BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 



BY JOHN KOREN. 



[John Koren, statistician ; born Decorah, la., March 3, 1861; graduate Luther college 

 and Concordia seminary; special expert for the United States department of labor; 

 investigated the Gothenburg system of liquor selling ; expert for committee of 50 to 

 investigate the liquor problem, 1894-9, and since then has been in state and 

 national service. Author: Economic Aspect of the Liquor Problem, and other 

 books, and of many articles in American and foreign reviews.] 



Of the 4,207 benevolent institutions in the United States 

 485 are designated as pubHc. The state of Ohio possesses the 

 largest number of public institutions, followed by New York, 

 Indiana, and Pennsylvania, in the order named. The prepon- 

 derance of such establishments in Ohio and Indiana is due to 

 the system of county homes for indigent children. The scar- 

 city of institutions maintained at public cost in many com- 

 munities points, among other things, to the fact that the care 

 of the sick is largely a private enterprise, the communities 

 contributing their share through subsidies to private institu- 

 tions. 



Under private control are 2,359, or 56.1 per cent of the 

 total, while 1,363, or 32.4 per cent, are managed, if not ex- 

 clusively supported, by religious denominations, orders, or 

 groups of churches. A more detailed inquiry would probably 

 reveal a larger percentage of institutions owing their inception 

 and maintenance to church bodies. The activity of the 

 churches in charitable work of the kind under consideration 

 is particularly notable in some of the newer communities. 

 Thus in Idaho, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington about one 

 half of all the benevolent institutions are denominational in 

 the sense that they have been organized and are maintained 

 by the churches. In the southern states, on the other hand, 

 with the exception of Louisiana, the proportion of institutions 

 under church management is comparatively insignificant. 



The total population of benevolent institutions on Janu- 

 ary 1, 1904, was 283,809. During the ensuing twelve months 

 2,040,372 persons were admitted, and on the last day of 1904 

 there remained 284,362 inmates. Owing to the impossibility 



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