i6z POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The expenditures for the same period were $102,570.64, of which 

 $33,613.56 was for salaries and wages. This is a private institu- 

 tion exempt from city or State control, subject to no governmental 

 supervision except examination by the State Board of Charities, yet 

 ninety per cent of its income is public money, and almost one third 

 of the cost of maintenance is charged to salaries and wages. These 

 two cases are mentioned not in criticism of the work or methods of 

 the institutions, but as representing a fair average of the salary 

 account of all the larger private charitable societies. They also 

 fairly represent the two extremes in the source of their income, one 

 receiving ninety per cent of public money, the other a little more 

 than thirty per cent. 



Recent investigations conducted by the city comptroller and sup- 

 plemented by the agents of the State Board of Charities disclose 

 abuses in the expenditure of public money by certain small societies 

 so flagrant that the appropriations for the current year have been 

 withheld. In these cases the salary account was always the chief 

 expenditure, but it was also discovered that whatever relief got be- 

 yond the headquarters of the societies went to professional beggars, 

 who had no difficulty in deceiving the persons in charge. It was 

 found that persons in good health had lived comfortably for months, 

 perhaps for years, on public charity dispensed through private or- 

 ganizations. These professional beggars would obtain food at one 

 place, clothing at another, coal at a third, small sums of money from 

 all three perhaps, then reverse the order of application or appeal to 

 newer organizations if detection threatened. Relief was extended 

 in many instances with little or no effort on the part of the societies 

 to ascertain the merits of a case or the honesty of an applicant. 



One small society was found to have expended practically all 

 of the money received from the city in the payment of the living 

 expenses of the person who had the entire management of the organi- 

 zation. The charitable work of a year consisted in the distribution of 

 a small quantity of cast-off clothing and a few bushels of potatoes. 

 The reports of the society contained the names of directors who had 

 never served and knew nothing of the true condition of the organiza- 

 tion. They had merely consented that their names might be used 

 as a guarantee of reliability and to aid in the work of soliciting con- 

 tributions. 



One case has been found where a mother and daughter lived 

 comfortably by selling coal given to them by charitable societies. 

 One private institution, now abolished, boarded committed children 

 and received two dollars a week from the city for each child. The 

 children were fed on fish and potatoes at a cost of forty-four cents 

 each per week. After these facts were discovered the city authorities 



