New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-16
TIRE CHARITIES DEPARTMENT.

If Mr.. Mcclellan hopes, as he has promised
to keep the city administration up TO the stand
ard set by Mayor Low, he will need to exercise
extreme care nowhere more than in the Charl-
ties Department. That is one OF the places
where lax administration may be counted on
first TO show itself, and where abuses can be
practised longest without attracting public at
tention. Most of the work is done out of sight
and it is concerned with poor people who have
few friends TO watch over their care or TO take
an interest in any complaints they may make.
Moreover, 1t deals largely with people who are
ignorant of what is necessary for their own vel
fare or the safety of the community. So care
less officials find it easy to neglect buildings
and proper sanitary precautions. The poor
house of tradition must have acquired its char
acter from something inherent in the nature of
public charity These institutions existed among
people who certainly intended that their de
pendents should be justly and kindly treated
and who thought they had taken adequate
means TO that end. let they were almost in
variably the scene Of abuses, and undoubtedly
extreme care is necessary in every institution
of the kind TO keep men up to their work when
dealing with matters which personally touch
only the uninhuential.
The new administration has n high standard
set for IL. The Improvement made in the last
two years has been enormous. When Mayor
Low at the beginning of his term selected for
Charities Commissioner the secretary Of the
State Charities Aid Association, an Organiza-
ton devoted largely TO criticism and human-
tartan suggestion concerning public charities
there was some misgivlng, in which The Tribune
shared. It is only fair 10 say that Com
missioner Folks has more than shown that
such apprehension was unnecessary. His bust
To-
proved 10 he strong as his Humanitarian i'm
pulse. While he has largely promoted the com
fort and welfare of the cfty's dependents, he
has extirpated abuses of administration, i'm
proved the plant under his care along practical
lines and has effected decided economies His
work has also benefited the community outside
Of his department. He has cooperated cordial
~ with the Health Department TO secure the
proper care Of the consumptive poor, thereby
diminishing the menace of the white plague
TO the whole city.
When Dir. Folks took office he found the de-
partment buildings dilapidated, some of them
beyond the possibility Of repair. Without any
extravagant expenditures he has adapted some
buildings to the proper care OF inmates and
built new ones where absolutely necessary
The old system which left male patients in the
hands OF generally the lowest class of male
nurses has been reorganlzed, and ia all but
few wards, where men are needed, competent
women nurses are everywhere employed. Old
loose, unsanitary floors have been made tight
and vanished TO secure cleanliness; chairs in
stead Of backless stools for cOnvalescents in
the hospitals have been provided adequate
fire escapes have been constructed. Brooms
and brushes for all the hospitals are now made
by the blind at the Almshouse, giving them
needed occupation and saving the city money
The Staten Island farm has been made TO pay
handsomely by dependents able and glad to
work, while the helpless formerly there have
been put in institutions where they can be
properly treated. An incident showing what
conscience and intelligence mean in such a de-
partment occurred at the children's hospital ON
Randalls Island. Mr.. Folks found the bacteria
In milk furnished by the hospital TO sick babies
more numerous than in the ordinary milk TO be
bought In the city. Now, through the slaughter
of diseased cows and the proper care OF the
herd, the milk has been brought up TO good
quality and the mortality reduced All through
the department abuses have been corrected and
discipline enforced and the Improvement has
gone hand in hand with saving In the one
item OF beef $4,000 year has been saved bv
merely redrafting contracts and having them
conformed 10, and S21 900 year has been
saved because the Commissioner had the enter.
prise to secure from the United States Treas-
ury Department tax free alcohol for the city
institutions.
Whether the people Of New-York appreciate
service of this kind, or really care 10 have 1t
continued. sometimes seems doubtful. They ap-