BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS 29 



bama, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, 

 Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, 

 Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, 

 Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. 



In all of the states and territories, except Idaho, Nevada, 

 and Oklahoma, part of the cost of private and ecclesiastical 

 institutions is defrayed from public funds. Frequently con- 

 tributions are made by the local community, or suljsidies are 

 voted by the legislatures. Both methods of subsidies involve 

 a recognition of the fundamental duty of the community to 

 provide institutional care for its sick and dependent members, 

 but also indicate, in a more or less pronounced manner, a 

 preference for a vicarious performance of this duty. 



In proportion to the aggregate cost of maintenance the 

 ecclesiastical institutions receive a larger share of public bounty 

 than the private; and in 10 states, namely, Alabama, Cali- 

 fornia, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, New York, 

 South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin, the former get the 

 larger part of the actual amount of subsidies. 



The differing policies in the states with reference to annual 

 payments out of public funds to private and to ecclesiastical 

 institutions do not conform generally to the extent of insti- 

 tutional operations, in the sense that dependence upon this 

 form of income is greatest where the pressure upon these 

 charities appears to be greatest. There are some notable 

 exceptions, for instance. New York, Maryland, Connecticut, 

 Indiana, and Pennsylvania. In each of these states the per- 

 centage of total cost of maintenance derived from pubhc funds 

 is from 19.2 upward. On the other hand, states like Massa- 

 chusetts, lUinois, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, 

 etc., each of which has an extensively developed system of 

 institutions, get only from 1.1 to 5.0 per cent of the cost of 

 maintenance from public treasuries. 



For the whole of the United States 26.7 per cent of the 

 aggregate cost of maintenance in 1903 was covered by income 

 from pay cases. Of the total amount received from this 

 source ($14,848,508) 3.5 per cent was reported from public 

 institutions, 51.7 per cent from private, and 44.8 per cent from 

 ecclesiastical institutions. In proportion to the cost of main- 



