The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-16
TAKING CARE OF TEN
 THOUSAND OF NEW YORK'S POOR
How Red Tape Compcate the Commissioner Unable to Use Funds to Meet Special Needs They AriseSys
 tematic Provision for the Future Needed.
By ROBERT W. HEBBARD

Ex-Commissioner of Charities, New To TX City, Secretary State Board of Chari-
 ties, New York-(Exclusive Ser vice The Survey Press Bureau)
 The care of 10000 poor persons daily by the department of public charities in the city of New York Is task of stupendous magnitude, calling for the annual expen- allure of nearly ss,OOo.0OO for running ex- penses. and a;5oo,0oO for permanent inn provements. the employment of over 22O0 officers and employees, and the adminis- tration of upward of 20 important insti- tutions and offices scattered throughout the city
 In order to care for this large number of patients and inmates in hospitals, homes for the aged and for children. as well as in the municipal lodging house. It Is necessary to have well equipped bu- reaus for purchasing supplies, making contracts in accordance with which the supplies must be purchased, auditing ac- counts, as well as efficient engineering and mechanical bureaus to see that the plant is kept running and in good order For the transportation of patients and supplies not less than five steamboats large and small, are in daily service, While sixth is used exclusively for the transportation of bodies of the dead from the morgue and other points to the burial place at Harts Island
 The institutions under the charge of the department are five large hospitals, With capacities ranging from 500 to 1500, including tuberculosis nfirmary with a census exceeding 800, two emergency hos pitfalls. three homes for the aged, one of which has a capacity of nearly 5000, and tAi nal 1AI< care Tor nearly thousand homeless men and women daily. Each hospital has its own stan of visiting and house physi- clans, and the four larger ones have well equipped and fefficient training schools Tor nurses connected with them. There are, in addition, six departmental offices, including the bureau of dependent adults and the cbildrens bureau in Manhattan the bureau of dependent adults in the Borough of Richmond. as well as three pupiic morgues, two in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. To investigate the cases Of applicants for assistance, large force of clerks and examiners is required at the various offices of the de- psrtment and are kept continuously at work throughout the year.
 The appropriations for the support of the institutions are obtained through ac- ton by the board of estimate and appor- tionment and the board of aldermen, the estimates for which must be submitted nearly six months in advance of the first Of the year during which the moneys are to be used. and nearly IS months in advance of the end of the fiscal year for which they are appropriated, which makes it impossible to submit an abso- lutely correct estimate. The budget ap- propriations, particularly in the important matters of supplies, salaries and wages, are always very much less than the esti- mate, and, in recent years, have been segregated In such a way as to produce a seeming maximum of entangiing red tape requirements so often destructive of real progress in administration. For thls req son the head of the department may find himself with large increase in the cen sus of the institutions, but hampered in such way by the budgetary rules that he Is unable to use accrued balances to provide nurses and attendants to care for such increased census of patients and in- mates
 To obtain means for this purpose it is necessary to secure the issue of spe- cial revenue bonds through the Board of Aldermen and the board of estimate and apportionment, which ordinarily takes at least tsix weeks to accomplish and in the meantime the employees, if hired at all, must be paid on vouchers from
 
 quent delay
 During the course of the past year a woman dying from leprosy in its last terrible stages was brought to the depart ment of public charities. It was neces- sary to employ two attendants for her care, one by night and one by day. The department was without means in Its salaries and wages appropriation to ex- tend its force of attendants, and it was with great difficulty that women could be secured and paid for this emergency service.
 An administrator charged with the re- sponsibility of the care of 10000 people daily should not be required to give so much of his time and thought to un- winding of red tape of this nature, but should be supplied with the means to do the work properly and held responsi- ble for his expenditures.
 The proper care of 10000 people daily has long been greatly hampered in the department of public charities in the city of New York by important defects in the machinery of the department One is caused by the inadequate facilities pro- vided at the hospitals and institutions of the department whereby during a large part of the year there Is a great over crowding of the wards of such instltu- tons.
 Adequate and systematic provision has never been made to extend the facilities of the institutions to meet the press Ing needs of the city. New York Is grow ing at the rate of more than 100000 in population annually, and. If but one hsp of per csnt of this number calls