THE SUPPORT OF TOWN PAUPERS OUTSIDE OF INSTITUTIONS.

The Legislature of 1897 passed the following Act:

[ACTS OF 1897, CHAPTER 374.]

AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE SUPPORT OF THE POOR IN TOWNS.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECTION 1. In towns where paupers are provided for otherwise than in a workhouse or almshouse the overseers of the poor shall investigate each place where the town paupers are to be supported, and shall make such contract for the support of town paupers as in the judgment of the overseers of the poor will secure proper care and maintenance for such paupers. A full and complete record of each case shall be kept, containing the terms and conditions of support agreed upon, and also a statement of what services, if any, are to be rendered by the paupers. A majority of the overseers of the poor shall certify upon the records that such investigation has been made in each case and that they are satisfied that the poor of the town will be well and properly cared for. The overseers of the poor shall visit each place where the town paupers are provided for, at least once every three months, and a record of each visit and of the condition of the paupers visited shall be kept.

SECTION 2. Any overseer of the poor who violates the provisions of this act shall be punished by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars.

SECTION 3. The state board of lunacy and charity may determine in what manner overseers of the poor shall make contracts for the support of town paupers, and may visit and inspect all places where paupers are so supported, and shall have full power to enforce the provisions of this act.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved May 10, 1897.

On account of inquiries made by Overseers of the Poor with regard to the interpretation of several of the provisions of this Act, the Attorney General was consulted in the matter; and on June 21, 1897, he gave the Board his opinion that the law applies to towns only and not to cities; that it does not apply to inmates of the State Institutions; that the wordpaupers" in the law includes children as well as adults, but only such children and adults as receive full support; and that "the duty imposed by the statute is personal,

and is imposed upon each Overseer; that is to say, each Overseer of the Poor in the town is required once at least in three months to visit each place where the town paupers are provided for, and to make a record of his visit and of the condition of the paupers visited."

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In accordance with the requirements of the law, a special visitor was appointed by the Board to make inquiries regarding its operation in the several towns of the Commonwealth boarding their pauper dependents outside of institutions. The results of this visitation are too recent to admit of a complete report with regard to the matter, but it may be stated briefly that 155 towns reported a total of 596 persons fully supported by them outside of institutions, the number of such dependents varying from one to 30 for each town, and the amount paid per capita for such support varying from 60 cents per week, in the case of a child, to $50 per month, in the case of an aged and helpless man. The investigation also helped to confirm the first impression of both the State Board and the municipal authorities that the law, as it stands to-day, is impracticable of execution in some of its provisions. It is too much to require of all Overseers of the Poor that they should individually visit the paupers supported by them, wherever they may be, four times a year; nor in the opinion of the Board, is such frequent visitation necessary. Moreover, the penalty imposed for violation of the law is excessive in amount, and there is no provision for its enforcement. The Overseers of the Poor have in every instance, so far as appears, expressed an entire readiness to comply with the intent of the law, --to keep records of their visits, and to report results to the State Board; and a large number of reports have already been sent in, in advance of any special provision made by the Board for a regular form of report.

The Board recommends that the law be so amended as to provide that the Overseers of the Poor shall be required to visit the paupers supported by them outside of institutions twice in each year, either by one of their number, or by an agent; to keep records of such visits, with the terms and conditions of support agreed upon, certifying upon the records that in their opinion the paupers so boarded are

properly provided for, and to make report of the same to the State Board of Lunacy and Charity twice in each official year; and that, in the event of failure on the part of the Overseers of the Poor of any town to make such reports within the year, the town shall forfeit the sum of ten dollars, the amount of such forfeiture to be deducted from any money which may be due the town from the State.

MINOR CHILDREN SUPPORTED BY CITIES AND TOWNS.

Under the provisions of Chapter 89, Section 53, of the Public Statutes, the State Board of Lunacy and Charity is required as often as once a year to visit all minor children supported at the expense of any city or town; to inquire into the condition of such children and make such other investigation in relation thereto, as it may think fit, and for this purpose may have private interviews with such children at any time.

According to the reports made by the several cities and towns to the Board during the last official year, 512 dependent children were supported by these municipalities, of whom 384 are reported as boarding with strangers, 48 with parents, and 34 with other relatives; 3 died, and 43 ceased to be boarded since the time of making the report. The homes where the children are boarded were all visited by agents of the Board, and with few exceptions the children were found to be satisfactorily provided for.

In the cases of juvenile offenders committed by the Courts to the custody of the Board, the question of settlement is not taken into consideration, the law providing that all such children, whether settled or non-settled, shall not only come under the care and control of the State, but that their expenses shall be paid from the State Treasury; and the same is true, with few exceptions, in the case of neglected children. There seems to be no good reason why the class of wards known as dependent children, or those who, by reason of orphanage or the poverty of their parents, become a public charge, should not be in like manner cared for and controlled by the State authorities, irrespective of the question of their settlement. As a matter of fact it not

infrequently happens that Overseers of the Poor, in order to relieve themselves of the difficulty of properly providing for such children, as well as for the purpose of saving the expense of their support, procure their commitment by the Courts as neglected children. The added expense to the State in boarding these children which the suggested change in the law would involve would of course be considerable, but the law already requires State officials to visit the children, so that the increased cost of visitation would amount to very little. There can be no question that the children would be on the whole better cared for and treated, and that they would be given a better opportunity to grow up into useful citizens, under the tried and approved uniform system followed by the State, than they now have, left as they are to the changing ideas and methods of Overseers of the Poor of the different localities where they happen to be born or placed, officials who with the best of intentions are rarely especially equipped for the work, and for the most part assume it unwillingly as a necessary burden. Doubtless in the end such a change would be a saving to the State in the rescue of a considerable number of its citizens from lives of poverty and crime.

The Board therefore recommends that all indigent and neglected children below the age of sixteen years, separately supported at the public expense, or committed by magistrates, shall hereafter be maintained at the expense of the Commonwealth, and in the care and control of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, during their minority, or for such time as such support, care and control may be deemed necessary.

THE BOARD'S FINANCES.

The following table shows the Legislative appropriations for expenses under the direction of the Board for the calendar year 1896, the expenses for the same year, the appropriations for the year 1897, and the estimates for the year 1898. The expenses for the year 1897 are not completed.

Travelling and other necessary expenses of Auxiliary Visitors, Transportation of State paupers,

Support and relief of State paupers in State Lunatic Hospitals and Asylums, and of State lunatic paupers boarded in families; and reimbursement of towns for paupers supported in the State Lunatic Hospitals, for the current year and previous years, .

Expenses attending the management

of cases of settlement and bastardy,*| Care and maintenance of indigent and neglected children and juvenile offenders,

Education and instruction in the public schools of indigent and neglected children and juvenile offenders, for the current year and the previous year,

Support of State paupers in the Massachusetts School for the FeebleMinded, and the Hospital Cottages for Children,

NOTE. The decrease in the estimate for the appropriation for expenses of the Board is because it is expected that an amendment of

Recent legislation has placed these cases under the management of the Attorney General. † Deficiency.