New Britain Herald Newspaper, May 10, 1917, Page 10

WITH RED CROSS ut Bolieves Coarty Organia- reguiar monthly meeting of the “Britain Charity Organisation di- wes held in the' rooms on Main street last evening. Ac- f to the report of the agent, FElsle Osborn, it would be de- that this organization enroll f8n institutional members of the Crpes thereby adding to its use- e The report for the month is month after the battle of Manila retired actor who owned an un- ble farm, conceived the noble ©of turning it into a national for Widows and Orphans of ‘Spanish-American War. ' This e was not altogether thrift or Mianthropy,—probably about a half jd “half mixture. At any rate, at f@ time, a charity organization sec- ‘found the actor playing the “of heavy philanthropist in his office, with a phcard “Remem- | the Mainc” on the door, just one n had been killed in the war, he was a bachelor. Nevertheless, minent banker in' that city had ited tQ act as treasurer of the home, the newspapers were : space to the plan, and theatri- ‘paople were beginning ‘o arrange g prefo; ces. 3 o rmant #ime of war two things happen. help, carefully planned, is :’5 and more unpianned hysteri- Bl charity is forthcoming. Hysteria ‘& ‘great disorganiser, “There is deal of common sense in the 1 oply it could be organized,” an English writer.. We take it the charity organization society its country best when it does _worlk as ‘well as possible. are two branches of service ‘may bo necessary later on;—or- n for mocial service in aol‘; families in conjunction wit : and, organisation for ncies, such as fires m-t ::‘; health emergencies or ‘“Anxious as we are to serve, ‘best at the pr..snt moment alert and mark time. Char- tion methods of case formerly much maligned, now into their own as the only * methods for war relief work. agent_ is giving as many ad- as she can possibly find time this topic. Our volunteers . more. and more to would be.correspond- i1 a crisis, and we have in the state save New Haven . with its college men. . Our Saturday morn- ing class still continues with its studies, and ‘our committees and our Social Workers Conference -show more solidarity and shoulder-to- shoulder work than many cities can boast. This team work would be im- portant in time .of emergency. We would also suggest that this society, which is eligible, might well enroll as an institutional member of the Red Cross, thereby adding to its own usefulness locally and proving its worth as a good neighbor, since part of the obligation consists in sanding out a trained worker from oux own office to assist in any nearby city if a great - emergency arises. Only Hartford and New Haven char-. ity okganization societies are thus en- rolled, at present. We have talked this matter over before with leaders in the 'state, and concluded it was unnecessaryt preparedness, but now with war declared conditions are dif- ferent. During April, 1917, there have been 365 requests for services we could render, twenty-four from pub- lic officials, ejghteen from private socleties, twelve from, churches, twelve from schools, four from other cities and the rest from applicants themselves. We came in contact altogether with 113 families during the month, of whom thirty-one were new to; us. There were 340 calls. at the office, 212 from people with a boon to ask, and 128 from interested individuals. There were 462 telephone calls worth remembering, and 101 visits made by paid workers. We were also aided by friendly visitors who madq seven- ty-four calls. The volunteer office work amounted to thirtynine hours altogether. In considering the main causes of need in the thirty-one new cases, shiftlessness ‘or vagrancy seemed at the root of the trouble in fourteen in- stances. Sickness, physical handicap and immorality each seemed respon- sible for three or four cases, and with the soaring prices of foodstuffs, our old bugaboo—insufficient income— again comes forward after befug silenced for months by prosperous times, to be held responsible for dis- tress in four of our families. Some of the men we know are undoubtediy receiving all and even moré than they are worth, simply because of the sca:- city of labor at present, and yetsome- times on account of the large num- ber of dependents in the family ana the high prices of food, the income is| insufficient. Occasionally in such instances we cannot help wondering if a minimum family number might not go well with the minimum wage standard. In the cases where shiftlessness brings havoc, we have heen trying to impress people with the calamity their own heedlessness may bring up- on them in war times, but it does not seem to sink in very deep. We also find an a)palling lack of knowi- edge. of even the simplest cookery among some of the mothers, and ‘we try to do as much as we can in the way of friendly suggestion and advice, concerning wise and economical ‘pur- chdsing and cooking and preéserving of food. . Even with. due allowance’ for racial preferences and lack of training, it does seem ag if some of these wom- en were very poorly equipped to han- dle the weekly pay envelopes brought home to them. The most encouraging part of it lles in the fact that these women’s daughters, many of whom are bright and alert as can be, show plainly how well our public schools are training them in practical com- monsense cookery, and they may be depended on to do rather unwelcome missionary work in their parents’ homes, and later on very excellent work in their own. Incidentally oftern: times we cannot help sympathizing with the heartache of these same mothers when they discover that their daughters feel superior to them. Permanent work weas secured for seven people, and many different bi of temporaiy work for eight othe Many -people ask us to help them find maids,—requests that we simply can- not comply with under present condi- tions. Many others ask for men to help them with garden work. We had hoped to develop a sort of gardenins squad that we could send out by the day to different people, but after sev- eral weeks of vain attempt to accom- modate people, we must admit that every red-blooded man we know is at work, and as a rule those remaining are either so old, 50 majmed, so sim- ple or so sick that they are of very little use for gardening or any other work. The small boys too have not re- sponded very well as yet. They geem to take ‘best to managing little gar- dens of their own, and without direc- tion their gardening efforts do not ‘show up well, thus early in the sea- son. We have requests from farmers for boys to work for their board, and conclude that most of them need to be looked into pretty carefully if the boys are not to be half killed with work. On the other hand, boys of fifteen ask for farm work, and coolty demand $10 a week and their board, and farm laborers command $2.50 by the day. Altogether from our View- point, the farm labor situation seems to be rather chaotic. One phase of the situation that In- terests us greatly is the attitude of fm- migrant women not many,years in this country. In the old coufitry many ot them lived in rural .districts and worked in the flelds. As one peasant woman said, it seemed very strange to her, coming here after fleld work, to find that she must either go into a factory with presses, or a big house with fancy furniture, to work for her living. Many of these women take very kindly to the idea of a dbig gar- den to work this summer, and we expect some of these gardens will yield large returns in health and hap- piness as well as vegetables for these women and -their children; who will be kept busy and happy out in the ‘Watch This Sp crowded tenements. Last week some women gladly cut seed potatoes, ra- ther 'than do washings for people. ‘Without in the least wishing to force unladylike or over burdensome work on some of these strong farm bred peasant women, we cannot help think- ing that if the food crisis continues perhaps we may be very willing to see some of them in the gardens ana | fields doing work they have been ac- customd to in the past, providing the work is not too heavy nor the hours to lons. ‘As usual many families received medical care, legal advice and other service which would have cost them much, while we obtained it free tor them. Clothing was given to twenty- four. Nineteen were cared for in emergencies and seventeen were givel: temporary weekly aid. Institutionas care was secured for two. One loan was madé. In the matter of financial relief $105.05 was organized from out- side sources, without the bills passing through our hands. From the shoe fund $22.30. was expended, $23.89 from the H. H. Club Babies’ fund, $115.17 from the treasurer’s fund and $209.82 from the agent’s special funds making a total of $476.25 spent for relief through the Charity Organiza- tion during the month. Respectfully submitted, ELSIE C. OSBORN, Agent. Statistical Report, For month ending April 30, 1917: Applicatians for Service—From public officials 24, private societies 18, churches 12, Interested individuals 88, other cities 4, schools®12, applicants themselves, for: advice 17, aid 79, clothing 23, friendly service 71, trans- portation 4, work 18. Total 365. Applicants—Total ' number dealt during month 113, continued cases 82, new cases 31, includin families 16, transients 11, application tor waork only (no record kept) 4. Personal Service—Cualls at office 340, consultants’ 128,.applicants 212, visits by agents to or in behalf of families 101, calls by friendly visi- tors 74, business calls 6, teleph.ne ::n- 462, volunteer office work, hours Causes of Poverty In New Cases— Sickness or accident 2, drunkenness 2, Physical or mental handicap 4, in- sufficient income 4, shiftlessness 3, vagrancy 11, immarality or crime 3, miscellaneous 1, desertion or non- support 1. Total 31. Material Reliet—Loans, times 1, amount $1.15, refunded $1.15; num- ber receiving aid during month 36, amount of aid from treasury fund $116.17;. amount of aid frem special fund, $209.82; total amount af aid from C. O. funds $324; number for whom ald was organized ' from churches, individuals, socleties, etc. 26, amount organized $105.06; amount of ald from special shoe fund for school children $22.32; number aided thereby 14; total amount aid ex- pended through Charity Organization $476,25; H. H. club milk bables $23.89. PURCHASED BY U. 3. Owners Put Patriotism Before Dollars and Sell Gheap ‘Washington, May 10.—The Federal Shipping board last night announced that it had purchased from American owners seven Austrian merchantmen held in American ports, totalling 52,- th_tonl, for $6,778,006. The price is about half the prevailing price for ships. The vessels will be repaired within a few months and placed in the war emergency trade by the board. The ships are the Dora, of 7,087 tons, and the Ida, of 4,780 tons, both at New York; the Erny, of 6,515 tons, at Boston; the Anna, of 1,676 tons; the Clara, of 3,932 tons; the Teresa, of 8,769 tons, at New Orleans, and the Lucta of 6,744, tons, at Pensacola. They were bought from A. T. Herd and George A. Carden, New York ship owners, who agreed to sacrifice their profits and sell at virtually the same ice they gave for the vessels. “This economic experiment is in sharp contrast to the experience met by the government in ship parchasing at the out-break of the Speanish- American war,” said Chairman Den- man of the board, explaining that an American corporation to whom the the repair of the Hamburg-Ameri- | can. fleet. ““The vessels were bought with a re- striction to- neutral trade for a cost to them of $128.656 per ton. After making this contract of purchase, Messrs. Herd and Carden contracted to resell the vessels to a syndicate of New York capitalists at $142 dead- was made several days prior to the owners were under contract to sell haa agreed to waive its interest. The vessels could not have been | operated by the private .smerican owners until after the war without .becoming liable to seizure allied warships. The low price paid by the government was $107,000 more than was paid originally to the Austrian owners, the Austro-American Steam- ship Line. This sum represented financing costs and attorney fees inci- dent to the purchase. The ships were bought at President Wilson’s direction and payment will be made from the $100,000,000 war emergency fund at the president's disposal. Other similar purchases are contemplated by the shipping board, and it'is said some of the Austrian ships now in American ports may be acquired. < “Megsrs. Herd and Carden pur- chased the vessels with the aypproval of the state department, which they obtained on April 2,” said Mr. Den-' man. “The vessels will be repaired and placed in a trade serving the war emergency in the very mnear tuture. The shipping board has made a care- full study of the vessels and expects that it will have them ready for sea with the same expedition shown in | = = protective. measures taken by the % treasury department, which ‘placed guards on the vessels 'to -prevemk - further damage. . “Subsequently, it became appareny that the United States might need the vessels for service in assisting the allles. Messrs. Herd and Carden'of=" fered their profit as a gift to the government.” Definite Plan of Subscription to the UNITED STATES 31-2% 'LIBERTY LOAN In Ten Monthly Installments NEW BRITAIN TRUST COMP ——