The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-25
CHARITIES AND CORRECTION
OPENING SESSION OF THE SIX DAYS'
 CONVENTION


 gates Welcomed by the Mayor and by
 President Dwight--A Brilliant Reception
 at Warner Hall-Names of the Two Hun.
 dred Delegates Who are Already Here
 About Two Hundred More to Arrive.
 The opening session of the six dayH'
 series of meetings of the National Con-
 ference of Charities and Corrections
 was held in United church last even-
 ing The feature of the meeting was 1 the opening address by the president of
 the organization, Robert Treat Paine.
 Besides being president of the national
 society Mir Paine Is also president of
 the Boston Organized Charities and is
 a grandson of the signer of the Declara-
 ton of Independence of that name. Dean Wayland of the Yale Law school
 presided at the meeting and a short l address of welcome In behalf of the city l was delivered by Mayor Hendrick, and President Dwight Of Yale welcomed the i delegates In behalf of the university.
 Dr. Phillips of the Church of the Re- deemer delivered the prayer MT. Paine | lllGh iGhu lliS PelPtly WlilSAA 10 9tboheitA- tially as follows:
 MT. Paine's theme was 1.-The Empire of Charity Established by the Revolu- | tion of This Century-Its New Allies Broader Functions, and Stupendous l Tasks"
 Among other things he said; How
 few years ago it was that the first chair of social science was set up at
 Yale or Harvard Now the colleges for
 men and women are strongly equipped l for this study. Is not the science of wealth, It's production or distribution, sinking into inferior rank the science of mans welfare and social progress? "Workingmen's loan associations ought to be extended widely. Every city, and, If not every town, at least every county, needs an adequate, hu- mane system of money lending in small sums, on safe security, to plain people at Just rates of interest, not as a char ity, but as a Christian business. This conference of charities should promote such a system, as a preventive of un- just oppression crushing victims into poverty and pauperlsm.
 In response to an inquiry addressed to some sixty persons, asking what re- suits had sprung from their applying for files of the report of the Work ingmen's Loan association of Boston, l learn of at least four similar corpora tlons-first, the excellent movement in New York, organized by Rev. David H. Greer D. D., the agency for lend ing on chattel mortgages; second, the Prevalent Loan society of New York, with a capital of $1O0000, lending on pledass; third, Providence has just started corporation, with small capital of S10,000 to be raised to $50,O0O; fourth, a movement has just begun also in Philadelphia.
 Strangely enough, the general laws of New York did not permit such loans. A general law has recently been passed in New York however, permitting the organization of these loan companies in counties of between 100000 and 600,00O population, and probably next year the law will be made operative through the whole state,
 There is need of securing proper leg islation where it does not already ex- ist, so that the movement may spread to create these agencies for loaning money to meet the needs of plain peo- pie.
 Is not Miss Dudley the head of the Dennison House College settlement in Boston, right when she asserts, as a result of her experience, that the work ing classes "cannot be helped funda- mentally or primarily by charity or philanthropy, but by cooperation with them in the directions which they them- selves think will aid them"
 Unemployment, first and chiefest source of many other woes, rises in our country a vast unwelcone spectre.
 Tramps offer a problem as yet un- solved, at least till we hear the results of Professor J. J. McCook's study and thought. Present evils are fragrant and admitted. I can think of no remedy but a reasonable stint of well devised l work, ready for their hand in every l city and town across the land so that | they may not be forced to steal or beg, and the charm of their free and easy | life may be somewhat abated.
 The wage question of poorly paid | male labor in large cities and espe- cially of working girls is also insoluble. | Can we wonder at their war cry: Jus | tice, not charity" when we know as | we'll as they do that $4 or $5 a week will not give a shop girl fit food, rai- ment and bed, and we as we'll as they observe health fading and virtue yield ing?
 Two other things l rank among un- solved problems, the liquor nuisance and foul homes. We know well enough what ought to be done; these nui- sances should be abted, but we do not yet know how to secure these results.
 The census of Boston's tenements, made by the state labor bureau two years ago, Is a masterly report in full and digested shape of the evils, their location, nature and extent; but after the report appeared Boston behaved ike Micawber and thanked God that that thing was done.
 Charity opens a five-cent night shel- -er In Boston which gathers a multi .ude of loafers, whom it trains to a degraded life of likeness, though just 'ound the corner stands the municipal Wayfarer lodge. with open doors, cleaner bed, better food and bath. But the stent of two hours of saving wood repels, while cheaper life attracts Gnd degrades.
 I wonder if New Haven has not the )est system in the United States for ifine discharpad prisoners to regain an |