ADMINISTRATION OF CHARITY.
Administration of Charity. By Arthur Paterson. (City Council for Organization of Charity. ls.)—This pamphlet is reprinted from the Times, and is well worthy of a permanent shape. The state of things which it describes urgently demands a remedy. Hundreds of societies in London—not to speak of the provinces— spend more than ten millions annually, with no, or next to no, intercommunication, and very often with no kind of inquiry. Of this latter abuse Mr. Paterson gives a significant instance. A clerk required a surgical appliance, which had to be renewed every eighteen months at a cost of 30s. He was in receipt of £100 per annum, so that a weekly saving of something less than 5d. would have defrayed the cost. What he did was to send begging-letters to the subscribers. If he got six "letters" the article was supplied gratis. He had learnt the art of puting his case so pathetically that the "letters" came in without much solicitation. The " shelters " are not a little abused. "How many of these men have deserted their families ? " said Mr. Paterson to the manager of one such institution who was speaking of some well-conducted inmates. " You have hit the weak spot," was the answer. Similar abuses are found where inquiry would be com- paratively easy. The writer of this notice knew of a case in which a man who kept a carriage and hired shooting and fishing contrived to have his son educated gratuitously. Mr. Paterson proposes as a remedy an association of subscribers, who should do on a large scale what his own society and the Charity Organisation Society are doing already,—a proposal which has already had a practical issue. One thing is pretty certain: now that an old-age pension scheme has come into operation, there will be a tremendous drop in subscriptions, and charities will be forced to mend their ways.
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