ment of any money from any public treasury for the custody, care, or maintenance of any defectives, dependants, or delinquents in any private institution, or by any private corporation organized for that purpose. What the State does is best done when done by the State's own agents and appointees, who are directly subject to its orders, and liable to instant discharge if those orders are disobeyed. Private institutions have no right to organize and go into business on the assumption that the State will support them, either by subsidies or by contracts, which are indirect subsidies. The State abrogates some portion of its dignity and evades some portion of its responsibility whenever it fails to do all that its duty to the unfortunate and the erring demands. It cannot divide it with any other party whatever. If private charity undertakes a benevolent work, such charity should likewise be complete. It should assume the entire burden which it pretends to carry. The effect of mixing the two methods is unfortunate in many ways: by the needless multiplication of institutions and the enlarged expenditure which it entails, by the conflict of authority to which it so often leads, by the lack of adequate and suitable supervision in so many instances, and by the inducement thus held out to fraud in the reception and retention of persons as objects of charitable care who have no valid claim to such care, and who are frequently injured rather than benefited by it. The evidence that this is so may not be of such a character as to warrant a public scandal; and, if it were, the exposure of wrongs, perpetrated under the cloak of charity, is a thankless task, involving serious fighting, at some risk, with no personal honor to gain by victory. There is, therefore, too much reason to believe that more or less wrong in institutions thus subsidized escapes punishment altogether. Finally, as to this point, the combinations made upon the floors of the halls of legislation and in the greater seclusion of the committee-room or the hotel lobby, by the representatives of these institutions, are greedy and shameless, if not corrupt. The fourth element is humanity.

The word "humanity" does not fully express the thought that public charity, the gift of the entire people through their representatives in the legislature, a tax voted upon themselves for the benefit of the weaker members of the community, is the formal, official expression of the popular conviction that every civic corporation is in fact a brotherhood. Public charity, as we understand it, is impossible

where the brotherly feeling which underlies democratic institu is lacking, the feeling that the tax-payers are not wronged if which is voted away of the people's money is the lawful du those upon whom it is bestowed, a debt of love under the hi law of the golden rule. The social problem with which the w civilized world is now wrestling, in the hope to coax or comp solution, is how to reconcile economic and ethical law,-the cl of business and of humanity, the decalogue and the multiplica table. The public conscience is not sufficiently aroused and lightened to settle the wage question in a manner to avoid the sion and need for almsgiving in any form; but the millions pended annually, in so-called charity, from the public revenues the best proof that the popular heart is a heart of love and te sympathy.

They prove that the sentiment of equality before God (whic robbed of a portion of its dignity when translated into the ph equality before the law) and of solidarity of interest based racial unity (which in a higher form of expression means com divine sonship),- in other words, the idea of equality founde brotherhood, founded in sonship,- a religious idea, the nam which is not humanity, but love,- has been inwrought into political institutions; and herein we have the strongest pos guarantee of their perpetuity. A citizen can accept the loving of his brothers without humiliation. If given in the right spirit accepted in the same, he is not pauperized thereby. He rec nothing that would not be bestowed with equal freedom upon other citizen in his place, nothing that he would not be called to give if he were in the more favored position and circumsta This is the ideal of public charity. Every man who needs help the right to expect it, in the first instance, from those nearest to in blood, affection, or locality; but his ultimate appeal is to the w human race, and the State ordains that this resource shall neve him. Indeed, where it is certain that individuals cannot or will give what is really needed, or that, if they do, they will thereby poverish or otherwise injure themselves or their families, the anticipates the demand, and provides help without waiting to asked to do so. The government thus plants itself upon the pr ples of the Lord's Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount. State Boards embody and express this popular religious sens

humanitarian obligation; and it is their duty neither to betray it themselves nor to let it lapse into oblivion on the part of those whose business it is to give it practical effect.

The fifth element is intelligence.

Here we pass from the quasi-religious to the quasi-scientific aspect of charitable endeavor. Sound judgment rests primarily upon accurate information. The information required for the improvement of the methods adopted in charitable work, so as to secure a better result at less expenditure of time, money, and personal effort, is of two sorts, namely: knowledge, in the first place, of the local situation; and, second, knowledge of the methods in use elsewhere to meet similar conditions and of their comparative value. It cannot be acquired without labor. There is no excuse for ignorance of the number, condition, and needs of the dependants and delinquents within the jurisdiction of any State Board. The least that it can do is to know what is done in the State to relieve distress and restrain disorder, whether by the State, the churches, or by voluntary associations, and how far the demand for relief and depression is met. It may be more than met in some ways, and the power thus wasted lost for service in other directions. But the ability, efficiently, economically, and equitably, to administer the public charities of a State or of a municipality implies some degree of familiarity with the organization of charity in other towns, States, and countries. Such acquaintance is gained by reading, by travel, and by personal intercourse with those in charge of charitable and correctional institutions and associations. The first test of the thoroughness with which any State Board does its work is found in its library, its collection of documents, pamphlets, and books, and their arrangement; the second, in the record contained in its reports of visits to institutions outside of its own jurisdiction, the inspection of which is serviceable to teach what to avoid as well as what to imitate; the third, in the regularity and extent of the attendance of its members upon this and other similar assemblies of practical workers in the charitable and correctional field. But it is not enough to collect information: it is equally important to diffuse it,to impart it not merely to the governor and legislature, but to the general public, whose opinion controls these officials. A report on public charities should be sufficiently clear and complete in its statements, statistical and otherwise, to be intelligible to readers in other

States and even in foreign lands; and the records ought to possess a character of uniformity and continuity such as to prove that its author appreciates the fact that he is accumulating material for the future historian and really writing for posterity.

The sixth and last element which we shall name is that of integrity, not merely in the sense of common honesty, but in the etymological significance of the term,- completeness and homogeneity. The duty of a State Board, with reference to the collection and expenditure of public funds, is to see that money is not taken from the tax-payers upon false pretences, nor in amounts larger than is really necessary to accomplish the purpose in view in making a specific appropriation; that it is properly accounted for, and not stolen, either directly or indirectly; and that it is not wasted by the employment of useless supernumeraries, or the payment of extravagant salaries, or by extravagance and display in the buildings and appointments pertaining to a public institution. A thoroughly conscientious and upright Board of State Commissioners cannot do otherwise than frown upon nepotism and political favoritism in the appointment of institution officials and employees. It regards incompetency as the worst form of waste, a wrong to the beneficiaries of institutions as well as to the public treasury, and an absolute bar to the execution of the popular will in their creation and maintenance. But there is some degree of incompetence wherever there is inexperience. Hence it is opposed to political rotation in office in institutions, where the competency and integrity of the officials in charge are not questioned. It furthermore must be just in its appreciation of the relative claims of the various classes of the unfortunate, not favoring one institution at the expense of another, nor yielding to local pressure for large appropriations at one place and resisting it elsewhere. It stands for truth and righteousness in the administration of a sacred public trust. It looks upon the entire system of charities and correction as a unit, the balance between whose parts and functions must be preserved, at any cost: and it will not swerve to please anybody, however prominent or influential, from the line of inviolable duty.

This is the standard of efficiency by which a State Board must fuc This is the spirit which it should seek to communicate

of the entire organization of which it is the official stil it into the public and legislative conscience.

success or failure in this attempt is the measure of its utility. Without a high ideal, its practical usefulness is nil, or, worse than that, a minus quantity.

We have intimated, at the outset, that the ideal of the State Boards, who form the nucleus of this body, is also the ideal of the Conference. In concluding, we beg to submit a few thoughts bearing specifically upon this point. That ideal may be summed up in a single word, "disinterestedness." The Conference represents and embodies the altruistic, not the egoistic idea; and the suggestion of self-seeking in the action of any one of its component parts would be a jarring note in the harmony of its discussions. It can consistently take no position inconsistent, for instance, with the largest inclusion and mutual tolerance. It knows here no distinction of creeds, religious or political, of sects or of sex. It rejects no one on account of his preference for this or that form of charitable or correctional work. Every man and every woman who has the welfare of humanity at heart is free, upon this platform, to advocate any measure or express any conviction, whether in accord with the views of the majority or not, if it is germane to the question at issue.

We think that the sectional meetings ought not to be made so prominent or exacting as to interfere with the general work of the Conference or to act as a check upon the liberty of any member.

We think that the more simply we come together as a family, animated by a single spirit, that of love to each other and to mankind, and the less formal our organization, in the shape of a constitution and by-laws, the less friction there will be, and the greater influence for good we shall exert upon the world. Our religion is the religion of humanity. We must exemplify it in our mutual relations and in our treatment of each other, trusting chiefly for our unity and wise direction to the illuminating power of that divine sentiment. Finally, with regard to the intelligence which we desire to characterize all our proceedings, our assembling in this city, whose atmosphere is that of intellectual culture, and in this hall dedicated to learning, is in itself a guarantee that we desire to benefit by the counsel of scholars, and that we do not fear their criticism. an alliance can here be formed between the investigators of human need and pain, because that need is not satisfied, and the teachers of the youth who are in later life to grapple with these problems in a

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