Cross organized its Home Service Sections to minister to the needs of the families of men in service; its Bureau of Refugees and Relief in France and other activities on behalf of the civilian populations in European countries. With official encouragement, the seven “moral-making agencies,” as they were called—Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, Salvation Army, American Library Association, War Camp Community Service—undertook to occupy the leisure of the soldiers and sailors, in training at home or on duty abroad. They provided physical, social, and spiritual comforts, mental diversion and entertainment.
The Federal Government, through the system it adopted of allotments and allowances to the families of men in service, compensation for death and disability, reëducation of the disabled, and war-risk insurance; through the Housing Corporation; the Federal Employment Service; the Division of Venereal Disease in the Public Health Service; the thrift campaign of the Treasury Department; the educational work of the Food Administration; and other undertakings, plunged into social work on a gigantic scale. Much of it, unfortunately, though wisely conceived, was badly executed, but it strengthened the demand that the Federal Government should in the future make more substantial direct contributions to social welfare.
The established forms of social work fared badly under the competition of these new activities. Financial support was difficult to secure, and what was more serious many agencies saw their staffs sadly depleted by the superior appeal of war work. Young, inexperienced persons were frequently the only ones available for positions of responsibility. On the other hand, many capable men and women who would not otherwise have been attracted to social work have entered it permanently, and many more have had experiences which cannot fail to be of advantage to social work in the future because of the interest and knowledge acquired. Aside from this increase in the popularity of social work and in the general understanding of social problems, a conspicuous effect of the war was to hasten the process of nationalization which had been going on for half a century. This is shown not only in the disposition to expect more active participation by the Federal Government, but in a consciousness of the national character of the problems of education, health, and adequate income; in a prominence accorded to certain elements of the national life, hitherto comparatively neglected, such as the rural population, the negro, the foreign-born. Topics in which interest has been intensified are education, recreation, physical efficiency, venereal disease, mental defects, “community organization,” retraining of cripples and other handicapped adults and their restoration to a place of usefulness and self-support in the community.
In general, the effect of the war has been to confirm the principles of social work and to commend them to a larger public. In the treatment of criminals, however, it has been the opposite. For the moment, at least, it seems that much of the progress painfully made in the course of the 19th century has been brushed away. There has been a reversion to the principles of vengeance and retribution in dealing with civilian lawbreakers. A reaction in favour of the death penalty and of severe and even brutal sentences has displaced the sentiment that certainty of punishment is more efficacious as a deterrent than severity.
Practical Advance.—In these 20 years of the 20th century, ideas have far outstripped practice. Both ideals and practice have made great strides in advance, but the gap between generally accepted theories and actual provision is as wide as it was in 1900. By way of summary: what difference have the 20 years made to the individuals whose welfare is at stake?
The task of helping those who are in economic difficulty is done more thoroughly. A larger proportion of those who need assistance receive it; a larger proportion receive a kind and an amount adapted to their needs; individual and family situations likely to produce dependence later are more frequently recognized and corrected. There were in 1920 over 300 “family social work societies,” as compared with 100 at the beginning of the century. The home service sections of the Red Cross, continued in many small towns and rural communities after the World War, supply something corresponding to the general relief society or family society in the cities. Public relief has been extended by the all-but-universal provision of “mothers' allowances,” which, however, are generally inadequate in amount or incompetently supervised. An organized system for assuring prompt relief in any community visited by a disaster has existed since 1906 under the auspices of the Red Cross. In theory rehabilitation is accepted as the object of the social agencies which have to do with children or with family groups or individuals capable of ultimate self-support, including the public departments which administer outdoor relief. Available resources for recreation and education, for physical and mental examination and treatment, are utilized more fully. Money is spent more freely, especially to ensure adequate food, sanitary homes, the recovery or preservation of health, to keep families together, and to keep children in school. In public institutions diet has improved, and in general the physical conditions are better. Here and there the almshouse has been transformed in accordance with the theories of the 20th century, and through the continued growth of specialized institutions its population is gradually decreasing and it is losing its place of preeminence among the social agencies of the country. It is still, however, much the same institution that it was 20 years ago, and it still affects far too many persons to justify the indifference still shown it. In other respects, too, there has been little advance in provision for those who reach old age without resources and without relatives who can take care of them: accommodations in private homes for the aged have not increased substantially; the plan of placing them in families under supervision has nowhere had much attention; and thus far there has not been much sentiment in any state in favour of old-age pensions, nor much evidence brought forward that they are needed.
Children (the other class of natural dependents), in their character as the most responsive subjects for both preventive and constructive efforts, have aroused a new and scientific interest. The case of the child who must be supported wholly or in part by other than his parents or near relatives has improved more than that of the aged. There are more chances than there were 20 years ago that arrangements will be made for him to stay with his own mother or that he will be placed in some family where he will at least have the training of family life; if the latter, that the home will be chosen with reference to his particular requirements, and that in case of mistake it will be discovered before his future is jeopardized. If he goes to an institution, it is more likely to be one in which he is regarded as an individual, and in which the life is organized for the benefit of the children rather than primarily for ease and economy of administration. The capital invested in old-style congregate institutions and the initial cost of replacing them by a plant on the cottage plan retards the tendency in this direction. Few institutions of the old type have been constructed in recent years, and some old institutions have moved out from the city into a colony of small home-like buildings, permitting better classification of the children and a more nearly normal life, but the process of displacement is slow, the 19th-century city institution still predominates. While in the best institutions, and the best placing-out agencies, physical and mental examinations are given to the children and more careful attention is paid to the correction of defects than in the average family, such skilled professional care is still the exception rather than the rule.
In provision for the cure and prevention of disease and for the promotion of health these 20 years have seen the most marked advance. Ill health as a cause of individual inefficiency, poverty, and even crime; good health as the foundation of individual welfare and happiness; preventable disease as one of the greatest and least excusable social evils; physical efficiency as a national ideal—these ideas have created a large proportion of our current social work, and materially modified most of the rest. General hospital accommodations and dispensary service have increased at a rapid rate, considering the investment required. Although there is not yet suitable provision for more than 20% of the
