such people. I have little faith in the law's ability to blot out such evils." Mrs. Shipman, of Chicago: "Christianity is the only remedy. If men were treated as women are, it would help.” RECOMMENDation. As a report without a recommendation would not be complete, I close with the following recommendations: (1) To endeavor to secure the enactment of more effective laws., (2) To utilize the various agencies now in existence to aid in securing the arrest and punishment of the guilty parent,-- such as the Humane Society, the Associated Charities, various child-saving agencies, such as the Children's Aid Societies, Children's Home Society, State and County Homes, etc. These could serve as bureaus of information through which to obtain and to spread the information necessary to secure the arrest and punishment of the guilty parent. (3) The wide-spread dissemination of information concerning the alarming facts pertaining to this evil. Often officers will not undertake to punish it, and the public does not demand it because of the prevailing opinion that the cost of prosecution is greater than that of caring for the children. Publish it broadcast that the cost of caring for the 4,223 deserted children in the 100 institutions that reported the cost was $244,683, and that this was less than one-eighth of the total, which was probably more than $2,000,000. Let this be made known to the average tax-payer, and it may help him to see the importance of an earnest effort to check an evil the cost of which is the least of all the weighty reasons for it. A most important agency that would greatly aid in securing this and many other benefits to be desired would be a National Board of Charities. It should be their duty, among others, to obtain the statistics pertaining to this evil from all parts of the country, and to give the facts publicity. Their reports would be of surpassing importance in aiding to secure the needed legislation. In the mean time let State Boards of Charities gather the statistics in their own States, and make them known. They will be a powerful impetus toward the awakening of public opinion. Let in the light upon the great evils of the day. Let the people know their extent, and let them be made to feel that they have a responsibility for their reform. I have faith enough in their con 1896. MINNESOTA, AT PRESENTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE REPORT BY REV. E. P. SAVAGE, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE CHILDREN'S HOME SOCIETY OF STATISTICS CONCERNING DESERTED CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA IN 1895. THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION HELD AT GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., JUNE 4 TO 10, Idaho 13 14 Iowa Indiana Indian Territory жа аси жил I * I I * 2 + N 3 1,336 7,334 4,408 1,160 1,336 2,703 1,718 1,919 2,102 2,175 673 * Indicates a reply without statistics. N.B.- Besides the 786 institutions enumerated above, there are Children's Home Societies in 20 States and Humane Societies in many cities, making the number of such agencies that care for children much more than 800. From these figures it is seen that less than one-fourth of the institutions having the care of children have reported the number of deserted children in their charge, so that, if a similar ratio exists in the remaining institutions, not less than 28,000 were deserted by one or both parents in the country in 1895. Less than one-eighth reported the cost; and, at a similar ratio, the cost would have been more than $2,000,000, science and sense of justice to believe that they will rise in their might, and that the sanctity of the home and the sovereign rights of childhood shall be protected from this high treason against their most sacred interests. Number that gave reports concerning deserted children In 1895, of the children we have had to deal with, the number that have been deserted by one or both parents was The number of these deserted by the father was The number of these deserted by the mother was The number of these deserted by both father and mother was 205 7,334 4,408 1,160 1,336 There are more than 850 institutions and societies that care for children. If a similar ratio prevails through them, then there were not less than 30,000 children thus deserted in 1895. XIII. Social Settlements. SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS. AN ADDRESS BY F. G. PEABODY, D.D., CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow-students, I think a word should be said at the outset of the relation between the settlement idea and such social service as the National Conference of Charities and Correction represents, for there can hardly be anything more opposed to conventional charity than the social settlement. Its representatives have an almost morbid terror of being involved in charity. They are not charity workers, in the technical and limited sense. The settlements are not charitable institutions. They are, on the contrary, illustrations of social equality and democracy. The settlement workers do not go down from their homes of prosperity with philanthropic condescension to aid the poor. They simply live among the poor, and their relation with them is that of neighbors and personal friends. They dismiss altogether the notion of social classes. They recognize but one social circle, the comprehensive circle of human sympathy and need. I remember, one day in London, lighting upon a group of three young men who had been residents in Toynbee Hall, and had now taken up their residence a mile further east. They were simply giving themselves to the leavening of their own little neighborhood, and especially to the service of a group of boys. They were all well-born and well-educated men. I asked one of them if he did not miss the life of the West End, and he replied: "If we missed it, we should go to it. We are only here because we like to be here. The people we are born among seem to us extremely dull, and these people seem to us extremely interesting. We prefer this kind of life." That is the settlement idea. It repeats that epoch-making phrase which the leader |