Guild: State Supervision of Charities 



7 



the more recent legislation and discussion on the subject there 

 is arising a third question which is assuming more and more 

 importance: Should a State have both sl State supervisory 

 board and a centralized administrative board, — the ''dual sys- 

 tem", as it is called? These are the fundamental questions 

 which lie at the bottom of any study of the problem of State 

 supervision and administration of charities. In the follow- 

 ing pages an attempt has been made not so much to answer 

 these questions definitely, tho that has been done, as to make 

 patent the conditions which have caused the questions to arise, 

 the various types of State boards, their present status as 

 shown by existing statutes, and the published opinion of 

 authorities on the subject, as well as the advantages and 

 defects of each system. 



II. The Complexity of Present State Systems 



There is little uniformity between the charity systems of 

 the various commonwealths of the United States, either in 

 statutory law or in the practical working out of the system. 

 No two States have the same law, and States with similar 

 laws work out their problems in many different ways, owing 

 primarily to the different conditions which confront the State 

 or to the different development of charity problems in each 

 State. However, State supervision or administration, as 

 these terms are used in this study, thru a State board is 

 now almost universal. Of the forty-eight States, forty-four 

 have some form of central supervision or administration by 

 the State. Four^ have no State supervision except such per- 

 functory inspection as may be made by the governor or legis- 

 lature at annual or biennial intervals, the whole power over 

 State institutions resting with the individual boards of trus- 

 tees. This may be designated as the ''trustee type" of State 

 administration. There is no supervision by a central State 

 board. 



There are at least seventy boards and commissions in the 

 United States which deal with some part of the problem of 

 State supervision or administration of charities. Of these four 

 consist of a single individual. Alabama has a State Prison 



3 Idaho, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Utah. 



