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 126 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

appointees. Private institutions have no right to organize and go into business on the assumption that the state will support them, either by subsidies or by contracts, which are indirect subsidies." In Illinois subsidies are unconstitutional, but the law is evaded by a scheme of "contracts." "The effect of mixing the two methods is unfortunate in many ways : by the needless multiplication of institutions and the enlarged expenditure which it entails, by the conflict of authority to which it so often leads, by the lack of adequate and suitable super- vision in so many instances, and by the inducements thus held out to fraud in the reception and retention of persons as objects of charitable care who have no valid claim to such care, and who are frequently injured rather than benefited by it." This is a matter of supreme con- cern in all states where the mixed system has crept in. Those who are connected with contract charities have most powerful personal induce- ment to oppose measures looking to the emancipation of the state from such influence. Twenty-three years' work for a state board gives authority to this paper.

Mr. Clarence Snyder makes a strong plea for giving power of con- trol as well as of supervision to state boards, and appeals to Wisconsin experience. In the discussion which followed great diversity of opin- ion was, as usual, disclosed.

The papers read by university and college teachers are given a distinct place. The veteran reformer, Mr. Sanborn, has recently made merry with them in the Charities Review, chiefly for their nomenclature. Professor Brewer said to the practical people who compose the confer- ence : "You can help us now more than we can help you; but the day is coming when it will be the other way, when charitable and reformatory institutions will look to the universities for instruction in the laws and principles which govern their work, as confidently as the engineer, the mechanician, and the agriculturist do now." He makes a good point in showing what science has done for charity in the field of sanitation and the mastery of laws of heredity.

Professor Giddings offers a scientific classification of social mem- bers which is very suggestive, and his statement of the evolution of grades in ability is clear and strong. He does not, however, seem to state clearly the distinctive marks of the "defective" class.

Papers of great value on the insane, feeble-minded, neglected chil- dren, on immigration, nursing, medical charity, tramps, and soldier pensions are included in this volume. The Directory of State Insti-