REPORT

UPON THE

PUBLIC CHARITIES OF KINGS COUNTY.

BY

RIPLEY ROPES,

COMMISSIONER OF THE STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES.

REPORT.

To the State Board of Charities:

For years, to the people of Kings county, the condition of its public charities has been, through the columns of the local press, an open book, yet no formal extended report concerning them, for a long period, appears on the records of this Board, the chief reason being their very unsatisfactory condition. Now that they have improved, with strong encouragement that they will soon be entirely released from the thraldom of political wickedness with which they have so long been identified, it seems proper that their history for a period, as also their present condition and tendency should be written, that this Board to the exercise of whose authority are so largely owing the good results reached—may realize a due share of credit for its labors. The office of Commissioner of Charities in Kings county for many years has been elective, and from the period when the change was made from appointive, commenced a history, which, for fraud and general bad management, is believed to be without a parallel in any county in the State, to overcome which- even in part—has required years of earnest and persistent effort.

It seems proper to notice first the system of temporary relief, that having been the most prolific source of pauperism, as also the origin of more fraud than any other department. A system through which relief was so freely and indiscriminately given as to win for the county the title of "paupers' paradise." A system, too, by which the Commissioners could distribute aid in such manner as would result to their advantage, when the period for a new lease of power should be reached.

In 1864, when the office was honestly administered, 20,743 persons were assisted, at a cost of $26,000. In 1874, when the reverse was the case, 36,411 persons were assisted, at a cost of $135,000, including an expense of forty per cent for distribution. The depression in business in 1874 has no bearing, as the records of 1870-when labor was in demand and the poor generally well employed-show an expenditure of $163,000 in assisting 38,170 persons.

From 1872 to 1877, inclusive, there was expended for temporary relief the sum of $700,000, of which $500,000 were charged for groceries and coal, and $200,000 for expense of distributing the same. The cost of distribution during the period named varied in the several districts from thirty to sixty-five per cent, reaching in one district in 1876 eighty-seven and eighty-eight one-hundredths per cent, and averaging for all the districts during the entire period forty-one per cent. In 1874 commenced the attacks upon this monstrous iniquity. Evidence of the necessity for its complete destruction rapidly accumulated. Resisted always, and thwarted often, by the combined opposition of politicians and their parasites, as also professional paupers,

all of whom were voters, the work was pushed steadily onward. Facts so startling and conclusive in their character were furnished, that in 1877 provision for its continuance was refused by the Board of Estimate, and in 1878 this scandal of the past, this fraud upon the worthy poor and outrage upon the tax payers ceased. Nor will the system, always an evil in large communities, if not in small ones, be permanently resumed.

The boldness with which the claims for its abolishment were pressed during the struggle was at times questioned by many good citizens, who were of the opinion that it was hazardous to summarily consign to the care of private charities so many persons, who for years, because of the freely-tendered assistance from the county treasury, had been taught to eat the bread of dependence, but the risk was taken, the various private charities were duly notified of the probability of an increased call upon their resources, and a system of co-operation secured. Increased vigilance was required and exercised. The end justified the means, for with the spring of 1879, and again in 1880, came the united testimony from the various charities of the most satisfactory seasons in their experience, most of the county mendicants who applied having failed to meet the approval of the visitor, while the needy, deserving poor received proper consideration.

The number of persons said to have been assisted by all the charities of Kings county, including temporary relief during the last year of its continuance, 1877, was 125,000, or one out of four of the population receiving more or less pauper assistance. The number assisted yearly since will not, it is believed, exceed 50,000, thus proving the great fraud attending the dispensing of county aid.

The history of the management of the county buildings at Flatbush, comprising a lunatic asylum, hospital for incurables, hospital for the sick, and alms-house, containing a yearly average number of from 2,200 to 2,300 inmates, shows that it has not escaped the sad experience incident to political control. As with temporary relief, so in the government of this department, improvement has been reached through persistent warfare, not alone with the Commissioners, but with officers of the local government, and their political superiors.

The details or incidents attending the efforts to eliminate politics from the charities, it is not necessary to state in this report. Of the evident corrupt collusions, through or by which contractors were relieved of the obligations set forth in their contracts, and because of which the poor were, at times, supplied with provisions unfit for human food. Of the manner in which wicked combinations worked their disastrous results by placing, at times, in authority, from medical staff to nurse, and even a lower grade of officials, persons whose claims were judged by the standard of political influence, rather than by their qualifications, for the positions to which they were assigned. Of the causes for which, during the period named, three Commissioners were indicted, convicted and thrust from office, barely escaping the penitentiary, while others still rest under indictment yet to be tried, and which, it is hoped, will result more favorably to the cause of good government than did indictments found against their associates, in efforts to defraud the public treasury, who escaped just punishment through technicalities, more easily found now than in earlier days.

All the facts and details pertaining to this synopsis of history are a