158 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the societies would contribute their services, and the cost of apply- 

 ing public charity to necessary relief would in that way be reduced to 

 a minimum. That expectation has not been realized. "With the 

 rapid increase of necessity and demand for public relief the expenses 

 of administration of the societies have increased out of all propor- 

 tion to the work accomplished. In the beginning the city authori- 

 ties shirked a public duty, and by giving city money to private 

 persons who were willing to relieve them of a burden they invited 

 the creation of new societies and a steadily increasing demand for 

 more funds. 



Of the two hundred and twenty charitable societies that receive 

 money from the city more than one hundred have been organized 

 during the past ten years. The records of the finance department 

 and the annual reports of these new organizations show that many 

 of them have received from the city sixty to ninety per cent of all 

 the funds they have handled, and that almost the same percentage of 

 their total income was charged to expenses, the chief item of ex- 

 pense in every case being the payment of salaries to officers. Year 

 after year the promoters and officers of these small organizations 

 appear before the city authorities when the annual budget is to be 

 passed, and, attempting to excuse the poor showing they make, say, in 

 pleading for a larger appropriation, " We hope to do better next 

 year." The most liberal-minded defender of indiscriminate public 

 charity would find it difficult to excuse the existence of some of these 

 societies. 



There are scores of small organizations helping to spend public 

 money that are unknown to the general public. In fact, some of 

 them are never heard of except when their officers appear before 

 the Board of Estimate once a year to ask for more money. There 

 is a society, organized for the purpose of supplying clothing to ship- 

 wrecked sailors, which for several years obtained a small appropria- 

 tion from the city. When the officers requested an increase of the 

 amount allowed, the city authorities asked for some particulars of the 

 work done. The report submitted in reply showed that the society 

 had received, in addition to the money obtained from the city, sev- 

 eral donations of second-hand clothing and one box of wristlets (knit 

 bands to be worn on the wrists); had sent to a sailor shipwrecked 

 on the coast of Oregon a suit of underwear, a pair of hose, and 

 a rubber coat; to a crew wrecked on the reefs of Florida some shoes 

 and oilskin caps. There was no report of relief or clothing supplied 

 to a sailor or any other person in the city or State of New York, 

 but there was a charge for salaries that almost balanced the amount 

 received from the city treasury. 



Another of the minor institutions is a society that is engaged in 



