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WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE PUBLIC
WELFARE BUREAU? SOME PLAIN FACTS
BY JANE WHITAKER
In view of the fact that there will
shortly be asked of the city council
a further appropriation,, which of
course must come out of the pockets
of the taxpayers, a few sidelights on
the department of public welfare are
interesting at this time.
The ordinance creating the depart
ment was passed at the end of the
winter of 1913-14 when 100,000 un
employed had clamored in vain
for assistance. The ordinance was
prettily worded. A portion of it de
clared the department should have a
bureau of employment, which
"should operate the municipal lodg
ing house for men and the municipal
lodging house for women, and per
form such duties in the collection of
information relative to working con
ditions, wages, hours of labor and
unemployment in the city of Chi
cago, and in the practical relief of
unemployment," etc., but behind this
prettily-worded ordinance was the
fact that the bureau carried some
high-salaried positions and it was the
inner whisper that the bureau was
created to give social workers jobs.
The lobbying that went on by the
most prominent social workers is
again a matter of inner gossip.
Suffice that when Mrs. Leonore Z.
Meder was appointed commissioner,
which job carried a salary of $5,000 a
year, some of the biggest social
workers in the city did not try to
hide their chagrin.
Mrs. Meder believed in the bureau
when it was created. She had a
number of ideas that were humane;
she was a good publicity agent for
the department, and she was demo
cratic. She tried one plan after an
other to try to make the department
of some benefit to the city and while
she was too good a publicity agent
to say to the press that she decided
one plan after another had its limi
tations, she would convey the in
formation in a manner that you could
grasp if you were quick enough.
On one occasion, commenting on
the employment bureau, I protested
that she couldn't create jobs.
"Oh, yes, I do," she answered. "We
have managed to get work for 7,000
men, but, of course, 7,000 were put
out of their jobs to put our men in." $
The "woodpile" idea launched by
the present $5,000 a year commis
sioner, Mrs. Louise Osborne Rowe,
was launched by Mrs. Meder, and the
Rock Island railroad donated 14,000
ties, but she abandoned it in a few
days, and ex-Mayor Harrison himself
said that such a plan would not be
fair unless the woodpile was adjoin
ing the municipal lodging house and
the men were expected to give not
more than one hour of labor for their
flop on the floor and bread and black
coifee.
The municipal dances started by
Mrs. Meder were about the most sue- -cessful
thing the department at
tempted. They paid for themselves
and they gave employment to a num
ber of people in need of the fee they
got as attendants, investigators, etc., t
and on this basis alone Mrs. Meder
justified their existence.
A resume, o fthe work done under
Mrs. Meder's administration forced
two conclusions, neither one of which
I think will be contradicted; that the
survey work for which the bureau t
was created was completed months
ago and the existence of the bureau
was no longer justified on that basis, .
and that it never was any solution
of the unemployed problem, and the
two appropriations given it which
amounted to $77,000 would have beenffcj,
better employed in direct relief to the
unemployed.
With the change in administratiou
the public welfare bureau did not go
out of existence, but the job for which.
many prominent social workers,
begged was given as a political plunxj
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