COMPARATIVE PAUPERISM IN 1881 AND 1882. management, except the very best and the very worst, may be found in any large district of the State, yet it is true, as a general remark, that the city and town almshouses east of Worcester are not only more numerous, but better built and better managed than those west of that city. The general care of the poor is also more liberal in the eastern than in the western counties, and in some of the eastern cities has been at times altogether too liberal. Any extravagance in expenditure, however, occurring in a city or town, is generally corrected within a period of five years, and is immediately followed by a strict and responsible system depending on exact knowledge of the condition of the poor in that municipality. Striking illustrations of this change from a lax system to a better one have occurred in Cambridge, Fall River, Springfield, Edgartown, etc., within the past five years. The Tables XV. and XVI. in the Appendix, with the remarks supplementary thereto on pp. 59-61, show the comparative frequency of pauperism in the cities and larger towns of the Commonwealth at the beginning of the three years 1879, 1880, and 1881. At the present time it is not possible to give the corresponding figures for 1882 in all these cities and large towns; but some general facts concerning the municipal poor on the 1st of January, 1882, can here be added. Returns have been received up to date, from 281 cities and towns, showing the number of their poor fully and partially supported on the 1st of January, 1882. These places had a population of 1,409,752 in 1880, and on the 1st of January, 1881, contained 5,204 paupers fully, and 15,988 paupers partially supported, with 1,736 insane. At the corresponding date in 1882 the numbers were as follows: 5,573 paupers fully supported, 14,176 partially supported, and 1,949 insane; showing that, except the insane, the municipal poor in Massachusetts have decreased since the last winter. This is due, no doubt, to the exceptional mildness of the season; and it can hardly be expected that another winter will show the same result. The total number of the poor of all classes reported in these 281 cities and towns was 21,402 in 1881, and 19,956 in January, 1882. THE MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY. PRIVATE CHARITIES. The Eye and Ear Infirmary. The appropriation for this long-established charity was increased in 1881 to $15,000, which has been expended for purposes that will appear by the statements of its annual report, which has not been received by this Board. Although the Eye and Ear Infirmary has been of great service to persons afflicted with diseases of sight and hearing, and although the money appropriated by the State may well have been judiciously expended, yet a question has arisen whether the extension of this particular charity to all the inhabitants of New England (which is practically the case now) does not attract to Boston a considerable number of poor persons, not resident in Massachusetts, who yet come upon the State for support as paupers after their treatment at the Infirmary is ended. This is in fact the general operation of our whole system of charities, public and private; and this makes necessary the removal of so many poor persons from the State every year. Such a result is unavoidable to ; some extent; but it is well to inquire in regard to each increasing private charity whether all the available means are employed to counteract this influence, which increases our | pauper population. No estimate of the sum asked for by the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, as a State appropriation, has been received; and the application will probably be first made, as usual, to the legislative committee on public charities. The information required concerning the School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth, and the Massachusetts Infant Asylum (which are also private charitable corporations largely aided by the State), has already been given on preceding pages; and the schedules of Part Fourth will show their comparative expenses for three years; while the tables in the Appendix exhibit the valuation and expenditures of the Idiot School for the year ending Oct. 1, 1881. IN-DOOR AND OUT-DOOR RELIEF. Making an aggregate of all the expenses for the relief of the public poor of Massachusetts, including what has been paid by the cities and towns (about $1,400,000), and by the State, at the State Almshouse, State Workhouse, State Primary School, the lunatic hospitals, etc., also for foundling and destitute infants, for the sick poor, etc. (in all, about $390,000 from the State Treasury), — it seems that the net cost of supporting and relieving the poor of all classes for the year 1881 has been about $1,800,000. Of this, something more than $635,000, or above a third part, has been paid for the support of the insane poor. The net cost of partial support or out-door relief in the whole State, reckoning both the settled and the non-settled poor, was in 1881 about $550,000 or less than a third of the total cost ($1,800,000), while the net cost of all kinds of in-door relief was about $1,250,000; reckoning as in-door relief the support of the poor in lunatic hospitals, almshouses, schools for poor children, and other institutions, including the Massachusetts Infant Asylum. In some cities the cost of out-door relief has been nearly or quite as great as that of in-door relief; but in the whole State the balance is largely on the side of in-door relief. It appears also that out-door relief is more judiciously given in most places than in former years. PART FOURTH. FINANCES AND POPULATION. PART FOURTH. FINANCES AND PRESENT NUMBER OF By law the Board is required to make certain estimates directly, and to give its opinion on the sufficiency of certain other estimates, during the month of December in each year. These estimates are quite various, but fall into two main classes, (1) special or out-door appropriations, and (2) regular in-door appropriations; the former including the sums paid for board, for reimbursement, for private charities, for removals, etc., and the latter including the expenditures at those establishments which the State supports directly from its treasury. Estimates for Special Appropriations for 1882. These were duly sent to the Secretary of State by the Board under the law of 1880, and are as follows: For the support of State paupers in lunatic hospitals support of the sick State poor burial of State paupers support of infants in the Infant Asylum support of other foundlings. temporary aid of State paupers transportation of paupers expenses of settlement and bastardy The appropriations and deficiencies under these heads for 1881 amount to about $216,000. Probably the sum now estimated for 1882 will prove more than sufficient in the aggregate; for there was a surplus in the estimate for the support of State paupers in lunatic hospitals last year. No estimate was made by the Board for the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Estimates for In-Door Appropriations. These include the whole expense of the State Almshouse, State Workhouse, and State Primary School, for their current cost in the coming year; all but a small portion of the current expenditure at the State Reform School and the State Industrial School (the fraction being paid from the income of funds); and the outlay for other than ordinary expenses at the State lunatic hospitals. The following are the estimates sent in by the State establishments in December, 1881, with the Board's own estimate added in each case: TABLE OF ESTIMATES FOR 1881. FOR THE TEWKSBURY STATE ALMSHOUSE. (Trustees' Estimate.) Salaries, wages, and labor $20,000 00 11,475 22 47,870 57 8,319 92 7,334 29 $95,000 00 This Board recommended the appropriation of $90,000, of which $19,000 should be paid for salaries, wages, and labor. STATE PRIMARY SCHOOL AT MONSON. (Trustees' Estimate.) |