Ch. 3
Pg. 3
Child Saving

t the turn of the century, a growing number of charity leaders were drawn to the plight of America's children. Three related problems were identified as crucial.

1. Infant and maternal mortality rates were the highest of any industrial country.
2. The growing number of orphans was overwhelming local resources. The public and private foster home and orphanage networks were overcome by the sheer number of new wards. According to welfare historian M. Katz, more than 240 new orphanages were incorporated during the 1890s and a survey in 1910 estimated that more than 100,000 children were living in orphanages across the country.
3. Millions of children were working instead of attending school and the number of working children was increasing.

 

Poor families found challenges even in the simple bath.

  
Many leaders believed that private charities were the solution to these complicated problems. Others,especially those from the settlements, supported a broader approach. They championed government intervention through the creation of a national agency. Florence Kelly called for the creation of a national Children's Bureau in 1900. In 1904, she along with Lillian Wald and Edward Devine met with President Theodore Roosevelt and secured his endorsement of a national Children's Bureau. This bill was introduced in Congress in 1906 ,but opponents supporting industrial interests were successful in getting the legislation tabled.
In 1909, one of President Roosevelt’s personal friends,James West, began organizing for a White House Conference on Children. An orphan himself , West was a long-time defender of dependent children. With the support of prominent social workers such as Lillian Wald, Florence Kelly and Homer Folks, they brought together more than two hundred leaders from communities throughout America. The resulting publicity put child welfare on the national agenda and generated enough political pressure to force the creation of the Children's Bureau in 1912.

 

A tenement family