Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/359

 THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 347

of devising a systematic and mutually complementary relief. Information about the indigent, as it is sought in the "charity organization societies," in the offices centraux des ceuvres de bien- faisance, in the Vereinen gegen Verarmung, and in the informa- tion bureaus, directs the indigent to the place where he can best find help, and leads to the discovery of those persons who misuse poor-relief and charity. Information about charitable institutions, as given in the digests and directories of great cities, show what measures are available, and how they can properly be made use of. Beyond this activity, exercised almost exclusively by private parties, the need, at any rate, makes itself felt for a definite deter- mination of the proper management and application of the means of poor-relief and charity. And here very different possibilities are open. The whole public poor-relief may be placed under one central board of control which is authorized permanently to supervise all the institutions and establishments that stand under it, to vote the estimates, to censure abuses, and to compel their redress by the authority of the law. The most stringent form of supervision is exercised by the Local Government Board in Eng- land, with the assistance of general inspectors, local inspectors, and auditors. All boards of poor-relief are required to furnish regular returns, which render possible general poverty statistics at once of scientific and practical utility. In France, so far as one can speak of a public system of poor-relief that is, as far as care for children, aliens, and the diseased is concerned the supervision lies with a special department of the minister of the interior the directeur de I 'assistance pubtique. He has as an advisory board the conseil superieur de I'assistance publique, which undertakes an exhaustive examination of all questions relat- ing to poverty and charity, and expresses its judgment upon them. In Belgium, a proposed law provides for a similar institution. In Italy, in accordance with a law wihch went into force a few weeks ago, a central government board the consiglio superiore di assistanza e beneficenza pubblica and besides for each separate province a provincial board of commissioners com- missione di assistenza e di beneficenza pubblica are created. The latter is authorized to exercise direct supervision over the local