Moreover these periodical calls upon the generous for money have embarrassed our special appeals for donations to the support of our central office. So that we have not been in financial condition to pay a General Secretary until within the last six months.

Despite these hindrances to our best work — perhaps in part as a result of them — our Association has gained a steadily growing recognition from the most intelligent and influential people as the only society in the city capable of dealing with the problems of pauperism, vagabondage and kindred social evils, in the most rational manner; insomuch that when last February, the disastrous inundation of the Ohio valley made thousands of our city families the temporary recipients of charity, a most important part of the relief work was put upon our members, and but for our existence there would have been no machinery of distribution at all equal to the two-fold responsibility of helping the suffering and exposing the imposters, who, as usual in such critical times, flocked to take possession of the spoils.

From this flood dates a considerable increase to our funds, and our ability to put the numerous details of our business under the charge of a paid secretary, who gives several hours a day to office duty, and who is gradually completing the registration of the cases reported from the district agents and from such benevolent societies as are willing to co-operate with us.

Cincinnati is now, with the exception of one sparsely settled ward in which thus far ifc has been difficult to find suitable persons for the management and financial conduct of a branch society, divided into districts, each of which has a paid agent, called a superintendent, for the work of investigation, and an office open at designated hours of the week, in some cases daily, in others three times a week.

Each district raises the money for its own expenses save when an occasional special grant is made from the central treasury. And, under the new order of things resulting from our more complete organization at the central office, regular reports are made by the district superintendents to the General Secretary.

There is yet a great lack of co-operation with us on the part of relief societies, very few of which give us any information of the persons helped by them. So, too, there is considerable unsuppressed beggary, although our citizens have learned much from our systematic and persistent emphasis of the cruelty to the deserving poor of indiscriminate and impulsive giving to vagrants.

There is little reason for despairing of our ability in due time, to persuade a large majority of those persons and societies, which have at heart the reduction of poverty, to allow us to save them the waste of energy and money through our general registry of applicants for aid throughout the city; and the almost entire banishment from our midst of the street beggar can be effected with the increase of vigilance upon the part of our agents. The peril we have most to apprehend — shared by other communities and by all associations whose efficiency depends upon the voluntary good will of men and women — is the difficulty — which grows as the first heat of enthusiasm in behalf of a new interest subsides, of finding capable people who have leisure and disposition to engage in our work. Already we discover that the devoted few upon whose shoulders are upborne most of the good causes of our city, which demand self denying effort* are those upon whom alone we can permanently rely in the work of visitation and of money raising. But we are consoled with the consideration that it is such as they whose presence, whenever they dedicate themselves to a service of humanity, is equal to the weight of tenfold their number of half-hearted people Still the future of our association has its shadows as well as its hopeful promise.

The statistics of work of the Cincinnati Associated Charities during the period of high water, from February 12th to March 5th, 1883, were as follows:

Number of families relieved 5,260

Number of persons relieved m. 24, 111

Number of rations issued." 105,144

Number of families sup jlied with clothing ,, 2,046

Number of families supplied with bedding 1,916

Number of families supplied with coal 647

In addition 86 tons of coal were distributed.

Number pairs of boots and shoes given out..... 3,991

THE DETROIT ASSOCIATION OF CHARITIES.

RICHARD R. ELLIOTT, SECRETARY AND DELEGATE.

Mr. President, Gentlemen and Ladies: It is not my purpose to inflict upon this Assembly any tiresome array of statistics or columns of figures. The summary of each year's opperations of the association which I have the honor to represent, has been given to the public in its annual reports; such details are of local interest to the community directly affected thereby.

Nor have I any new theories to submit having refererentfe to the care of the poor in cities; my purpose is ta present a brief outline of what has been accomplished in the removal of chronic evils, and what is claimed to have been effected by our association in improving the condition of the poor, despite the difficulties encountered in the progress of our work.

Built upon the bank of the strait through which flow the waters of the Great Lakes above on their way toNiagara and the Atlantic ocean, Detroit is a seaport city of some importance.

Upon the Canada shore directly opposite, is the terminus of an extensive system of Canadian railways whose trains are brought across the river on steamers to connect with American lines extending in all directions. The city is a central point in the waterways of western commerce and of international railways.

From its position it dominates a frontier line extending from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, and being thus accessible, has for neatly half a century received annually a considerable percentage of the needy poor of the provinces of Canada and more or less of the newly arrived and worse 'conditioned of the immigrants who had been assisted as far as Quebec or Montreal.

Its present population is underestimated at 150,000 souls. The city has always made liberal provision by annual taxation for the support of her poor, while a very heavy burden has been borne by the county of Wayne, of which Detroit is the county seat, for the expense of alien paupers coming principally from Canada and for transient cases not entitled to the benefits of citizenship.

Prior to the year 1880, the care of the poor under the municipal government was in the hands of a salaried official known as the director of the poor, under whose management the poor fund was distributed. His powers were absolute and his drafts upon the county treasurer were also honored for the relief of transient cases.

Tlje system, which had been shaped for the requirements of a small community, was not at all adapted for the disposition of a fund as large as had become necessary for a population five times greater than it was at the period of its adoption, and for many years it had been subject to gross abuse in the manner in which aid was. given to the pcor and in the methods of investigation which had prevailed, which were faulty.and unsatisfactory and leading to a waste of the fund. It resulted that a large per centage of the money annually provided by the citizens and intended for the assistance of worthy and neccessitous people was diverted from its benevolent purposes and wasted upon unworthy recipients under the dictation of party influence in particular wards of the city.

It is a lamentable fact that by the abuse of this system brawny and barefaced idlers obtained the means" to live without work, while too often the more timid and deserving, needing only temporary assistance, were denied it.

From such a prolific nursery was begotten a race of chronic paupers whose persistent and impudent assurance had in times past disgusted the benevolent in their charitable endeavors to reach deserving want.

Other evils were co-existing. No legal restraint had been placed upon street begging; citizens were continuously pestered day and night, in their homes and places of business, by male and female professional beggars; while imposters adroitly procured what was intended for alms and contributed to the same individual, by the •city, the churches, societies, and by the benevolent. The amount of tax levied for the poor fund had steadily increased from year to year until the burden had become oppressive. By the courage and persevering efforts of a lady, a reform of seemingly chronic abuses was inaugurated. Mrs. Isabel G. D. Stewart, who had long been identified with charitable works in Detroit, induced the mayor of the city to. call a public meeting at which the subject of the relief of the poor was thoroughly discussed. The plan of the associated charities was explained at this meeting and subsequently adopted as a purifying remedy for existing evils. The parent Detroit Association of Charities was finally organized in the fall of 1878. The London and Buffalo organizations served as models for the working machinery.

With substantial assurance of financial support, officers were elected, the city was mapped into districts, and efficient committees and visitors appointed for each.

The work of the first season comprised the investigation of 1,200 families who* had been receiving aid from the city, reports of whose cases were filed in the central office. This scrutiny was made by reliable gentlemen and was thorough.

At first the director of the poor was favorably inclined toward the Association, * but the tell-tale results of the investigations made, revealing so large a percentage of families receiving aid from the city who were able to care for themselves and the subsequent request from the Association that such aid .should be discontinued, so disgusted the municipal almoner that he turned from the Association and declined to recognize or heed its recommendations.

Soon after it was officially announced that the city poor fund had been exhausted. This was in mid-winter, at a time when distress was still prevalent among the poorer classes in certain localities of the city. In this crisis prompt action was taken by the Asso ciation to provide relief for such as would be likely to suffer. Although the functions of the association did not contemplate the giving of alms, yet it could arrange that such would be furnished in a contingency of this kind. To effect this substantially, a relief and aid society was established under its auspices to serve as a co-operating medium and to take the place of the exhausted municipal fund.

Its officers and functions were distinct.

A store house and wood yard were provided and stocked with necessaries which were supplied to the needy on orders honored in kind, issued by its agents in favor of such families as were certified by the Association of Charities to be worthy of assistance. The arrangement worked satisfactorily. There were no ascertained instances of suffering among the poor for the want of food or fuel. At the approach of spring the affairs of the Relief and Aid Society were closed. $2,500 had been generously contributed at short notice by the citizens of Detroit to carry on its operations. The experience of the first year, which incidentally brought the Association face to face with the entire dependent population of the city enabled its officers to form a fair idea of the limit which could safely be placed upon the municipal outlay, or poor fund. When the financial budget for the succeeding year was being made up, the Director of the Poor asked for $35,000. The Association declared this amount to be too large and insisted upon its reduction. It was accordingly cut down to $22,000, making a difference of $13,000, which amount was saved to the tax payers of Detroit for a single year.

Howevever, as co-operation with the director of the poor was now no longer to be depended upon by the Association and as the revival of business and manufacturing interests had brought about an active demand for all kinds of labor, it was deemed advisable to suspend active operations by the Association and to concentrate for the present time all efforts possible upon some plan which would bring about a reform in the municipal treatment of the poor. At the subsequent session of the legislature a strong delegation of mem