of which Washington was made chairman, and their report formed the basis of the legislative action upon which the Potomac Company was organized. It is nowise singular that from the beginning both the company and its officers were objects of especial interest, for not only was it a commercial enterprise novel in feature, but also in character, since it spelled patriotism in capitals and profits in small letters. The Potomac Company was formed in 1785, with, as was natural, Washington as President. Already he had written:

"The Western States (I speak now from my own observation) stand as it were upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any way. They have looked down the Mississippi until the Spaniards, very impolitically, I think, for themselves, threw difficulties in the way; and they looked that way for no other reason than because they could gently glide down the stream without considering, perhaps, the difficulty of a voyage back and the time necessary to perform it, and because they have no other means of coming to us but by long land transportation and unopened roads.»

Of the ultimate ownership of America's greatest river, he had apprehended aright, that "whenever the new States become so populous as to really need it, there will be no power which can deprive them of the use of the Mississippi." And though he would doubtless be appalled by the statistics of the Commissioner of Immigration, or by the alien per cent. of many of our cities, he has already given as one reason for the need, as a tie of interest, of this eastern outlet-the western inhabitants, who more than probably will be composed in a great degree of foreigners."

Now that this object which lay so near his heart had at last reached the stage of action, Washington entered heartily upon a further task, namely, the improvement of the Upper Potomac, and its connection by a portage with the Cheat River, and, through its tributaries, with the Ohio.

There were not wanting natural difficulties in the way of this; there was also an obstacle harder than rocks and more dangerous than rapids- the question of finance. If this is a question which still often meets improvements with a stony face, what must it have been to those new States which had just emerged from the struggle of the Revolution? On this juncture the eyes of Washington turned where so many eyes have since turned under like circumstances, and we find him writing to

Jefferson, recently appointed minister to France, as to the possibility of securing a loan in Europe for these works, “for which I foresee such extensive political consequences . . that I am pained by every doubt of obtaining the means for their accomplishment."

This project contemplated a water communication between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, both as a convenience to the settlers, and as a channel for "the furs and peltry of the upper country." His inquiries as to the best way of securing this are many and minute. He desires information as to the nature of the navigation of the Big Beaver, the distance and face of the country between it and the Cuyahoga and the Muskingum, and questions: "Would it be practical, and not very expensive, to cut a canal between the Cuyahoga and either of the above rivers, so as to open communication between the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio?»

After computing distances, he favors that by the Cuyahoga and Big Beaver, in preference to the Muskingum, owing to the more circuitous route of the latter. With truth he wrote to Jefferson of his "constant and utmost endeavors to obtain precise information respecting the nearest and best communication between the Ohio and Lake Erie."

Washington's interest in the Ohio is shown by a letter written in 1788 to an English gentleman:

«In the first place it is a point conceded, that America, under an efficient government, will be the most favored country of any in the world for persons of industry and frugality, possessed of a modest capital. . The land

in the western country, or that on the Ohio, like all others, has its advantages and disadvantages. The neighborhood of the savages and the difficulty of transportation are the great objections. The danger of the first will soon cease by the strong establishments now taking place; the inconveniences of the second will be in a great degree remedied by opening the internal navigation. No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum [Marietta]. Information, property, strength, will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."

Such enthusiasm and painstaking interest certainly deserved the reward of success; and one cannot help feeling that the upper Potomac, by not lending itself more

readily to navigation, failed of its opportunity. As it is, the initial page in our long chapter of internal improvements is one of constant difficulty and discouraging struggle. What would have been the result had Washington continued to give the matter his personal attention cannot be told, but once again the nation called him to higher duties, and, as before, he obeyed. In this connection it is interesting to know, what has been observed, that it was in 1785, during a meeting at Mount Vernon of commissioners from Virginia and Maryland to consider this Potomac navigation, that the measure was set in motion which resulted in the Convention at Philadelphia and the adoption of the new Federal Constitution. While President, also, it will be recalled the many occasions on which Washington's unflagging interest in the Ohio was shown. There are few moments in his life more pathetic than his passion of grief over St. Clair's unfortunate defeat.

His efforts, however, though so repeatedly frustrated, were not wholly in vain. The portage over the mountains became the famous "Cumberland Road," by which thousands passed to homes in the Ohio

valley, and the Potomac Company, after a long and languishing existence, its charter renewed again and again, furnished the foundation of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. By other hands and in other years the waters of the Atlantic and the Ohio, and the Ohio and Lake Erie, at last reached out and met.

And now in turn the canal has given place to a stronger, swifter force, whose rails lace Ohio from every side and bind with ties of interest as well as steel the States of the greater Union; while down the lakes come, not furs and peltry, but the grains and ore of a vaster Western empire than even Washington foresaw. The Ohio that he knew-sister to the wilderness has come into the front rank among strong and forceful states; her sons sit in the seat of Washington, and hold the helm of the ship of state, the vessel that his hand helped to launch. With all this, and because of this, it is a page of her early history that merits remembrance. The interest of Washington was an interest warm, constant, unceasing, in the region, in the river, in the integral state, in the Ohio.

CLEVELAND, O.

ADELE E. THOMPSON.

T

HE Jews of the United States have spent more time, energy, and money in establishing and maintaining agencies for aiding the defective, dependent and delinquent classes than in any other field of work. Few of their coreligionists become charges on the public or beneficiaries of non-Jewish institutions. Hospitals, homes for the aged and infirm, orphan asylums have been erected by the Jewish communities throughout the country. Kindergartens and nurseries, day and night schools, religious schools, manual training and technical institutions have been established for the education of the foreign-born Jews who cannot avail themselves of the regular facilities for public or private education. Relief socie

ties have been organized in almost every community containing a score or more of well-to-do Jewish families. Personal service societies for the betterment of the homes of the poor have also been formed. Everywhere in Jewish communi

ties there has been exhibited a willingness to help.

This desire is well illustrated by the rise of one of the earliest Jewish charities. In 1820, a poor Jew, who had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War, fell sick in New York City and was taken to the city hospital. His distress becoming known to some of his co-religionists, a fund was gathered to supply his wants. He died, and after the expenses incident to his sickness and death were paid, there remained three hundred dollars. With this sum as a nucleus, the Hebrew Benevolent Society of New York was organized in 1822. This organization was the origin of the present Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, which maintains the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York.

With the indiscriminate formation of relief societies of one kind or another, there arose a conflict of duty, due to a lack of coöperation among the organizations of any one city; the result of this

was that applicants at one organization would also become beneficiaries of the others. This want of economy was remedied in some cities by the amalgamation or union of many of the associations. Thus, in Chicago, the United Hebrew Relief Association was organized in 1858. It was composed of a number of Jewish relief societies which banded together for charity work, though keeping up their separate organizations. Subsequently, other bodies which had been giving relief joined the association. Finally, in 1888, the present United Hebrew Charities was formed. Its board of trustees and officers

tion of the various societies is afforded by the Federation of Jewish Charities of the City of Boston, founded in 1895. Its constituents are the United Hebrew Benevolent Association, the Free Employment Bureau, the Hebrew Women's Sewing Society, the Leopold Morse Home for Infirm Hebrews and Orphanage, and the Charitable Burial Association. Each society continues its memberships and has full control of its income from that source, as well as of its expenditures. But all moneys from donations are collected by the Federation and are apportioned among the societies according to their

are elected by a board of delegates, who are chosen by a number of organizations, the number of delegates which each chooses being based on the amount of its donation, fifty dollars entitling to one member, an additional donation of from one hundred to six hundred and fifty dollars to a second member, and each additional five hundred dollars to still another member. The constituent members are the Young Men's Hebrew Charity Association, a number of the congregations, several ladies' sewing societies, various relief societies, and some lodges. The association has in charge the Michael Reese Hospital, a relief bureau, an employment bureau, and a dispensary.

An illustration of the method of federa

needs. Each is represented on the board of directors by two members, who, together, elect from the Jewish community at large ten additional members to complete the board. All applications for relief are received at a central office by the superintendent of the Federation.

The lack of organized intercommunication between the charities of the various cities was also felt, to remedy which an attempt was made to establish a national federation of relief societies. In 1885, upon the call of the United Hebrew Relief Association of St. Louis, a convention of forty-three delegates, representing thirty-one societies distributed throughout the country, was held, and the Associated Hebrew Charities of the United States

was organized. Its purpose was to systematize the treatment of the poor, and more particularly to inaugurate a system of communication between societies, so as to prevent begging from town to town and forwarding applicants from one place to another. Each relief society of each State was to elect one member of a State board, and each State board was to elect a member of a national board of directors. Another convention was held in 1886, but the association fell into desuetude. One result of its labors was the publication, in 1885, of a "Directory of the Hebrew Relief Associations of the Various Towns and Cities in the United States." It contained a list of some two hundred and seventy-eight societies. While the association did not fully promote the end for which it was called into existence, it brought about some sort of harmony among the officers of organizations in different localities.

The Russian immigration, which began in 1881, compelled special measures of relief to be taken. As a temporary expedient, the Russian Emigrant Relief Fund was originated in that year. It was succeeded in the same year by the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society of the United States, which was established in New York City, but received the coöperation of organizations in the other principal cities. Altogether, about two million dollars were expended by this organization in the work of receiving, sheltering, temporarily maintaining, and distributing through the United States and Canada, the Russian Jewish refugees. Many were the animated and picturesque, yet pitiful, scenes afforded by the arrival of the down-trodden and persecuted Jews, and of their being cared for by thousands of their coreligionists of America.

With the renewed severity of the Russian persecutions, and the consequent further influx of immigrants in the early nineties, general movements for the relief of the refugees were organized. Early in 1891, the Jewish Alliance of America, composed largely of Russians, was formed at a convention held in Philadelphia. Its aim was to establish branches in a number of cities, for the purpose of distributing the immigrant population. Later in the same year, another organization, the American Committee for Ameliorating the Condition of the Russian Refugees, was formed in New York City, for a similar

purpose, in response to a call issued to the Jewish societies of the United States by the Baron de Hirsch Trust. The following year, the Jewish Alliance and the Executive Committee of the other organization, which had been given plenary power, coalesced, and the work which had been outlined by them soon devolved upon the Baron de Hirsch Fund, and the United Hebrew Charities of New York.

Between 1889 and 1891, a plan was under consideration, between Baron de Hirsch and those who were to become the trustees of his fund, with reference to the proposition of the former, to devote $10,ooo per month for the amelioration of the Russian and Eastern European immigrants. In 1891, a deed of trust was executed by which the sum of $2,400,000 was placed as capital in the hands of the trustees of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, the interest of which was to be used for the education and training of emigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe. Among the provisions was authority to disburse $240,000 of the capital for acquiring and improving land, allotting farm holdings, and erecting buildings for manual and agricultural training and general education. The income of the Fund, which now amounts to $100,000 per annum, is used in sustaining an agricultural colony founded in 1893 at Woodbine, N. J., and the schools established there; a trade school and English classes established in New York City; an employment, transportation, and relief bureau in connection with the United Hebrew Charities of New York City; and public baths. In addition, local committees in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and St. Louis receive sums for similar work in connection with employment, transportation, relief, and education. To some of the several hundred Russian Jewish farmers who bought abandoned farms in the New England States, the Fund made loans on bond and mortgage upon a strict business basis. assisted colonies which were in need in Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, and other States. It has made loans also to students to enable them to complete their college

courses.

It

The Baroness de Hirsch has since supplemented the work of her husband, who died in 1896. She has made a gift of $150,000, which has enabled the trustees to proceed with the erection of a building for the trade schools in New York. She has

promised to send $1,000,000 towards the work of ameliorating the condition of the congested Russian and Eastern European population in New York City. The first instalment of $250,000 has already been received for this purpose, though the trustees, we believe, have not yet decided in what manner to utilize the money. The Baroness has, moreover, established the Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls. She has donated $200,000 for the erection of a building, and has provided for a regular income of $12,000 per annum. The purpose of the Home is to benefit workgirls and other unmarried women dependent on their own exertions for a livelihood, to fit others for domestic and industrial occupations, to aid them in obtaining employment, and to assist them in other ways.

But the munificence of the Baron and Baroness de Hirsch, while a magnificent part of the present Jewish charity and philanthropic work of the United States, must not overshadow the splendid results achieved independently by individuals and communities. When one considers that about half a million Russian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants have arrived in this country since the Russian persecutions of 1881,* and that the number of Jews in this country just before that time was estimated to be about a quarter of a million, the enormous task which those resident in the United States have had set for them may be conceived. The task was the greater when it is remembered that the immigrants have come to this side with strange language and manners, many without trade or knowledge that could be adapted for use; they have had to be thoroughly taken in hand, their personal appearance made presentable, abodes found for them, and occupations

secured. This process has been going on during two decades. Plans are being gradually systematized by which they can become self-supporting, intelligent citizens. But the process is slow, presenting as it does many difficulties, among which not the least is the congesting of the immigrants in the large cities,† leading to insanitary lives.

The Baron de Hirsch Fund has under consideration, as has been stated, the problem of withdrawing the immigrants from the most congested quarters. Its founding of the Woodbine colony was one step in that direction. The formation of the colonies of Alliance, Rosenhayn, and Carmel in New Jersey, which were aided by gifts and loans from citizens and communities of the Eastern States; the establishment of colonies in the Western States, similarly aided by individuals in that section of the country; the transportation of settlers to small communities throughout the country, are marks of the endeavor to solve the problem of the too great hiving together in the cities. It is important to note in this connection that the number of places to which immigrants are forwarded from the ports at which they arrive is increasing year by year. The attempts at agricultural colonization have not been successful, in the sense that a majority of the settlers have become selfsupporting farmers. supporting farmers. Not being a picked class, or composed of sturdy out-of-door people, the settlers, meeting one or the other unfavorable conditions of soil or climate which pioneers often encounter, have been weakened in their efforts to build up colonies.

It can thus be readily understood that the Jewish charities throughout the United States must have strongly felt the influence of the immigration, and that it must have given rise to special agencies for aiding the immigrants; in fact, there would have been comparatively little need for the charities without this immigration.

However, we see evidence that the immigrants, as they are improving their own material condition, are now beginning to assist their fellow-countrymen.

Mr. Myer S. Isaacs, in an article descriptive of the work of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, in the "New York Herald" of June 20, 1897, states: "The 'congested' section of New York City, in which dwell as many as 50,000 to 75,000 Jews of Russian or Polish birth or parentage, who have not yet placed themselves in a position to be independent of their surroundings, is bounded by the Bowery, Houston and Canal Streets and the East River."