Guild: State Supervision of Charities 



27 



executive action, but it was held that such influence was really 

 sufficient when the members of the board had the confidence 

 of the legislature. Moreover, the board could exert consid- 

 erable influence by creating public sentiment on the subject. 



"A board of charities is a balance-wheel to steady the mo- 

 tion of the charitable machinery of the State," declared one 

 authority. ''It is its office to promote the wise founding and 

 the safe running of public charities, to correct and prevent 

 abuses, to check extravagance, to promote economy, and to 

 rebuke niggardliness."^* And it has been still further claimed 

 that the board not only supervises superintendents to make 

 sure that their duties are well performed, but also acts as a 

 buffer between the heads of institutions and the public, to 

 make the true position of the superintendent clearly under- 

 stood, and to protect him from unjust or ignorant criticism. 

 If the board does adopt this attitude and attempts to put 

 itself in sympathy with the heads of institutions, it is evident 

 that a superintendent would not only be willing to listen to 

 the advice of the board, but might be eager to place before 

 it all facts at his command, that he might be supported if 

 possible by the board and reinforced by its approval. Many 

 men with wide experience in the work of State supervision 

 of charities have been insistent that a board of control or 

 board of large administrative powers cannot stand in this 

 relation to the heads of institutions because the members are 

 biased owing to their own interest in and responsibility for 

 the management of the institutions, and because the superin- 

 tendent knows that whatever he may say the board possesses 

 the power to force its own opinion upon him.^*^ 



The power of the board lies in the prestige of its personnel, 

 its familiarity not only with the conditions in each institution 

 in the State, but also with the general charity situation, the 

 most accepted methods and up-to-date science of charity ad- 

 ministration. The keynote of its activity should be coopera- 

 tion with all the charitable institutions of the State, both 

 public and private. Where boards of charities by their atti- 



2* H. Hasting Hart in report of Committee on State Boards of Charities, National 

 Conference of Charities and Corrections Proceedings, 1889, p. 90. 



^ See National Conference of Charities and Corrections Proceedings, 1891, p. 369, dis- 

 cussion by Dr. A. J. Thomas. 



2® See the opinion of Gen. R. Brinkerhoff on this subject in National Conference of 

 Charities and Corrections Proceedings, 1894, p. 15. 



