which are characteristic of contemporary American philanthropy. Conspicuous among them are the movements for the prevention of tuberculosis, for the diminution of infant mortality, to promote the health of children, for the control of cancer, for the reduction of venereal disease, for the prevention of blindness, to abolish extortionate charges for loans secured by salaries and pawnable property, to promote wholesome recreation, to diminish child labour, to further industrial education, to advance the interests of the negro, to reform criminal law and procedure, to prevent insanity, to improve housing conditions, to improve and standardize labour legislation.
Each of these movements is represented by a national organization—some of them by several—and in most of the cases a large number of local societies or committees also exist, more or less closely affiliated with the national body. Their central feature is educational propaganda, based on the study of facts. Millions of dollars were spent to this end in the two decades, 1900-20, and remarkable ingenuity was used in devising effective methods. Simple “literature,” presenting clearly the essential facts (about the nature of tuberculosis, for example, and the precautions which should be taken), printed in alluring style and translated into many languages, photographs, lantern slides, posters, motion pictures, standardized exhibits; monologues by clowns, plays, lectures to use on the phonograph; Christmas seals; a press service supplying material to newspapers all over the country; a “tuberculosis day” or a “child labour day” in the churches and in the schools; lectures and motion pictures at county fairs; travelling exhibits touring the countryside—such are some of the methods in use.
Research and Surveys.—Another result of the interest in prevention and in underlying causes was to stimulate research into social conditions. The new organizations which have just been mentioned were obliged to begin operations by collecting data. Charity organization societies, settlements, and others among the older philanthropic agencies, began to delve into their records, or into their unrecorded experiences, for knowledge about social conditions. Several heavily endowed “Foundations” were established—notably the Russell Sage, the Rockefeller, and the Carnegie—with research as one, if not the primary, object. For about a decade, beginning about 1902-4, many studies were made. In 1907 the “Pittsburgh Survey” was undertaken by the committee in charge of the publication then known as Charities and the Commons (now The Survey), with financial support from the Russell Sage Foundation, and with coöperation from many of the social and sanitary movements of the country and from many citizens and organizations of Pittsburgh. It was an attempt to present a bird's-eye view of the conditions in an industrial wage-earning centre. This survey, published later in six volumes, had immediate practical results in Pittsburgh itself. It had a wider influence—because of the dramatic prominence assumed in it by industrial accidents, the twelve-hour day and the seven-day week—in impressing on America the evils of overwork and of the outworn theory of employers' liability. It also established the “social survey” as a method of research. There have been only one or two other surveys equally ambitious, notably one of Springfield, Ill., conducted by the Russell Sage Foundation's Department of Surveys and Exhibits; but less comprehensive surveys have been made under various auspices in many cities, and although this method has at times been absurdly applied, it has done a great deal to establish the sound principle that plans for improvement should be based on an understanding of actual conditions.
Reaction on Relief and Correction.—The New York Charity Organization Society enlarged its activities (1897-1905) by establishing a Tenement House Committee, a committee on the prevention of tuberculosis, a committee on criminal courts, a school for the training of social workers, and the weekly journal already mentioned, The Survey. Other societies created similar committees, or undertook other educational work as an adjunct to their original function. All these new activities, in turn, had a reflex influence on the older forms of social work. As the idea of prevention gained ground, those who were engaged in the relief of the poor found their task growing more complex. In particular, they found themselves obliged by the logic of their new knowledge to examine into the health of each member of the family, to see that physical defects in children were corrected, that the family diet was suitable and sufficient, that the home was decently sanitary, that incipient physical and mental troubles were properly treated; to make it possible for children to stay in school at least as long as the law required, and preferably beyond that age; for mothers and fathers who were ill to have adequate medical treatment and convalescent care; and to supplement the income, if necessary, sufficiently to secure these essential conditions. Hospitals and dispensaries came to see the connexion of their institutions with the homes of their patients, and “hospital social service” was devised. Provision for the insane, for the tuberculous, for delinquent children and adults, was extended in both directions—to reach them at an earlier stage of their difficulties and to watch over them after discharge. Prevention of infant mortality led back to prenatal care and instruction of mothers. Rehabilitation became the conscious goal in philanthropy and correction.
Training Schools.—The Summer School of Philanthropy, begun in 1898 by the Charity Organization Society of New York, was expanded in 1903-4 into a two-year course of special training for graduate students and persons who had had the equivalent of a college course, with instruction which included both study of principles and practice and which was recognized by Columbia University as of graduate standard. Within a few years similar schools, affiliated more or less closely with educational institutions, but, like the New York school, owing their existence to social workers, were established in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Richmond, while instruction on the same general plan was introduced in a considerable number of colleges and universities. By 1920 such training was offered by most of the leading educational institutions of the country, either as graduate or undergraduate work in the departments of the social sciences. No new independent schools have been established for a decade or more, and one of the most important of them (the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy) has recently (1920) been discontinued on the creation of a Graduate School of Social Service Administration in the university of Chicago. Whether or not social work has become a “profession” is a question of merely academic interest, but it has become a recognized occupation, engaging large numbers of men and women with high qualifications, and offering salaries which compare favourably with those available in the teaching profession and the ministry.
Formulation of Standards.—From their study of methods social workers were led to formulate standards, and this has been done with special success in matters of legislation. The Uniform Child Labor law, prepared by the Commissioners on Uniform State laws of the American Bar Association and adopted by the National Child Labor Committee, and the essential features of a Workmen's Compensation law as advocated by the American Association for Labor Legislation, are conspicuous examples, to the influence of which the statute books of most of the states bear witness. National leagues of societies engaged in similar work have been organized and have promoted uniformity of methods in their several fields. Aside from those which are purely legislative, the standards which have had the greatest influence are those formulated by the White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, held by invitation of President Roosevelt Jan. 25-6 1909, and by the Conference on Child Welfare Standards, held under the auspices of the Federal Children's Bureau 10 years later. The unanimous recommendations of the White House Conference were adopted as a quasi creed or constitution by the child-welfare workers of the country. The Children's Bureau Conference, held in 1919, at the close of the “Children's Year,” had a far wider scope. It considered the essentials to child-welfare from every point of view, and drew up minimum standards for children entering employment; for the protection of the health of children and mothers and for the protection of “children in need of special care.”
