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charities, and we think until there is a board to pass upon these matters it will be very difficult for Congress to avoid this trouble, which it has had from year to year. I do not know whether there is any question any member of the committee would like to ask me in relation to our own work. It would be impossible to go into the matter in detail. Mr. NORTHWAY. Take an individual case.

Mr. WILSON. First we examine the circumstances of a case when an application is made for relief, and then determine which should be the proper and natural source for the relief. For instance, cases have come to me of Odd Fellows. Of course the order helps bona fide members of their lodges. We go to the lodge quietly about the case, and they say they are glad we brought it to their attention. The person might belong to a strong church, and you know it is very generally claimed that the well-to-do churches care for their own poor. I ask them to care for the case. There is a large residuum that does not belong to any of these organizations, and this field has been occupied in Washington by the general relief committee.

Mr. MCMILLAN. You go around until you get some organization to take care of that individual?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. You have no power to contract for the care of that individual so as to bind anyone?

Mr. WILSON. No, sir; we do not use or take public money.

Mr. MARTIN. In your duties you have investigated all the charities of the District of Columbia?

Mr. WILSON. No, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. No; they have nothing to do with that. They simply investigate individual cases. For instance, if a person comes to your house desiring help, and if you are not satisfied with the explanation he makes, you are at liberty to send a letter to this association saying that you would like to have an examination made of the person's condition or of his family, and this secretary will obtain and give you that information. He will say to you that the person or family is worthy of help or that he is not worthy of it, and if the Associated Charities say he is worthy you will very likely help him or the family. I have found it so in many cases.

Mr. WILSON. There is no red tape. We have what is called a "Golden Book Fund." People come to us to contribute, and say, perhaps, "Here is a hundred dollars; you can use it for special cases where you can not get other money." There are cases reported to me, emergency cases, and the money in this fund is used for these cases of immediate necessity. If you had experience, you would find that there are very few people indeed who pass in an hour or two from a condition of comfort to one of destitution.

There is one thing we like to insist upon, and that is that people who are to be relieved should be bona fide residents of the District of Columbia.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. Martin, do you desire to ask any questions? Mr. MARTIN. No, sir; I think not.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Dr. Van Reypen, do you desire to add anything to what the secretary has said?

Dr. VAN REYPEN. No, sir; I believe not. The secretary has advanced the views of the board much better than I can, and I entirely concur in his statements. We are a nonpartisan organization; we have nothing whatever to do with church, creed, or condition. We simply want to ascertain whether or not the person to be relieved is worthy of relief.

That is the object-to eliminate frauds. We know that there are persons applying for relief who are not worthy of it, and the elimination of those cases is one of the objects of the Associated Charities.

THE CHARITIES COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF TRADE.

Mr. MCMILLAN. The next to be heard is the charities committee of the board of trade. Is there anyone present in connection with the board of trade?

Mr. B. T. JANNEY. Up to within about five years no special effort was made to organize the charities of the District of Columbia. Since that time very little progress has been made in that direction. The superintendent of charities, while doing the best he could, seems absolutely to have failed in that effort; and the board of trade have taken up the matter and discussed it at length, and have advised their committee to urge upon Congress the creation of a board of charities, believing that a committee or board of the citizens of Washington could better dispense the charities or organize them than one single man. The board of trade has discussed the matter from time to time for two or three years. I do not know just what to say to you gentlemen further than that, but that has been their effort and recommendation. Mr. MCMILLAN. Something like a State board?

Mr. JANNEY. Yes, sir; there are eighteen States that, up to within two or three years, have had superintendents of charities. They have abolished superintendents and put boards in their places, and we have no instance where they have changed back to superintendents. Mr. MCMILLAN. What charities would they take in?

Mr. JANNEY. Everything in the District.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Hospitals?

Mr. JANNEY. Not a controlling but an investigatory authority. The board should be clothed with authority to investigate and make recommendations for appropriations and assistance when called upon for that purpose.

Mr. MCMILLAN. They would decide, then, how much money each one should have?

Mr. JANNEY. Yes, sir; when estimates were to be sent in they would be referred to this board.

Mr. MCMILLAN. And this board would then report to Congress, through the Commissioners, that these institutions were entitled, in their judgment, to assistance?

Mr. JANNEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Or whether they were not?

Mr. JANNEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. NORTHWAY. Do you deal with charities practically at all?
Mr. JANNEY. No, sir; not as a board of trade.

Mr. NORTHWAY. In what way do you differ from the Associated Charities in the line of investigation?

Mr. JANNEY. We do not do any investigating at all. This question is simply taken up by the board of trade as a matter of public interest. Mr. NORTHWAY. And you have a plan or suggestion for a board of charities for the District of Columbia?

Mr. JANNEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. NORTHWAY. Have you that on paper, so that we can get your ideas briefly?

Mr. JANNEY. No, sir. We have talked the matter over, and it is our opinion that a board of nine members would be about proper, with a well-paid secretary, who should be an expert.

Mr. NORTHWAY. How chosen?

Mr. JANNEY. By the Commissioners of the District.

Mr. NORTHWAY. Appointed by the District Commissioners?
Mr. JANNEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. Macfarland, do you desire to present anything! Mr. H. B. F. MACFARLAND. The question of charities in the District of Columbia is a very peculiar one, because there are Federal charities and there are charities supported by private subscription-purely pri vate institutions—and we of the committee on charities of the board of trade, having a purely advisory function, having no control of the charity work, have been investigating what would be the ideal system if we could get it here. Two years ago we recommended to the board of trade, and the board of trade adopted, resolutions declaring that it was the sense of the board that Congress should abolish the office of superintendent of charities and create a board of charities, which should have supervisory control over all charity work in the District of Columbia. Of course, that work divides itself into several classes. There is first of all what is called the relief work-the outdoor relief work. The opinion of the committee of the board of trade, and it is the general opinion, is that outdoor relief should be left to the Associated Charities. They would probably be aided by the board of charities. Our idea was that the members of that board should be the very best men and women, if that was desired, in the District of Columbia, having the confidence of the community and of Congress; and the thought was that they would be able, by their advice and recommendations, to aid every charitable work, but the Associated Charities has demonstrated its entire competence to manage the outdoor relief work of Washington.

On that point I should like to say that our opinion would be that the appropriation of $13,000 for the relief of the poor, made by Congress, should be distributed under the direction of the Associated Charities, as it has been at times in the past. As to the second question, the extent and character of the relief work, that is a question for them; and the third, the need and method of investigating the applications for relief, has already been answered by the Associated Charities. In regard to the fifth topic, I think the relief should be confined to bona fide citizens of the District of Columbia.

Now as to organizations. This board, as we conceive, would be performing the duties which are really the duties of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, but which, under stress of time and work, they can not properly attend to. This work would devolve upon this board of charities, and having to give comparatively little attention to the active outdoor relief work, inasmuch as that would be under the Associated Charities, its special function would be to deal with the institutions. They may be divided into two classes-institutions that have child-caring work, and all the rest, the rest being largely hospitals.

As to child-caring work under the direction or supervision of the board of charities, the Board of Children's Guardians, which was created for that purpose, should, in my judgment, have general supervision, and no child should be made a charge on the charity appropriations made by Congress until it had been made a ward, either permanent or temporary, of the Board of Gardians, and subject to a proper court. As to the other institutions, the purposes of the board of charities would De supervision of their work and to bring them into harmony as far as possible-to literally organize the charities of the District of Columbia. They are now disorganized; that is, independent. Institutions have grown up independently of each other. Certain people get

together and think there is a need for a certain institution, and they organize it, without consulting, perhaps, the institutions of similar character already established and in operation; and if these people have sufficient acquaintance and influence they get it established, and perhaps by and by they come to Congress and get appropriations if they have sufficient personal and political influence. We think that the board of charities ought to determine, as Mr. Janney has said, what estimates for appropriations shall be submitted, and we hope that this board would have the confidence of Congress, so that Congress would accept its recommendations and not make appropriations except through its recommendation. That, I think, outlines our plan in a rough way.

Mr. MCMILLAN. How would this board be appointed according to your plan?

Mr. MACFARLAND. By the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. Mr. MCMILLAN. But without pay?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir; without pay, but having a paid secre tary who would be an expert.

Mr. PITNEY. Could you get them to serve without pay?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir; there would be no difficulty about that. Mr. MCMILLAN. We have no trouble in Detroit in getting all the members we want; and we get the best men.

Mr. PITNEY. Let me ask you a question about the present Associated Charities. That is a purely voluntary association, is it not?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir.

Mr. PITNEY. It has no legal status except as an association of individuals mutually desirous of forwarding the work of charity?

Mr. MACFARLAND. No, sir.

Mr. PITNEY. Does your scheme propose that they shall have official supervision of the charity work?

Mr. MACFARLAND. They shall do just what they are doing now. I think the board of charities would recommend that this money appropriated for relief of the poor should be expended under the direction of the Associated Charities.

Mr. PITNEY. Would it not be well to give them some legal status? Mr. MACFARLAND. I do not think so. The general relief committee, simply by request of the Commissioners of the District, and without any legal status whatever, collects and disburses large sums of money. Some years ago, when my wife was chairman, or chairwoman, of the committee, it raised $30,000 and expended it.

Mr. PITNEY. But that was for a temporary emergency?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir. One of the things which would be accomplished by the proposed plan would be that all emergencies would be planned for in advance, and the work done much better than at present. Mr. PITNEY. One thing I forgot. You would have to make the powers of the board of charities very general and trust to the discretion of the members of it to interpret and exercise them rightly and properly, because it would not be an official body, and yet it would have some semiofficial standing, so to speak.

Mr. MACFARLAND. My own hope would be, and I think it is the hope of the committee on charities of the board of trade, that by virtue of its excellence, of the value of its public work, it would receive and have the confidence and cooperation of all the people interested in charitable work of every kind, and their advice would be taken. Mr. PITNEY. It would be an arm or branch of the local government, would it not-a sort of commission?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir.

Mr. PITNEY. Appointed by and under supervision of the Commissioners of the District?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir; and simply do what the Commissioners would perform if they had the necessary time to spare.

Mr. PITNEY. The Commissioners disburse this appropriation of $13,000?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir. I think $1,000 of it is disbursed through the police deparment in cases of emergency or distress.

Mr. PITNEY. Now, I believe you are somewhat familiar with the Board of Children's Guardians and their operations. What have you to say of the sufficiency of the powers of that Board-whether they are sufficient to make the Board as you think it ought to be?

Mr. MACFARLAND. As to that I would not undertake to say, for there are details with which I am not acquainted. I am certain that they have recommended changes in the law, but I can not say what they are. No doubt the Board will speak for themselves.

Mr. PITNEY. An important recommendation which they have made is that they be furnished with a building in which to take care of the children who are their wards.

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir.

Mr. PITNEY. That was part of the original scheme, but was stricken out by Congress.

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir. In Minnesota and other States where similar boards have been successfully tried they have what is practically a receiving home-a temporary place of keeping children until they are prepared to go out into homes. The theory of the Board of Guardians is that children should only be kept in institutions sufficiently long to prepare them to go into homes. They must have family care rather than institutional care; that is, they should be brought up by families rather than by institutions.

Mr. MCMILLAN. That is the plan in Michigan, but here this is done by the Board of Guardians through different institutions.

Mr. PITNEY. No, sir; I understand that the plan here is that the street urchin or waif should be put into some institution under systematic care long enough to rub the dirt and street associations off of him and out of him, and until he is prepared to go into a home and take the home influences. They have no building here of their own, and so use the buildings which are the property of public institutions here.

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir; I am a trustee of the Newsboys' Aid Society, and we get a number of the wards of the Board of Children's Guardians and keep them for a longer or shorter time-keep them until they are sent to homes; but it would be a very desirable thing for the Board of Children's Guardians to have their own institution, in which they could prepare children for future homes.

Mr. NORTHWAY. If your scheme is carried out, are you prepared to express an opinion whether it would promote the work of charity and at a less cost per head?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir; our hope is by coordinating all the charities it will increase their efficiency and lessen the cost.

Mr. NORTHWAY. You have a plan in regard to distributing this appropriation of $13,000. Do you say that that has not been satisfactorily done heretofore?

No

Mr. MACFARLAND. Of course that is a mere matter of opinion. system of almsgiving is efficient without such investigation and reports as are made by the Associated Charities, and without the further

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