St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-01-12
SENSIBLE AIMS GIVING
DISCUSSED AT The CONFERENCE OF
CHARITIES AND c0RREc TIOT5.
pAUPERIsM AND POVERTY.

Number OF Able Papers Read
by Distinguished Workers i'm
the Cause
q The second days session of the state
| conference of corrections and charities
drew together large number of Of
| ficials and others interested in the work
| from all sections of the state. and the
proceedings proved highly interesting.
| The special topics for consideration
were the public care of the poor and
the management Of prisons, work
houses and iailS.
AT the opening of the meeting the
committee on rules reported set for
the government of the conference, and
| the committee on nom inations recon-
mended the selection of II. l.. Moore. of
| Minneapolis, as secretary, and u. u.
| Cowie, OF ST. Paul, for assistant sec
rotary. Both reports were adopted
DR.. L. G. Clark. OF Saltwater. chair
man of the committee on public care of
the poor, read an interesting paper on
that subject. He said that good would
come from the present general distress
if IL diminished indscrininate charity
and tended to organize. unified effort.
"lndiscrimnatc charity" he said,
"breeds but necessity for more. 1t
| should do no more than relieve pressing
necessity and aid to Individual effort"
| The speaker divided the poor into two
classes, the professional pauper and the
worthy poor. He inStanced cases where
the former prey on the charitable pub
lie and migrate from one town to an
other. For protection against such he
urged that compulsory law for the
| registration of pauperS is necessary.
! flts1 T1Vnrpfi |. ii TO
otfense for man to desert his family
and leave them charge upon the
| public.
One of the most thoughtful papers of
the session was read by Rev. J. IL.
Albert, chaplain of the Saltwater pen
| ltentiary. He spoke on How to Avoid
Pauperizing the Poor" and IN the
course of his address he said:
"There is distinction between pau
! perism and poverty. Pauperism is a
! matter of character. while poverty is
| simply one of property. Aid improp-
| erly and unwiSely applied turns poverty
into pauperiSm. How to aid the poor,
without sending them across the line
into pauperiSm, is the question which
we are to discuss"
The Importance of intelligent giving
was also dwelt upon. There should
be-" he said, "a concerted movement to
make railroads and corporations retain
their laborerS, of whom there is in these
times a general letting out. Only the
other day | noticed that several railroad
companies had just declared semi-an-
nual dividends Of 81 per cent. The
profits of the railroads would PROBABLY
he smaller if their employees would all
be retained. but there would be gain
in the service and in the character both
of the railroad owners and the employees.
Andrew Carnegie offered some time ago
to give one dollar for every other dollar
raised for relief work in Pittsburg, up
TO $1,000 day. If he and the other
Pittsburg iron men would open up their
works again and Send their employees
more practical" The great need of the
day, he thought. is less institutional
and more personal charity work.
+. A. Davis, Overseer of the poor at
Faribault, gave an interesting resume of
his experience with the town poor law
He said that seven towns in his county
last year raised not one cent for the care
of the poor. while the city Of Faribault
raised two-thrds Of all the fund used
for that purpose. The injustice Of the
present law is seen from the fact that
| these seven towns have within 800 PEG
pie of as large a population as Faribault
and willie expanding nothing for the
work left their poor to be cared for by
the towns that did raise such q fund.
Dr. McKinstry, of Red Wing, was to
have read paper upon County Physi-
clans and the Care Of the Sick Poor"
but he did not put in an appearance.
The last half of the morning session
was devoted to prisons, warehouses; and
lOck-upS. The subject was introduced
by Judge John w. Willis. of the RAM
sey county bench, who made brief
but able report as chairman of that
committee. Albert Garvn, chief of po-
| lice of st. Paul. read an interesting
paper on state prisons and reformatories
In his opinion all prisons should be re-
| formatorieS in character; advocated the
establishment of prisons for habitual
criminals; the application of the re-
formatory principle to ali others and
! system of prison education for all in
mates. Another thing which he heartily
| Endorsed was an insane asylum for
| cOnvicts and criminals.
John Fitzgerald, superintendent of
the st. Paul wOrkhouse, read one of the
most thoughtful and valuable papers
presented. He argued that the refor IN
atores and state prisons were recruited
| from the warehouses, and more care
| should be taken by the municipal
courts in their workhouse sentences.
Iii OplhlOIl, u0 Sdlu, LOO much
attention is given to the reformation of
the state prison bird and too little to
the moral conquest of the workhouse
! fiedgling. After years spent in the
| honest endeavor to reclaim the former,
with resulting failure, it becomes mani
fest that an effect is being operated
upon, when it is possible to remove the
cause. Would it not he more reason
able and profitable to begin the cure of
reformation when the criminal ailnent
is in its incipient stage rather than wait
until the disease reaches a chronic
state? The statement of the proposition
is the answer TO it.
1T is common occurrence for first
offenders to receive the same sentences
| as are melted out to confirmed law
breakers. Very often an unfortunate
| vagrant, against whom there is no SUBJ
| stantial charge save his poverty-which
| is to be commiserated rather than con-
| demned-iS sent to the workhouse for
| the same period as the acknoW lodged
| thief or Wife-beater. There should be
something done at once to remedy this
| lack of system under which prisoners
are committed to the workhouse.
The tenth annual report of the st.
Paul workhouse shows that during the
| year 1892 there were 1,733 prisoners sent
| to the WOrkhOuSe. OF these 1882 served
| their first terms. while the remaining
| 701 were 'repeaters,' that is, those who
had already various terms of imprison-
ment-as low as two and as high as
| forty-one. The sentences run all the
way from five days to one year. The
longest term mentioned in the report is
one of nine months, while 800 served
terms Of less than twenty days each.
'The great majority of these work
house prisoners, it will he seen, remain
SO short time under the control and
management of the authorities as it is
difficult 10 make any lasting impression
tor good upon them, such that might
enable them to become self-supporting
members of the community. The law
| absolutely makes no provision for the
reformation of such prisoners, and it is
| difficult to see how much benefit can be
| ACCOMPLISHED with the facilities at