purely statistical and attempted no explanation of the facts revealed by the figures nor any elucidation of their signifi cance. Dr. Abbott summarized the conclusions to be drawn from his study of the statistics of the New England states, and particularly Massachusetts, as follows: "(1) The death-rate from consumption in New England at the present time is somewhat less than 20 per 10,000 living inhabitants. "(2) The death-rate from this cause has diminished largely in all the New England states, in some, with fairly accurate registration, as much as fifty per cent in the half-century; and this decrease appears to be going on now more rapidly than it was in earlier years. "(3) The death-rate of women from consumption has decreased more rapidly than that of men, and is now less than that of men; while in earlier years it was greater. "(4) This death-rate from consumption at every age of life has also decreased, but more at older than at younger ages.' In all these points the tendency in New England agrees with the general tendency in the United States as a whole. The relative rate of improvement in urban and rural districts was not discussed. Doubtless a comparison of the Massachusetts figures on this point would show that, as in the whole registration area, the superior efforts that have been spent in improving the health of cities have resulted in a more rapid decrease than is found in the country. Notes of the Week. New York Monday Club.-Superintendent William H. Maxwell described the amazing development within the past few years of what he called the "outside activities" of the New York public schools, at the January meeting of the New York Monday Club the past week. By "outside activities" Dr. Maxwell meant the evening schools, recreation centers. roof playgrounds, vacation schools, and public lectures carried on outside of school hours activities the continuance of which has been endangered by financial complications between the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment already referred to in CHARITIES. Charles Sprague Smith, of the People's Institute, told of the huge meetings held nightly in Cooper Union-of the Shakespearean readings and the symphony concerts at five and ten cents, the "church for the unchurched," the lectures by leading scientists and the stirring discussions of present-day issues, which have quite toppled over any pre-conceived notions of the hold which the masterpieces of literature and drama, of law in its universal applications, and of the more fundamental economic and social problems have upon the minds and life of the working people. His plea was for the election of a great hall where this absolute freedom of debate and popular aspiration may, in larger measure, make for civic righteousness and a progressive democracy. In the course. of the discussion, a third point was made: If, as Dr. Maxwell stated, these social activities of the schools are moulding a better citizenship, unaffected by the old curriculum; and if, as Mr. Smith held, a more mature, freer, vital gathering of people to hear and to criticise, proves an even more thorough leaven, why is it not within the possibilities that the provision of the plant for carrying on these social activities may not fall within the province of the municipality-of a department distinct, perhaps, from that of elementary education, which would be in a sense a development of old town meeting idea. A Woman's Domestic Guild.-Some representative women of New York have ventured upon a new movement to solve the problem of obtaining better domestic servants. They have organized as the Woman's Domestic Guild of North America, and opened an employment agency and training school in very attractive quarters on East Thirty-fourth street. An attempt will be made to raise the standard and permanency of service by giving prizes to those who do good and faithful work, and by published honor rolls of those who keep positions one year or more. Special day and evening training classes will be held to train those in positions and also those out of work. Certificates of registration will be given those who have held positions of one year or Notes of the Week more. For the employers, this agency will be an especial boon, a fee of $2 securing the privileges of the guild for one year; including a coupon book entitling them to free copies of the newspapers in which the advertisements for help and positions appear. Temporary service will be furnished, and the agency will also act as purchasing agent for supplies for individuals, households, etc. References of both employers and employés are to be investigated. New York has so many employment agencies whose methods are doubtful that such an enterprise will be welcomed with interest. The educational work is in line with some interesting experiments now being made by the Household Aid Association and Woman's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston. In the Field of Philanthropy.-Among the appointments in the field of practical philanthropy within the past few months which have not received formal mention in CHARITIES, are the following: Zilpha D. Smith, as supervisor and Miss Alice L. Higgins, as general secretary of the Associated Charities of Boston; Miss Helen Foss, as assistant secretary of the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity; Mrs. Helen I. Ingram, as superintendent of relief of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor; Homer Folks, as secretary of the State Charities Aid Association; Lawrence Veiller, as secretary of the Tenement-house Committee of the New York Charity Organization Society; and James F. Jackson, as superintendent of the Associated Charities of Cleveland. All of these would tempt to appreciative editorial comment, which, however, we will ask the societies and the appointees to take for granted, and to regard as a satisfactory substitute the fact that each is here mentioned in such good company. Protest Against Use of Park Buildings. -The Outdoor Recreation League has taken the initiative in protesting against the proposed use of buildings in the city parks that complete provision may be made for the pupils now on part time in the New York public schools. This makeshift is deprecated by friends of the schools on the ground that once the children are housed in these unsuitable build 109 ings, the pressure to provide for them adequately will be relieved and-a number of past and present instances could be cited-they would be left in a bad way indefinitely; and it is deprecated by friends of the parks who see in such a move a wedge that would ultimately lead to the building up of the small parks in the more thickly settled districts of the city. It has taken eight years to get a park-playground, and even longer to get children, once planted, out of a rickety building. Monday Evening Club, Boston.-The Boston Monday Evening Club, at its January meeting, was addressed by Prof. Henry S. Nash, of the Cambridge Theological School, on the subject of "The Methods and Machinery of Charity in Relation to Individuality." One danger of the modern feel his methods and machinery have a charity worker, he held, is that he may certain note of finality. The speaker urged that if we are to lift and individualize those who are depressed, we must cultivate imagination, both in the subjects of our efforts, and ourselves. By way of prophecy, it was suggested that possibly within the next fifty or one hundred years the present occupation of that perhaps the trades many charity workers may cease to exist; unions and churches may assume many of the problems now perplexing the charity worker. Professor Nash questioned whether such changes may not come more quickly than is thought. A spirited discussion followed the address. Charity Workers' Club, Baltimore.The following program for the winter has been mapped out by the Eight O'Clock Club of Baltimore. February 1, "City Charter," Charles J. Bonaparte; February 29, "Board of Health," Dr. C. Hampson Jones; March 28, "School Board," J. H. Van Sickle: April 25, "Municipal Art Society" (illustrated), J. B. Noël Wyatt; May 23, "Police Board," John T. Morris; June, not yet arranged. Meetings will be held at the home of the Instructive Visiting Nurse Association, 1123 Madison avenue. The October and December meetings were social in their character, and it is planned to make the June meeting something like them; if possible, taking an excursion into the country. A Society Which is Young at Twenty-Five THE QUARTER CENTENNIAL OF THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR ORGANIZING CHARITY The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity, held on Monday evening, January 25, marks the close, probably, of annual meetings of that society in small halls. The Assembly Room of the Church House seats about three hundred people, and it was filled to hear the annual report, and the "brief and spirited addresses" that had been promised in the announcement. Something will be lost in the larger meetings of the future, for the small hall promotes friendliness and encourages franker and more confidential attitude on the part of those whose duty it is to tell about the work. a The society had had a large public. meeting in November to consider the subject of tramps and beggars, so the annual report gave more space than usual to a description of the form of organization that such work requires. Good district organization requires four things, according to the Philadelphia directors: (1) An efficient paid worker, who is far removed from the old type of relieving agent as possible. (2) A live district. committee or conference, meeting weekly and ready to think hard about what ought to be done next for A and B and C. The committee that merely gets together to approve by formal vote the action of its paid representatives and then adjourn is opposed to every ideal of charity organization. (3) Volunteers willing to know the poor in their own homes, anxious to befriend them, and prepared to carry out committee plans with regard to them. (4) Close sympathy between all these district workers and the central management. their own race), a probation officer, a business man, an artist, a householder, a clergyman, and three members of the Association of Collegiate Alumnæ, one of whom acts as secretary. There is little danger that such a group will treat all questions of distress as questions of "groceries or no groceries," or that they will, on the other hand, ignore the material needs of the poor. It may be mentioned, in passing, that the Association of Collegiate Alumna has formed a committee to co-operate with this society, and secure recruits, more especially for its corps of friendly visitors. "Enthusiasm for humanity," said the directors, "seems a more marked characteristic of this generation than of the last." The report treated more briefly of the other achievements of the year, including the new wife desertion law, the closing of the police stations to lodgers, and the enforcement of the laws against begging, in co-operation with the Department of Public Safety. In the opening paragraph it quoted President Eliot's statement that nothing is done as it was done twenty-five years ago, and applied the remark to charity. The closing passage of the report read as follows: "That society is still young, it matters not how many years chartered, in which the directors are still filled with hopes and plans of future usefulness, still healthily dissatisfied with things as they are. And that society is already decrepit, though founded only the year before last, in which the management has settled down to a smug content, and has convinced itself that the 'noble work' in which it is engaged cannot be improved upon in any particular. The Society for Organizing Charity is still young, though this report marks the completion of its twentyfifth year of service in Philadelphia. In another twenty-five years it hopes to quote President Eliot again, and to illustrate, from the records of its fiftieth year, the great improvements made in charitable methods since the year 1903." Work in Detail. Young at Twenty-Five Things that can be added. together are the least part of a charity organization society's work, and yet the sum of these things in the year's statistics was impressive. About 35,000 different poor people were represented in the figures of the thirteen districts, the central office, and the two wayfarers' lodges. These worked for 36,163 lodgings and 73,907 meals at the lodges, were given aid in their homes from the society's treasury to the value of $8,152.19 (one-fourth of which was worked for), were aided through the gift of individuals to the value of $8,584.64 more, beside 2,742 applicants who were relieved by co-operating agencies. Employment was found in the regular labor market for 478, professional services rendered to 511, other friendly service to 1,248. The visits paid either to or for the applicants was 29,966. The Two of the youngest friendly visitors of the society were invited to tell quite informally some of their experiences. One was with a woman vagrant who had applied for a night's lodging; the other was with a deserted wife and her two children, who had asked for a little coal. stories of what was accomplished with both of these applicants pointed the moral of the general secretary's text that the Society for Organizing Charity is a society that believes in giving, that it believes so whole-heartedly in giving that it is seldom satisfied with giving people just what they ask for, and often, in fact, fails to do anything of the kind, insisting, instead, upon finding out what they really need and giving them that. The guest of the evening was Dr. Jeffrey R. Brackett of Baltimore, who made a fifteen minute address on the National Conference of Charities, its scope and objects. Dr. Brackett urged the managers of institutions and societies that were present to send their paid superintendents. as delegates to the national conference. To those who knew the speaker, his appeal for a more widely diffused interest in the problems of dependence weighted double. His own message and that of all the other speakers was a message of hope and progress, looking to the future rather than to the past, but the following minute, which deserves publication in full in CHARITIES, testifies that the past was not forgotten: Minute on the Death of Mrs. Susan I. Lesley. Resolved. That the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity place upon the records of this its twenty-fifth annual meeting an expression of sincere appreciation of the service rendered to the cause of organized charity in Philadelphia in earlier years by Mrs. Susan I. Lesley, who died at Milton, Mass., on January 16 of this year. The first corps of women visitors organized outside of Germantown was in the Seventh Ward, and Mrs. Lesley was not only an active worker among the poor in this ward for many years, but she organized, encouraged, and inspired similar groups of visitors in other wards, being indefatigable in her efforts to further the larger educational aims of the society. Books still in the Central Office library that were presented by her in the later seventies and early eighties bear witness, in their marginal notes, to her careful and enthusiastic study of charity organization literature. Truths that we now take a little too much for granted, perhaps, were fresh and vital to her, and were cherished by her and by others like her in the less genial and friendly air of that time. That our own work is not quite so difficult now, is due to the whole-hearted devotion of these earlier workers. Charity organization establishes a noble tradition when such lives become a part of its past. Mrs. Lesley did not live in Philadelphia during the last decade of her life, but those who knew her here still recall with warm affection her self-forgetfulness and her infinite patience with the foibles and weaknesses of others. Her strong intelligence was no less marked than her broadly human sympathy, and it was characteristic of Mrs. Lesley to care more for human beings than for human institutions. This society offers its earnest sympathy to her family, and places on record its deep sense of obligation for her writings, her speeches, and her personal service in the cause of an enlightened charity. Other Views of New York Hospitals and Their TO THE EDITOR OF CHARITIES: Annual Deficits In the issue of CHARITIES of January 2, 1904, is a Tucker paper by Frank Some Suggested Remedies by Dr. F. R. Sturgis. entitled "The Financial Problem of New York's Hospitals," which I have read with read with much interest. The paper records the aggregate annual deficit of twenty hospitals, which he puts at $432,368.78, and asks, "What is the remedy?" The remedy for this condition of affairs, he suggests, should be the raising of an endowment fund of $10,000,000, the income from which would provide for the present annual deficit, and the administration of this fund should be in the hands of an independent body of representative men and women, who should also attend to the raisin of the fund. This fund should be held for income purposes only, and the income should be apportioned according to wise precedents, which would be established by investigation and study of the work of the hospitals. The suggested remedy is one so novel, and at the same time so far-reaching in its effects that it is worthy of careful study and criticism. I beg leave to offer the following criticism, not only of the proposed remedy, but also of the facts collated and set forth by Mr. Tucker in his paper. In the first place, to put the cart before the horse, let us see what would be the probable result on the hospitals by the expenditure of the income. of this $10,000,000. We will say that this $10,000,000 is invested at five per cent, which would probably be as much as a prudent investment of the fund would permit. The amount of income available for the purposes mentioned in Mr. Tucker's paper would be $500,000, only slightly more than the deficit for one year. The twenty hospitals only represent one-half the number assisted from the Saturday and Sunday Hospital Fund, and it appears to me that the fund would be of practically no value whatever in permanently relieving the indebtedness of these indigent institutions. How long would it be before every hospital in this city, excepting the municipal hospitals, would seek to become a beneficiary of this fund, and how far would $500,000 go toward relieving the indebtedness of the forty, if not more, hospitals which at present need help? The plan, I frankly confess, does not appear to me at all practicable, and it is open to this serious objection: the moment it is known that there is a fund for that purpose, not only would every hospital seek its benefits, but it would be very likely the cause of increasing the number of hospitals in order that these newcomers might also get relief from the fund, thus multiplying the very evil which it is hoped to palliate, if not to cure. The Remedy Proposed. If, then, this scheme of an endowment fund be impracticable and unavailing, what other plan, if any could be adopted for the relief of these hospitals, which it is evident, must sooner or later go to the wall, if the present condition continue? Of course in a paper like the present it is impossible to discuss at any length the situation, and the proposed remedy, for want of space, but I would suggest the following rules, which although they may appear drastic, seem to me must sooner or later be adopted: (1) I start with the premise that there are more hospitals than are necessary for relieving the needs of the situation, and (2) They duplicate their work in such a way as to nullify the good which they could perform, and so intensify the evil which must result from an improper division of labor. If there are too many which cannot be supported, it is very evident that they must go out of business, or obtain money to meet their expenses. I would suggest that these hospitals get together, and decide which ones shall continue in business, and which shall not. Those which go out of business should be sold, and the land upon which these hospitals al |