In 1892 Amos G. Warner (1861-1900) was hired as the head of the newly established Department of Economics and Social Science at Stanford. A sketch of his biography is found in the eulogies reported at his memorial service at Stanford. This is followed by an outline with readings for a course of lectures he held at Johns Hopkins University in 1893 “On Charities and their Administration”.
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MEMORIAL TO DR. A.G. WARNER.
Friends and Colleagues of the Dead Professor Pay Tribute to a Truly Great Man.
Last night memorial services were held in the chapel for Dr. Amos Griswold Warner, late head of the department of Economics and Sociology in the University. The touching tributes of recollection bore eloquent testimony how deeply his friends at Stanford have felt his death.
President Jordan first spoke, saying : “About fourteen years ago I was told by one who had attended a convention of political economists that the man who was the most sane, interesting, and human of them all was the professor of economics in the University of Nebraska, Dr. Amos G. Warner. It was largely through this statement that I was led to investigate his life and work and to offer him a professorship, first in the East and again in the West, the last of which he finally accepted. It was through Dr. Warner’s recommendation that I first came to look up the records of Dr. Ross and Dr. Howard, so he had a great deal to do with this institution.”
Dr. Jordan introduced Dr. Howard, who said of Dr. Warner, in part : “I have had an acquaintance with him extending over a score of years and must be excused if I give personal reminiscences.
“Just twenty years ago last September there appeared for registration in the University of Nebraska a farmer’s boy from Roca, a village about eleven miles distant from there. His clothes were of the severest country type. His eye, as many of you know, constantly gave a human and somewhat quizzical light —looking out into the new world into which he was about to enter, and of which in more than usual measure he took possession. I had just returned from Germany and for three months was a supply teacher, and with others felt that a new power had come among us, as we learned more and more to appreciate his mind. The part which a young man or a young woman has to take in academic life in the making of the institutions which constitute that life is very important. As he is strong or great in that life he is likely to be in the life beyond. Dr. Warner had a sense of humor almost unsurpassed, and was often a leader in college fun — in true college fun — that kind which had the joy of gentleness, but he was never found in that group whose only claim to academic distinction is good clothes, nor among those who are eager to imitate evil, nor among those who in the name of a college joke or prank delight to persecute those who are physically or mentally weaker than themselves. He told me that he had resolved to graduate and then carry the culture he had obtained into a farmer’s life. While yet a graduate student he received his first call to public duty. In Baltimore, the patron of charities in that city heard of him and the young boy received an invitation to organize the charities —the most difficult work that any man can undertake. The plough boy of Roca undertook the work and he succeeded. And then came the first call to teach. He was appointed an associate professor and my colleague, and now after a few months’ teaching came his second call to public work, to Washington. The thing which finally determined his coming to Stanford was the gift of the Hopkins Library to this institution. He was deeply interested in railroad matters and would build up a railroad school here which would be a great activity.
“But was the work of Dr. Warner left unfinished? He first organized the Associated Charities, and then he organized one of the most important branches of another science, that of Economic Corporations. But there is something more than that which is better, and that is the influence of that good and true soul which he put forth. One may compare it in its results to a diamond cast into the water. The waves of intellectual and moral influence recede further and further, until they break the uttermost shores of time. He had knowledge of man, and of men in all forms and shapes, which only the wise can possess. His work led him in the lowest walks of society, and he came out of it a master of men. When one stands in the presence of that noble and pure soul he cannot but feel humility. When one considers his greatness and his strength one may have faith and hope for the man of democracy.”
Dr. Edward A. Ross was the next to speak of Dr. Warner. He said : “Professor Warner was a most original man. His was the pioneer mind. He seemed to have the capacity to relate economics to real life. He was always on the growing margin of the science, where something new is to be discovered. His methods were original and effective. Instead of sending his students to texts, he sent them out in the world to study the jails, almshouses, and city halls. Students who are here now simply cannot realize the deep devotion of Professor Warner’s students to him, and the profound impression that he has left on every one of them. He had a rare common sense. When he was here two years ago he gave four lay sermons, and I think that they will never be forgotten. I have hardly heard a person comment on these sermons. They are of the kind that you think over, and carry in your mind.”
[…]
Source: The Stanford Daily. Vol. XVI, Issue 9 (January 24, 1900), p. 1.
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The lectures to graduate students on Social Science during the current year were opened with an introductory course by President Gilman. He briefly characterized some of the fundamental and special works of sociology and showed its relation to history, politics, economics, education, sanitation, penology, and other distinct fields of social inquiry. The relations of university men to the State and to society were discussed, together with various practical topics pertaining to political ethics, public morality, social reform, and organized charity.
These introductory lectures were followed by courses by Dr. A. G. Warner and Dr. E. R. L. Gould.
A course of ten lectures on “Charities and their Administration ” was delivered during December and January by A. G. Warner, Ph. D., Superintendent of Charities for the District of Columbia, and Professor-Elect of Economics in the Leland Stanford Jr. University. During and following the course, a company of those especially interested in the subject visited many of the charitable and penal institutions of the city and vicinity, under the guidance of Mr. F. D. Morrison, Superintendent of the Maryland School for the Blind, who represented the Baltimore Charity Organization Society, and Mr. D. I. Green, who was chosen chairman of the class.
The substance of Dr. Warner’s lectures will eventually be incorporated in a work entitled “American Charities, a Study in Philanthropy and Economics,” [Volume 4 in Crowell’s Library of Economics and Politics, 1894] but it is thought best to print at once for the use of those interested in the subject the list of references and a brief synopsis of the lectures themselves.
The references as given by Dr. Warner have been extended by, Mr. D. I. Green, through the addition of dates and places of publication and the completion of titles. They are presented here not as a bibliography of charities but as a reader’s guide which has already proved useful to students of social science.
Perhaps the best bibliography for the American student of charity, though by no means complete, is that found in the appendix of the last Baltimore Directory of Charities. The Directory may be obtained from the Charity Organization Society of Baltimore for fifty cents. The Library Catalogue of the London Charity Organization Society, now appearing in Charity Organization Review, will constitute a more complete bibliography.
List of Works Suggested by the Lecturer for Reference in connection with this Course.
(a) Bibliographical Helps:
Adams, H. B. Notes on the Literature of Charities. Johns Hopkins University Studies, fifth series, No. 8. 1887.
Commons, John R. Popular Bibliography of Sociology. The Christian Social Union, Madison, Wis. 1891.
Catalogue of the Library of the State Charities Aid Association. New York City. 1886. Directory of Charities of Baltimore, Appendix E. Charity Organization Society, Baltimore. 1892.
Catalogue of Library of the London Charity Organization Society. This is being printed in sections as a supplement to the Charity Organization Review, beginning with January, 1893. London.
(b) Periodicals:
The Charities Review. Published monthly from November to June. Charity Organization Society of New York City. $1.00.
Lend a Hand. Edited by Rev. E. E. Hale. Monthly. Boston. $2.00.
State Charities Record. Published bi-monthly. The State Charities Aid Association of New York. Discontinued, June, 1892.
Charity Organization Review. Published monthly. The Charity Organization Society of London. 6 d. each.
The Monthly Register. The Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity. 50 cts.
Die Arbeiter-Kolonie. Monthly. Gadderbaum, Germany. 50cts.
(c) European:
Nicholls, George. History of the Poor Laws. London. 4 vols. 1854-1857.
Chalmers, Thomas. Christian and Economic Polity of Large Towns. Glasgow, 1858.
Fowle, T. W. The Poor Law. London, 1881.
Fawcett, Henry. Pauperism; Its Causes and Remedies. London, 1871.
Hodder, Edwin. Life and Work of the Earl of Shaftesbury. London and New York, 1886.
Booth, Charles. Labor and Life of the People. 3 Vols. London. 1889, 1891, 1892.
Schönberg’s Handbuch der Politischen Oekonomie, third edition, article, “Armenwesen,” by E. Löning. Tübingen, 1891.
Conrad’s Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, articles, “Armenwesen,” by Dr. Aschrott and others; and “Arbeiter-Kolonien,” by J. Berthold. Jena, 1890
Emminghaus, A. Poor Relief in Different Parts of Europe. Translation. London, 1873.
Böhmert, Victor. Armenwesen in 77 Deutschon Städten. Dresden, 1886.
(d) American:
Annual Reports of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 19 vols. Boston.
Reports of State Boards of Charities.
Report on the Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes. Tenth Census of the United States. Vol. XXI.
Aschrott, P. F. Poverty and Its Relief in the United States of America. Translated for the Baltimore Charity Organization Society. Baltimore, 1890.
Gilman, D. C. Our Relations to Our Other Neighbors. Baltimore, 1891.
Warner. Dr. Amos G. Charities: The Relation of the State, the City, and the Individual to Modern Philanthropic Work. 12 pages. Supplement to Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies. Baltimore, 1889.
Riis, Jacob A. How the Other Half Lives. New York, 1889.
Crooker, Joseph H. Problems in American Society. Boston, 1889.
Ely, Richard T. Philanthropy. Reprinted by the Baltimore Charity Organization Society, 1887.
In studying pauperism, we study one branch of the science of social pathology; in studying charities and their administration we are concerned with one branch of social therapeutics. Pauperism is natural and inevitable only in the same sense that bodily disease is natural and inevitable. Both are evils to be treated by scientific methods and to be assailed in their causes. Parenthetically it may be said that the tendency to use the term social science or sociology as meaning simply what is here called social pathology and therapeutics is a pernicious one. There is no good name for the branch of social science which relates to the care of social weaklings.
In the present course little will be said about gratuitous charity-made pauperism. The evils resulting from unwise giving are to be mentioned only incidentally. It is desired to dwell on what needs doing rather than on what should not be done, to consider especially those great and various groups of individuals whose destitution is undoubted, and to outline the wisest methods of helping them.
Lecture No. 1.
PAUPERISM AS A PHASE OF NATURAL SELECTION.
(a) On Natural Selection in its Application to Man:
Huxley, Thomas H. The Struggle for Existence. The Nineteenth Century, Feb., 1888. On the Natural Inequalities of Men. Ibid, Jan., 1890.
Wallace, A. R. Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection. London, 1871.
Ritchie, D. G. Darwinism and Politics. London, 1889.
Bagehot, Walter. Physics and Politics, chapter on the “Uses of Conflict.” 1872.
Darwin, Charles. Origin of Species, 1859; and the Descent of Man, 1871.
Spencer, Herbert. Principles of Biology, 1864; and Principles of Sociology, 1874 et seq.
Malthus, Rev. Thomas Robert. The Principle of Population. London, 1798, 1803, etc., New York, 1890.
(b) On the Causes of Pauperism:
Booth, Charles. Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age, chapter VII, and the tables there cited. London and New York, 1892.
Böhmert, (see above) pp. 114-116.
Reports of the Charity Organization Societies of Boston, Buffalo, New York, Baltimore, etc.
Warner. A. G. Notes on the Statistical Determination of the Causes of Poverty. Publications of the Am. Statistical Association, New Series, Vol. I, No. 5. Boston, 1889.
Crooker. Problems in American Society. Boston, 1889, p. 146.
“The Unfit” is an ambiguous term (see Huxley and Ritchie). In a narrow sense it means simply unfitness to cope with circumstances at a given time and a given place; in a broader sense it means unfitness from the standpoint of race improvement and it is a common but mischievous error to assume that those who are unfit in one sense of the term are also unfit in the other. Natural selection as a means of race improvement is always efficient, but sometimes enormously slow and wasteful. A man would be unfit in the sense of failing to cope with circumstances who should not be able to resist an attack of small pox, or who finding himself thrown into deep water should be unable to swim. Vaccination and life preservers are used to prevent such persons from becoming victims of temporary misfortune or weakness; and this is a proper modification of natural selection, because the persons who are not by nature fitted to cope with the special circumstances of the time and place may be eminently fit from the standpoint of race improvement. The purpose of philanthropy should be first, to preserve those who are fit from the standpoint of race improvement from being crushed by unfortunate local or temporary conditions, and second to enable those who are unfit from the standpoint of race improvement to become extinct with the least possible suffering.
In trying to determine what constitutes the unfitness of the individuals composing the pauper class, a system of case counting is frequently resorted to. A tabular exhibit of the result reached by German, English and American investigators shows that the most constant factor is sickness; next in importance in chronic pauperism is weakness of old age, and in incipient pauperism, the weakness of extreme youth. An attempt to classify the cases of pauperism according as the causes indicate misfortune or indicate misconduct has for its leading result the conclusion that very little dependence can be placed upon such a classification. The study of a concrete mass of pauperism tends to confirm Dugdale’s conclusions that “Hereditary pauperism rests chiefly upon disease in some form, tends to terminate in extinction, and may be called the sociological aspect of physical degeneration.”
Lecture No. 2.
SOME OF THE SOCIAL CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL DEGENERATION.
Billings, John S. On Vital and Medical Statistics. Reprinted from The Medical Record. New York, 1889.
Eleventh Census, Bulletin 100.
Körösi. Joseph. Sterblichkeit der Stadt Buda-pest in den Jahren 1876-1881 und deren Ursachen, Mittheilungen über individual Mortalitäts-beobachtungen, and other works. Budapest, Hungary.
Reports of the New Jersey Bureau of Labor for 1889,1890 and 1891, chapters upon the “Health and Trade-Life of Workmen.”
Twiss, Travers. Tests of a Thriving Population. London, 1845.
Porter, Dwight. A Sanitary Inspection of Certain Tenement-House Districts of Boston. 1889.
Chapin, H. D. Preventable Causes of Poverty. The Forum. June, 1889.
Humphreys, Noel A. Class-Mortality Statistics. Journal of Royal Statistical Society. June, 1887.
Newsholme, Arthur. Elements of Vital Statistics. London, 1889.
Grimshaw, T. W. Reports as Registrar General of Ireland, 1885 et seq.
Influences which often tend to lower the industrial and social status of the individual that are commonly treated in works on economies, are the variations in the purchasing power of money, changes in industry, undue power of class over class, specialized industries, and the work of women and children. For present purposes we do not take up these topics which are treated elsewhere, but will content ourselves with certain statistical investigations as to occupational-mortality and morbidity.
By computations based on a table given by Körösi we find that out of 1000 merchants (Kaufleute) who are in the business at the age of 25 there will be alive at the age of 60, 587.7; of the same number of tailors, 420.6; of shoemakers, 376.2; of servants, 290.2; of day laborers, 253.4. The high mortality of the laboring classes carries with it an implication of a relative large amount of sickness. Taking an average of two years of sickness to each death—which is the proportion commonly assumed by statisticians— we find that merchants would have 32.5 years of health in which to provide for one year of sickness, tailors 21.3, shoemakers 18.7, servants 15.5, and day laborers only 13 years. This, however, does not indicate fully the burden imposed upon the lower classes by a high death rate. In order to give a more adequate idea of this burden we must turn to statistics of class-mortality and morbidity, since only here do we obtain a view of sickness and health in the population of all ages. Taking the population of Dublin, as statistically described by Dr. Grimshaw, it is found that among persons of the independent and professional classes there is an average of 24.5 years of health for persons over fifteen years of age in which provision may be made for one year of sickness in the whole population of the same class; while for the poorest class there are only 8.8 years of effective health in which to provide for one of sickness.
In the first lecture we reached the conclusion that disease is an important cause of poverty. We now reach the conclusion that poverty is an important cause of disease. Yet it is not without advantage that we travel all the way around this circle, and reach no general conclusion more novel than that already announced in Proverbs, “The destruction of the poor is their poverty.” It enables us to realize anew the interaction of social forces, and the manner in which that which they have is taken away from those which have not.
Lecture. 3.
PERSONAL CAUSES OF DEGENERATION.
Weismann, A. F. L. Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems. Translation, Oxford, 1889.
Ward, Lester F. The Transmission of Culture. The Forum, May 1891; and Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Lamarkism. Pamphlet. Washington, 1891.
Galton, Francis. Hereditary Genius. London, 1869.
Dugdale, R. L. The Jukes. New York, 1877, 1884.
McCulloch, O. C. The Tribe of Ishmael. Indianapolis, 1888.
Ely, R. T. Pauperism in the United States. North American Review, April, 1891.
Strahan, S. A. K. Marriage and Disease. New York, 1892.
Booth, Charles. Pauperism and Endowment of Old Age. 1892.
Drummond, Henry. Natural Law in the Spiritual World, chapters on Semi-Parasitism, and Parasitism. New York, 1887.
Tenth Annual Report of the New York State Board of Charities. 1877.
Royce, S. Deterioration and Race Education. New York, 1877.
As to heredity it must be said that it is now an open question among scientists whether or not acquired characteristics are transmitted by inheritance. If not, we are more in the dark as to the cause of variation in the human and other species than was for a time supposed; and much bearing on our present subject that has been written by Spencer, Maudsley, Bagehot and Dugdale is out of date. For instance, Mr. Dugdale’s tentative conclusion that “heredity itself is an organized result of invariable environment” would have to be given up. If Weismann’s contention is correct those interested in race-improvement will have to pay more attention than might otherwise have been thought necessary to the principles of selection. Galton has investigated the influence of heredity in producing unusually able men; Dugdale, McCulloch, Mrs. Lowell, and Charles Booth have investigated its influence in producing paupers, criminals and prostitutes.
Among secondary causes of degeneration pertaining to persons the following are of leading importance:
(1). Sexual licentiousness. All careful observers agree that perversion of sexual instincts is one of the chief causes of individual degeneration. It results in specific disease, general under-vitalization and incapacity. (2). Intemperance. Its degenerative influence is greatest in classes considerably above the pauper class (Booth, pp. 39-41). Its influence has not been studied with the scientific care it merits. (3). Laziness and under-vitalization merges into various forms of specific disease and into idiocy. It often appears in the children of the licentious and intemperate. (4). Parasitism, or the habit of dependence. Is at once an evidence and a source of degeneration. Is closely analogous to parasitism among plants and animals. (See Drummond, above). It may be indefinitely developed by unwise philanthropy.
We need not for the present inquire whether the secondary causes result from the influence of the individual’s “free choice,” from hereditary or from environment. There is said to be a tendency among defectives to intermarry, and so eventually to hasten extinction. (See Strahan).
Lecture No. 4.
THE ALMSHOUSE AND ITS INMATES.
(a) On Almshouses:
Booth, Charles. Pauperism and Endowment of Old Age, 1892, especially pp. 33 and 117.
Eleventh Census, Bulletin 90.
Report of a Conference on Charities held in Baltimore, April, 1887. Especially F. B. Sanborn on “Work in Almshouses,” and A. G. Warner on “The Charities of Baltimore.”
Reports of State Boards of Charities, especially New York, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Reports of the National Conferences of Charities and Correction. Especially papers by Messrs. Giles and Sanborn, 1884; Byers, 1886, and Mrs. Lowell, 1879.
Pamphlets issued by the Wisconsin State Board of Charities on the Construction and Management of Almshouses.
(b) On Out-Door Relief:
Reports of the National Conference, 1879, pp. 200 ff; 1881, pp. 144-154; symposium, 1891.
Farnam, H. W. Report on the Advisability of Establishing a Workhouse, etc. New Haven, 1887.
Lee, Joseph. A Study in Out-Door Relief. State Charities Record. April, 1892.
Report of Committee on Out-Door Alms of the Town of Hartford, Conn., 1891.
(c) On Old Age Pensions:
Booth. Pauperism. (See above).
Spender, J. A. The State and Pensions in Old Age. London, 1892.
Chamberlain, Joseph. Old Age Pensions. The National Review. Feb., 1892.
Loch, C. S. Old Age Pensions and Pauperism. London, 1892.
The almshouse is the fundamental institution in American poor relief. The abjectly destitute not otherwise provided for are sent here (inmates of almshouses in the United States 1890-73,015, ratio of population 1 to 857; 1880, inmates of almshouses, 66,203, ratio to population 1 to 758—Census Bulletin No. 90).
Formerly almost the entire care of the poor was left to the local political units. Under such circumstances all classes of dependents were jumbled together in the almshouse. Now, specialization is so far advanced that the state usually cares for the blind, the deaf and dumb, and in many cases for the insane and the feeble minded, and children are usually provided for by special agencies. This leaves for the almshouse at the present time the old, the infirm, the decrepit and chronic invalids and paupers. The stigma attaching to the acceptance of almshouse relief seems to come not so much from the fact that it is supported by the public as from the fact that a great majority of its inmates are thoroughly degenerate physically and morally. (See Hartford Report).
The almshouse is usually managed either by the county, city or township. Its character depends first upon the man employed as its superintendent, and second on the supervision. It is an institution that people willingly forget and reluctantly visit. It should be on a farm but near a town, so that visitors may easily reach it. Besides this, State supervision is indispensable and adequate control is desirable. (See Illinois Report, 1890—page 104).
To prevent excessive almshouse population the following deterrent influences have been used at various times and places: (a) Inhuman and-unallowable: dirt, hunger, cold, cruelty, vermin, and the promiscuous mingling of the evil and the good. (b) Beneficent: Rigid discipline, work for all capable of doing anything, cleanliness, and thorough investigation of applicants.
The evils to be guarded against other than those indicated above: (a) Lax rules regarding admission and departure (Booth and Mrs. Lowell); (b) Lack of proper classification (as to sex, age, character, etc.); (c) Presence of insane and feeble minded without adequate provision for them; (d) Presence of children; (e) Excessive cost; (f) Undue attractiveness.
Attempts have been made to provide in other ways for those commonly sent to the almshouse; the first of these is out-door relief. Strangely enough, the effect of giving such relief has usually been to increase the number of in-door poor, and conversely when the supply of out-door relief has summarily been cut off; the number of out-door poor has diminished, or remained stationary. Several proposals for the endowment of old age have recently been made in England. Canon Blackley, Joseph Chamberlain and Charles Booth have severally made proposals upon which a large number of variations have been suggested by others. It is not certain that pensions are a cure for pauperism, as our own experience indicates.
The almshouse must continue to be the basis of public poor relief. It is therefore the duty of those interested in the welfare of the poor to know that the almshouse in the community in which they live is well and humanely managed; that it is a proper place for those who ought to go there; and that those that should not, especially the children and certain classes of the insane, are elsewhere provided for.
Lecture No. 5.
THE SICK, THE INSANE, AND THE FEEBLE-MINDED.
(a) On Charities for the Sick:
Rentoul R. B. Reform of our Voluntary Medical Charities. Paris, 1891.
Reports of the National Conferences of Charities and Correction. Papers on Medical Charities: 1883, pp. 428 ff.; 1875, pp. 52 ff.; 1877, pp. 81-46; on Hospitals: 1890, pp. 155-177; 1891, pp. 52 ff.; on Training Schools for Nurses, 1890, pp. 110-147.
Hampton, Miss I. A. District Nursing. Report of the Charity Organization Society of Baltimore for 1891, and The Charities Review for February, 1892.
Hampton, Miss I. A. Nursing: Its Principles and Practice. Philadelphia, 1893.
Hunter, Mrs. Hospital Nursing. Eng. Illustrated Magazine for March, 1891.
(b) On the Care of the Insane:
Report of the National Conference. Especially 1882, p. 97, and 1888, pp. 25-95 and 384.
Finley, J. H. American Reform in the Care of the Insane. Review of Reviews, June, 1891.
Hammerton, C. R. Modern Treatment of the Insane. Chautauquan, Dec., 1891.
(c) On the Care of the Feeble-Minded
Reports on the National Conference: 1884, pp. 246-263; 1885, pp. 158-178; 1886, pp. 288-302; 1887, pp. 250-260; especially 1888, pp. 99-113 and 395; 1890, pp. 224 ff.
Institution Bulletin, and Annual Reports of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble Minded Children, especially the Circular of Information for 1888. West Chester, Pa.
In these three departments of charity work the problem is to provide the best possible curative treatment for those that are curable, and to furnish kind custodial care for the incurable. It is especially necessary that adult females incurably insane or feeble-minded should have custodial care during their entire lives.
Lecture No. 6.
THE UNEMPLOYED AND THE HOMELESS POOR
Reports of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor. 1879, and especially 1887.
Reports of the Ohio Bureau of Labor. 1890 and 1891.
Warner, A. G. Some Experiments on Behalf of the Unemployed. Reprinted from The Quarterly Journal of Economics for Oct., 1890. Boston.
Die Arbeiter-Kolonie. Monthly Magazine. Gadderbaum, Germany.
Peabody, F. G. German Labor Colonies. Forum, February, 1892.
Report of Indiana State Conference of Charities. 1891.
Willink, H. G. Dutch Home Labor Colonies. London, 1889.
Reports of the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity.
Booth, Wm. In Darkest England and the Way Out. London and New York,1890.
Huxley, Thos. H. Social Diseases and Worse Remedies. London, 1891.
Loch, C. 8., Bosanquet, B., and Dwyer, C. P. Criticisms on “General” Booth’s Scheme, London, 1891.
The Homeless Poor of London. Report of the London Charity Organization Society. June, 1891.
Ribton-Turner, C. J. History of Vagrants and Vagrancy. London, 1889.
The problem of the unemployed is very largely the problem of the inefficient. The evil must be assailed in its causes, as very little can be done for the inefficient adult.
There are three distinct ways of dealing with the homeless poor: First, aid them or force them to move on,—this simply results in a shifting of burdens; is very expensive and inefficient if it is the only method adopted. Second, punishment, — a severe law passed in Connecticut worked well for a time, but is now a dead letter. Third, give indiscriminately what they ask, — this promotes vagabondage and consequent misery. As a matter of fact each case must be treated individually, some should be aided to move on, some should be punished and some should be given what they ask. The station house system of free lodgings suits the tramp and degrades and repels the merely unfortunate. Vermin, bad air, dirt and crowding are luxuries to the tramp; cleanliness and work are the things he cannot stand. What is needed is a lodging house with clean beds, good ventilation, a shower bath, a steam chest or fumigating room for devitalizing clothing, and a wood yard or stone heap where the work test may be applied.
Lecture No. 7.
DEPENDENT CHILDREN.
Brace, Charles Loring. The Dangerous Classes of New York. New York, 1872.
Wines, E. C. State of Prisons and Child Saving Institutions in the Civilized World. Cambridge, Mass., 1880.
Review of Reviews for January, 1892. Including “The Child Problem in Cities,” by J. H. Finley, and “Two Champions of the Children” (Elbridge Gerry and Benjamin Waugh), by the editors.
Riis, Jacob A. Children of the Poor. New York, 1892.
Reports of the National Conference of Charities and Correction. Especially 1880, pp. 166-174; 1881, pp. 271-308; 1884, pp. 115-207 and 354 ff..; 1888, pp. 215-235 and 279 ff.; 1889, pp. 1-9.
The Charities Review for March,1898. Several articles concerning dependent children.
Reports of the Children’s Aid Society, New York.
The work for children is the most hopeful branch of charitable endeavor. Institutional care results in a very high death rate for infants, and among older children in a failure to develop properly and fully; there is a lack of preparation for ordinary life, the children acquire habits of dependence and lack inventiveness, vitality and energy. “Placing out,” if done with care, gives the child an opportunity for healthful development, and readily makes of him an independent member of the community. The placing out system is perhaps worse than the institutional system unless it. is administered with “an adequate supply of eternal vigilance.”
Lecture No. 8.
PHILANTHROPIC FINANCIERING.
Reports of the National Conference of Charities and Correction. 1888, paper by Seth Low on Municipal Charities; the reports on state boards of charities in every volume; 1889, paper by Mrs. Lowell.
First Report of the Superintendent of Charities of the District of Columbia, 1891.
Johnson, Alex. Some Incidentals of Quasi-Public Charity. Charities Review, Feb., 1892.
Hobhouse, Arthur. The Dead Hand. London, 1880.
Fitch, J. G. Endowments. Printed in the Proceedings of the College Association. Philadelphia, 1888.
English Blue Books. Returns of the Commissioners of Inquiry into Charities.
Passing with nothing more than mention the well-known distinctions between public and private charities, we find, under the head of to-day’s lecture, two subjects of pressing and practical importance. The first is that of endowments. The proper regulation of bequests to charitable institutions is of even more importance in this country than in England, because of the Dartmouth College decision, yet but little attention has been paid to it. We practically give a man who possesses wealth the power of controlling its disposition indefinitely. The experience of European countries admonishes us that this is a distinctly dangerous power to confer. All States should provide for the systematic “visitation” of endowed charities, and give to some public body the power to control their administration. Regulation of holdings in mortmain is more indispensable in institutions for giving material relief than in educational institutions. The latter deal with the intelligent and often with the influential classes, and must, at any rate, compete with one another for students. Institutions affording material relief deal especially with the defenceless classes, and the element of competition is absent.
The second subject of importance is that of public subsidies to private charities. To grant such subsidies is usually at first a cheap method of providing for certain classes of the poor, but eventually results in the multiplication of institutions, in excessive expense, and undesirable entanglements with sects and cliques. It is only allowable when some public official passes upon the indigency of the beneficiaries, and payment is then made to the private institution on the principle of specific payment for specific work. The experience of New York with charities for children, and of Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia with medical charities is especially instructive.
Lecture No. 9.
THE CHARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.
Reference should be made to the Directories of Charities of the leading cities, and especially to the Directory of the Charities of Boston; Directory of the Charities of New York; Directory of the Charities of Baltimore; and the Indianapolis “Charity Year Book.” For comparison see the “Charities Register and Digest” of London.
The charitable systems of cities are of especial importance because the inefficient and the destitute drift to the centres of population. We often hear of the growth of the city population through the coming to the city of farmer boys who make the successful business men of a succeeding generation, and it is maintained that the city must receive this infusion of new blood or it could not continue to exist. But there is another drift towards the cities of the incapable and the destitute. Those who must depend upon others are apt to fare hardly in the isolation of the rural districts. There is what has been called an element of rural hard-heartedness, which drives the destitute to the cities. Some four or five cities in the United States now have such a large number of charitable organizations at work within their limits that is found necessary to publish a directory of charities. In New York the additions and changes are so numerous that an annual edition of this is published. As an indication of what we are coming to, it is perhaps well to compare these small volumes with the Register and Digest of the London charities, a large octavo of nearly 1000 pages.
To study the table of contents of a directory of charities, or the systematic account of the institutions as given in the body of the book, might leave on the mind the false impression that there was something systematic about their arrangement and that they had come into existence according to a prearranged plan. Such is not the case; their various lines of work intersect and overlap each other, and one gets a more correct idea of the heterogeneous mass of charitable agencies by reading an alphabetical list of them.
Lecture No. 10.
RECENT EXPERIENCES IN THE ORGANIZATION OF CHARITIES.
(a) Charity Organization:
Gurtean, S. H. A Hand-book of Charity Organization. Buffalo, 1882.
Loch, C. S. Charity Organization. London, 1890.
Crooker, J. H. Problems in American Society, 1889, pp. 105-115.
Lowell, Josephine S. Public Relief and Private Charity. New York, 1884.
Reports of the National Conference of Charities and Correction since 1879.
Reports and publications of the American Charity Organization Societies, especially those of Boston, New York, Buffalo, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Haven, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati.
Hill, Miss Octavia. Various pamphlets and review articles.
Fields, Mrs. J. T. How to Help the Poor. Boston, 1884.
Pains, Robert Treat, Jr. Work of Volunteer Visitors. Boston, 1880.
Charities Register and Digest. Introduction, 3d edition. London, 1890.
Wines, F. H. The Law of Organic Life: Its Application in Public and Private Charity. An address delivered before the Charity Organization Society of Baltimore, Dec. 1891. Springfield, Ill., 1891.
(b) State Boards of Charities:
Reports of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, all volumes.
Reports of the boards of the several states.
Public charities are usually co-ordinated by a State board, and the larger cities also have municipal boards of supervision or control. State boards of charities are of two general kinds, first, those having executive power, such as Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Kansas. In these cases the members usually receive a salary. Secondly, boards having powers of supervision and report only, with an unsalaried membership and a salaried secretary who is an expert. The State board should have powers of visitation and report regarding county and city institutions as well as State institutions, and it is better when they can be given powers of visitation over all charitable institutions in the commonwealth, whether such institutions receive public money or not.
Supplementary to the work of the State boards are the State charities aid associations as found in New York and New Jersey. These are supported by private contributions and are made up of volunteer workers with possibly a paid Secretary. The law gives the right of visitation over all public charitable institutions. They are intended to supplement the work of investigation as performed by public officials, and to improve in every possible way the administration of public charities.
The work of co-ordinating all charitable agencies of the cities and towns so as to avoid the overlapping of relief, the perpetration of fraud, and to secure the greatest possible efficiency of the allied agencies, is the work of what is known as a charity organization society. A charity organization society is primarily an animated directory of all the charities of the city in which it exists. It undertakes to secure the harmonious co-operation of all the persons interested in aiding the poor, to see that prompt and fitting relief is found for all cases of genuine distress of whatever kind, so to visit and investigate each applicant for relief so as to secure accurate knowledge of his needs, to register by cases all relief given and all facts learned regarding applicants for relief, to apply correctional influence to all able and unwilling to work, to applicants the poor with friends other than almsgivers, and to undertake the collection and diffusion of knowledge upon all subjects connected with the administration of charity.
Conclusion.
Among the hopeful tendencies in modern philanthropic work, may be mentioned the emphasis that is being put upon preventive work, especially in the matter of securing more healthful conditions for the poor, the protection of the young, and the encouragement of charities having the educational element strongly developed. Not as much attention as could be wished has been paid to the matter of enabling the distinctly unfit to become painlessly extinct
In speaking to a company of graduate students, most of whom look forward to professorial careers, it is desirable to indicate the use of courses in social pathology. The matter will receive perhaps its first systematic treatment in the work of section 7, of the International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, which will be held in Chicago, next June. From the time that Chalmers delivered his lectures on political economy, and especially on pauperism at the University of Glasgow, and re-enforced them by the practical work of abolishing public out-door relief in his own parish, to the time of Toynbee, and to the present when fully a half-dozen American colleges or universities give systematic instruction in this branch, more or less has been done in this line. Aside from the practical outcome of such instruction and its influence on benevolent work, there is a distinct value in approaching the labor problem, for instance, from the standpoint of the incapable, or the subject of public administration from the point of departure of those institutions where abuses are most frequent.
The specialist must, however, be careful not to mistake his particular study for the whole subject. Social pathology is not social science but only a branch of it.
Source: Johns Hopkins University University Circulars. Vol. XII, No. 105 (May, 1893), pp. 73-77.
