REFORM OF PUBLIC CHARITY. 751 



to the Legislature were usually passed without amendment or 

 modification, and gross inequalities in disbursing public funds have 

 arisen, different institutions receiving different rates of payment 

 for the same class of work. 



In 1890 the city paid for the support of prisoners and paupers 

 in city institutions the sum of $1,949,100, and for paupers in pri- 

 vate institutions the sum of $1,845,872. In 1898 these figures 

 had increased to $2,334,456 for prisoners and public paupers, and 

 $3,131,580 for paupers in private institutions. Private charity, 

 so called, has prospered at the expense of the city until in some 

 cases it has become a matter of business for profit rather than re- 

 lief of the needy. The returns made by institutions receiving ap- 

 propriations in bulk from the city treasury show that many of them 

 are using the public funds for purposes not authorized by the Con- 

 stitution. The Constitution authorizes payments to be made for 

 " care, support, and maintenance." The reports of a large num- 

 ber of institutions show the money annually obtained from the 

 city carried forward wholly or in part as a surplus. Different uses 

 are made of this surplus, none of them, however, authorized by law 

 or warranted by a proper regard for the interests of the taxpayers. 

 In some cases this surplus is used to pay off mortgage indebtedness, 

 in others for permanent additions to buildings, or for increase of 

 investments and endowment. In one case the manager of an in- 

 stitution frankly explained a remarkable falling off in disburse- 

 ments (so great that its charitable activities were almost suspended) 

 by stating that it was proposed, by exercising great economy for 

 a number of years, to let the city's annual appropriations accumu- 

 late into a respectable building fund. The flagrant nature of this 

 abuse is so apparent that comment is unnecessary. 



Appropriations for dependent children have reached enormous 

 proportions. Out of a total of $3,249,623.81 appropriated for pri- 

 vate charities in 1899, no less than $2,216,773, or sixty-nine per 

 cent, is for the care and support of children. In no city in the 

 United States will the number of children supported at the public 

 expense compare, in proportion to the population, with the number 

 so cared for in the city of Xew York. This may be partly ac- 

 counted for by the extremes of poverty to be met with in the 

 metropolis, especially among the foreign-born population, where 

 the struggle for existence is so severe as to weaken the family ties; 

 partly by the rivalry and competition which have existed between 

 the several institutions devoted to this kind of work; partly by 

 reason of the fact that the rate paid by the city for the care of 

 these children is such as to enable the larger institutions, in all 

 probability, to make a small profit; but, to a considerable extent, 



