VL. 98.96 Edward S. Dunster, M. 9. 4 of New York. (26.4. 1856.) NO. 2. D. State Charities Aid Association. OFFICE, 52 EAST 20th STREET, NEW YORK. ASSOCIATE MANAGERS. N. Y., N. Y., President Local Visiting Com- Miss A. L. DELANO, Newburgh, N. Y., New Brighton, S. I., President Local Visit- Mrs. P. M. CLAPP, 118 East 38th St.. FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE State Charities Aid Association. MARCH 1, 1873. To the Board of Stute Commissioners of Public Charities of the State of New York: GENTLEMEN: In your Report to the Legislature of 1869 you mention several instances in which citizens of this State, holding no official positions in the management of our public charities, have sought, from motives of humanity, to bring about reforms in our poor-law system. In 1844 Miss D. L. Dix memorialized the Legislature upon this subject, after a personal visitation of many of our County Poorhouses, which she describes as being in a deplorable condition. In 1857 a select committee from the Senate made an examination of these and other institutions, and sum up their report as follows: "We do not hesitate to record our deliberate opinion that the great mass of the poorhouses which we have inspected are most disgraceful memorials of public charity. Common domestic animals are usually more humanely provided for than the paupers in some of these institutions." And in 1865 another official report of the condition of these poorhouses, made by Dr. S. D. Willard of the Medical Society for the State of New York, based upon returns made to him by competent local physicians, is equally strong in its condemnation. Two years later your own Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities, composed of eight persons, who serve without compensation, was appointed, according to an Act passed May 23, 1867. From this Act it would appear that the powers and duties of your Board may be summed up briefly as those of inquiry and advice—that is, the right to make thorough investigation of the management of all institutions of charities receiving State Aid, each institution to be visited at least once in two years, and to make an annual report of the condition of the same to the Legislature, with such advice and suggestions as may conduce to practical measures of reform. This first important step of the Legislature, in delegating authority for the general oversight of our public institutions of charities, came not a moment too soon. Nearly a quarter of a century had elapsed since Miss Dix came to our State capitol with her tale of horrors, and yet, in respect to County Poorhouses, the condition of things had remained nearly unchanged. In other ways great reforms had been made in the general management of the large city pauper institutions, and more especially in the building of State Asylums for the insane, and for the reception of the pauper blind, deaf-and-dumb and idiots as pupils, also StateInstitutions for the reformation of juvenile delinquents. By the opening of these State Asylums, and the consequent removal to them of their respective patients, due to the efforts of your own Board, and to the more generally enlightened views upon these subjects now held by the local authorities, our poorhouses are no longer in the terrible. condition they were five years ago. Still, although much has been done, the radical unsoundness of the system remains the same. The County Poorhouses should be used solely as hospitals and as places of refuge for sick and aged paupers, and no longer be what they now are by this defective system-plague-spots in the State, whence hereditarypauperism, long since sown there, is spreading far and wide, striking at the very life of our free institutions. In your report of 1869 we find the following: "The Senate Committee," above mentioned, "refer to the little interest taken by citizens in the counties in the condition of the poorhouses, and attribute in a great degree to this apparent indifference the miserable state into which these houses have fallen. Though they make a strong and urgent appeal to the benevolent to look into the condition. of the poor, yet, judging from appearances, there has been little, if any, response by that class of persons." And on the next page you say: "Public opinion in the counties must be aroused to the abuses of the present system. The prevailing apathy, as it seems to us, is due to a general want of knowledge of the subject or else to a conviction that nothing effectual can be done under existing legislation." Will you permit us to say that we consider your first explanation as to the cause of this indifference the correct one. Our people are essentially humane. It is because they are ignorant of its existence that they allow human suffering to go unchecked or unrelieved; never because they are not ready and willing to act in its behalf. Our benevolent, enlightened and influential citizens do not know--not one in ten thousand of them knows-anything of the actual condition of the inmates of our public institutions of charities. How many of them ever go into these institutions, the doors of which they drive by daily? How many of them read your annual reports, so full of valuable information, so indispensable to a thorough understanding of the subject? No; the only reason why our pauper system is not what it should be arises from ignorance-from ignorance alonewhich must and can be dispelled. Let in the light of knowledge, bring it home to the minds and hearts of our people, let them feel that this subject of public charities is one which directly concerns them, that they are responsible for good or bad management, that henceforth they have a duty to be fulfilled, and all reforms are possible, be they administrative or legislative-the victory is practically won. It was with the hope of helping to create this active pub lic interest in our State Institutions of Charities, and also, gentlemen, to act in accordance with your own views upon this subject by responding to them, that the State Charities Aid Association was organized in this city, on the 11th of May, 1872. It is provided in our Constitution that "The Association shall make an Annual Report on the 1st day of March to the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities of the State of New York." It was only after a careful study of your reports and knowledge of your work that we thus desired to connect ourselves with you. We cannot too strongly commend that wise philanthropy which, while advocating the strictest measures for diminishing pauperism, is most tender in its thought and care for those afflicted by disease or left helpless in their old age. As a proof of our confidence in your judgment, the Chairman of our Special Committee on Legislation has prepared, with your consent, a bill now before the Legislature, entitled "An Act to further define the powers and duties of the State Board of Charities." We have not asked for, and do not desire, any legal powers for ourselves. But we would ask all our friends throughout the State to help us in securing the passage of this Act, as the best deed they can render our cause at this moment. A copy of our Constitution will be appended (Appendix B); but as this is the first time we have addressed you, perhaps it may not be amiss to give the principal features of our work as contained therein : The objects of our work are of a twofold nature. "1. To promote an active public interest in the New York State Institutions of Public Charities, with a view to the physical, mental and moral improvement of their pauper inmates. 2. To make the present pauper system more efficient, and to bring about such reforms in it as may be in accordance with the most enlightened views of Christianity, Science and Philanthropy." |