Lay Benevolence

Charity is changing its name. More and more widely it is now being called Social Work. Because almost all the Christian sects started among economically oppressed people, charity was a major function of the Church. But as the Church has Christianized the State, it has passed its charitarian burden to the State, releasing ecclesiastical energies for other occupations, viz. Prohibition.

Such thoughts as these were passing through the head of George Woodward Wickersham, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Commission when, last week, he addressed the syth National Conference of Social Work, meeting at Boston.

Said Mr. Wickersham: "The Social Worker today engages in the task of adjusting and readjusting social relations, with far less aid from the authority of the Church, the precepts of religion or the cohesive force of family relation than ever before.

"But by that same token, the sheer difficulty of the task must attract a body of abler, bolder, more courageous workers than those who could call upon the authority of revealed religion and parental control, to subdue the fractious or console the unfortunate.

"If the Church has lost authority, the essential principles of Christianity, the application of that same spirit that animated the Good Samaritan, never have been more widely applied in dealings between men. If the family as an organization of those of common stock has been disseminated by the restlessness of this age of movement, the conception of all human society as a family, with the reciprocal duty of responsibility and service among its members, has succeeded to the responsibilities and the duties of the smaller group, with the corresponding right to the loyalty, obedience and support of its members."

President. Presiding over the Conference was a smiling, soft-haired lady whom Mr. Wickersham knew well--Dr. Miriam Van Waters, 42, referee of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court since 1920, a consultant of the Law Enforcement Commission. In her presidential address she reviewed the evolution of Social Work during the past 56 years. The first dominating idea was to build almshouses for the poor. Then came a "heredity"' period when the individual's discomforts were attributed to his ancestors, a "statistical" era when trained workers began making case histories in dreary quantities. Between 1904 and 1914 extensive social legislation developed concerning industrial sanitation, safety and social insurance. Research is the characteristic of the period since 1924.

Elected to succeed Dr. Van Waters as president was Dr. Richard Clarke Cabot, 62, of Cambridge. Mass. He instituted medical social service while he was practicing at Massachusetts General Hospital 25 years ago. Last week his friends there surprised him by announcing that they had collected $24,183 towards a $50,000 Richard C. Cabot Educational Fund, of which he had known nothing, to teach medical students and nurses social work, social workers medicine.

Social workers know Dr. Cabot's great love for music. He is a good violinist, likes to attend symphony concerts. Twenty-five years ago he started Boston's custom of singing Christmas carols on Beacon Hill. Every Christmas since then he has led the singing band himself, except for 1917 when he was serving in France. Then he amused the people of Bordeaux with his Christmas carolling procession.

In a brief, emotional speech of acceptance Dr. Cabot, no brilliant speaker, told the Social Workers that he loves their profession, loves it because of its audacity, because of its enormous tasks. He concluded: "God forgive us all. God bless us all."

Delegates. There were 5,381 delegates registered at the Conference, representing such diverse sociological interests as the American Foundation for the Blind and the Playground & Recreation Association of America, such diverse topics as Children and Educational Publicity. Numerous (313) were the meetings, numerous (471) the speakers. So much was there to hear that the Conference appointed a general consultant, Alexander "Uncle Alec") Johnson of Croton-on-Hudson, N. Y., 1897 president of the Conference, 1890-93 general secretary. Puffing on his pipe "Uncle Alec" sat at a desk in the Hotel Statler and told bewildered conferees how to get the most good out of the Conference, what persons to see, what meetings to attend.

Of many notable addresses at the Conference, the following drew especial attention:

Real Wages. "Economic research and social work are as characteristic of Western civilization as Ford cars, chain stores, radio sets, talking pictures, and tabloid papers with screaming headlines. Social workers seem more like engineers planning to reclaim a swamp than zealots trying to convert the heathen."--Dr. Wesley Clair Mitchell, director of research at the National Bureau of Economic Re-search and chairman of President Hoover's Research Committee on Social Trends. He observed that the record of earnings for the 19th and 20th Centuries in England and the U. S. has been one of alternating gains and losses. Hence he predicts: "If we do not have better fortune or manage better in the future than we have managed in the past, the recent spurt in wages will trail off, and after a time give way to a slow relapse, later to be followed by fresh advance."

Jane Addams. "The Great Tolerator" (she last month celebrated the 40th year of Chicago's Hull House), one of the famed at the Conference, proudly observed that "social workers have been pioneers in popular movements later taken over by medicine, law, education."

Families. "Biologists see no danger to the race in the childlessness of the so-called 'better' classes."--Joanna C. Colcord, Russell Sage Foundation.

Crime. "The best sort of crime prevention thinks little and says less about crime."--Samuel C. Lawrence, Auburndale, Mass.

Girls. Henrietta Additon, New York City, collated questionnaires from 1,600 Brooklyn girls, found that "only 13 of them fail to ask their parents' permission to go places. More than 90% spend time on home study. The majority attend church or Sunday school."

Policewomen. The U. S. has about 1,000 policewomen. Practically all are muscular women, married and graduated from social work. Mrs. Lola J. Baldwin of Portland, Ore., thinks she was the first U. S. policewoman. Mrs. Alice S. Wells of Los Angeles, first (1915) president of the International Association of Policewomen, thinks she was the first. Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle of Washington, president since 1919, ignores the kudos of such priority. Last week she insisted that more communities employ women to deal with arrested women and children below eleven. She would have policewomen take over the work and duties of the Traveler's Aid Society.

Children. The social workers at Boston seemed rather a grim group, the old of no particular old age, the young without youth. Most were women. They all hurried about with tight faces. The more genial faces belonged to members of the various children's groups. J. Prentice Murphy, Philadelphia, was their philosopher. Noted he: "We cannot be strictly logical about human beings. We can prophesy with accuracy about masses of people--but not about individuals. Approximately 70,000 illegitimate children will be born in the U. S. in 1930, but no community can foretell who of its people are to enter this arena of suffering."

Religious Groups. Although lay agencies in large measure have taken benevolence away from the churches, certain religious groups met with the National Conference of Social Work--The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, the National Conference on Social Work of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the National Conference of Jewish Social Service, the Commissions on Social Welfare of the Universalist General Convention. Bishop Francis John McConnell (Methodist), president of the Federal Council, was a potent churchman attending. Said he: "This age is not doing much with the Ten Commandments, but it is discovering a good deal for itself."

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