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RESULTS OF FIVE YEARS.

existing State Pauper Establishments, four in number, were more than was needed, and were not so arranged as to classify the inmates in the best manner. In the face of great opposition, and with but little support, except the goodness of their cause, the members of your Board persisted in measures looking towards a better arrangement, which is now completely established. The unnecessary and costly Hospital at Rainsford Island has been closed; the Almshouse at Bridgewater has been almost wholly converted into a State Workhouse; that at Monson into a State Primary School; that at Tewksbury has been enlarged and adapted to the reception of the chronic insane; while the laws of settlement and of State support of the poor have been so modified that the number of persons lodged in these great and ill-contrived buildings is considerably diminished, and will yearly decrease. The actual decrease in the average number within five years is 13 per cent., although our unsettled population has undoubtedly increased at least 20 per cent. within that period. At the same time, the jealousies existing between these establishments have been almost wholly removed, and in place of them a cordial spirit of co-operation has appeared; while the classification of their inmates, and the more thorough inspection which they have received, has greatly improved their discipline and management. A visiting agent for all the children sent out from the State institutions has also been appointed, and the welfare of this interesting class much better secured.

A like change for the better has been made in the means of instructing our deaf-mute children, who, through the efforts chiefly of the Board of Charities, now have their choice of two schools, both good, and in one of which the long neglected method of teaching by articulation is successfully employed. And this method in use in Massachusetts is spreading rapidly among the deaf-mute schools of the country, and seems likely to give a great impulse to the better education of deaf-mutes throughout the United States, as it has done in Massachu

setts.

Not only have the laws of pauper settlement been modified in many important particulars; those relating to prisons have also

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

been brought to the public notice, and the beginning of valuable reforms in prison discipline has been made.

The statistics of Pauperism, Crime and Insanity have been collected and set forth with more fullness and accuracy than had hitherto been done in any part of the United States, and the records of the Overseers of the Poor have been made clearer and more useful to the towns and to the public. And, finally, a standard has been set up, by which it is easier than before, to test the condition of our public institutions, and by referring to which that condition has been and will be improved.

Such, very concisely stated, and with many omissions, have been the results of the five years labor of the Board of Charities, during all which time its receipts have more than paid its expenses, while the supervision exercised by it over our public. institutions, though often censured through personal feeling, has promoted economy, efficiency, and a good understanding between those institutions and the State. Our own deliberations have been carried on without discord, and the measures adopted by the Board have, in almost every instance, received the unanimous support of the members.

Within this time, I have made a collection of books and pamphlets, chiefly reports, bearing upon the subjects investigated here, which now amounts, including the volumes of our prison and pauper registers and returns, to about six hundred bound volumes and one thousand pamphlets. In some respects this is the most complete collection known to me, though it is still very imperfect, and is enlarging constantly.

BUSINESS AND VISITS OF THE SECRETARY.

In the year just closed, the increasing business of my department, as was mentioned in the Fourth Report, has called for increased activity, and has prevented so much visiting of institutions as was customary with me in the first three years of service. The inspection of the county prisons has been almost entirely given up of necessity, and, still more, the visitation of Town Almshouses. During the year, I have made fifty-six visits to various institutions and places, as indicated below:

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In performing this part of my duties, I have travelled five thousand seven hundred and eighty-one miles, at an expense to the State of $158.72.

My expenditures for the year ending September 30, 1867, have been $7,685.93, classified as follows:

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The total expenses of this Department during the five years since the Board was organized, have been $36,790.62, or an average of $7,358.12 in each year.

The travelling expenses of the Secretary are paid out of the appropriation for the Board. These have amounted, in the five years, to $987.67, or an average of $197.53. If this sum be added to the expenses paid out of the appropriation for the Secretary's Department, the aggregate will be $37,778.29 for the five years, or an average of $7,555.66 for each year.

The whole number of miles travelled by the Secretary during these five years, (on official business,) has been twenty-nine thousand four hundred.

GENERAL INTEREST IN THE SUBJECTS INVESTIGATED.

No year since the establishment of this office has witnessed a more active and general interest in the great questions proposed for investigation in this department, than the present. In Massachusetts and our sister States, the movement to obtain

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

more exact knowledge concerning the subjects of Pauperism, Crime, Disease and Insanity, to devise new methods for carrying on the work of public charity, and to secure a stricter inspection and supervision, has gone steadily forward. Rhode Island has practically sanctioned a State system similar to ours, and New York and Ohio have established Boards of State Charities. In Pennsylvania, North Carolina and other States, the same measure is proposed, and seems likely to be ultimately adopted. In New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California and South Carolina, the Prison System has been publicly investigated, and in the last named State, essentially changed. The same is true of the Dominion of Canada.

In the city of New York, where, for many years, improvements have been going on in the systematic management of great establishments of charity, reform and correction, under the enlightened direction of the City Board of Charities and the Commissioners of Emigration, two or three new institutions have been opened or started during the year. One of these is an Inebriate Asylum on Ward's Island, which bids fair to be the largest in the country; another is a special Foundling Hospital on Randall's Island, which certainly will be the largest in the country, and which has furnished the occasion for much discussion of the question of public provision for deserted infants, of which I have spoken in detail elsewhere.

The Labor Question has also assumed a prominence, both in this country and in Europe, which it has not before maintained, and the congresses and conventions of workingmen, in New York, Brussels, and elsewhere, while they have furnished a field for much vague declamation, have also given to the world a great deal of useful information, particularly on the interesting topic of Co-operation. The social problems arising in the Southern States of the Union, have also been widely discussed, not only in their political bearing, with which this Report has nothing to do, but in their reference to the advancement of the poor, and the amelioration of long existing evils. In all these subjects and events, your Secretary has felt a profound interest, and has endeavored, in his limited sphere, to promote the spread of exact knowledge, and of sound principles.

THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.

In this connection you will permit me again to speak of the work of the AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, an organization growing, in part, from the impulse given by your Board to the investigation of subjects affecting the welfare of the community. This Association (whose first meeting, three years ago, was called by a circular issued from this office, and was presided over by the late Governor Andrew,) has held meetings of much importance during the past year, and is now on the point of increasing to a great extent, as we hope, its facilities for influencing public opinion. A Western Association of the same character is soon to be organized, and the two, co-operating in their activity, will inspire each other to more zealous and effective labors. Having been personally much indebted to officers and members of the American Association for aid in my researches, I desire here to express my confidence in its purposes, and the high expectations I have formed of its ultimate results. I trust my successor, and the gentlemen who may hereafter carry on the work of the Board of Charities, will continue to maintain close relations with this public-spirited Association.

DIVISIONS OF THIS REPORT.

I have now only to submit the list of subjects assigned by you for investigation and report by your Secretary, and to proceed to consider them. They are the following, and under these heads will be found arranged the subsequent and main portion of this Fifth Annual Report:

I. RECENT LEGISLATION AND ITS EFFECTS.

II.

III.

THE CARE OF FOUNDLING AND DESERTED CHILDREN.

PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES.

IV. THE STATE INSTITUTIONS.

V. THE PAUPER RETURNS.

VI. PAUPERISM, CRIME, DISEASE AND INSANITY.

Respectfully submitted by

F. B. SANBORN,

Secretary of the Board of State Charities.

BOSTON, October 14, 1868.

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