Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-21
LAWS FOR PAUfERS.
Work Which Has Been Performed by
the State Poor Commission.
STARTLING DISCOVERIES MADE.
Some INDECENT People Put Out to Board to
the Lowest Bidders.
THE NORTHWEST YET TO BE VISITED

| next Monday, Dut IL mas Deen postponed
until September. Some of the members of
the commission desire to attend the Repub-
| lican State Convention next week, and
others find that business will claim their at
! tention at present. 1t was intended to hold
| only short session here, and then to visit
Armstrong, Butler, Mercer, Lawrence,
Venango, Crawford and Erie counties to
look into the operations of the poor laws
there. This tour of the western counties
will now be made in September.
This commission and the work it is doing
have not attracted much attention from the
citizens of the Commonwealth. Its mission
is one of much Importance, not to taxpayers
only, but to all the people. 1t was appointed
by Governor Beaver, under an act of May,
1889, TO prepare general poor law which
shall operate in all the counties of the Com
monwealth alike or nearly alike.
The members Of the commission are:
Hon. Lewis Pugh, President, of Scranton;
Hon. d. Watson Rowe, of Franklin county;
John Nevin Hill, Of Northumberland;
William Lawson, OF Philadelphia; William
n. Appel, of Lancaster; William Edward
Marsh, of Erie county, and Robert D. Nc
Gonnigle, OF Allegheny. Elliott Rodgers,
the young attorney OF this city, is secretary
of the commission. President Pugh was for
two terms a member of the General Assem-
bly, and afterward was delegate to the
Constitutional Convention of the Common
wealth. He is heavy manu- acturer in
Scranton and has for some years been
member of the Scranton Poor Board.
THE OTHER MEMBERS.
Judge Rowe was formerly on the bench in
franklin county and is an experienced law.
yer. Mr.. Hill is a lawyer in Supbury, and
has made the study of poor law speciality.
On that subject he is perhaps the best
posted man IN the State. Mr.. Lawson is
an ex-commissioner of Philadelphia county
and has practically dealt with paupers.
Mr.. Appel for some years has been the at
torney for the Lancaster Poor Board. Mr..
Marsh, an attorney, was formerly Mayor of
Cory. Mr.. McGonnigle is a specialist in
the study of poor laws. He was secretary
Of the Allegheny Poor Board from 1870 10
1881, organized the State Association of
Poor Directors, and since its organization
has been secretary of the association. The
commission is thus admirably com posed to
deal with the matter intrusted to it.
The commission will report to Governor
Beaver in November or December of this
year, and the Governor will transmit the
report to the General Assembly in January
1891. The commission has studied the poor
laws OF those States which have recent
general enactments, and has taken testimony
in several eastern counties where the laws are
old and incoDgruous, and where their oper-
ations produce the greatest hardships and |
inequalities of justice.
Pennsylvania had provincial poor law |
enacted In 1771, designed particularly for |
Philadelphia, but applicable to other coun-
ties. 1t was practically copy Of the law in |
England. In 1886 an act was prepared BY |
a State commission and was passed by the |
Legislature. 1t was intended to be a general |
law, but was narrow in its scope, and con-
tains many clauses which are so opposed to
ideas of this day that they have become
dead letters.
SOME OF THE ODDITIES.
One clause, for instance, provides that if
a stranger comes to live with any house.
holder, the latter must report his ar
rival to the overseers or supervisors
of the poor within certain time
or run the risk of being compelled to
support the newcomer should he become
sick or INDECENT. This is still the law. but
is obsolete. The law does not compel the
same system of treatment of paupers in
every county, and the result has been great
diversity of methods.
Eight counties in the Commonwealth
have each one single district or local poor
house; two counties have each two local
poor houses, Montour and Northumberland;
two have three each. Allegheny and Column
bia; two, Philadelphia and Susquehanna,
have four each, and one, Lackawanna, has
five poorhouses. Thirty-fve counties have
each one poorhouse for the entire county,
and the remaining II counties have no poor
houses at all. 1t is in these II coun-
ties where the commission finds the /
just methods of dealing with The
poor and sick. In each of these II counties
each township or borough is law unto
itself in poor matters. There is board of
three township p oyerseers of the poor, who |
levy the poor tax. deal with the paupers as
they see fit, and account for their expendl-
lures only to a township auditor, who is
sometimes in collusion with them in their
peculiar operations. There being no poor
house the paupers are boarded out to the
lowest bidder.
In Union, Monroe and Snyder counties
the commission carefully investigated the
treatment of the poor, and discovered some
peculiar things. In Union county it ap-
peared, from the testimony taken, that the
chief business OF the overseers is to prevent
a new man, unless he be clearly wealthy,
from gaining residence in township. II
a poor man moves into a township, even
though he be able bodied and industrious,
the overseers will notify him to depart, will
warn landlords not to rent to him on pain of
being made responsible for the man, and
will tell the assessor not to tax the man.
HOW TO BECOME RESIDENT.
Payment of taxes for two years will give
a man a residence. The overseers will do
every possible thing to drive the newcomer
out of their township. They do not care
where he goes, save that he must depart out
of their borders If he move into an adjoin-
ing township there also he will be harassed
In the same manner. In some OF these town.
ships able-bodied but lazy men who will
not work are supported in idleness. Some
OF the overseers, who were disposed to cling
to the system, admitted that it would he
better for such fellows if there were county
poorhouse. They could be sent there and
compelled to work. Still, the oyerseers said.
sit would cost more to have a poorbouse'
BEFORE the commission went to Monroe
county its members heard that paupers were
auctioned there. They could hardly believe
it, but their Investigations satisfied them
that the system might be not incorrectly
spoken of as an auction. A terrible state of |
affairs was discovered.
When person becomes pauper the
overseers Immediately look about to find
what family will board that pauper at the
lowest rate. They generally have many
offers, and the lowest bidder, without regard
to his character, gets the pauper and totes
him away. The taxpayers OF the township
all are anxious to have that unfortunate
pauper boarded at the cheapest possible