APPLETONS' 



POPULAE SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1899. 



PUBLIC CHAEITY A^D PRIVATE YIGILA:N^CE. 



By FEANKLIN H. GIDDINGS, Ph. D., 

 peofe8sob of sociology in oohuibia university. 



THE Comptroller of the City of Xew York deserves the thanks 

 of all good citizens for his serious indictment of the abuses of 

 public charity that have grown up in this city and State within the 

 past ten years. Probably very few of the more intelligent men and 

 women of the community were aware that three million dollars, 

 raised by taxation, are annually appropriated to the assistance of pri- 

 vate charitable institutions, over which the public has no real con- 

 trol and only the most shadowy authority through the inspection of 

 the State Board of Charities. Of those who were informed of this 

 fact, very few indeed were acquainted with the specific abuses 

 which the comptroller's article exposes. To a few individuals, how- 

 ever, who have devoted time and money unselfishly to the defense of 

 public interests and to the exposure of the evils of irresponsible 

 relief, these facts have long been familiar. Such can not fail to 

 take satisfaction in the clear presentation of the case by Mr. Coler. 

 Especially to the men and women who have been connected with the 

 M'ork of the State Charities Aid Association and the Charity Organi- 

 zation Society will Mr. Coler's article be welcome, as a strong re- 

 enforcement of arguments which they for years have been present- 

 ing to the people of ISTew York, oftentimes, it has seemed, to but 

 unwilling hearers. 



It is therefore in no spirit o^ fundamental disagreement, but 

 rather in the desire to further "the reform which the comptroller 

 demands, that I venture to criticise in two particulars the statement 

 as he has left it. 



VOL. LV. — 32 



