fact; for a fact it is, pauperism has become incorporated into Σ the social life of this country! Can it be extirpated? Can it be treated remedially, with a view to its gradual disappearance? Can it be confined within certain limits, beyond which, on no account whatever, it shall be permitted to extend ?]

The reality of the existence of pauperism in such formidable dimensions, will, perhaps, seem strange to some members of this Conference. Those States are indeed happy in which this cancer has not yet appeared. Appear it will, unless steps are taken betimes to systematize a mode of dealing with the very first germs of the disease. In my State, where there are so many large cities, and such wide-spreading ramifications of commerce, where the winters are severe, and wealth is most unevenly distributed, experience shows that we have allowed this evil to creep in upon us unawares, until it has assumed alarming proportions. It is not easy to see where any complete remedy is to be found. Pauperism exists under many forms; but they are all features or symptoms of the same disease. At one moment we may try to stamp out that form which is so familiar to us now under the name of Tramps or Vagabondage. The poorhouses and State institutions may be overhauled, and put into more fitting condition. But our first object should be to discover and attack the primary cause of the evil, and endeavor to stamp it out at that stage. 3

It has always seemed to me a most wise provision among the Jews, that every male child among them had to be taught a trade or means of earning a livelihood. In Germany the same rule has been followed theoretically, to the immense advantage of the individual citizen. If we were not so largely dependent upon the supply of labor from abroad, we could, no doubt, have continued the good old rule of New England, by which the man who had no profession, no trade, was regarded as a useless member of society, and became a sort of pariah among his people. Perhaps it would appear presumptuous to advocate industrial schools as a specific against pauperism; but it is by them alone that the advantages of special training, in many branches of useful work, can be gained. At any rate this remedy attacks the root of the evil, and supplies the fulcrum on which the lever can act to move the dead weight of pauperism.

But we in this State have also, in considering this question, to deal with another feature which is confined chiefly to the neighborhood of New York. The effect of the vast emigration of recent

years, which has quadrupled the numbers of this nation, has interfered with the application of any laws on the subject of enforced industrial training. Thousands of emigrants land on our shores utterly ignorant of the simplest forms of mechanical labor, - the men unfit for any higher calling than porter or common laborer; the women unable to read, write, or sew, and entirely unskilled in household work. Thousands of children are still brought up in our midst without the smallest attempt at industrial teaching, and are left to their own fancies to devise the means of gaining a living, honest or otherwise, unless they should be fortunate (?) enough to fall under the moral influence of charitable societies or voluntary effort."

This is the cause of direct and indirect injury to our people, and creates additional difficulty in dealing with the effects of so sudden an increase of population. In fact, we are not, and never have been, prepared to meet it. Many of the most industrious and thrifty emigrants have their homes and employments ready for them farther inland. Those who are otherwise are tempted by friends or accidental circumstances to remain in the cities, where they too often swell the ranks of the unemployed. In connection with these, I have been constantly struck by the truth of an observation made by an expert in such matters, that when a family, however poor, had remained in a town a twelvemonth, they could hardly ever be persuaded to leave it.

"All habits gather by unseen degrees:

As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas."

It is in dealing with this class of people that so-called charity is apt to make its greatest mistakes. It will carry on a helpless family for months, with the hope that something or other may happen to better it. There is but one known result of such interference with the laws of Providence, the degradation of the individual, the injury of the republic. It is here that the indulgence of sentiment does the most harm, whilst well-directed efforts in the way of bringing the benefits of training and knowledge patiently to bear are alone able to afford permanent relief. How far any system of coercion could be introduced with success in such cases, it is impossible to say; but where children are concerned, where the hopes and happiness of future generations depend upon the influence exerted in childhood, there is a strong case made out for positive interference on the part of the State. Such action

would be not only wise and beneficent, it would be provident and economical.

An additional obstacle to the teaching of industrial trades arises from the unfortunate misunderstanding between capital and labor, culminating in trades-unions and working-men's leagues. But, without entering upon this part of our social economy, industrial or technical training is, in my opinion, the first principle which affords a check to the spread of pauperism.

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It is often said that the old methods of dealing with pauperism have broken down. Certainly it is on the increase; and this increase, in the average of years, has become normal and gradual. There are, indeed, agricultural townships in this State where it as yet scarcely exists. But in all districts, city and country, fresh efforts must be made, and in new directions, in order to offer effectual resistance to it. What, for instance, have the churches been able to do? What has individual charity done? What can indiscriminate, unorganized, unsystematic charitable efforts avail against this insidious evil? As a rule, they have too often formed or fostered habits of dependence and shiftlessness. Poverty, instead of teaching thrift and providence, has been allowed to produce a carelessness as to the future and a condition of hand-tomouth living which perpetuates itself for future generations. This state of things, it must be remembered, has accompanied an enormous development in the material wealth and prosperity of the whole State. It is something astonishing to refer to the last census, and study the figures which represent the number of hands employed, the capital invested, the wages paid, the products of manufactures. At the last census the employés amounted to 351,800, earning $142,500,000 during the year; on farms, the amount of wages paid was $34,500,000; and the total product of manufactures and farms amounted to the enormous sum of $1,038,720,809! What an immense field of employment these figures represent in a State, the total population of which amounted to 4,387,404! These statistics might be indefinitely extended, and are only given to show what an el dorado lies close at hand for the employment of our surplus laborers, if only adequate industrial training could be enforced. Indeed, one might almost think that the bonus held out by figures like these would be sufficient to induce all persons able to work to do their utmost to win some prize in the lottery of life. But to those who are striving and toiling to make their way, how hard and strange it must seem that they should be handicapped by the

incubus of having to support their indolent neighbors, who, while health remains, have the same opportunities and advantages as themselves!

In my opinion, little will be done in our State towards diminishing the number of paupers until their condition is made not only thoroughly contemptible, but, as far as possible, punishable. With regard to those who have sunk beyond the sense of shame, probably nothing but coercion will avail. There are always people who prefer to live at the expense of others, without doing any thing themselves. If their unfortunate example were confined to themselves, and died with their persons, there would be little to be said about it; but, unhappily, the effect is contagious. Their children, if there are any, are sure to be saturated with the same readiness to be dependent upon others: they inherit the same inaptitude for work, the same unwillingness to help themselves. The tendency to avoid exertion enlarges its circle among those who temporarily or accidentally are deprived of regular work. And so, unless a brand of contempt and shame can be placed upon those who offend against Nature's first law of self-support, and unless the children of such persons can be taken from their unworthy guardianship and trained in very different ways, our Western feelings of independence and thrift will be too apt to degenerate and sink to the level of the degraded Asiatic nations. The honest poor man will always command the sympathy, and claim the support, of those more fortunate than himself; but the pauper who has the ability, and refuses the opportunity, to support himself and his family, who has lost his manhood and his independence, is a dangerous element in society, and must be dealt with accordingly. It is our duty to protect ourselves while there is time.

CLOSING SESSION OF THE CONFERENCE.

ON Thursday, June 12, after the reading of the Reports and Papers (except those of Mr. Pellew and Dr. Reynolds) was concluded, the Governor of Illinois, Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, was introduced, and spoke as follows:

GOVERNOR CULLOM'S ADDRESS.

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN, I owe you an apology for not being present, and discharging my duty to this Conference, as I had promised. When I left the State, I had no doubt that I could return in time; but the business which took me to Washington required more time to arrange than I anticipated, and I was compelled to remain two days longer, or return at once, which I did not like to do in this warm weather. It would have given me great pleasure to meet you in the opening of your session, and welcome you to this beautiful metropolitan city, not merely with a hospitable purpose (though I feel sure you have received satisfactory evidence that such exists), but also because the thoughtful people of this city and the State are interested in your deliberations. You have been here conferring together as to the best plan or system of caring for those unfortunates who are found in all communities and States, to prevent the increase of insanity, and other conditions of disease, helplessness, and pauperism, and the best modes of preventing and punishing crime, and the reformation of criminals. Your sessions are denominated Conferences of Charities. Most of you are engaged in a life work, where the scope of your duties extends to and embraces the very limits of the purposes of civil government. You have come together, fresh from your respective fields of labor, filled with philanthropic aims, earnest in your great work, and have compared results, and have doubtless discussed the questions before you from a stand-point of experience, observation, and science. Your subjects are many, but all akin, and are of the greatest moment to goverment and the human race.

In addition to the superintendents and others having charge of our State Charities, many of whom have met with you before, there is a growing number of private citizens who give earnest consideration to the questions which you discuss. In this comparatively young State, the most serious problems of State policy are connected with the construction of our penal and charitable institutions. As we grow in wealth and population, misfortune and crime seem to increase in even a greater ratio; and we have not only to maintain the institutions of charity and correction which we have already provided, but the necessity constantly presses upon us to increase their number, and enlarge the usefulness of those we have. As a State, Illinois claims to stand in