hundred and fifty-seven (28,257) persons from foreign ports arrived at the port of Philadelphia, and were separately examined and inspected by our officers as required by the act of congress. Of that number, twenty-five thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight (25,798) were immigrants, and two thousand four hundred and fifty-nine (2,459) were citizens of the United States.

Sixty-eight (68) persons were returned to the ports from which they sailed, it having been satisfactorily shown that they would, in all probability, have become a "public charge" if permitted to remain in this country.

In order to obtain reliable information as to whether any of the immigrants who landed at this port during the year ending June 30, 1891, and, if so, how many were admitted into any almshouse in Pennsylvania, an interrogatory circular, with blank, was sent to each institution, asking for an account of the number thus admitted. Returns were received from all the almshouses of the state (seventy-two in number), and they showed that not one immigrant who had landed at this port during said year had been admitted to an almshouse, to become a charge upon the public.

In the course of the year, however, three sick immigrants did find their way into almshouses. They required hospital care, and had no other refuge. We were duly informed of their condition, and defrayed their expenses out of the United States immigrant fund, created from the head-tax upon immigrants for the purpose of preventing their becoming a charge upon the public.

One hundred and sixty-seven (167) immigrants who landed during the year, but not at the port of Philadelphia, were (according to the reports. received) admitted to the almshouses of Pennsylvania, one almshouse alone having received thirty-two (32) of the number

The total number of aliens who arrived at the port of Philadelphia during the year was 25,798, of which number 13,198 remained in Pennsylvania. As none of this number (except the three sick immigrants above mentioned) became inmates of almhouses, we are led to believe that few, if any, of the 12,600 who took up their abode in other states and territories, became inmates of the almshouses therein, or in any way became charges upon the public. The immigration statistics in detail will be found in the Appendix to the annual report of the Board of Public Charities for 1891.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Board of Public Charities. MAHLON H. DICKINSON,

President.

REPORT

OF THE

GENERAL AGENT AND SECRETARY.

To the Board of Public Charities of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: GENTLEMEN: At the close of another year the general agent and secretary of your your board submits for your consideration the results of the work for that period.

The legislature was in session for the first five months of the year, during which time he remained at the office in Harrisburg.

Many resolutions and bills in which your board were interested were submitted to the legislature. Some of them failed to pass that body, whilst others, which were successful, were subsequently vetoed when they reached the Executive department. Of those which passed the legislature and met with executive approval, the most important was the one providing for the appointment by the Governor of a commission to select a site and to erect thereon a building for the care of the chronic insane. The act required that both the site and the plans for the building should, before being adopted, be submitted to your board for its approval. The commission selected a site in Berks county, near Wernersville, which, after visitation, was unanimously approved by the board. The plans for the building have not yet been submitted for your approval. Upon the completion of this building many of the chronic insane who are now in the state hospitals can be transferred thereto, and the overcrowded condition which at present exists in them will be relieved.

Many of the bills containing appropriations for private institutions which passed the legislature were vetoed by the Governor because the law requiring that all institutions intending to apply for state aid should beforehand notify your board of their intention so to do in order that a report thereon should be made, had neglected to comply with the requirement.

This recognition of a wise enactment has been salutary, and we believe that, had the rule been uniformly enforced, it would have been the means

of preventing much improvident appropriation of state money for private purposes. We hope that at the next session of the legislature the managers of all institutions intending to apply for aid may give ample time to enable a thorough and systematic examination of the wants of each institution to be made, and that the legislature may give attention to the recommendations thus carefully considered. The bill which was passed by the legislature requiring that all the accounts of institutions drawing money from the state should be quarterly audited by your board, and their correctness certified to before warrants for their payment should be issued by the Auditor General, was vetoed by the Governor. This action relieved your board of an unpleasant and responsible duty, but one which it had consented to have placed upon it from the conviction that some such body should be required to so audit and certify before accounts were approved and warrants for their payment issued. We have from experience been convinced that the provision in the constitution requiring that no money shall be expended for purposes other than that for which it was appropriated, has been frequently overlooked, and that there was great need that such a provision should be lodged in some department of the government. We believe that eventually such a law will have to be enacted, but would prefer that the duties required should be enforced in the Auditor General's department rather than by this board. The general agent has directed that blanks shall be sent to every institution which may notify our board of its intention to apply for state aid, on which it shall give the total number of persons aided by the institution during the previous year, the annual per capita cost of each inmate for that period, as well as the total income and the sources from which said income was derived from that period. These figures can be printed in the pamphlet with the application of the institution and your action thereon, and it will enable the members of the legislature at a glance to see whether the amount applied for is or is not reasonable.

After the adjournment of the legislature all the larger institutions were visited, with the exception of about half a dozen in the smaller counties.

JAILS AND POORHOUSES.

During the last session of the legislature a bill was introduced therein which was drafted by the commission appointed by the Governor under the provisions of an act passed at the previous session. The object of the bill was to provide for uniformity in the support of the poor in the state, and in order to accomplish this it required the creation of a new department with several additional officers. Many of the provisions of the bill were entirely new, and had it been adopted it would have been doubtful whether any material improvement would have resulted, although some of the provisions contained in it were good. It failed to pass at this session of the legislature, but in a modified form it will be again presented at the coming session.

If our state was a new one we could undoubtedly recommend many changes from our present system, but it is a delicate and difficult matter to, by an entirely new law, uproot that which has prevailed for a long time in many sections with good results, and which has been the subject of much legislation and judical decision, and to substitute in its place something entirely original which, too, in its time would require much legal interpretation to be put upon it before it could be satisfactorily administered. Hasty action should certainly not be taken.

Again, however, I must earnestly call your attention to the manner in which many of our county jails are conducted. These are under the care of the sheriffs of the several counties who receive an amount varying from twenty-five to sixty cents per day for each prisoner. Out of this amount he is to supply the food required, the county commissioners defraying other expenses. The inmates are prisoners awaiting trial who cannot procure bail, those similarly committed by magistrates and other petty officers for periods of ten, thirty and sixty days, or until fines are paid, all witnesses whose attendance at trial is doubtful, and all convicts whose sentences are for periods of one year or less. Seldom is it that among this number are not to be found small boys serving sentences for illegal riding on cars, or robbing orchards, and adults steeped in crime, only too well qualified to impart degrading information to their companions. In most cases these classes are allowed to congregate in idleness during the entire day in the corridors of the jails. Generally they have given to them, or manage to obtain, packs of cards, in playing which they pass their time. Only four months ago, in Lawrence county, I found eight little boys sentenced by a county magistrate for stealing apples to ten days confinement in the county jail, sitting upon the floor with an equal number of vicious looking men all engaged in a game of cards. These boys were sent to this place certainly not alone for punishment but also for reformation. Ten days with such companionship would be sufficient to send them forth accomplished criminals. We have in the state at least one dozen county jails in which such contaminating influences cannot prevail. The prisoners are kept separate and apart and each one is required to keep his time occupied in some useful employment. These jails are little if any inferior to our state penitentaries. They are conducted by boards of inspectors who elect wardens from experienced men to superintend their management. Why, then, do we not make this system universal instead of exceptional? It can be demon strated that the profits arising from the labor of the inmates will at least provide for the additional expense. It will, of course, take from the sheriffs the difference in the amount paid by the county for the support of each prisoner and the actual cost which he receives for this purpose. I am satisfied that in the matter of the management of our county jails we are far, very far, behind what our civilization demands and most unnecessarily so. If we can succeed in putting an end to the present