160 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



slightly exceed $1,000,000. The county of New York pays to State 

 and private charitable institutions for the same period the sum of 

 $118,682; Kings County, $82,669; and Kichmond County, $4,845; 

 all of which comes out of the general treasury. The money received 

 for licenses for theaters, concert and music halls, amounting to 

 $50,000 a year, is divided among eighty-two private societies and 

 institutions. This makes an aggregate of $3,000,000 paid out of the 

 city treasury annually and expended under the direction of private 

 organizations. With the exception of less than $100,000 it is all 

 appropriated under the provisions of special acts of the Legislature, 

 or sections of the city charter, and the city officers have no con- 

 trol whatever over the methods of expenditure or the work un- 

 dertaken by the societies that receive the money. Under such 

 a system the possibilities for abuse of public charity are well-nigh 

 unlimited. 



These direct appropriations of money do not represent all of the 

 city's contribution to the cause of charity. The property of all the 

 charitable institutions and societies is exempt from taxation and from 

 assessments for public improvements. The tax commissioners report 

 that the assessed value of the property of such organizations is 

 $70,781,990. At the present rate of taxation this means a loss to 

 the city of more than $1,400,000 a year. The assessments upon 

 the same property for public improvements exceed $100,000 a year, 

 which is paid by the city. These exemptions materially affect the 

 tax rate as well as the bonded indebtedness and annual interest 

 charges of the city, so that the yearly contribution of the tax- 

 payers of New York to charity is nearly if not quite $7,000,000, 

 or about fifteen per cent of the direct expenses of the city gov- 

 ernment. 



Some figures from the budget for 1899 will show the relative 

 cost of caring for the poor. The city will pay for public educa- 

 tion $13,040,052; for police, $11,797,596; for the fire depart- 

 ment, $4,443,664; for the health department, $1,110,538; for 

 lighting, $2,000,000; for water, $1,450,817; for cleaning the streets, 

 $4,575,800; for parks, $1,729,235; for paving and repaving streets, 

 $2,520,099; and for charity direct and indirect, $7,000,000. 



The chief abuses of the present system of public charity are the 

 extravagant expenditures for salaries and the steady and rapid in- 

 crease of pauperism due to the misdirected efforts of the inexperi- 

 enced persons who control so many of the smaller societies that re- 

 ceive city money. 



One of the oldest and most important charitable organizations in 

 the city is the Children's Aid Society. The report of the treasurer 

 for 1898 shows the following expenditures: 



