The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-05

At, least one great fund restricted by the dead hand" has been releas- ed for the twentieth century useful ness through the efforts of St. Louis social workers and an act of the city fathers A public trust fund of more than a million dollars, known as the MulIanphy Emigrasnt Relief Fund, practically inactive for forty years for want of beneficiaries. is now being applied to the aid of travellers and migrants.
 Established in 1851 by the will of Bryan MuHanphys former mayor of St. Louis, it consisted of one-third of his fortune, then amounting to lit7' tie over half million dollars. He placed the fund in the hands of the City of st. Louis as trustee. adminis- tered by a. board of thirteen members. appointed by the city council
 Homeseekers in ssPrairie Schooners.
 sMulIanphy's purpose was to fur nish substantial and permanent aid to the great streams Of homessekers passing through St. Louis on their way to the new lands of the West. So great was the need of aiding stranded pioneers that the will was written to apply to this group alone; poor @e1ni- grants and travellers coming to St Louis on their way bona fide to settle in the West;;''
 In the early years or the Iuno tnOuT sands were aided. St. Louis was then the western outpost of the railroads, and hundreds made it their outfitting point for the long journey on horse back, or by prairie-schooner, or by steamboat up the Missouri.
 DeveI6pnnent of the railroads and the rapid filling up of the West caus- ed the great stream to dwindIe- Few CT and fewer applied for relief. The funds, formerly overtaxed to meet the need, now were thrown back upon the board for investment.
 So thoroughly did the board ap- preciate that the funds day of use- fitness had passed, that as long as fifteen years ago it made application to the courts for the right to use the income for another charitable pur4 pose. The purpose selected in the ap- p1ication was the erection of a hos pltal for the indigent poor. The courts however, declined to permit this use l of the funds as not sufficiently related i to the interest of its founder. So the fund continued inactive; it's large in- come poured into real estate invest lnents and improvement of its tene- tment property- tenements, s which by the way, are among the models'' of st. Louis.
 The New Migration :.
 It was in 1913 that a group of cit7 1 izens, sitting as the Socia1 Service lCommittee Of the Civic League, ex- amined exhalsstively the possibilities of the fund. The, simple discovery was made that still there was a stream of iInpoverished homeseekers. nnigrating tthrough and to St. Louis; that in the I new migration from the Old World there was just as legitimate a field for use of the fund as in the days of the native-born frontiersmen. I So the committee drafted a memor- Hal to the board in charge, arguing their case on the ground that "the stream of settelers, prospectors and other travellers that came to St. Louis fifty years ago to seek their fortunes. no longer comes in prairie-schooners land their Fl Dorado is no longer a California goldfieId or 9 quarter sec tion in Kansas or Nebraska; but the ume is greater than ever St. Louis l receives every year not only between ISoOO and 10000 immigrants from the l lOId World, but thousands of young sI people from our own country coming
 into the big city to earn their liveli- I hood"
 Today, to be sure, the stream stop. Il in the city; the frontier has passed
 the land is taken. And it was this q Ichanged factor that offered tempor- q arily fl1e one obstacle to applying the
 fund to the new use; for in the Ian
 guage of the will. the beneficiarie. must be "on their way bona. fide tc
 settle in the West" But the discover was then made that the ordinances governing the board had always re quired it's officers to meet Fevery in coming train and steamboat in or der to reach all migrants and tra
 velers needing aid.
 Travellers Aid.
 This provision ha for years beer
 a dead letter because of the impos sibility that one or two secretarie
 could keep pace with the complexitie : of railroad transportation in a rapid1. s growing oity and the board neve 2 adapted it's practices to changed con c ditions. Also, of course, real -estat e operations were to expressing. :, Sosa plan was conceived to breath a new life into the old ordinances b: ], providing that the boards agent y should again hunt travellers lon thei
 way bona fide Ito settle in the West
 by meeting every train or steamboa : entering the city from north, south l. or east. An ordinance was drafted t f establish a Travellers Aid Bureau a
 Union Station, the chief point of en try with three agents at salaries no
 to exceed $1,8OO a year, at least on of whom should be on hand all tn
 time every day in the year.
 , Backed by the united social agen cfes of the city, the Municipal Assem- bly, has just passed the ordinanc creating such bureau. The thre