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FIRST HEARING.

THE GENERAL SUBJECT OF CHARITIES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

APRIL 7, 1897-2 o'clock p. m.

Present: Hon. James McMillan, chairman, Hon. Thomas S. Martin, Hon. Mahlon Pitney, Hon. S. A. Northway.

Mr. MCMILLAN. The matter to be discussed this afternoon is the general subject of the charities of the District of Columbia. The first to be heard, according to our schedule, are the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. We have received from them a written report to be filed here. If anyone desires to see it he can do so. It covers the ground we want.

The report of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia referred to is as follows:

THE FUND FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR.

OFFICE COMMISSIONERS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

Washington, April 7, 1897.

DEAR SIR: The Commissioners of the District of Columbia have the honor to acknowledge receipt of a letter from Mr. Charles Moore, clerk of your committee, inviting them, or their representative, to appear before your committee at 2 o'clock to-day, or to make a written statement with regard to the method of distributing the annual appropriation of $13,000 for the relief of the poor.

The Commissioners have thought that a written statement might be more concise and satisfactory than an oral statement, and therefore submit the following:

The allotment of this fund made for the relief of the poor for the current fiscal year is as follows:

For physicians to the poor..

For medicines and printing prescriptions for physicians to the poor..
For the Women's Dispensary.

For the Aged Women's Home..

For coffins for the indigent dead..

For emergency relief of cases investigated through the police department on order of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, on recommendation of the superintendent of charities to be distributed in provisions, fuel, or clothing, by the police......

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The item of $7,200 for physicians to the poor is the same amount which has been named for the same purpose for many years. Formerly 14 physicians were employed, at the rate of $40 per month. It having been ascertained that this number of physicians could not adequately cover the territory of the District, instead of 15 physicians at $40 per month, 20 physicians were employed at $30 per month. That has been the number employed for the past three years. They are paid only for the time actually employed. If absent, from sickness or otherwise, pay is deducted for the time lost. According to the estimate of the health officer, made in his annual report for the year 1896, page 11, the average cost for patients for medical attendance has been 46 cents, but if the number of visits and office consultations be taken into consideration, the average amount received by each physician per visit or office consultation has been but 25 cents. The duties of these physicians are outlined in instructions issued to them by the health officer, a copy of which is hereto appended.

The item of $3,700 for medicines and printing prescriptions for physicians to the poor is the same amount which has been allotted for this purpose annually at least as far back as 1874. Eighteen druggists to the poor are appointed, who are paid by the District for goods actually furnished, in accordance with an agreement signed by the druggists (a copy of which is hereto attached), from which it will be seen that the average cost of the prescriptions filled, by the druggists is between 15 and 20 cents.

The allotment to the Women's Dispensary of $500 is to an institution located at Four-and-a-half street and Maryland avenue, SW. The building is owned by the trustees of the Minor Institute, an association of public-spirited citizens who receive a fund for the education and care of colored youth. As will be seen by the report of the secretary of that institution, contained on pages 293 and 294 of the Report on Charitable and Reformatory Institutions of the District of Columbia for the year 1896, no salaries are paid to anyone in that institution except the sum of $10 per month to an apothecary. Having no regular appropriation for its benefit, the Commissioners deemed it proper to devote the $500 to its laudable purposes from the fund for the relief of the poor. Dr. Joseph Taber Johnson is president of the board of directors.

The Aged Women's Home is situated at 1255 Thirty-second street, NW. Mrs. B. Kennon is president, and Miss N. A. Riley is secretary and treasurer. Thirteen aged poor women are taken care of in this home, as appears from the report of the superintendent of charities for 1895, page 311. The only certain income had for this institution is $144 per annum from invested moneys, making, with the public funds received, a total of $444, and their annual expenditure is about $600. The item of $300 for coffins for the indigent dead is an allotment which merely pays for the material from which the coffins are made, the labor being all furnished by inmates of the Washington Asylum. The coffins are furnished only to persons whose families or relatives are wholly without means to provide for their burial.

The last item explains itself. During the inclement seasons of the year cases of great destitution and of immediate urgency are relieved upon reports made as to their condition by members of the police force. The money is used wholly for the purchase of provisions, fuel, and clothing, and the Commissioners have regarded these expenditures as having been carefully and satisfactorily made. It may be proper to advise your committee that there is another fund disbursed by the superintendent of police for the same purpose, namely, the interest on

the amount, $26,000, received March 18, 1889, from the executive com-
mittee of the inaugural ceremonies of March 4, 1889. This principal
is invested at 6 per cent per annum and yields annually $1,560. The
Commissioners have within the past few days also received from the
committee having in charge the late inaugural ceremonies the sum of
$7,000, which will be invested in the same way for the same purpose.
If any further or other information is desired by your committee, the
Commissioners will take pleasure in furnishing the same upon request.
Very respectfully,
JOHN W. Ross,
President Board of Commissioners, District of Columbia.
Hon. JAMES MCMILLAN,

Chairman Joint Select Committee to Investigate Charities
and Reformatory Institutions in the District of Columbia.

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SIR: You have been appointed to the responsible position of physician to the poor, of which you have been duly notified. You will be expected and required. therefore, to attend promptly and faithfully at the call of the sick poor in your district, to vaccinate free such of the poor as may need vaccination, to investigate cases of death occurring without the attendance of a physician, or cases where it is impossible to obtain a physician's certificate, and to perform such other duties as may be assigned to you. You will keep a full record of your work and make weekly returns to this office each Monday, in person, upon blanks provided for that purpose. A sick pauper entitled to your attention should be a resident of the District of Columbia, permanently or temporarily without the means of support, and in such bodily condition by reason of disease as to require medical treatment. Cases able to visit dispensaries for treatment should be referred to one of those institutions. When in doubt as to the worthiness of the patient you should exercise your own best judgment, always leaning to the side of humanity, and considering the income of such patient in reference to the uses to which it must be applied. Cases requiring your care and not provided with suitable accommodations should be reported at once to this office.

Especial attention should be paid to the prompt and accurate diagnosis of contagious diseases and to their proper isolation and treatment. When the diagnosis in such cases is doubtful you should apply at once to this department for aid in determining the nature of the disease. All sore throats suspected of being diphtheritic should be investigated bacteriologically and the serum treatment adopted in all cases of true diphtheria. This department will make the necessary bacteriological examinations and furnish assistance in the use of antitoxine when desired. Cases of death investigated by you, pursuant to your instructions above, if sudden or due to other than natural causes, or if the cause of death can not be determined, should be referred without delay to the coroner; otherwise they should be certified to, indicating that the death did not occur in your practice.

The following prescriptions are believed to be adequate to the requirements of the service, in the quantities designated, but larger quantities may be ordered when necessary, specifying in such cases on the prescription the need for such special prescription and having in view at all times the economical conduct of the work. Tablet triturates will be furnished to those desiring them to be used supplementary to the regular prescriptions.

Tinctures (standard), 2 ounces.

Mixtures, including sirups, 2 ounces.
Decoctions and infusions, one-half pint.
Pills, 6. Suppositories, 3.

Powders, 10. Ointments, one-half ounce.

Blisters, 2 by 4 inches.

Antidiphtheritic serum and vaccine virus can be obtained at the health office. Obstetric cases should receive your prompt attention, especially when you are called in cases of emergency to render necessary aid to a midwife in attendance; other cases may be referred to this department, which will make such arrangements as may be possible with one of the out-of-door lying-in dispensaries now operating in this city.

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The undersigned hereby agrees to furnish at prices not to exceed fifteen (15) cents for each and every prescription, medicines of best quality, including cinchona and its alkaloids, properly prepared and put up, upon prescriptions of the physicians to the poor for the sanitary division, agreeably to the following provisions: Tinctures (standard), one prescription not to call for larger quantities than two

ounces.

Mixtures, including syrups, not to call for larger quantities than two ounces.
Decoctions and infusions, not in larger quantities than one-half pint.
Pills, not more than six. Powders, not more than ten.

Ointments, not more than one-half ounce.

Suppositories, not more than three.

Blisters, not larger than 2 by 4 inches.

Provided, that in cases where special prescriptions are ordered when their constituents are expensive, or the quantities greater than those designated above, the price allowed will be proportionate to the standard price.

I also agree to furnish the health officer on the first day of each week a statement of my account upon blanks provided for that purpose, to be certified by him to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for payment.

THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES.

Mr. MCMILLAN. The next to be heard is the representative of the Associated Charities. Is anyone here to represent them?

Mr. GEORGE S. WILSON. Yes, sir; I am secretary of the Associated Charities. A report has been filed here by the Associated Charities, and I might say that in general our views are expressed in that report. Whether the committee desires me to elaborate or dwell at length upon it I do not know.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. Wilson, you are at the head of the Associated Charities, are you not?

Mr. WILSON. No, sir; I am the executive head; I am the secretary. The board of directors are the managers in authority.

Mr. MCMILLAN. What is the practical character of your work?

Mr. WILSON. The character of work is an effort to bring about cooperation among the charities of the community, both public and private. In order to do that we hold that in every case of application for relief of any kind, whether to an institution or out-door relief, the circumstances should be thoroughly examined to ascertain what kind of relief is required, if any, and then to find the proper source of such relief and have it properly applied. If a central bureau of this kind is maintained we believe that the duplication of charities can be prevented to a large extent. No matter how efficient each organization may be in its own work, duplication is apt to occur. This, you might say, is almost the universal experience of all associated charities or societies for organizing charities, variously denominated, which have been formed in large cities and been in operation for ten, fifteen, and some twenty years.

Our society operates along the same lines as the majority of these societies. We are interested in the whole field; we look at the whole field. In and of ourselves we are nothing. Any case, no matter what it is, may be referred to us and properly referred to us, and it becomes our duty to find the means of relief and have it applied. So that we look at the field in the very broadest possible way and from the broadest possible standpoint, because there is no organization or institution which we may not, and do frequently, apply to in the course of our work.

Mr. MCMILLAN. It is not the practice of your association to furnish money?

Mr. WILSON. No, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. You furnish persons with positions or help them to ositions?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. And you have no means furnished you for general relief purposes?

Mr. WILSON. No, sir. In general we procure relief through the incorporated agencies already in existence.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Through all the other charities?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir; we try to help the other agencies to do the work better and more economically. Our expenses we estimate at about $7,500 a year.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Is that all raised from private sources?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. MCMILLAN. With no assistance from the Government?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir; and we do not ask any. We believe we can do the work better. We think we have the confidence of the community in which we work.

Mr. MCMILLAN. You do not propose to exercise any oversight over these different charities. You simply work in harmony with them?

Mr. WILSON. Yes, sir; the board of trade has recommended in their report that that oversight should properly belong to a board of charities with a wider field of work than we have-a board which would corre spond to State boards of charities and in some cases to municipal boards. During the last ten or fifteen years many of such boards have been formed in New York and Massachusetts and other States a large number of them-and those States which have not these boards are gradually forming them. We believe that the charities of the District should properly belong to such a board as that, composed of members nominated by some public authority and to serve without compensation. These boards, so far as I know, have worked very satisfactorily and in every case have effected some improvement in the charities of the community in which they exist, because they are composed of men who have the confidence of the community, men willing to give their time to the work because they are interested in it, and their recommendations have great weight with the legislatures or municipal authorities.

I know in Ohio, where I worked for some years, the recommendations of the State board have the greatest weight with the State legislature, and through that board many reforms have been established. We believe that the recommendations of the board of trade that the charities of the District could be better managed by such a board are correct. Such a board would properly have the consideration of all the minor details which the Congress of the United States is now troubled with from year to year. I just called the attention of some of the gentlemen this morning to the report of the superintendent of charities for the past year. As you will see by reference to pages 5 and 6, the Congress of the United States, the appropriating authority, is urged to grant a special appropriation because some buildings here have been damaged by storm. I could pick out three private corporations in this list receiving public funds controlled by private authorities which ask for a deficiency appropriation because a storm injured their buildings to the extent of $25. Large private corporations come to the Congress of the United States and trouble you gentlemen; and the time of Congress is taken up year after year with small or comparatively small items of District

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