University of the State of New York New York State Library REVIEW OF LEGISLATION 1903 LEGISLATION BULLETIN 22r Charities Robert W. Hebberd CHARITIES ROBERT W. HEBBERD, SECRETARY NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES The general trend of charity legislation is still in the direction of a closer supervision or control of public charities, while at the same time the movement to extend the scope and modify the terms of public relief-giving continues to be noticeable. These tendencies are illustrated by the creation of a state board of charities and corrections in California, where the subject has long been agitated ['03 ch.363]; by the movements on foot in several states to make better provision for the care of the adult blind, now commonly supported in almshouses, and for crippled and deformed children; and by changes in the names of institutions whereby some of the stigma is removed and entrance is made less odious. For a time it was thought that the central board of control idea, which has been more or less popular in some parts of the West, might spread throughout the entire country, but the new California board is not a board of control, but one with limited supervisory powers, and legislation to create a board of control in Illinois was defeated at the last session of the Legislature. The recommendations of the governors of Colorado and Nebraska in their messages to the Legislature that central boards of control be created to replace central supervisory boards did not result in favorable legislative enactment. In several states efforts are being made to establish supervisory boards. Movements to modify the terms of relief-giving have been continuously under way for many years, obstructed now and then, it is true, but on the whole making great progress. Nowhere, perhaps, is this better shown than in the changes that have taken place in the provisions of the general poor law of New York. Less than a hundred years ago this statute provided that strangers for whom security was not given might be forcibly removed to their place of legal settlement, while if they returned after such removal they were subject to severe punishment at the whipping post. The poor law of the present day humanely, and doubtless more economically, provides that the poor shall be relieved wherever they suffer want, and that their place of legal settlement within the state can be required to meet the necessary cost of such assistance. While there is no abatement in establishing, enlarging and equipping state charitable and reformatory institutions the supply seldom appears to equal the demand. This is particularly true of institutions for the insane, the feeble-minded and the epileptic, who are everywhere increasing in a ratio entirely out of proportion to the increase of population, while on the other hand most other dependents show a relative decrease in number. During 1903 legislation was enacted providing for establishing 15 different state institutions in 12 states. These include a hospital. for the insane, institutions for the feeble-minded, reform schools, an institution for the adult blind, a school for the blind, sanatoriums for consumptives, general hospitals, homes for miners, a home for orphans, and an institution for the treatment of hydrophobia. In New York and Massachusetts commissions were provided to investigate the condition of the adult blind and to recommend measures for their relief [N. Y. '03 ch.539; Mass. '03 r.74]; in Connecticut the governor was authorized to appoint a reformatory commission to investigate the subject of commitments and to select a site and prepare plans for a reformatory for men ['03 ch.180]; in Massachusetts the State Board of Charity was instructed to investigate the cases of persons under the age of 21 who were unable to attend school because of deformity ['03 r.96]; in New Jersey the governor was authorized to appoint a commission to investigate and report on the advisability of establishing a reformatory for women ['03 p.523]; in Ohio the governor was empowered to appoint a commission to investigate the feasibility of providing institutions for deformed children ['03 extra session, p.19]; and the governors of Vermont and Wisconsin were each authorized to appoint a commission to investigate and report on the establishment of a sanatorium for consumptives [Vt. '03 ch.116; Wis. '03 p.776]. General. The Indiana boards of county commissioners seem to have found it necessary, or at least desirable, to secure legislation to protect them from the influence of the dead hand in charity ['03 ch.144]. This enactment provides that where property or money has been given, devised or bequeathed in trust to the board of county commissioners of any county for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a home for indigent women, worthy poor or orphan children, and the board shall find the amount inadequate without an additional appropriation from the county and that the county will receive no substantial benefit, the board shall relinquish the trust, and the property shall vest in the legal heirs of the donor according to the laws of descent. It also appears that this somewhat peculiar statute was enacted as an " emergency" measure to take effect immediately. The effort to secure better records of the dependent classes is necessarily a continuous one. In Missouri provision is made for recording in each county the names and other particulars relating to persons sent from the county to state hospitals for the insane, reform or industrial schools, or other eleemosynary institutions ['03 p.204]. By an amendment to the Montana law school district clerks are required, subject to a penalty for neglect, to report to the county superintendent of schools by Sep. 20 of each year names and other details with relation to deaf, blind or feebleminded persons between the ages of 5 and 21 years, and the county superintendent of schools is required to report the names, ages and addresses of all such persons to the superintendent of the School for the Deaf and the Blind at Boulder ['03 ch.25]. State boards and officers. In California a state board of charities and corrections was provided ['03 ch.363]. This board, which consists of the governor and six members, is of the supervisory class similar to the boards of New York, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and other states. Its chief duties are to inspect state and local charitable and correctional institutions and to report biennially thereon to the governor. The board's annual appropriation is limited by law to $6000. The members of the Board of Charities and Corrections of South Dakota were reduced from five to three in number and each allowed a salary of $1500 a year, in place of the $3 a day formerly paid to them. They are now required to inspect the state charitable and correctional institutions once a month instead of annually as previously provided ['03 ch.86]. The salary of the secretary of the State Board of Charities of Connecticut was increased from $1500 to $1800 ['03 ch.172]. Local boards and officers. In Connecticut the town overseers of the poor were required to make their annual returns in September instead of October as formerly ['03 ch.49]. In Pennsylvania women in boroughs and townships were made eligible to the position of overseer of the poor ['03 ch.182], which seems a desirable innovation, and the salaries of directors of the poor in a district over 70,000 lying in more than one county were placed at $500 ['03 ch.220]. Private charities. The Legislature of North Dakota passed an interesting and novel act ['03 ch.39] making it unlawful to collect moneys for charitable purposes without a license from the state examiner till such time as a state board of charities shall have been established, when such license may be issued by the secretary thereof. Sisters of Charity, members of the Salvation Army, and deaconesses who wear a distinct garb are exempted, however, from the provisions of the act. While such an act may seem a desirable exercise of legislative function its practicability and legality are alike doubtful. Poor relief. The Legislature of Illinois generously appropriated $5000 ['03 p.82] for the relief of destitute families in Sweden and Finland and the Legislature of Nebraska $2000 for similar relief in Sweden, Norway and Finland ['03 ch.143], In Kansas the county commissioners were authorized ['03 ch.43] to grant relief in case of great loss of life or damage to property and empowered to issue county warrants to 1% of taxable property and to levy special tax. In Pennsylvania, chapter 266 of 1893, providing for the support of the needy, sick or injured and the burial of indigent persons was declared unconstitutional because the subject was not included in the title [Dailey v. Potter County, 53 A. 498]. Support and settlement. Changes of minor importance were made in the support and settlement laws of seven states. These laws are subject to constant change, to meet varying local views or needs, with the tendency to cast on the state itself the support of the vagrant or wandering poor. In Connecticut the state comptroller is authorized to contract with any town for the support of state paupers on such terms as he may deem expedient ['03 ch.80], and it is also provided that state paupers shall be chargeable to the town in which they have last had a residence for six months ['03 ch.124]. In Maine provision for the support of state poor at the expense of the state is extended to cover cases needing immediate relief who are brought from adjoining localities to any town obliged by law to care for and furnish relief to such persons ['03 ch.148]. The Massachusetts statutes with relation to state paupers are amended so as to provide for the removal by court order of state paupers to the State Hospital or other state institutions ['03 ch. 355]. Provision is also made for their removal to their places of legal settlement or to friends ['03 ch.231]. In New Hampshire provision is made for the recovery from the estate of any person for pauper aid given by any town or county within six years preceding the death of such person ['03 ch.42]. Minor changes are also made in the settlement laws of Michigan ['03 ch.59], Minnesota ['03 ch.298] and New Hampshire ['03 ch. 67, 106, 110]. Homes for aged. Provision was made for establishing the Miners Home of Pennsylvania ['03 ch.184]. The act provides for establishing and supporting this home with the cooperation of the mine operators of the state. The beneficiaries of the home are to be citizens of Pennsylvania who have worked in and about the coal mines of the state for 25 years and are 60 years of age, those who have been injured at the mines or have contracted "miner's asthma," and the wives of miners eligible to the home who are 55 years of age. |