Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-25

Appropriation for 1892. ............... 1223OO
Appropriation for 1888. 21I,9Io
Appropriation for 1894. ............... 2lI653
Appropriation for 1895. 5D9350
Appropriation for 1896. 2l6250
Total OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 81, 405,32O
The increase from year to year does not
represent in all cases augmented allow
ances for the same Objects but Is In part
accounted for by transfer from general
United States account to the joint account
of the United States and District, as, for
example, in the appropriation for 1888. the
change from the sundry civil act to the
District act of $4,000 for the Freedman's
Hospital. Considering. however, the gen.
eral charitable and correctional total as
round half million, the expenses OF the
District of Columbia for such purposes are
not excessive or out of proportion in ratio
as to population with those of other great
communities, American or foreign. where
similar service is rendered.
Institutional Groups and Purposes.
Indeed. there are few centers Of popu-
lation relatively better equipped than our
capital city or where fewer pressing wants
remain to be supplied The great govern
ment establishment for the insane at St.
Elizabeth's affords opportunity for care
of the mentally alienated at a cost to the
District of Columbia of 100000 a year,
the appropriations for the fiscal years end
Ing in 1895 and 1896 being, respectively,
dumb who receive instruction at the CO.
lumbia Institution at a District charge of
S10,J0O, while children Of feeble mind are
supported at the Pennsylvania Institute
and at an establishment in Virginia, near
Washington. The hospitals and public dis
pensaries receiving official appropriations
are ten in number. The asylums and
homes for children, including two found
ling asylums. are eleven. There are four
homes for the aged, separate or In COM
bination with other establishments, and
three for young women. There are four re-
form sc hools and two Industrial schools,
and a temporary home for Union veterans
awaiting settlement of their back pay or
claims. A model smallpox hospital is pro-
vided for, and during the present summer
will replace the makeshift establishment
in use for several recent years. The build
ing of proper isolated hospital for minor
infectious diseases has been retarded by
neighborhood opposition and a regrettable
confusion of law, which, however, will
soon be overcome. There are In all thirty
six institutions and benevolent organiZa-
tons for which Congress makes appro-
priations, by way of entire support or
partial aid, as compensation for the main
tenance of public charges.
1t would be very unjust to the people Of
the District Of Columbia to omit mention
of the important fact that there are an
equal number of benevolent establishments
doing vast good which receive no official
funds whatever and are maintained entire
ly by private charity. This list includes
such model establishments as the Home for
Incurables. the Home for the Aged of the
Little Sisters of the Poor and the Washing
ton City Protestant Orphan Asylum. A
bill for a home for inebriates, which mar
rowly failed of passage at the last session
of Congress, will probably be enacted. next
winter, as win also provision for separate
care for and preservation of colored girls
of hayward tendency, which the reform
school for girls, as now constituted, does
not adequately provide. I think 1t safe to
assert that when these and certain other
and minor provisions are made in the near
future Washington, to say the least, will
compare favorably with any American city
in the extent, variety, efficiency and econo-
my of public cost of its charitable and
correctional institutions and agencies.
Justice also calls for mention of the fact
that munifcent private donations have con-
tributed even more than public appropria-
ticns to the establishment of institutions,
and that among those receiving public aid
capita public cost for inmates is far below
the average, in fact, lower than in any
other American community.
The Race Problem In Washington.
OF organizations maintained entirely by
public cost, the most recently established
that are now in full operation are the board
of children's guardians. the reform school
for colored girls and the municipal lodging
house. Of the wards of the board of chill
dren's guardians a large majority are
colored. The National Colored Home cares
for Ill negro children. For aged colored
men and women there is official provision
in connection with the Washington Asylum,
the Freedmen's Hospital and the National
Colored Home, while unofficial but suitable
and generous care is given by the Little
Sisters of the Poor. The boys reform
school receives colored well as white
children for industrial and literary educa-
ton, and the wild and Maynard. as well
as those sentenced by courts. The reform
school for girls is entirely devoted to the
African race, and. when enlarged, will be a
very important factor in the branch of cor
regional system caring for negroes. At the
Freedmen's Hospital the majority of the in
mates, about three-fifths, are colored, and
a very nearly similar proportion obtains in
the Washington Asylum, the strictly pub
lie institution of the District, which COM
bipeS almShouSe, workhouSe and hospital.
Columbia Hospital for Women, an institu-
ton to which the government contributes
annually $4,000 for maintenance, besides
sums needed for construction and enlarge
ment, and which need not fear comparison
with any of it's class, has colored patients
outnumbering the white. 1t has an admir-
able training school, also has the Freed
mems Hospital, the latter utilized entirely
for colored nurses, who have shown al
ready, during the first year of systematic
work in advanced instruction, signal ability
and adaptability for their profession. There
are now In washington flVe Well-equ1pped
training schools for nurses, in connection
with the hospitals including the National
Homeopathic Hospital all of which have
been developed during the past five years.
At one of the founding asylums, st. AIMS,
cclored children are cared for, as well as
white children. On the whole, with the ex-
ception above noted, as to colored girls
wayward but not committed as fallen wo-
men, the provision for the care of sick or
dependent negroes is in due proportion to
their share of the population of the Dis
trict There is pending in Congress a meas
ure for the establishment Of a United
States Home for Aged Negroes from all
parts of the country, to be established and
maintained by the funds now idle in the
treasury, arising from the Accommodations of
Ut claimed bounty and pay of colored SOL