Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/794

 778 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

perism. With public support cut off, except in cases of absolute necessity, the only alternative was self-support, and this benefited both the citizen and the state.

The administration of the new law has not been perfect. There have been abuses. Some overseers of the poor have not conformed to the law. Excessive amounts have been spent in some communities. In some counties the commissioners have not given the proper supervision, and some county attorneys have misinterpreted the law. Yet there has been an average annual decrease of 29,865 in the number who shared in the relief, and of $337,192.09 in the expenditures; and, according to the general testimony, the poor in the state have never been looked after so well as since this law went into effect.

The outlook for the future is promising. The trustees now in office have made an excellent record for the first year of their incumbency. Within thirty days after the close of the year, every report from every overseer was on file in the office of the Board of State Charities. The records indicate that many have made notable improvement.

Since it has been shown that the persons deprived of their weekly pittance from the trustee's office did not avail themselves of the opportunity offered of public support in the county poor asylums, the question will naturally be asked: What became of them? It is not known, positively. Probably some of them left the state. Yet it is not difficult to believe that the majority re- mained in their respective communities, since from one township after another comes the word that able-bodied men and women who have heretofore been supported almost wholly by the public are, either by their own efforts or by the help of relatives, sup- porting themselves. The country's prosperity in recent years has undoubtedly participated to some extent in the results achieved under the reform laws, but not nearly to the extent that some would suppose. No one who works among paupers fails soon to learn that "good times" do not greatly affect that class of people. Real pauper families, such as were being manufactured at an alarming rate in Indiana in former years, depend upon charity, be the times good or bad.