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IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

MARCH 28, 1898.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. MCMILLAN, from the Joint Select Committee to Investigate the Charities and Reformatory Institutions in the District of Columbia, submitted the following Supplemental Report.

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HE joint select committee created by the Act of June 11, 1896, was directed "to make investigation of the charities and reformatory institutions of the District of Columbia, and especially of those for which appropriations are made by this act, as respects their relations to the government of the District of Columbia and to the United States, whether by special charter or otherwise, their efficiency, their management and resources, whether by appropriations or otherwise; and also what portion, if any, of appropriations heretofore made to them have been used for the purpose of maintaining or aiding, by payment for services, expenses, or otherwise, any church or religious denomination or any institution or society which is under sectarian or ecclesiastical control."

These questions involved an inquiry into the origin and subsequent history of the various charitable and reformatory institutions of the District. In the time allotted to the committee for its work, the required information had to be gathered somewhat hastily; and the task was rendered the more difficult from the fact that in most instances, and even in the case of some of the most important institutions, the records were both meager and scattered. So frequent have changes occurred in the management of the charities that those now in control often have little knowledge of their predecessors. Consequently errors will be found in the following pages; and perhaps credit is not always given where credit is due. Wherever it could be done, however, the sketches of the various institutions have been submitted to the respective authorities and have been corrected by them.

The sketches have been written from the standpoint of the institutions; but where there have been controversies, reference is made to the criticisms. The reason for this course is that, for the most part, the management of the various charities has been in the hands of persons who served the public without reward, and in many instances at decided inconvenience to themselves. Certainly it can serve no good purpose to bring up here matters of dispute now happily in the past. Questions as to present management and efficiency are treated in the report of the joint committee.

The one fact that will be apparent to every reader of these pages is that the District of Columbia has contained, and still contains, a surprisingly large number of benevolent people who have given freely of time, of professional skill, and of money for charity.

The editor is under obligations to the many officers of charitable institutions and associations for aid in gathering data and for furnishing information; and especially he would acknowledge the assistance given by Dr. Samuel C. Busey, president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia; and to Dr. C. B. Purvis, for many years the surgeon-in-chief of Freedmen's Hospital, and also the physician of the Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children. Since the report of the joint select committee was made to Congress the following changes in District charities have occurred: A permanent central committee for the relief of the poor, consisting of thirty persons, has been appointed by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. The committee will become an incorporated body, and will administer the inaugural and other funds for the relief of the poor. The detail of a police officer as agent of the Humane Society has been withdrawn in accordance with the joint committee's report. The Garfield Memorial Hospital has consented to have an isolating building constructed on its grounds, and a second such building will be built at the Providence Hospital. The Columbia Hospital has taken steps to allow physicians not on the hospital staff to attend patients in pay rooms, and also to limit the admission of free patients to persons actually dependent.

WASHINGTON, April 26, 1898.

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