But if when the “good man” theory has been tested to the limit and found wanting, nothing else appears, may it not be suggested that the system has much to do with the man first in his selection and then in the influence that determines his conduct? The officers in the counties cited were creatures of the flesh. They found themselves involved in an organization which not only gave them little or no moral support, but which actually surrounded them with temptation to loaf, to commit errors and to steal. They were under no discipline to obey the law or to treat the interests of the county with any due consideration. In the realm of government, as in the department of horticulture, it would appear that figs are not gathered from thistles. CHAPTER IX THE HUMANITARIAN SIDE But the delinquencies of the county are not wholly related in terms of finance. Some good friend of the system is sure to come forward with the remark that “county policies, like every other branch of the business, may be expensive, but it has a good deal of wholesome humanity about it.” A view that is worth examining! To the lot of the county, acting through the machinery and under the influences which have been described, has fallen in large part, the extensive and important governmental burden of looking after the poor who are always with us, the sick in mind and those in prison. The magnitude of this task in a populous center may be gathered from this summary of the humanitarian functions of Cook County, by Dr. Graham Taylor. “It housed, fed and cared for about eleven thousand prisoners in the county jail, nearly ten thousand of whom required medical treatment for infectious diseases. “It gathered in, temporarily cared for and committed to state asylums or discharged, 2334 insane patients. “It assumed and maintained care for 10,597 delinquent and dependent children. “It isolated and stamped out contagion. “It housed, fed and furnished medical and surgical treatment for 34,000 sick people, 1000 tuberculosis patients, and 3000 aged, infirm or irresponsible people. “It supplied food, clothing and fuel to about 200,000 persons; buried 978 pauper and friendless dead, and granted $165,000 to 350 indigent mothers for the support of 1126 children. To perform this service it required the full time of 3000 employees and part time of about 10,000 others. The appropriations of Cook County for 1913 total $7,072,486.96.” Such is the budget of what we may call the human problem of a great metropolitan county. Between the services rendered in such a unit and those of a sparsely settled, back-country county, almost anywhere in the United States, the difference is one of degree rather than of kind.