were born and reared has of course affected their character; but I see in them a spark of human soul, though perverted and distorted.

Using the language of Oscar C. McCulloch, "I see no terrible army of pauperism, but a sorrowful crowd of men, women, and children. I see in men and women, despairing, disfigured as they may be, broken and bent, imbittered, sorrowful, sinful, and criminal, simply fragments of humanity. They show the incompleteness of men, the partial losses of life. Therefore, I say we look upon men, women, and children, whom we call paupers and poor, pitifully, but hopefully; for not one, but many, may be brought back by persistent effort."

Last summer, when the demand for wood and supplies would naturally be much less than in winter, when our office force was not necessarily so busy, we had every case that had been on our books investigated and reinvestigated, whether they were then receiving aid or not. And, if the investigator was in the neighborhood of any of those families on other business connected with his work, he was instructed to drop in, and try to get the confidence of those people; and he would urge them to become self-supporting and independent citizens. Thus, with patience and kindness or with seeming severity and hardness, a great many families became entirely self-supporting,— about 62 per cent. of all of the families that had been on our books during the two years previous.

Of course there is, and always will be, some indigent families who must receive more or less assistance. There are many worthy aged people, who can keep themselves busy, who are not to be classed as permanent paupers; also many frugal widows who are endeavoring to train up their children as well as they can. And these families are continually growing toward self-support.

There are other occasional instances of the same general character that should, in my judgment, be provided for by what is known as outdoor relief, and should not be made inmates of any institution.

We have had a few cases of large families who, through incompetency and general shiftlessness, seemed incurable; but by steady and patient investigation, and of course by continual supplies, we have been able to lift them to the plane of self-support. Occasionally, we were sorely tempted to break up a family and send the children to the State School at Coldwater; and sometimes we would bring the whole family into probate court, under petition to send the children to that institution. This course had a very salutary effect. In some instances, no doubt, it would be better for the State to assume control of these children; but, as a general proposition, I am opposed to institutional life either for children or indigent persons.

A careful review of the work for two years shows that the commission has assisted 766 families, composed of 2,843 persons. The average age of the heads of families thus aided is 46‡ years, which clearly shows that the majority of those who have been assisted are beyond the prime of life.

Divided into nationalities, we find the result to be as follows: American, 199; Holland, 279; German, 78; Irish, 54; Polish, 50; colored, 29; English, 17; Swede, 15; Canadian, 12; Italian, 6; French, 6; Scotch, 8; Danish, 7; Jewish, 2; Russian, 3; Norwegian, 1.

During that time 87 have died, and we have furnished transportation to 85 persons.

Causes of Indigency.— Sickness, 319; old age, 116; widows, 84; out of work, 126; drink and sickness, 2; drunkenness, 23; out of work and sickness, 32; deserted by the husband and father, 30; husband in penitentiary, 3; laziness, 6; large and incompetent families, 2; physical disability, 3; deserted children sent to Coldwater, 4; sunstroke, 1.

We have now on the list 74 families whom we classify as permanent dependants because of old age or permanent physical disability; also 30 widows with families of small children, who must be assisted until the children can relieve the public of the burden.

We have also assisted 211 families whose condition is not materially improved, although several of them are not at present receiving aid from the city; but their general character and helplessness seem incurable.

We also find families who are in an improved condition through the efforts of this board, both by furnishing them supplies from time

to time and by the kindly severity of the board and its constant efforts to encourage them to obtain work and stimulate their ambition. These families will require careful watching, and probably assistance from time to time.

We also find 193 families who are always on the verge of pauperdom through their improvident habits. These we have assisted and stimulated, so that they have become self-supporting for the present.

Assistance has also been furnished 281 families, some of whom, through no fault of their own, had fallen into straightened circumstances, and received temporary relief, and afterward become selfsupporting by their own efforts.

To others who were professional dead-beats, receiving temporary aid, after careful reinvestigation, further aid was refused; and they now are self-supporting through the watchfulness of the investigator. We find the average age of the old people who must receive continued assistance to be seventy years.

This table indicates that 28 per cent. of the families comprising the several nationalities shows no improvement in condition, and 10 per cent. have improved in condition, while 62 per cent. have become self-supporting.

In the matter of cost to the city treasury the records of the city