UkL 
 
 
 
 REPORT 
 
 OF AN 
 
 "JVESTIGATION OF MATTERS RELATING TO THE 
 
 CARE, TREATMENT AND RELIEF OF 
 
 DEPENDENT WIDOWS WITH 
 
 DEPENDENT CHILDREN 
 
 IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 BY THE 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE CONFERENCE 
 
 CALLED BY MR. O. F. LEWIS AND HELD IN THE 
 
 OFFICE OF MR THOMAS M. MULRY 
 
 ON JANUARY 4, 1913 
 
 California 
 
 egional 
 
 acility 
 
 The resolution creating the Executive Com- 
 mittee and defining the scope of the investi- 
 gation was adopted at a second meeting of 
 the Conference held in the Trustees' Room 
 of the United Charities Building on February 
 5, 1913. 
 
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 FOREWORD 
 
 Under date of January 18, 1913, Mr. 0. F. Lewis, who 
 had been chairman of the Committee on Governmental 
 Aid to Dependent Families appointed by the Second New 
 York City Conference of Charities and Correction, held 
 in May, 1911, issued an invitation to the following per- 
 sons "to discuss the necessity of legislation providing 
 for governmental aid for dependent widows ' ' : 
 
 Robert W. de Forest Rev. William I. Nichols 
 
 R. Fulton Cutting Michael J. Scanlan 
 
 Leopold Plaut Edmund J. Butler 
 
 Homer Folks Lillian D. Wald 
 
 Mrs. William Einstein Cyrus L. Sulzberger 
 Mrs. William Grant Brown Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 Rabbi Stephen S. Wise Thomas W. Hynes 
 
 Mrs. Florence Kelley Frank Tucker 
 
 Thomas J. Riley 0. F. Lewis 
 
 The meeting was held at the office of Mr. Thomas M. 
 Mulry in the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, 51 
 Chambers Street, at 3 P. M., Friday, January 24, 1913. 
 
 After prolonged discussion, on motion of Rabbi 
 Stephen S. Wise, duly seconded, it was resolved "that 
 this Conference constitute itself a committee for the fur- 
 ther study of dependent widows and children with the 
 understanding that funds are to be available sufficient 
 to make such a study thorough." 
 
 Upon the call of Mr. 0. F. Lewis, Chairman of the 
 Conference, a meeting was held in the Trustees' Eoom 
 of the United Charities Building on Wednesday, Feb- 
 ruary 5, 1913, at 4 P. M. At this meeting the following 
 resolution was adopted :
 
 "That an executive committee of seven be appointed, 
 of which Mr. Frank Tucker shall be chairman, who should 
 appoint six other members, of which committee the Com- 
 missioner of Public Charities should be asked to become 
 an additional member ex-officio, which committee is di- 
 rected to make in behalf of this conference an investiga- 
 tion of all matters relating to the care, treatment and 
 relief of the dependent widows with dependent children 
 in the City of New York, and report as soon as possible 
 with findings and recommendations to a general com- 
 mittee made up of those who were invited to attend the 
 meeting at Mr. Mulry's office on Friday, January 24, 
 1913, and of such other persons as may be added." 
 
 Pursuant to the resolution adopted at the meeting of 
 February 5, the chairman of the executive committee 
 appointed the following additional members: Messrs. 
 Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr., Edward T. Devine, Homer Folks, 
 Lee K. Frankel, Arthur M. Howe, Michael J. Scanlan, 
 Henry B. Seager, Gaylord S. White, Stephen S. Wise 
 and the Commissioner of Public Charities. 
 
 The executive committee thus constituted met on 
 Thursday, Feb. 20, 1913, and decided to engage as execu- 
 tive secretary Mr. Francis H. McLean. It was not until 
 May that Mr. McLean was able to lay aside the work 
 upon which he was engaged and assemble his staff and 
 begin the work of investigation. Mr. McLean formulated 
 a plan of work which was submitted to Messrs. Devine, 
 Frankel and Folks, who consented to act as a special com- 
 mittee to advise with the executive secretary. 
 
 The work of investigation proceeded throughout the 
 summer. In October Mr. McLean presented a prelimi- 
 nary report of the work done. This preliminary report 
 and the data gathered were submitted to the special com-
 
 rnittee for review. Many questions were raised and the 
 preliminary report was searchingly reviewed. 
 
 In December the special committee invited Dr. Edward 
 T. Devine, one of their number, to take the preliminary 
 report and the material gathered by the investigators 
 and review it with a staff of specially selected people 
 of large experience in the various phases of the prob- 
 lem under discussion and formulate a report of the in- 
 vestigation for the consideration of the committee. Dr. 
 Devine complied reluctantly with the request and after 
 several weeks of work formulated the report of the in- 
 vestigators which is published in full as a part of the 
 report of this committee. He was assisted by Mr. Henry 
 W. Thurston, an expert on children and children's insti- 
 tutions; Miss Kate Claghorn, statistician; Mr. Porter 
 B. Lee, who has had long experience in work with de- 
 pendent families ; Miss Alice C. Mayer of the New York 
 Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor; 
 Miss Sarah F. Burrows, district superintendent of the 
 Charity Organization Society of New York; Mr. George 
 W. Babinoff of the United Hebrew Charities ; Miss Mary 
 Van Kleeck and Miss Mary B. Sayles of the Bussell Sage 
 Foundation ; Miss Margaret F. Byington of the Brooklyn 
 Bureau of Charities ; Miss Lilian Brandt of the School of 
 Philanthropy; and Miss Emilie J. Hutchinson of Bar- 
 nard College. 
 
 The total expenditures of the committee have been 
 slightly less than $5000. Of this sum $2000 was con- 
 tributed by the Bussell Sage Foundation, $500 by Mr. 
 Bobert W. de Forest, $100 by Mr. Otto T. Bannard. 
 The balance of the expenses of the committee has been
 
 financed by loans which it is expected will be reimbursed 
 to the lender through other contributions. 
 
 Subsequent to the organization of this committee and 
 the beginning of its work, the State Legislature passed 
 a bill which became a law May 17, 1913, establishing a 
 Commission "to inquire into the subject of pensions or 
 other relief for widowed mothers." 
 
 It was decided to continue the work of the Committee 
 and to be of as much service as possible to the State Com- 
 mission. Various members of our committee have ap- 
 peared before the State Commission on their invitation 
 and expressed their views freely. As soon as completed, 
 three copies of the report of our investigators were sent 
 to the State Commission for their information and use. 
 
 The committee is under great obligation to all who, 
 as volunteers or employes, have faithfully and conscienti- 
 ously endeavored to get at and present the facts of this 
 apparently simple but really much involved social prob- 
 lem. 
 
 FRANK TUCKER, 
 
 Chairman. 
 March 24, 1914.
 
 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 
 COMMITTEE 
 
 Having had under consideration the report made to 
 it by its investigators as interpreted and set forth by 
 Dr. Edward T. Devine and his assistants, which is ap- 
 pended hereto in full, the committee unites in the follow- 
 ing findings and recommendations : 
 
 1. The committee approves the suggestion that the 
 fundamentally important aims in dealing with depend- 
 ent widowhood and orphanage should be: (1) the pre- 
 vention of such conditions by prolonging the lives and 
 increasing the working efficiency of men; (2) the dis- 
 tribution of loss due to sickness and death of working 
 men by a system of social insurance; and (3) effective 
 vocational training and guidance of children reaching 
 working age. 
 
 2. The committee recognizes the fact that pending 
 the achievement of these results there must remain a 
 large place for an adequate relief system and a wise 
 relief policy in dealing with widows and their children. 
 The need for relief will undoubtedly be diminished, but 
 will not disappear when these other desirable results 
 enumerated above shall have been secured. 
 
 3. The committee is of the opinion that children 
 should not be removed from the personal care of their 
 mothers for reasons of poverty alone; and that, when 
 needed, adequate relief should be given to enable needy 
 widows, qualified to train and care for children, to keep 
 their children at home and to train and care for them. 
 
 4. The number of instances in which at the present 
 time children are being separated from their mothers,
 
 in violation of the principle stated above, is not as large 
 as is commonly supposed. The Charities Department 
 committed 5,767 children during the year 1912. Of these 
 861 were the children of widows. Of these 861 children 
 our investigator reports that 190, in 100 different fami- 
 lies, should clearly have been kept at home with their 
 mothers, aid being given. Illness on the part of mothers 
 or their inability to control young children was recog- 
 nized by our investigators as adequate reasons for com- 
 mitment. In some cases such illness or inability to con- 
 trol may have resulted from absence of adequate relief. 
 It is possible, therefore, that the number of children of 
 widows unwisely committed in 1912 may have been some- 
 what larger than 190, but, in any case, it could not have 
 been much larger. 
 
 5. That 190 children, or a number somewhat larger 
 than this, should have been separated from their mothers 
 for poverty alone during 1912 is to be regretted. It indi- 
 cates a lack of complete co-operation and effective action 
 between the bureaus of dependent children and the so- 
 cieties giving or securing relief. The bureaus and the 
 societies should immediately take steps to prevent the 
 recurrence of this undesirable situation. Nevertheless 
 it is our opinion that the relief of widows and their chil- 
 dren in this city is more nearly adequately performed 
 by the societies now engaged in this task than is any 
 one of the important duties assumed by the municipality 
 or the State in the care of dependent classes such as, for 
 instance, the provision of sanatoria and hospitals for the 
 tuberculous, or institutions for the feeble-minded; and 
 is also more nearly adequate than is the relief for the
 
 poor from public funds in most of those localities in 
 which public outdoor relief still exists. 
 
 6. The number of children committed by reason of 
 poverty alone is small in comparison with the number 
 of children of widows already under the care of and re- 
 ceiving aid from relief societies. The proportionate in- 
 crease in the work of these societies involved in prevent- 
 ing all commitments due to poverty alone would not be 
 impossibly large. 
 
 7. However, both in caring for the widows and their 
 children now under their care and for those who would 
 be brought under their care if all undesirable commit- 
 ments were prevented, it is recognized that a larger num- 
 ber of well trained agents and also more adequate relief 
 funds are needed. 
 
 8. While a reasonable amount of work outside the 
 home may be expected of a widow whose children are 
 not of such numbers, ages, or condition as to require her 
 constant presence in the home, concerted effort should 
 be made to see that she is not overworked as to number 
 of days; nor allowed to perform labor demoralizing to 
 health or character ; nor underpaid because she is forced 
 to accept whatever is offered in the way of employment. 
 
 9. We are not able to state from the investigation 
 made by us, even approximately, what increase would be 
 needed in the resources of relief societies to enable them 
 to prevent undesirable commitments and to care ade- 
 quately both for those now under their care and for those 
 who are now being unwisely committed. We believe, 
 however, that it would be possible to make a reasonably 
 close approximation of the sums required.
 
 3 
 
 10. It seems to us desirable that the societies con- 
 cerned should promptly make an inquiry as to the addi- 
 tional sums needed by them to enable them to aid ade- 
 quately widows and their children needing aid in this city, 
 and should endeavor promptly to secure assurance that 
 such income will be forthcoming as needed. 
 
 11. As to what course should be followed if the so- 
 cieties should be unable to secure the sum needed, the 
 members of this committee are divided in opinion. Some, 
 under those circumstances, would favor the establish- 
 ment of a public relief system, believing that the possible 
 evils under such a system would be less serious than 
 those now existing. Others would oppose the establish- 
 ment of a public relief system, believing that its evils 
 would outweigh any possible advantages. 
 
 Signed : 
 
 FRANK TUCKER, Chairman 
 CORNELIUS N. BLISS, JR. 
 EDWARD T. DEVINE 
 LEE K. FRANKEL 
 HOMER FOLKS 
 ARTHUR M. HOWE 
 MICHAEL J. SCANLAN 
 HENRY R. SEAGER 
 GAYLORD S. WHITE 
 JOHN A. KINGSBURY, 
 Commissioner of Public Charities
 
 REPORT OF THE INVESTIGATION 
 
 By 
 
 EDWARD T. DEVINE 
 
 [Bated upon material gathered by Francis H. McLean, Executive Secretary of the Committee 
 and a Staff of Trained Social Workers] 
 
 To assemble and interpret the experience of philan- 
 thropic and other social agencies in New York City in 
 relation to the relief of widows with young children, is 
 the purpose of this report. The immediate occasion for 
 its preparation is that certain legislative proposals 
 have been made and are under consideration, and there 
 has been shown a desire in several societies and by many 
 individuals for a sounder basis than has been available 
 for deciding what attitude to take towards such pro- 
 posals. No sooner was the inquiry undertaken, how- 
 ever, than it became apparent that there are other and 
 stronger reasons for it than are to be found in any such 
 current issues. Widows' pensions are at best intended 
 to be only a partial solution for a problem which is ur- 
 gent and complex. This problem may be broadly stated 
 as the prevention of unnecessary hardships resulting 
 from widowhood and orphanage. That the premature 
 death of wage earners must involve great hardships is 
 obvious; but if these are more grievous than is neces- 
 sary they should quite as obviously be lightened. 
 
 For this investigation the statistical method is ap- 
 plicable only to a very limited extent. Whatever confi- 
 dence the report may inspire must arise mainly from the 
 familiarity of those who have worked under the direc- 
 tion of the committee with the subject matter with which 
 it deals; and their open minded attempt to secure the 
 unbiased opinions, conclusions, and impressions of 
 those who from many points of view are brought into
 
 10 
 
 contact with it. This report is in no sense a brief for 
 or against widows' pensions; nor is it either a hostile 
 criticism or an advocate's defense of the charitable so- 
 cieties. On the contrary, its aim is to present an impar- 
 tial description of the actual situation in New York City ; 
 and, within the limits of what such a report can wisely 
 undertake, to discuss some of the elements involved 
 in the social problem, not of widows' pensions but of 
 widows' needs. 
 
 THE SUBJECT OF INQUIRY 
 
 Three questions may be formulated clearly from 
 among the many which present themselves at the 
 threshold of the inquiry: 
 
 I. Are children in any considerable number separated 
 from their widowed mothers, to become public charges in 
 institutions or foster homes, who should instead be kept 
 at home with their mothers, whatever financial assistance 
 is necessary to make this possible being supplied? 
 
 II. Are widows who apply to one of the charitable so- 
 cieties or to their church for aid receiving proper con- 
 sideration and care? Are reasonable plans made for 
 them, and are there sufficient resources to carry such plans 
 into effect? 
 
 III. Are widows who are obliged to earn their own sup- 
 port and that of their children, in whole or in part, work- 
 ing under reasonable conditions? Or are they, by any 
 reasonable standards, overworked and underpaid? 
 
 THE RESULTS OF THE INQUIRY 
 
 Leaving modifications and explanations to be added 
 in later pages it may be said, summing up the results of 
 the inquiry:
 
 11 
 
 I. That the separation of children from good mothers, 
 well qualified to care for them at home, and unable to do 
 so only because of poverty caused by the father's death, 
 is not of frequent occurrence. In four-fifths of the four 
 hundred and sixty families from which children were re- 
 ceived as public charges in the calendar year 1912 because 
 of the father's death, there were demonstrable conditions, 
 such as serious illness, improper guardianship, mental 
 deficiency or insanity, which made it appear inadvisable 
 for the children to remain with the mother. In nearly 
 or quite all of the cases in which the children should have 
 remained at home, concerted action by public officials and 
 voluntary agencies, such as actually occurs daily in many 
 cases, could probably have prevented commitment. 
 
 II. That the charitable societies do give admirable 
 care in many cases to those who apply to them for 
 assistance; that they have a high and constantly im- 
 proving standard of work and are realizing their ideal in 
 an increasing proportion of the families whom they at- 
 tempt to aid ; but that, if the actual improvement of con- 
 ditions in the families be the test, then the results leave 
 much to be desired. In a large number of cases, in spite 
 of whatever aid is given, the health of the mother or of 
 the children is impaired, and progress towards genuine 
 family rehabilitation does not take place. 
 
 III. That, as far as the self-support of widows known 
 to the charitable societies is concerned, the conditions of 
 their employment, largely because of their limited effi- 
 ciency, and the resulting limited opportunities open to 
 them, can be described only as unsatisfactory in the ex- 
 treme. These women are engaged mainly in unskilled oc- 
 cupations in which the wages are low, the hours long, the 
 physical strain severe, and the inducements to exceptional 
 skill or efficiency conspicuously lacking.
 
 12 
 
 SOURCES AND MATERIALS 
 
 First of all conferences have been had with the dis- 
 trict secretaries, supervisors, agents, and visitors of the 
 general relief agencies, to discover the actual opinions, 
 impressions, and conclusions of those who deal at first 
 hand with the difficult and intricate family problems in- 
 volved. Conferences have been held likewise with 
 groups of widows in various parts of the city, and finally 
 with principals and school visitors, and with social 
 workers in settlements and other agencies, who, not as 
 relief workers, but from other and different points of 
 view, gain an intimate acquaintance with the difficulties, 
 hardships, and possibilities presented in the lot of the 
 working widow in New York, and whose opinions of the 
 work of the public and voluntary relief agencies is for 
 this reason especially instructive. 
 
 An examination was originally made of 1556 case 
 records, of which 391 were supplied by the Charity Or- 
 ganization Society, 379 by the New York Association for 
 Improving the Condition of the Poor. 278 by the United 
 Hebrew Charities, 300 by the Brooklyn Bureau of 
 Charities,. 168 by the Brooklyn Association for Improv- 
 ing the Condition of the Poor, and 40 by the United 
 Jewish Aid Society of Brooklyn. In these six societies 
 records are kept, and information can therefore be ob- 
 tained as to the conditions in the families and the action 
 taken by the societies. These fifteen hundred families 
 constitute a majority of those of widows with small 
 children who were under the care of the societies named 
 in the fiscal year 1912. The salient facts from the case 
 records were transferred to special schedules and sub- 
 jected to special analysis and an attempt at statistical 
 tabulation. The inquiry is necessarily at bottom, how-
 
 13 
 
 ever, not a statistical one, but rather descriptive and 
 interpretative. For this and other reasons it was later 
 decided to make a re-examination of three hundred of 
 these family histories. Complete summaries were pre- 
 pared of these three hundred records, fifty from each of 
 the six societies, taken consecutively as they happened to 
 come, in such a way as to preclude the possibility of any 
 attempt to make a favorable or an unfavorable showing 
 of the work of any particular society. 
 
 Case records never tell the whole story; even less do 
 brief summaries of the records do justice to the influence 
 of the visitor on the families under her care and the sub- 
 stantial results which, even in the face of great difficulties, 
 are achieved. The attempt is made to set forth as fully 
 and accurately as possible what the case records and the 
 conferences taken together disclose as to the actual situa- 
 tion. There have been constant improvements in the work 
 of all the societies in recent years, and as a result the fami- 
 lies under care in 1914 are undoubtedly receiving more 
 adequate relief and more effective care than in 1912, to 
 which year the impressions and conclusions of this report 
 mainly refer. As a result of changes in personnel and 
 consequent changes in methods this would be especially 
 true of the Brooklyn societies. 
 
 An examination was made also of the applications for 
 the commitment of the children of widows at the Depart- 
 ment of Public Charities, both in Manhattan and Brook- 
 lyn, in the calendar year 1912. It was found that there 
 were 460 such families from whom children were re- 
 ceived because of the * * death of the father. " If to these 
 had been added the widows' families from among those 
 whose children were committed because of the " illness 
 of the mother," this would have added about 150 families.
 
 14 
 
 The purpose of this inquiry, however, was to discover 
 whether children were committed who should preferably 
 have remained at home with their mothers. The analy- 
 sis was confined to the 460 families just mentioned, since 
 it is assumed that commitment was doubtless advisable 
 in nearly all of the cases in which there was no father in 
 the family and the mother was incapacitated by illness. 
 In the case of these 460 families a special investigation 
 was made, including a visit to the family, except when 
 this was made unnecessary by the fact that there was 
 available both the official record in the Department of 
 Charities and a family record in some one of the chari- 
 table societies. 
 
 NO "TYPICAL" WIDOWS 
 
 Prom the nature of the study, i. e., of widows with 
 small dependent children, it is obvious that we are con- 
 sidering families in which there has been a premature 
 death of the father. That is to say, the ages of the 
 mothers and of the children testify that it is in the prime 
 of life that the husbands have gone to their graves. This 
 is perhaps almost the only respect in which these fami- 
 lies may be said to present a uniform likeness to one 
 another. Everyone has in mind a typical mother of 
 fatherless children, but the most striking generalization 
 to be made from this study is that there is in fact no 
 such type. There is no widow about whom statements of 
 universal applicability can confidently be made. There 
 are Jewish widows, Italian widows, Irish widows, and 
 widows who were born and raised in New York. There 
 are capable and incapable, strong and delicate widows. 
 There are widows resourceful as the sturdy oak and 
 others dependent as the clinging vine. There are sober
 
 15 
 
 widows and drunken widows ; angelic widows and demons 
 in widows ' form ; good mothers and indifferent mothers ; 
 widows who are infinitely better off than they were be- 
 fore they became widows, and widows whose widowhood 
 is tragedy and pathos beyond telling. 
 
 BEFORE THE HUSBAND'S DEATH 
 
 For the most part the families of the widows who ask 
 for aid have been living at a very low standard before 
 the husband's death. In many instances they have had 
 charitable assistance in his last illness, and such assist- 
 ance has frequently also been sought in previous emer- 
 gencies. The wife has more often than not earned a part 
 of the income during her married life. An interesting 
 discovery made in the course of a study of earning women 
 on the west side of New York City* is that the occupations 
 of the husbands of widows working in that neighborhood 
 had been entirely similar in general character to the occu- 
 pations of the husbands of the married working women. 
 This is interpreted to mean that the general standard of 
 living is not so much affected by the death of the male 
 bread winner as might be expected. If the contrary 
 were the case, we should find that the widows working by 
 the side of married women would, before the death of 
 their husbands, have belonged to families of a higher 
 economic class. For example, married women would be 
 the wives of day laborers, while widows would have been 
 the wives of skilled mechanics. The present study clearly 
 confirms the above impression. In exceptional instances 
 the family had maintained a high standard during the 
 father's life time, and these exceptional instances are 
 
 *Mothers Who Must Earn. By Katharine S. Anthony. Forthcoming 
 publication of the Russell Sage Foundation.
 
 16 
 
 apt to be remembered and regarded as typical. A critical 
 examination of the records discloses that before his death 
 as well as afterwards the income had usually been small 
 and irregular ; sickness and misfortune had been all too 
 common visitors in these families, children had been 
 ansemic and abnormal, the tenement small and unsani- 
 tary, and savings conspicuous by their absence. 
 
 The occupations and wages of deceased husbands 
 were ascertained in 488 cases. Of these men, 28 had 
 been earning less than $8 a week four of these because 
 of physical incapacity and eight because of some mental 
 or moral weakness concerning which definite knowledge 
 was obtainable; 238 had been earning from $8 to $12 a 
 week; 95 from $13 to $15; 84 from $16 to $20; 25 from 
 $21 to $25 ; and 18 over $25 a week. Those who earned 
 from $8 to $12 a week were by no means all in what are 
 known as unskilled trades. Half of the so-called ' ' semi- 
 skilled" and one-third of the "skilled" workmen were 
 in the same wage earning group. These figures, al- 
 though fragmentary, indicate that the wages as a whole 
 were low, and that the representatives of the skilled and 
 semi-skilled trades were among the least efficient or at 
 least the lowest paid, in their trades. This would also 
 indicate that even the death of the chief breadwinner 
 does not ordinarily force families in the higher wage 
 groups to resort to relief societies. Apparently the bet- 
 ter paid wage earners do to a large extent provide for 
 their families by insurance or otherwise. 
 
 CAUSE OF HUSBAND'S DEATH 
 
 From the families included in the above studies the 
 cause of the death of the father was ascertained in 1225 
 cases. Of these the leading cause of death was tuber-
 
 17 
 
 culosis, which claimed 480, or nearly forty per cent. 
 Pneumonia is held responsible for 126 deaths, heart dis- 
 ease for 109, industrial accidents for 59, other accidents 
 72, cancer 46, violence 35, suicide 23, typhoid 22, insan- 
 ity 25, alcoholism 10. Other specific diseases appear in 
 a great variety which it would be difficult to assimilate to 
 any scientific classification, nor would there be any ad- 
 vantage in the attempt. It may be of interest to record, 
 however, that of the remaining 218 deaths one was due 
 to an execution in prison and one to lead poisoning, 
 or painter's colic. 
 
 In the 480 families in which the father died of tuber- 
 culosis, there were 1287 children under fourteen. In the 
 59 cases of fatal industrial injuries, there was a record 
 of a satisfactory settlement in only four cases. Two of 
 these provided for continuing pensions. A third, an 
 iron worker, had obtained damages of $10,000. In the 
 fourth there was a pension allowance but the amount and 
 length of its continuance were not ascertained. There 
 was one additional small pension and six suits for dam- 
 ages were pending, in one of which there was a judgment 
 of $12,500 from which an appeal had been taken. In 
 more than three-fourths of the deaths which occurred in 
 the course of employment the family, so far as the rec- 
 ords indicate, received no compensation whatever. Most 
 of these would apparently have come under the new com- 
 pensation law of New York State, insuring to the widow 
 from 30 to 66% per cent of her husband's wages during 
 the whole of her widowhood, and in case of re-marriage 
 for two years additional.
 
 18 
 
 INSURANCE 
 
 Much more than half of the families have some life 
 insurance, but a scant dozen less than one per cent- 
 have more than enough to meet funeral expenses and ac- 
 cumulated petty debts, which are regarded as a first 
 claim on an insurance policy, though they might not be 
 so legally. While life insurance may therefore be said 
 to be the rule, it is in effect generally but a trifle more 
 than burial insurance. In the few instances in which a 
 sum of over $500 is available, after such imperative ex- 
 penses are met, it is more frequently than not badly in- 
 vested and quickly lost. A change of system by which 
 the amount of the insurance would be commuted into 
 weekly or monthly payments over at least one or two 
 years, while adjustment is being made to the changed 
 conditions, would be clearly beneficial. 
 
 BETWEEN HUSBAND'S DEATH AND APPLICATOIN 
 
 FOR RELIEF 
 
 Between the exhaustion of the meagre insurance and 
 application to a charitable society there is often a period 
 of uncertain duration in which the church and relatives 
 display their maximum generosity. This is a period of 
 anxious experiment in various directions, of readjust- 
 ment and important decisions. If an opportunity for 
 sound advice could be given at this stage, instead of 
 weeks or months later after such personal resources are 
 exhausted, there would be a better chance of a success- 
 ful issue. When application is actually made the 
 mother is apt to be more or less demoralized by un- 
 certainty of income and 'other circumstances which she 
 is ill prepared to meet. If she is ambitious and has a
 
 19 
 
 mother's normal devotion to her children, she may be 
 quite worn out by her unguided or misdirected efforts at 
 self-support. If of a hopeless and helpless disposition, 
 she may have yielded to the first suggestion that her 
 children be sent to a home, but may none the less be 
 yearning to have them with her again. She is almost 
 certainly living under intolerable conditions, in miser- 
 able, dirty, overcrowded, underlighted, and underfur- 
 nished or badly furnished rooms. 
 
 WIDOWS IN NEW YORK CITY 
 
 According to the census of 1910, there were 183,897 
 widows in the city of New York, of whom 46,248 were 
 under forty-five and therefore of an age at which they 
 might have small children dependent upon them. Un- 
 fortunately, although the information is contained in the 
 original population schedules, the census does not tell us 
 how many widows actually have such dependent children. 
 If the percentage of those who are gainfully employed in 
 1910 remained the same as in 1900 (27.1 per cent), there 
 were among the 183,897 widows 50,939 who were more or 
 less regularly employed. We cannot, of course, apply this 
 percentage to the younger widows, as statistics on this 
 point might, and probably would, show marked differ- 
 ences in various age groups. Again, however, the census 
 informs us that over half of the women wage earners who 
 were widowed or divorced were heads of families. Per- 
 haps it would not be an overestimate to assume that at 
 least one-half of the 50,939 working widows were mothers 
 of dependent children below the working age. The total 
 number of widows under the care of the six charitable 
 societies in New York whose records we have been study- 
 ing, in the fiscal year 1911-12, was 5177. This is less than
 
 20 
 
 three per cent of the total number of widows in the city 
 and a little over ten per cent of the number of those gain- 
 fully employed. Of the widows under the care of the 
 societies, many who are supported mainly by grown chil- 
 dren or relatives, and others who are admitted to homes 
 or hospitals, are not employed, so that the number of 
 working widows known to these six societies in that year 
 may be put down as between three and ten per cent of 
 those who have responsibility for their own and their 
 children's support. A few of the other ninety odd per 
 cent may apply to 'other charitable societies or to the De- 
 partment of Public Charities, but it is evident that an 
 overwhelming majority were taking care of themselves, 
 with such assistance as they may have had from insur- 
 ance, savings, or other personal resources. 
 
 OCCUPATIONS OF WORKING WIDOWS 
 
 From the census it would appear that working women 
 engage in a great variety of occupations. In some of 
 these the wages of women are sufficient to maintain a 
 decent standard of living for a family and the hours and 
 conditions of labor are reasonable. The case records of 
 the charitable societies disclose no such variety, and in 
 the employments in which the working widows known to 
 them are mainly employed, the hours and conditions of 
 labor are for the most part unreasonable. This is clear- 
 ly one of the most important and, except among those who 
 have attempted to find suitable employment for working 
 mothers, one of the least understood factors of the whole 
 problem. The situation which exists in this respect may 
 be of little or no interest to those who take the extreme 
 view that widows with children should not be expected to 
 work at all. They may consistently be indifferent to the
 
 21 
 
 details of the employments open to working women. No 
 such indifference, however, exists among working women 
 or among those who are daily engaged in helping them, 
 now with money relief and now in finding work, accord- 
 ing to their needs and strength. To the mothers them- 
 selves it seems natural, inevitable, and appropriate that 
 they should work. Most of them have worked before 
 marriage, many of them have worked during their mar- 
 ried life, and that as widows they should earn a living 
 for themselves and children is simply in the course of 
 nature, an obvious and unquestioned obligation. What 
 they feel is that the mother should work not of course 
 if she is nursing an infant in arms, or about to be con- 
 fined, or if she is seriously ill, or if there is some extra- 
 ordinary demand upon her in the home, such as an invalid 
 child demanding constant attention, or a large number of 
 very young children, and no older person in the family 
 to look after them. Working mothers have real hard- 
 ships and grievances, but that an able bodied woman un- 
 der forty, with one 'or two children, should be expected to 
 earn a large part or all of her support, is not one of them. 
 Even when there are three or four children the mother 
 would generally scout the idea that she could not earn 
 their living if she is given a fair chance. Of course if 
 they are of an age requiring constant oversight, it is not 
 desirable that she should, unless there is s'ome one at 
 hand to care for them. Not the necessity of earning, 
 however, but the difficulty of finding work, is what is more 
 apt to cause her anxiety. 
 
 BY NATIONALITIES 
 
 Looking more closely at the occupations in which the 
 working widows in these families are engaged we find
 
 22 
 
 that they are mainly characterized by long hours, severe 
 physical strain, and either low wages or exceeding irregu- 
 larity and uncertainty of employment. The Italian widow, 
 finishing pants, working excessively long hours, often 
 with the help of children, may clear three or four dollars 
 a week. If she goes out to day's work in some family in 
 the tenements but little better off than herself she may 
 get fifty cents for a day's washing. The Russian Jewish 
 widow may finish garments at home for about the same 
 wages as those of the Italian ; or go out peddling, at which 
 for a shorter day the earnings may be four or five dol- 
 lars a week ; or keep roomers, with the inevitable results 
 of an overcrowded apartment. The Bohemian widow is 
 apt to work, as before her marriage, in cigar factories, 
 earning when skilled eight or ten dollars a week, or more 
 in exceptional cases. The Greek widow is more likely to 
 be found in a candy shop, again at factory wages. Irish 
 and German widows are more generally inclined to do 
 office cleaning or day's work, washing, ironing, and 
 cleaning for which the usual pay is now a dollar and a 
 half a day, sometimes with carfare, usually with food in 
 addition; but this work at such pay for the women of 
 whom we speak is scarce, and for the maximum pay 
 women who come in for the day are often expected to do 
 a heavy washing and ironing, sometimes with scrubbing 
 of floors and cleaning of windows between. 
 
 RESTRICTED OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 Thus widows who ask for aid are apparently restricted 
 in their occupations mainly to finishing work in the needle 
 trades; office cleaning and similar work in theatres, 
 stores, and other public buildings ; and days ' work, con- 
 sisting either of washing and ironing done at home or
 
 23 
 
 washing and ironing and cleaning in the home of the 
 employer. The restriction to these occupations is clearly 
 for two main reasons. They demand only a low grade 
 of efficiency, and they do not demand the regular hours 
 of an ordinary office or factory working day. They are 
 unorganized and unsupervised employments. Neither 
 trade union nor factory inspector controls them. There 
 is no standard public opinion in regard to them. In re- 
 turn for the privilege of having some free time each day, 
 or some free days each week, the working mother pays 
 a price which is exorbitant, partly because there is no 
 available means of measuring it. 
 
 The fundamental objections to home work, when a 
 ' 'home" means a New York flat of two or three rooms full 
 of lodgers and children, are so serious as to have led to 
 the demand for its total abolition on grounds of health 
 and morals. The police power of the state has already 
 been invoked to this end, and the transfer of all factory 
 work to factories, which can be properly supervised, in 
 which rational sanitary standards can be maintained, and 
 in which wages can be determined at least under public 
 scrutiny, is now only a matter of time. Washing and 
 ironing which is taken away from the home will probably 
 eventually be treated as factory work. This is not at all 
 inconsistent with a movement in the contrary direction 
 which may eventually increase the amount of remunera- 
 tive domestic occupations, for example, through the de- 
 velopment of cooperative house keeping, or through the 
 organization of specialized service by the hour, including 
 all types of workers from cleaners (with work trans- 
 formed by science) to efficiency engineers. 
 
 The bearing of this on our present subject is that it 
 is precisely in the families of the widows who need help
 
 24 
 
 that the severest pressure is felt from the present un- 
 regulated, irregular, and underpaid employment. 
 
 THE THREE OCCUPATIONS 
 
 The finishing work done at home is hard because of 
 the excessively long hours necessary to earn anything at 
 all. It is dangerous because of the opportunity which 
 it gives to work and overwork young children. It has 
 all the disadvantages of isolation on the part of the oper- 
 ative and utter lack of knowledge as to the conditions of 
 the employment on the part of the public. 
 
 Office cleaning and some other work of charwomen 
 is hard because of the back-breaking, knee-destroying 
 positions which it demands ; because of the indecency of 
 requiring women on hands and knees to clean up the ex- 
 pectorations, the cigar stubs, the tracked-in-mud and 
 other refuse of those who come and go in public halls and 
 stairways; because of the often exceedingly inconven- 
 ient division of the working day into two parts; and 
 finally, because women employed in this work are paid 
 less than men cleaners. The wages paid vary consider- 
 ably, and there are some large office buildings in which 
 every consideration is given to the home demands upon 
 the women, not only in adjusting their hours, but in 
 determining wages. It is true also that numerous un- 
 successful attempts have been made to devise mechanical 
 means of doing this cleaning, and that, temporarily at 
 least, it would be a great hardship to many earning 
 mothers if, by the success of such attempts, this kind 
 of employment should be eliminated. But it is not un- 
 likely that the substitution of mechanical cleaners would 
 be greatly expedited if superintendents of buildings were
 
 25 
 
 no longer able to employ six women for the price of 
 three men.* 
 
 Going out for day's work in families that can afford 
 to pay a dollar and a half a day is, on the whole, the most 
 popular occupation open to these women. Such oppor- 
 tunities exist largely because of the transitional and un- 
 satisfactory conditions of domestic service as a whole. 
 But they are constantly interrupted by the migration of 
 employers in the summer and by their desire for economy, 
 as shown by having the washing done only once in two 
 weeks in the winter, or by asking the employee unexpect- 
 edly to leave in the middle of the afternoon, perhaps after 
 finishing the washing and ironing, so as to save one-third 
 of the day's wages. There is a brighter side in the rela- 
 tion which often springs up between the families thus 
 brought into contact. Frequently it becomes one of mu- 
 tual respect and even intimate acquaintance. The gifts 
 of clothes, food, etc., which go along with the day's pay 
 for such work frequently become an important item in the 
 working mother's income, and instances occur in which 
 favors quite as readily flow in the other direction. This 
 kind of friendly visiting and personal service is one of 
 the distinct offsets to the generally chaotic, irregular, and 
 uncertain conditions in this particular field of employ- 
 ment. 
 
 ECONOMIC INEFFICIENCY 
 
 Taking these occupations, how r ever, as a whole, the 
 worst thing about them is that they are the occupations 
 
 *Miss Anthony (see foot-note, page 8) recites the testimony of a 
 superintendent who had tried a machine to scrub floors which he dis- 
 carded because it would not clean corners, and because it took three men 
 to manage it. He put six women in their place and the work is better 
 done without the machine
 
 26 
 
 of relatively unskilled and inefficient workers, and the 
 worst thing to be said about the workers is that they are 
 for the most part fit for no other kind of employment. 
 They are untrained, inefficient, industrially unfit. No 
 employment agency would be justified in putting them in 
 skilled occupations, even if they were to be had. No 
 employer who demands and is ready to pay for competent 
 work would keep them even if they came. This general 
 lack of competency is not confined to the widows, but was 
 shared, as we have shown, by their deceased husbands. 
 Probably it cannot be very much modified in the adult 
 generation, but it is a very serious question whether it 
 is to be perpetuated in the next generation. Of the fact 
 that one of the chief reasons for the inability of this 
 group of families to care for themselves in their widow- 
 hood as well as do the large number of working 
 widows who remain independent is their economic in- 
 efficiency, no one who examines the case records with an 
 open mind, or who confers with the social workers who 
 have investigated and aided the families, can remain in 
 doubt.* The charitable societies are dealing with persons 
 whose labor in the open market has very little produc- 
 tiveness, who not only have not had specific training in 
 particular trades, but have not learned how to work or 
 to protect their interests as workers. To change these 
 conditions is not within the function or the power of 
 the charitable societies. Education and industry must 
 bear that responsibility. 
 
 *Qne of the societies has undertaken to train some of their women and 
 provide fairly remunerative work for them at shirt and necktie making 
 in a sanitary, well>-equipped work shop. A number of women who had 
 formerly not worked at all or had been engaged in unskilled work at 
 meagre and irregular wages are now earning between $12 and $17 per 
 week.
 
 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR WIDOWS' CHIL- 
 DREN 
 
 The records of the societies do not show sufficient 
 evidence of serious and practical interest in the 
 choice of an occupation as the children come of work- 
 ing age or in securing specific preparation for a 
 suitable occupation. If the boys and girls are not 
 to repeat the experience of their parents or even 
 to fall short of their level, they must obviously be 
 encouraged, and if necessary aided, to get into occupa- 
 tions in which there is apprenticeship, opportunity for 
 learning how to work, personal interest on the part of 
 employers or foremen or fellow workers, that will lead 
 to the steady development of ability and increasingly 
 satisfactory adjustment between the worker and his em- 
 ployment. The safeguarding of vocational interests of 
 individual members of the family is the most important 
 single service which can be given them. Vocational guid- 
 ance may ultimately be expected from the public school 
 system. Even the actual teaching of a trade or prepara- 
 tion for commercial positions may become the rule. So 
 long, however, as such facilities are as rare as they are 
 at present and limited mainly to high school grades, there 
 will be urgent need of giving increased attention to the 
 exceptional danger that in these families of working 
 widows the interests of the children will be completely 
 sacrificed, that they will go into occupations in which 
 the only inducements are an immediate wage to replace 
 or supplement the mother's earnings. The importance 
 of such service has been appreciated but recently and 
 the charitable societies, occupied with more obvious 
 wants, have given scant attention to vocational guidance ; 
 but the rising standard of service set by them does in-
 
 28 
 
 elude it. They are staunch upholders of child-labor 
 laws, but they rarely extend aid to permit children to ob- 
 tain vocational training after they reach working age. 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY OF INDUSTRY AND OF THE 
 SCHOOL SYSTEM 
 
 This grievance is one of which thinking widows them- 
 selves complain far more bitterly than of any hardships 
 in their own employment. That their children, as they 
 come of working age, should inevitably be pushed into 
 occupations in which there is no future, no chance for 
 promotion, no investment of the valuable early years 
 in such a way as to yield returns in later life, is an ex- 
 perience not limited to widows, but one in which the 
 likelihood is increased in their case by the need felt for 
 a maximum income from their earnings at the earliest 
 possible moment. However, the mothers are quick to 
 see the price which they pay for this relief. They would 
 willingly enough work even harder than they do and 
 make greater sacrifices if this could result in securing 
 permanent and reasonably remunerative work for their 
 children with the prospect of advancement. There is 
 no difficulty about finding jobs for the young boys and 
 girls just leaving school, but they are useless jobs, except 
 from the point of view of immediate income. Boys and 
 girls are going into these useless jobs and the community 
 has invented no adequate protection against this un- 
 social and uneconomic demand. The old apprenticeship 
 system is gone, but it is for education or industry to 
 discover a substitute. Practical vocational and half time 
 schools through which children as they reach working 
 age can be adjusted to industry and trade may prove to 
 be such a substitute. Public pensions and voluntary re-
 
 29 
 
 lief are alike impotent to solve the problems of industry 
 and education. 
 
 HEALTH 
 
 As might be anticipated, the records of the societies 
 and conferences with social workers reflect the increased 
 public interest of recent years in the subject of health. 
 Indeed, most of the societies in question have themselves, 
 through their tenement house committees, tuberculosis 
 committees, fresh air activities, and in other ways, dis- 
 tinctly taken the lead in that educational campaign for 
 the prevention of disease to which the increased interest 
 on the part of the public is so largely due. The gratify- 
 ing decline in the death rate in New York City is coin- 
 cident with these constructive social movements in which 
 the charitable societies have taken so active a part, and 
 to them, as to the increasing efficiency of the public 
 health service, a large part of the credit for this signal 
 accomplishment is due. 
 
 The question naturally arises as to whether this in- 
 terest in the public health is translated in practice into 
 an effective interest in the health of the widows and 
 their children as shown by the case records examined. 
 Such effective interest is frequently, although not by any 
 means uniformly, shown. In many cases excellent work 
 is done to secure proper diagnosis, and appropriate 
 treatment. Sometimes persistent attention is given to a 
 health problem over a period of several years. Often 
 large sums of money are expended to provide necessary 
 convalescent or sanatorium care. One society has a 
 physician in constant attendance at its own offices to 
 make a diagnosis on the spot of all cases in which dis-
 
 30 
 
 ease is suspected. Another has a home hospital in which 
 a few of the families threatened by tuberculosis are 
 taken completely in charge at an average expense of 
 $1000.00 a year for each family, all of which is provided 
 if necessary from charitable sources, in addition to the 
 expert and professional service required. Others com- 
 mand a large amount of volunteer medical service from 
 members of district committees and other physicians, 
 and all of them make daily use of dispensaries and other 
 health services. One society maintains a corps of thirty 
 trained nurses who visit and nurse the sick poor. The 
 idea may be said to be generally accepted that inquiries 
 about health should be made, that those who seem to re- 
 quire medical attention and are not receiving it shall 
 be examined and advised, that obviously suitable candi- 
 dates for hospital and dispensary care shall be taken or 
 urged to go for such treatment, and that the relief pol- 
 icy adopted shall be influenced by health considerations. 
 In other words, immediate and obvious health needs 
 usually though not always receive attention. 
 
 More fundamental health needs are however, it must 
 be said, often neglected. Vigorous action is not always 
 taken to carry out competent advice after it is obtained. 
 Mothers are allowed to work when it would be quite ap- 
 propriate to provide such an amount of relief as would 
 make the employment unnecessary. Of course, the 
 charitable societies cannot be held responsible for all the 
 serious or petty illnesses in the families under their 
 care. Tuberculosis and typhoid fever appear in well-to- 
 do homes also, and conditions inimical to health, such as 
 too frequent pregnancies and overwork, have been pres- 
 ent long before the husband's death or other special mis- 
 fortune brought them to the notice of the societies.
 
 31 
 
 Nevertheless, when instances are found in which the rec- 
 ords themselves bear evidence that anaemic, under- 
 nourished children fail to receive special care, that no 
 attempt is made to follow up and remedy some well rec- 
 ognized dangerous condition, that eyes, or teeth, or 
 adenoids are neglected, that prevention of disease and 
 the upbuilding of physical vigor and resisting power is 
 left almost wholly out of the plan for the family, there 
 is certainly room for drastic criticism. 
 
 It is pertinent to call attention in this connection to 
 the extraordinary change in public appreciation of health 
 needs. Perhaps it is hardly an exaggeration to say that 
 the health of the children in the tenements, including 
 the children of the families here under consideration, 
 does actually receive more effective attention than was 
 ordinarily given to the health of the children of well-to- 
 do families a generation ago. In this advance the char- 
 itable societies have played a distinguished part; but 
 these ideals have outmn the best efforts of the best so- 
 cieties. Judged by this new standard of public opinion, 
 and by the highest standards of organized charity itself, 
 there is no one of the six societies whose records do not 
 show instances of failure to anticipate the inevitable re- 
 sults of unduly severe physical strain on the mother and 
 an inadequate income. In every society there are cases 
 in which knowledge of what is needed failed to issue in 
 doing what is needed. While they share the responsibility 
 with others, including the families immediately con- 
 cerned, they cannot escape the responsibility for having 
 failed, as shown by their own case records, to go as far 
 as they should have gone in many instances. It is true 
 that there is often a lamentable failure on the part of 
 the patient to realize the need of treatment, reluctance
 
 32 
 
 to accept advice, and even stubborn opposition to the 
 most necessary and urgent action. Another difficulty is 
 that when forcible removal would be desirable, the city 
 authorities may refuse to act or to carry out consistently 
 even their own decision that removal is justified. Pre- 
 ventorium care for the young children in dose connec- 
 tion with sanatoria for mothers might in many instances 
 overcome the reluctance of the latter to leaving home. 
 To give a pension or relief at home is to accept a mea- 
 sure of responsibility for a recognized dangerous condi- 
 tion, and to withhold relief in the absence of reasonable 
 institutional provision seems uncharitable. 
 
 LACK OF INSTITUTIONAL FACILITIES 
 
 In justice to the societies and to the families it must 
 be recorded that neither the state nor private philan- 
 thropy has by any means as yet provided adequately for 
 the institutions and agencies of various kinds which are 
 imperatively demanded if health needs are to be met. 
 For the feeble-minded, the crippled, the infirm, and the 
 convalescent there is not sufficient provision. We have 
 not enough hospitals for those who have contagious 
 diseases or even for those who are afflicted by tuber- 
 culosis, notwithstanding all the efforts which have been 
 put forth in recent years to supply the latter deficiency. 
 Again and again special treatment of one kind or another 
 is prescribed or quickly discovered by the visitor to be 
 needed, but because of the lack of any provision for the 
 treatment it cannot be secured. Almost every type of 
 institution is indeed represented; but that is not enough. 
 So far as the individual needing care is concerned, an 
 institution without vacancies is of course precisely as
 
 33 
 
 good as no institution at all. The pressing problem is 
 quantitative. 
 
 Although this lack of community facilities extends to 
 education, recreation and amusements, day nursuries, 
 employment agencies, loan agencies, protective meas- 
 ures for young girls, and many other fields, it is after 
 all in the cure and prevention of disease that the lack is 
 most obvious and, in view of the large sums now annually 
 spent for the public health, least excusable. It is not 
 easy to get intelligent, conscientious medical treatment. 
 Some dispensaries on which reliance must be placed 
 make the most superficial examination of patients and 
 provide no method of following up their diagnosis or 
 prescription. It is impossible to arrive at an accurate 
 understanding of the health needs of a family through 
 such facilities for diagnosis as are provided by many of 
 the medical agencies. When a careful examination has 
 been secured from a physician in private practice, or 
 from a medical member of the staff, or even from the 
 dispensary itself, it is rarely that such a diagnosis can 
 be followed by effective treatment. In many records it 
 is definitely stated that there is need for convalescent 
 care which cannot be secured because there is no vacancy 
 in an appropriate convalescent home, and a visit to the 
 country or seashore would not meet the need. Even 
 more serious is the lack of coordination between medical 
 agencies which are simultaneously or successively treat- 
 ing a particular patient. The excellent plan devised for 
 the tuberculosis clinics is obviously needed in every other 
 department.
 
 34 
 
 HOUSING 
 
 Fundamental as a community health need is that for 
 good homes, with real light, fresh air, accessibility, and a 
 reasonable rental. Through their tenement house com- 
 mittees, tuberculosis committees, and otherwise, the socie- 
 ties have constantly emphasized this fact. They have 
 secured the passage of tenement house laws which make 
 the evil conditions of even ten years ago impossible. 
 These splendid educational campaigns impose a new re- 
 sponsibility on the societies themselves as relief agencies, 
 a responsibility which they do not fully meet. Many of 
 the families studied are living in wholly unsuitable tene- 
 ments, plainly described in the records as such, but for 
 lack of better accommodations at a possible price, or for 
 lack of funds to pay higher rents, serious attempt at im- 
 provement is out of the question. 
 
 Notwithstanding the difficulties, it is likely that a more 
 clearly defined policy, including a readiness to move 
 families some distance from their present location when 
 there are no strong local ties binding them to it, might 
 result in a considerable improvement. Eents have in- 
 creased, and the societies, if they are to provide adequate 
 relief in this respect, must take this fact even more fully 
 into account. Paying rent in congested quarters or un- 
 sanitary rooms tends to lower instead of raising the stan- 
 dard of living. Serious attempts have been made to sub- 
 stitute a contrary policy one society having obtained 
 funds for this purpose but this requires larger financial 
 resources than have ordinarily been available. 
 
 EMERGENT RELIEF 
 
 Emergent, temporary, and what is sometimes called 
 interim relief i. e., relief given to meet immediate needs
 
 35 
 
 while an investigation is in progress upon which more 
 permanent plans can be based, is supplied by all of the 
 six charitable societies, sometimes in a rather erratic way 
 and in not very appropriate form, but as a rule in such 
 an amount and kind as to prevent suffering from lack of 
 food, clothing, fuel, or shelter. From the point of view 
 of the community more than this is desirable. It is de- 
 sirable that similar needs in different families shall be 
 met with some approach to consistency ; that there should 
 be some degree of uniformity and standardized relief 
 among the general relief societies. In these days of 
 effective cooperation in much larger matters it should 
 not be necessary to examine the records or six or more 
 different societies in order to find out what kind and 
 amounts of relief are given to those who require emer- 
 gent aid. Even these six societies represent only the 
 agencies which because of their system of records could 
 be conveniently studied. If the inquiry had extended to 
 the numerous religious, national, and special relief agen- 
 cies of various kinds, the diversity of methods and of 
 standards would have been found vastly greater and the 
 evidence of the resulting confusion and uncertainty as to 
 what would happen in any given case of need correspond- 
 ingly increased. This variability in the amount of relief 
 given is of course better than rigid uniformity, when it 
 means special adaptation to particular needs, or even 
 when, in the exercise of sound judgment, less relief is 
 given than usual in order that a stronger motive may re- 
 main for putting forth increased effort towards self 
 support. But when the variability is arbitrary, having 
 no relation to plan or needs but depending only on con- 
 siderations subjective to the relief agency, it is only an
 
 36 
 
 indication of a lamentable lack of mutual understanding 
 and intelligence. 
 
 It remains true that all of the societies do give relief 
 promptly in cases of emergent need, and this is given 
 in whatever form seems to the particular society most 
 suitable. It is not true that those who ask for aid are 
 left to starve, or to suffer other preventable hardships, 
 while long drawn inquiries are made about them. Inves- 
 tigations in fact in some societies are less thorough and 
 careful than is desirable, their apparent purpose being 
 to detect fraud rather than to lay the basis for a sound 
 decision as to what action should be taken. The pioneer 
 agencies in developing a technique of more thorough 
 investigation and a course of treatment logically based 
 upon it are the charity organization societies, whose 
 methods in this respect are now in use in all of these 
 societies in varying degrees of efficiency. Even greater 
 thoroughness and a more careful and painstaking plan 
 of action at the time of first application than now gen- 
 erally prevail would be desirable and would save a vast 
 amount of subsequent work, after the best opportunity 
 has passed. This applies preeminently to the families 
 of widows with small children, for whom continued aid 
 is the rule rather than the exception. 
 
 PERMANENT RELIEF 
 
 We now come to the subject which many will perhaps 
 regard as the crux of the problem, the continued relief 
 supplied to those families of widows who because of ill- 
 ness, or the number of their children, or any other rea- 
 son, require regular and substantial assistance. All of 
 the six societies undertake to do this according to their 
 means. In this part of their work, even more than in
 
 37 
 
 giving emergent relief, there is great variation in the 
 method used, in the ideal set before the visitors, and in 
 the results achieved by the different societies. Perhaps 
 the most striking impression made on the credit side, 
 taking them all together, is their patience, courage, and 
 persistence in dealing with the individual family prob- 
 lems in the face of the difficult task imposed upon them 
 by such conditions as we have already discussed and those 
 to which we have -still to call attention. There is much 
 ingenuity in many of the plans made and much flexibility 
 in carrying them out as conditions in the family life 
 change. 
 
 The relief which the societies supply is sometimes in- 
 adequate in amount and sometimes the basic plan upon 
 which it is given is inadequate and ill-considered, but the 
 instances of failure with respect to suitability of employ- 
 ment, fundamental health needs, attention to the individ- 
 uality of children, the securing of an attractive and sani- 
 tary home, and other essentials of family life, are more 
 numerous and more serious than the inadequacy in the 
 amount of relief. It should be said, however, that in- 
 creasingly on the part of these societies there is a recog- 
 nition that many more things need to be done now than 
 formerly in any work with families which deserves to be 
 called successful. The giving of special diet, attention to 
 decayed teeth, not only as a cause of needless suffering 
 and disfigurement, but as a channel of infection, a look- 
 out for mental deficiency or backwardness requiring 
 special attention, and the general examination for tuber- 
 culosis and similar infections, are striking illustrations 
 of the advancing standard of family service set for them- 
 selves by the societies. When every possible criticism 
 has been made of the quality of the work done it remains
 
 38 
 
 true that the societies are preventing an almost incon- 
 ceivable amount of suffering, and making possible an ap- 
 proach to normal family life for many of those who come 
 to them for help. 
 
 INADEQUACY OF RELIEF 
 
 It would be exceedingly difficult to make any statis- 
 tical comparison of the amounts given with the amounts 
 which should have been given to make relief adequate. 
 One reason is that no such comparison could take into 
 account the personal factor either in the family helped 
 or in the visitor through whom the relief is given. Twen- 
 ty dollars a month in the hands of a capable housekeeper 
 will go further in supplying essential needs than twice 
 that sum with one who does not know how to spend it. 
 Twenty dollars spent under the supervision of a trained 
 social worker, who is competent to give sound advice and 
 has the persistence to see that it is followed, may accom- 
 plish as much as twice that sum without such direction- 
 even if the mother whom she is aiding is not herself of 
 exceptional ability as a housekeeper. Moreover in every 
 family there are such constantly shifting considerations, 
 such as securing or losing or change of employment and 
 illness and recovery, the disappearance and reappearance 
 of relatives and friends, and the growing up of children 
 that any calculation as to what the budgetary needs of the 
 family are, however accurate, would ordinarily remain 
 valid only for a short time. This is not to deny that a 
 carefully prepared tentative budget, from accurate data 
 secured for the purpose, may be made a basis for regular 
 allowance to meet the deficit of income. 
 
 Moreover the case records may profitably be scrutin- 
 ized to see whether there is evidence of inadequacy in
 
 39 
 
 relief. They are competent evidence if rightly used. If 
 conditions in the family do not improve, but steadily 
 grow worse, this raises at least a presumption that there 
 is inadequacy in relief or in treatment. This presump- 
 tion may be set aside by evidence that everything has 
 been done which is humanly possibly to prevent the de- 
 terioration, and that it is due either to irremediable 
 causes in the family or to social and economic causes out- 
 side over which the society could not exercise control. 
 Examining the records from this point of view they do 
 show inadequacy of relief and of treatment in a propor- 
 tion of cases which although it cannot be stated in figures 
 is certainly large enough to cause serious concern. 
 
 Good work is done in many cases with good results. 
 Good work is done in many other cases with no manifest 
 results. In still other cases improvements on the one 
 hand, or deteriorations on the other, may take place in- 
 dependently of any particular relief or service rendered 
 by the society, and in still other cases things drift along 
 with no evidences of any particular change either for 
 better or worse, whether relief is given or withheld. 
 
 No doubt it would be satisfactory to many minds if 
 we were able to present a table indicating in just what 
 number of families these varying results are shown and 
 what percentage each class constitutes of the whole. To 
 those who are primarily concerned about the families, or 
 about the improvement of the quality of the work done 
 in their behalf by the charitable societies, the more gen- 
 eral and therefore, considering the lack of material for 
 statistical analysis, more accurate statements will suffice.
 
 40 
 
 INHERENT WEAKNESS OF CHARACTER 
 
 The results, as we have said earlier in this report, 
 leave much to be desired. A large proportion of all the 
 records bear witness to a very limited success in secur- 
 ing normal conditions for growing children or to any 
 decided improvement in the conditions of family life. "We 
 have next to ask for the reasons for this limited success. 
 
 One possible explanation, which should have candid 
 consideration, is that the physical, mental, and moral 
 constitution of the individuals in the families in question 
 is inferior. It may be alleged that in spite of some excep- 
 tions we have here to do with distinctly sub-normal 
 people. 
 
 We have seen that the charitable societies come in 
 contact with from three to ten percent of the widows in 
 New York City who have small children dependent upon 
 them. What might be said is that this small percentage 
 includes nearly all of the least efficient, the least capable, 
 the degenerate, the unfit. No wonder then that the con- 
 ditions 'of their family life do not improve ; that the health 
 of the mother breaks down whether she is at work or idle ; 
 that tuberculosis and alcoholism find congenial soil ; that 
 children inevitably show on the whole the same weak- 
 nesses as their parents ; that m'ost of the high hopes based 
 upon their coming of working age result in disillusion- 
 ment as they arrive at an age when their inherent lack 
 of energy, of ambition, of responsibility, become ap- 
 parent. The families in short cannot be rehabilitated, 
 cannot be improved, cannot even be maintained in such 
 a way as to secure a normal development of the children, 
 because the original material is defective, because there 
 is much more than the average tendency towards feeble-
 
 41 
 
 mindedness and pauperism, in the sense in which this 
 implies weakness of character. 
 
 If it is only a question of degree, there is undoubtedly 
 some truth in this explanation. Probably as compared 
 with the five thousand families of widows next above 
 them in the economic scale, the group represented by 
 those whose records have been examined for the commit- 
 tee have less original ability and physical vigor. Pos- 
 sibly there may be among them a larger number who 
 drink, who neglect their children, and who pass on to 
 those children by inheritance some perverted or degen- 
 erate characteristics. Whether this is so or not, it can- 
 not be doubted that they have these handicaps to such an 
 extent as to call for careful examination and appropriate 
 treatment. 
 
 To meet these needs, the societies are pressing vig- 
 orously for suitable institutional care for the demon- 
 strably feeble-minded ; for reformatory correctional care 
 of those who need institutional discipline; and for sur- 
 gical or medical attention to those for whom operations, 
 hospital or dispensary treatment, 'or professional advice 
 would be beneficial. The charitable societies in their 
 daily routine work, in spite of the instances to the con- 
 trary, are exercising a persistent pressure on the indi- 
 viduals and families under their care to obtain physical 
 and mental examination with appropriate action. Oth- 
 ers may be more loudly proclaiming the dangers of so- 
 cial neglect in this matter, but, as far as the poorest and 
 the most hopeless elements in the population are con- 
 cerned, it is the social workers who are practically pre- 
 venting such neglect, who are patiently case by case en- 
 couraging right action, protesting against, and in ex- 
 treme instances invoking 'official authority to prevent, a
 
 42 
 
 course which would be directly injurious. Visiting 
 nurses, visiting school teachers, church visitors, and con- 
 spicuously the agents and visitors of charitable societies, 
 may justly claim to have been the first, as they are still 
 the most active, allies of those physicians, perhaps a 
 minority in their 'own profession, who are trying to pro- 
 mote conservative eugenic policies, to segregate the 
 feeble-minded and unsound, to remedy physical defects 
 when possible, and to secure for abused and neglected 
 children the protection which society owes them. This 
 is what they are doing in their daily rounds. To assume 
 that social workers in the charitable societies are al- 
 moners, or are merely investigating the need for relief, 
 is to betray gross and inexcusable ignorance of their 
 work. They are investigating the whole complex situa- 
 tion in the families under their care, with a view to secur- 
 ing, and with the practical result of actually securing 
 when possible, the financial relief, the medical or surgical 
 relief, the educational opportunities, the industrial op- 
 portunities, of which the need is disclosed by the orig- 
 inal investigation and by subsequent acquaintance. All 
 that can be said on this subject therefore is that, while 
 in many instances the material to work upon is indeed 
 unpromising, so that there is no occasion for surprise if 
 tangible good results are not obtained, nevertheless the 
 general policies which are followed, as disclosed by the 
 case records and by conferences with the workers in the 
 societies, are such as are calculated to minimize the evils 
 and to discover and develop the strength even of the un- 
 promising material.
 
 43 
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF POVERTY 
 
 The second explanation to be considered for the lack 
 of improvement in some families and here we are upon 
 surer ground is that the overwhelming mass of human 
 misery, of which the suffering and dependence in these 
 few thousand families of widows is but a part, is the 
 result of causes and conditions with which both voluntary 
 charity and public relief as such are powerless to 
 deal. Tuberculosis, typhoid, fatal industrial injuries, 
 insufficient pay, economic inefficiency, the physical strain 
 of overwork, the exploitation of the vices and weaknesses 
 of men and women for commercial profit, are all sub- 
 jects with which social workers in the charitable socie- 
 ties are deeply concerned, but for which the remedies 
 lie in other and more powerful hands. Concerning the 
 great creative forces of the misery which they are called 
 upon to investigate and relieve in individual instances 
 they can only lift up their voices in eloquent testimony. 
 They may testify also, as has been intimated, to human 
 weaknesses, to lack of energy and resistance, to the fact 
 that some human beings are apparently from their birth 
 doomed to failure in any severe life struggle. But they 
 may well be appalled when they see such weaker persons, 
 and others not by any means unfit for any reason- 
 able struggle, subjected to uncontrolled infection, to 
 overcrowding, to overwork and injurious strain, to 
 ingeniously fiendish temptations such as the strongest 
 would not resist under similar circumstances, to a neces- 
 sity of paying the highest prices for inferior, diluted and 
 polluted commodities and services, and to the further 
 necessity of providing from their own insufficient re- 
 sources, and by their own inadequate efforts, for such 
 contingencies as sickness and death in the family, for
 
 44 
 
 childbirth, for infirmity and old age, for unemployment 
 whether due to personal fault and inefficiency or to in- 
 dustrial causes affecting an entire group or an entire 
 community of workers. The large lesson to be learned 
 from any such study of the widows ' problem as has been 
 made for the committee is that of the responsibility of 
 the community for much the larger part of the sickness, 
 death and dependence which constitute that problem, and 
 the utter inadequacy of either public relief or voluntary 
 relief to widows as a solution of that problem. Until 
 the community responsibility for the social and industrial 
 causes of poverty are more fully met it will be unreason- 
 able to expect either public relief officials or voluntary 
 agencies to secure a reasonable standard of living and 
 normal family life for any large proportion of those 
 whom they seek to aid. The charitable agencies do, how- 
 ever, come to have a large amount of valuable evidence of 
 the need for preventive social measures and their lead- 
 ers have been conspicuous in initiating and advocating 
 such action. 
 
 THE NEED FOR WORKERS 
 
 In the third place consideration must be given to the 
 causes for unsatisfactory results which lie within the so- 
 cieties or in their financial resources. The most glaring 
 need, as shown by the case records, is one to which their 
 officers and directors have long been alive, but which for 
 various reasons still remains serious. This is the lack of 
 a sufficient number of capable trained visitors to do the 
 work of their relief departments. There is not merely a 
 lack of training and of special ability for this work ; there 
 is a lack of a sufficient number of workers of any kind. 
 To each visitor is given responsibility for far too many
 
 45 
 
 families. Districts are too large. The pressure of emer- 
 gent work is so severe that there is little opportunity for 
 quiet, deliberate consideration about difficult situations. 
 There is of necessity too much of perpetual emergency 
 rush and too little time and insistence upon thorough 
 and constructive plans. 
 
 Even however if there were enough visitors and super- 
 visors to do the work, it would not be satisfactorily done 
 without a higher standard of selection, of professional 
 preparation, and of compensation. This is a very dis- 
 tinct kind of service calling for altogether exceptional 
 qualities. Mere physical endurance is severely taxed by 
 it. The power to think to observe, and to form sound 
 judgments is essential. No superior spiritual quality 
 comes amiss in the complex human relationships which 
 an investigation and the resulting care of a family in- 
 volve. 
 
 Professional training schools are now available for 
 the more direct and complete preparation of those who 
 have the general education and personal equipment re- 
 quired for this exacting work. By a preliminary study 
 of methods and technique, and by supervised field work 
 in connection with such study, a qualified candidate for 
 social work will n'ot only save the time and money of the 
 society, but will lay the foundation for a kind and amount 
 of genuinely helpful service that can scarcely be gained 
 even by the most competent person who has had no such 
 preliminary training. The number of such carefully 
 selected and professionally trained social workers in the 
 societies is increasing, and it is true that some of the 
 most successful have not had such opportunities. Never- 
 theless a substantial increase in the number of those 
 who have had previous training to fit them specifically
 
 46 
 
 for this work would be most advantageous to the societies 
 and to those whom they are called upon to serve. In at 
 least four of the six societies it will be necessary to in- 
 crease salaries substantially if such qualified and pre- 
 pared visitors are to be secured and retained against the 
 competition of 'other kinds of social work and other out- 
 side vocations which appeal to the same kind of workers, 
 or if, quite aside from such competition, visitors are to 
 keep themselves physically and mentally fit for their 
 work. 
 
 DANGER OF ROUTINE 
 
 The impression made by the examination of a large 
 number of records in rapid succession is that the so- 
 cieties are in danger of falling into a narrow routine, 
 covering only a comparatively small number of the items 
 necessary to successful relief work. In most instances 
 attention is paid to relief, even though the amount given 
 may not be adequate; to appropriate relief responsibil- 
 ity, whether it should come for example from church, 
 employer, lodge, or relatives; to keeping wage earners 
 at work; to emergency health needs; and to school 
 attendance. 
 
 Less often is serious attention given to fundamental 
 health needs, to vocational interests of children, to dis- 
 crimination between possible places of employment for 
 wage earners, to recreation, or to moral and spiritual 
 influences. Grave suspicion of the immorality of the 
 mothers has in some instances served as a reason for 
 withdrawing relief, regardless of the children. Such a 
 suspicion in the mind of a competent visitor is only 
 ground for more careful and effective work.
 
 47 
 
 Visitors are sometimes too easily discouraged by a 
 lack of cooperation on the part of the family or by unex- 
 pected complications. Investigations are often inade- 
 quate and the relief and service which should logically 
 fellow investigation are naturally inadequate also. There 
 is too little individualizing of children, and in many cases 
 no satisfactory account of the care which they receive 
 while the mother is at work. 
 
 No one can tell to what extent the amount available 
 for relief is insufficient until competent service is the 
 rule rather than the exception ; but that in cases of need 
 for continued relief the amount actually given is often 
 inadequate, is certain. 
 
 RECORDS DO NOT TELL THE WHOLE STORY 
 
 In fairness to the societies it must be recognized that 
 no case records can fully disclose the quality or amount 
 of work done or the actual relations which often exist 
 between a district secretary or a visitor and her fam- 
 ilies. These personal relations may become a vital fac- 
 tor in securing most gratifying results which are not 
 disclosed, because visitors are naturally reluctant to de- 
 scribe them. Records are not kept for the purpose of 
 presenting the societies and their workers in a favorable 
 light. They are kept mainly for a very practical pur- 
 pose, to enable the societies when action is necessary 
 on behalf of the family to act intelligently, on the basis 
 of previous experience, and without the necessity of re- 
 peating an investigation once thoroughly made. To ex- 
 plain in detail the reason for every decision, and to rec- 
 ord every suggestion made and urged, or even every in- 
 dication of progress, would be an intolerable tax upon 
 the time of the visitors. No doubt some time might be
 
 48 
 
 saved by omitting from the records irrelevant and un- 
 important entries, but even greater discrimination in 
 this respect would not make the records a safe exclusive 
 source of information. 
 
 The particular cases studied for this report may not 
 have been representative. The chronological selection 
 of cases, when it does not include all for a period as long 
 as a year, may have operated to make the showing less 
 favorable than strict justice requires. Moreover, even 
 these particular records might have produced a differ- 
 ent impression on the minds of others. While we have 
 not understated, or condoned, the defects clearly shown, 
 we have canvassed them fully with groups of visitors in 
 nearly all of the societies, and with their executive of- 
 ficers, to guard against inadvertent injustice. Of course 
 it is not suggested that such conferences commit those 
 who have participated in them to the conclusions stated 
 in the report. 
 
 THE COMMITMENT OF CHILDREN 
 
 We may now return to the first of our three orig- 
 inal questions; as to whether children are committed 
 who should remain with their mothers, the only reason 
 for such commitment being the poverty of a widowed 
 mother. 
 
 The consensus of opinion from every group of social 
 workers whom we have been able to consult, and the evi- 
 dence of the records in the Bureaus of Dependent Chil- 
 dren in the Department of Public Charities, is that this 
 is very exceptional and in so far as it does occur wholly 
 unnecessary. 
 
 In 335 of the 460 families of widows from which chil- 
 dren were committed in 1912 for the assigned cause
 
 49 
 
 " Death of the father", there were conditions present 
 other than poverty which seem to justify the commit- 
 ment. 
 
 The character of the disabilities in these 335 families 
 is indicated in the following table : 
 
 Number of 
 families. 
 
 1. Mother ill or in an institution 189 
 
 2. Mother unable to control children or child in- 
 corrigible or a truant 121 
 
 3. Moral conditions in family unsafe, including 
 30 in which the mother was immoral or of 
 doubtful character 43 
 
 4. Mother intemperate 31 
 
 5. Mother neglectful, unwilling to keep children, 
 unreliable, or a deserter 27 
 
 6. Mother of doubtful sanity (13) or feeble 
 minded (8) 21 
 
 7. Child defective or in need of special care 23 
 
 8. Special circumstances making commitment 
 desirable 29 
 
 NEITHER HELP NOR COMMITMENT 
 
 In 25 cases neither commitment nor help at home was 
 really necessary, as the later records show in each case 
 either that the child did not actually go to the institution 
 although commitment was formally approved, or that the 
 child has since been discharged to the mother or rela- 
 tives and is being properly cared for under circum- 
 stances substantially identical with those which existed 
 at the time of application for commitment.
 
 ONE HUNDRED WIDOWS SHOULD HAVE BEEN 
 
 HELPED 
 
 In 100 cases, a little over twenty per cent of the 460 
 (involving less than four per cent of the total number 
 of children committed in the year for all causes) a sym- 
 pathetic examination of the records in the Department 
 of Charities and in the societies, supplemented by a visit 
 to the families when there was no society record, indi- 
 cates that commitment might have been prevented by 
 assistance at home. 
 
 These 100 cases may be roughly classified as follows : 
 
 Mother considered capable of caring for children com- 
 mitted because at the time she continued to care for 
 other children, and there is no record of any posi- 
 tive disability 73 
 
 Children who were committed subsequently discharged 
 to their mother, no disability named 12 
 
 Other evidence that mother could have cared for chil- 
 dren or that commitment was inadvisable. . 15 
 
 100 
 
 The following table shows the distribution of the 460 
 families between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bureaus 
 of Dependent Children and among the six societies, and 
 also, in each case, the proportion formed by the families 
 in which commitment probably was unnecessary and 
 undesirable. It is noticeable that a considerably higher 
 percentage of those in Brooklyn should not have been 
 committed.
 
 51 
 
 
 Number of cases in which 
 
 Percentage in which there 
 should have been help instead 
 of commitment 
 
 There should have been 
 commitment 
 
 There should have been help 
 instead of commitment 
 
 Neither help nor commitment 
 was necessary 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 Manhattan Bureau of Dependent Children 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charity Organization Society ...... 
 
 46 
 34 
 45 
 68 
 
 6 
 10 
 
 9 
 12 
 
 3 
 4 
 2 
 4 
 
 55 
 
 48 
 56 
 84 
 
 11 
 21 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 193 
 
 37 
 
 13 
 
 243 
 
 15 
 
 Brooklyn Bureau of Dependent Children 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 1 
 11 
 70 
 
 32 
 1 
 5 
 25 
 
 4 
 8 
 
 % 
 2 
 16 
 103 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 * 
 24 
 
 Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor 
 United Jewish Aid Society ....... 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 142 
 
 63 
 
 12 
 
 217 
 
 29 
 21.7 
 
 GRAND TOTAL 
 
 335 
 
 100 
 
 25 
 
 460 
 
 Numbers too small to justify attaching significance to percentage.
 
 52 
 
 INTERPRETATION 
 
 This estimate that in one hundred families commit- 
 ment should have been prevented by private help is not 
 to be taken as a reflection upon the bureaus through 
 which the children were committed, or upon the 
 charitable societies. It is made in the light of evidence 
 which was not always available when the decision oc- 
 curred, and on the other hand some of the considerations 
 which influenced the officers of the bureau who had the 
 applicants personally before them may not appear in the 
 case records. Aside from such facts, it is sometimes 
 exceedingly difficult to decide upon what is the proper 
 course. Two equally competent persons might reach 
 opposite conclusions even on the same statement of facts. 
 
 For example, a widowed mother who is ill, and some 
 of whose children under ten years of age are truant and 
 hard to control, surely needs effective help, but whether 
 this help should take the form of immediate commit- 
 ment of one or more children to an institution may admit 
 of more than one answer. In this report such cases are 
 included among those in which commitment is deemed 
 advisable. This view is confirmed by the fact that this 
 is the course which was actually followed and a certain 
 presumption in favor of the soundness of the decision 
 of the officials in charge of the bureau is certainly war- 
 ranted. If there were in the community more varied and 
 abundant resources for dealing with such children under 
 the circumstances, some other alternatives might have 
 been preferred. Such difficult problems are frequent and 
 cannot be solved without a nice balancing of the degree 
 of truancy and "incorrigibility" of the children on the 
 one hand and the seriousness and probable duration of 
 the mother's illness on the other. Probably some such
 
 53 
 
 commitments could be prevented with advantage to the 
 families concerned. 
 
 Again, the mothers who are actually allowed to retain 
 the custody of some of their children are counted in our 
 estimate among those who should be aided so as to make 
 unnecessary the commitment of any. The assumption 
 here is that if the mother is a proper guardian for some 
 of her children and can support them at home, she could 
 properly care for all of them if helped adequately by 
 relief. This might not always be a safe assumption. 
 Mothers cannot be summarily classified into those who 
 can and those who cannot care for children, regardless 
 of their number, their ages, their disposition, their 
 health, and other modifying circumstances. A mother 
 might give admirable care to one child without assistance 
 and fail to give proper care to three even with the most 
 liberal allowance. 
 
 IMPRESSIONS 
 
 The examination of the records of these families from 
 which children are committed leads to certain distinct im- 
 pressions. 
 
 Most fundamental is the abiding impression of the 
 futility of any or all efforts combined to make good to 
 a family the loss of a husband and father who has played 
 his full part in the family previous to his fatal illness. 
 Coupled with this is a sense of the complexity of need 
 presented by these families. Sixty-six of them for ex- 
 ample, had not only one, but two or more of the eight 
 principal disabilities enumerated above as presumptive 
 reasons for commitment. 
 
 The home life of many of these widows with chil- 
 dren, especially of those who do not apply to the societies
 
 for aid, is precarious in the extreme. A brief illness, 
 or a temporary loss of work, or even a cut in wages, 
 may break up a family and scatter them one or more 
 to an institution, one or more to relatives, leaving pos- 
 sibly one or more to the diminished resources of the 
 mother. As health returns, or a job is found, or a higher 
 wage secured, the mother may be seen applying for the 
 discharge of the children in institutions, taking back 
 those who have been with relatives, thus gathering all 
 of her family again under her own wing. Sometimes 
 this reunion is followed by another breaking up and 
 scattering when misfortunes fall. Cases are numerous 
 of this alternate commitment and discharge, commitment 
 and discharge. 
 
 In the families from which applications for commit- 
 ment are made, there is an impression of terrible strug- 
 gle to make the few dollars remaining from insurance or 
 savings after the husband's death, stretch over as long 
 a period as possible a period, however, of increasing 
 poverty, decreasing strength, and multiplying dangers 
 to the family. The high cost of funerals and the close 
 approximation of this funeral expense to the amount of 
 the insurance constantly force themselves upon the atten- 
 tion. 
 
 Some at least of the cases of imm'orality of the moth- 
 er seem to have been fairly attributable to the presence 
 of a male lodger, or to the fact that the mother keeps 
 house for a widower, typical means of income to which 
 some widows are almost forced by necessity. Similarly 
 the incorrigibility and truancy of children from seven to 
 ten years of age, mention of which frequently occurs in 
 these records, seems to be to some degree occasioned by 
 the fact that an aged grandmother or 'other female rela-
 
 55 
 
 tive has been suddenly charged with the unfamiliar and 
 difficult task of disciplining boys of the "big Injun" age. 
 On the other hand a young grandmother is often the most 
 steadying influence in the Italian family. Except for 
 her presence the attempt to keep the children with their 
 mother would be much like turning loose a lot of children 
 to bring up one another. 
 
 SELF SUPPORTING WIDOWS 
 
 In this connection the question fairly arises whether 
 mothers who support themselves and their children en- 
 tirely without assistance are doing so 'only at an ultimate 
 sacrifice of health and of maternal home care, and thus 
 of permanent welfare, which society cannot afford. Na- 
 turally this study throws only indirect light on this ques- 
 tion, since there has been no direct study of such fam- 
 ilies. It is however a fair inference from the facts and 
 impressions made by the records of the families known 
 to the charitable societies and to the Bureaus of De- 
 pendent Children, that the real hardships and handicaps 
 encountered by independent working mothers, like those 
 to which we have called attention as arising in the fam- 
 ilies under consideration, are for the most part such as 
 can be removed only by industrial and social changes, 
 by radical changes in the conditions affecting women's 
 work. Their hours of work should be shortened; their 
 efficiency increased by training and better organization; 
 their wages correspondingly increased and standardized ; 
 their employment adjusted to the physiological needs of 
 women; the supply of labor adjusted to the demands by 
 employment exchanges, intelligently planned and con- 
 ducted; cooperative arrangements effected for securing
 
 56 
 
 proper care for children, chronic invalids or aged per- 
 sons in the mother 's temporary absence, s'o that a woman 
 capable of doing more productive work shall not be de- 
 barred from undertaking it by less important demands. 
 These reforms are not in the least inconsistent with the 
 superior claims of home and children when they are su- 
 perior, but they are in the direction of enabling working 
 women to decide for themselves, as working men decide 
 for themselves, in what way they can most economically 
 and most completely meet their natural obligations. 
 Industrial justice clearly involves such changes in public 
 opinion, such protection and enlargement 'of opportunity, 
 as have been suggested. 
 
 Difficulties arise and hardships occur primarily be- 
 cause women are not trained for skilled occupations, 
 are worn out by long hours and injurious occu- 
 pations, and are paid far less than a living wage. 
 Belief to the individual victims 'of industry cannot 
 change industry. The only cure for industrial abuses 
 is industrial betterment; and the state should spend its 
 money in industrial betterment if that is necessary 
 rather than establish a system of relief to meet the 
 exigencies of a situation whicE must give way with the 
 coming of reforms that are needed and needed now.
 
 57 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 The main results of this inquiry may be recapitulated 
 as follows: 
 
 That of all the factors involved in the support 
 of widows and the care of their children, the main 
 responsibility is upon the widows themselves; that 
 they are entitled to the credit for the greater part 
 of whatever has been accomplished in the families 
 studied; and that all measures intended for their bene- 
 fit should be judged primarily from the standpoint of 
 their probable effect on the ability of the widows to solve 
 their own problems and those of their children; 
 
 That widows are usually capable of supporting them- 
 selves and their children when necessary, but that in do- 
 ing so they encounter great obstacles and hardships, 
 which can be removed only by radical changes in the con- 
 ditions of women's work; 
 
 That the occupations in which widows who apply for 
 relief are engaged are characterized by inefficiency of 
 workers, low wages, and irregularity of employment; 
 
 That these evils can be met only by early training, a 
 better distribution of workers through efficient employ- 
 ment exchanges, and higher standards of compensation; 
 
 That vocational training and guidance for children 
 as they come of working age, and sound advice as to 
 occupations, are urgently needed; 
 
 That more hospital and sanatorium facilities are re- 
 quired for the sick, the disabled, the infirm, the conval- 
 escent, and the mentally deficient; facilities both for, 
 diagnosis and for treatment; 
 
 That although great improvements have been made in 
 the standards, methods, and policies of the charitable 
 societies, there is much room for further improvement;
 
 58 
 
 That, in particular, more trained workers, with higher 
 salaries, or more trained volunteer workers, or both, 
 and larger resources for relief, are indispensable for the 
 preservation of the health and well being of the fam- 
 ilies now under the care of the societies ; 
 
 That the case records of the charitable societies indi- 
 cate that conditions in the families under care do not 
 always improve, but sometimes grow worse, these unsat- 
 isfactory results being due partly to the causes just 
 named, but in large part to personal and social causes 
 which neither public relief nor voluntary charity can 
 reach ; but upon which those who have to do with the re- 
 lief of the poor should constantly insist ; 
 
 That mothers who are suitable guardians for their 
 children, physically and morally able to care for them 
 properly, are not seeking in any large number because 
 of poverty alone to have their children committed as 
 public charges; 
 
 That the charitable societies have shown both the de- 
 sire and the financial ability to provide relief in such 
 cases when called to their attention, although in these as 
 in other cases the relief is sometimes inadequate; 
 
 That there should however be a still better coordina- 
 tion between the Bureaus of Dependent Children and 
 the voluntary agencies to prevent the relatively few un- 
 necessary commitments of this kind which still occur ; 
 
 That the ideal solution of the widows' problem is a 
 longer and more productive life for working fathers, and 
 provision for widowhood and orphanage through a lib- 
 eral, inexpensive, and safe system of social insurance.
 
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