tive System" for selecting subordinate officials in the Service of the State and its principal cities.

FOREIGN CITIES.

Paris.-Prostitution. 13 A very interesting report upon the question of prostitution has recently been presented to the Municipal Council of Paris, France, by a committee of that body. The report is in three sections: (1) A General Survey by M. Henri Turst. (2) Brothels and Houses of Assignation by M. Adrien Mithouard. (3) Regulation from an Administrative View-point by Henri Turst. The various reports give a good historical account of the efforts to regulate prostitution in France, the various methods suggested and used, the effect of police control, the results of medical inspection and detailed discussion of the present situation.

The Committee thinks that the existing plan is largely a failure. (1) There have been some bad mistakes made by the police in arresting reputable women. (2) The greater number of prostitutes are not enrolled. Hence (3) the medical examinations cannot accomplish their purpose since so many avoid them, nor are they sufficiently thorough. (4) There is a question whether police intervention is really legal.

It is suggested that certain changes are necessary for two reasons:

1.

Prostitution is not a crime (délit), hence unless the public peace and order are offended the police should have nothing to do with prostitution.

2. Syphilis should not cause punishment any more than any other disease but like other communicable diseases should be safeguarded for the sake of the public health. To accomplish this it is recommended (1) Free consultations should be given in all hospitals and dispensaries subsidized by the city of Paris. (2) Substitution of treatment in general hospitals for that in the special institutions now existing.

The Committee believes that in suggesting these important reforms it "substitutes for the arbitrary régime which is too severe a system both legal and inspired by a desire to exercise pity in a field hitherto ruled by brutality and egoism." "We believe that we have proposed a scheme for safeguarding at the same time individual liberty and the rights of society."

To make certain that advantage will be taken of the treatment offered by hospitals the transmission of syphilis is to be made a criminal offense for both men and women. Such legislation now exists in Norway.

Although few in America will welcome the suggestion to make prostitution a matter to be dealt with solely on sanitary grounds the discussions and proposals are worthy of careful consideration. The chief papers are in the Rapports, Conseil Municipal de Paris, 1904, No. 3; and a supplementary discussion concerning foreign conditions chiefly in England and Italy in No. 7.

13 Communication of Dr. Carl Kelsey, University of Pennsylvania.

II. DEPARTMENT OF PHILANTHROPY, CHARITIES AND

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Training for Social Service.-The constant demand for trained workers in social service is an encouraging indication of the impression which organized charitable effort has made upon the public. This new profession has justified itself in action, and the most hopeful thing about it is that the workers who have made the administration of charities and corrections their profession, are themselves jealous and zealous for the uplifting of the professional standard, and the extension of special educational requirements. As a natural result, new plans are constantly being made to meet the demand. The Summer School of Philanthropy has been conducted by the New York Charity Organization Society during this summer. Henceforth there will be a winter session, from October to June, under the same auspices. Dr. E. T. Devine is to be the director, assisted by Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer and Alexander Johnson. Students of the school will also have the benefit of the Extension Courses to be given under the auspices of the Committee on Social Settlements and Allied Work of the Faculty of Columbia University, in co-operation with the Association of Neighborhood Workers. In addition, the school sessions will be arranged in such a manner as to allow qualified students to take advantage of such special courses at Columbia University, including Barnard and Teachers' Colleges as are most important for their training in the science and art of social service.

A training center for Social Workers was started last year, under the auspices of the University of Chicago, and the University has just announced the establishment of a College of Political and Social Science, which is to be under the general supervision of the faculty of the divinity school.

The School for Social Workers which has been established in Boston by the co-operation of Simmons College and Harvard University, will open in October, under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey R. Brackett, assisted by Miss Zilpha D. Smith. The topics which are included in the programme of instructions cover the whole field of "charity, corrections, neighborhood uplift, and kindred forms of social service;" but no mention is made of political economy, or political science or history, or psychology, all of which are required courses in the Chicago college. With these new and useful developments for the equipment of ministers and others, the theological seminaries will have to look to their laurels, unless they, too, are led to see the light.

Poor Relief in Indiana.—The March number of the Indiana Bulletin, which is published by the Board of State Charities, contains a valuable study of official outdoor relief in Indiana. The township trustees in the State are required by law to make full reports to the State Board of Charities. There are 1,015 of these townships and the total number of persons receiving aid in 1903 was 40,012. The report gives the comparisons by years. The Indiana Board was created in 1890. The value of poor relief which was given at that time was $560,232, but

it was impossible to ascertain the number of persons who were aided.

The first

time nearly complete figures were obtained was for the year 1895-$630,168. In 1896-97, 82,235 persons received aid. The total value of aid given was $388,343.67, an average of $4.72 to each person aided. Through the influence of the State Board of Charities outdoor relief has been systematized and pauperism checked, with the result that last year the number of persons aided was less than half the number in 1896-97. The cost of relief given in 1903 was $245,745.82, being an average of $6.14 per capita, which is perhaps an indication that the relief, while of a temporary nature, was more adequate in 1903 than in previous years.

It was popularly supposed that the decrease in the amount of relief given to the poor by the township trustees would result in a large increase in the population of the poor asylums. The result shows that there not only has not been an increase, but there has been a decrease, both actually and proportionately.

The population of the poor asylums August 31, 1890, was 3,264; on August 31, 1900, 3,096; a decrease of 168, or 5 per cent. Since 1900 there has been a further reduction of four per cent. in the population of the poor asylums, the number present on August 31, 1903, being 2,962, or 134 less than on the same day in 1900. The total reduction, therefore, from 1890 to the present date, is 9 per cent. Compare these figures with the population of the State. In 1890 this was 2,192,404; in 1900, 2,516,462; an increase of 14 per cent.

Six years ago a law was enacted, presumably under the inspiration of the State Board's reports, which placed upon each township the burden of its own poor relief. A study of the subsequent reports shows a very notable decrease in the number of high taxed levies and a corresponding increase in the number of townships which made no levies or a very low one. Under the compulsory education law of Indiana, children under 16 may be given assistance to enable them to attend school. Of the 40,012 persons who received aid in 1903, 17,848 were children under 16 years of age.

The Report of the Oregon State Conference of Charities and Corrections, which was held at Portland last March, takes high rank among documents of this character. Governor Chamberlin, in the course of a thoughtful address, commended the efforts to organize a Prisoners' Aid Society. This was accomplished during the Conference under the Presidency of Dr. E. P. Hill. Mr. James N. Strong delivered an inspiring address on the "March of Reform," in the course of which he made the following statement:

"The managements of our State Prisons and insane asylums have in the past years been strictly political. Now comes Governor Chamberlin, and in an announcement of no little importance, names a warden for the prison, and tells him in so many words that he will be held strictly responsible for its management, and that he, the Governor, to preserve his own freedom, as the representative of the people to criticise, will not even suggest the names of sub-employees. It is not a law nor is it binding on future Governors, but it is an announcement that responds to and helps healthy public opinion, and that in the end makes law that no future Governor, however politically venal he may be, will dare to disregard.'

Among the resolutions passed by the Congress was one favoring separate boards of supervision and control of the State Correctional and Educational institutions, the membership of which was to include both men and women. The Conference instructed its chairman to appoint special committees to examine

and visit all of the State Institutions for criminals and dependents, and report their condition to the conference of 1904. The needs of the State for proper provision for defectives and the inadequacy of probation and truancy laws were set forth frankly.

The New York Fiscal Supervisor of State Charities has recently published his report for the year ending September 30, 1903. This department was created by the Legislature of 1902 at the instance of Governor Odell, for the avowed purpose of better regulating the finances of the State institutions and effecting economies. Mr. H. H. Bender, the supervisor, declares that his main endeavor has been to see that the wards of the State should be better clothed and better fed than hitherto without increasing the cost, and that the question of effecting a saving of money he has regarded of secondary importance. By systematizing the purchase of supplies, he claims that the average per capita cost has been reduced from $168.97 to $163.54, a saving of $5.43, and calls attention to the fact that this had been done in a year when the prices of all kinds of provisions were unusually high, and the coal strike had raised the price of coal to unprecedented figures.

Prior to Mr. Bender's appointment, each of the 15 institutions which are now under his fiscal direction bought its own supplies separately, and while it was limited as to price to the lowest market quotations of its vicinity, it was clearly apparent that the supplies could be bought in the open market for all institutions at lower prices. This was on the theory, that as the total population of the institutions was over 8,000 any bidder could afford to place a lower figure on goods sufficient in quantity to supply this number, than upon supplies for a single institution with a population of from 200 to 500. Mr. Bender secured statistics showing the quantities of the leading staple articles in use in the different institutions, which were to serve as a basis of calculation for bidders, and a committee of six superintendents of institutions was appointed to select a list of articles which could profitably be purchased by joint contract. The committee appears to have done its work with great thoroughness and care, and decided that the following articles could be bought jointly: graham flour, hominy, macaroni, rice, coffee, evaporated apples, raisins, laundry starch, salt codfish, mackerel, tea, vinegar, baking powder, crackers, evaporated peaches, prunes, currants and butter.

They found that among the commodities that cannot profitably be purchased by joint contract are: flour, meats and milk.

Mr. Bender expects to effect a great saving in the cost of heating by equipping a number of institutions with coal-saving devices.

In Mr. Bender's report he is clear and frank, and thoroughly business like, although he may claim a little too much from a single year's experience.

The 31st Annual Session of the National Conference of Charities and Correction at Portland, Maine, which closed June 22, was characterized by a very large attendance of delegates from twenty-eight States and from Canada, by an unusually brilliant series of papers on a great variety of topics, and by an unprecedented local interest in all its proceedings. On several occasions the audience

numbered more than one thousand persons. It reflects great credit on the executive ability of the President for 1903-4, Dr. Jeffrey R. Brackett, formerly of Baltimore, but recently chosen to serve as head of the new training school at Boston for charity workers, organized by Harvard University and Simmons College for Women.

Among the names of those present are many which are well known to charity workers throughout the United States: among them may be mentioned Dr. Charles R. Henderson, of Chicago University; Prof. Graham Taylor, of Chicago Commons; Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, Chicago; Mr. Robert W. de Forest, of the New York Charity Organization Society; Mr. Homer Folks, ex-Commissioner of Charities of the city of New York; Mrs. Florence Kelley, of the Consumers' League; Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, of the New York Winter School of Philanthropy; Mrs. Vladimir Simkhovitch, of Greenwich House, New York; Mr. Robert Treat Paine, and Mr. Joseph Lee, of Boston; Dr. George F. Keene, of Howard, R. I.; the venerable Gen. Roeliff Brinkerhoff, of Ohio; Judge Benjamin B. Lindsey, of Denver; Mr. F. H. Nibecker, of Philadelphia; Mr. Hugh F. Fox, of New Jersey, and many others of equal ability and reputation. Dr. Charlton T. Lewis, of New York and New Jersey, was to have been there, but died a few weeks before the meeting. The paper he had prepared was read by Dr. F. H. Wines and heard with peculiar and tender interest by a large audience. Dr. Henderson described it as a voice from the grave, or rather, as a voice from heaven. Mr. F. B. Sanborn, of Concord, Mass., Dr. Wines, of New Jersey, and Rev. John L. Milligan, of Allegheny, were the only three in attendance who have been with the movement from the beginning; they were at the original Cincinnati Prison Congress of 1870, organized by Dr. E. C. Wines and presided over by Rutherford B. Hayes, then Governor of Ohio.

It may be said of this Conference that the papers and discussions were at once more scientific, more practical and more spiritual and idealistic than at any former session; and the published volume will form a noble addition to the literature of philanthropy. It may seem invidious to single out certain addresses for special praise, but it is difficult to refrain from naming the opening address by President Brackett, the annual conference sermon by Rev. Dr. Crothers, of Cambridge, Mass., Dr. Keene's lucid and profoundly scientific paper on "The Genesis of the Defective"-Mr. Sanborn remarked that we are more interested in his “Exodus;" the exquisite essay by Dr. Lewis on “The Principle of Probation," which is a literary gem as well as a masterpiece of philosophic insight; Mrs. Simkhovitch's elaborate and exhaustive account of "The Public School as a Social Center," admirably supplemented by Mr. Lee's analysis of boy nature, in his talk on "Playgrounds as a Part of the Public School System;" Mr. Nibecker's review of the reform school movement in America; Dr. Henderson's history of the origin and growth of the juvenile court; and the inspiring paper by Mr. Francis H. McLean, of Chicago, on "Ideals and Methods of Co-operation." It is proper to mention also the address on “The Education of the Blind," by Mr. Campbell of Boston, which was illustrated by stereopticon views, including some moving pictures. The most unsatisfactory session was that on State Super