| CHARITIES A Review of Local and General Philanthropy | ||
| Published Every Saturday | Two Dollars a Year | |
| Vol. XIII | December 3, 1904 | No. 10 |
The Month in Philanthropy.The striking event of the past month—and one which promises to be most far-reaching in its influence upon social work in America—was the endowment by John S. Kennedy, in the sum of $250,000, of the School of Philanthropy conducted by the New York Charity Organization Sociaty.
Less unexpected, but of deep-reaching concern in its effect upon living conditions, was the decision of the highest court of New York state affirming the constitutionality of the tenement-house law which, in the Moeschen case, was subjected to an attack calculated, if sustained, to vitiate that humanitarian measure. The decision gives the departnment unhampered opportunity to grapple with hygienic and architectural ills of old buildings which are a standing menace to the tenement population. That a housing meetin was held within the month in Boston, that the Octavia Hill Association is rounding its work of investigation in Philadelphia, and that an inspcetor has begun an inquiry in one of the second cities of New England, show the continuous advance in this field of philanthropy.
November is ever a month of conferences in charities and corrections and it is appropriate that following the largely attended meetings in Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Iowa and New York should come announcement of the national gathering at Portland, Oregon, July 15 to 23, 1905.
Development following the jailing of a boy and a murderer in the same cell in a rural New Jersey county, the attack upon a mendicancy officer in New York by a large muscled beggar who feigned paralysis, and the exposure of a grist of "fake" epileptic homes in Chicago, are painful, if picturesque, evidences of vigourous work ahead.
The Slav in America the Second of "Charities'" Studies of "Strangers Within the Gates."The touches of nature which make Slavs akin to the rest of the world abound in the articles which swell to generous dimensions this special number of Charities. Human virtues and human faults which are familiar enough in other peoples stand forth again with their faimiliar faces from the strange backgrounds. Very attractive, very interesting, very much entitled to our respect and our better acquaintance are these newcomers who are now a more important element in our immigration than Irish, Germans or Scandinavians. Nicholas, Humbert and Francis Joseph are each sending us every year a great many desperate, dissatisfied or ambitious subjects, and while there is no disposition among Theodore Roosevelt's fellow citizens to find fault with their number, there is awakening a keen desire to know something more about what manner of citizens they are likely to make. With the effective co-operation of szmpathetic observers and workers of other races, and worthz representatives of their own, Charities makes this week what it is believed will be welcomed as a substantial contribution to such knowledge of some of the fragments of nationalities loosely known collectively as Slavs.
Comparing this stream of immigration with the others from northern Europe which preceded it, one striking contrast appears which has not so far as we are aware received sufficient attention. The Slavs, emigrating to the United States, come into a country which in climate, topography and natural resources is not unlike their own. The fertile plains of Bohemia nad of the Danube are matched by those of the Mississipi's tributaries. Wheat fiellds, forests, and mines furnish conspicuous occupations in both countries. Extractive and manufacturing industries
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