of bathrooms in the basements of tenement houses. These would be under the control of the janitor, who would keep them in perfect order and open-perhaps at stated hours for the use of the various tenements of the building. Manifold advantages would arise from the introduction of such a system. In the first place, much valuable space would be saved and utilized to enlarge other rooms. The landlord would save considerable expense from the standpoint of construction, and the destruction of tubs and plumbing. Another, and quite decided advantage, would arise from the improved facilities provided by large and commodious common bath rooms, where roomy tubs supplied with sprays, douches, and all the appliances now in use by the wealthy, could be found. As between the two systems there can be no doubt as to where, on the score of general utility, the advantage lies.

set

But the greatest benefits would accrue to the tenants in another way. If bathrooms were provided for the common use of tenants, they would be forced to use them, by the law of rivalry and emulation, aided by the fear of ridicule among the most potent of all human agents to effect results. With a bathroom in every of apartments who would know whether the Smiths or Johnsons indulged in the luxury of a bath? But with the common baths in the basement it would be quite otherwise. Spying tenants would report those who availed themselves of the freely offered facilities and those who did not. This circumstance would alone be sufficient to send to the basement, at stated intervals, all the tenants of a building who could not face the words "non-bathers" and other of

The society also asks for $10 a month to pay rent for a widow who supported her three children for a number of years and who would now need no help, except that her eldest son, though only seventeen, has enlisted in the regular army and gone to the Philippines. Her other two boys together earn $7 a week, but her own health has now broken down and she can not work at all.

The society renews its appeals for $50 to pay the passage of a West Indian who desires to return to his home. He has been in the United States for six years and has meantime been able to send for his family and establish them here, but he has been ill with rheumatism for two years, and hopes that a winter in the West Indies would enable him to return to work. He cannot bear the hardship of a steerage passage, and therefore a large sum is asked.

For $55 towards the purchase of an artificial leg for a Scotchman who came to this country only five months ago and soon obtained work as a machinist. After two months his leg was so injured that amputation was necessary. He feels sure of obtaining work if a leg is provided for him, and he will be asked to repay the amount advanced.

For $75 to pay rent for one year for an American widow who has an aged mother to support and no relatives who can help. They have supported themselves for the past twenty-two years and can do so no longer. There are no children.

For $5 a month to help in the care of two aged women (both over 80 years old) living with a nephew and his wife, who also have charge of two orphan girls, children of a sister. The old ladies supported themselves until incapacitated for work and then lived on their savings for some years.

For $5 a month to help pay the rent for two women who have lived together and supported themselves for twenty-five years. Now one is almost helpless from an accident and the other being over sixty-seven years old is unable to earn much and her savings are exhausted. Unavailing efforts have been made to obtain a place in a Home for the disabled, and besides this they of course prefer to remain together.

For $150 to help a lady who has charge of her father (nearly ninety-six years old) and of an invalid brother, neither of whom can be placed in Homes. The lady herself is a teacher and does all she can for the support of the family, and is also helped by friends.

For $10 a month to pay rent for a woman whose husband has deserted her and who is trying to support her six young children (all under eight) with the help of a mother who lives with her and has been very generous to her.

For $too to help a widow with six children, all under thirteen years, whom she has done her best to support for the past two years. She has lived twelve years at her present address.

Any money for these cases sent to the Charity Organization Society, 105 East 22d street, will be duly and publicly acknowledged.

To correct a misapprehension on the subject which prevails in some quarters we are authorized to announce that the department of public charities has no funds for the supply of free coal, and that no public funds have been placed in the hands of any private association for this purpose. Families who are in need of fuel and whose needs should be supplied from charitable sources may be referred to the joint application bureau, in the United Charities

Building, conducted by the Charity Organization Society and the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, where their needs will be investigated and suitable action taken.

**

The state board of charities of Illinois, in its forthcoming annual report, will recommend its own abolition. The state board has found the

present system in that state unprogressive and unsatisfactory. In its place the members will recommend a paid board of control, similar to the New York board of lunacy, to consist of three members, a physician, a lawyer, and an additional citizen. It is thought that with a board of control of this character, selected for a long term and at adequate salaries, without reference to political affiliations, a wise, humane, and economic administration of the state institutions would be assured.

**

*

The New York Medical Journal comments unfavorably upon the plan adopted by the charter revision commission for removing Bellevue, Gouverneur, Harlem, and Fordham hospitals from the juris

diction of the commissioner of public charities and placing them in charge of an unpaid board of seven members. The Journal quotes President Keller of the department of public charities as having intimated that the change was proposed with a view to placing the hospitals more completely under the control of the teaching institutions. Mr. Keller objects to this on the ground that the hospitals are intended primarily for the relief of the sick and only incidentally for educational purposes, and the Journal thinks that his attitude on this subject will receive the approbation of many members of the medical profession.

The Journal predicts that the plan would involve serious practical diffi

culties of administration. In any In any plan which severs the emergency hospitals from the overflow hospitals, the constantly recurring questions as to the responsibility for transfers would be to the detriment of the patients involved.

**

More serious, however, is the departure which this plan involves from the general principle of concentrating responsibility for the conduct of the city departments. The charter revision commission now proposes to vest the direction of the department of public charities in a single commissioner, and this proposition is pronounced by the Journal to be "one that will probably meet with the hearty approval of all who have given any serious attention to the problem of municipal government." If in order to remove the hospitals in question from the sphere of "practical politics," it is necessary to take them out of the department of public charities, they should still be, in the opinion of the writer whom we have quoted, under a single-headed commission, for the same arguments which prove the wisdom of a concentration of authority in the department of charities would apply with equal force to the proposed department of hospitals.

**

We agree substantially with the conclusions of Mr. Keller and Mediical Journal as above expressed. We have no doubt that the motive of the radical change

proposed is the desire to improve the administration of Bellevue hospital, the most important institution of the department of public charities, but the spirit is more than the form and we believe that the public spirit on which the authors of the proposed scheme would rely for the improvements contemplated by them, if directed toward effective co-operation with the present commissioner would equally well accomplish the end desired. There has been improvement, there is room for further improvement, but the obstacle lies in a lack of professional and public interest rather than in the domination of politics.

**

The Rev. William I. Nichols, general secretary of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, made an address before the Suffrage Association of Brooklyn, on November 20. Referring to the work of the Bureau of Charities, Mr. Nichols said that not one cent of the money contributed to it by the public is used for running expenses, the funds for its maintenance being obtained through the labor of those who apply for assistance, and who are willing to work for what they receive.

This is one way of looking at the matter, but we doubt whether it is the best way. Why should not the members of the Bureau contribute money for its running expenses?

Mr. Nichols spoke in emphatic terms against the practice of indiscriminate bestowal of alms, adding:

"By giving a quarter or other

amounts to those who knock at their doors for aid, religious people, clergymen, and others are encouraging dishonesty, gambling, and drunkenness in a way they never dream of. They are actually paying people to get drunk and to gamble. If a man or woman wants a lodging they can apply to us and we will get it for them, and a card bearing the address should be given to them instead of money. The quarter or other sum can be sent to us with the certainty that it will be expended in the right way, for every cent contributed to the bureau of charities finds its way into the pockets of the poor."

*

The New York State Conference of Charities and Correction has the following officers for its second session to be held in November, 1901, in New York city:

President-Robert W. de Forest (president of the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York and chairman of the TenementHouse Commission).

Vice Presidents - T. Guilford Smith, of Buffalo; Hon. Simon W. Rosendale, of Albany; Thomas M. Mulry, of New York.

Secretary-Robert W. Hebberd, of Albany.

Assistant Secretaries-Dr. Lee K. Frankel, of New York; Miss Lucy C. Watson, of Utica; Mrs. August Falker, of Syracuse.

Treasurer Frank Tucker, of New York.

Committees on Relief for the Sick Poor-Division A, hospitals, dispensaries, and nursing, chairman, Dr. Stephen Smith, of New York; Division B, sanatoria for consumptives, chairman, Dr. John H. Pryor, of Buffalo.

Committee on the Treatment of the Criminal Chairman, Hon. George McLaughlin, of Albany.

Committee on the Care and Relief of Needy Families in Their Own Homes-Chairman, Frank Tucker, of New York.

Committee on the Care of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Children-Chairman, Dr. F. Park Lewis, of Buffalo.

Committee on the Institutional Care of Destitute Adults-Chairman, Clarence V. Lodge, of Roch

ester.

Committee on the Mentally Defective Chairman, Dr. Peter M. Wise, of New York.

Committee on Politics in Penal and Charitable Institutions-Chairman, Mrs. Charles R. Lowell, of New York.

The annual meeting of the Children's Aid Society was held on Tuesday at the Chase National Bank. Mr. D. Willis James, president; Mr. C. E. Whitehead, vicepresident; Mr. A. B. Hepburn, treasurer; and Mr. C. L. Brace, secretary, were re-elected, and Messrs. William Church Osborn, Charles E.

to include in his department budget for the coming year the sum of $20,ooo to establish and maintain an institution similar to that in New York city. This sum of money, it is claimed will be sufficient to rent and fix up a building in a central locality, install heating apparatus and spray baths and provide sleeping accommodations for 300 persons. It is believed that the effect of the institution will be to check vagrancy and petty crime.

* * *

Mr. William R. Hunter, one of the district superintendents of the Chicago Bureau of Charities, advocates the establishment of a system of police patrol in that city similar to the one existing in in New York city. He suggests that every vagrancy case be investigated by a specially appointed committee. The report of these investigators would be sent to the Bureau of Charities, and on the undeserving a cumulative sentence to the workhouse would be imposed, while transportation would be provided for those who can prove a legal residence elsewhere.

It is Mr. Hunter's opinion that Chicago is now the gathering place for tramps. Other cities, he says, have suppressed them, but Chicago offers the best living on the easiest terms.

The Chicago Bureau of Charities has centralized its financial system. Instead of having a treasurer in each