PAUPER SUPPORT BY CITIES AND TOWNS.

while the average number fully supported in them has been but little larger than in 1867. The average weekly cost is therefore noticeably increased, while the addition of interest on the valuation of the Almshouse estates makes the average cost per week still greater, it having previously exceeded the actual weekly average at the State Pauper Establishments.

The total expenditure incurred by cities and towns for full and partial support has been upwards of $832,000—an increase of nearly $75,000 over the preceding year. This is exclusive of interest, which, if added, would swell the first-named amount to more than $945,000. As heretofore, the cost for full support has largely exceeded that incurred for partial relief, the former having been for the last year nearly twice the amount of the latter.

(1.) Full Support, or In-Door Relief.

The whole number fully supported the past year, as reported from the several cities and towns, has been about 5,800the average being about 4,000-nearly the same as in the previous year. The average number returned as fully supported in municipal Almshouses is about 3,000, in Hospitals upwards of 550, and in private families about 450. Four-fifths, or about 4,500 of the whole number, have a settlement in the municipalities where they are maintained; but no distinction has been made between civil and military settlements. From this statement it is apparent that about 1,000 are unsettled persons. The total cost of full support in and outside of these Almshouses, exclusive of interest on their valuation, has been upwards of $544,000, or nearly $50,000 more than in 1867.

(2.) Out-Door Relief, or Partial Support.

The bestowment of charity in this form has aided upwards of 28,000-an increase of more than 2,000 since the preceding year; while the total expenditure for this purpose has exceeded $288,000, or $27,000 more than in 1867. Excluding duplicates, it will probably be found that the actual number of different persons receiving partial support during the year has been about 24,000. How many of these are a permanent charge to the community cannot easily be ascertained; probably about 14,000, the remainder receiving only casual relief.

PART V.]

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

[CHAP. II.

In this connection it is a matter of interest to know that multitudes of the poor, of whom no full or systematic record is made, are humanely relieved at the soup-houses yearly established in some of the cities of the Commonwealth. If the expense thus incurred could be ascertained, it would add materially to the aggregate expenditure for public charity. For instance in Chelsea, the present year, 68 families, comprising 286 persons, have been thus relieved at a cost of $225; while in other cities much larger amounts have been expended in this mode of relief, the number of its recipients in Boston alone being often from 1,500 to 2,000 or more per day.

Of 12,617 persons who, during the year, have made application for partial support, nearly one-half, 6,123, have legal settlements in the localities in which they have been relieved, including 859 who have military settlements. It is therefore evident that upwards of two-fifths of those receiving Out-Door Relief, or Partial Support, are unsettled persons,―a proportion more likely to increase than to diminish, unless checked by an equitable extension of the Law of Settlement, or by such other means as a wise and judicious policy may introduce.

(3.) Vagrants, or Travelling Paupers.

The number reported under this classification for the year ending September 30, 1868, is fifty-six thousand three hundred and eighty-two, against 25,621 the previous year. This apparent increase is due mainly to the fact, that in the account for the present year are included the Boston "lodgers," upwards of 25,500, who evidently were not embraced in the statement for 1867. These were not reported to your Board in detail, nor have they ever been from Boston as from other municipalities, but their number was obtained in this instance from the Police Department of the city.

Excluding these Boston "lodgers," a very large proportion of whom are duplicates, we shall find the excess of vagrants, or travelling paupers, about 5,000 over the number reported for 1867. Deducting duplicates, we have of this class about 25,000 different persons, including the usual proportion of professional tramps, or rather criminal vagabonds, for whom more permanent lodgings should be provided.

GENERAL REMARKS.

PART SIXTH.

PAUPERISM, CRIME, DISEASE AND INSANITY.

As these topics, originally assigned for the remaining pages of this Report, have been already so fully discussed in other connections, anything more than a general reference to them here is needless and uncalled for. It may suffice, therefore, to indicate, very briefly, a few of the accruing results of recent measures to check the progress of these great evils,-measures whose success, it is confidently believed, will contribute more and more to develop and strengthen a systematic and enlightened management of our Establishments of Charity, Reform. and Correction.

(1.) Pauperism.

The wholesome legislation of Massachusetts, designed to arrest the growth of Pauperism, and provide for the better care and support of the poor and suffering, is developing practical results that fully and satisfactorily prove its wisdom and humanity. Promptly and efficiently executed, as it has been, and as it will continue to be, under the supervision of your Board, it must be, as in the past, an indispensable agency in the restraint and removal of many of the general and proximate causes of Pauperism.

Whatever defects, real or apparent, may be discovered in the system established by this legislation, it will still be found that just in proportion to its faithful administration, so in corresponding ratio will the number of those becoming a public charge be reduced, even in face of a large increase of unsettled population.

Some estimate of the extent which this increase might reach may be predicated upon the statistics of immigration, showing the number of immigrants landed in Boston during the year

PART VI.]

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

ending September 30, 1868, to have been nearly 24,000,―an excess of almost 4,000 over 1867. In addition to these, nearly or quite as many more probably came into the State by inland transit. As this influx of population naturally brings with it a large percentage of defectives, it follows that the ratio of public Pauperism must be inevitably increased, unless checked by the most watchful system of examination and removal. Considering, also, in this connection, other and greater sources of Pauperism,-such as physical and mental infirmity and degradation, with their long array of proximate causes,-we cannot fail to comprehend the pressing need of diligence, sagacity and wisdom, in the treatment of maladies so fruitful of human misery and woe.

(2.) Crime.

The criminal record of the past year is, in some respects, unusually suggestive. The number of new commitments to the thirty-eight prisons in the State has been 11,666, which, exclusive of duplicates, may be reduced to about 10,500, indicating a net increase of nearly 1,000. Of the whole number, it appears that about one-fourth, or nearly 3,000, were females, half of whom had been imprisoned before; that upwards of 6,600, more than half, were born in foreign countries, about 1,800 in other States, while only 2,570 were of unmixed American parentage; that upwards of 3,850, about one-third, were unable to read or write; that more than half were unmarried persons; that about 3,250, nearly one-third, had served in the army or navy; and that almost one-fifth, 2,201, were minors. It is also found that crimes against person and property, public order and morality, as well as crime in general, show a very marked increase since 1867; though the higher crimes against the person, such as murder, rape and arson, are slightly less.

Intemperance continues to stand first and greatest among the causes of crime; next, poverty-the last being largely due to the former. Overseers of the Poor variously estimate the proportion of crime and pauperism attributable to the vice of intemperance, from one-third in some localities, up to nine

in others. This seems large, but is doubtless correct

CRIME AND DISEASE.

in regard to some localities, and particularly among the class of persons receiving temporary relief, the greater proportion of whom are of foreign birth or descent. The Prison Registers indicate that more than two-thirds of the criminals in the State are the victims of intemperance; but the proportion of crime traceable to this great vice must be set down, as heretofore, at not less than four-fifths. Its effects are unusually apparent in almost every grade of crime. A noticeable illustration appears in the number of commitments to the State Prison, which, during eight months of the present year, in which the sale of intoxicating liquors has been almost wholly unrestrained, was 136, against 65 during the corresponding months of the preceding year. Similar results appear in nearly all the prisons of the Commonwealth.

(3.) Disease.

poor

It is well that sanitary reform, for the preservation of public health and the physical welfare of human society, is engaging the profoundest consideration of sanitarians and philanthropists. Statistics of mortality constantly point to the necessity of wise and effective means to relieve the infirmities of human nature, to diminish the causes of Disease, to reduce the deathrate, and extend the average length of life. The success of such a work must depend largely upon the efforts of reformers and legislators to control the agencies most destructive to health and life, chief among which are the unrestrained indulgence of appetites and passions, the inherited or acquired tendency of bodily defects and diseases, the want of proper sanitary regulations and observances, the demoralizing and enfeebling usages and customs of society, the growing distaste for physical and industrial occupations, so prevalent among both sexes, and the innumerable evils that culminate in aggregated or crowded populations. Intelligent, organized effort to mitigate these causes, and remove their wretched consequences, will yield a harvest of blessing to communities, as well as to the indigent and suffering, the friendless and the helpless. It is eminently a service of mercy and humanity.