In doing this we have met some difficulties. Some of our county officers have not enough interest in this work to furnish us the statistics called for, and the tables, therefore, are not complete. In arriving at the average number of patients in the hospital during the year we have taken a census on December 31st and another on June 30th, and have made an average of these two. While this will be nearly correct, the result would be more accurate if we could take a monthly census. We have included in the expense upon which these calculations are made the maintenance and salaries, except the county physician, who looks after the county hospital as a part of his duties.

The variations in the per capita cost are too great, but there are some good reasons for variations which must be considered. For instance, in San Diego County the per capita cost is 73.3 cents daily; but here extra attention is paid to the sick at a higher cost. But against this cost the county has received considerable from pay patients, which has not been taken into consideration in arriving at the per capita cost. The more and better hospital work is done the higher will be the per capita. Where no hospital work is done and many custodial cases are cared for the per capita cost should be lower. In our opinion there is no reason why this rate should exceed 60 cents daily for these cases alone; nor should it go below 45 cents daily. In Los Angeles county hospital, where there are none but sick cases, the per capita cost is 85.3 cents per day. The per capita cost, therefore, should range between these figures, depending on the relative proportion of sick to custodial cases. Where the per capita cost exceeds one dollar per day inquiry should be made into the reasons therefor.

CHAPTER IV.

RELIEF TO INDIGENTS.

The county hospitals do not take care of all our indigents. Many more are given aid in their homes or outside of the hospital through the Boards of Supervisors. We have asked the County Auditors to report to us the amounts paid for this purpose by the various counties, and give the results in Table XXX of statistics, page 177.

It is no doubt a proper charity to temporarily aid families who have met misfortune. Such aid, however, should be for the purpose of rehabilitating or restoring the family to self-support. For this purpose a careful investigation should be made, through some agency selected by the Supervisors, or by themselves, into the actual needs of the family, and then such aid be given as the circumstances require, keeping in view the main purpose. Some of the counties of the State have already provided for such investigation of applications for relief, with very satisfactory results. In three of the city supervisorial districts in Alameda County such supervision was inaugurated last year, with the result that a reduction was made from $22,930.64, the amount paid for indigent relief in those districts during the year ending June 30, 1904, to $10,157, the amount paid for the same purpose during the year ending June 30, 1906.

We must not forget that relief given to the undeserving is productive of actual injury to the recipients. To help those who could help themselves may make them and their families paupers for life. Pauperism is a disease to be cured, not to be fed. Alameda County, large as the money-saving has been, has undoubtedly saved more in morals than in money.

PART III.

MISCELLANEOUS.

CHAPTER I.

THE DELINQUENT CHILD.

In another part of this report we have called attention to the large increase in the number of prisoners in our State prisons during the last two years. We already ranked altogether too high in the number of this class we were supporting. Even then, a Superior Judge recently said that "there never had been a time in our history when so much crime went unpunished as at present." The situation demands our best thought in proposing remedies and our best energies in enforcing them. Statistics recently taken by the State Commissioner of Labor Statistics show that more than forty per cent of the convictions for felony in this State last year were of boys under twenty-one years of age. From this we must conclude that the ranks of the criminal are being rapidly recruited from among our boys. And why are the juveniles of the land entering upon a criminal life?

We have investigated the antecedents, environment, and education of some of these boy criminals during the last year and are able to draw from this information some conclusions:

1st. In many of these cases there has been parental neglect Perhaps parents have separated, or one has died and a step-parent has come in. At any rate, the parents have lost interest in the child and are guilty of neglect.

2d. As a result of parental neglect the boys have had nothing to do. They have been idle on the streets, where they have found bad company, and with this bad company have learned bad habits, which, to feed and gratify, they have committed crime. There seems to be plenty of opportunity to learn bad habits.

3d. These same boys have not been required to go to school. The boys who get into trouble are, in the main, of those boys who drop out of school early in life. The first step downward toward the criminal life is truancy.

If we are going to stop this increase of crime we must stop the education of criminals. To do this we must commence with the child and see to it that he is not only not given an opportunity to learn crime, but that he is given an opportunity for something better. There are certain steps that must be taken, as follows: