the contract wage system and industrial slavery,
against which there has been agitation in the past, but it is because of
these accompaniments that the importance arises of securing a system
which shall be free from them. In Germany considerable work has been
done along these lines, municipalities and provinces have taken up the
work, and an all-round effort is being made to place labor in the right
position for work at the proper time.[95] New York City is to-day
swarming with many agencies, which are conducted by men and women, who
may rightly be classed as extortioners. In spite of the rigid rules on
the subject, the ignorance and poverty of their victims makes evasion of
the law comparatively easy. Jacob A. Riis, speaking of this subject,
says:

"It is estimated that New York spends in public and private charity
every year around eight millions. A small part of this sum
intelligently invested in a great labor bureau that would bring the
seeker of work and the man with work together, under auspices
offering some degree of mutual security, would certainly repay the
amount of the investment in the saving of much capital now much
worse than wasted, and would be prolific of the best results."[96]

In regard to the work of the Army in this field every large city
contains an employment bureau conducted by it and maintained for the
free use of the unemployed. Some of the men, who secure positions have
been in one of its own institutions, and the Army workers know whether
or not to recommend them for a certain position. Outside of giving men
work in its own institutions, the Army, during the year 1907, found
employment for 55,621 persons in the United States alone.

Contrary to expectation, the children's work of the Army has not
attained a magnitude in proportion to the other lines of work which have
been developed. This may be accounted for in part by the fact that there
are more institutions open for children to which the Army can turn for
help than there are institutions of other types. Thus, while the Army
can often get a child taken into some orphanage already existing, either
public or private, in the case of the drunkard, the unemployed or the
fallen woman, the Army finds it necessary to furnish its own
institutions. Again, the Army states that wherever possible, some friend
is found who is willing to adopt a child. Of course, this is far
preferable to placing the child in some instituti