The spread of preventive measures from city and town to outlying county
and rural districts seems to be gaining headway. In Minnesota a county
conference of charities and correction was recently started and at
Cumberland, Md., a strong plea was made last month for a county-wide
charity organization society. Speaking before the Maryland Conference of
Charities and Correction, Margaret F. Byington, associate field
secretary, Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage
Foundation, told of the effective work that had been done by county
organizations in New York and New Jersey. She was met with the response
that the association of Cumberland would probably employ an additional
paid secretary in the near future to work entirely outside the city.
The last legislature authorized the establishment of a juvenile court
for Allegheny County, of which Cumberland is the county seat. One of the
discussions of the conference dealt with the difficulties surrounding
the work of such a court with a jurisdiction extending over some fifty
or sixty miles of territory.
As a result of the conference it is probable that a state-wide housing
law will be presented to the next legislature, that all acute cases of
insanity will be transferred from the local almshouses to the state
hospitals and that a branch of the Maryland Children’s Aid Society will
be established in Cumberland.