Evening star. [volume], May 01, 1937, Page B-1, Image 17

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_ J_IUMPAY HOBMIKO EDITIOK 1 — _
- -WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1937. PAG^F B^T '
APPLICATIONS FOR FEDERAL JOBS REACH NEW HEIGHTS
EMPLOYES WATCH CHANGES
President’s Recommendations Are Favorable to Those Who Now
Hold Positions and Can Pass Tests, But Chances Are Poor
for Those Who Want to Enter Ranks.
By L iicy Salamanca.
THOUSANDS of temporary em
ployes or “unclassified” em
ployes of the United States
Government are in a twitter.
They want to know what is to be
come of their jobs amidst all the re
organization bustle. They want to
know if they will be able to stay in
the Government service if they take
examinations. They want to know if
their department is to be abolished,
if its staff is to be reduced, if this
bill or that will take care of their
division in its appropriations, if they
can be “blanketed in” the civil serv
ice, or if they will be eased out. They
are living, in short, in a state of up
heaval that awaits impatiently final
congressional word upon the Presi
dent's suggested changes in adminis
trative management. So concerned
are they, indeed, that I have been
told by a civil service executive that
every piece of legislation that comes
up for discussion on the hill is fol
lowed with breathless eagerness by
those who fear it will not include
appropriations vital to their occupa
tional interests. And every piece of
legislation brings a flood of literally
hundreds of inquiries a day pouring
Into the information office of the
commission at Eighth and F streets.
In the last year more than 190,000
Visitors came and went through the
office of information in the Civil
Service Building, and the majority of
them were inquiring about the status
quo of their jobs. Permanent em
ployes, as well as temporary, are
wondering just how reorganization
will affect their own security, for,
despite the fact that no congressional
action has as yet been taken with
regard to the executive message of
last January, many changes have
taken place and are now under way
In the Federal departments. The
entire picture of civil service is un
dergoing revision, and with every re
vision the patterns of the lives of
hundreds of men and women are
mitered.
J5ERHAPS the most conspicuous
change that Netv Deal legislation
has made in the civil service set-up
Is the preponderance of ‘'unclassified"
Jobs it has brought into the Govern
ment. These unclassified jobs come
under what is termed the "executive
branch"—that is, they are set up by
executive order and are conferred
without examination.
On March 13 of this year there were
SI5.857 employes occupying unclassi
fied positions, not subject to the civil
service act, There was a total of
515.238 employes occupying classified
positions and subject to the civil
service act. Thus 38 per cent of all
civil employes belonged to the execu
tive branch. When reorganization set
in. however, figures altered for the
first half of the current fiscal year
and those given represent an increase
of 16.513 in the classified service and
a decrease of 9.677 in the unclassified.
Not all of this 9.677 decrease rep
resented that number of jobs lost.
Changes in status, "blanketing" and
other provisions made for shifts within
the Government structure itself, and
some of those who had entered as
freely as air through an open window
found themselves the delighted sub
sequent possessors of civil service status
by no additional efforts of their own.
As an example of this, an act of
Congress passed on April 27, 1935,
provided with respect to a division
of the Department of Agriculture that
"for eight months the Secretary of
Agriculture could make non-civil serv
ice appointments. This particular
division represented the largest single
block of unclassified employes that
had been brought in during the
present administration—10,000 em
ployes. Thus, the 8-month period
terminating in December, 1935, the
riiiuc iu.uuu ictavcu a, Gmwwuao
present of civil service status gratis
from the United States Government.
They then became listed in the records
fis "classified" employes and found a
nice new page ready for them in the
register.
It has been the policy of the Presi
dent to establish gradually the various
emergency or unclassified organiza
tions of the Government under civil
service rulings, at least. On August
25, 1936. a letter from the White House
to Civil Service Commissioner Harry
B. Mitchell, signed personally by Mx.
Roosevelt, requests that in the Home
Owners’ Loan Corp. "created as an
emergency agency to meet the mort
gage crisis in the urban home field,"
bo far as practicable “the principles
and methods of the merit system
established by the civil service act
should be further extended in its
personal relationships.”
,J"HK Civil Service Commission re
ports a total of 12,989 employes
find positions brought into the classi
fied service from an unclassified, non
competitive status within the fiscal
year. The list ranges from Veterans'
Administration, Civilian Conservation
Corps, Agriculture and Treasury to
the Farm Credit Administration,
Parks Services of the Interior and
other Government divisions.
In the case of certain other or
ganizations, classification of incum
bents was not completed because of
conditions prescribed by law or by
executive order. For example, the act
which created a new Central Statistical
Board in the Civil Service Commission
In 1935 directed that the board created
by executive order of 1933 should cease
to exist when seven members of the
new board were declared qualified for
membership. Classification of the in
cumbents was made conditional upon
their passing tests of fitness. The new
board has been established, but clas
sification was not begun until after
the end of the fiscal year.
Similarly, action on some of the
cases in the Soil Conservation Service
has not been completed. This is due
in this instance to the large numbers
involved. The act of June 26, 1936,
which made the Federal Alcohol Ad
ministration—previously a division of
the Treasury Department—an inde
pendent Government establishment;
v A
the executive order of November 18,
1935, which placed positions in the
National Training School for Boys in
the classified service; the act of June
29, 1936, creating the United States
Maritime Commission and providing
for the retention and classification of
employes of the Shipping Board Mer
chant Fleet Corp., and similar cases
have not been completely established
as yet, because of specific provisions.
rJAHE practice of President Roosevelt
has been—and it has been often
expressed—not to encourage "blanket
ing in” of incumbents without their
passing some form of examination.
Thus he amended the existing rule
with regard to executive orders to
make necessary a non-competitive ex
amination, to be given by the commis
sion and under civil service regula
tions. It was Congress who blanketed
in soil conservation.
With respect to the Farm Credit
Administration, which began life anew
in 1933, a single executive order was
issued to meet a unique situation. The
Farm Credit Administration, as set up,
was composed of five agricultural
agencies—the old Federal Farm Board,
the Federal Farm Loan Bureau, the
Reconstruction Finance Corp., which
dealt with loans and credits; crop
production loans and seed loans offices
of the Department of Agriculture.
Some of these organizations were
under civil service and some were not,
so that when they were brought to
gether as the Farm Credit Adminis
tration President Roosevelt issued his
executive order of 1933, making non
competitive examinations necessary for
those who had no civil service status.
President Roosevelt also changed
the rule with regard to reinstatement.
Under the opinion of the Attorney
General about 25 years ago. it was
established that any one whose rein
statement was proposed for a classi
fied position under civil service could
be reinstated whether or not he had
had a classified status at the time he
was separated from the job. This rule
was followed until the Summer of
19.it>, wnen an executive oraer re
quired every individual to have had
a competitive status at the time of
separation in order to be eligible for
reinstatement.
The President has made perfectly
clear by these rulings that if given
authority by Congress to classify
civil service positions by executive
order he will most assuredly inaugu
rate the practice of non-competitive
examinations. This means that who
ever now holds a temporary or un
classified position with the Govern
ment will be required, if the Presi
dent's suggested reorganization pro
gram is approved by Congress, to take
an examination which, while non
competitive, will permit him to be re
tained in the Government service.
does not mean, however, that
such employes will enjoy the civil
service status of those who entered
under the regular civil service act.
Nor does it foilow that every one tak
ing the non-competitive examination
will be permitted to continue neces
sarily in that department where he
is now engaged. The reason for this
is that some Government departments
have expressed not only preference
for, but demanded, regular civil serv
ice registrants. Not every department,
it is true, has made this request, so
that it is reasonable to suppose that j
erstwhile temporary or unclassified '
workers will be taken care of after
reorganization in those divisions and
bureaus where such restrictions do
not hold.
In the alien property custodian di
vision, which was absorbed in the
Department of Justice, civil service
examinations were subsequently re
quired. The executive order on that
occasion specified that 60 days’ notice
be given to all who had failed in the
examination. Therefore, if present
temporary or unclassified employes,
desirous of entering departments
which have made civil service a re
quirement, enter the examination and
fail they will no doubt be given the
same 60-day notice. However, some
of those who fail the civil service ex
aminations may still be retained in
the Government, but they cannot be
promoted or assigned the same duties
civil service employes perform.
Provided that all the present tempo
rary Government organizations and
bureaus which were set up under the
New Deal are made a permanent part
of the Federal Government, about 300,
000 workers will be compelled to take
non-competitive examinations. Mr. K.
C. Vipond, assistant chief examiner,
who has been with the commission for
32 years, informs us that this will cost
the Government an average of $1.25
per person for each examination. That
is to say, it will cost the Government
$375,000 to test the eligibility of the
present temporary workers. What Mr.
Vipond calls a "large examination,”
that is, where great numbers compete,
costs approximately $1.50 per person
for each test. This sum of money will
be provided as a deficiency appropria
tion. but it is probable, Mr. Vipond be
lieves, that the President would stagger
the orders, taking certain groups or
offices for examination at one time.
^T THE present time, there are 26
Government agencies in which
appointments are not subject to the
requirements of the civil service law
and rules. Because the Civil Service
Commission, Commissioner Harry B.
Mitchell informs us, has literally been
swamped with requests for information
about these temporary agencies and
there have been persistent inquiries
for a list, we name them here. Com
missioner Mitchell wishes it to be
understood, however, that the list must
not be regarded as an indication that
employment is available in any of these
offices. He further states that the
commission has no information re
garding opportunities for work, or the
requirements for work in the organiza
tions listed.
Establishments outside the competi
tive classified civil service include (1)
Library of Congress, (2) the Capitol,
(3) all the courts, (4) the Reconstruc*
tion Finance Corp., (5) United States
Employment Service of the Depart
ment of Labor, (6) Federal Reserve
Board. (7) Procurement Division of
the Treasury, t8) positions under silver
purchase act, emergency banking act
and gold reserve act; (9) Federal De
posit Insurance Corp., ilO) Office of
the Controller of the Currency, (11)
Federal Emergency Relief Administra
tion, (12) Public Works Administra
tion. (13) emergency conservation
work (reforestation), (14) Tennessee
Valley Authority, (15) Agricultural
Adjustment Administration, (16) In
ternational Joint Commission. (17) In
land Waterways Corp., (18) Export
Import Bank of Washington, (19)
Petroleum Conservation Division, (20)
Federal Housing Administration, (21)
National Archives (except positions in
the custodial force, which will be in
the classified civil service), (22) Na- i
tional Emergency Council, (23) Re
settlement Administration. (24) Na- j
tional Youth Administration, (25)
Works Progress Administration (ex-1
empt, but may be classified under ex- !
ecutive order), (26) Prison Industries
Reorganization Administration.
Practically every one of these would
require an act of Congress to make
it a permanent part of the Gov
ernment. Including the laborers,
heretofore not considered eligible for
civil service, but upon the recom
mendation of the President’s Commit
tee on Administrative Management
to be included with reorganization,
there are about 300,000 workers now
engaged in these agencies.
I" THE suggestions he made to
A Congress in January, the President
quoted the recommendations for
changes in the civil service that had
been made in his committee's report.
These briefly were: “To extend the
merit system upward, outward and
downward to cover practically all
non-policy determining posts; to re
organize the civil service system as a
part of management under a single,
responsible administrator, and create
a citizen board to serve as the watch
(Continued on Page B-3.)
AMERICAN HORDES
But It’s a Mission of Adulation, Not of Con
quest, as Anglophiles Go by the Thou
sands to Glimpse Coronation.
By Vesta Cummings. \
ROSPECTS of catching a
glimpse of the same jewel
incrusted crown the founders
of the United States once re
jected with the aid of the Atlantic
Ocean and gunpowder are today keep
ing more than 100 permanent and
emergency employes of the State
Department’s Division of Passports
working nights.
The coronation rush for passports
and renewals far exceeds early esti
mates made by the division and steam
ship lines, according to Mrs. Ruth B.
Shipley, chief of the division since
1928. Mail sacks filled with applica
tions are heavier than they have been
since before the market crash, she de
clares.
Despite the feeling of a century and
a half ago about allegiance to George
III, that portion of Great Britain's
ex-colony with the passage price is
eager to view the pomp connected with
crowning the charming and reserved
George VI and his Queen. Descend
ants of those who threw the Boston
tea party are among the gay swarms
of visitors drinking English tea in
busy London shops this Maytime.
At the moment, those who can still
find room on trans-Atlantic ship6 are
making last-minute requests for pass
ports by wire from agencies In San
Francisco, Boston and New York, Mrs.
Shipley says.
Six foreign service officers have been
temporarily detailed to her division
to supervise the 36 temporary employes
added to the 75 permanent ones in the
section, since clerks experienced in
passport routine are few and far be
tween. Desks have overflowed from
the 21 passport offices to the end of
the first-floor hall in the State, War
and Navy Building.
Usually the peak of the passport
issuance season is not reached until
the first two weeks in June. In March
15,151 passports were issued and re
newals granted, an increase of 87.7
per cent over the same month last
year. Receipts for the past nine
months exced the same period of last
season by $204,000.
In 1937 the passport and renewal
total will be around 170,000, Mrs. Ship
ley estimates, in contrast to 141,996 for
1936. This figure Is about the same
as those for 1925 and 1926, in the
midst of the boom rush to Europe,
although it is not expected to equal
or surpass the all-time high of 1930
(before people were paying any mind
to the Pall stock events of 1929), when
203,000 Americans received passports
for foreign travel.
The passport agency in New York
reports that 25,000 persons were inter
viewed there about passports in March
and that it is thought the April figure
will hit 37,000, Mrs. Shipley says.
Twelve employes took care of those
25,000, but 25 others are badly needed,
she points out.
The business of Issuing passports is
an amusing and sometimes heart
Mrs. Jessie W. Coles, in charge oj examinations, explains a
question.
°Ka <j?r(iup ofJfiOO job seekers taking an examination in the gymnasium of the McKinley
High. School. Sixteen thousand applicants were examined in this room over a period of 10 days
recently.
BUREAUCRACY TENDS BABIES
Child Health Day Focuses Attention on 25 Years of Work Just
Completed by U. S. Children’s Bureau—New Bom Now
Have Double the Chance to Survive.
By Alice Rita Deasy.
TODAY, as the Nation rededi
eated Itself to promoting the
health of its millions of
young people, Washingtonians’
thoughts turn to the unique United
States Children's Bureau here. For a
generation this first national agency
devoted wholly to children's problems
has led a revolution in "bringing up."
Not only today, Child Health day, but
every day, it points the way to meth
ened criminals now seem a* out-'
moded as the horse car. The United
States Children's Bureau has spon
sored these changes.
President Taft signed the bill cre
ating the Children's Bureau on April
9, 1912. Recently it completed 25
years’ service in educating parents and
focusing public attention on child wel
fare. A division of the Labor De
partment, the bureau has conducted
more than 200 studies of diseases, de
linquency, employment and other
He’s having his health record checked in a modern clinic.
ods of improving the health and
guarding the welfare of American
children.
Babies chances to live are now twice
as good as they were 25 years ago.
Dunce caps, "spare the rod and spoil
the child,’’ having infants "ketched’’
by old mammy mid wives and sending
juvenile offenders to prison with hard
problems concerning minors, besides
advising on legislation, administering
laws and acting els a clearing house for
scientific information.
Pate combined boll-weevils, Theo
dore Roosevelt and a dauntless woman
to originate the idea of the Children's
Bureau one rainy Thursday in 1906.
That morning Lillian Wald lingered
over breakfast coffee with Mrs. Flor
ence Kelly at New York's Henry street
settlement. Mall was heavy with
pleas for milk and medicine for "my
sick baby." Mrs. Wald's harassed eye
fell on the morning paper's announce
ment of a special cabinet meeting to
discuss the boll-weevil threat. Her
indignation banished further thought
of breakfast. No problem of the need
iest children had ever evoked a spe
cial cabinet meeting. Surely it seemed
that the Government considered bugs
and cotton more important than fu
ture citizens. Mrs. Wald and Mrs.
Kelly evolved the hope that some day
a Federal bureau would be as eager
to safeguard our crop of children as
our farm products and mailed the
suggestion to the President forthwith.
Theodore Roosevelt immediately
wired back: "It's a bully idea. Come
to Washington and let's see.”
l^EXT morning Mrs. Kelly was at
the White House explaining her
hope. Interest in a national children's
agency spread rapidly. The first White
House children's conference recom
mended it to Congress in 1909. Sena
tor Borah's bill creating the Children's
Bureau became a law on April 9, 1912.
The new agency was "to investigate
and report upon all matters pertain
ing to the welfare of children.” To
begin this Herculean task the gallant
Julia Lathrop came from Jane
Addam's famous Chicago Hull House.
A no-man's land confronted her. We
didn't even know accurately the num
ber of babies born each year, how
many died, or why. Cemeteries were
filled with tiny gravestones and it was
guessed that about 300,000 babies died
annually. Miss Lathrop immediately
undertook a birth registration cam
paign. Within a few years there were
complete birth records in most States.
The first national attempt to find
out why babies die was made in 1913.
Children’s Bureau experts studied
every baby born during a selected year
in representative cities. They visited
about 23,000 infants, rich, poor, white
and colored in slums, hovels and luxu
rious nurseries. When investigators
finished the bureau knew why babies
die and that most could be saved.
High mortality was coincident with
low incomes, poor housing, large fam
ilies, improper feeding and unsani
tary conditions. Further study revealed
that nearly half the deaths of women
in connection with childbirth could
have been prevented by proper care.
Pleas for advice flooded th bureau’s
mailboxes and stimulated it to try to
make scientific information available
Thousands of applicants for Federal jobs in a seemingly
endless stream have asked questions at this information desk in
the office of the Civil Service Commission.
to every parent. More than 16.000.000
of its “best sellers" on pre-natal, in
fant and child care have been dis- ;
tributed since that time. Each day's :
mail brings over 1.000 queries to its
experts.
gULGING files tell how the gospel
of healthy motherhood and child
hood has been sent to slums, mountain
cabins and Western sheep lands.
There are letters from all States,
Alaska and even South Africa, writ- |
ten on everything from scraps of
wrapping paper to scqnted violet sta
tionery; letters in dialect, misspelled
and scarcely legible; typed English
gems from professors; formal epistles;
chatty, grateful and pathetic notes.
Some ask about “infantry," “pre
navel care" and “infant immorality.”
Others learnedly specify pediatric
problems.
We find one bright pink envelope.
“Please,” it requests in a childish
hand, “can you send your book, ‘In
fant Care,’ in Greek? We can read
American, but our mothers cannot.
We will be very pleased if you send
us a Greek book so they can read it
their own seifs."
A native gqrl writes from the Philip
pines: “I feel duty bound to prepare
myself for this most important stage
of life. I beg your kindness to send
me information on expectant moth
ers.”
In a yellowed little note "Kathryn"
begs “Uncle Sam" to "please send me
a baby brother whenever you have
any in.” With implicit faith a Vir
ginian seeks the “truth about babies
and other things, too—you know
what I mean.”
RETURN THE CALL BRITISH PAID IN 1776
__ .
breaking pursuit, according to Mrs.
Shipley. For example, a woman born
in the United States who had never
crossed any of its borders discovered
just the other morning, when she tried
to go on a trip, that she wasn’t an
American citizen at all. She had lost
her citizenship, without being aware
of it, when she married an Irishman,
who died several years ago. In her
case it w$s possible to hurry along
reinstatement as an American without
canceling her sailing reservations, al
though sometimes this cannot be man
aged.
COME persons who were carried into
^ the United States as infants and
have been voting at elections for years
discover when they apply for passports
that they aren’t American citizens.
They had merely been assuming that
their parents were naturalized.
New Yorkers and Californians are
the brands of Americans which leave
this continent most, passport division
statistics show, and this isn’t entirely
because lots of people live within the
boundaries of those States. In 1936,
43,451 passports and renewals were
granted to residents of New York City
alone, and 7,938 to residents of other
parts of the State. California, second
in passport requests, is sixth in popu
lation among the States, nosing out
Pennsylvania, second in population
but third in foreign travel.
The District of Columbia, forty-first
“State” from the population stand
point, is seventeenth in passports
issued.
Of all occupations, that of housewife
looms largest amc applicants for
passports, Mrs. Shipley says, throwing
an entirely new light on that profes
sion. Students and teachers occupy
aecond and third places, respectively,
followed by persons who write •'none"
after the occupation query. Bankers
stay at home more than one might
think, only 3,522 having gone abroad
last calendar year, in comparison to
19,780 housewives.
To see the world, apparently, out
side of being a housewife or being com
pletely idle, one should take up the
professions of clerk-secretary, engi
neering or skilled labor. Last season
11,303 persons who called themselves
skilled laborers received passports,
more than three times as many labor
ers as bankers.
Only 1,548 buyers got across in 1936,
whereas more than 7,000 secretaries
needed passports. Servants numbered
more than 5,000. Only 710 persons
who admitted being writers asked for
passports. Druggists scarcely get about
at all, for reasons the Passport Di
vision cannot imagine. They are the
least numerous of all ooccupational
classifications, with only 270 leaving
America last season.
Persons whose occupation is re
ligion seem to travel more than actors,
strangely enough. Only 611 actors
received passports in 1936, while 2,783
persons in religious callings left
America.
Object of travel was called "travel”
by half of 1936’s travelers, while the
next largest classification, numbering
46,546, is called “family affairs.” That
left only about 30,000 persons who vis
ited foreign lands for health, educa
tion, business, jobs and scientific and
missionary pursuits.
Western Europe received the bulk
of American travelers, around 115,000,
or 81 per cent, stating it was their
intention to visit that part of the
globe. Eastern Europe was the des
tination of around 13,000, while the
Near East, Far East, Latin America
(Including the West Indies and Mex
ico), Africa and Australia followed in
the order named.*
Uneasy as May Be the Head That Wears
the Crown, Passport Rush Makes State
Department Heads Uneasier.
J3RIOR to the World War very few
countries required passports for
entry, Mrs. Shipley says, but now you
can go almost no place without one.
In 1910, for example, only 23,977
passports and renewals were granted.
Passports, for the benefit of those of
us who stay at home and don't know
about such things, are good for only
two years, and then must be renewed.
Perennial travelers renew their pass
ports as soon as the date expires, Mrs.
Shipley says, whether they are going
any place or not. They want to be
all set whenever they take a notion
to board a vessel.
Getting a passport, if you live in
Washington, only takes about 10 or 15
minutes at the State, War and Navy
Building, if you possess documentary
proof of your citizenship. But lots of
persons find it difficult to prove they
were born in the United States, espe
cially older persons whose parents are
no longer living to swear to the facts.
Birth certificates seem to be com
paratively recent in many sections of
the United States. lacking one, bap
tismal papers will do if you were bap
tized as an Infant. Land records in
the old Indian Territory are often used
to establish citizenship. Or friends of
deceased parents may swear before a
notary that they were about when you
were bom. School and college records
have assisted many in obtaining pass
ports and World War veterans may
always resort to service records.
The Los Angeles area is known as
the "land of nom de plume” in the
passport division, since so many cinema
folk applying for passports give two
names, one real and the other pro
fessional, added in parenthesis, unless
the name with which the applicant was
born has been changed by court order.
Clerks of 3,500 Federal and State
Courts are authorized to receive pass
port requests, all of which must be
cleared through Washington. The pass
port division has, in addition, two
agencies in New York and one in Bos
ton, Chicago and San Francisco. The
New York offices, writh 12 permanent
employes, have been faced with waft
ing lines for weeks, and Mrs. Shipley
has asked the House Appropriations
Committee for a deficiency appropria
tion to cover the salaries of additional
help badly needed both there and
here, primarily because of the corona
tion.
“Although we are frantically busy
here, we are not as badly off as New
York,” Mrs. Shipley said. "We deal
primarily with mail, and can work at
night to catch up. In New York they
are faced with waiting people.”
Ordinarily the lowest point of the
year in passport requests is around
Christmas, rising steadily until the
high point in June, with a brief in
terruption around the 1st of May.
A 10 per cent annual increase can be
counted on during periods of prosper
ity. Because of the coronation, no May
1 drop Is occurring this year.
Every variety of problem from
what to study in college to naming
the baby is laid at the Children'*
Bureau door. Parents inquire about
administering castor oil and prevent
ing fingernail biting. Practical fa
thers demand a bonus from the Pres
ident for having twins or babies born
on July 4.
A bewildered husband writes from
New York: "Please send me all pub
lications dealing with babies, wives,
household economics, children, how
to cook or anything you think would
do any good to a man w ho married a
rhythmic dancer." Jim - re
quests the bureau's whief to “write
me all about child labor, as I do
enjoy reading."
A younger correspondent addresses
the Secretary of Labor herself. "Dear
Frances Perkins,” he says, "I am a
boy 11, in the seventh grade. Will
you please use your influence in get
ting shorter hours in school for us
hard-working children. I hate to
admit it, but I don't try so hard
sometimes-”
jyjISCHIEVOUS children's harried
parents have besieged the bu
reau for copies of its "Child Manage
ment." This recent booklet presents
results of research on constructive
handling of character problems.
After the New York Times announced
its issue, the following day's mail
brought 1,000 requests from bankers,
brokers and business men whose Bills
and Marys wouldn't do home work,
fabricated amazing t^all stories or
simply refused to go to bed.
One note, on fine gray stationery,
states: “This reads like a testimonial,
and it is. I lent my copies of "Pre
natal Care” and “Infant Care" to a
mother with a 3-month-old boy
weighing less than 7 pounds. Within
a week the baby gained 2,2 pounds.”
A few weeks ago the following let
ter made the Children's Bureau aware
for the first time of its "grandmother”
status: “I am writing you to see if
I capi get booklets on infant cars
before and after birth. I recently
found an infant care book from
which I was raised—published in
1914.”
Correspondence and scientific stud
ies prepared the bureau to formulate
the first national project for Federal
State co-operation in saving mothers’
and babies’ lives. This plan, the
Sheppard-Towner maternity and in
fancy act. passed Congness in 1921.
Each State carried on its own pro
gram with the assistance of Federal
funds administered by the Children’*
Bureau.
Physicians and nurses thus were
enabled to reach thousands of Iso
lated mothers and children. In autos,
trucks and sleighs, on horseback or
afoot, if necessary, they traveled to
remote fanning districts. Prom 1924
to 1919 maternity and infancy nurses
made over 3,000,000 home visits.
Investigation revealed that nearly
half of a group of mothers who died
received no care at all before the
baby’s birth. Doctors told expectant
mothers how to tend themselves at
nearly 40,000 pre-natal conferences.
The Children's Bureau found that
practicing midwives ranged all the way
from competent nurses to toothless
old Southern mammies taught "ket
chin” by the “spirit.” Physicians went
through county arter county register-*4
ing them and enrolling 55,000 in train*)
ing classes.
pARENTS brought one and one-half
million children to 124,000 child
health conferences held in churches,’?
schools, general stores and traveling
truck-clinics. Records show that
(Continued on Page B-3.)