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hour law convinced many people of the disastrous result of the delays in court which were depriving the woman worker of the protection that the law intended she should have and the woman so seriously needs.

It was during the regime of the same factory inspectors that we found in the old West Side district of the United Charities some interesting evidence of the failure to enforce an older labor law—the so-called health, safety and comfort act, designed to establish proper sanitary standards in industrial establishments. On two successive committee days in the old West Side office we had the difficult problem of providing for the family of a tubercular man who was doing *'light work.'' One, I remember, was a flagman on the elevated railroad. It occurred to someone to ask for the industrial histories of these men in the hope that some former employer might be found who would assist. Both men had had a history of intermittent light jobs since their physical breakdown, but it appeared when a report was made at a later meeting of the committee that both men had contracted tuberculosis during their employment in the same West Side foundry, where both had worked for a series of years. This interesting fact was promptly reported to a new chief in the Department of Factory Inspection, who promptly investigated this place and found a large number of violations of the socalled "Health, Safety and Comfort Law."

On the Trail of Employment Agencies

Another form of protective legislation very frequently violated is the law regulating the employment agencies. Immigrants are most frequently exploited by such agencies, and the Immigrants' Protective League in Chicago found in its dealing with immigrant families many cases of such violations.

A crippled young Pole, who was discharged from the County Hospital, needed help during convalescence and then assistance in finding work suitable for a man with only one foot. In trying to explain how he lost the foot, the Polish visitor got from him the following story. Ten Polish laborers who lived in the same house on the West Side of Chicago were sent to Wyoming during the winter when jobs were scarce to work in a lumber camp. The agent charged them $100, $10 each for the jobs they were promised. When they were put off the train in Wyoming, they found no work of the character described but were given work for a short time on the railroad. When they were "laid off," quite without funds, they started to walk back to Chicago. One of the men, a bright young fellow of twenty-two, froze his foot. With no money to pay a doctor for treatment, he though the only thing he could do was to keep walking on. When he finally reached Chicago, blood-poisoning had set in, and it was necessary to amputate the foot. Although crippled for life, he felt not so much resentment against the agent who sent him as shame that he should have been so ignorant of the climate of Wyoming and humiliation that he should have proved such an easy victim. "That's what you get if you're a greenhorn," he said, and he was unwilling at first to have any steps taken that would expose his own ignorance, and reluctantly consented to have a record made of the fact.

A little experience with such cases shows the defendants find that the easiest method of defense when they are taken into court is to take a continuance, as the men are compelled to "ship out" to work at the first opportunity, and if the case is postponed the complainants will be out of town when it comes to trial. How easily this method is used was illustrated in the case of nine Roumanians and twenty-two Armenians who paid an Italian agent, the former $10 apiece and the latter $12 apiece for work in Ottawa, Illinois, in all $354. They were sent to Ottawa on May 10 and returned on May 13, after the chief of police of Ottawa had telegraphed that there was no work for them. A warrant was taken out for the employment agent, and the case was heard for the first time on May 23 and was continued to May 25, then transferred to the Criminal Branch and set for June 10. In the meantime the men had found work outside of the city. The whole theory of the usefulness of the Municipal Courts breaks down in these delays. Civil action in these cases is usually fruitless, as most agents have no property and the bond they give is only $500. The claims in this case were over $1,500.

A study of such cases as these makes it clear that the present employment agency law in Illionis breaks down in its enforcement so that it is not possible to protect the immigrant workers who are most in need of its protection.

Child Labor and Compulsory Education

Coming more closely under the observation of the case-workers is all our child labor legislation and the compulsory education legislation that returns to school the child who is proved not to be old enough to go to work. A good case-work agency may be very effective in encouraging the factory inspector to enforce the law vigorously and to see that children under age are not at work. The weakness of the child labor laws in most of our states is that without a system of birth-registration, proof of age is not easy and a lax official in charge of the issuing or working papers or an indifferent and unintelligent school principal may defeat the law by accepting parents' affidavits in difficult cases instead of searching until satisfactory proof of age is found.

In a large city like Chicago that is fortunate enough to have a good charity organization society many cases of working papers obtained for children under fourteen will be discovered through the relief records. When a family first applies for help, the dates of birth of all the children are carefully entered in the "case record," and it is not easy at this time to give incorrect ages. Moreover, the younger the children are, the more appealing is the distress of the applicants, and therefore there is every reason why the age should not be overstated. Later, when one of the children goes to work illegally, a resourceful case-worker may as a result of suspicion aroused by the old record succeed in finding the evidence that will serve to return the child to school.1 Many examples of work of this kind may be found in the district offices of the United Charities of Chicago. I was tremendously impressed with the work done by the case-workers in our old West Side office under Miss Sears and Miss Bedford:

xFor a detailed discussion of this subject, see "Truancy and Non-Attendance, a Study of the Enforcement of the Child Labor and Compulsory Attendance Laws of Illinois," By E. Abbott and S. P. Breckinridge. (University of Chicago Press, 1917,)

Thus, an Italian family that applied for help said that their youngest child was ten years old and gave a date of birth which properly related to the dates given for the older children in the family. Two years later, the youngest child, then twelve years old according to the case record, came into the office with an age-and-school certificate and asked that someone help her to find work. She had already been working in a box factory for several weeks, earning $2.50 a week, but she said that she did not get on very well and had been told that she was too slow. The child had attended four different public schools in Chicago and one parochial school from which a certificate had finally been issued. She had attended school very irregularly, and the date of her birth had been given differently in each school. The visitor of the society acted properly on the assumption that the lower age should always be taken as the correct age until it can be proved incorrect. She noted that the record showed that the family had moved to Chicago from Omaha, where all the children had been born. A visit to the mother gave the name of the church in Omaha where the children had been baptized; and a letter to the secretary of the Omaha Charity Organization Society asking that the church be located and copies of the baptismal record be obtained. This letter brought back proof that the child was only twelve years old. The factory inspector was notified, and the age-and-school certificate withdrawn, and the childr was returned to school under the supervision of the Department of Compulsory Education. It is important to note, however, that this violation of the compulsory education law and the child labor law was discovered through a case-work agency and almost by accident and that the proof of age which brought about the return of the child to school was secured by the same private agency.

A more difficult problem is that of the immigrant family.

A Polish woman applied for help in the district office, saying that her six children were freezing and her husband was ill in the hospital with incurable heart trouble. Their story was pitiful: the man had worked in the sulphur mines at home and hearing of the high wages in America, decided to come to this country. He came to New York, but was unsuccessful in finding work and then went to Pennsylvania, because he had heard of work in the brickyards there at $1.50 per day. He had saved enough in two years to bring over his wife and children; but after the first year work became slack, so he moved to another small town in the same state, and then, still unsuccessful, he went back to New York, where he struggled along for sixteen months, and then came to Chicago, where work was plentiful, but for him disastrous, since it had led to overwork and a mortal illness. The visitor from the Charities decided that she would interview the sole wage-earner in the family, a little girl working for a low wage in a candy factory. A Sunday visit led to the information that the child was only twelve. The neighbors told them to say that she was fourteen and the child could earn money for them. When she was told that the little girl must leave the candy factory where she was working and go to school, the mother refused to submit, and a long struggle followed to get the child in school. The mother claimed that the child was unwilling to go to school and felt no other excuse was needed, and it seemed very hard that her application for aid should be met by the withdrawal of the only wage earner.

It is not enough to know the age at which the law permits a child to go to work. The social worker must know all the conditions on which age-and-school certificates are issued, the kind of occupation, and the hours at which a child may work. For example, the Illinois child labor law provides that a child may not work at a dangerous occupation, but it is important for every social worker to know precisely how the factory inspector's office defines a dangerous occupation. A social worker of my acquaintance has been careful to report several laundries that have employed little girls on the mangel, since work on the mangel is classed as a dangerous occupation for a child under sixteen.

Mobilizing Case Records and Experiences

The records of case-work organizations are a mine of information showing the need for protective legislation and showing also whether or not such legislation is being enforced after it has been passed. Enlightened politicians and still more enlightened university professors may be responsible for the final writing of the protective laws on the statute books, but they do not know at first hand the lives of the people for whom they are legislating and they know as little as it is possible for intelligent people to know of how the new laws they have made are working. It is left for the social worker who is in touch day by day and every day with the persons who should be helped by such legislation to say whether or not it is finally successful. Our new child labor law in Illinois is the direct result of the work of a single case-work agency, the Vocational Supervision Bureau. The head of this bureau, Miss Anne Davis, marshaled from the study of her case records such precise and accurate data showing the defects of the old law that almost solely on this evidence the legislature was convinced that a more stringent law was needed.

In more than one state, the records of the charity organization societies have been used as the most convincing proof of the need of workmen's compensation legislation and the case-workers are under obligation to take note now of the working of such laws after they have passed. Eternal vigilance is the price of a good labor code. Everyone worthy of being called a social worker should be thoroughly acquainted with the industrial legislation of her state. Indeed, no social worker is worth her salt if she does not know the provisions of her child labor law and is not at the same time just as alert to note any violations of the law as she is to do any of the things that seem to belong more directly to her day's work. A social worker who connived at the violation of the law prohibiting children from working nights is as guilty as the school principal who violates the law by issuing certificates to children who cannot read and write. I have known examples of both sorts in Chicago, and they ought to be withdrawn to some occupation more suited to their conscience and capacities.

Now I am sure these statements are not new to those who are here, but I think you will agree with me on the importance of driving home one point this morning: that every case-worker has it in her power, if she is interested, alert, and intelligent to assist in preventing more poverty in the future than she can ever relieve in the present. Rehabilitating Mr. and Mrs. Jones and their children is a very important and necessary occupation, but while we are at work on this piece of social reconstruction let us get rid of the ditches that have been responsible for the downfall of the Joneses. If the compulsory education law that keeps the Jones children in school and the child labor law that protects them from dangerous occupations are not enforced the children of the Joneses and of all their uncles and cousins and aunts will be with us for a generation to come and more.

INFORMAL DISCUSSION

1. Homell Hart, research fellow of the Helen S. Trounstine Foundation, Cincinnati felt that each case should have two types of diagnosis and two plans, the first to meet the emergency of that particular case, the second to prevent that same emergency arising in cases of similar type. For instance; help the widow with young children, but work out a general plan such as mother's pensions, etc., that will prevent other widows with young children from having to apply, or help the family while the bread winner is ill, but work out some plan for sickness insurance that will keep other families with sick bread winners independent.

2. Mrs. Florence Kelley, National Consumer's League, New York City, referring to Miss Abbots paper, brought out the point that there is frequently an honest, intelligent, faithful public official who in doing his duty comes up against powerful, organized employers, who will make him lose his job if they possibly can. Case workers can give strong support to such officials through their case records, if these records are properly kept.

Mrs. Kelley stated that it was exceedingly rare that workers were so scarce as to justify a mother's leaving young children to charitable care, or to no care at all, or caring for them herself by day, and working at night.

3. Edward Lynde of Detroit also participated in the discussion.

THE SOCIAL SERVICE EXCHANGE':

Introductory Statement by the Chairman, Gertrude M. Dickey, Registrar, Associated Charities, Columbus, Ohio

It was with a feeling of keen satisfaction that Mr. McLean's suggestion, How Far May Registration Profitably Outstrip the Keeping of Individual Records, for the general topic of this first session on the social service exchange, was received. For this title brings the spirit of mutual helpfulness.

The old, negative idea of preventing waste of money and time through the registration of families has given place to the positive, progressive, ideal of securing to each family the greatest benefit, through conference among those interested in its welfare. Good case work comes only through complete understanding of influences which affect the family.

We must, therefore, take into consideration the organizations which do not keep adequate records. Although they have not come into a full realization of the value of method in their work, they do have a large place in the social scheme of many communities. Some of them render real service, others may do great harm, but in either case those dealing with the family need to be conscious of all the facts. A visitor from a benevolent society who has known a patient for years may be the only one who can persuade the patient to accept needed care or treatment. The lack of full records in the society which she represents should not prevent this visitor from learning through registration with the exchange just* who else are interested in the patient, and helping to work out an intelligent plan for her relief. As workers of the record and non-record groups meet frequently on the ground of common interest, and are filled with a desire to learn the best way by which different families may return

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