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have general supervision over the administration of the laws for the care of the dependent and delinquent classes.

Since 1650 the poor have been exempted from the poll tax, but since 1793 this exemption has been limited to one-tenth of the taxable polls. In 1823 the power to abate town taxes for those unable to pay was conferred upon the local officials, who had had, at least since 1784, power to abate a portion of the state tax. This latter power was withdrawn in 1866. At present there is no direct state tax whatever, and hence the loss of this power is unimportant.

Closely coupled with the early laws of settlement were those against vagrancy. An act of 1682 provided for the return by local authorities of vagrants found within their jurisdiction. In 1713 the county jails were constituted houses of correction, to which wanderers might be sentenced. In 1727 the erection of a colony workhouse was ordered. In 1750 the counties were directed to provide workhouses. In 1813 this power was granted to the towns and in 1821 it was withdrawn from the counties. In 1841 it was enacted that jails might be fitted for use as workhouses, while in 1878 every jail was required to become a workhouse. A year later it was enacted that vagrants from outside of Connecticut might be sent to prison. In spite of these experiments, the problem of the tramp is far from solution, probably from the operation of the following causes: the lack of true workhouses and of efficient legal machinery for dealing with the problem, the expense of securing convictions under the workhouse law, and the severity of the penalties.

Liberal provisions are now made for the sick. The first public hospital was chartered in 1826. In 1854 the state began its policy of assisting in the maintenance of hos

pitals, and a year later made its first appropriation for the erection and enlargement of such institutions.

The care of the insane has attracted much attention. The first law was passed in 1699, and authorized town officials to put out to service or otherwise provide for such sufferers, when they had no relatives to care for them. The workhouse act of 1727 permitted the commitment to the workhouse of the insane. In 1793 it was made the duty of the local officials to confine the dangerous insane, while those acquitted on a criminal charge on the ground of insanity were to be supported in jail. In 1822 and 1824 charters were granted for the first insane hospital, the Retreat for the Insane in Hartford. Beginning in 1842, the governor was given an annual appropriation to be used for the treatment of insane paupers. Since 1855 the state has assisted the towns in the care of their insane. In 1866 the assembly ordered the erection of the state insane hospital in Middletown and in 1903 provided for a second institution, in Norwich. Comprehensive laws for the commitment and discharge of inmates were first passed in 1869. The criminal insane have been cared for in various ways, chiefly at the prison or state hospital.

The state has never erected an institution for the care of the feeble-minded, but since 1860 has used the school at Lakeville started in 1859 by Dr. Knight. It is a private, state-aided school.

In 1820 selectmen were given the duty of making annual returns to the governor of the deaf, dumb, and blind persons in their towns. In 1837 the state began to educate in private institutions promising deaf and dumb persons, and the same method was used for the blind from 1838, in each case the expenditure being entrusted to the governor. Since 1893 the duty of caring for the blind has been in the hands of the state board of education for the

blind, which has used chiefly the Connecticut institute for the blind, started in 1893. It is empowered to secure education and training for blind persons in the state and also, under certain conditions, to make grants to start them in business.

Wounded and disabled soldiers have always been cared for by Connecticut. The first pension law was passed in 1676, to provide for those wounded in King Philip's War. The state pension law, for the relief of those disabled in the service of the state, dates from 1821. The present statutes include an act of 1869 for certain exemptions from taxation for veterans, an act of 1889 giving veterans preferment in public employment, and a statute of 1895 relieving such from peddlers' licenses. They provide, under the direction of the soldiers' hospital board, created in 1878, for the medical care of needy veterans, for their support in Fitch's home or, under certain conditions, in their own homes, for the relief of their families by town authorities, for their burial, and the suitable marking of their graves. An act of 1866 provided a bounty for needy soldiers' orphans, and from 1864 to 1875 there was maintained, with state aid, a home for these children.

The methods of caring for neglected and needy children have been greatly changed from time to time. In the colonial period all such were bound out as apprentices. This was first authorized in 1650. In 1813 the first orphan asylum was chartered, and by acts of 1850 and 1868 the town officials were empowered to indenture their needy children to charitable societies. The boys' school in Meriden, founded in 1851, and the girls' industrial school at Middletown, dating from 1868, while designed for the reform of incipient criminals, have been used for the care of neglected minors. Since 1883, each county has maintained, largely at state expense, a temporary home for the

care of children between four and eighteen, whose presence in almshouses has been made illegal. The purpose of the homes is to serve as places of refuge and distributing stations for children without suitable family care, but the children have not been placed in homes as rapidly as was expected. The state also uses a private home for incurables in Newington for those excluded from the county homes. While the laws of apprenticeship are practically dead, children are frequently given in adoption, this being first authorized in 1864. Early colonial laws aimed to secure a sufficient education for all children. When factories were started, the employers were required, by an act of 1813, to perform the duty of parents in this regard for all minors indentured to them. Since 1865 and 1869 the compulsory education and truancy laws have had the same purpose in view.

The whole growth of the Connecticut poor law has been in the direction of closer and more numerous differentiations, coupled with the increase of state activity, to secure necessary care for those requiring specialized treatment.

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

THE historical development of the poor law of Connecticut is interesting because the law is perhaps the best instance there is in the United States of the town system. Its excellencies and its defects grow out of the fact that the activity of state and county has been reduced to the minimum.

The experience of Connecticut seems to indicate that the town system is practicable for the care of the true pauper but inadequate for providing for special classes. The whole trend since 1837 has been in the direction of increased activity by the state, and in nearly every instance this has been done to secure specialized treatment.

The advantage of the town system is that it places the responsibility upon the local community, which knows more about the needs and character of individuals than can any central body. There is no elaborate and cumbersome administrative machinery to call for large sums of money and to be used on a large scale by state politicians. So long as towns pay the bills, there will be little extravagance, except in one particular to be noted presently. In fact, Connecticut experience indicates that there may be an improper reluctance to incur expense, though this is true less. often in connection with town relief proper than with institutional support at town expense.

On the other hand, town officials are not able to give adequate care to those who do not belong in almshouses.

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