victed tramp to jail on a determinate sentence. With few exceptions, every State west of the Mississippi having a statute upon this subject employs this method. In New Mexico the provision is that tramps shall be employed at hard labor from one to ninety days upon the streets or elsewhere, but are presumably lodged at the county jail. A similar provision is found in Wyoming. In Missouri the "idle and "dissolute" (vagrants) are to be hired out for six months to the highest bidder "with cash in hand." And it is to be noted, too, that here, as well as in the Southern States, where the provisions are on the whole very similar,― tramps are not punishable under laws directed against tramps as such, but under the general laws applying to vagrants, of which able-bodied and sturdy beggars are one class. While a sentence to jail is still the usual provision among the Northern and Eastern States, it is frequently supplemented by other legislation. In Massachusetts, tramps are committed to the State work-house or to the house of correction; in Rhode Island, to the workhouse or house of correction; in Connecticut, to the workhouse or prison; in New York, to the nearest local penitentiary; in Maryland, to the house of correction; in Illinois, to the jail or to the house of correction.

In Louisiana and Vermont, tramps are committed to the almshouse. This may be the case in other States, as in Michigan, where they are committed either to the almshouse or to the workhouse, and in New Jersey, where they are committed to the almshouse, jail, workhouse, or are to be "worked" upon the streets. Virginia should be mentioned along with New Mexico, as she employs her tramps on public account or hires them out for three months. In a few States a fine instead of imprisonment may be imposed; but, as this fine is almost invariably worked out in jail, it is merely another way of fixing the length of a sentence to jail.

A sentence to prison without hard labor is not very effective in repressing vagrancy. Where tramps are committed to the State's prison, house of correction, or workhouse, work is provided for them. This is also the case in Virginia, Missouri, and New Mexico, where they are employed on public account or hired out. Hard labor is required in Vermont, New Jersey, and Michigan, where such may be committed to the almshouse. The ten States of Maine, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Colorado, and Nevada, commit them to hard labor in jail.

The ten States of New Hampshire, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and California, commit them to jail; but no provision requiring them to be employed has been found. Whether or not they are employed there depends upon the practice in the several institutions.

In Pennsylvania tramps are to be committed to hard labor, with solitary confinement. Wisconsin and Iowa provide short terms in jail, with solitary confinement; for longer terms, at hard labor. Arkansas still prescribes a "bread and water diet" for half of a sentence of from thirty to ninety days.

But a word need be said concerning the length of sentence. Usually, the maximum sentence is fixed. In some cases a minimum is also fixed. The one noticeable feature about the length of sentence is that it is quite long in the North and East, and gradually becomes shorter as we move South and West. But this is only one instance of the greater strictness of the law in the North and East.

XVII.

Reports from States.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON REPORTS FROM STATES.

Your committee has the pleasure of reporting that they have received forty-two reports out of a possible forty-nine. The only Corresponding Secretaries that have thus far failed to report are those of Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indian Territory, Kentucky, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington.

The progress of our work is seen in the increased number of State Conferences of Charities and Correction. During the past year State conferences have been organized in Nebraska, Missouri, and Illinois. A Southern conference has been organized, to include the Southern States, which will hold its first meeting at Nashville in October; and steps have been taken for the organization of a State conference in Maryland, which will meet in November next. There will have been held, therefore, in 1897 eleven State conferences, one district conference (the Southern), and two meetings of the National Conference. This does not include the New England Conference, the Pacific States Conference, and the Colorado Conference, which hold no meetings this year. Most of these conferences have been attended by the President or the Secretary of the National Conference.

A brief abstract of the reports from the States as to legislation will be found in the National Bulletin of Charities and Correction for May, to which you are referred. The reports from States will be printed as usual in the volume of Proceedings. In this report it is only possible to summarize briefly the reports received, and for the sake of comprehensiveness this will be done by districts.

A State Board of Charities has been established in Missouri; and the establishment of State Boards is being urged in Iowa, Louisiana, and West Virginia.

THE STATES BY DISTRICTS.

NEW ENGLAND.

1. Population and Dependents.

By the census of 1890 the total population of the six New England States was 4,700,745, which has since increased to about 5,200,000. Very nearly half of this population is in the single State of Massachusetts, which now contains more than 2,550,000 people, with more than half of all the dependent, defective, and criminal classes registered in all New England. During the year ending Dec. 31, 1896, the number of the registered insane of Massachusetts exceeded 8,500; and their average number was more than 7,000, including those in almshouses and private families supported by the public. In the other five New England States the aggregate number of the insane during the same year may be estimated at 7,500, and their average number at nearly 6,000, as shown by the following table: -

So many of the insane appear in more than one of the six States. in course of a year, however, that the real aggregate of different persons may not have exceeded 15,600, the average number remaining as above estimated. But the number strictly belonging to New England of this average did not perhaps exceed 13,000, the others being residents of other States, under treatment in New England. asylums. These estimates give about 1 insane person in every 320 of the estimated population, which is not excessive; and, were it. possible to take an exact census of all the insane, those in New England would probably be found to exceed the numbers above given. With respect to prisoners the general fact is much the same as with the insane, though the numbers differ widely. Massachu

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setts imprisons more than half those convicted in New England in a year, and in her three State prisons-at Charlestown, Concord, and Bridgewater—had an average of male convicts of some 2,500; while in the State prison for women at Sherborn there was an average in 1896 of 300, giving an aggregate of State convicts alone of 2,800 in the year 1896. In all the other five States the number of convicts (average) in State prisons did not aggregate two-thirds the Massachusetts average, being less than 200 in Maine, less than 200 in New Hampshire, hardly above 300 in Vermont, less than 500 in Rhode Island, and but little more than 400 in Connecticut,— an aggregate of less than 1,600 in the five States as against more than 2,600 in Massachusetts. The whole number in all the Massachusetts prisons April 1, 1897, was 7,400; and this was not only larger than ever before at the same date, but greater by 50 per cent. than the prisoners then in the other five New England States.

As to pauperism in New England, aside from that caused by insanity and the occasional increase of outdoor aid in consequence of hard times, it does not appear to be increasing out of proportion to the gain in population. It is not possible to give exact figures on this subject, because several of the States make no systematic report; while the figures of the census of 1890 are known to be very inexact. The sane poor fully supported in Massachusetts averaged in 1896 about 6,000, without reckoning the dependent children and those in 'reform schools and truant schools, under various names. It is probable that the aggregate of paupers and poor children fully supported in New England last year exceeded 25,000, not reckoning the insane or idiotic; while the number of the poor temporarily aided (different persons) may have reached an aggregate of 80,000 in the six States. In all, therefore, the paupers, prisoners, insane and idiotic persons, poor children, and young delinquents in New England, during 1896, must have exceeded 125,000 in the aggregate, or more than 1 in 50 of the 6,000,000 persons who resided there or entered the six States in the past year; while the average number supported or relieved at any one time must have been nearly 75,000, judging by the returns for Massachusetts, which are more regular and full than those of any other State of the six. This would be nearly 1 in 70 The whole cost of this support,

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of the estimated resident population. restraint, reformation, and relief, for the year, no doubt exceeded $7,000,000, or $1.35 per capita of the population, without counting.