At almost the very close of the session of the New York Legislature,
the bills introduced at the instigation of the New York Milk
Committee by Assemblyman Carroll to give to the state more complete
control over milk production and milk handling through the State
Departments of Agriculture and Health were defeated, although one
came within half a dozen votes of passing. These bills were drawn in
accordance with the resolutions adopted by the governors’ delegates
from eastern and middle states at a conference last February.
The bills were drawn to supplement each other and provided that
the State Department of Agriculture should have charge of dairy
inspection and the State Department of Health of medical inspection
of the dairy employes and laboratory tests of milk. According to the
first of these bills, veterinarians now in the employ of the State
Department of Agriculture were to be employed as dairy inspectors.
It is the opinion of the committee that only competent veterinarians
can perform the examination of dairy cattle and that the training
which competent veterinarians receive equips them to make sanitary
inspections of the buildings in which dairy cattle are housed and
the surroundings of these buildings. The companion bill to amend
the public health laws gave to the local medical representatives
of the State Department of Health power not only to make medical
examinations of dairy employes but to test the water supply on dairy
farms and the milk delivered by farmers to creamery and milk stations.
After the Carroll bill was defeated Senator Wagner introduced a bill
providing for a commission to investigate the methods of production,
distribution and sale of milk and cream. The state commissioner of
agriculture, the Senate and Assembly chairmen of the Committees on
Agriculture, the master of the grange, the secretary of the New
York Sanitary Milk Dealers’ Association and the president of the
National Housewives’ League were named in the bill as the members of
the commission. This substitute was attacked by the New York Milk
Committee as merely a measure for delay and on the ground that it
contains but one actual representative of the consuming public, the
president of the National Housewives’ League. The secretary of the
Milk Committee pointed out that the commission contained no health
expert, no sanitarian, no bacteriologist and no veterinarian. In
the closing moments of the Legislature an attempt was made to have
at least the state health commissioner added as a member of the
commission. This effort proved to be unnecessary for the bill was
only passed by the Senate.
“HUNTING A JOB” IN SOCIAL WORK
“Hunting a job” in social work presents almost as many terrors as
confront the unemployed casual laborer. The New York Charities
Directory lists 3500 organizations, a large part of which employ
paid workers. This is but a local index of the number of societies
that need trained workers. Yet the individual who is looking for a
position in social work, soon learns that the task of finding the
right opening is not easy. He secures interviews with busy executives
only to find that the positions he had heard of are already filled.
Executive officers, on the other hand, are forced to spend much time
looking up references and writing to possible applicants, and then
often fail to find the right candidate. As a result the right person
and the right place frequently fail to make connections.
This difficulty it has been felt was only partially overcome by the
existing employment agencies and employment departments of colleges
and schools of philanthropy. In an effort to meet the needs more
completely the Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, with the
co-operation of the New York School of Philanthropy and of the
Russell Sage Foundation, has established a separate department to
serve as a clearing-house for workers and positions in social work.
This bureau was organized by the New York alumnae societies of nine
eastern colleges for women to help solve the problem of employment
for college graduates and other trained women in occupations other
than teaching. Since its opening on October 1, 1911, the bureau has
filled 158 positions in the field of social work and 271 in other
lines of activity.
The new Department for Social Workers will follow in its special
field the methods which have proved successful in the general work of
the bureau. It will accept for registration both women and men, and
will be national in scope. It is governed by an Executive Committee
of eight, which includes three representatives from the Board of
Directors of the bureau, Mary Vida Clark, Mary Van Kleeck and
Margaret F. Byington. The other members of the committee are Edward
T. Devine, of the New York School of Philanthropy; John M. Glenn,
of the Russell Sage Foundation; R. H. Edwards, of the International
Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association; Elizabeth W.
Dodge; and James S. Cushman. An Advisory Committee composed of
persons actively interested in social and civic work of national
scope will assist in increasing its usefulness to social organization.
At the outset it has been decided to limit the services of the
department to those who have had some training or experience. A
year in social work, or in a school of philanthropy or a college
degree, is required of applicants. A registration fee of one dollar
is charged, and a small commission for positions secured through the
bureau. No fee is charged to employers. Sigrid Wynbladh, formerly
with the New York School of Philanthropy, has been appointed
assistant manager, in charge of the Department for Social Workers,
under the supervision of Frances Cummings, manager of the bureau. The
office is located for the present in connection with the main office
of the bureau, at 38 West 32nd Street, New York, but it is hoped that
space may be secured later in the United Charities Building. The new
department opened March 1. Already 182 well qualified applicants are
registered and 107 calls have been received for responsible workers.