mother works from a mere whim or desire to have a little more in the way of dress or furniture is a doubtful policy.' The somewhat striking discovery was made by the mana gers of one day nursery that by providing practically free care for the children of certain colored waiters they were enabling them to work for the well-to-do students of a great university at wages which, except for the wife's earnings, could not have supported the family.
Such are the economic and social problems which are beginning to complicate the day nursery, as, indeed, they affect all charitable work. They are not incapable of solution. Here, as in other forms of child-saving work, a snare lies before those who hope " to save the child," dis regarding the other members of the family. The family must be considered as a whole. Neither the child nor the adult can be dealt with separately. The managers of the day nursery who are actuated by a desire to be of real ser vice to the families whose children are received must in each instance face the question as to whether the family is a proper one to receive this particular form of assistance— whether the result in this particular instance is likely on the whole to be beneficial. It will often happen, as in the case of needy widows with small children, homeless chil dren, children of sick mothers or of mothers who are obliged to work because of sick fathers, that the day nursery is a distinct blessing, offering self-help — which is always, when practicable, the best kind of help. The introduction to the family which is always given by caring for the children in a day nursery can nearly always be followed up with advantage by the matron or the mana gers. By suggestion and encouragement the attempt may be made to increase the sense of responsibility on the part of the parents, and aid may be given in building up a healthy, prudent family The kindergarten and the manual training or industrial school as educational agencies are an important part of the system of public education. They are referred to here 1 ,. Day Nursery Work," Miss M H. Burgess, National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1894, p. 424.
2 Charities Directory," p. 68, description of free day nurseries supported by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw.
incidentally, because to some extent they perform a ser vice similar to that of the day nurseries, caring for chil dren who would otherwise demand the time of the mother who has had to become the breadwinner. The child-sav
ing committee of the twenty-fourth National Conference of Charities and Correction took the ground that the day nursery, kindergarten, and manual training school are aids to child saving which ought not to be dependent upon fit ful benevolence, but which should be placed in alignment with common schools, for the protection and culture of child life, and the aid of those who toil for the support of humble homes. Public sentiment would generally sup port this proposition as far as it relates to the second and third of these classes, but the day nursery would still be held in all parts of the country to be a suitable object for private benevolence, rather than an institution for public maintenance and control. The day nursery is frequently associated with a social settlement, a church, or a chari table society, but it is as frequently established indepen dently, and there is now a federation of day nurseries which is national in its scope.
A systematic effort to promote small savings was in augurated by the Charity Organization Society of New port, in the year 1880. Discovering that many of the poor who applied to them for relief during the winter had exactly the same income as others who lived comfortably throughout the year through better management and greater providence, the society secured the services of four women who volunteered to call every week from house to house to collect the small sums that these people could afford to lay by.' This society has continued its work since that time, increasing the number of its visitors to fourteen. In the year 1903 the sum of $13,922.40 was collected. The total amount deposited with the society during its twenty-four years of operation is over $75,000. In estimating the value of this work a recent report of the society says : " There is the encouragement of habits of economy, foresight, and thrift among the small wage earners of our community ; there is the prevention of Savings Society," by Anna Townsend Scribner, National Con ference of Charities and Correction, 1887, p. 143.