Problems in Administration of Municipal Charities

I.To give or not to give out-door relief is the first and greatest problem in municipal charity.Shall the city undertake to provide provisions, fuel, clothing, rent, and other necessaries to needy fami- lies in their own homes, in addition to maintaining hospitals, alms- houses, and other institutions; or shall it limit its activities to the latter function, leaving the assistance of the poor in their homes to organized charities, churches, and benevolent individuals?The problem is not a new one; in fact, it has been discussed at greater length than probably any other phase of municipal charity.Ex- tended experience has been had by large cities on both sides of the question.The fact that several of the largest cities in the country have given no out-door relief for a quarter of a century, and that it is the impression and ~belief that the poor in those cities are as well cared for as in the cities giving out-door relief, may be said to have shown beyond question the practicability of abolishing public out-door relief in large cities.Those who favor the continuation of public out-door relief in the few large cities in which it still persists-Chicago, Boston, and Buffalo-would doubtless claim that in New York the absence of out-door relief, while probably a good in itself, has led to other evils, notably the sending of large numbers of children to institutions.The fact that the absence of out-door relief in other large cities-Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and others-has not led to this result indicates that other factors must be regarded as primarily responsible for the large proportion~of desti- tute children in New York City.The question of public out-door relief in large cities in this country was ably presented to the National Conference of Charities in igoo by Mr. Frederick Almy, secretary of the Charity Organization Society of Buffalo.The experience of American cities during the three and a half years since the date of Mr. Almy's paper tends to strengthen the position of those who favor the abolition of public out-door relief in large cities.During this period no city which had discontinued public out-door relief has re-established it.Societies, churches, and individuals seem to have proved their ability to meet the situation in different cities and

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