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In the New England States the townships, through their selectmen, cared for the poor. Later, when the duties became heavier, a special poor relief official, the overseer of the poor, was substituted for the selectman. Cities usually had the same responsibilities as the towns. In Southern States, the county was the governmental unit and poor relief was on a county basis, with the governing board of the county as the administrative authority. These two systems, or some combina tion of them, formed the basis for the administrative systems of all the States, the governmental form adopted in the States de pending largely on the system in vogue in the State from which most of the settlers came. In about half of the States all poor relief was administered on a county basis. In States having a mixed administrative system, the relation of the city and town to the county was complicated and varied greatly from State to State. City charters usually placed the responsibility for the care of the poor on a special official or board, either elected or appointed.
The laws of every State except New Mexico authorized the establishment of almshouses by some gov ernmental unit, either the town, city, or county. The law, with the exception of two States, was permissive. Outdoor relief was authorized at the discretion of the poor law authorities, either by specific statement or by implication. As a rule, the laws dealt briefly with outdoor relief, regarding it as a temporary expedient, and tended to place greater emphasis on almshouse care. Medical care was authorized at the discretion of the poor law officials as a form of poor relief.
Practically all laws had some defini tion of what sort of persons were to be cared for by public relief. In about three-quarters of the States, care was to be given to "per sons unable to support themselves" or "all poor, indigent, and in capacitated persons." The laws of most of the States established the liability of the community for support of a needy person on the basis of "settlement,"—a required length of residence in the com munity. As a rule, legal settlement was acquired by a residence for a stated time in the particular governmental unit without receipt of relief. The usual requirement was for residence of one year, though some States required as much as five or seven years. Set tlement was generally considered to have been lost in a State by absence for one year from that State.
The laws of most of the States were based on the principle that relief should be given only when there were no close relatives liable and able to support their dependents. Occasionally the grandparents and grandchildren were made liable, but usually only parents and children.
While 43 States had some central board or department with some degree of administrative or supervisory responsibility relating to some phases of the care of the depend ent classes, comparatively few such State bodies had definite re sponsibilities in regard to the supervision of poor relief. In about
one-quarter of the States, State authorities inspected almshouses, received financial reports, and made recommendations to local authorities. The recommendations, however, could seldom be en forced. There was even less supervision of outdoor relief, and comparatively few States had accurate figures as to the amount expended for this purpose by local authorities.
At first, the poor were cared for by outdoor relief, by indenture of adults or children, or by boarding out. As the number of poor increased, the practice grew of auctioning the care of the poor as individuals or as a group. The first almshouse was established in Massachusetts in 166o, but it was not until after 1700 that any great number were estab lished. During the r8th century and the first half of the 19th century the almshouse came to be looked upon as the best method of correcting the abuses inherent in the earlier systems of aiding the poor at home. It soon became a catch-all for all types of people for whom no other care was available, such as the sick, the aged, infirm, children, insane, feeble-minded, vagrants, etc. The period from 187o was characterized by a growing realization of the failure of the almshouse to care adequately for its varied type of inmates. By steady effort, specialized care was secured for many of these cases. In particular, laws were enacted forbidding the care of children in almshouses and requiring the removal of the insane and feeble-minded.
A report of the United States census on Jan. I, 1923, showed that there were 78,090 inmates in almshouses, showing a decrease since 1910 when there had been 84,198 inmates. In 1923, 47 States had 2,183 publicly owned almshouses, representing an in vestment of $150,485,230. The annual maintenance cost of the publicly owned institutions was $28,740,523. About 88% of the publicly owned almshouses were directly operated by public officials. The other 12% operated under a contract system whereby the public institution and care of the inmates was given to a pri vate individual on various terms. As to public outdoor relief, very little was known prior to 193o, since no general study had ever been made and few States had even accurate information as to the amount expended by local officials for this purpose. From figures available from a few States, it was evident that many more people were being aided by outdoor relief than through alms house care. The administration of outdoor relief was subject to great criticism which certain special studies justified.