The Survey October 1916-March 1917 . owchildren of six to have been committed as ungovernable. The overseer method of commitment was productive of stillanother evil. Usually this official is paid by the day, or on acommission basis. In either case, the signing of a commitmentorder was money in his pocket. If paid by the day, to signsuch an order was easily made to constitute a days work; iffive orders were ready to be signed at once, they were quitelikely to take their turns on five successive days. If paidon the commission basis, the overseer received so much forevery order signed. Nor did hi
The Survey October 1916-March 1917 . owchildren of six to have been committed as ungovernable. The overseer method of commitment was productive of stillanother evil. Usually this official is paid by the day, or on acommission basis. In either case, the signing of a commitmentorder was money in his pocket. If paid by the day, to signsuch an order was easily made to constitute a days work; iffive orders were ready to be signed at once, they were quitelikely to take their turns on five successive days. If paidon the commission basis, the overseer received so much forevery order signed. Nor did his profits end there. Mileagewas granted to him for accompanying the child to the insti-tution ; the amount nearly always exceeded his actual expendi-ture. Five children were therefore sure to mean five differenttrips, though they might all be going to the same place. This THE ALMSHOUSE says Warner, is theguarantee againststarvation which thestate offers to one was a fire-trap, as well as thescene of some astound-ing reforms. private charitable institutions. The commissioners of charityin three cities had that power; all local (township) overseersof the poor had it; four justices of the peace in each of nine-teen towns had it; and, finally, police justices and city judgeshad it. Many abuses grew out of this scattering of authority. Inthe first place, it was to the interest of the local commissioneror overseer to commit children whenever he could findexcuse. He is the person charged by law with the reliefof poor people in their homes. Such relief is paid forfrom the funds of his department, whereas the county itselfpays for children in institutions and the expense is then passedon to the towns in the form of taxes. By putting childreninto institutions, thereby relieving their families of the burdenof supporting them and himself of supporting the families, hecould keep down his own expenditures considerably. Hence,he welcomed the opportunity to make commitments. This, of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidsurv, booksubjectcharities
