688 Presidential Addresses 



tigation of the charities and reformatory institutions 

 in the District of Columbia, by a joint select com- 

 mittee of the two Houses which made its report in 

 March, 1898, created in the act approved June 6, 

 1900, a board of charities for the District of Co- 

 lumbia, to consist of five residents of the District, 

 appointed by the President of the United States, 

 by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 

 each for a term of three years, to serve without com- 

 pensation. President McKinley appointed five men 

 who had been active and prominent in the public 

 charities of Washington, all of whom 1 upon taking 

 office July i, 1900, resigned from the different chari- 

 ties with which they had been connected. The mem- 

 bers of the board have been reappointed in successive 

 years. The board serves under the Commissioners 

 of the District of Columbia. The board gave its first 

 year to a careful and impartial study of the special 

 problems before it, and has continued that study 

 every year in the light of the best practice in public 

 charities elsewhere. Its recommendations in its an- 

 nual reports to the Congress through the Commis- 

 sions of the District of Columbia "for the economical 

 and efficient administration of the charities and re- 

 formatories of the District of Columbia," as re- 

 quired by the act creating it, have been based upon 

 the principles commended by the joint select com- 

 mittee of the Congress in its report of March, 1898, 

 and approved by the best administrators of public 

 charities, and make for the desired systematization 

 and improvement of the affairs under its supervision. 



