Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/199

 PAUPERISM 189 latter sum, $100,000 was an extraordinary ex- pense for the smallpox cases of 1872-'3. Of the 17,000 poor constantly on the register, not less than 2,000 were insane. The cost of the indoor poor was about $900,000, and of the outdoor or partially supported poor about $550,000, including in both cases the cost of supervision. The indoor poor of the state of New York cost in 1874 about $3,250,000, and the outdoor poor about $1,000,000. The in- door poor of Pennsylvania cost in 1874 about $1,170,000, and the outdoor poor $330,000. Of the indoor poor, who averaged nearly 10,- 000, about 3,100 were pauper lunatics; the outdoor poor seem to have averaged something more than 12,000, among whom were a few insane. The city of Philadelphia, with a pop- ulation of more than 700,000, expended but about $120,000 for outdoor relief, and less than $500,000 for its poor of all classes. The pau- per expenditure of the city of New York is difficult to ascertain and classify, but including the expenses of the emigrant commissioners, it must have exceeded $1,500,000 in 1874, of which less than $250,000 was for outdoor re- lief. The city board of charities expended in outdoor relief less than $150,000, yet the nom- inal number of its outdoor sick during 1874 was 83,309, who were attended by 30 physi- cians. The number of indoor sick cared for by this board in the same year was 14,987, of whom only 4,160 were residents of New York. The average cost of the indoor patients per week was $2 23, of the outdoor patients 27 cents. The whole outlay by this board for pa- tients of both classes was $206,930. Outdoor relief in the city of New Haven, Conn., cost $1,000 a week during the winter of 1874-'5, while the whole cost of both indoor and out- door relief at Worcester, Mass., in the same winter, was less than $400> a week, the popu- lation of the two cities being about the same. In the state of Rhode Island the cost of sup- porting about 900 indoor poor in 1874 was $105,000, about half of them being in 28 town almshouses, and the rest in state establish- ments; the cost of outdoor relief is not re- ported, but in 1873 it exceeded $42,000; so that the whole pauper expenditure of Rhode Island may be estimated at $150,000 in a pop- ulation of 230,000. In all New England, with a population of something more than 3,500,- 000 in 1874, the pauper expenditure was prob- ably less than $3,000,000, while the average number of the poor may have been 30,000. The indoor poor, including the pauper insane, averaged about half this number, or 15,000. The number of town, city, and county alms- houses in New England is nearly 600, and there are two state almshouses, in Massachu- setts and Bhode Island. In the state of New York there are 56 county poorhouses and six city almshouses; in Pennsylvania, 58 county and district almshouses ; in Michigan, 45 coun- ty poorhouses, with an average population in 1874 of 1,642. The outdoor poor of Michi- fan numbered 25,862, and their cost was 183,339 ; the cost of the indoor poor was $266,832, including $89,258 paid for the indi- gent insane (about 370 in number) ; the whole cost of the poor in Michigan was about $460,- 000, for an apparent average number of 4,500. The whole pauper expenditure in the United States for 1874 may be estimated at $15,000,- 000, and the average number of the poor re- lieved at 225,000. Outside of New England the indoor poor are generally maintained in county almshouses, or in lunatic asylums and orphan homes ; but less than half the states have a regular system of providing for their poor and obtaining a report of their condition, their management being generally left to the local authorities. In eight states, however (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin), there are boards of public charity which supervise and report the expen- diture for the relief of the poor, and concert measures for the repression and prevention of pauperism. In the city of New York there is a similar board. At conferences of these boards, called by the American social science association, in New York (May, 1874) and De- troit (May, 1875), measures were taken to re- port more accurately the circumstances of pau- perism in the United States. Comparing the administration of relief to the poor as it ex- ists in this country with what is practised in Europe, we perceive here the same tendency to centralization so prevalent in Great Britain and on the continent. The boards of public charity in the city and state of New York, in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, and other states, are in fact poor-law boards with somewhat of the power and functions ex- ercised by the English poor-law board. Much yet remains to be done in this direction, how- ever. The great present need is to effect a practical cooperation between the managers of official and of private charity. In New York, in Boston, and doubtless in many other cities, there are bureaus of charity which undertake to connect the official with the private distri- bution of alms, so that all the indigent may be judiciously aided. These arrangements are recent and tentative, but they succeed better year by year. That which our economists praise as the most deserving of imitation was adopted at Elberfeld in Westphalia; it embraces a careful system of house-to-house visitation among the city poor, who are then aided with the public money or by private contributions under official management. This system has also been partially adopted in Geneva, Switz- erland. Could our American cities put in practice the same perfect system of registration and visitation before distributing public or pri- vate alms, the cost of relieving and preventing pauperism would be greatly reduced, and the truly needy would be sure of assistance. See Codex Thedosianus, ix., xi., 15-16 ; Sir Matthew Hale, " Discourse touching Provision for the