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 180 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

trative commission, and the price per day is regulated in the same manner, the general council also giving its opinion. All estab- lishments where the assisted persons are kept are subject to the supervision of public inspectors. The minister of the interior designates the place of relief for persons who have no legal settle- ment. If the person assisted by a community has a settlement elsewhere, the amount forwarded is reimbursed by the place of settlement

TITLE IV. WAYS AND MEANS

The law lays the primary obligation of relief on the commune of residence. The resources of the communes are ( I ) the income of funds devoted to the purpose of the law; (2) contributions of the bureau de bienfaisance and of the hospice; (3) ordinary receipts; (4) subventions of the department and of the state. In certain conditions the department is required to furnish relief. 9 If the ordinary funds are insufficient, a special tax may be author- ized, or a subsidy may be paid by the state. The state bears the cost of relief of persons who have no legal settlement, and of general expenses of administration. The bureaux de bienfaisance, the hospices, and the hospitals are required to assist with any income from funds intrusted to them for the aged, infirm, or incurable. The communal hospices are required to receive with- out payment, so far as their resources extend, all aged, infirm, and incurable persons who have legal settlement in the same com- mune. The intercommunal and cantonal asylums are under a similar obligation. The intention is to utilize all resources so as to make the new burden as light as possible and avoid duplication of agencies and of expences. The state is required to contribute to the expenses of construction or rent of asylums. Plans for building must be approved in advance by the minister of the interior; that is to say, by the corps of experts in the bureau which supervises and directs public assistance.

TITLE V. JURISDICTION

Disputes in relation to matters of settlement are considered by the council of the prefecture of the department where the aged, infirm, or incurable person has his residence. In case of dis-

Law of August 10, 1871, Arts. 60, 61.