Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-12
DISTRICT CHARITIES
Continued from Eleventh Page,

is almost wholly bad. and 1 have recon-
mended that as to one group of institutions
in the District of Columbia it be discon-
tinued.
BY private institution / mean one whose
board, of control is priv ate corporation
or association. whose officers and employees
are selected by and are only responsible to
such corporation. and vacancies among
the me mbership of which are filled by Sc
lection by the remaining members. that
1t Is both self-controlling and self-perpetu-
ating.
1 am not unmindful of the fact that an
attempt to divert from such private insti-
tutions the appropriations which they have
been accustomed to receive. and Ia apply
them TO the accomplishment of the same
work through public agencies. will be
ceedingly unpopular in certain quarters,
and will lead to serious contention. but 4
do not know of any reform ever having
been accomplished without contention,
neither do L understand that public Off
Ger required by law to advocate those
measures and those methods of support and
administration which his experience and
judgment lead him to believe to be right.
and necessary to the real welfare of the
community, in its relation to the charities
maintained by ii, should fail to do SO be-
cause his action will be unpopular and
may he hello to be erroneous. No man or
set of men is wise enough to select those
statements of truth which had better he
suppressed. If il can be shown that oh
jections to the subsidy system deGuced
from erroneous or ips efficient information
its friends will have little trouble in dis
posing of them: if not ii VIII be we'll to
consider what can he done with it.
Grounds of Contention.
1t has heretofore been defended mainly
upon the contention that it secures to the
government the advantage of Sratuitous
services Of a considerable number of per-
sons who give their efforts to the manage
nlent Of Institutions in which public de-
rendents arc cared for at less cost than
woul1 be encountered in public institutions.
in which all officers and employees receive
salaries, and that further, the government
is relieved of the heavy expense involved in
providing itself with lands buildings and
aEDurtanances for the accommodation of its
dependents.
Regarded as a matter of simple admins
trative detail for one year or for one insti
tuition. there is considerable plausibility III
such a statement. Regarded as a general
system operating through a period Of say.
twenty years. ii is utterly erroneous. with
out force anG contradicted by facts.
In every place where il has been tried ii
has been found that under the subsidy sys
tenn the number OF public dependents has
increased to such ar extent that, far from
being an economical plan it has proved the
most expensive. 1t has been 50 here.
Argument Against Subsidies.
1 assign as reasons for the abandonment
Columbia. 30 far it applies to the child
caring institutions the following:
First it imposes an ever-ncreasing public
burden, outstripping the increase of ex-
peHditures in all other departments and far
in advance of Increase in population and
need. The population of the District was,
by the cersNs of 1SS0, 111,62i, and 10y the
police census Of 1897, 21I,1Vo, an increase
of III per cent. In 1883 the gross amount
appropriated for the support of children in
private asylums was $1,000 For 1887 it
was. &6.t6D an increase of lc2 Der cent.
Not only SO, but there We're in operation in
1SSD public institutions for the care of
such children, while in 1897 there We're such
public agencies, and the appropriations
made for their support amounted 20 SsS. f,1.
for the support of dependent children
amounted to an increase of S5S,6m, or 355
per cent, in seventeen years.
Second 1t builds up the private institu-
tCnS ii the expense OF those owned and
controlled by the District. During thirteen
years. ending with 1892, there was spent
for extension and permanen mt improvements
of the property of private charitable insti-
tutiops in the District of Columbia Ssoo.Sls
of public funds; while during the same
5eriod there was spent fer the enlargement
O.: Improvement of like institutions owned
by the District only SSS,c31.
Causes Discrimination.
Third. 1t exhausts the resources of this
lCcanty IN the care Wnlte cnlllTen, leaE-
ing hundreds of the colored for whom no
provision is made, and who, from total
lack of salutary rome surroundings are
growing up in this community under cir
CLmstances which cannot fail to add them
to the pallper and criminal classes.
Fourth. 1t fosters the spirit of sentimen-
tally. which tends to devote itself eXclu-
sively to the hopeful, promising and pleas
ant, leaving without sufficient considera-
tion the idiotic, defective and crippled. for
whose care 1T is increasingly difficult to pro-
cure sufficient funds.
Fifth. 1t facilitates the abandonment of
children by their parents. The barriers
which operate to prevent the inordinate in
crease of children in institutions, either
public or private entirely cease to oper-
ate under a system of private control and
public support. The private institution op-
Grated at private expense is likely to set
about itself all necessary safeguards to
prevent its being oyercrowded
The way into the public institution is
through the courts or the approval of a
Public officer, either of which must know
and must record that admission is neces-
Sary for the protection and welfare Of the
child. But when { n institution public
to- support is regarded as a private charity;
when statements made in support of appli-
cation for admission of children do not
have to be verified; when persons making
such application do not nave to be iden-
titled; when the charity dispensed gives
the institution no legal hold upon the child
i.OT no TlSnl 10 10 comply with
a demand for its release. then the system
offers every inducement for parents to re-
Enquish their children to the care of the
institution at public expense.
Statistical Showing.
More than siXty-five per cent of the chill
dren who go into the private institutions
of the District of Columbia are received
at the request of parents or relatives, and
more than sixty per cent of those who go
out from them are restored to parents and
relatives What does this indicate but that
hundreds of parents accept this charity
vitht ut real necessity, thereby neglecting
their most sacred duties. that hundreds
OF children are being thrust back into the
very conditions from which it was deemed
an act of charity to take them.
Sixth. Its tendency is to deprive the chill
dren of one of their most sacred rights
the right to a happy, healthy, normal child
hood as members of somebody's family,
surrounded by the conditions and face 10
face with the struggles. of life they are
to be met If they are returned to- the
homes of depraved parents all the work
CT the institution Is lost and every dollar
spent on them is dollar wasted. If they
are passed up from me institution to an