hardship and partial dependence on charity which would be consequent upon a winter of enforced idleness or un certain employment ; for the most of the saving is done in the summer months when the facilities for money mak ing are increased, and the most of the withdrawals of savings come in the winter when those who secure labor during our season 1 are thrown out of work at its finish. There is the personal contact of our poor with the savings collectors, a contact which almost always ripens into a friendship affording opportunity for advice, comfort, and helpful suggestion in household administration." In such a city as Newport, where there are great sea sonal fluctuations in the amount of employment, and where the lavishness of the rich, at the times of their temporary residence, tends to pauperize the poor, there is special need of an aggressive counter influence such as is exerted by a vigorously prosecuted scheme for the encouragement of small savings.
From this beginning the system of small savings has extended throughout the country. Two such societies were formed in Boston in 1887 and 1890 respectively. The Penny Provident Fund of the Charity Organization Society of the city of New York was organized in 1888, and now collects annually about $100,000 from over 100,000 depositors. The committee of the fund announce dis tinctly that it is not a savings bank, but aims to do what savings banks do not do —to invite savings of small sums, less than one dollar, from adults as well as children. De posits of one cent and upward are receipted for by stamps attached to a stamp card given to each depositor, analo gous to the postal savings system of England. When a sufficient sum has thus been saved, depositors are encour aged to open an account in a savings bank where interest can be earned.
The work of charity organization societies and bureaus of charities is to a large extent educational, and although private agencies themselves, they have the aspect of bureaus of information about charitable work of every description. Besides these functions, however, they have an exceedingly important part to play in the immediate 1 As a summer resort.
task of relieving distress, and for this reason it will be advisable to include here some account of their origin and method of work. It is true that this involves the some what thankless task of doing again what has already been well done. The report of the committee on charity or ganization in cities at the National Conference of Char ities and Correction in 1880, presented by Oscar C. McCulloch, the history of charity organization in the United States, submitted by Charles D. Kellogg as chair man of the same committee at the National Conference of 1893, the chapter on the organization of charities in Warner's " American Charities " ; Miss Mary E. Rich mond's article, " What is charity organization ? " in the Charities Review for January, 1900 ; and the attempt made by the present writer, as chairman of the committee on the organization of charity, to ascertain what changes, if any, have taken place in the ideals and fundamental objects of such societies within the twenty years of their history, the results of which were embodied in the report to the National Conference of Charities and Correction of 1899, cover the ground somewhat fully, not to say re peatedly. Especially valuable is Mr. Kellogg's report in
tracing the conditions which prevailed at the period, now twenty-five years past, when the charity organization movement took its rise in this country ; the several inde pendent but nearly simultaneous beginnings in Phila delphia, New• York City, Buffalo, Newport, Cincinnati, Brooklyn, and Indianapolis ; and finally, the various methods of organization adopted, and the lines of develop ment in the different societies.
The resolution adopted by the State Board of Charities of New York on October 11, 1881, describes a condition of affairs which was more favorable than that to be found in other communities, rather than less so. The preamble and resolution were as follows : " Whereas, There are in the city of New York a large number of independent societies engaged in teaching and relieving the poor of the city in their own homes ; and " Whereas, There is at present no system of cooperation by which these societies can receive definite mutual in formation in regard to each other ; and " Whereas, Without some such system it is impossible that much of their effort should not be wasted, and even do harm by encouraging pauperism and imposture ; there fore, " Resolved, That the commissioners of New York City are hereby appointed a committee to take such steps as they may deem wise to inaugurate a system of mutual help and cooperation between such societies." Before this time, as has been shown, there had been two distinctly progressive movements in the organization of private relief, one at the beginning of the nineteenth cen tury, or earlier, for the establishment of relief societies, which were to take the place of indiscriminate almsgiving by individuals, and which were to increase the funds avail able for supplying the needs of particular classes which were thought to have been neglected. This movement has continued intermittently to the present time, and every year sees the formation of new societies and funds. The second was the formation of associations for improving the condition of the poor, whose functions were not to be confined to relief, although they absorbed in many in stances older and smaller societies. As the name indi cates, their founders expected that these associations would promote benevolent enterprises of various kinds, and they were not to deal in relief at all except in so far as this could be made a lever for the permanent elevation of those to whom it was given. To improve the condition of the poor, as far as is consistent with this aim, was their object. The particular business and objects of these associations, as stated in the incorporation of ' the one first formed, are the elevation of the physical and moral condition of the indigent, and, as far as is compatible with these objects, the relief of their necessities.