ute to their support; but the board had no power to transfer as a punishment. Thus in place of the three almshouses established by the act of 1852, the state had now an almshouse, a work-house, and a school for pauper children.

In 1872 the legislature authorized the governor to appoint three women to be an advisory board to the several boards of inspectors of the state almshouse at Tewksbury, the reform school at Westborough, and the primary school at Monson. This board was to visit these institutions as often as once a month and its members were to have access at all hours of day and night to all appartments occupied by women and children. They were to make quarterly reports of the "condition, treatment and needs of the inmates of the said institutions with suggestions and recommendations," and an annual report to be given in to the legislature with the annual report of the inspectors of the several institutions. The advisory board of women acted independently of the regular boards of inspectors for each institution. In 18841 the regular boards of inspectors for the state almshouse and for the state work-house were both abolished and the governor authorized to appoint one board, consisting of five men and two women, a board of trustees for both institutions. This board was given power to transfer, with the approval of the state board of health, lunacy, and charity, inmates from one institution to the other.

Upon the opening of the state institutions in 1854 all outside relief by the state stopped. Later some provision was made for the relief of the sick poor at the places where they fell sick but the inelasticity of the law often embarrassed local administrators. Unsettled pau

pers could not be aided in local institutions nor in their homes, but must be sent to a state institution, which might be at a considerable distance. This led often to the permanent pauperizing of a family which might otherwise have got on with small temporary aid administered by the local authorities. Accordingly it was provided that temporary aid might be given in the towns and cities to unsettled persons, and the legislature bound the commonwealth to reimburse, provided notice were given to the general agent of the state board of charities," who," continued the act, "in person, or by one of his assistants shall examine the case and direct the continuance of such aid, or removal to the State Almshouse or to some place outside the Commonwealth"; and "provided also that except in cases of sick State poor "aid be not for more than four weeks at a time or for more than one dollar per person or five dollars per family. In 1891 this clause was so amended that temporary aid might be given at the above rates for a term not exceeding four weeks between May 1 and November 1 and eight weeks between November 1 and May 1.2 By 1882 the number supported or temporarily aided under the sick-poor and temporaryaid laws was reported greater than the whole number of admissions at Tewksbury and Bridgewater.

It has been estimated that the granting of out-door relief has saved the commonwealth the expense of building a new almshouse; and it is thought that while the number of paupers coming upon the state may be increased by offering such relief, the amount of relief granted in each case is much less, very few of those receiving temporary aid appearing more than once in the

1 Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts, chapter 183, 1877.

2 Ibid., chapter 90, 1891.

state's accounts. The pauperizing of a household, which might result from removal of any of its members to a distant state institution, is often prevented by permitting local officials to administer a little timely aid to bridge over such temporary needs as result from sickness or accident or lack of employment. Bills sent in by the cities and towns for aid granted under the temporaryrelief and sick state-poor laws, like other bills contracted in the several departments of the state board, are first examined and corrected by the heads of the several departments respectively, then audited by the clerk of the board, and finally submitted to the auditor of the commonwealth for approval.

The report of the board of state charities for 18641 recommended "That the State ought not to establish any more institutions to be exclusively supported from the public treasury, but rather, when new necessities arise, provide for them by assisting private charity, or the municipal organizations." Especially in dealing with children the board has favored relief outside institutions. Consequently children have been detained as short a while as possible in schools and reformatories, and only until they could be placed out in families. Children, when so placed out, have been kept under careful supervision, and regularly visited. In 1879 the legislature instructed overseers of the poor in cities to place children over four years of age in respectable families, or, if insane, in an asylum, and declared it unlawful to detain such children in almshouses, if possible to care for them without inordinate expense in families."

1 Annual Report of the Board of State Charities, 1864, p. xli. 2 Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts, chapter 103, 1879. Chapter 197, 1893, extends the provisions of this act to include children in towns as well as those in cities. Wherever the local authorities neglect for two months to place out children over four years of

The state board had authority to board out unsettled poor children till they came to the age of ten, the state paying one dollar and a half a week and an allowance not to exceed fifty cents a week for clothing. The state did not pay board for children above the age of ten, although such children might remain placed in families and under the care of the state board until they came of age.

The immigration law remained practically unaltered down to 1872, in which year a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States caused some temporary confusion. The court decided all state immigration laws unconstitutional and void. Upon the rendering of this decision the Massachusetts state board conferred with the New York state board, and with representatives in Congress. In 1882 Congress passed a general immigration law similar in many respects to the nullified Massachusetts law, but less effective. The national law laid a tax of fifty cents head-money on aliens landed in our ports, to be paid into the United States treasury “to defray the expense of regulating immigration under this act, and for care of immigrants." The Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to contract with such state commission, board, or officers as the governor of each state might designate, to take charge of the local administration of the law. The act prohibited the land

age, the state board takes charge of such neglected children, placing them in families, visiting them, and providing for them at the expense of the town. Out of 2,564 children under the supervision of the board on September 30, 1894, 2,041 were placed in families, and of these 582 were at board, and 1,459 placed in families without payment of board.

1 For the text of this law, and other national immigration laws, see Appendix I.

2 For the form of the present agreement between the Massachusetts board and the Secretary of the Treasury, see Appendix III.

ing of idiots, lunatics, and convicts, but prescribed no penalties for landing such persons; and when the ship's surgeon refused, as sometimes he did, to receive such persons on board for the return voyage, there seemed to. be no remedy. In 1884 Congress provided that no head-money be levied on immigrants from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick-a modification of the law not regarded with much favor in New England, where the great majority of such immigrants landed.

Some modifications of the law of settlement, made in the course of the last twenty years, in answer to the urgent demands of the state board, deserve notice. The act of 1766, already considered, made it impossible for any person to gain a settlement by residence alone. This principle held even after the act of 1794; the payment of taxes, or possession of property, together with residence for a certain time, being the common conditions of settlement. Residence alone still gave no settlement; and this remained true down to 1870. In that year the legislature allowed residence to give a settlement in the case of an unmarried woman, twenty-one years of age, who resided in any place ten years.1 In 18742 the settlement law was so amended that any person who resided in a place five years, and paid all state, county, city and town taxes duly assessed on his poll or estate for any three years within that time, and any woman of twenty-one years of age who resided in a place five years together without receiving aid as a pauper gained a settlement.3 In 1878' the law was further

1 Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts, chapter 392, 1870.

2 Ibid., chapter 274, 1874.

3 The state board has recommended that the term of residence, in case of unmarried women, twenty-one years of age, be further reduced to three years.