Still another advantage of this work is found in the saving of the community's funds. Of late years, more and more, the principle has been advanced and brought before the public, that the starving and unemployed are to be cared for in some way, and we are willing to tax ourselves to provide for this. As far back as the census of 1890, we find that the United States spent annually $40,000,000 in charities and over $12,000,000 in penal and reformatory institutions. Probably the total expenditure for these two objects to-day would be nearer $60,000,000 annually. What percentage of this $60,000,000 would go to the class of people aided by the Army industrial work would be hard to ascertain or approximate, but there is room for a great extension of this kind of work, and the Army's efforts are most suggestive. In some of the European countries, especially Germany, many helpful experiments along this line are in progress, but conditions in the United States are vastly different. In any case social economists are agreed that vast sums are spent annually in our country to little or no purpose from the point of view of social relief. In the year 1907, 8,696 men were cared for in the United States industrial homes of the Army. This means just that amount of saving to the nation that it would have cost the regular municipal and state charities to have dealt with these 8,696 men, since these men were aided by a self-supporting organization and paid for their own support. This work, then, if carried far enough, would effect quite a saving of taxes.