764 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
The boards of county commissioners were also permitted, in their discretion, to make annual allowances, "not exceeding the cost of their maintenance in the ordinary mode," to persons of mature years and sound mind, and to the parents of idiots and of children otherwise helpless, if the parents were unable to provide proper care. In addition to this, the employment of physicians to give medical treatment to the poor, including those in the county charitable and correctional institutions, was in the hands of the county commissioners.
As was to be expected, a very serious abuse had grown up under this system. The trustee's office was filled by popular election. He came to the work untrained, inexperienced. Other duties of the office were pressing. He was poorly paid and with- out assistance, as a rule, in carrying on the work. It was easier to give applicants what they wanted than to take the time or incur the expense necessary to make a careful investigation into their condition and actual needs. A trustee who was inclined to conduct his office in a more business-like manner was often met with political pressure, or the importunities of friends or rela- tives of the poor. When an applicant for aid failed to get what he wanted from the overseer, he applied to the county commis- sioners, frequently with success. Occasionally there was a delib- erate misuse of the public funds.
In addition to the waste of money, another aspect of the matter was to be considered. In its report for the year 1891 the Board of State Charities said :
Of all forms of public charity, outdoor relief is most liable to abuse and excess. There are very few inmates of our county poor asylums who are not proper subjects for the county's charity; few persons will voluntarily choose a residence in the asylum, if they are able to live outside. But for out- door relief there is constant demand from many who can get along very well without it, if it is not to be had. It is not alone the immediate waste of public money that is to be deplored, serious as that is ; but still more serious are the future consequences to be apprehended in the spread of pauperism and the degradation of the poor, and especially in the growing up of a new generation of dependents.*
That there was waste of money was shown conclusively by
- Annual Report, Board of State Charities, 1891, p. 114.
