responsibility is a continuing one, and to be discharged properly it is as necessary to know the conditions after six months, a year, or five years, as at the time of placing. Until the child has grown to maturity constant super vision is required. Visits may be more or less frequent, according to circumstances, but must be of sufficient fre quency to keep those who are responsible in the first instance reliably informed concerning the conditions. Even legal adoption, although it shifts responsibility to a great extent, does not completely absolve those who have originally assumed it, since in some communities the for mality of adoption may not be adequately safeguarded.
The writer was once asked what it would cost to send a thousand children from the streets of New York City to free homes in the West. The inquiry was not an un natural one, coming from a man who had amassed a great fortune, and whose own boyhood had been passed in a New England village. Having no personal knowledge either of city waifs or of organized methods of placing children, he assumed, or, perhaps it would be more accu rate to say, had been informed from a certain class of books and newspaper articles which deal superficially with social problems, that there are at large an indefinite num ber of children who can be gathered bodily into a child saving net, and taken hither and you as the catcher may fancy, and that the only expense involved is the railway fare. If, in answer to the inquiry, it had been said that the thousand children could be taken West and placed out at a per capita expense of $20 or $25, this sum might no doubt have been instantly forthcoming ; and if it had been attempted to carry the donor's wishes into execution, sad havoc would have resulted. A few happy chances would have resulted from the attempt, but many children would certainly have been taken who are better off at home, in spite of the fact that that home happens to be in the city ; and others, who would appear at the outset to have been placed pleasantly enough, would in a very few months have run away from their new homes, per haps on just provocation ; while still others, in the course of time, would have found themselves sorely in need of protection or guidance or help which no one would stand ready to give, since the philanthropy of the original donor would have been exhausted by his gift, and he would have provided no substitute to stand in his place. One cannot remove a thousand children from their homes, or even from their temporary lodging-places, however unsatisfac tory they may appear to an onlooker, without accepting the responsibilities implied in the act. In answer to the
inquiry the following letter was sent : — "Dear SIR : — " Pursuaut to your request that I should send you information as to the cost of sending 1000 boys to the West and placing them in homes, I beg to say that I have had made three estimates representing somewhat different methods of placing out children, and also, I must add, somewhat different degrees of efficiency and thoroughness. None of these estimates, however, is as low as that which I gave you offhand over the telephone when your inquiry was made, as I did not make sufficient allowance for the expense of subsequent supervision and for various inci dental expenses, most of which are itemized in the accompanying estimates.
"Estimate A gives a total of $233,700, or approximately $235 per capita for 1000 children. You will notice, how ever, that this provides for close supervision of the chil dren until death, adoption, or coming of age ; it provides for a complete outfit of clothing for each child placed out, and also a very considerable item for the board of a maxi mum of forty children, who, although placed in free homes at the outset, are returned for one reason or another, and must be boarded at least temporarily, and in some instances for a considerable period. Experience shows that children who, because of personal unattractiveness, physical de formity, or some other reason, cannot be placed in free homes, may usually receive all the advantages of a good home if their board is paid for at some such rate as $2 per week. This estimate includes an adequate allowance for the travelling expenses, not only at the outset, but also for the occasional transfers from one home to another ; for medical and surgical care of children who need such treatment, and other similar items, which in the other estimates are not allowed for, as it is there assumed that such expenses will be met as the need arises, either by existing charitable agencies of some kind or by the foster parents. In other words, the estimate of $235 includes everything which is necessary to find a suitable home, prepare the child for it, place him there, and insure that he shall receive during his minority a good elementary education, proper attention to his health, and the con tinued attention of a responsible agency which will at once remove him to another place if the first proves in any way unsuitable.