Outdoor relief by the counties of Missouri

Abstract

In the following pages the results of a somewhat isolated study of outdoor relief are presented. The general value of the study probably lies in the novel view it affords of a public relief system in the earlier stages of its development. Though sufficient facts have been learned to give a comprehensive idea of the situation, certainly no claim can be made of statistical completeness and minute analysis. To accomplish the latter for a public question, involving an entire state, would require the cooperation of many public officials in recording data - the ordinary method of a state statistical bureau. The results here given were obtained through private inquiry, supplemented only by very meager and disappointing public records. But as a type-study of outdoor relief it may be the more valuable by reason of its limitations. For ordinarily the operations of a public system are not known until it is far enough advanced to have a fairly complete statistical organization, while in this instance, to borrow the language of another science, a cross-section of the embryonic form has been made.