secular politics with its holy thoughts of charities that belong only to the Kingdom of Christ. But the Church should not be dumb, as its members watch the execution of the trust that it has committed to the legislation of the Christian State. And if at any crisis these Boards should be obliged to appeal against a wrong or lax action of the State, the great Christian community, which wields the real power, although holding it in reserve, should sustain the Board without hesitation and without doubt. These Boards are created by a Christian State to use its faculty of observation where a Legislature may not be able to see. The Board stands in relation to the Church as a committee of any legislative body stands to that body which has granted to it plenary power. When such a Board decides and reports, it is too late for its constituency to enter into the debate. Then is the time for prompt maintenance of its authority. The Christian Church in this commonwealth owes it to the cause of these charities, whose highest welfare it is seeking, to let it be known by all men that it regards the Board of State Charities as the supreme and ultimate authority in guiding the public benevolence of Ohio.

MR. OGDEN'S REPORT-THE WILLARD ASYLUM.

With many thanks for the kindness extended to me, I will try not to weary your patience by extended remarks. I am here by appointment of the Board of Trustees of "Willard Asylum for the Insane." We deemed it becoming and proper to have representatives in this Conference of Charities, this body of high purpose and action. I fully concur with the able and distinguished secretary of the Board of State Charities of our State, Dr. Hoyt, that there has been progress in our State. Civilization has been moving on and up. The public sentiment has been more turned to deeds of charity; the public conscience is more enlightened; the standards are higher and the feeling better; and both in public and private, in word and in deed, in legislation and in private organization there has been progress. One of the potent agencies in this movement forward has been the Board of State Charities, whose work has permeated and been felt in every nook and corner of the State, and whose fostering care, advice and encouragment, has been apparent in all our charities, both great and small. The world does move and in the right direction. A word now of Willard Asylum, one of the last, but one of the noblest of our State charities. I will not call it a model institution, nor boast of what it is, but I do desire to present it as a successful (I will not say experimental) Asylum. It was somewhat of a new departure from old ways, and it has triumphed over difficulties, like all new undertakings; it has not paused in its

march, but gone on steadily, until today it is the largest institution of the kind on this continent. It was opened ten years ago, and it has now an insane population of wellnigh 1,600. Its peculiarity is that it cares for the chronic pauper insane alone; no private patients are received. None gain admittance save on the order of the poor authorities of the counties. The State has furnished the buildings, the State appoints the managers, and pays the local officers; the counties pay for the maintenance of the insane they send to the asylum. The actual cost, at the present price for food and labor, will not vary far from $2.60 per week per patient, and this small pittance the people of the counties pay cheerfully, feeling that the most unfortunate and helpless of their people are thus carefully provided for.

Three leading ideas inspired the establishment of Willard Asylum: First, to remove from the poorhouse care or abuse the chronic insane domiciled and confined therein; Second, to make the State the guardian and protector of the pauper insane, the most dependent and helpless and hopeless of her people. The end sought, most just and true and humane, was to make the irresponsible, bed-ridden, unfortunate chronic pauper insane the wards of the State; to put them under the protection of the great body politic, the State, and remove them from the tender mercies,or plainly speaking, from the counties and towns where there was want of care, neglect and often cruel treatment and wrong. Third, less expensive buildings. It seemed, and it was and is, a waste of money to build palaces for paupers. It seemed wrong to spend money for simple ornament, and most of all it seemed wicked to make jobs for plunder out of sacred charity; and at Willard the effort was made and has been carried forward, to build plain, good, substantial buildings, looking more to inside comfort and convenience than outside ornament and display. The buildings at Willard are not mean, but are imposing; though plain, not niggardly in outfit, but with all the modern improvements and appliances. The standard of care is not here lowered, but rather elevated, and 1,600 homeless insane paupers have today comfortable homes, warm, clean rooms, and will have them for life at Willard Asylum, under the care and protection of the great State of New York. These three ideas have been successfully utilized and made practical at Willard. The poorhouses here have been substantially emptied, and, let me here say, have been vastly improved through the reflex influence of the Asylum in the removal of the insane, by the change of policy.

The State has practically assumed guardianship of the insane poor, and today we provide at Willard, rooms and care, homes and comfort for about $400 per patient, instead of $3,000, as has been the fact in the construction of some of our other State institutions for the insane. Dr. Chapin, our superintendent, has been the main architect in the working out of this policy, and Willard

feels proud of him as we do of our asylum. It stands a monument of advance, and its silent influence will continue to bless and make better in all time to come.

I was glad last night to listen to the very able and radical — no, I will not say that, - the very just and sound address of General Brinkerhoff, the President of the Conference, in regard to the insane and their care; of asylums for them, and their construction and management. State guardianship for the most unfortunate and pitiable of all our people, seems to me eminently just humanity. Christian civilization and enlightened policy demand that the State, the sovereign and chief power thereto, cast the strong arm of its protection around these suffering children of misfortune, but not of crime-this dependent, irresponsible, but misguided and dangerous class. Such has been the idea at Willard from the beginning, and the people and the Legislature are with us now; this policy has become fixed and settled in New York, and we protest against a return to poorhouse care, abuse and suffering. We do not object that counties should care for their insane, if they will provide proper asylums away from the poorhouse, and becoming care, under the supervision and visitation and direction of the State Board of Charities; for that would be State care and guardianship.

Again, at Willard, we have ignored partisan politics; our board of management has been from the beginning, and is now, composed of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, and we have entire harmony. We vote as we please, and some of our number are active in their parties, but in the administration of our noble charity, we forget partisanship and rally round the common humanity and benevolence which ought to govern all men of all parties.

NOTE. The above Report of Mr. Ogden was made Wednesday morning, June 30, as mentioned on page xliv; and, at the same Session a Report was made for the State of Ohio, which has not come to hand. Ohio, however, was fully reported on by Gen. Brinkerhoff in his Address, by Dr. Byers in his Paper, and by the Committee which discussed Tramp Laws. The list of Standing Committees, mentioned in the Preface, is on the twentieth page of the Business of the Conference, (p. xx) and not of the Papers and Debates,— the first being paged in Roman numerals, the second in Arabic figures.

PAPERS AND DEBATES

OF THE

Seventh Annual Conference of Charities,

HELD AT CLEVELAND, JUNE AND JULY, 1880.

OUR CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS AS THEY ARE AND AS THEY OUGHT TO BE.

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, GEN. R. BRINKERHOFF,
OF MANSFIELD, OHIO.

Delivered June 29, 1880.

The National Conference of Charities and Correction, at its annual meeting last year, in Chicago, adopted the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the President of this Conference be requested to present at the opening of the next year's session, an address upon the work of the year, including legislation and administration."

The duty thus imposed I shall now attempt to perform.

All improvement is based upon experience, but experience is a plant of slow growth, and, therefore, in order to make the largest progress, we must combine the experiences of the largest possible number of persons. It is for this reason that the Annual Conference of Charities and Correction has been organized, and now for the seventh time it has assembled to compare experiences and conclusions, and make suggestions for the future.

As a starting point of discussion, the Conference has very properly devolved upon its retiring President the duty of presenting a bird's-eye view of the entire field we seek to cultivate. Of course,

in a field so vast, the barest outline only can be given in the brief hour allotted; and, therefore, it will devolve upon you, during the days that follow, to fill up the details.

With a view to arrive at the methods and present status of the penal, reformatory and benevolent institutions of the several States, I addressed a letter to the various Governors, requesting answers to the following interrogatories:

First. What organized public charities does your State provide? Second. Are these institutions free alike to all classes? Third. What changes have occurred in the legislation of your public correctional and penal institutions during the past year?

Fourth. Under what system are the poor of the counties provided for?

Fifth. What prisons and reformatories - State, county and municipal are included in the prison system of your State?

In response to these questions, replies have been received from twenty-four States and the District of Columbia, substantially as follows:

ALABAMA.

First. The organized public charities of Alabama are the insane hospital at Tuskaloosa, and the deaf and dumb and blind asylum at Talladega. At the close of the last year (October 1st, 1879), there were in the former 394 patients, of whom 208 were men and 186 women 329 white and 65 colored. In the latter, at the same date, there were 54 patients — mutes, 41; blind, 13; 34 males and 20 females, all white.

Second. These institutions are open on the same conditions to all classes.

Third. No changes have occurred in legislation during the past year.

Fourth. The poor of the counties are provided for under general laws, by the boards of commissioners of the several counties, and under the supervision of the grand juries, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Fifth. The prison system embraces the State penitentiary, county jails and the city calaboose.

How this prison system is operated is not indicated, but is fully explained by Dr. E. C. Wines, in his invaluable book upon "The