Part 1

The Survey Volume XXX No. 4

WITH INDEX

NEW YORK SURVEY ASSOCIATES, INC. 105 EAST 22D STREET

THE COMMON WELFARE

REHABILITATION WORK AT DAYTON

If the immediate adoption of comprehensive, carefully considered plans, and the unification of all important resources of relief can accomplish it, the Red Cross work in the flooded district of Ohio will mean rehabilitation at every stage rather than merely the distribution of supplies. This is the end toward which the efforts of Mr. Bicknell and his associates have been directed. The state and local authorities readily grasped the idea, and showed a real sympathy with its aim.

First of all, the Red Cross has itself received in direct contributions at Washington the sum of $1,750,000. Much the larger part of this was, of course, contributed with the appalling disaster at Dayton in view, though from the beginning it was recognized that there were serious needs elsewhere in Ohio, in Indiana and other states. The Ohio authorities received in contributions $611,632, and it was decided by the governor and the flood commission which he appointed, to expend this also through the Red Cross. Finally, the Dayton citizens’ relief committee, appointed by the governor and presided over by John H. Patterson, who had taken complete charge of the situation even while the river was overflowing the levees and inundating the town, has been receiving donations directly. It has been selected as the channel through which Red Cross funds available are to be disbursed.

While Edward T. Devine and Eugene T. Lies went to Dayton originally for the Washington Headquarters of the Red Cross, they also are doing their work under the authority and with appropriations from the local committee. They are assisted by Amelia N. Sears, secretary of Woman’s City Club, Chicago, who took part in the San Francisco rehabilitation work; Rose J. McHugh, secretary of Funds to Parents Committee, Chicago; Ada H. Rankin and Johanne Bojesen of the New York Charity Organization Society, who helped in the relief of the victims of the Triangle shirt waist fire and the Titanic disaster; Grace O. Edwards of the Chicago United Charities; Edna E. Hatfield, probation officer, Indiana Harbor, Ind.; Edith S. Reider, general secretary, Associated Charities, Evanston, Ill.; Helen Zegar of the Compulsory Education Department, Chicago, who was in special charge of the relief of Polish and other immigrant families at the time of the Cherry Mine disaster. These Red Cross agents are in turn aided by a corps of local citizens, especially principals and teachers in the public schools, members of spontaneously organized local committees, and others.

There is no longer talk of plans for rehabilitation, for rehabilitation is in actual process. The careful Red Cross registration which was begun before the end of the week in which the disaster occurred, is proceeding rapidly. Four thousand families had been registered and the supplementary visits largely completed at the end of two weeks. On the basis of this registration, furniture is being provided, assistance in repairing houses and cash donations of moderate amounts, and other measures taken. All of these are intended to be a distinct step, even if in some instances not a very long one, towards the restoration of ordinary family life.

Among the measures which have been adopted in the rehabilitation stage, as distinct from the emergent distribution of supplies, are the following:

Houses which were occupied by owners of limited means and which were comparatively slightly injured are being repaired by gangs of carpenters who work in one section of the city after another. The work mainly consists of putting frame houses on their foundations, moving them back across the street, or doing such other things as an owner unaided cannot do, but which a gang of half a dozen men, some of whom are skilled carpenters can do in half a day or a day. This service is not rendered if the owner is in position to hire men to do it, or if the house is so badly injured that it involves much labor and expense.

Owners of lots, whose houses have been entirely demolished, and who wish to rebuild on the same site, are to be given an army pyramidal tent equipped with cots and tent stove. These tents will be put up by a hospital corps, under the direction of an army surgeon who will advise where on the lot the tent should be pitched, see that sewer connection or latrine is in order, and give instructions as to the use and care of the tent, so that the investment of about $100 which the donation represents may not be wasted.

The greatest immediate need after food and dry clothing, is for furniture and mattresses to replenish the thousands of homes whose furniture is utterly demolished, or so badly wrecked as to be practically useless. The first impulse was to ship in large quantities of furniture and give it away, or sell it at cost. Fortunately, a live furniture man, the president, in fact, of the National Retail Furniture Dealers’ Association, was encountered accidentally early in the proceedings. He was asked whether the retail dealers of Dayton could not handle this matter themselves. One large furniture house was entirely destroyed, but twelve others remained. All were in the flooded district, but all proved to be uninjured above the first floor. On the first floor the more expensive kinds of furniture had usually been displayed. This was all gone, either bodily out of the window—these were the more fortunate—or in a hopeless mess of mud and wreckage in the building. The less expensive kinds of beds, tables, chairs and dressers were largely stored on the upper floors. It was, therefore, only a question of cleaning out the first floor—getting the elevators into operation—often a hard job in itself—and securing trucks or wagons for delivery. This was a still harder job, for those that were not gone in the flood had been impressed into military or relief service. But the retail dealers held a meeting of their association, and agreed to handle the problem, and later the department stores which carry furniture came into line. By resolution they bound themselves not to increase prices. Requisitions are therefore given after the Red Cross registration is completed, for from $10 to $100 worth of furniture, according to the losses and circumstances of the family, to be selected by the purchaser at any one of a dozen stores from a list printed on the back of the requisition. These orders are filled in the usual way by the dealer and already such goods are being delivered.

Transportation from Dayton and other points for women, children and disabled men has been given by the railways through to the real destination after the usual inquiries and precautions familiar to those who work under the national transportation agreement.

In the first few days refugees were carried free without question to points in the vicinity of Dayton, but on the opening of the Red Cross headquarters, this indiscriminate free travelling was at once replaced by the other system.

The first considerable issue of cash and furniture orders was made on April 9—about $10,000. Since that time the number of registered families ready for decision has been so great that it taxes the energy of the central office in spite of the excellent facilities at its disposal. In some instances these grants will have to be only first installments on account of a larger plan; in many others, and it is hoped the large majority, it will be all that is necessary. In each envelope with furniture order or check, Mr. Devine is inserting, over his signature, a printed slip as follows:

“The Dayton Citizens’ Relief Committee and the American Red Cross beg you to accept this expression of sympathy for your losses and hardships and their best wishes for the speedy restoration of your prosperity and accustomed manner of living.”

FLOOD PROBLEMS TACKLED BY DRAINAGE CONVENTION

The date of the Third National Drainage Congress which convened in St. Louis April 10 to 12, seems almost to have been planned providentially. Just as significance attached to a similar meeting in New Orleans at the time of the Mississippi flood last year, the attention of this year’s gathering was concentrated on the problems which the floods of the central states have so insistently raised.

Important resolutions were passed in response to a suggestion from President Wilson that Congress should formulate some plan for the prevention of floods and their disastrous consequences. The resolutions were addressed to the President and Congress. They urged that the government, under the welfare clause of the constitution, should take adequate measures to control the water resources of the country, and continued:

“We respectfully petition the immediate consideration of adequate provisions for flood control, for the regulation and control of stream flow, and for the reclamation of swamp and overflow lands and arid lands, and in furtherance thereof we pray that in your wisdom you create a body which will put in effect at the earliest moment possible such plans, in co-operation with the several states and the other agencies, as will meet the needs of the several localities of the United States, and we believe the most effectual and direct means will be the establishment of a Department of Public Works with a secretary in charge thereof who shall be a member of the President’s cabinet.

“Be it further resolved that the wide scope of the problem of flood water control, affecting practically all the states of the Union, can best be conducted under the immediate supervision of the President of the United States in the exercise of such authority as is conferred upon him by the Congress of the United States.”

Control and prevention of malarial diseases were the subject of another important resolution. The prevalence of these diseases throughout the country, especially in regions frequently flooded, was declared to be a cause of “great disability, loss of earning capacity and a considerable number of preventable deaths.” Since there are well established methods of prevention, the Congress established a section on malaria with Dr. Oscar Dowling of the Louisiana State Board of Health as president and Dr. W. H. Deaderick of Little Rock, Ark., as secretary. It was resolved further:

“That the several states be requested to appoint malarial commissions and that the commission of the Southern Medical Association and other duly authorized malarial commissions be invited to join in this movement and that the co-operation of the federal government be requested through the United States Public Health Service and the Medical Departments of the army and navy.”

These efforts to combat malaria followed an important discussion of National Drainage and National Health by Dr. William A. Evans, formerly health commissioner of Chicago and now health editor of the Chicago _Tribune_. He pointed out that the aftermath from floods was frequently more serious than the disaster itself, and referred to the fact that in the flood of a year ago on the Wabash River there occurred 400 cases of typhoid fever at Peru, Ind., and 100 cases at Logansport, Ind. The main burden of his talk related to the fact that with the drainage of low lands malaria could be almost, if not entirely, extinguished. Malaria was declared to be the cause of more disturbance and economic loss than all the floods. It was estimated by Dr. Evans that the cost of malarial fever in the United States was $160,000,000 per year. The notable reduction in cases of malaria and deaths resulting therefrom in the Panama Canal Zone since the American occupation was vividly pictured as indicative of what scientific effort can accomplish.

PRESIDENT WILSON AND JERSEY LEGISLATION

Before its adjournment this month the Legislature in New Jersey finally passed a grist of bills in the field of social legislation. A large proportion, if not a majority, of these were pending when Woodrow Wilson left the state house at Trenton, and, as often happens, especially in the case of bills which carry appropriations, they came to a head during the last three weeks of the session. Mrs. Alexander reviews the notable part the governor-president had in their advancement.[1]

While no immediate steps were taken by the Legislature to relieve the congestion at the state insane hospitals, a movement toward a serious consideration of the whole subject of state care, custody and treatment of mental defectives, including the insane, the epileptic and the feeble-minded was inaugurated by a joint resolution providing $2,500 for a commission to report before March 1, 1914.

The Legislature decided to continue the Prison Labor Commission. In a general way the recommendations of this body were adopted. The Board of Prison Inspectors insisted upon retaining the powers of administration and control of the prisoners, leaving to the commission the power to plan and direct operations. The Prison Labor Commission is authorized to purchase a farm at an expense of $21,000. There is also $17,000 immediately available for stock, implements, buildings, fencing, fixtures and furniture for this farm. The general appropriation bill available next November provides $12,500 for the purchase of a quarry, $3,500 for the expenses of the commission, and $12,000 for buildings and furniture for the farm. The reformatory at Rahway has secured an appropriation of $5,000 for a foundry building. This is the beginning of a policy of trade school instruction. The output of the foundry is to be sold to state use account.

The appropriations for the other state institutions provide for a continuance of the research work going on in the several state institutions. The new reformatory for women at Clinton receives $25,000 for a new cottage, the Jamesburg School for Boys $20,000 for a trade school building, and the epileptic village at Skillman $55,000 to complete a custodial building and $110,000 for future building.

Besides these appropriation measures New Jersey has enacted a widows’ pension law, which will be reviewed in a later issue of THE SURVEY, a bill providing for summer agricultural schools, and a new parental school act which permits their creation under the educational authorities. Another measure which was passed is a new compulsory attendance law calculated to fill the gap between the educational authorities and those of the state labor department which went far to nullify the effectiveness of the old law. “Add to this program,” writes an enthusiastic New Jersey social worker, “a few odds and ends of laws and you can see Jersey is still hitting up the pace.”

NATIONAL HEALTH BODIES PLAN TO WORK TOGETHER

At the call of the Council on Health and Public Instruction of the American Medical Association, forty-seven representatives of volunteer and philanthropic bodies interested in some special phase of the health situation in this country met on April 12 at the headquarters of the American Association for Labor Legislation in New York city.

Feeling that, with the multiplication of independent organizations, there is danger of overlapping of function, interference in work, duplication of effort and expense and lack of effective co-operation for want of a common program of procedure, the American Medical Association early in January addressed a letter to the executive officers of about thirty of the more important national organizations suggesting a conference to discuss a plan for co-operation. This proposal met with a ready response. Among the bodies that were represented at the meeting held in New York were the United States Public Health Service, the National Committee on Mental Hygiene, the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, the National Committee of One Hundred on Health, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Child Labor Committee, the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission and the National Commission on Milk Standards. John M. Glenn, director of the Russell Sage Foundation was chosen chairman of the meeting and John B. Andrews, secretary of the American Association for Labor Legislation, who with Dr. Frederick H. Green of the American Medical Association had made many of the preliminary arrangements, acted as secretary.

Among the suggestions discussed by the representatives of the various agencies were the following:

1. A central national health organization, composed of one representative (perhaps the executive officer) from each of the fifty odd national health organizations in the United States.

2. An annual conference of this central organization in January at which might be discussed one topic of paramount importance in the health field, to the end that the work of the central organization during the year be centered instead of scattered.

3. Establishment of a central bureau or clearing house with an executive secretary and facilities for collecting and distributing information relating to the work of the various health organizations represented.

4. Provision of $10,000 to $20,000 for the expense of the central bureau.

5. Appointment of a committee (of seven perhaps) to study and carry forward the plans of the bureau of health organizations.

As a result of the discussion on these questions the following resolutions were adopted:

RESOLVED, that it is the sense of this meeting that we should organize as a conference, either independently of the American Public Health Association or as a section thereof or of any other organization which should later be decided, after investigation by a committee to be appointed to work out details.

RESOLVED, that a committee consisting of fifteen members, of which five shall constitute a quorum, shall be appointed by the chairman at his convenience, to report at a subsequent meeting.

WIDOWS PENSIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS

That the private charitable societies of Boston oppose the plan to transfer to the state the care of deserving widows with dependent children as an independent class is indicated by the hearings on the various bills now before the Massachusetts Legislature. Four bills have been introduced at this session. The first of these (House Bill No. 815) provides:

“If the parent or parents of a dependent or neglected child are poor and unable to properly care for the said child, but are otherwise proper guardians, and it is for the welfare of such child to remain at home, the juvenile court, the probate court, or, except in Boston, any police, municipal or district court, may enter an order finding such facts and fixing the amount of money necessary to enable the parent or parents to properly care for such child, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the county commissioners, or, in Suffolk County, the city council of Boston, to pay to such parent or parents at such times and as such order may designate the money so specified for the care of such dependent or neglected child until the further order of the court.”

The second bill (House Bill No. 1369), which is even shorter, restates the general principles of the first bill without providing machinery for carrying its provisions into effect. It reads as follows:

“Children whose parents are unable to support them shall not be placed in state, county or municipal institutions, but if either parent, or any relative or other suitable person, is maintaining a home, payment shall be made to such parent or relative or other person for the support therein of such children.”

House Bill No. 1366, the third proposed act, was prepared by representatives of many of the principal charitable organizations of Boston.

The bill does not so much state a new doctrine of relief for dependents as define more clearly the duties of the local overseers of the poor and more definitely chart their course in their work preliminary to granting relief. The avowed purpose of the bill, in the language of its proponents, “is to correlate the various public and private agencies of the state into one co-operative relief system under the general control and direction of the state Board of Charities and to use the local overseers of the poor as the active disbursers of the relief granted.” It is also made the duty of the overseers to the first instance to determine whether the mother is “fit to bring up her children and that the other members of the household and the surroundings of the home are such as make for good character, and that aid is necessary.” If this question is decided by the overseers in favor of the applicant they then are charged with the further duty of investigating the financial resources of the family and relatives, although the law does not clearly state to what degree of consanguinity this inquiry shall extend. They shall next inquire as to “individuals, societies or agencies who may be interested therein.” If they have by good fortune found anyone who is legally bound to support the mother and child, they are directed to enforce the full legal liability of the obligation.

They are admonished to get the family to work if possible, and to secure such relief as can be obtained from organizations and individuals. The law adds, however, that none of these directions shall be construed “to prevent said overseers from giving prompt and suitable temporary aid pending compliance with the requirements of this section, when in their opinion such aid is necessary, and cannot be obtained from other sources.” The bill provides, therefore, that local overseers shall aid such mothers and children as they deem worthy if they can find no one else who can be forced or coaxed into doing it. The bill further provides that the overseers shall follow up their initial activity by visiting the recipients of aid at least once in three months and shall keep a careful detailed account of the conditions found at each visit as a part of their official records. It is made the duty of the State Board of Charity to supervise the work done by the overseers and to report thereon in its annual report to the state Legislature.

This bill was presented because of the report of the commission on the support of dependent minor children of widowed mothers, and the measure (House Bill No. 1770) proposed by the commission. The general court of 1912 created a commission to investigate the condition of widowed mothers, provided $1,000 for its expenses, and ordered it to report at the present session. The commission as appointed consisted of Robert F. Foerster of the department of social ethics of Harvard University; David F. Tilley of Boston, for many years a member of the Central Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and at present a member of the State Board of Charity, and Clara Cahill Park of Wollaston, Mass.

The report of the commission and the arguments in support of its bill in general were:

That the present system of outdoor relief is inadequate;

That frequent separation between the widowed mother and her children occurs;

That the cause of the mother’s dependence is seldom purely local but a matter in which the state in the large is concerned;

That therefore the state should grant the relief and not the locality alone;

That while all needy mothers, whether widowed or not, are proper subjects of the state’s bounty, yet widows are in a class which need a different technique of relief.