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work of the Associated Charities of making friendly visits to encour age self-help. My personal opinion is that any appropriation made by Congress for what is called relief work would be more efficiently disbursed by the Associated Charities. Mr. Wilson calls my attention to the fact that $7,200 were given to the physicians to the poor.

Mr. NORTHWAY. Of the $13,000?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir; under the last apportionment. It was not always so.

Mr. WILSON. It covers the physicians, and very little else. One thousand dollars went for emergency relief direct. This money-the $13,000is appropriated for charities. It ought not to be appropriated in that way. It creates a false impression that there is a fund which is for direct relief.

Mr. NORTHWAY. There is only $1,000 of it spent for direct relief? Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir; according to this last report. Seven thousand two hundred dollars is given to the physicians to the poor.

Mr. PITNEY. Congress makes an appropriation of $13,000, and out of it, as I understand, the Commissioners have been spending, or paying to physicians for attending the poor, $7,200, and only $1,000 in the way of direct relief. Does any part of that $13,000 go to institutions?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir; for the Women's Dispensary, $500; for the Aged Women's Home, $300; for coffins for the indigent dead, $300. The appropriation, however, in the past has been used again and again largely for direct relief. It ought to be used at times in part for institutions.

Mr. PITNEY. As a kind of contingent fund, applied wherever it is most needed?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Some cities have a poor fund, a poor master, and a poor commission, having in charge the taking care of the regular poor people who make it a business to be poor and who have made it a business to be poor for many years. They are cared for all the winter by this poor master and a large sum of money is distributed in Detroit in that way, as much as $20,000 or $25,000. How much, Mr. Moore; is it more than that?

Mr. MOORE. Yes, sir; more than that.

Mr. MCMILLAN. The commission can only expend such amount of money as is in their control. When that is done, then the citizens contribute in times of great distress or extreme cases when there is great suffering, and raise money and put it into the hands of this commission. The poor people of the District of Columbia who are regularly in need have no way of getting money except through private charities? Mr. WILSON. No, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Like the central relief committee?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. NORTHWAY. Tell me how the poor people are cared for if the most of this appropriation is given to physicians.

Mr. PITNEY. I suppose, being relieved by physicians and medicines, it is thought that they will be able to take care of themselves in other respects.

Mr. MACFARLAND. I should like to have the privilege of submitting a better statement.

Mr. MCMILLAN. We would like to have you submit a written statement.

Mr. PITNEY. I would like to ask you a question, Mr. Macfarland. I think you said that the charities are now disorganized. Nobody S. Doc. 185-2

seems to know how the work is being performed or how it has been carried on?

Mr. NORTHWAY. His plan provides for a board of charities.
Mr. PITNEY. More particularly as to the present.

Mr. MACFARLAND. Dr. Warner, who was appointed during the Administration of President Harrison, made a very thorough investigation at that time. He made some mistakes, but he got at information which had not been published, at least in that form, before. He was satisfied that the superintendent of charities could not do the work which Congress had set him to do. Among other things in Dr. Warner's recommendations was a specific recommendation for a board of charities. It was he who first suggested the creation of a board of charities, and we have simply taken his recommendation and are now seeking to apply it, and our thought was that if such a board was created it would bring the boards and managers of all the institutions into more harmonious relations than we ever had before.

Mr. PITNEY. Do you think they could prevent the duplication of work?

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir.

Mr. PITNEY. You know that the charters of each of these institutions prescribes what work shall be done.

Mr. MACFARLAND. Yes, sir; that is primarily true as to all institutions receiving Government aid. Our opinion is that the character of this board of charities in dealing with subsidized institutions would induce the managers of private institutions to take advice, and their recommendations to Congress in their annual reports would have such weight as to improve things.

Mr. MCMILLAN. They would all work in harmony with this board, you think?

Mr. MACFARLAND. That is our hope. That has been the experience of the State boards of charities, which have twenty-five years of experi ence behind them. The State board of Massachusetts was created in 1866 or 1867. Since then sixteen or seventeen other States have followed their example, and there is a long line of achievements to their credit. You know that it was through these boards that the international conferences of charities and corrections were created. These conferences or meetings are held once a year and largely attended. Great reformers and philanthropists meet together to get the benefit of the experimental work throughout the country. They had a meeting last year in Grand Rapids, and it was the most profitable ever held. It publishes each year a report, and that is really our literature upon that subject. It seeks to promote self-help among the poor rather than reliance upon others, and this child caring work, which has for its ultimate object the placing of children in homes, has been doubled under the influence of these international conferences of charities and corrections, international because Canada takes part with the United States.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Senator Martin, would you like to ask any questions? Mr. MARTIN. Mr. Macfarland, have you any knowledge on the subject of the payment of this $7,200 to the physicians to the poor? Mr. MACFARLAND. No, sir.

Mr. MARTIN. You have no knowledge upon that subject?

Mr. MACFARLAND. No, sir; but I think Mr. Wilson would know about that.

Mr. WILSON. In my opinion it is a wise appropriation; we need physicians to the poor, but I think they should be appropriated for specifically.

I do not think the money should be appropriated and called "for relief of the poor," because it is a misnomer. I believe we need physicians to the poor, and if there are other items in this schedule that are proper, they should be provided for specifically, and if money is appropriated for the "relief of the poor" it should be so used; but it is my belief that such appropriations should not be made in Washington.

Mr. MACFARLAND. Just on that point I ought to have said that public appropriations for outdoor relief have been abolished in many cities. I believe in Brooklyn, when Seth Low became mayor, he succeeded in wiping out that appropriation on the ground that it increased dependency. I should like to submit a written statement if I may have that privilege.

Mr MCMILLAN. We will be glad to have it.

Mr. MACFARLAND. I am also the chairman of the charities committee of the Civic Center. We indorse the views of the Board of Trade. Miss Hosmer is here and will be able to describe the work of the Civic Center.

Mr. JANNEY. As to whether or not the Associated Charities has any legal status, it is an incorporated body.

Mr. MCMILLAN. The Associated Charities?

Mr. JANNEY. Yes, sir; I would say that it has no money of its own and dispenses no relief from its own funds, and receives no money at all except for its own administrative expenses.

THE CIVIC CENTER.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Miss Hosmer, we will hear you now.

Miss K. P. HoSMER. The Civic Center is an organization similar to the Civic Federation of Chicago, of which Secretary Gage was formerly president. It is an organization which invites all citizens who believe in having the city in all its departments on the very highest and best plane, to consider the conditions of the city; to learn what has been done elsewhere, and to endeavor to meet those conditions in the best way; to see that what is good here is continued and to get what is good from outside. In this way every department of the city is covered. I might say that the Civic Center attempts to oversee as citizens just as the Commissioners do as officials, and endeavors to find out what is best to be done. We therefore are very much interested in the organizations in the field of charities. We believe that Washington, from being in respect to charities more or less in a chaotic condition, can be a model, and ought to be a model, for the whole country; because it has not very many obstacles to overcome. I might say that all the various cities which are on the line of progress in such matters look to Washington and wish it to be the model.

I was saying that we have very few obstacles to overcome. One of the things that other cities have had to overcome was the question of outdoor relief, which results in increased pauperism and is very harmful. It is much the same as giving out all kinds of medicines, of all descriptions, and having the different persons who come after medicine given any kind that happens to be on hand. Now, the field of charities, we think, should be considered by a public board of charities, the same as the committee on charities of the board of trade recommends; this board should consider the whole field and be responsible officially in respect to charities as the Commissioners of the District are responsible in respect to the duties imposed upon them.

That field is divided clearly into two parts, the question of private relief, and relief through public institutions. The Associated Charities

is an unofficial body. We do not believe that it should be paid from the public funds, because it then becomes an official body. It is responsible to the citizens of the whole District to see that every case, worthy or unworthy, is investigated. It should be responsible in respect to every application made for relief in the District of Columbia, to see that they get the proper kind of relief. It may be work, fuel, or clothing; it may be treatment of one kind or another. In that way it makes use of all the different institutions for charities in the District as well as private charities, the same as the physician makes use of all kinds of medicines for his different patients. It is therefore a purely administrative society, just as the physician is paid so much for diagnosing

all cases.

In former times, you may know, the physician did not dare ask pay for advice, but was paid for the medicine; but now that has been specialized and the patient gets his drugs from the drug store. The Associated Charities is responsible for seeing that each case gets the relief needed, whether it is indoor or outdoor. It may be that one member of a family needs to go to an asylum and another needs work. It finds that it lacks a number of medicines, as it were, or institutions, in other words. We have no inebriate asylum. We have difficulty in providing for imbecile cases.

To give a practical example, one of the agents of a society said to me the other day that an application was received from a certain family. All of the children were imbeciles, and the agent said it would cost to take care of them about $1,200 a year. The agent of the Board of Children's Guardians said that that was the treatment for that family, but that with the money he had he could not take them, saying that for the same amount of money many more cases of the same kind could be treated. The work of the Associated Charities is very apt to be misunderstood. If there are any questions that could be asked, either in general or in detail, I would be glad to answer them.

Mr. MCMILLAN. We want you to tell us about the work of the Civic Center.

Mr. PITNEY. That is a citizens' association interested in the general work of improvement of the city's conditions?

Miss HOSMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. NORTHWAY. Does it cover the same field as the Board of Trade? Miss HOSMER. It is similar to the organization of the Board of Trade, except that the Board of Trade is organized for the special purpose of forwarding the business interests of the city. The Civic Center has for its object to promote the welfare and interests of the city. It is merely a body to get information as to the conditions of the city and to find out what are the best remedies to apply to those conditions, to ascertain what has been done elsewhere and then to report to the proper authorities.

Mr. PITNEY. To make suggestions?

Miss HOSMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. I believe you have taken up this question of houses in alleys?

Miss HOSMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. And have made some investigation into that?

Miss HOSMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. I understand there has been some effort made by the Civic Center to raise money to put up some buildings better fitted for these poor people.

Miss HOSMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. NORTHWAY. You have no fund?

Miss HOSMER. No, sir. In this matter of slums, the Civic Center thought we had slums here and that nothing was being done about them. We made a preliminary investigation ourselves and had a committee appointed to make an investigation. We also employed a person for two months. Upon this report we made important recommendations. Mr. NORTHWAY. To whom?

Miss HOSMER. To the Civic Center and to the public generally— that the alleys should be cut through from street to street, making minor streets, and in that way to do away with blind alleys, which really make small communities of the lowest classes, isolating them from the outside. To put the recommendations of the Civic Center concisely in the matter of charities, we think the field should be covered; that there should be an official body to consider the whole question. The supervision of the whole field should be in the hands of a board of charities, both relief by institutions and outside of institu tions. The Associated Charities should be responsible for every appli cation of persons needing relief in whatever form and to see that it is taken care of. The Associated Charities is responsible to see that every case in the District of Columbia is provided for and taken care of. Now, some cases may not be taken care of by institutions. If so, such a case it sees is provided for in some way. As to institutions, it finds many times that there is not the proper institution in which cases of certain kinds can be cared for, yet they are not able to say to any body officially, or to the Commissioners officially, that there is this or that institution lacking, but the proposed board of public charities would have that under their control.

Mr. MCMILLAN. That is to say, that if it was proposed that there be an inebriate asylum, then this board of charities would investigate that matter and report to Congress whether such an institution was required, and if so, that so much money was needed to establish and conduct it? Miss HOSMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. PITNEY. You spoke about holding the board of public charities responsible. How could they be held responsible except by public sentiment? How would you hold them responsible if they failed to come up to your views?

Miss HOSMER. If people fail to come up to what they should, that is their own fault. They should have as their duty the consideration of the whole question of charities-to find out and to know whether there is a proper institution for the relief of a given case on the one hand, and whether there is a proper body which can investigate every case. Mr. PITNEY. To have a board composed of a sufficient number of citizens who would be in touch with the sentiment of the people, as well as to know from observation of the needs of the field?

Miss HOSMER. Yes, sir; and an expert or secretary would have the guidance of it.

Mr. NORTHWAY. The Civic Center, then, recommends a board of charities having supervision of the whole question of all the charities? Miss HOSMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. NORTHWAY. And the Associated Charities to say how the work shall be done?

Miss HOSMER. No, sir; the Associated Charities has no determining power at all. The board of charities would have that power. It would fix upon certain things to be done, and it should have the duty of making investigations in respect to the whole question and as to how much money should be expended upon them.

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