PREVENTION IN THE COUNTY
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.