in some states grandchildren, parents and in some states grandparents, even brothers and sisters, may be compelled by law to furnish, if able, the necessaries of life to the indigent. The laws in American states do not uniformly recognize what in England is called the “right to relief.” In New York, for example, an able-bodied man who has no visible means of support and no regular occupation is not, under the law, a “poor person,” but is a “vagrant.” On his own confession before a magistrate he may be accepted as a public charge, but technically he is punished, not “supported.” Harsh as the law sounds when thus stated, it corresponds to the fact that for able-bodied adults in America there is always practically some alternative to starvation besides vagrancy.
Public Relief.—Although a legal right to relief is not formally recognized, there is a tacit assumption that any kind of misfortune which threatens life or physical well-being should be provided for; and that if relatives, friends, or voluntary agencies do not make such provision, the State must, or at least should, do so in some way (see Public Assistance: section United States).
By the end of the 19th century public opinion had recognized that the almshouse was not a suitable place for tramps, vagrants, and disorderly persons; for children; for the insane, feeble-minded, epileptic, blind, and deaf; for confinement cases; cases of acute illness and contagious disease; but that these should be provided for in special institutions. These theoretical conclusions, however, were by no means completely or uniformly embodied in practice. In many of the newer states, with no correctional institutions except gaols and State prisons, the courts still habitually committed certain minor offenders to the almshouse. Seventeen states in 1900 still maintained their dependent children in almshouses. The greatest progress towards specialized care had been made in the case of the insane, but in most of the states institutions for them were overcrowded, while in many a certain number of insane were still to be found in the county poorhouses or even in the gaols; and the horsewhip was still advocated by some of their official guardians for quieting the violent. State schools for blind and deaf children had been generally established, but there was practically no provision for the instruction of persons who became blind, or deaf, or otherwise disabled in adult life. There were only 26 public institutions for the feeble-minded in the country, and special provision for epileptics was rare. Even in so advanced a state as New York there were about as many “idiots,” feeble-minded, and epileptic in the almshouses as in the special institutions for their care. There were still many large cities and towns which had no general public hospitals; confinement cases were generally admitted to the almshouse, and as there was almost no public provision, and little under private auspices, for the care of consumptives, many of these also were found in the almshouses. Except in certain northern cities and in some of the southern states, outdoor relief was generally given by local public officials in the form of groceries, fuel, clothing, and sometimes in money. This and the undifferentiated almshouse were still the public provision available for the majority of dependents.
Private Philanthropy.—Parallel with the various public agencies were many which had been established, and were conducted, under church auspices, or by incorporated societies or less formal associations of private individuals. The private institutions which existed in 1900 were chiefly orphan asylums, hospitals, and homes for the aged. Most churches gave charitable assistance on occasion to their own members, and the larger ones had a Ladies' Aid Society, or a St. Vincent de Paul Society, or some other agency for the purpose. In the cities there were “bread lines” and “soup kitchens” and temporary shelters for the homeless. In many places there were non-sectarian general relief societies, such as the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and in about 100 cities there was a Charity Organization Society, or Associated Charities, or United Charities. There were also many societies for assisting certain classes in their own homes—widows, for example, or members of a particular nationality; or for giving some particular kind of help, such as legal aid. There were 161 societies for the protection of children from cruelty and neglect; and a considerable number of societies performing one or more of the functions of the pioneer Children's Aid Society of New York to find homes in families for homeless children, to conduct lodging-houses and reading-rooms for newsboys, and in other ways to promote the welfare of city “waifs.” “Fresh-air societies” existed to provide outings for city children. “Visiting nursing associations” had demonstrated the value of such service, and some 40 to 50 had been organized, with an aggregate force of not more than 140 nurses for the entire country. In the larger cities and industrial centres day nurseries had been established for the convenience of wage-earning mothers and to reduce the number of children who were candidates for institutional care.
Treatment of Criminals.—Reformatory schools for juvenile delinquents, which had naturally come into existence much earlier than reformatories for adults, were to be found by 1900 in four-fifths of the states—more of them for boys than for girls, even in proportion to their numbers as delinquents. Juvenile courts were at the beginning of their development. Probation also was only beginning to receive attention. Growing out of the privilege of the court to suspend sentence after conviction, it had been the practice in connexion with adult offenders throughout Massachusetts for 20 years, and was established by statute in New Jersey in 1899, but had not spread farther. As applied to children, it had not yet been tried. Probation, indeterminate sentence, reformatory institutions, special courts for children, and even specialized treatment for women and children offenders, were still novelties. Fixed sentences, determined by the nature of the offence, without reference to the needs of the offender, were the rule; and they were served for the most part under conditions dictated by the theory of retribution rather than of reformation. As the characteristic charitable institution of America is the town or county almshouse, so the characteristic correctional institution was and is the county gaol and town “lock-up.” Generally small, with poor sanitation, frequently “fire-traps,” they are described by a committee of the National Conference of Charities and Correction in 1900 as “foul dens, infested with vermin, reeking with dirt and filth.” Boys and girls arrested for a trivial first offence, professional criminals, prostitutes and innocent persons awaiting trial were “herded together” in idleness, dirt, and bad air.
State Supervision.—To insure a certain standard in the conduct of public charitable and correctional institutions, state boards had been established in over half the states. These were of two main types: (1) advisory boards, with authority to inspect, report, and make recommendations, relying for their influence chiefly on the power of publicity; and (2) boards of control, with full executive powers and executive responsibility. The former type was considerably in the majority.
Preventive Philanthropy.—Of “preventive philanthropy” or “constructive social work” there was very little at the beginning of the 20th century. Interest in providing playgrounds and small parks in congested districts and public baths had been growing for several years. The New York Tenement House Committee had begun work in 1899, and was laying the foundations of the modern housing movement. The Consumers' League had exposed the horrors of sweat-shop work, and was preparing the way for a general concern about industrial conditions. But the conspicuous educational agency at this period was the social settlement. Beginning with the Neighborhood Guild on the lower east side of New York City, the number of settlements had increased to over one hundred.
Twentieth-Century Developments.—One of the ideas which became dominant among social workers early in the 20th century was that “prevention is better than relief.” A second, in the picturesque phrase of Jacob A. Riis, was that “a man cannot live like a pig and act and vote like a man.” Both these ideas grew out of the experiences of men and women who were engaged in work for the relief or the reformation of individuals, or who were living among the poor in social settlements. Out of these ideas naturally developed the organized social movements
