It is true in general that if you have a good family you do not have a bad individual. The well-organized family, with property and standing, is in a position both to regulate and gratify the wishes of its members. The boy of good family has no occasion to steal or the girl to practice prostitution. Therefore, when a member of a family shows a tendency to demoralization, good people, benevolent institutions, and the State naturally try to strengthen the family, to save the whole situation of which the boy or girl is a part; and when a family is about to be wrecked they try to strengthen it both for its own sake and for the security of the children.
If we examine the following document, which is a specification of the type of family situation described more generally in document No. 58 (p. 100) above, we realize the difficulty of the task of a social agency which attempts to rehabilitate a broken family and to save the children from demoralization by visiting, giving food or money, taking the parents into court, and coming to the rescue in times of crisis. The case represents the patient and heroic work of a charity organization during nearly twenty years. The record extends from the time the oldest child was three months old to a period following her marriage. It is a very long record, and I am able to give only a portion of it. This is an immigrant family, but in the largest cities as many as 80 per cent of delinquent children are foreign born or native born of foreign parents.[[92]]
83. Joseph Meyer, a German Pole born of peasant parents, came to this country at the age of twenty-three.
Mrs. Meyer, an illiterate woman, had been in America six years at the time of her marriage. She had for two years prior to her marriage done housework.... The first application for assistance occurred in 1898 when Mrs. Meyer came to the Relief and Aid Society of Chicago, asking rent. Mr. Meyer had been out of work for three months; there was one child [Mary] 13 months old.... [This was two years after the marriage. There is no further report until the family applied to United Charities in 1908. Meantime other children were born, Tillie in 1899, Theodore in 1903, Bruno in 1908].
January 30, 1908, Mrs. Meyer came to office of United Charities. Husband had not worked for four years; mentally slightly abnormal. She had recently begged, but usually had been working very hard. Mary picking coal from the tracks.... [Helped by United Charities and County Agent.]
January 3, 1909. Visited man at home, says he had to care for children while wife went out to work. Told him he must get work at once as doctor says he is able to work. Family receiving help for a year and a half. Woman working as janitress in United Charities office.
November 1, 1910. Miss Campbell, whose mother has employed Mrs. Meyer for years, in office to ask if man cannot be sent to Bridewell. Says woman has come to work with arms black and blue from beatings.... Mrs. Meyer says man has not worked for more than two months at a time in the 19 years of his married life; says he taunts her with the fact that she must work while he stays at home.
November 3, 1910.... Man given 60 days in Bridewell.
January 13, 1911. Visitor heard ... that man had taken carbolic acid New Year’s eve. Asked woman about this; at first she did not want to tell, but finally acknowledged it; says he took 20 cents worth of poison while she was at work. The children yelled when he fell and the landlord came in.... Woman says man sleeps during the day and will not sleep at night, annoying her considerably, thus causing her to lose considerable sleep. Quarrels with her and uses vile language in the presence of the children.
January 16, 1911. Man in office asking to be arrested, said he is unable to live with woman any longer. [Jealous of unmarried man who calls.] Also stated that woman took some clothes from office of United Charities, where she is janitress. Mrs. Meyer acknowledged doing this and said man told her to take anything she could lay her hands on, as she did not receive enough salary for the amount of work she did.... While woman was away at work, man burned all the bedding, lace curtains, new veil Mary had received at Christmas, insurance policies, all the woman’s clothes he could get hold of and some of the children’s clothes; also broke a clock and bit up woman’s wedding ring....