PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE PRESERVATION AND EMBELLISHMENT OF TELEGRAPH HILL, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. Drawing made by Arthur F. Mathews for use by the California Outdoor Art League, pending a contemplated election for a municipal bond issue to provide the necessary funds. MOSELY SCHOOL-SECOND YEAR PLANTING. Chicago Branch of the Woman's Auxiliary. Gorge Route, who accompanied her guests. A fine luncheon at Queen Victoria Park brought the delegates together again, to separate later at Queenstown when the ladies were invited to take carriages for Mrs. John D. Larkins' typical Canadian country seat, Glen Cairn, where tea was served. The addresses at the State Reservation Hall and at the luncheon treated of park development and interest, and were effectively delivered by the Hon. T. H. Welch, Mr. Alex. J. Porter, and the Hon. J. W. Langmuir. The latter speaker finished his remarks concerning the power development at the Falls and the harmony between Canada and the States with a toast to his Majesty, the British King, and his Excellency, the President of the United States, which toast was drunk standing. It is noticeable that under the superintendency of Mr. Welch no merry-go-rounds or other diversions have been allowed to compete with the natural scenery. The State may well be proud of such sentiment and force in its superintendent. The election of officers for the Association and its auxiliary gave the following results President, Clinton Rogers Woodruff, Philadelphia; Vice-Presidents, John C. Olmsted, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Herman J. Hall, Chicago; Warren H. Manning, Boston; Chas. W. Garfield, Grand Rapids; D. J. Crosby, Washington; W. O. Roy, Montreal; Secretary, Chas. Mulford Robinson, Rochester; Treasurer, Ossian C. Simonds, Chicago. Woman's Auxiliary: President, Mrs. Chas. F. Millspaugh, Chicago; First Vice-President, Mrs. Frank A. Wade, Buffalo; Second Vice-President, Mrs. Basil Duke, Louisville; Secretary, Mrs. George T. Banzet, Chicago; Treasurer, Mrs. C. B. Whitnall, Milwaukee; Directors, Mrs. Sylvester Baxter, Boston; Mrs. W. J. Washburn, Los Angeles, Cal.; Mrs. H. D. Stearns, New Orleans, La.; Mrs. J. T. Hooper, Ashland, Wis. The convention closed with a reception given by the Twentieth Century Club at its magnificent club house on Delaware avenue. Mrs. S. M. Clement, assisted by Mrs. C. J. Hamlin, Mrs. Dexter Rumsey, Mrs. Watson, Dr. and Mrs. Mann, and Miss Amelia Stevenson, received the delegates. An orchestra played, and refreshments were served from a table banked with sweet peas and ferns. Here delegates met the new Buffalo members, and discussed further plans. The Summer School in Philanthropic Work. A BY ARTHUR P. KELLOGG. LTHOUGH the practice of charity along scientific lines is not new, the study of philanthropy as a profession is a comparatively recent development. The enrollment this year in the sixth annual session of the Summer School in Philanthropic Work conducted by the Charity Organization Society of New York City, shows plainly the tendency of the college man and woman to make of philanthropy a life-work founded on careful preparation both theoretical and practical. Graduates of eighteen colleges and universities were enrolled among the forty members. results. Material relief, almsgiving, is only an incident in a comprehensive plan. The hand held out to the man who is down is more often a guide to health or appropriate occupation, or a spur to endeavor, than the disburser of the charity which gives old clothes and coal. With plans for such activity in mind the members and graduates of the school have been firmly welded together as coworkers in a cause and have developed an esprit de corps frequently commented on at the reunion held at the close of the present term. It was found that leading charity workers in many of the largest societies in the country were alumni and appreciation of the benefits of the school was shown in the establishment by each class of a scholarship for each session during the first five years following its graduation. By this means there will be a large list of scholarships to be disposed of for some years to come, and it is expected that the number of graduates and their vital interest in the work will be materially increased. To the members of the school the carefully devised system of receiving applications for aid, the scrupulous investigation of the recipient of the relief granted with a definitely anticipated result in the future, are made clear. Immediate distress is relieved and, by the same act, a basis established for overcoming the conditions which would naturally reproduce that distress. The Summer School stands for scientific grounding and training under experienced charity workers as the modern substitute for turning Lady Bountifuls loose in a city to gain their experience at the expense of the poor persons whom they would aid. Perhaps the explicit aim of the charity workers was best expressed at the sessions of the school by Mrs. John M. Glenn of Baltimore when she said: "We are adjusting children (and adults) to society; not merely relieving distress.' Dr. Jeffrey R. Brackett of Johns Hopkins University, president of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, emphasized the aim of charity work as an effort to prevent the very poor from becoming destitute and to help the very poor to rise. In opening the school President Robert W. de Forest of the New York Charity Organization Society said that the charity of to-day is the old, Dr. Brackett declared that proper inold charity of the loving heart super- vestigation is the essential fundamental vised and made effective by the temper- in charity work. The right hand must ate charity of the clear brain. Dean know and approve of the doings of its Hodges of Cambridge, Mass., contrasted mate. As worked out in its broadest apthe old charity and the new as the charity plication, investigation includes the reof good intentions and the charity of good search of the paid investigator, the offices ROBERT W. DE FOREST. President New York Charity Organization Society. of the volunteer friendly visitor, the forethought of the departmental or district agent, the supervision of the probation officer in the court of justice, and the detective work of the special agent who arrests and secures the conviction of the professional mendicant and fakir. There is firm repression of the unnecessary crutch and of the epileptic who throws a fit on the approach of benevolence, thus drying up the sources of true charity. But even here there is constructive work. The cripples and blind men who run elevators or sell papers, no inconsiderable number in New York, are tangible evidences of the results of a well-conducted mendicancy department. The shot which killed the officer of a repressive society and numerous convictions for mendicancy are others. The investigation made wholly in a spirit of love and helpfulness, to pick for an unfortunate the right path and find means of reaching and keeping it, were emphasized by Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer of New York. Three weeks were given to a study of the care and treatment of needy families in their homes. Methods in vogue in representative cities were explained by men and women who have worked them out. Dr. Brackett laid stress on the finding of substitutes for material relief, but urged that where immediate aid is needed. it be administered quickly and persistently. If a work test be tried it should be bona fide-paying men for carrying old brick from one corner of a room to another and back again serves no good purpose. His experience has shown that the needy, in most cases, are lacking in equipment and efficiency; they need a larger and broader relief than the food and clothes and fuel with which charity in its absolute meaning is concerned. Frederick Almy, general secretary of the Charity Organization Society of Buffalo, argued against public outdoor relief. His experience has strengthened the conviction that relief should be placed wholly in the hands of private agencies which administer it with greater care and secure thrice the results. "Public charity tends to run to excess. Politics and lack of intelligence on the part of officeholders contribute to this, but the chief cause is the attitude of the poor toward it. It has been proved beyond question that public outdoor relief, no matter how well administered, saps character and breeds indoor (institutional) relief. Almsgiving kills thrift." For the other side, Frederick H. Wines of the New Jersey State Charities Aid Association, dealt a telling blow. He said: "Relief is not a favor, but a right. If it is not a right you have a right to refuse it, which is to destroy those who ask it, which is capital punishment without accusation or indictment or trial. So the laws of all States say that if there are no children or relatives to grant relief the poor or charity officer must do it. We cannot substitute private relief for public relief unless the private society is willing to assume all the responsibility of the public official. The final form of organized charity is public charity. It is the only form which requires all to contribute according to their means and absolutely guarantees relief to all who need it." Philip W. Ayres, director of the school, pointed out the evils of a low standard of living among the immigrant poor. The Italian, used to an open air life in a warm climate, does not change his dietary habit of macaroni and tomato upon entering the crowded city life of a cold climate. That large numbers of Italian children have the rickets was traced as one result. The teaching of a desire for a better standard of living, to insure health, is not less important than finding means of earning the cost of improved living. Further, along this line, was the address on medical charities by Dr. Lee K. Frankel, manager of the United Hebrew Charities. He has found wage earners particularly susceptible to some diseases. The varying forms of neurasthenia result from the hard grind to make ends meet, the lack of light in darkened lives. Complete nervous collapse is often unaccompanied by physical symptoms, and the brawny day laborer, entirely unfit for work, still looks his normal self. Nostalgia is particularly prevalent among immigrants, and sometimes develops into stubborn cases of melancholia and insanity. The Russian Jew is particularly liable to this because of the complete reversal of tradition and treatment in the new home. Dr. David Blaustein, of the Educational Alliance, told of the efforts to Americanize the Jewish immigrant. The Jew from Russia cannot grasp his new social and political position. Parents and neighbors draw themselves into exclusive little communities with all the old habits, worship, language, and traditions. The children learn a new language and become Americans. "In two years they are advanced two centuries beyond their parents." The result is an ever widening gap which disrupts the Jewish family, hitherto the model of devotion and cohesiveness in all classes. Through classes and clubs and patriotic dramas the Educational Alliance seeks to bridge this gap. The Jew from Eastern Europe is the immigrant most inflexible in tradition and hardest to adapt to American life. Of great interest was the week devoted to destitute, neglected, and delinquent children. The dominant note was the necessity for keeping homes together and the children in them. This reduces the proportion of children who would otherwise be sent to institutions. If the home cannot be preserved, or the children re tained in it, the next move is toward placing out in other families, preferably in the country. The institution is the last resort, but as that it is a necessity and often a blessing. Its greatest good, said Homer Folks, commissioner of charities of New York City, is in having at its head a good man or woman whose character will be impressed on the children. Mr. Folks laid strong emphasis on viewing the child's life as a whole, not limiting the perspective to the short years within the institution. Mrs. Glendower Evans of Boston told of the system of supervision by which the Lyman School for Boys follows the lives of its charges. Legal control is obtained over them until they are twenty-one years of age. A merit marking system enables a boy to earn his way out of the institution in from one to four years. Within it his best friend has been a visitor who takes him in hand after his discharge. Usually the boy goes to a farm where the visitor frequently and unexpectedly calls. At the age of eighteen the farmer must give the boy a suit of clothes and fifty dollars in money, which the school invests for him. He is then free to seek employment and usually |