PREFACE. THE Fifth Annual Conference of Charities-an organization consisting of delegates from States, representatives of municipal, local, and private charities, and members of the American Social Science Association, interested in charitable work — met, in 1878, at Cincinnati. The place of meeting was determined, as it has been since the Conference first organized in 1874, at New York, by the fact that the Social Science Association was to hold its General Meeting at the same place and time. The several Conferences have met therefore, at New York in May, 1874; at Detroit in May, 1875; at Saratoga twice, in September, 1876 and 1877; and in May, 1878, at Cincinnati. By virtue of the authority given by the Conference of 1878, the meeting for 1879 has been called at Chicago, commencing on the second Tuesday of June. As it is not probable that the American Social Science Association will meet at that time and place, the next sessions of the Conference will naturally be held by themselves, and will continue for a day or two longer than usual. The Standing Committees mentioned on pages 7, 8, will then report, to delegates sent not only from various parts of the United States, but as we hope from Canada; the public and private charities of that Dominion having been invited by the Cincinnati Conference, on motion of Mr. H. W. Lord of Michigan, to participate in the next Conference. In the following report of the Proceedings at Cincinnati, several omissions occur. The most important of these is the omission of Mr. Lord's Report on "The Work of the Year 1877-8," which, by an oversight of the stenographer, was not taken down from his lips, and could not therefore be written out. Many of the facts stated by him, however, now appear in the reports from the several States. No accurate report was made of the remarks of Dr. Hoyt concerning the lamented death of Mr. J. V. L. PRUYN of Albany, and Mr. THEODORE Roosevelt of New York,— two prominent and honored members of the Conference in past years. To supply this omission the Secretaries have ventured to include here the remarks made in the General Meeting of the Social Science Association on Mr. ROOSEVELT and Mr. PRUYN by the Secretary, Mr. SANBORN. |
