THE COMMUNITY'S DEPENDENT
The neighborliness and hospitality of farmers is proverbial in every
land and clime. Throughout much of the old world where farmers still
live in village communities the poverty or distress of any family is at
once apparent and the more fortunate members of the village in one way
or another give such assistance as is possible. The more primitive the
people the more binding is this obligation for mutual aid, and one
cannot but feel that our so-called advanced civilization has failed to
develop as keen a sense of responsibility for the unfortunate. In rural
America this is possibly due to the fact that our farms are scattered
and the condition of needy families may not be noticed. The average
rural community will usually inform an inquirer that it has practically
no poverty and no need of a social worker. Yet investigation will almost
always show that tucked away in some hollow, back on some hill, or even
huddled near the outskirts of the village are a few unfortunate
families, of whose needs the community is unaware. These families, for
one reason or another are "disadvantaged," they do not commonly
associate with others, they may be foreigners, or in some way they are
"queer" and are more or less avoided, or possibly they are merely
isolated and so are unknown. From the standpoint of the social welfare
of the community such families, or individuals, have been called the
"unadjusted"; they do not mix freely and are not up to the local
standards of life. In short, such families or individuals are abnormal,
and are a social liability of the community.
These "disadvantaged" or "unadjusted" people may be roughly grouped into
four classes: the dependent, the defective, the delinquent, and the
neglected. In one sense they may all be called the "community's
dependent," for they all require some sort of assistance from the
community if their relationship to it is to be satisfactorily adjusted.
_Poverty._--In a narrower sense the "dependent" are the poor; those who
are unable to support themselves and who must be aided by the community
if they are to exist. If this condition becomes chronic they are
paupers; but in most cases their dependency is temporary and has been
due to some unusual drain on the family's resources, such as, sickness,
fire, crop failure, or inability to secure employment. There is a very
natural aversion on the part of the latter class against becoming
stigmatized as paupers and of having to secure public relief, of "being
on the town"; whereas the habitual dependents have frequently lost all
pride in their social status and are quite willing to continue to
receive all the help they can secure. In both cases, if assistance is to
be of permanent value, the problem is not only that of furnishing
immediate relief in the form of food, clothing, or shelter, but of
ascertaining the causes of the dependency and giving such assistance and
sympathetic encouragement as will enable the family or individual to
again become self-supporting and regain a normal status in the
community. Obviously this is a delicate task which requires the best
knowledge of human nature as well as genuine sympathy which will inspire
confidence and faith, and in so far as possible is likely to be more
effective if it can be done privately. On the other hand, a large
proportion of the chronic dependency also involves mental or physical
defectiveness or moral delinquency which cannot be remedied by the mere
giving of alms. Much of the poor relief given by rural communities is
practically wasted because of a failure to ascertain the real cause of
poverty or by lack of knowledge or means for its treatment.
_Defectives._--In most cases the care of "defectives" cannot be
undertaken by the rural community itself, because they usually require
the care of institutions which can only be supported by the county or
state. Furthermore, a family is usually able to take care of one of its
members who is so afflicted or will assume the burden of sending him to
an institution, so that only in the case of dependent families does the
responsibility rest on the community. There is, however, a duty on the
part of the community to see that the afflicted are given necessary
care, so that they may not have to go through life so handicapped that
they are unable to be self-supporting and thus may become wholly
dependent.
The physically defective are largely cared for by state and county
institutions. We have learned that the deaf and blind may become largely
self-supporting if given the advantages of a specific type of education,
for which the state maintains special schools. County and state
hospitals provide for the care of those afflicted with tuberculosis and
a beginning is being made in the provision of state hospitals for
crippled children where they may receive necessary surgical and
orthopedic treatment. Likewise the more helpless mental defectives, the
insane, the imbeciles and idiots, are cared for in state institutions.
One of the most serious menaces to the social health of the rural
community is from those mental defectives who are able to care for
themselves but who are mentally incapable of rearing a normal family and
of conforming to the customary standards of morality. These
"feeble-minded," are far too numerous in rural communities and their
proper care and education has been neglected because they have been
commonly regarded as merely "simple minded" or "foolish"; to be pitied,
and the subject of many a jest, but entirely harmless. A large number of
the feeble-minded are so nearly normal that they are considered merely
shiftless or stupid. Nearly every rural community has one or more
families, and not infrequently a small slum neighborhood, who are
ne'er-do-wells, more or less delinquent and frequently requiring aid
from the town. Thanks to modern psychology, we now know that many of
these adults have the intelligence of only a seven or nine-year-old
child and that they are incapable of further mental development.
Furthermore, carefully conducted studies in the heredity of these
families show that feeble-mindedness is congenital; that where both
parents are feeble-minded all the offspring will be so afflicted; and
that when one of the parents is sub-normal that some of the children
will be feeble-minded and that those who appear normal may transmit the
defect to their children. Psychological tests have now been developed so
that adults with a mentality of nine or ten years or less may be
definitely diagnosed as mentally deficient.
It must be obvious that an adult with fully developed sexual desires but
with the mind of a child is incapable of conforming his or her behavior
to the standards of society and will be incapable of giving proper
parental care to children. So a considerable percentage of our petty
criminals, vagrants, prostitutes, and dependent are found to be
feeble-minded. They are unstable, suggestible, easily victimized.
The farm and the village have a considerable amount of routine work
which can be done by these sub-normal people and they therefore have
opportunity to maintain themselves and to multiply to better advantage
than in the city where the competition of life is keener. Although they
are best off in a rural environment, when unrestricted and unsegregated
they are a constant menace to the community and often involve it in
considerable expense. As soon as farmers become aware of what the
feeble-minded are costing the community, how they endanger its moral and
physical health, and that when unrestricted they continue to reproduce
incapables and thus perpetuate the burden, they will demand that some
practicable and reasonable measures be taken for their control. The
difficulty is that at present in most states there is no method whereby
the feeble-minded can be committed to state institutions or be otherwise
segregated unless they are paupers or unless they go voluntarily, nor is
there any means of preventing their marriage and reproduction. Dairy
farmers have learned that it pays to weed out the "boarder" cows from
their herds and that if they breed from a scrub sire they will have
scrub stock; but if the boarder cow was also inclined to become vicious
and to corrupt the habits of the rest of the herd and the farmer knew
this trait to be hereditary, he would invariably send such a cow to the
butcher. I believe that as soon as farmers appreciate the biological
significance of feeble-mindedness they will insist upon reasonable
legislation for its control.
_Delinquency._--The third class of abnormal citizens are the
delinquents, both adult and juvenile. Almost every rural community has a
certain number of adults and children who, although not definitely
criminal, are constantly committing various misdemeanors, are vicious,
or incorrigible, and there are occasional rural communities and
neighborhoods which are as true slums as are found in the cities.[72]
Drunkenness was formerly the greatest cause of delinquency, and the
tavern and saloon were responsible for the prohibition movement whose
staunchest supporters were rural people. The bootlegger and the illicit
still continue the illegal traffic in liquor, but where prohibition has
been in force for some time liquor has ceased to be an important factor
in delinquency.
We have but few definite studies of delinquency in rural communities
upon which to base any generalizations. One of the best of these is a
study of the juvenile delinquents in 21 average rural communities in New
York state, made under the auspices of the U. S. Children's Bureau in
1917.[73] In these 21 communities 185 delinquent children were found, 41
of whom were classed as "incorrigible," 68 were involved in sex
offenses, and 75 had stolen, or were guilty of fraud. The number of boys
guilty of incorrigibility and theft exceeded that of the girls by six to
one, but among the older sex offenders 41 were girls and but 9 were
boys. This study is of particular value in showing that almost every
rural community, however prosperous and progressive it may be, has its
problem of delinquency, and in its analysis of the responsibility of the
home, the school, and the church, for wayward children.
_The Neglected._--The fourth class which require the care of the
community are the neglected. Although the aged occasionally require
neighborly assistance, even though they have means for their
necessities, most of the neglected are infants and children. Orphans and
foundlings for whom homes must be found, children who are over-worked or
abused, or who are living with dissolute parents, all of these must be
given proper guardianship and a chance for healthful growth and
education, or they are likely to become delinquent and thus become a
permanent liability to society. It is true that in the country the home
is at its best (see chapter II), but it is also unfortunately true that
some of the most shameful and almost unbelievable cases of neglect and
abuse of children are frequently found in out-of-the-way places in rural
communities. Where compulsory school attendance laws are strictly
enforced such cases may come to the attention of school officials, but
in many instances no one seems responsible for discovering neglected
children and ensuring their proper care. Most of the cities and larger
towns have Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children whose
agents investigate rural cases reported to them and bring them to the
attention of the courts when necessary, but there is a need for some
local agency in every rural community which will see that neglect is
prevented or stopped.
_Agencies for Rural Social Work._--When we examine the means for dealing
with these "misfit" members of the rural community, we find that in most
of our states there are few agencies either public or private, and that
as a rule they are poorly adapted to render the service needed.
For the care of the poor there is the township or county poor officer,
and the county poor farm as a last resort. But the poor officer, however
upright and well-intentioned he may be, usually conceives his job as one
for doling out sufficient groceries, clothing, and fuel to keep a family
alive, and of keeping the cost to the taxpayer as low as possible. He
feels little responsibility for furnishing sufficient aid to give the
family a fair chance to get on its feet or for advising them or bringing
such influences into their lives as will ensure their rehabilitation. He
is charged with a most difficult task for which he has had no
experience or training, which he must handle with the greatest economy
and for which he receives little compensation either in salary or public
esteem. Very commonly his election is due to political strength rather
than special personal fitness. The case of the poor is commonly regarded
as a necessary evil to be handled with as little trouble as possible,
rather than as an opportunity to give such help to the unfortunate that
further assistance may be unnecessary and that they may become an asset
to the community.
Cases of delinquency involving only misdemeanors or minor offenses are
tried before a justice of the peace or local magistrate. Usually these
officials are men with no legal training and with little understanding
of the causes of delinquency or of how delinquents should be treated in
order to give them a fair chance to become normal citizens. The usual
attitude is one of determining the offense and meting out just
punishment for it. Furthermore, the local justice frequently avoids
handling a case which may involve him in difficulties with his
neighbors, unless he is forced to do so. Not infrequently juvenile
offenders are sent to reformatories where they come into contact with
worse characters and are hardened rather than reformed, whereas if they
had been placed on probation under proper supervision and under
satisfactory home conditions they might have lived decent lives.
In most of our cities juvenile cases are now handled in special juvenile
courts, which have shown the futility of the old methods of legal
procedure in the treatment of juvenile offenders. In this court the
judge is assisted by probation officers who are trained as social
workers and who investigate the home conditions and other influences
surrounding the child for the information of the judge, who then handles
the case in whatever manner seems best in order to get at the facts and
to bring the child to a real desire to "make good." The case is heard
privately, without the ordinary rules of legal procedure, and the whole
attitude of the court is more like that of a father than of the ordinary
judge who inflicts punishment according to the gravity of the offense.
It must be evident that one person handling numerous cases of this kind
will soon gain an experience with them which will enable him to act more
intelligently and with greater justice both to the offender and to the
interests of society than can be done by a local official who may have
but one or two such cases to handle during his whole term of office. In
several states legislation has been passed creating juvenile courts in
each county, which have jurisdiction over all juvenile cases and which
can deal not only with the children but also with their parents or
guardians. The general adoption of such a system seems to be the most
important step in the intelligent treatment of juvenile delinquents in
rural districts.
Very often the first waywardness of a child is in truancy from school,
which, if it cannot be handled by the teacher, is turned over to the
local truant officer. In many cases the truant officer is appointed
because of his availability for such work rather than his special
competency, and the enforcement of the truancy law is handled in a most
perfunctory manner, whereas an intelligent investigation of home
conditions and an effort to gain the cooperation of the parents and the
confidence and interest of the child are the only means of securing any
real reform. In several cities truancy is in charge of what are known as
"visiting teachers," who not only look after truants but visit the homes
of those children who are not doing well in their school work, in order
to determine whether home conditions are responsible and how they may be
improved. Usually the country school teacher is more in touch with the
homes of her pupils, but some of the more progressive rural counties are
providing an assistant to the county superintendent of schools, who acts
both in the capacity of truant officer and visiting teacher, assisting
the local teacher in the more difficult cases which require a
considerable amount of time to develop proper relations in the home. To
be of most service such a person should not only have experience in
school work but should have had the training of a social worker, so that
she may understand the best means of dealing with the wayward child and
with unfavorable home conditions. It seems probable that more may be
done toward the prevention of delinquency through such social workers
connected with the school system than by any other means.
In many states there seems to be no definite system for the supervision
of children for whom the state is responsible. They may be boarded or
adopted by families or placed in institutions by any one of several
local officials having jurisdiction, but none of them have the means of
determining whether the children are being properly cared for, nor does
the county or state provide any agency for this purpose. In several
states the registration and supervision of such wards of the state is
placed in the hands of a state child welfare board or a state department
of charities or public welfare, but in other states the supervision of
their welfare is wholly dependent upon private philanthropy. Experience
has shown that where a trained social worker is employed to look up the
relatives of such children and to assist in finding homes for them and
in visiting the homes and institutions to which they are committed, a
considerable saving in the cost of their maintenance to the county is
frequently effected. In order that all of the care of children may be
centralized under one county office which can employ competent persons
for its work, several states have created county boards of child welfare
which are charged with the whole responsibility for the care of
dependent and neglected children, which is then taken entirely out of
the hands of local officials. In a few states, county boards of public
welfare have been created which have supervision not only of children
but of all dependents, defectives, and neglected, and in some cases also
have charge of the public health administration. The centralization of
such authority in a county board which can employ executives who have
had special training and experience for such work is not only good
business, but it is the only method by which the state can
satisfactorily fulfil its obligation to those who are dependent upon it.
Usually the rural community has few if any private agencies or
associations devoted to the assistance of its dependent. The churches
and the lodges assist some of their own members. Here and there are
isolated groups of King's Daughters or similar societies which devote
themselves to the care of the poor and the sick, but they are
comparatively rare in the country. The Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children often prosecutes rural cases, but it is usually a
town or city organization and has practically no rural membership. Over
the United States as a whole, the American Red Cross has probably done
more to introduce the idea of social work into rural communities than
any one agency. During the war the local chapters of the Red Cross were
authorized to give assistance to soldiers' families in any way possible.
This involved rural as well as town families, and the need of organized
social work became apparent in thousands of rural communities. When
peace was declared, the local chapters were authorized to extend the
Civilian Relief work to civilian families in territory where there was
no other organization doing welfare work, which meant practically all of
the rural United States, providing the work was carried on by trained
workers on a basis approved by the division headquarters. The family
welfare work of the Red Cross was happily named "Home Service" and has
been organized in many rural counties where its value has been
repeatedly demonstrated. The work is directly in charge of a social
worker employed by the county chapter but the local branch in each
community is encouraged to form a Home Service Committee which looks
after the local work as far as it is able, calls in the county worker
when needed, and gives her all the assistance possible. Thus the work is
localized and each community has a definite group of workers who feel
responsible for looking after those needing the community's assistance
and who are learning how to do this in an intelligent manner. No other
agency organized on a national basis has attempted any systematic
organization of social welfare work in local rural communities.
_Social Education of Rural Opinion._--The primary need for the care of
the dependent of the rural community is for a better understanding of
their needs by its more intelligent and public-spirited people. It is a
matter of social education. Social work so-called has had a rapid
development in our cities to meet the situation caused by their sudden
growth with large numbers of foreigners having different standards of
living and unable to adjust themselves to strange conditions with
congested districts where housing and sanitation is poor and with
poverty due to unemployment, sickness, and with the many factors which
result from the complexities of city life. The city slum first
challenged the humanity of the better people and numerous philanthropic
organizations grew up in an effort to give assistance to needy families
and children. For the most part this work has been financed by the
wealthy, has been carried on by social workers who have had special
training for such service, and is commonly known as charity. What social
work has been done in rural communities has been introduced by city
organizations and has usually been fostered by organizations of as few
of the more progressive people at the county seats and the larger towns
or small cities which have worked out into the rural communities from
these centers. Though the purposes and work of these organizations are
excellent, they will never be able to effectively meet the needs of
rural communities until their people appreciate the need for such work
and actively support it.
Much of this sort of work is regarded by rural people as "uplift" and
without local interest and support has little permanent value. The
average rural community has little use for charity in the ordinary sense
of the word. If relief is needed within its borders, it will provide,
but it fails to appreciate that more than relief is needed to prevent
the recurrence of dependency, and that punishment will not correct or
prevent delinquency. The fact is that at present country people have not
seen the social situation in their own communities and so are not
concerned with it. Most of them are of the opinion that the less
government the better, and have not come to realize that an increasingly
complex society--even in the rural community--makes it no longer
possible for the farm family to live to itself, but that for
self-preservation it must look to the social welfare of the whole
community with which its life is bound up.
The need, therefore, is for the education of rural people with regard to
their social responsibilities, which must be largely accomplished
through existing local rural organizations and local leadership. Any
system of rural social work which is to be permanently successful must
be one which is established by the people themselves from a realization
of their needs, and progressively developed as they appreciate its
worth. As Dean A. R. Mann recently said, "In dealing with rural affairs
it has long been a common mistake to underrate the validity of the
farmer's own judgment as to what is good for him." "Superimposed
organizations are usually doomed to failure because they express the
judgments of those without the community rather than those within whom
they are intended to serve." "Ordinarily the most serviceable rural
organizations will be built out of the materials of the community."[74]
It is for this reason that the advance of rural social work will depend
upon arousing an active interest in the welfare of the community's
"disadvantaged" through discussion by such organizations as the church,
the grange, the farm and home bureau, lodges, women's clubs, instruction
in high schools, etc. The work of the public health nurse will reveal
many family problems with which she is unable to deal and which demand
the help of one experienced in social work, and the nurse will be of
service in educating the community to the need of such work.
It seems obvious that by itself the rural community is too small a unit
to employ a social worker who is professionally trained for dealing with
the more difficult social mal-adjustments, and that it must cooperate
with other communities for the organization of such work on a county
basis. Experience has shown that trained social workers actually save
the county the cost of their salaries and expenses, without considering
the greater efficiency and permanent value of the work done. The social
worker has been well termed a "doctor of domestic difficulties." Every
county and community needs such a doctor who is skilled in treating
social disease, but one of her chief functions will be to act as an
educational director in promoting the study of local social conditions
by the existing organizations in every community and in discovering and
training leadership for carrying out a constructive program as it is
evolved. In some way there should be a volunteer committee or worker in
each community associated with the county social worker to advise
concerning policies and to carry on much of the local work under her
supervision and training. For it must be recognized that the economic
resources of rural communities are limited and that they cannot afford
several social workers for different lines of effort, as is common in
cities. But more important is the fact that social welfare depends more
largely upon a proper understanding of its problems by the local
community and a willingness to grapple with them intelligently and
sympathetically, than upon the remedial treatment afforded through
professional workers, courts, institutions and other public agencies.
Social welfare is like health, for which sanitation and hygiene are more
important than doctors and medicines.
What is needed in the rural community is a transformation of the
old-time family hospitality and neighborliness into a feeling of
responsibility for the unfortunate within the community with whom there
may not be immediate contact, but who nevertheless affect the moral and
social life of all its people. It needs the spirit and devotion of the
Good Samaritan on the part of the people, but it also needs the public
health nurse and the social worker who, like the inn-keeper of the
parable, can give adequate care to the unfortunate.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] See Charles E. Gibbons, "A Rural Slum Community." The American
Child. February, 1922. pg. 343.
[73] "Juvenile Delinquency in Rural New York." Kate Holladay Claghorn.
U. S. Dept. of Labor, Children's Bureau. Publication No. 32. Washington.
1918.
[74] "Social Responsibilities of the Rural Community," p. 129. Cornell
Extension Bulletin 39. Rural Community Conference Cornell Farmers' Week.
1919.