But, on the other hand, it calls for county boards of public welfare with county-wide authority and trained executive secretaries. … Many of our ills bulk up so big that they can be successfully attacked only in detail by local interest, local effort, and local institutions. Tuberculosis and poverty are capital instances of social problems that are beyond the possibilities of state institutions, and that necessarily wait upon organized county efforts of effective sort. … We do not know the deaf, the blind, the feeble-minded, the epileptic, the crippled, and the neglected or wayward boys and girls—their number, their names, and their residences in any county of the state … because there is at present no local organization charged with the responsibility of accounting for such unfortunates. …
[Footnote: E. C. Branson, "County responsibility for public welfare," in the North Carolina Club YEAR BOOK, 1917-1918, pp. 161, 162 (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.).]
CAUSES OF DEPENDENCY MUST BE REMOVED
There will doubtless always be some dependent and defective members of the community for whom the community must care. Their number, however, may be greatly reduced by creating conditions that will remove their causes. It has been reported from many localities, for example, that the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors has resulted in the emptying of the "work houses" which communities have sustained for the confinement of vagrants and persons convicted of petty misdemeanors. Much dependency has resulted from the crippling of wage earners by industrial accidents and from "industrial diseases" arising from work in unwholesome conditions. These causes may be removed by the maintenance of wholesome working conditions, by the installation of safety devices, and by the exercise of greater care by workers and employers. The "safety first" movement strikes at the root of much dependency. Inability to read signs and to understand instructions on the part of illiterate and foreign workers is the cause of many accidents.
SOCIAL INSURANCE
Some states have passed "employers' liability laws," designed to hold employers responsible for accidents resulting from failure to provide safe working conditions. Others have "workmen's compensation laws" which provide that an injured workman shall receive a portion of his wages during incapacity from accident or illness. In some countries various forms of COMPULSORY STATE INSURANCE have been adopted. Germany, for example, has long had laws requiring employees to take out accident insurance and insurance against sickness, both employees and employers contributing to the insurance fund. Pensions for the aged and for widows are also provided for, the government itself contributing to the fund for this purpose. At the close of the year 1919, 39 of our 48 states had laws providing for aid by the state to mothers who were unable to provide properly for their children.
The aim in our community life should be as far as possible to PREVENT dependency and not merely to relieve suffering after it occurs. We shall find that the problem will tend to disappear in proportion as we develop in our communities adequate provision for health protection and physical development (Chapter XX), for vocational and general education (Chapter XIX), for wholesome recreation (Chapter XXI), for the cultivation of habits of thrift (Chapter XIII); and as we are successful in producing a right attitude toward the problem of earning a living and wholesome relations between employer and employee (Chapter XI).
Investigate and report on:
The rehabilitation of crippled soldiers after the war.
Your county or town almshouse or poor farm: The kinds of cases sheltered there; its cost to the community; the methods of treatment employed.